Flood and Fire by Emily Diamand

Author:Emily Diamand [Diamand, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-38879-5
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2011-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

• 19 •

POSSESSION

“I know my way about!” snaps Zeph. “This is Lunden, ain’t it?”

But we’ve been wandering a good long time, looking for Fill Miner Street. And every moment we’re out here, the more afraid I’m getting. Cos how long before the raider fleet reaches the docks, before the warriors start pouring into London? I can hardly take my eyes off Lexy, I’m that scared for her. What was I thinking, coming back into all this?

Zeph said it’d be easy to find Mr. Saravanan’s, cos it’s near the river, but it turns out there’s a whole lot of silent-shuttered streets near the river, and none of them leads to his house.

“It’s that way,” says Zeph, pointing at a street we ain’t tried. It runs up the side of a great, square ruin. Big as anything in Cambridge, but crumbling and water-stained like everything in London. The roof is mostly gone, near enough a whole wall has been robbed out for stone, and it’s dirty patterned with the rippling stains of high tide marks. But even tho it’s battered, and up to its knees in London mud, it’s still proud-looking, still casting a long, deep shadow. Like a castle, or a prison.

“Come on,” says Zeph, quick trotting for the boardwalk, heading into the shade of the ruin. He disappears into the gloom and I set my feet to follow, but don’t get very far. Cos Cat stops still. Fur up, hissing, claws dug into the wood. Cold gets on my neck, and it ain’t from the breeze. I’m looking around all over, straining my ears for a clank, clank, clank.

“What is it?” asks Lexy.

“Must be a monster,” I say, trying to pick up Cat, getting ready to run. Cat howls and moans, struggling so I can’t hardly hold him.

“Zeph!” I shout, but he’s already running back toward us, feet clattering on the boards, face scared as anything.

“Dozens of them!” he cries out.

My breath nearly stops in me.

“Where? Which way are they coming from?”

But Zeph slows to a stand, shaking his head.

“Dead ones,” he says. “The street’s full of dead ones.”

So we creep our way down the street. Cat’s still stiff and growling in my arms, a rumbling warning that we ain’t anywhere safe.

“Can’t we go another way?” asks Lexy, her voice squeaking. “We don’t even know they’re really dead. They might just be sleeping.”

“You go back if you wanna,” says Zeph. “But someone killed this lot, and I’m gonna find out how they did it.” Lexy looks at me.

“Zeph’s right,” I say, even tho I’m shivering at the sight of the things. She stares the way we came, like she’s thinking of going back by herself, but she doesn’t. She keeps on with us, walking so close to me she’s nearly stood on my feet.

The monsters’ corpses are all around, laid thick in the mud under the boardwalk. Streaks of orange and oily puddles stain out from their bodies. Black spikes and red-rust claws poke out from the mud, glass-bottle eyes stare blank at the gray sky.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.