Swarm (Book 3) (10 page)

The rain swirled against her, as she concentrated on getting her feet down the rungs quickly. Each second hurt – each second that she couldn’t be down there. She drew closer. Her thoughts turned to the bliss that would follow, to the ecstasy that the storm would give her in return for the death of Stacy.

She jumped off the ladder. The air whistled past her. She hit the ground and fell onto her side. Jumping back up, Laura began to sprint. Seeing no easy point at which to climb over, she blasted a hole in the fence and ran through it.

At the end of the road was Stacy, lying face down on the ink-black asphalt. Streetlights coloured the rain as it made tiny splashes around her small body.

Laura ran to her. There she was, vulnerable, waiting to be killed.

Guilt rose in Laura. Stacy’s sister could save her friends. Laura lifted her hands and told herself it wasn’t possible.

She could feel the power of the storm. Only one of them could handle this power. Only one them could exist in the world.

Laura took a few steps back and pointed her hands at Stacy’s body.

…

Zack let his arm rest on Stones’ back. He was sitting on the sofa, with the dog lying across his lap and Macy by his side. Zack thought about Stones, he was probably having the best time out of all of them. All these new sights and sounds. What were the zombies to him? Something to bark at? A chance for him to protect the pack?

The doorbell rang.

Stones jumped up, ran to the door and started barking. A few seconds later Zack caught up with him.

“Hello?” he shouted.

“It’s me,” Laura said.

Zack opened the door. Laura kept her eyes on the floor and ducked past him. She was incredibly pale. Zack closed the door and followed her. She went to the sofa and slumped down on it, lying across it horizontally.

“Where have you been?” said Zack.

“It’s gone. It’s all gone,” said Laura.

“What you on about?”

“Everything.”

“What you talking about?”

“My… powers.”

“Oh… they’re just gone?”

“Yeah…”

Zack was silent for a while. “Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Laura closed her eyes, shook her head slowly and then covered her face with her hand.

…

Zack gazed out the window. It had been a day since Laura had returned, she had barely left the sofa, barely spoken, and he hadn’t seen her eat anything. He tried to think of something he could do, something that would snap her out of it and bring her back to how she used to be. So far he had prised a little information out of her. He knew that she had killed Stacy. He knew that her powers had disappeared after that.

Something interrupted his thoughts. His eyes widened. He put his hands against the glass and moved his face closer. He stayed like this for a few seconds, before turning, running out the room and down the stairs.

“Laura!” He shouted, “There’s a helicopter outside!”

…

Thanks for reading. Swarm IIII will be released soon on Amazon.