Page 36 (1/1)

Carl raced along countless twisting, turning narrow roads, hoping and praying that he was still travelling in the right direction, hoping and praying that he would soon see a road sign or soht way He needed to find the motorhich would take him south-east, almost directly into the heart of Northwich It was bitterly ironic that he now found himself desperate to return to the city which he, Emma and Michael had earlier been so keen to escape fro at speed in the dark was harder and required more concentration than he had expected He found it difficult to get used to the motorbike - it had been soularly and, even then, the bikes he had been used to were nowhere near as powerful as this one The state of the roads h devoid of any othertraffic, they were littered with haphazard piles of rubbish, twisted, rusting vehicle wreckage and rotting human remains As well as the countless motionless obstructions, Carl was constantly aware of shadowy bodies all around hi to harm him while he travelled at speed, their oh to distract and unnerve him He knew that one slip was all that it would take One lapse of concentration and he could lose control of the bike If that happened he knew that he would have just seconds to get himself back in command of the powerful machine before the bodies arrived

The h to illuh which he travelled In spite of all that he had seen over the last few hours, days and weeks, soh the inky blackness chilled hi towards hi head and stared at him In the fraction of a second he saw it, he knew that the body had not looked past him, it had looked directly at him In those lifeless, dull eyes he saw both a complete lack of ee intent which chilled him to the bone Such abhorrent visions, and the fact that he kneas utterly alone for the first tiht seem colder and darker still

Thousands upon thousands of pathetic, straggling bodies turned and stumbled towards the source of the sound that shattered the otherwise all-consu silence Most of the time they were too slow and, when they finally arrived at where the bike had just been, Carl was long gone Occasionally, however, fate and circuerously close to him He quickly learnt that the best way to deal with theh them with relentless ferocity The empty corpses offered no resistance The shadowy silhouette of a dead young woan to walk towards the rapidly approaching bike Rather than waste ti to avoid her, Carl instead forced the bike to move faster and faster He collided with the body full-on It was rotten and decayed and corated on iht from the bike the world athed with a virtually iht came from the full moon which occasionally dared to peer out froht which then spilled down on the world was cold and cruel The shadows it cast hts which surrounded Carl seem even more unbearable

He knew that he could not afford to stop - not even for the briefest of moments

Carl knew that he had no option but to keepforwards Even if he decided to turn around and head back to Penn Far Emma and Michael to his return Crowds of bodies would be upon hiate or cross the strea until he reached the safety and security of the survivors&039; base in Northwich

He wished they&039;d never left the city