Page 8 (2/2)

I spend most of the break with Meths, Kray, Trev, Ballydefeck, Suze, La Lips, Copper, Dunglop and Elephant The usual gang, except for Linzer and Pox, who are off somewhere else

There’s a new zo on the Internet Copper shows it to us on his phone It’s footage of an undead soldier If the clip is genuine, it looks like he was one of the team sent in to eliot away, tangled with some hu the zombie with shovels and axes One of them strikes his left arm a few times and it tears loose Another of thethe zombie over the head with it, cheered on by his teah the first time I watch the clip Most of the others do too It’s co slapped around with his own severed arm

Then, as Copper replays it a couple of ti on the finer details The terror in the er in the soldier’s The flecks of dried blood around his n that he ilantes The long bits of bone sticking out of his fingers His fangs

The clip stops with the guys hitting the zoroup chopping off the soldier’s head with an ax, theuntil every last scrap of brain has been mulched That’s how they kill zo their brains Does that work in real life too? I assume so but I’m not sure

There’s silence when Copper turns off his phone We’re all troubled by e’ve seen We can’t even make a joke about it Not yet It feels too real at the moment We need time to absorb and then dis on about soccer in order to break the soleoes to hts on TV oals with the others, but soccer boresabout the weekend’s h already," I snap "You’re driving e?" Elephant scowls

"You did," I tell him "And if you don’t shut it, I’ll cut you down to size"

Lots of catcalls, everyone relieved to have so the distraction Elephant didn’t get his nickname because he’s tall or fat, but because of what his ym

"Leavehis hands protectively in front of hiht?" Trev asks er today"

"Knackered," I growl "Didn’t get much sleep"

"Worried about zombies?" Suze asks sympathetically

"Don’t be daft," I tell her "I’etting about the clip, putting it behind us, slipping back into our normal routines as if we’d never been disturbed

"You won’t get into Oxford if you don’t get straight A’s," Dunglop says

"I prefer Caine if you did get in," Meths says, and we stare at hi"

"You ever seeany sports?" I jeer

"No, but maybe there’s some other" Meths pulls a face and tries to remember what he wanted to say I fail classes because I don’t give a damn Meths, bless his and I slap Meths’s back "Come on I don’t think either of us has to worry about Cae or Oxford I’ll be amazed if we make it out of this place"

"Yeah, but" Meths shrugs and sht it was that he had Thoughts never stick long with Meths If zo to worry about With that tiny brain, he’s the last one they’ll target!