Blood Memory: The Complete Season One (Books 1-5) Read Free

mind. At the door she stopped. “Just one last question: what year is it, Jordan?”
    “Now?” He smiled. “2008 of course.”

3.
    “Well? How is he? ” Joel said. “I could hear voices through the door.”
    “He’s fine,” Anne said, “but he’s got a lot of healing to do.”
    “Is he safe?”
    “He used to be in the army, so I guess so.”
    “Army? Shit.”
    “I know. Stan’ll be laughing.”
    Joel studied Anne’s expression. “There’s something else, isn’t there? Something you’re not telling me.”
    “It’s… nothing.”
    “It’s obviously something. What is it?”
    Anne took a deep breath. “The last memory he has is from when he was training in Sandhurst. In 2008.”
    Joel blinked. “2008? Are you sure?”
    “He seems adamant.”
    “But it’s 2014.”
    “I know.”
    Joel ran a hand through his hair. “So where has he been for the past six years?”
    Anne shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think he does either.” She frowned. “Do you know what the scariest thing is?”
    “I don’t know, do I want to know?”
    “I don’t think he knows what’s happened.”
    “What do you mean? Didn’t you tell him we found him at sea?”
    “Not that. I mean about the Incident. He’s convinced he has to get back to his barracks at Sandhurst.”
    Joel let a stream of air out through his teeth. “I was right: I didn’t want to know. How can he not know?”
    “He might have suffered a concussion. Or it might be something deeper.”
    Joel looked at Anne. “If that’s true somebody’s going to have to tell him.”
    A knot formed in Anne’s stomach. “I know.”

4.
    “Three weeks ago there were reports of people attacking one another. A lost generation at war with itself. Biting, fighting, aggression. No one took any notice. It was the kind of thing you saw on the news all the time. There were even jokes on entertainment programmes about people imitating zombies – a fad that had swept the world at the time. Films, TV shows, art, literature… It had somehow infiltra ted every facet of modern life.
    “But within days these acts of aggression had spread all over the country. No one went to work. The economy faltered and the problem only got worse. We talk about the Incident as if it was a specific moment, as if we could identify a single event that triggered the proliferation of the virus, but we can’t. There are millions of Incidents – one for each of us – the moment when we saw our first Lurcher and knew life would never be the same again.”
    Anne looked at Jordan. He stared at the corner of the room. Stan and Joel stood behind Anne, Mary on the chair beside her.
    “It spread faster than anyone expected. People evacuated their homes and drove to Land’s End and the Scottish Highlands, hopped on ferries to Ireland and mainland Europe, but wherever they went the virus followed them. The government were said to be developing a cure, but they were already too late.
    “We managed to escape on Haven, to the sea. There were many others, but they’ve all since gone to different places. We thought maybe the virus hadn’t crossed the Channel, so we sailed to the coast of France and discovered more Lurchers there. It has spread – so far as we can tell – to all parts of the world. That’s why we’re at sea, why we’re living on this boat. Nowhere else is safe.”
    Anne paused. Jordan hadn’t said a word since she’d begun.
    “I know this is difficult to accept,” Anne said, “but we have evidence.” She laid a piece of paper on the bed cover. It was worn and smudged, barely legible save for the headline writ large:
    THE END IS NIGH
    “This is an article from The Times newspaper, dated March twenty-third 2014. It was the last publication in its two hundred and thirty year history.”
    “2014? But it’s 2008.” Jordan met her eyes. “Isn’t it?”
    Anne shook her head. “It’s 2014. I don’t know what happened to you – why you lost all those years, but