The Common Cold (Book 1): A Zombie Chronicle Read Free

weight of passengers behind him, Daniel was inexorably flung forwards,
and landed on a pile of bodies, very few of whom had bothered to react to the
situation. The doors beeped as they unlocked, but no-one moved to try and leave
the train. Using all his strength, Daniel extricated himself from the gently
writhing mass and, trying not to hurt anyone, crawled over others to the exit,
where he pressed the door release button. They hissed open and he jumped off, a
few prone bodies falling to the marble floor of the platform.
    Exhaling loudly, he realised he had been holding his breath,
the stench in the carriage having become overpowering. In such close proximity
to his fellow travellers, it dawned on him that the smell emanated from their
skin, which, he had also noticed during the huddle, was cooler than he would
have expected. A few of the people in his compartment slowly turned their heads
to look at him, registering no emotion. Everyone’s skin was ashen, it didn’t
matter their ethnicity, it was noticeable that they were all beginning to look
the same; cadaverous.
    Shivering involuntarily, he looked down the platform. Only
one other set of doors had opened, although the yellow unlock light was lit on
all the carriages. A suited man jumped from the carriage ahead of him and ran
for the gates. Deciding prudence was the better part of valour in this
instance, Daniel, too, ran down the platform, hoping to find some staff that
could help the passengers. Passing down the train, he looked into each
successive carriage and noticed a few people had finally stood up, recovered
from the sudden stop. Several appeared to have bloody noses, but Daniel put
that down to the accident. It was the only thing that made sense, surely.
    Arriving at the exit gates, there was almost no-one to be
seen, certainly no staff. His footsteps echoed eerily in the empty hall. First
day back in the office after the Christmas break, there should have been queues
of commuters exiting the ticket barriers, hurrying to make their way out of the
station to their offices, where coffees and conversation waited. What the
hell’s going on, he asked himself. At least there was no-one to receive the
penalty fare.
    “Sod this, I’m out of here,” he told himself. Vaulting over
the passenger barriers, and hearing no shouted objections, Daniel began jogging
down the steps, and rushed out into the street. Thank God for dress down
offices; it meant decent running shoes could be worn, instead of the blue suit
and black leather Oxfords normally expected of a man of his seniority. A
sneaking feeling crept up on him that he would need good running shoes today.
    Outside the station, along the length of the main road,
large groups of commuters were milling aimlessly, with no apparent sense of
purpose. In a state of near panic now, he ran to the office, dodging people as
he went. It wasn’t very far along the main road before his building finally
came into view. Crossing the road, he sprinted to the front doors and burst
through them, grateful to have arrived at last.
    “Safe,” he told himself.

Chapter 2
Realisation
    Skidding to a halt in the foyer of the building, Daniel
mentally regrouped, and walked over to the reception desk. The lass sitting
behind it was a pretty young girl. She looked like the sort that would care
more for her nails than the job she was hired to do, and would only help if it
didn’t impact her busy social schedule. Not today, the poor thing looked like
death warmed up; her hair dishevelled like a bad wig, her face was the colour
of cigarette ash, and her eyes were bloodshot with dark rings below them,
accentuating their large, doe-like appearance. The overall impression was that
of an evil Betty Boop. He had seen the symptoms before, about a thousand times
before in fact, and all just this morning. Her stare was vacant; he couldn’t be
sure it wasn’t always like that, so paying little attention to her gaze, he
tried to engage her in