Thirteen Roses Book Two: After: A Paranormal Zombie Saga Read Free Page A

down her back and neck and her hair was wet at the bottom. The screaming had grown louder but she couldn't look behind her.  
    She pushed the bed with everything she had, and finally it reached tipping point. She grabbed the clicker from her pocket and shoved it at the bed as it fell away. The flames attacked her, leaping from the fluid-soaked sheets and she scrambled back, face seared by the heat. She fell on her backside and the fire that swarmed across the carpet caught her top.  
    She screamed and rolled over and over, going from hot to cold and back again. When the heat faded she opened her eyes and tried to get up. The bed was still travelling down the stairs. It hadn't hurtled as she'd hoped, although the cabinets on top were strewn around the ground floor. Instead it was bumping steadily down, the mattress now an inferno spreading black plumes to the ceiling. Layla was gone, consumed by the flames that licked over the bed in which she'd been sleeping.  
    The flames were spreading, catching hangings and drapes around the wall as the fire found new supplies of the fluid.  
    She had to move now.  
    She had to get up and move.  
    She took a deep breath and burst out coughing again, smoke flooding her lungs. She blinked as the world grew dark, then smacked the palm of her hand against her head.  
    She yanked her top off and wrapped it around her face. The stairs beckoned but she froze. She was about to run into a street populated by zombies in only her bra. She couldn't do it. She could face the zombies and the almost certain death that lay there, but she had to be dressed to do it. She didn't look bad in just a bra, but they had no right to see it.  
    She laughed, the sound muffled by her top. Of all the things to worry about, but she still couldn't get over it. She raced across the room and rescued a tea towel just before the flames reached them. She untied her top and pulled it back on, ignoring the charring around the bottom, then wrapped the towel around her face. Feeling more and more like a pirate, she dashed for the stairs.  
    The bed had run over one of the zombies, whose blackened body lay spread-eagled on the steps. The other was gone as well, consumed she hoped by the rapidly spreading fire. She was close behind the bed, waiting for a chance to leap past it, when she heard a groaning. She thought at first it was another zombie, but it grew louder.   Glancing up, she saw the top of the stairs separate from the upper floor. They shifted beneath her feet and she slipped and fell, sliding towards the burning bed.  
    Her feet went out to stop her descent, and in the moment before she struck, she looked at the glass doors at the front of the shop. The zombies were still there, gazing in wonder at the flaming pieces of ceiling and furniture that were now tumbling to the floor. They weren't scared at all. Her plan was useless.  

Krystal

    She was lying next to him again. Only this time it was her arm wrapped around him. Ed was warm and surprisingly cuddly considering she could feel his ribs through his t-shirt. She snuggled closer and hoped he didn't wake up. She couldn't ever remember snuggling. Mum hadn't been the cuddly type. She'd been cuddled but always put down far too quickly. And Dad's cuddles never felt right. Funny how she hadn't realised at the time.  
    She imagined she could lie here forever. Ed would wake up and turn to her, and he wasn't all that unattractive and maybe they'd screw. She giggled, biting her lip. Like that was ever going to happen. She knew how it worked but that was as far as her experience went. And he was so young. You didn't screw when you were thirteen, not when you were like Ed.
    He still had his cute little suburban accent and good manners. Another few months on the street would sort that. She blinked, and the previous day came crashing in. Where were they? She sat up, no longer caring if he woke, and stared about. They were in a bedroom, a real bedroom, with a wardrobe