Zom-B Angels Read Free Page B

to assess, we should manage to hold ourselves together for two or three thousand years. But it could be less, it could be more. Only time will tell.’
    I shake my head again, still struggling to come to terms with the revelation.
    ‘Try not to think about it too much,’ Dr Oystein says kindly. ‘I know it is a terrifying prospect — a long life seems enviable until one is presented with the reality of
it and has to think of all those days and nights to come, how hard it will be to fill them, to keep oneself amused for thousands of years. And it is even harder since we do not sleep and thus have
more time to deal with than the living.
    ‘But as with everything in life, you will learn to cope. I’m not saying it will be easy or that you won’t have moments of doubt, but I suggest you turn a blind eye to your
longevity for now. You can brood about it later.’ He sighs. ‘There will be plenty of time for brooding.’
    ‘Why tell me about it at all if that’s the case?’ I snap.
    Dr Oystein shrugs. ‘It is important that you know. It is one of the first things that I tell my Angels. Our approach to life – or our semblance of it – differs greatly
depending on how much time we have to play with.’
    ‘Come again?’ I frown.
    ‘If you think you have only a year to live, you might behave recklessly, risking life and limb, figuring you have little to lose. Most people treat their bodies with respect when they
realise that they may need them for longer.’
    ‘I suppose,’ I grumble.
    Dr Oystein smiles. ‘You will see the brighter side of your circumstances once you recover from the shock. But if it still troubles you, at least you have the comfort of knowing that you
will not have to go through this alone. We are all in the same boat. We will support one another over the long decades to come.’
    ‘All right,’ I mutter and we start walking again. My mind’s still whirling, but I try to put thoughts of my long future on hold and focus on the tour again. It’s hard
– I have a sick feeling in my stomach, like I get if I go too long without eating brains – but the doctor’s right. I can obsess about this later. If I try to deal with it now,
I’ll go mad thinking about it. And madness is the last thing I want to face in my state. I mean, who fancies spending a couple of thousand years as a slack-jawed, drooling nutter!

FIVE
    The tour draws to its conclusion shortly after our conversation in the corridor. We pass through one of the large courtyards of County Hall – I remember seeing them from
up high when I went on the Eye in the past – and into a room which has been converted into a lab, lots of test tubes and vials, some odd-looking machines beeping away quietly in various
places, pickled brains and other internal organs that have been set up for dissection and examination.
    ‘This is not my main place of work,’ Dr Oystein says. ‘I maintain another laboratory elsewhere in the city. I had a string of similar establishments in different countries
around the world, but I do not know what has become of them since the downfall.’
    He looks at me seriously. ‘I told you that we keep no secrets from one another here, and that is the truth, with one key exception. The other laboratory is where I conduct the majority of
my experiments and tests, and where I keep the records of all that I have discovered over the years.’
    ‘You mean you haven’t just started researching zombies since the attacks?’
    ‘No. I am over a hundred years old and have been studying the undead since the mid-1940s.’ As I gawp at him, he continues as if what he’s told me is no big deal. ‘I have
a team of scientists who have been working with me for many years. They are based at my main research centre. I lost a lot of good men and women when the city fell, but enough survived to assist me
in my efforts going forward.
    ‘I dare not reveal the location of that laboratory to anyone. It is not an issue of