The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 3) (9 page)

Twenty-Seven

“Now!” Bill said.

The Robinsons pushed with all their collective weight down onto the thick branch jammed under the boulder. The boulder leaned forward, looked about ready to stop, and then its own weight carried it forward. It picked up speed and crashed down the mountainside, crushing a large pack of Lurchers. The boulder smashed into half a dozen other large rocks, like a giant game of marbles.

“They’re still coming,” Ernest said.

He peered down the mountain. Shadows devolved from the darkness and ambled up the incline.

“But fewer than before,” Bill said.

“Are you sure?” Liz said.

They waited, and although Lurchers continued to stumble out of the jungle, there were no more than a handful.

“Is that it?” Fritz said. “Is that all of them?”

“Either that,” Bill said, “or they got lost along the way.”

“Or they found somewhere better to be,” Liz said.

She exchanged a frightened look with Bill. They ran down the mountainside.

“Hey!” Fritz said. “Where are you going?”

Fritz and Ernest took after their parents.

Twenty-Eight

Robin’s Nest rocked to one side, the gnawing at the bark like a rat at a block of hard cheese. Francis stood at the window, whistling into the night. It seemed to calm him, so Jack left him alone. Jack looked along the shelves at the framed happy photographs of times gone by. Their treehouse shook again, causing the photos to fall to the floor.

Jack put his hand in his pocket and stroked the barrel of the gun. It was a little too large for him, and he had to stretch his hand to reach the trigger. He approached Francis from behind. He looked so small and defenceless. Jack raised the gun, pointing the barrel at the back of his head. Francis continued to whistle.

Twenty-Nine

Bang!

Liz came to a stop. She broke out into a cold sweat and her heart beat a thousand times a minute.

“No…” she said.

She picked up the pace and ran faster, her legs a blur.

“No, no, no, no, no…”

Bang!

There was an almighty crash, and the ground shook like there was an earthquake. Bill and Liz came to a stop in the clearing before Falcon’s Nest. Both treehouses lay prostrate on the ground. Leaves descended like snowflakes from the recently felled tree. A dozen Lurchers drifted across the space without purpose. Liz fell to her knees, weeping openly.

“My babies,” she said, “my dear sweet babies.”

The muscles in Bill’s jaw tightened and the tears stung his eyes. Attracted to Liz’s suffering, the Lurchers turned and stumbled toward them. Liz stood up, unsheathed Bill’s machete and ran at them. Bill chased after her. She swung at the Lurchers. She cut off their arms, their legs at the knee, chopped off the women’s breasts and the men’s penises. Then she hacked their torsos to pieces, cutting open the flesh, and getting to the internal organs.

“Liz,” Bill said. “Liz! That’s enough!”

He grabbed her arm and took the machete away. Bill finished the Lurchers off with a quick wide swipe that removed their heads.

“They killed our babies,” Liz said. “They killed them.”

“I know,” Bill said. “I know.”

He wrapped his arms around her. Fritz and Ernest joined their parents on either side, adding to the huddle.

“Can we join?” a small voice behind them said.

The Robinsons turned to see a huge shadow stop on the fringes of the courtyard. It was broad and squat with horns. As it emerged into the moonlight, it resolved into Valiant the bull, the tips of his horns stained red. On his back were Jack and Francis, who had big grins on their faces. Liz ran forward and lifted them off the huge bull. She held them close and smothered them with kisses. A few Lurchers drifted close. Fritz and Ernest dispatched them with ease.

“What happened?” Bill said.

“After the first treehouse fell we climbed the cable to the second one,” Jack said. “But then they started biting that one too. I had the gun in my pocket, and was about to use it when Francis started whistling, and Valiant came out of the jungle. The Lurchers came toward him and he charged them. He knocked them all over! A couple almost bit him, but I shot them with the gun. We climbed down and got on his back and rode into the jungle. The Lurchers must have kept biting the tree after we left, I suppose, and took it down. They probably thought we were still up there. They are stupid.”

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Bill said. “Come give your dad a kiss.”

“Dad,” Jack said, “I’m too big for kisses.”

“Well, I’m not,” Bill said, and gave Jack a big kiss on his cheek, and then on Francis’s. “My boys, my beautiful, beautiful boys.”

He hugged them tight, and didn’t care that he was crying.

“Feels like it’s going to rain soon,” Ernest said, looking up at the darkened sky. “We’d best grab anything we want to keep before the rain gets to it.”

“You go ahead,” Bill said, hugging Liz, Jack and Francis close. “I’ve got everything I need right here.”

“You say that now,” Liz said. “But what happens when you want to write in your journal?”

Bill thought for a moment.

“I’ll be right back,” he said.

Thirty

Fritz and Ernest picked over the remains of Falcon’s Nest. Most of their possessions were smashed to pieces amongst the broken branches. Ernest knelt down beside a bookcase. Most of the books were still jammed inside, and in perfect condition. He took off his jacket and wrapped them up.

“Thank God for that,” Ernest said to Fritz. “I thought I’d lost them. Did you find what you were looking for?”

“I don’t really have anything worth looking for,” Fritz said.

Cheep cheep. Cheep cheep.

“Did you hear that?” Fritz said.

“Hear what?” Ernest said.

Cheep cheep.

“That cheeping noise,” Fritz said.

“You’ve got birds on the brain. And not the good kind.”

Fritz kneeled down to look closer at a long tube of red satin, what had once been Beauty’s perch. He picked it up and felt the soft material in his hands. He paused when his fingers came across something jagged. He turned the perch over and found a hole. Inside it was the cracked surface of an eggshell. He lifted the top.

Cheep cheep. Cheep cheep.

“It’s a chick!” Fritz said to Ernest. “It’s Beauty’s perch. Inside it I found this! This must be why she never wanted to get off it the past few days! She must have laid an egg!”

Fritz inspected the chick.

“It’s a he,” he said. “I mean, it’s a him. A male!”

“I wonder if fatherhood makes everyone so eloquent,” Ernest said.

“I’ll name him Beast. Got to keep up with tradition.”

Fritz turned to his parents.

“Mum, Dad,” he said. “Look at this!”

“He looks hungry,” Liz said.

“I’ll go find him something,” Fritz said, walking away. “You know, you’ve got some pretty big claws to fill,” he said to the chick. “But don’t worry, I’ll train you.”

Liz and Bill shared a smile. Liz looked over the destroyed area that had once been their home.

“Nothing will ever grow here again, will it?” she said. “Too much of their tainted blood was spilled.”

“Something will grow here, given enough time.”

A spot of water tapped Bill on the head, then another, and all at once, a torrential rain fell out of the sky. The rain coalesced and made streams that ran downhill to the sea. The water was red, and then turned pink, then no colour at all. Eventually enough water fell that it carried the rotten corpses away. Bill smiled.

“Wiped clean like a broom to the past,” he said. “It might take some time, but life here will return to normal. There are still Lurchers out there in this jungle, and we have to be careful, but we will find them.”

“But not tonight,” Liz said.

“No, not tonight. Tonight we’ll go to the cove and sleep.”

They turned and made their way back up Sharpie. Ernest cradled his books, Fritz his chick, Jack with Nip in his arms, and Francis led Valiant with his hand on his neck, not needing to use the nose ring.

“How are we going to rebuild the Nests?” Liz said. “The
Adventurer
sunk months ago. You’ll never bring anything else back up.”

“Who said anything about the
Adventurer
?” Bill said. “How do you fancy living in the Presidential Suite of a cruise liner?”

Liz smiled.

“Sounds great,” she said.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Bill said. “We’ve got an awful lot of rebuilding to do.”

“Yes,” Liz said. “But we’ll do it together.”

Epilogue

The apes screamed at the top of their lungs, concealed behind their leafy hiding places, and peered at something in a clearing. It was another ape, lying on his back. Rain patted his upturned cheeks and dampened his fur, sticky and matted with blood, an ugly open wound on his forearm. His breaths came shallow and forced, rasping with life. He closed his eyes, breathed in a thick breath, let out a deep sigh, and fell silent. The apes screeched for another minute before following suit and falling silent themselves. The apes turned and moved away, into the darkness of the jungle beyond. The jungle returned to its normal background noise of crickets, hooting birds and something pecking at a tree trunk in the distance.

The sounds stopped, and the jungle was silent.

A black finger twitched. His eyes flashed open, white as snow. A low groan escaped his lips. The jungle erupted into screams once more.

What Happens Next?

The Swiss Family RobinZOM
really has only just begun.

The family has survived the zombie horde, but their greatest challenges still lie ahead. The next of which comes from the most inconspicuous of sources… Find out what it is in Book 4!

Get your copy here:

US
,
UK
,
Canada
,
Australia
.

BE KIND, REVIEW

Reviews mean an awful lot on the internet. But often, readers don’t leave them. If you enjoyed
The Swiss Family RobinZOM
,
please make one author very happy and leave a revie
w
HERE
.
It doesn’t need to be long – a single sentence is fine, but it would mean the world to me if you did.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Perrin Briar is an English author best-known for his series
Blood Memory
,
Z-Minus
and
The Swiss Family RobinZOM
, and revenge tale
Square
. He was born in Huntingdon, grew up in Norfolk, graduated from Bournemouth, worked in London, and then chucked it all in to live in South Korea.

He has written for BBC radio, and worked in the production and development departments of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

You can email him at
[email protected]
  or tweet at
@perrinbriar
. He loves corresponding with fans, so don’t hesitate to contact him if you have a question!

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Published by Briar Patch Publishing.

Want to know more about Perrin Briar’s books?

Visit
www.perrinbriar.com
.