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    Viro: Book Two
    Viro: Book Two
    Viro: Book Two
    Ebook152 pages1 hour

    Viro: Book Two

    By Barnaby Taylor

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    About this ebook

    A virus has destroyed the world.
    Families are torn apart.
    Will Jake find his missing mum?
    Or will he just become another VIRO?

    REVIEWS FOR THE VIRO SERIES

    'Powerful and poignant, VIRO packs a punch.'
    'Sad and haunting, VIRO is a new take on the zombie genre.'
    'Absolutely thrilling. I loved every page more than the previous, to the point that I couldn't stop reading.'
    'Highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys zombie stories.'
    'I was left on the edge of my seat when I finished the book with a thirst for more adventure!'

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnaby Taylor
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9781999633233
    Viro: Book Two
    Author

    Barnaby Taylor

    Inspired by his passion for films and video games, Barnaby Taylor loves writing dystopian science fiction and horror. He has recently written the VIRO series about a gang of teenagers struggling to survive in a world overrun by the infected. There are currently four books in the series. VIRO is rapidly infecting the Amazon charts and gaining rave reviews along the way. Here's one of the latest reviews:'The writing style is beautifully compelling, and after the first couple of pages I couldn't put it down. The author very skilfully creates a world and characters through deceptively simple prose that draws the reader right in. It is a fascinating blend of one-after-the-other edge-of-the seat scares, alongside a haunting narrative about what it is to be human.'

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      Book preview

      Viro - Barnaby Taylor

      VIRO

      BOOK TWO

      VIRO

      BOOK TWO

      Barnaby Taylor

      For Iris, as per usual and always …

      Copyright  Barnaby Taylor 2018

      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.

      ISBN 978-1-9996332-3-3 (eBook)

      First Edition

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Barnaby Taylor

      www.falconboy.ie

      Tears

      The rain fell like tears from all the eyes of all the dead. Everyone was soaking. It was freezing. The sky was black. The world was broken. The viros screamed. Loads of howling hate was all over. I didn’t look over the edge any more. I was too frightened. They would definitely find us. Vinnie saw my fear.

      ‘They can’t get up here,’ he said. ‘I pulled up the ladder. They can’t reach it. Logic dictates that we should be safe.’

      I had no smile. I knew logic. Those rules didn’t work now. Dead people were living. It wasn’t like the world used to be. They were meant to be dead. That’s what happened. It was biology.

      Not anymore.

      Vinnie was wrong. We weren’t safe. We were trapped. I just gave up. I didn’t shout. I didn’t panic. I went inside me. That was my safest place. My most secret.

      ‘It’s okay to be quiet, Jake,’ Mum said. ‘It’s also okay to be private but please don’t let the world make you feel that you always have to be like this.’

      She ruffled my hair.

      ‘It’s also okay to be loud and enjoy life and have lots of friends and play silly games and just be yourself.’

      But Mum wasn’t here now. It was only me. She was anywhere. I closed my eyes.

      Later I woke. Ellis was asleep on my shoulder. My arm was numb. I liked her leaning on me. It felt amazing. Her hair was by my nose. I could smell it. It was really lovely. I shut my eyes. I breathed in. I held the smell deep inside. It filled me full.

      I breathed out.

      I opened my eyes. Abe was looking. He saw me smelling Ellis’s hair. He did a weird smile. I tried to say. Abe shook his head. There was no smile. He turned away.

      Baxter was sleeping. I heard a whimper. His fur shimmered with water drops. Baxter shivered. This was mean. Baxter was trapped when I rescued him. Now he was trapped again. He was a big dog. He could survive on his own. He didn’t need me. I wasn’t helping him.

      This wasn’t good for him. This wasn’t good for us. We were stuck up here. No one knew. No one would come near. The viros would stop people looking in the school. Rescuers would never find us.

      I was starving. We all were. There was no food or drink. We had nothing. We were going to die.

      Maybe we should have let the viros eat us?

      Would that be better than this?

      I didn’t know.

      Abe said we should sneak downstairs. Vinnie said we couldn’t. No one would get down the stairs and back again. Those things would find us easy.

      ‘I’ll give it a go,’ said Abe. ‘I’m good at sneaking about and staying hidden.’

      ‘You’re brave, Abe,’ said Vinnie, ‘but it would be suicide.’

      Abe was disappointed. He understood what Vinnie meant. Amber punched her brother on the arm.

      ‘Vinnie’s right, you know,’ she said. ‘You’re good, Abe, really good, but no one could get down there and back. It wouldn’t matter who you were. There’s just too many of them.’

      Thud

      In my dream I heard a noise. It sounded like someone hitting a cushion with a stick. It went on and on. It stayed in my head. It was so annoying.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      ‘Help.’

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      ‘Over here. We’re over here.’

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

      I woke up. I looked around. The guys were waving their arms. They could see something.

      I jumped up. I saw the helicopter.

      That was the noise in my dream.

      ‘It has been circling for some time now,’ said Vinnie. ‘They must have seen the giant swarm and wondered what was going on.’

      ‘Can they see us?’ I said.

      ‘I hope so,’ said Ellis. ‘It looks like they’re coming this way.’

      The helicopter was far away. It looked really small. I squinted. I saw red and white.

      ‘It’s an Air Sea rescue helicopter,’ I said. ‘A Sikorsky or an AgustaWestland. Some models have a five blade main rotor plus a retractable undercarriage.’

      ‘Wow,’ said Ellis. ‘How do you know things like that?’

      I shrugged. I was happy Ellis noticed.

      ‘Everyone does,’ I said.

      ‘Most people,’ said Abe.

      Abe sounded strange. I guessed it was all the stuff that happened. I didn’t think anything else.

      We stood watching. I waved my arms. I didn’t want to shout. It was ages before the helicopter reached us. I looked up. The side door was open. There was a man with a white helmet. He was the winch operator. The roof was too small. The helicopter couldn’t land. It hovered above us. It was loud. I worried.

      ‘The noise will give us away,’ I said to Vinnie. ‘The viros will know where we are.’

      ‘They already know,’ he said. ‘That’s why they’ve been hanging around the school this long.’

      Vinnie looked up at the helicopter.

      ‘It won’t matter anyway if this is our way off the roof.’

      The rescue line came down. It blew about. The wind was strong. It looked dangerous. The winch man held up a finger. He pointed at the strop.

      I nodded. I knew what he meant.

      ‘One at a time,’ I said to the others.

      Ellis went first. Vinnie helped her. He checked she was done up tight. Vinnie pointed at the winch man. He did a thumbs-up. Ellis went up to safety. Baxter went next. He didn’t bark. He was very calm. Abe was next. Amber followed him. They both went up alright.

      Vinnie looked at me.

      ‘You’re next,’ he said.

      I put my arms up. Vinnie attached the strop. He tightened the straps.

      ‘It’s a piece of cake.’

      I grabbed the cable. The hoist pulled me up. My feet swung in the wind. I was blown around. I kept going high. I looked down at the school. I could see the viros. They were everywhere. There was no room. They bounced like a horrible ocean. It was so bad to see. I felt sad. Just death all over. They were people once. That was then. Now the viros looked like rotten flowers on a rubbish dump.

      Dream

      We huddled in the helicopter. I didn’t speak. It was too loud. The door was closed. I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know where we were going. Baxter whimpered. I stroked his head.

      ‘It’s okay, boy,’ I said. ‘We’re safe now.’

      The winch operator gave us the thumbs up. He didn’t take his helmet off. He went to the pilot in the cockpit.

      This was amazing. I loved helicopters. I always wanted to fly in one. I had bunk beds in my old house. The bottom bunk was my cockpit. I drew a control panel. It was glued to a tea tray. My old wool hat was my helmet. I played flying for hours. I rescued drowning people from dangerous oceans. I dropped soldiers behind enemy lines. I delivered emergency supplies to starving villages.

      We flew for a long while. The engine droned. I felt sleepy. We all did. I watched as everyone went drowsy. It was hot and smelly. We flew some more. Later, the noise changed. We were going down. I hoped that we were landing at Dungeness. I tried to guess how long we had been flying.

      ‘Where are we going?’ I shouted to Vinnie. ‘Dungeness?’

      Vinnie nodded.

      ‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘I could really do with feeling safe for a while.

      I got excited. Dungeness had soldiers. They had guns. They would keep us safe. Mum might be waiting. It was going to be fine. We were saved.

      It wasn’t Dungeness.

      We landed with a bump. The winch operator opened the door. We were on a small roof. There was a fence around us. I saw tall cliffs. A narrow road led down to a gate. The sea was flat and grey. A sign said ‘Fairlight Coastguard Station.’

      We followed the winch operator and the pilot. They went down metal steps on the side of the building. We went through a metal door.

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