Sudden Death: A Zombie Novel by James Carlson

the car with his twin daughters. What miserable excuse for man was he? What kind of police officer had he proven himself to be when people needed him the most? One that hadn’t become a casualty and therefore part of the problem, just as he had been trained, he desperately tried to reassure himself but it was cold comfort.
    Scuttling over to the slanting interior of the roof, he hacked away at the bitumen-covering underlay with the knife then kicked out a section of the tiles, which made a clattering din , as they shattered on the driveway below.
    Peering through the hole, he had a good view of t he rooftops and the street outside. Gone now was the dim morning twilight. The sun was already climbing above the line of houses he could see, casting long shadows. Birds were flitting around and chirping with even greater vigour than usual, as though disturbed by the carnage unfolding in the world beneath them. The day had only just begun.
     

Chapter 3
    Jenna
     
    It may have been two hours or more that Muz sat there uncomfortably wedged against the inside of the sloping roof, staring down at the street. There were long periods of calm, the road below him completely devoid of any signs of life. Now and then though, there came an eruption of madness. At one point, a door across the street flung open and a man burst out into view, having decided to make a break for it. It proved to be a poorly considered decision as within seconds, the police officers in their heavy riot gear, appeared and sprinted after him. Despite the cumbersome weight of their body armour, they were on him in seconds.
    The savagery of their attack still astounded and terrified Muz. Like all those affected by this ensuing insanity, the police officers attacked as a unified group. It seemed then that, although all higher reasoning was lost, there remained in their brains some primitive instinct to work together as a pack, overwhelming their prey.
    With so many large men feeding on the lone man, he was rapidly reduced to little more than bare bone and equally inedible cartilage. It was then, when there was n ot a scrap left to be picked from the human carcass that Muz noticed a dramatic change in the behaviour of the group. Having switched from working together, they now turned on each other with the same vicious ferocity, desperate for yet more meat with which to fill their stomachs. They really were like dogs, not a true pack, but more like wild strays that came together when it worked to their advantage, but were quick to turn on their temporary allies.
    Muz hated to watch the massacre but forced himself to do so, aware that learning as much about this madness and how it was a ffecting people could be the difference between him eventually getting to safety or not.
    Once the officers had forced so much meat down their throats that their bloated stomachs threatened to rupture, their behaviour again changed radically. Those that survived the feeding now became extremely docile. They loitered, staggering around aimlessly or collapsing to the ground. The noise of their loud moaning, in response to the pain of their overstuffed guts, sickened Muz to his core.
    They remained in this more sedate state for some time , burping and farting raucously. Muz was able to see that an officer whose trousers had been torn away in the fight, was shitting all down the back of his legs without the slightest concern. Then beyond the perspective of Muz’s vantage point, another runner caught their attention. Already feeling the pangs of hunger again, desperately yearning for meat, they ran down the street out of Muz’s view.
    What i n God’s name was going on, Muz wondered. What could have possibly caused all these people so suddenly to become violently insane? Was it some kind of chemical warfare? He had heard of the American military in Vietnam testing experimental drugs on their own soldiers, in order to make them fight more aggressively. Was whatever it was airborne, in the