The Restless Dead: A Zombie Novel by Jenny Thomson Page B

and try to eat him.
    Kenny was behind him, “Is he dead?”
    “We were talking to him a minute ago. He can’t be...” He can’t bring himself to say the word dead.
    Kenny lifted his dad’s arm and felt for a pulse. Then he shook his head as he pressed two fingers to the old man’s neck. “Nothing. He’s gone but not for long.”
    Tears stung Mustafa’s eyes. He hadn't cried since he was a little boy.
    Kenny set a hand on Mustafa’s shoulder. “Sorry, mate, but you’ve got to cut off his head.”
    “No. I can’t.”
    “Muzz, he’s been bitten. You know what he’ll do next.”
    True. Mustafa dragged himself up off his knees, and with hot tears burning his eyes, he stood over his dad’s body and recited a prayer. Then he leaned down and used the knuckles of his fingers to close his father’s eyes.
    He had no idea how long he stood over the body before Kenny’s words jarred him back into the reality of the present. “Mustafa, we need to get on with things. Your dad was a proud man. He wouldn’t have wanted to end up being one of those...things.”
    “I know.” He raised the sword. It felt like a dead weight above his father's head, but he hesitated to strike, gritted his teeth. In spite of what that body will become, it was still his father lying there. How could he even consider what he was about to do?
    He brought his arm and the sword back down.
    “I can't do it, Kenny. I just cannae.”
    “I’ll do it,” Kenny said and he pulled the screwdriver out of his back pocket.
    Mustafa almost accepted the offer. Almost handed the sword over to Kenny, but he pulled it back at the last moment.
    His kin, his duty.
    “No.” He raised the sword again, and with an agonising cry that came from deep inside his heart, he brought the sword down with all his strength. The blade sunk into the man’s neck and stops at bone. He had to haul it out again, start over. Through the blur of tears, he raised the sword and swung it. The second time was easier.
    Again, the blade sliced human meat, in a different place this time, and struck bone again. Who knew it was so damn hard to cut off someone’s head? “Allah give me strength.”
    As the sword arcs up again, his father moved.
    Mustafa froze.
    Gross gargling noises came from his father’s throat.
    “It’s happening,” Kenny shouted. “Hurry up.”
    “No. He’s alive.”
    “He’s not, Muzz. Quit fucking around and kill him.”
    With a sickly growl, his dad rolled over and sprung to his feet. His head lolled over to his shoulder like Sadako in Ring, the damage done, but not enough. The tongue flicked out between his dad’s teeth. Slobber ran down his jaw. White eyeballs homed in on Mustafa, hands raised like claws and grabbing for him.
    This time Mustafa didn’t hesitate. He slammed the sword down on the top of his father’s head, splitting the skull like firewood. The body collapsed. Mustafa withdrew the bloody sword and fell to his knees, sobbing into his hands. “I’m sorry, Dad.” He turned to Kenny who backed away. “What have I done? What have I done?
    “What you had to,” Kenny told him. “You did what you had to do, Muzz.”
    Seeing his dad’s brains oozing onto the carpet paralyses Mustafa, wanted to sprint out the door and never look back, but he knew he couldn’t leave because more work needs to be done: kill his sister and probably his mother too.
     
     

13 FAMILY MATTERS...ONLY SO MUCH
     
    At his sister’s bedroom door, he heard her moving about inside, feet shuffling, raspy breathing. His father had screwed a latch to the door and padlocked it. As Kenny stood guard, Mustafa fetched a hammer to break open the lock.
    The crack of steel against steel should’ve woken the dead and he expected his mum to call out from the next room or come running. But she doesn’t do either. Something has happened to her. But, he can’t think about that now.
    He beat the lock until it broke, then tossed the hammer to Kenny. “Wish me luck.”
    He