The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 5) by Perrin Briar Page A

out. Bill ran a dirty hand through his hair at the realisation that this was the end. His throat burned and he felt the tears well up behind his eyes. He shook his head and forced a relaxed expression onto his face. He gripped the underside of the cliff to push himself back.
    He paused. He felt at the rough material his fingers had instinctively grasped onto. A tint of moonlight caught an entwined rope of white roots. It curled under the ledge and ran between the cracks and fissures in the cliff face. Bill pulled at the root rope. It tore free of the soil. Bill pressed all his weight onto their base, where they met the earth. They stayed firm and did not come loose. Bill grinned like a man who had discovered gold. He pushed himself back up onto the surface.
    “What did you find?” Liz said. “A way out?”
    “Maybe,” Bill said. “Jack, come here. I’m going to lower you over the side. You’re going to grab the roots and climb down them. I want you to pull them free as far as you can.”
    “But-” Jack said.
    “We haven’t got time for questions,” Bill said. “Just do your best.”
    Bill lowered Jack over the side.
    “It’s right there in front of you,” Bill said. “Grab it. Got it?”
    “Yeah,” Jack said.
    He monkey-barred along the roots, pulling them down with his weight. They pulled free as he climbed, drawing out into a long rope.
    “Good,” Bill said. “Now, climb down to the bottom.” He turned to Fritz and Ernest. “You boys next!”
    “You should go first,” Fritz said to Liz.
    “You go,” Liz said. “We’ll be along in a minute.”
    Fritz and Ernest dropped their shields and climbed down the root rope. First Fritz, then Ernest.
    “Your turn,” Bill said to Liz.
    She shook her head.
    “Just go!” Bill said.
    Liz knelt and began to climb over the side. Bill held his battered shield out, smacking the Spinners aside when they got too close. The blows came as a flurry, like heavy rain on a tin roof. His heels were balanced on the cliff edge like a gymnast on a balance beam. A fat Spinner with large flabby arms struck Bill’s shield, knocking him back. He teetered on the edge, waving his arms to keep balanced.
    “Bill!” Liz said. “Hurry!”
    Bill found his centre. A grin spread across his face.
    “I’ll come down now,” he said.
    The fat Spinner cracked Bill over the head with its bony knee. Bill’s eyes rolled back and his body went limp. He fell forward, the Spinner close behind.
    “Bill!” Liz screamed. “Bill! No!”
    She reached for him, but her arm was too short, her fingertips grazing his shirt. Alerted by the scream, Fritz stretched out his own arm. His hand snapped around Bill’s ankle. Fritz braced himself for the sharp tug he knew would follow. There was a crack, as something tore inside his shoulder. Fritz let out a roar that was primal, deep and pained, but kept hold of his father.
    There was another crack, this one at the top of the root rope, which dropped a foot before catching and holding. Fritz clenched his teeth, his father swinging in his hand, upside down.
    The Spinners eased over the cliff edge, spinning in an acrobatic display as they fell through the air. It must have been what it was like to see it snow in hell.

Chapter Sixteen
    Francis heard a snort from somewhere behind the Spinner. It made him blink, a whisker-thin crack forming in the façade of his shock. He pursed his lips, pressing them together until they turned white. He blew a thin strand of air through them, a feeble intermittent wheeze.
    The Spinner was so close Francis could smell the rotting flesh hanging from his bones, could feel the pus-saturated stink brush against him as its clawed hand passed within inches of his face.
    Francis pressed his lips together again, his lips dry. This time he performed something at least resembling a whistle.
    But nothing happened.
    Francis curled up into a ball, his last bastion of protection. The creature made a sound, a wheeze in the back of its