Thirteen Roses Book One: Before: An Apocalyptic Zombie Saga by Michael Cairns Page B

and resumed scratching. His voice was muffled from where he talked to the table. 'I think that at least once a week. It's not a good week when I don't.'
    'Yeah, but you're a demon, you're supposed to think that. I'm not.'
    'You did once.'
    'Yeah, well, people change.' Luke glared at the top of Az's head and looked back at Seph. His friend frowned and leaned forwards. 'What did you do?'
    'What I was supposed to.' His voice took on that annoyingly petulant tone the Father had warned him about, but he couldn't help it. 'The list said what saving meant so I did it.'
    'And?'
    'And I saved him. Only saving him meant letting his son be born, which meant the horrible crap he was supposed to do just got passed down to his son.'
    'And what horrible crap would that be?'
    'He's invented a, I don't know, serum or something, it's like a gas. It turns everyone who comes anywhere near it into zombies.'
    Seph raised an eyebrow and chuckled. 'Zombies? Like real, Romero zombies?'
    'Exactly, only I think they're closer to 28 Days zombies. I've only been given glimpses. We've got a few decades.'
    'A few?'
    'Well, about thirty years I think.'
    'Oh, well, in that case, drink up.'
    He topped up his cup and Luke stared despondently into it. What the hell. He tipped it back and slouched, staring at the wall. He hated sitting this side of the table and with a grunt, got up and switched around, pushing Seph along so he could join him on the bench.  
    The room had got fuller in the last few minutes and they watched in silence. There was nothing like the bar when it got busy. In front of their table stood three women, none more than six or seven stone despite the wings emerging from their back. They were pale blue, with darker blue slashes on their faces and naked chests. They were tiny, every part of them miniature and delicate. Seraphims, possibly, though no one really knew anymore. Once the religions blended, no one could keep track of them.  
    Beyond them was an obvious one. A hugely fat guy with skin the colour of beaten bronze and a third eye in his forehead the size of a plate. He chuckled at something his angelic companion said and his rolls of fat shook like jelly. He turned to stare at Luke and his eyes were very different to his face, piercing and cold.  
    'I know.'
    Was that what he said? It looked like it but he'd already turned back to the angel, still chuckling. Luke shook his head and turned his attention back to the table. 'What's the Father coming down here for?'
    Az snorted and sat up, stretching and rolling his shoulders, grooming finished for the moment. 'The 'Father' has his reasons, I'm sure. Not that we'll ever know them.'
    Seph and Luke both looked at him, eyebrows raised in a strangely identical way. Az glanced from one to the other.  
    'C'mon, you know the drill. He'll make some grand proclamation about how we aren't doing our jobs properly and bugger off. Then a few people'll disappear and we'll spend the next fifty years running from our shadows until everyone forgets.'
    He had a point. Not a very nice one, but accurate. Luke nodded. 'Yeah, fair enough. Who's going to disappear?'
    Both his friends leant forwards, eyes fixed on him.  

Interlude Part Two

    'Who's going to disappear, then?'
    His friends looked at him and he shivered. He was rare because he'd been disappeared before. But the Father wouldn't send him back there, not so soon after releasing him. So where would he go? And it would be him, no doubt about that. Seph leaned forwards, grinning. 'Weekly total probably doesn't seem so important now, huh?'
    'You're supposed to be my friend. Where's the sympathy?'
    Seph chuckled and shook his head. 'I have plenty of sympathy, I just find it funny. After everything you've been through, it comes down to one stupid bastard human screwing everything up for you. Typical really.'
    'I could just kill him. And her. The baby would never be born and--'
    'Don't. Don't even think it. They can pick up on that, you know.' Seph nodded