Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

machinery in their boxer shorts. And on impulse, having listened to them waffle on about this all day without saying a word, I suddenly decide to solve the mystery for them.
    “It’s because of me. They’re starving you because I won’t torture the reviveds. And they’re not gonna stop until…”
    I draw to a halt. Everyone is staring at me, even Rage, who doesn’t look so cocky anymore.
    “Go on,” Tiberius says stiffly.
    “The gray junk they’ve been feeding us is human brains.”
    “We know,” Tiberius says.
    “You
know
?” I exclaim.
    He shrugs. “It’s obvious. We figured that out months ago. Zombies eat brains, everyone knows that.”
    “You never told me,” I huff.
    “We didn’t know that we needed to,” Tiberius sneers. “How thick are you?”
    “Enough of that,” Rage snaps, getting to his feet. He looks uneasy. “Finish what you were going to say.”
    “We need the brains to stay conscious,” I mutter. “Without regular feeds we’ll lose our senses and become reviveds again. And if we do, we can’t recover, we’ll be stuck like that forever.”
    Rage stares at me coldly. Everybody else is gaping too.
    “They told you this?” Cathy asks.
    “Yeah.”
    “And you said nothing?” Her voice rises. “You let them starve us, knowing what would happen, not saying a word?”
    “I’m telling you now.”
    “You bitch!” she shrieks. “That’s the first thing you should have–”
    “I’m calling Reilly,” Rage says heavily. “I’m gonna tell him that you’ve agreed to do whatever they ask. Then we’re gonna go tear some zombies to shreds and you’ll hack them up, burn them, slice them into little pieces, and that will be that.”
    “No,” I whisper. “They’re people. I won’t do it.”
    “You bloody well will,” Rage snarls, stomping towards me.
    I stand and face his challenge, hands by my sides. I don’t flinch when he makes a fist and holds it threateningly in front of my face.
    “A beating won’t change my mind,” I tell him. “I’ve been in plenty of fights, taken more than my fair share of thrashings. I took them at home too—my dad was handy with his fists, knocked me and Mum around all the time. You can smash me to a pulp, break my arms, snap my fingers, rip my ears off. It won’t matter. I won’t give in.”
    “I’ll kill you,” Rage croaks.
    “Maybe,” I concede. “I’ll fight back, and I think Josh will stop you before it gets that far, but if you’re tough enough and fast enough, maybe you can finish me off before they intervene.”
    “Do it,” Danny says flatly, stepping up beside Rage. “I’ll help.”
    “Me too,” Gokhan growls.
    “What about the rest of you?” Rage barks.
    “I dunno,” Peder says, looking worried. “She’s not like the other zombies that we kill. She’s one of us.”
    “But she won’t be if they don’t feed her,” Cathy says, then frowns. “How long before we change?” she asks me.
    “No one can last more than a week without being fed, so a few days at most.”
    Cathy’s face hardens. “Kill her. If she’s going to revert anyway, we should off her while we can. Otherwise we’ll all turn into reviveds.”
    “No,” Mark moans. “We can’t do this. It’s not right. It’s murder.”
    “But if it’s us or her…” Rage says heavily.
    Tiberius pushes past Rage and glares at me. I wait for him to condemn me too, but to my surprise he comes out with something bizarre. “I was named after Captain Kirk in
Star Trek
.”
    Everyone stares.
    “I tell people I was named after the river in Rome, but really it was after Kirk. His full name was James Tiberius Kirk. My mum and dad loved
Star Trek
. They made me watch it all the time when I was growing up. Except they didn’t have to make me—I loved it as much as they did. Kirk was my hero.”
    “Is this going somewhere, or have you lost your marbles?” Danny huffs.
    “Kirk always stood up for the underdog,” Tiberius says. “Every week, him and