EXCERPT: (From
Chapter 1 of Deadlocked)
“What hospital
are they at?” asked Jerry. He was supposed to be managing the floor, but he had
no interest in telling people to get back to work on a day like this.
“A bus full of kids
just showed up." Gloria clasped her hand over her mouth. “This is
horrible.”
“Has anyone
died?” asked Jerry.
“Not yet,” said
Alan, one of the company’s accountants.
“How many kids
are sick?” Jerry pushed his way past the others to get a better view of Barry's
screen.
“They didn’t
say. They’re taking the camera over to the bus now,” said Barry.
Everyone
silenced and I could hear the reporter telling the viewers he was going to get
on the bus. After a few moments of rustling, which I assumed was the reporter’s
microphone rubbing against his coat, he asked, “What happened here? Are these
kids okay?”
“Oh my God,”
said Gloria. “How terrible. Look at them, the poor babies.”
Then the
screaming started. Everyone in Barry’s cubicle jumped and caused the walls to
shake as people pressed against them. Barry’s speakers crackled with the
shrieks of children.
My daughters are
three and five, so I was studied in the various screeches a child can make, and
these were a mix of pain and terror. The pained screams weren’t the sort that
came from a stubbed toe or skinned knee. These were a violent expulsion of
every ounce of breath and energy the child could muster. I can still remember
the sound that came from that speaker as if it were happening now. It was horrific.
I couldn’t
ignore this event anymore. I got up and peered over the divider.
“What are they
doing?” asked Gloria. “Why are they doing that?”
Barry turned off
his monitor, but the sound continued to wail through his speakers. He scurried
to turn them off and eventually had to rip them away from his desk. The cord
whipped out from behind his computer tower. He held the speakers and stared up
at me, his face drained of color and his eyes wide and unblinking.
“What happened?”
I asked. “I didn’t see. What happened?”
Jerry had his
hands on his head and sounded like he was going to hyperventilate as he
stumbled through the crowd and fell back against the wall outside the cubicle.
James and Marcia announced they were going home and Jerry just nodded his acceptance. Work was officially over.
“What happened?”
I asked again as I went out into the hall.
Gloria came out
of Barry’s cubicle and steadied herself against the threshold. “They were
killing each other.”
“What?”
“The kids…” she
couldn’t continue.
“They didn’t
just kill each other,” said Barry. “They were eating each other.”
All the following are Available at Amazon.co.uk
All the titles below are available from Amazon.co.uk
Deadlocked 2
Deadlocked 3
Deadlocked 4
Deadlocked - Complete First Series, Books 1 - 4
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