Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) (35 page)

Alex woke to the sound of banging on his front door.  He glanced at the glowing figures on the clock next to his bed and grimaced.

7:42am

“Damn it.”

Hauling himself from beneath his warm duvet, he pulled on a t-shirt.  As he left the room, he flipped the light switch.  The bulb flickered into life.  Relieved, but feeling slightly nauseous from all the ice-cream he’d eaten unnecessarily, he turned it off again and plodded to the front door.

“Why is letting me sleep until a civilised hour such anathema to you?” he said when he pulled the door open.

Micah pushed past him and dropped onto the sofa, giving the cushion a loving caress before looking up at Alex. 

“So, what’s next?”

Alex frowned.  “Next?”

“Yeah.  The country’s being overrun by soldier termite eaters.  We have to do something.”

“And what do you propose we do?” he said, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes.  “Hannah and the other brainy ones are working on the sciencey stuff.  What contribution do we have to make?  Especially before the sun’s even up.”

“The sun
is
up.”

“It shouldn’t be.”

“I’m still working on the details.  Go and get dressed.  I’ll wait here.”  Micah flipped his shoes off with his toes and stretched out along the sofa, closing his eyes and smiling as he shimmied into a more comfortable position.

Alex heaved a sigh.  “Fine,” he said, turning to walk into his bedroom, “but when I get back, there’d better be bacon.”

“Phone’s ringing,” Micah called.

“Can’t you get it?”  Alex called back.

“Not really, no.”

Alex sighed, wrapped the towel around him, and walked into the living room.  Micah was exactly where he’d left him twenty minutes before, eyes closed, flat out on the sofa. 

“Where’s my bacon?” Alex said, picking up the phone.

Micah waved a dismissive hand without opening his eyes.

“Hello?” Alex said into the receiver.

“Alex.”

A smile spread across his face.  “Hello, Hannah.”

“Alex, they’re here.” 

His smile vanished at her panicked tone.  “Who’s there?”

Micah opened his eyes and looked up at him.

“They killed Jim,” she whispered, the hint of a sob in her voice.  “I’m hiding, but I don’t know how long...”

Alex heard a crash, and Hannah gasped. 

Then silence.

“Hannah?” he said, his heart pounding. “
Hannah!
”

To be continued...

Thank you for reading book one of the Twenty-Five Percent series and I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far. If you have a moment, please consider leaving a review
HERE
, even if it’s only one line. It’s so nice to know there’s someone out there reading my book when I’m slaving over a hot laptop bringing the next one into existence!

A quick word about Sarcester – as you’ve no doubt realised, it doesn’t exist, other than in my head where it is very real. Rather than search in vain for a city that fulfilled all the criteria I needed for the story, I decided to create my own, influenced by places I know and using a few names from areas I’ve lived. And it’s pronounced “Sarster”. Although as it
is
just made up, if you want to pronounce it “Serflackenweiner”, go for it.

For the inspiration behind the eater spiral in Tesco, search online for “ant death circle”. Yep, creepy.

Alex and Micah will be back!

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. . .

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. . .

And finally finally, check out the anthology
ALL THINGS ZOMBIE: THE GATHERING HORDE
for the story of how Alex saved Rodney Cutter’s life, plus thirty-two more zombie tales by a really talented bunch of authors.

. . .

And finally finally finally...  just kidding.