Zom-B Circus

Book 0: Zom-B

by Darren Shan

Genres: YA Horror; YA Zombies

Synopsis

This horrifying exclusive eNovella is a thrilling companion to bestselling author Darren Shan's Zom-B series! Cat Ward believes that the world punishes the weak. As a high school teacher, she has witnessed the way people exploit every vulnerability, which is why she steels herself against her class of indifferent, disruptive students-none more despicable than B Smith. Cat's philosophy is put to the test when zombies overtake the school and the rest of London, and she must do whatever it takes to survive. But her decisions may come back to haunt when Cat encounters a nightmarish mutant clown named Mr. Dowling and the terrors that await beneath his circus big top.

Release date: September 9, 2014

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Print pages: 74

Sample

“There are no second chances in life.”

That was Cat Ward’s motto, and she looked around the classroom with a serious expression as she rolled it out, trying to lock gazes with her students.

“If you don’t work hard now, you’ll be a failure later,” she continued. “You have to seize every opportunity that you can. This world punishes the weak and indifferent.”

They didn’t care. They never listened. They just yawned and scribbled in their books.

Cat decided to give it one more try. “The future can be whatever you make of it. You can carry on being failures, or you choose to change and make the most of the chances that we’re providing you with.”

To her surprise, a hand went up. Cat started to smile, until she realized the hand belonged to Becky Smith. A wretched girl, rude and aggressive, but smarter than a lot of the others. She was the one who had given Cat her nickname—Ward 6, which was the psychiatric ward in their local hospital.

“Yes, Becky?” Cat said, forcing a smile.

“What you’re saying,” Becky sniffed, “is that if we work really hard, and seize all the chances that come our way, we can be a big success like you.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I was that successful,” Cat chuckled modestly.

“You’re saying,” Becky continued with relish, “that we can work in a dump like this and spend all our days trying to drum mathematical equations into the heads of people who don’t give a damn.”

Cat’s smile faded.

“You’re saying,” Becky went on, “that we can be a laughing-stock, work crazy hours for rubbish pay, and spend our long holidays wondering why we feel so bored and useless.”

“That’s enough,” Cat snapped.

“What chances have you taken in life?” Becky responded.

“I’m warning you,” Cat snarled.

“What?” Becky grinned. “Will you send me to the principal’s office?”

Cat trembled with frustration. She knew the principal had a soft spot for Becky Smith. If she complained about the girl, she’d probably be assigned extra duties as punishment.

“Forget about it,” Cat finally said stiffly. “I wanted to help, but clearly my help isn’t appreciated. Let’s carry on with the lesson.”

The rest of the period was horrible, Cat going through the motions, unable to get Becky’s taunt out of her head. The worst thing was that Cat did feel bored and useless. As a child she had wanted to be an experimental physicist or nuclear engineer. Instead she had become a droning mentor to a pack of simpletons and thugs.

It wasn’t fair. She’d always been in the top two or three in her classes in school. Her specialty was mathematics. She’d grown up thinking the world was hers, that she would do wonderful things in her chosen field, become the twenty-first century’s Newton or Einstein.

Then she went to university and realized she was no genius. She was in the top ten or fifteen percent, but no better than that. Academic fame would never be hers. At best she would become a lab assistant to someone more gifted than her.

Losing interest in her career, Cat’s standards slipped. She no longer challenged herself, but merely breezed along, angry and bitter, taking the easy options.

Teaching was by no means an easy job, but it was easier to go down that route than to look for a less stable position in the world beyond. Cat knew that she would be able to glide along on autopilot as a teacher. It wasn’t what she had dreamed of as a child, but it was safe and secure, so she went for it.

She had been teaching math to surly teenagers like Becky Smith ever since. It had only been five years, but already it felt like she had served a life sentence. She could feel her hair turning gray. Every day was the same, lecturing lifelessly to her students, making small talk with the teachers in the staff room, watching soap operas and reality shows on TV when she went home.

As the annoyingly intuitive Becky had guessed, she didn’t even make use of the long holidays, just sat around moaning to the few friends that she was still in touch with, dreading the start of the new term but doing nothing to break the cycle. Her only moments of contentment came when, several times a day, she would sneeringly tell one or more of her charges that there were no second chances in life, that they were blowing their futures.

As class ended and Becky trotted off with her friends to crow about the points she’d scored over their teacher, Cat had to admit that she was in a low and lonely place.

“Something has to change,” she whispered to herself. “I can’t go on like this. I’m better than other people. I just need to be given a chance to prove it.”

Perhaps some higher force was listening, or maybe it was coincidence, but Cat was to be provided with the chance to prove what she was made of just a few days later, when the zombie apocalypse shook the world to its core and the living dead ran wild through her school.

Cat was on her lunch break when the zombies came stor. . .