ZOM-B Baby by Darren Shan Page A

different religions over the years, so many
truths
. How can one be right and all the others wrong?’
    ‘I don’t think it’s about being absolutely right,’ Timothy says. ‘The main message of most religionsis the same — be kind to other people, lead an honourable life, don’t cause trouble. I’ve always seen God as a massive diamond with thousands – maybe millions – of faces. We get a different view of the diamond, depending on which angle we look at it from. But there must be
something
there, otherwise what are we all looking at?’
    ‘Maybe you’re right,’ I huff. ‘I’m no expert, far from it. But there’s more to why I left than the religious angle. It’s the whole …’ I grimace, not sure how to put my thoughts into words.
    ‘Look,’ I try, ‘I’ve never seen ghosts, vampires or anything like that. This isn’t a supernatural world. I believe in evolution. I’m sure there’s life spread around the universe, more aliens out there than we can imagine. But I bet they’re the same as us in that they just roll along wherever the universe pushes them, bound by the laws of nature as we are.’
    ‘My mother swore that she often saw the ghosts of her parents,’ Timothy murmurs. ‘They died when she was a girl, yet she never missed them because she saw so much of them as she grew up.’
    ‘Did she see fairies too?’ I sneer.
    ‘No,’ Timothy says calmly. ‘She was a mathematician. She had a doctorate from Cambridge. One of the sharpest minds in her field according to those who knew about such things. She wasn’t especially religious. But she saw ghosts and accepted them as real. She even developed a mathematical equation to explain their relationship to the material world, though obviously I couldn’t make head or tail of that.’
    ‘All right,’ I nod. ‘Sorry for poking fun at her. But that kind of proves my point. You say she came up with a formula to describe how ghosts work. I can accept that. There are all sorts of weird things in the world, but they can be explained with maths and science. There’s nothing miraculous about them.’
    ‘I disagree,’ Timothy says. ‘This
is
a world of miracles, of things which defy explanation, maybe even understanding. You’re proof of that, a reanimated corpse, a girl whose soul has been restored. You might not believe in ghosts or vampires, but surely you believe in zombies?’
    ‘Very clever,’ I growl as he smirks at me. ‘But there’s nothing God-inspired about us. We’re the result of an experiment gone wrong. I wasn’t created by God, just as Dr Oystein wasn’t given heavenly orders to save the world from the Devil’s henchman. This mess is our own fault, and if we’re gonna fix it and put the world back together, we have to do it ourselves.’
    Timothy thinks about that. He finishes his wine and pours another glass. Takes a long, pleasing sip.
    ‘What if you’re wrong?’ he asks quietly.
    ‘I’m not.’
    ‘You can’t be sure of that,’ he presses. ‘Using your own logic, no one can truly know the workings of the universe, or how much of a role God might play in our day-to-day lives. What if the creator
did
choose Dr Oystein? There’s no way of proving it, it’s purely a matter of faith. But surely we all have to put our faith in someone. If you choose not to believe this particular prophet, fine, maybe you’re right to doubt him. But why are you so set against even the possibility that he might be telling the truth?’
    ‘Because it would stink if it was true!’ I shout, thenswiftly lower my voice, not wanting to alert any zombies which might be passing by outside.
    ‘According to Dr Oystein, God knew this was going to happen. He had decades of warning, and what did He do in all that time? Nothing, except give one guy the power to try and light the flames of a revival once the world had gone to hell. What sort of a God could do something like that to us?’
    ‘A God who isn’t the same as we are,’ Timothy