Day One (Book 3): Alone Read Free Page A

rounds. It would no doubt be in a full sprint by this time and its momentum alone would easily allow for it to collide with me, taking both of us to the floor. Dead and harmless or wounded and tearing my stomach open, that was NOT where I wanted to be in either case.
    “No… hide,” a voice broke through the dangerous silence.
    I was about to make my presence known to the figure, I know believed to be a survivor, yet something about its speech concerned me. There was just something about it that didn’t sit well with me, making me question its validity in full detail.
    “No hide,” the voice said again, this time a little better than before. It took a few steps forward and stopped, its head turning from one direction to the other as if listening for me to either move or reply.
    I could still see the figure, but not as perfectly as I had just moments ago.
    “Hide… die,” it said.
    I was positive now, more than I had ever been about anything in my life, that this figure hunting me was trying to lure me out into the open with a false sense of security. To make me feel at ease before I was attacked and killed in the very house where my son had lived. It wasn’t a survivor at all, but merely another one of those things that had grabbed me at the school complex and I was frightened. It wasn’t slow and stupid as the others I had dealt with had been. These things were smart and had the patience to not only wait for you to screw up, but it could also mimic the living with such perfection and draw you into its trap.
    Why hadn’t I seen it earlier when I was sweeping the house? Why hadn’t it come out of its hiding spot as I passed by and attacked me? I had no answers to these questions, although the most likely answer was that it had come through the garage and possibly heard me moving around or saw its dead friends and figured I was still there. That explained only part of a much larger picture I was unable to see at the moment. The reason it had even entered the house, this house , in the first place was the real mystery. As there were almost two dozen other houses on the same street, in which other survivors could be hiding, yet it picked this exact house.
    Could they track me somehow? Kind of like you would give a bloodhound pieces of someone’s clothing and watch the animal react and follow their scent? Did I leave a scent that it could track all the way from the school? Quickly I began to doubt my ability to hide from it and began to think it knew where I was, it was just toying with me. Leading me further down that road of misconception until I had lost my way and would be unable to find my way back.
    I seized the moment with it looking away and hurried to the wall closest to the door, unslinging my rifle as I went. From there I could see it better if it decided to venture further into the house or if it came into the master bedroom I would have more than enough time to shoot, although it would be much closer this time around.
    Lightning raced across the sky and I was able to get a brief glance at it before the powerful thunder ripped a hole in the sky and shook the earth violently. The windows shuttered and I could feel the vibrations beneath my feet. The storm was getting stronger, my hiding place had been uncovered, and the longer I dottled in the house the harder it would be for me to see clearly when I left… if I ever got that opportunity.
    “Find you,” it stated as it moved into the dining room.
    I inched closer to the door hoping to keep this thing in sight; however, it had slipped too far away for me to watch any longer. I peered around the door to see the garage empty of anyone, and even though I could not see the pickup, I knew it was still there. I looked toward the kitchen to see it standing by the large bar facing a narrow window over the sink, at least that’s what I thought it was looking at anyway. I could have been wrong.
    Go… run your ass off, but go for God’s sakes! My mind instructed