DEAD: Reborn Read Free Page A

just tumbling into the trench as they reached for us. Seriously, zombies are not thinkers. They react to the newest stimulus (that is a word I hear a lot from Dr. Zahn).
    “This is the behavior that we observed when Jon, Steve, and I made that trip…” Dr. Zahn’s voice trailed off as Melissa turned and walked back up to the cabin.
    Sure, it had been several weeks since Steve had died, but she was not that much better. I still walked up on her crying pretty much any day our paths crossed. I did my best to keep busy and stay away from her, Cheryl and Melinda—each of them had lost their husband in that raid. Of course we had lost a lot of good people that day, but that was the way of things now.
    When I thought about it in those terms, a little voice in the back of my head told me that I might be getting just a touch pe ssimistic. Maybe, but things were the way they were and there was nothing that could really be done about it.
    Maybe this hard shell I am building has a little to do with some of the other things that I know. Like how Jon, who was bitten by a wolf-zombie and was apparently immune, and Jake, who has a healed bite scar that nobody but Jon and I seem to know about, used their blood as a bio-weapon against a settl ement down in what used to be called La Grande. Sure, they had some sort of evil plan in store for our little group, and apparently were kidnapping people from some of the other small groups in the area, but what Jon and Jake did stretches what I am okay with. Basically, they infected an entire settlement of people by dumping their blood into the food or water or whatever.
    It should have been an easy thing to take down these zo mbies, but it really wasn’t. No matter who you are, if you have a shred of humanity left, it is still difficult to take down a child. Granted, none of us were foolish enough to let something like emotion get in the way as we went about it, but still…
    To make matters worse, once again these zombies acted di fferent. When we dropped the drawbridge, they should have rushed us, heedless of the weapons we held. But even the few that had actually remained were still hesitant. We took them down and actually had to chase the rest. Now, as we closed in, they did turn and attempt to attack, but I swear those things were trying to get away. It was some of the most peculiar behavior that I have ever seen.
    We were all drained by the time it was done. However, the moment that I walked back into the cabin, Dr. Zahn was all over me asking me what the heck I thought I was doing. I guess I had just had enough. It seemed that I was good enough to be treated like an adult when they needed somebody to do the dirty work, but any other time, I was treated like a child.
    “You know what, Doc?” I spun on the woman, and I think it surprised her. Now don’t get me wrong, she didn’t jump or anything. But there was a slight raise in the eyebrows. For Dr. Zahn, that is about as big as it gets. “I’ve had it! I bust my ass around here. And lately, while everybody has been sick, it has been me taking all the extra watches and splitting firewood, and trying to clean up. So how about you just back off for a bit. If you have a problem with how I stand watch or deal with an issue, you do it yourself.”
    I didn ’t wait for a retort; I stormed out of the cabin and slammed the door. I didn’t care that I technically still had an hour or two left on my watch shift. The bottom line was that I was tired and frustrated and sick of…well…everything.
    As I stalked across the parking lot and made my way over the bridge and into the picnic grounds, I could hear Jamal calling after me. I wanted to feel bad about him being stuck up in the crow ’s nest, but I couldn’t. Sure, he looked sick, and I have seen just how nasty this little flu bug or whatever the hell it is can be. I have also seen a few people take advantage of it and milk it for a few extra days. Personally, I just didn’t care at the