Deadfall: Hunters Read Free Page B

on a roof and pointed a rifle at us, threatening to shoot us.
    We had split up a bit, looking around, when the rooftop shout made us all spin around and see the man on the roof. He was standing behind a small wall at the edge of the roof, well out of the range of our gun, spear, or bat. I had a feeling, though, that we were well within the range of his rifle.
    "Put the weapons down," he barked.
    We readily complied.
    "We're just scavenging. Didn't know you were here," Aaron shouted in reply.
    He kept the rifle pointed at us.
    "What do you need?" he yelled back.
    I shrugged my shoulder. "Nothing specific, just checking it all out."
    Aaron began to reply, "We can leave. We don't want any trouble..."
    Tague cut him off. "Did you clear the zombies out?"
    There was a visible hesitation as he lowered his rifle for just a brief moment before raising it back up and aiming it at us.
    "Yes."
    Now my curiosity was piqued as well.
    "By yourself? How?"
    He stood there for a moment, looking at us through his scope. I have no idea how long it was but he suddenly slung the rifle over his shoulder and vanished from the roof. We stood there, unsure of what to do. I was debating picking up the spear again.
    "Where is he?" asked Aaron.
    As I was about to take up the spear, the man appeared once again around the corner of the small building he had been on top of and was walking toward us, rifle still pointed in our general direction. He walked up to us and we were getting ready to do whatever we might have to, be it pick up our weapons and possibly defend ourselves. He stood there for a moment looking at us, then dropped his aim and asked:
    "So what's the story?"
    I distinctly remember smiling.
    We told our part, relating everything from the house in Hendersonville, to Charlotte, the fun in Asheville and Black Mountain, and then our final trip to Fort Fisher and all of the happenings there. We conveniently left out the part about the possible treasure trove of information in our house and he didn't seem to pick up on anything missing from our story. He listened intently, asking a lot about the cult guys and he was particularly interested in the tower cities, especially the one near Elizabethtown with the airport.
    "Haiti? Why?"
    I explained the best I could, but the truth was quite apparent; we weren't quite sure why we were going to Haiti.
    His story was just as unusual and typical of the survivors of Deadfall. His name was Gray Oliver. He had been a programmer, a computer-type guy from New Jersey. When the comet had been destroyed, he had partied like everyone, had been afraid of the green skies like everyone, and then jumped right back into life as usual. He had been sent down to Miami for some kind of meeting to help get the company back on its feet again. During a small break, he had driven down to Key West to take in the coastal scenery before heading back home. This was, of course, where he found himself when the dead began coming back to be a pain in the ass.
    On his way back to Miami, there had been a wreck on one of the bridges off the islands that had been caused by a small horde of zombies coming from the mainland and onto the islands. Panic ensued and people abandoned their vehicles and were making their way back to the islands when a second smaller horde was coming onto the bridge. He was in that small group that was caught between the two hordes, and panic set in. Before he could have been overtaken by either horde, Gray jumped off the bridge and told us that he had been lucky not to have died in the jump itself. He made his way to shore and commandeered a motor boat to make his way back to the mainland.
    He told us how the bridges to Key West turned into a meat grinder for anyone found there. Of course, those killed then returned as zombies themselves and as he got closer and closer to land, the bridge was that much more infested and congested with the dead. He abandoned the boat far away from any clear civilization and began