Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying Read Free Page A

somewhere in the room beyond the bars and trying to get
inside to eat him like all the other dead things were. The thought
of it pissed him off big time.
    “ What the fuck are we going
to do Bruce?”
    “ We’re not going to do
anything. We’re going to sit and wait…and see what happens, unless
you got a better idea.”
    Keith did not, and that pissed him off
more.
    Outside the cell they couldn’t see
anything other than the dead. They blocked out most of the light
and filled the room with a putrid scent the likes of which none of
them had ever smelled.

 
     
     
     
    2 BARBIE THE ZOMBIE
KILLER
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    Walter and Jeff Caulfield, father and
son, huddled by the window once more to watch as the dead staggered
about. New Haven had become infested with the dead. Walter wanted
to know his enemy, so he tried to study them, but studying them
hadn’t really given him any greater understanding of the creatures
or any alleviation of the concerns he and his family had. Some
would walk toward the house while others would walk in other
directions. Some followed others and there seemed to be no rhyme or
reason behind any of it. It left them both as confounded as
ever.
    “ Should we go back
out?”
    “ No, not yet. I’m not as
young as you are Jeffy-boy. Takes me a bit longer to get my wind
back.”
    Jeff couldn’t help but smile at the
words Jeffy-boy. He couldn’t recall the last time his father called
him that. It had to be sometime in high school—maybe when Walter
was teaching him how to drive around the parking lot. Yes, that
seemed right. Walter handed him over the keys and the pimple-faced
Jeff with three proud whiskers on his chin took them with vigor,
and his father said, “Guess I can’t be calling you Jeffy-boy
anymore, huh?” And that was it. Jeffy-boy turned into Jeff—all
grown up in the blink of an eye.
    They could hear Laura, Walter’s wife,
Barbara, his daughter, and Maria, Jeff’s wife playing with the
children in the basement. The sound was soft and barely audible
upstairs, but the house was otherwise quiet. Their laughter and
giggles seemed an odd contrast to what Walter and Jeff were seeing
outside the windows, but a very pleasing one. It was the sounds of
hope and love. The sounds any man really needs to hear to get off
his ass and make a move for the future. Walter used Jeff’s shoulder
to push himself up, and as his knees cricked and creaked and the
pain burned deep in his back, he used the sounds of his
grandchildren at play to push it away.
    Jeff looked at his father approvingly
and as Walter looked back at him all he could see was his little
Jeffy-boy looking back. The skin around his eyes looked older, but
the eyes themselves belonged to the little boy Walter would always
see in them.
    “ Ready
old-timer?”
    “ Nope. You?”
    “ I’ve been ready to fight
zombies since I was Tommy’s age.”
    “ Heh. I guess all that
garbage you used to watch might finally be worth a
damn.”
    “ Let’s go find
out.”
    They went into the half-finished
basement where everyone was playing. Laura turned instinctively and
without a word knew they were going back outside. Her and Walter
looked at each other. She nodded in that disapproving way that made
Walter smile and lift his eyebrow up a notch, suggesting he knew
better, but he just couldn’t help himself.
    Jeff and Maria hadn’t quite developed
the fluid and succinct nuance of expression to convey their
feelings, so Maria just looked at Jeff with incredulous and
accusing eyes. Then she said, “Are you kidding? You’re both going
back out there?”
    Jeff gave her a mean look, shifting
his eyes to the kids, “We’re…just going to check things out is all.
Relax, we’ll be right back, okay?”
    “ Whatever.”
    “ I’m coming too,” Barbara
said.
    “ What? Why?”
    “ Why not dad? Is this boy
stuff?”
    “ Boy stuff? Ha. Come on,
now, it’s not like that. The kids need you in here. Have fun. Trust
me, you’re better