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

off.”
    “ Well, if you’re just going
to check things out, then I’ll be fine, right?”
    Jeff smiled at her, but it wasn’t a
nice smile. It was the I’m-going-to-kick-your-ass-later smile.
“She’s right dad, why not? Come on, Barbie.”
    “ You know I hate
that.”
    Walter turned around shaking his head.
The kids went back to playing. Tommy looked after his father,
wanting to go with him and Laura tried to pull his attention
back.
    “ Barbie The Zombie Killer,”
Jeff said as they went up the stairs.
    “ Don’t be a dick. Can you
bait your own hook yet, or does Maria have to do that for
now?”
    “ Funny.”
    They walked toward the front door. The
hall had a coatrack and bench in it with a small rug atop the
hardwood floor. It wasn’t a big space but it essentially served
them as a mudroom. Hanging on the coatrack were a long raincoat and
a slick jacket that Walter had used to go fishing with for years.
It was supposed to be black, but it looked like seaweed
green.
    Jeff opened the closet door across
from the bench at rummaged around a moment. He eventually pulled
out an old track jacket with a hood and tossed it at his
sister.
    “ There’s a set of gloves in
there,” he pointed, “but I think you’re on your own for
boots.”
    “ My sneakers are fine. I
don’t plan on getting myself all dirty. That’s not very lady
like.”
    “ That’s my girl,” said
Walter.
    They opened the door and Walter
grabbed the bloody shovel he left against the siding. Jeff took a
step to the side and grabbed a baseball bat. He handed it to his
little sister and she took it, finally showing a touch of fear on
her face. Jeff grabbed the spade shovel that was next to Walter’s
and they descended the steps.
    The dead things were walking around,
seemingly without direction or purpose. One noticed them, and then
another, before they reached the first deader several had turned
their attention and their bodies towards them. Moving, slowly, at
the warm flesh that in turn was moving towards them.
    “ Maybe I should’ve stayed
inside.”
    “ Next time, sweetheart,
take my advice…for once, please.”
    “ They get scarier up
close.”
    “ What do you
mean?”
    “ Just look in their eyes.
There’s nothing there. It’s like they’re hollow.”
    “ I don’t think I want to
get that close.”
    “ Then stand back,” Walter
said, as he approached the first deader in proximity.
    Walter jabbed the dead thing just
under the chin, but not quite in the throat. It moved back and
tripped on its own feet. They were easily thrown off balance and to
the ground but surprisingly quick to get back up. Once the dead
thing hit the ground Walter stood on its chest and brought the
shovel down violently into its face, smashing through the bridge of
its nose and crushing in its orbital sockets. Walter pulled the
shovel out and jabbed it two more times in quick succession before
taking his foot off the dead things chest and looking at where the
others were.
    “ Look, dad, it’s
twitching.”
    “ Yeah, I’ve been noticing
that. Saw one earlier that was pumping its hand into a fist, like
it was trying to grab the air.”
    “ It’s creepy as hell,” Jeff
noted.
    “ Sure is. All the more
reason we need to keep watching them. Studying them. We need to
know our enemy as best as possible.”
    “ Watch out, dad, I’ll take
this one.”
    Jeff swung his spade shovel like a
sword, cracking a dead man who had to be about the same age as he.
The impact was strong and sent the man to the ground. The blow must
have dislocated the man’s jaw because it looked crooked and out of
place. Jeff took the corner of the shovels head and slammed it into
the deader’s temple—cracking open its skull on the first shot. Then
he stood on the corner of the shovel and pushed it in as if he were
digging a hole. He pulled it out and did it again. The second
assault seemed to nullify the dead thing.
    Barbara stepped closer to it and after
seeing its head she