The Undead World (Book 6): The Apocalypse Exile (War of The Undead) Read Free Page B

quickly.” She turned to Neil and whispered: “If I kill him can I have the horse?” Her eyes were greedy, whether for the horse or the chance to kill, it was hard to tell. Brad stared at her with his lip twisted in disgust and she glared right back.
    “You would listen to a girl?” Brad demanded. “A crazy girl?”
    “I would sooner listen to her than to you.” Neil shot back. “You come here demanding our surrender. The answer is: hell no! We have done nothing wrong. We are just passing through, so take your threats elsewhere, because we will fight you. Some of us are highly trained marksmen.” Neil inclined his head to the soldier and asked him: “Would you have trouble knocking some of those men out of their saddles at this distance, Grey?”
    Grey took his eyes off the man for a second to look out at the horde. “With those wings they make excellent targets,” Grey said. “I couldn’t miss.”
    Brad glanced back, squinting at the distant figures of his men. He had to laugh; a short barking sound of derision. He swung his shoulder length blonde hair away from his face and said: “I’ve heard my share of big talk since the apocalypse, but that’s some bullshit. I’m betting you couldn’t hit dick from this distance. And even if you could, how do you plan on dealing with two thousand stiffs? Really, Neil, your only choice is to surrender now and save your worthless skins.”
    “That won’t happen,” Neil snarled.
    “I told you we should kill him,” the little girl said. “It’ll be easy and there’ll be one less of them to fight. He might even be their leader and if he dies, maybe the others won’t know what to do. They’ll be…what’s the word, Jillybean? Right, confused. They’ll be confused and stupid and easier to kill. And we can have their horses for ourselves.”
    “Jillybean! That’s enough” Grey admonished. He glared her into silence and then turned to Neil. “She has a point. We can use horses where we’re going. We should make sure not to kill them.”
    Brad felt his smirk begin to draw down. The group wasn’t knuckling under as he had expected. They were certainly an odd bunch. Neil appeared to be the classic wimp and yet he had more backbone than any of them. And there was something definitely wrong with the little girl. Her eyes weren’t right and she had a sick manner about her—sick in the head, that is. And Brad certainly didn’t care for Grey’s icy stare or for the tall woman’s calm demeanor. The rest didn’t look like much, but these four were trouble.
    Despite his smirk and his confidence, Brad couldn’t afford trouble. The truth was he only had eighteen men with him, and five weren’t men at all. Two were middling teens and three were women; they weren’t much in the way of fighters, meaning he would have to play this smart if he was going to gain substantially. “And where are you supposedly going?” he asked.
    “Back to Colorado,” Grey replied, lifting an eyebrow.
    “Colorado?” he asked nonchalantly. The one word had sent his hopes crashing. Men from Colorado had a reputation: they excelled at violence. Brad looked Grey over with a discriminating eye. He took in the soldier’s rough appearance and his cold hazel eyes and the way his weapon was as immaculate as his attire was purposely grungy. He looked as though he could blend in with any patch of dirt and, once invisible, kill with impunity.
    Grey stared right back and there was nothing nonchalant about him. He was all business and there was no lie in the way he seemed completely prepared to take the little girl’s suggestion and shoot Brad on the spot. “Yes, Colorado,” Grey replied. “I am Captain James Grey of the 3 rd Battalion. I am escorting these people by order of General Johnston.”
    Fuuuck! Brad cursed, inwardly. This man wouldn’t be bullied and neither would Neil, regardless of his geeky nature. Brad certainly didn’t have the means to fight them. Yes, he could have sicced