The Zombie Wars: The Enemy Within (White Flag Of The Dead Book 8) Read Free Page A

trailer.
    Sarah was waiting for us, and Jake slipped into her arms.  I answered the question in her eyes.
    “Outside.  I’ll be a minute.  May have an unwanted guest,” I said.
    “Please be careful,” Sarah said. She ran a hand over Jake’s hair while her other hand checked the proximity of her gun.  She liked the Glock 19 for fieldwork since we could swap mags and ammo, but for home defense she had her baby which was a stainless SIG X-5.  The gun fit her hand like a glove and had a sweet trigger. Sarah could hit a two-inch target all day long at forty yards with that gun.
    I put my coat back on and put my Glock in the cabinet.  I couldn’t risk firing a gun with all the trailers that were around me, so I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.  I took out my pick and my bowie, hoping I’d not need either, but I had a feeling it was going to come to that.  I put on a long sleeve shirt and my vest, giving myself some protection against the cold. Boots and gloves came next, and then I was out the door.
    I stepped away from the vehicle and circled wide to the rear, trying to figure out which way the zombie might have gone that Jake saw.  I didn’t doubt he saw something, and he had seen enough of the real thing to know it when he saw it.  I was grateful he had enough sense not to start screaming and draw the thing right to us.  As much as I hated hunting Z’s in the dark, this was preferable to having one of the stupid things bang on your trailer trying to get in.
    The sky was overcast, and it was dark as hell.  Out in the wild, without any ground lights, it got very black. Things were quiet in the camp which explained why the zombie was just wandering through.  As far as he was concerned, I was sure, this was just a weird forest of metal that happened to be in his way.
    I moved quietly around the trailer and looked at the area where Jake had seen his monster.  I didn’t bother checking for any tracks since hundreds of feet had passed this way. I thought about making some kind of noise, but I figured that would make me the subject of the hunt, not the zombie. I thought about where it might have gone when I heard someone laughing about a hundred feet from where I was.  Bingo.  If I heard it, the ghoul heard it, and he would go in that direction.  I moved quietly, keeping away from the trucks, trailers, and campers that covered the landscape.  I didn’t want to be surprised by a ghoul that suddenly came out from underneath a trailer or something.
    Walked quietly, checking behind me, and searching for glowing eyes.  That was the only thing that made hunting zombies at night palatable.  Fun part was, not all of their eyes glowed.  Most of them, but not all.  Truth was, it was creepy as hell.
    I listened carefully and thought I heard a sound further down the lane.  It sounded like a soft scrape on asphalt, and it was not repeated, like someone was trying to be quiet. I hoped to God they weren’t evolving enough to try sneaking up on people.  That would be just plain unfair.
    I moved quietly, and ducking around a trailer, I got a glimpse of a dark shape moving silently through the encampment.  It moved slowly, glancing from side to side. I heard the laughter again, but this time it was behind me.  The zombie in front of me should have turned around, but he didn’t.
    That wasn’t normal.  As I watched, the shape moved quietly towards a trailer and looked inside a window before moving on.  That wasn’t right either.  All evidence I was seeing was telling me this wasn’t a zombie, but a live person. 
    I was about to challenge whoever they were when they suddenly turned around to check their back. I was between two trailers, so I just stepped back out of sight.  But I managed to see the man’s eyes, and that explained what Jake had seen.  The man was wearing some sort of goggles, and they glowed pale green in the night. 
    Not something any of our men used. We’d tried night vision