Z-Risen (Book 3): Poisoned Earth Read Free Page B

labeled "Jackson Creed".
    I stopped scanning for them when I noticed a shape across the street. He was dressed in black from head to toe with only his eyes peering through some kind of ski-mask-looking thing. This had to be the guy I’d seen earlier in the day.
    The person had a big assault rifle at the ready, so I slowly raised my hands to show I didn't feel like getting shot today. If that was one of McQuinn's guys, I was probably wasting my time and should plant my gut on the ground.
    Another figure appeared next to the first and I could have sworn one of them nodded in my direction. Then they both faded from view.
     
    ###

10:10 hours approximate
    Location: Vista
     
    We moved out a few minutes later. I kept my eyes peeled but I never saw the two figures again. I tried to convince myself that they’d been a figment of my imagination.
    We came across decaying corpses, most unmoving. Whenever we did find a Z, we quickly assessed its threat level, and ended up leaving the majority of them behind. If any got too jumpy, a quick swing of my wrench put them down for good. They were a sorry bunch even for zombies. Most had taken damage of some kind and were no longer up and moving around.
    A particularly enthusiastic female--in her fifties, if I had to guess, hard to tell with the crushed face and shattered eye socket--pursued us with one working arm and one working leg. Her other limbs had been shattered like someone had dropped her from twenty feet up.
    After a while it was just pathetic, and so I also put her out of her misery.
    A telephone pole had a hand-printed sign nailed to it. I moved closer and read. Joel covered for me while I shook my head. After considering the words, I pulled the sheet off and showed Joel.
    “Think this is real?”
    “Sounds no good to me, brother,” Joel said while rubbing his chin with one hand.
    “But what if it’s true?”
    “I’m not sure I want to find out."
    I nodded and stuffed the flyer in my backpack.
    Every store we came across had been picked over. We finally got lucky when we started to boldly bust in doors on houses. Risking noise, because I was a little out of my mind with worry over Anna, we ransacked three houses in a row, killed the undead inhabitants, and taken everything that wasn’t nailed down. A three-quarters eaten box of stale Ritz crackers. Some beef jerky that didn’t amount to much more than a taste for both of us. I found a can of chicken broth. I couldn’t wait. I broke out my can opener and punched a pair of holes in the aluminum, then Joel and I took turns drinking like it was a fifteen-dollar bottle of whiskey.
    "This won't last,” Joel observed.
    "What?"
    "The houses with goods. As more and more get picked over we'll be coming up empty on our supply runs."
    “These are mostly picked over now . Guess we better stock up while we can. We have the camper, it can hold a lot of food."
    "Yeah, but five people can eat a lot of food. You eat enough for three people."
    "I don't eat that much. Shit, man, I've lost enough weight to look like a college basketball player. Look at this trim and fit example of military bearing.”
    "You look like you should be going into rehab. Like a damn crackhead."
    "Yeah, well you look like you should be on a milk carton."
    "The fuck does that even mean?" Joel asked.
    "I don't know. I'm tired, man. Brain ain't up to sparring with you today."
    Joel looked me up and down. "You're alright. Let’s get this shit over with so we can lounge around in robes and sip espresso while Roz and Anna feed us grapes."
    "Anna's more likely to feed me the barrel of a gun."
    Joel snorted and moved out.
    We dashed across a street littered with all kinds of crap that had been left behind, or tossed aside as people realized they were more likely to live if they were mobile. Bodies lay here and there, but no biters rose to greet us.
    We checked out a house that was missing its door, and after hearing an awful lot of banging around on the second floor,