Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 5): Wrath Read Online Free PDF Page A

power fueling their unnatural presence. Even with the locals armed with that knowledge she could see hundreds of the dead walking about in the streets aimlessly, far off the path the one armed child led her on. She couldn't see any signs of survivors.
    The dead boy led her through the heart of the city, straight down the center roadways, deftly weaving her around the wreckage, human and constructed alike. In the scorching heat of the midday sun his small black form stopped next to a glass fronted café. Michelle nearly bowled him over, surprised at his sudden pause.  
    He turned and looked over his shoulder at her, ensuring that he had her attention with his milky white corneas. His tiny face nodded and with his one good arm he slowly pointed at the strangely pristine café.  
    “What?” Michelle asked him.
    The dead boy responded by doing nothing. His withered, blood stained finger sat leveled at the glass counter inside the café.
    “I’m not going in there. That place is probably rotten with disease and fungus now, and there are dead all over this city, I won’t go inside. No way.” Michelle shook her head at him, starting to feel the frustration and confusion build inside her.  
    The little black boy slowly lowered his arm and turned to fully face her. His expression was blank, as it always was, but Michelle felt there was something else there, a new expression, something… faint, something subtle, just under the surface. The dead boy closed his eyes with gentle intent.
    Just as she narrowed her eyes her skin tingled from a charge in the air. A warm breeze stirred the air around her, and the delicate smell of lilies filled the world. Her palate suddenly warmed with the subtle hint of the sweet flavor of honey. Michelle was suddenly made buoyant with inexplicable positive energy. The warmth of the midday sun, the taste of honey on her lips, the sudden scent of the flowers overpowering the stomach churning stench of the city, and the breeze rustling her hair all spoke to her on a primordial level. Michelle felt like she was transported to a wholly different place without moving an inch. She felt small suddenly, and enveloped in the presence of greatness.
    The small boy opened his eyes again, and the milky white deadness was gone. In its place were the twin brown eyes the child had been born with, innocent, full of life, and pure. Without opening his mouth the boy spoke to her, much like the voice from the glade, yet entirely different.
    “There is clean food and drink in there. Do not let this bounty pass, our journey through the city will not allow for rest after this.”  
    Michelle heard the voice in her mind absent of words and accent. It was transcendental pure communication on a level mundane humans never experienced. The meaning and intent was emblazoned into her consciousness as if it were her own thoughts that she had only just realized. Before she could understand what she was doing, she felt herself nodding rapidly in agreement with the child, and backing away towards the café to get the food the voice told her about. As she turned to walk away the boy blinked again, and his eyes reverted to their cloudy, hazy state.
    In the café Michelle found food and drink, just as the voice told her she would.

    *****

    Michelle and the dead boy spent the rest of that oppressively hot August day worming their way through the center of Douala. Many times along their frightening journey the boy stopped moving, freezing like a statue. Michelle knew this to be the boy warning her of the presence of other undead. As long as she precisely followed the dead boy’s instructions to move or not move, the undead left her alone, and she passed unscathed. The one time she’d strayed from his path there had been blood, and tears. A painful lesson learned every day with the limp she was just now almost over.
    Once the boy started his stilted, dead movement again she resumed hers. He was her guide through the center of the