All Together Now: A Zombie Story Read Online Free PDF

at the closest, smacking his head so hard his beard snapped past his shoulder. The dead man collapsed.
    There was no room for us to escape the front of Ernie's. Zombies blocked every exit.
    And there was no getting out the back door. We needed—
    "Ernie's office!" I shouted as I swung the bat into the face of a dead teenage girl. I struck her in the forehead hard enough to knock her back, but not hard enough to break her skull.
    I turned to Michelle, who was putting the last of the dropped bullets into the revolver. She snapped the cylinder shut and aimed.
    "There's a ladder in Ernie's office! It leads to the roof."
    Michelle nodded and fired. The face of the dead woman nearest us exploded.
    The mess of zombies at the front door untangled and they came in two at a time.
    I swung into the temple of one last zombie before I ran to the office.
    Michelle fired the gun, which was followed by the soft thud of a body, barely perceptible beneath the snarling.
    I went around Mrs. Ernie, one of the only dead people in the store actually behaving like a dead person, to the ladder rungs attached to the wall.
    As I climbed toward the open hatch in the ceiling, two more gunshots sounded.
    "Michelle! Come on!"
    I lowered myself a rung so I could see what was going on in the shop. Another gunshot sounded, then Michelle came running into the office.
    The corpses came in just behind her.
    "Climb!" I yelled. "Climb!!!"
    I waited until Michelle had her hands on a rung, then I scrambled the rest of the way up and crawled onto the roof.
    At first, I saw only direct sunlight, blinding in its brightness. When I looked left, I saw the face of a corpse and raised my bat. I lowered it when I realized this corpse was actually dead.
    It was Ernie. I could tell that much from what was left of his face and his uniform shirt which had a stitched nametag.
    A revolver lay less than a foot from his hand.
    I understood what had happened: Ernie had taken care of Mrs. Ernie downstairs, then come up here and taken care of himself.
    Michelle screamed.
    I turned back. Both her hands were clutched on the top rung of the ladder so tightly her knuckles were white.
    But her feet swung free, kicking into the faces and hands of the dead clutching her ankles, trying to pull her down.
     

15
     
     
     
    I PRIED MICHELLE'S LEFT HAND from the top rung and clasped it with both mine.
    I kept my legs in a wide stance, my feet planted on either side of the hatch, my arms between them so I could lean back and pull.
    And I did. With all my strength.
    But there were now three zombies latched onto her ankles.
    Michelle looked up into my face. All her hopes were on me.
    I pulled harder.
    The snarling below increased with exertion.
    More zombies came into the office, their hands stretched toward Michelle's wriggling lower half.
    Michelle's hand was slipping through my grasp.
    I squeezed tighter...
    ...until I was holding only fingers...
    ...then I lost my grip.
    Michelle slapped her free hand to the top rung of the ladder and I fell backward.
    She screamed.
    I rolled over on my side and scooped Ernie's revolver off the roof. I didn't know if it had bullets left or not.
    One way to find out.
    I leapt to the hatch and aimed.
    Michelle had wrapped her arm through the top ladder rung and was holding on. For now.
    I traced the arms of the dead hands clutching her ankle and lower calf to a zombie in an Indianapolis Colts cap. I lined the revolver up on the center of the horseshoe above the bill and fired.
    His hands loosened and he collapsed.
    I shot the dead woman to Michelle's left.
    Michelle swung her legs back onto the ladder and climbed.
    I dropped the revolver and helped her up.
    She sprawled onto the roof and came face to face with Ernie.
    "He's dead," I said before she could scream.
    From her expression, I saw I had to clarify: "He's not moving."
    Michelle nodded. "Thanks."
    "Sure."
    She turned to the hatch. "We should close that."
    "Wait," I said as she was reaching for it. "I