All Together Now: A Zombie Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

want to see what they do."
    I leaned over the opening and was greeted by a chorus of snarls. There were eight zombies crowded in the office, all of them reaching up toward me.
    I waited to see if any of them would try to climb the ladder, but none did. A few slapped at the rungs, but that was all. It was as though they'd forgotten what ladders were for.
    I've seen zombies have trouble with stairs, and I've never seen one climb anything.
    Three days ago I saw a living couple on top of an RV surrounded by the dead. Some tried to crawl up the trunk and windshield, but none of them had the coordination to do it.
    Still, there was no sense in me standing where they could see me, giving them motivation to try to climb the ladder. I pried one of Ernie's loafers off his stiff foot.
    "What are you doing?"
    By way of answering her, I lowered the lid of the hatch and slid the loafer between it and the roof so it couldn't close all the way and possibly lock.
    "We might need to get back inside," I said. "They can't stay down there forever, right?"
    Michelle didn't say anything.
    We both knew they could.
     

16
     
     
     
    "OH GOD," MICHELLE SAID. SHE was standing just behind the red 'E' in the dark neon letters that spell "ERNIE'S" from the roof.
    The dead on the ground could see her, I knew, because their moaning switched to the snarling they use to signal others they've found prey and a feeding frenzy is about to ensue.
    I didn't want to see, but I had to look. I walked across the roof until I was standing just behind the 'I.'
    The awning extended out directly below the "ERNIE'S" letters, so I couldn't see the pumps or the zombies crowded in at the front entrance. But I could hear them.
    "Oh God," I said.
    There were more dead still coming out the entrance to the church and I understood what had happened. In cities, people went to shelters and civic centers when things started to get bad. In small Indiana towns like Harrington, people went to churches.
    I could see it in my mind:
    An entire congregation, plus folks who didn't have a regular church, all gathered in the sanctuary praying for God to please make the dead stay dead.
    Some of the flock would've been injured, maybe bitten, and when they turned, a smorgasbord of Christians awaited.
    Or maybe the congregation held a special service like Levi's parents and the other good folks of New Life Christian Church.
    Either way, God watched all of it from His heaven and did nothing.
    There were even more zombies beyond the church, stumbling up Harrington Street toward Ernie's. There had to be at least 100, and more were coming from the courthouse and beyond.
    Every shambling dead in Harrington must've heard Michelle's shots and mine.
    "That's Courtney Summers," Michelle said, pointing to a dead girl in the street. "She's in—"
    She swallowed. Hard.
    "She was in my English class."
    I nodded.
    "She was nice. Wrote poetry."
    "Maybe she will again," I said, moving to the far side of the roof to check Ernie's back lot. Chuck and several others snarled up at me. "Once they get the cure out."
    Michelle scoffed. "There isn't any cure."
    "There has to be." I was looking at Chuck as I said this.
    His skin was gray, but his hair was sticking out in places like he'd just woken up and had the same bed-head I'd seen on him for years.
    He was dressed in the same bright red T-shirt and jean shorts he'd been wearing when he turned. If he weren't moaning and staggering, he might only be lost and looking for me or our parents.
    I walked back to Michelle. "Dad said they were close to a cure at your father's plant. If we can get there—"
    "How would he know?" she said. "They wouldn't make a cure at the plant anyway. They'd make it at the CDC or at least a hospital, not a soda plant."
    I didn't bother to point out they'd made the disease that was responsible for the end of the world at a soda plant.
    "And even if they did," Michelle continued, "what good is a cure going to do him?"
    She motioned to a dead