Ashton Memorial Read Online Free PDF Page B

door farther in. It gave out a loud squeak.
    Maylee gasped, watching the corpse. It
whipped its head around but did not focus on her.
    “Maylee!” came Dalton's
voice behind her. “Shut the door, sicko!”
    The corpse looked right at Maylee. It
groaned.
    “Shit!” said Maylee,
ducking inside and slamming the door.
     
    * * *
     
    Angie watched through the front window of
the gas station as Park moved behind the counter. He looked left to
right, then found something. He walked over and looked down,
studying and fiddling with whatever it was.
    She looked around, cold creeping through
her. What was taking him so long? What was taking the kids so long?
Was everything actually taking this long or was she losing her
mind? She was so tired.
    A beep came from the pump.
The display flashed for a second, then said Lift Nozzle And Begin Fueling . Park
turned to the window and gave her thumbs-up.
    Angie sighed and nodded to him. She undid
the gas cap on the car and lifted the nozzle from the pump. She
pushed the nozzle into the gas tank and squeezed the handle. The
nozzle clicked and she heard gas pouring.
    She breathed out again, thankful it had
worked.
    Then she heard rustling from behind the gas
station. More rustling than the wind had made earlier.
    Then moans.
     
    * * *
     
    Park gave Angie a thumbs-up through the
window. She nodded to him and started pumping gas into the car.
    He took one last glance down at the control
panel for the pumps. As far as he could tell, everything seemed to
be working. Static still blared from somewhere nearby. He found a
radio under the counter, set on top of some empty boxes. The box
was labeled with the logo of a potato chip company. Park knelt to
switch the radio off, then spent a second staring at the logo.
    “Fuck, now I'm hungry,” he
said.
    He straightened back up and looked down the
aisle at the teen's body.
    “Hey, mind if we get some
food for the road?”
    He stared at the teen. Enough of the teen's
head was gone to be safe, wasn't it? How fresh was the body, even?
How long did it take for corpses to get up, if they were going to?
If he just had more ammo, he could be sure.
    Park nodded at the body.
“Okay, then. I'll just grab some chips then get out of your
hair.”
    The teen was still. Park
nodded again, this time to himself, and walked out from behind the
counter. He scanned the aisles, reading the signs. The one on the
end, farthest from the door, was labeled Snacks .
    “Fuck shit hell,” grumbled
Park. “It would be the one way the hell over there.”
    He walked over to the snack aisle and turned
down it.
    A corpse sat on the floor, gnawing at the
mangled remains of another body. It was a little girl, fingers
coated with blood. Her ears were missing, along with most of the
skin on her face. Her black hair was matted with gore. Park stopped
midstep, staring down at her. No ears. She hadn't heard him come
in.
    Then the girl saw him. She hissed, bloody
meat falling from her mouth, and lunged for him. Her tiny fingers
closed around his pant leg. Park twisted around, attempting to kick
at the girl, then fell into the snacks. The shelf and Park toppled
over backward. The girl held on to his leg. The rifle was pinned
between his back and the shelf, out of reach.
    “Shit!” yelled Park.
“Fucking kid!” He heard a creak and a thud as the shelf behind him
fell over. Then the next, then the next. There was a chaos of
clattering and crashing as cans, bags and auto products fell to the
floor.
    The girl clawed her way up Park's clothes,
coming for his face. Park's hand flailed to one side, grabbing at
anything nearby. It closed on something. He brought it up and
slammed it into the girl's face. It was a bag, which split as it
connected with the girl's skull. Potato chips rained down on Park.
The girl gnashed at the bag and the few chips that remained inside,
trying to get to Park. The blood from her skinned face mingled with
the plastic and salt.
    Using the remains of the bag as a