Cage The Dead Read Online Free PDF

dead, or—she paused suddenly, as a specific detail of zombie lore popped into her mind—they changed after being bitten.
    Gaia’s hairs stood up on the back of her neck and arms as the chills washed over her.
    Nick was bitten!
    She turned and was about to make her way back onto the bus, but again she paused.
    What am I gonna do? Kill him? He hasn’t turned yet, either. Most of ‘em turn fast in the movies.
    No, she decided. She would watch him carefully after she returned from getting the supplies out of the car. She turned and headed once again in the direction of the Mustang. It was getting to be dusk now and Gaia hadn’t even realized that, in all the commotion, the entire day had gone by. She made her way slowly and quietly across the barren lot, and as she did so, she could not help but liken it to being naked in front of a crowd of strangers.
    She was completely exposed. In the distance, she saw the results of what could only be described as chaos. There was gore and body parts strewn about the path heading down and into the lot, she witnessed the carcass of a four-footed animal, which may have been a goat or a deer, she could not tell from this distance in the fading light.
    As she made it to the vehicle, she opened the driver side door, which creaked loudly. That was when Gaia noticed the zombie. It was among the bushes where she and Nick had stood not all that long ago. It raced toward her, closing the gap quickly and making sounds that no animal or human could possibly make.
    As she made to step inside, something grabbed her by the ankle and she again felt the beating of her heart as it threatened to jump right through her bosom and onto the car hood. She yelped involuntarily and looked to the ground to see a zombie hand wrapped around her ankle like a vise. She backed away and unexpectedly pulled the thing with her, as she reared the crowbar back in preparation for a strike.
    And then she paused—more out of revulsion than anything else.
    She looked down to see that the creature was torn in half and only the top torso, head and left arm remaining. It had somehow made its way under the car.
    But, there was an instant of deeply founded mourning in Gaia’s heart, for just a fleeting second, realizing that this… thing …had been a young woman only a few short hours ago. The black lipstick upon its features that bordered its mouth was a stark contrast to the pale ash of its skin. She mouthed an appeal for forgiveness and drove the crowbar into the undead creature’s head.
    She leaped into the vehicle, smacking her head in her haste to get away from the other, much more aggressive zombie, and her vision went fuzzy.
    She shook away the dim vision and concentrated on the pain, using it to keep her bearings. She tried to slam the door shut, but felt the lingering grasp of the now unmoving zombie at her feet and slammed the door on it. Once, twice, thrice she tried in vain to close the door.
    She saw stars again and felt the warm lifeblood spilling from her forehead and down her cheek. Then a fourth attempt as she felt the release of the dead thing’s viselike grip upon her ankle. She slammed the door shut just as the zombie reached inside the door for her.
    Its fingers or hand were caught inside the door, crushed under the steel and bolts of the door frame. And it made no yelp of anger, no remorse as its hand was crushed inside the doorjamb, no indication of anything upon its face other than a wild-eyed look of something incapable of logic and reason.
    In that moment, another realization washed over her. The zombie was pitiless and cruel, plain and simple. All it wanted to do—and the only thing in comparison she could think of was perhaps a shark—was feed. It seemed to want for nothing else. But, in that comparison, even a shark was sated after a meal, capable of going weeks without eating. Sharks also mated and bore offspring, unlike this…thing.
    Zombies were unrelenting in their pursuit for flesh.