Cage The Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

Perhaps they could never feel satisfied, the hunger ever present? Maybe that was the curse which they had to endure. No one deserved that, she decided.
    That was her last fleeting thought, she recalled, as the darkness swallowed her whole.

 
    Chapter 3
     
    The sound of glass shattering brought Gaia back to consciousness. She felt the breeze  on her face as something swiped at her, barely missing, as she instinctively backed away.
    Through cloudy vision, she witnessed a hand lash out at her and she recoiled again, widening the gap between her and her assailant. Was she dreaming?  No, she realized, as the pain in her head was all too real. There was a zombie trying to get at her, trying to feast on her flesh.
    She looked around as if suddenly remembering where she was. It was pitch dark outside and she had no idea how long she had been there. She tried to shake away the fuzziness in her mind’s eye, popping the latch on the glove compartment and retrieving a flashlight. Shining the beam of light around the interior of the space, she retrieved a first aid kit and a bottle of antibiotics. Recognizing immediately how light the container was, she shook it, confirming that there was only two, perhaps even three pills left.
    A sudden panic flooded her thoughts as she wondered why no one had come to her aid. She was more than a little concerned now that perhaps something had happened to the others on the bus. As the zombie clawed and chomped at her over and over, Gaia felt around for and grabbed the crowbar, jamming it through the zombie’s skull.
    She immediately became fuzzy again for a few moments under the exertion. Waiting until the dizziness passed, she found a plastic bag in the side of the passenger side door, tossed in the first aid kit, the antibiotics, and a few bottles of water she found under the seat and then clicked open the passenger side door.
    She heard the sounds of the animals in the distance and silently vowed that as soon as Nick and Adam were better, that she would go back to see how her ‘other’ friends were doing.
    She slowly maneuvered through the darkness, turning off the flashlight and using only the moonlight to guide her way. She stopped on more than one occasion, believing she’d heard something in the distance, but nothing approached.
    She carefully reached through the broken glass pane on the door, pulled open the latch, pushed the door open and took a step onto the bus. She was met with the barrel of a rifle in her face.
    “Shit!” Nick whispered, recognizing Gaia. “I’m sorry, I was out cold.” Gaia nodded and locked the latch again on the door and opened the bag.
    “Found this,” Gaia said, holding up the first aid kit. “I’ll clean out your wound with some of the antiseptic. How is Adam?”
    “He’s still asleep,” he answered. Gaia looked at him, remembering her concern about Nick’s zombie bite and shining the flashlight in his eyes. A moment of probing and she saw nothing out of the ordinary within them.
    “I'm gonna check him out,” Gaia said, quickly forcing the subject from her mind and tossing him the bottle of antibiotics. “Take one of those. And there’s some pain relievers in the first aid kit, too, but nothing too strong.” She made her way to the back and stood over Adam, her love of six years and her crush for even longer. She was well aware of Adam’s intentions of asking her to marry him this Christmas in front of friends and family, which was only a month or so away. In her mind, and from the assessments of everyone that knew them as a couple, they were already engaged.
    All those wonderful and hopeful thoughts flew from her mind as soon as she took in the sight of him in that instant. As she shook him, he did not move right away. She laid an open palm on his forehead and felt that he was burning up. Something was wrong, she feared, running back to the front of the bus and grabbing the bottle of antibiotics, and then racing back to him.
    After a long