Crowded Yet Desolate: A Zombie Novel Read Online Free PDF

track, which encircled all of the playing fields, their presence became noticed. Ahead, three monsters came onto the track and made their way towards the group. Unarmed, Cam fell back, while the other three pressed forward. The twins sprinted ahead of Ryan, who picked up his pace to keep up, but the twins outran him and reached the monsters first. Before Ryan even had a chance, the twins had bashed the things brains onto the concrete. Ryan stared astonished at the scene before him, now glad that he chose to follow the twins. The twins had to catch their breath.
    “We’re almost there,” Roe said, huffing, as Ryan and Cam approached. “That’s the store over there.” He pointed past the park and across the street to a cluster of buildings. Ryan could see the store sitting at the corner of the nearest intersection. It was close, but the path was covered with monsters that made a dense pack right outside of the store.
Ryan had a disturbing thought. “What if the store is locked?”
    “Well . . .” Joe said. It was obvious he hadn’t considered the possibility. “If it’s locked then we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. But we’re in a lot of trouble as it is. So I don’t reckon it will be much different.” He turned to look at a group of monsters in the distance. “We gotta get out of the city eventually, and I don’t know about you, but I think I want more than a crowbar to pull that off.”
    “Plus there’s apartments above the store,” Roe said. “The owner lives up there, and he should let us rest up before we head out.”
    Ryan looked towards the heart of the city, and in the skyline, just above the trees, he could see buildings jutting up into the air, standing tall above all the madness occurring below. He shifted the bat from his right arm to his left. “I’m not leaving the city, not yet. My wife, she needs my help.”
    Even without the looks–both sympathetic and hard–that he received from the others, he knew that the others would oppose, call him crazy. But what was he supposed to do? Leave Deborah behind in this mess.
    “It’s your call,” Roe said. “Are you coming?”
    Ryan nodded. “I’ll need weapons.”
    They looped around the park for about another hundred yards, and, passing over lush grass towards a parking lot, left the track behind. They paused at the corner of the building to which the parking lot belonged. Ryan peered around corner of the building, and, in the distance, he could see the gun store sign. It read: Shooting Range, Guns, and Others Too.
    Original , Ryan thought.
    One thing stood in between them and this hopeful savior: a six-lane road filled with monsters and the corpses that these beasts had created; dead bodies, blood, and entrails lining the pavement of the road. No one here was alive, for all the living either escaped this hell or were now part of the gore littering the street.
    Currently the group was still unnoticed, but Ryan felt that this would soon change. His heart was beating wildly. He could feel sweat pouring down his forehead and his back and his legs. His stomach was a knot of nervous tumbles. In his mind, Ryan couldn’t stop seeing his stomach being torn open, his throat being ripped out; he pictured himself watching helplessly as a swarm of these cannibalistic monsters descended on him and tore shreds of flesh from his body, eating it right in front of his eyes.
    Joe placed a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan jumped.
    “Don’t worry,” Joe said. “This will suck, but we’ll be all right. Now, listen: don’t attack if you don’t have to. Everyone stick close. Kid, you stay in the middle of us.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “Run for it on my command.”
    Doubtful, Ryan looked at the street. Some were eating the dead bodies on the ground while others just stood motionless, staring ahead, as if not even alive. The plan seemed too risky, but he would not oppose it when he knew that the twins were his only chance of helping