Escape from the Damned (APEX Predator Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

still curled up in the back seat of the Humvee.  The message was clear:  We can’t take her into a fire fight.
    “Ok,” he decided.  “We sit tight here until things quiet down.”
    The gunfire finally ended about ten minutes after it started.  They waited and listened for another few minutes.
    “We have to move,” Theresa announced.  “Let’s see what happened.”
    The scenarios began to play out in Jackson’s head.  Did someone run across a zombie horde?  If so, are they alive or dead?  Did a group of survivors find another group of survivors? The image of the Adams brothers flashed in his head.  He wondered if the survivors were friendly or something less than friendly.
    “C’mon Jackson,” the girl pleaded.  “If nothing else, we get home faster.”
    “Fuck it.”  The truck lurched forward.
     
    Steve knew he was dying.  He couldn’t believe this.  He and his sister, Jackie, had not only survived this long, but they had even found some good people.  Now here he lay bleeding, two bullets in his stomach, the pool of his blood growing larger under him.
    He turned his head.  He could see the old man lying motionless a few feet away, blood pooling under his head.  Tears began to well up in Steve’s eyes.  The man was the first survivor they had found after it all started.  He was a kind man.  He’d taken the siblings in without question.  He and his wife had given them food and shelter.  They had taken them in like they were their own.
    The past two weeks were tolerable in the company of the couple.  He and Jackie weren’t the only survivors the couple had taken in. Tom was twelve years old and had beheaded both of his parents’ reanimated corpses.  They’d found Alexis wandering down the road in nothing but a black silky nightgown thing.  Steve remembered how she looked so vulnerable, but also pretty when they had helped her up the ladder.
    He moved his head some more.  He could see the bottom of Jose’s boots.  They weren’t moving either.  He’d seen the big man go down when the shooting started.  He didn’t go down without a fight.  The big Mexican had continued shooting his pistol until he ran out of bullets.  Then he just stood up; stood up in the middle of a fire fight.  Who does that?
    He tried to find the others.  He craned his neck, but couldn’t see anyone else.  That’s when he heard the engine.  No, they’re back.  No, the engine sounds different.  He saw a military vehicle pull to the side of the road as it came to a stop.
     
    Jackson saw the young man lying on the edge of the road, blood pooling under his back.  The man reached for a weapon that had fallen just out of his reach.  He could see the fear and panic on his face.  Jackson rushed to the man, more to keep him from getting the gun than to render aid.
    “Get the first aid kit,” he shouted to Theresa.  He picked up the little pistol, clearing it, and making it safe.
    “Who…who…who are…are…you?” the man struggled to get out.
    “We’re the cavalry.  We’re here to help.”
    “Wh…Where…Where’s Ja…Ja…Jackie?”
    Jackson looked around.  The ground was littered with brass of varying calibers, mostly pistol rounds.  He saw three other men lying on the ground.  One was a big Mexican guy, the second was a middle aged white guy.  Both were dressed in jeans, work boots, and tee-shirts, just like the kid he was standing over.
    The third guy didn’t fit in.  He was dressed in black cargo pants and a black tee-shirt that looked like it belonged to his little brother.  Jackson had seen guys like this before.  He looked like a merc.  The PMC’s, Private Military Companies, in Iraq dressed like this.
    But, he didn’t find any women.  He kneeled down to the wounded guy.
    “I don’t see any girls here,” he said.  “Sorry.”
    “Ya…Ya…You got to fi…fi…find them,” the man pleaded. Jackson could see the tears running down the man’s face.  “My