Fear the Dead 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

burning that ran through my muscles, I
lifted the shovel again.
     
    Boots trod on the ground behind me. I
dropped the shovel and turned. It was Moe. He wore a scarf round his neck that
reached up his wrinkled mouth. He planted his heavy boots in the ground and
uncovered his lips.
     
    “This doesn’t make it right,” he
said.
     
    I let the shovel fall. I put my hands
in my pockets so that Moe wouldn’t see them tighten.
     
    “’Scuse me?”
     
    Moe walked over to Sam’s body. He
knelt down and took hold of a corner of the bedsheet. He peeled it back and
revealed the man’s dead body, which we had dressed in the nicest suit we could
find. The pale blue shirt covered up the stab wound on his left pectoral
muscle, but nothing could be done about the hole in his temple. Harlowe hadn’t
made that wound; I’d done it to make sure that Sam never came back. Moe moved
Sam’s sleeve and put a finger to his grey wrist.
     
    “Freezing,” he said.
     
    “Yeah, he’s dead.”
     
    Moe straightened up and his knees
cracked. He looked at me with a flash of anger. “And who do you think they
blame for that?”
     
    Everyone knew that Harlowe had
stabbed Sam, but was it completely his fault? Did you blame the invention of
the nuclear bomb on the guy who pressed the button? I’d made the
decision to let him go. If I’d followed the law of the town and killed him,
then he wouldn’t have been able to do this.
     
    A man was dead because of my
stupidity, and now the whole damn town had heard Harlowe talking about the five
hundred thousand infected heading our way. I was going to talk, but Moe cut in.
     
    “I’ve made my decision Kyle. I’m
leaving in two weeks.”
     
    “Look, Moe – “
     
    He shook his head. “It’s done. I’m a
stubborn old bastard, surely you gotta recognise that by now.”
     
    I ran my fingers through my hair,
scratched the back of my head. He was right. Once he made a decision, that was
it.
     
    A snap of wind blew past us. The few
leaves that still clung onto the autumn trees rattled, and a chill brushed
against my skin. The body heat I'd built up by digging seeped out of me, so I
picked up my coat from the floor and slid it on.
     
    Moe put his hand on my shoulder.
Strong grip for an old guy.
     
    “Town meeting’s tonight, ain’t it?”
     
    I nodded.
     
    Every three weeks we met in an old
theatre and discussed the town’s issues. I tried to make it a forum for ideas
and opinions. I wanted to explain the direction we were heading in and to get
the people excited about it. Instead, it usually descended into a bunch of
petty squabbles, into ‘he did this, ‘she did that’ bullshit.
     
    Moe put his hands back into his
pockets. “Tonight I’m gonna tell everyone what I’m doing. I’ll be honest with
you now, Kyle. I don’t agree with you but I respect you, so I owe you that
much.”
     
    He held my stare, and for a few
seconds we didn’t say anything. The wind whispered around us. “Spit it out,” I
said.
     
    He gave a slight nod, closed his eyes
a little. “I’m gonna tell every single person in there that they ought to come
with me. Vasey is finished, and it’s time for pastures new.”
     
    The thought was so ridiculous I would
have laughed were it not for the anger that rose in my chest.
     
    “So you think a couple of hundred of
you are going to survive in the Wilds?” I said. “The stalkers will pick you
off. A few at a time at first, so you might not notice them going missing. But
before long it’ll be fifty, and you’ll start to wonder how the hell you’re
going to get through the nights.”
     
    My face burnt red and my head
throbbed, but I couldn’t stop.
     
    “Just when you get a watch system
figured out, more stalkers will come. They’ll move their nests closer because
they know you’re near. They smell you. They taste you in the air. They’re
faster and stronger than you, and their teeth will tear through your skin.”
     
    Some of the red drained