Fortunes & Failures - 03 Read Online Free PDF

actually.”
    “Really?”
    “I don’t know, Steve.” Jack got up and walked to the door. “All of this is going on in your head. However, if I were Jack, I’d tell you that you did the best you could for everybody. You’re the leader of the group, like it or not. But most of all…Thalia needs you. NOW!” Jack left my apartment, slamming the door.
    I opened my eyes. Light flooded the hallway. I was in the supply closet again. Alone. Hmm , I thought, that last part was new . I climbed to my feet, every muscle and joint in my body protested…some audibly. My stomach began its immediate symphony of gurgles and groans in a twisted harmony with those creatures outside.
    I stepped out into the hall. I couldn’t believe it, but the smell was actually worse. It was like every foul odor in the world had been poured into one bottle, shaken vigorously, and dumped on my head. The problem being…I think I’m getting used to it.
    “So…what’s for breakfast?” I rubbed my hands together. “Jack? When you get out of the bathroom, would you make us some bacon and eggs?” I called. The moans ourtide rose in volume.
    I sauntered up the hall and knocked at the bathroom door. “Yo, Jack…you gonna be outta there anytime soon? A bunch of your friends are outside and want to see you. Plus,” I leaned my back against the door, “you’ve been in there like, forever.”
    I chuckled at my own sick sense of humor and walked out to what had served as a game room. There was a ping pong table, a pool table, and a dart board. There was also a wall of stand-up video games. But those weren’t gonna help me pass my day.
    First things first , I reminded myself. Walking through the room, I checked where everything had been boarded and nailed up. Everything was still holding up. My saving grace was that whoever had first stayed here, even before Billy and Ian, had cut off the stairs leading up to the deck in back. There would’ve been no way to secure that expanse of glass and sliding doors. Habitually I stopped in front of the vending machine. The glass had been busted out long ago, leaving empty racks. Not even a pack of gum.
    I looked out back, a sea of dead bodies were packed in between the lake, and probably all the way up against the cinderblock exterior of the building. Once again I was thankful that the storage room downstairs had no windows. Of course I’d spent hours feeling my way around down there to no avail. Well, that’s not true…I sliced three of my fingers on my left hand on something large and metal and sharp. The only thing I was absolutely certain of was that there was no food down there.
    Sipping from a bottle of water, I pulled open the sliding glass door. The stench equalized, it made me think of a diving bell, only it was the reek of dead bodies outside, balancing with the permeated stench already inside.
    “Ahh,” I cooed in a mock falsetto, “my public.” A chorus of zombies made various sounds to indicate just how desirable I was to them. It was not unlike those film snippets of young girls going into hysterics over Elvis or The Beatles. Only instead of tears, they wept pus, and the caucophonous roar was several octaves lower. Although, to their credit, it was almost deafening; punctuated with a nursery of baby-cries.
    “You like me,” I clasped my hands under my chin after wiping away an imaginary tear. “You really like me.”
    I walked to the railing of the deck and stared down into the sea of faces. None of them looked familiar. In other words, I couldn’t spot Lee or Jason in the crowd. Of course, while I was certain Lee had joined the ranks of the undead. I could not be certain when it came to Jason. Hey, maybe I could add them to the names my dream version of Jack hurled at me when pointing out all the people I was responsible for killing.
    Walking back inside, I sat down in one of the hard, folding metal chairs. Wow , I marveled, that wore me out . Walking that little bit, opening the heavy