Life Among The Dead (Book 2): A Castle Made of Sand Read Online Free PDF

the thought of looking out the window again.
“What is it?”
    “It’s Wayne Gretzky.” Randy nicknames the man
based on the hockey mask he wears.
    The aggressive journalists leave the
mutilated family to converge on the newcomer, who meets them
readily armed with a machete. The man fearlessly engages them,
hacking away at their necks and heads. He slaughters the lot in the
middle of the street, in broad daylight. Bodies and body parts lay
strewn on the asphalt, and when the last of them falls to his blade
he sets his eyes on the Peel residence.
    “Are the phones up?” Randy asks urgently.
    “I don’t know. Why?”
    “There is a guy out there who has just
massacred the group that has massacred the neighbors… He’s climbing
the gate.”
    She has no choice but to look out the window
now. Randy is telling the truth, and she watches the man drop from
the top spikes of the wrought iron. He is coming up the walk.
    “See! If we were in LA, we’d be far from
this,” Randy quibbles. “Even if it did happen, we’d have our panic
room to hide in.”
    “Not the time,” she tells him as they back
away from the door.
    Deep knocks cause them to draw ragged,
fearful breaths. The raps grow louder the longer they go
unanswered. It becomes evident that, at some point during his
beseeching entry, the man decided to use his foot rather than his
hand, because the door is kicked in.
    He steps into the foyer, and the long blade
in his hand drops thick clumps of gore on the immaculate white
marble flooring. Scanning slowly, he sets his sights on the
cowering pair as they retreat backwards into Kelly’s office. There
is nowhere else to go from this area of the house. Before Randy can
slam the door shut, the man has his hand in the frame. The wood
rebounds off of his knuckles and it’s as if he can’t even feel
it.
    Kelly and Randy search for a means of defense
against the intruder, but they come up with only award statuettes. My wife may be leaving me , Randy thinks, but I will still protect her , or at least , more than likely , die trying . “Now see here, Mr. Voorhees, I’ll have you know that
I have been in more than a few action films, and have picked up a
few moves from some rather large and imposing men.”
    The man takes a few steps into the room; he
doesn’t so much look past the scrawny British man but right through
him, at the petite woman behind him. He drops the machete.
    “Don’t be scared.”
    The voice is gravelly, the words seem
preposterous, and Randy is surely not one to let such a thing
slide. “I’m sorry… Did you really just say ‘don’t be scared’ in
that Swamp Thing voice of yours? Coming in here with a machete,
after butchering all the reporters in the entire mid-west, wearing
that mask, all covered in blood and… other stuff?”
    “Reporters?”
    “We are famous, you know?” Though the threat
may be over, Randy keeps himself between this man and Kelly.
    “That’s why I’m here.” He looks around the
scruffy faced husband, to the songstress. “I’m here to save
you.”
    “Save us from what?” Kelly leaves the
‘safety’ of her future ex’s protection to address the
gentleman.
    “The zombies.”
    Randy is compelled to ask the obvious
question. “Are you fucking mad?”

 
5
     
    Though the suburbs are quiet, Dustin and
Corporal Silva proceed with caution. The heavy set commando is
perspiring in the cool afternoon, and Dustin has to wonder if it’s
his fitness level or the bite he has sustained.
    A chopper flies overhead, circling before
heading back towards the city. The craft’s altitude is too high to
tell if it’s military.
    “If you do stay at my place,” Silva huffs.
“Put a sign on the roof to let them know you and my wife are alive
inside.”
    “’Kay.”
    “If you decide to leave the area, head for
one of the nearby bases. Eagle Rock up north, or Foster west of
here.”
    “Are you ok?”
    The man has started to lag behind.
    “Yeah.” Silva mops his brow.