Life Among The Dead (Book 3): A Bittersweet Victory Read Online Free PDF Page B

perfectly good sub-genre,” he scolds the encircling
throng. “Doing to the zombie what Twilight did to the vampire.”
    The chastised horde does not stop. Instead
they relentlessly invite him to their blood orgy, as if he is just
playing hard to get. Dwayne shakes his head as he slides into the
driver’s seat, predicting that these fools are in for a rude
awakening when they realize they are opening themselves to
ridicule, as the hardcore sci-fi fans have. It kills him to watch.
These were his people. Deep down he knows, if he wasn’t so jaded
and left with such a sour taste for the genre, he’d be right out
there with them, grinding his teeth on the guts and drinking fake
blood by the gallon.
    Enclosed in his car, away from the madness,
he starts his engine and his headlights flare on, illuminating the
assembly that surrounds him. A handful of them proudly wear
amateurishly applied makeup on their slack faces, their clothes
obviously shredded with shears since the cut edges are too neat.
For his taste, they should have hand tore them. On the other hand,
since the fanatics stop his departure, he has ample time to
appraise them, and he sees several that he can commend on their
work. Their wounds and blood spatter patterns look authentic. The
appliances they are using are nice and moist, not too red.
    It’s a damn shame , he thinks, looking at the ravaged meat of one guy’s
face, depicting a wound all the way to the bone. Such a wonderful
prosthetic is wasted because the rest of the man’s costume tells a
conflicting story. He critiques the zombie like the judge of a
special effects reality show. You’re in burial clothes that I can tell aren’t slit in the back . How the hell they got your corpse into those is beyond me ! The dirt you rubbed on your skin suggests you came fresh from the grave , so why the fuck would you have been bitten ?
    Dwayne’s experience working at the haunt,
creating so many scares and characters, has given him an eye for
detail. Every aspect must tell a tale without words if you want it
to look real. Customers may never become privy to the full truth of
every artifice, but it shows in the work. So many of these ‘dead’
just look like zombie fans that have arrived at a horror venue and
inadvertently got bitten by a real one.
    “That’s actually a pretty cool idea,” he
admits, nodding farewell to the zombies that bat at his window.
Clawing hands leave behind smears of what he assumes is corn
syrup.
    Despite their persistence to draw him into
their shared fantasy, he refuses to stay. He bullies his car
through the mass, figuring they can either move aside or get run
over. He just wants to go home and hates the fact he must delay
that by going to the hospital first.
    His front bumper pushes them yet they won’t
break character. Dwayne is tempted to live up to his ultimatum of
running them over, but yields. Instead he scans the backyard for an
alternate route.
    Beyond the headstones he had helped construct
are the real markers of the neighboring cemetery. Figures walk
among the graves, just like the image on all their promos and the
coveted ‘zurvived’ shirt. Under the light of the moon, the earth is
disturbed. Hands sprout, clawing their way free, as if begging to
be released from the soil.

 
11
     
    Josh led Brandon and Vida down the hall to a
panel in the ceiling at the far end. The opposition in their way
was nothing compared to what follows them, so Brandon quickly pulls
the cord to lower the attic’s retractable ladder.
    “Go up!” Josh commands. “I’ll hold them
back.”
    “I thought you said you were almost empty,”
Vida says.
    “Just go.”
    With Vida in tow, Brandon pops his head into
the musty space first to ensure it is safe. “Here, baby, take my
hand.”
    “I got it.” She brushes away his
assistance.
    “Are you mad at me?” His question comes with
a slight laugh, until the horror of her actually being angry with
him sinks in. “Oh no! Why are you mad at