Medora: A Zombie Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

she silently laughed at herself and started making lemonade for the men who were in her basement.
     
    *****
     
    Keith actually started to get a little work done. He thought of four new ideas to pitch to the cough syrup people about color schemes and ad time slots. The last meeting had ended with the disappointed look of the owners staring back at him from across the table and Janice explaining to them about how things are supposed to run in this company. He stared back at them in complete indifference, realizing that he hated his job because he didn't care about the work.
    He stretched his arms, peered outside his office, and saw Dave sauntering down the hallway toward him. The expression on his face was a mix of blank unawareness and vague focus, as if he was detached from what he was currently doing and analyzing an unseen complex math problem in the back of his mind.
    Keith waited for him to approach. “ Hey, where have you been for the last hour? Janice was looking for you and I didn't do too good of a job covering for you.”
    Dave brought his eyes up to Keith. “I just got some really bad news.”
    “What happened?”
    “It turns out that after Lindsey left my house last night she got pulled over by a cop for swerving all over the road. When the cop got out of the car, she just took off. She started a twenty minute hot pursuit all over Jersey.”
    “What? Why did she run?” Keith leaned forward in his chair.
    “I don't know, but she crashed into a restaurant and…”
    Keith winced, “I know the rest . It was on the news this morning.”
    “ …she had a gun and was shooting at the cops. I can't believe it. I don't understand how she could do that. They killed her on the spot. She's dead and I can't understand it.” He looked off through a window, avoiding eye contact.
    Keith paused and let out a long sigh. “I'm sorry, Dave. I saw that on the news and I had no idea it was her.”
    “Her sister called me and said she was screaming at them and not making any sense. She was just a crazy person shooting a gun.”
    “Was she… drunk? Or…” Keith treaded lightly attempting to sound sensitive.
    “I never s aw her do any drugs and she drank sometimes, but nothing crazy. I mean, I didn't know her that well, so who knows what she was into.”
    “Are you going to be okay? Were you two very close?” Keith began to search the archives in his mind for the generic sympathetic phrases that one uses in situations like this. He had known Dave not to take personal tragedy too well. When his father died suddenly ten years ago, he went missing for three days on Lake Michigan curled up in a rowboat without food.
    “ No, I'll be okay. I've just got to let this sink in.” Dave too was searching for the typical phrases of a person in shock.
    “Let's get something to eat after work, or why don't you come over for dinner with me and Ellen tonight?” He raised his eyebrows in a show of emotional support.
    “Yeah, yeah that's good.” He numbly walked away. As soon as Dave turned the corner, Janice came rolling down the hallway. Her lips curled downward towards the fatty jowls of her neck creating deep dark points at the sides of her mouth. It gave her face the appearance of an over exaggerated frown. Her forehead glistened under the white lighting of the office. Keith had become accustomed to the general disdain that he had for this gigantic woman.
    “ Keith, are you ready for the meeting? We have the cough syrup people coming in about ten minutes.” She scowled above him in his chair.
    Keith was about to respond but was abruptly interrupted by a cutting stench around him. It was an acrid odor with the quality of decaying organic matter. His mind quickly began to conjure up images of maggots and rancid meat, beginning to grasp what the possible source of the smell could have been. Janice readjusted her body weight in an attempt to show her impatience, which created a greater waft of the smell from the wake of air