Plague of the Undead Read Online Free PDF Page A

done.
    He put both hands on the table and tried to steady himself, but it was no good. All over again he was a jangled mess.
    Steve put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Come on.”
    Slowly, as if he were going to his own execution—and maybe, in a way, he was—he rose to his feet. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” he said.
    “You’re gonna do just fine.” Steve held out his hand. “Here, take these. I didn’t know if you had any left after this morning.”
    Jacob held his hand out. The older man dropped four rounds into his palm.
    “Oh. Thanks.”
    With trembling hands, Jacob used the bullets to top off his magazine. “How do you know I’ll do fine?” he asked, and seated the magazine into the receiver.
    “You remember the words you’re supposed to say?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Then you’ll do fine. Just point the weapon at his forehead and fire. Don’t look away. Just say the words and fire.”
    “Do I look him in the face? I don’t know if I can do that.”
    “You have to. If you don’t, your hands will shake. You might miss, or worse, hit him with a glancing blow that doesn’t kill him. Nobody wants that.” Steve put a hand on Jacob’s shoulder and guided him toward the cells. “Come on, it’s time.”
    They walked back to the cells in silence, just the echo of their boots on the tile floor. Jerry Grieder was in Cell Two, sitting on the cot, his face in his hands. Like Amanda, he’d stopped caring for himself. He hadn’t eaten a full meal since they’d locked him up. His clothes were dark with sweat and grime and he hadn’t shaved in a week. Sheriff Taylor had at first refused to let Amanda in the cell with him, but in the end had relented. She’d spent most of the morning with him. She wasn’t there now, but there were flowers on the bed next to him.
    Steve said, “Jerry, time to get up.”
    Jerry said nothing. He didn’t resist either. He let out a sigh, and then slowly pulled himself to his feet. He was a tall, flat-footed man with long, stringy brown hair. Jacob moved in close to handcuff Jerry and caught a whiff that made him flinch. He steadied himself and took Jerry by the wrist. He pulled back the man’s sleeves and was surprised to see a bright pink lacy cloth bracelet there. Except for the fabric, it looked like the bracelets the children over at the school made. At first Jacob was confused, until he remembered that Amanda was a schoolteacher. Technically, he should have removed it, but he put the handcuffs on like he hadn’t seen it.
    He stepped to one side of Jerry and Steve went to the other.
    “All right, let’s go,” Steve said.
    The three men left the cell and walked in silence out the front door. The sunlight was bright and Jerry recoiled against it. Jacob and Steve gave him a moment to recover, and then they rounded the corner that led on to Main Plaza.
    There were perhaps forty people gathered near the old stone fountain, among them Sheriff Taylor, all but two members of the town council, and of course, Amanda Grieder. Jacob was surprised, and grateful, too, to see his friends Kelly Banis and Nick Carroll. Kelly’s husband, Barry, put his arm around her and she melted into him. She was crying, but trying not to. Beside them, Nick had his hands thrust into the pockets of his jeans. He nodded to Jacob in quiet support.
    Amanda began to cry as soon as Jerry came into view, her moans the only sound as a cold wind swept through the square.
    Jacob put a hand on Jerry’s elbow and led him forward.
    “You can’t do this,” Amanda shouted. “He’s innocent.”
    Nobody else spoke.
    Jacob and the others continued on to the fountain, and as they walked, Jacob couldn’t shake the thought that the others had chosen the fountain, the centerpiece of which was the Blind Lady of Justice, not out of tradition, or a sense of symbolism, but out of fear that the executioner might lose his nerve and miss.
    They wanted a backstop.
    “You didn’t even find the jewelry,” Amanda