Plagued: The Midamerica Zombie Half-Breed Experiment (Plagued States of America) Read Online Free PDF

superiority and began pressing through the defensive line. The front glass of the store shattered. Tom lunged for the ground. Other patrons rushed for cover. The shopkeeper ducked behind the counter. A repeating whit-dit-dit-dit-dit of an automatic weapon echoed from somewhere outside and more of the front glass shattered and fell.
    A woman in the store was screaming , her shriek piercing like the bleating alarm now wailing in the distance. Tom listened as the customers in the store called out in distress. “What’s happening?” someone shouted. “Shut her up,” another raged. Tom began to crawl ahead. He wanted to escape. Then a much deeper sounding gun went off – thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! More glass shattered. Bullets ripped through the store, knocking shelves and display cases near the window completely over, splinters of wood and glass spraying into the air.
    “Stay down,” the shopkeeper yelled, standing up to take a long pole off the wall behind the counter. It was a zombie noose, just like the ones being used outside. Zombies were marching alongside the front windows to the shop, pushing back a soldier who had managed to noose three of the beasts. Several other zombies were pressing through, and as the shopkeeper moved forward to help out, the soldier was knocked over into the store through the broken windows. The storekeeper caught one of the other zombies, but three more toppled into the shop. They all moaned hauntingly. The soldier fought his way to his feet and tried kicking back the three crawling zombies. When that failed he drew a pistol from his hip and fired it repeatedly. Blam, blam, blam! Tom wanted a pistol of his own. Gary said he wouldn’t need one. What a fucking lie. Blam, blam, blam, the pistol cracked, knocking another zombie to the ground. Two shots to the legs, one to the head.
    Tom was horrorstruck. More zombies began to topple into the store and the soldier backed away. The thump, thump, thump of the machine gun started up again, tearing through the line of zombies at the front of the store. The shopkeeper was thrown to the ground with the line of zombies in front of him. The soldier reeled backwards, hit by one of the bullets. Zombies fell to the ground too, but in a moment several got back up. The soldier didn’t move even as a pack of the beasts fell upon him to feed.
    Tom ran toward the back of the store. The woman was still screaming. Through the back window Tom could see the ferry engines churning, trying to push away as men leapt from the wharf onto its deck. He saw Gary leap across, landing awkwardly on the ferry, falling to his shoulder.
    “Gary!” Tom yelled, but it was futile. The glass was between them.
    Tom watched Gary drag himself to a railing where he scanned the wharf. Even from this distance Tom could see Gary’s worried expression. The same worry Tom felt in his gut.
    “Gary!” Tom shouted again, banging on the glass. The ferry was pulling away!
    Tom grabbed several snow globes from a shelf and started hurling them at the back window. The first two bounced off. The next bashed a small hole through it. Tom upended a metal rack holding key chains and bashed the rack into the window, knocking out a huge plank.
    “Gary!” he screamed again, but it was no use. The wail of the alarm, the roar of the great diesel engines of the ferry, and the din of the cries all across Biter’s Hill drowned him out. Tom assailed the window once more, knocking as much glass away as he could. He looked back into the store, thinking he should help someone else. The storekeeper’s body wore a mound of zombies. Another man was being gnawed upon at the front window, dragged by the zombies like dogs fighting over a carcass. The woman was still screaming. Why wouldn’t she shut up?! The woman! He saw her by the dressing rooms, hands over her ears, her head down, screaming and shuddering.
    She was alone. Just like Larissa!
    For years he had fought to suppress the memory of it. The