Rotting to the Core (Keep Your Crowbar Handy Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

other
animals to survive.”
    “What does this have to do with your plan?”
Jake wearily took another drag from his cigarette.
    Kat wagged a finger at him. “Don't interrupt.
It's rude. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Humans are predators, and a
predator tends to hunt prey animals that it can easily acquire.
That's what becomes its 'preferred food source', I think it’s
called.”
    Jake frowned. “Okay, that makes sense. How do
you know that?”
    “I thought I wanted to be an animal
behaviorist when I was younger. Or a zoo keeper.” Kat shrugged and
laid her arm across her hip, “But that was before I realized they
both mostly spent their whole day cleaning up different kinds of
poop.”
    “Poop?” Jake struggled to keep a straight
face.
    “They have to clean all the zoo cages
every day.” Kat shuddered. “That's a whole lot of poop-scoopin'.
Imagine having to do the rhino habitat? Yuck-tastic, for sure.”
    “You're unbelievable.” Jake shook his
head.
    Kat beamed. “ Now you notice. But pay
attention. And don't make me lose my train of thought— we're
getting to the important part of the story. Anyway. Predators hunt
prey they can actually reach or catch, so they become accustomed to
running certain things down, right? Or jumping on them from
above?”
    “So?”
    “So, how many animals do you know of that
look up while searching for prey?”
    Jake considered that for a minute.
“Sharks?”
    “They hunt mainly by scent.” Kat crossed her
legs and settled deeper into the couch. “Let me ask another
question. Do human beings look towards the sky or the ground to
find food? When's the last time you remember looking up, thinking
you'd find a chimichanga conveniently floating in the air above
your head to have for dinner?”
    “Alright. While that's a somewhat ridiculous
image, I get your point.”
    “Good. I'd hate to begin questioning your
intelligence.” Kat went on. “Now, zombies were once human beings,
right? So it would stand to reason that they wouldn't look up to
search for a meal to fly by?”
    Jake grasped the concept, but he didn't
understand where she was going with the subject. “There's no reason
to believe the world's suddenly been glutted with superheroes, so
I'd have to agree. Come to think of it, I've never seen one of
those things so much as glance at a bird flying overhead.”
    Kat waved one hand at him vaguely. “There you
go.”
    “But how does that help us?” Jake ground his
cigarette out on the hardwood floor under his heel. “I'm fresh out
of jet-packs, and unless you're secretly from Krypton or
something…”
    She laughed and patted his hand with her own.
“I left my cape at home. My hair's the wrong color for it anyway.
But I appreciate the complement. My point is, we don't go through the horde outside. You'll have to leave your rifle
though. It'll be too ungainly for what I have in mind.”
    Jake began to get a pronounced sinking
feeling in his guts. While not really attached to his M-4, the
weapon (and the five, full, twenty-nine round magazines he had for
it) would be missed if they ran into a tight spot.
    “What do you have in mind?”
    Kat grinned like her Cheshire namesake.

-Chapter Two-
     
    “This is a bad idea,” Jake mumbled.
    “We've been through this,” Kat whispered from
where she knelt and glanced down at the dim figures of the zombies
still milling about their hiding place.
    “Have I ever mentioned the fact that I'm really uncomfortable with heights?”
    “Didn't you jump out of airplanes as a combat
journalist?”
    “Yes. And it sucked. Scratch that. It sucked
a yard of dick.” Jake looked decidedly freaked. “Notice that while
Al did it for fun back in Columbus, I sure as hell never did.”
    Kat looked at him quizzically. “This isn't
anywhere near as high as that was. Heck, we're technically
not even off the ground.”
    “It makes me nervous, alright?” Jake scowled
at her. “Are you sure this will work?”
    “Abso-tively, posi-lutely. I did it