Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

thinking of napping.”
    The uniform was probably what Cillian wore most often and he had no problem with that.  When not at work, he just wore whatever was clean.  On a day like today, it would probably be just a pair of swim shorts.  He personally thought the uniform suited his broad shoulders and chiselled, dark features.  When he was in college, a chick who was an art student had told him he was made of squares.  He hadn’t a clue what that meant at the time, but over the years, he started to figure it out.  Abstract things always took him a little while to figure out.  He liked simple.
    Cillian Knight was also a guy who liked his job... most of the time.  Actually loved his job.  It was during slow times like this that he hated it.  He loved putting out fires, even the small ones.  He loved paramedic calls, whether it was prying someone out of a three car pileup, or assisting someone who’d had a heart attack.  He even loved hanging around the firehouse with the guys, waiting for a call to come in.  This, though, was boring.  At the firehouse, you knew a call would eventually come in, but here, nothing was likely to happen.  All Cillian had to do here was nap.
    Of course, he had just taken a big swig of a caffeinated drink, so he wasn’t likely to fall asleep any time soon.  He continued to take large gulps under his helmet until the can was empty.  Maybe he could fall asleep when the inevitable sugar crash hit.  He’d first have to ride out the sugar high though.
    As Cillian slouched there, futilely trying to block out the sound of the concert, he thought about Jessica and how it had all gone wrong.  He and Jessica Clay were supposed to be getting married in about a week.  Instead, he was living on Doyle’s couch and she was moving to Australia.  They were happy up until about a month ago.  Jessi was offered a big promotion: personal assistant to the president of the Australian branch of the company she worked for, the Marble Keystone Corporation.  Her current job was assistant to an assistant for only a vice president.  She had accepted the promotion without even talking to Cillian about it.  Cillian didn’t want to go to Australia.  He loved his life right where they were.  One fight led to another, and another, and then to throwing dishes, and finally it ended with Cillian being booted out the door with a suitcase of clothes.  Jessica was selling the house they shared and taking all her things to Aussie Town.  She didn’t even tell Cillian the date she was leaving.  She might have left already.
    Cillian had a lot of time to think about it over the last month, and talk it out with all of his buddies both from the station and not.  He figured it was for the best.  Better they had their fight and falling out now, rather than after they were married.  Or worse, after they had a kid.  That was something they did agree on.  They both wanted kids.  They were going to start trying right after they got married.
    He was thirty-six now.  He had no idea where he was going to find another girl like Jessica whom he could love enough to settle down with.  Raise a family with.  Hell, he didn’t even know if he could find it in him to love again at all.  That part still hurt deep down.  Jessi was younger than he was by six years so she could easily meet a new guy her age.  Cillian was lucky to have had her and he knew it.  Maybe he should call her.  Maybe he’d reconsider the whole Australia thing.  They needed fire fighters in Aussie Town too, right?
    Cillian thought about that a lot, and like most times he thought about it, he fell asleep.  Maybe that had been one of their deeper problems.
    * * *
    Cillian Knight’s dreams were twisted and strange.  Throughout the course of his dreams, music was playing, and try as he might, he couldn’t turn it off.  Other people tried to help him, but no one could.  Even people who were dead.  In his dreams, he saw the faces of victims he