Surviving Beyond the Zombie Apocalypse Read Online Free PDF Page A

okay…David?’ You woulda figured that I had stopped a bullet for the guy or something. He charged over and hugged me. The guy was little but damn strong. I thought he was gonna break my ribs. I’m not exactly a touchy-feely kinda person, so the whole thing made me pretty uncomfortable.” Taylor chuckled and received a dirty look from Kat. “So David told me that almost none of the night crew had shown up. Seems silly to worry about it now, but we both wondered how they could get the morning edition out without the copy setters and editors. Anyway, David seemed awfully nervous. He kept following me everywhere. At one point, I actually had to tell him to wait where he was while I went into the bathroom. He followed me around and told me how other people in the building had just sort of walked away. Like one minute they were doing their jobs and then the next, they were gone. After about an hour, David announced that his shift had ended. He didn’t seem quite sure what to do. He asked if I wanted him to stay, but, to tell you the truth, he kinda got on my nerves with all his jumpiness and needing to be around me every second. So I told him that I would be fine and that he should go home and get some sleep. Thing’s always look better after a good sleep. That’s what people say, right?” Kat did not wait for an answer before continuing. “David gave me another big hug, turned slowly around and finally left. It sorta seemed like he didn’t want to go, but, at the same time, like he didn’t know what else to do. Shit, I had forgotten all about that ‘til right now.”
         “So where was Paul during all of this?” I asked, trying to show that I had been listening.
         “He didn’t come in until after noon. If I remember right, he said something about taking his son or daughter to the doctor.” Kat looked down at the memory of Paul.
         “C’mon,” Taylor called from around ten yards ahead of us.
         Next to him, Christina said, “Yeah, c’mon.”
         Kat and I had stopped at the edge of the loading area facing the building. I turned to answer the others when I saw the shells.
         There were only a few, shuffling around on the other side of the cyclone fence some fifty feet away. At least, there were only a few at first. The group seemed to swell before my eyes. In an instant, it grew to more shells than I had previously seen gathered.
         “Christina, come over here now,” I said quietly but forcefully. “Taylor, you too.”
         “But I am fine with Taylor,” Christina protested.
         Taylor started to say something, but a sound behind him caused the boy to turn. His body immediately tensed as he spun around and shoved Christina over to me.
         The four of us stood there transfixed by, or perhaps paralyzed by, the group of shells. I began picking up the behaviors of the different shells. There was a tall, thin old woman in a white medical coat pressing her face into the wire of the fence. Next to her, a young Asian boy in blue jeans and a white t-shirt was feebly trying to climb the fence. He went through the motions, although his feet and hands never connected with the fence. Behind them a few yards, I saw a heavy dark man wearing nothing but a pair of socks and staring down at his feet.
         “What do they want?” Christina asked in a shaky voice.
         After a silence, Taylor answered, “I guess they want us.”
         “I don’t know if they want anything,” Kat offered. “Looks like they’re kind of lost; like they’re all looking for something.”
         We stood there observing them for a few minutes, before I said, “Well, let’s head back inside.”
         “What are you talking about?” Kat asked.
         “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to be out here with those shells,” I turned and started to walk back inside when I realized no one was following.
         I stood there and watched them with