The Creeping Dead: A Zombie Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

boardwalk baking in the heat. This is Johnny Wong on H-H-Hot 96.1FM.
    “Our weather department (the internet) says there’s no end in sight to the August heat wave. It’s going to be mid to upper nineties through the end of the week with no end in sight.
    “So I think it’s appropriate that our next song reflect our plight. Yes, it’s Hotter Than Hell by KISS, on Hot 96.1 FM.”
    He clicked and the song began to pipe through the speakers mounted above his head. Normally he was blissfully surrounded by young co-eds chatting it up with him, requesting songs, and asking for shout outs. But not today. It was too damned hot.
     
    Marie Russo strolled up the boardwalk from the other direction, waving to Johnny Wong as she passed. She loved the ’70s and ’80s rock and metal that Johnny cranked out. In fact, that was exactly what she loved about Smuggler’s Bay. No matter how much time passed, the place always seemed stuck in the ’70s and ’80s.
    That was part of its charm…that and the fact that the town didn’t become one of these hoity-toity havens for hipsters, yuppies, and their larva. Nope, no gourmet coffee shops or boutiques here. This was a rock n’ roll town for working and middle-class families.
    Marie was heading to Blake’s Beachwear Store on the boardwalk to check out the merchandise. She walked up to the store and peeked in. No sign of Billy. Maybe he was off today. She sure hoped not.
    Maybe if she lingered a little longer…
    “Hey, Marie.” Billy was holding a bunch of blank tee-shirts on hangers as he made his way to the front of the store.
    “Hi, Billy. How’s tricks?”
    He placed the shirts on a rack next to pink and yellow short shorts with words like ‘Princess’ on them. She wore a sly grin. “Why, Marie, are you minding my business?”
    She smiled back and shrugged. “I always keep an eye on the competition.”
    Billy casually leaned on a metal rack and gazed at Marie, drinking her in. She was in her late forties, like him, but he thought she looked damned good, like one of those MILFs.
    She smelled him. He wore his sweat like a sensual musk.
    “Don’t you think your husband should be doing that?”
    “He doesn’t think he needs to worry about you.”
    “And what do you think?”
    “I better get back to the store.” She looked over his broad shoulder. “That a new press?”
    “Yup. And I got all new decals for the shirts, too. WTFN is big this summer.”
    “WTFN?”
    “Why the Fuck Not?”
    “That’s a little too trashy for our store,” said Marie.
    This time Billy shrugged. “I guess I’m a trashy kind of guy.”
    Billy had a reputation. His was married once, and briefly, to a hot young thing about fifteen years his junior. She was a barmaid at the Wet Dock Bar. He always landed younger girls with daddy issues. He acted like a kid and had a good body for a guy his age.
    But when you had very little in the way of responsibility and tons of free time to devote to yourself, you had time to work out and go to the gym. Marie’s husband, Mario, was a working family man. A real sweetheart, but chubby and balding like most husbands his age.
    Billy was an overgrown man child with the luxury of leisure time and completely disposable income. He represented something that was lost forever when one got married and had kids.
    Marie eyed him significantly, trading flirts like it was some kind of sport. Billy knew the game and never took it further than that. She didn’t realize that she was twenty-five years too old for his taste.
    “Well, I gotta head back.”
    “Hate to see ya go, but I love to watch ya leave.”
    Marie sucked her teeth in half-hearted disapproval, and she kept walking up the boardwalk.
     
    ***
     
    Meanwhile, farther down the boardwalk, Chief Holbrook was talking to Mario Russo in front of his clothing shop. He had his hand up to shield his eyes from the unrelenting sun.
    “I’m telling you, Chief, every time I turn my back some punk walks up and pulls the