The Failed Coward Read Online Free PDF Page A

street with rivers of screaming people running past her, trying to get away from the father murdering his own son.  She was jostled about to and fro as they ran for their cars, or ran for shelter behind locked doors.
    All Amy could do was sit in the middle of the street with her skinned knees and watch.  The corpse-father dug his teeth deep into the soft, smooth skin of his child’s stomach, and tore back viciously, ripping a wide ragged hole in the flesh.  Amy watched as he buried his face in the bloody hole, and pulled back a mouthful of his son’s pink and purple intestines.  His teeth snapped shut on the ropes of meat, causing them to pop like fresh sausage.
    Amy dry heaved suddenly, and as her rationality returned, she backed away, and started to run for the admissions office.
    That had a nice thick door.
     
    *****
     
    Many hours later banging on the door and the yells of clearly living parents brought her out from under her office desk.  The sun had just about set, and Amy had just gotten used to listening to her phone ring over and over.  She was far too paralyzed with fear to reach up and answer it.  Plus she knew no matter what the call would be, she didn’t have the wherewithal to deal with any more problems. 
    She listened to the evening radio host on her favorite top 40 station instead of answering the phone.  He was normally a veritable fountain of wit and humor, but tonight all he did was take calls from people trying to share information about how bad things were.  She was particularly frightened when she heard the tenth person say that the bitten are infected.  All she could think about was black and white horror movies from the 60’s, and the bite of the infected zombies.  She felt her body head to toe in the darkening office to make sure she hadn’t been bitten somehow unknowingly.  She was clean, and thus would survive.  In a moment of irrational panic she almost grabbed her phone to call Jason, but after their awkward morning, her guilt prevented her from using him once again.  This time, she’d figure it out on her own, or die trying.  No more hurt for Jason.
    The parents outside banging on the door of the admissions office finally broke her fear sometime around 7:30 in the evening.  When she heard them yelling for help, her nerve finally reached critical mass, and she crawled out of the dark office, checked them all through the windows to make sure they weren’t bitten, and opened the door. 
    She immediately wished she hadn’t.
    A man wielding a shotgun pushed his way into the doorframe forcibly, and unleashed a frustrated insult at her, “What the fuck lady?  What were you waiting for?  We could’ve died out here!  Where the fuck are our kids?  Where is my son you dumb cunt?”
    Amy swallowed the thick mucus in her throat and choked down her fear.  He was just scared like her, she told herself.  She took a deep breath and assessed the ten or so parents arrayed in the front yard just outside.  They looked frazzled at best, and emotionally broken at worst.  “Sir, who is your son?”
    “I’m Dan Haggerty.  My son is Dale Haggerty.  He ain’t answering his cell phone, and he isn’t in his dorm room either.  There are dead people all over this goddamn place too.  Can you find my son so I can get the hell out of here?”
    “Dan I’m sorry you can’t find Dale, but calling me a dumb cunt doesn’t make me want to help you faster.  In fact, it makes me want to tell you to go fly a kite.  Now if you can ask me nicely for help finding your son, I’d be happy to do so.”  Amy’s sudden courage gave her a rush.  She couldn’t even believe she’d just told off a man holding a shotgun.  A big one at that.  It looked bigger than Jason’s.
    Dan’s face went from angry to embarrassed in the beat of a drum.  He obviously was operating on adrenaline and fear by this point, and his mouth had apparently gotten away from him.  “Look, I’m sorry miss, but my