The Hungry 5: All Hell Breaks Loose (The Sheriff Penny Miller Series) Read Online Free PDF

a circle again. She kept her weapon pointed in front of her. It was hot and dry and she yawned as she surveyed the area. There was still no movement anywhere unrelated to her people.
    The three of them watched as Scratch struggled with the manhole lid. He grunted and groaned, but none of them bothered to offer help. Miller knew he would do it himself or it wouldn’t get done.
    “Hey!” Sheppard was looking up.
    Miller snapped out of it and turned her head around. “What is it?”
    “Don’t know for sure. Do you see that?” He pointed into the bright morning sky. The dark speck took a sharp angle that didn’t seem appropriate. “There, see that? That wasn’t a natural move, not for a vulture or a hawk.”
    “You’re right,” Miller said. Her stomach went cold.
    “A small plane, you reckon?”
    “This can’t be good,” Miller said, mostly to herself.
    The speck was now a silhouette on the bright blue strip that lay just south of the sun. It was coming from the direction of the Ruby Mountains. It was closing damn fast. And now Miller could hear a faint buzzing, kind of like a very large fly fighting to get through a windowpane.
    “No contact. Where is it?” asked Rat, shading her eyes.
    “Two o’clock from the sun, about the same altitude,” said Miller. “Whatever it is, it’s closing fast.”
    “Tally-ho. Shit, Penny, I’m thinking that’s a drone.”
    “That’d be my guess too.”
    The speck approached as if it had honed in on them.
    Rat turned toward the vehicles. “Then it’s time to leave.”
    Sheppard ran to the driver’s side of the Hummer, and Rat and Scratch went to the pickup. Miller held her ground.
    Sheppard stopped short of climbing inside. “What’s the holdup, Penny?”
    Miller shaded her eyes and stared. She couldn’t articulate what was stopping her. She wanted to know more about this threat. She understood facing criminals, and hordes of zombies, but fucking drones—perhaps armed drones? That was a new phenomenon.
    Quit fucking around and beat feet, Penny.
    Miller turned reluctantly, and jogged over to the Hummer. She’d likely find out what the story was soon enough. Some new enemy was after her people and she wanted to know why and who and how. Sheppard gunned the engine. Rat and Scratch peeled away with a shriek of tires and took the lead, heading down the highway going north. Scratch ran over a skeleton, cracking the bones like toothpicks.
    Miller reached the Hummer. She got in and slammed the door. “Let’s go.”
    Sheppard put the Hummer in gear. He floored the gas pedal. The giant vehicle roared and rattled and took off after the pickup truck. Miller looked back over her shoulder. The Gas and Sip steadily retreated into the distance as the drone closed the gap. The black dot would be on top of them soon. Miller’s mouth dropped open.
    “Oh, shit.”
    A long plume stretched from the drone to the ground. The first missile struck a car that they were passing at that moment. The explosion was so sudden that Miller jumped in her seat, hitting her head on the ceiling. The air around her ears seemed to expand and then contract again. The world flared white and then red and finally went dark with smoke and ash. The heat was abrupt and intense.
    “Buckle up, Penny.”
    But Miller wasn’t listening now. She was watching the rearview mirror. The destruction was incredible. “Where’s the pickup, Karl?”
    “Shit.” Sheppard craned his neck around. “No idea. They were ahead of us just a second ago.”
    Miller looked around, and quickly spotted the truck crossing the median of Cactus Lane, a broad boulevard that bordered the north of town.
    “Follow them!” She pointed.
    It was probably a suicide move, but Sheppard didn’t argue. He turned the wheel sharply to the left, going wide to make a U-turn. Miller heard the tires whining, and then another sound, more high pitched.
    The second missile exploded where they’d been just a moment before. Shrapnel peppered the