The Last Town (Book 2): Preparing For The Dead Read Online Free PDF

horrible wound in his neck. Blood pulsed between his fingers in arterial spurts. The old man hissed and redoubled his attempts to pull the man toward him.
    “Oh my God!” one of the onlookers screamed. “Oh my God !”
    The assistant pharmacist looked at Hailey with bright, horrified eyes. Blood was seeping past his lips, and bloody bubbles emerged from his nose. The cast in the man’s eyes said everything.
    Help me.
    Hailey reached out and grabbed the old man’s shoulder, pulling him away from the pharmacist. From the corner of his eye, he saw Aguilar reappear then, holding a manual resuscitator in his hands. He dropped it when he saw what was going on, his mouth falling open in shock.
    The old man fought against Hailey, still lunging toward the assistant pharmacist with a single-minded determination that reminded the young police officer of one of those sharks he saw on TV, during Shark Week . Hailey pulled harder, dragging the old man away from the pharmacist as the latter rolled away and collapsed onto his back at Aguilar’s feet. The pharmacy owner looked down at him, eyes wide behind his thick glasses, as if unsure of what to do. Hailey moved to put the old man in a headlock, wondering how he could restrain him long enough to slap the cuffs on him. Those thoughts disappeared when the man suddenly forgot all about the injured pharmacist and latched onto his arm like some sort of demonic leech. Hailey felt the man’s teeth on his wrist, and he released him long enough to pull his arm away. Too late—the man’s jaws closed on the fabric of his sleeve and for a long moment, his teeth held Hailey’s arm in place.
    Hailey pulled away with all his might, but the man ( He’s a zombie now! a small part of his mind screamed) wouldn’t relent. He—it—grabbed onto Hailey’s arm with both hands while growling deep in its throat. Hailey pulled again, lurching backward, and he was able to rip his arm out of the zombie’s grasp. He saw two broken teeth fly through the air and bounce when they landed on the carpet. Hailey kicked at the zombie with all his might, trying to push it back, but he missed. The zombie lunged toward him with a hiss, arms outstretched like some ungainly bird attempting to take flight. There was no glimmer of intellect in the ghoul’s eyes, nothing that indicated a human being was still in residence. Hailey floundered, trying to put as much distance between him and the zombie as he could. At the same time, he reached down with his right hand, going for his service pistol.
    He didn’t make it. The zombie landed on top of him like a linebacker from the Green Bay Packers sacking a quarterback deep in the pocket. Hailey reached up and grabbed it by the neck with one hand, trying to push its head upward and keep it out of biting range. That was a mistake. The zombie turned its full attention toward his hand and grabbed his wrist with a grip that felt like a vise. Hailey let out a strangled cry as he twisted, trying to free his arm, but to no avail.
    Something went BOOM right then, and the zombie jerked backward as its forehead dimpled inward, like an eggshell that had been pierced by a pin. Hailey took the opportunity to push the zombie off him, and it collapsed onto its side and lay still while he flailed to his feet. He pulled his weapon then and trained it on the motionless corpse with trembling hands. They were shaking so much it took almost heroic concentration to keep the pistol’s front sight rooted on the sprawled figure.
    “Mike! Mike, are you all right?” someone asked. He recognized the voice. It was Suzy. He risked a glance behind him, and he saw her standing off to the right, her pistol in both hands. Behind her was none other than Single Tree’s police chief, Craig Grady. He had his pistol out as well, though held in a low-ready state.
    “I’m fine,” Hailey said, and his voice was barely audible to him above the ringing in his ears. Beyond the dead man, the assistant pharmacist