The Lost Gods Read Online Free PDF

his vision clouded and grew dark. Jesse tried to call out, but his lungs were empty. His body was useless. The world was darkness.
    Bells rang out.
    …
    Jesse shot up out of bed. His neck and thighs ached. His whole body shuddered.
    “They made it through the back wall!” yelled Adam.
    Jesse grabbed his cudgel and stuck his head out the north portal of the tree house. Below he spotted a colle ction of reanimates that had broken through and were pushing past one another in competition for warm meat. Adam was safe on the platform that ran along the top of the wall. Between Adam and Jesse was a large asphalt courtyard full of the dead.
    “What the fuck! You were supposed to be on watch!” yelled Jesse.
    “I fell asleep! Help me!”
    …
    Adam moved to the north wall with a fire axe in hand. He picked his target, a fat male with mortuary rouge on his mustachioed face and a tacky blue and yellow plaid suit. Adam raised the axe above his head and jumped off the platform. As he fell, he swung his axe downward. The blade of the axe connected with the top of the creature's head. Its head split open like a putrid melon and the creature collapsed without ceremony. Adam stumbled and rolled forward with the momentum of the fall. He recovered and pulled his axe out of the dead thing. A burnt reanimate closed in on him. The creature's charred jaw distended in anticipation. Its eyeless sockets focused on Adam. Adam's eyes went wide with panic. He cocked his axe over his shoulder and swung hard. The dull blade of the axe met with the creature's exposed hipbone and shattered it. The creature folded up like a book. As it crumpled to the asphalt, Adam saw three reanimates hasten their gait toward him. He yanked his axe free and swung it upward as a rail-thin creature wrapped in a filthy shroud came within striking distance. The axe connected hard with the creature's jawbone. The reanimate's face divided into two worthless parts, and the force of the blow sent Adam backward. Adam lost his footing and hit the asphalt hard.
    …
    Jesse slid down the tree house's ladder. He ran over to Adam as soon as his bare feet touched the cold, moist asphalt. He jumped over Adam and blasted the two remaining creatures with quick swings of his cudgel. Each swing of the cudgel sent its target to the pavement. Jesse raised his makeshift weapon above his head and aimed at one of the fallen reanimates. A hand wrapped around his ankle and yanked him off balance. Jesse fell forward. He softened his fall with his arms and turned to see what had tripped him. A half-burnt female with half a head of hair draped in filthy clumps pulled Jesse's ankle toward its open mouth. A few black teeth and an off-colored tongue was all that was left of a once-complete mouth. Before it could sink what was left of its teeth into the sinewy meat of his ankle, Jesse yanked himself free. He kicked at its face with a wild fury, but the strikes did not phase the creature. It wormed its way closer to him. Its mouth opened and closed as it neared him. The sound of its teeth clacking and its body scraping across the asphalt sent a cold bolt up Jesse's spine. Jesse found his cudgel, and he angled his body to make a decent swing. He cocked his arm back. Cold hands grabbed his tensed arm. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the open mouth of what could have been a gunfighter or lawman in the Gold Rush days. Jesse had not seen this new creature come through the breach. Jesse struggled, but the thing’s hold was firm. Jesse choked the creature with his free hand. It twisted and tried to get close enough to bite Jesse. Its jaw dropped as it neared his face, which unleashed the stench of rotted teeth and fouled innards into the narrow patch of air between it and Jesse. Jesse responded with a grunt and clenched his hand as hard as he could. He pushed his feet into the asphalt to gain leverage. As he pushed against the ground with his toes, trying to get up, the other creature grabbed his ankle