The Queen of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

Eloise Fields, and it was by sheer coincidence they happened upon Vega and Vincent. Griggs had hoped they would be able to keep driving through the uncongested side streets with little incident, but Sergeant Charles recognized a pair of survivors struggling with the undead.
    Griggs could give a shit less about Vega or the thug. Pulling their asses out put his life in danger; only a moment ago, he had come to the conclusion he would unlock the ancient power Traverse craved and use it for himself.
    Before his death, Bob had shared the secret behind the outbreak. Absolute power could be his, if he played all his cards correctly.
    So to hell with everyone else. He could use them to get him as far as he needed to go, and drop them all like black-eyed whores.
    “She’s not bit!” Vincent said.
    “That’s not what you said a second ago,” Griggs corrected him. “You said you weren’t sure. If those things bite you, it affects you like a virus. You don’t have to die…”
    Vincent put his hand up. “I said she’s not bit.”
    Vega coughed and drew her knees to her chest. “Bob… Shanna…”
    “I told you what happened,” Griggs sighed. “Bob the Builder’s dead as a fucking doornail. Dead–dead-dead-ski.”
    “And how’d you manage?” Vincent eyed him. “You went to get your girl, didn’t you? Where she at?”
    Griggs felt the cell phone in his pocket and realized he had no desire to tell anyone the phones were working again. “The James-Bond looking-guy took her.”
    Vincent shook his head. “I just watched this woman nearly get herself killed over a little girl she didn’t know. I think to myself that I got to make a decision about my future. This shit around us don’t change people for the better. I’ve heard too many speeches in the last few hours about how people need to work together, but the way I see it, there needs to be one dog in charge of the pack. I’ve always been that dog, but this ain’t my pack.”
    Griggs laughed and clapped his hands. “Nice speech! I wonder what the inside of a prison looks like during all this… man, you lucked out, my friend, lucked out.”
    Vincent shut his eyes. Griggs was ready for the thug’s next move, and he welcomed the opportunity to waste the no-good prick once and for all. His illegal guns had been linked to the deaths of innocent children cut down by drive-by shootings. Griggs didn’t care who lived or who died; Vincent got away with his crimes, and that pissed him off.
    They were both killers. The punk was burning up inside because he had power and lost it, but he could still be of use. It would take a killer to survive all the killing. 
    If Bob wasn’t lying, there was a way Griggs could have the power to kill everybody.
    “Now you can do something about it,” Vincent said. “Nobody cares about another dead nigger in Detroit. It’s always been this way, right?”
    “I feel like we can be friends,” Griggs said. “We’re both businessmen, right? You sold AK-47s to teenagers, and I made porn movies with a cannibal. I think if we just sit down over a meal of fried chicken and watermelon, we can hash this thing out, make it work.”
    Vincent looked down his nose at the former detective. His black Jordan tank top sagged over his well-toned shoulder blades, wet with blood and sweat. The tattoos on his arms bulged whenever he moved his long arms. He held the AR-15 with its scope pointed at the floor toward the tip of his bloody shoes. He flashed a platinum-coated smile at Griggs.
    “I think I’ve seen one of your movies. The redhead… yeah… Y’all got some fucked up shit going on, but I see that look in your eyes. I know what a killer looks like. I got a clear head about things, and the way I figure it, shooting each other up ain’t helping matters.”
    Griggs thought about meat slapping against a brick wall as the tank passed through the ranks of the dead. Thousands of hands beat against the hull.
    As much as he wanted Mina before,