The Zombie Whisperer (Living With the Dead) Read Online Free PDF Page B

moving like she was worried about stray zombies or even looters, either.
    “So what’s up with the nonchalance?” I asked as I moved to walk beside her. “Are you trying to get bitten to become a test subject?”
    She half-grinned at me. “No, but man, that would be a story to write, wouldn’t it? Zombie outbreak from the point of view of someone freshly bitten? Pulitzer!”
    “The Pulitzer doesn’t even exist anymore, numnuts,” The Kid muttered from behind us.
    Nicole ignored him and continued, “Anyway, I don’t have to worry about zombies here.”
    “Why?” I asked. “And how? Oh, and, um, are you crazy? We have to worry about zombies everywhere.”
     Nicole stopped and motioned around them. “Hear how quiet the campus is?”
    I stopped too and listened. “Yeah? So? Like eighty percent or more of the population was wiped out. That will make it pretty quiet.”
    “But no zombie sounds either?” She lifted a brow. “
That’s
because they’re outside the fence.”
    “The fence?” I repeated.
    “There’s a big fence that surrounds a portion of the campus now. It was put up by the military forces that were left over after the bombings to create a safe base, I guess, since it wasn’t about to contain the zombies by the time they built it. But the result is… well, it was pretty easy to clean out the few left within the perimeter and take over. We can even expand as we clear the buildings.”
    “Okay,” I said, still totally uncertain. I mean, a fence? Really? That was going to be our big savior here, some chicken wire? “But don’t you think you might get breaches?”
    “There are people here whose jobs it is just to walk the line, checking for weak spots. And the snipers help.”
    Dave caught up to us and he looked as confused by all this as I was. Good, because I liked it better when we were on the same page.
    “Snipers? Perimeter checks? That sounds like a military base sort of thing,” he said. “Are they still here?”
    We turned a corner and there was a big building just across the walkway. In front of it were a couple of guys dressed in full military regalia and carrying machine guns.
    “Oh shit,” Dave said and started staggering back.
    Out of pure instinct, I threw myself in front of him as we both skittered away like crabs in a tank. Except just like crabs, there was nowhere to go and we were going to end up cooked.
    “Hey, hey,” Nicole said, following us. “It’s okay.”
    “How can it be okay?” Dave snapped. “The fucking military is fucking going to fucking make me into a fucking pincushion right before they dissect my brain.”
    “Wow, so many f-bombs, babe,” I said. “Nice. And Dave is right. How can military be okay?”
    “They were here when we got here,” The Kid explained. “But they weren’t affiliated with anything anymore. The government abandoned them. They’re just survivors like us.”
    I eyed the men, who were watching us now with interest. Yeah, they were survivors, but we’d encountered plenty of survivors with ulterior motives before. Cults, separatists, Nicole
and
Robbie, at different points… the list went on and on. So I wasn’t ready to just run up and start handing out the hugs.
    “You sold us out before,” I said, looking from one of them to the other. “
Both
of you sold us out for various reasons. So how do I know we’re not going to go in there and find General Asshole waiting to take David away?”
    Nicole’s gaze got all hurt, but Robbie seemed less emotional about the whole thing. “Selling you out was so six months ago,” he said with a shrug. “Live in the now.”
    Dave rolled his eyes. “Encouraging.”
    Nicole sighed. “If we’re selling you out, you’re already screwed, aren’t you?” she asked. “I mean, you’re stuck within the perimeter of the campus, behind a fence that’s patrolled by soldiers. You could run, but you wouldn’t get away.”
    “This is not inspiring my trust, Nicole,” I said as my