Undead Freaks Read Online Free PDF Page A

outrun
these things. It would've been one thing if the zombies had been
dumb, but now it felt like they were being hunted. He tried to cool
it and think straight because that was the only way to get out of a
tight spot alive (he'd learned that in Fallujah during his tour in
Iraq) but that was getting harder by the minute. He looked over at
Kelly and she was on her ass, clutching her knees with her head
between them, shaking. That happened sometimes, raw panic taking
over.
    "Todd," said Frank. "You take care of Kelly.
We're going upslope now."
    Todd nodded and extended a hand to Kelly; she
looked up at him. She was shaking bad. He helped her to her feet
and she looked around her feet, looking for the gun. It was just
sinking in for her that she'd left it back at the car.
    "This is it," said Frank. "Up we go." He led
the way up the tree-covered hill and he looked back to make sure
Kelly was right behind him, with Todd in trail. If they were being
hunted, the things had stopped coming at them at least for now. It
looked like maybe they were getting the message that Frank was a
crack shot with the AR in the daytime.
    It didn't mean they could relax, but it bought
them a little time.
    The going in the woods wasn't too bad. Pines
had a way of making forest easier to travel because the old brown
needles made thick mats that kept the other vegetation down. The
climbing uphill was starting to level out, too. They were making
good time now.
    There was the sound of a distant explosion,
then a secondary. Frank stopped for a second to listen. It had to
be at least three miles away, toward the other side of town. It was
high explosive. If there were explosions then the Army was getting
serious about quarantine. Or maybe the zombies were getting more
creative with destruction. Frank thought it could be
either.
    "What do we do next?" said Todd. "I mean, once
we reach the top?"
    "Scope it out," said Frank. "See where the
smoke is coming from and move away from it."
    "We still trying to make it to that airplane?"
said Todd.
    "Only if it's in the right direction. I don't
want us going into the middle of a death trap."
    After a while, they broke out of the woods and
they were up at a grey fire tower on a hill. Frank looked up at the
tower. It was abandoned and didn't get any official use, but that
didn't make it useless now. Frank looked at Todd. "I'm going up to
have a look. See if the airplane option is still worth
trying."
    Frank went up the rickety metal stairs to the
top of the tower. They creaked. He smelled more smoke in the breeze
and he could see fires burning all over town. The smoke smelled
bad. He also thought he heard moans, distant ones getting carried
by the wind. How close were they? he wondered. Close enough to
reach out and touch? He still didn't know how the freaks were
tracking them. It might have been by scent, but he didn't know
enough about the things to be sure. He turned around and went back
down the tower, his boots making the whole structure resonate with
the clacking.
    "How's it look?" said Todd.
    "Like we might be able to make it to one of
those airplanes, if Kelly still thinks she can fly us out of here.
If we stay sharp on the way to the field, we might avoid running
into more freaks."
    "Do we go right now?" said Kelly.
    Frank shook his head. "No. Not right now.
Better to wait until dark. Better cover." Waiting till dark was a
double-edged sword. Frank figured they'd be able to avoid detection
better, but it would be harder to shoot back if they did get
spotted.
    He looked up at the tower. As nice as it would
be to go up there to pass the time until nightfall, it might also
spread their scents far and wide. They were better off down low. If
they stayed at the base of the tower they'd have some buffer in the
clearing if zombies came up to them at night.

7

    It was a long time until dark. And then when
the sun started to go down, there were noises around them. The wind
blowing branches and leaves and the sounds of