Voodoo Plague - 01 Read Online Free PDF

running
towards the cop who was getting out of his car with a nightstick in hand. 
Neither of them saw the two young men with long hair, dressed in jeans and polo
shirts come out of the dark behind a pickup truck until they were already on
the Trooper.  He had time to swing the night stick once, making a solid
connection with one of the men’s upper leg, but the blow had no effect and they
swarmed him and carried him to the ground.  Both of them started biting and
clawing but he was able to fight them off and move to the far side of the cruiser
where he stood swaying and shaking.
    Rachel ran
around the perimeter of the parking lot, keeping vehicles between her and the
two young men.  She reached the cop and grabbed his arm, feeling safer despite
having watched him be attacked.  The Trooper turned his head and looked at her,
sweat pouring off his face.  He had bite marks on his forearms and hands and
deep fingernail scratches on his face.  He opened his mouth to say something
but all that came out was a gurgle.  A moan followed and the pain reflected in
his eyes must have been agonizing and he started to crumple to his knees, only
Rachel’s support keeping him upright. 
    The two young
men were circling the front of the cruiser and Rachel tugged the Trooper’s arm,
leading him around the back of the car, intent on keeping it between them and
their attackers.  They kept circling, gurgling and snarling, red eyes glowing
from the huge neon sign mounted to the roof of the strip club.  On their second
circuit of the cruiser the Trooper stopped cold and Rachel lost her grip on his
arm as she kept going a couple of steps.  She turned and gasped to see blood
dripping from his ears and nose.  As she watched, his eyes widened and seemed
to bulge forward out of his head as if under great pressure, then first one then
the other turned completely red.
    “Oh my God,”
Rachel breathed, and took another step away from the Trooper. 
    With a snarl he
stepped towards her, arms raised to shoulder height and out at forty-five
degree angles.  Perfect for sweeping any prey into his grip.  Rachel turned and
ran.
     
     
     
     
     
     

5
     
     
    For the moment
the woman and I were the only living things in the parking lot other than a
fat, glossy, black crow sitting on the roof of a red Chevy.  It ‘cawed’ at us
several times before flying away to the north, away from the inferno that was
downtown Atlanta.  The woman approached me slowly, carefully looking me up and
down, her eyes nervously pausing on the weapon in my hand, then moving on.
    “Were you
bitten?  Scratched?”  Her voice was low and husky, raw sounding from all the
screaming she had been doing.
    “What?”  I
asked.  Everything was too surreal and now this crazy, naked woman wanted to
know if I’d been bitten?
    She took a
cautious step forward, “Were you bitten?”  She spoke slower this time as if I
were a child.
    “No.  They never
touched me.  Why?” 
    She came closer
and continued her visual inspection.  “I watched that one and his friend,” she
pointed at the young man I had shot in the head, “attack and bite the Trooper. 
Within one to two minutes he was just like them and trying to kill me.”
    I stood staring
at her, breathing harder than I needed to, but the adrenaline from the fight
was still in my system. 
    I said, “They
bit him?  And he became like them?  This is crazy.  You’re describing something
like a zombie or a vampire.”
    She raised her
chin and stared back at me defiantly, “I may look like a brainless bimbo at the
moment, but I know what I saw.  The Trooper was fine, normal, until he was
attacked.  He was bitten and scratched and in less than two minutes I watched
him change into one of them and start trying to kill me.”
    She crossed her
arms under her breasts, and while I would have thought it difficult for an
almost naked woman to look dignified she managed to pull it off.
    “OK, so I guess
I believe