World of Ashes II Read Online Free PDF Page B

clavicle and lodged in a rib. It wasn’t in deep and so Daniel pulled it out. There was alcohol in the bathroom and they poured it all over the wound. Somehow that didn’t wake him up at all.
    Lea got their gear packed and checked the escape route. “Daniel, the ladder’s gone!” She shouted, her deep woody complexion blanching noticeably.
    “What?” Daniel rushed to the balcony and looked down. A hundred or more shambling corpses had knocked the ladder over in their clumsy efforts to get to the noises above. “Shit. Shit shit fucking shit fuck! We’re going to have to take the staircase.”
    “Fuck that. If the phones work I can call Rick. He can take their work truck and come get us. I’ve got a connection to the landline now...” Lea said after she’d gotten the computer to show a signal. Daniel admired her cool under fire. Her strength was keeping him going as reasons to hope were becoming fewer and fewer. The chat program Lea was using dialed the number to the house they’d hidden in while she checked another web page.
    “Oh my God.” Lea said. “It’s all over Google and Yahoo. The virus has gone global. There are confirmed reports in Japan, China and Africa. They’re blaming Hamas and al-Qaida. They’re afraid it’ll be on every continent by the end of the month.”
    “Super. Thanks for sharing.” Daniel went back to check on Greg. He was still breathing and was starting to wake up. That would make it easier to get him out of there.
    “It’s connecting… What if he doesn’t answer?”
    “He’s sitting on the recliner eating that last bag of Doritos. I’ve known Rick a long time.” Greg sat up, looking down at his wounds. “Fucker’s probably jerkin’ off, but he’ll answer.”
    “Gross.” Lea dialed the number again when the call timed out. Finally, on the third try the someone picked up on the other end. “Rick, it’s us, we’re in the apartment complex across the drainage creek. We need you to come pick us up. We’re only gonna have one chance at this.” She said quickly.
    “ This isn’t Rick. ” The voice said in return, and then the line went dead again.
    “Fuck me…” Lea stood from the computer and looked at her confused friends. “Someone else is in the house with Rick.”
    Not needing to hear another word, Greg grabbed his M4 and hobbled/ran down the balcony to the stairwell. They heard gunshots as they ran after him on an impulse, but didn’t see what they were flying into until it was too late. Lea followed Daniel to the second level of the stairs before stopping in their tracks. Greg was going at one of the undead with a hatchet and wasn’t doing too well. This one was one of the fast ones, someone who’d just recently become infected. The raging monster threw Greg the rest of the way off the stairs and went for Daniel and Lea. Leveling the gun at the raging creature Daniel shot it in the face, the forehead and occipital lobe were blown completely away. Blood sprayed all over both of them while Lea screamed.
    Daniel ran down to Greg, but his concern was unwarranted. Greg was slowly picking himself up off the ground already. “Are you okay?” Daniel tried to get Greg to follow his finger with his eyes when he felt a sharp pain in his ribs and suddenly there was no air in his lungs as he lay in the grass on his side. Daniel’s mouth moved to suck down air but like a fish out of water nothing happened. He looked for the infected psychopath attacking them, horrified beyond words that it was Lea. She was grabbing her hair and screaming as if she were on fire. Her hands pawed at her face, smearing the dead man’s blood while she shouted nonsense. Her moves were clumsy and erratic, she stepped on the computer she’d grabbed, crushing it and didn’t even notice. Lea twitched, seemed to stop for a moment with clumps of her own hair in her hands and turned slowly to Daniel with bloodshot eyes that could only be called demonic.
    “Lea? Lea what are you