Zombie Wake Read Online Free PDF

feel as though they can. It’s hard to see how
you could be in such a situation and not contemplate the worst. I needed a
plan. Survivors always have a plan. Something to keep them
going.
    I had about three feet between the
wall of rotten humans and me. Bodies littered the planks; the prone ones were
still. But the cadavers moving toward me were making headway and the pier was
thick with them, at least a hundred. I holstered my weapon, took a step back
and looked down into the water. The sun was far from rising; the air, clear,
dry and brisk. The water must be below 60 degrees. But I could swim to shore.
Many times I had watched the junior lifeguards jump from the pier and knew that
the shock would be tolerable. My twenty-pound gear belt would have to go. I
can’t see the bluffs or the beach, it’s still too
dark. With the water temperature, I wouldn’t be able to withstand it for too
long. Not time for that…yet , I think.

Red

9
    A screech sounded, loud and long.
It was Toothbeak . Human hair emerged from her beak
and an object was clearly lodged in her throat. Her neck resembled a crescent
moon. Her head swaggered back and forth.
    Putting animals out of their misery
is not new for me. For the hogs, we quickly went back to normal bullets, a
fast, effective method. I’ve seen pictures of a giant boar in Vanuatu brought
down by one swift club to the back of the head. Following a long wind up,
skinny arms delivered the whack. It looks just as effective as our means
without the heavy metal environmental hazard. The image of those spindly wiry
muscles pulling down a club spurred my next line of attack.
    The wall of dead park visitors
continued its shambling, slow motion advance. I found myself relieved that real
zombies—real zombies ?— were slow. As each
of my bullets left the barrel of my Smith and the adrenaline level went up, I
found myself in condition red but knew I was teetering on the edge of condition
black. These were terms I had taught to my student over the years. They refer
to the way the human body reacts to stress. As the amount of stress increases
the human body begins to shutdown non-vital processes. The vision narrows down.
People in this state describe feeling like they can focus in on minute details
but have almost no peripheral vision at all. Time slows down.
    I holstered my 40 cal and went to
my last resort. The baton. I had stubbornly hung on to my solid wood 44-inch
straight stick for nine years. Finally, out of laziness more then anything
else, I hung the old mahogany red diamond wood stick up and went with a
stainless steel (for the beach) collapsible straight stick. While it’s promoted
as an Asp for its fast snakelike strike, I never bought into the idea that it
had a venomous bite. I remember taking a ration from my team because I was the
defensive tactic instructor who always talked about the silly “radio antenna”
batons that so many officers were carrying. I always said that if you’re going
to a club fight bring a club not a radio antenna.
    Now I’m in need of some skull
cracking and I’m carrying a radio antenna. My old stick, the diamond wood one
would have made short work of these things. But
instead, I whip the handle of my Asp out to the side and feel a surge of
anticipation as the baton extends with an audible rasp. The small metal ball at
the end coupled with its collapsible characteristic gives it the appearance of
an obese radio antenna. The little ball, about twice the size of a marble, the
business end, could put a hurt on the most tenacious of resisting felons. Or so
the brochure claimed.
    The first monster to come within my
range was a fat woman in a bathing suit that she had no business wearing. There
were bulges in all the wrong places and it looked like the shoulder straps were
cutting into her flesh from the load. I raised the baton up over my head, one
handed, and then reversed with a swift downward swing toward the center of her
head. I knew before I even