Zombie War: An account of the zombie apocalypse that swept across America Read Online Free PDF Page A

even look at them unless they first speak to you. It is best if you do not see their faces, or befriend them. They are soldiers of Allah.”
     
    *
     
    The four men came down the side of the freighter’s rusted hull, swinging from a rope ladder as the ship rolled gently in the offshore swell. Mohsen conned the speedboat closer. The water foamed white as the big outboard engines growled. One by one the men leaped aboard the boat. The last man had a canvas bag slung over his shoulders. When all the men were safely aboard, Mohsen opened the throttles and the speedboat lifted up onto its plane and dashed away into the dawn.
    “Slow down,” the Instructor from the desert camp growled. “Bring no attention to us.”
    Mohsen obeyed. He stood at the wheel of the boat, his legs braced against the rolling ocean swells and nudged the lever to ease power to the engines. The sleek hull dropped back down into the rolling crests and the Instructor grunted.
    Mohsen was trembling. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead. He recalled the stranger’s warning in the convenience store the night before, and the photo of his mother and sisters was in his shirt pocket as a reminder. He would do nothing to jeopardize their lives.
    The sun came up, spilling orange and golden light across the ocean. Gulls wheeled overhead, and the gentle breeze carried the smell of salt and a fine mist of spray. The hours went by with slow certainty until a haze of brown smog stretched like a scar across the far horizon. Mohsen pointed. “Miami,” he said.
    He heard the sound of footsteps close behind him. He could sense the presence of one of the men standing nearby. “What time is it?” a voice growled. It was the same man who had snapped at him to slow the boat as the freighter had sailed away to the north.
    Mohsen held up his arm, turned his wrist. “It is ten-thirty,” he said. The man checked his own wristwatch and grunted. The other three martyrs synchronized their watches to Miami time.
    “How long until we reach the city?”
    “Perhaps another hour, but I can go much faster if it is imperative.”
    “No,” the man said. “There is time. Draw no attention to us.”
    The four men were dressed in dirty, faded denim jeans and khaki colored shirts that were grimy from their passage aboard the ship. The instructor opened the bag and handed fresh clothes to the other men. Quickly they changed into clean, casual clothes.
    The staggered skyline of Miami seemed to rise from out of the ocean, made glittering and mirror-like by the brightness of the sun. The four martyrs stared in awe. “Behold the Great Satan,” the Instructor said, his voice hushed yet quavering with the fervor of a zealot. “Here is the beast we have come to slay.”
     
    *
     
    When the details of the city were clear, and they could see the arch of a bridge that seemed to span two peninsulas of land, the Instructor made his way forward and stood at the bow of the boat. He narrowed his eyes, studying the coastline with the gaze of a predator. He could see the mouth of the harbor, sparkling blue beneath the bridge, and beyond it the clutter of gleaming buildings that seemed to cling to the narrow strips of sand.
    “Is that where we go to?” he pointed at the channel.
    “Yes,” Mohsen said. “I have chartered the boat from a company inside the harbor.”
    The Instructor nodded. He stepped back a pace, then whipped his muscled forearm around Mohsen Gheydari’s throat. The man cried out in a shriek of white fear. The Instructor pulled the man off balance so that his back was arched and his chest swelled tight against his shirt. Then, from within the pocket of his jeans, the Instructor produced a knife. He plunged the blade into Mohsen’s heart, burying the weapon to the hilt. He held the man upright until his shirt was soaked with blood, and then he heaved the body over the side of the boat.
     
    *
     
    The four men abandoned the speedboat at the edge of a marina and disappeared