Zombies! A Love Story Read Online Free PDF

Chief Mallory, what are you doing with those things?” I asked.
    But he wasn’t hearing me, or replying. He was staring at my mother like he was looking at an angel, and then she moved closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her. They stood there like that, locked together, rocking slow a little bit. “I went out to get you, but you were gone,” he said.
    “We had to go after the kids,” she told him. “The party out in the desert. But...it was too late for everyone but Matthew.”
    Chief Mallory lifted his head from the top of my mom’s and met Chuck’s eyes. “Your sister?”
    Chuck just shook his head.
    “Damn, son, I’m sorry.” Then he narrowed his eyes on the blood all over him. “You get bit?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Not good enough. Go in the washroom and get cleaned up, make sure.” He took a shirt from a peg on the wall, a black button-down, and handed it to Chuck. “This is clean. Oughtta fit.”
    “Thanks, Chief.” Chuck went into the tiny restroom, but left its door wide open. It was touching the way he was making sure I wasn’t out of his sight. Almost...heroic. Then he pulled off his shirt and my eyes about popped. Since when had my science geek boyfriend been ripped like that? He looked like a photoshopped image depicting sheer male perfection. Holy.... I gave my head a shake, tore my eyes off his back and shoulders, focused on the chief, who was still holding my mother close. “So when did all this happen?” I asked, indicating the two of them.
    The chief didn’t let her go. Just met my eyes. “Your mother didn’t tell you?”
    “No.”
    “It’s not the time,” Mom said.
    I was pissed, but when I looked back at Chuck he met my eyes in the washroom mirror and gave me a subtle “let it go” look. I glimpsed his chest in that mirror and decided there were more important matters to focus on at the moment, than my mother’s secret love life.
    “Okay, new topic. What’s the deal with the walking dead in the cell back there, Chief? Do you think locking them up is going to fix this?”
    “They weren’t like that when I locked ‘em up,” the chief said. Mom turned but stayed close beside him and he kept an arm around her shoulders. “Those two in Cell A had some kind of fit halfway through their lunch, keeled over dead as doornails. I was on the phone trying to get through to the emergency squad, when they came around again and...they were like that.” He lowered his eyes. “I got the third guy out of the cell, but...it was too late for the fourth one. They tore him apart, right in front of me.” He shuddered, and closed his eyes like that would stop him from seeing it again in his mind.
    “Wait, wait, they were in the cell?” Chuck asked. He was coming back into the room, buttoning the chief’s shirt. “Before all this happened?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Then how did they get it?” he looked at me, and I nodded, getting him.
    “Did they have any visitors, sheriff?” I asked
    “Not a one. And they haven’t been out, either. Best I can figure, this thing has to be airborne.”
    “Then why haven’t the rest of us turned?” Chuck asked.
    “Maybe it was something they ate.” My eyes were on the trash can when I said it. I moved closer, took the crinkled up bag off the top. “These were the same chips everyone was eating at the party. I didn’t, because I don’t eat GMOs and it’s a Sonatta product.”
    “You think food poisoning could do this ?” Chuck asked, coming to take the bag from me, examining it himself.
    “I didn’t think anything could do this, Chuck. But obviously something did. Did you eat any of the chips at the party?”
    “No. I’ve been on a health kick for the past year. Eating all natural. Working out.” He was still staring at the bag, reading every detail on the package.
    “I noticed.” He looked at me quickly, but I looked away, feeling my face heat. “You, Chief?”
    “I had the same lunch they did, grilled steak and cheese