Zombies! Episode 1 - Shawn of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

no effect at all. She could still use the
arm. From the chest wound oozed an odorous blackened substance. It
didn't look like blood and it didn't smell like blood. It had the
consistency of old motor oil, the kind you should have changed a
year before.
     
    Stemmy uttered a curse and shot her in the
head.
     
    This time she dropped and did not rise.
     
    Only now did Anthony turn to look back at the
super. He was still standing where they had left him, the look of
terror on his face indescribable. He didn't move and didn't utter a
sound. The leg of his pants was wet.
     
    When he turned back, holstering his weapon at
the same time, Stemmy was prodding the body with a broomstick.
     
    "Be careful!" Anthony hissed.
     
    "'I don't believe it," Stemmy was muttering.
"I just don't…"
     
    Stemmy's statement was cut off by his
strangled cry as something tugged on the leg of his pants and then
bit clean through. He dropped the broomstick as he turned. At his
feet, crouched like a panther and gnawing on his calf was a little
girl. She may have been eight years old with little blond curls. He
knew then that he had missed it. He had seen it and he had missed
it. There were pictures all over the apartment. Pictures of Larry
and his wife and their daughter.
     
    Anthony came up quickly and kicked the little
girl in the head. He didn't even think twice about kicking this
child. She literally flew away from Stemmy and collided with the
wall. In an instant, Anthony had the broom in his hand and was
roughly pushing her back into the hallway. As he followed her, his
eyes adjusted to the darkness. There was a bathroom coming up on
the left. Quickly switching his grip, he took her full in the
middle with the broom itself and swept her deep into the room. She
fell and he used the opportunity to grab the door handle and pull
it shut. He was already on the phone as he went back to his
partner.
     
    Stemmy had made it to the couch. He'd grabbed
up a pillow and was using it to staunch the blood flow. All that he
could think about was that infection and Shawn Rudd saying She
was bit. 'S only a matter of time after that. The leg ached but
it wasn't the fiery pain that he expected. He thought he might be
going into shock. He saw Anthony with the phone but couldn't hear
what he was saying over the rush of blood in his ears. Oddly
enough, his powers of observation, those powers that had failed him
moments ago, returned in spades. The super was gone, only a small
puddle left in his wake. There was another person there, an elderly
woman just poking her head in, covering her mouth as she saw what
she saw. Anthony screamed at her and his screams were like those in
a pool of deep water. But all of that was outside this world.
Inside this world was the life of Larry Koplowitz and his family.
There was his wedding picture; they looked so happy. Then there was
one of he and Mrs. Koplowitz. Her belly was huge, the little girl
inside almost ready to come out. Larry looked happy in that picture
but the missus looked like she was just ready to give birth
already. He remembered Eileen when she'd been that big. It was
something the first time. But by the fourth time she didn't even
put up the pretense of civility. That was when Stemmy had known she
was having their last child. And he'd so wanted a son. But instead
he'd had four daughters, four wonderful pearls of nature.
     
    I'm never going to see them again.
     
    He felt the pillow being ripped away and
looked up to see Anthony with a frosted plastic bottle. All at
once, his partner was pouring the contents of that bottle over his
exposed muscle…
     
    …and he screamed!
     
    Somewhere in the corner of his mind, he heard
himself mutter, "Does alcohol cure a zombie bite?"
     
    Time must have passed because there were more
cops now. They were in uniform and Anthony was giving them orders.
To tell the truth, he wasn't just giving them orders. He was
shouting at them. He took one small rookie and shoved her hard