Zombified (Episode 3): Garden Harbor Read Online Free PDF Page B

least?"
    "With what, Joe?" Matty waved his hand around the campsite.  "This is what we have left, dude.  She patched herself up on the drive out here."
    Joey brushed the hair from Dana's face and stroked her cheek.  A faint sobbing sound choked out from his lips and his shoulders quivered.  "We shouldn't have left," he whispered.  "We would've had a chance there… now they're dead!"
    Matty set the can of water near the cherry-red coals.  "But we're not, Joey.  Put their deaths on my account, if you need to—I can take it—but don't check out on us."
    "I can't talk to you right now," Joey rasped.  "Leave me alone."
    Matty nodded and turned away; he stepped behind a tree and pressed his back against the dry bark.  His eyes drifted to the sky; inky clouds scuttled in front of a waxing moon. 
    I've seen too much carnage , he thought.  He should be devastated—Hank and Gigi were surrogate parents, an ever-present force in his life for two decades; but any sense of loss felt subdued, drowned in an ocean of blood.  I can take it because I can't feel it anymore .  In truth, he'd gladly have traded his life for their life—or for Kayla's.
    Joey's strangled sobs drifted to Matty's ears. 
    I'd take it all if I could, Joe .  He felt the weight of the .40 caliber hanging on his belt and struggled to come up with a reason why he shouldn't meet death right then.  Why shouldn't any of us?  What's left to fight for?   He hefted the pistol and caught the moonlight on the tarnished chrome. 
    "What's the value of human life?" Matty whispered to the crickets.
    He chuckled; it was a dark, macabre sound befitting a lunatic.
    "Forty-four cents a bullet sounds about right." 
    He pushed off the tree and headed toward the lake, hoping to find somewhere to bury the madness that clawed at the inside of his skull.
     

CHAPTER 4
     
     
    "Are we still alive?" Dana sat up slowly, gripping Joey's arm for support. 
    Matty poked at the fire and nodded.  "Yup, we're still breathing."  He passed over the can of still-steaming water.  "It's clean but it's hot: watch your tongue."
    She slurped the water greedily, spilling some down her chin.  "Whoops!"  She laughed and then grimaced, clutching at the bandaged shoulder.  "I got really fucked up back there, didn't I?" 
    "You might want to check that," Matty said, gesturing at her foream.  "The bite looked deep, but at least we know you're immune."
    "Those fuckers bite hard, too." Dana removed the makeshift bandage and probed the puffy flesh with her pinky finger.  "Damn it.  It looks a little infected.  Who knows what that thing had in its mouth."
    Joey cleared his throat.  "So what's the plan?  Do we continue to Garden Harbor or try to make it back to Wooneyville?"
    What kind of question is that, Joe? Matty bit his tongue.  How the hell are we going to make it through a horde of zombies right now?
    "We definitely can't go back, Joey," Dana said.  She tore a strip off the bottom of her shirt, dipped it in the hot water, and started washing her wounds.  "Matty said there were shitloads of zombies coming from—"
    "Yeah, well we don't know that for sure, do we?" Joey interrupted. 
    Dana glanced at Matty, a confused look brushed across her features.  "What are you talking about, Joe?  Why wouldn't we bel—"
    "None of us saw it, did we?" Joey waved at Matty without looking.  "He was the only one there.  I'm just saying, maybe there weren't as many as he thought."
    "First of all," Dana snapped, holding up a finger, "don't interrupt me again, because it's mad rude.  Second, when did you stop trusting your friends?"
    "Whatever."  Joey stood and walked to the car; the hood was propped open.  "We aren't going anywhere in this piece of shit, so the first order of business is to find some wheels."
    Dana stared wide-eyed at Joey and then shifted her gaze to Matty; he shrugged, stoking the fire with a blackened stick. 
    "Double Brook isn't too far from here," Matty said.