Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 3): Mitigation Book 3) by Sean Schubert Read Free Book Online Page B

puzzled as he pondered what to do next. He clearly was conflicted. He looked beyond Neil at Emma and the rifle she was sporting. The man wore doubt on his face like some women wore blush. His decision was preempted when a large window on the front of the building shattered with a crash of exploding, cascading glass. Echoing loudly in every direction, the sudden disturbance startled all of them to silence. On the heels of the clamor, like insult added to still unfolding injury, several gray-green arms reached hungrily through the new opening.
    Startled by the unexpected development, Neil very nearly fell over backward as he jumped away from the sound. The old man too was caught off guard and did fall. Unable to regain his footing fast enough, the man, like an intoxicated crab, scooted awkwardly away from the building without having gotten back to his feet.
    Neil could see that the ghoulish arms were protruding through several tightly packed postcard racks. They weren’t going to be coming through the window any time soon, which presented itself as much as a curse as a blessing. As it stood, if Neil and Emma were to deal with the beasts, they were required to open the front door and let them out. That, of course, would require one of them to ascend the short flight of wooden stairs to the patio and then open the door. Neither of them was too quick to volunteer to do that.
    The creatures’ tortured chorus was anything but music to all of their ears. The horrible hymn the beasts moaned was enough to curdle milk and wilt flowers. Emma looked at Neil for some sign of what to do. Lacking any firm directive from him, she raised her firearm. Neil stopped her before she could to shoot.
    “No! Wait! We don’t know if there are more in the area or not. A single gunshot could attract all of them for miles the way sound travels around here.”
    Emma asked doubtfully, “You suggesting we just leave them in there?”
    “No. Remember Jerry’s suspicion about their moans working like homing signals for other zekes? We gotta deal with ‘em but I think we need to be more...discreet.”
    By then, the old man was on his feet and had gotten closer to Neil and Emma. He looked over his shoulder to the rear of one of the parked cars and called, “Ricky. You come on out now.”
    From behind the metallic blue tail of a Honda Accord appeared a teenager still very much in the early years of adolescence. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen and was likely not that old yet. He was holding a small caliber rifle not very different than that which Neil carried. He lowered his head to his right and then swept it back to his left to adjust the long bangs on his forehead.
    Emma said, her humor shaping her words like a sculptor’s hands manipulates clay, “This is “your man”? Jesus, is he even old enough to have a driver’s license?”
    Nodding to the boy and pointing at the monsters still reaching through the empty window pane, the man said, “He’s old enough to pull a trigger and that was what was important; not his age.”
    Neil’s eyes were glued to the phantom arms which were clawing hungrily at the air. He said, “Let’s stay focused here. I guess we need to open the door.”
    “Yeah?” Emma said without moving her feet. “And how exactly is that going to happen? Maybe we should just shoot them and be done with it.”
    Neil shook his head and said doubtfully, “What if we draw more to us? Maybe we should—”
    Emma wasn’t waiting any longer as she saw the shiny metal and plastic souvenir display rack start to bend and break, letting the arms reach a little further. “Fuck this!” She pulled the trigger on her gun. The bullet obviously hit one of them since a pair of arms disappeared after she shot.
    Neil growled, “Emma! For Christ’s sake!”
    Emma pumped another round into the firing chamber. “Someone had to do something and I sure as hell wasn’t going to go up there to open the door. Stop whining and help out a