Assuming Room Temperature (Keep Your Crowbar Handy Book 3) by S.P. Durnin Read Free Book Online Page B

to pull the girl from under the Hummer. “We need to get her out of there. Not just to check her for injuries and bites, but because we need to get moving. We’re late getting back as it is, and who knows if our creepy playmates on the street here have any hungry friends in the area.”
    “I got this.” Henry walked to the opposite side of the armored machine, knelt, and began speaking quietly to the girl. Her eyes moved from Kat’s to his as the grungy teen turned her head, proving that she wasn’t completely out of it.
    “Huh.” Kat stood, then moved to wipe her sword (somewhat) clean on the shirt of a creature the bulky man had smashed in the head with his mace. She’d give the blade a proper cleaning later, and hoped Sampson would be able to talk the teenager out quickly. While he kept murmuring to the traumatized girl, Cho took a moment to marvel at his handiwork. The cranium of the corpse on which she wiped her sword had been pushed halfway into its chest. Seeing the zombie’s motionless eyeballs ju-u-ust peeking out over its dead collarbones though, was a testament to Henry’s awesome strength.
    Pretty darned funny too. She giggled briefly at the sight, then turned back to help Leo and Elle quickly police the bodies.
    They made sure to do that, when they could. If not for their own sake, then simply for other survivors who might still be in hiding. It wasn’t always possible. Sometimes—most times if she were to be honest—the areas in which they had been forced to engage the creatures were really and truly infested. They’d crossed paths with dozens, if not hundreds of maggot-heads on their convoluted south-westerly route. It was—and probably always would be—necessary to avoid any major cities like the plague, so they kind of meandered their way along. Kat and her friends stuck to back roads, kept, well away from large population centers and hoped to avoid detection by scouting out ways through miles-long traffic jams with the Troll. Every day, Cho felt like kissing Rae upon their return each evening for having the foresight to modify the big, green machine into an honest to God, zombie-proof engine of destruction.
    “Twitcher on the left,” Elle called, and pointed at a corpse. Judging from its apron—and the Polo shirt emblazoned with the restaurant chain’s name—the zombie had once been a Steak and Shake employee. While unable to rise or even move much, the decayed thing still jerked awkwardly on the road at the blonde’s voice.
    “Got it,” Leo replied. Stepping forward, he acquired a sight picture through the Aimpoint red-dot sight on his rifle, then calmly put a 5.56mm round through the creature’s head. It slumped bonelessly to the earth, ceasing its convulsions, and young Salizar continued to move around the edge of the pack they’d turned into impressionistic art.
    “Ever wonder if these things remember who they used to be on some level? I mean yeah, they’re dumb as a sack of hammers, but do you think there’s anyone at home inside their heads? Aware, but not able to control themselves anymore?’
    “Does it matter?” Elle’s brow furrowed as she stood watch in the Humvee’s turret.
    Leo shrugged. “Not to me. They’d still have to be put down. Just curious, I guess.”
    Elle continued to observe as Kat quietly put a round through the brain of another corpse that had dragged itself forward over the pavement. The zombie was missing everything from mid-sternum down, thanks to the blonde-haired Sergeant’s deft work with their MG-34. “So what? You wanna ask one?”
    “Hey, don’t get me wrong,” Leo put a shot through another body’s forehead, “If they’re conscious in any way, it sucks. Knowing what they’ve been turned into and not having any control, constantly awake and on the move, eating people is a horrible thought. Don’t get me wrong, they’d still have to be destroyed. I didn’t fight most of my way through Columbus, armed only with a machete, to let