Dead Flesh: Stories of the Living Dead by Josh Hilden Read Free Book Online

relentless sounds of gunfire as the humans attempted to hold back the horrors assaulting them.
                  Before he could say more the sleighs radio came to life.
                  “Santa can you hear me?” the slightly distorted voice of Donner asked. “Santa this is the Workshop, please come in.”
                  “I hear you Donner,” Santa replied banking to the left in order to get a view of the Interstate below him. “Old friend, please tell me things aren’t as bad as they look.”
                  The line of traffic on the river of concrete was stalled and snarled. Santa could see multiple wrecks and more than a hundred of the vehicles were burning. Like ants escaping the mound, thousands of terrified people fled the walking monsters that’d not so long ago been their friends and family. Santa’s belly filled with icy fear as one by one people were brought down by the enemy.
                  “Kris,” Donner replied and Santa heard the catch in the mighty male’s voice, “I think it’s worse than you realize.”
                  “Rudolph, take us down,” Santa ordered indicating a small clear spot on the interstate. “I need to see what’s really happening down there.”
                  The team captain guided the sleigh toward the ground.
                  “How can it be worse Donner?” Santa asked as Rudolph controlled the descent and landing.
                  “Santa, it’s all over the world,” Donner replied sounding breathless. “Every major city on Earth is reporting some form of this outbreak.”
                  The sleigh settled as gently as a butterfly on the frozen asphalt and Santa stood to observe the area. He was in a pool of calm amidst an ocean of chaos. None of the living or the dead could see him through the magical cloaking field shrouding the sleigh and team.
                  What he saw broke his holly jolly heart.
                  There may be a being in the infinite Multiverse that loved the human race more than Santa Claus, but he had yet to meet them. For the entirely of his long and wonderful life Santa had done his best to relieve suffering and bring joy. For every one act the humans attributed to him there were a thousand they were unaware of. He couldn’t do everything but he did what he could. Now he was confronted with a problem he’d never considered. But he was Santa and he’d lived long and done much.
                 
                  HELP ME SANTA!
     
                  The words, in the voice of a young girl exploded in his mind. Like in the stories by that nice boy from Maine who wrote the scary books Mrs. Claus loved, Santa had a little psychic twinkle. He could reach out and touch the minds of the boys and girls all across the globe, it was one of the ways he complied his list. But it was a rare and special thing when a child could reach out and touch back.
                  “Donner, my friend, are you still there?” Santa asked.
                  “Yes Santa, what do you want us to do?” the senior reindeer asked.
                  Never in the history of the human race had Santa ever considered taking such a direct hand in the affairs of men and women. But there’d never been a crisis of this magnitude, even the plague paled compared to what he was seeing. Decision firmed and joined the mirth that lived in his eyes.
                  “Donner, rally all of the herds and every free elf not needed to maintain the village. Get them out into the field. We need to help as many people as we possibly can. Put every resource we have into finding out what caused this and what we might do to fix it,” Santa grunted taking up the reins and indicating for the team to take flight.
                  “All right Santa, I’ll get them