Dead Sea by Brian Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

arms around Malik and Tasha.
        "That your mom?"
        Tasha nodded.
        "Anybody else left alive in this building?"
        "No," Tasha said. "Everybody else is gone. They either left or…"
        She didn't have to finish.
        "Mr. Lahav helped us out after Momma died," Malik said. "He let us stay in his apartment. Cooked for us. Read us bedtime stories. I liked him, except when he made us brush our teeth. He said we got to be our own dentists now, so it was important to brush three times a day, even if we didn't eat. But he went out for water and never come back."
        "And how long ago was that?"
        The boy shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe five days?"
        "He's dead by now," Tasha said. "Those things got to him."
        "We don't know that," Malik insisted. "Maybe he got hurt, or trapped. We should go out and find him."
        "Don't be stupid. He's one of them now, Malik. A zombie."
        "No he ain't."
        "He is too."
        "Guys." I held up my hands. "Let's not fight, okay? That won't help us get out of here. Other than Mr. Lahav, is there anybody else in the building?"
        They both shook their heads.
        "Are there any zombies?"
        Tasha shuddered. "No. Thank God."
        "And this shotgun is your only weapon."
        "Yeah," Malik said, holding it out to me, "but I can't get it to work no more."
        "Let me see it." I took the shotgun from him and pumped it, the way I'd seen it done in the movies. An empty cartridge ejected from the side and bounced off the wall.
        "I tried that," Malik said, pouting. "Wouldn't do it for me. Stupid gun."
        Before this, I didn't have much experience with kids. One of my old boyfriends had a daughter (he'd been married for several years before finally coming to terms with the fact that he was gay), but I'd never really interacted with her, and had dumped her father after a few dates.
        "Tell you what." I smiled. "Let me keep this one, and soon as we find more, I'll pick out one more your size. Sound good?"
        He looked reluctant. "I guess so. You best not be tricking me, though. Just because I ain't strong enough to use this shotgun don't mean it don't belong to me."
        "It's all yours, little man. I'm just borrowing it until we find a safer place to stay."
        "Safer?" Tasha asked, confused. "Hold up a minute. We're not going nowhere. Malik and I are staying right here. Momma and Mr. Lahav both told us to-"
        "Listen," I interrupted. "You hear that? They're going to get in. If they can't break the door down, sooner or later one of them will get lucky enough to bust a window. Then we're screwed. And there's something else, too."
        "What?"
        "The city is on fire. That's how you guys found me. I was running away from it when I got trapped down there."
        "Fire?" Malik's eyes grew wide. "How bad is it?"
        "My whole neighborhood is gone. It's spreading block by block and it's coming this way. It'll be here soon. We don't have much time."
        "But if we go outside, the zombies will get us," Tasha said.
        "And if we stay in here," I reminded her, "we'll burn to death."
        "So we're screwed." Malik folded his arms across his chest.
        I patted him on the head and smiled. "Not quite yet."
        My knees popped as I stood up. Downstairs, the pounding continued. I glanced out the window and saw more zombies converging on our building. They were four deep around the door, clawing and shoving each other. More of them emerged from side streets and alleys. I didn't know how they communicated, or even if they did, but somehow they knew that dinner was inside this building. All they had to do was get inside.
        The fires were spreading, too. The entire horizon was now glowing orange and yellow. As hard as it was to believe, it looked like the entire city was going up in flames. The rain we'd had earlier in the day had done