Hamsikker: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel by Russ Watts Read Free Book Online Page A

Jonas’s head, and Jonas wondered why he was still standing. He flinched as Cliff pulled the trigger again when Jonas was only a foot away. They both realised at the same time that the clicking noise they could hear was the gun’s empty chamber. Cliff had used all the bullets taking down the zombies, and finishing off the wounded survivors making sure they didn’t come back.
    Jonas barged into Cliff and they went down in a heap. A large powerful fist crunched into Jonas’s jaw, and he was sure he felt a tooth dislodge itself. He had the advantage of being on top though and head-butted Cliff, breaking the man’s bulbous nose. Jonas pushed himself up off the floor, and punched Cliff square on the chin, causing the man to squeal in pain. Now the man’s nose and jaw were broken, and Jonas couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t care what happened. He couldn’t see, feel, or hear anything, except the pathetic creature beneath him howling in pain. He launched a tirade of punches at Cliff, repeatedly striking him in the head, raining down blows on the man’s face until Cliff’s arms began to sag. Jonas screamed as he pummelled Cliff into the ground. A tornado couldn’t have stopped Jonas then, such was his rage. The mechanic’s eyes had swollen shut, and his face was a bloody, broken mess. The man was not just a liability, but a murderer.
    “Jonas, stop, you’re going to kill him.” Tyler put an arm around Jonas. “Leave him.”
    Jonas sank back, his chest heaving as he drew in breath. He spat out bloody saliva, and turned to face Tyler. “That’s the least he deserves.”
    Tyler nodded. “Maybe so, maybe so. Here, let me help you.” Tyler lifted Jonas to his feet, and the men looked at each other. Nothing needed to be said about what had just happened. They both understood the gravity of the situation.
    “We need to get out of here,” said Tyler. “There’ll be more. There always is.”
    “Just a second,” wheezed Jonas. From where he stood, he could still see Mary’s body, and his rage hadn’t dissipated yet. He didn’t want to go back out there to Dakota, to the others, and still be worked up like this. He needed to let it out. Beating Cliff had seemed so just, and so right; so why did he feel so bitter? Why did he want to cry? He hadn’t hit a man for a long time, much as he had been tempted to during the past few weeks. He had to clear his head. Once they were back outside, they had to be alert, careful, and quiet. If he wasn’t on the level, he was a liability, and there was more than just Dakota to worry about. The whole group looked up to him and Erik for leadership. If he couldn’t get them out of this mess, then it was all up to Erik. The man had a family though, and neither of them wanted to put more responsibility on the other. It wasn’t fair. Cliff had royally fucked them over.
    “What do we do about him?” asked Jonas. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Cliff. He could hear the rasping breaths behind him, and knew that if they took Cliff with them, they would have to carry him. If they didn’t take him, they were essentially condemning him to death.
    Tyler looked at Jonas. “You want to bring him with us? Even after this, after what he did? Where do we even go? I mean, Jesus, we’ve lost our safe house, we’ve nowhere else to go, and it’ll be sundown soon. There are zombies out there who will have heard this, you know? If we leave him, he’ll die, no doubt about it. Perhaps between two or three of us, we could carry him, but…”
    Jonas grabbed Tyler’s gun, turned around, and pointed it at Cliff. He wanted to fire a bullet straight into the man’s temple. He wanted to forget this nightmare, to get rid of the bad egg, but he couldn’t do it. He lowered the gun and handed it back to a startled Tyler. Rage had turned to defeat, and Jonas’s shoulders slumped.
    “We’ll say he was bitten. He wouldn’t have made it. He’d have just slowed us down until he turned.