Infernal Sky by Dafydd Ab Hugh Read Free Book Online Page B

whom Corporal Taggart reported encountering on Phobos.”
    He was on one of my favorite subjects. “We wondered about the smart ones when we were doing the L.A. mission.”
    â€œWhat were your conclusions?”
    I suddenly noticed how long we’d been walking. “How much farther before we reach the zombies?”
    â€œNot long. Just don’t ask if we’re there yet! It’ll make me think of you as a kid again.”
    â€œIs there a rest room I can use?”
    â€œJust a few feet beyond the zombie pen.” He sounded impatient. “So what did all of you conclude?”
    â€œWhenever a normal, stupid one talks, there must be a smarter one somewhere, sending the words.”
    â€œLike broadcasting a radio signal. We’ve beenworking along the same lines. Do you think the spider-minds do their own thinking?”
    â€œSearch me.”
    â€œThey could be on the receiving end as well.”
    â€œSo tell me about your zombies.” I was truly interested. We’d walked a good distance and still no sight of the corpse-creeps.
    â€œWell, we have a total of thirteen. We’ve run identity checks. You know how impossible it is to destroy information today.”
    â€œYeah, the monsters can’t rip a big hole in the Net, even with their fat asses.”
    â€œThey’ve slowed us down, but they can’t stop us cold.”
    â€œWe’ll stop them cold.”
    â€œAttagirl! Anyway, one of the zombies was once an editor named Anders Monsen. He repeats phrases from his profession. At least, that’s what we think he’s doing. One of the women is Michelle DeLude, a blonde. She keeps repeating how she must get to Las Vegas in time for her wedding. Mark Stephens ran a bookstore. Butler Shaffer was a law professor. Tina Karos was a paralegal. She’s the brunette. Both the ladies were very attractive in life. Shame to see them monsterized. The other eight were seamen stationed right here in Hawaii. One was a huge man his friends called Big Lee. Don’t remember the names of the others.”
    Ackerman could have been a teacher. He made me want to meet his special class of dead people. I was looking forward to it . . . until the door marked Maximum Security swung open and a large shape filled the doorway, swinging a meat cleaver with which it hacked off Dr. Ackerman’s head.

7
    I ’ll never admit this to Arlene, but for the first time I doubt my faith. I don’t want to be Albert the agnostic. I have to write this out of my system. When I’m finished, I’ll destroy it and write her a real letter. It might seem stupid to write to someone I could speak to in person, but when I look into her green eyes, I become tongue-tied. The way she arches her right eyebrow and smiles with a smile as hot as her flaming red hair, I just can’t talk to her. She offers me herself, and all I can do is tell her about my religion.
    She was the first sight I beheld after the operation. They did what they could for my face, but I didn’t need to look in a mirror to realize I had permanent scars. My face still burns. It will burn forever from the new valleys and ridges etched into my forehead and cheeks and chin. I suppose there is consolation in not being as ugly as an imp. Of course, I’ll have a head start if I’m ever turned into a zombie.
    I know it’s wrong to worry about my appearance when I could have been blind for the rest of my life. May God forgive my vanity.
    Arlene won’t let me be sorry for myself. She bent over my hospital bed, smiling like an angel, andkissed up and down the tortured flesh of my disfigured face. “You’ll always be my Albert,” she whispered so that only I could hear.
    We’ve shared experiences few mortals will ever know. We’ve faced down the wrath of a spider-mind. We’ve tasted the brimstone of a fire eater. (I can’t figure out why the scientists here call those