J.L. Doty - Dead Among Us 01 - When Dead Ain’t Dead Enough by J.L. Doty Read Free Book Online Page A

to avoid them, and yet they had no effect other than to momentarily snap its reptilian head from side to side. But Paul didn’t care. He only cared about Suzanna and Cloe, and the monster that had run into the kitchen after them. Let this monster do what it would, he cared only to stop the monster in the kitchen from harming those he loved. He could sense it hunting them, stalking them. He could sense its hunger, ravenous, uncontrolled, a blinding desire to rip them limb from limb. And while the monster on top of him beat at him, tore at him, choked him senseless, he concentrated on the beast in the kitchen, focused on it, and wished for only one thing, prayed, hoped, demanded it be gone from the here and now. And then something went pop, like a cork pulled from a bottle of wine.
    The monster atop him flinched, looked momentarily toward the kitchen, then turned back to Paul and they locked eyes.
    It was as if he was a little child terrified of the dark of his bedroom, and suddenly one of his parents walked in and flicked on the lights. At that moment all fear and terror fled. He looked into the creature’s eyes and felt it pulling on him, not pulling physically, but pulling on something through the contact between its clawed hand and his throat. It felt as if the creature were reaching deep into his heart, into his soul, pulling on the core of his being. And Paul wanted to give it everything it desired, for suddenly he loved and trusted it as he’d never loved anything before. But a small spark within him knew he must resist that pull .
    As if his mind had split into two separate beings Paul yielded to the pull and embraced the desire he saw in the monster’s eyes, while that spark within him found the letter opener and gripped its handle. But it and his right hand were now pinned beneath his back. He tried to look away from the monster’s blood-red, goat-slitted eyes but couldn’t. The monster continued to pull through the physical contact with his throat and he was beginning to see sparkling motes of unconsciousness as he threw everything into resisting that pull . The monster snarled, cried out and reared its head back.
    Paul got the letter opener free, swung it out in a roundhouse arc just as the monster’s claws tightened with crushing force about his throat, slammed the letter opener into the side of its head and buried it there.
    The monster screamed, rolled off him in a snarling frenzy, its jaws snapping at empty air, hissing and spinning about like a maddened animal. Where the letter opener protruded from the side of its head the wound sputtered a greasy smoke as if the letter opener were a red-hot brand.
    Paul staggered to his feet looking for another weapon, and then the door to his apartment exploded. The blast peppered Paul’s left side with splinters and knocked him to the floor. It blew the monster across the room and slammed it against the wall in a shower of splinters where it slumped to the floor.
    Paul’s head reeled from the concussion of the explosion. He rolled onto his back, thinking he had to get to his feet no matter how much the room swayed. He got to his elbows but could go no further until the dizziness subsided. He was surprised to see the older fellow who’d knocked on his door last week stride purposefully across the room to the monster, a young version of Joseph Stalin a few steps behind him. The old fellow leaned over the monster, pulled a shiny, needle-shaped spike from his coat, plunged it into the monster’s chest, and held it there as the monster struggled and kicked. The old guy began chanting something in a language Paul didn’t recognize. Two more strangers, another old man and an ugly fellow with long, greasy blond hair, rushed past the old fellow into the kitchen.
    Joe Stalin looked up from whatever the old man was doing to the monster, looked at Paul and frowned angrily, then reached into his coat and pulled out a revolver the size of a howitzer. He crossed the room to