My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road by David Powers King Read Free Book Online Page A

think straight. Jewel was going on and on about boys from her school. She said they were stupid, as if they were still alive and well back home. None of us knew anything to the contrary. It was her way of keeping the world sane. She didn’t let the horrible truth weigh her down at every turn. I gave up thinking that way. No sense in lying to myself.
    “Another block,” Cody said. “I’ll wave us in.”
    It was at Nebraska Street when things got interesting. A semi-truck blocked the east road. On top of the freight, sitting in a lawn chair under a beach umbrella—with a rifle in his lap—was a man in a checkered hunting shirt. They’d made a barrier of trucks and construction equipment. Dead Vectors sat slumped against the walls. Other bodies were left sprawled in the street. Cody whistled. A door of plywood opened.
    My first reaction was to reach for my .45 when I saw the people walking around. A few boys looked at me. They had school backpacks on. An officer saw us coming and directed us down the street. Men and woman followed as we passed. Some ran off and came back, holding rifles or shotguns. We were soon guided to a partially fenced, car-barricaded health care center.
    The place was a fortress. They had a sniper on the roof. The second we stopped in front of the entrance, half a dozen people surrounded our Explorer with their weapons drawn. Cody jumped off. The car bounced.
    Chloe growled again. “Put those guns down, people!” Cody told them. “You’ll scare the kids.”
    I glared at him. Who was he calling kids?
    “Cody, get Sam,” one of them said, a man with a black bandana around his head. He was as old as my dad, with a lot less hair. “She’ll want to talk to them.”
    Two thoughts ran through my head right then:
    Who’s Sam? and Sam’s a she?
    We waited. Each of us did our part to stay calm—except for Jewel. She was listening to her music again. With no A/C running, it was a tense sit in the crowded car. From what I could tell, these people hadn’t bathed in some time. Their skin had a grimy, grungy look to it.
    Dad leaned his arm on the window. “Nice place you have here.” No one said a word to him.
    They just kept staring at us.
    “Are we in trouble?” Mom asked.
    “Nah.” Dad shook his head. “We’re strangers. They have every right to be cautious of us. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t have some kind of protocol.”
    Moments later, Cody came out with two people: a short, redheaded woman in a collared shirt and large sunglasses, and a tall black man in a sheriff’s uniform. The woman walked right up to the front of our Explorer without looking at any of us first. She then came back around to Dad’s door, put on a friendly smile and leaned a suntanned elbow on the side mirror.
    “Illinoise, huh?” she said, smacking gum. “You’re a long ways from home.”
    I had to glare at Sam, for she had triggered one of my many pet peeves. The s in Illinois is silent!
    Dad laughed. “Chicago’s not exactly the best place to raise a family these days.”
    “It never was . . .” Mom uttered.
    Sam, or who I assumed was Sam, gave the rest of us a glance through the windows. She chewed on her gum like a cow’s cud. “Two adults, three kids, and a dog . . . I’m surprised you made it this far.” She leaned on Dad’s door, stowing away the wad in her cheek as she flashed a bigger smile. “What’s it like beyond the state line? Seen any others hunkered down like us?”
    “One man in Iowa,” Dad said. “He turned on us.”
    “Come out. Keep your hands where I can see’em.”
    Like a hostage, I opened my door and stepped out. Kaylynn and Jewel followed, only my sister took the instructions a little too far. She stood on her toes and stretched both hands as high as she could, just like a desperate pupil waiting for a teacher to pick on her—holding her 30.06. Dad came around, retrieved her rifle and stowed it inside the car through his open window.
    “ Hand’s up means