Night of the Living Dead by Christopher Andrews Read Free Book Online

of his gown, which was only held together by a single threadbare tie at this point, that the man had dried shit running down each leg — he had soiled himself, but hadn’t bothered to clean it up.
     
    Tom stopped so abruptly that Judy collided with him. She squealed — she had been looking over her shoulder at the woman from the water — and cut herself off when she saw the problem.
     
    The man wasn’t aware of them, yet. He was just staring into the car, as though admiring it, maybe considering it for purchase. If it weren’t for the gown and his state of uncleanliness, Tom would’ve had no idea anything was wrong.
     
    "What do we do?" Judy whispered into his ear, her voice trembling.
     
    Thunder echoed from the dark clouds Tom had seen earlier. The man glanced up for a brief moment, then returned his attention to the car. He hadn’t reacted to any of the other people as they ran screaming in all directions, fleeing in their own vehicles or on foot ... so maybe he would ignore them, too? Maybe they could circle around to the other side of the car, then slip in through the passenger door?
     
    A moan wheezed out of the man. He raised his left hand — Tom could see the hospital bracelet — and pressed his palm against the car window. That was all he did, it wasn’t even threatening, really ... but something about it crushed any thought of trying to sneak past him and into the car.
     
    Tugging Judy in another direction, Tom led her away and, thankfully, the man never realized they were there.
     
    When they had put a respectable distance between themselves and the soiled man, Judy asked again, "Tom, what are we going to do ?" He could tell she was near tears, but trying to keep a brave face for him.
     
    Tom didn’t know. As the minutes passed, he was finding the whole situation harder to process, to deal with. He hadn’t thought before, he’d reacted — to the drowned man, to the bloated woman, to the soiled man ... all a very simple, very easy Stay the hell away from them!
     
    But now ... now he was running through the fields north of the lake with his girlfriend, running from the most bizarre threats he could ever have imagined, it looked like rain, it would be getting dark soon, and they had lost their car.
     
    "Tom—!" she started again, panting as she strove to keep up with him.
     
    "I’m thinkin’ , honey!" he replied, his tone a little sharper than he had intended.
     
    Judy held her peace, but she fell further and further behind him as they ran, until Tom had to choose between slowing down or leaving her. He slowed down.
     
    "Tommy," she told him between gulps of air, "I’m scared."
     
    "Me, too."
     
    "We can’t keep running like this. Where are we going?"
     
    He shook his head. "Don’t know yet. It’ll take us too long to get back to town on foot, not with those ... those weird people runnin’ around."
     
    God, he thought, prayed, did she really come right out of the water like that? Was that real?
     
    Thunder sounded again, and Judy insisted, "We need to call our folks, Tommy."
     
    "There’s ..." He looked around. "There’s that old farmhouse not too far from here. Remember? I pointed it out to you last Thursday when we were lookin’ for—"
     
    "I remember," she nodded.
     
    "I think the old lady still lives there. It might be worth a shot. Then we could maybe borrow her phone."
     
    "Do you really think so, Tom?"
     
    He opened his mouth to answer, and that’s when he saw the man wandering through the field about a hundred yards away from them. That’s all he was doing, just wandering around, but after the outlandish things Tom had just seen, he was very sensitive to the man’s lurching, unsteady stride. He didn’t know what it meant, but he sure as hell didn’t like it.
     
    Squeezing Judy’s hand tighter, he said, "We don’t have a choice, honey. We’ve gotta go. Right now."
     
    Tom struck out for the farmhouse, and Judy followed