Nightmare of the Dead: Rise of the Zombies by Vincenzo Bilof Read Free Book Online

world she had awakened to a hateful reflection of the world she'd left behind already? Maybe the war itself was eternal; it never had a true beginning, and it would never find its end.
    It was this sense of fatalism and disconnection from reality that pushed her into the dark street. The dog lifted its head from its forepaws and whined weakly. McPhee didn't seem to know where to turn, so he slunk into the shadows in a foolish attempt to hide from the hard gazes of the other men.
    She kept her eyes on Santiago, though she wanted to check the corners and the windows for signs of an ambush. The man held on to a rigid code; he intended to kill her in the duel, ambush be damned. It was what he wanted, though he himself did not fear the bullet, which might find its way into his own flesh. He would have accepted it as inevitable, and he may have cursed his own folly for allowing himself to be defeated.
    When she finally stood across from him, she could feel the town's silence creep along the top of her spine and make its way down to the small of her back. She purged all thought from her mind. Her limbs felt incredibly loose, and her knees wanted to collapse inward. It wasn't supposed to feel this way. She was a professional killer. She'd dealt death to monsters spawned from the very depths of a deranged imagination. This had to be a dream. How did it get to this point? When a mosquito fell on the side of her neck, she kept her eyes wide open and dared herself to blink. She wasn't tense. Her arms felt as if they would swing around her body if a light wind glanced through the street. A man was going to kill her. She couldn't see his eyes. Nothing moved. The stars seemed only inches above the town; they might fall from the sky and burn the town with bright flame. The moment seemed to stretch on into a void where time was no longer counted and breaths were inconsequential. Her chest did not rise or fall. Crickets sang in the wilderness. Night creatures crept into the darkness and savored the air.
    The revolver seemed to appear in her hand the moment she thought about pulling. Santiago's gun appeared in his hand. She cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. Gunsmoke stung her nostrils, and her hand jerked back violently. She stood for a moment in the haze of gunshot, until finally realizing that her gun was no longer in her hand. Santiago stood across from her, his gun still aimed at her. She looked down at her body. There was no pain. She wasn't shot. But hadn't she fired?
    Her pistol smoked in the dirt at her feet.
    "You're a touch slow," Santiago said while taking deliberate steps toward her.
    "Your shot was lucky," she sneered. Her heart fluttered and her entire body felt as if it were being dangled over the edge of a cliff. Suddenly, more than anything, she wanted life. Who was she? Who were these people? She'd played into their hands, but no more.
    "Draw your other revolver," he demanded.
    She spat. "What the hell do you want with me? What's the point of all this?"
    "You truly have forgotten everything."
    "You let me live. You let me survive Harper's Ferry. For what?"
    "Let you survive…" Santiago stopped and considered.
    "I’ll draw the revolver and give you a fight, but I want to know why. Who am I? What were those damn things supposed to be? There can't be more of them. I don't care how much of a hard-ass you think you are, you can't let more of them loose."
    "You ask for much. This is the most you've spoken to me in years. The Negro woman corrupted you, changed you. We thought those changes would fade once your memory was wiped clean, but we were wrong. If you could be the woman I once knew…"
    Hooves thundered on the edge of town, and Bannan seized the opportunity. She quickly dove into the ground and retrieved her revolver. Santiago was already moving, twisting away ; she brought her gun up and fired from one knee. She only had a moment before the entire town was set afire by war. She was badly outnumbered, but she had to