Skeleton Crew by Cameron Haley Read Free Book Online

matter how they died, no matter where in the city they died. That sounds like a much bigger event than your horror-movie outbreak.”
    â€œA CMI,” Lowell said, nodding thoughtfully. He looked up and noticed my irritation. “Critical Metaphysical Instability. A breakdown in the structure or natural processes of our reality.”
    â€œYeah, that sounds more like it,” I said.
    â€œIf you’re right, this situation represents an extreme threat to the United States.”
    â€œNo shit, Lowell.”
    â€œI mean, a CMI…this is End Times stuff, Ms. Riley.”
    â€œWell, I haven’t seen Jesus or heard any trumpets sounding so I guess it’s not all that bad. We just have to figure out what’s causing it and put it right.”
    â€œHow do you propose to do that?”
    â€œFuck if I know. Is it just L.A.? Have you gotten any reports from anywhere else?”
    â€œJust L.A.,” Granato said, “for now.”
    â€œThat’s good. Okay, I’ll look into it. I’m not sure how, but I’ll figure something out. I can ask Mr. Clean if he knows anything about it, though I consider it a last resort.”
    â€œMr. Clean?”
    â€œMy familiar. We don’t get along real well but he knows his shit.” Problem was, every time I went to him he was playing another angle, trying to get me killed. It was a hate-hate relationship.
    â€œHow quickly can you move?” Granato asked. “We have to submit a report on this. We can try to buy you some time and we can…suppress…the media coverage of the story. Butthe government won’t stand back and watch L.A. turn into a necropolis.”
    â€œA necropolis?”
    â€œYes,” Lowell said. “Even in the best of times, more than two hundred people die in L.A. every day. We’ve done some, uh, testing in the last twenty-four hours. Everyone who dies seems to go mad and degenerate into cannibalism, eventually, and that just creates more zombies. It won’t take long for this to become a city of the dead.”
    â€œHow does the cannibalism tie into your CNE theory?”
    â€œCMI,” said Lowell. “Based on the experiments, feeding on human flesh seems to be the only way to slow the zombies’ physical decomposition.”
    â€œSo they eat people, they don’t degenerate?”
    Granato shook his head. “They don’t rot as fast. Depending on how they died, some of these freaks don’t even know they’re dead. Either way, it drives them mad when they start in on the other white meat.”
    I nodded and rubbed my ear absently. “Okay, guys, I’ll try to hurry. I have other things on my to-do list, you know.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œWell, right now, I’ve got to clear some fucking zombies out of another hospital. Maybe you can help with that, it’ll go a lot faster. Then, I’ve got a gang war that just went hot. I’ve got to make sure that doesn’t blow up and put a lot more zombies on the street.”
    â€œIs that all?” Granato said, smirking.
    â€œNo, Granato, it’s not—thanks for asking. I’ve also got a party to go to tonight, and I haven’t even decided what to wear.”
    Â 
    Attending the Bacchanal Ball with everything that was going on felt a little like fiddling while Rome burned, but Iwasn’t just in it for the free food and booze. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to roll back the zombie outbreak. CMIs aren’t exactly my specialty. If it got out of control I’d need Oberon’s help to defend my territory and my people, and I didn’t want to irritate him by blowing off his little soiree.
    I also knew most of the supernatural A-list would be at the ball and I hoped I might find someone who could tell me what was going on. I’d struck out with Mr. Clean. He said it was probably a zombie plague and noted that Night of the Living Dead was on his channel