Swarm (Dead Ends) by G.D. Lang Read Free Book Online Page B

deep into the small of my back. Fear mixed with a call from nature that could no longer be ignored forced the urine out in full force, the satisfaction one normally experiences with such an urgent expulsion nowhere to be found, lost in the numbness that accompanies the realization that your life may soon come to an end.
    I wanted to fight but could do nothing, my body otherwise detained until its base needs were met. I expected a “freeze!” or “don’t move!” but no such exclamations were made. Instead, the grip on my neck loosened, the cold steel on my back removed as a gravelly female voice painfully whimpered “help me…” A barely audible whisper that no doubt began in her brain as a full-fledged yell until the pain forced her vocal cords to involuntarily constrict. I quickly turned away, creating distance between us that would allow me to put everything back where it belonged. I was able to see her now, an unusually tall, wiry woman who looked as though she’d been fighting on the front lines of some unnamed war in a region I couldn’t pronounce. She grabbed her stomach not unlike a pregnant woman having labor pains, though she didn’t appear to be with child. A shooting pain must have found its way to her hands as the gun dropped to the floor discharging a single round which ricocheted several times before losing momentum, causing me to instinctually cover my head as if a tree branch were about to fall on me. How I thought this particular move would stop a bullet, I wasn’t sure. But it gave me a miniscule, if not false sense of security.
    I readied myself to fight, taking a low stance with fists reluctantly held up for no other reason than I thought this is what one does in a situation like this. Fisticuffs not being a particular specialty of mine, I was relieved to see this lanky woman slowly fall backwards into the side of the nearest stall, a slight indent visible as she sank to the floor. I had managed to handle Jim Bob in the end but I wasn’t so naïve as to think I was now an assassin who could handle any perpetrator, undead or not, with ease. I’ll leave that kind of ignorance for the alpha-males who charge into a situation chests pumped and guns loaded, supremely confident of their own invincibility. I was out of my element to be sure but submitting to that vital truth is what I believe will keep me alive in the end. You have to adapt to the environment because it sure as hell isn’t going to adapt to you.
    As her strength dwindled, her hands dropped to her sides revealing a large wound on the inside of her arm just below the elbow. It oozed with a yellowish puss that reminded me of a sinus infection I had several months back. The blood encircling the wound seemed to be clotting at a rapid pace, congealing before it even had a chance to drip to the floor. I could just make out teeth marks that created an uneven tearing of the skin. The crude hallmark of blunt human teeth forced to do the dirty work without the aid of a knife and fork. Indisputable empirical evidence of a zombie plague and an official end to the reality I had come to know. What happened next only intensified the point. All of the veins in her body seemed to be expanding and taking on a blue hue similar to the veins we all see on the inside of our wrists but much more pronounced. She began ripping at her face and neck as if trying to peel away the layers of the virus that had clearly taken root in her blood stream.
    She strained to look at me and harder still to painfully yelp out “End it...Now, dammit! PLEASE!”She was crying now as her eyes began to turn yellow, her tears tinged with blood as she pleaded not for the sparing of her life but instead for the termination of it while it still belonged to her and not the virus. I readied the crossbow, taking a few seconds to familiarize myself with its intended mode of operation. Our eyes locked with an intensity befitting of the situation. We both knew what needed to be done and