The Colony: Descent by Michaelbrent Collings Read Free Book Online Page B

sounding terrified
of Ken’s incipient transformation, more like normal curiosity.  She believed
Aaron, Ken could hear that; believed the cowboy completely and utterly.
    “Adrenaline’s
wearing off.”  Aaron nodded.  “Christopher, can you hang onto him?”
    “Uhhh.” 
Christopher gazed at Ken.
    “Oh, for good damn
hell’s sake,” muttered the cowboy.  “They turn fast , kid.  He’d have
changed if he was gonna change.”  He shoved Ken at Christopher, who caught him.
    Ken saw Christopher
was grinning.  Hassling the cowboy.  “No, I believe you, man.  Just I don’t
like hauling around a guy who broke my nose.”
    Aaron snorted. 
Started to turn to face toward the front of the cabin.  Christopher’s voice
turned him around.  “How’d you know he wasn’t going to turn?”
    Aaron spun around
again.  Back toward the bottom of the incline, the semi-slide the airplane had
become.  “You really want to discuss that now?” he said.
    Christopher
gulped.  Ken saw the smile leave the young man’s face.  “Guess not.”
    Ken looked.
    Aaron had been
busy.  Easily a dozen zombies were wrapped up in wire, pinned to seats or to
the walls.
    But there were
still another dozen or so.  All in the aisle.  All between them and whatever
might lay at the bottom of the plane.
    Ken looked back.
    Buck holding Hope.
    Maggie holding Liz.
    Dorcas, swaying on
her feet.
    Another dozen
undead coming behind them.

  22
     
     
    Clunk .
    That was all Ken
could hear, for some reason.
    Clunk .
    The sound of
Christopher’s makeshift weapon bouncing off the floor.
    He wasn’t hearing
the moan of the dozen undead ahead, the dozen more behind.
    Just… clunk . 
As though Ken’s only mental response to this impossible moment was an
insistence that he should have died a few moments ago.
    Christopher was
holding Ken up, practically bearing all his weight.  Ken’s arm was over the
young man’s right shoulder, and Christopher held the thin bar over his head
with his left hand –
    (clunk )
    – as though it
might scare back the two dozen assailants moving toward them.  Small chance. 
Though Ken did note that these zombies seemed to move differently than the ones
the survivors had encountered thus far.  Still fast, still single-minded – as
far as dead things could be “single-minded” – but they seemed a bit slower. 
Not all-the-way-slow, but certainly not the same super-speed that the things in
the elevator had been.
    Ken wondered what
else was different about this brand of zombies.  What other ways the undead
zombies varied from the once-alive varieties.
    It was all
academic.  Whether or not the –
    ( clunk )
    – things moved
super-fast or just normal-fast, they were about to pounce.  Ken could see that. 
The ones in front and the ones behind.  Gathered to jump.
    Maggie and Buck,
each holding their frightening and precious passengers, had drawn close to one
another.  Then pulled closer to the rest of the group.  Dorcas and Christopher
and Ken were already in a tight knot.
    Clunk .
    Aaron was standing
on the lower edge of the survivors, and Ken could tell the older man was
debating whether to make a stand here with the last of his friends or wade into
the dozen zombies that were now about fifteen feet away and go out fighting.
    CLUNK .
    The sound was
louder in Ken’s mind, almost reaching audible levels.  Muffled but powerful,
the sound of a life ending.  Hollow, as if to signify it didn’t have any
meaning.
    The zombies behind
them, the ones that were higher on the tilting slide that the plane had become,
moved closer.  As though taking care to make sure nothing went wrong.
    CLUNK .
    That damn hollow
sound.  The empty noise of humanity’s passing.
    Maggie began to
weep.
    Aaron tensed, and
Ken could tell the cowboy was going in.  He wouldn’t go calmly, wouldn’t meet
death with the silence of the undead things around them.
    Buck whispered
something.  Ken thought it was