The Dark Knight (Apocalypse Weird 2) by Nick Cole Read Free Book Online

you find this... this stuff?” growled
Frank suddenly.
    Everyone turned.
    “Last night,” said Holiday.
    “After we went to sleep you just let yourself out and went
traipsing around.”
    “I locked the gate behind me... and I can do whatever I
want.  We’re not prisoners.”
    “Well, I’m glad about that.  This time you locked the gate. 
Good job, kid.  But what if you’d gotten into trouble out there?”
    No one said anything.
    Frank continued.  “What if you’d gotten into trouble out
there and none of us knew about it?”
    “Then, worst case scenario, I’d be dead.  End of problem,”
replied Holiday evenly.
    “No, that isn’t the worst case scenario, kid.  The worst
case is, wounded, you might have dragged a bunch of them back here and
surprised us all.  Maybe even died trying to get through the gate and then we
wake up and they’re inside again because of your selfishness!  Or maybe you
could have even gotten bit and decided not to tell anyone about it ‘cause
you’re that kinda guy.”
    “Selfishness,” Holiday said flatly.  “I did this for you. 
For all of you!”
    Frank snorted.  “You don’t do anything for anyone but
yourself.”
    Holiday thought of Ash.  Thought of holding her hand again
and their moment at the pool.  The angry look Frank shot at Holiday told him
Frank knew exactly what he was thinking.  Knew why Holiday really did it, even
if Holiday didn’t know himself.  Or didn’t want to admit it.
    “C’mon, Frank,” said Candace.  “It’s actually a pretty good
idea.”
    Frank glared at them all.  Then, “It is.  I wish I’d thought
of it.  Because if I had... I’d have waited and worked as a team to get it done
rather than trying to grandstand and play the hero, jeopardizing all of our
lives in the process.”
    Holiday walked forward.
    “Frank, I’m sorry.  I didn’t think of it like that, I...”
    “You didn’t think, kid.  That’s your number one problem!”
said Frank, landing a thick finger right in the center of Holiday’s chest.
    Holiday swallowed.  Lowered his head and tried again. 
    “You’re right about that.”  He took a breath.  “But can you
let go of that, Frank, and see that this might actually work for us?”
    When he looked up, Frank was staring into his eyes.  The
warmth, the teamwork, the friendship that had been there during those first few
days when it had just been the two of them, fighting off that fire, all that
was gone now.
    And Holiday missed it.  He’d really liked Frank. 
    “Alright, kid,” growled Frank.  “Tell us how you figured
this one out.”

Chapter Five
     
     
     
     
    Holiday had gone to the construction
equipment rental yard in the night.  He’d crossed quiet streets where another
car might never again drive.  He’d steered clear of the two neighborhoods he
passed.  The one where he’d first seen Ash running for her life and the other
they’d fled into and barely escaped from the dead end cul-de-sac.  At the
entrances to each neighborhood, he watched the quiet streets within and the
tall, dark houses that lay along them.  There was no one, no living thing or
zombie there.
    There might never be again.
    And yet it did not feel empty in its seeming lack of life. 
Holiday knew unthinking eyes could be watching him from inside those houses. 
Forever trapped, forever watching.  He knew that kind of horror was possible
now.
    He continued down the little side street to the bottom of
the road that ran smack into the three story multi-building apartment complex. 
“Vista Del Sol” its floodlit entrance proclaimed in the stillness of the
night.  Through an arch with a high bell tower rising above, he could see a
courtyard beyond and the remains of bodies lying on the cobblestones there.
    It reminded him of some lost desert city in the ancient
Middle East after a battle.  An empty city that refused to yield to siege and
now, as the invaders plundered its further reaches, here along its