The Dead Series (Book 4): Dead End by Jon Schafer Read Free Book Online

boom , followed by us getting eaten, so I guess everything went well.”
    “I was down in the kitchen watching him for a while before I went up to help Tick-Tock,” Heather told him. “It was scary for a second; when he was moving the pot off the stove, some of the Styrofoam dripped onto it. I thought Brain was going to shit one big brick when it happened, but luckily none of it hit the open flame.” Laughing, she added, “When he said, ‘Got to remember to turn that flame off next time,’ it sounded like his balls were in his throat “
    “They would have been if it went off,” Steve commented with a laugh, “or more likely in New Jersey. How long until he’s ready?”
    Walking over to the bed, Heather held out her hand and said, “ He’s molded them all and set the detonators in them, but he told me they still have to cool and harden for a little bit. He said it would be another hour or so, which means it’s time for you to get up and get to work. Tick-Tock and Denise are almost done getting everyone organized, so the next step is to take them on the roof for target practice. We could use your help.”
    Steve grimaced as he grabbed her hand and let her pull him to his feet. After steadying himself, he stopped for a moment, thinking about something that had been weighing on his mind. Quietly, he asked, “What do you think our chances are?”
    Heather stopped to think about this. After a moment, she said, “Overall, I have no idea. I learned a long time ago that when I’m facing something that seems overwhelming, to break it down into steps. First, when you consider that we have to travel over forty miles -”
    “Double that,” Steve interrupted. “It’s over forty miles to Fort Polk as the crow flies, and since we’re driving it will be more than that. Then you have to consider that we’re going to have to make a huge detour to the north to get around the mob coming at us from Jasper -”
    “So call it seventy miles to get to Polk,” Heather interrupted him this time, “but once we get into radio range, we should be able to get someone to come pick us up, so I’m going to go back to my estimate of forty.”
    Steve opened his mouth to say something else, but Heather cut him off with a warning look not to interrupt her again. He saw this and chose to remain silent, so she continued, “The best way to complete a journey is in stages. First stage, we have to get away from the mansion. I think that once we do that and get into the woods, we should be in pretty good shape.”
    “Why’s that?” Steve asked. “We’ve probably got thousands of Zs around us, not counting the ones bunched up around the mansion, and they’re not going to just let us leave without following.”
    “ Well, from everything we’ve seen and heard lately, it seems like the dead are mobbing up into big groups,” Heather told him. “We’ve got these big herds -”
    Steve laughed and said, “Herds?”
    Heather shrugged and said, “It’s as good a name as any, now back to what I was saying, we have these big herds wandering all around us, but I think that since they’re all bunched together, they’ll be easier to spot and avoid. If we stay on the move and send scouts ahead of our main group, we should be able to avoid them. Think about it, most of the people we’ve lost have been to one or two Zs that were hidden somewhere and came at us from nowhere. From here on out, though, we’ll be in a position to keep track of them. As for the dead that follow us, we’ll just have to figure out a way to lose them. When we were looking at the map earlier with Tick-Tock and Denise, I saw a couple of choke points that we can use to slow them down.”
    “I was just going over the topographic map before you came in , and I saw the same thing,” Steve told her. “It’s a good plan, and while it sounds good saying it here, who’s going to be the person that stays at these choke points and keeps the Zs from following?”
    “No