The Undead World (Book 1): The Apocalypse by Peter Meredith Read Free Book Online Page A

Krauthammer couldn't see it because of the angle.
    “ Is it one of them?” Krauthammer asked without changing the volume of his voice in the least.
    The zombie looked up from the ivy and stared at Neil for all of a second before he went charging across the fading green of Mr. Park's lawn. Neil squawked and then ran for his front door, which he had left open.
    “ That's my gnome!” cried Mr. Krauthammer.
    Neil wasn 't about to reply, nor was he going to return the gnome anytime soon. He sped across the sidewalk, leapt his flower border and made it to his front door safely, slamming it shut behind him and then locking it. And then he waited, listening to the zombie sniff at the door and then shake the handle, and bat at the heavy wood with its fists.
    All the while Neil shook in fright.
    Eventually the creature left and Neil tiptoed to his bathroom and urinated for over a minute with quivering hands. For once he didn't care about the mess, nor did he wash his hands. He didn't even flush. Instead he went to his own second floor window and called to Mr. Krauthammer.
    “ What do you want?” the old man asked. “You know you shouldn't yell so loud it attracts the undead.”
    “ Are we in the quarantine zone? I only ask because my TV isn't picking up any channels and that's got me a little shook I tell you.”
    Mr. Krauthammer looked up the block and nodded with a grimace that was nearly a smile it was so twerked. “Yeah, they moved it sometime last night. It's now out to interstate 287 on the west and it goes north all the way to Nyack.”
    Neil didn 't even know where Nyack was which made him think it was far indeed. “So what do we do?”
    “ Stay indoors. Keep em' locked. And wait for all this to blow over. I'm sure the army is doing something. And the administration says that they don't expect the quarantine to last for more than two weeks. But then again they keep telling everyone it's Legionnaire's Disease, so who knows?”
    “ Two weeks,” Neil muttered. Did he have food enough for two weeks? If he cut back on his snacking and rationed what he had left, he probably had enough for three. “Well, thank you, Mr. Krauthammer. And don't worry about your gnome. He's in safe hands.”
    Neil shut his window and then decided to get some work done. If he had two weeks to kill he figured he would put it to good use, after all his quarterly taxes would be due soon. He worked steadily until the sun began to set and then fixed himself a very small dinner. He cut his usual portion by a third, not realizing even then how significant food had become.
    For both sides—the human and the zombie—food would mark the difference between containment and outright anarchy.

Chapter 10
Dade County, Florida
     
    The men of the 504 th of the 82 nd Airborne Division were the “ready brigade” in October, meaning they had to be prepared to deploy anywhere in the world with eighteen hours notice. Who knew the deployment would be to Florida and who knew they'd be fighting their own countrymen?
    Certainly not Private First Class Marshall Peters. He had enlisted with the express purpose of going overseas and fighting America 's enemies, not figuring that the Iraq war would end so quickly. By every news account the war was going horribly and then come 2009 it just ended and somehow we had won.
    Quite the opposite was true in Afghanistan. It was the quiet war for so long, but then we made a promise to leave and it flared up—just not for PFC Peters. Somehow he just missed a deployment by the first Brigade Combat team and ended up sitting around Fort Bragg bored to tears.
    But then they got the call.
    “ Miami?” he had groused. “What the hell's in Miami?”
    No one knew, and though they all joked about fighting alligators and toothless hillbillies, it grew serious when they were given a full combat load. And when they waddled , as only paratroopers do when carting sixty extra pounds around with them, onto the C-17 with their chutes on