The Zed Files Trilogy (Book 1): The Hanging Tree by David Andrew Wright Read Free Book Online

and kicking to get whatever it is off of me.  A strand of honeysuckle blows away in the wind.
    Again, my body convulses as my hands feel all around me for bites… or leeches… or cooties or…  My boots are covered in shit, but the rest of me is unsoiled and unharmed; or at least no worse than when I went in.  I sheath the cleaver, grab my pack and rifle, and survey the damage.  Another shudder rolls through me as I look at the cellar doors.  I’ll take the tornado next time.
    A large maple tree leans across the overgrown front yard and into the window I had been looking out of earlier.  Its top is broken off and lies in the overgrown backyard.  The front door is still accessible and the stairs are still in place. 
    From the side of the house, I hear a gasp, almost a cough.  I can hear it clearly against the calm, cold and damp air.  I step quickly to the wall of the house and check the end of my barrel for shit or mud.  All clear. 
    Again from around the corner comes a noise, this time a great gurgling inhale.  It sounds wet and painful and then again, another cough.  I raise the rifle to my shoulder and step out quickly.  Pinned to the ground by one of the maple tree branches is a Zed; a naked female Zed.  She is young, probably early twenties.  The twister has not only stuck her to the ground but has also torn all of her clothes off.  A tree branch runs through her left shoulder, pinning her to the underbrush like a kid’s bug collection for science class.  One leg sticks out at an impossible angle.  Her hair is in pigtails that stick straight out from the sides of her head.
    “Christ,” I mutter to myself.  “It ain’t like it’s bad enough to have Zed sneaking up on you all of the time out of nowhere but to have fucking airborne zombies flying all over the place… well… I just don’t know.”
    I lean my rifle against the house and pick up a heavy piece of green maple branch.  It is about three feet long and big enough around that I need both hands to hold it.  I’d just shoot her but then anyone and everyone would know where I was.  As I stand near her head, her jaws snap and her arms reach to grab me.  “Ignore the man behind the curtain,” I tell her and bring the branch down hard into her face.  Her skull and the branch bounce and her arms flail more intensely.  She snaps her jaws again but her teeth are now gone.  Her broken leg flops up and makes a popping noise as I bring the branch down again.  And again and again until finally she is still.
    I find a length of heavy wild grapevine and hack off a section with the cleaver.  Inside the house, I tie it off to a rafter upstairs and let it hang down the stairwell.  I stand on the first step and jump.  It snaps through.  I repeat this on the second and third steps.  The fourth is sturdy and refuses to break so I split it up with the cleaver.  Just for good measure, I take out the fifth step as well.  Zed can use stairs but he can’t climb a rope. 
    I pull myself up the grapevine and settle down in the corner of the undamaged room.  I am exhausted.  My shoulder has returned to complaining and all of the adrenaline from earlier is long gone.  I want to go to sleep but my arm will need tending and I need to eat. 
    I rummage through my pack and find the mystery can and the remnants of a tube of antibiotic cream.  “Two great tastes, one candy bar,” I tell myself. 
    As I strip off my jacket, I look outside.  From my view on the second floor, I can see that the dirt road is blocked by fallen and splintered trees for as far as I can see.  If the three or more bears return tonight, they won’t get far, at least not by driving. 
    I dig out my med kit and find the tweezers and an old dental pick.  As I start probing each tiny hole in my flesh for birdshot, I can’t help but wonder if Goldilocks made it home.  The tweezers find the first small lead pellet and I hold it up against the dying light of the day.