Voyage of the Dead - Book One Sovereign Spirit Saga by David Forsyth Read Free Book Online

more answers about what is going on out there from TV or the internet than either the Captain or I can give you right now.  In fact, it would be helpful if some of you monitor different sources of news and take notes to share with the rest of us.  So, I suggest we conclude this discussion for now and plan on meeting back here before dinner.  I’ll try to be available if any of you have urgent news or questions before then.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    *****
     
    Interlude in Hell
     
    El Segundo, CA: 10:15 AM, April 1, 2012
     
                Carl spent most of the morning nursing the stolen and battered ambulance through the side streets of El Segundo, having been forced off of PCH by traffic jams and swarming zombies within a mile of LAX.   He was totally lost when the engine finally died amid clouds of steam and loud clunking sounds.  Carl’s luck was still holding however, because the ambulance had died on a stretch of road without any zombies roaming along it.  He decided to press that luck a little more by searching the vehicle for anything else of value before abandoning it.  That turned out to be a smart move.
     
                Luckily this ambulance had been operated by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, so it was equipped for more than simply picking up sick people.  Carl had already found the pick head axe that he’d used to dispatch the zombie hood ornament in the windshield.  Now he found a fireman’s jacket and some heavy yellow coveralls that would deflect all but the sharpest zombie teeth.  He also found a folding multi-tool knife, a set of bolt cutters, a coiled rope, and a repelling harness tied to a backpack marked ‘search and rescue kit’.  Perhaps best of all was a small cooler bag full of the paramedics’ uneaten dinner of plastic wrapped sandwiches, sodas, chips, and candy bars.  As he was about to leave he spotted a compact folding aluminum ladder mounted to the ceiling of the rear compartment.  Thinking of the walls and fences lining many of the roads in this area, he realized that this could also be a life saver.  
     
                Carl figured he was carrying about forty pounds of gear when he stepped out of the ambulance, but he felt that most of it would contribute to his survival.  There was no traffic on the street and still no sign of zombies, but he knew that wouldn’t last.  Looking around he spotted a water tower a block away.  That seemed like a landmark to head for.  He was almost there when the first zombie charged towards him from behind a house across the street.
     
                Carl held the pick axe in his right hand and the folding ladder in his left as he turned to face the threat.  It was a middle aged woman with bloody wounds on her arms and more blood dripping from her gaping mouth. He used the ladder to block her headlong attack while he swung the axe beneath it.  The axe head cut her belly wide open and guts began to spill out, but that didn’t deter her advance.  Carl nearly panicked as the woman tried to bite through his fireman’s jacket, until he remembered that in most zombie movies they could only be stopped by destroying their brains.  ‘ So be it,’ Carl thought as he took another swing with the axe.  The hapless woman fell to the ground with brains leaking from her split skull. 
     
                  Carl spun away from the fallen zombie lady and sprinted for the water tower.  Looking over his shoulder he spotted three more zombies emerging from houses across the street, but he thought he could outrun them.  The fence around the water tower was ten feet high and only twenty feet away as Carl began to unfold the ladder he was carrying.  It was an ingenious tool that could be used as anything from a step ladder, or scaffold, to a 12’ extension ladder.  Carl needed the latter and in a hurry!  The zombies were less than a hundred yards away and closing fast.