When the Dead by Michelle Kilmer Read Free Book Online

something.”
                “I’m
not hungry,” Gabe said.
                “Oh,
well, do you have anything you can share with me?” Molly asked happily.
                “Do
you like crackers?” Gabe jumped up and ran to the kitchen. “I can give you
three.”
                Molly
laughed. “Only three? I’m hungrier than that! Bring me the box.”
                Gabe
complied and carried the entire box to the living room.
     

Spooked
    Isobel’s
screaming and the gunshot had gotten the attention of Ben and Jeff, who’d come
running in to help. Several of the undead outside the complex had noticed too.
The corpses turned towards the noise and it became evident, with thirty of them
approaching, that the group would have to reinforce the sliding glass door.
They moved the entertainment center and the couch and managed to block the
visual connection but the damage had already been done. The flesh eaters knew
there was life in the building. Rob, Isobel, Ben, and Jeff stood there for a
moment behind their miniature blockade, quiet and stunned.
                “We
need to move quickly now. If they get in we’ll have to shoot them and that will
only draw more,”Rob broke the silence and they knew that he was right.
Keep on task or die. So Isobel distributed the gloves with shaking hands and
they moved the three bodies to the tarp. They had only checked one apartment
and already the blue plastic was looking full. Isobel turned back to apartment
101 and locked the door forever.
                When
she turned to face the others she saw faces peeking out of apartments 102 and
104; drawn out by the sound of gunshots and screaming.
                “Markus?
Edward and Moira?” she had remembered their names from the tenant list. She
approached Edward and Moira’s door as Markus came quickly out after hearing his
name. “We live here. It’s ok. Are you alright in there?” Isobel tried to sound
as friendly as possible, though her heart rate was still elevated and her
breathing ragged from the altercation with Ryan Hong. She also still had the
gun in her shaking hands. She handed it off to Rob.
                The
Cabels came out slowly, their eyes darting back and forth from the tarp of
bodies to the weapons still in others’ hands. Long life can give one insight
and, therefore, make the aged more cautious; a good quality for survival. After
a second and third scan of the group, the elderly couple determined them to be
friends and invited everyone into their darkened apartment for a moment of
peace.
                “So
they got Ryan, huh? That’s a shame.” Markus was excited with all the people
around him but saddened at the loss of his neighbor across the hall; he’d had a
bit of a crush on him.
    Rob nodded his head solemnly. “But you’ll be happy to know that he didn’t
go without a fight. He took two of them out before he died.” An image of the
feet of the dead on the tarp, one set bare and cut open, the other in scuffed
men’s dress shoes, gum stuck to the bottom of one, crossed Rob’s mind and he
shuttered.
    “Good for him!” Markus smiled and threw a fist in the air. “By the way I’m
Markus, nice to meet you.” He extended his hand.
    Ben politely shook his hand. “We know who everyone is,” Ben waved the
tenant list, “but I guess we should hang on to our civility and introduce
ourselves anyway.”
    As the group exchanged pleasantries Isobel was admiring the handiwork of
the old couple. Even though the sun was shining brightly outside, the apartment’s
only source of light came from lamps and candles due to blankets blocking and
covering the windows and door. The result was effective. There wasn’t one bang
or bump against the glass on their side of the building. They were invisible to
the dead.
    “Do you know about anyone else on the first floor?” Jeff, who had been
very quiet until now, asked.