Wormwood Dawn (Episode VI) by Edward Crae Read Free Book Online

door shut, and rolled over the thing with a stomp on the gas pedal.
    “So,” Drew said. “What the fuck now?”
    “I still have to urinate,” Max said from the back.
    Dan was at a loss. Though the creature was dead, and of no danger to anyone, there was still the question of what the hell it was. No one on the forums, even Jake, had mentioned anything resembling these creatures. For all he knew, it was some variation of the Robert creature. Maybe something not quite as bizarre or powerful, but similar nonetheless.
    “All of these new things,” Dan mumbled. “It’s just getting worse.”
    Drew sighed. “It’s never going to get better,” he said. “Not until all of these things are gone.”
    “What about the walking corpses?” Dan said. “There are probably billions of them, all standing up half rotted and stinking, looking for people to eat.”
    “They’re not corpses,” Max said from the back.
    “How do you know?” Dan asked, looking at him in the rear-view mirror.
    “They’re just diseased,” Max said. “They can’t be dead. Dead people stay dead. This isn’t Hollywood or TV, it’s reality. Maybe Travis can find out something. He is a doctor, after all.”
    “They looked pretty dead to me,” Drew said. “We saw a whole horde of them heading to the northeast.”
    “There has to be some other explanation,” Max maintained. “In any case, I still have to urinate.”
    “You can piss in Nashville,” Dan said. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. We’re not stopping out here.”

Chapter Five
    “Hot tub suites,” Jake read the sign on his right. “Ooh, let’s get a room.”
    Toni chuckled. “I’m pretty sure there’s no room service anymore. I need my free continental breakfast or it ain’t happenin’.”
    “Still,” Jake said. “I’m hungry as shit and there might be food there.”
    “Alright,” Toni said. “But let’s check out that storage place down the street afterwards.”
    They approached the front entrance of the small hotel, both of them impressed with its quaint country styling. Up the hill a ways were several log cabin homes, decrepit and crumbling; some of them showing signs of having been set on fire. Evidently, even a tiny town like Nashville was subject to Gephardt’s antics.
    “Looks clear,” Jake said as he peered into the front door. “The lobby is a shit hole, but I don’t see any baddies.”
    Toni drew her revolvers anyway. She swiveled around him with her guns akimbo, looking a lot like a black Lara Croft. Granted, her clothing wasn’t form-fitting and impractical like Lara’s, but she still looked damn fucking sexy in it. Tactical gear was always sexy on a chick.
    “Open the door,” Toni said.
    Jake reached out and slowly pulled the glass door open. Toni stepped inside like a cop, pointing her guns left and right expertly, and then allowed Jake inside. The lobby was definitely a mess. As they crept through the garbage and broken furniture, the smell of rot became apparent. Toni glanced back at him with a hunted look. He grumbled.
    “Fucking corpses,” he said.
    They identified at least part of the smell when they reached the front desk. The clerk—presumably—was sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. There was a trail of blood leading up from her body. She was shot up against the wall and slid down as she died, leaving her corpse to rot in a sitting position.
    “I guess somebody wasn’t happy with their room,” Jake joked.
    Toni shook her head with a crooked grin. “I was thinking the same thing,” she said.
    Jake’s eyes caught a decorated white box that sat on the counter. His eyes lit up when he realized it was a box of Twinkies.
    “Ooh,” he said, grabbing the remaining two.
    Toni gave him a disgusted look. “Are you actually thinking of eating those?”
    “Hey,” he said, shouldering his shotgun and ripping one open. “My blood sugar is low. Besides, these things are immortal… so to speak.”
    “They’re full