Zombie Anthology by Anthology Read Free Book Online Page A

us all except maybe Ian. We have to work together, if we want to stay alive."
         As the door slid closed behind Geoff, Jeremy slumped into the chair at the table and rested his head in hands. It was true, he felt safer here than he had in days but he wondered if coming here had really been the right thing to do. Still it was good to see people again no matter who they were.
         Jeremy awoke to a pounding on the doors of his quarters. He wearily rubbed his eyes and climbed out of the bunk as a short, hideously over muscled man entered the room. The bald scalp of the man's head gleamed from the light shining through the open doorway behind him. “It's time to go new boy,” he ordered gruffly. “We've got work to do."
         "Who… Who are you?"
         "Name's Wade. I keep things working around here but today I'm going into town and you're going with me."
         "What? I just got here. Why me?"
         "You're not that dense are you?” Wade walked over and rapped his knuckles on Jeremy's skull. “Hello in there."
         Jeremy backed away from the assault.
         Wade glared at him. “None of us other than Geoff have really left the complex since the wave. Hell, you lived through the shit out there. I need a guide, Jerm, and you're it."
         "But I don't know anything you don't,” Jeremy argued finding the thought of going back into town extremely disturbing.
         "Daylight's burning, new boy. Get your shit together or get out."
         Jeremy had slept in his pants so he pulled on his t-shirt and started to reach for his.38. Wade saw him, “Leave that piece of crap. Here,” Wade said shoving a.45 automatic into Jeremy's hand. “We'll stop and get you a real weapon on the way out too."
         Minutes later, Jeremy sat inside the garage with Troy, Geoff, and Wade. He held an UZI in his trembling hands and watched as Wade worked underneath the hood of an army issue jeep that had seen better days. Troy held an M-16 in one hand and took continuous drags off a cigarette with the other. “I still don't understand why you have to do this Wade,” Troy commented between puffs.
         "You want to keep breathing?” Wade's muffled voice shot back from where he worked. “If I don't get the parts to fix the ventilation systems from where you idiots shot it up, we're all going to be headed out of here and I sure ain't trustin’ you to bring back the right gear."
         "Next time a bunch of flesh-eating crazies get loose in the base, Wade, maybe you should have a talk with'em, huh? Tell them not to get near anything important as we blow their freakin’ brains out.” Troy joked.
         Wade popped his head out from under the hood. “Fuck you. You think I want to go out there into Hell?"
         "Look Wade,” Geoff moved closer to the jeep, “Troy and I could do it. Just tell us what you need. You don't have to go."
         "Yes, I do,” Wade said definitively, “Jeremy here'll be all the help I need besides the boy needs to contribute somehow. Why not this way?"
         Geoff raised his hands, palms open, in a gesture of surrender.
         Wade tossed Jeremy the keys to the jeep. “Get in and crank her up."
         Jeremy did as he was told and the jeep cranked on the first try, its engine roaring to life. Troy tossed aside his smoke and moved to push the main door open for them.
         "Catch you later guys,” Wade said, “We got some shopping to do.” Then he motioned for Jeremy to get on with it and Jeremy drove the jeep out of the complex and down the gravel road towards Canton.
         As they rode, Wade asked, “So just how bad is it out there, really?"
         Jeremy glanced over at the burly, little man beside him. “Everyone I saw on my way here was dead, crazy, or both. The power's off everywhere."
         "No shit, Sherlock,” Wade chided him about the power. Wade turned his gaze away to the roadside for a moment as if collecting