Zombie Fallout 8: An Old Beginning by Mark Tufo Read Free Book Online Page B

as he ran that he nearly exposed himself to the military men. They had pulled off to the side of the road and were talking. Something had happened to one of their own.
    “He’s been bitten.”
    “Sorry, man, I am,” one of the soldiers said as he pointed his weapon at the stricken man’s head.
    “Don’t do this, Cortez, please,” the man pleaded, his hands outstretched as if his weak flesh could stop the lead projectile. “I have a wife…a kid on the way.”
    “I’m sorry, man, you’re dead already. You don’t want to become one of them, you don’t. We talked about this, and we both said we’d do what was right if it happened to either of us.”
    The pleading individual put his hands down. Sobbing, he said, “I…I just figured it would be you.” The tears turned to laughter as he accepted the insanity of a zombie virus coursing through his body and his best friend pointing a high-caliber weapon at his head.
    “Me too, man, me too.” Without warning Cortez pulled the trigger. His friend’s head whipped back, followed immediately by the rest of his body as he fell to the ground. “I’m sorry.” He leaned down and closed the man’s eyelids.
    “Let’s go,” a man standing to the side said as the remainder of the vehicle’s occupants got back in and headed away.
    The deeper into the night Tommy ran, the further the men got from him. It mattered little; he was starving, and he had their scent from the onset. In a world so devoid of food, he would be hard pressed to lose their trail, no matter how much they might wish that. Had they known they weren’t just being followed, but stalked…
    He reached out with his mind. ‘Tommy?’ Mike asked. ‘You’re still alive? I thought I’d lost you.’ The relief within Mr. T was palpable, Tommy’s hope surged as he felt the good tidings emanate from the man. He thought he might never feel that again, not after his treachery.
    ‘You alright?’ Tommy asked.
    ‘I’m almost as hard to kill as you are.’ Even though the words were not being spoken orally, those last ones came across with some mirth.
    ‘When we were going up in that helicopter, I was just happy that all of you were safe. And then I saw everyone unconscious and you had just been given a shot. I hit the release on the winch. Crashing down onto the zombies bought me the time I needed as I jumped out of the truck and ran for cover. I got the distinct impression that, if they couldn’t catch me, they would attempt to kill me. I wasn’t wrong. They shot up the truck until it finally caught the fuel on fire.’
    Tommy wasn’t sure why he lied about that last part. He thought part of it might be that he didn’t want to unnecessarily burden the man any further with how close he had come to dying. Another more significant part was that, if Michael showed any signs of not caring other than because it would lessen his and his family’s chances of survival, Tommy wouldn’t be able to bear that right now. He was weakened, tired, and hungry. He needed all the hope he could garner. Maybe even part of it was that he could already feel the strain in Mike’s thoughts and didn’t want to overstrain him. Whoever the people were that had saved him, it appeared they wanted something in return.
    ‘How’d you get away from the zombies?’ Mike asked.
    ‘I can move faster than they can react.’ That part at least was the truth, well, partially the truth, but not in the condition he had found himself at the time. ‘Just think about you walking around normally and everyone else is in super slow motion. That’s what it’s like for me with the zombies. What’s this got to do with women’s locker rooms?’ Tommy asked, picking up on some of Mike’s stray thoughts.
    ‘Ah…nothing…sorry. I’m glad you’re here ,’ Mike changed the subject.
    ‘I’m not quite there. I’m following the ground unit back. I just picked you up a few miles ago. How’s everyone else doing?’
    ‘Good as far as Porkchop