Zombies! Rising from the Dead by Richard Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

as I could, the brakes lock ing up as I did. The truck began to fish tail, the sound of skidding tires filled my ears. I had a death grip on the wheel . The phone flew from Rick's hand as he was violently slammed against the dash and thrown to the floor board. The truck nearly flipped from the inertia. It drift ed slightly before coming to rest , smack in the middle of the road.

    I slammed the truck into park and with Rick on the floor dazed , I jumped over to his side to check on him. My hea rt was beating out of my chest; I thought for sure I was going to have a heart attack. I was clammy cold, and sweating bullets at the same time. Rick sat for a second before looking up at me, still confused and visibly shaken. I was relieved to see that for better or worse he was okay.

    “ What the hell, man?!” he asked as I helped him up.

    Rick and I looked around, “What the fuuckkkkkk ?” h e said in a questioning ly , as there in front of us in the road sat three vehicles.

    It was a real mess; there had been some kind of accident. A compact car, an SUV and a huge eighties era Buick---it was a horrific scene. T he cars were all meshed together; someone must have been driving way to fast to cause that kind of collision. Only the old Buick seemed more or less undamaged. Windshields were cracked in familiar spider web patterns which could only be made by the force of someone's head smashing into it. Puddles of automotive
    fluids spilled all around the vehicles; oil mixed with gas and other lubricants and I could smell the sickening sweet aroma of hot anti-freeze wafting in through the vents.

    “Uh, where is everyone?” Rick asked; a thought that hadn't yet occurred to me.

    Rick was right, I didn't see anyone but then after a moment I noticed the driver side door of the SUV was slightly ajar and lying there halfway concealed by the door was an occupant, most likely the driver and someone kneeling beside them trying to assist.

    “We need to go see if anyone needs help!” Quickly I u nlocked my door and started to jump out to run and assist; but I couldn't move. Rick had leaped across the seat and grabbed my arm in a surprising feat of agility for a man of this girth.

    “NO MOTHER FUCKER!” he yelled, almost screaming. “Hang on” he said in a lower tone, “just wait, let’s make sure it safe” . Right as he spoke we both looked up and the person I had believed to be helping the driver reared up from behind the crumpled door and looked at us. We both sat stunned at what we saw.

    This had been no accident; the cars had stopped for a reason. Rearing up from behind the SUV was the cause of the tragic scene. This thing, this abomination looked at us, leering. It was a person, had been a person once, a long time ago, now, well now it was; it was something else. Rick still grasped my arm, as both of us we were caught up in its gaze.

    This monstrosity, this demonic abomination parading around in the body of what had probably once been a proud God-fearing man, how dare it mock God in this way. We couldn't tell much from it, as it was so badly decayed, except to say that by the manner of dress (which looked to be early seventies) it must have been e ntombed for at least thirty or forty years, and yet somehow here it stood. Its face was sunken in and visibly rotted, holes where eyes had once been; yet I could feel it looking at me.

    “ How's that possible?” I thought to myself.

    Patches of skin were missing or hanging on by slivers, like a tattered curtain in long abandoned house. In spots where the skin was cracked, we could see muscle and tendons attached to bone. Its skin or what was left of it, was pale and leather like. Its scalp only held
    patches of hair here and there, and where hair and skin were absent the bleached white skull was plainly exposed.

    We sat there staring at it, motionless for what felt like an e ternity, and it did the same. Then suddenly it started to move slowly towards us; I was still