Zombies vs Polar Bears: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 5 by E.E. Isherwood Read Free Book Online

confused half-smile.
    Marty decided it was time to play her ace card. While Elsa was
working through her diatribe she slowly let her eyelids droop. Her
head tilted, just a little, indicating a growing weariness. She
perfected the skill over many years of talking to otherwise
well-meaning friends and family who—for all their
goodness—couldn't take a hint that it was time for them to go.
    It worked as expected. Marty was throwing herself some mental high
fives when Elsa moved to the door. Her parting shot almost made her
wish she'd tried the “I've got a touch of dementia” ploy
first.
    “Duchesne radioed in before you killed him. He told me
exactly who and what you are. I watched you three push him into the
water on the drone feed. If I find Liam, I'm going to kill him.”
    The door slammed loudly, but opened an instant later.
    Marty felt someone nearby, but she didn't dare open her eyes.
    Lord, forgive me my trespasses...
    The air conditioner turned off. The cool air evaporated in
moments, like it was a marionette connected to the unit and only
danced when the unit was powered. There was no residual cool.
    The door slammed a second time, louder than the first. A key
locked the deadbolt from the outside.
    She waited a minute, in case she came back in. Already the sweat
beaded on her forehead. A vehicle sped away from the parking lot.
    When she opened her eyes she saw the cord for the cooling unit had
been severed clean. The detached plug and a short few inches of stout
black cord lay on the floor—testament to the death of the
machine.
    “Liam, I'm so sorry. I think I made things worse.”
    Marty felt the temperature rise, though she felt maybe she
deserved to suffer a little.

Chapter
3: Arizona
    The boat was right where Liam had left it on the Meramec River. As
he approached, he felt a little of the old nervousness about being on
the water. But his childhood fears of water paled when compared to
the things he had to fear now. Somehow he held it together back when
he swam under the downed bridge with a zombie poking him in the gut.
Water, alone, was no longer a fear of his.
    He and Victoria showed his mom to the covered cab while he started
the twin outboard motors. The sense of deja vu overwhelmed him as he
and Victoria once more took to the river to go find Grandma. Last
time they were going to St. Louis. Now, to Cairo. The patterns of the
Zombie Apocalypse were hard to explain.
    “Liam, are you sure you can use this boat?”
    He shared a knowing look with Victoria as she rooted around inside
the cabin. “Yeah mom, we know the owner.” He placed his
gun and his backpack next to the captain's chair.
    “And this owner said it was OK to use his boat?” She
gave him a motherly scowl.
    “Ehh. It's kind of a gray area.”
    The gruff captain didn't abandon his boat precisely, but Liam
wasn't thinking straight after surviving his time underground. He
hadn't lost any sleep over it, though he felt just a tinge of guilt
now that his mom was shining a light on the issue.
    His mom gave both kids a disapproving look.
    “What? I promise once we get to Grandma I'll make sure it
gets back to him.” He felt confident because his plan was to
drop his mom in Cairo. He and Victoria would need the boat to get
back to St. Louis.
    “Ah ha!” Victoria pulled out a bag from a compartment
next to the passenger's seat. “He was holding out on us.”
With a flourish she dumped about a dozen energy bars on the floor.
They were the same ones he'd seen on many of the people arriving at
Camp Hope. They were given to them at another distribution center for
refugees. Somewhere there were probably pallets of them.
    Maybe they are in a storage room next to those tanks.
    Like so much of the collapse, things happened so fast there was no
time for proper planning. Wherever the energy bars came from, they
were probably limited to the stocks they had on hand. In the weeks
before the sirens the transportation network had ground to a halt,
and