Nights of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry

Author:Jonathan Maberry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

THE DAY AFTER

by John A. Russo

Sheriff McClelland lit his gasoline-soaked torch and touched it to the pyre, which had already been soaked in gasoline. The pile of zombie corpses went up with a whoosh, the flames licking high into the morning sky. The sheriff and his posse had gunned down more than two dozen of the flesh-eating ghouls that had been lurking around the Miller farmhouse.

He said to Deputy Vince Daniels, “You think we got ’em all, Vince?”

Vince said, “We rooted ’em out best we could and shot ’em in the head. But I couldn’t swear none of ’em managed to sneak into the woods. Gunshots scare ’em just like fire does. They coulda hid from us when they heard us shootin’.”

“Chopper’s still circlin’,” said McClelland. “If they spot any they’ll let us know. Let’s head back toward Willard the other way round the valley in case folks’re holed up in some other farmhouse.”

* * *

Rasping, drooling zombies moved through a patch of woods, some of them carrying partially devoured body parts from the people who were overrun at the Miller place. One zombie was sitting under a tree gnawing on a hand and forearm. On the wrist dangled a charm bracelet, burnt and discolored, a trinket once worn by a girl who had been blown up in a truck, along with her boyfriend.

The zombie drooled, then used his big yellowish teeth to pull off one more string of flesh. Then he dropped the picked-clean bones onto the ground and slowly trailed after some other zombies who were already shambling out of the woods.

An undead woman’s mangled hand reached down and picked up the remains of the hand and wrist that were dropped. She growled, lusting after the slim pickings. In life she went by the name Barbara, and she had a brother, Johnny. He had helped others like him to drag her out of the Miller farmhouse. But then, after they killed her, he stopped them from completely devouring her. Pieces of her were now gone. She bore big bloody bite marks and gaping wounds on her body. Parts of her lips, nose, and ears were missing.

A beastly little girl, known as Karen while she was living, sneaked up on Barbara and made a grab for the stringy remnant of wrist bone and hand. Barbara tried to keep it, but it fell onto the ground. Both of the female zombies gave up on the morsel and hastened to keep up with the rest of their kind.

* * *

Just off a two-lane blacktop, a gas company right-of-way curved through some woods. Telephone poles laden with cables stretched one after another through the wide, grassy lane.

Lineman Jed Harris, a tall, lanky thirty-year-old, dark-haired with a full beard and mustache, shinnied up a pole wearing hobnailed boots, a safety harness, and a wide leather belt with a pouch full of tools. He wore a plaid shirt, blue jeans, and a cap bearing the logo of the Willard Power Company. A company van bearing the same logo was parked near the foot of the pole.

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