Zombies! A Love Story by Maggie Shayne

Author:Maggie Shayne
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-09-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

* * *

CHUCK SPUN IN a slow circle, looking for something, anything. Maybe some stray boards we could use to make a bridge or–

“The ladder,” he said at length, looking down into the alley where the ladder we’d stupidly sent crashing to the ground lay amid the dead. They were snapping their teeth and pawing at the sides of the building. “Dammit, it would have made the perfect bridge, if we hadn’t dropped it,” he said.

“Yeah, well we did drop it, so think of something else, Chuck.”

“There is nothing else.”

I shook my head. “Then we’re going to stay up here until help arrives, and hope it’s in time to save us. All of us,” I added with a look toward the roof of the diner. They were all still working on their fire escape, while the little boy and the aging librarian stood arm in arm, looking on.

“One of us has to go down there and get that ladder.”

“And by one of us, you mean you,” I interpreted for him, and I shook my head. “There’s no way down. And even if there was, you’d be zombie meat in two seconds. And even if we could avert those two scenarios, the ladder would be too heavy to carry back up.”

“Jeeze, Suz. Negative much?”

I shot Chuck a scowl, but he just winked at me and looked around. Then he pointed at a big glass case mounted to the inside of the adobe facade on the front of the building. Behind the glass case were a fire alarm and a heavy duty hose, rolled up neatly on a wheel. A small axe hung beside it. Chuck walked over to it, grabbed the axe and smashed the glass. Then he yanked the fire hose out and carried it to the roof’s edge, unrolling it behind him as he went.

“I can climb down the fire hose, tie it around the ladder, and climb back up. Then we pull the ladder up here.”

I stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Who the hell are you and what have you done with my favorite science geek?”

He met my eyes, shrugged a little sheepishly. “I don’t know. Maybe my new healthier lifestyle has me feeling more...capable.”

“Yeah, and clearly your iron pumping has replaced your brain with muscle. I’m not letting you do it, Chuck. You’ll be eaten alive down there.”

“Not if we can distract them,” Chief Mallory said. “Get them to leave the alley.”

Mom grabbed his arm. “John, you can’t let him–”

“It’s that or watch those people get eaten alive, Mary,” he said softly, with a nod toward the other rooftop. Their movements were more frantic. I figured the z-meisters would have to try a few dozen times to get up their building’s fire escape, but eventually, they’d do it, and it looked like they were getting closer.

I looked at Chuck. He was tying knots in the firehose, every couple of feet. Smart. It would be easier to climb that way. Maddening, because it looked like he was determined to do this boneheaded thing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.