Planet of the Dead (Book 3): Showdown by Stowers John

Author:Stowers, John [Stowers, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Zombie Apocalypse
Publisher: Black Dog Press
Published: 2019-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The zombie’s neck was stretched nearly a foot. The skin on its face was grey, tight, and peeling. Birds had perched on its head and pecked away the tops of its ears. Where its right eye should have been was a black hole. Its left eye was glassy, twisting and turning in its socket, hoping to catch sight of a convenient meal.

It lay on the sidewalk outside the Little Rock YMCA. The frayed piece of rope hanging from the third story window above perfectly matched the tattered end of the noose tied around the creature’s elongated neck. It must have hung there until the rope finally gave out, dropping it to the pavement, where its head lay snapping at the air while rats fed nightly off the festering meat of its bloated body.

Jack dropped the hook end of his crowbar on its head as they passed. “Not much farther,” he said softly.

Hanson and his crew, along with Kelly, Jason, and Max, had been travelling without a break since they’d left the box factory that morning. For the first time in hours, the street was clear of zombies and had been for several blocks.

“This is a refreshing break,” Jessica said, motioning to the empty street.

“Makes me wonder where they are,” Hanson responded.

“We killed forty-three zombies today,” Jason piped up. “Maybe we killed them all.”

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Hanson said, rubbing the boy’s tangled mop of sandy brown hair.

“Don’t be a doofus,” his sister said. “There’re millions of zombies. If they’re not on this street, then they must have someone trapped somewhere close by.”

The grownups looked at each other. None of them wanted to admit it in front of the children, but they were all thinking the same thing. At the end of the block, Jack peeked around the corner to make sure it was clear before signaling the others to cross the street. They walked the next block without saying a word. It was unnerving to travel this many city blocks without seeing at least a couple of zombies shambling around. The broken windows, abandoned cars, decaying bodies, and lack of people made the street seem more like some other war zone, not the zombie apocalypse.

“Reminds me of Caracas,” Hanson said. He and Jack had both flown missions in the Venezuelan war.

“Yeah. Sucks to be on the other end,” Jack responded.

Near the end of the block, a cola delivery truck lay on its side. Hundreds of cans were scattered on the ground around it. Jason and Kelly eyed the cans, then looked at Hanson.

“You know it’s warm, right?” Hanson said.

Both kids shook their heads.

“Okay,” he said. “But let’s be careful.” Hanson stepped quietly up to the truck and peered through the shattered windshield. Nothing in the front. Then he move around to the back. Clear. Just to be safe, he looked around to the far side of the truck.

A zombie lay pinned beneath it. It looked like it had been walking down the street when the truck flipped over and landed on its lower half.

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