Rust-Colored Rain: A Zombie Apocalypse Thriller by Otto Schafer

Author:Otto Schafer [Schafer, Otto]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Sound Eye Press
Published: 2023-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

THE NEIGHBOR

Zoe couldn’t get around the flaming mess ahead of her on the overpass. This wasn’t the only way home; however, it was the fastest. The burning wreckage left her no choice but to turn around. She would have to make her way to the road leading under Interstate 55. She cut through an adjoining neighborhood to the sound of constant gunfire. Occasionally, she would see people running through the street, and twice they ran directly at her car. An elderly woman in a bathrobe and slippers came particularly close. Luckily, Zoe didn’t have to run the old woman over. But she would have if she’d had to, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to stop. In fact, she never stopped, not even at stop signs or stoplights. If she stopped, she would expose herself to attack.

Three blocks into the neighborhood, she was gripping the wheel so tight her hands were beginning to ache. She just wanted to get the hell out of this town.

Finally, she made a right turn leading out of the neighborhood, the overpass coming into view just ahead. She noticed right away that the railing was broken and a car lay upside down on the road ahead of her, the passenger compartment completely crushed. She couldn’t imagine falling from up there. As she looked up, she could see smoke rolling from atop Interstate 55. Something up there was on fire. Damn, she thought, nervous to even drive under the overpass. But what choice did she have? She wanted to get home. She needed to get home.

Quickly she maneuvered around the smashed vehicle and under the overpass. Once she had come out the other side, she let out a relieved sigh. No more neighborhoods from here, just country roads.

Twenty-five minutes later, she turned into the entrance to Summer Lake, the neighborhood she’d lived in for the last eight years. At first, aside from the strange rain collecting in burnt-orange puddles, everything seemed normal.

But normal wasn’t to last. As soon as Zoe turned at the first stop sign, all hell broke loose. The first thing she saw was a firetruck sitting alongside the road with hoses stretched across the street. On the opposite side, a house, or what was left of a house, still smoldered. In the front yard, a man in a fireman’s jacket lay on the ground with an ax handle sticking up from the back of his head.

As she eased past the firetruck, a crowd of eight or nine people stood gathered in a neighbor’s yard. It wasn’t until they turned toward her and began to run that she realized they were all infected. She stomped on the gas, speeding down the street before they could reach her. At the four-way stop, she turned right and began to make her way around the lake.

A woman emerged from behind a tall row of shrubs and staggered out in front of Zoe’s car. Zoe gasped, reflexively slamming on the brakes. The thought of running the woman over flashed through her mind, but then the woman yelled.

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