Bad Moon Rising DC Juris

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.I glanced back at Cole, who sat in the passenger seat, hands clutched around a nightstick handle, looking around.Well, at least he could get away if things went south.In my car.I rolled my eyes at the irony and walked in behind Richard.He touched my arm, and pointed to a door off to the side.Ah, so there would be signaling.I nodded and we approached the door slowly.Richard pointed to me, then the handle, and raised his bat.I wrapped my hand around the handle and turned, yanked the door open and fought not to close my eyes and cower against the wall.Richard sighed.“It’s empty,” he whispered.He glanced around and pointed to another door near the back.“That’s the only other one I see.”I nodded.We repeated the process with the gesturing and the yanking and me trying not to faint.A stench like nothing I’d ever smelled wafted out as I opened the door.Richard turned away quickly, the back of his hand pressed to his mouth.“Fuck!” I plugged my nose as I peeked around the door into what appeared to be an employee break room-slash-office.Complete with dead two employees.Imagine our luck.I grimaced as Richard set his bat down and hoisted one of the corpses up.How he did that without vomiting, I’d never know.He dumped the body just outside the door and went back to the car.I followed him, and between the three of us we unloaded everything we’d brought—blankets, pillows, food, water, and boards.I’d thought to leave some of it inside the car, but Richard said if any looters came by they’d steal it, plus it would be a dead giveaway that someone was hiding inside the bookstore.And it occurred to me that mankind wasn’t meant to live this way.If we had been, we’d all have instincts as sharp as Richard’s.Tapping at the door stole my attention.“Huh.Look at that.”Young—maybe six or seven months—it stood on top of the corpse, peering into the door, nose pressed to the glass, tail wagging ninety miles a minute.“Awwww!” Cole raced to the door and let the dog inside.He knelt and held out his arms and it jumped up on its hind legs, dancing around him and licking his face as he giggled like a three-year-old.Richard chuckled.“Looks like a retriever or something,” I told him.I could never keep golden retrievers and regular retrievers straight in my head.I knew one had longer hair, but I wasn’t sure which one.“Looks like we’ve inherited a dog.” Richard went over and squatted down by Cole.“Her name’s Dolly.See?” Cole pointed to her collar.“Yep.” Richard smiled at Cole, watching his lover interact with the dog.“She likes you.”“Of course she likes me! All doggies like me.Isn’t that right, Dolly?” Cole snuggled his face up to hers.“It’s fate, you know? We were supposed to be here so we could save her!”Richard nodded.“Maybe you’re right.Maybe we get put in the right places when we need to.” He glanced up at me and smiled.In that moment, it occurred to me that maybe this wasn’t so bad.If I had to go through this, at least I’d found other people to go through it with.And a dog.Who didn’t like a dog?CHAPTER TWOI jerked awake to the sound of glass shattering.A quick glance around told me it wasn’t our window, but something outside, nearby.Fuck! The car! I jumped up but Richard caught my arm and yanked me down next to him.“Stay down!”“What’s going on?” I whispered.“Looters,” Cole revealed.“They’re going up and down the street, searching cars.”Well, at least they wouldn’t steal it, since we had the keys, and the chances of them sticking around to do any real damage to it seemed pretty slim, too.All we had to do was wait it out, and they’d go away.Dolly stood and paced to the door, walking back and forth in front of it like she was on guard duty.On the street, yelling broke out, and gunshots echoed in the night.Richard cursed.Our visitors had apparently been discovered.Shouts of run and look out descended into just inarticulate screaming and then the unthinkable: Dolly started barking.Cole lunged for her, but the damage had already been done.The people outside started banging on our door, pleading to be let in.“What do we do?” I looked to Richard, who was shaking his head.“Nothing.”“But if we don’t let them in, they’ll be infected,” I argued.Those were people outside—we had to help them.What if the roles were reversed? What if that had been me outside?“And if we do let them in, we’ll be infected.” He reached for one of our backpacks and started shoving things inside.“We can’t stay here.Cole, shut that damned mutt up!”“I’m trying!” Cole struggled with Dolly, trying to get her calmed down and quiet.Richard threw a bag at me, hitting me square in the chest and bringing me back to reality.“Pack light.We’ll be walking.”“The car—”“Is compromised.We’ll never get near it.Hurry up.Cole!”Cole scrambled back to us, dragging Dolly behind him.Outside the shouting and banging intensified.Someone must’ve gotten smart, because a brick came careening through an exposed part of the door glass near the top.It sailed through the air, barely missing Richard’s head.“Time to go!” Richard shoved Cole toward the back door.“Bryce, help me with the boards!”I grabbed up a discarded hammer and handed it over to him while I fished in my bag for the crowbar I’d brought.We struggled with the boards, hacking and pulling.Richards face turned red with his exertion, and the warmth of my own efforts spread out from my arm muscles, making my chest tight and painful.“Hurry up, guys!” Cole shouted.I glanced back at the front door.The newcomers—two beefy men and a scraggly haired woman—had managed to get several of the boards free and were shouting at us.Behind them, I could see the horde moving closer.The woman let out a scream and disappeared from sight.The men didn’t even look back for her—they just kept on coming.“Bryce!” Richard had gotten enough of the boards cleared for us to get through.I jumped out after him as he pulled Cole through.We ran along the back alley, Cole carrying a still-barking Dolly.“Shut her up! She’s going to give us away!” Richard smacked at Dolly’s muzzle as he ran.That seemed to stifle her for a few minutes, and we made it down the alley and through two more without chase.At last Richard stopped, heaving for air, and leaned against the wall of a building.I didn’t want to stop.My nerves on fire with adrenaline and fear, I ran past him.“Bryce!”I ignored him.Fight or flight had kicked in.I wasn’t much to look at size-wise—I had no hope of fighting off a crowd of hungry zombies, so flight it was.I had to get away from there.Like a rat in a maze, I kept running through alleys and streets I didn’t know and couldn’t really see, until I stepped square into a hole and stumbled.I put my arms out and tried to catch myself, but only succeeded in falling on my wrist, wrenching it back against my arm.I couldn’t keep from crying out, but even the momentary pain didn’t stop me.I surged to my feet again, but I must’ve injured my left ankle in the fall as well, because it wouldn’t support my weight and I fell back down.Undaunted, I crawled for my life.Footsteps grew nearer and nearer.They’d catch me, but I’d be damned if they’d catch me easily.“Bryce! Stop!”I rolled over under the power of someone else.At any other time, I probably would’ve registered that the person was Richard.But right then, I didn’t recognize him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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