Ashton Memorial

WHO:

Angie Land
– Young single mother and nurse's aide at Lakewood
Memorial Hospital.

Maylee Land
– Angie's fourteen-year-old daughter.

Dalton Land
– Angie's twelve-year-old son.

Parker Welch
– Local hunter who was at Lakewood Memorial
Hospital when the dead moved and ate. He has two twin daughters he
has not seen in years.

What:

A sudden and massive attack has left the
world in chaos. Corpses have risen from their graves and are eating
the living.

Where:

The parking lot of Lakewood Memorial
Hospital, the only hospital in the small town of Lakewood. It is
burning and destroyed from the events of the night before. Angie
Land and Parker Welch are the only survivors. Angie's children have
raced to the hospital to meet her and have just arrived.

When:

The morning after the initial attack. It is
late fall.

Why:

No one knows.

Ashton Memorial

Book 2 of a zombie trilogy

A novel by Robert R. Best

Ashton Memorial

By Robert R. Best

Copyright Robert R. Best 2010. All Rights
reserved.

Smashwords edition.

Edited by Laura Best

Cover art by Deedee Davies

Interior formatting by Kody Boye

Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form, or by any means (electronically, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the proper written
permission of both the copyright owner and “Library of the Living
Dead Press,” except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. People,
places, events and situation are the product of the author’s
imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or
undead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

Zero

“We gotta move,” said
Angie, pushing Maylee and Dalton forward. The burning hospital
behind them bathed everything in orange light. The sun was coming
up, but long shadows hid large portions of the parking lot. Corpses
could be anywhere. Angie’s back tightened at the
thought.

“Same here,” said Park
behind her. Angie stopped and turned. Park was heading off to her
right, toward the outer wall of the hospital.

“Where’s your truck?” she
said.

He pointed as he walked. Angie followed his
gesture to see a pickup crumpled against the nearby wall. The front
was crushed in and a metal ladder lay across the top of the cabin.
Angie recognized it as the ladder that had been attached to the
wall.

“Is that even gonna run?”
she said. Maylee and Dalton stopped a few feet ahead of her,
turning back to look.

Park shrugged and kept
walking. “Fuck if I know. We’ll see, I guess.”

Angie turned to look at her
kids, then back at Park. “Thanks for your help,” she said, almost
yelling as Park got farther away.

Park chuckled. “Let’s not
start that shit. We both needed to get out. We just happened to be
doing it at the same time.”

Angie snorted and turned
back to Maylee and Dalton. Dalton was looking at stumbling corpses,
far in the distance. Maylee held her aluminum bat over one shoulder
and watched Park move to his truck. Maylee’s eyes met Angie’s.
Maylee frowned. “What?”

“Don’t what me, young
lady,” Angie said, walking forward and motioning for them to
follow. “You could have gotten you both killed coming
here.”

Maylee let out a pained
groan. “We couldn’t very well stay home, Mom.”

“You stole a
car.”

“We had to!”

“You shouldn’t have been
driving.”

“Someone had to,” Maylee
protested. “Dalton’s too little!”

Dalton shot Maylee an
angry look.
I’m twelve
, the look said.

“You’re too little,” said
Angie. “You’re fourteen!” They drew near to her car. Angie fished
around in her hospital-issue smock, looking for her keys. For a
panicked moment she thought she had left them in her purse, back in
the breakroom of the burning hospital. Then her hands met metal and
she sighed.

From back toward the hospital, she heard the
groaning complaint of an engine attempting to start. Over and over
but not kicking in.

“Who is that guy, anyway?”
said Dalton.

“Parker,” said Angie,
flipping through her keys to find the right one. “He helped me get
out.”

The truck engine groaned and clanked in the
distance. Over and over. Not starting.

“Is his truck going to
start?”

“How would I know that,
Dalton?” Angie snapped, then immediately felt bad. Dalton frowned
at her. Angie sighed. “Look, I don’t know, alright? I just have to
get you guys safe and …”

A gargling groan came from their left. Angie
spun to see a corpse, a man with a burned face and bloody exposed
ribs, staggering toward them.

“Shit!” said
Maylee.

“Don’t say ‘shit,’ Maylee,”
said Angie. “Get in the car!”

“I’ve got this one,” said
Maylee. She gripped her bat and ran toward the corpse.

“Maylee!” yelled Angie,
furious and terrified as her daughter ran at the approaching
corpse. Maylee let out a roar and swung the bat at the corpse’s
head. The bat connected with a sickening “snap” and the corpse’s
head fell to one side. The corpse dropped to its knees. Angie raced
up and grabbed Maylee’s arm just as Maylee brought the bat over her
head.

Angie snatched the bat from
Maylee and threw it to one side. The bat clanged across the parking
lot. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Mom, the bat!” Maylee
yelled back. The corpse groaned and fumbled around at their feet.
“I need that!”

Maylee started to push past
Angie, toward the bat. Angie pushed back, stopping her. “You will
do as I say, young lady! Get in the goddamned car right goddamned
now!”

Maylee snorted. The corpse
groaned as its head lolled around, limp. “Oh sure, you get to
fucking cuss all you want.”

Angie slapped her across the face.

Maylee’s jaw dropped and she put one hand to
her cheek. She stared at Angie.

“Goddammit, Maylee!” Angie
yelled. Her body shook. “I’m your goddamned mother and you will get
in the goddamned car!”

Maylee rubbed her cheek, staring at Angie.
The corpse groaned. Tears grew in Maylee’s eyes.

“Please,” said Angie, her
throat tightening.

To their right, Dalton screamed.

Both Angie and Maylee turned. A large woman,
throat ripped out and blouse covered in dark gore, closed her arms
around Dalton from behind.

“Dalton!” Angie screamed,
running toward him. Maylee followed.

They reached Dalton as the corpse lowered
her mouth toward his scalp. Angie grabbed the woman’s matted hair
and pushed as hard as she could. The woman’s head snapped backward.
She hissed at Angie, thick clotted fluid running from her open neck
and pooling on Dalton’s hair. Dalton screamed.

Maylee arrived next to Angie. She grabbed
hold of the woman’s fingers and pulled them apart. Dalton wriggled
free and ran past Angie, furiously wiping his head with his
hands.

The woman wrenched free of Maylee and
grabbed hold of Angie’s smock. The woman was stronger than Angie
would have thought.

“Dalton! Maylee!” Angie
yelled. “Get out of here!”

Angie kept hold of the
woman’s hair and pushed back with all she had, but the woman pulled
her closer. Angie heard Maylee running away.
Oh God,
Angie thought,
please let them get away in
time
. She struggled with the woman as best
she could. She heard the broken-neck corpse groaning behind her.
The woman’s mouth drew near to Angie’s cheek.

A blur flew from the side and a loud “thud” rang
out. The woman’s head flew back, her hair pulling free of Angie’s
grip. The woman let go of Angie’s smock and Angie jumped away.
Dalton threw his arms around her waist. “Mom!” he shouted.

Maylee stood to one side of the woman, gripping her
bat. She brought the bat over her head and slammed down on the
woman’s skull. There was a sharp “pop” and the woman toppled over
backward. Maylee panted and lowered the bat, looking at Angie
sheepishly.

Angie sighed. “Thank you,
but don’t ever do that again.”

Maylee nodded.

Park’s truck groaned and
whined, still not starting. “Shit!” Park said, far away. Angie
looked and saw corpses closing on the truck.

“Dammit,” said Angie,
biting her lip and sighing. “Dumbass.”

She turned to her kids.
“Everyone in the car.”

Both Maylee and Dalton moved to the front
passenger door. They both stopped, scowling at each other.

“Both of you in the back,”
said Angie, opening the driver’s side door.

“What?” said
Maylee.

“Why?” said
Dalton.

“One, because we don't have
time to stand here arguing,” she paused to nod toward Park's truck,
“and two, we're gonna have to save dumbass over there.”

Moans came from behind her.
She looked over her shoulder to see two corpses approaching the
car. “See,” she said. “No time. Now hurry!”

Maylee and Dalton ran to opposite back seat
doors. They opened them almost in unison and clambered inside.
Angie climbed into the driver’s seat and they all shut their doors
at once.

Angie tuned the key, grateful when the
engine started. She grabbed the shifter and pulled down.

“Seat belts,” said Maylee
from the back seat.

Angie looked in the
rear-view mirror. Maylee was clicking her belt into place. Dalton
was grabbing his and frowning. “What is your deal with seat belts?”
he said.

Angie's eyes met Maylee's
in the mirror. Maylee adjusted the belt and frowned. “Seat belts,
Mom.”

Angie chuckled. “Okay. Seat
belts.” She pulled her belt across her chest and clicked it into
place.

Thuds came from the rear. They all turned to
look. The two corpses had reached the car. One of them was a fat
man with a huge gouge down his face and neck. He pawed at the back
window and moaned, the loose skin around his wound shaking.

“Mom,” said Dalton
anxiously.

“I see them,” said Angie,
pressing down on the gas pedal. The car jerked backward. The second
corpse, a thin woman missing most of her scalp, fell backward and
out of view. The fat man fell forward, toppling onto the trunk of
the car.

“Shit,” said Angie,
slamming on the brakes, hoping the corpse would fall off. He did
not. He groped and pawed and groaned.

“Mom,” repeated
Dalton.

Gurgling came from the front of the car.
Angie looked to see the broken-neck corpse climbing onto the
hood.

“And there's that fucker,”
said Angie. “Wonderful.”

“If you'd let me finish it
off earlier,” said Maylee.

“Zip it, Maylee,” said
Angie. She pulled the shifter into drive and slammed down on the
gas. The tires screeched and the car lurched forward. The corpse on
the trunk slid down, cracking its gouged chin. The corpse on the
front rocketed forward, flying across the parking lot and slamming
into the hood of a van. The “crack” of the corpse's back was so
loud Angie heard it over the engine.

Angie hit the brakes again. She and the kids
rocked forward. The corpse on the trunk slid toward them. Black
fluid spilled from the corpse’s mouth and flowed over the
trunk.

“Gross!” said Dalton,
looking backward. Angie pushed the shifter into reverse and gunned
the engine. The car raced backward with such force the seat belt
dug into her shoulder.

She spun the steering wheel to her right.
The tires screeched and the car twisted in a half circle. The
corpse, moaning and clawing at the trunk, slid off and rolled
across the pavement. Its head spun free of its body.

Angie braked, and she and the kids rocked
violently in their seats. They paused for a moment, panting and
looking around.