Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (63 page)

We
walked
to the door
and
waited
while
Bill
raised it
slightly.
Kyle
got
down
onto his
stomach
and
looked
through
the
crack.
He
made
a
cutting
motion at his
neck.
I
sucked in a
breath
and
held
it. I
could
see
the shadow of
feet
moving
under the
door.

“What
do we
do?”
Pearl
whispered.

Tanya
pointed
to the
back.
“Head
to the
shadows.
I’ll
take
care
of
this.”

We
did as she
instructed.
When we
were as
concealed
as
we
could
get,
she
lifted
the door
as
high
as
her
waist
and
ducked under. She
pushed
it
closed.

“Oh,
hey,”
we
heard
Tanya’s
voice through
the door.
“What
are
you
doing
here
this
early?”

“Looking
for
escaped
prisoners.”
The
voice
was
distinctly
male, but it didn’t sound like
Liet.
More
than
likely,
it
was
just some
guard. “You
see
anything
suspicious?”

There
wasn’t a
response,
so
I
assumed
she
shook her
head.

“What
are
you
doing
out
here?”

“You
know,
just
checking
things
out. We’ve
been
having
some
issues
with
mice,
so
I
wanted
to
place
some
traps.”

“With the door
closed?”

“Don’t
need
other
ones
getting
in. Plus,
that
sun
beating
into the
shed
makes it really
hot.”

There
was a long
silence.
What
was
going
on?
What
was
the
soldier
thinking?
He
believed
her, he
had
to
believe her.
We
were
so
screwed
if he
didn’t believe
her.

I
tightened
my
grip
on my
gun. I
wasn’t
going
to
let some
minor-league
guard
ruin
our
plans.
I
didn’t
want
to
have
to kill
anyone,
but
I
would.
Too much
was
at stake.
And
I
refused
to
go
back to jail.

Eventually,
the
scuff
of dirt
drifted
into the
shed.
A
few
minutes
later,
the
door
opened.
Tanya signaled
with
her
hand
for us to move. We
hurried
out of
the
darkness.
Squinting,
I
looked to
my
right
and left,
trying
to
figure
out which way
the
guard
had
gone.
He
wasn’t
anywhere
in
sight,
so
I
figured
we
were
safe.
Tanya
and
Bill
headed
toward
the
coffee
shop.
Pam
and
Kyle skulked
toward
the
high
school.
Pearl and Tom
disappeared
around the
corner.

“We
should
get
on top of
that building
right
there.”
Quinn
pointed. “Looks
like
maybe
it’s a
convenience
store
or
sandwich
place.
Either
way,
it’s
right
between
the
high
school
and
coffee
shop. We’ll
have
a
great
view
of
both.”

I
nodded
my
agreement.
It
didn’t
matter
if
we
were
ready
or
not,
the
plan was in motion.

CHAPTER
19

I
had
second
thoughts
about helping
out the
inhabitants of
Florida.
I
stood in the
alley
behind
the
building,
staring
up
at
Quinn as he
climbed
the
access
ladder
to the
roof,
and
wondered
why
we
didn’t just
leave.
I
mean,
they
seemed to have
everything
under
control. Tom said
they’d
been
planning
the
attack
for
months,
which
meant
they
wanted to do it long
before
we took
over
North
Platte. They
didn’t
need
our
help,
they
could
handle
things
just fine
without us.

Well,
after
we
got
them their
guns
they
could
handle
things
without us. We
didn’t really
need to put
ourselves
at
risk.
If
we
were captured,
they’d
shoot us on sight.
It
was
risky
enough
being
in
“Johnsons’
Town,”
let
alone
having
to
spend
an
entire
day
there.
Where
were
we
going
to
go?
If
we
really
wanted
to, we
could
crawl
down
from
the
roof,
take
a
car,
and
disappear
into the
West.
But
Quinn would never do it.
He
felt
obligated
to help
them out. He
was
definitely
a
better
person
than
I
was.

He
signaled
me
from the
roof,
waving
his
hand
for
me to
come
up. With
difficulty,
I
climbed
the
ladder.
At
the top, he
grabbed
me
under the
armpits and
pulled
me
onto the
roof.
Man,
it was hot up
there!
I
suddenly
missed the
wind in the
West.
It
would’ve
cooled
me
off.
Our
feet
crunched
on the
gravel
as we
scurried
to the
other
side to
keep
an
eye
on
things.
Sweat
already
dripped
from
my
forehead.
I
hoped
they
hurried
up
with
their
missions.

To
my
right,
I
saw
Tanya
and
Bill
heading
into the
coffee
shop.
Bill
glanced
around
nervously.
I
knew he
would
feel
much
more
comfortable
once
he
had
a
weapon.
I
would. I
just
hoped
he
used
it on those
who
were
actually
deserving
and not out of spite.
Of
course,
it
could
be
debated
that
Tanya
deserved to be shot,
but she
also
was
allowed
the benefit of the
doubt.
In
front
of us,
Pam
and
Kyle crouched
and
headed
toward
the
high
school
parking
lot.
From
my
vantage
point,
I
saw the
Hummer
parked
close
to
the
building. Typical
of
Liet,
he
was
in a
handicap
parking
space.
A
guard
sat
on the
bumper,
but
I
don’t
think he
was
actually
guarding
the
vehicle.
He
had a
cigarette
in his mouth
and
a
relaxed
attitude.
Why
would he
think
anything
was
going
to
happen?
If
he
was watching
it, he
was
probably
angry
about
it and
didn’t
give
the
job
his full
attention. That
would be
detrimental
to
him.
Pam
and
Kyle
weren’t
going
to
mess
around.

Thankfully,
the
city
still slept. A
few
cars
drove
on
the
streets,
some
people,
maybe teachers,
coming
to
work,
but nothing
we
couldn’t
handle.
A
few
soldiers
milled
around,
too. They
drove
the
roads
in Jeeps, but they
headed
away
from the school,
more
than likely
to
do a
search
of
the
perimeter
and outside of
town to find us. They
had no
reason
to believe
we’d
still be in town.
Liet
might,
knowing we
wanted to take
things
over, but he
also knew
we
didn’t have
the
manpower.
He
didn’t know
Quinn
was
still alive,
and
The
Families
thought
Tanya
was
on
their
side.
We
had
surprise
on our
side. For
a
while
at
least.

We
got
to the
edge
of
the building
and
crouched
down. A
three-foot
wall
gave
us
great
cover.
Quinn
had
his rifle
with him, and his
revolver
on his hip. I
had
my
handgun
too, but it wasn’t
going
to be
much
help if
I
had
to shoot too
far.
If
it came
down to it, we
could
only
hope
the shots would be
enough to
scare
any
attackers
into
cover.
With any
luck, it
wouldn’t
come
down to that. I
glanced
to
my
right.

Tanya
and
Bill
disappeared
into the
building.
I
looked
forward.
Pam and
Kyle
were close,
two
cars
away.
The
soldier
sucked
on the
last
of
his
cigarette,
blissfully
unaware
of
what
was
going
on.
Pam
and
Kyle
separated,
each
heading
in
a
different
direction.
They
were
going
to
surround
the
Hummer.
The
guard
pushed
himself
away
from the bumper
and
idly
paced around. He
was
a
few
feet
away
from the
truck.
Pam
straightened
up
and
tucked
her
gun
into
her
waist
band
at
the
small of
her
back.
She
quickly
glanced
to
see
where
Kyle
was
before
approaching
the man.

My
palms
began to
sweat,
my
mouth
went
dry.
I
didn’t know exactly
what
she
was
doing, but
I
hoped it
worked.
The
guard
didn’t know who she
was,
he
couldn’t.
Besides,
she
wasn’t
wanted
like we
were.
Yeah,
if
Liet
saw
her
he’d shoot
her,
but
Liet
wasn’t
around.
This had to work.

The
guard
stiffened
when he
noticed
her,
tightening
his
grip
on his
gun,
but he didn’t
raise
the
barrel in
her
direction. Their
voices
were
distant,
but
I
caught
the
gist
of
their
conversation.