Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel) Read Online Free Page B

to help. There was no way around it. She was all alone and about to meet a grizzly death.
    One of the men grabbed her hands and held them on the ground over her head. The man on top of her set his gun to the side and unfastened her belt and holster. She struggled, but he was too heavy to throw off. He unbuttoned her pants and started to unzip them.
    Gritting her teeth, she said, “Over my dead body, asshole.”
    He put his hand over her mouth and reached behind his back. When he brought his hand around he had a large hunting knife in it. “That can be arranged. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re breathing or not.”
    Her eyes were fixed upon the large blade as it drew closer. She struggled and let out a muffed scream as he held it in front of her face, taunting her with it. She closed her eyes and felt the sharp steel against her throat. Knowing she was about to draw her last breath, she let out one last muffed scream.
    From somewhere behind, there was a loud pop and she felt the knife as it fell to the side. Her eyes opened and she saw the man staring down at her. There was a small round hole in his forehead with blood trickling out of it. He slowly slumped forward and lay on top of her. She heard two more pops and the other two men dropped to the ground next to her.
    Lisa struggled to get the man off, but he was too heavy. His dead weight was forcing all of the air out of her body and she couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, his weight was lifted off her and she was finally able to take a deep, cool breath. When she looked up, she saw Mark standing over her with his hand extended. Grabbing it, she was pulled to her feet.
    She looked over at the burning car, then back at him, trying to figure out what had happened. Lisa had an urge to throw her arms around him and took a step. When she realized what she was about to do, she stopped and stepped back. She straightened her shirt and buttoned her pants. In a firm voice she said, “I thought you were dead.”
    “Well, for a minute there, so did I.”
    “I can’t believe you just went off and left me!”
    “I didn’t. I was trying to get them to follow me so you could get away. I didn’t intend to get pinned down behind that car.”
    She looked back over at the car. Puzzled, she said, “But I saw you behind it just before it exploded. How did you survive?”
    “Once I got over there, I saw an open manhole next to it and remembered seeing another one around the corner. I went down it and came up through over there so I could get behind them. As I went down I tossed a grenade in the car to distract them so I’d have more time to get into position.”
    She thought for a minute, then slapped his chest, causing him to flinch and take a step back. “Then what took you so long?”
    “I ran into a zombie down there. Did you know there’re zombies in the sewer?”
    She fastened her belt and holster and then picked up her pistol. “I want you to know, that while you were down there playing with zombies in the sewer, I was up here by myself about to get my throat slit and gang raped!”
    “Okay, I’m sorry. I moved as fast as I could. I didn’t intend for you to get hurt.”
    She looked around. “We need to get out of here. I’m sure the rot-bags heard the shots and are going to smell the blood. They’ll swarm this whole area in a matter of minutes.”
    Mark ran over to the truck, got in, then jumped back out. “We need the keys.”
    They both heard a chorus of moans and saw dozens of them coming around the corner behind them. At the other intersection in front of them, more approached. They ran over and started pulling everything out the pockets of the dead men as the zombies moved toward them.
    When Mark pulled the keys out of one of the pockets, a zombie reached down, latched onto his back, and tried to bite his shoulder. It was stopped short when Lisa fired a single shot into the front of its head. Black goo spattered out and onto the side of Mark’s face. He reached