Badlands Trilogy (Book 2): Beyond the Badlands Read Online Free

frame impaled the carriers first inside, their dying bodies creating a ramp for the others to follow.
    “Dave, hurry!” Annette yelled as she peered down from the attic.
    Dave picked up the second pack and placed a foot on the ladder’s bottom rung. He took a step up toward the attic, shoving the backpack up to Annette. As she pulled it from him he climbed faster, the sound of footsteps right behind him.
    Halfway inside the attic, he felt a hand grip his foot.
    He lost his footing and fell. Instinctively he reached out with his hands, finding the top rung of the ladder and arresting his fall. He pulled himself upward while desperately trying to kick free of the carrier’s grasp on his legs. It wailed from below, the stink of rot and feces drifting up all around him, enveloping him in a horrid blanket of stench.
    Balancing with one leg on the ladder, Dave kicked hard with his other foot, landing a boot in the carrier’s face. The thing’s head snapped backward as the blow connected. He kicked two more times before he felt the carrier’s grasp loosen.
    Seizing the opportunity, he pulled himself up and scrambled into the attic. Below him the carriers swarmed, banging on the walls and against the ladder, screaming with rage.
    Then something happened that he hadn’t expected: one of the carriers began to climb. Dave drew back his leg and delivered a hard kick, planting a foot in the carrier’s face and driving it backward. Locking eyes on Dave, it hissed, baring its rotten teeth like a rabid dog. Dave kicked again, harder this time, smashing the carrier’s nose. It opened its mouth and released a deafening screech, its eyes like black holes.
    “Motherfucker!” Dave bellowed as he delivered a smashing blow to the thing’s head. He heard a snap as the carrier’s body went limp. It released its grip from the ladder and fell back into the crowd of swarming carriers, disappearing into a squirming pit of limbs and teeth.
    Seeing his chance, Dave retracted the ladder and yanked the attic door closed, shutting out most of the noise from the carriers below them. Narrow shafts of sunlight penetrated through vents in the roof, illuminating the attic in a pallid glow. Dave collapsed onto his back upon the attic floor, panting for air.
    Annette crawled to him and held him tightly. “Do you think we’re okay up here?”
    “I think so,” Dave replied between breaths.
    “What about the attic door? Can they open it?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    She paused. “What now?”
    “We wait.”
    “For what?”
    He looked at her in the dim light, searching for an answer.
    He could find nothing to say.

Chapter Six

    The sound of the explosion pierced the air like an enormous thunderclap. Everyone standing on the train platform jumped. Instinctively Ed gathered his family together.
    “Dad? What’s going on?” Zach asked, his face showing all of his fear.
    “It’s okay,” Ed said, hoping his voice sounded as calm as he pretended to be. His hand fell to the pistol in the holster around his waist as he searched for what had caused the explosion. A hundred yards away, a large dust cloud drifted through the air near the fence line. It dissipated quickly as it rose, revealing the destruction behind it. An entire section of the fence lay on the ground in tatters.
    Seconds later the first carrier made its way through.
    On the train platform around them, people darted around frantically, voices loud and panicked. “Carriers!" someone yelled. Guardsmen in black ran toward the invading infected, taking up position. They lined up in front of the platform, laying down a hail of bullets. Carriers in the lead dropped as more filed in behind them.
    “Get the packs,” Ed said, his eyes focused on the incoming infected.
    “Boys, come on,” Trish said, her tone hurried.
    The four of them ran the dozen feet to where they’d stowed their packs. They put them on quickly, each one calling on countless practice runs just like this. None of that