Dead: Winter Read Online Free Page A

problem.”
    I wasn’t stupid. Basically he was letting everybody know that if a bunch of zombies showed up, one of them would be staying behind as fodder to allow the other to escape. Well bully for them!
    “You had Emily bash the head in on a zombie.” I started to come around the long table we all used during the evening meal. “You don’t think that was dangerous? Could you please define just what the hell qualifies?”
    “Steve,” Jon cut me off, “I think you’re making something out of nothing. You have been saying for the past few weeks that we need to take this stuff more seriously. I think that includes the girls.”
    “They are not soldiers!”
    “You can’t have it both ways,” Jon replied with a shrug. “They have to be able to take care of themselves should the sit u ation arise.”
    “And we have been working with them,” I argued. “They can shoot, pick out edible plants in the woods…there is no hurry to make them into warriors.”
    “Nobody is making them in to anything, Steve,” Jake piped in.
    I was beginning to feel like I was being ganged up on and it was really starting to piss me off. “Then what in the hell was Emily doing bashing in a zombie’s head?”
    “We told you,” Jake sighed. “Jesus took the thing’s legs out. It was just laying on the ground like road kill.”
    “Last I heard it wasn’t the legs that killed you.”
    “Steve.” Dr. Zahn placed a hand on my arm; when in the heck did she get there? “I think there is some validity to your concern, but I also think that those two boys wouldn’t allow harm to come to the girls. This is something else.” I spun to face her. “Melissa came to see me this afternoon.” I turned to see Melissa leaving the room, Sunshine on her heels.
    Does everybody have to know our private business? I wondered. And what if they did? I am pre t ty sure I can’t be the only person that feels that it would be important to survive even if it meant…
    “I think we need to have a group meeting,” Dr. Zahn said, snapping my attention back to her. “We have two pregnant women in our group and, like it or not, it affects us all. We have survived this long by taking precautions, by planning, and by using our heads. The weather is now part of the equ a tion, and so are the two mothers-to-be. We have always been at our best when we act as a group.”
    “I also think that Thalia and Emily need to be present,” Ian added.
    I was going to have whiplash after this evening. It took me a second to realize that my mouth was wide open. I closed it with a click that made my teeth hurt.
    “Sorry, Steve,” Ian apologized. “I know you think those girls are your sole responsibility, but that just isn’t true. You are their primary caretaker, but…and I know this is gonna sound cliché, but those girls are being raised by the village old What’s-her-nuts was always yammering about.”
    I’d heard enough. Damning my cane as it made a complete mockery of my exit, I did my best to storm out. I heard a few “Let him be” and “He just needs a minute to cool down” comments being made as I shut the door and stared out into the darkness that seemed to swallow the world at sunset lately.
    A cold breeze reminded me that I hadn’t bothered with a jacket, or even long sleeves. I made my way down the stairs and onto the gravel. I took two steps when I heard it, the low moan of one of the undead. It was impossible to tell exactly where it was coming from or how far away it was. Sound ca r ried in e n tirely different ways now that the world was dead.
    I took a few steps in the direction I thought it might be and then waited. All I could hear for se v eral seconds was my own heartbeat. Then…I heard it; the still-hair-raising sounds of a b a by cry. It was down the hill and to my left.
    I drew the long blade I kept strapped to my hip and went to the barrel that was under an overhang by the tool shed and fetched one of the ready-to-light torches.