Deadlocked 7 Read Online Free Page B

post near the front of the church. The wrought iron fence that wrapped around the church looked like a decorative embellishment, but the fancy spiked tips had proven deadly. Annie had to lean forward to see him, then grimaced and looked away. The post had pierced Dante’s back and drove through his neck, leaving the man a ragdoll, ripped and bleeding.
    “Annie.” Laura’s voice was weak, defeated, and stilted by pain. “Come down. Come down from there.”
    “No,” said Billy, taking charge as Laura faltered. “Annie, you stay there and keep an eye out for other helicopters.”
    Laura rushed at Billy and slammed her balled fists into his chest. “Shut up. She needs to come down. She’s going to get killed.”
    “Laura, settle down.” Billy took Annie’s mother by the arms and held her still. “You’re not thinking straight. Laura, please, I know how hard this must be for y ou, but you’ve got to calm down and be smart about this. We need her up there.”
    Laura and Billy faced off in silence, or at least Annie couldn’t hear them anymore as the Rollers around them carried on conversations of their own. Kim’s death had rattled everyone, but Annie’s defiant stance against Jerald’s helicopters had brought the camp back into focus. The fight wasn’t ov er yet, and survival required all of them to do their jobs, including Annie as she stood watch over them.
    She saw Zack stir to consciousness again and was thankful he’d survived. Her mother would need him.
    Annie was resolute in her duty. She was the guardian, their only lookout, standing high above the others to ensure their safety. Never in her life had she felt more assured of her place. Her sorrow over Kim’s death was ever present, but she forced herself to put it out of her mind as she scanned the smoke filled sky.
    She found a full magazine on the ground, beneath the splintered wood that had once supported the steeple’s roof. She put the magazine in and put a bullet in the chamber as she stood sentry.
    The horde outside their walls had no interest in them, and the other Rollers continued to pick them off one by one, but Annie saved her bullets for any of Jerald’s men that dared appear. She almost wished they would.
    The steeple groaned as the shattered posts around her started to give way. They had been shredded by the chain guns, and the pointed roof threatened to fall in. There was a short fall from the steeple to the church’s arched roof, and Annie realized that she would have to jump soon.
    The floor shifted and Annie slid to the side. It startled her, and didn’t make sense until she looked back and saw that the fallen bell had damaged the floor as well. It wasn’t just the roof of the steeple that was in danger of collapsing; the entire thing was about to crash down.
    A zombie screeched nearby, but one of the Rollers shot it dead in the middle of its cry. Louder even than the living dead were the roaring flames that encroached upon the city from the field. It had spanned the highway gap and touched upon the buildings at the east end of town, bringing new fuel to the flames. Now the inferno was licking at the sky from a new, higher vantage, dazzlingly bright and bringing heat even from a hundred yards away. When a westward wind blew, it carried ash and embers, spreading the destruction and lighting new fires. It was a wicked backdrop to the sudden fear that Annie experienced as the floor beneath her began to give way.
    She strapped the rifle to her shoulder and started to climb over the edge of the steeple, but her added weight on the sill caused it to buckle. The wood cracked and Annie felt her stomach rise as she fell. Her feet hit the roof below, but she was unable to stop herself before falling to her back. She caught sight of the entire steeple leaning toward her, and then her feet were in the air in front of her face as her head smashed into the roof in mid tumult. She scrambled to claw at the curved shingles, but they pulled away