Life Among The Dead (Book 3): A Bittersweet Victory Read Online Free

think I--”
    “Let’s do it!” But Brandon’s enthusiasm
drowns her out.

 
4
     
    Now out of the customer’s sight, Trent slows
his pace. He nods to his paid corpses as he passes through what was
once used as a dining area. The zombies lurk in the shadows by the
doorway, waiting for anyone foolish enough to try being a hero.
They set Vicky onto her feet in the kitchen.
    “Am I dead?” she asks.
    “I’m afraid so,” Trent says, breaking
character as the dead do when they wander off to their next
assigned zone.
    Should I just lie down or leave?” she
says.
    Trent opens a door, revealing a small closet
full of monitors and a man on a swivel chair.
    Dwayne tells him, without looking away from
his duties, “We have stragglers in the foyer.”
    “Again?” Trent asks in frustration. The
attraction has been going strong since it opened, but it is still a
work in progress. There’s a lot they need to figure out. In this
scenario, he can’t send the victim out until the front door is
clear. “What’s your name?”
    “Vicky.”
    “Vicky, I need you to hang out here with
Dwayne until he says it’s time to go, ok?”
    “Sure.” She puts a hand to her chest, as if
in an attempt to slow her adrenaline fueled heart rate. “I can’t
believe I died already.” She drops herself into the empty chair by
Dwayne.
    Trent has already moved on.
    “Don’t feel bad,” Dwayne says, without once
looking from his monitors. “It happens every round. We take one
person at the jump to get the others moving.” He has no qualms
about revealing the secret strategy. After his conversation with
Trent earlier, he has decided this is his last year working the
haunt.
    “So where are the keys?” she asks while
tapping out a beat on her legs.
    “I have no idea,” he admits. Only Trent
Tilden knows the answer to that question. Dwayne has a suspicion he
doesn’t share: Maybe there are no keys .

 
5
     
    Brandon wants to lead his group up the main
stairs but is halted by Lloyd, who grabs his arm and hitches a
thumb toward the petrified blondes. “We should help them.”
    “Forget them. Let’s go!” he snaps.
    Lloyd hangs his head low and follows Brandon
to the back of the foyer where a wide set of stairs are situated.
The route to the next floor branches off into two sets that veer to
either side above them.
    “We’ll sweep the parts of the second and
third floors that I’ve never made it to.” Josh reminds Brandon of
the plan they had come up with.
    “How many times have you done this?” Vida
asks.
    “This is my fifth try. This time it will be
different. I was able to get my hands on a blueprint of this place
from city planning and I memorized it.”
    “Wow, you really want that shirt,” she
says.
    From the stairs, the group can see murky
figures crossing dim pools of amber light cast by antique fixtures.
They emerge from the shadows below and more enter through the front
door. The pair of blondes that have been left behind scream out in
terror. Unable to move, they just cling tighter to one another.
    Lloyd stops in his tracks at the sound, torn
between his band and his good intentions. The zombies branching off
from the amassing horde to pursue them up the stairs do not deter
him. He charges down the steps, checking the corpses aside with his
broad shoulders to get to the damsels in distress.
     
    ###
     
    “We have a foul on the first floor!” Dwayne
reports over his mouthpiece. “Security, I need you to remove a
survivor from the foyer.”
    “That’s Lloyd!” Vicky says, as she watches
her friend bash the stunt zombies. “Please don’t kick him out. He’s
just trying to help those girls.”
    “We’ve got rules,” Dwayne says. “He read them
in the handbook.”
    “He isn’t much of a reader. Please!”
    A second of deliberation is all it takes.
“Cancel that, security.” Fuck it ! I’m quitting anyway .
    They watch as the thickly built musician
hurls one zombie into another before finally using his