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

parents.
    “Pretty intense game,” the father says.
    Having trouble breathing, Vicky is left alone
in the dark doorway. Her hummingbird-like heart has finally slowed.
Actually it has stopped altogether. In a split second, she realizes
this before collapsing among the shadows in the corner. She is dead
before hitting the floor.

 
7
     
    “All right, boys, we are past the point of no
return.” Dwayne lets the actors know they are entering the final
ten minutes of play. During the first half of every round, the dead
go relatively easy on the survivors to give them a better show and
reduce the likelihood someone will complain about dying so quick
and demand a refund. “With the exception of the chick I told you
about, it’s killing time! We have six heading for the third
floor.”
     
    ###
     
    The intrepid pack has made it to the third
floor. They aren’t alone, for the dead are emerging from guest
rooms now, and more are still ascending the stairs behind them.
They have nowhere to run.
    “Where’s the attic?” Brandon asks, firing his
paintball gun at a corpse that gets a little too close for
comfort.
    “There’s a ladder at the end of this hall,”
Josh tells him. “We need to get some of these guys off our
backs.”
    “Lloyd, take the girls down the other hall,”
Brandon says. “We need to check those rooms.”
    “Uh?” Lloyd hesitates. He has already
exhausted his ammo and is taking rounds from the blondes’s
supply.
    “You want to win, right? Find the keys,”
Brandon says before he and Josh push on down the other hall.
    Vida isn’t sure if she was included in the
command to ‘take the girls’ somewhere else, but she is certainly
not leaving Brandon’s side. The dead have made it up the stairs and
now amass as a horde between the splitting group.
     
    ###
     
    Dwayne watches the monitors that cover the
third floor as the dead converge on the two factions. He knows
Trent is in position for his re-appearance. A second act most
players never get to see.
    Puzzling movement in his peripheral vision
brings his attention to the display of dim halls on the first
floor. There should be nobody down on his level, but he’s certain
he saw an impossibly skinny shadow.
    “Everyone, I might have a problem down here.
I’m going offline to check something out,” he tells the crew before
removing his headset.
    Standing for the first time in hours, his
legs feels as if they weigh a hundred pounds each. He won’t miss
this sedentary lifestyle once he quits. He knows the gig has caused
him to gain weight, since he’s been snacking all night while
playing god.
    Dwayne heads through the kitchen and to the
dining room. His undead guards have gone upstairs to help bring the
game to an end and prevent overtime.
    He encounters someone who should be long
gone--the skinny girl that briefly kept him company.
    “You were supposed to leave.”
    Dwayne shines a small flashlight on her. She
looked sickly before, but now she looks as if she’s going to vomit.
Her thin face is slack and set in a mournful grimace as she slowly
approaches him from around the long table.
    “Vicky, isn’t it? There’s a bathroom to the
right.” He indicates a door with his light, but she doesn’t falter
from her path. With her arms outstretched, the round’s first victim
is almost to him. All right , he thinks to himself. She’s going to need help getting there .
    During his years of service at the haunt,
Dwayne has seen many physical ailments manifest themselves out of
panic and extreme fear. Folks will pass out or retch. He’s even
seen grown men revert to a childlike state and need to be pulled
out of the house, all in the name of a good fright. Most in this
line of work don’t consider their attraction a success until they
have extracted a few frantic customers.
    “Take it easy,” he says calmly to the girl.
“You’re just coming down off the rush. We’re going to sit you down
and get you some water.”
    She is close enough to