The Ashes: an Eden prequel Read Online Free Page A

as I’d like it to be.  I silently start backing toward the front door. 
    There’s that sound again and it takes everything I have to not flip the flashlight back on.  I’m only fifteen yards from the entrance.
    My feet move quicker.  I’m walking backwards, my back to the door, my shotgun leveled before my eyes.  I feel totally blind.
    The back of my heel catches something, and my finger accidently pulls the trigger.  The blast nearly deafens me in the silent building and it feels like all of my internal organs disappear.
    I hear them all wake to life and there’s the sound of shuffling feet.  I make a full sprint for the door.
    I just clear the glass, a jagged edge catching my left arm, ripping my skin open.  I stumble over the pavement of the parking lot, struggling to keep hold on the shotgun.  I hear crashing sounds as bodies slam into the metal framework of the doorway.  They’re all trying to get through it at once.
    The SUV seems ten times farther away that it is as I steady my sprint.  I hear metal hit the pavement behind me and dare a single glance back.
    Two of them have fallen through the door and are climbing to their feet.  Their metal eyes are locked on me.
    I push faster.  My pack bounces up and down, one of the guns inside slapping against my spine painfully.  I hear more sets of feet hitting the road as I reach the SUV and yank the door open.  I shove the pack into the back seat and fumble for the keys.
    The keys.  I can’t find them.
    In one heart-sickening second, I look out the door and see they’re lying about ten feet from the car.  That first zombie robot is about twenty.
    I fling the door open and start firing.  I see tiny holes appear in the first man’s shirt and he stumbles when I spray him with bullets.  I fire at the woman right behind him and knock her on her back.
    My fingers close around the keys and I fire another shot at the first man who is recovering and fall backwards into the SUV.  I feel like my heart is going to rocket right out of my chest as I yank the door closed behind me just as he slams into the door.  His eyes gleam while I desperately try to get the keys into the ignition.
    Glass sprays my face as the window shatters.  I slam the butt of the shotgun into his nose, sending him sprawling backwards into two of the others.  I yank the gearshift down into drive and stomp on the gas pedal.  The front driver’s side wheel runs over a body.
    I’ve just turned left back onto the road when I hear something collide with the car.  The next second there’s something banging on the roof.
    One of them is on top of me.
    I slam on the breaks and hear the thing shift forward.  White blond hair flips onto the front windshield and I stomp on the gas once again.  The thing still hangs on.
    I jerk the wheel to the right and then once again to the left.  More pounding on the roof.  The next second later, the window to the front passenger side explodes and a pale skinned hand is groping through the dark for my throat.
    Stomping on the break, I jerk the wheel hard to the left.  The thing sails off my roof.
    I’m back on the on ramp not five seconds later.
     
    40°16’16.11”N  77°5’27.83”W
     
    I drive for another six hours before my eyes refuse to stay open.  By now I’ve gotten to some fairly rural areas and I haven’t seen another moving being in at least three hours.  I find an exit that looks safe enough and pull off.  I’m so tired that I don’t even realize I won’t have enough gas to make it up the mountain pass I’m about to cross until I’ve gone past the last station.  I’ll have to back track into town for gas when I wake up.  But for now this small county road looks safe enough to rest on.
    I pull a ways off the road into the brush.  I grab my pack, sling it over my shoulder, then walk fifty yards from the busted up SUV.  The vehicle feels like a beacon, announcing my location for anyone or anything that might come