The Last Town (Book 1): Rise of the Dead Read Online Free

like a top, and even had internal gyros to help her maintain her balance. And the lower portion could be swapped out with a foot extension, which she normally wore, or a curved wick of aluminum, which allowed her to play sports more aggressively and not worry about busting the more normal-looking lower section. It looked odd as hell, of course, but Danielle was well past the looks stage of life.
    War did that to you.
    But now, Dubai was burning, and the news reports said there was some sort of infection sweeping through the Middle East. It had started in Russia, but the Russian authorities were supposedly “handling it” in whatever way Russians took care of such things. Now, Saudi Arabia was closed to all air traffic in both directions. Saudi nationals caught outside the border were SOL, and foreigners inside the Kingdom were effectively trapped. Israel was also in lockdown, and its military was on high alert. There had been mass shootings in Jerusalem, but from the jerky video footage that had been broadcast, many of those who had been shot were in the grips of some murderous rage. They charged Israeli military units, and showed no fear of the weapons arrayed against them. Danielle got the distinct impression she saw people—Israelis as well as Arabs—being blasted to bits by machine-gun or grenade fire, and they still kept coming. Even missing limbs and suffering from what appeared to be massive deboning injuries, the attackers kept at it, creeping along the ground as best as they could.
    There were mounting reports of people eating each other. And not just in the Middle East, where Danielle had been blooded and knew relatively well, but in urbane Europe and America. In New York City, the National Guard had been called up, and there were talks of riots in Chicago and Miami. The CDC had issued official-sounding guidance which basically said, if someone bit you, report to a hospital immediately. Do not wait for EMS or other assistance if you have the ability to get yourself to a medical establishment in a more rapid fashion. Also, if individuals approach you and display any type of aggression, avoid them and notify law enforcement. Danielle didn’t quite know what to make of that. Was there some sort of viral outbreak occurring, some sort of pandemic that drove people mad?
    “Zombies, man,” said a voice from behind her.
    Danielle started at the sudden proclamation, and she turned awkwardly on her real leg (her artificial one behaved itself). Behind her, one of the short-order cooks, a pimply faced white kid named Jason Donner, leaned against the break room’s doorway. He smelled like tobacco, having come in from a smoke break out back. Raoul frowned upon smoking, but he wouldn’t be coming back to the diner until just before the dinner rush at five o’clock, when he’d bitch about the cigarette butts near the fire door, but would do nothing meaningful about the infraction. Jason’s lank blond hair was held out of his eyes by a skeevy-looking hairnet, and his oversized nose gleamed in the glow of the room’s florescent lights. He looked at the television with an odd, expectant expression.
    “Say again?” Danielle said.
    Jason pointed at the TV. “People are eating each other. It started in Russia, it made its way to Saudi fucking Arabia, and now it’s here in the US. You know who eats people, right? Zombies. It’s the fucking zombie apocalypse. George Romero was a prophet.”
    “Zombies, huh?”
    “Yeah. Before you know it, life’s going to be like that game Left 4 Dead , only we’ll be here in Single Tree waiting for the hordes to show up and rip our heads off and eat our guts.” Jason smiled a bit when he said that, but Danielle wasn’t sure he was joking. He was an odd sort, the kind of kid who would disappear into his Xbox if he could make it happen. The only reason he was working at the diner was because his mother had threatened to throw him out of their two-bedroom home unless he got a job, and