Wormwood Dawn (Episode IX) Read Online Free Page A

down at Cliff. “You get some rest now, buddy. We’ll hold down the fort.”
    “Alright,” Cliff said. “You can just leave the morphine.”
     
    Dan wandered aimlessly through the shadowy woods. He could barely see, as the sun had gone down, and only the moonlight lit his path. To make it worse, he was getting tipsy. The whiskey was a welcome friend, though, and he was glad he decided to grab it. It was definitely improving his mood.
    He knew the woods ended somewhere up ahead, and there was flat farmland in that area. If he could get there, he could likely find some farm houses. It was then he realized that, in reality, he was lost. He hadn’t really been paying attention to where he was going, and he probably couldn’t even find his way back to the cabin. The only thing he knew is that if he went east, he would find his way back to the highway.
    Whichever way was east.
    “Fuck,” he said, plopping down on the side of a hill.
    He set down the whiskey bottle, putting his elbows on his knees and listening to the sounds of the forest. There was very little noise, other than the creaking and swaying of the trees, and the light scurrying of small animals in the underbrush.
    It was peaceful, but it was starting to get cold.
    He bundled himself up in his jacket, putting his hands in his pockets and sliding over to a pile of fallen timbers that offered some shelter. He leaned against it, wedging himself between it and the hillside, and sat in silence. He occasionally sipped the whiskey as he brooded, and stared off into the shadows. All he could think about was Cliff’s face when the creature had attacked. It horrified him to see a friend in such pain.
    And it was all his fault.
    He had failed, that was for sure. Cliff might be dead now for all he knew, and here he was sitting in the woods like some kind of sulking freak. He felt worthless.
    “You fucking piece of shit,” he whispered.
    There was a cracking sound nearby, and Dan lifted his head to peer into the shadows. He could see nothing, but could hear something large creeping through the brush. Maybe it was an animal, or maybe it was a shuffler coming to finish him off. It was then that he smelled the scent of decay.
    Corpse, he thought. Come and get me.
    The cracking sounds came closer, and were accompanied by moans—several moans. There were more than one coming his way. He pressed himself farther into the alcove, hoping the creatures would pass him by. But a little part of him didn’t really care. He was tired of everything anyway. Fuck it. Besides, he was in no condition to fight.
    He held his breath as the shadows began to move around him. The slow, plodding footfalls of the dead echoed in his head, driving his heart to pound faster, and his breath to come in short, silent gasps. They passed just ahead of him, pausing only momentarily to sniff the air. Only a few of them lingered for any length of time, but they too went on, evidently not catching Dan’s scent.
    But the shambler that followed them wasn’t fooled. Its quick thrashing footsteps stopped directly in front of him, nearly four feet away, as the creature sniffed around. Its excited moans and squeals deepened, and it turned directly in his direction. Dan’s heart nearly stopped. He reached into his pocket to fetch the revolver, waiting for the creature to start coming in his direction. When it did, with a growl, Dan cocked back the hammer, blasting the creature square in the chest.
    He jumped up immediately as the creature groaned and fell back. Dan didn’t stick around to see if it was dead. He took off running in the same direction as the dead, knocking them over as he passed, dodging their rotting claws. He bowled into one, knocking it into the dirt and falling over with it. As he rolled to his feet, he heard the angry howling of the shambler he had shot. Breathless, he sprinted in the dark, heading toward what looked like a field at the edge of the forest.
    He ran into a few more corpses,