Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (2 page)

“Tanya!
What
are
you
doing
here?”

Tanya
looked up.
She
balled
her
hand
into a
fist
and
swung
it
over
her
head.
I
flinched,
and
the blow hit me
on the
bicep.
Tanya
lunged
forward,
flailing
her
arms. I
crouched
and
covered
my
head. I
didn’t know what else
to do. I
was so
shocked,
I
froze.
I
couldn’t
react. Several
more
hits
landed
on
my
back
and
head
before
someone
pulled
Tanya
away.

“How could
you?” Tanya
yelled.
“
How
could
you
?”
She
kicked
and
caught
me
on the
knee.

Pain
radiated
through
my
leg,
and
I
rubbed
at
the
minor
injury.
Anger
replaced
the shock.
Who did she
think she
was
coming
into
my
courtroom and
attacking
me?

“What
are
you
talking
about?”
I
tried
to keep
my
emotions
in
check,
common
sense
told me
I
needed to
know
what
was
going
on.

“Don’t
play
dumb with
me!
You know
what
you
did.” She
jerked
her
arms
out of
Quinn
and
Pam’s
grasp.

Really?
Was she
mad
that we
liberated
Nebraska
before
we
helped
Florida?
I
didn’t think it
was
a
big
deal,
but
I
guess
it upset her.

“I’m
sorry,
Tanya.
We
had to move
quickly.
We
had
to
set
the
people
of
North
Platte
free.”

She
narrowed
her
eyes. “I’m
not
talking about
the
attack.”

I
stared
at
her for a
moment.
“Then
what are
you
talking
about?”

“You
sent
zombies down in the
truck
of supplies!
You
figured
if
you
couldn’t
overthrow
The
Families,
you’d
overrun
the
state
with the
undead!” Tanya
yelled,
then
attempted
to
attack
again.
Pam and
Quinn
restrained
her
and
stared
at
me.

I
picked
myself
off the
floor, staring
at
Tanya
wide
eyed. Zombies
in the
truck?
What?
When?
Why
would
I
have
done
that? I
hate those
things!
I
would have
to get
pretty
close
to put those in the
truck,
and
I
wasn’t
willing
to do
that. But
someone
must
have.
Who would be
stupid
and
conniving
enough
to do
that?

“Tanya,
honestly,
I
have
no idea
what
you
are
talking
about. Maybe
you
should fill us in on some
details.”

Tanya
snarled.
“The
truck
showed
up a
few weeks
ago,
with Mrs. Johnson’s
bodyguard
behind
the
wheel.
He
said it
had
come
from
North
Platte,
and
I
assumed it
had
another
shipment of
guns.
As
usual,
I
was
going
to
wait
until
night
to
collect
the
weapons.
My
father took
the
vehicle
to the
storage
yard,
like
he
always
did. I
was
done
working
at
the
coffee
shop, so
I
decided to see
what
you
guys
sent. I
stood
at
the
chain
link fence,
watching
the
guys
work,
when
I
heard my
father
scream
from the
trailer. The
others
ran
to
see what
was
going
on,
and a
zombie
lurched
out of the
vehicle.
They
ran.”

Tanya
continued
her
story,
and
I
pictured
the
whole
scenario
in
my
mind. She
was
a bit lacking
on details, so
I
filled in the
blanks
with
my
own
imagination.
It
wasn’t
hard,
especially
when
you’ve seen
as
many
zombies as
I
have.
There
were
three
creatures,
buried
under crates.

Two
men, newly
turned
with just the
slightest
hint of
yellowed
skin.
Their
clothes
were
dirty
but not
yet
torn.
The
third, a
woman,
she
had
been
a
zombie
for
a
while.
Her
stringy
blonde
hair
was
knotted,
caked
in mud,
and
falling
out of her
head,
only
wisps
remained
on the
bottom and
right
side.
Her
clothes
had
almost
completely
decayed,
tatters
of
a
floral
print
dress
clung
to her,
the
bones
exposed
in her
chest and
legs.
Her
gray,
wrinkled
skin
looked
like
leather.
They
hid in the shadows,
hard
to
see,
and
for some
reason,
they
didn’t
moan
like
the
others
when
food
was near. The
workers
didn’t
know they
were
there and
had
unloaded
almost the
entire
truck.
They
were
almost
finished
when
the
attack
started. Tanya
ran
through
the
gate,
making
her
way
to the
back of the
truck,
just in time
to see
her
father
beating
one
of
the
creatures
with a tire
iron.
The
third one
was
still
pinned
behind a
crate.
Her
breath
caught
as
she
watched
the
creature’s
mouth
snap
for
her
dad.
Her
dad
panted
with
exhaustion.
He
leaned
against
the side
of the
truck
for
support.

Blood,
brain
matter,
and
bits of skull
were
everywhere,
and
the
smell
was
overpowering. Tanya
was
about to
climb
in, find out if
her
dad
was
all
right,
but he
told her
to stop. He
collapsed
onto the
floor,
sliding
down
the
wall.
He
cradled
his hand. The zombie
had
bitten him.

Tanya
set her
jaw.
“The other
one
that
got
out of the
truck
attacked
several
of
the
workers
before
it
was
put
down. I
don’t
know how
many
of them
got
bit, but within
a
few
days,
we
had
an
epidemic on our
hands.
They
got
it
under
control,
but thirty
people
got
infected.”