Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (73 page)

“Any
trouble?”
Quinn
asked.

I
shook
my
head.
“Not
a
peep.”

“I
still
don’t
understand
why
you
insisted
on coming
up
here
alone.
Don’t
you
know
bad
things
happen
when
you
venture
off
by
yourself?”
He
kissed
me quickly
on
the lips, then
we turned
toward the
mountain
face
behind
us. “I
know
you’ve seen
enough
horror
movies
to
know
that.”

“I
needed
some
time to deal with this on
my
own,
come
to
terms
with
everything
that
happened.
You know
that.”

I
had a
lot of mixed
emotions
about the
cave. Fear
and
anger
mostly,
and
I
wanted
to
deal
with them
by
myself. No
one
needed
to
see
me
burst
into
tears
or
punch
a
tree.
Quinn would have
supported
me, for
sure,
but it
was
something
I
had to handle
on
my
own.
Surprisingly,
when
I
saw
the mountain,
I
felt
nothing.
No
sadness,
no
remorse,
nothing.
It
was
refreshing.

He
glanced
at
me
briefly,
his
hands
on his hips,
then
shrugged. “Like
I
can
really
tell
you
what
to do
any
way.”

“And
don’t
ever
forget
that.”
I
stuck
my
tongue
out
at
him
before smiling.

The
cave
opening
was
covered
with a metal door
painted
to look like
rock. From
a
distance,
it could
fool
anybody,
but up
close,
you
could
tell
it
was
a
painted
door.
Quinn
grabbed
the
handle
and
lifted,
struggling
just
a
little to
get
the
door
open. I
moved to
help,
he shooed
me
away.

“I
can
get
this,” he
grunted.

I
smiled. He
always
had
to show
off.
Pam
stood a
few
feet
behind us, her
arms
folded
across
her chest.
She
knew
better
than
to
get
involved.
The
sun
filtered
into the
cave,
barely
lighting
the
first
fifty
feet.
The
other
opening
half
way
up the mountain
illuminated
the
rest
of the
room.
Gravel
crunched
under
our
feet
as
we
stepped into
the
cavern.
The
smell of rotting
flesh
hit
my
nose
like
a
brick
wall.
I
gagged. Pam
groaned,
covering
her
nose
with her
hand.
Quinn
scowled,
but he
was
tough
enough
to
take
the
stench.
We
walked
across the
floor
to the
crates.

The
zombie
corpse
was
right
where
we
left
it,
looking
a
little
worse
for
the
wear. Insects
had taken
care
of
the
soft
parts,
and decomposition
was
taking
care
of the
rest.
Soon, he
would be
nothing
more
than
a
skeleton.

The
pool of
Quinn’s
blood
was
also still on the
floor,
faded
to a dark
stain.
I
shook
my
head.

“Hard
to
believe
this is
where
it
all
started,”
I
commented.
“If
we
never
found
this
place,
we
would
have
never
gone
to
Florida.”
I
snorted
a
chuckle.
“It’s
strange
to think how
things
work
out.”

“We
would
have
eventually
gone
to Florida.”
Quinn
smirked. “But
it would have
been
under
different
circumstances.”

“Well,
I’m
just
glad
no one
came
and
grabbed
these
weapons,” Pam
interjected. “They’ll
be
incredibly
helpful
in
arming
everyone.”

I
nodded.
“They’ll
definitely
add
to the
stash. Once
we
raid
every
sporting
goods
store,
pawn
shop, and
gun
store
in the
West,
we’ll
have
more
than
we
could
ever
need.”

“It’ll
be
worth
it.” Pam raised
her
eyebrows.
“We
have
a
lot of work to do.”

“Then
we
need to quit
procrastinating.”
Quinn
walked
over
to
a
crate
and
grabbed
the handle. He
jerked
on the side
and
slid the
crate
toward
the
door.
He
glanced
at
the
two of
us.
“A
little
help
would be
greatly
appreciated.”

Pam
and
I
walked
to our
own
crates
and
grabbed
the
handles.
All
three
of us
pulled
our
burdens
toward the
door.
We
stopped
at
the
opening.

“You
really
should back
the
Hummer
up to the
door,”
I
panted.
“I’m
not
dragging
this thing
over
rocks
and
tree
branches.”

“A
little
out of
shape
are
we?”
Pam
mocked.

I
scowled.
“It
doesn’t
help
that
we’re
at
what? Ten
thousand
feet?
The
air
is a bit thin up
here.”

“You’ve
just been living the
cush
life.” Pam
smiled.
“You
need
to start
running
again,
practice
your
marksmanship.”

I
narrowed
my
eyes
at
her.
“Yeah,
rehab
is
such
a
cush
life. Trust
me,
I’d
trade
you
in a
heartbeat.
You put
the
metal
plate
in
your
back.
And
I
was working
out, just
not like
I
should have
been.”

She
laughed.
“You’ll
get
back
into
shape
in no
time.
The
zombie
hunts will
see
to
that.”

Yeah,
the
hunts were
going
to be
a
lot of
work,
but
they
were
also
going
to
be
a
lot of
fun.
We
had
a
lot more
human
power,
more
weapons,
and
a
lot more
vehicles. I
put in a
special
request
for
the
Jeeps
with
gun
turrets
and
some
helicopters.
The
new
politicians in
Florida
saw
to it
that
I
got
the
necessary
tools. I
couldn’t
wait
to
get
started.