Read Online Brian Keene by The Rising - Free Book Online

own juices. The scalp, once covered with a fine layer of downy hair, had peeled back in places, exposing the dull gleam of bone. It struggled uselessly in the restraints, reaching for her. Its lilting cry continued and in that keening sob was hunger and a need to be comforted.
    Frankie's face crumbled. She shuffled toward it, tears streaking through the grime and blood that spattered her pale cheeks. She reached for the stroller, setting it upright, and the infant cooed at her, grubby outstretched fists pumping the air. She offered her finger and the cold, skeletal fingers curled around it happily.
    Slowly the infant's eyes rose to Frankie's. Its hollow-eyed stare was extinguished as the infant suddenly lunged forward, its ravenous blackened maw widening in an attempt to latch on to her hand. 58 Frankie screamed, snatching her finger back from the zombie.
    "What the fuck was that, yo?"
    Frankie dived behind the hedge just as T-Bone and two other thugs rounded the corner, attracted by the baby's cries.
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    "Latron, go on around front," T-Bone ordered one of the men, who trotted off around the corner of the Reptile House.
    "Damn, holmes," sputtered the other. "That's a baby!"
    "No shit, nigga," spat T-Bone. He had to shout over the infant's shrieks. "I look stupid to you, Terrell? Blast it while I go check out that window."
    Terrell leveled the shotgun he was carrying at the stroller and jacked the pump. His eyes were wide.
    "I ain't never shot no babies, T-Bone."
    "It ain't no baby no more! Now shoot the fucking thing and let's go get that ho!"
    As if to prove his point, the infant's squeals turned to curses. Terrell blasted it in half. Still it continued to curse. Ejecting a shell, he fired again, obliterating its head.
    Yelling, Frankie erupted from the shrubbery. She emptied four bullets into the would-be gunman before he could even pull the trigger. She snarled, and fired at T-Bone. The gangster flung himself to the pavement, raised Marquon's recovered pistol, and squeezed off a burst of his own. The shots went low, spraying Frankie with fragments of asphalt and dirt, but missing her.
    From inside the Reptile House came a horrified shout, as Latron discovered the same fate that had befallen C. Startled, T-Bone was distracted by the man's screams. Seizing the moment, Frankie fired. A crimson flower bloomed in the middle of T-Bone's forehead. He grunted once, his chest rising, then lay still.
    Frankie emptied the last bullet into Terrell's head,
    59 making sure he wouldn't get up again either.
    In the aftermath, the zoo had grown quiet.
    She glanced over at the remains of the baby, then turned away. Escaping through the city streets was hopeless. On any night, the streets of Baltimore teemed with people. Now they would be crawling with the walking dead.
    She wondered just how many had been attracted by the gun battle, shuffling toward the zoo even now.
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    The streets and alleys were out, as was the beltway. She considered hiding on a nearby tenement rooftop, but that was no good either. She shuddered, remembering the old man and the pigeons.
    Her skin began to itch. Already, her body was demanding another fix. A nearby manhole cover caught her eye. She ran to it.
    Something chittered from the shadows. A monkey perhaps. Alive or dead she did not know nor did she want to find out. She clawed at the iron cover, straining. It didn't budge. Her yellowed nails bent, then snapped, and still she pulled.
    Footsteps rang out behind her.
    Still struggling, Frankie turned and screamed.
    Three of them approached her, still dressed in the garments of their former existence. A businessman, red tie now sinking into the bloated, mottled throat. A nurse, whose formerly white uniform was now a tie-dye of various bodily fluids. A maintenance worker, the zoo logo still prominently displayed on his left breast. He carried some type of electric prod, and thrust it outward. It crackled in the darkness. Laughing, they advanced on