Read Online Dead Hunger II: The Gem Cardoza Chronicle by Eric A. Shelman - Free Book Online Page B

Oxmoor Road , and it was exactly what we’d all envisioned.  Two levels, one directly over the other, rows of rooms, door by door by door.
    We were hoping for available first floor rooms all in a row without a whole bunch of zombie fighting beforehand.  We were dead fucking tired, all of us, and I have no qualms speaking for everyone.  All I had to do was look around.  Blurry eyes, sunken faces, and something I’d describe, if seen on a stranger’s face, as defeat.
    That did not apply in this case.  This was not the kind of group to accept or entertain the thought of defeat.  Max and Cynthia had yet to be vetted, but early exit polling was coming out in their favor.  These guys would do just fine as long as they followed our instruction and respected what we’d learned over the past few weeks.
    Besides, with regard to exhaustion levels, just the mere act of being awake and aware of the earth as it was now was enough to wear you down.  Forget the added stress of keeping watch, driving, making sure your weapons were fully loaded for the next battle and all that other shit.  This was the Wild West, only it was everywhere and it was immeasurably wilder.
    “Baby, you want to come with me to the office?” Flex asked.
    I knew he was talking to me, because he typically didn’t call Hemp or Charlie “baby.”
    I grabbed my Uzi in response.  “Why?  Am I in trouble, Flexy?”
    “Always,” said Flex.  “I’d be worried if you weren’t.”
    Tired as they were, everyone smiled at our banter.
    I turned to Cynthia, who still sat in the back seat with the girls.  “I hate to treat you like some kind of babysitter, but would you mind?  We’ll work this thing out down the road.”
    Cynthia waved off my concerns.  “Gem.  You and Flex saved my daughter and now, not only is she alive, but she has a friend.  Besides that it seems they’re going to be pretty important to one another.”
    Cynthia looked down at the sleeping girls with a sad, tender look in her eyes, then back up at me.
    “So no offense at all, but how you happen to see me right now couldn’t matter less.  I’ll prove myself down the road, but for now you are an inspiration, Gem.  Now you and Flex go get us some sleeping arrangements.”
    “Gotcha,” I said.  I did like her.  Feisty and confident.  She’d be an easy student.
    “I’m not armed yet, so I’ll stay with her inside the car,” Max said.  “But I do intend to be taught the trade and mystery of shooting techniques eventually.”
    “Consider it done, Maxy,” I said.
    “Hemp, Charlie,” I said.  “Can one of you stick near the car?”  I nodded to the three in the back seat.  “Watch out for our unarmed crew?”
    “I got it,” Charlie said.  “Hemp, want to see if any of those rooms are accessible?”
    “We’ll see if there are any passkeys in the office,” Flex said.  “With these damned electronic locks we’re going to have to do some breaking in.”
    Flex and I walked to the corner by the street.  There was absolute silence and nearly pure darkness.  No streetlights, no headlights.  Some faint solar walkway lights were illuminated here and there, but just served to show how much things had changed. 
    The office was on the street, and the gated pool area was beside it.  A walkway ran behind the pool fence with the lower level row of doors accessing the motel rooms.
    Flex pulled the lobby door open.  It was dark, so he switched on his headlamp, and I did the same. 
    “Fuck me,” I said, blowing the stench out of my nose.  “Something dead in here.”
    “Oh, yeah,” Flex said.  “I don’t see it yet.”
    “The flies do,” I said.  The sound of rapidly moving, tiny wings – thousands of them – filled the air.  The buzz was an assault on the senses, mainly because you knew why they were there and what they were eating.  Road kill is one thing.  Gross, to be sure.  But somehow when it’s a human body, the thought of flies feasting on