Read Online Nowhere to Hide by Tracey Tobin - Free Book Online Page B

Nancy’s katana, and the largest kitchen knife they could find, the three reluctantly decided that once the sun set, they would search the rest of the bar.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to stay here, Greg?” Nancy asked again.
    It was clear that Greg ached to say yes, but he was headstrong and stubborn, and more than a little embarrassed to be coddled by a girl. He shook his head for the third time and squeezed the handle of the butcher knife a little tighter. “I’m coming,” he insisted.
    Nancy turned to glance at Terri-Lynn, curled up with her face to the wall, and sighed. She didn’t bother asking if the woman was going to come or stay.
    “Are you two ready? Alert?” Marshall asked.
    Nancy and Greg took deep breaths and nodded in unison. Together they pushed the freezer back to its original position, listened for a few moments, and then stood at the guard while Marshall slowly slid the door open.
    It was just before twilight outside. A tiny bit of light from the setting sun was coming through the windows at the front of the bar’s main area, casting unnerving shadows across the walls. The building was silent.
    “Stay away from windows, and avoid making any noise,” Marshall whispered.
    “We should head for the office first,” Nancy suggested. “There might be something there in case of emergencies.”
    They walked very close together, like sheep scared to leave the safety of the herd, and moved slowly to avoid making much noise. If they were to attract the attention of any zombies wandering around on the other side of those large windows out front they would find themselves in hot water quite quickly. It was painstaking, and nerve-wracking, but eventually the three made their way to the corner of the main area, down the short hall, around a pile of overstock boxes, and to the office door.
    It was locked.
    “Dammit,” Nancy hissed. She glared through the frosted window, but couldn’t make out the inside of the office. “We can’t break in without making a ton of noise.”
    “It’s okay,” Marshall assured her. He laid his rifle carefully on the floor. “I can pick it. I just need some kind of wire or something similarly rigid.”
    Nancy didn’t ask where Marshall had learned to pick locks. Greg pulled something from under his shirt and around his neck and offered a necklace made of a thin, stiff metal. Marshall thanked him and immediately set to work, snapping the necklace in half and straightening it into two lengths. “This may take a little while,” he grunted.
    Nancy and Greg shared a look. Nancy jerked her head down the hall, and though Greg’s face was white, he nodded. As slowly as before, the two made their way back to the main room to see if they could find anything else helpful. It was quite dark now, so they went step by step around tables, mindful of the chairs, and avoided a few of the pool tables that had the balls still sitting loose on top. Nancy was just about to lean over the bar to have a look when something hit her hard and the wind went out of her lungs. It took a few moments of gasping to get some air back in her chest for her to realize that Greg had tackled her to the floor and was clutching a hand over her mouth. “Wuh th’ fu-?” she mumbled through his palm.
    “Shhh!” Greg hissed, a finger to his lips. With wide eyes, he gestured toward the nearest window, where a large shadow was slowly shuffling by. Nancy bit her lip. Together she and Greg watched with bated breath from the floor until the being had moved past the window and out of sight.
    “Maybe we should crawl from now on,” Nancy whispered.
    Greg nodded enthusiastically.
    Crawling, while perhaps the best course of action under the circumstances, was infinitely more painstaking and time-consuming than walking. Now that they were certain there were zombies outside the building, any tiny noise that they made - the tink of Nancy’s sword hitting the floor, the squeak of a floorboard - made them cringe and