Read Online Rotting to the Core (Keep Your Crowbar Handy Book 2) by S.P. Durnin - Free Book Online Page A

Jake
insisted as Cho trotted up to the home’s back door and began
working on the lock, which she opened in nine seconds flat. Jake
holstered his Hammer automatic, pulled his crowbar, and they
skulked inside.
    “You need to learn to live in the moment once
in a while.” Kat strolled confidently through the dusty kitchen,
stopping briefly to check a wine rack on the counter. She pulled a
bottle out and examined the label. “Ooo! Barefoot Moscato! Come
here a sec.”
    “Really? You're going to take time to steal
somebody's liquor?” Jake turned and Cho shoved the bottle into his
pack. “Are you gonna raid their medicine cabinet too?”
    The blue-haired, young woman actually
considered that for a moment, then shook her head. “Nah. We still
have that bag of weed we found in Old Hall, and it probably
wouldn't be worth the trouble to search. What would be here anyway?
Some outdated Codeine? Maybe a bottle of Nyquil or some Vapo-rub?
And we've had this discussion before, haven't we? It's not looting
if there's no one to loot from. I'm salvaging a tasty bottle
of yummy-yum that would go to waste here.”
    Looking skyward, Jake shook his head and
swore he'd get even with the Gods for everything he'd been forced
to put up with since the zombie apocalypse began. He didn't think
anyone would blame him if he took up heavy drinking as a hobby at
this point.
    “Let's just keep moving, okay?” Jake hurried
to the front door and checked outside. “It'll be dawn soon, and I'd
like to get as far from that horde back there as we can.”
    Thankfully, all the nearby zombies had been
drawn off by the Charger's alarm to the opposite side of the house,
and the street in front was empty. Quickly unlocking the deadbolt,
O'Connor crept out on the large front porch and Kat closed the door
behind them. There was no point in doing so. No one would be coming
back to that home in the foreseeable future—it just made her feel
better. Unlike Jake, who was concentrating on the street, she felt
a twinge of sadness after noticing a blood-smeared, stuffed
Snuffleupagus under the porch swing.
    They moved through the front yard, over the
abandoned avenue, and into the opposite house, repeating their room
clearing process after gaining entry. The interior of that dwelling
had been privy to some violence, but whether that was when the dead
rose or afterwards Kat was unable to tell. There were several
decomposed, partially-eaten corpses in the family room and kitchen,
one of which the blue-haired young woman was positive was a child
under ten years of age. While it was sad, the sight didn't
immediately have the same effect on her as it did upon Jake. He
knelt on the filthy linoleum next to the body and slowly examined
it.
    “Seven or eight” He looked back towards the
front of the home. “Looks like gunshot wounds in the chest there.
Can't tell if it was postmortem.”
    Cho stood beside him, calmly gripping her
sword and glancing around the kitchen. “There's a lot of damage in
here. Could've been caused by automatic weapons fire I guess.”
    Jake pulled his Tanto and carefully dug at
the corpse's shoulder-blade.
    “Oh, God. Don't do that.” Kat gagged. “It's
covered in yuck!”
    “Real mature. There's a round in the bone
here. I want to see what type.” Jake continued prying at it until
the bullet popped free, then picked it up gingerly with two
fingers. “It's .223. Could've come from a number of weapons.
Anything from a Bushmaster ACR to a belt-fed Shrike uses it.”
    “How do you know that?” Kat asked with some
surprise.
    “You do remember George used to be my
landlord, right?” Jake reminded her.
    “Oh, yeah. That would do it I guess.” She
crouched down beside him. “So what does it tell you?”
    He tossed the bullet to the floor. “Nothing.
These people could've been zombies, or they could've been
survivors. There's really no way to tell. Not without a handy note
that reads: You're next! or something.”
    Kat stood and folded her