Read Online The Dead Won't Die by Joe McKinney - Free Book Online Page B

buried under a mountain of damp towels and tablecloths.
    They waited for someone to come along, but after ten minutes, they were still waiting.
    â€œI think we’ve made it to the laundry,” Chelsea said. “That must have been what that jolt was. The truck settling into its charging station.”
    â€œDo you think it’s safe?” Kelly asked.
    So much laundry had been piled on top of them that Jacob could no longer see the back door. “Hold on, I’ll check,” he said, and pulled himself free. He crawled over to the back door. He scanned as much of the loading dock as he could through the metal screen, then pushed it open and stuck his head out.
    He didn’t see any workers.
    Any human workers, anyway.
    He did see several unmanned wagons trundling around the larger trucks, though. As he watched, one of the wagons slid underneath a truck, clicked into place, and waited for the larger vehicle to empty its cargo through a chute at the bottom. That done, the wagon pulled out, made its way up a concrete ramp, and continued on and out of sight through a hallway. There were four other trucks nestled into docking stations next to theirs, and robot wagons came and went with the regularity of the figurines in a cuckoo clock.
    â€œWow,” Jacob muttered.
    â€œWhat is it? Are we okay?” Kelly asked.
    â€œI think so. I don’t see anybody.”
    â€œGood,” Chelsea said. “Let’s get out of here. This smells gross.”
    â€œBeats being dead,” he said.
    He climbed out of the truck, then helped Kelly and Chelsea out. Kelly started to ask Chelsea which way they were supposed to go, but stopped when she caught sight of another unmanned wagon collecting its payload. Her mouth fell open, and she watched the automated operation in stunned silence. Once again Jacob had to suppress a smile. Even as a horny kid, who at sixteen hadn’t thought much beyond talking Kelly out of her bikini, Jacob had known she was something special. Smart as a whip. That was what his momma always used to say about her. But she was born in the wrong place. A woman like her, smart as she was, should have been born here, in Temple, where her mind could swim in wonders like this.
    â€œI can’t believe this,” she said. “How is this even . . . Chelsea, how did your people do all this? How did this kind of technology survive? It’s incredible.”
    â€œIt’s a laundry,” Chelsea said.
    â€œYeah, but . . .”
    â€œSeriously, it’s a laundry.”
    The trucks came and went on a driveway that curved around the edge of the loading dock. Chelsea made her way around the driveway without waiting on the others. Jacob watched her go and marveled at how easily the girl seemed to have adjusted to coming back home. When he’d met her in the Slaver caravan, she was so sick she couldn’t even stand. Nick had been forced to carry her as the Slavers drove them from one campsite to the next. She’d been a mangy-looking wreck then, so downtrodden and beaten that he’d mistakenly thought she’d been born into slavery. But now, barely a month back in civilization, she’d put on enough weight to look healthy and she seemed in control, in her element. She was taking on the world, fighting the power.
    Of course, she was only seventeen.
    Jacob still remembered being seventeen. He’d been bulletproof at that age. He could go weeks at a time out in the Zone, working with the salvage teams, dodging zombies and wild animals, sleeping on the ground and carrying a hundred pounds of scrap on his back, and then come back to one of his mother’s home-cooked meals in Arbella. Nothing got to him back then. He could work all day and play all night and never miss a beat. He’d been so rock-solid back then he’d even thrown away the love of his life, and laughed about it with his friends.
    With Nick.
    Yeah, back then he’d been bulletproof.
    He