Read Online The Last Safe Place: A Zombie Novella by Rob W. Hart - Free Book Online

the room, put my hand on his throat and lift him an inch off his feet before I slam him down on the table, press the gun into his eye socket.
    “The lemonade,” I tell him. “The glass was sweating when I saw you this morning. It was cold. You gave yourself away right in front of me and I'm an idiot for missing it. You’ve been stealing gasoline to power this place.”
    “Sarge, please, you don’t understand…”
    “What don’t I understand?” I press the gun into his eye harder. “Do I not understand that you’re a privileged asshole?”
    “These people would be dead without me.”
    “They’ll be dead either way, turns out. And anyway, what do you do, exactly? You don’t tend the water farm. You don’t work with the garbage or make sure we’re fed. You just stand there and watch other people do it and you yell at them. So tell me, what do you contribute?”
    He pauses. “Logistics?”
    I put my face close to his. “So you’re a tactician now? Did you realize that if you used all the gas to power your home, then we couldn’t get anyone off this island? There are kids here. My wife.” I squeeze his neck tighter. “Is that why you tried to kill me?”
    His voice is a rumble at the back of his throat. “It was only a matter of time before you found out.”
    “Wonderful. Now we can all die together.”
    “There’s not enough for the ferries?”
    “No, there is not.”
    He smiles like he wants to convince me we’re friends. “No, we can get off. I have a little extra gas in the basement. There are a few smaller boats. We can take one of those. Get your wife. You and your wife can come. C’mon Sarge, we can leave here. No one has to know.”
    I pause. His smile gets wider and the sight of it makes me angry, so I smack the gun across his face. Something cracks. He looks back at me with a mouth full of blood and broken teeth. I tell him, “That’s for being a dick. If I didn’t need every strong back I’d put a bullet in your head. You better believe we’re going to revisit this if we’re still alive in the morning.”
    When I let go he falls to the floor. He puts his hands up over his head, blood streaming from his mouth. He’s crying now. “I’m so sorry.”
    “You’re just sorry you got caught. Find a weapon and head south. If I don’t see you out there fighting, I’m going to hog-tie your ass and leave you in a field. Let them chow down on you while the rest of us regroup. Understood?”
    He nods, not even lifting his eyes to look at my face.
    *
    The clouds have drifted away and the sky has opened, the wet grass sparkling in the moonlight. Gunshots are still slicing the air on the south end of the island, but they’re more spaced out. Either they’ve got this under control or they’re running low on ammo. I pray for the first but assume the second.
    Reginald’s proposal itches at the back of my skull. If I could get June I could bring her to one of the smaller boats. We could leave this place together.
    But there would be no hiding that from June, and she would never forgive me.
    Which really might be the only reason I don’t do it.
    Someone stumbles in the dark ahead of me. I crouch and wait. Can’t tell if it’s a rotter or someone who’s hurt. Then the wind shifts, choking me with the stench of death.
    It doesn’t hear me coming. I build up a little speed and swing the bat. This time I put a little mustard on it, and the skull cleaves clean in two.
    Another hundred feet and the gunshots have stopped. They’re replaced by screams.
    I steel myself, expect to see something bad when I crest the final hill that’ll lead me down to the apartments. What I find is worse than I would have guessed.
    There’s a fire spilling black smoke from one of the upper floors of the south building. Must have been a lantern got knocked over in the confusion. The flames are casting a flickering light onto the field behind the building, where there’s a mix of rotters and islanders, running and