Read Online The Risen: Courage by Marie F Crow - Free Book Online

useful. I really don’t care which option you choose, just stay out of my way. We have enough people to bury today, but what’s a few more holes to dig if I have to.” Lawless shrugs with his last words, expressing just how little it would affect him.
    Marxx shoves Richard away and tells him, “That goes for you, too. I’ll put you two lovebirds in one hole that way you can be stuck up his ass for an eternity.”
    “Let them do what they have to do.” Simon’s voice cuts through the tension with its dull edge before Richard can respond. “We can’t do this on our own. There’s just too many. What do you suggest?” Simon looks to Chapel for advice and it angers both Dolph and Richard, but they say nothing.
    “We got those things downstairs. We have these people upstairs. The ground is already freezing. We are going to have to burn them all,” Chapel says.
    Richard’s face and voice carry the shock he feels saying, “What do you mean “those things downstairs”?”
    “They found a way in.” Rhett is leaning against the wall watching the action like a sideshow of entertainment when he answers the question. All he needs is a snack to fully enjoy himself. “We killed them.”
    “Jesus…” it is a soft mutter from Richard as he shakes his head.
    Rhett chuckles and tells Richard, “Don’t worry, we got it. Heavy lifting, right?” Rhett quotes Lawless, stroking the fire again back to its flickering heat.
    “Enough, all of you!” I snap, verbally and mentally. “Let’s just get this done. Can you just for a few hours grow up, shut up, and man up so we can get this done?” My vision blurs behind the wall of tears that has formed. Hot and burning, they escape before I can blink them away. It’s just too much. All of it is just too much.
    Marxx comes to me, wrapping his arms around me, holding me. “Yeah, Hells, we can do that,” he whispers into my hair. Marxx stepped up to comfort me, removing the option for Lawless or Dolph. Even as he says they can, he just proved they never will.
    “We’ll take the things out of the courtyard. Your group can start taking these bodies down into the courtyard. It keeps the two separate and these people won’t have to see it.” Chapel offers the first real plan of action being just as weary as I am.
    “…and J.D.?” Richard asks.
    “We got him.” Lawless’ says with a voice that dares the other man to say more.
    He doesn’t, but I know he wants to. It’s such an easy setup for a cutting remark. It’ll be one final triumphant blow for Richard’s side. They know the problem though with landing a blow is not always from the blatant fall out. No, the real problem with throwing punches is you never know how hard the other person is willing to hit back. Like Christmas trees covered in blood, abandoned dolls and little children left dead along halls, you never really know how hard a person is willing to strike back until it’s too late. It’s too late for them. It’s too late for you. It’s just always too late.

CHAPTER 9
    “A ny thoughts on how we are going to get this done?” Marxx is staring at the many piles of Risen we have dragged into the cafeteria from our earlier morning rampage. We have smeared long lines of dark gore and blood in the process. It looks like a road map of homicidal roadways with how the streaks arch and cross over themselves. It smells of something much worse.
    When they first started appearing, they smelled of death. They made the air heavy with it. Now, the degree of rotting has a different odor that is confusing to the senses. The mixture of a septic tank with the undertones of sickly-sweet acid burns my lungs. I gag as I pull the final bodies into the room as Rhett follows me with the librarian. Why he left her for last, I’m not brave enough to ask. Nor, do I want to venture a guess as to why he is positioning her folded arms perfectly over her chest. Some things with Rhett you just ignore with hopes the memory will fade