Read Online The Turning: A Tale of the Living Dead by Kelly M. Hudson - Free Book Online

break anything.  He landed fine,
rolling into a ball and coming up on his feet just as Jenny lit a cocktail and
threw it to her left, clearing some space for them. 
    He grabbed the box from her and
gave her the shotgun.
    “You take that,” he said.  “You’re
a better shot than me.”
    He lit a cocktail and threw it to
his right, sending the zombies clustered there scattering away.
    They were fifty yards from the
Food Bank.  It might was well have been fifty miles, because between them and
the building was over three dozen zombies, all staggering into the area, drawn
by the noise and prospect of a hot meal. 
    Jeff gritted his teeth.  There was
nothing left to do now but fight.  He lit another cocktail and let it fly,
smashing it against an eyeless and jawless zombie ten feet in front of them. 
It burst into flames and tottered to the right, igniting three other zombies
next to it, clearing a bit of space for him and Jenny to squirt through.
    Behind them, the flames that
burned Jenny’s porch spread to the apartments next door, the top floor of the
complex catching fire in moments.  Through the moaning of the zombies and the
flaring of the shotgun, they heard screams of people in the building, holed up
like they’d been, either burning or having to escape, right into the arms of
the dead. 
    Jenny blasted the chest of a
zombie on her right, shattering its clicking teeth and dead eyes, the shot
flinging the creature backwards.  It tumbled into two of its kind and sent them
sprawling to the ground.
    They were halfway there, now, the
Food Bank achingly close yet so far away.  They were completely surrounded now,
the zombies pushing in from all sides, thick with decay and rot, stench and
fetid breath, kept a few feet back by the burning flames.  Jeff lit another
bomb and let it fly a few feet in front of him.  He was through with hitting
zombies with them and instead concentrated on clearing a path.  That meant they
had to run through the flames or jump them, but that was okay by him; better a
hot foot than having his guts ripped from his stomach.  He lit and fired three
more, the zombies jumping back from the sudden fire at their feet.  Jeff
grinned; even though the dead were closing in, just an arm’s length away now on
every side but straight ahead, they were almost to the Food Bank.  He reached
for another cocktail and his fingers found only an empty box.
    “Shit!” he yelled. 
    Jenny ran in front of Jeff and
really let go with the shotgun.  She’d been trying for  headshots to kill as
many as she could, but now she aimed low, cutting them down at their knees and
ankles, the scattergun doing what it was meant to do:  pepper as many targets
as possible.  Zombies fell off to their left and right and suddenly there was a
clear gap for them to sprint through.  Jeff and Jenny ran, pushing and shoving
through the last clog of zombies, until they were clear and free, if only for
an instant.
    They dashed to the side of the
building where the window was.  Jenny reached it first and shattered the window
with the butt of the shotgun.  Even as she did so, Jeff grabbed the ruined
screen that covered the window and yanked it free.  He turned and threw it at
the advancing horde, now five feet away from them, shambling and reaching out
with greedy, dead fingers for their warm, living flesh.
    Jenny used the muzzle of the
shotgun to clear away the broken glass at the bottom of the window as Jeff
dropped to one knee.  He cupped his hands and Jenny stepped into them.  He
pushed up as she jumped through the window and into the Food Bank.
    A dead hand grabbed Jeff’s shirt
and pulled him back as he stood.  It was a construction worker; he still wore
his bright yellow helmet, orange reflector vest, a tool belt, and work boots. 
The clothing was thick with gobs of dried brown blood and bits of withered
human flesh.  Jeff shoved the creature but it wouldn't let go.  Behind it, the
dead, dozens of them, pressed