Read Online Wormwood Dawn (Episode V) by Edward Crae - Free Book Online Page A

“Jesse and her sister, I forget her name. They were outside the gates gathering wood for the fires. The dog got out and alerted some of those things that were wandering the woods. When the girls ran back inside, Melanie wouldn’t close the gates until her dog was safe. Three of the things got inside and the girls were killed before we could help them.”
    “All because of a stupid dog?” Drew asked.
    Cliff nodded. “They were good people, too. Jesse was a nurse. She helped out Travis a lot. Now she’s gone.”
    Dan scowled, imagining the looks on the two women’s faces when they realized that they were about to die because of Melanie’s obsession with her dog. What kind of person would risk their entire group just for an animal that had no real value anyway?
    Melanie sounded dangerous.
    “That’s fucked up, man,” Dan sighed, sitting back again and staring off into the darkness. “Fucked up for sure.”

Chapter Seven
    “The turnoff is just a few miles up the road here,” Cliff said after they turned north. “There’s a little bit of a drive after that, but it’s nice and secluded.”
    “It’s an impound lot?” Dan asked.
    “More or less,” Cliff replied. “It’s a big fenced in lot with a small building and a bunch of fabricated sheds. It’s pretty secure. It was a junk yard at one time. There are tons of old cars outside the fence, all rusted and useless.”
    “How tall are the fences?”
    Cliff clicked his tongue. “Shit, about ten feet, maybe. But there’s about a foot and a half of barbed wire at the top.”
    “Hmm,” Dan said. “That’ll keep out the shufflers and the shamblers, but I don’t know about the others.”
    “We haven’t seen many of those,” Cliff said.
    Dan hoped he was right. Stalkers and possibly others could vault high barriers. Even the coyote things were able to get onto his deck at the house. The horse thing even got onto his roof. Who knows what the hell a Robert type creature could do?
    Cliff rolled down the window; holding up the drone’s remote to show Dan. It was worthless now, he knew. He nodded, and Cliff tossed it out the window.
    “Goddamnit!” Drew cursed. “We’ve got problems.”
    The Hummer ground to a halt. Dan leaned up to look out the windshield, seeing a massive horde of cars blocking the road. The bulk of them seemed endless, stretching as far as the headlights could shine.
    “Shit,” he said. “No way around?”
    Drew shook his head, moaning in frustration.
    “Let’s see if we can clear the way,” Cliff said. “Grab some melee weapons. We don’t wanna shoot out here in the open.”
    Dan grabbed a pair of knives from the back, handing one to Drew. Cliff drew his own blade, and the three of them quietly exited the Hummer. The headlights lit the way, but each of them took a flashlight to search the cars. If they were abandoned, most of them would likely still have the keys inside.
    Dan went to the nearest car, shining his flashlight inside. There were two corpses inside, one in the passenger seat and one in the back. Both were mostly decomposed, with only a thin layer of dried flesh stretched over their bones. Dan quietly opened the driver’s side door, looking around at Drew and Cliff as they searched the other cars.
    The corpse in the passenger seat was still, but Dan eyed at it as he slid into the seat. No keys.
    “Fuck,” he said. The driver had probably taken them when he or she escaped.
    The car, however, was a stick shift. Dan pulled the gear shift into neutral and got out. It was a Toyota Echo; fairly light and easy to push. He placed his hands on the hood, digging his toes into the road, and pushed. With a creak, the car slowly rolled backwards. He gave it one final shove, clearing it out of the way, and went to the next car.
    The driver was in it, leaning against the window. Its head had been somewhat fused with the glass as the flesh putrefied. Dan opened the door slowly, hearing the sickening wet, glopping sound of the