Read Online Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place by Char Robinson - Free Book Online

since he was eight years old and he would join them as would Judith, his mother.
     
    Everyone except the children and babies were dirty and the whole place reeked of unwashed bodies and rotten food. They had been too afraid to open the door, so trash was beginning to pile up in a small room Charlie couldn’t see that Jenny had told him about.
     
    Charlie stood up as a group of men, with Dexter leading the way, entered from another room off to his right. Each of them carried a variety of weapons and began passing them out to those going outside. Charlie noticed that Dexter had been given a clean shirt and it was a bit too small for him, so he had cut the sleeves off.
     
    When they were ready, Dexter turned to face them. “This is how we’ll do it,” he explained, looking at each one of them to make sure they were paying attention. Satisfied, he continued. “We start with this building. I got jumped on the stairs so we clean this place out first. Everyone knows what group they’re assigned to, so Group One...go upstairs and search the lobby and second floor...and Group Two...we search down here then we’ll move up to the third floor. When you’re done, secure every door and window, then meet downstairs in the main lobby and we’ll go from there. Got it?”
     
    Everyone nodded and murmured in the affirmative. “All right then, let’s go.”
     
    “ Dad, be careful,” Jenny said softly as she put a hand on Charlie’s arm.
     
    “ You know it,” he replied with what he hoped was a reassuring grin. “We’ll be back soon.”
     
    Dexter strode over to the door, drew back the large bolt and peered outside. “All clear,” he said over his shoulder as he stepped out into the hall.
     
    “ Soon as we’re out, lock this thing,” Charlie advised Jenny as they stood up. He gave her a quick hug.
     
    She nodded and moved back to let him get by. “Hurry back, you know where to find us,” she joked before she closed the door behind them.
     
    Charlie paused on the other side of the door until he heard the bolt slide into place. With a nod to himself, he followed the others down the hall. Out of the group of fifty four people in the shelter, twenty came with them and Charlie hoped it was enough. Although the town looked empty, he was certain it wasn’t. When he first entered the town, he felt as though hidden eyes watched them constantly.
     
    His group was responsible for all the upper floors and they moved swiftly up the two flights of stairs. Dexter’s group was already checking out the floor the shelter was on and he’d sent two men to retrieve the corpse on the stairs and take it outside, then they would move up to the next floor which housed all the city records.
     
    They reached the lobby and did a quick but thorough check of all the offices. As they were heading for the stairs leading up to the second floor, Charlie swore under his breath. A side door to the building was wide open. That’s how the damn thing got in! How could they have missed it when they were looking for something to hold the front doors closed, he chided himself. As the rest of the group went by, he firmly shut the door and turned the dead bolt, which responded with a satisfying click. As he turned, he saw Darrell halfway up the stairs, watching him.
     
    “ We were pretty cocky, weren’t we,” he said, nodding at the door.
     
    “ Pretty stupid,” Charlie muttered.
     
    “ Yeah, that too.”
     
    Charlie joined Darrell and they proceeded upstairs. “We can’t take anything for granted, that’s for sure,” Charlie said as they climbed. “We were lucky once, we probably won’t get that lucky again.”
     
    They joined the rest of the group and found nothing upstairs, which was a relief to them all. Twenty minutes later, they met the other group already in the lobby.
     
    “ What took ya so long?” Dexter teased when he saw them approaching. When no one replied, he frowned and turned his back on them to look out the door.