Read Online Zombified (Episode 3): Garden Harbor by Matt Di Spirito - Free Book Online

rural lane bisecting the town of Abraham. 
    "If they managed to follow us, I'll be stupefied," Matty said.  He had used these roads on many occasions, driving to and from the local community college—sometimes he had driven for hours, exploring the sleepy neighborhoods and secluded parks. 
    There were zombies about, but only a few appeared on the roadside or on the porches of empty houses.  Wherever people had retreated to—whatever sanctuaries remained—it was likely the zombies weren't far off.  That was the only part of going to Timmons that worried Matty: a horde of munchers at the gate.
    "There's a coffee house two miles down on the right." Matty's mouth watered and his ever-present caffeine headache cranked up a notch.  "We might find a car there or maybe some food and water.  Anyone care for a slightly stale muffin?"
    "Barf!" Dana gagged.  "Can you imagine what's growing on that stuff right now?"
    "I wonder if anyone has contracted the zombie infection from eating food."  Roger creased his brow.  "You guys hear of anything like that?"
    Joey and Dana said no.
    "When I was in the university, this med student was studying the infection.  He said it piggy-backs on other viruses, masking itself from antibodies and somehow infecting the nervous system."  Matty wished he written it down or had saved Mike's laptop.  "I don't think he understood how it worked exactly, but he seemed to think it might be symbiotic with other germs."
    Roger scratched his chin; a puzzling, thoughtful expression wrinkled his forehead. 
    "I saw dead bodies, corpses, coming back and moving," Joey said.  "How the fuck does that happen with germs?"
    "I dunno, dude.  Maybe the zombie infection isn't really a germ." Matty shrugged.  "Mike seemed to think the connection to nerve cells was important, but he didn't have time to study it further."
    "That's a great preliminary work-up," said Roger, "but without knowing if it can survive apart from another pathogen, we won't know the extent of infection.  As for animating corpses, I'm at a complete loss on that one."
    "It infects animals," Joey added.  "I had a dog almost rip my face off."
    "You should've roasted it!" Geoff climbed on the seat and lay down.  "Then you could have had hot dogs!  Did you have buns?"
    "I forgot 'em at home," Joey said.
    "Shit outta luck, then.  How about ketchup?"
    "No dice on that one, either."
    Geoff sighed.  "You can't have hot dogs without buns and ketchup… not right… ice cream and chips… barbecue peanuts…"  His voice trailed off in a string of nonsense and then a heavy, wood-sawing snore filled the van.
    "Shit!" Joey drew the pistol from his belt.  "Get the bombs!"
    "What is it?" Matty climbed forward and looked out the front window.
    "A whole lot of dead people," said Dana.
    The slender road came to an abrupt end at a wall of crashed cars and smashed corpses.  Two side streets fed into the area and undead shuffled and staggered toward the van.  It looked like a few cars tried to turn onto the lane at the same time and the resulting accident became a beacon for hungry zombies.
    "What are the fuckin' odds!" Dana slapped the steering wheel.  "We pick a backwoods road and still manage to run into a fuckin' problem!"
    "Given the number of people and vehicles, the odds aren't all that bad." Matty teased.
    "Shut up," she replied, swatting him away.  "What are we doing, Joey?"
    Joey held up a PVC bomb and grinned.  "We make boom-boom."
    "Go on and do it—boom!" Matty chuckled.  It was a line from a movie; another in a long string of little things that reminded him there was no coming back. 
    The zombies swarmed the van.  Joey swung the door open, sweeping three of them to the ground; he stepped out and kicked another one in the sternum, sending it flying back into the trees.  Matty hopped out behind him, brandishing a club fashioned from one of the stools at Double Brook.
    "Here we go!" Joey lit the fuse and tossed the bomb into the middle