DEAD: Blood & Betrayal: Book 11 of the DEAD Series

by TW Brown

  Rose walked out into the street and waited as Frank and the neighbor, through some miracle, managed to make it to their feet and continue to pursue her at their slow, awkward pace. Once they reached the end of her driveway, Rose was actually at a loss as to what to do. It wasn’t like she could continue to act as some sort of Pied Piper. She had to figure out a way to ditch the pair and get back to her home.

  Then what? she thought as she backed down the middle of the street.

  Almost on cue, her phone rang. She knew by the ringtone that it was her sister. Grabbing the phone from her pocket, Rose thumbed it and answered.

  “Hello? Violet?”

  “Rose!” Her sister’s voice was frantic. But there was something else about it that sounded off. She couldn’t place it, but there was definitely something off.

  “Violet, Frank is here, and there is something wrong—” she began, but her sister cut her off.

  “Don’t let him in, Rose. This is every—”

  And then the line went dead.

  ***

  “Dios mio,” the voice sighed.

  Jason had hit the brakes and spun to look in back. Juanita was climbing up from the floor where she had tumbled. He was pretty sure that zombies didn’t talk. Sure, some of the more peculiar books had that going on. He didn’t much care for those, but who knew where the line was drawn between fact and fiction. He would have laughed at the idea of zombies as early as this morning, but events were proving that perhaps truth was as strange as fiction…or something like that.

  “Juanita?” Jason asked tentatively. One hand was opening and closing in a tight fist; the other was gripping the door latch. He was pretty sure that he could escape before she bit him.

  “Where are we?” the woman asked, rubbing her head tenderly and wincing.

  “The hospital.” Jason paused before making his admission. “I thought you might be dead. I was bringing you here to be sure.”

  Juanita was silent for a moment before she finally spoke again. “Then you must not have seen what I saw.”

  “You mean about the zombies?” Jason blurted. As soon as the word left his mouth he wished that he could get it back. He had already given Juanita enough reasons to ditch him. Showing that he was nuts in the head would not do him any favors.

  “So you have seen them,” Juanita whispered.

  “Don’t tell me that you think…” His voice trailed off as a woman walked past the car.

  They were parked so that they could see the sidewalk that ran along the front of the parking lot where the street went past. The streetlights were all coming on as the light sensors activated them to push back the gloom of the growing darkness of night.

  The woman was a bloody mess. There was a strand of what could only be intestine trailing behind her. and as she passed directly under the light, the knife jutting from her chest drew the focus from the missing flesh of her cheek. Her walk was a sort of drag step that reminded Jason of an old man he knew in prison that had suffered a massive stroke. One side of him was partially paralyzed, so his walk was this incredibly awkward gait. Unfortunately, inside, that made him not only a target of ridicule, but also of the general population’s bullies.

  “But when I listened to your chest, I didn’t hear a heartbeat,” Jason said weakly.

  “Well, I can promise you that I am not a zombie,” Juanita replied as she climbed over the seat.

  “So what do we do?”

  Juanita thought it over for a moment before turning to face Jason. “I don’t think going into the hospital is a good idea.”

  “But your head.”

  “I’m fine,” Juanita brushed aside his concern.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to be sure,” Jason insisted.

  The two craned their necks around to look back at the hospital entrance. Despite the fact that the lot was packed and three ambulances sat in the entry bay with lights on and back doors open, the warm glow of the entrance did not seem to bode ill.

  “I will stay right by your side,” Juanita said, patting Jason on the arm.

  Together, they took another look around to ensure that there were no more zombies walking past. Once they were fairly certain that the coast was clear, they exited the car, both taking special care to shut the door as quietly as possible.

  Without realizing it, they clutched each other’s hand and started toward the entrance to the hospital emergency room. They were just crossing the last crosswalk where the main entrance allowed access to the parking lot when the roar of an engine sounded and the bright headlights of an oncoming vehicle chased away the darkness in a blinding flash. The tires screeched as the driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the pair.

  So this is what a deer feels like, a muted voice said from somewhere in the back of Jason’s mind.

  The growing voice in horror

  and speculative fiction.

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  TW Brown is the author of the Zomblog series, his horror comedy romp, That Ghoul Ava, and, of course, the DEAD series. Safely tucked away in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, he moves away from his desk only at the urging of his Border Collie, Aoife. (Pronounced Eye-fa)

  He plays a little guitar on the side...just for fun...and makes up any excuse to either go trail hiking or strolling along his favorite place...Cannon Beach. He answers all his emails sent to twbrown.maydecpub @gmail.com and tries to thank everybody personally when they take the time to leave a review of one of his works.

  His blog can be found at:http://twbrown.blogspot.com

  The best way to find everything he has out is to start at his Author Page:

  You can follow him on twitter @maydecpub and on Facebook under Todd Brown, Author TW Brown, and also under May December Publications.