Siege (As the World Dies #3)(42)

Swearing, she charged back into the kitchen. Grabbing up the notes, she studied them again. Ray had f*cked her and so had Curtis. She couldn’t believe they had taken her things. And what the hell had Curtis meant about her enjoying the gun?

The sun would be going down soon. She scrounged around until she found a flashlight and some candles. She set up the candles and took a deep breath. The stupid fort people didn’t know who she was and what she was capable of. She had some money stashed in her closet as well as some jewels. She could go out to the stable and get the work truck. They had their own gas pump and she could gas up and leave in the morning.

She just wouldn’t be traveling in luxury, but things would be fine.

Comforted by this thought, she began to look for something to eat other than the disgusting can of chili. She did not want to be reminded of that gawdawful food from the fort. Finally, she found some chocolates and a bottle of wine. It would have to do.

She was halfway through the box of somewhat stale chocolates when she heard the yelling. Moving to the front door, she tilted her head and caught her own name in the shouts.

Slowly, she realized it was Ray’s voice. He was yelling for her.

“Blanche, open the gawddamn door! Blanche! Open the door!”



Hesitating, she turned back and grabbed her gun. “Blanche! Open the door! Open the gawddamn door!”



Blanche peered out into the dusk looming outside her window and saw Ray running up her driveway. She started to unlock the door, then considered what his note said.

With a snort she stepped back from the door. He hit the door full force. “Blanche! Open the door! I know you’re in there! I saw Curtis drop you off. Open the f*cking door!”



“Oh, really? And why didn’t you come to save me instead of ripping me off?”

“Blanche, the car broke down, okay? I was stuck up the road and saw them leave you off. I came back as soon as I could. Now open the door! Blanche, open the door! They’re coming!”

“So, you steal my things and then Stephen’s car breaks down and you come running back here because they are coming, huh?”

“Blanche! Open the f*cking door!”

She smirked. “Ray, let me get this straight. You come to my house, steal from me, take my dead husband’s car, it breaks down, but you happen to see them leave me off, and come running back here expecting me to take you in?”

“Blanche! Open the door! Open the door!” Ray’s voice was near hysterics now.

“You stole from me, you son of a bitch! You f*cking pathetic hick! And you expect me to take you into my home?”

“Blanche! Just open the door! Just open the door! I’m out of bullets!” He was pounding hard on the door, desperate, terrified. “Open the f*cking door, bitch!”

Blanche opened the door and lifted her gun. For a moment, she saw Ray’s terrified expression and figures moving up the drive out of the growing darkness.

“Thank God, Blanche, I-”

She fired her gun and his head snapped back. He looked suitably shocked before his eyes went utterly blank and he fell back. It was then she saw the mottled, decaying figures moving up the steps toward her. “Stay off my property,”she screamed and aimed her gun.

Her finger squeezed the trigger, but the gun only clicked empty.

She was hit full force by the horrible reek of the undead creatures, then they were on her, knocking her back into the house and onto her expensive Persian rug. She raised the gun again, pulling the trigger over and over again.

One of the zombies, screeched at her and she slapped it. “Get off me!”

It didn’t recoil, but grabbed her hand and bit down.

Screaming, she tried to get away, but then more were on her and suddenly she realized what Curtis had meant in his note.



He had left her one bullet.

She had killed Ray.

Fuck! Her screams of fury filled the night until they finally gave way to screams of pain.





Chapter 9





1. Gateway to Death





The front door to the hospital swung open and the zombie in the pink housecoat growled and thrust her hands outward to grab the tasty human before her. Something long and sharp came straight for her and in the next second her muddled brain became nothing more than mush. With a grunt, Ken yanked the spear out of the old woman’s eye socket.



The old man in the other wheelchair fumbled toward the open door, trying to reach the enticing opening where the humans were. Roger put his sneaker squarely on the gnarled knees of the dead old woman and shoved her and the wheelchair back.



With a loud hiss, the old man launched himself toward Roger, but the delicious human flesh stepped back through the door and the old man landed flat on his stomach. Clawing at the floor, he tried to move through the doorway, but something hard came down on his head. He growled in frustration as the object came down over and over again. Soon, he lay silent, unmoving, his head squashed nearly flat. “That was truly disgusting,” Ken muttered. He watched Bill walk over to the lawn to try to wipe the gore off his boot on the dry overgrown grass.



Bill shrugged. Lenore leaned down slowly, her gaze divided between the long expanse of white hallway and the dead old man. Tilting her head, she studied his bracelet.