The Living Dead Boy (The Living Dead Boy #1)(40)

“If you want to go, we can. Just sneak past the garage and forget going into the house,” Corina said.

“No.” Josh shook his head. “No. We need to take care of ourselves. We need to learn how to do the tough stuff. We’ll kill the zombie, then take care of Sam. Get the supplies, find a car, and make it to San Angelo.”

The kids around him nodded in agreement.

Josh faced the garage, and with the others in tow, he walked forward to do what any responsible Zombie Hunter would do.

Kill zombies.





Chapter 24


Danny and Troy quietly pushed the tire in front of the narrow opening to the garage, careful to stay out of sight. Nearby, Josh, Corina, and Dulce waited with their weapons in hand. Josh had noticed that Danny didn’t translate for Dulce, but she seemed to know exactly what was going on. She caught him looking at her, and gave him the thumbs up.

Josh returned the gesture.

The tire in place, the two boys ran to rejoin the others.

“Okay, so now one of us needs to lure the zombies out,” Josh said. “Anyone want to volunteer?”

Dulce didn’t answer. Instead, she walked right over to the opening and waved into the darkness. Spinning about, she ran back to the others.

Breathless, the kids waited.

No zombies appeared.

“They had to have seen her,” Troy whispered. “Right?”

Frowning, Dulce walked over to the door and waved both hands over her head. This time she ducked next to it, her spear raised, ready to jab any zombie daring to appear.

The seconds ticked by until they grew into minutes.

“Something’s wrong,” Corina said. “Could they be waiting inside for us to go in? Like a trap?”

Danny winced, and gave her an alarmed look. “Zombies aren’t that smart, right?”

Dulce smacked the metal door with her elbow, either by accident or on purpose.

The noise was dangerously loud.

Josh nervously surveyed the area, but didn’t see any zombies appear. Finally, he walked over to where the grubby tire was lying in front of the narrow opening, and stared into the gloomy interior. He raised his spear, and cleared his throat.

“Hey, zombies!”

“I don’t think there’s any in here,” a voice answered.

“Sam!” Josh strained to look into the darkened area.

“Sam’s alive?” Troy ran to the doorway with Danny close behind.

Dulce slid the door all the way open, letting the light fill the garage. Sam lay on his stomach on the roof of a black pickup. On the ground beside the vehicle was a zombie with a shovel embedded in its skull.

“Ohmygawd! Sam!” Corina rushed toward the pickup. “You’re alive!”

“Did you kill that zombie?” Josh asked in disbelief, though there was no other answer.

“Yeah, I just pretended to be you, Josh. I had to get up on the truck so the zombie couldn’t get me. There’s shovels and stuff in the back of the truck, so I used one to kill it. Then I climbed up here.” Sitting up, Sam stared at them hopefully. “Are the rest of the zombies dead?”

“Yeah! The hail killed them!” Josh answered.

“I thought that was bombs! It was so loud!” With some difficulty, Sam slid off the roof and into the truck bed. It made an awful noise, but nothing other than dirt stirred in the cluttered garage. “How did you guys not get killed, too?”

“We hid in a car,” Corina answered.

“Chad locked me out of the house.” Sam climbed over the tailgate slowly.

“We saw that. He’s a turd.” Troy shook his head in disgust.

Corina hugged Sam warmly. “I thought you were dead.”

“Me, too! I thought all of you were dead, and I didn’t know what to do!”

Dulce stepped onto the running board and peered inside the cab.

“I think it’s locked. I didn’t try to open the door because if the alarm went off all the zombies would come,” Sam explained.

“Dude, that’s thinking like a Zombie Hunter. You’re awesome.” Troy held out his clenched hand for a fist bump.

Sam stared at the gesture blankly.

“Fist bump?” Troy took Sam’s hand and showed him what to do.

“Oh! Cool. Like we’re buddies.”

“We are buddies, Sam,” Troy assured him.

“We need to decide what we’re doing next,” Corina said, interrupting. “We can’t just hang out here and hope more zombies don’t show up.”

“Chad hasn’t come out of the house. I say we leave him and just go,” Troy said.

“I’m with him,” Danny said, nodding.

Dulce was behind the truck, but she said in her accented English, “Me too!”

“But we need food and water. We agreed to this,” Corina pointed out.

“Chad’s not nice,” Sam protested.

There was a loud thump, then Dulce reappeared dragging a big yellow five-gallon water cooler. “Agua. Water.” She pointed to the garden hose lying nearby. It would easily reach inside the garage so they could fill the cooler.

“I thought she didn’t speak English,” Sam said.

“Only a little, when she’s comfortable around people,” Danny answered. “But she understands English really well.”