Read Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family for Free Online Page B

together and had the signature of a skilled shooter. Kevin knew it was the Air Force special operators engaging some kind of threat. Most likely the dead. The volume of gunfire was moderate, and he felt sure they were okay. If they needed support, they had communications gear.
    Hal handed out the fresh magazines to the men and they did final weapons checks before wandering away to setup positions to keep the plan safe. Kate’s flight crew came down the ramp when things were as safe as they were going to get. They immediately started the search for more fuel.  
    Just then Jaden’s men drove not one but two vehicles directly at the back of the plane. Apparently in the space where they’d found the one Toyota pickup, they’d found a second identical truck. Jaden opened the passenger door of the lead truck and stood out, grinning ear to ear. “Fucking-A for Toyota trucks man. Started right up.”
    Kevin smiled, and took off to get in the back of one of the trucks.

    *****

    Michelle looked up from the crumpled body of the dead boy she’d considered recently to be a friend. The moving wall of undead was closing in on her with astounding rapidity. It seemed to her as if they were moving twice as fast as she’d ever seen the dead move. Her blood thickened in her veins and her heart pounded to push the life giving fluid to her trembling muscles. She felt frozen. She felt rooted in place.
    She felt… ready. Accepting of her fate.
    Deep inside her a pleasing warmth issued forth made of inner resolve. Michelle considered the words of the Divine as they came through little Oudry. She knew if she survived tonight she’d be given a chance to help remake the world in a better vision. She could make true change. She could make a difference.
    But she needed faith. Faith in The Warden; the man charged with saving her life tonight. She had to believe he was the man, the only man who could bring her salvation at this very moment. If she didn’t believe in him, and what he represented, then he was coming to pick up her dead body, and not save her life. Michelle dropped the stone to the ground and made defiant fists. She began to let loose a litany of prayers from various religions she’d studied over the years to reinforce her belief that she was just moments away from being removed from harm’s way.
    Over the heads of the hundreds and hundreds of dead in front of her she saw the yellowing headlights of two trucks screaming across the flat land of the desert. They came directly towards her for a moment, and then darted sideways, skirting the edge of the moving landmass of dead.
    The Warden rode to her rescue. Michelle smiled as she felt the first of the sun’s light crest the horizon, and kiss her on the face.

    *****

    “Jesus fucking Christ. You seeing this?” Jaden asked the team over his throat microphone. He looked out of the window of the Toyota truck as they bounded along the rough terrain. Directly to his right side was the enormous herd of undead moving forward with intent unlike anything they thought they would ever see. This was different, and far worse than Mildenhall.  
    Ethan, Jaden’s primary sniper and the driver of the other truck responded, “How can we miss it? They’re fucking everywhere. Why are they out in the middle of nowhere like this?”
    Kevin answered in a somber tone, “They came here to kill that woman.”
    His strange, confident comment was greeted with silence. Eventually Jaden spoke, “Kevin you realize that sounds a wee bit like the talk of a person who has ate too many paint chips right?”
    “Yeah I know Jaden. But I know this. A single woman, standing alone in a ring of three fires in the middle of the Moroccan desert, after the end of the world? Come on man, that’s not a coincidence that we’re right here now, right now, just as she’s about to die. We were meant to be here. I get that now,” Kevin’s voice over the comms carried a weight and sincerity that the men felt. He was