Read Ashton Memorial for Free Online Page B

she
could. The water covered the entire floor now. It kept pouring from
the sink.
    “Maylee!”
    “I said wait!”
    The door shook and slammed open. Corpses
stumbled into the room. The one in front was a muscular man missing
one arm. Thick blood ran down his side from the stump where his arm
had been. He groaned and came for Dalton and Maylee. His feet
splashed in the water.
    Maylee screamed and flung the space heater
to the floor. It hit the water and sparks shot from it. There was a
loud crackling sound and the corpses shook violently. They
convulsed and twitched. Sparks flew from the heater and from the
outlet. Dark fluid oozed from the corpses' mouths.
    The outlet and heater gave out one last
spark and the room went dark. The corpses all fell into the water,
still.
    For a moment Maylee panted and stared at
them. Her hands smarted. The running water in the sink was the only
sound.
    “How did you know that
would work?” said Dalton.
    “I didn't. I just hoped
shocking the brain would hurt them.”
    Then she heard Mom screaming.
    “Mom!” she yelled, leaping
from the toilet. She hit the water and nearly slid into the wall.
She stepped over the still corpses as quickly as she could and got
her bat. Behind her, Dalton jumped off the toilet.
    “Come on!” she said. She
ran to Dalton and grabbed his hand. Holding the bat in the other
hand, she pulled him from the bathroom.
     
    * * *
     
    “Dalton!” screamed Angie as
she backed toward the car. Corpses stumbled toward her from both
sides of the gas station. “Maylee!”
    Angie backed up until she met the metal of
the car. She had to get to her kids. Her insides screamed at her to
do it. But how? There were too many of them. The cold rain pounded
all around her. Corpses stumbled through it, toward her.
    The lights in the gas station flickered,
then went dark. The display on the pump went out.
    Angie screamed at the corpses coming for
her. She wanted to rip them apart with her bare hands. One got
close enough for Angie to reach. Angie rushed up and shoved it
backward. It moaned, reaching for her as it fell backward into the
corpses behind it.
    “You bastards!” she
bellowed at the corpses. Into the rain. She felt like she was
losing her mind. She heard moans behind her and saw corpses
approaching the car from the rear.
    She screamed and ran at the corpses,
stopping when she nearly tripped on the gas hose. A corpse, a woman
with a torn throat and ripped cheek, hissed at her. Angie screamed
back and pulled the nozzle from the tank. She flung the hard metal
nozzle at the corpse. The nozzle cracked against the corpse’s head
and it went down.
    “Mom!” she heard from
behind her. She turned to see Maylee and Dalton run from the side
of the station. Maylee let go of Dalton's hand and started swinging
her bat.
    “Maylee, no!” yelled
Angie.
     
    * * *
     
    Maylee rounded the corner, pulling Dalton
with her. Cold rain fell everywhere, running into her eyes. Corpses
were everywhere, their backs to Maylee. Mom was at the car. The
corpses closed in around her.
    “Mom!” yelled Maylee. She
let go of Dalton's hand and gripped her bat with both hands. She
swung at the head of the nearest corpse. Its skull cracked and it
went down.
    “Maylee, no!” yelled Mom,
sounding very far away through the moaning corpses and the pounding
rain.
    “Maylee!” yelled Dalton
somewhere behind her.
    “Stay close to me!” yelled
Maylee, swinging wildly. “We gotta get to Mom!”
    Corpses turned and moaned at her. At Dalton.
Maylee swung as fast and hard as she could, but knew there were too
many. She'd made a mistake.
    Maylee swung and Dalton clung to her back.
The corpses closed in.
     
    * * *
     
    Angie screamed in anguish as she watched the
corpses close on her children. She grabbed hold of the gas hose and
pulled the metal nozzle back to her. She ran to the front of the
car and swung the hose to her left. The nozzle connected with three
corpses' heads, one after the other. The corpses