Read Die Dead Enough for Free Online

growing louder and more crazed as they sensed their quarry might escape. They struggled so violently that bits of them broke off and fell to the ground, a finger here and groups of teeth there. Soon the grate was covered with a gelatinous slime, the combination of blood and drool.
    More bolts snapped as the creatures surged forward, crawling over each other to be the first to the feast.
    Conor helped the others, choosing which would go in what order.
    "Ya'll are gone have to help my fat ass up that thing, too," Uncle Leo said to Conor as the last of the women disappeared through the manhole. His companions were on their way up when part of the grate folded inward, the metal finally weakened to the point of failure.
    Only Conor and Uncle Leo remained, both staring wide-eyed as the first of the monsters started to force its way through the opening, wriggling and thrashing its body about.
    "Fuck, man," Uncle Leo shouted. "I don't know if I can do this!"
    "Start climbing, man. We're both getting out of here," Conor urged.
    Uncle Leo was a large man, close to four hundred pounds and none too fit. Just getting his foot up to the first rung was a monumental task.
    "Bobo! Ink! Get yo asses down here! Help me up!" he screamed.
    Bobo's face appeared above, silhouetted against the sky.
    "What? You shittin' me? You can't even climb a goddamned ladder? Fuuu..." Bobo said, shaking his head. He was soon back down, pulling hard on Uncle Leo's arms, helping him get up each rung.
    The first zombie was through, immediately standing and glaring at Conor who was still at the bottom of the ladder.
    "Hurry!" he shouted as the thing screamed and ran at him, arms outstretched, rotten fingers grasping. Conor looked frantically around him for some sort of weapon, settling on a shaft of metal about four feet long, possibly the support for a street sign by the looks of it. He snatched it up as the thing reached him.
    Conor swung it two-handed at the thing's throat, laying it wide-open, the head falling to the side, suspended by a short length of stretched flesh that left it hanging on its shoulder. The creature stopped, stumbling about, arms still reaching out for Conor as fluid ran down its chest. Conor threw a solid kick into its chest, knocking it to the ground as he turned back to the ladder.
    There was now room for him to get out of reach of the rest of the zombies.
    "Come on, yo!" Bobo called out as he helped Uncle Leo up out of the hole. "The whole thing's comin' down!"
    Conor took one last look at the grate just as it broke loose and fell inward, dozens of the undead toppling forward and quickly rising to their feet. In a flash, he was up the ladder, staring down at the rushing mass of bodies as he reached the top. To his horror, the headless monster that he had fought had risen again and was blindly lunging out for living flesh.
    "Hurry, brother," Aiden called down, reaching out to pull Conor free of the sewer. Below, the zombies were trying to climb the ladder, their broken dead limbs slowing them significantly. They growled loudly in frustration, the whites of their eyes and teeth the last things visible as Conor shoved the manhole cover back home.
    He took a look at their present surroundings, standing in the middle of a downtown street as the sun was beginning to rise, the wind having picked up, blowing dust in his eyes. What he saw left him speechless. It had only taken a single night and the city resembled a warzone, fires smoldering everywhere, cars totaled, corpses littering the sidewalks by the hundreds. Above it all he could see the hazy image of the Gateway Arch, though now the topmost section was missing, crooked fingers of steel jutting out from the breach.
    In a near alleyway he heard guttural jabbering, more zombies on the way.
    The others had taken cover in an underground parking garage, huddled together in the darkness just inside the entrance. Together, Aiden and Conor ran to them, pulling them all out of sight.
    "This shit's