Read The Rising Dead for Free Online Page A

party was gone except a few bones here and there. I thought I must have been dead, but I was something else.”
    “What?”
    “There’s no word for what we are.”
    A screaming hawk and the light thudding of their feet on the solid ground were the only sounds. Matt considered the Stranger’s account. It was much like his own, but older. Northwest Territory? How long ago was the Northwest called a territory? Had the Stranger been traveling alone like this all that time? He had to know more than he was saying. Matt had met other dead people like himself, and they had all been psychopaths who helped Mr. Dark. It was clear to Matt that the Stranger wasn’t an agent of Mr. Dark’s. He didn’t want to rescue Cheryl, but he had been willing to fight to save her when she was right in front of him. And, of course, he’d saved Matt twice. It seemed that the Stranger belonged to no one.
    “What about Cheryl?”
    “It’s a shame. They seemed like nice people.”
    Matt had only so much patience. “That’s it? Cheryl’s not dead yet.”
    “Maybe.”
    “You know, you and I could go get her. We were kicking ass at that gas station.”
    The Stranger ignored him, seemingly lost in his memories.
    “You helped me. Why not at least try to help her?”
    The Stranger sighed, not in frustration, but in a sort of resignation. The sigh was heavy with something that had built for many years. “Every death leaves its fingerprints on you. You don’t know it yet, but the smudges become heavy. When you fight, you’re playing his game, which makes him stronger. The weapons get better and the killing gets easier, but it’s the same game.”
    “What is he?”
    “I don’t know. If I did, I could figure out how to kill him.”
    “He can die?”
    “I like to think so. I’ve tried. I believe I’m here for more than his amusement, to feed his need for bloodshed. But he’s grown stronger and more dangerous. I think my chance has passed. In the beginning he could control one or two people at a time, but now he can summon a small army. He is evolving. I think he was flesh and blood once, like we were. Violence and evil give him power. He uses that power to spread evil and becomes even stronger. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill.”
    Matt grinned at the comparison—both of them had died in snow. He wasn’t sure, but he thought the Stranger had made a little joke.
    “I’ve tried to kill him. Twice. The first time I doused him with kerosene and lit him up like a torch, but he didn’t burn up. It was like he was part of the flame—or it was part of him. He just laughed and danced through a little mining town while people screamed. Every few minutes he would stop and touch a building long enough to set it on fire. The old wood siding on those houses caught fire in seconds. I was running after him knocking on doors and carrying out kids, old people, and dogs. You’d have thought he’d get tired of it, but no, he set the whole town on fire.” The Stranger shook his head. “People lost everything right before winter set in.
    “Later, up in northern California near San Francisco, I set a trap. Went out with a boat full of smugglers and thieves. I waited with those stinking, decaying halfwits until we were out near the Farrallon Islands, where the big sharks are. Then I started a fight with the scum, figuring it would draw him in. Once I knew he was on board, I scuttled the ship. Sank the whole damn bunch. As I was swimming away, he popped up next to me and grinned. At first he looked normal, but his teeth began growing until they were the size and shape of sharks’ teeth. Big ones. I could feel sharks all around me. Their skin was so rough, it made my hands bleed. The creature was laughing the whole time. We swam like that for hours. As we got closer to shore, three small boats of crab fishermen got caught up in the school of sharks. One of the boats was tipped over. Those men were dead before their screams faded away. The others