Read The Undead World (Book 5): The Apocalypse Renegades for Free Online Page B

rotting orbs in his direction could he, for just those brief moments, forget her.
    The water was so cold he felt his heart stutter, but he couldn’t react. Reacting would be the human thing to do and a human would be devoured in seconds in that water. Neil moved slowly in, gritting his teeth. He went oh so slow and the crab-like way that would’ve made Jillybean proud. Deanna stepped in stiffly with a barely audible whine mewling at the top of her throat, and Big Bill, huge and green, came plodding forward, lumbering like a Tolkien Ent.
    Neil, chin deep in the black water, watched Bill until he was in up to his chest and then he turned and began swimming. The night before he had ridden down the river in a crude Jillybean-fashioned raft, which, due to her diligence, had been a simple thing to maneuver. Swimming was far harder than he would’ve guessed. First, he was fully dressed, and second, if he wanted to make any headway, he had to kick and thrust in a manner that wouldn’t divulge his humanity. He was very quickly exhausted.
    “Go…on…” he husked out to Deanna who had paused to give him a look. Although he had entered the water first, he was dragging ass already. Big Bill was three lengths ahead and drawing away. Deanna passed him by and that left him with just the zombies for company. Luckily they saw his green head bobbing and couldn’t tell any difference between it and a head of cabbage.
    However, the long “huuh” sound he made with every breath was something else. The sound was like a zombie magnet. He was forced to roll over on his back and just float for long stretches of the river to keep from making the noise and, of course, to keep from drowning out of sheer exhaustion.
    It was a long, long swim. Finally, he made it to the western bank two miles downstream of where Bill and Deanna came ashore. Neil crawled twenty feet through the muck that made up the river bank and then laid there gasping, his body no longer green in any way; he was slick with mud and so utterly tired that he could not imagine re-crossing the water a second time under any circumstances.
    By the time Deanna and Bill found him he was just about ready to stand. He forced himself to his feet and stood there looking miserable but this did not stop Bill from throwing his head back and laughing; a sound that had the mucus and algae plastered river zombies turning to stare as they slowly slid by. At Neil’s dark look, the big man softened his laugh to a chuckle.
    “Don’t worry,” Big Bill said. “There’s nothing around here. No people at least.”
    “What about…” Neil began.
    “Zombies?” Deanna asked. “The only ones we’ve seen so far were stuck in bogs. We should be fine for a little bit.”
    “Yeah, those bog zombies look even more pathetic than you,” Big Bill said with another laugh.
    Neil took one step and then tripped in the gunk, sprawling on his face. Ignoring Bill’s laughter, he grunted and shimmied through the mud like a stunted pollywog. Deanna smirked and then looked away. Once on solid ground, Neil needed another few minutes of rest before he was able to stand.
    “So, where to?” Big Bill asked, suddenly a lot less jovial. For some reason, the western bank of the Mississippi seemed so much more sinister than the eastern bank had. Neil tried to tell himself that it was just fear of the unknown that made his movement through the close jungle-like forest so slow.
    There weren’t even many zombies around, a mere handful that ignored the three who moaned and schlepped along until the forest opened up; they had reached the edge of farm country. In front of them, the land lay open and ugly. It had gone feral and sprouted only weeds and wild greens.
    “We can’t cross here,” Big Bill whispered. There wasn’t the least bit of cover to hide them from human eyes.
    They turned south keeping within the bounds of the forest. It was tough going with bogs and standing water diverting them time and again. And it