Read The Zombie Wars: The Enemy Within (White Flag Of The Dead Book 8) for Free Online

questioned her husband and was grateful every day that her family was still together after so many had lost so much. 
    Cole had sent a simple message to his friends and coworkers.  ‘Heading to the wild, here’s the coordinates.’ Cole never expected anyone to arrive, but in the months after the upheaval, they began to trickle in. Men with skills; men used to working with their hands.  Men who figured out problems that CEO’s couldn’t ever get in a decade of trying.  Society used to look past these men, never noticing them until needed.  Here they found their friends and brother tradesmen.  Here they built a society with their bare hands.  Here they created a haven from the wild ghouls that had torn so many others apart. And here, Cole Hobbes was the leader of them all.
    “We’ve expanded the outer perimeter, expanding the wall well past the canyon. There’s useful timber in the hills and the cleared fields will be helpful for additional crops.  There are two solid rock hills that the electricians want to use for the foundation of their windmills, and they think they can help the plumbers get more water up from the streams.”
    Cole grunted.  The electricians were goddamned magicians when it came to power, once they were allowed to let their imaginations run free.  The hardest part was getting them the parts they needed to make it all work.  Every home had electric power, and no one was cold in the winter months.  One of the lunatics had built an electric sidewalk that kept snow off of his walkway.
    “Good enough.  We could use the timber and the land,” Cole said.  “Anything else?” Cole said.
    The advisor, a small man named Darnell Tibbles, had been a welder before the end of the world. He’d known Cole from the old days and had come along a week after Cole had left.  Darnell was an unassuming man, and both he and Cole had been surprised as hell to find that Darnell the Welder was also remarkably organized and efficient at administration. They often joked with each other that had Darnell figured out his secondary skills sooner, he’d have been a rich man with his own welding company.
    “Not on the domestic front,” Darnell said. “On the other end, I heard something you might be interested in.”
    Cole shifted his head slightly towards Tibbles.
    “Do tell.”
    “One of the survivors we found wandering the outer perimeter had said something strange before we relocated him,” Darnell said.
    “Spit it out, I’ve got no patience for stories,” Cole said.
    “He said the army will be here soon,” Darnell said.
    Cole shook his head.  “Crazy talk.  The army’s been finished for years.  Even those state centers they set up are done.”
    “True enough.”
    Cole straightened his back and popped his neck before speaking.
    “But?”
    “But what if there’s another army?” Darnell asked.
    Cole shook his head.  “None that could get us here. We’re surrounded on three sides by canyons, and the other side is a sheer mountain.  Trust me, we’re fine from man, beast, or zombie.”
    “Well, just to be sure, I sent a couple of scouts out about three weeks ago to see if there was anything to it,” Darnell said.
    Cole stared at Darnell.  “When were you going to tell me about this?”
    “I just did.”
    Cole stood up, towering over Darnell.  He raised a large fist and held in front of Darnell’s pale face.
    “I think I need to remind you who is in charge here.  I’m the one who started this place, not you.  Are we clear?” Cole said.
    Darnell took a step back.  “Crystal. I will try and recall the men.”
    “Leave them.  If they die out there, it’s on you to provide for their families.  Period,” Hobbes said with finality.  Tibbles knew better than to argue.  Inwardly, he was cursing himself for bringing it up at all.
    “Dismissed,” Cole said, sitting back down. The wooden chair creaked in protest as the full weight of the large man bore down upon it.
    Darnell