Read Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place for Free Online Page B

and closed his eyes against the view off to the right and in front of him. They were coming up to a set of train tracks, and a passenger train was sitting there. Almost every window was broken out and debris lay strewn all around. Bodies were everywhere, but that wasn’t what had caught Dexter’s attention. There were literally dozens of dogs tearing at the bodies. There were some birds too, but Charlie had no idea what kind. They knew dogs (and most likely cats, too) were turning feral, they’d seen them around the bodies at Hudson Place and could usually scare them off with a few shots, but none of them had any idea it had gotten this bad. As they cleared the tracks a few dogs glanced their way, their snouts covered with gore, and then returned to their feast. Charlie realized that they had actually been leading a pretty sheltered life since everything had gone to hell; none of them knew what they were really going to encounter.
     
    “ We’re going to have big problems if we have to get out for any reason,” Darrell said in a shaky voice. “Looks like we don’t have just zombies to worry about. You know, most of those bodies looked like they’d already been “zombified” as the kids put it, so does that mean the dogs are actually attacking and taking them down?”
     
    “ If that’s what it means, then I say more power to ‘em!” Dexter crowed, slapping his hand against the steering wheel again.
     
    Charlie was worried about how bold the dogs had become, but decided he could not deal with the possibilities of that scenario right now. As they crossed over the tracks, they all took a collective deep breath. Suddenly, the walkie in Charlie’s hand crackled to life, startling all three of them.
     
    “ Damn!” Charlie exclaimed with a nervous laugh. He had heard Dave’s voice, but hadn’t made out what he said, that was how badly he was shook up. “Come again, Dave,” he said carefully into the walkie, trying to sound normal and talk past the huge lump in his throat.
     
    “ Everything ok so far? We can’t see you anymore.” Dave’s voice came through loud and clear this time.
     
    “ Um, yeah - ok so far. Road’s clear as far as we can see right now.” Charlie turned around and put a finger to his lips after speaking so both Darrell and Dexter could see.
     
    “ Great! Great! Well, keep us posted on how the trip goes, if the road stays clear you should be there soon, which will give you plenty of time to check out the town.”
     
    “ Will do, we’ll contact you again in about ten minutes.”
     
    “ Sounds good, don’t forget these walkies have a ten mile range, and it may not even be that far,” Dave reminded him again.
     
    Charlie chuckled and replied, “Ok, we’ll contact you in five then.”
     
    “ If we don’t hear from you by then, we’ll give you a holler,” Dave said. “Talk to you soon!”
     
    Charlie put the walkie on the dashboard and ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t want to spook them about what we saw, especially since we just left. Let’s leave that story for later, ok?”
     
    Dexter looked at Charlie out of the corner of his eye and nodded. “Agreed, no need to worry ‘em about something like that.”
     
    Charlie turned to look at Darrell, who also nodded. Charlie faced forward in the seat and tried to relax a little bit. The drive wouldn’t be that long, but if he didn’t relax he knew he’d be no good to anyone when they got to Shady Oaks.
     
    Dexter reached over and began fiddling with the radio. “Maybe we’ll get lucky,” he mumbled as he turned the dials.
     
     
     
    ****
     
     
     
    The drive proved uneventful, only once did they have to skirt two cars that had collided in the middle of the road at an intersection. The road, even on the busiest of days, had been lightly traveled since it was in a rural area, and Charlie figured it was plain old bad luck that had caused the wreck. Dexter simply eased onto the shoulder and they were clear.