The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) by Chrissy Peebles Page B

stairs and out the door, I did a quick sweep to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind. We found our friends sitting on the front porch. The birds were chirping songs to greet the morning, the sky was bright blue, and the sun was shining; for a moment, I felt the false illusion that the world was normal again—that everything was okay and peaceful and beautiful and that reincarnated dead were not roaming the planet, devouring people. I quickly shook off the feeling, because I knew what was really in store for us: zombies, death, and gore.
    Lucas glanced around. “Quick, somebody check and see if there are some striped socks sticking out from under the cabin!” he shouted.
    “What?” Val asked, looking at him in confusion.
    “Look at this out here, all peaceful and sunny and perfect, with no teeming hordes of dead or ravenous loner zombies to fend off. It’s like we’ve landed in Oz or something. Tell me, Val, are you really a good witch?”
    “Shut up, Lucas,” she said, playfully punching him. “Glad some body’s in a good mood.”
    “Meh, why shouldn’t we be? We’ve gotta accept life for what it is now. I’ve already said goodbye to my old life, and we just gotta make the best of things.”
    “Sorry, but I disagree. I can’t accept zombies roaming our planet,” Val said. “I still have hope that we’ll find our Oz again,” Val said sternly.
    “No use living in a dream, Val. There is no somewhere over the rainbow. Heck, there aren’t even any rainbows. That’s our reality now. This beautiful, sunshiny morning is just…a façade. It’s just a cover-up for the filthy sickness that lies beneath.”
    “Gosh, Lucas. How can you be in such a good mood, so blasé about all this, and still be so depressing?” She leaned into him and sighed.
    Lucas pulled her in for a hug. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through it either way,” he said. “I’m not blasé. I’ve simply accepted the reality, but I refuse to be depressed all the time. Those corpses have taken enough from me already. They won’t take my spirit—or my jokes.”
    “Well, your spirit’s one thing, but as for your so-called jokes…” Val said, smiling up at him with weary eyes.
    “Ha! Very funny.” He smiled back at her briefly, and then a serious look came over his face. “Look, I know how tired you are, how tired we all are. It’s exhausting to live like this, but we’ll survive. We have to.”
    “I know, but it gets hard sometimes. It’s just so…ugly.”
    Lucas smiled. “All we can do is make the most of life and try not to dwell in all the death all around us.”
    “Hey, Dean,” Asia said, leaning against the railing with the rifle slung over her shoulder.
    I smiled. “Mornin’.”
    “I didn’t think you were ever gonna get up.”
    I ran a hand through my messy hair. “Were you guys waiting on little ol’ me?”
    Claire threw an arm around my neck. “That would be a yes.”
    “Man, I’m sorry. I was just…beat.”
    She motioned me to be quiet as Lucas cleared his throat, requesting our attention.
    “People, we had a good night, with a few laughs and some beauty sleep, which some of us apparently needed more than others,” he said, looking at me and smirking. “Now, I can’t promise every night will go as smoothly, but we’ve gotta take the good moments when we can get ‘em. Hopefully, you’re all well rested, because we’ve got quite a hike ahead of us. Does everyone have a weapon?”
    I gripped my Louisville Slugger, and everyone else held up their own weapons and nodded. We’d managed to put together quite a zombie-bashing arsenal for a ragtag army, and that made me feel better.
    Lucas walked over and threw a black bag over my shoulder. “Think you can handle carrying some supplies, bro?”
    I grunted a little when he surprised me with the bag, but then I nodded. “No problem.”
    He continued, “We split everything up so everybody’s carrying equal weight.”
    “Let me take yours too.