The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] by L.D. King

Either
way, we need to get moving so we don’t miss laser tag before we eat.”
    Stan
turned to start forward again. By this time Rosie was really scared. She called
out to him from the rear of the group. “Stan, wait… I want to walk next to you.
I’m scared. Okay, baby?”
    “Sure,
Rosie, I’ll wait. Come on up here with me.”
    As
Stan waited for Rosie, the sounds got a little louder. Rosie was practically
babbling with fright. “Stan, this is the darkest part of this damn tunnel.
There are more lights broken than there are working, and my flashlight app
doesn’t work worth a damn. Wait for me, please.”
    Stan
stood waiting for Rosie to catch up with him. Rosie was only a few steps away
when she saw something reaching out of the shadows toward Stan. She stopped,
frozen in place, and screamed.
    “Stan,
look out! Something’s behind you. It’s gonna grab you! Move!”
    But it
was too late for Stan. The thing was a creature like none of them had ever seen
before. It grabbed Stan around his neck with the claw at the end of its mutated
arm. The creature’s other arm was missing the skin and flesh from the elbow
down to the clawed hand, which was wrapped around Stan’s waist, pulling him
back into the shadows, to its chest. With a quick, single movement, it pulled
both of its arms across Stan’s neck and belly, gutting him like a toddler might
pop a balloon. The creature let Stan fall to the floor, kneeling next to him to
rip into him one more time.
    Rosie,
screamed as she ran to Stan’s lifeless body, her hands balled into fists. She
fell to her knees next to the creature, beating on it with her fists. Her long
black hair was falling across her face. As the creature was ripping into Stan’s
body, it was flinging great gouts of his blood everywhere, including on Rosie.
She was being drenched from head to toe with Stan’s blood. Her screams echoed through
the tunnel.
    “Damn
you! You can’t have my boyfriend! You can’t have him, damn it! You can’t have him!”
    Beating
on the creature with her fists to save Stan — pointless, as Stan was already
dead — the shadowy creature knocked Rosie onto her back with a single swing of
its arm. Once on her back with one quick swing of its claws, it tore her open
from chest to belly. Rosie took her last breath sprawled on her back between
the subway rails.
    Stan’s
lifeless body lay on the ground, his intestines pouring out around him. One
lung had been exposed when his ribs were ripped away. Rosie lay dead next to
him, torn to shreds by the creature’s claws. Her belly and chest gaped open.
The contents of her savaged body spilled onto the ground and mixed with Stan’s.
Blood was everywhere.
    The
other four friends stood, staring through unblinking eyes their mouths hanging
open, unable to speak a single word. This was supposed to be an end-of-summer
fling. Now they had just watched their friends die right in front of them. This
wasn’t supposed to happen to teenagers on vacation. Not in Manhattan. Not
anywhere.
    Mary’s
body was locked in fear. Her feet felt like they were encased in lead. Her
brown eyes were wide open, staring at the bodies of their two friends. Her
fingers were twisted into her auburn hair. Her mouth was hanging open, but no
words came out. She tried to speak or shout or scream, but she could not. She
stood like that for what seemed like minutes. But it was only seconds; five?
Ten? Twenty?
    As
Mary finally caught her breath, she realized she was shouting at Jerry.
    “Jerry,
what is this? They can’t be dead! This isn’t supposed to happen to us — we’re
here to have fun! They can’t die. Not them, not anyone of us should
die.”
    Jerry
pulled Mary close to him. With his arms wrapped around her, he held her close,
trying to comfort her. He held her tightly so she wouldn’t fall to the ground.
    “It’s all
right, Mary. I’m here. I’ve got you. Oh, my god, that thing shredded them. I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen