Dead Living – Excerpt (for Sample Sunday)

Warning: Slight Language and Violence (It is a zombie novel after all  🙂 )

As she jogged by a backyard with no gate, a corpse that had been behind an old shed lunged at her. They both fell to the hard ground. She tried to stab it in the skull, but was disoriented by a hard pull at her feet. She looked down to see another corpse making its way up her legs. It would only be a matter of seconds before it found a soft spot to sink its teeth into. She kicked with her legs while trying to push the one on her chest away. Its jaws snapped dangerously close to her face. She could see three more walking slowly toward her. She felt the strength in her arms giving away, while her sweatpants were pulled down, revealing her thigh to the other corpse.

She saw a shadow move above her that was too fast to be a corpse. She heard a violent crack, and the tugging at her legs stopped. The shadow stopped above her, and she screamed as the head of an arrow pierced the skull of the corpse on top of her, stopping just an inch short of her nose.

She rolled the corpse off to the side and looked up to see a figure standing above her. Her first instinct was that it couldn’t be a man. She was the only human in the city. The sun was behind him, so she couldn’t see his face. It was only when he felt for her arm and pulled her up with a warm, strong grip that she knew he was human.

The man had a large compound bow and a quiver on his back. He quickly shot the three oncoming corpses in the brain with ease. Samantha was impressed.

She could see him now. He was definitely a man, maybe around the same age as her. He was completely bald with bright blue eyes, and just slightly taller than she was. He wore old blue jeans and a white tank top, revealing a lean upper body. She thought he looked ridiculous, totally without protection.

He did something that caught Samantha by surprise. He smiled. Then he said something even stranger.

“Good afternoon.”

Her mouth hung open. Her instincts told her something was very different about him. “This city is full of walkers,” she blurted.

“Walkers? The walking corpses? Well, yeah. You just notice that now?”

There was a loud crash not far away. They both looked to see walkers pouring out of the house Samantha ran through. They were at both ends of the alley too.

“Wow. Looks like you really got them riled up,” he said calmly.

Samantha looked at him. The brief hope she felt when he pulled her to her feet was gone. Physically, he seemed fine, but something wasn’t right in his head. They were surrounded by death, and he didn’t seem bothered in the least.

He’s insane. Out of his mind.

She’d seen it before at Lexington. The world wasn’t easy, and some people just couldn’t handle it. Everyone lived in a world ruled by monsters. It was easy for a mind to snap.

She turned to run. He caught her by the arm, and she quickly pulled free.

“Whoa. Where you going?”

“Somewhere safe, where there aren’t any walkers. And don’t touch me.”

He laughed, again putting Samantha on edge. “Good luck with that. Listen, see that backyard there, with the grill on its side? Run through that house to the next street. Look for the house with The End Is Near spray-painted above the door.”

“I can’t read.”

He gave her a look. “Can’t read? Well, can you count?”

“Yeah, I can count, asshole.”

He smirked. “Fourth house down from the end. You should see it as soon as you hit the street. I’ll meet you there.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“I’ll slow them down.”

Samantha turned and ran. She knew she owed the stranger her life, but she wasn’t going to wait around for him.

He wants to be an idiot and get himself killed, fine by me.