Free Deadlocked 8 by A.R. Wise Page B

normally try to stay at libraries
or book stores, so I’ve got something good to read, but I’ll take
what I can get.”
    “Libraries?” I asked, surprised. “Aren’t
those too big to try and stay in? I was always taught to try and
stay in smaller places that could be easily fortified.”
    “Yeah, but I loved the feeling of stepping
into a place that was filled with all that knowledge. All those
books, on any subject I could think of, all at my fingertips.” He
smiled and shook his head in appreciation. “That’s paradise for
me.”
    I chuckled, and it came out more derisively
than I’d intended. “I guess so. I don’t like big, dark buildings.
Too many places for things to hide.”
    Ben was opening the doors in the kitchen,
revealing a pantry, the entrance to the garage, and the stairs that
led to the basement. We still had to check upstairs, but decided to
go down first, since that was usually where you would find any
zombies that happened to make their way into a home. The front and
back doors were still locked, and the windows hadn’t been broken,
giving us both the sense that the house was clear, but you can
never be too careful. I’ve been in hundreds of places that seemed
safe at first, only to discover zombies writhing about in the
basement. For some reason, when they’re not chasing people, Greys
seem to be drawn down to the lowest level possible of wherever
they’re trapped, almost as if they’re intrinsically drawn to a
grave. More likely, they simply followed the path of least
resistance when not incensed, which meant they were likely to
wander about at the bottom of a set of stairs rather than go up
them.
    I was reminded of our conversation in the
car, when Harrison was equating our new world to Adam’s journey out
of Eden. No one in the Red days had to study the patterns of
movement in the average zombie’s routine, or give a wide berth when
turning a corner to avoid the grasping hands of a hidden attacker,
or learn the difference between the sweet stench of rotting flesh
and the muted odor of a Grey. These weren’t the trials Adam and Eve
dealt with in either of the paradises they lived in. This was the
new world; the new hell.
    “There’s no water down here,” said Ben as he
sniffed. “It’s a bit musty, but looks clear.”
    The basement had a concrete floor and little
else to define it other than a few support beams that anchored the
ceiling. A water heater stood sentry beside a series of pipes that
rose and disappeared in holes above. A stream of rusty
discoloration seeped out from beneath the water heater, and flowed
down to a nearby drain, marking the path the water had taken after
the bottom of the tank had finally corroded and burst.
    “Feels like a tomb,” I said as I stood on the
bottom step and shined my flashlight around, erasing the inky black
corners. The walls were made of plastic, puffed out like clouds by
the pink insulation behind, and contoured by the bolts that were
drilled into the concrete behind. “Or a padded cell.”
    “Maybe we should make Harry sleep down here,
and we’ll stay upstairs,” said Ben as a joke.
    My heart fluttered like a teenager with a
crush at the implication that I might spend time alone with Ben.
This was the first moment I’d ever realized that I had a burgeoning
attraction to him. When Zack had asked me if I was hoping to go on
this scouting mission with Ben because I was interested in him, I
was struck by how ludicrous the accusation was. I hadn’t even
considered such a thing, but his question had made me curious, and
over the past couple weeks I’d been thinking of it frequently. I’d
even become annoyed when I learned that Harrison would be coming
with us, although I was placated by the knowledge that we’d be
dropping him off at the water tower. That’s when I would finally
get the chance to be alone with Ben, although I didn’t know what I
planned to do at that point. I wasn’t the type of girl to throw
myself on a man,