Free Dead Hunger IV: Evolution by Eric A. Shelman

disgust. 
    Hemp enjoyed making her laugh.
    “ Crap , ” said Gem, her voice low.  She stood at the window, her fingers tightening on the gun in her hands.
    “What?” asked Charlie and Hemp together.
    “They’re here,” she said.
    Her radio clicked.  “Gem?”
    It was Flex.  She grabbed it.  “Yes, babe.”
    “They’re heading your way.  We just had to push over a wall of them to get through.”
    “Come back, Flex.”
    “We are,” said Flex.  “Five minutes.”
    “Mommy, there are zombies everywhere outside!” said Trina from the top of the stairs.
    “You were supposed to be asleep,” said Gem, turning to frown at her.
    “I was!  Tay woke up and looked out the window.  Mommy, zombies are all in the streets!”
    Gunfire was sounding sporadically outside now.  The neighbors were busy.  What neighbors they had.
    “I don’t know how many there are, but we have to get in that lab,” said Hemp.  “We’re good there with the turrets.”
    “Nobody’s going in there yet,” said Gem.  “Come here.”
    Hemp and Charlie hurried to the window. 
    “My God,” said Charlie.
    “W AT -6.  Now.  Everyone,” said Hemp.  “You all take it first.  I probably have some residual.  I’ll stand guard while you recover.”
    “Girls!  Downstairs!” shouted Gem.  She rushed to the freezer and removed the baggie filled with wafers, broke one in two and handed each girl one as they came into the kitchen.  “Eat.  Or go sit and eat.  Lay your head down when you’re done eating them.”
    “These suck, mommy!” said Trina.
    “Like we always say, girls ” said Gem. 
    The next words she spoke were screamed in unison by Taylor and Trina.   “Better to eat what sucks than to have your brain sucked!”
    The girls sat in the chairs at the round, kitchen table and ate their wafers.  Smiling at one another, they rested their heads against the glass table top and fell fast asleep in seconds .
    “You now,” said Hemp.  “Both of you.  Hurry.”
    In ten more minutes, everyone was awake and it was Hemp’s turn. 
    When he awoke, gunfire already filled the room.  They had followed Tony Mallette’s example and had drilled gun turret holes beneath the windows, and beneath the peephole on the door.  The girls were on their knees, their gun barrels poking through the holes, and they were emptying their magazines efficiently.  Hemp couldn’t tell if they were hitting their targets, but the bodies outside were beginning to pile up.
    “Hold up,” he said.  “I see Flex and Dave.”
    Gem jumped to her feet, and Charlie joined them.
    “Girls,” said Charlie.  “Pull your guns in.  Quick.”
    With a slight whine, they relented and put their guns on the hardwood floor.
    “You don’t want to shoot Uncle Flexy and Uncle Davey, do you?” asked Gem.
    “Hells no!” said Trina.
    “No way!” said Taylor .
    They watched as the men pulled into the driveway and got out of the vehicle.  Zombies were all around them, but they had apparently taken their doses of WAT-6 before coming back.
    Their weapons were drawn.  Hemp watched Flex raise it.  The male zombie beside him was older, and shambled mindlessly toward him.  Flex hit him in the brain with a single round, and black ooze splattered from the back of his head as he lost forward momentum and fell away.
    Hemp could see they weren’t attacking him; they were just in the wrong place at a very wrong time.
    Many of these weren’t diggers.  They were dressed otherwise, as you might when you’re fixing cars, shopping for groceries, or going to university.
    They were just people.   Yes, there were the odd diggers among them, but they were obvious because of the damage done to their bodies on their long forage upward to reach daylight .  In many cases they missed fingers, and even arms.
    Then another female caught Hemp’s eye.  He pointed to her.  “That one,” he whispered.  “She avoided Flex.  She was walking toward him and when she