Free The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel by Michael Wallace

skin. Through his radio, Colton heard General Brown ask, " Colton . What's going on over there? Why haven't you called for the truck?"
    John grabbed his radio and replied, "General, this went south real fast. It's not the goose roundup we expected. These re-ans are fighting back. My men are out of ammo and they've overrun our front line. We need to withdraw from the quarantined zone."
    Over the speaker came, "Out of ammo! Ignoring every science fiction movie ever made, you thought bullets would stop zombies? Get your men out of there now!"
    As Colton called out the order for his men to fall back behind the concrete road barrier, another wave of undead swarmed over his men. Outnumbered and out of bullets, the police force tried to flee , but the zombies overwhelmed them. With several re-animated holding each officer to the ground, they took bite after bite out of the living. John continued to call out to his officers to retreat , but he could no longer see any movement through the smoke. Slowly , the screams of his men died out, until only the moans and hisses of the zombies remained.
    A shadow grew large in the smoke , as something ran directly at him. Colton pulled out his taser and aimed at the approaching body. From smoke, Morton Schimmple, his only remaining officer , appeared and jumped over the barrier. John relaxed his grip and asked, "Where are the others?"
    In a panic, Morton responded, "They're dead! Those things are eating them. We need to get out of here now."
    As his officer tried to run away, John grabbed his shoulder and said, "Wait, here comes someone."
    A silhouette moved out of the smoke, close to the barrier. John saw one of his officers walking slowly toward him. The man had blood covering his face with several areas of skin and muscle bitten and torn away. "Johnson, is that you? Let's get you to the paramedics."
    As the officer walked into the light, Colton saw the white milky eyes and blank expression on his face. Morton turned and ran as he called out, "He's one of them!"
    Colton raised his taser and said, "You're going to be okay, Johnson."
    The approaching officer answered in a language of moans. Two more officers walked out of the smoke speaking in the same un-translatable words. Colton holstered his taser and ran off down the street.

Chapter 6
     
     
    A squirrel ran across the floor with part of a cracker in its mouth. Outside the building, ravens cawed and the gentle breeze whistled through the tree branches. Voices of the small groups of zombies echoed and bounced around the warehouse. In the center of the large vacant industrial space, Hod tried to start a fire on a pile of broken wooden pallets sparking a piece of flint against a shard of steel. Prometheus stood near a window letting the sun's rays bask on his face. He could not sense the golden warmth , but he let his mind imagine what it should feel like if he were still alive. With his eyes closed, he saw himself back in Greece standing on a cliff overlooking the dark blue sea. The wind blew through his toga as the salt air filtered through his nose. He could hear the seagulls squawking and the waves crashing on the rocks below. For the first time, a sense of calm flowed through the body he inhabited , but it all came to a sudden stop.
    "Hey , dude, the Roman and the Viking want you to join their little pow - wow."
    Prometheus opened his eyes and saw Drew standing next to him pointing to a group gathered next to a large hydraulic press. Nemi, the Egyptian in the motorcyclist's body, waved him over.
    As he joined the group, Titus caught him up on the conversation. "To organize our growing society, I have scribed a structure of government to help us achieve the task given to us by the gods. It is the system we used in Rome with governors and senators representing the greater number of voices. I have spoken with many of the moderns and this structure has endured through the centuries and with various forms it is still in use today."
    "It sounds