Free Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 by E.E. Isherwood Page A

drone
again. It continued to shoot at will in the night.
    Please, just one night of safety.
    It was rare for him to pray outright, but he was so tired he
pretty much forgot Grandma's rule never to pray for himself.
    6
    He fell asleep and dropped into a dream. It was a vividly bright
day in Grandma Marty's backyard. The grass was a lush green, and the
flower gardens were in full bloom. While he walked, he studied the
larger neighborhood. It took some time to process.
    I know I'm dreaming. That's odd.
    The small garage at the end of the lot was flattened. Every garage
and fence on the near side of the alleyway had been similarly
smashed. Several houses, including the one next to Grandma, had been
burnt to the ground. He made sure her home was OK, and to his relief,
it stood with resilience as it looked down on him.
    The top level was Angie's apartment inside the two-story brick
building. So many memories flooded his mind, but he kept grounded by
remembering he was inside his dream. Being in this house, so much
like hers, probably jogged something in his memory.
    “I'll avoid Angie's room like the plague,” he said
with laughter. He figured if he was dreaming, he might as well enjoy
it.
    From inside Grandma's house, he heard screams. In fact, they were
coming from the basement—his old bunk space. Much as he'd done
in real life, he went to the side of the house and found the narrow
basement windows. He kicked one in, then slid through.
    His bed was still there. It hadn't been touched. His gaming laptop
was on the bedspread, just as he'd left it. While fighting the deep
longing for the computer, he looked at the rear doorway. It was just
as well he didn't try the basement door, the dryer he'd placed in
front of that door was still there.
    It was as if he'd just stepped out. Minus the fact the other
houses were in ruins. That wasn't something he'd witnessed.
    Am I seeing the house as it is now?
    Another scream. He recognized Victoria. It came from deeper in the
basement, which looked like a hoarder's stash, once he walked beyond
his little living space. He inched through the junk and noted with
some pride the gap in the rafters where his dad had left him the
small-caliber guns. Those had saved his life, and Grandma's life. He
was positive of that.
    “Liam, please hurry,” Victoria's voice was soft and
wistful.
    He became driven. Deeper he went. The dream basement was different
in one major way. It was much larger. The piles of junk continued for
minutes while he struggled through, and then over them. He ignored
the changing scenery below him.
    Here, piles of garbage bags.
    Next, piles of bodies, stacked neatly.
    He had to crawl over a pyramid of beer cans.
    Stacks of large bags of dog food.
    What the hell?
    Finally, he reached the end of the basement. His Grandpa had kept
several shelves of old shortwave radios. Liam always assumed it was
because of his time back in the war, but he'd never thought to ask.
His Grandpa Al had long since passed away, and it seemed a waste of
effort to ask Grandma Marty—a woman famous for not touching a
piece of technology her whole life.
    “Open the door. Help us, girl!”
    A voice was on one of the radios. Or, more accurately, was coming
out of the radio.
    He studied the old-school frequency dial. It was circular with a
little arrow that pointed to the various frequencies listed on the
slider as it spun past. It looked like something from his Grandpa's
days in the service.
    Ancient.
    When he got close, he could read the tiny lettering. The word
“Victoria” sat between numeric frequencies. As if
Victoria was a frequency.
    He touched nothing but got close to the speaker so he could hear
what was happening.
    “I'm so sorry. I can't open the door,” a girl said
with a forceful tone.
    “Victoria, is that you?” He was in a dream, why not
call out?
    There were clear sounds of zombies. Groaning. Moaning. A distant
call-to-arms zombie—he was still working on what to call that
one. It sounded