Free Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde by Devan Sagliani

long, thorough description of how to get to
John's, then wrote down his address for me on a scrap of paper for good
measure. I walked out the front door, feeling three sets of eyes on my back
even though I'd only seen one. I was curious about that cute girl, but I didn't
bother to turn and look back. There were far more pressing issues at hand.
    Walking down the street felt surreal. Armed guards paced up
and down the streets with automatic rifles and dark sunglasses, ignoring me. It
reminded me of pictures I had seen of Israel back when I was still in school.
    I wouldn't want to get on their bad side , I thought,
feeling the hair on the back of my neck involuntarily stand on end.
    Other than that, things looked eerily normal—as in
pre-Zombie normal. There wasn't a biter in sight. I should have felt relaxed
but I didn't. A knot of muscles in my stomach contracted as I rounded the
corner, passing a beautiful garden in someone's front yard, and headed down to
John's.
    I looked at the slip of paper in my hand, then back up at
the house and laughed. There was no way in hell anyone could mistake this place
for anything but John's place. Armed guards were posted in front of the
residence as well as across the street. Two more guards stood watch at the
door. I easily walked past the first set of guards but was stopped by the guys
blocking the front entrance.
    “Name?” One of them barked at me.
    You've got to be kidding me , I thought. Like
anyone here doesn't know who I am by now? Apparently John had a flare for
the dramatic.
    “Name?” He said again growing more impatient, if that was
possible.
    “Xander Macnamara,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
Nothing happened for a minute, then both men stepped aside. “Hell of a way to
greet people.”
    “John is waiting for you up in his office,” the guard
answered, ignoring my taunt. “Go straight on up.”
    I stepped into the house and the door shut behind me making
me feel more and more like a prisoner. The place wasn't all that different than
the last house I had been in. The kitchen and living room were on the opposite
side but I had a feeling that when I got upstairs I would find two bedrooms and
a bathroom, just like where I'd woken up. I heard what sounded like a video
game going off in the other room. It all sounded so familiar. Cautiously, I
approached the room and saw a big flat screen television nearly the size of the
wall. On it, Mario and Yoshi were flying through a rainbow star.
    “Awesome!” A small voice said from somewhere among the
cushions. That could only be one person.
    “Benji?” I walked around the sofa to find him sitting in a
pile of comic books with the Wii controller in his hands and a half chewed
piece of red licorice sticking out of his mouth. He hit pause the second he
recognized me.
    “Xander!” He jumped up and gave me a welcoming hug.
    “What's going on?”
    “You fell asleep last night in the truck,” Benji said. “I
guess the shock of it all just knocked you out.”
    “Yeah, I guess,” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck.
    “John brought us back here and dropped us off,” Benji
explained. “He came by this morning, but you were still sleeping. He said you
needed your rest and not to bug you.”
    “A woman at the house told me that John has been taking you
around, showing you stuff. What has he been saying?”
    “You mean Carol?” Benji asked. I nodded, impatient for his
answer. “Isn't she great? And who ever thought I'd get to have fresh squeezed
orange juice again in my life? And bacon? Did you get to have some of the bacon
or was it all gone by the time you got up?”
    “I had the bacon,” I assured him. “It was good. Now spill.
What does John want?”
    “Nothing,” Benji shrugged. “So far as I can tell. He drove
me around and told me about the boundaries and which parts of the city the
Unity Gang has already captured. Most of it is over to the west of here. Oh,
and he took me to an old comic book store and