Free Resurrection: A Zombie Novel by Michael J. Totten Page B

was absent now and replaced by the retch-inducing slum reek she’d once encountered on a trip abroad to India. Maybe the late-autumn rains would wash the stink off this town. She doubted the stench of rotting trash and—what else, dead bodies?—could last through the season.
    Nature was coming back fast and hard. How long before she saw bears in the streets? And how long before moss, grass, and even trees start growing on top of the pavement?
    “So what did you do?” Annie said to Kyle as they walked. “Before all this.”
    “Huh?” Kyle said. He heard her, but he hadn’t actually heard her. His mind was somewhere else.
    “I asked what your job was,” she said. “Before all this.”
    Kyle shook himself back to his immediate surroundings.
    “I worked in high tech. Programming computers. The job paid well, but it never really defined me. At least I didn’t define myself by my job.”
    “So what defined you?” she said.
    Kyle ignored her and stopped in the middle of a four-way intersection. The wind kicked up and Annie heard the darkened traffic signals creaking as they swung on their cable under the dishrag sky.
    “What?” Bobby said.
    Kyle said nothing for a moment. He just stood there with his hands on his hips and looked to the left and the right. “I think,” he said, “that I saw the bike store down there.” He pointed toward the right. Toward the south? The suburban business district continued in that direction just as it did straight ahead, but there was less debris on the streets to the right.
    “So let’s go then,” Bobby said.
    “Right,” Kyle said.
    So they headed right, toward what Annie thought was south. They walked in silence for a few minutes, passing a boarded-up bank, a gas station with the windows smashed in, a car that had accordioned into an electrical pole, an ambulance turned onto its side, and an apparent massacre site next to an Arby’s fast-food joint with bones and torn clothing and bloodstains smeared on the pavement.
    Then the street exploded 100 feet in front of them. The pavement ruptured and a geyser of water erupted into the air as loud as a car bomb.
    Annie turned away and covered her face with her arms.
    “Shit!” Bobby said.
    “Off the street,” Kyle said. “Now.” Annie felt him gently push her toward the overturned ambulance across the street from the Arby’s. “Before it happens again.”
    “The fuck is that?” Bobby said. He bolted toward the ambulance ahead of Annie and Kyle as though he had completely forgotten he was supposed to be in charge and keeping an eye on them from behind.
    “It was bound to happen eventually,” Kyle said.
    Annie, panting and her heart racing, ducked behind the ambulance. She had no idea what on earth was going on, but it sounded like Godzilla was breaking through the street from underground.
    “ What was bound to happen eventually?” Bobby said. He really did seem to forget they were supposed to be enemies.
    “Water pressure,” Kyle said. “It’s been building up in the pipes for months because hardly anyone is releasing it from the tap.”
    Of course, Annie thought. That explained why the water had burst so forcefully out of the sink.
    “The pipes couldn’t keep taking the pressure forever,” Kyle said, “so now they’re exploding. It’s probably happening all over the world. We’re going lose the water back at the store.”
    Annie felt the pavement thrumming under her feet.
    “Oh shit,” Bobby said. “This is not good.”
    “Yeah,” Kyle said.
    Annie knew exactly what they were thinking. They were not just worried about losing tap water.
    “Bobby,” Kyle said. “Give me one of those crowbars.”
    Bobby stepped back, remembering now that they were adversaries. Then he stopped. “Fuck.”
    “They’re coming,” Kyle said. “We can’t stay here. And you need to give us those crowbars.”
    Annie heard something new. It was hard to hear over the roar of the water, but it was coming from behind the