Free Zomb-Pocalypse 3 by Megan Berry

there.” Silas rakes his hand through his dark
hair and sighs. “It’s impossible to know otherwise—we don’t even know what’s
gonna be on the other side of this door when we open it.”
    “It’s a bad
situation all around,” my dad agrees, “But the sooner we get going, the sooner
we will get home.” A part of me balks at his optimism, the sooner we get going,
the sooner we might get eaten!
    “There’s no
helping it,” Silas agrees like he can read my mind. I glance at him sharply,
but he isn’t even looking my way. He’s walked over to the regular door beside
the huge roll up door and he’s examining it.
    Dad looks around
at all the pallets of food just sitting around. “It’s too bad we couldn’t get a
tractor trailer and load all this stuff up,” he murmurs. It isn’t a terrible
idea, but it’s not one we can possibly pull off right now.
    I open my mouth to
reply, but I am distracted by the metallic squeak of a door opening. I whirl
around and see that Silas has opened the door several inches and is peeking
out. I want to yell at him to shut the door—that he didn’t even give us any
warning—but I don’t. If there are zombies out there, I don’t want to sound the
dinner bell. I pull the gun from my hip and inch forward, being careful not to
point the business end at Silas.
    Silas pushes the
door open a little further and then turns back to us with a nod. “It’s as good
as it’s going to get,” he says, and we all nod grimly. My dad comes up behind
me and sets his hand on my shoulder.
    “I love you,
Jane,” he tells me, and I don’t like the way it sounds—a bit like a just in case
goodbye .
    “I love you too,
Dad,” I automatically reply, refusing to let myself give in to the urge for
hysterics. Silas doesn’t give us a chance to say anything else before he pushes
the door open, grabbing the set of keys from a nail pounded in beside the door,
and steps out into the sunshine. I follow him out and am temporarily blinded
after the darkness of the warehouse. I blink the dots from my eyes as Silas
quickly locks the door and pockets the keys.
    “We can come back
now,” is all he says as we turn and try to get our bearings. There is a lone
zombie stumbling towards us, but none of us are that worried about him, not
until he gets closer.
    “I think we need
to go this way,” Dad says, pointing, and Silas nods, so we take off, keeping to
the edge of the building. I see several dumpsters and shudder, thinking back to
being trapped outside that strip mall. Silas pauses when the zombie behind us
finally gets too close. He stops just long enough to stick a knife through its
eyeball.
    We reach the end
of the building and peek around the corner at the parking lot. There isn’t a
lot moving around, all of the zombies must’ve gone inside. “I think it’s worth
making a run for it,” Silas says, but my dad shakes his head.
    “I don’t think we
all have to go. It’s safer over here than out there in the open.” Silas opens
his mouth to volunteer to go get the car, but my dad shakes his head again.
    “Not this time,”
he tells Silas, patting him affectionately on the shoulder. “I’ll go.” He gives
me a quick hug and I have to bite my lip to keep from begging him not to, and
then he’s gone. I stare after him, watching as he breaks into a run, stepping
through the broken glass and zombie gore as he reaches the front of the store.
The car is parked in front of the cola machine, and my dad doesn’t waste time
as he opens the door and hops in.
    A zombie comes
staggering out of the store, stepping through the glass, intent on the car, and
I hold my breath. Silas and I watch as the zombie makes his way over to the
driver’s side window and start to pound and claw against the glass. “Why isn’t
he moving?” I burst out, unable to keep it to myself any longer. I feel Silas
shrug beside me.
    “I don’t know,” he
admits.
    “Do you think we
should go over there?” I demand, and