Free POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days by Peter Wonder Page B

description. That being said, Pete doesn’t have many people he would call friends. Lots of people like the guy just fine, only the feeling isn’t always mutual. I take it I'm too late, and you two are already some sort of an item?"
    "I think that just might be safe to say," she said, glancing over at me.
    "Fuck yeah!" I accidentally whispered out loud.
    Chuckles came out from all around. I don't care. I win.
    "Well, that's unfortunate," said Mac. "So, let’s get back to the explosion, if you don’t mind. What the fuck kinda heat are you boys packin'?"
    "Man, Kyle and I were lucky enough to come up on some incendiary rounds and these M16s before this trip began."
    "Sick, man! We can talk more when we get inside. Y'all can stay at my place for now. It's gettin' pretty dark out here. We should get a move on."
    He led us down a hitherto unseen path parallel to the one we’d been following.
    We had made it to town, courtesy of our new guide.

Chapter Ten
     
    Breaking out from the tree line, we could see the giant wall of the camp that meant we had officially made it to what was hopefully our final destination. From what I had seen in the treetop, I knew the camp was made from a large subdivision of a suburb that also encompassed an elementary school.
    "Wow," said Evelyn. "It looks so different here, now. Before Dad forced me to go up and stay with Mom, it didn't look so . . . dead here. It's so quiet."
    "We've lost a lot in the past couple of months,” Mac said. “We had to reinforce the gate. The deaders used to be able to build up enough bodies to knock it down. But not no more. We've also got foot patrols ‘round the clock to keep their numbers down. That's how I found y’all. I was makin' my final rounds when you decided to blow up a herd of them deaders out there. Thanks for gettin' all my work done for me!"
    "Deaders? Livers? Man, you guys suck at name calling. Did you learn nothing from your time with me in the Corps?" I asked with a laugh.
    “I guess not, man,” Mac said, smiling.
    “Evelyn, you said you were living down here a stretch a little while ago?” I asked.
    “I was, indeed. My father and I both thought I could be an asset in helping with all of their efforts. I was going to school for a bunch of different things, because I could never make up my mind as to which degree I should get first, but my dad said that things were getting too dangerous down here for me. That’s when he told me I was no longer allowed to stay down here and try to help. So I went up to my mom’s place. I guess I’ve mostly just been sulking away up there. That’s why you haven’t seen me around too much. I’m kind of a private person.”
    “You’re not the only one. I tend to avoid people in the same way that most people try to avoid the undead.” I smiled in her direction. This girl just got better and better as time went on.
    We arrived at Mac's place. It was just inside the gate. Not an ideal location in my book, but then again Kyle and I lived in the last two houses on our street up the hill. I guess we were in basically the same boat.
    Looking like there was the smell of fres shit in the air—likely a result of my previous comment towards him—Mac said, "We may suck at name calling without the great mind of Peter Oliver Wonder around, but none of us here really liked the thought of living in the land of 'zombies,' so we just call them deaders instead."
    "That is so fucking retarded, Mac. Do you really think that calling them something else will make your problems any better at all? To paraphrase Shakespeare, 'A zombie by any other name would smell as sweet.'"
    "Yeah, whatever bro."
    Evelyn nudged me with her elbow. Perhaps I wasn’t being such a nice guest. "Hey, thanks for letting us crash here, Mac. It really means a lot to us. But do you know if my father is here? Or, if he has been here recently, would you be able to point us in his direction?" Evelyn asked.
    "Oh, that reminds me. Did you say your father