Free Winchester Undead (Book 2): Winchester: Prey by Dave Lund Page A

Lindsey took the candy bar but couldn’t eat it, her mouth too dry to even chew. Chivo handed her the tube of his Camelbak, from which she quickly took long drinks of water.
    “Slow down, senorita. You’ll get sick if you drink too much water too fast.”
    Lindsey nodded and nibbled on the Snickers bar as quickly as she dared.

CHAPTER 14
     
    Terlingua, Texas
    February 14, Year 1
     
    Bexar looked out the window of the little hotel room, the desert floor turning a deep shade of purple from the setting sun. No more motorcycles had ridden past on the main road, but there was undead activity down near the Jeep. Bexar guessed that all the noise of the gunfire and the wreck that morning had drawn them out of the desert and wherever they had come from before that. Jessie finally regained consciousness around midafternoon, but was still nauseous and dizzy with an obvious concussion.
    “Jess, I think we need to move up the hill and away from the main road. We can hide up there until I can find us another vehicle to use.”
    “OK, but when do you want to go up the hill?”
    “Once the sun goes down some more. There aren’t any clouds in the sky so I should be able to see, but I want the darkness in case any more bikers come by.”
    Jessie lay on the bed with her eyes closed, trying to will the headache away. The only pain relievers they still had were a handful of Extra Strength Tylenol, and they simply weren’t extra strength enough. Bexar sat on the floor playing with Keeley, checking out of the window every few minutes.
    With the setting sun the hotel room grew darker and before long Bexar decided that it was dark enough outside to start his plan. “Keep the rifle. I’m taking my pistol and knife. I’ll tap on the door four times when I come back.”
    Bexar helped his wife to a chair by the door, handed her his rifle, kissed her gently on the forehead, and slowly opened the door. Once outside he closed the door as quietly as he could and smiled when he heard the hotel security latch slide closed behind the door. As Bexar walked quickly across the parking lot, a single corpse, a nude and quite heavyset woman, stumbled toward him. Bexar closed the distance and plunged his heavy CM Forge knife through her right eyeball, deep into her skull.
    The eyeball burst with pus around the blade of the knife as the body went limp and flopped to the ground. The pus smelled wretched and Bexar wiped the thick fluid off his knife on the woman’s skin as best he could before turning to walk up the hill towards the Terlingua Ghost Town.
    Bexar resisted the urge to use the buildings as cover, choosing to stay in the middle of the street so he couldn’t be surprised by any more walking corpses. As he passed the sparse buildings, silence flooded his ears. Within a few minutes he reached a bar and grill on the side of the road. The inside of the windows looked dirty in the moonlight, like they were smeared with dried blood, and although Bexar couldn’t see movement in the dark windows, he seemed to feel it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing. Bexar decided that if there were undead in that building, they could stay there. Besides, Bexar thought, if he cleared the building with it being so close to the main road, it would be a sign that someone living had been through there.
    Ten minutes later Bexar stepped onto the long front porch of the Starlight Theatre. He started at the left end of the building with the trading post. The front door was unlocked. Bexar retrieved a rock from the parking lot, opened the door, and threw the rock into the dark interior with a loud crash. Immediately, a loud moan erupted from the dark doorway.
    With another rock, Bexar propped the door open and waited on the front porch for whatever was inside to shamble outside to meet him. Inside it sounded like the walking body was slowly getting closer to the front of the store, crashing into displays and knocking things over. Eventually an old man stumbled