Free The Last Town (Book 2): Preparing For The Dead by Stephen Knight Page A

really cold enough for flannel. In the end, it wasn’t that tough of a choice, which is too bad. I wanted to show off my latest shirt from Lands End. How is everyone?” he asked, as he sauntered down the aisle.
    “Doing fine,” Corbett said. “Grab a handout and have a seat. We have some territory to cover, and it’s going to affect your people, as well.”
    “Is this meeting about how we’re going to handle the zombies?” Victor asked. He regarded one of Corbett’s men with hooded eyes as the man handed him one of the spiral-bound books. He turned his dark eyes back toward Corbett. “I see you’ve brought some help.”
    “Have a seat, Vic,” Corbett said again.
    Victor nodded to Norton as he walked past and settled into a seat in the first row. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a pair of reading glasses and slipped them on.
    “Gary, why don’t you come up and join the rest of us,” Corbett said.
    Norton waved the suggestion away. “I’m fine where I am. I like being closer to the door, just in case Hector starts agitating a little too furiously.”
    Aguilar glared at him, and Norton shot him the finger. “That’s the number of friends you’ve made over the years, including yourself,” Norton said.
    “Outrageous!” Aguilar shouted. “This man has no right to be here!”
    Booker got to his feet. “Gary, knock that off right now!”
    “Yeah, I’ll handle the confrontations for the moment if you don’t mind, Gary,” Corbett said. He turned back to Booker. “We have everyone present, correct?”
    “Everyone is here. As mayor of the town of Single Tree, I call this emergency meeting of the town council into session,” Booker said. “Just some comments before we begin. Earlier today, Mister Barry Corbett and Mister Gary Norton paid me a visit regarding Single Tree’s level of preparation for what’s happening across the country. As everyone is aware, there’s a virus out there that, uh, apparently … well, anyone who dies from it seems to, uh, reanimate.”
    “We’ve seen the news, and I’ve seen it for myself,” Aguilar said. “I think it’s a bunch of hooey, but something’s definitely happening. What does this have to do with us meeting here?”
    Booker sighed and turned toward Corbett. “Well, Barry, I guess I’ll just turn it over to you.”
    Corbett nodded. “Thanks, Max. Folks, in the handout I’ve provided, you’ll find detailed plans to harden this town and fortify it against the coming threat. We’ve already seen how the major cities are faring—New York’s gone, Boston and DC are faltering, and even out here, Los Angeles and San Diego are starting to pop apart at the seams. Whatever this affliction is, it seems that it does enable the dead to walk, and the dead apparently want only one thing: to devour the living. It sounds stupid and it sounds dopey, but there it is. We’re all living in a world where George Romero is the resident god.”
    Paper rustled as the people on the council thumbed through their handouts. Norton did the same, even though he’d already reviewed the information on his laptop. The handout was at least a hundred pages long. It included aerial maps of the town and surrounding vicinity, construction diagrams, lists of accumulated materials, inventories, labor projections … everything except for costs. Norton knew that was because Corbett had already bought and paid for everything, and for a billionaire facing the end of the world, getting repayment was low on the list of priorities.
    “Mister Corbett, this is … this is certainly an interesting bunch of documents you’ve handed out,” Chief Grady said. “It’s quite thorough.” He looked up from the binder. “If I were to consider this a master plan for defending the town, would I be correct?”
    “Yes, Chief. You would be correct. I wanted to bring this to you earlier today, but Max preferred you find out with everyone else.”
    Grady nodded and paged through the