Free My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road by David Powers King Page A

face faster than I thought he could swing. Chloe barked as Kaylynn tried to stop Big Thomas, but the others kept her from interfering. I had no leverage to defend myself. I was dizzy. Done for.
    Just when I thought I would die, the others cried as they scurried back. Thomas suddenly jumped off me.
    No. He was lifted off me.
    Kaylynn had him up by his collar. His feet dangled above the ground. “Leave. Him. Alone !” she cried.
    She pushed Thomas away, and his body tumbled to a stop at first base. He sat up quickly, his eyes wide before he and the others ran for town. Kaylynn’s voice had changed, her shoulders were tense, and I was suddenly terrified. I’d never seen anyone throw another person that far. I didn’t think it was possible. As I backed away, she looked at me with a hungry stare.
    A dark red had replaced her dark blue eyes.

 
     
     
     

     
    While I was staring at Kaylynn, I knew I’d seen those kind of eyes before. Vectors had blood-red eyes just like that. Had she turned? If so, I didn’t understand how. She wasn’t sick a minute ago. She had no fever. Mom would’ve found something when she checked her out, and Kaylynn had no bites or scratches when I checked her out. Yet here she was, red eyes and veins bulging.
    I had to know if she was gone. “Kaylynn?!”
    Like water suddenly tossed on a fire, her blue eyes returned. She leaned forward and fell to her side. I dashed for her bat, hoping I wouldn’t need it. I reached for her forehead. Her skin was like ice. I didn’t know what do to. What could I do? She had manhandled Big Thomas, a kid three times her size, like a pro with ten times the strength. Who knew what else she could do?
    Chloe came back from chasing the boys.
    It wasn’t long before she growled again.
    Long shadows bled through the fence. The crash of chain-linked metal made me look up, straight into the morbid faces of five Vectors. One wore a brown UPS uniform. Another had long hair and no lips, just a gruesome perma-grin. And then a child with one arm ran into the fence. More of them came lumbering towards us out of the sunset. I counted another twenty of them—including a few Runners. They would find their way into the baseball diamond soon enough.
    We had to leave, but Kaylynn wasn’t about to wake up. The Vectors were bound to catch us if I tried to carry her, so I dropped her bat and slung her arm over my neck. I stood up and took Kaylynn with me.
    Now we needed a place to hide, and the answer was standing right in front of me.
    The granary.
    I moved as fast as I could while holding Kaylynn steady with each step. The gray-skinned monsters followed us. As I was helping her over the railroad tracks, my legs began to ache. So out of shape!
    “Chloe . . .” Kaylynn moaned. “Decoy . . .”
    The dog ran straight at the Vectors, diverting most of their attention from us, buying us the right amount of time to reach the granary’s single silo. The collective cries of the undead told me they were closing in fast.
    “Around . . . corner . . .” Kaylynn instructed.
    We shot around the southwest corner and found a double door. I yanked on the handle, raced us inside and waited for Chloe to enter before closing it. There was only a bolt to lock the door with. I twisted the bolt into place and backed away as two runners banged their fists against the metal. I set Kaylynn down, careful and quick. We needed a weapon, and I found a metal pipe a second later. If stopping these things meant having to smash their brains in, I was left with no other choice.
    I wasn’t looking forward to the mess, and I was wearing my favorite hoodie, too. Laundry is a pain.
    “My bat,” Kaylynn said. “Where is it?”
    I sighed in relief. “Where can we hide?”
    “Where’s my bat, Jay?” she said angrily.
    “At the park,” I said, still breathing hard.
    “Idiot!” she cried. “He wasn’t worth it.”
    The hinges shook, and Kaylynn jumped back. I hoped this meant she would stop the