Free Survival Paranoia (Survival series) by Kay Glass Page A

nothing with her but the crowbar, and locked the doors to prevent anyone from slipping away with her much-needed supplies. Then, letting out an eager sigh, she walked across the boardwalk and sat down on the stairs leading down to the beach. She kicked off her shoes and socks before holding them in one bloody hand and sinking her toes into the sand. She let out an involuntary moan of pleasure as the heat seeped into the soles of her feet.
    She waded into the water, but she couldn’t relax and enjoy it. She kept wondering if zombies could drown, and feared what might be in the water with her. After only five short minutes, she climbed out and studied her surroundings. The rides from the nearby play area stood silent and abandoned, looking creepy and out of place in the bright sunlight. There should be laugh ter and music from the calliope. Instead, the only sound was the tide coming in and the screaming of the gulls overhead.
    Defeated, sad, she headed back toward the SUV. As she approached the steps, she let out a gasp. Underneath the boardwalk, deep in the shadows, a pair of eyes studied her. She was no longer alone, and the eyes… they belonged to someone alive.

SIXTEEN
    It was strange having someone with her on her travels now, but more so since she was so little she had to be strapped in a booster seat in the back of the SUV. When the person crawled out from underneath the boardwalk, she was stunned to see that it was a little girl. The child held up three fingers hesitantly when asked how old she was, then added a fourth after some thought. She wouldn’t speak, however, so Lorna didn’t even know her name. She called the little girl ‘May’ since that was the current month.
    May cl ung to Lorna and seemed to trust her without the slightest fear, yet she wouldn’t speak. Lorna wasn’t sure if the girl was mute for medical reasons or if it was simply the shock of her current circumstances, but she was extremely intelligent. How she’d gotten there was a mystery… what she’d been living off of was another.
    Lorna had driven her around downtown Rehoboth, hoping something would stir the child’s memory. She asked May if this place or that place was where she’d come from, and the child simply shook her head. She might have been there for only a day, or it could have been as long as a week… although somehow Lorna suspected it was the former and not the latter.
    So Lorna had driven to the outlets until she stumbled across a children’s store. It had doors on either end, and although the first set was locked, the other was not. She held the crowbar with one hand, May’s hand with the other. Putting a finger to her lips, she’d moved through the store checking for any zombies. She found one in the back room, clearly an employee, and put her down quickly before shutting the door and locking it. May didn’t need to see what was back there.
    Then she’d grabbed a couple of the large paper bags behind the counter with the store’s logo on them and started shopping. She checked the clothes May was wearing so she knew what size to buy, and then they moved through the girl’s section and filled the bags. She grabbed two packs of underwear and three sets of socks first before grabbing pajamas. Then she let the girl pick out whatever clothes she liked. Lorna would read the tags and find one in the child’s size before taking them off the hangers and placing them in the bags. When they were done, the girl had everything from shorts and tank tops to sweaters and heavy jeans. She even grabbed a pair of slippers, a pair of rain boots, and a little pair of dress shoes that she could easily slide her feet in. On the way out, Lorna spotted a little pink ladybug and handed it to May, who let out a giggle and clutched it tight to her chest.
    They drove aimlessly around Rehoboth, the boardwalk on up to Midway and back down again. She asked May if anything looked familiar, and eventually the child pointed down a side road. A