Clickers vs Zombies by Brian Keene, J.F. Gonzalez Page A

stealing some time from the late work day by slipping out of the conference room and making her way to her rental car where she could steal some time in privacy. Jeanette Sycheck cast her gaze out the windshield toward Hempfield Road where she was currently working with a client, listening as Rick’s cell phone rang. He picked up on the fourth ring.
    “Hey there!” he said.
    “Hi!” Her mood instantly brightened. “So, how are things going?”
    “Busy, as usual.” She heard him set something aside in his office cubicle. Rick’s day job office was in a cubicle in a secure room just off the computer room at Free State Insurance. He was one of three mainframe programmers in the Computer Operations department. His direct supervisor, Wally Green, typically worked out of the larger cubicle at the end of the room. Wally was a cool guy, but she knew if she called before lunch, Wally would demand to speak to Jeanette and would waste her time by telling her fart jokes. “How are things going over there?”
    “Same old shit,” she said. “I swear to God, the Controller of this company is such a raging idiot. Honestly, I don’t understand how he got this job. Their programmer calls him a bobble-head. Did I tell you that?”
    “Yeah, you did.” Rick chuckled on the other end. “A thousand times.”
    “Sorry. I’m just tired of this assignment because of these people. They’re complete idiots. And it’s going to be another late night. It’s already after five o’clock here, and I’m still stuck at work.”
    “Well it’s only two more days, then you’re coming home for a week.”
    “Yeah, that’s true.” Jeanette couldn’t wait to work out of the house next week. After that it was two more weeks of being on site here in Amish country, then she was home with her family—and then they were going on vacation! They were driving up to Sequoia National Park to a resort for the week. All four of them had been looking forward to the getaway for months. “So how’re the kids? And the dog?”
    “Doing good. Princess misses you. The kids spent the night at their friends’ last night, but I called them this morning from work. I told them I wanted them home by tomorrow night so we can pick you up at the airport. I thought maybe we could go out to dinner.”
    “That would be great!”
    “So, have you heard about what’s been going on at our beaches?”
    “No, what?”
    As Rick told her about the strange lobster-scorpion-crab creatures that attacked the night before in Huntington Beach and how other sightings had been reported from Portland, Oregon to Ensenada, Mexico, Jeanette listened with numbed shock, hardly believing it. Surely this has to be some weird kind of joke, right? He’s teasing me, pulling some kind of practical joke? But she knew her husband better than that. Rick’s demeanor and tone were utterly serious.
    “I haven’t heard anything about that,” Jeanette said. “Though I’ve got to admit, I didn’t watch much TV last night. Watched the news a little bit, then read a book for the rest of the night.”
    “You didn’t take a dip in the pool?”
    “No.” Jeanette smiled. Rick knew that she loved to swim every night. She hardly dipped her toe in the water when she was traveling, but she made good use of their backyard pool at home every night the weather was good. “ And came straight to work this morning. So again, not much time to watch the news.”
    As they talked, Jeanette opened her laptop, which she’d brought out to the car to kill time with in case Rick hadn’t been home. After connecting to the company’s wireless network, she double-clicked on her internet browser, and then checked the news.
    “Oh my God,” she said.
    “What?” Rick asked. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah, I just went online to see if I could find the reports.”
    “And did you?”
    “Yeah, I see something here about it, but that’s not the top story.”
    Rick made a clucking noise. “What can possibly