Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 by E.E. Isherwood Page A

thinking he was being funny,
he continued, “Honey, I'm back from the Zombie Apocalypse.”
If Victoria was here, he wanted her to hear the funny Liam she'd been
missing.
    He wanted to hear her laughter.
    The hallways were exactly as he remembered them. Despite the size
of the mansion, the walking paths were narrow crevices because boxes
of supplies were stacked to the ceiling everywhere there was floor
space. All paths led to the front room.
    He saw the foot on the ground and cradled his shotgun. A quick
look behind him—for an ambush—showed nothing. The foot
faced down, like someone was dead on the floor. Already committed,
and having announced himself loudly, he continued to look around the
corner so he could see into the main room.
    Bodies were everywhere.
    Oh God.
    The two Polar Bears he'd met before he'd left were dead. They'd
been pushed to one side of the room, but the nasty black pool of
blood beneath them suggested they'd been dead for a while.
    There were several of the infantry-ninja characters he associated
with the NIS. He was surprised to realize he recognized them. One was
the bodybuilder woman he'd seen the previous morning when they first
got to the tanks. The other was Cliff Hammerich. He appeared to be
dead as he sat up against a bunch of wooden crates, but he held a
large wooden box over his outstretched legs.
    Liam was going to investigate when he saw a light-colored
long-sleeved shirt hanging on the back of a folding chair. In a room
full of military equipment and dead soldiers, it stood out like a
flare in the darkness.
    Cautiously, he crossed the living room until he could reach for
the shirt. He held it to his face and took a deep breath. In that
instant, he knew who's it was. Was she dead in this house, or had she
gotten out?
    The shotgun felt great in his hands. It was a pretty good weapon
for sneaking around the tight spaces of the mansion. He eyed the
various hallways out of the room, wondering if there was an
intelligent way to conduct a search. While looking down the left
hallway, his eyes fell once more to the box on Cliff's lap. It seemed
to call out to be opened.
    “What were you trying to protect?” he quietly asked.
    It was about the size of a breadbox. He gently lifted the lid. A
white piece of paper sat on a bunch of rags.
    “Dear Elsa. You lose.”
    It meant nothing to him, so he gingerly pulled the towels and
cloth rags out of the box. He didn't know what to expect, but the
digital readout of numbers counting down was among the last.
    “15...14...”
    He sprang up, suddenly doubting which way he should run.
    Go back where I know it's safe, or go out the front?
    He decided to try the front door. It was locked. It wasn't just
locked, he realized, it had been boarded shut.
    Use the window!
    Hans had shot through the open window when they first met. He knew
it was big enough to escape through. But someone had placed a wire
mesh over the windows and screwed the wire to the wall.
    “Oh, shit!” he blurted.
    The whole place had been made into a fortress.
    Unsure how many seconds he had left, he took off for the rear of
the house. He spared one second to grab Victoria's shirt on his way
out.
    His Zombie Apocalypse danger meter was pegged in the red zone. But
while escaping an exploding house was the first mission, he also
couldn't help think about falling and hurting his ankle. Once again,
even something as innocuous as a sprained ankle could get him killed.
He lost a second or two because of his extra care, but he whizzed by
the porch full of ammo—the danger meter found a few extra
bars—and headed straight into the palatial backyard.
    His goal was a lone ancient pine tree in the middle of the grassy
landscape. Fifty feet away.
    He was halfway there when the first explosion rocked the house.
    Keep going!
    A second later a second tremor shook the ground. Each moment he
expected a great fireball would reach out and smother him in death.
    Two more blasts, and this time he sensed the