It’s that time again! It’s time for another…
EXCERPT OF THE WEEK!
This week, I’m sharing with you guys a small snippet from the second book in my zombie series, The Becoming: Ground Zero. This scene is from chapter nineteen, in which the gang has infiltrated an abandoned, mostly looted Walmart in a rural area of Alabama in a hunt for supplies…and they end up getting a little more than they bargained for.
Hit the cut for the excerpt, and be sure to pick up your copy today!
Remy plundered through a bin of camouflage jackets as she waited for Cade to return with the crowbar for which she’d gone looking. Remy was honestly a little bored; supply missions really weren’t her thing. She much preferred the missions that involved tracking down a group of infected and killing them all.
Cade returned after several minutes, holding a crowbar and several screwdrivers, and she had an odd edge to her voice. “Ran into Theo and Gray in the hardware department,” she explained. “Ransacking hardware for crowbars. Wouldn’t tell me what was going on, though.” She circled the counter and continued, “We should go back by hardware before we leave and get some tools in case we end up breaking down or something.”
“Jumper cables,” Remy said thoughtfully. She leaned against the bin and watched as Cade climbed the stepladder behind the counter again. “Of course, that’s dependent on finding a vehicle that still runs to jump off on, but better to have them than not, right?”
Before Cade managed to ascend more than three rungs or reply to Remy’s statement, a piercing scream erupted not far from their location. It echoed off the high ceiling and the hard concrete floors and spread out across the store. Cade and Remy both froze. Remy immediately dropped her hand to the long bolo knife she always kept with her.
“What was that?” Cade asked. She stepped off the ladder onto the countertop and walked along it in the direction from which the scream had come. Her blue eyes narrowed as she squinted into the dim light cast over the back end of the store. Remy followed her gaze, but she couldn’t see anything in their immediate vicinity.
“It sounded like a scream,” Remy said. Her voice told Cade just how stupid she thought the older woman’s question had been.
Another scream echoed out as soon as Remy stopped talking. Her breath caught in her throat as her ears and brain finally comprehended what she’d heard. “That was Nikki,” she said breathlessly. Cade leaped down from the counter with a gasp of alarm. Remy took the opportunity to snatch the crowbar from Cade’s grasp. Then she took off at a dead run toward the electronics department.
“Remy! Fuck, slow down!” Cade yelled out. Remy didn’t bother to look back. She couldn’t slow down and wait for Cade. Nikola was in trouble. The teenager would never be able to fend off an attack for long, if at all.
Remy could just see Nikola’s head over the short walls surrounding the electronics complex. She spotted Avi as the older woman pushed Nikola behind her. At least the journalist was good for something besides putting them all in danger, even if it was merely as a human shield. And there was the infected man, closing in on the two women, moving at a slow, threatening pace as if he were menacing them, raising their fright levels as high as possible before he struck.
Remy gritted her teeth, her dark eyes skimming the short walls for the quickest route around them. She quickly identified the best path. Without breaking stride, Remy planted a foot on the lowest shelf affixed to the outer side of the wall and climbed the three shelves like a ladder. With one, two, three steps, she reached the top and vaulted over the short wall.
Remy performed the leap a little too enthusiastically. She threw herself right into the video game display cases on the other side of the aisle. She landed behind the infected man, staggering and colliding with the glass, which cracked under the onslaught. Remy righted herself and raised the crowbar. She brought the sharp hooked end down into the back of the infected man’s neck as hard as she could.
The crowbar’s tip struck bone underneath the skin and was nearly jarred right out of Remy’s hands. She managed to keep her grip and hauled back, pulling the infected man away from her two companions. She could hear Cade’s footsteps running up behind her as she dragged the man to the floor. Remy freed her crowbar and raised it once more. Before she could strike, the man’s hand closed around her ankle and jerked. Remy fell backward to the hard floor, and the wind rushed out of her lungs.
Cade was still approaching. Nikola was still screaming. Remy coughed, trying to get her lungs working, and kicked to dislodge her ankle from the man’s grasp. She rose to her knees and tightened her grip on the crowbar. The man reached for her again, but she wouldn’t allow him to get his hands on her. With a last swing, Remy slammed the crowbar into the center of his forehead, crushing bone and sending the hook directly into his brain.
The man’s thrashing stopped as the metal met brain tissue. Panting, Remy scrambled to her feet and took a quick step away from the body. She looked up at Nikola and Avi; both watched her with wide eyes. Remy wrenched the crowbar free with a vicious twist of her wrist. Blood and gray matter splattered onto her boots, dripping from the hook to the floor.
Wondering what happens next? Grab your copy of The Becoming: Ground Zero from Amazon today for only $5.99!