Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) by Raymond Lee Page A

it.
    She nearly cried with joy as she reached the truck. She pulled on the door handle just in case but found she would not be lucky enough to find it already unlocked. She had to use the key. The keys shook in her trembling hands as she looked for the right one.
    She found the long key that would unlock the door and start the truck but a gurgling, growling sound caught her attention.
    She looked up to see a man come around the front of the truck. His eyes were so white they reflected the moonlight as he shuffled around the truck and reached toward her, making that awful sound. Something wet along the bottom of his face glistened and as he neared her she realized in growing horror that it was blood. This was one of the infected people Hank and Otis had been talking about. This was a zombie and there was no way she’d get in the truck before he reached her.
    “Jan, look out!”
    She jumped backward and turned to run in the opposite direction, only then realizing four more were coming up the driveway. She had no choice but to run back toward the house, toward Hank.
    Before she could do that, two powerful hands gripped her shoulders and pulled. She used her hand to push away from the zombie, squealing in disgust as her palm connected with blood covering its chest.
    A shot rang out and the zombie jerked back, but did not let go. It growled, opening its mouth wide before another bullet ripped through its head, removing the top half.
    Janjai screamed as blood splashed over her, and ran for the house, dropping the keys and knife in the process. The zombies coming up the driveway had almost reached her and more of them invaded the yard, coming from the woods behind the house. Now she knew what had gotten the coyote.
    “Get in the house and lock the door,” Hank yelled at her, now aiming a rifle Otis had brought out to him at the zombies behind her. The immediate threat had changed his plans. She knew the beating would still happen, but at the moment, she feared the zombies more.
    She reached the back door and ducked inside the kitchen, closing the door behind her. She thought about locking it as Otis and Hank stood outside shooting at the zombies, leaving them out there to die, but she couldn’t do it. For one, now that she’d seen the zombies she knew what she was up against. She had a better chance of survival with the men, and for two, if Hank retreated to the house and found the door locked he would only kick it down and hurt her worse than he already intended. So she kept the door unlocked as she stood there watching Hank and Otis shoot at the white-eyed men and women closing in on them.
    Otis ran out of bullets first and reached into the bib pocket of his overalls for more, but he couldn’t get the gun loaded before two zombies were on him. Janjai cringed as she saw the monsters open their mouths wide, intent on eating him. She’d never liked Otis, especially disliking the way he’d stare at her body when Hank wasn’t looking, but this was not a death she wished on anyone and she regretted her earlier thought about leaving them out there. Living with a beast of a man had affected her, she realized, in a shameful way.
    Otis swung the rifle, bashing one of the zombies in the head, effectively knocking it away, but he turned his body with the swing, putting himself in a more vulnerable position. The other zombie took advantage and Janjai cried out as she saw its mouth close down on Otis’s neck.
    Hank checked on his friend, saw what was happening, and shot the zombie in the head, but it was too late. Otis tumbled to the ground, holding his neck. In the moonlight, Janjai saw blood pour through his fingers.
    Hank reloaded and shot down as many more zombies as he could, not seeming to make a dent as more and more of them kept trickling in from the woods. He shot his last bullet and ran for the house, slamming the door behind him and quickly sliding the lock home.
    Without words, he opened the door to the basement, grabbed