White Ash on Bone: A Zombie Novel by Jason Campagna

joined the horde. After getting up, he moved without direction down the mall.  At first he had no will. He moved or stood still for no reason. Burgess had no memory or rational thought or feeling.  He existed and nothing more.  Then he noticed something about the electronics store.  Inside the store was something he desperately wanted. 
    Burgess, covered in blood and his shirt half torn off, tried to force his way through the store security gate.  When he pounded on the gate, blood spattered from his left palm; it lacked fingers.  Each thrust brought additional red spackle until his entire wrist got caught between the bars. 
    A teenage boy saw the cop and ran up to Burgess thinking the trooper had a key to get into the protection of the store.  Burgess turned and lunged at the boy snapping with his teeth, but his caught wrist tethered him back.  The other hand managed to get a hold of the teenager’s hair and pulled him to the gate with Burgess.  The kid screamed and thrashed trying to get away but to no avail.  Two other ghouls entered the fray and fell on the teen with flashing teeth. They tore the boy apart while the group in the electronics store helplessly watched. 
    "I think it would be safer in the back store room," Ted, the store employee, said.
    As if in response to the comment, Burgess' head turned to face the people huddled inside.  He pushed on the gate trying to force his way into the store.
    Alison and the group fled to the back of the store into the “employees’ only” section.  They locked the door behind them and secured it with a stack of boxes.  From the noise, it sounded like at least a few zombies were now trying to break down the gate.
    "What the hell is going on with these people; why are they doing this?" Alison said.
    "I don’t know," a blond girl wearing a Steelers jersey said, "but I get the feeling if we stay here, we’re going to end up like that kid." The blonde introduced herself as Ginger.
    "Let’s not get any crazy ideas," Ted said. “If you try and leave, those things will get you.  They must be all over the mall by now, and even the police are attacking people."
    "Does anyone have cell service?" Alison said.
    "The circuits are busy," replied Ted.
    "I'm not going to stay here and die,” Ginger said.  “Is there any other way out of here?"
    "Yeah,” Ted replied.  “In the back of the store is a service corridor, it runs the entire length of the mall.  There’s an exit about two-hundred feet from here.  But if those things got into the other stores, they are bound to be back there.  Plus they’ll be in the parking lot.”
    "My car is parked fairly close to here," Ginger said. "It's less than a hundred yards.  If we can make it to the car, my parents have a house a few miles away.  I have to get home to my parents and husband.  He should be there by now, and we have guns there."
    "I’ll go," Alison said, "What about the rest of you?"
    They looked away and remained silent, but Ted spoke up.  "Please stay, they’ll tear you two apart."
    "If we stick together, we can make it," Ginger said.
    Ted pushed the glasses up on his nose, "It would just mean that we would all die together."
    "That may happen anyway, if we stay here," Alison said.
    Alison and Ginger approached the door to the back corridor and gently opened it to peek out.  It was empty. 
    "If you go out there,” Ted spoke, "you’re not going to get back in here, if you get in trouble.  I’m sorry, but I am going to have to barricade the door behind you."
    With a look of disgust Alison and Ginger left the group behind.  When the door closed, they could hear boxes being piled up behind the other side.
    "What a chicken-shit," Ginger said.
    They made it perhaps ten feet from the door when a loud crash came from behind the door they left. 
    They could hear Ted scream in panic, "The gate must have caved in." 
    A crowd of zombies attracted to the noise of the gate collapse pushed their way into the