"William Mark Simmons - Undead 1 - One Foot in the Grave" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons William Mark)

One Foot in the Grave
by Wm. Mark Simmons
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are
fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright ┬й 1996 by Wm. Mark Simmons

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any
form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-87721-6

Cover art by Bob Eggleton

First printing, May 1996

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Typeset by Windhaven Press: Editorial Services, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
For Tish,
Her Father's house has many mansions
 Flight of the Living Dead
A scream sliced the night airтАФan animal sound as far removed from a human voice as the previous
scream of tortured metal. It was a sound that went on and on as we hurried toward the RV. Mooncloud
yanked the passenger door open and then ran around to the driver's side as I climbed up onto the bench
seat. As she slid behind the wheel the other woman leapt from the building's rear doorway, sailing over
the stairs and landing on the ground below. As she crouched on the asphalt, there was a shattering roar
that canceled out the screaming. A ball of flame rolled out from the doorway like an orange party favor,
licking the air just a few feet above her head.
Mooncloud threw the van in gear and brought it skidding around as the blaze snapped back through
the opening.
Before I could reach for the door handle the woman was springing through the open window to land
across my lap.
"Go!" she shouted, but Mooncloud was already whipping the vehicle in a tight turn and accelerating
toward the parking lot's north exit. The speed bump smacked my head against the roof of the cab and,
by the time my vision cleared, we were driving more sedately down a side street, the woman with the
crossbow sitting between me and the passenger door. In the rear-view mirror a pillar of flame was
climbing from the roof of the old dormitory that housed the radio station.
I shook my head to clear away the last of the planetarium show and gripped the dashboard. "Will
somebody please tell me what's going on?"
"It's very simple, Mr. Csejthe," Dr. Mooncloud said, pressing a button that locked the cab doors.