Soon, there would be nowhere to escape the flames.
She pulled herself over a curb and into the road.
The pavement was cold beneath her, wet leaves sticking to her pants and shirt. She found a manhole cover. Pressing her fingers into the lip, she began tugging at it until it loosened, came up a few inches. She managed to get it standing upright in its cavity… but then it slipped from her fingers and fell into the murk below with a splash.
She crept down the ladder after it.
It was cool down there.
Cool, dank, and quiet.
She splashed on through the maze of tunnels until she finally felt safe. She found a shelf of frigid concrete sticking out above the waterline and lowered herself onto it. Stretching out like a corpse on a slab, she folded her hands across her bosom and closed her sore eyes.
Sleep came almost instantly.
In the darkness, rats splashed through the water and moved across the brickwork industriously. A few rabids took shelter down there, too.
But Lisa knew nothing of this. She slept on as a coma settled over her and would for hours and hours until the mop-up and extermination above was completed.
But she wouldn’t sleep forever.
Maybe tonight or the next she would waken.
Waken and claim the night as only her kind could.
About the Author
Tim Curran hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A full-time wage zombie in a factory, he collects vintage punk rock, metal, and rockabilly records in his spare time.
He is the author of the novels Skin Medicine, Hive, Dead Sea, Resurrection, Skull Moon, The Devil Next Door, Hive 2: The Spawning, Graveworm, and Biohazard. His short stories have been collected in Bone Marrow Stew and Zombie Pulp. His novellas include Fear Me, The Underdwelling, The Corpse King, and Puppet Graveyard. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as City Slab, Flesh&Blood, Book of Dark Wisdom, and Inhuman, as well as anthologies such as Flesh Feast, Shivers IV, High Seas Cthulhu, and, Vile Things. His latest book is a new novel from DarkFuse, Long Black Coffin. Upcoming projects include the novels Hag Night and Witch Born, and a second short story collection, Cemetery Wine. Find him on the web at: www.corpseking.com.