The Zombie Wars: The Enemy Within (White Flag Of The Dead Book 8) (19 page)

After one last look at Tobias, Tammy took off at a speed Tobias couldn’t match even without the camera.  He headed into the clog of cars hoping his pursuers weren’t as agile.  It turned out to be a good idea.  One nearly had him but she clipped her hip on a bumper and was completely spun around.  Too bad, she didn’t stay that way, because she quickly resumed the chase.  Tobias weaved around the cars, but he knew he couldn’t keep it up forever.  It was like when he was in high school and played for the school’s football team.  Only this time, the goal posts were nowhere to be seen, and his camera weighed a lot more than a football.  Not to mention that being tackled meant losing his life.

He finally spotted a pizza shop that had its door open.  He headed straight for it, listening to his pursuers pounding along behind him.  Tobias rounded one last, sharp turn and headed straight into the pizza shop.

The reason the door was open was because the door had been ripped off.  Shit, well there went that protection.

He spotted a door in the back and jumped over the counter.  Here was the agility he had been missing earlier when hopping off the wall.  Apparently, he just needed even more adrenaline for it.  His pursuers slammed into the waist-high counter, knocking themselves flat across the top of it.  Any normal person would have been badly hurt and winded, but these guys just started crawling across the counter as if nothing had happened.

Tobias ran into the back room and slammed the door shut.  Great, this one had no lock.  The first thing he spotted was stairs, so he decided to head up.  If he had taken more time to look around, he might have spotted an exit door in the back of the kitchen.  It was too late now though.

Tobias climbed flight after flight, listening to the sound of the others coming after him.  They must be getting tired, right?  Tobias was exhausted, so shouldn’t they be as well?  There were just too many stairs.

Finally, he reached the top of the stairwell and burst out through the door up there.  He was in sunlight, up on the roof.  Nearby were several wooden beams, and without thinking about what they might be for, Tobias started bracing them against the door.  Someone thumped into the other side and started hammering away just as the last board was wedged in place.  The wood dug into the gravel rooftop and managed to hold,  but it wouldn’t last forever.

Tobias ran to the side of the building and looked over the edge.  Aw hell, he was at least four stories up.  There was no way he could jump that.  He looked up the street but couldn’t spot Tammy anywhere.  He guessed she got away.  He hoped she got away.  He told himself she did get away.

He then looked around the roof but couldn’t see anything useful to him.  The building was detached from those around it and shorter by several stories.

With a sigh, Tobias sat on the edge of the building and faced the door.  The beams wouldn’t hold up much longer under the force of the hammering hands.  Tobias put his camera up on his shoulder and placed his eye against the viewfinder.  He took a deep breath and went into film mode.  At least his last shot was going to be a killer.  Literally.

The door burst outward, the beams clattering off over the stones.  The mini mob took no time to look around and ran straight at their prey.  Just as they were about to reach him, though, something ripped Tobias’s mind out of film mode.  Something had grabbed him around the waist, and somehow, that something pulled him over the edge of the building.  Out into space.

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