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

brakes. I had to make a conscious effort to linger, just to keep from leaving her behind.
As I slowed, Dr. Mooncloud seemed to speed up, her left hand withdrawing a hip flask from the
pocket of her windbreaker. The RV was braking to a stop just ten feet away and, as she began a slow
turn on the ball of her foot, another woman jumped out of the driver's side of the vehicle. The driver
closed the distance between us at an amazing speed and I was only able to catch random impressions:
long, dark hair, though not as black as Dr. Mooncloud's. Tall, athletic; she wore Nikes, blue jeans, and a
tank-top that revealed arms like carved cherry wood. As she reached the foot of the steps, I could see
that she was carrying a crossbow. . . .
And suddenly everything seemed to snap back into realtime.
"How many?" the driver bellowed, bounding up the stairs.
"One." Mooncloud turned back to face the doorway we had just passed through. "I only detected
one."
"Get in the van," the driver ordered, shouldering her way between us. "Give me fifty and then haul ass
whether I'm back or not."
"Soon as I seal the door." Mooncloud unstopped the flask and, as the newcomer disappeared
through the doorway, poured the contents across the threshold. She took special care to form a solid,
unbroken stream from post to post and then stuffed it back in her jacket. "Come on!" She took me by
the arm.
"What?"
"Get in the camper!"
"Camper?" I was still thinking in slow motion.
She yanked me down the stairs and shoved me toward the recreational vehicle. "Now!"
"I can't abandon the station! The FCC—"
A scream sliced the night air—an 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. 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 rearview 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.
"You are a dead man."




Chapter Two
"This is kidnapping." I was doing surprisingly well at keeping a reasonable tone to my voice. "Federal
offense."