Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines (best book club books TXT) 📕

of her sweatshirt. “If she does remember more of this alternate world, she may have information she does not realize is relevant.”

George glanced at her. “So you believe me?”

“It would seem I have little choice.”

“How so?”

She pointed down the street ahead of them. “There are three people walking toward us who all appear to be dead.”

The blonde in the lead had frizzy hair. A large clump of it had been torn out to show a patch of bald bone on the dead woman’s forehead. Glasses hung from one ear of the next corpse. The last one’s face had been burned or scraped down until there was nothing left but teeth and eye sockets. George wasn’t sure if it had been a man or a woman.

“Ahhh,” he said. “So you can see them, too?”

“Yes. Three in front, three to the side, four behind us.”

“Good,” he said. “I was thinking there was still a chance I might be crazy.”

Karen’s feet shifted on the pavement. “Do they have any notable strengths or weaknesses?”

“They’re kind of slow,” he said. “They like to bite. Head and neck injuries seem to put them down pretty fast. Don’t worry, this has happened to me a few times now and I can …”

His voice trailed off as she grabbed his arm. For a brief moment he pictured Karen half swooning against him like the love interest in some old movie poster. It made him feel a bit heroic.

Then her other hand grabbed the top of his shoulder and pushed down hard.

She swung up and over him like a gymnast vaulting off a horse. Her boot lashed out at the trio in front of them and caught the blonde in the jaw with a solid crack of bone. Karen twisted her body, brought her other foot around, and slammed the heel into the dead man’s head. The glasses shattered. She landed in a crouch, spun, and swept the legs out from under all three monsters.

George turned to the side and found the dead thing with the severed arm was a yard away. He stepped forward and slammed his palm into the corpse’s chest to shove it away. He barely felt the impact, but the creature flew back as if gravity had shifted and dropped it down the street. One of its flailing arms struck another shambler and spun it around. George threw a punch and another dead thing’s chest collapsed.

Karen grabbed George’s shoulder again with both hands and vaulted up, over, and behind him. She drove her heels into the two creatures there and rode their skulls down to the ground. Her open hands batted away the withered fingers that grabbed for her, then knifed out efficient strikes to the jaw, throat, and spine. Two more dead things collapsed and gave her room to snap another neck with a spin kick.

In the moment he spent watching her, one of the last monsters, an emaciated woman, sank its teeth into his hand. He felt it clamp down with its jaw, heard the teeth grind against the bones of his palm. He yanked his hand away and drove his fist into the dead woman’s face. The head snapped free and bounced down the street.

“Are you injured?” asked Karen. Her hood had fallen back to expose her face. She looked at his hand with wide eyes. Not scared, but very focused.

George held up his palm. “Not even scratched.”

“You are fortunate.”

“Or maybe invulnerable,” he said.

“Perhaps,” she said. “Increased strength would be of little use without an epidermis and skeletal structure which could support additional mass.”

“I was joking,” he said.

“I was not.”

He looked at the circle of bodies around them. A few of them still wiggled their jaws. The fight hadn’t even lasted a minute. Karen had put down three of the creatures for every one he’d stopped.

“I’m guessing most supermodels can’t do that?”

“No others I am aware of. The city has changed as well.”

She pointed down the street. There were a few crashed cars in the middle of the road that looked like they’d been there for a while. A few bodies sprawled on the pavement, too. One building was a burned-out husk. Another looked like it had been barricaded at one point, and the barriers torn down.

“Yeah,” said George. “At first I just saw the monsters, but now it’s spreading to everything.”

“You did not mention that earlier.”

“I was trying not to sound too crazy.”

She raised an eyebrow. Then she gestured down the street. In the distance, a half-dozen figures were staggering toward them. “How long do these altered states last?”

“This is my third one today,” he said. “The last one was half an hour.”

“We should retreat to the hotel. The lobby is not safe, but the higher floors should be defendable.”

“If you say so.”

They stepped over the dead monsters. A few of them snapped at their feet. George stomped on one and crushed the skull to paste. They walked back up the sidewalk with quick strides.

Karen glanced at him. “Are you a violent person?”

“What?”

“Are you prone to acts of violence?”

“No, not at all. Why?”

She looked back over her shoulder. “You did not hesitate to destroy these creatures, even though they had once been human. Most people would have a natural reluctance to overcome.”

He shrugged. “It just seems clear they’re not people anymore.”

“If Madelyn is correct,” she said, “you may have more experience dealing with them than you remember.”

“Maybe,” George said. “So this hasn’t happened to you before? The dead things and everything changing?”

Her head went side to side once. “It has not.”

“You’re sure?”

She gave him a look. “I am quite certain.”

“Does it strike you as odd that you’re diving into this full force?”

“How do you mean?”

“I’ve been having little glimpses and flashes of the monsters for a week or two now,” he told her. “They kept building and growing. It’s only been the past two days that the world started to change. But you’re starting right where I am.”

“Perhaps because I am with you,” suggested Karen.

They turned the corner and saw the entrance