Beyond Death: Origins, Book 1 by Silas Cooper Read Free Book Online

from the TV lit the dark living room Jayda and Richard huddled together in. The horrors on the screen rivaled the one in their bathroom. Jayda won the argument to leave the body there. She didn’t want Richard touching it, for one. If this started as meningitis, and Lisa had been the walking dead, then they needed to stay far away from the possibly contagious body. She’d left the bat in there as well.
    They’d taken turns guarding the door as they’d gotten dressed for the day at three in the morning. Gulping coffee, they watched over and over again the scenes from around the country on CNN. Every town hit, many nearly devastated, disbelief could only be silenced by the memory of Lisa.
    No one had said the word zombie. Well, at least none of the media had. People on the streets screamed it. They screamed about the wrath of god and the apocalypse too. Everywhere people lay dead or the sick/dead walked. Even on their local channel, no street had looked recognizable with broken glass and fires burning.
    Richard had wanted to leave for some reason. He suggested he could find them a safer haven with his police connections. Jayda couldn’t be convinced. The numerous unanswered phone calls had made him see her point. They’d chosen to obey orders and stay home. Their quiet terror was interrupted by a banging on the door.
    “See, it’s another one,” Richard said in a hushed yell. “I told you we should leave.”
    Lisa had broken the big picture window in the living room. Richard had boarded it up with everything he could find in the garage as well as the board from the bottom of the spare bed. Their emptied china closet now lodged in front of it, still every noise had them waiting for a body to break through.
    “Just listen. They don’t talk, so let’s investigate first,” Jayda suggested.
    Always the clearer head in the relationship, she walked to the door. She felt more confident with her prosthetic leg on now. As she approached, she heard their neighbor from across the street yelling her name. Richard had followed and grabbed her to stop a few feet from the door.
    “Talk to her. Check it out before you open the door,” Richard urged.
    “They can’t talk, remember?”
    “Still, she could be sick, and we can’t have her getting worse or falling dead here. We can’t risk getting it either.”
    “Good thinking,” Jayda praised him.
    “Sherri, what’s going on?”
    “Jayda, please let me in. Hurry!” came Sherri’s sobbing voice.
    “Is anyone with you?”
    “No. No one at all. The street is deserted. It’s my husband. He’s sick, and like those on TV, he woke up from a nap angry. He’s so feverish he’s not even talking, just moaning. But he keeps coming at me. When I couldn’t talk to him or keep running, I shut him in and ran over here.”
    “Did he bite or scratch you?” Jayda asked.
    “No. He’s too wobbly. But he seemed to get more agitated and faster, so I just left. I wanted to get you to help me. You’re the one with the medical background.”
    “Have you been watching the TV?” Richard asked.
    “No. I haven’t had time. Stan woke up so ill, I’ve just cared for him all day. Something was wrong with the doctor’s office phone, and when I wanted to take him to the emergency room, he kept saying to wait, he felt too sick to go. He wanted to take a nap. He hoped he would wake up better. He did that to me all day. I was so afraid to leave his side that I just sat by the bed and read a book or stared at him. I fell asleep myself eventually. Then, in the middle of the night, he woke up this way.”
    “You’re sure he didn’t touch you and you don’t feel sick at all?” Jayda asked again.
    “No. Please, come help him,” she sobbed.
    Jayda opened the door with Richard right beside her. She knew he was ready to attack. He’d gotten several weapons ranging from a tire iron to a hammer and stacked them in the living room. He had a metal rod in his hand at the moment.
    “Listen,