Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) by Jon Schafer Read Free Book Online Page B

uneasy , she said, "There's a couple rumors going around but I don't know how much truth there is behind them."
    She stayed silent after saying this , so Steve prompted her by saying, "You started this, so tell me."
    " They say that the people who are infected are dead and that they're not just biting their victims, they're eating them."
    Steve was so numb from all the information thrown at him in such a short time that he let these last little tidbits roll right over him. He had read similar stories on the Internet and didn't put much stock in them. At Heathers request they exchanged phone numbers, with her promising that she would keep him apprised of any new developments.
    Before leaving, Heather impulsively hugged him and told him to be careful. Adding that , just because there were no reported outbreaks in Pinellas County, it didn't mean that there weren't any infected individuals running around.
    The physical contact with Heather had an effect on Steve, making him wonder if it had been a friendly, ‘Take care of yourself hug’ or an, ‘I’m interested in you’ hug. Curious to see if she would send any signals his way, he watched her walk down to the scattered groups of customers in the bowling alley. She didn't even glance in his direction so he started watching how the customers reacted to the request that they go home and hunker down. He noticed some laugh at what she asked of them and return to their game, but a few others took the request to heart and packed quickly to go, one couple leaving in such a hurry they still had their bowling shoes on.
    Heather disappeared into the office with Jax and a moment later the lights dimmed in the bar and snack bar area. Shortly after that, she came out and saw Steve looking in her direction so gave him a friendly wave before going out the door at the far end of the building.  Taking this as his cue to leave, Steve gathered his things and went up to the counter to pay. As he pulled out his wallet, Jax told him there was no charge.
    "Heather took care of it ," he explained.  As an afterthought, he added, "She really likes you, you know. She talks about you a lot. About how you make her laugh and stuff."
    Guess that answers the question about the hug, Steve thought. Thanking Jax, he told him to be safe.
    Jax smiled and said, "Going to a zombie party man. You wanna come?''
    Preoccupied, Steve declined the invitation and left. As he got into his Jeep though, it suddenly occurred to him what Jax had said. He had invited him to a 'zombie' party. Thinking about what Heather had told him about the dead coming back to life and eating the living, he suddenly worried for her safety. Being a cop, she would be right in the middle of things.
    Pulling out his cell phone, he felt a twinge of guilt for calling Ginny while his thoughts were on Heather.
    When Ginny answered, Steve told her he wanted to come by and pick her up , but she insisted on meeting him at his place on Indian Rocks Beach. She wanted to stop by a friend's house and pick up a DVD that she wanted to watch that night. He gave in easily as this dovetailed with his own plans. Since he had been looking for a reason to stay at home tonight without scaring the hell out of Ginny with stories about the dead coming to life and eating human flesh, this worked out to the good. From the sound of things, there would be plenty of time to be scared shitless in the next couple days. They finally decided to get together in an hour, which gave him enough time to stop by the grocery store on the way home.
    The fog had lifted as Steve pulled out of the bowling alley’s parking lot but he noticed there were no other vehicles on the streets.  He thought to himself that if traffic had been sparse before, it was now non-existent. In the fifteen minutes it took him to drive to the grocery store, he only saw one other car.
    When he pulled into the parking lot, he was initially surprised to see that the Publix supermarket was dark and completely