Dead Life (Book 3) by D. Harrison Schleicher Read Free Book Online

             
    Chapter 7
     
                  Les had almost made it all the way home in the plane he'd “borrowed” from a small airport near Columbia.  We were only a few miles from his house so Al put him on the radio and he told us his story on the way there.  His daughter, Connie, was a freshman at the University of Missouri in Columbia.  Les owned his own crop dusting business, worked from home, and had a wife and another younger daughter.  On the first day of the outbreak, Les realized what was happening and boarded up the lower level of the house.  He then headed to Columbia to get Connie.  Getting there wasn't a problem.  The roads had been clear the first day of the outbreak.  The problems began when he got to the college. 
                  Being a freshman, Connie lived in the dorms on campus.  The infection had spread quickly through the college.  All these kids living close together in the dorms made a perfect breeding ground for the virus.  Les had told Connie to lock herself in her room and not let anybody in for any reason.  The trip to the university had taken less than an hour.  When Les got there, things had been eerily quiet.  He went straight to Connie's dorm.  The building appeared to be empty when he went in.  The normally busy foyer area was quiet.  Connie was on the second floor so Les took the stairs and went straight to her room.
                  Les knocked on her door and called out to Connie.  After a few seconds hesitation, Connie opened the door and let him in.  She was in tears.  Earlier, people had been at the door trying to get in and fortunately had moved on when she remained quiet and not gone to the door.  Les had Connie gather a few of her belongings and headed out.  In the hall, they encountered their first zombie.  It was one of the girls living in the dorm.
                  Les was a big man and was able to keep the much smaller girl from injuring them.  He finally had to hit her over the head with the pistol he had brought along.  Les told Connie to stay calm and quiet as they crept down the stairs.  When they got to the lobby, they found several zombies wandering around.  They tried to sneak out of the lobby but were spotted by the zombies.  Les was forced to shoot their way out of the building.  His gun emptied just as they'd made it to the door and they were able to make it outside.
                  When they got out of the dorm, Les' truck was surrounded by zombies.  They were probably attracted by the sounds the engine made as it cooled down.  All the extra ammunition for the gun was in the truck so they were stuck.  They were going to have to make it out on foot.  Les and Connie had spent the last several days hiding from zombies and trying to find a way out of the city.  They were eventually able to make their way to a small landing field Les knew of, steal a plane, and make their way home.  The plane they took was low on fuel but Les was hopeful it had enough to get them home.  Once in the air, he had been able to reach his wife on the radio and let her know they were safe.  That was when he found out his home was surrounded.  Five minutes before he'd run out of fuel, Les lost contact with his wife.
                  They'd been able to set the plane down safely on the highway and Les had barely been able to bring the plane to a stop before hitting the Greyhound bus blocking the road.  When they came to a stop, the bus emptied of zombies.  They'd been trapped in the plane for about fifteen minutes when we showed up.
                  We were on a gravel road headed to Les' house when we spotted the first zombie.  There was a steady stream of them headed down the road towards the house.  Cindy was shooting out the window at the ones Al wasn't able to run down.  Gina joined her and we were able to kill every zombie on the road.  We got to where