DEAD: Reclamation: Book 10 of the DEAD series by Tw Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

cabin, Kevin gave the door a nudge. Not surprisingly, it fell over with a loud clatter. Stepping over it, Kevin entered what had been his family’s vacation retreat. He had actually hated the place. As a teen, Kevin had been much more comfortable at his desk staring into his computer screen versus out in the wilderness doing things like fishing, splitting wood, and paddling a canoe on the lake just over the next ridge.
    The inside was a shambles. It was thick with spider webs and something furry scuttled away and into the shadows in response to his sudden arrival. Still, even with the toll of time, it was clear that things had gone poorly for his mother and sister. One of the windows was gone, which, considering the amount of time that had passed, could be attributed to anything. However, the dark stain that was easily seen on the sill indicated otherwise.
    Of course, there were even more obvious signs. At least five bodies had been picked clean, the bones scattered about. He could not tell if any might be his mother or sister. The skulls all had the typical trauma one would expect. One had a nasty split made by an axe most likely. Three had holes made by a small caliber weapon, and one had been decimated with little left besides the lower jaw. That one might have been his mother.
    Kevin took in what he could and made an assumption. He knew that it was absolute fantasy to think he had the ability to reconstruct the events that had happened here over a decade ago, but he needed to do it in order to close the book.
    In his mind, the zombies had come. His mother had done all she could once she accepted that they were what he had tried to tell her they were. It was just not enough. When they had broken in, she fought until she only had a single bullet in the pistol and one shell in the shotgun. After taking care of his sister, she had used the shotgun to end her own life to avoid becoming one of the walking dead.
    “So this was your family’s cabin?” Catie remained on the small porch, her eyes scanning the area, always alert. “I bet you hated it,” Catie laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
    “With a passion.”
    Kevin backed out of the doorway and turned to look at what had been his first proof that his mother and sister made it here. His mother’s car was slowly becoming part of the landscape as vines and moss practically obscured it from view.
    “What now?” Catie called as Kevin poked around in the lump that had once been a car.
    “I guess we go back?”
    “So you are okay?”
    Kevin seemed to think about it for a few moments before nodding his head. “I didn’t expect to find them alive. Now I won’t have to wonder anymore.”
    “I am sorry, Kevin.” Catie walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his back.
    “Seems kinda silly now,” Kevin finally said as the sounds of some distant thunder rolled through the foothills.
    “Why?” Catie gripped Kevin’s arms and spun him to face her. “You have carried this burden for so long, and now you at least know—”
    “That I sent them to their deaths?”
    Catie had been prepared for this part of the argument. She knew that it would be his initial reaction to try and take the blame.
    “You could not save the world, Kevin. But look at how many people that you have saved? And those people are having babies…living the best life they can in this new world. Most of them would not have made it without you.”
    “But—” Kevin began, only to be silenced by Catie’s finger on his lips.
    “We move on and vow to try and do better,” Catie parroted one of Kevin’s many mantras back to him.
    “So, do we head back?”
    Catie had been ready for that question as well. While it was true that Aleah had been the one largely responsible for her and Kevin becoming a couple, she was not blind. She saw the looks that passed between the two when they met. And in a walled town with a population of less than two thousand, it was almost