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

impossible for them not to cross paths daily.
    “I was thinking we could try something new. You have done all you can back home. Maybe it is time that some other people benefitted from that amazing mind of yours.” Catie made it a point to wriggle up against him as she spoke.
    She knew every one of Kevin’s weaknesses, and she was not above using them all in this instance. She wanted the two of them to start a real life together. One without Aleah’s shadow cast over them.
    Just as she predicted, she could feel his body react to hers. He looked down into her eyes and gazed into them with love. It was more than she ever dreamed could be possible. Hell, at one point, her luck with men had been so obviously bad, she had considered switching to women.
    Kevin’s hands moved down her sides and around to cup her buttocks. She threw her head back as he kissed down the side of her neck, pausing to nip playfully on her earlobe before working his way down. A soft moan escaped her lips as his teeth scraped along her collar bone.
     
    ***
     
    “That little village we passed the day before yesterday looked kind of nice,” Catie said, staring up at the dark storm clouds that threatened rain any moment.
    “I guess we can take a look,” Kevin agreed. “But we best get out of the open and set up camp before this storm hits. It looks like it will be a nasty one.”
    As if to add credence to his words, there was a flash in the sky and a sharp peal of thunder. Kevin reached for his cargo shorts and then went about securing his prosthetic foot. Meanwhile, Catie hurried about gathering wood and piling it up under the initial protection of the thick trees that provided ample coverage until she could get the tarp over them.
    Kevin chuckled as he set the tent up. All his life he had hated camping as a leisure activity. He had been an avid attendee of survivalist camps in the area, but he had not seen that as camping; that had been preparation.
    Just as the first heavy drops began to fall, the couple retreated under the large blue tarp and warmed their hands by the fire. By morning, the storm had passed and they broke camp with a destination in mind.
    By midday, they came to the ruins of a town that was under a fine sheet of green. Several of the buildings and homes had either collapsed or were on the verge. Dark shapes littered the ground in places where bodies had fallen and been left to the elements and local carrion eaters.
    Kevin marveled at how fast nature was coming back. The documentaries had it all wrong. Unchecked, nature would reclaim this place within the next five years. Sure, there would be evidence that humans once called this home, but the flora was making fast work as vines pushed into cracks and climbed over every surface.
    A soft moan brought his focus back to the present. A lone walker stumbled around a corner. It paused and then oriented itself on the couple. As Catie walked over and shoved her own steel-tipped hiking stick into its face and then returned to him, he was amused at how little zombies mattered anymore.
    When they had first appeared, of course the reaction had been all wrong and humanity followed the predictable path into near extinction. These days, a zombie was no more frightening than a skunk. You were not afraid of them, but you did not take them completely for granted.
    As far as zombies were concerned, they were now only a problem when you encountered one of the massive herds that milled about the country. It was the living that posed the real threat these days. And towns were always something to be entered with caution. Some were full of simple, hard-working folks, but others were warlike mobs, or lawless societies where might made right.
    By nightfall, they had come to a ridge that allowed them to see the distant glow of lights of three small communities. Kevin noted that they were almost in the shape of a triangle if you drew a line connecting them. The one they had seen as they arrived a couple of