Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End by Daniel Cotton Read Free Book Online Page A

anyone to take and spread over the internet. He’d hardly see any credit for it but he had to find Amber. She didn’t take his bait, not so much as one ‘like’.
    Archie missed her postings of graphic violence. Returning to her page he scoured the photos for evidence as to where she may live, wisely she never revealed that to the men that often asked. He found a clue in an announcement she had made to her followers that she wouldn’t be online all night because she was going to a football game. Her post ended with the words: Go Walleyes!!!  
    Archie discovered that a Walleye is a type of fish, and also the name of several teams across the Midwest. He knew of a way to narrow his search but it felt rather creepy to him, in his desperation he decided to go for it. Gander Pics allows people to use similar facial recognition software as is used by law enforcement and casinos all over the world. A picture can be entered into the search and after narrowing the parameters you can find all images that match the subject’s features as long as they are on the internet.
    Within seconds he had her location, Breckenridge, Iowa. Among the lurid pictures of her Gander postings, the search engine found a picture of her amid a crowd of football fans, cheering for the Walleyes. Yesterday, after his affairs were in order, he hopped a bus out of Georgia and headed to his current location. He stands out in the cold along with all the other guests of the hotel, waiting to be told that they can return to their warm beds.
    The firemen still haven’t shown up, but he has his sketch pad and a mind full of images of Amber’s smile to keep him warm. As he draws he considers it a metaphor, Rocky is the pencil he uses, disposable. But Amber is the drawing, a timeless work of art that will last forever.

12
     
    “Hey, Santa,” a nurse cheerfully sings upon seeing Luke Stemmer enter despite the chaos happening around her
    The Emergency Room of Mercy General Hospital is a mad house, far worse than any Black Friday Luke has ever seen on his beat as Santa. Instead of shoppers fighting over bargains, many are fighting for their lives. Bloody people compete for the attention of the harried staff, telling anyone in scrubs what has happened to them. It is standing room only and even that is in dwindling supply as the injured sit or lie on the tile floor. Blood pools beneath dripping gashes and red soaked rags and gauze. Luke just finds his way carefully through, something’s up, something bad. All these people, the state of the city, he can feel in the pit of his stomach that it will only get worse. He learned long ago to trust that feeling, the other shoe always falls, and his gut is telling him that this is going to drop like a megaton bomb. He’s unapologetic as he pushes through the crowd to get to the lobby, all he cares about is seeing his daughter.
    The mass of hopeful patients spills all the way down the corridor leading to the main reception area and beyond. Luke has to hand it to the healthcare workers, it takes a special breed of person to be able to put up with all the moaning and groaning, the complaining and beseeching for aid. He can’t wait for the elevator doors to close out their clamor.
    The lift is like being in a sensory deprivation tank after the ruckus of the ER. He sways on his feet, almost able to drift off to sleep between all the day’s bell ringing and the alcohol. He snaps alert when the quiet box jolts to a stop with a ding, just like his days on the force he doesn’t let fatigue slow him down. That brief moment of rest invigorates him with a second wind as he steps into the hall and heads for the Intensive Care Unit.
    Quite a change from the ER, it’s almost too quiet. Luke knows most units run on skeleton crews at night, but there is no one behind the desk. The lighting has been turned down in the halls and in the patient suites to allow them the recuperative rest they need.
    “You said he was dead!” a man screams