State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) by Peggy Martinez Read Free Book Online

took the shovel out and made my way over to an all-too-familiar wreck site. I pushed everything that I did after that to the back of my mind. I had to, or I would have never been able to go through with it. When I was done, I sunk to the ground and wept until I couldn’t weep anymore. I now had my dad’s wallet and wedding band in my pocket, and once he was buried just inside the tree line where we had crashed, I felt a sense of relief and calm wash over me. He would have been proud of me.
    I wiped my eyes and got back into the SUV. I found a spot about a half mile down the road where I could drive the SUV into the woods. I went as far back as I dared and parked it in an area that was surrounded by thick foliage. I pocketed the keys and then grabbed the huge bag out of the back of the vehicle and also grabbed the tent I’d picked up out of the garage. I was a nice one, not too big, but most importantly, it would keep my safer from the elements. I exited the woods and stepped onto the road and peered over to the place where I had parked. I couldn’t see the SUV and I sighed in relief. The vehicle could come in handy later on, so long as no one siphoned all the gas out of the tank.
    I took a deep breath and slowly made my way across the street and stepped into the forest. I immediately relaxed, back in my element, and happy to be alive. I set out at a slow and steady pace, feeling the day’s events weighing heavily on me and the bag I carried slowed me down even more. I pulled out my ipod and allowed myself the luxury of one song as I made my way deeper and deeper into the forest. I played Pink’s Beam Me Up and tuned everything else out.
    With each step I took, the carnage and decay of the new world slipped further away from me. As I put one foot in front of the other… and each beautifully sung word cleansed a tiny piece of my soul … the uncertainty of my tomorrow didn’t feel quite so unbearable.

     
     
     

     
     
     
    T he dead never sleep. They don’t have to … they never get tired. They just keep going and going, like some sicko’s version of an energizer bunny. They do, however, have times when they just shut down and stop and stand idle for whatever reason. Don’t get me wrong … you make too much noise or run in front of them, they’ll snap out of their idleness, whether they’ve been like that for hours or months, in a flash and try to make you their next meal. Me? I don’t plan on being anyone’s meal any time soon, so I kept my eyes alert and my foot steps as quiet as possible as I entered the military base.
    It had been a little over two years since I had last seen the base and even with what I’d witnessed going on that day, I still hadn’t expected the level of carnage and destruction I now found. In the cities, yes. But at a government army base? I just figured they would have been better prepared to deal with everything that went down. I guess no one could’ve been prepared for people—civilians and soldiers alike—dying and then coming back as mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh and blood.
    I don’t know what drove me out of the woods this time. I had been living in the forest by myself for the past two years and had only come out a handful of times … to scavenge for supplies and to try and assess what kind of shape the world around me was in. This time I really didn’t need supplies and it was pretty damn obvious the world had gone to hell in a hand basket, but here I was making my way into a very dangerous situation. Of course anywhere I went could now be considered a high risk since everywhere I turned I could run into one of the zombies lumbering around aimlessly. I think more than anything else … I was just ready . Really ready to find out what was going on elsewhere in the world. Was the government completely shut down? Were there safe zones? What happened two years ago to cause this fucked up mess? I had asked myself these questions over and over again the past