The Living Dead Series (Book 2): World Without End by L.I. Albemont Read Free Book Online Page A

mutated rapidly. There was no evidence that it had been weaponized by anyone but some comments were highly skeptical of that. There were entire websites claiming it was either a government experiment gone wrong, a terrorist attack, or possibly alien in origin. What did seem obvious was that it acted quickly on its victims and it had originated in and spread from Haiti following the earthquake.
    What she couldn’t find was any information on how long it lasted. No one seemed to know. She clicked through everything from Homeland Security Newswire to the Mayo Clinic and found nothing.
    “It never goes away.” Bea jumped at the sound of Brian’s voice. She didn’t know how long he had been standing there, reading over her shoulder.
    “Did they just say that on the news?”
    “No. They’re all dead, the victims. They come back to life and eat people.”
    “Come on, Brian. This isn’t one of Deshawn’s video games. Did he come up with that or did you?”
    “Neither. Bea, it’s obvious. That lady outside is missing an arm. No one can walk around like that. She probably bled to death hours ago. Now she’s hungry for a new host. It’s how the virus works. Move over, I’ll show you. ”
    Brian pulled up what looked like doomsday websites and they began to read personal blogs from terrified people around the country. Some had no food or water already and were desperately hoping for rescue. A few people had restrained family members as they reached the psychotic stage of the illness and were trying to figure out when they could release them. Like Brian said, there were conjectures that the victims died and were reanimated. These sites cited the impossibility of surviving the type of injuries the infected sustained.
    Bea stopped reading. It was too overwhelming. The picture painted by the bloggers was so bleak. She looked out the window again. Brian was right. The woman in the nightie had a raw, dark stump where her arm should be. No one could survive that without medical attention. Or did the virus somehow act as a super-charged styptic, constricting the blood vessels and stopping the bleeding?
    The television was on but muted and showing another map pointing out infection hot spots. D.C. and most of northern Virginia and southern Maryland were completely red and were no-go areas. According to the map she and Brian were as good as dead. She couldn’t accept that. There had to be an end to this, a good end. She had to find a way to get them somewhere safe.
    The first thing she needed to do was get the lay of the land and she couldn’t do that from here. If she could get into the main house and upstairs she could see what the streets were like. If they were clear enough to drive through she would somehow steal a car and they would be on their way, picking up Evan along the way if they could. She would find someplace, somehow for them to stay until things got better. After all, no bad situation lasted forever.
    The identity of their neighbors in the tall, red brick, Georgian main house was something of a mystery. According to the rental agency through which Bea leased the pool house, the same family had owned the property for several generations. Every year in late September, an ancient, green Mercedes rolled down the carefully raked driveway and a driver got out and helped a small, bent figure wearing a gray raincoat step carefully across the gravel and into the house. They were followed by a woman in a pale blue uniform who looked like a nurse or a caregiver. The driver then came back out and unloaded a small mountain of matching luggage, carrying it into the house through the porte-cochere. The same driver came and went on various errands but had never spoken to Bea. Groceries were delivered on a regular basis.
    Last fall one of the towering poplars went down in a windstorm giving Bea and Brian an unimpeded view of a glassed-in porch that had been mostly obscured before. The house’s occupant often sat in the lovely