Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 5): Wrath Read Online Free PDF Page B

air, and he spoke to her aloud for the first time. As he said his peace, she felt the same breeze from earlier that day pick up once more, and the scent of lilies fill the air around her again, “All knowledge comes with a price. Have faith Michelle Annabelle Lewis.”
    Michelle’s eyes froze open, unsure of whether or not to be amazed, or furious. The soothing breeze died down as suddenly as it had picked up and she swallowed, and calmed herself. The one armed boy slowed, turned and walked away, leaving her behind.
    After a few moments of unsure thought, Michelle started walking behind him again.

    *****

    It was more than a month before the dead boy spoke again. By Michelle’s wearied reckoning his words came in the first days of October. She couldn’t be sure of course. Her little dead guide wasn’t interested in stopping anywhere to allow her to look at a calendar.
    Just as before Michelle walked in his stead, wondering day after scorching day when the relief of the cool breeze and the scent of lilies would return, signaling the presence of something greater. The long days since the knee-deep disgust of Douala had shown more of the same to her. Every large population center was a den of filth and villainy. She’d watched from afar as people murdered one another for food, water, or sex. The little dead boy stopped on many occasions just in time for them to witness the horror of the dead killing one more of the living. They always waited long enough to see, and long enough to let the undead wander away, looking for its next victim. Michelle still didn’t know why the dead boy stopped for these moments.
    Was it to illustrate a point to her? Was she to witness every possible moment of the massacre of human life from the face of Earth? Was she supposed to bear witness to the continued sins of mankind against one another, even in the face of that apocalypse?
    Michelle had so many questions, and the only answer she’d been given was that “knowledge came with a price.”
    And to Michelle, that wasn’t an answer. She reminded herself constantly, multiple times each day that her faith had to carry her through this. That is easier said than done, as anyone who has had tragedy thrust upon them can attest. Michelle wondered day in and day out which religion applied to the state of the world. Should she be seeking to improve herself, and focus on the Buddhist Four Noble Truths? She certainly was suffering.
    Should she seek out the truths contained in The Old Testament, and apply the beliefs of the Torah? Should she return to her years as a practicing Wiccan? Seeking out the support of the energy of the Earth? Should she work up a spell to repair the fabric of the world? Or should she turn to Christian beliefs, and seriously start looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ? So many avenues of faith to try to analyze the state of the world with, and not one good answer supplied from any of them. She had nothing but piddling morsels of guidance, and snippets of wisdom.  
    That all changed for her in October. By the signs on the side of the road they were somewhere in Ghana when it happened. The overpowering heat of summer had finally begun to wane into the merely oppressive heat of the fall, and it was the end of another long day’s walk. Michelle’s stomach was empty, and growled at her fiercely that night. She dragged her feet searching the surroundings of the road they walked on for something to eat. Anything to shut the noise of her emptiness off.
    Michelle had recently lowered herself to eating insects. Frequently if she wasn’t willing to eat something with more than four legs, she didn’t eat at all. The route her dead guide took her on didn’t take them past many shops that had food inside. On a good week they might find two or three places where the little boy would stop and point his emaciated finger and let her know food or water was present. He was never wrong, and that cheered her up. She now lived for