Dead Beginnings (Vol. 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stared up at the ceiling.              They were the eyes of a creature with no feelings, no thoughts, and no desires other than to rip apart flesh and eat it.
    But that couldn’t be right. Lonnie swore he’d seen her eyes as he’d always seen them—big, bright, and beautiful, full of love and life. The ones he glared into now were old and decrepit, as if cataracts had taken over and snuffed out the shimmer he once loved to get lost in.
                  It was all too much to bear. His chest tightened and threatened to cut him off from oxygen completely. As he gasped like a fish out of water, each intake of air wheezing in his lungs, he turned away from Amy, unable to look at her any longer.
    Whatever lie on the floor next to him, with its legs and arms flailed awkwardly, was not the Amy he knew. It was a monster. It wasn’t meant to live. It was a good thing Buddy had done what he did.
    He turned and noticed a second body sprawled out on the floor by the door. The face was unrecognizable, smashed in to oblivion and drenched in blood. The only way Lonnie knew it was Buddy Lands was from the Alabama t-shirt he wore. They’d gone to that concert together six months after the death of his mother. It was the first time he saw his father smile after she committed suicide.
                  “Buddy?” Lonnie said as he scooted over to the man’s side and knelt over him. “Fuck. What’d I do?” Tears mixed with the blood smeared across his face and ran down his neck, staining the neckline of his white tank top. “What did I do?” He closed his eyes and turned his face up to the ceiling. He took a deep breath and counted to ten, even though he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. It was too late.
                  The sound of something dragging along the carpet filled the room, but Lonnie was too distressed to turn and look. The body of the man Amy had fed on dragged its wrecked lower half as it made its way slowly to where Lonnie sat. Its jaws opened and closed silently in anticipation of its first feeding. The closer it got, the more excited it became. Small gurgles and groans escaped its cracked white lips.
                  Lonnie’s head snapped up to stare the undead thing in the face just as its hands closed around his ankle. He tried to scramble away, kicking his leg out to shake it loose, but the grip was too strong. Its teeth chomped the air as it pulled him closer. Lonnie thrust his free boot-clad foot into the thing’s jaw, wrenching it sideways, loose and unhinged, but its fingers remained grasped firmly on his wide ankle. He kicked again and again, not letting up until its head was caved in and his leg was finally free from the unrelenting grasp.
    Propped up on his elbows, Lonnie tried to catch his breath as he stared at the dead man at his feet. What was going on? What kind of illness was this? Questions flooded his head, but no answers followed. He was jerked from his thoughts when another hand grabbed his upper arm.
    Buddy was writhing on the ground, his hand grasping for his son desperately. The only noise he could make with his smashed in mouth and nose was a bloodied gargle. There were no cheek bones left, no mouth or nose or eyes to distinguish. The only thing still intact was his cranium. How was it even possible that he was still alive? It defied all logic.
    The gargles became more urgent as Buddy yanked on Lonnie’s arm again. The young man was pulled to the ground by the forceful grip his father had on him. He’d been on the receiving end of Buddy’s hand before, but it’d never felt so strong. What he felt in that moment was inhuman.
    “Fuck, no!” Lonnie yelled as he tried to pull Buddy’s cold, hard fingers from him. The bones creaked as each one was pried from his warm flesh.
    Once he was free, Lonnie snatched up the rifle. He used the butt to bash in his monstrous father’s skull until it was a pile of red mush and broken bones.