Dead Beginnings (Vol. 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

up, and all the while the ravenous horde closed in on them slowly, without faltering, charging forward like an army of undead.
                  Lee heard his mother’s voice as the family fell for a third time and were finally caught by their predators.
    It’s the end of the world, son. The Rapture. God has called us all to Heaven above, invited us into Paradise, and here you are…left behind, alone and scared, staring down a gruesome death, all because you turned your back on your religion and abandoned your family.
    Lee shook his head to scatter the voice in his head. Could she be right? Could he be staring down the barrel of the shotgun that would end the world? Had the dead risen to consume the sinners? Every rational part of Lee’s mind screamed she was wrong. There was no way any of it could be true. The flu everyone had been worried about had finally hit. The fever damaged the brains of the sick and they were acting irrationally, downright fucking crazy, because of it. That’s all it was. Someone was going to fix it. They had to fix it.
    He pulled up to his two-story blue house and jumped out of the car without turning it off or closing the door. His legs carried him up the steps of the porch and through the partially opened front door. It wasn’t until he was inside the quiet house that he realized the door hadn’t been locked as it should have been. He froze in the entryway.
     
     
     
     
    VIII.
     
     
     
                  The house was as still and silent as a warm summer night, the only sound a buzzing from the bee hovering by Lee’s ear. He swatted it away. A hot breeze blew through the open doorway, hitting him across his sweat-soaked back. The sudden cooling sent a chill up his spine and goosebumps down his arms. His cotton scrubs clung to his damp body as he took deep breaths, eyes staring forward, wild and wide. Dread sat in the pit of his stomach. It was too quiet, too calm. Something wasn’t right.
                  “Anna?!” he finally called out when he found his voice. “Anna, sweetheart, where are you! Answer me! Anna?!”
                  He charged into the living room, but found it empty. His large hand slammed against the swinging door as he fell through into the kitchen, but she wasn’t there either.
                  “Upstairs!” he said aloud as he moved forward and around to the stairway.
                  His feet pounded on each step as he took them two at a time. The bedroom door sat open a crack. A warm glow spilled out onto the hardwood floor. The heavy weight of impending heartache lifted from his shoulders as he neared the top of the stairs. Anna was home, she was safe…but then why hadn’t she answered him?
                  When he reached the top, momentum propelled him forward and through the door. His knees hit the floor as he braced himself with his hands. Slowly, he stood up.
                  “Anna?” He knew she wouldn’t reply, but he couldn’t stop calling out to her. “Anna!”
                  The bedside lamp lay overturned on the nightstand, the sheets and covered ripped from their luxurious Queen-size bed. Pieces of clothing scattered the floor like dead leaves on the ground, but Anna was nowhere to be found. Lee stood rooted by the doorway, too afraid to take in a single breath. If he breathed, then that would make the day real, and there was no way everything he’d been through could be real.
    That was it. He had to be dreaming again. It was just another one of his horrible nightmares. He closed his eyes. If he waited, he would wake up and Anna would be by his side, fast asleep and holding her stomach. He would rest his head by the small bulge that was his growing daughter and listen for the small patter of her heartbeat.
    When he opened his eyes again everything looked the same. Downstairs, the front door creaked. The sound echoed up the stairway to