Heartland Junk Part I: The End: A ZOMBIE Apocalypse Serial Read Online Free PDF Page A

tried to mediate. "Let's calm down. Ray has a point," she
added gently, stroking Rivet's arm.
    "You're on his
side?" Rivet jerked his arm off her shoulders. "Figures. That's
what it is, isn't it? Sparking the ol' flame."
    "What? No. Rivet,
listen," I jumped in. This was ridiculous. "The only way we'll
figure out what's happening to us is if we know if the same thing
is going on out there." I gestured out the window.
    "You know, I
haven't heard any traffic in awhile," Jennie said.
    "There, see? That's thinking," I said. "I haven't either. Of
course, it's usually pretty quiet around here in the mornings, but
still, not this quiet."
    "Who lives around
here that doesn't go to work?" Jen asked.
    "Mrs. Winters
lives over on the next block," I said, getting excited. "She's
retired."
    "Jesus, listen to
you two," Rivet said. "Aren't you guys just cozy."
    "Dammit, Rivet," I
said, raising my voice.
    "What?" he said, leaning forward. " What? "
    " 'What' is you're
being an asshole while we're trying to come up with some sort of
plan."
    " We don't
need a plan ,"
Rivet shouted. "There's nothing weird going on. We all kinda
freaked out, sure, but that's like, what, cabin fever. Temporary
group psychosis. It's over , man.
Do you feel anything weird now? It's gone. We fixed it."
    "Yeah," I
retorted, "and for all we know you're the one who infected us in
the first place."
    " Infected? This isn't a goddamn video game, Ray. Nobody infected
anybody. I've apologized a thousand times, and I'm going to keep
apologizing for awhile, because you know what? I really am sorry. But you can't sit there and
pin this on me. You felt it, too."
    "And that's exactly why we need to figure out what happened!" Now I was shouting,
which definitely wasn't helping the situation. I've known Rivet
most of my life; he doesn't back down from a frontal
attack.
    "Look," I continued more softly, "I don't think I'm alone in
saying that nothing like that has ever happened to me. Am I?" I looked back and
forth between them. Jennie shook her head. Rivet gave a grudging,
"No."
    "And for the three
of us to experience it at the exact same time is most likely—not
definitely, but most likely—a little bit more than coincidence.
Right?" They each gave a quiet affirmative. "So let's do this," I
went on. "Let's just call some people. Does that work? Let's just
make a few calls and see if anyone's experienced anything weird
today."
    "We have to know,
Rivet," Jennie said. Rivet stared out the window for what felt like
ages before turning back toward me.
    "Okay," he said.
"But I don't have a phone. I couldn't...you know."
    I nodded. He'd
missed too many payments. We'd all been there once or twice. I
turned to Jen. "How about you?"
    "Yeah," she said.
"I got it."
    "Great," I said.
"Start dialing. Mine's upstairs, I'll run and get it."
    I took the stairs
two at a time while Jennie pulled her phone from her jeans pocket.
My Droid was lying on the bed. I tried Foley first. He was my
dealer, so I figured if I got him, I could also get something else
to tide the rest of us over for awhile. That would at least cheer
Rivet up. The ringer blipped once then cut to the deep rhythmic
beeps of a busy signal. That was weird. Usually it just went
straight to voicemail if he was using it. I tried my sister next,
but got the same thing.
    "Anything?" I
yelled down the stairs.
    "It's all busy,"
Jennie's voice called back up.
    "Same," I said,
running back down. "Google something. YouTube. Find some news."
    "Data's down," Jen
said immediately. "I already tried."
    "TV," Rivet said
robotically.
    "I don't have
cable," I said. "Just Netflix." I lifted my phone and punched
Foley's name again, hoping something had changed. Nothing had.
    "Okay," I said.
"Rivet was right earlier. Let's not get freaked out about this. We
still don't know anything for sure. Might just be a service
hiccup."
    "Do you really
believe that?" Jennie asked pointedly. "I don't know about you
guys, but the coincidences are piling up a little