Last Days With the Dead Read Online Free PDF

over Leon’s news. He knew that without further information, they would ultimately just have to accept this had just been a freak accident. Just because they hadn’t had any thunder storms here, didn’t mean that there hadn’t been one forty miles away. 
    ‘That’s not all ,’ Leon continued.
    ‘Well?’ Patrick asked, the movement of his thumb suddenly stopping.
    ‘It’s the Dead,’ said Cam, ‘there was an awful lot of them, a lot more than usual.’
    ‘But that’s not the main thing,’ Leon butted in , ‘it was the type of Dead we ran into.’
    ‘New?’ asked Phil .
    ‘No,’ continued Leon, waving away the concern , ‘they’d been dead for years. The thing is, you could just tell from what they were wearing that these people hadn’t been living in the countryside when they died. They were from a city.’
    With the mention of ‘cities’ , all of those present knew what that could mean.
    The towns and cities had been terrifying places those eight years ago when the Death-walker virus had first struck. Initial outbreaks had been scattered at first. A heart attack victim in one part of town, the passing of an elderly patient in a care home , or road traffic accident in another, but as the Dead then went on the rampage, their numbers increased at a wild and alarming rate, until the living soon found themselves hemmed in with the Dead on all sides.  The Dead had then swept through the populated areas like a wave of destruction, leaving only bloodshed and more of the hungry Dead in their wake.  Because of this, whole areas of the country were now considered ‘no-go’ areas. Of course, by now, the Dead would be nothing but slow moving decaying shells, but their sheer numbers alone, made it pure insanity to venture into these deadly zones.
    ‘Hmmm ,’ Patrick mumbled, getting up to look at the large map of Cornwall on the wall.
    Just like the smaller maps that they took with them whenever they left Lanherne, this large map was covered in a myriad of red patches and small black crosses. The red zones indicated the areas now solely populated by the Dead and they were avoided at all costs. The crosses marked any road made impassable by flooding, fallen trees too large for them to move, landslides, or even too far eroded to be useable.
    ‘Well, here’s the Penhaligan home,’ Patrick began, his finger pointing to a small blue dot, ‘so that means the Dead have either come from Newquay or St Austall.’
    ‘Newquay was more of a fishing town or holiday destination wasn’t it,’ said Cam, placing the now empty glass back down on the table. ‘The Dead we saw didn’t look like they had been involved in either, really. It’s difficult to pin down , but  I think, and I know it makes me sound like a snob, but I think some of the Dead we saw weren’t dressed like the sort of people I’d have expected to come from Newquay for a weekend away.’
    ‘So they weren’t dressed like working class tourists, is what you’re saying ,’ said Phil, giving Cam a roll of his eyes.
    ‘Erm , yes,’ replied Cam, sheepishly.
    Even though things like ‘class’ were now a thing of the past, even the Dead couldn’t totally eradicate a life time of being able to read class and social indicators.
    ‘Oh, don’t get your old school tie in a knot, Cam,’ Phil continued, jokingly. ‘So what you’re saying is, the Dead you saw were neither fishermen nor chavs dressed in long shorts, flip-flops and England strip T-shirts. Don’t worry, I think after all I’ve been through, a bit of class stereotyping isn’t going to offend me.’
    ‘So we’re basically talking about middle class corpses,’ Patrick said, trying to hide his smile , ‘business types and well-dressed families, yes?’   
    ‘Yes ,’ replied Cam.
    ‘Hang on,’ came Nadine’s voice suddenly from the other side of the room, ‘St Austall? That name rings a bell.’
    Nadine had a remarkable memory , and even as the rest of the group paused to