Runner Series (Book 1): Runner 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Everybody knows dregs are nocturnal.”
    “Maybe in old myths and urban legends, but I’m telling you, the dregs are coming out,” Dean insisted.
    Audrey watched the clouds silently pass in the sky out the window. The warm air circulating through the shoddy air conditioner in the car stifled her and she started to feel claustrophobic. She took her shoes off and rolled down the window before laying down and sticking her feet out the door into the air. She sighed and stared at the car’s ceiling and tried to wrap her mind around what Dean had told her.
    Weren’t zombies supposed to be just like vampires? It was something commonly accepted as fact and when people started changing into the dregs that fact was revealed to be true. Until now.
    “You need to sit up and put your seatbelt on,” Dean said from the front of the car, interrupting her thoughts.
    “Why? It’s not like there are any other cars on the road. Who would we could get into an accident with?” Audrey asked and jabbed him in the back of the shoulder with her finger. “Quit being such a dork.”
    Dean leaned back into his seat, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just hard to break old habits.”
    Audrey stretched out across the back seat and yawned, “So, tell me more the dregs are coming out during the day. Did it just start out of nowhere?”
    Dean tapped his fingers on his knee and looked over his shoulder while he was talking to her, “That’s what it looks like. We opened the gate and there was still a few of them out. They weren’t in a hurry to get out of the daylight until closer to noon and they’ve been that way every day.”
    Audrey leaned up on her forearm, “Why are they doing it though?”
    Dean pressed his lips together so they formed a line, “I don’t know, but they’re wandering around like it’s the middle of the night. It has a lot of people scared to the point that the Council is talking about closing the gates permanently.”
    “I’m lucky it was only dregs out there. I didn’t have to worry about being chased on my way back to the community,” Peter added.
    Audrey sat up and rubbed his shoulder, “I’m glad nothing happened to you, Pete, but what’s the point of closing the gate permanently?”
    “We want to make sure the community is safe,” Peter said. “Personally, I think we should just kill all of them. It would be a lot easier than pussyfooting around all day.”
    He smiled at her in the rearview mirror and patted her hand on his shoulder, “You know I’ve never cared for them though.”
    She still couldn’t believe it. Dregs couldn’t come out during the day.
    “Has anything else changed with them?” Audrey’s mind turned to Carlsbad and what she witnessed on her last trip. “Are they turning back into regular people?”
    “We don’t know what’s going on,” Dean sighed. “It’s not like we can just walk up to them, catch them, and run tests with our non-existent equipment and scientists.”
    Audrey rested her head on the back of Dean’s chair and watched the calm desert scene. None of this should be happening. She should be going swimming with her friends or going on her first dates, and now, because of the dregs acting unusual, even going outside the wall might become a thing of the past.
    “The Council is having a town meeting today for anyone who wants to come,” Dean turned back to the front of the car. “They’ve been talking to us the last couple days and they’re thinking of revamping the Runner program, thanks to Peter.”
    “What did Peter say to them?”
    “Pretty much what he just told you. He wants us to just start killing them off,” Dean informed her. “If they decide to go with it there would be new requirements to become a Runner and we’ll get some new training.”
    “What kind of training would it add?” Audrey felt dizzy and laid down again. She rested her feet outside the car window and wiggled her toes in the breeze.
    “I don’t really know,” Dean