The Dead Series (Book 4): Dead End Read Online Free PDF

, Texas, was nothing but a wasteland populated by the dead.
    ***
    Lena let out a sigh mixed with grief and regret as she looked at the barn that she and her husband had almost finished converting into their home. Leaning on the shovel stuck into the loose dirt covering the body of her best friend, she wiped sweat from her forehead with a blood-soaked bandana tied around the bite on her wrist. Cursing silently as she pushed down on the handle, she chided herself at knowing better than to let Shawna into her house. She had heard about everything that was going on, but her kindness had overridden her common sense.
    A s she looked over at a similar mound of dirt that covered the body of her husband, the grief she felt, really a deep feeling of loss, mixed with the regret of making her first, and last, mistake in a time when the dead had come back to life.
    She and her husband weren’t ‘Preppers’ like their friend Rick, she told herself. Even if we were, we just weren’t prepared for what came into our house and our lives today. We aren’t end of the world enthusiasts whose every waking moment was filled with what to do if a race war started or the government declared martial law, we only wanted a more simple life for ourselves and our children. That was why we bought the property at the edge of Jasper. I learned to can fruits and vegetables while my love worked in the fields and tended to the two-dozen head of cattle we bought. The kids joined 4H, and everything seemed honky-dory until two days ago, when the reports of a new disease started to appear on the news.
    The talking heads said that a virus had broken out in a few major cities. Nothing to worry about, folks, they told everyone. Everything was being dealt with, and you should keep on with your day-to-day lives, they kept repeating. The chances of being infected with this strain of flu were 2,000,000 to 1, they promised.
    And at first I believed them, but not anymore. Not after what had happened in my very own living room in my own house that morning
    Rage replaced her sorrow as she pushed down into the soft dirt of the grave with her shovel.
    “Liars,” she said vehemently as she ground the blade into the dirt, hoping again to cut into the thing that had destroyed her life in only a matter of minutes.
    Looking over to where Megan and Ethan stood wide-eyed as they tried to discern this outburst from their mother, her heart melted. She knew that no matter what happened, she had to protect them. She had to get them away from th e madness that was taking over the world.
    After a few seconds, she steadied her emotions . Once her mind was at somewhat of a more even keel, she realized that she had no way of knowing that Shawna was infected with the H1N1 virus. Despite this, guilt kept creeping in to cloud her thoughts. Trying to shake it off since she knew she had to think clearly now to protect her children, but images from that morning kept blasting into her mind to cloud it. Mental pictures of her friend coming to the door and telling of how her car had broken down outside of town, her friend being invited in by her husband to use the phone since only landlines seemed to be working, and only a few minutes later, watching as Shawna went into convulsions and died before rising up to attack her husband.
    Looking down at the shovel, Lena thought disjointedly, you did double duty today.
    When Shawna started going into seizures, the first thing that flashed through Lena’s mind was what her daughter had been telling her was happening across the United States. Up until then, she hadn’t really believed her or the news reports, but seeing was believing. While her husband rushed forward to give aid, Lena instead looked around wildly for a weapon. Spying the shovel leaning against the wall in the mud room, she yelled at her husband to get away as she ran to grab it.
    But she was too late.
    Shawna died, came back to life and sank her teeth into the chest of her rescuer as he