The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Series Read Online Free PDF

gloom in the back half of the store, crossing the line into the area that the sunlight from the front windows could not touch. The dark closed in on him all at once, made him feel surrounded, enveloped, like walking into dense jungle foliage. His eyes strained. He could only really discern vague shapes in front of him now, the color palette around him going black, blacker, blackest.
    He slowed down, one hand flailing around in front of him to prevent any collisions. He had a lighter, but he didn’t want to use it. Not yet. His eyes adjusted over the next minute or so, and he could finally see a little bit.
    As he crossed a wide aisle and moved into the electronics department, he saw the first body. Technically, he smelled it before he saw it. He thought it had been rotting beef from the meat department, but as he advanced, it smelled more and more like ripe roadkill. The odor kept growing.
    He stopped when he saw it. He flicked the lighter, held it up. To make sure. He had seen plenty of death, the bodies bloated along the sides of the street and congealed into car upholstery in traffic jams gone permanently still, but this was the first child. A little boy with platinum blond hair lay face down in front of the glass case where the video game consoles used to be locked. A puddle of blood surrounded him, soaked into his white t-shirt. Flies circled near the back of the head, swooping down to land on the face concealed by hair. He was glad he couldn’t see it. It was hard to tell, but Travis figured he might be eight or nine.
    The positioning of the body made it seem like the kid died trying to steal an Xbox or Playstation or something, which wouldn’t make much sense since there was no way to play them. And yet, the shelves were empty. Someone had looted the consoles and the games anyway.
    Lifting the lighter higher let the light drift farther down the aisle, and he saw a dead man leaned up against some video game accessories. Maybe he was the boy’s father. The corpse’s head hung down, chin resting on his sternum so shadows shrouded his face. Red stained his shirt which was torn in some places. In the half light, it was hard to decide if the holes resulted from bullets or a blade. Travis didn’t care to get any closer.
    He released the lighter button, that claustrophobic jungle feeling coming over him again as the dark returned. He brought his drink to his mouth and sucked on the straw. The citrus and liquor odors overwhelmed that of death, made it disappear all at once. He closed his eyes and drank. Warm. Other than that, it was a fine Long Island iced tea, he thought. He’d only ever had one or two before all of this, but he wanted to try his hand at it.
    He juiced the lemons and limes himself, made a simple syrup on a fire in the backyard. The fruit was at least a month old by then, but even though the rinds were hard and dried out, there was still a surprising amount of juice inside.
    No ice, though. Had to mix it up warm.
    Today was a liquor day. He had a rotation.
    He moved on, and the door took shape in front of him, less than 20 feet off now. It looked a little dinged up along the edges, but it remained intact. Nobody could bust through.
    That’s where the key came in.
    He took another warm drink. The alcohol taste made him pucker up. Wouldn’t have happened if it was cold. In a way, he couldn’t wait until the winter, when he could pack the bottles of booze into the snow to keep them chilled.
    Then again, he was about to make the booze days a little more boring anyway.
    He pushed the key into the hole, twisted it until the deadbolt moved out of the way with a snap, turned the knob, crossed the threshold into the backroom of the pharmacy. The level of excitement he felt bordered on sexual. This room was darker still, almost pitch black. He pulled his lighter out, his thumb grinding the flint wheel around until the spark caught the butane.
    By flickering flame light, he pulled open a few drawers to check.