This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet Read Online Free PDF Page B

knob.  The door flew open, depositing me in all my excitement on the living room floor.  Wasting no time, I pulled myself up from the threadbare and dingy brown carpet and raced to the kitchen, permission slip tight in my grip and arm outstretched, as if the most important thing in the world was that little piece of paper reaching my mom before I did.
    “Mom! Mom! Look !” Struggling for air I thrust the slip at her as she sat at the kitchen table.  My enthusiasm died down a little when I saw she was still in her paper-thin nightgown hunched over the kitchen table, keeping court with a pile of empty beer cans and the ashtray overflowing to the point she didn’t even notice and just flicked her cigarette ash directly on the Formica.
    She looked up at me from hollow eyes and I watched the irritation at being interrupted flash across her face as she snatched the slip out of my hand, peering at it from around the cloud of smoke snaking from the cigarette resting between her lips.
    “What the fuck is this?” She snarled, still trying to make out the words, but I knew the amount of cans on the table meant she was too drunk to read it.
    “It’s a permission slip, mom.  I won the spelling bee and they want me to go to regionals!”
    She grunted at the paper and looked up at me, real confusion on her face.  “What the fuck you need to spell for?”
    I sighed and hiked my backpack higher on my shoulder.  I knew getting her to sign it wasn’t going to be easy, and I had to tread very carefully.  “You don’t have to do anything, just please sign it and they will take care of the rest.  It’s just so I can go with the other contestants,” I said quietly, trying to make myself smaller and less conspicuous.
    She took another hard look at me and pulled the cigarette from her lips, smashing it into the table. “You’re too fat and ugly to be worrying about school,” my heart broke as she tore the permission slip in half and flung it back at me.  “You need to lose some fucking weight so someone will marry your ass and get you out of my face.” 
    Tears threatened, but I knew if I cried she would only hit me, so I turned around and walked out of the kitchen, into my bedroom, and closed the door.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “You said they injected you with something, right?” I jumped at Chloe’s words, having been completely consumed by the ghost of spelling bee’s past.
    “Yeah, supposedly they were working on a cure, but considering I was a test subject, I can’t imagine that’s what Ian’s game plan was,” I murmured from where I was still pressed against Jack’s shirt.
    I watched Chloe stand and start to pace up and down the little hallway we had all made camp in.  It seemed odd to me to see a 12 year old pacing in the same manner that adults do, but here we were.
    My amusement continued while witnessing her entire thought process play out over her small features.  I could see her reasoning, and likely coming to the same conclusions I had; it probably wasn’t a cure they had been working on.
    She stopped pacing and turned to face us, hands on her hips as she considered the options.  “There’s no way this was an isolated incident.”
    Nodding my head, “Yeah it definitely-wait, what?” I was sure she was thinking the serum was some sort of new form of government warfare to turn zombies into something that could be controlled and Ian was keeping it hush-hush from Washington.  Well, assuming there still was a Washington.
    Chloe shook her head at me, “I know what you’re thinking, Angie, and I don’t disagree with you, but I have to wonder how far this thing goes.” Her brows furrowed as she stared at her sneakers, trying to work out the rest.
    She must’ve struck a chord because sudden understanding washed over Ty’s face as he started to laugh.  “Holy fuck! She’s right,” Ty started to say, leaning towards Jack.  “It couldn’t have just been at the Dome, there has to be more