Until the End Read Online Free PDF Page B

face.

Chapter Five
     
     
    As we pack, darkness falls on the city and even though we have lights on, I still feel the darkness pressing in on us and it makes me nervous. I ask Jordan if zombies have good night vision and he confesses he doesn’t know. We’ve already agreed to stay the night and leave first thing in the morning, but I can tell it’s killing Jordan. He wants out of the city bad. He doesn’t like having only one exit and I’m with him on that.
    We stay in my apartment even though his is dead body free. Jordan reasons that staying in a building full of wandering infected is a terrible idea because eventually they are going to sniff us out and start piling up, clawing at the door, and we’ll never be able to leave. So we stay in my apartment because it has camouflage in the form of two corpses. He tells me we have to get Sara out because she never turned and she still smells like healthy human flesh which could draw them to us. He also says that Dee is a great cover because she was turned and smells like them and they don’t bother with their own.
    So we put on more latex gloves and use the shower curtain to gather what remains of Sara from the bathroom and toss her out into the hallway. Next we pull Dee out of the kitchen and drag her over to the door, pressing her body up against it. I felt sick as we cleaned up Sara, something I felt ridiculously weak about until Jordan abruptly leaned over into the toilet and puked, but my hands trembled when we moved Dee and my eyes flittered around the now red kitchen, waiting for shadows of the past to dart out and grab me.
    We watch the news cycle through the same information over and over. We learn that the Portland State University campus, right where we are, was the epicenter of The Fever. That’s what the media is calling it. No one says “zombie” on the news, no one but the supposed crazies they interview, but anyone who comes in contact with the infected knows what this is. A living, breathing person is bitten and within five minutes, The Fever overtakes them and they turn. It’s fast. Scary fast. It’s unclear, however, whether the dead are actually rising or if The Fever melts the brain and turns them into living monsters who can’t feel pain or process reason. Jordan and I fight about this for a good hour.
    “They’re zombies! They die as humans and then rise up as zombies and try to eat your brains. What’s there to be confused about?” he demands.
    “I’m just saying that it’s possible that’s not what’s happening! Have you seen one rise yet? Have you actually seen someone killed and then rise up as a zombie?”
    He glares at me. “No.”
    “So we don’t know. And they aren’t strictly eating brains, they’re eating everything. Look, I’m not saying you can’t call them zombies and that most of the rules don’t still apply. What I am saying is that they might not be dead people. Brain dead, for sure, but not physically dead.”
    “What about the stump of a guy that the other one was pulling around on his ankle? If he were alive, he would have bled out from losing his legs. There are arteries there.”
    “That’s a good point.” I concede, frowning.
    We’re hiding out in my room at the far end of the hall, as far away from the front door as we can get without going into the bathroom. Even this far away, we both hear it when something moves outside in the hall. My body tenses and I freeze, my eyes wide and locked on Jordan’s. He quickly flicks the TV off even though we had it on silent and closed captioned. There’s a continuous thud coming from the door, like a body bumping against it repeatedly, and my heart refuses to start beating again. I see stars on the corners of my vision and realize I’ve been holding my breath.
    Jordan rises slowly, taking his bat with him, and makes a gesture to me of pulling a bow string. I nod, grab my bow, notch an arrow and follow him into the hall. We creep slowly as the noise continues