Until the End of the World (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

love Ana the way you love a little sister that you also don’t like sometimes. That sweet little girl she’d been must still be in there. One summer at my parents’ cabin she had found an injured rabbit and nursed it back to health. She didn’t trust anyone else to do it. When she and my dad let the healed bunny go, she sobbed and spent the rest of the week looking for more animals to save.
    “Whatever, indeed. At least she’s safe,” Penny says, and she raises her eyes to heaven.
    Nelly pops the tops off four beers. James puts the TV on a local channel. CNN is still off air. I listen as I dial 911 over and over.
    “Buses are filled to capacity with the sick. Family members are being asked to pin a note with the infected person’s information onto their clothing and leave the area, with promises that they will be informed of the patient’s progress. Police say this is to protect family members from being infected. We’re going live to the scene at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn.”
    I set the phone down and move closer to the TV. A reporter stands outside of the hospital where Maria works. Penny leans forward like she’s trying to catch a glimpse of her mom. The number of people out there is staggering. They’re lying down, standing up, sitting. They shuffle forward onto a waiting string of buses. As each bus fills up and pulls away, it’s replaced by a new one. City buses, school buses, Greyhound coaches—it looks like anything with more than four seats has been pressed into service.
    “They’ve been funneling people onto buses for several hours, but more arrive to take their place. We were just informed we are being moved to an area a few blocks away for our own safety. We will continue to monitor the situation down here. Back to you.”
    Nelly lowers the volume as the news anchor lists the treatment centers again.
    Penny sighs. “Well, I don’t imagine my mom’s going to be home soon. There must have been five hundred people waiting out there. I just hope they’re giving the nurses the anti-viral medication.”
    Penny grabs her phone and walks to the window, trying her mom again. Her beer hits the wood floor in a foamy crash that makes us jump. One hand covers her mouth and the other points to the street.

CHAPTER 7
    There are four of them in front of an apartment building down the block, bent over on the shady side of the street. One is Half-Neck, astonishingly still alive, his head canted to the left. There’s an old lady wearing a flowered housedress and wispy gray bun, a hipster with off-kilter aviator sunglasses and a Hispanic man wearing a half-tucked shirt and jeans.
    The housedress lady stumbles away to reveal something meaty and glistening and pink. Only the hands and feet give any indication that it was once a person. The four of them are coated in fresh blood. It’s smeared around their mouths and drips from their hands. It runs down the concrete into the street. My stomach heaves, and I lean on the windowsill. I want to scream at them to stop, but that would alert them to us, and the person is obviously dead. I run and dial 911. Fast busy. I try again and again as the others stare out the window.
    “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” a voice asks.
    “I’m watching four of the infected on the street. They’re ripping someone apart! I’m on—”
    The voice cuts me off. “Ma’am, is the person they’re attacking dead? Can you tell?”
    What kind of question is that? “Yes, I think the person’s dead, but—”
    “Ma’am, we can’t send any police out now. If you give me your address, they’ll take the infected into custody as soon as possible.”
    I give her the address. “Do you know when they’re coming? I’m afraid they’ll hurt someone else.”
    “No, ma’am, I don’t.” She has that officially harried voice every civil servant in New York City adopts. “And please stay in your home. The police will be there soon, and they are equipped to handle the