Read Bone And Cinder: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Zapheads Book 1) for Free Online Page A

he came to see me one evening.  He admitted to selling Craig the meth, but he gave me your name and told me you and Craig were running a little something on the side.  There was a disagreement, so you shot him.”
    Krider .  The bastard  probably laughed while he was diming me out.  Hoping she’d do the kind of job he would’ve sent me to do not long ago.
    “But you know what I think, Mackie?  I think that was just his way of getting back at you for being so sloppy during that hit, for leaving my mom behind as a witness.”
    Mackie’s tongue felt so dry and swollen, he wasn’t sure how words were actually moving past his lips.  “Krider plays roulette with other people’s lives just for kicks.  You don’t know what you’re stepping in.”
    “Like I care?  I told Krider how I wanted to take someone special from you because of how you destroyed my family when you killed Craig.  He loved that idea.  He wanted to help.  So he told me all about your parents and your sister.  And all about Allie.”
    That’s why Krider had been so eager to give an assignment that put me back here in the mountains, so close to campus.  He knew I’d try to see Allie, and I’d find out what Kara had done to her if she succeeded.
    The end of the world was just a minor inconvenience that screwed up his sick little scenario.  Like Kara said, plans change.
    “He gives me some money, so I could rent a place up here.  And he tells me that he’ll make sure you’re close by on a job.  He knew you’d come look for her.  And I think he was hoping that after I killed Allie, one of us would kill the other just to make things easier for him.  Either way, I don’t think he intended to let either of us live.”
    Of that, Mackie was certain.
    “But Allie and I got to know each other. We talked. We drank. I liked talking to her.  And I realized that I couldn’t punish her for your sins.  I wanted somebody to pay, but I couldn’t be what you are. I couldn’t be like the piece of shit that took Craig away and ruined my life.
    “And then...” Kara spread her arms in a sweeping gesture indicating the world outside the dorm room.  “All this shit happens.  The power goes out, people are either dropping dead or turning into raving maniacs.  And now I’m actually taking care of the girl I came here to kill.  Waiting to die.  Waiting for help to show up.  Or maybe walking out that door and letting those things have at me.”
    Kara chuckled.  “And then, of course, you show up.  I had a feeling you might try, if you were still alive.  And then you tell me your story, and while I’m listening, I’m debating whether I should kill you.  And you know what?  I just stopped giving a shit.”
    “If you want to live, you need me around.  You won’t have a chance out there alone.”
    I’m actually trying to talk this girl out of killing me?
    I should be more afraid that she won’t.
    “The shape you’re in, you might be dead weight.”  Kara’s smile was cold, the kind that never quite reached the eyes.  “After you told me your side of things, all I saw was another stupid junkie that made bad decisions.  Not much different than Craig.  Not worth hating, either.  He didn’t have to die, but then again, he didn’t need to buy his poison from a man like Lucas Krider.”
    The Glock was pointed away from Mackie now.
    “I don’t quite forgive you,” Kara said.  “But I’m not all that interested in hurting you anymore, either.  I’m done with this.”
    Kara picked up a few items she had removed from Mackie’s backpack. Bottles of morphine and Oxy and Vicodin.  The slightly depleted container of Haldol and a fresh syringe.  She tossed them on the floor beside him.
    “I’m leaving,” she said.  “If you want to join me, you can.  Or you can stay here and eat pills and be useless.  Makes no difference to me.”  She nodded at Allie.  “But her...you may want to accept the very real possibility that