Read Dead Beginnings (Vol. 1) for Free Online Page B

alongside the crewmen and leaned over to throw open the passenger door. “Get in! Hurry up!”
                  “Lonnie? Man, am I happy to see you!” Rowan Brady yelled as his lips turned upward in hopeful relief.
                  He climbed in and scooted all the way to the middle to leave room for one more crewmember in the cab. A muscular Latino man with a goatee reached his hand for the seat to pull himself in, but something had ahold of his leg. He yelled out as the thing took a chunk of his calf and ripped the flesh and muscle away with its teeth. A thick spurt of blood shot out from the wound and drenched the thing’s face and chest as it chewed thoroughly.
                  “Torres! I got you, brother!” Rowan leaned over and reached out to the wounded man, but couldn’t get a grip on his sweaty hand.
                  “Don’t leave me!” the man yelled out, his voice breaking off in anguish as two more of the undead joined to feast on his legs, pulling him further down to the ground and away from Rowan’s hands.
                  The cry was unbearable to listen to. Lonnie’s insides twisted up into a pretzel knot until he could barely take in a breath. How long could someone live while they were being ripped apart and eaten alive? One minute? Two minutes? Ten minutes? He felt nauseated just thinking about it.
    One of the things pulled itself up and sunk its teeth into the tender part of the man’s shoulder where it met his neck. His cries turned to garbles as his life force drained into the mouth of the ravenous creature. He choked on the blood as it bubbled up his throat and out his paling lips.
    The monstrous thing’s eyes rolled back in its head as the blood washed over its tongue, like a shark in a feeding frenzy. Its jaw worked on the shoulder relentlessly. It never pulled away to swallow or take a breath. It just kept feeding.
                  Lonnie was mesmerized, lost in a stupor of red. His hands fell from the steering wheel as he watched several sets of hands dig into the gaping neck wound of the poor man and tear out muscles, veins, and tissue. They shoved the sopping meat into their mouths with fervor. The wet sound of their lips smacking echoed in Lonnie’s ears until he thought he would lose himself all over again.
    His vision started to fuzz. The sight of the small horde devouring the man called Torres felt further and further away, like a grim light at the end of a black tunnel.
                  Not now , he told himself. Don’t do this now. If you do, you’ll die. You can’t give up now. Another voice inside his head argued. If I let go then I’ll be more equipped to fight, to get us out of here alive. All those years I suffered abuse from my son of a bitch father and never did anything about it. Look what I’m capable of when I let go and let the darkness take over me. I can defend myself. I can beat this!
                  “NO!!” Lonnie Lands shouted as the last throws of life twitched from Torres’s body. An expanding swarm of zombies threw themselves on him and worked to devour every last morsel.
    Lonnie stepped on the gas and the passenger side door smacked one of the feasting dead across the back of its head, sending it rolling alongside the truck.
                  “What are you doing? Jacobson is still out there! We have to help them!” Rowan screamed in panic as he gawked through the back window.
                  “Consider him dead and thank God you’re still alive.”
                  Rowan’s brown eyes were as wide as bullet holes. His tanned face was streaked with dirt, blood, and tears. He watched in horror as the last man standing in the road was taken down with a vicious bite to the face that tore away his nose and right cheek in a spray of red.
                  “Wouldn’t want to be that guy,” Lonnie chuckled as he