Read In the Dead: Volume 1 for Free Online Page B

cottage. Randy followed her and grabbed the blanket from the porch that they used to picnic and wrap up in on cool ocean nights. They wouldn’t be doing that again, at least not with this blanket. Probably not at all.
    He tossed the blanket over the body and then moved into the house. There was only a small combined living and dining room, a door that led to the small bathroom and another to the bedroom. It was a summer cottage really, not meant to live in. But the rent was right.
    Nadia stood behind the couch, staring at the TV. When he shut the door, she flinched and faced him briefly. “You should come look at this.”
    As she turned the volume up on the television, Randy stepped up beside her. The television was showing scenes of utter and complete carnage in Seattle. People roamed the streets, attacking each other. The reporters were pale and gaunt, like they were freaking out.
    “ I-I turned on the radio, but there was only an emergency signal,” Nadia whispered. “So I went to the TV and found.. this . It started yesterday, I guess, in Seattle. The whole city is almost… gone .”
    “ What is it?” Randy asked. “A riot?”
    A reporter in a studio flashed onto the screen and stared into the camera with a “Serious Newsanchor” face.
    “ Good afternoon. The Outbreak happened less than twenty-four hours ago, but it’s already taken over a large portion of the Pacific Northwest even as we report. The cities of Spokane and Portland are already reporting an influx of attackers. Zombies, they are being called.”
    Nadia blinked and stared at him. “Zombies? That’s a joke, right?”
    Randy moved to the door and stared past the screen at the dead body under the blanket. Zombies. He looked at the screen again.
    “ It doesn’t look like it’s very funny,” he whispered. “And then there’s him.”
    He motioned toward the yard and Nadia paled three shades. “Lock the door,” she whispered.
    He shut the main door and locked it, then moved back to the television.
    “ Just a reminder,” the reporter droned on. “If you or someone you love has been bitten or scratched, isolation is the best response. At this point, there is no cure and eventually the victim will experience an intense hunger, heightened senses of smell and scent, followed by an uncontrollable bloodlust. Depending on the location of the bite, this transformation can take anywhere up to an hour. Once it is complete, severing the brain seems to be the only way to stop the onslaught of the zombie victim.”
    Nadia shook her head. “I can’t believe this.”
    Randy hardly heard her. All he could do was stare down at his hand. His gnarled, bloody, bitten hand. Bitten by that man out there. No, that thing .
    “ Nadia,” he said softly.
    She didn’t look away from the screen. “Look, the symptoms are flashing across the bottom of the screen. Red eyes, graying skin, black drool or vomit…”
    “ Nadia,” he said, this time louder.
    “ That totally sounds like that guy outside,” she said, still staring at the screen in utter disbelief. “Shit… he was a zombie?”
    “ Nadia,” he said, this time sharp. “He bit me.”
    She didn’t stop staring at the screen for almost a minute, but he knew she’d heard him. He could tell by the way her shoulders hunched and then stiffened, by the way her neck got red and her hands started to shake.
    Finally, she faced him. Her skin was pale and sticky, her eyes wide and filled with tears. “That isn’t funny.”
    He held up his hand so she could see. “Nadi, I’m not laughing.”
    #
    The blood was rushing to Nadia’s head and ears, roaring and making everything around her seem distant and echo-y. Maybe this was a dream. That was it. She was just having a really screwed up dream, maybe brought on by eating too close to bedtime.
    Except that when Randy reached out to touch her, he felt real. And the echoing distance faded and left reality behind.
    “ You okay?” he asked.
    She blinked. Was he