Read Only The Living (Lost Survival Series Book 1) for Free Online Page B

class and got a free Mars bar. A family holiday with her mum and dad to Benidorm where she got to swim with the sea turtles. How brave she was, when she found and liberated a spider from her bedroom wall.
    The only mention of the reanimated dead was when Beth brought up 'the funny people', wondering why they looked so sad. We got into an overly-heated discussion after that, about whether to call them 'funny people' or Ian's preferred 'zombies' — needless to say, Beth didn't see the joke.
    “That’s not very nice. I feel really bad for them... They don’t look happy, and they always wander about like they’re lost.”
    That was genuinely profound, especially coming from a little girl. I thought carefully for a moment, and explained to her that we could make them happy by setting them free; helping them to pass on, so that their souls could go wherever they needed to be.
    It wasn't exactly a lie, more of a convenient detour from the truth. It was good for my conscience to believe those words as well, because the day would inevitably come when we’d learn how this plague struck our country. A day when we'd all understand how these creatures were so much harsher than simple lost souls.
    Ian whistled to himself, leaning back against the cashier's counter. “...The Lost, eh? Has a nice ring to it.” We agreed that would be their official nickname; it seemed to please Beth anyway, that we were acknowledging them as normal people who had lost their way.
    Ian, after a few drinks of cola not-so-discreetly mixed with vodka, began to share his theatrically-performed account of how he dealt with his high-school bullies. He got chased and prank-called every day by a group of local thugs, escalating towards one night where he was beaten and almost got stabbed outside of his home. It was a good thing that Beth thought it was just a feeble attempt to try and scare her, or else she'd have even more nightmares to worry about.
    Not exactly the information I was looking for, I waited until Beth went poking around the shelves for more snacks before asking him the details. “You said that your parents kicked you out... Is that why, or did something else happen?”
    His drunken-red face tore itself away as he spluttered on his drink, clearly not liking the subject. “...I just want to forget about it, for now. My dad told me last night, he wishes that they would’ve finished me off.”
    I spat my cola not-so-discreetly mixed with vodka all over the shop floor, in a ridiculously-dramatic fashion. At least I managed to make Ian crack with laughter as I coughed up froth.
    After our little slumber party, we were all pretty stressed from the day we'd had and decided to call it a night. Ian and I offered up my jacket and his fleece to make a comfy 'bed' for Beth on the counter. We both lay on the ground in front of her like guard dogs, staring into the shutters and hoping that they would hold for the rest of the night.
    Beth tried to hide her face for our sakes, but the tearful sniffs told us how much she missed being around her parents. She was probably too young to understand what happened to them, and no one here was mature enough to put it into words.
    At least she wasn’t alone… The three of us sobbed ourselves to sleep that night, some more silently than others.
    ----
    Shortly after waking up from my half-hour sleep, I realised just how much time I’d spent staring at the metal grate as the sunlight began to filter through. Whether it was adrenaline or raw fear, the severe lack of rest didn’t seem to phase me one bit.
    I filled up one of the rucksacks I'd found in the backroom with all of the provisions I could carry: bottled water, bags of fruit, tins of soup, a handful of lighters, a little more vodka... and I had to bring a ton of Beth’s strawberry sweets, of course. I had to make sure that she wasn’t watching me, as she still thought I was paying for all of this crap.
    I wondered what my past self would’ve thought about