Read The Dead Series (Book 4): Dead End for Free Online Page A

two today, do you want me to end it for you, too?”
    Lena thought about it for a moment before saying, “I’ve gone over that in my mind a million times since it happened, and I have to say no. Like you said, nobody knows shit about this disease, so I’m going to sit here for a day or two and see what happens. If I don’t turn into one of those things, I’ll come get my kids. But if I do die and come back…” Her voice trailed off.
    “What about your kids ?” Rick asked. “Did they get bit or scratched or anything?”
    Lena sighed and shook her head before saying, “No, it was only me.”
    Rick shrugged again and said, “Well, I’ll take care of your kids, but if I don’t see you in forty-eight hours, I’ll come back and do what has to be done.”
    “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve always had a good immune system , so maybe I’ll work through it.” Turning to the truck, she called out, “Megan, Ethan, come here and say goodbye to your mother.”
    After a tearful parting, Lena watched as the truck drove away. With a heavy heart, she walked over to the fresh graves and sat in the shade of a nearby tree.
    Forty-five minutes later, the first convulsion struck. A minute later, Lena died. Two minutes later, it rose. It was hungry.
    Wandering down the drive to the main road, it would stop occasionally to sniff the air for prey. Its brain was almost gone except for its base functions, but its senses were still keen. Even with its extremely diminished mental capacity, it knew that if it kept to the cleared areas, its chances of finding flesh were better than being in the woods. Not smelling any food, it started on and then stopped, suddenly overcome by the urge to hide, to wait. It had to stay safe, feeding would come later. Its deep-rooted instinct told it to suppress its hunger until it could join others like itself. It knew that in a pack, the hunting would be good.
    With saliva running down its chin, it gave in to this urge and headed into the woods. It had no particular place in mind to go, but nonetheless, its feet carried it with a purpose. Before long, it came across three more like itself, standing in a clump of trees and moaning with hunger pains. Within a few hours, their group had grown to over twenty.
    Then, as if b y some unheard signal, they all started off in the same direction. Along the way, they picked up more stragglers until their number had grown to thirty. Within half an hour, they came to a clearing with a small house set in the middle. Night was upon them, so the lighted windows threw long beams of illumination across the well-tended lawn. The dead grew still for a moment, taking in the scene as their senses tried to discern if there was food inside. When a figure passed by the glass of a large picture window, it was all they needed.
    With what had once been a woman named Lena in the lead , the dead lurched forward as a group. While Lena might have forgotten her past life and everyone in it, she did know that the flimsy glass was no barrier against their numbers.
    ***
    The small groups like Lena’s that formed in and around Jasper eventually merged into one larger herd of dead. Now a thousand strong, they swarmed over the town, easily overwhelming its defenses by sheer weight of numbers. Doors were busted down, not with axes and battering rams, but with the pressure of hundreds of bodies pushing against them. In this initial onslaught, thousands of the living fell to the dead.
    First the humans and their domesticated pets were killed and eaten, and after they were gone, the cattle were set upon and devoured to the bone. Woodchucks, rabbits, gophers and anything that burrowed into the ground were then dug up, torn apart and stuffed into the mouths of the dead in a quest to assuage their never-ending hunger. Some animals like the coyote and the bear fled before this onslaught, and this proved to be the wisest course of action . It was the same for man and animal alike; if you barricaded