Read The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine for Free Online

I’d rather not relive.”
    “Can you tell me what’s going on at least, some news? Is the government getting things back on line? Any vaccines in the works?”
    “I can answer those easily. It’s a total shit show out there. The government, or what’s left of it, is bunkered down around the country; some Immuners have been herded into camps; and as far as a vaccine, don’t count on it.”
    “You know something, you aren’t any help. I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all.”
    “So I was out in the barn scavenging around, and it looks like you’ve been living out there. Why’s that?”
    Devin motioned with his eyes to the second floor.
    “Because they’re dead? Why didn’t you just bury them?”
    “When I first came here, the smell of rotting flesh overcame me, and I couldn’t bring myself to come back inside…”
    Tess just looked at him, surprised by his inability to do what seemed so simple to her.
    “What? Why are you looking at me that way?” Devin asked.
    “You consider them family in some regard but couldn’t bring yourself to bury them? You couldn’t give them the respect they deserved as your family?”
    “I…ah…I…”
    “Never mind,” she snapped at him and stood up from the table.
    “Don’t judge me.”
    She turned around and said, “Yes, I will judge you. You might have survived this long, but you should know that you only did so because you’re lucky. So many people have died, the world is practically dead. The few of us that are left act like fucking animals. You had a chance to show some humanity by burying your family, and your selfish needs won out. Just once, I want to find one Immuner who has their humanity intact.”
    She finished her diatribe and turned away from him. As she stuffed more canned items into her pack, he shifted through the many responses that had come to mind.
    After a few awkward moments of silence had passed, he said, “I do feel bad about not burying them. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about it. I just didn’t want to get sick. I don’t know exactly why Tom killed his family and himself. I didn’t know if they had contracted the virus and he just decided that they should all go out quickly. I know it’s a bad excuse, but I didn’t want to get sick.”
    “You won’t get sick, ever.”
    “Why would you say that?”
    She faced him again and answered, “Because we’re all infected. If you had any contact with anyone a week after, the chances are almost one hundred percent that you came into contact with an infected person.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You’re immune like me and Brando over there.”
    “Immune?”
    “The Death is spread easily; just a breath from someone will infect you, a simple touch. If an infected person touches a doorknob, the virus remains on there until it can be sterilized. The Death is the most efficient virus ever made.”
    “You said made .”
    “Yes, well, I don’t know for sure if it was, but there are some survivors out there that think it was created by the government as a form of population control, and when they released it, there were unintended consequences, like killing all life.”
    “I can’t believe that. I just can’t put my arms around such an outlandish conspiracy.”
    “Then where did it come from?” Tess asked, challenging him.
    “I think it was from the asteroid strike; it came from interstellar space.”
    “The extraterrestrial or space germ is another theory, but does it really matter? It happened, we lived, and we have to survive,” Tess said in a matter-of-fact tone.
    “I guess you’re right.”
    After Tess finished stuffing her three-day tactical MOLLE pack, she placed it with her rifle next to the back door and quickly exited.
    Devin was unsure where she was going and really didn’t care. He sat in the chair thinking about what had happened and some of the odd revelations she had shared with him.
    The shadows in the room were