Dead World (Book 2): Headed North Read Free Page B

the clip in the gun. Still a couple bullets left.
    Isaiah smiles at him. “Sorry for this fella but this gun is going to be a life saver,” he says.
    The sound of the moaning drifts closer and they jog back to the car. Daniel can just see the hordes starting to trickle out from behind houses. Just a few at first but he knows it will be hundreds if they wait any longer. They hop in the car and pull away, leaving plumes of ash in their wake.
    “You know what we need to find?” Valentine says.
    “What’s that?” Asks Daniel.
    “We need some music.”
    “I think you’re right,” Sasha says as they leave Wellington behind them and head north on I-25 again. Daniel has to weave around traffic and drive on the shoulder for a while but it’s not long before they are past the worst of it and travelling on open road again.

3
    Billings, Montana
     
     
    Julie pushes herself into the corner as small as she can manage. The crumbling drywall leaves white dust all over her. Her heart is racing a staccato rhythm on the inside of her chest.
    Fear has become her constant companion these past weeks. She is hiding out in Lockwood School just outside of Billings, her hometown for the past 12 years. Then when the world went to hell she tried to get out, too late though. It was the first time she had ever wanted to leave so desperately.
    Adventure never came easy to her. Much safer to just stay home, find a good book and stay inside, it had all the adventure in there that she could have wanted.
    The sound of boney fingers scrapping the doors continues and then comes the slam of a body against the glass. The door shudders under the weight. This was a safe place at first. She thought she could hide out here. Eat the food in the cafeteria, live off of whatever she could find and wait out help.
    But that never came and now the place is surrounded.
    They showed up the night before, just a few wandering around through the overgrown lawn and in the parking lot at first. Bumping into cars and just moving in haphazard circles. It seemed like they were lost. But then overnight they surrounded the school.
    She didn’t even have a weapon to defend herself. She was always so afraid of guns. Her dad tried to convince her to go hunting when she was younger. All those years ago seem like an eternity. She never went. She regrets that now but even with a gun she doubts it would matter. More likely she would end up hurting herself, she thinks bitterly.
    Another slam against the door again and she hears it crack slightly. She knows they will be here any minute. She wants to run but her legs are frozen as she tries to force herself smaller into the corner.
    Somehow those things had spotted her and her brother and then they swarmed the school. It all happened so fast.
    They broke into the school proper last night, pouring in through the front double doors in an unstoppable tide. Her brother was with her then. He died as the dead swarmed him pulling him down and then tearing into him in a maddened rush.
    He called for her help and the sounds still echoed in her head hours later.
    She had been powerless to help him then and feels just as powerless now. Tears begin streaming down her face as the body bashes into the door again.
    After he died she made a crazy dash into the closest open door she could find. It was a class room for 3 rd graders and their art was still hung around the walls. School was out when the world went to hell so the place was abandoned already.
    Julie shoved desks in front of the door hoping it would slow them down. But she knew it wouldn’t buy much time.
    Tears blur her vision as the door shakes from another impact.
    The class room is a mess now. Sitting behind the teacher’s desk as far from the door as she can manage, she wonders how much longer she has. Her hair is a matted with sweat and dirt and her shirt is torn. She reeks from the weeks she has been trying to hide. But the only thing going through her mind is that soon those