Only The Living (Lost Survival Series Book 1) Read Free Page A

ropes, wondering where to go next.
    I tried to sit up, but my stomach wasn't having it. Taking in our surroundings instead, we were still resting opposite the glass door that I'd just barely noticed before blacking out. It was the entrance to a mall of sorts, standing right next to the train station.
    There was no chance of making it past that bridge, not after what we’d seen.The war-torn street outside was eerily silent; almost frozen in a much darker, bullet-ridden time.
    On the same side of the glass lay a middle-aged man, a blonde woman and an identical child cradled in her arms, both crying into each other. Overhearing that I was up, the shaken man came over to us and sat down with a disgruntled look on his face.
    “Daniel, is that right? Name's Leo. You ain't one of those crazy fuckers, are ya?” He seemed serious, but the bluntness of the question caught me off-guard. I shook my head.
    Nodding with an exhausted sigh, Leo buried his forehead into his reddened palms. “...This is fucked up, man. One minute we're on the bus tour across town, the next... I don't even know. They just attacked us. Like a bunch of fucking animals, right in front of my damn kid.”
    Looking over the man’s shoulder to observe his weeping family, they did appear visibly distressed about whatever they had just escaped from. After what I'd just seen on that bridge, they had every right to be.
    “Who... attacked you?” I strained, managing to stand on two feet.
    The man glanced anxiously at his kid, who couldn’t have been older than 10 years old, and rolled his sleeve back discreetly. The pungent smell hit me almost immediately, as he unveiled a bloody mess of veins where his forearm should’ve been. A giant chunk of his flesh was missing, eroded by puncture marks.
    “What the hell... How did that happen?!” I bawled at him, to which he retracted in surprise.
    It wasn't anger or shock that I raised my voice with... The tension was getting to be unbearable. People had already died in front of me. Leo wasn't alone in wanting to find out why.
    “...These three wankers stopped our tour bus, growling some satanic shit. One of them jumped inside to grab my wife, but I wasn't gonna let them anywhere near her. I gave him the old right hook, but he took a bite clean outta me! That's when the bus...”
    He rolled his sleeve back down, obviously not wanting to worry his partner behind him. “Listen, kid. If you know anything about a way out of here, now would be a pretty fuckin' good time to say so. I got a family to look after...”
    I shook my head curtly, still triggered by our proximity to those bodies outside. “We were just... Everything just happened... I've never been here before today, I was gonna go to the train station—” I paused for a second, trying to gather my thoughts. I must have sounded like a confused toddler, trying to retrace my steps. “W-Where are we, anyway?”
    Leo told me about how after he was attacked, the pile-up on the bridge started attracting serious heat from the military. Soldiers showed up and opened fire on the crowd without warning, so they all ducked inside the mall’s entrance. They were the only ones who made it, and that was when he saw Ian and me about to be crushed by the truck.
    Ian was starting to look worried again, so I tried to change the flow of the conversation. We had to stay cold, figure out some sort of direction without losing our minds.
    “So, you don’t have any idea of what’s going on either... We both really appreciate you sticking your neck out for us back there, thanks.” Trying to rationalise everything, only minutes after waking up… This mess was starting to give me a headache.
    “I think the best thing for us to do…” I folded my chin into my fist, pausing to grumble. “...Hmm. Maybe we should see if there's any trains running? You know, something to get us out of here as fast as possible. Then we can all head home and forget that today ever happened. Worth a