Winchester Undead (Book 2): Winchester: Prey Read Free

steaming on the tray table between them. Sara intently read a book on her iPad, feet curled under her body. Christmas was always the best time of year. Although they didn’t have any children to build the Christmas spirit with, Sara was able to enjoy her break from her middle school students. Science and teaching were her passions, although she was often frustrated by the fifth graders she taught. Jake typed on the MacBook perched in his lap. He had no Christmas break, but he also had no real job. He worked as an independent journalist, author and photographer. That meant he had the opportunity to be sent to the far-flung reaches of the world for an assignment, but that also meant his working hours were much less defined than most people’s. While not on assignment, at least, he worked from home. Though Sara enjoyed the arrangement, she often wished she could reclaim the formal dining room of their home from the stacks of Pelican cases holding tens of thousands of dollars in professional photography equipment.
    The lights flickered once and went off, leaving Jake and Sara to the light of the fireplace. Losing power in Colorado in the winter wasn’t all that uncommon, except that Jake’s MacBook and Sara’s iPad both went dark at the same time.
    “What the hell? My iPad died; your MacBook too? Why would that happen when the power went out?”
    Jake sat silent for a moment and watched the orange flames dance in the fireplace.
    “Honey, look outside and see if anyone has any lights on. I have a bad feeling. I’m going to unlock the room and get the shortwave radio out of the faraday cage.”
    “No. You don’t think … that?”
    “I don’t know yet, but why else would our electronics go dark along with the electricity? Sort of an odd coincidence, isn’t it? I think we should probably get dressed and G.O.O.D. ready.”
    Jake stood and walked towards the back of the house. Sara looked out the front window and across their snow-covered lawn. A couple of her neighbors stood in their front yards looking a little bewildered.
    “Jake, looks like everyone’s power is out.”
    “OK.”
    Jake sat back on the couch twenty minutes later, fully dressed and holding a hand-cranked shortwave radio in his hands. “Time to see if the cages worked if it was an EMP.”
    Jake turned the shortwave on and dialed in the first FEMA emergency broadcast channel to be met with a computer-generated voice: “… remain indoors and avoid contact with any other persons. If a person or family member becomes ill or begins to act strangely, immediately leave the area or quarantine the individual and contact local emergency responders. If unable to reach emergency personal, hang a sheet or large towel on a front-facing exterior door and passing patrols will stop to render aid. This is not a test …”
    The broadcast repeated.
    Sara looked up from the radio Jake held. “What do you think they meant by ‘acting strangely’?”
    “I don’t know, babe, but sounds like a contagion outbreak, and I think we might have had an EMP even though they didn’t say anything about it.”
    Jake tuned the shortwave radio into the BBC’s frequency and found a distressed voice—a real voice, not a computer—reading a broadcast:
    “… Reports have been sparse but initial reports indicate that a wide-scale attack has been carried out against the United States, the UK and other nations of the European Union. Some reports have spoken of a strange oil-like substance falling from the sky, trailing from large aircraft formations. These reports have been coming to us across most of Western Europe and the UK. Contact with the States has failed and a Ministry official confided to the BBC on the basis of anonymity that there has been a possible nuclear strike against the United States or that multiple nuclear warheads were detonated high in the atmosphere above North America. We have not been able to confirm those reports but will bring you updates as we can gather