As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Read online

  “Oh, God,” she whispered.

  “It’s okay,” Jenni assured her in a distracted tone. “Really.”

  Katie hit the accelerator and moments later they bumped over the youth’s body. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could have sworn she heard a mushy popping sound as the wheels passed over the thing.

  “What is happening? What the hell is this?” Katie shook her head, her blond hair falling across her brow.

  “The end,” Jenni sighed. “It’s the end.”

  3.

  As the City Falls

  As the white truck hurtled down suburban streets that were quickly falling into bloody bedlam, it was obvious that whatever was happening was spreading at an accelerated pace. Gunshots rang through the morning air. People’s screams rose in a cacophony. Cars careened crazily through the streets. At times, only Katie’s quick reflexes saved them from an accident.

  Beside her, Jenni hit the Redial button once more. Katie couldn’t bear to look at the phone and see Lydia’s beautiful face smiling out at her.

  If this wasn’t the end, it sure looked like it. It had to be terrorists. Some sort of weapon that made people crazy. PCP, something. Katie rubbed her mouth with her fingers. That had to be it.

  Since Jenni’s proclamation of the end, they had both been silent. It was too much to absorb.

  Too much to comprehend.

  They just had to keep moving.

  They had to keep going.

  But where?

  If only her dad would answer his cell phone. Of course, he was probably going nuts trying to reach her. She could see him now, in the midst of the chaos, being the strong police chief of legend. Big Bruce was certainly doing his best to get this insanity under control. Tears threatened to fall as she thought of his strong, craggy face under his military buzz cut. It was a soothing thought in this moment.

  “I got him!” Jenni exclaimed, switching the phone to speaker.

  Suddenly, Bruce’s voice filled the truck cab. “Hello? Katie?”

  “Daddy!”

  “Katie, are you and Lydia okay?”

  Katie shook her head and whispered, “No, no. I’m fine, but Lydia, she didn’t make it. She … Daddy … she…”

  “I’m sorry, Katie-baby. I’m sorry.”

  She could tell by his voice that he truly was. Despite his misgivings about her lifestyle, he had come to accept and be quite close to Lydia. Though her mother remained blissfully in denial until her death, her father had tried hard to understand. His painful, sometimes embarrassing questions had only shown her how much he was trying. And when he had shown up at her wedding dressed in his military uniform, beaming and near tears, to walk her down the aisle, she knew that he loved her even if he didn’t understand her completely.

  Now they shared a moment of silence over the woman Katie had loved.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” he said again. “But you can’t let it affect you right now, understand?”

  “Yes, I know. I’m trying to keep a cool head.”

  “Good girl.” A tinge of pride crept into his tone. “Listen, Katie, whatever the hell this is, it’s all over the city. You need to get down to the police department. We’re barricaded in, and you’ll be safe here. We got the National Guard on its way.”

  “Okay, Daddy. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Katie, be careful.” His voice was rich with emotion.

  “I’m armed, Daddy. I have a good vehicle.”

  “Not that little—”

  “No, no. A truck. I’m in a truck.”

  “How—? Never mind…”

  Katie continued to drive, trying not to let her emotions overwhelm her. “Daddy, what are they?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. The damn Russkies are behind it, I know. We never could trust them. Everyone else is saying terrorists, but I’m telling you, Katie, the Soviet Union never really died.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh a little. He was such a Cold Warrior. She could hear many voices behind him, demanding, questioning. Without a doubt, her dear old dad was at the center of the storm.

  “Katie, I gotta go. I love you. Get here as soon as you can. Be careful.”

  “Okay, Daddy. Okay. Love you.”

  Jenni snapped the phone shut, the image of Lydia vanishing from view, and smiled weakly.

  Katie drew in a deep breath, trying to refocus herself. She needed to get them to safety and not think about what these things were. Of what her beloved had become. She couldn’t think of how she had pulled up to their beautiful home to see Lydia and their neighbors tearing at the mailman. She couldn’t think of how Lydia had rushed toward her, not to kiss her and hold her and make the world better, but to kill.

  “I know what they are,” Jenni informed Katie. She was intently staring at her feet, especially her bloodstained toe.

  “Yeah?”

  “Zombies.”

  Katie laughed bitterly; then her voice died away as they crested a hill. Before them lay the city. It was smoldering. From their high position, Katie could see clearly that the city had been overrun. The things were everywhere. Chaos swirled through the streets.

  The phone rang.

  Katie snatched it from Jenni and pressed it against her ear.

  “Katie?”

  “Daddy?”

  “Katie, don’t come here! Don’t come here! I just got word in. It’s not safe. The National Guard was overrun. Don’t come, Katie! Run! Get the hell out of the city! Keep safe, baby, keep safe.”

  Her father’s anguished voice filled her with despair, and she rested her forehead against the steering wheel. “Daddy…” Tears brimmed in her eyes as she struggled for words. All she truly wanted in that moment was to feel his arms around her and know that she was safe. Either he hung up or the service went out, for suddenly there was nothing on the line.

  Katie looked up as a car sped past, heading for downtown. In a few seconds, only blocks away, it was overrun by a horde of those things.

  “We need to go now,” Jenni’s faint, singsong voice said. Katie looked at her and saw that Jenni’s eyes were glassy. She thought her own probably looked the same. Katie turned the wheel and they headed back up the road.

  “Turn here,” Jenni said.

  Katie obeyed automatically. Tears streamed down her face.

  Jenni pointed again. “Turn here.”

  Katie sped down a back road that sliced behind the suburbs nestled into the hills.

  “This will take us far away from the city,” Jenni sighed, then reached down and cleaned her toe with the edge of her bathrobe. “Away from the zombies.”

  Katie whispered, “There’s no such thing.”

  “Then what are they?” Jenni’s voice held a hint of emotion. “Some bum bit Lloyd last night when he was coming home from work. This morning, he ate my baby!” Abruptly, her voice was on the edge of hysteria.

  Lydia racing toward her, bloody hands stretched out, her chest torn open …

  Katie drew in a sharp breath.

  “If they’re not zombies, what are they?” Jenni’s voice was shrill.

  Katie grabbed Jenni’s cold, clammy hand with her own. “Zombies, okay, Jenni. They are zombies. And you’re right: This is the end.”

  Jenni nodded and rested her head against the passenger seat. “I know. …” She closed her eyes and slept.

  4.

  Into the Hills

  Jenni woke to the steady hum of the road. She opened her eyes slowly. Her nightmares released her and she sighed with relief. Her dreams were even worse than this new, horrible reality. In her sleep, she had curled up, resting against the passenger door. Now, raising her head, she saw the dried blood her son had smeared on the window when he tried in vain to reach her.

  Not for hugs and kisses, but for far worse.

  Beyond the swath of gore, the world was speeding by. Hills, large and small, were covered in trees decked out in colorful spring blossoms. Time for Easter and Easter baskets. She would fill them
with candies and toys, and the kids would scramble around the backyard, looking for colorful eggs.

  No, no. That wouldn’t happen now.

  Lloyd had taken away her kids. Stolen them away. Just as she had known he would. Maybe he had been a zombie when he attacked them, but Jenni knew he had only finished the cycle he began when they’d married. She had been seventeen, and his looks, money, and success had blinded her. He was older and wiser. She hadn’t truly loved him, but she had believed that one day, she would. When he spoke of his first failed marriage, she had vowed that she would never let him down. She would be the perfect wife, the perfect companion, and he would never say a negative word about her.

  But no matter how hard she tried, she had failed. At first, his weapons were words—fierce lashings of scorn and anger. Then it was the back of his hand and, eventually, his fists. Nothing she had done was enough, though she’d done everything he asked of her.

  Toward the end, she knew in her heart that either she would die at his hand or he would kill the children. She should have run away sooner and not waited. But then again, how was she to know he’d turn into a zombie?

  “I always fail,” she sighed.

  “What?”

  Jenni directed her gaze slowly to the woman beside her.

  The driver of the truck was very pretty, with golden hair that fell just to her shoulders in tousled curls. She had a strong yet feminine face with catlike eyes and a sensuous mouth. Jenni was sure that the driver had been the sort of girl who was homecoming queen, head cheerleader, and student council president all rolled into one. The smart, pretty girl who was actually nice. Jenni felt comforted by this. She understood these girls. They lead; you follow. It was that simple.

  Her name was Katie. That was right, Katie.

  “I was dreaming,” Jenni answered finally.

  Katie flicked her gaze toward her for a second, then returned it to the road. “You didn’t miss anything. After the last traffic light on the edge of the neighborhood, it was smooth sailing. We’re about an hour out of the city.”

  “No one comes this way anymore. Not since the toll road was built. I like it out here. It’s peaceful.” Jenni didn’t feel so cold anymore. She still felt awfully numb, but it was a pleasant sort of numb.

  “I’m not sure where we’re going,” Katie said after a beat. “I’m just driving.”

  Jenni looked at the phone resting on Katie’s lap. “Did you talk to your dad again?”

  Katie shook her head, pressing her lips tightly together. “No. There’s no signal.” She motioned to the radio. “And that doesn’t work.”

  Jenni nodded, understanding. They were alone, detached from the rest of the world. Since this was how she often felt, it was almost comforting.

  Besides, she was sure Katie would figure things out. She looked strong and very capable.

  “We’ll need gas soon,” Katie said. “Know if there are any stations out this way?”

  “Yeah, there are. One is coming up soon, about two hills over.” Jenni slid her fingers through her hair and sat up. “Maybe those things aren’t out here.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping for.”

  Jenni laughed a little, her voice sounding odd to her ears. “You know, this isn’t supposed to happen. The zombocalypse isn’t supposed to be real.”

  Katie exhaled slowly. “Maybe it’s some sort of terrorist weapon. Something like that.”

  “No,” Jenni said firmly. “It’s zombies.”

  Katie cast a thoughtful look in her direction. “I agree they look like zombies.”

  “They are zombies,” Jenni stressed again. Katie had to accept this as truth.

  The blond woman stared straight ahead as she drove. It took several long seconds before she said, “Zombies, or whatever they are, definitely shouldn’t exist in a rational, ordered world. It suddenly feels like we’re living in a horror movie.”

  “A Romero movie,” Jenni agreed, then frowned. “They aren’t supposed to be so fast. They’re supposed to be slow. Very slow.” Running down the stairs, trying to evade Lloyd, had been terrifying. There had been no time to think, just run. It was sheer luck that he didn’t seem to know how to open the door and had just banged against it.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “In the original movies, they were slow. Lloyd always watched those movies. I was afraid, but he made me watch.” Jenni chewed on her bottom lip. “If the movies are right, we can’t let them bite us.” She looked over at Katie warily. “You’re not bitten, are you?”

  Katie looked at her for a long, frightening moment. “No! Are you?”

  Jenni sighed, relieved. “No. I’m not.”

  But she almost had been. Lloyd had almost grabbed her; then Mikey had turned back and yelled, “Leave Mom alone!” She covered her face with one hand. She tried hard not to remember the horrible fear she had felt as she screamed at her son to run and raced out the front door.

  How it slammed behind her, she didn’t know. Maybe she closed it. Maybe Mikey did. Maybe when Lloyd had grabbed her son, he had shoved it shut. But the front door had slammed, and she had been alone.

  “How did you find me?”

  “I got lost in your neighborhood, trying to get off the highway. I heard you screaming, then saw you in your front yard,” was Katie’s answer.

  That easy. That simple. That tiny difference between life and death. Jenni studied her reflection in the smudged side mirror. Her eyes looked too big, too wide. Her face was very pale.

  “I think I’m in shock,” she decided.

  “Aren’t we all,” Katie responded in a harsh, bitter voice. Her tone softened as she hastily said, “It was hard to see my wife like that. But your children—” She reached out and gripped Jenni’s hand tenderly. “—I can’t imagine how it feels to lose your children.”

  Jenni clung to Katie, grateful for the kindness. She really didn’t care about Lloyd being dead … undead. … The children. That was harder. Much harder. They had been so sweet and innocent, and for them to die … She didn’t want to think about it, and quickly closed off that train of thought.

  She wanted to ask Katie about her wife, the beautiful woman in the photo on the phone, but she was afraid to ask. Afraid that Katie might think she was being judgmental and withdraw her comforting hand.

  “Shit!” Katie jerked her hand away from Jenni and yanked the steering wheel hard to the left. As she slammed on the brakes, both women were thrust forward, then caught painfully by their seat belts.

  A car was idling on the right shoulder of the road. Near it stood a man covered in blood. He looked in their direction in a daze; then it was as if something snapped inside him and he flung out his hands and rushed toward the truck.

  Katie quickly shifted gears, and the pickup leaped forward. The man’s hand slapped hard against the side of the truck and they could hear his nails scrapping the metal as they escaped.

  Jenni whirled around in her seat to look out the back window. The man was running after them, pumping his arms and screeching. “How fast are we going?”

  “Thirty,” Katie responded. “He’s keeping up.”

  The man howled as his legs suddenly spread askew and he tumbled hard to the pavement.

  Katie braked sharply and looked back.

  “Why did you stop?”

  “I want to see if what I’m thinking is true.”

  Jenni watched as the man staggered to his feet, looked around, saw the truck, and slowly hobbled toward them. “Now, that is the way they are supposed to be!” Jenni grinned at Katie triumphantly.

  “He blew out his knees!” Katie laughed. “I thought that was what happened, but I wanted to make sure. They aren’t superhuman. They can still be hurt.”

  They both screamed as a mouth filled with sharp teeth suddenly appeared in the back window.

  “Shit!” Jenni screamed.

  “Oh, my god! It’s a dog,” Katie said with relief.

  A German shepherd was staring at them, appearing a li
ttle dazed.

  Katie flung open the door to get a better look at the bed of the truck. A veterinarian’s temporary cardboard carrier was strapped with bungee cords to the big silver toolbox under the back window. A corner of the carrier had been chewed open and the young German shepherd stood on wobbly legs before her.

  Jenni leaned out the driver’s side. “Uh, zombie—”

  Katie looked up to see the man still shambling toward them.

  Jenni picked up the shotgun from the floor of the truck and handed it to Katie. “Just shoot him in the head. That’s how it works in the movies.”

  Katie blinked at her, then looked at the man. “I can’t.” She handed the gun back and reached out to the dog. “Come here, puppy, come here.”

  The dog padded slowly over to her and she lifted his heavy body out of the bed of the pickup. Holding him tightly, she slid him into the cab, then reached back to snag the vet paperwork taped to the carrier.

  Meanwhile, Jenni solemnly got out of the truck, released the safety, pumped the shotgun, and waited. The zombified man was moaning, reaching out to her. For a moment, he looked remarkably like Lloyd.

  She fired.

  The headless corpse hit the pavement.

  “What the hell did you just do?” Katie looked utterly shocked.

  Jenni shrugged. “We have to kill them.”

  Katie opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Silently, she climbed into the cab and shut the door.

  Jenni climbed in as well, slipping the safety back on the shotgun.

  “We don’t kill,” Katie said at last in a low voice. She appeared shaken. “We can’t kill them.”

  “You ran over the runners back in town.”

  “I panicked. I…” Katie faltered.

  Jenni sighed sadly. She needed Katie to be strong. She needed her to be the strong one. She hadn’t minded shooting the zombie, and she would kill them in the future, but Katie needed to lead. Jenni couldn’t bear the thought of having to figure everything out.

  Katie stroked the dog’s fur as she looked at Jenni for a long moment. “We’ll talk about this later. We need gas now.” Katie read over the vet’s paperwork swiftly while she scratched behind the dog’s ears. “As for Jack, here—well, we need to keep him up here. Poor baby just had surgery. Good thing he was knocked out during most of our escape.” She nuzzled the dog and kissed him.