Read Online The Dead in River City by S.A. McGarey - Free Book Online

the lockdown whenever necessary, but that will allow Graves and his
creatures to get in.”
    Kendra absorbed the nature of the situation and
spoke. “Did you learn anything from Graves?”
    Alan took a moment to replay the conversation in his
mind. “Not really. Only that he is definitely controlling these things. He even
had them turn the woman we left for dead in the mall.”
    “I wonder why.” Kendra pondered aloud.
    “Oh I know why.” Alan claimed. “He said he turned
her in order to save her. Graves is delusional, and apparently has some sick
feeling for her. I’m just guessing that he wouldn’t have a huge problem with
necrophilia.”
    “Ewww.” Kendra shivered. “That’s sickening.”
    “At least you didn’t see her. I did.” Alan remarked.
    Kendra shivered again, pausing before she spoke. “So
what do we do now? We don’t have anything but the flashlights and your crossbow
pistol. Any ideas on what to do?”
    “We aren’t leaving any time soon.” Alan spoke.
“Might as well get settled.”
    Kendra went off the sit up against the wall. She
dared not look out the window. She’d seen enough of the dead walking around for
one day. Alan came over to her and sat a couple feet away.
    “Hey, Alan.” Kendra suddenly said.
    “Yeah?” He asked.
    “Can I ask about you? Like what you were like before
all of this?” Kendra seemed interested to know more.
    “Sure. I just never thought you’d want to know.”
Alan replied.
    “ Yeah, neither
did I.” She thought to herself.

10
    If nothing else, it was a way to kill time.
    Alan began his story, telling Kendra of his life
before the Dead Ones, and his life before her. “Where do I even begin?” He
asked aloud. “My whole life was in this city. I was born here, raised here, and
now I’ll probably die here. Childhood was normal, just like everyone else. I
had a good family who took care of me. They’re all dead now though. Luckily
they died before all of this happened. They never had to see this world. In the
few years before the attack, I’d had a few different jobs. I never went to
college, so I never had a lot of hope in getting a decent job. I mostly just
did part time stuff. I had a few retail type jobs, and a couple of temp
positions, nothing special. I always wondered what I would do with my life. I
guess I don’t need to worry about that anymore.”
    “Seems like a pretty standard life. Not a bad one.”
Kendra said. “You said you’d lost people before. Was that your family, or were
you talking about someone else?”
    “That was after the attack.” Alan replied. “I had
banded together with a few friends who survived the initial attacks. They were
the only people I had left in this world. I’m actually surprised they banded
together with me, considering I was more the outsider of the group as a whole.
Although, my best friend was one member of the group, so I guess that counted
for something. We’d managed to all find each other when we emerged from our
respective shelters and started our fight for survival. It went on for a few weeks,
and everything went as well as could be expected. Then one day we fell into a
raider ambush, and 2 of our number fell. A few days after that we ran into a
horde of Dead Ones, all due to my atrocious navigation skills. After that
incident, it was just down to me, and my best friend, Owen.”
    “And what happened then?” Kendra asked, her interest
in the story rising.
    “Well, Owen and I escaped the horde, and made it a
few more days on our own.” Alan continued. “We found ourselves holed up in the
old Brown Theatre in downtown. We were there for a few days, and our food
supply had run out days before we got there. We were starving and we couldn’t
make it out of the building, because of the Dead Ones outside. Owen made one
final act: an act of sacrifice. He made a loud racket, and did everything in
his power to draw the Dead Ones inside while I escaped. He died so I could
live, and I’ve been