Free Dead by Dawn by Bret Wellman

man.”
    “You should be happy.”
    “Somebody dying should not make anyone happy.”
    Barry shrugged. “I was happy when Osama bin Laden died.”
    “You’re an idiot.”
    Adam went back to working on the car, but Barry didn’t leave. He wondered how long it would take Henry to get pissed at them for chit chatting. Usually it wasn’t long.
    “How late were you at the hospital last night?” Barry asked.
    “I don’t know. We left sometime around four.”
    “Dude, you must’ve just missed it then.”
    “Missed what?”
    “They’ve been taking extra precautions to try and stop all the body snatchings that have been happening right? Well a nurse working at the front desk is claiming to have seen one get up. They actually put the story in the paper this morning, at least that’s what people on Facebook are saying.”
    “The body?” asked Adam.
    “Yea man. She said it got up and walked out of the room. What’s even more freaky is there were three other eye witnesses who claimed to have seen it walking down the hallway and out the front door.”
    “Last night when I was there?”
    “Must have been after you left. The whole place was going crazy. It’s a freaking zombie!”
    “So what, it turned out the person wasn’t dead after all?”
    Barry shrugged. “Well I would think, but no one knows. They never found the body.”
    “No one stopped him?”
    “The nurse tried, but he ran out the door.”
    Adam stopped working and turned back. “Seriously?”
    “Yea. A lot of church people are claiming the final judgment day is here. They keep saying something about two men being in a field and one disappearing.”
    Henry came up behind them looking just as irritated as ever. “I’m not paying you guys to talk.”
    Barry lingered for a moment, a stupid grin on his face, and then went to start his work. Adam tried to concentrate on the car after that, but couldn’t keep his mind from racing.
    The world was falling apart all around him and everybody was trying to pretend it was normal.
    Or is somebody working that hard to keep a lid on things?
    The question was never far from his mind for the rest of the time he spent at work.
    When he got home his mom was still asleep. The breakfast he made was all gone so he assumed she had at least woken up to eat.
    It was just after noon and he was feeling more awake than he had all day. The things Barry said earlier didn’t seem so bad the more time passed. Sure things were getting a little crazy, but somewhere around the corner was a simple explanation.
    He was beginning to think a terrorist attack was ridiculous. More likely it was just some other disease. Some new strand of Ebola mutated by antibiotics or something. Did antibiotics even treat Ebola? He thought back to his high school days and couldn’t remember anything that would help.
    As far as people seeing dead bodies getting up, and generally disappearing… well that was a job for somebody with a college degree to figure out.
    His mom came out of her bedroom around one and sat down next to him on the couch. She was motionless, looking straight forward. She did almost nothing to acknowledge he was even there.
    “How are you doing mom?”
    She didn’t answer.
    “It’s a nice day outside, maybe we should go sit out on the front steps?”
    “Carl visited me last night.” Her voice came out weak and raspy.
    “What?” asked Adam, sitting bolt upright.
    “He came to my window and I let him in.” Her eyes were distant.
    “Mom,” said Adam, placing his hand on her shoulder.
    He drew back and took in a sharp breath. She was ice cold. Now that he looked, she was pale too. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she lost a lot of weight.
    “You’re sick!”
    Like an answer to his accusation, she began to cough.

Chapter 10
     
                  Joe didn’t like anything he read in the morning paper. They were saying the entire east coast was suffering the first effects of a new