Free The Living Dead Series (Book 2): World Without End by L.I. Albemont Page A

steadily ahead of them, cautiously looking left and right. He wore a thick parka and sturdy-looking boots. Bea reflected that just a day or so ago if she had seen anyone walking down a street with a gun she would have run away and probably called 9-1-1. Now she and Brian hurried to catch up with him.
    The man must have heard their boots on the snow. In one fluid motion he turned around, slid the gun from his shoulder and knelt in the street taking aim at them. They stopped and put their hands up.
     

Chapter Five
     
    D avid’s first thought was that he had almost shot two children. The taller one was a girl and she stood protectively in front of a boy. His second thought was one of relief that they seemed to be uninfected and in possession of their senses.
    He stood up and walked forward, still keeping them in his sights in case he was wrong and they turned out to be ill. The boy peeked around the girl but she pushed him back. A woman, he thought as he drew closer, not a girl and then he recognized her. The woman from the Metro.
    “Hello, Beatrice Actually. What brings you this way?” The boy moved around to stand beside her and stared at David suspiciously. David lowered the rifle.
    “Some infected people broke into our house and we had to get out. I’m trying to get to Dupont Circle. Have you been over there?” Bea asked.
    “No, and I don’t know what the streets are like there. I’m heading in that direction for an assignment though.”
    “But you said this has nothing to do with terrorism. Why is Homeland Security getting involved?”
    “Let’s just say that something has come up and I’ve got some things to do on the West coast.”
    “So you’re getting out of the city and leaving everyone here to die,” she said, almost but not quite keeping the disdain from her voice.
    “My being here helps no one and believe it or not, I still have a job to do. As for whether or not I’m getting out of the city- I guess we’ll see. Since we’re headed in the same direction for now, do you want to join forces again?”
    David saw her hesitate and look at his rifle doubtfully then she seemed to come to a decision.
    “That works for me. This is my brother, Brian Kelly. Brian, this is David…?”
    “Chambord. Nice to meet you, Brian. Let’s go.”
    He would have known they were related without the introduction. Both had the same large, somewhat startling green eyes, straight dark eyebrows, and thick, sooty lashes. The boy’s hair was a slightly darker blond than his sister’s but they had the same fair skin. They stayed close together.
    The snowfall picked up and they pressed on, constantly looking in shadows and around corners. The streets and sometimes the sidewalks were littered with abandoned vehicles, some of them with doors open wide and the snow around them stained dark red. They were walking as quietly as possible and not talking when David held up his hand, motioning them to stop.
    Ahead, a blue minivan rested partly on the sidewalk and partly up on a fire hydrant. Water gushed from the broken hydrant, coating the street in ice growing continually thicker. Someone in the front seat was struggling, trapped and trying to get out. They approached cautiously from the left.
    A woman, blood-covered hands flailing about, sat buckled in the front seat. Red coated her mouth, chin, and the front of her torn blouse. She moaned.
    David, rifle held at ready, moved close enough to see inside. The struggling woman moaned louder and her teeth ground together hungrily. Chunks of flesh lay in the passenger seat beside her and most of her abdomen was simply gone. The back seat contained the remains of a child, savaged and consumed almost beyond recognition. A small pink lunchbox lay between the seats. Whoever had attacked the child had not left enough of her to reanimate. He backed away.
    “There’s nothing we can do here.”
    Walking carefully across the ice around the minivan they continued on until they came to