Beyond Death (Book 2): Apocalypse Read Online Free Page A

as he scrambled for purchase on something. Chase called out for Jayda before he could stop himself. All he could think of was this zombie having gotten her.
    Scanning again, he didn’t see any movement save for the zombie. It regrouped its appendages and crawled toward him. The clack of the monster’s teeth gave Chase a start. But he managed to roll away just as the gnarled fingers of the creature reached him. A tremor ripped through his body when he found his waistband empty where his gun should have been.
    A quick turn of his head saw the zombie reach for it. Chase jumped to his feet and grabbed for the knife he had wedged in the calf part of his sock. Lunging, he aimed for the head, but hit somewhere south of the neck. The zombie grabbed his wrist. The tight grip caught Chase by surprise. Chase reached up his free arm to stab at it again, but instead a bullet ripped through the zombie’s chest.
    Thankfully to the thing’s side, the splatter missed him for the most part. He waited a beat for his heart to start again. Before that could happen, the zombie’s head exploded. Having ducked for cover at the sound, he peered out to find Jayda standing behind a tree, her gun still raised.
    “Are their more?” she asked.
    Moving to her side as if they were magnets separated, he looked around them.
    “I don’t think so,” he sighed. “Good shot as always there, little lady.”
    * * * * *
    “Why don’t you go over to the other side of the highway in case someone comes the other direction,” Dax suggested to Lucas.
    “Mind if I take Sherri along,” he asked.
    “Nope. I got Richard here to keep me company,” he quipped.
    Lucas smiled at Sherri as they took off. He imagined them out on a nice stroll on a beautiful day. He figured it couldn’t hurt anything, as long as he stayed vigilant.
    “At least this gets us away from Richard. Dax isn’t all that pleasant himself at times, but at least he defended you,” Lucas offered by way of small talk.
    “Yeah. I know Richard is sick, so he’s not thinking straight. I only knew him as nice up until a couple of days ago. And I do miss my husband, desperately. But he’s not coming back, even if that seems too unreal to process right now. It’s just this whole thing is so surreal, and we don’t know what life we have left.”
    “No, I get it,” Lucas said. “Makes you think on things you wish you would have done differently, time you wish you would have spent with those you love.”
    “I keep wondering if my family is alright, but I don’t even have a phone. Figured I’d wait till we got to where we were going. I don’t want to use up anyone’s battery life in case we need the phone.”
    “That was my brother they were talking about on the radio—Dr. Benton. I don’t know if you heard that or me and Chase talking about it earlier.”
    “I did, and I’m sure he’s fine,” she soothed.
    A commotion at the van caught their attention. Richard had fallen out of the back of the van, his ropes falling off of him.
    “Shit, somehow he got out of the ropes,” Lucas exclaimed.
    “He has a gun,” Sherri screeched.
    They raced back toward the van as Richard aimed the gun at Dax. As they approached, Richard put the gun right to Dax’s head, metal against skin. As they skidded to a stop just short of Richard, Lucas pushed Sherri behind the side of the van.
    “Don’t move,” Richard commanded.

Chapter Seven
    At the edge of the tree line, a gas station came into view. Chase sighed, gaining a small, pained smile from Jayda. He noticed she looked a little pale, as well as tired like the rest of them.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. “You need a minute? I’m not trying to baby you, as I remember all too well how you hate that. I’m just genuinely concerned given the baby and all. It’s been hard on all of us, and we aren’t… well you know what I mean.”
    “Yes, I get it. You can stop rambling now. I’m not going to bite off your head for your concern,” she