Dead Days: The Complete Season Two Collection Read Online Free Page A

long left, now.
    The further he got into the woods, the steeper the path seemed to be going. Fuck, he’d probably pass out and die before he even found a place comfortable enough to die in. He’d probably die before he reached the top of this hill.
    Deep breaths, Riley. Come on. You can do this. Keep moving.
    Just before he’d got into the woods, he’d made the best attempt he could at wrapping his shirt around his leg. It didn’t seem to have worked‌—‌blood had already soaked through the material. And now he was freezing. His lips were cold as ice. His teeth chattered, rattling his skull. If the blood loss didn’t kill him, hypothermia would. Typical. Survive a month of a zombie apocalypse and end up dying of the frigging cold. Just typical.
    A rustling up ahead. Larger this time. Larger than the small, presumably animal footsteps. He looked up. Looked to his left and to his right, but he couldn’t see a thing. Just the dark, tall silhouettes of the trees, watching him, peering down at him, judging him.
    And then, a light.
    He wasn’t sure how far away it was because it was hard to judge distance in this place. But there it was. A small, round light, shining up ahead, up the top of the path.
    He took a step forward. It could be one of his group. It could be Pedro, or Anna or Claudia or Chloë. It could be one of them.
    He stopped. It could be another group. An outsider.
    Somebody like Ivan.
    But fuck. He was dying here. He was dying, and he wouldn’t know until he‌—‌
    The light disappeared.
    Riley froze on the spot as he was engulfed in complete darkness again. The light had gone. Shit. Whatever it was, they didn’t know he was out here. They could help him. They could help him, but only if they knew he was here.
    “Hey!” he shouted and crept a bit faster up the steep path. “Hey! Please, I…‌‌I need help. Please.”
    He heard himself in his mind. What the fuck was he doing? If there were any creatures in here‌—‌which he assumed there would be after the confrontation on the beach‌—‌they’d be all over him in no time.
    But he didn’t have much choice. He had to try to survive. Even if it meant dying and coming back undead trying.
    “Hey!” he shouted again, taking another step.
    This time, his foot didn’t hit the ground.
    It went right through into an open space. All of his weight followed. All of the weight that he’d put on his good leg followed, and before he knew it, his whole body was falling down this empty space, falling off the path, falling into whatever fate lay below.
    He felt the smack on the right side of his body. It winded him, like a strong punch to the gut. He turned over onto his back, coughing and spluttering again, unable to stop, unable to resist.
    The pain was intense and all through his body now. He couldn’t move. He was still, completely still as he looked up at the starry sky and the tops of the trees, and he watched, waited as his vision blurred, waited as he passed through into whatever awaited him after life.
    As his eyes closed, he swore he saw a little light again, just above his head.

Chapter Three
    The searing pain in his head was still there.
    Wait. He could feel pain. In his head and…‌‌and shit, still in his leg. His heart picked up in pace. He could feel . He should be dead. Had he just drifted in and out of consciousness? Was he dying? Was this what dying felt like?
    He opened his eyes and immediately regretted doing so.
    It was light above him. The light. It must’ve been that light. The light at the end of the tunnel.
    Or the light he’d seen in the distance. Maybe they were the same thing. Maybe he’d been dying all along. He tried to ease his eyes open. He was ready to stare into it now. Ready to go. Ready to…‌
    When he opened his eyes this time, there wasn’t a light in front of him.
    There was a person.
    “Welcome back to reality, bruv.”
    Riley blinked a few times to try to get rid of the blurriness from his vision.