When the Dead Rise (Book 1): The Beginning Read Online Free Page B

flesh was consumed.
    He continued to eat, filling himself with warmth, savouring every bite. The last remnants of the man who'd once had a wife, a home, a job, a life; slipped away leaving only the primal behind. When the zombie rose from his meal his only thoughts were on where he'd find the next living flesh and the hunger which would never be satisfied.
     

Volume 2: And it All Began with a Bite
    A day like any other...
    Maggie, her arms full of groceries, tossed the keys on the small table in the entryway and kicked the door closed behind her. She hurried into the kitchen to put the perishables into the fridge and begin preparation of dinner for herself and her boyfriend Tyrone.
    Maggie was a nurse at the Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio, Texas while Tyrone, also trained as a nurse, worked for Synergy Pharmaceuticals. It irritated her to no end that he wasn't allowed to discuss the details of his position with her, but his weekly paycheck more than made up for the lack of communication in that area. In addition, he never brought home baggage from work, unlike herself. Maggie worked in the terminal care wing of the hospital and what she witnessed on a daily basis left her emotionally drained by the end of her shifts. Today had been an especially hard day for Maggie; she'd lost a seven-year-old boy to leukemia and was looking forward to spending a mind numbing night in front of the television.
    As she began to prepare a simple dinner of steamed vegetables and barbecued chicken, Maggie turned on the radio to keep her mind distracted from wandering to thoughts of the boy. Just as she brought the chicken into the house, she heard Tyrone's car pull into the driveway.
    After washing off her hands, she stuck her head out the side window and called to Tyrone. "Make sure to leave me enough room to leave in the morning - I need to be in for six-thirty." Without waiting for a reply, Maggie pulled her head back inside and closed the window before returning to dinner preparations. When the front door slammed, she turned to greet Tyrone with a smile, but it quickly faded when she took in his paler than usual complexion and the gauze bandage wrapped around his forearm. "What happened?" She hurried over to him as he sunk into the nearest chair.
    "It's nothing," Tyrone growled in a tone that warned Maggie not to push him too far.
    Her immediate instinct was to check his temperature; his skin was burning beneath her touch. When she reached down to check the wound's wrapping, he pulled it from her reach.
    "Don't touch it Maggie," he growled again.
    With such a high fever, she wasn’t going to put up with his attitude for a minute longer. Putting her hands on her hips, Maggie glared down at the big man. "Tyrone Martell Evans," she smirked when he flinched at her use of his full name, "you will allow me to look at that wound and you will not argue with me about it. I've had a hard enough day without you fighting me over simple first-aid."
    Tyrone looked up at Maggie with his large brown, blood-shot eyes. "Peter?" Maggie nodded, struggling to hold back the tears that suddenly sprung up. "I'm sorry darling," he said gently, as he squeezed her hand in a sympathetic gesture and nodded towards the sink. "Do what you need to do."
    Maggie hurried over to the sink, glad for a moment to collect herself, and dug out the extensive first-aid kit she kept for occasions such as these. While a bowl filled with water, she grabbed several clean dishtowels from the drawer. Placing the bowl of warm, clean water on the table, Maggie sat in a chair opposite him and began to unwrap his arm. She gasped when the wound was finally visible. "Is this a human bite mark?"
    "Yeah, I was restraining a guy at work today..." Maggie looked up, shocked at Tyrone's sudden willingness to share about his day. She began to ask why he needed to restrain a man at a pharmaceutical company, but Tyrone held up a hand. "I am unable to discuss the man or why he needed to be