Read Online Decay (Book 1): Civilization by Linus Locke - Free Book Online Page A

broadcast during major power outages. However, the board of directors felt that was an unnecessary use of finances, as there was very rarely a large scale power outage in the area.
    Bradley, Emalynn, and Roger managed to survive through the year living in the top three floors of the building. Food was becoming increasingly hard to come by, and Bradley felt that they would have to move along soon or starve to death. The gunshot they heard had given him hope, though. He wanted nothing more than for that to be a signal of some kind, but it was never followed up. There was no announcement of a safe house or rescue, yet he kept watch in the direction the shot came from.
    He found that he grew fond of Emalynn, but he couldn’t find it in him to confront her romantically even though he sensed the same feelings from her. Instead he kept close to her like a big brother safe-guarding his kid sister from the neighborhood boys. He knew they both deserved to find love, yet he wouldn’t feel right knowing that their love came from a lack of options or even as a survival mechanism. There was still life out there, he knew it. Finding Emalynn a safe home was his only priority now.
    In the days following the gunshot, Bradley took watch out the windows of the fourth floor facing east toward the hills. He moved Emalynn up there with him to keep her close. Roger’s office was just down the hall. Roger spent all of his time in there, and could often be heard shouting and beating on the walls. He was only seen when Bradley came back with more food, but as that had happened less and less, Roger became very irritable.
    As the sun started making its decent to the west, Bradley caught the sight of a small object flashing in the distance. It was much too small to tell for sure what it was, but he definitely saw it. The flash appeared to come from either the roof of a house or the hills behind it. Bradley wasn’t familiar with Morse code, yet this seemed too haphazard to be any kind of distinctive pattern. It wasn’t there before, and as soon as it had stopped he knew it was definitely a human.

 
    Chapter 5
    Jonathan sat on his roof once more watching the dead roam the streets. His gunshot must have stirred them up, as he noticed that over the past couple of days they had been settling back down. They no longer roamed the town with such vigor, yet they surely did not disappear he knew.
    “They must settle in somewhere,” he said under his breath as he scanned the houses.
    He turned his attention from the streets to the sky. The sun cast its radiance over the ocean, creating swirls of orange and purple. It was like watching a dance performed with melted wax.
    After allowing himself to be lost in the beauty of the world for what seemed like eternity, he decided to head back inside to continue sorting out his father’s story. He was unaware that the gunshot had alerted more than the dead to his presence, and that his binoculars had been reflecting the sun. This was sending a signal to several survivors that would soon come to find him.

 
    Chapter 6
    Emalynn turned to her back and slowly sat up blinking the sleep from her eyes. She looked around to find Bradley sitting against the wall looking out the window. “Anything happening out there? Anything new that is?” she questioned as she stretched her arms far over her head.
    “We are going to have to move. Someone is there, but they are too far away to see or even signal from here with the limited resources we have,” Bradley stated.
    “We will be killed if we leave.”
    “We will die of starvation if we stay. Besides, I think I can go out and clear a new spot for us to hide. We can make our way slowly day to day moving from place to place.” Bradley could see that this scared the young woman, but he knew it was the only way they would make it. “I’ll make sure you get out of this. I promise you that.”
    Emalynn sat down beside him at the window and pressed her warm body into his. She