Read Online The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) by Suchitra Chatterjee - Free Book Online

head when he offered it to me. He gave a shaky little laugh and sat on what of the kitchen stools.
    “What’s up?” I asked him.
    “Everyone is dead,” he said taking us all by surprise.
    “How do you know that?” Adag said.
    “I have a radio,” he said and he took a large and long swallow from his glass, “From my military days, it’s not digital, it’s old school analogue, I found a channel, a military one…” his voice trailed away and then he realised that we hadn’t reacted, as we should. Surprised that he knew, but not shocked by his actual words.
    We had to tell him what we had seen on Phoenix’s computer and about the Drones.
    “We need to stay inside,” he said immediately, “They mustn’t know we are here.”
    “Phoenix said the same thing,” I said, “But he has conspiracy theories on the brain, but you…” my voice trailed off.
    “It was some kind of global experiment,” Mitch said licking his lips, “A test, it went wrong…really wrong.”
                  “What do you mean?” Seb frowned.
                  “Just that,” he said, “It was some kind of test and it went tits up…big time.”
                  “This is ridiculous,” Adag said.
                  It felt ridiculous, but it wasn’t. It was real.
                  “Why?” I asked.
                  “No idea,” Mitch shook his head, “No bloody idea…”
                  “Christ,” Seb exhaled.
    This was our first ground zero day. The day of the Twice Dead, though we didn’t know that part yet, the day the residents of the Thorncroft Home for the Disabled had to make its own stand and survive when others without all the additional shit we had going on, had been wiped out in a single moment.
                  Before we could discuss anything further, we heard the sound of a car horn, honking frantically, closely followed by the screech of rubber on gravel.
    “Gregory!” Adag jumped to her feet and was running out of the kitchen door a moment later.

Twice Dead - a new kind of Zombie reborn out of a nature based pathogen. The pathogen attacks the red blood cells in the body, clotting them into a ‘black goo’ which results in a sudden “death coma ” that can last up to 36 hours . The body physically dies and the pathogenic virus takes over the husk, reanimating it. However, the husk is also dead despite the reanimation, hence the term Twice Dead. The Twice Dead are human flesh eaters, both of the living and their own kind. Unlike the stereotypical Zombie, the Twice Dead appear to have a collective intelligence that is evolving on a day-by-day basis both physically and mentally.
     
    W e all followed Adag out of the kitchen, Mitch first, with Seb steering his chair swiftly around all obstacles until we were outside.
                  Gregory’s car had skidded to a halt in front of the Home’s front entrance. As we got to the front door, we witnessed the car door swing open and Gregory literally fall out onto the gravel pathway. It took a moment for us to take in the physical state of him.
    There was blood all over his clothes, he sat down on the gravel with a crunch, legs straight out, staring into space as Adag knelt beside him, speaking to him, but he didn’t respond, at least not at first. There was a white froth on his bitten lips and what was even worse there was an ugly, deep oozing wound on the left side of his neck.
                  I went to look in the car, but there was no Shannon in the passenger seat.
                  “Where’s Shannon?” Adag heard me and got up, hurrying over to the car.
                  Mitch had run back into the building and returned moments later with a quilt from one of the resident’s rooms. He flung it around Gregory’s shoulders and this seemed to revive the man.
                  “Mitch?” he said, his eyes