Read Online The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] by L.D. King - Free Book Online

for the rest of their lives they would be running.
    Today
they did not know how bad it was going to get.
    With
any luck, they might stay alive to witness the world die.
     
     

Chapter
2
    Mazatlan, Mexico
     
    It was
early on Friday morning, August 15, 2036, while it was still dark, that he first
heard the screams. No one in their home who heard it knew what was happening
outside. Those who were awakened by the screams lay in their beds, hoping it
was only a bad dream.
    When
they heard the first screams, they looked at their bedside clocks and realized
that it was still two hours until the time they would normally get up to start
their work day.
    The
family owned a tourist booth on a nearby dock right where the cruise ships
docked. Cruise ships came to Mazatlan three days a week during the summer
cruise season. This provided the main source of income for most of the families
which operated booths on the pier.
    They had
three hours to get ready before today’s cruise ship would dock. Their goal was
to be set up and ready to hawk their souvenirs to the tourists disembarking
from the ship. They didn’t want to miss a single opportunity while the pier was
full of tourists with their fists full of money to spend. They had never missed
meeting a ship.
    It was
about 2:30 AM when 39-year old Gumercindo Ortega was awakened by the screams.
He lay on his bed listening, wondering what was happening. He didn’t move. He
lay staring at the ceiling so he would not wake his wife, Esperana, a year
younger than he.
    Lying
there, he had a sinking feeling about the day’s prospects. After some time,
just before it was time for their alarm clock to go off, he reached over to his
wife, gently shaking her in order to wake her.
    Esperana
opened her eyes and looked at her husband, smiling. Gumercindo wished that he
was as sound a sleeper as she was. Once he got to sleep, it didn’t take much to
wake him.
    He
smiled back at his wife, telling her good morning. He got up, used the bathroom
and got dressed quickly. He went to their son’s bedroom. Maurico was 20 years
old. Gumercindo lightly knocked on his door. Maurico called to him: “Good
morning, Father. I’m awake. I’ll be ready for breakfast soon.”
    Gumercindo
continued down the short hallway. Their middle child, Lucinda, was eleven.
After knocking, he called through the door, “Lucinda, it’s time to get up.
Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”
    “I am
awake, Father,” she answered him. “I have been since the screams started last
night. Is everything all right? I was scared!”
    “I don’t
know. All I heard was the screams. No gunshots, nothing. If we keep to
ourselves, we should be fine.”
    The
last bedroom door belonged to the family’s oldest daughter, Annalicia, age 14.
Gumercindo knocked on her door, telling her it was time to get up. She
answered, “Father, I’m awake. The people screaming outside have kept me awake. I
will be down for breakfast soon. Thank you, Father.”
    Gumercindo
turned and went downstairs to the kitchen. Esperana was there already, making
breakfast for all of them.
    Gumercindo
was the oldest of nine children: six boys and three girls. They lived on a
small plot of land, growing vegetables. They sold their produce to restaurants
in town. It was hard work. His father was out in their fields at first light,
and Gumercindo his brothers joined him each day after they had their breakfast.
They toiled all day, bent over their crops, pulling weeds, building frames for
the tomatoes, guiding the water down each row to water their crops, and picking
the bad fruit off of the plants.
    When
it was time to harvest, they would fill the orders that his mother and the
three daughters had taken the day before. All the day’s orders had to be
picked, cleaned, packaged, and delivered before 10:00 AM so the restaurants
could be ready for their lunch rush.
    After
Gumercindo’s father died, his mother sold the farm and moved them into the
city. With the