Read Online Until the End by Tracey Ward - Free Book Online Page A

things that happened yesterday evening and his door was zombie free when I arrived home. A part of this story is missing, a big part, but I don’t press for it because I’m sure he has his reasons for the omission. Besides, I’m keeping secrets of my own so who am I to judge?
    We start trading back and forth on the rowing as the morning presses into afternoon. I offered to take a turn several times during the early morning, but Jordan shook his head and rowed on. He obviously has something on his mind, something I’d bet anything is related to the missing piece of his story, and somehow the rowing seems to help him. He was sweaty and his arms were shaking by the time he let me take over and I wanted to say something to him but I kept quiet. We have to stop every time we switch, pulling over to the shore and trading places on land. On this last swap, we decided to stop at a park and eat a small lunch in the shade. Both of us are pink from the sun and I’m thinking we need to find sunscreen sooner rather than later.
    “How’s your Milky Way?” he asks, crunching a Cheetoh, his fingers Oompa Loompa Orange from the coating. He’s not the kind that licks them clean after each chip and I admire the restraint. Boy has manners, even in the end of days.
    “Phenomenal. How’re your chips treatin’ ya?”
    He frowns. “Stale.”
    “You should write the company, get a refund.”
    He chuckles. “ Dear Cheetoh Zombie Overlord ,”
    “I’m sorry, ‘overlord’?”
    “He’s probably one of the wealthiest zombies on the planet. He’ll be an overlord by the weekend.”
    “You are so weird.”
    “You’re so rigid.”
    “Hey!” I toss my wadded up candy wrapper at his face. “I am not rigid.”
    “You packed wet naps.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry that I don’t like being filthy.”
    “The world is ending. We’re killing zombies. Dirty hands are acceptable.” he says, wiggling his grubby fingers at me.
    “The world isn’t ending.” Quietly says the girl who just classified these as the “end of days”. It’s one thing to think it in my head, it’s entirely another to hear him say it.
    We haven’t seen much of anyone, living or dead, not since the incident on the shore. That little tidbit we picked up, that they’re ambulatory for almost half an hour before they slow down, is still haunting us both. No wonder this spread so fast. We keep finding little pockets of the city that plainly show the chaos that took place last night. That’s still taking place today. Sirens wail in the distance in some areas but they aren’t emergency vehicles. They’re fire and burglar alarms. Stores and houses are being ransacked, some of them even burned. Throughout the day, plumes of smoke have started to appear across the sky line and I’m so grateful to Jordan that he brought me with him, that he didn’t let me stay in that apartment alone. The situation is worsening here and help does not appear to be on the way.
    We’ve seen others on the river. A few, not many, and we don’t speak as we pass each other. Grim looks and heavy nods are all that pass between us, because really what is there to say?
    “The world we knew,” Jordan counters. “That one is ending.”
    I nod, admitting he’s right. “No more movies.”
    “No more Michael Bay films. Pro.”
    “We’re living a Michael Bay film. Con.”
    “No more reality TV. Pro.”
    “No more Kardashian tabloid covers. Big pro.”
    “No more Kardashian sex tapes. Con.” he says sadly.
    “Gross.” I reply judgingly. “You didn’t actually watch it, did you?”
    Jordan shrugs and smirks at me. “I’m a man with internet access. What do you think?”
    “Gross.” I repeat
    “No more fast food.”
    “This could be the last Milky Way I ever eat.”
    “No more Twinkies.”
    “They’re already gone, remember? Bankrupt.”
    “Shit, that’s right. Wow. Pluto isn’t a planet anymore, Twinkies are extinct and zombies walk the earth.”
    “If that doesn’t spell