This Dying World: The End Begins (33 page)

Epilogue Two

Chris stood at the hallway window, watching Dan cross the driveway into the slaughter room again.  It had been days since Abby had been laid to rest, and Dan had all but withdrawn from everyone in the house, except for Katie.  But she seemed to be doing her best to avoid her father.

Dan spent most of his time locked away in the bedroom, or down in the slaughter house.  He tried to ask him once what he was doing in there, but Dan only shot him a look that told him to drop the subject.

Chris’ worry for his brother is what drove him to break his own rules on privacy.  When he was sure Dan would be out for a while, he let himself into Dan’s room.  The room the group had decided to give him and Katie to mourn in private.

He glanced around the small guest room, looking for anything out of the ordinary.  On the dresser was Abby’s wedding ring, her engagement ring sitting next to it.  A spent shell sat beside them, and Chris guessed it was the one Dan had meant for Adam.

Chris turned to leave, his guilt catching up with him for spying on his brother, when he saw Dan’s Glock sitting on the bed.  Next to it sat Chris’ whittling knife.  He picked up the weapon, and found words scratched into both sides of the slide.  When he read them aloud, he felt his blood run cold.  For the first time since the dead started to walk the earth, he was not afraid
for
his brother.  He was afraid
of
him.

“ABANDON ALL HOPE”

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Dean lives in Northwest Illinois with his wife Sarah, and his children.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois and has lived with his mother and three brothers until he struck out on his own in his late teens.  He’s lived in Chicago most of his adult life, until marrying and moving to the suburbs.

James has been writing for years, but it wasn’t until recently he decided to try his hand at a full length novel.  Prior to tackling zombies, he’s written in several different genres, including sword and sorcery, paranormal thriller, and psychological horror.  His latest short story, The Professor, has made its way into the award winning anthology All Things Zombie: The Gathering Horde.

James has an author’s Facebook page that can be found at
www.facebook.com/jdean1975
.  If you enjoy his writing, please join up and send him a message.  He will always try to respond to all messages.

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this book, please do the author a BIG favor and visit Amazon.com to write a review!

Special Thanks

There are so many people I would like to thank that I could probably add another dozen or more pages to this book.  If you were not listed here, please don’t take offense.  You have not been forgotten.

Of course I have to thank my lovely wife Sarah who put up with me while I had my head buried in my laptop every night.

Special thanks to Eric A. Shelman for your friendship and support.  I know I couldn’t have gotten to where I am now without your help. And thank you Linda Shelman for being awesome.  You seriously are good people, and Sarah and I are happy to know you both.

Thanks to my brothers Jason and Chris Dean for letting me bounce ideas off them.  To my best friends Matt Davis and Big Mark Lewin for resting their fates in my hands. (You’ll probably regret it)

Thanks to Mark Tufo for inspiring me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) again.  Thanks to Jeff Clare, Danielle Pascale, and the rest of the ATZ crew who like to keep the writing fires stoked.

Thanks to Lana Sibley for your support…you need to keep writing!  I’m not going to stop pestering you.

A very special thanks to my proof reader Ramona Martine, and my beta readers, Giles Batchelor, Claire Smith, and Cassie Del Valle. You guys amazed me with the hard work you put into helping me make this book what it is.