Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End by Daniel Cotton

that has broken is one of the foyer lamps by the dimming of the light available to him. The bulb has been spared, casting its glow across the floor.
    A shadow steps in the focused rays of light, a giant shambling figure is cast along the floor and wall. Shuffling feet and moans keep the boys frozen to the stairs, they just wait for the mystery to reveal itself to them.
    House slippers take lazy, scraping steps into their field of vision. Aimless strides they know to be their sitter. Relief is short lived, Killian worries the woman may be sick considering her moaning and odd behavior.
    “Mrs. Krantz?” he calls down to her. “Are you all right?”
    There is no response from their nice neighbor. The boys watch as her wandering feet falter slightly before heading their way.
     
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    Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight? Luke follows a police cruiser through the swelling madness of the city as he rushes to his grandsons. The horse is pushed harder than it’s used to, steam pours from its nostrils like a locomotive in the frosty night air. Luke has had to make several detours, each one filling him with dread about what may be happening to the boys. The streets are even worse than before.
    Intersections are clogged with cars. Response vehicles sit with their lights flashing unattended. Worst of all is the people, left with no recourse they run. Panicked folks seek safety, running from those stricken with madness. Luke passes what he fears for the boys, deranged individuals driven by an insane need to bite their fellow man. One such person has a victim on the sidewalk, she hunches over him as she makes a meal of his throat.
    Luke has to look back to be sure he saw what he saw. More like the mad woman join the feast, falling to their knees to tear into the poor man. In his glimpse of the carnage he notices that the perpetrators have themselves been bitten. He thinks of Callahan, he was bitten at the scene of the wreck. Already infracting a few laws he adds using his phone while driving to the list.
    The line rings for a while before being picked up. Though he had dialed his old partner, a younger voice answers.
    “Where’s Callahan?” Luke asks.
    “He’s gone. Who is this?” Luke is asked by who he assumes to be Murphy, the rookie he had met that night.
    “Murphy? This is Luke Stemmer, we met tonight.”
    “Santa?”
    “Yeah, that’s right, it’s Santa. What happened to Callahan?”
    “Gone,” the cop answers sadly. “After we left the crash, we made it to a few more calls, mostly domestics. He got bit, later he just started sweating and saying his insides were on fire. The hospitals were chaos, so we took a break at the station. He lied down… then he got up…”
    “Did he attack anyone?”
    “Yes,” the rookie says, almost sounding relieved that someone understands what he saw. “It’s the bite. It makes people go crazy.”
    “Was anyone hurt?”
    “No. I took him to the ground. Then we tossed him in a holding cell.” The young man trails off. Luke can hear moaning coming from the other end of the line. “I’m looking at him now. He just… wants to get at me.”
    “Has anyone called the CDC? Or, for back-up from the National Guard?”
    “I dunno,” the cop answers, the night has certainly taken its toll on him.
    “Find out for me, will you? I’m on my way to check on something.”
    The cop car he has been following veers off to wherever it has been called to. It’s a relatively straight shot to his daughter’s house from his current location, barring any obstacles. He coaxes as much speed out of his horse as he can wanting to get to the boys before someone, or something, else does.
     
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    “Maybe you should lay down,” Killian suggests, descending the stairs to meet the woman at the landing. “I’ll call my mom.”
    The old woman continues to shuffle closer, she reaches out for him moaning sadly as if asking for assistance.
    “What’s wrong with her,” Hippo asks, following