Resurrection (Eden Book 3) Read Online Free

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    Evan had never actually seen a Zed in the wild. Sure, they were out there, but they were either deep in the hot zones or they were just plain stupid and couldn’t find their way to the wall. He knew, from the history they taught in the schools of New Harmony, that Zed had once been heavy at this wall. Evan knew that tens of thousands of them had fallen here, right around where he stood. But that had been years ago, when Evan was just a little boy, and civilization was getting back on its feet.
    His instructors in The Guard had taught him how to fire weapons and use blunt instruments against live targets. Well, dead targets. The Guard kept a supply of zombies for weapons practice. Evan had a buddy in school who had gone on to work as a tech, conducting experiments on the undead, trying to learn what could be learned from them, anything that might help humans help themselves.
    The Guard was something everyone had to do. It was expected. There were no exceptions, unless you were laid up and dying from the cancers. Sure, you could defer for a few years, do your time when you were twenty-two or three instead of seventeen, but you’d do your time.
    Evan thought that was a good thing.
    Everyone got to see firsthand what they were up against. Everyone got a sense of what this world they had inherited was about. Everyone learned survival skills. Their enemy, though he was fewer in number today than he had been a decade or two back, was nonetheless just as uncompromising as he’d always been. So everyone had to learn how to put Zed down.
    This was Evan’s fifth night on the wall. He’d be returning inland later this morning for his four weeks vacation. Oil his rifle and sidearm every other day instead of every day, catch some decent meals, maybe see a movie. Hit that party Anthony had told him about before they set out camping tomorrow. Anthony, his best friend.
    As Evan stood atop the wall and stared off into the distance, looking for any sign of activity, he thought about his friend and he felt bad. Nicki had broken up with Anthony a couple of weeks back. It was a fact of life, sure, but it sucked. Anthony, Evan knew, had been head over heels for her. And it was easy to see why. Nicki was a nice girl and she was hot. They would have made a good pairing, had some handsome kids if the radiation didn’t spoil them.
    Evan had been in love before. Had his heart broken. Wendy. She’d left him when he was in The Guard. He’d kidded himself that they’d be able to maintain the relationship while he was away. She hadn’t. She sent him a letter. In school he’d learned about these things—what they used to call a Dear John letter. She was paired up with another man now, a man who had returned from his Guard service just as Evan was starting his. Presumably Wendy and the guy had hooked up shortly thereafter.
    Wendy was pregnant. Another month or two, she and her man would have their first baby. Evan hoped it would be okay, be normal. There was a lot of radiation in the atmosphere. He had no time for petty jealousy. Like his friend, Anthony, Evan was twenty-one, healthy, and single.
    Evan was kind of in love now. Okay, he’d have to admit, if pressed, maybe not love—but it could bloom into that. Infatuation, definitely . The object of his attention was Riley, Anthony’s sister. Evan had been attracted to her since he’d known Anthony, which was what? They’d been friends since they were kids. Riley was three years older than Evan. In the past, this had been a deterrent to him. But Evan was a man now. He’d finished his schooling and served his stint in The Guard. He had a job, a career he was growing to really enjoy.
    Evan kept tabs on Riley from a distance. When she’d started dating Alex, Evan hadn’t really been happy. It wasn’t because Alex was a bad guy, because he wasn’t. Alex was a good guy. But Evan suspected, from things Anthony said, from things Troi and Riley said when the four of them were hanging out,