Dead Is All You Get: A Dave Pulaski Thriller Audiobook

Music and credits.

It was that guy—the explorer—with the Oxford shirt, skinny jeans, and Tiger shoes. He was the one I worried about because he was wearing Google Glass…

The horde came from the east, driving us deeper into the forest. Warnick went ahead through the fog, his face grim, like the keynote speaker at a mortician’s convention…

We saw them in the sketchy patches of sunlight that broke through the trees. Hundreds. Lurching and ravenous, they moved like blood-soaked puppets on guy wires…

The horde descended like a swarm of locusts. Griffin, Holly, and I sprinted ahead. Warnick and Springer remained behind, covering us with a line of suppressive fire…

We flew over residential streets where draggers wandered like hungry ghosts in a perpetual twilight of damnation…

After the exams, we walked over to the administration building, where the gray-haired man who had rescued us waited with Warnick and Springer…

Pederman closed the door and sat at the principal’s desk. “Have a seat,” he said…

Holly and I were anxious to learn what happened at the Arkon building. And when Warnick and Springer returned, we ambushed them as they hurried to the administration building…

Evie interviewed a physician assistant outside an MMU, her notebook in hand. I almost didn’t recognize her…

We sat there, stunned. Holly moved closer to me, as if the words Evie uttered had the power to harm us. The reporter gave us a minute…

Thoughts of Jim and his dog swirled in my head. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Creasy was on that lonely highway…

hammer to the side of my head would have been less jarring. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I don’t usually weave—unless I’m drunk—but I tilted back as Holly reached for my arm…

For as long as I had known Warnick, I couldn’t recall a single time when he raised his voice to me. Holly and I stood like statues in a park…

Alone, I waited near the entrance to the maintenance shed. I’d forgotten a jacket and shivered in the cold October wind. Shadows played along the walls. I imagined draggers coming for me out of the darkness…

Dressed for work, I fastened the last button on my shirt. Holly stood in the tiny bathroom, arranging her hair in a military bun as Greta sat in the doorway, fascinated…

After lunch, Holly and I returned to Pederman’s office. We found him chatting with a fiftyish-looking woman who wore a gray suit and black high heels…

Holly and I spent the afternoon doing target practice, followed by a CrossFit workout in a weight training room just off the gym. The session nearly killed me, considering my bad shoulder and leg…

We found Griffin sitting on our trailer steps with the young Latino guard she had played cards with the day we arrived. He was a good-looking kid—bigger than I remembered. I noticed he didn’t carry a gun…

The news was all over the campus—Evie Champagne was dead. Warnick showed up at our trailer, looking sleep deprived. Inside, he laid into me…

Instead of returning to the command center, we decided to hang out in the cafeteria till Isaac completed the autopsy…

A tall African American woman showed up at our door. She was in her late twenties and wore a perfectly pressed uniform…

Blocking the entrance, Creasy glowered at his colleagues. “You’re trespassing,” he said to us…

Creasy lay on a bed in the building’s sleeping quarters with a bandaged head. His breathing sounded like a toy train whistle. Judith rolled up his sleeve, revealing a lost highway of black needle marks…

Holly and I had neglected to tell Warnick about the outbreak in that little Guatemalan village. And as he glowered at me, I wished we had…

The scientists walked us to a stairwell at the rear of the building. We headed downstairs to an alcove with a steel door…

I spent the night in jail—a first for me. And although I was certain Warnick and the others had followed me, they weren’t allowed inside…

After a breakfast of coffee and store-bought donuts, Hannity walked me outside, where a police cruiser was waiting. O’Brien sat in the front passenger seat. I didn’t like the way he smiled…

When we were alone, the mayor waved at a chair. I wasn’t exactly clean and worried I would soil his wife’s expensive fabric…

Hannity eyed me in the rearview mirror. I avoided his gaze. As we exited the gates, he started in. “You gotta understand,” he said…

Two yellow school buses pulled into the command center parking lot. Inside were the civilians from the Arkon building we’d rescued only weeks earlier…

We drove across town to a neighborhood near the 5 freeway, wearing body armor and helmets. I hadn’t been this close to the city limits in ages and didn’t know what to expect…

At the start of the outbreak, Holly and I and a group of survivors had gone to Royal Ranch Market to stock up on supplies. As we pulled into the parking lot, I thought of Landry, Ben, and his son Aaron—all dead now…

We were spellbound. Why didn’t the dragger try to bite us like all the others? Instead, it stared, wavering and weak. Its eyes pleading, and its arms outstretched. Wait, it had said in Spanish…

Isaac returned with a needle and syringe, several vials, and the cattle prod. He handed the device to Bud and instructed the twins on how to proceed…

Fabian found Holly, Griffin, and me in the cafeteria eating a late lunch of meatloaf that looked as if it had come from an episode of The Lazy Man’s Lunch…

Somehow, I’d convinced Warnick to go along with Isaac’s plan. Now we were on our way to the isolation facility. Though his instinct was to tell Pederman everything, I begged him to wait…

The coffee tasted like ass water. I pushed aside the cup and took a seat with the others…

In the late afternoon, we returned to the isolation facility with Griffin and Fabian. Getting permission to bring them along had been easier than I thought…

Seeing Ariel alive only hours earlier had given me hope there might be a way out of the crisis. But her death showed us that hope was an illusion. Like all the others, she had turned…

Warnick filled Pederman in on Isaac’s suggestion to collaborate with Robbin-Sear. Surprisingly, the supervisor seemed open to it…

Springer lobbed a grenade into the horde. The explosion was deafening and sent blobs of decaying flesh everywhere…

A helicopter flew us to the hospital, where they treated Steve Zimmer and the rest of the wounded. Pederman met us with an update. He’d just come from an emergency meeting with the mayor, who had ordered the trespassers to be expelled…

I didn’t know what was coming, and Warnick’s expression betrayed nothing. Springer, Holly, and I took our seats. On the table, manila folders stamped “Serious Incident Report” in red block letters awaited us…

Isaac stared at me like I’d asked him to help me bury a body. Holly and Warnick hung back, letting me take the brunt of the doctor’s ire…

On Sunday, we attended the only Mass of the day. The mayor had arranged for school buses to transport Catholics staying at the command center to St. Monica’s, a few blocks away…

Holly and Griffin walked down the steps arm-in-arm. Nearby, the priest chatted with the parents of two small children. The strange blessing he had given troubled me…

I had planned for us to grab lunch in the command center cafeteria. But Holly was still upset and returned to the trailer with Griffin…

The sky was clear as Warnick and I rode out to Robbin-Sear, with Springer driving Isaac and the Vollmer twins in a second Humvee. The previous night, Larry had contacted a Black Dragon patrol with a message for my friend. He and Judith had decided to cooperate…

Isaac lay on the floor, groaning in pain. One cop pointed his weapon at the Vollmer twins while the other covered Warnick and me. I was grateful Holly wasn’t here…