Read Online Crusade (Eden Book 2) by Tony Monchinski - Free Book Online

back gasping and coughing.
     
    “Oh Christ—oh Christ—oh Christ.”
     
    He scrambled back away from his sleeping bag and away from the fire around which the five rested that night. Julie and Gwen had been roused from their sleep by the struggle and sat staring wide-eyed in their sleeping bags, not comprehending. Julie had one hand wrapped around the out-sized .357, the other around her .380.
     
    Bear crouched next to Mickey, speaking to him and rubbing his back, and Mickey coughed a few more times, shaking his head.
     
    “Mickey, Mickey, listen, oh Christ man, I’m sorry, I—” He didn’t know what to say but he needed to say something.
     
    The moon was full in the sky and their camp in the clearing was well lit. Around them was snow and pine trees and off to the left the train tracks and the sluggish, icy river.
     
    “I’m okay, I’m alright.” Mickey said to Bear. Bear looked up from him to Buddy and stared at the latter, thinking.
     
    “What happened?” asked Julie.
     
    “Nothing, it’s okay.” Gwen assured the pregnant woman, closing one of her hands over the hand Julie gripped the Colt Python in, pushing it down, then doing the same thing for the Taurus .380 she held in the other.
     
    “I was dreaming. They were coming for me…” Buddy was sitting up and pulling on his boots.
     
    “You were whimpering in your sleep.” Mickey’s voice was hoarse. “I tried to wake you.”
     
    “God, I’m so sorry, I’m—”
     
    “Okay, Buddy. It’s okay.” Mickey sounded like a frog, “I know you didn’t mean it.”
     
    Buddy paced around the fire. “I…I...”
     
    “I get it. It’s okay. I know it won’t happen again.”
     
    “I swear, I’d—no, you’re right, it won’t happen again. It’s me man. I’m sorry.”
     
    Mickey nodded. Bear continued to crouch next to him, eyeing Buddy.
     
    Why’s the big guy eye-fucking you, Jig ?
     
    “Oh shut up,” Buddy muttered a little too loud, aware that he was answering a voice only he heard. He shook his head and said, “Nothing, never mind,” to the group then walked off into the dark away from them and the fire. He silently cursed himself.
     
    When he had his head straight he went back to the others. They were all sitting around the fire but no one was speaking. He knew they must have talked about him, about what had happened. Somewhere in the back of his mind a venomous voice assured him he was right.
     
    “You okay Mickey?” asked Julie.
     
    “Yeah, yeah, I just need a minute,” He stood and walked off in the opposite direction Buddy had come from, taking his assault shotgun with him. It was a USAS-12 auto-shotgun, though he never fired it on full auto. No need with zombies. The twenty-round drum magazine added some weight to it, but it was a big, blunt looking weapon, and for Mickey, a guy who didn’t know much about guns, its fierce-look was reassuring.
     
    He hacked and spat in the night. His throat was raw.
     
    Buddy had almost killed him. He shook his head. Mickey was scared. The Buddy thing, yes, but…he had noticed the scabs on his chest and stomach the day before when he’d tried to clean himself up at a stream. Small patches of his skin were discolored. He felt okay. He hadn’t been bitten. He thought he knew what it was: plague . But if it was plague, wouldn’t he be feeling worse? He’d seen people in Eden come down with the plague. They’d been quarantined because they were contagious. All of them had died.
     
    Mickey wondered if he was contagious. If he was… If he was then it was already too late for Gwen and Bear and Buddy, for Julie and her baby. Mickey felt selfish. A part of him knew he should have told the others as soon as he’d found the scabs on his body. But he was scared. Mickey didn’t kid himself. He could kill a zombie if he had to, and he had. But he was no tough guy. He wasn’t like Buddy or Bear. He wasn’t even like Harris or Bobby had been. A part of him detested himself. He