Read Online Infected Freaks (Book 2): The Echo of Decay by Jason Borrego - Free Book Online

with his face every morning. His muscular physique made him look like a bad boy, and Sam had enough bad-boy boyfriends in the past to make her sick. Still, he was the finest thing she had seen in years. She thought of Hunter and told herself he was only a boy. She needed a man. It was ignorant, but an unmistakable emotion that pained her confusing thoughts. The pit of her stomach was locked in a vice of teenage confusion and anxiety. Abraham told her not to trust the mechanics. However, she couldn’t take her eyes off his pulsating muscles as he remained crouched next to the vehicle.
    He’ll keep me alive, she thought, swallowing hard. Scott was a durable man, and that meant something in this world. She almost liked the way he looked at her with no love or enthusiasm. Scott was all business. The first part of their journey was without incident across several abandoned blocks of the ruined town. Now they were about to head into infected territory. She would see what this savage man was capable of against the freaks.
    “Are you ready?” he asked.
    “Am I ready?” she repeated, trying to be curt with him, but the man didn’t seem to care. “I mean, yes.”
    He lifted his hunting knife tethered to an extensive metal rod and squeezed his forearm. Then he let out a trifling breath and darted to the next vehicle in the obscure parking lot stuffed with shadows. He looked back and waved his massive hand for her to follow. Scott made it look easy as he weaved ahead. Why then, when she pushed off the ground, did she feel awkward? Get it together, girl.
    Sam wobbled through the metal shells of what used to be working cars, kicking rocks and anything else that littered the asphalt. She was no scientist, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that some of Bob explosives must have leveled the area in the past. It was a short run, but it felt long and tiring like a marathon. The whisking clouds blocked Red Dead, and for that, she was grateful. However, the terrible buzzing sound rode hard through the shrill night.
    “We don’t have much time,” he whispered back to her.
    Scott wore a manly scent that lingered out of his every pore and continued to excite Sam’s senses. She watched him scan the distance between the school and the parking lot, infatuated. Then she wondered if his strong scent was going to attract the infected freaks. Sweating in the cold breeze wasn’t her ideal look, but she couldn’t help herself. For reasons unknown, she felt unpleasant. This isn’t a date.
    Still, she joined Scott at the front of the vehicle and slipped somewhat out of her gray coat. It was chilly on this autumn night, but the silly girl wanted to look her best for this handsome stranger. After a few seconds, she shrugged the comfortable coat back on and tried to gather herself in a realistic manner. For some strange reason she found herself thinking of Hunter again.
    Then and there, a loud buzzing erupted behind them. It brought the tiny hairs on her neck up in a hurry. “Were trapped,” she said.
    “Shut up,” he replied, crawling ahead. He slithered up like a snake under a worn bus, rusted out through the years. Sam trailed closely, afraid of being left behind. In front of her, a series of swollen ankles in broken heels bopped across the asphalt. The rotten odor stung Sam’s eyes as the freak kept pace around the vehicle. The whines of the monsters in the distance increased tenfold and drew the freaks attention. She felt better when the corpse staggered around another vehicle in the parking lot, responding to the call of its kin.
    A sudden crash of thunder brought Sam to a scramble and the buzzing sound that followed brought Scott out from under the bus in a straight shot toward a standing fence encircling the school. He scooted around a bend of trees and dug through a large opening under the fence and continued on toward a Dumpster. Sam was amazed at how fast she followed. It had to be the mounting fear.
    Her body was close to his. She