Read Online Infection Z (Book 2) by Ryan Casey - Free Book Online

away.
    The zombies at the front of the pack were just six metres away, and they were running.
    “Sarah, you—”
    “I’ll let you get a head start. Newbie definitely needs one. Now hurry up and go.”
    Hayden frowned. The zombies were so close. So close to reaching her, so close to tearing her apart. “But you’ll … you’ll—”
    “I can handle my-pissing-self, alright?” she said. “Now go!”
    Hayden didn’t need any extra encouragement.
    He turned and he ran as fast as he could in the direction of the trees, in the direction of Newbie and the direction of Clarice.
    He heard the gasping drift further behind him, heard Sarah rattling at the fences, goading the zombies to come closer. He didn’t know what she was doing. What she was thinking. But whatever it was seemed to be working.
    He ran through the crippling aches in his knees and the dizziness in his head and the thirst and the hunger and everything.
    He swung at the zombies that wandered through the trees towards him. He swung, even though his arm was exhausted, even though his body was completely and utterly spent.
    He ran and ran and ran.
    When he got into the middle of the woods and he hadn’t heard or seen the zombies for a while, he turned and looked back through the trees.
    He couldn’t see the bunker. He couldn’t see the safe haven.
    And he couldn’t see Sarah.
    He felt a hand on his arm.
    “Come on,” Newbie said. “We … we need to move.”
    Hayden thought of asking about Sarah. Asking what they could do for her. Whether they could go back and help her. Or wait for her, at least.
    But then he heard the gasps echo from the other side of the trees and he knew she was gone.
    He knew that safety itself was gone.
    He turned, put an arm around his sister’s shoulders, and together they ran further into the unknown.

Twelve
    H ayden had no idea how long the three of them had been traipsing through the desolate woods and over the barren hills when he finally had to stop.
    His legs wracked with the pain of all the running he’d done. His lungs were weak and raspy. Sweat dripped down his face and coated his entire body, but the temperature was so low that it felt like he was taking a cold water shower that he couldn’t step out of. He could taste all kinds of combinations of foods he wanted—burgers, curries, chips, all sorts of fatty and greasy products—but couldn’t have. Foods he hadn’t been able to have since the world fell apart just over a week ago.
    And now the three of them were being expected to march on to Warrington.
    Clarice rested her hands on her knees as they stood at the top of a field. It wasn’t particularly distinctive. The sun was low and the frosty ground was beginning to thaw out, just in time for it to freeze all over again that night. In the distance, Hayden could see a motorway filled with cars. Cars that had been abandoned long ago. Cars that would eventually rust away, that weeds would work their way around and make a part of the landscape, of the surroundings.
    Cars that would rot away, just like everything did in this world, now more so than ever.
    “We’ve been walking hours,” Clarice said, panting. “We … we need to take a breather or we’ll—”
    “The sooner we get to Warrington, the better,” Newbie said. He kept on walking. Kept his head up. Stayed focused on the countryside ahead.
    Hayden put a hand on his sister’s back. “We’ll find somewhere. Somewhere to stop and recharge our batteries. Somewhere maybe Sarah can—”
    “Sarah isn’t coming after us,” Newbie said. He didn’t turn around. His tone was cold. It was like he’d snapped the second he’d heard that radio transmission, like all his hopes and focus were pinned on the chance that his ten-year-old daughter that he hadn’t seen for seven years might, just might, be in Warrington. “She did a selfless thing. But she isn’t coming after us.”
    Hayden couldn’t argue with Newbie’s judgement. The last time he’d seen