Read Online The Infected: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller by Matt Cronan - Free Book Online

David. We used to play games in the field." Her heart ached at the sound of his name. The image of his body flashed through her mind and she opened her eyes. "He died during the infection."
    "But you can remember him before the infection? You can see yourself playing tag with him?" Holden steadied his voice. "Think as hard as you can, Sam."
    Sam closed her eyes again. She pictured David in the field, but the only memory that came to her mind was the one of his lifeless body curled into the fetal position. She thought harder, confident the memories would flood back into her mind. But nothing came. Sam shook her head and opened her eyes. "I can't see them but I know we played them."
    Holden nodded as if he understood and looked to Jordan whose eyes were still clamped shut. "And you, Jordan? Do you remember anything before the event?"
    "I helped my father work on his car," Jordan said. His voice shook when he spoke and Sam squeezed his hand under the table. He didn't squeeze back. "Every weekend," he continued, "he would take me to the garage and we would work on the motor."
    "And you can see this, you and your father?"
    "No."
    Jordan opened his eyes. A single tear rolled down his cheek. Sam's heart broke at the sight of it. She had never seen Jordan cry before. He was always so strong, so tough. He was her rock. His face had grayed and his palm was sweaty.
    "You know these things to be facts, though?" Holden asked. "Playing tag in the field? Working on the car with your father? In your mind, you hold these as truths?"
    "They are truths," Jordan said.
    "Tell me what your father looked like, Jordan," Holden said.
    Jordan didn't answer.
    "Sam, who did you live with before the infection?"
    "My mother," Sam answered.
    "Describe her."
    Sam squeezed her eyes shut, but again, there was nothing but a blank slate. A deep panic swelled in her chest as she grasped for any mental image of her mother she could find.
    "What color hair did she have?"
    Nothing.
    "What color were her eyes?"
    Again, nothing.
    "What color was the car, Jordan?" Holden asked.
    "I don't know."
    "How tall was he?"
    "I don't know."
    "What did he—?"
    "I told you, I don't know!" Jordan screamed. The outburst caused Sam to jump in her chair. The questions had shaken him. He buried his head in his hands and Sam ran the fingers of her free hand through his thick brown-black hair.
    "It's okay," she whispered.
    "No," Jordan said. "No it's not."
    "As I told you before, I am a biogenetic engineer and before I came to New Hope I worked in a city called Concordia."
    The name of the city echoed in Sam's brain and her stomach knotted. She thought back to the words in her file, 'Results recorded in main file in Concordia.'
    "It's a city a hundred times larger than this one," Holden said, "located in the middle of the country."
    "Bullshit," Jordan blurted out. "Everyone is dead, infected or lives in this city. There were no other survivors. No other cities, or towns, or villages. New Hope is the last beacon of light left in this hellhole."
    "And how do you know this?"
    "That's what they told us," Jordan said.
    "The Ministry has told you a lot of things haven't they?"
    Neither Sam nor Jordan responded to this. The Ministry had told them everything for the last ten years: what to eat, what to wear, what to do and especially what to think. The knot in her stomach grew tighter.
    "Concordia gave you the memories of the fires and the men shipping you the quarantine centers. All the vague memories that you know as fact are all lies. They implanted a biochip into your brains. It controls your thoughts. Suppresses the old ones."
    Sam's head swam. She closed her eyes again, as tight as she could, and tried to envision her mother or her father. Anything besides for David's cold, dead corpse lying in the field. She concentrated on remembering the city before it was burning, but there were no memories to back up the facts she knew.
    "That's impossible," Sam whispered.
    "What's going to seem even