Read Online The Infected (Book 2): Karen's First Day by Joseph Zuko - Free Book Online Page A

joined in with her sister’s howling.
    Seeing her children with tears running down their
horrified faces gave Karen a reason to fight harder. A parent’s worst fear. The
thought of it hurting or killing her children sent shockwaves of dread into her
soul.
    With the light on she could see the knife laying a few
feet away. Karen stretched across the floor and her fingertips touched the
blade. His powerful body pulled her farther away from the weapon.
    “VALERIE! Get out!” Karen struggled to form the words
over her strain.
    The child was frozen with fear.
    “RUN!”
    Valerie’s little legs backpedaled as fast as they could
for the bedroom. Karen wanted its full attention so she open hand struck at its
head.
    Valerie pushed her sister back into the bedroom and closed
the door. They banged at the barrier and called for their Mama.
    The sound tore through Karen’s psyche. She slapped harder
at the side of its head. One of her fingers hit a home run and found its eye. She
forced her finger deep into the socket. The slimy squish and wet pop turned her
stomach, like sticking her hand into a bucket of snot, but now she had a handle
to yank its skull around with. She pulled it backwards and twisted its neck so
that its teeth were away from her. The more they fought, the farther away from
the blade she got. The only move she had left was to let go of it. If she landed
a kick she might get enough distance to reach the knife, but if she missed the
kick or the knife…well, she pushed that thought away.
    She shoved it with her hands and then rolled up onto her
back. She tucked both knees to her chin, and then mule kicked him as hard as
she could. She landed it and slammed infected-Steve’s head into the sheetrock. Its
skull left a divot. The force of her kick slid her across the carpet and Karen
reached out for the knife. She fumbled it. The infected got out from under her
boots and climbed its way back up her body.
    She writhed and wormed underneath him. Its teeth couldn’t
find a target. Losing its eye had thrown off its aim. Karen finally got a grip on
the knife’s old wooden handle. She fought for millimeters to get some distance
from the monster. This wouldn’t be the end. She would not fail. There was no
way she was letting Jim come home to find them dead.
    The infected leapt onto her as she stabbed into the side
of its skull. The blade drove through skin, then bone and finally his brain. The
full weight of its body buried her. She struggled out from under him.
    The hot sting of tears filled her eyes. Her clothes were
wet with water and blood. Her whole body felt sticky with sweat from the
exertion. She hopped up to her feet and kicked at the dead body to make sure he
was truly dead before she opened up the bedroom door. Karen did not linger. One
last harder kick just to be sure. Poor Steve, he was always such a good guy.
    She closed the door behind her and opened the one that
separated her from the children. She swung the door open a little too fast and
it pushed the girls back. Karen fell to her knees and clutched her babies.
    “It’s okay! It’s okay! Mama’s okay!” The three ladies
poured tears over each other. The little ones couldn’t form even the simplest
of words. Every part of her body shook, from fear, from exhaustion, from the
horror movie flashes that played out in her mind if he had gotten hold of the
girls. She wasn’t given a moment of peace. The infected at the back door kept
slamming its hands over and over into the glass.
    The three ladies had the full on snubs. “Snubs” was when
you couldn’t talk because you were crying so hard that your body fought to take
in large breaths of air. Karen’s family had called it that her whole life.
    For a long time she held her children. Their wet tears fell
onto Karen’s neck and they wiped the snot that accumulated on their upper lips
across her shoulders. She did not care. Ever since Valerie was born, Karen had
called them sugar boogers. A little snot