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

was a small price to pay for this
priceless embrace.
     
    It might have been twenty minutes before any of them were
willing to let go of each other. The infected man at the back door had lost
interest and finally shuffled away to find easier prey.
    Valerie got her breath under control, “Mama, I don’t
think he’s handsome anymore.”
    “I think you’re right baby.”
    “Mama, what happened to him?”
    How do you answer that?
    What should she say? There were no parenting books
for this kind of situation.
    “He was bitten by a man that was sick and then he got
sick.”
    Valerie thought about what her Mama had said, “Did you
get bit?”
    “No.”
    “Has Daddy been bit?”
    Karen coughed up some more tears. Her features distorted into
the saddest face possible, “We have to think good thoughts, okay. Tell yourself
Daddy will be home any minute and he just might.”
    Robin pointed at her new tears, “What? You sad?” was the
best she can muster.
    “Yes, baby, Mama is very sad, but I’m happy that I have
you two,” she said as she pulled them in for another hug. Her knees ached so
she pulled them up to the bed. There laid Botchy. Asleep. She was blind, deaf
and would have barked at the wrong person anyway. What a crummy attack dog.  
    Karen got everyone, including herself, calmed as much as
possible. It took a little time to get the girls back into the computer game.
    “Mama needs to get something from the kitchen. I will be
right back.” Karen stepped into the kitchen. She moved so fast she slipped on
the blood and almost fell on her ass. Karen slid the gun back into its holster.
The water in the sink was running the whole time. Karen turned off the hot tap.
Even with all the blood on the floor and the shock she was almost certainly suffering
from, she still felt hungry.
    “What a weird time to be hungry.” It was normal for her
to talk to herself. The girls needed to eat for sure. Eating would make her
feel better. It always had. She found a pizza in the freezer and fired up the
oven. A few of the towels that hit the floor earlier had sopped up some of the
mess, but she would need to clean it all.
    Who was going to clean up Steve’s body?
    There was no way she could drag his body anywhere.
    Fuck, what a horrible day.
    “Where are you Mama?” Valerie asked from the bedroom.
    “I’m cleaning and making pizza. Are you hungry?”
    “Yes.”
    “Play your game and I’ll be there in a minute.” She
pushed the towels around on the floor with her foot. Then Karen remembered she
had rubber gloves in the bathroom for when she dyed her hair. Karen put on a
pair and lifted the heavy, wet towels into the garbage can. She was on the
verge of puking the whole time she cleaned the bloody mess. She sprayed bleach
all over the floor and used a whole roll of paper towels to clean the last of
the crimson goo.
    A few minutes later she snapped off the gloves and tossed
them into the garbage. She placed the pizza into the pre-heated oven. The bleach
smell gave her a headache. Karen did not want to open a window so she flipped
on the exhaust fans to vent the room out. Her mind was all over the place. She couldn’t
focus.
    She wondered if she could pull the knife out of
Steve’s head?
    She needed to carry another blade, but what if she pulled
the knife out and he came back alive?
    Does it work that way?
    Fuck!
    Karen wanted to punch something! She did not have another
sheathed knife in this house and she couldn’t carry a blade in her back pocket.
She could slice her ass cheek off. Then it hit her. She knew what she could do.
Karen opened the drawer and pulled out a handful of butcher and steak knives.
    She left one on the counter by the sink. Karen then
stabbed a knife into the sheetrock by the backdoor. She stabbed two more into
the wall close to the front door. The last three she forced into the wall in
the bedroom. It felt great to stab the walls of the shitty apartment. It also
felt like the act of a crazy person.