Read Online The Remaining: Refugees by D.J. Molles - Free Book Online Page A

outside of the stall, his rifle in his hand, cold wind scouring his back dry. In front of him, five people filled the twenty foot space between the showering area and the chain link fence that bordered the camp. Three of them were backing away quickly from the fence, while the other two were shouldering their rifles.
    Lee’s first thought was, Shit! There's a breach in the fence!
    "What ’s wrong ?" Lee yelled, scanning the fence.
    One of the men pointed and looked back at Lee. "You see it? Right there!"
    Lee focused into the woods and saw it almost immediately. The glassy, vacant eyes. The slack jaw. The withered torso, ribs standing out grossly. A moving sack of tissue and organs. For some reason, the small gathering on Lee's side of the fence fell abruptly silent, and Lee could swear he could hear the thing's breathing; heavy, labored, and raspy.
    "What the fuck's it doing?" one of the men whispered .
    Lee raised his rifle and took a step forward, feeling soft grass beneath his feet, instead of hard concrete. The creature in the woods had that wild-eyed look of the infected, but it did not charge them, did not show any clear aggression. It stood in a small clearing between two trees, just a few yards from the fence line and watched them with eerie curiosity. Its head tilted to one side , and then the other , like a perplexed dog listening to a confusing sound.
    After a few steady steps, Lee was between the other two men, all three pointing their rifles at the creature on the other side, but still it made no movement towards them.
    "What's wrong with it?" one of the men said.
    The infected — an emaciated male — turned in the direction of the man who spoke.
    "Holy shit!" the man gasped. "It's fucking looking at me!"
    "Are you gonna shoot it?" another asked.
    Lee’s finger touched the cold trigger.
    "Captain?"
    Lee glanced to his left at the man who had spoken , but he could not keep his eyes from wandering back to the creature that stood on the other side of the fence , mere yards away. He remembered the infected woman and her dead infant, kneeling out in the middle of that tilled field, his first day out of the bunker . Was this one of the same? One of the rare, non-violent infected?
    "Is it infected, Captain?"
    Lee watched the thing as it tracked the flight of a bird through the trees, its head moving slowly and lazily, eyes squinting i n the sun. It seemed child-like.
    "It's gotta be infected," Lee said absently , and raised his rifle marginally .
    A voice called out, thin and reedy: "Wait! Don't shoot it! Don't shoot it!"
    Lee turned and found Jacob hobbling quickly towards them, his feet bare, and his right hand clutching at his gut. His face was scribbled with the effects of pain, and he was still sweating, despite the cold.
    Lee’s own body prickled in gooseflesh as he remembered how cold it was.
    Jacob came abreast of them, panting and shaking his head rapidly back and forth. "Don't… Don't shoot it."
    Lee regarded the man with a doubtful look . "Why not ?"
    Jacob took a gulp of air. "Because I can use it."
    "The fuck is this crazy guy talking about?" one of the two men grumbled.
    Lee raised a n eyebrow. "You mean capture it? "
    Jacob nodded vehemently.
    "Absolutely fucking not." Lee turned back toward the fence.
    "Wait!" Jacob hissed and pawed at Lee's elbow. "I've got to get samples from somew here ! Clearly he's a non-aggressive infected, which means he's the safest one to get it from!"
    "What the fuck are you gonna do with samples, even if you get them ?" Lee said. "You've got no lab, y ou've got no equipment … "
    "No, Jenny told me about Smithfield and the hospital. I can do research ther e. I have so much left to learn! Things that can help us, not only understand them, but possibly to develop some sort of cure! Please!"
    Lee sighed through his nose, felt the warm air brush across his bare chest . "This is ridiculous."
    "It's not ridiculous. It's science."
    "Where the hell you gonna keep