Read Online Thicker than Blood by Madeline Sheehan - Free Book Online

peering through the scope. His index finger
twitched on the trigger, and a bullet cracked in the air, the small
explosion echoing around us.
    I watched, clasping my hand over my mouth, as
one of the infected fell. Its two companions paid it little mind as
its body crumpled to the ground, their focus only on Evelyn. Who,
to my complete and utter horror, wasn’t running away from them, but
toward them.
    Something like a war cry flew from her lips
as she rushed them head-on, her gun in her hand. My head buzzed
with a pounding chorus of fear and anxiety as she flew across the
lush grass, her arms and legs deftly pumping as she headed straight
toward death itself.
    What was she doing? Why would she be so
reckless when here was Alex, complete with a rifle and an excellent
shot, to boot?
    “Help her!” I screamed, throwing myself at
the windshield, pounding on the glass with clenched fists. “Alex!
Do something!”
    His rifle still raised, his body poised and
ready to fire, Alex shook his head. “Can’t!” he shouted. “She’s
blocking me! I might hit her!”
    A full-body shudder racked through me,
leaving my lips quivering and my hands trembling. I found myself
frantically fumbling beside me, searching for the gun Alex had
given me the night before. For what reason, I didn’t know. I’d
never fired one, had never even held one; Lawrence hadn’t allowed
me the liberty.
    When I found it on the floor of the truck, I
snatched it up and kicked my way out of the passenger side door,
then rushed to the front of the truck. I reached Alex’s side just
as Evelyn had begun letting loose a barrage of bullets. Amid her
screams, one crack after another rang through the air. My breath
stuttered to a stop while my heart made up in beats what my lungs
couldn’t seem to produce.
    One of her bullets finally found purchase in
the knee of an infected, causing it to stumble and fall firmly on
its backside. Another took a shot to the shoulder, the chest, and
the side of its face, and yet it kept on coming for her,
unfazed.
    Then Evelyn, a mere kissable distance from
the still-standing infected, finally hit her target. The bullet
sliced through its forehead, blowing the back of its head wide
open. Like a papier-mâché piñata, the prizes inside—bone and brains and various
shades of indistinguishable sludge—all exploded into the air like
confetti.
    “Oh my God,” I breathed, watching as the
creature crumpled to the ground. But my relief was short lived as
the remaining infected had somehow managed to get back on its feet.
And Evelyn, looking victorious, was oblivious to the danger that
was now nearly on top of her.
    I screamed at the top of my lungs,
frantically waving my arms in the air. “Eve! Eve! Behind you!”
    Evelyn spun around just in time to catch the
infected as it was reaching for her, its jaw open wide, ready to
take a bite out of whatever piece of her it could manage. As she
struggled to keep it at bay, shoving her hands into its chest, her
gun fell from her grip. Screaming, Evelyn staggered backward under
its dead weight, barely holding the monster off of her.
    “Do something!” I cried, pleading with Alex.
“She’s going to die! Do something!”
    “I can’t get a shot,” he muttered, still
squinting into his scope.
    Frustration and fear had me grabbing his
arm, gripping tightly to the thick material of his canvas jacket
and twisting. “This can’t be for nothing!” I screamed, tears in my
eyes. “And if I lose her, this will have all been for nothing !”
    Evelyn continued to scream, barely managing
to remain upright as she tried again to push the infected off her.
But it wouldn’t relent.
    Lowering his gun, Alex turned to me, his calm
gaze finding my hysterical one. It took only a split second, this
strange look he gave me, and then he was shoving his rifle into my
arms and running out into the field. Pulling a large hunting knife
free from the sheath strapped to his thigh, Alex ran a circle
around Evelyn