Read Online Vaccination by Phillip Tomasso - Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “For?”
    “Saving me,” I said.
    “You said you’d do the same for me. Now I’m holding you to it. I do not want to get eaten by one of these things. Got me?”
    We still walked slowly backward away from the lone beast. It just stood where it was, watching us.
    “You kill me first. Okay? Deal?”
    I nodded. I felt the same way. I did not want to get eaten by a zombie. “You think if we get bit, and don’t die, we become one? Like in all the movies?”
    “I don’t want to find out.”
    I shook my head. “No. Me either.”
    “What now?”
    I lived at one end of Greece, my kids further west at the opposite end. “We need more than tire irons. We’re going to run into more of these things. Plenty more. Way everyone was pushing the vaccination shots; I don’t know many people that didn’t get them. I mean at work, we were like it .”
    “I know.”
    I didn’t know much about the Avian Flu. I knew it became really popular a while back, caused a lot of deaths. I knew the government started studying each year’s flu, and providing “cures” for expected strains to hit the hardest.
    From what I remember, China was a player in the mess. Their government got caught messing with crops. Spreading the flu through chemicals sprayed onto farms. Crowd control at its finest. Natural Selection and all that.
    “Tire irons are not going to cut it.”
    “What are you thinking?”
    “Let’s try to get to the mall.” A few stores in there, the sporting goods store, and the pawnshop alone should help us stock up on useful weapons. While guns sounded good, carrying around ammo, reloading and risking gun jams didn’t sound appealing. “I want a sword. Some knives. Follow me.”

 
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    The mall was not close at all. From Lyell Avenue, and on foot, we had a heck of a hike ahead of us. It was dark. Things were out there. We heard them. All Allison and I were armed with were tire irons. Tire irons.
    I checked my phone continually. My daughter, Charlene, had not called back. Without a signal, I was unable to call her. Naturally, my brain went wild with that. Imagining the worst possible scenarios filled my thoughts. I couldn’t stop picturing my ex-wife and her husband feasting on my children. It made my stomach flip-flop, churn and grind.
    Allison stuck her iron through a belt loop. The L-head held it in place. I kept mine gripped in my hand. If more of those things appeared, jumped at us from out of the shadows, I didn’t want to struggle freeing the iron from the loop. Thought about sharing that tidbit of wisdom with Allison, but she looked content. Who was I to mess up her mood?
    The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I wasn’t big on cutting through yards, or wandering behind buildings though. Seemed the safest route would still involve following roads, staying to the shoulder, taking advantage of as much of the shadows as possible.
    We had started north down Lee. Industrial area mostly, once we walked the bridge over the canal. Homes to the right were at least a mile away to the east.
    “It’s so quiet now.”
    Allison was right. It turned out to be a good street to walk. Not sure that was what she’d implied. Still, we hadn’t passed a single car on the road, which sucked. Would prefer driving. Walking took too long. If Julie and Donald were sick, and Charlene and Cash were in trouble, the longer it took me to get to their house . . . the more I worried about their safety.
    “I’ve been thinking,” she said.
    “About?”
    “What if we’re , like it? Like the last few survivors? You said it yourself. Everyone and their mother got that shot. They gave them to people at all the corner drug stores, even. And, you saw how it was tonight at work; whoever didn’t start turning into a zombie creature was getting attacked and eaten by their family and strangers.” Allison stopped walking.
    “We need to keep walking,” I said.
    “Chase, we are in some