Read 36 Hours for Free Online Page B

“Is it safe to go downstairs?”
    “Should be. Just don’t look in the living room.”
    “Why?”
    “Not now. I don’t want to think about it.” I zipped up. When I washed my hands and left the bathroom, only Hannah was there. She stood before the window. The door was shut and locked. I went over to her and stood beside the window. We peered between the branches of a splendid oak. Fresh leaves blossomed and swayed in the wind. The street was deserted. Sirens in the distance, with honking. The faint whisper of screams. I didn’t understand why we were so alone. Then I figured, we weren’t. Survivors – more than just us! – had to be out there.
    “Do you know why,” Hannah said, surprising me, “do you know why my brother wasn’t with me?”
    I didn’t answer.
    “Do you think I would’ve left Peyton?” Her eyes bore into me, dangerous.
    “Do you think I would have abandoned my brother?”
    “No.”
    “I loved him. I loved him so much. I don’t care how many times he hit me, knowing that I didn’t like it. I always complained about how much it hurt, and how I hated it.” She rubbed her arm. “I didn’t like it. But it didn’t hurt, not really. He never would hurt me. He didn’t do it to hurt me so much as to tease me. He felt comfortable teasing me. He loved me. And no matter how much he drove me insane, no matter how angry and irritated it drove me, I always loved him. I missed him on school vacations.” She shook her head, tears swelling. She looked directly at me. Voice choppy, choked. “I loved my brother, Austin. You know I wouldn’t have left him behind.”
    “I know that,” I said, not knowing what else to say. She managed through weak sobs, “I tried… You know I… But it… He…”
    “It’s okay…”
    “No. No. Don’t say that. It’s not okay.” She wiped tears away with her hand.
    “Austin… I watched him. I saw what happened to him. I saw it. I saw my Anthony Barnhart
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    brother.” And she said no more, but the cries overcame her, and she went over to Les’ navy beanbag chair and dropped down, curling into a fetal position facing the wall. Tears crawled down her face, stained the wooden panel flooring. I saw her shivering under those clothes, shaking in mourning, I heard her choking wails and cries. I saw her stringy hair sticking to her face as her eyes bulged and throat rasped and tongue swelled. My heart melted. Knocks at the door. At first I didn’t move, but I walked over and opened it.
    “It’s Chris King,” Les told me, in a daze. “He rode our bus. His license was suspended for-“
    “Who?” The name was unfamiliar. “Outside? For God’s sake, let him-“
    “No,” Les told me. “He’s downstairs.”
    A hoarse whisper. “Oh.”
    He saw Hannah, said to me, “Come into my room with me.”
    “And leave her?”
    “She’s safe. We need to talk. Come on.”
    So we shut the door, left Jack’s room, and walked down the hallway, into Les’
    room. An XP sat dark and sullen against the wall. The digital clock slowly ticked its red neon numbers. Les’ clothes hung from a hook, and the bed was a gnarled mess of twisted blankets and thrown pillows. Les shut the door and locked it tight.
    “Did you lock Hannah in?”
    “Yeah.” He peered out the window. “It’s a ghost town.”
    “It doesn’t feel right.”
    “I know. What do you think happens to them?”
    I rolled out the leather computer chair. Dropped onto the cushions. “I’ve no idea.”
    “It’s like it just… latches onto people.”
    I remembered the school. The never-ending nightmares. Those who were bit became the demons, became the killing machines, devoid of humanity. Bodies without souls. “I don’t know. I guess. It’s not random, though.”
    “No?”
    “Everyone who turns into these…things… has come into contact with them. I mean, they’ve been attacked.”
    “So if you’re attacked, you join them?”
    “That’s not possible. I think this is a disease or