Read The Infected (Book 3): Nightfall for Free Online Page A

ton of
H2O!
    If the water gets shut
off we are fucked.
    Luckily they lived in the
northwest and it rains around forty inches every year. They would need to build
a water catching device and figure out how to clean and purify the water.
    Leon sunk the last screw
into the brace and then gave it a hard push with his hands. The barricade
didn’t budge.
    “I think this should
hold,” he said as he climbed down off the counter. He was pouring sweat now and
his shirt had pitted out.
    “Good, let’s keep going,”
Karen picked up as many tools as she could and headed for the nearest room.
    The window in the first room
was small and they were able to cut the chunk of plywood in half. Karen kept a
lookout as Leon made quick work of the cut. The saw was powerful and ripped
right through it in a flash. If there were any remaining infected in the area,
Karen hoped they wouldn’t hear the noise and if they did she prayed they would
not be able to locate its origin. This room held all of Penny’s sewing projects.
She had made dresses for the girls this last Christmas and the machine and
fabric was still laid out all over the room. There was bookshelf full of
fabrics and patterns that Penny had saved over the years and a worktable with a
very fancy sewing machine. Other than those two pieces of furniture the room
was bare. 
    Leon had the braces up and
set the frame in half the time as the first window. He gave it the test and it
didn’t flex at all.
    “Whew,” he exhaled as he
flexed his sore fingers. 
    Karen picked up the tools
and moved into the next room. This one was used as an actual spare bedroom with
an old queen mattress tucked tight up against the far wall and a nightstand. As
she reached for the string to pull the blinds shut Karen checked out the window
for any new infected. It was clear. She gave the string a good tug and let the
blinds fall. A scream slashed through the air outside. Karen’s fingers
separated a set of blinds and she peered out across the street. A young boy,
maybe ten, raced for his life from an infected woman. The dead woman chugged
hot on the boy’s trail. He headed for the front door of the house directly in
front of Penny’s home. His palm struck the wood surface and he pulled at the
knob. His voice cried the words, “Please help me! Please open the door!” The
second the woman was about to pounce on him he darted under her outstretched
arms. In a flash he sprinted for the open gate that led to the house’s
backyard.
    “Leon!” Karen pulled her
gun and blasted out the bedroom door.
    What am I doing?
    I promised myself I
wouldn’t do this. Am I crazy?
    Karen knew the answer. No
matter how hard she tried to fight it she was compelled to save people. Karen was
a blur as she passed the doorway to Penny’s sewing room.
    “What’s going on?!” Leon
called after her.
    “There’s a kid in trouble!”
She hit the front door and twisted the lock open. Leon called after her as she
exited the front door. She was bathed in the evening sun as she zipped down the
driveway. Her skin glowed and her hair fell out of the cheap plastic clip. The
child’s bawling echoed out over the fence. Leon left in such a hurry to make
sure he kept Karen safe he forgot to grab his axe or Troy’s shotgun. The only
weapons on his body was the set of screwdrivers jiggling in the tool belt and
the battery powered handsaw. He did his best to catch her, but she was blazing
fast across the street.
    Karen breached the gate
and slowed to make sure she wasn’t running into a hiding horde or into the back
of the dead lady. In the center of the yard stood a large maple with a treehouse
perched in the thick branches. The ten-year-old was halfway up the tree and
hanging on for dear life. The infected woman had her gnarled fingers wrapped
around the kid’s sneaker and was trying to wrangle him off of the ladder made
of wooden slats.
    Karen lined up a shot, but
at this distance she didn’t trust her shaky, non-dominant, hand