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

to not hit the
kid. She quickly moved in behind the infected not letting the thing see her.
Leon joined them in the yard. He searched to make sure there wasn’t any more of
the monsters hiding in the bushes or corners. His head moved back and forth so
fast that it was about to rip off. Karen was ten feet from the infected and
about to fire a round into the back of its head when the boy’s grip failed and
he began to fall.
    His descent off of the
ladder looked like it was happening in slow motion to Karen. The kid’s chin hit
three rungs on the way down to the grass. The impact on the rough, wood surface
split the skin on his jaw wide open. When his legs hit the ground Karen knew
right away what that snapping sound was.
    The child howled in agony
as he clutched his shin. The little guy’s foot dangled from the broken socket.
The infected woman’s full body collapsed and covered the child on the ground.
Karen had finally closed the distance to the infected woman and placed the tip
of her gun to the back of its skull. Karen squeezed the trigger at the same
time the dead woman sank her teeth into the boy’s arm. The bullet destroyed the
brain and blood sprayed all over the child. Her infected teeth were still
buried in the kid’s skin.
     
    “Oh my god!” Leon was now
standing next to Karen and unable to comprehend just how bad this was. He had
not yet seen someone get bit, never witnessed the transformation and was not
mentally prepared for what was about to come next. “What do we do?!?” Leon nearly
shouted as he ran his hand over his forehead to clear the sweat from his brow.
     
    Karen didn’t know. She had
witnessed what happened to Steve in her apartment and now it was about to
happen to this kid.
    SHIT!
    Karen tugged on the dead
woman’s shirt and tried to pull her off of the crying child. Its teeth were
locked deep into the kid’s flesh. She tried harder to yank the infected off of
the boy and he cried even louder.
    The boy panicked and
called out, “DON’T, IT HURTS!”
    “We’ve got to get this
thing off you!” Leon said as he lent a helping hand and grabbed the infected by
the back of its blood covered hair. He dragged the dead body off of the boy and
a chunk of meat from his little arm also came along for the ride too.
    Karen almost lost it and
fought to keep the little bit of water she had drank.
    Leon got the dead body
cleared from the boy. “You have to be quiet.” he whispered. Karen knelt in the
grass next to the boy and tried to cradle him in her arms.
    “Shhh.” She said as she tried
her best to calm him, but his injures were too extreme. The hole in his forearm
had already turned black and his veins were following suit.
    “I can’t believe how fast
it moves. We have to get out of here, right?” Leon said as he backed away.
    “We have to take care of
this first.” Karen’s voice cut with a blackness Leon had never heard before.
    “What are you talking
about?!”
    “He will turn and
we have to take care of it!”
    The two of them had to
yell just to be able to hear each other over the child’s constant shrieks.
    “You want to shoot the
kid?” Leon was confused.
    “No, I don’t want to shoot
him!”
    The boy’s body shook out
of Karen’s arms and he convulsed on the soft grass. Karen hopped up from the
ground, like a poisonous snake was chasing after her. She quickly moved to
Leon’s side.
    They watched as the
adolescent turned into a new creature. Shock stretched across Leon’s face as he
witnessed the change in the boy’s eyes. In the snap of a finger they went from
white to black. The child’s lips pulled tight exposing his new weapons. The boy
was missing his two front upper and lower teeth. The gap looked even sharper
and more dangerous.
    “Leon, please do
something. I can’t handle killing my Mama and this child in the same hour.”
     
    Leon saw his opportunity
to prove to Karen just how much he cared about her.
    This is a good start. He thought.
    If I can take