Affliction Z: Abandoned Hope (Post Apocalyptic Thriller) by L.T. Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

bag, slung the strap over her shoulder and turned around. She ran
away from the guy, out of the alley, and toward her apartment.
    She nearly collapsed when she reached her door. Sweat coated
her skin and soaked her clothes. She felt her hair matted to the side of her
face. Looking down, she noticed some of the guy’s blood had splattered on her
shirt and shorts.
    She took a moment to compose herself before entering the
apartment. As she took the final steps toward the door, she heard several
voices inside and the thumping bass she associated with club music.
    She grabbed the handle and pushed the door open. Inside,
several people she didn’t recognize, as well as her roommate and the stoner
that had been there earlier that morning, all glanced over at her. A thick hazy
cloud hovered in the air. The TV was on and tuned to a news broadcast. Bags of
chips covered the coffee table. Crumbs coated the floor. There were a few
coolers with their lids up, full of ice and beer. She looked toward the
kitchen. The refrigerator stood open and empty.
    She walked up to Carla, grabbed the woman’s arm and then led
her toward her room. The door was locked. She banged against it. A moment later
it opened and a half-dressed guy stepped out from behind it.
    “Gonna join us?” he asked.
    “Get the hell out of my room,” Addison said.
    The guy smiled and blocked the door with his body. “Nah, I’m
not gonna do that. But you can come in.”
    Addison pulled back the messenger bag’s flap. She reached
inside and pulled out the pistol. The guy’s eyes grew wide as he stared down
the barrel of the gun.
    “Get out or I’ll kill you,” she said.
    The guy threw his hands up in the air and turned sideways so
he could slip out of the room, leaving the girl he’d been with behind.
    “You, too,” Addison said, not caring that the woman had no
clothes on. “Get the fuck out of here.”
    The woman began crying and she squeezed between Addison and
Carla. After she left, Addison shoved her roommate in the room.
    “What is your deal?” Carla said, her eyes focusing on the
gun in Addison’s hand.
    “Me? What are you doing here? Do you understand what is
happening in the world?”
    Carla smiled. “Of course I do. That’s why we’re having a
Zombie Party.”
    “Zombie Party?” Addison shook her head. “No, you’re not. Get
everyone the hell out of here. Now!”
    “Screw you. This is my apartment too, Addy.”
    Addison turned the gun on Carla. “Get them out. You can go
too for all I care.”
    Carla backed out of the room without replying.
    “If I open my door and anyone but you is standing out there,
I will shoot them.”
    Carla turned and jogged down the hall, yelling, “Everyone
get the fuck out of my house now.”
    Addison closed her door and fell back against it. She
brought her hands to her face and began crying. She’d managed to stay strong
through the events of the past thirty minutes. She didn’t know how she did it.
    And she wasn’t going to waste time contemplating it.
    She went into her bathroom, placed the gun on the counter
and washed her face. Then she went back into her room and stripped her bed to
the mattress. A can of disinfectant rid anything left behind by the douchebag
and the skank that had tried to declare her room as their own.
    She held the messenger bag close to her body with her left
hand. She clutched the pistol tight in her right. Both items comforted her,
despite having come from a derelict.
    She fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes.
    A few moments of rest. That was all she needed.
     

Chapter 7
    Sean had remained seated at the computer for most of the
day, cycling through the twenty or so tabs he had open in his Firefox browser.
Frequent updates had been posted on the major news sites. The changing of the
hour brought with it reports of outbreaks in additional cities. Every major
metropolitan area in the U.S., Europe and Asia reported multiple incidents. The
red on the maps grew larger,