Contagious by Emily Goodwin Read Free Book Online

whispered. “They respond to sound.”
    “ What do we do?” Padraic asked, his eyes filled with fear. I felt a small twist of pity for him at seeing everyone he tried to save resorted to zombie food.
    “ Your car. Where is it?”
    “ The garage.”
    “ Keys?”
    His face went blank for a moment. “Third floor. In my locker.”
    “ Was it locked?”
    “ Yes,” he answered.
    “ Combination or keys?”
    “ Combination.”
    “ Ok, then, take me there,” I said.
    He nodded. My hands shook. I forced a stoic expression and eased away from the door. I had just put one foot on the basement stairs when I heard her call my name.
    “ Zoe!” I clamped my hand over my mouth.
    “ Orissa!” her weak voice carried through the dark hall. “Help me, Orissa!”
    “ Zoe, you need to be quiet!” I called as loudly as I dared. Padraic rushed forward, following her voice. I reached out to grab him, my hand missing the back of his lab coat by only an inch. The crazy person, however, was close enough to grab him around the throat. Having left my only weapon in the broken skull of a zombie, I dropped and spun, kicking the crazy’s legs out from under him. He fell, taking Padraic with him. I hadn’t counted on that.
    Padraic scrambled to get away. The crazy snarled and hissed, trying with enraged might to bite into the doctor’s flesh. His cacophonous screams were sure to get the other zombies’ attention. Careful not to miss and nail Padraic in the face, I kicked the back of the crazy’s skull, forgetting that they didn’t react to pain. I needed to kill him before he killed Padraic.
    I remembered Nurse End-of-Days’ words. I didn’t want to kill a living person. But my desire for not wanting Padraic, a living, non-crazy person, to die was greater. I tangled my fingers in the crazy’s hair and yanked. He growled, released Padraic and turned on me.
    “ Get me something!” I yelled, annoyed no one was helping us. The crazy slunk on all fours, hissing. Misjudging his strength, I tried to counter his jump with my own weight. He slammed into me, whacking me against the wall. My head hit hard, sending black, sharp pain throughout my body. My legs threatened to buckle. The crazy opened his mouth, set on ripping his flat teeth into my flesh. Letting my knees give out was actually a good idea. I slid down the wall, darted in between his legs, got back on my feet and kicked him into the wall in seconds. Padraic outstretched his hand, holding a broken brick. I took it, and, closing my eyes, brought it down on the crazy’s head.
    The brick fell out of my grip. It sickened me; the crack of his head, the way he still growled as his blood gushed out. Padraic took my hand and pulled me to him.
    “ Are you alright?” he asked, breathing heavily.
    “ Yes,” I answered, too worked up to tell him that no, I wasn’t alright you freaking idiot, I just killed someone.
    “ Ok, good.”
    I heard Logan shout. He and Deron were fighting off zombies. At least their attackers were slow moving. I picked up the brick and ran over, smashing in the skull of one of the zombies. Its blood splattered and I slammed my eyes shut just in time to block out the infectious ooze.
    “ There’re too many!” Deron panted.
    “ We have to get out of here!” I agreed.
    Padraic objected. “Where are Sonja and Jason?”
    “ Zoe,” I said under my breath. Sonja would have wanted to find her and Jason wouldn’t have let them go alone. “Five minutes,” I told him, though I had no way of tracking the time. “If we don’t see them then we leave. Or get killed.” His blue eyes met mine, begrudgingly nodding. “I’m not dying in a basement,” I said with finality. I wanted so badly to race up the basement stairs. But I knew I could never live with myself if I did nothing. I had to try to save them.
    Logan took out another zombie. Three more took its place. Like an angry hive, zombies filtered out of the safe room. We couldn’t fight them all. Even if we