Slow Burn (Book 2): Infected by Bobby Adair Read Free Book Online

really bought into any of it.”
    “I’ll bet your parents didn’t dig that. Did they know?”
    “Oh, yeah. I told them.”
    “What’d they do about that?”
    “My stepdad thought he could beat the Jesus into me.”
    “How’d that turn out?”
    “Just like you’d expect.”
    “I heard that, man. So, no brothers? No sisters?”
    “Nope, just me. My real dad has family around town. I never met any of them. My mom hated them all.”
    “Your folks sound like real nice people.”
    I shrugged.
    Murphy said, “So you’re more of a Batman superhero, then.”
    “What?”
    “You know. Childhood trauma makes you want to go out and do good in the world.”
    I ignored Murphy and looked out the window into a dim gray bubble a few hundred feet wide. Nothing moved. Nothing attacked. Abandoned cars littered the road. Human remains lay here and there. Doors on houses hung open. Windows were smashed. Human clutter littered the streets, lawns, and parking lots.
    Everything had changed so fast.
    I wondered if each of those houses had their dead owners inside. I wondered if the occupants became infected and went rampaging into West Austin to kill and kill and kill. I wondered how many children’s bodies were lying under their beds or in their closets.
    Those kids never knew that evil found you wherever you hid . Running and fighting were your only real choices.
    I was getting depressed.
    That was an emotional indulgence I couldn’t afford.
    The Ogre and the Harpy.
    Breathe.
    Move ahead.
    Suck it up and don’t be a pussy!
    We passed through a flashing red light at a large intersection.
    “I know where we are now,” I said.
    “Yeah. If we’re lucky, it’ll be smoky when we get to my mom’s house and we won’t have a swarm of the infected on us.”
    “If they’re not there, then what?”
    “My mom and sister?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I don’t know,” Murphy answered.
    “Do you have other family around?”
    “Oh, yeah, man. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Most live close by. My mom is pretty tight with my uncle. He lives a few blocks over. She could be at his house. Who knows?”
    “I assume you tried calling him.”
    “Yeah, Zed. I tried calling everybody.” He sounded irritated by my query. Murphy’s face sagged. He looked much older without his smile.
    “Your family means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” I asked. It was obviously true. But I thought Murphy might need some urging to talk about it.
    “Yeah.”
    “With all the smoke chasing the infected away, we can probably check all of your relatives’ houses, Murphy.”
    With no enthusiasm, Murphy said, “Null Spot rides again.”
    I ignored the comment. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find somebody.”
    “Yeah, maybe.”

Chapter 8
    What little I could see of Murphy’s neighborhood through the smoke didn’t bode well. There were bodies of the infected scattered everywhere. Car windows were smashed. The small old houses had belched their contents and dead occupants out onto the lawns.
    Under the boughs of the grand old oaks that had shaded the streets for decades, Murphy’s neighbors had fought the infected, and the guns they used to defend themselves drew more infected in. It was a difficult first lesson to survive. Dried blood, torn clothes, and gnawed bones marked the places where men, women, and their kids had learned that lesson too late.
    In spite of the body count, I saw no firearms among the dead. Someone had lived through the battle. The area had been scavenged. That was a hopeful sign.
    Murphy stopped the Humvee by the curb in front of a house that looked like all the rest. Through the thickening smoke, I could barely see the front door.
    Murphy turned to me with his mouth in a resolute crease. “Zed, you can stay here if you want. You don’t have to come in.”
    “We’re in this together, Murphy.”
    Without another word, Murphy opened his door and climbed out. I did the same.
    When I came around the back of the vehicle, Murphy was halfway to the front