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

of us needed to get back in the game and that had to be me.
    I hurried into the kitchen, stepped across the avocado-patterned linoleum floor and peeked through the window above the sink. There was no movement on that side of the house.
    I hurried to the front of the house and pushed aside a homemade curtain to get a view of the street. “Mother fucker!”
    Our Humvee was rolling away from the curb.
    I ran to the front door and flung it open.
    From behind, Murphy called, “What?”
    I ran into the front yard and saw the Humvee disappear into the smoke. “God damn it! God damn motherfucking criminal bastard fuck-shits!”
    Then Murphy was beside me. He bellowed curses up the street and pointed his weapon.
    I put a hand on the barrel and pushed it down. “Don’t. It’s pointless.”
    I looked around to see if we’d drawn any attention. In the small circle of the world that wasn’t obscured by smoke, I saw no movement. I heard none of the infected’s usual noises but I heard something. I heard a noise that didn’t belong.
    With neither of us swearing at the moment, Murphy heard it too. "What's that?”
    I looked south, toward the sound. It was a combination of a rumble and a rush of wind, growling and coming closer. The uniform gray smoke hanging over the houses started to glow in patches of orange and red.
    "Shit! Murphy, we need to move! The fire is coming!"
    I ran a few steps and noticed that Murphy wasn't following. I stopped. "C'mon, Murphy! What the fuck?"
    Murphy was fixated on the glow of the fire through the smoke. "We can't outrun that."
    His voice was flat. Despondent.
    Oh , no!
    "I'm not quitting now, Murphy! I'm not dying here! Let's go!” I took a few more steps.
    Nothing.
    Fuck!
    Suddenly, Murphy was back. He shouted, "We need a car!"
    "No time!"
    "It's our only chance!"
    Damn!
    Murphy was right.
    I ran toward a car that sat in a neighbor’s yard with the driver’s door swung open. The front seat was a gory mess, but I jumped in. The keys were in the ignition. The windshield was spiderwebbed with cracks.
I cranked the engine. The starter groaned rhythmically, but the engine didn't fire.
    "Shit!"
    I cranked again.
    Nothing.
    It must have run out of fuel with the engine running after its driver had died. I was out of the car in a snap. Murphy was nowhere to be seen.
    I looked around.
    I heard a car engine crank and made out the shape of another car through the smoke across the street. I ran toward it and saw Murphy's big silhouette through the shattered driver's side window.
    Just as my feet hit asphalt, the engine rumbled to life.
    Murphy spun the wheels as he backed the car off of the curb.
    I jumped and slid over the hood as the fire ignited the leaves of the oak tree shading above me.
    A billow of heat singed my skin and seared my throat. Every tree I could see was engulfed in flames.
    Beneath that flaming sky, I landed in the passenger seat and Murphy stomped on the accelerator.
    The car fishtailed up the street. Embers from trees rained down from above. Lawns, bushes, and houses ignited.
    Murphy pulled the car through the first left -hand turn and plunged us into thick smoke at thirty, forty, then fifty miles-per-hour. The oaks’ thick foliage crumbled into embers as the fire raced through the treetops in front of us. Visibility shrank to a deadly small margin for the speed we were moving. But with death's greedy hands grasping at our flesh, wild-eyed flight and long odds were our only chances for survival.
    Murphy kept jerking the car from side to side to get past obstacles seen at the last moment. Four blocks passed before we got out from under the racing blaze.
    I cast a morbidly curious glance at the conflagration behind us. "Jesus!"
    Murphy hit a hard right turn and then a quick left, angling across the path of the fire, but still moving away.
    I was nervous about the choice. "Do you know a way out?"
    "That dude with the bunker, his house isn't far. If we can get there ahead of the fire,