The Breadwinner Trilogy (Book 1): The Breadwinner by Stevie Kopas Read Free Book Online Page B

crazy, but you are no longer my wife.  I can’t allow this world to determine what kind of person I become like you have.”
    Moira’s angered expression returned as she slapped Samson’s finger away, shoving him back against the couch he stood near, knocking the gun from his hand and throwing the knife at him.  She rushed to the stairs, shoving Veronica to the floor.  “Moira!”  Samson called out as she disappeared up the stairs.  He threw his bag to the floor and started after her.  Veronica watched as he too disappeared up the stairs.  She heard a door slam open and loud growls and moans instantly filled the house.  She stumbled around on the floor, goose bumps travelled up her arms as grabbed the pistol and got to her feet.  Her hands did not shake as she began climbing the stairs.  She could hear Moira and Samson’s muffled arguing but only faintly as the sound of her own heartbeat overpowered everything else in her head.  Maybe this was her chance to help someone, to help Samson, before things got ugly.
    She turned the corner and the sounds of the undead were deafening as she entered the room.  She slowly raised the pistol, ignoring both Moira’s screaming and Samson’s shouting as he tried to hold his wife back and away from the decaying monsters pulling on their restraints.
    Just as Veronica squeezed the trigger, she locked eyes with the dead girl and felt a churning in her stomach for a moment, wondering if this is exactly how she would look should she ever meet this same fate.  But in a final fleeting second, Moira escaped her husband’s grasp and leapt onto the bed in what she saw as an attempt to save what was once her daughter from yet another death.  The bullet exploded out of the gun and into Keira’s skull, her head slumping forward onto her shoulders.  Moira screamed as Robbie tore into the flesh on her exposed legs that were now before him, she kicked as streams of blood sprayed from her calf and feet as her son continued to eat.  Strips of skin and muscle were ripped from her leg and the bedroom was a bloodbath.
    “Robbie stop!  Stop!”  Moira’s screams and sobs seemed louder than both the bullet Veronica fired into Keira and the one she now fired into Robbie.  Moira continued screaming, but now at Samson, who tried to aid her.  “Get away!  Get out of here!  You monsters!  Get the fuck out and don’t you come back!”  Veronica’s ears were ringing, her mouth was dry and she felt like she was back in the city all over again.  Moira punched and slapped and kicked at Samson.  His face was frozen in horror as he backed away toward Veronica, who still had the pistol raised.  Samson placed a hand on the gun and took it from her now shaking hands.
    Moira attempted to stand but her legs gave out and she fell to the floor.  “I will fucking kill you!  Both of you!”  She dragged herself forward in their direction, the tendons in her leg severed and useless, and blood flowed from her with every movement.  A single fingernail broke off as she continued to drag herself into the hallway where Samson and Veronica now stood.  “Do you hear me?!  Get out of this house!  And if you come back, I will kill you!” 
    Veronica thought that Moira might have screamed her words as a warning rather than a threat as she stumbled hastily down the stairs and into the living room.  Samson grabbed another bag from the floor near the couch and ran to the kitchen, filling it with what he could.  Veronica tried to read his face, but it was as if the man was suddenly made of stone.  He gave the new bag to Veronica and placed his own bag on his back.  He handed her the pistol and nodded, showing her Al’s shotgun. 
    He hesitated at the door, listening to Moira’s repetitive screaming from upstairs.  He thought of the children, and the burden that had been lifted from his chest, their souls finally free of this wretched world.  He thought of Leti, of Will, of Tracy.  Of all