The Last Infection: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller by Michael W. Garza Read Free Book Online Page B

passed. The parking lot looked like a war zone. There was no sign of the infected mob, although he guessed a majority of them were lying in wait underneath him in the dark recesses of the store. A few zombies walked between the abandoned cars in the lot, but there were not enough to be concerned about. Chris tried to determine how they might get down off the roof, when Jake cut through his concentration.
    “Breakfast time.”
    A quick look revealed the mystery can was filled with mixed fruit. The thought of combining fruit with beans didn’t sound appealing, but the growl from Chris’ stomach said it was worth a try. He stretched his hands over his head and listened to the joints in his shoulders pop. He took one last look at the lot and decided to save the dilemma of how to get down until after breakfast. He joined in a small circle with the others around the cans to which Jake had added two candy bars, both of which he assured everyone were not Chris’. Each of them held still waiting for the others to dig in. Chris had to be a gentleman to get the meal moving along.
    “Ladies first,” he said with a grand bow.
    Alicen and Jenn started and it wasn’t long before everyone had their portion of the carb and sugar fusion. Chris blurted out the only question he could think of to get a much needed conversation going.
    “What’s your plan?”
    Jenn looked up at him, her mouth half full. She glanced at the kids, then swallowed hard and reached for her bag. A few seconds of fumbling through the contents produced a badly worn map. The foldout resembled a roadside gas station purchase. It took her a few tries before she got it laid out flat, holding down the edges with a few rocks and the empty can of beans.
    “We’re about her e.” She pointed at the edge of highway 391. “…and I-70 runs west, a clear shot across Colorado until it hits the 15 south midway through Utah.” She slid her finger along the blue highway line until it ran into an orange line. “The 15 runs straight through Vegas and continues into Los Angeles.” She looked from Jake to Alicen with a smile. “This is Catalina.” She motioned to an island close to the coast. “We’ll probably have better luck setting out for it from Long Beach.”
    Chris cleared his throat and tried to think of a way to be polite. “How are you going to get there in one piece?” He knew the moment he said it that it wasn’t as cordial as he was hoping for. All three faces looked at him puzzled.
    “We need to get a car , of course,” Jenn said.
    Chris knew that wasn’t as easy as it sounded, but he pushed on. “My question still stands.”
    Jake’s brow furrowed and Alicen’s soon followed. The two identical reactions were comical. Chris couldn’t figure out if they were doing it on purpose or if it was a side effect of being together for so long.
    “We made it a long way by ourselve s,” Jake said.
    Jenn ’s look hardened as if to say, yeah . Chris ran his hand through his hair as he tried to think of the best way to relay bad news. He moved around the map and settled on a direct approach. He ran his finger along the I-70 away from Denver.
    “None of you are from here so I don’t expect you to know this.” He inspected the map closer to be sure about what he was going to say. “Taking this road is suicide.” Jenn tried to interrupt him, but he continued before she could get anything out. “This is mostly country with a few small towns here and there. Word was, when we still got word anyway, that people rushed out in this direction by the droves. They were trying to get away from the city when the infection started. The problem was that the first wave of the infection had a longer incubation period which meant all those people carried it out into the country with them.”
    “ Not sure if it was reported everywhere, but the first cases came out of Kansas, some small town. From what I remember, it was only zombies then. It hadn’t mutated to what we now