Break of the Six (The Preston Six Book 4) Read Free Page B

jumped to the side and the car missed him by inches. As the vehicle stopped, they got out to find Hank hunched over, coughing into his fists.
    “Hank, you okay?” Poly called out. Hank didn’t answer but continued to cough.
    “He’s got it, I knew it,” Julie said in a panicked fit. “The Cough.”
    Poly didn’t want to hear it. She grabbed Hank’s shoulder and shook him. “Hank!”
    He knelt on the dirt, then looked up at Poly. He blinked, as if only now registering her face. “I’m okay, the walking wiped me out I guess.” He put on a weak smile.
    Poly put her hands over her eyes. Her mother coughed this morning but dismissed it as nothing. Poly herself felt a tickle in her throat and hoped it was just the dust swirling in the air. Hank was the first of the six to get the cough. The first she knew of at least. They’d been unable to contact Samantha.
    “Come on, Hank, we can give you a lift to the town treatment center. We were on our way to get you anyway,” Poly said. Hospitals were filling up so the government had stepped in to many of the worst cities and even a small town like Preston got some help with treatment centers.
    “No, I don’t want to infect you. I was just going to town to the,” he coughed, “treatment center.”
    “Like we’re going to leave you on the road like this.” Poly and Julie helped Hank get to his feet and then into the car.
    With Hank tucked away in the back seat, Poly rushed into town, only slowing down when she neared the treatment center. Cars filled the spaces and many people walked around the cars and stood in clusters outside the gym. Poly hopped over the curb and found an unused spot on the grass.
    Julie raised an eyebrow.
    “Let them give me a ticket,” Poly said and opened the door.
    Hank climbed out of the car on his own and stood at the door. “Whoa, that’s a lot of people,” he said before going into another coughing fit.
    Poly took a deep breath and looked at the line wrapping around the outside of the gym. Many more people took to sitting on the lawn, lounging around the bike racks and loitering near the stairs to the school. She recognized some faces but many more she didn’t know. It broke her heart to see so many in her home town suffering. Just yesterday, there had only been a few people near the front door. If this much changed in one day, what was going to happen over the next week?
    A woman in all white stood at the front of the line. She had an American flag pin with her name under it. The government had sent these nurses here a few days ago to help set up the treatment center.
    “Excuse me, I have a sick friend here,” Julie called out.
    “We’ve all got sick ones here,” a man in line replied and the rest of the line grumbled in agreement.
    “I’m so sorry, Frank,” Poly said. “It’s Hank, he’s doing awful.”
    Frank nodded and gazed at Hank. “We’re all waiting to get in, but you can go the nurse up there and have him checked in.”
    “Thanks.”
    Frank wrapped his arms around his coughing wife and nodded his head. They walked up to the nurse sitting behind a folding table. She looked up and saw Hank leaning on Julie.
    “Do you know what stage he is?” the nurse asked.
    Poly shook her head in confusion.
    Julie stepped forward to answer. “I think he’s in stage two.”
    “Is he coughing blood yet?”
    “Hank?”
    Hank shook his head, which turned into a coughing fit. When he could breathe, he took his hand away from his mouth and a spatter of blood covered his palm.
    The nurse got up from behind the desk and walked to Hank. “He’s entering stage three, we need to take him in.”
    The line protested Hank’s acceptance as they entered the gym. Poly stopped at the doorway, taking in the chaotic looking gym where she had once played basketball. Cots covered the gym floor while many people curled up on their beds, coughing. She put her hand over her mouth and stumbled after Hank and the nurse.
    The summer heat permeated