Infection Z (Book 4) Read Free

them.
    He had to go.
    He had to leave.
    He had to get away.
    Now.
    He lowered the handle of the kitchen door. Slammed it shut. Ran out into the hallway.
    First thing he noticed was just how dark it was.
    Then just how smelly it was.
    And then he noticed the emaciated zombies at the bottom of the stairs.
    They just stood there at first. Stood there, as if they were sleeping. Like they’d given up all hope of finding a meal; of finding fresh meat.
    When they saw Hayden, he swore their eyes illuminated.
    He scooted back.
    Ran in the direction of the kitchen.
    The kitchen door caved in.
    Zombies piled out of it, filled the corridor, trapped him.
    He looked either side. More zombies coming down the stairs. Fuck, what was this? Some kind of zombie congregation?
    He looked around the hallway as the zombies grew in number.
    The lounge door.
    Only option.
    Only choice.
    He grabbed it. Turned the handle.
    Stuck.
    “Fuck.”
    He felt the cold bodies of the zombies closing in. Tried the handle again. Still so tight, like it hadn’t been turned in months. Something behind it, too. Something blocking his entrance.
    He kept on turning it.
    Turning and turning as the zombies closed in.
    Turning, pushing, doing everything he could to get inside.
    He swung the hammer at the neck of the first zombie to approach from the left. Heard its spine crack, watched the zombie shake like it was having some kind of seizure.
    Then he squared up to the door.
    Pulled back the hammer.
    Bashed it in, blow after blow after blow.
    He watched the wood split away. Saw an armchair pressed up to the door. Fuck. Someone was in there. Or someone had been in there. The wealthy. Using their frigging expensive furniture to survive. If only they knew their acquisitions couldn’t solve everything.
    Hayden swung at another zombie. A girl, much younger than him. He tried not to see her as a girl. Tried to distance himself as the heavy head of the hammer shattered the bones in her neck. You couldn’t get attached. You just couldn’t. Not to the dead. Not to the living. Not anymore.
    You just had to survive.
    He smashed the door in some more. A large hole formed in the wood. He reached through it. Struggled to grab the handle, to turn whatever shitty lock was stopping his entrance.
    Couldn’t reach it.
    Couldn’t twist his arm enough.
    He looked at the gathering zombies. Looked at them surrounding him. Snarling. Blood and flesh drooling from their utterly inhuman mouths.
    He didn’t have long.
    Seconds, if he was lucky.
    So he turned to the opening.
    Threw himself into it.
    Landed face first on the armchair.
    He felt the wood from the smashed door scratch his belly, splinter his arms. But even worse, he felt the pressure on his feet. Felt the pulling.
    Felt the teeth sinking into his Timberlands.
    He kicked back. Kicked back as hard as he could. Twisted, turned, shook like some kind of feral animal.
    Because that’s what he was. That’s what he had to be to survive.
    The humane didn’t survive.
    The diplomats rotted.
    Democracy festered in a pit of filth.
    He kicked again.
    Swung free of the zombies.
    Turned over, smacked the hammer right on the back of the neck of the final culprit.
    And then he rolled off the armchair.
    Ran over to the window.
    “Sorry about this.”
    He pulled back his hammer.
    Whacked it at the glass.
    Smashed it on first contact.
    He climbed out the window just as the first few zombies forced themselves into the lounge, no care at all for the way the wood tore up their bodies, no care about anything but meat. Human meat.
    Hayden ran down the street, past stray zombies, back towards the hill.
    When he glanced at the house, he swore he saw someone in the upstairs bedroom window.
    A child.
    A skinny, starving child with tears rolling down his cheeks.
    The child stared at Hayden.
    Lifted a hand to the glass.
    Then his little neck exploded and blood covered the window.
    “No!”
    Hayden closed his eyes.
    Eased his thoughts.
    When he looked back at