Free The Infected (Book 3): Nightfall by Joseph Zuko

and cavernous with the main window all
blocked up. He twisted a corner of the towel and used it to get it in the nooks
and crannies of his ears.
    That kid’s blood got
everywhere.
    Leon felt emotionally
drained. Killing that infected boy was harder on his troubled mind than he
thought it would be. He had plowed over that horde with the police Charger and
that was no big deal. He put the axe into a few of them too, but that was to
save his and Karen’s life. Splitting the kid’s face down the middle with the
circular saw was so…. personal. He was having a hard time shaking the way it
sounded and felt when the teeth of the blade ripped out of the top of its
skull. Leon dabbled in crime, stolen cars, commandeering white and brown goods
but stealing electronics and home appliances was easy and fun. Sometimes you
get pinched and you do a little time, no problem, but he had never committed a
violent crime before. He had daydreamed about committing murder, sure.
    Who hasn’t?
    Your girlfriend is
driving you nuts and you’re at your wits end. She’s going on and on about how
great her new girlfriend is and that as a man you can never compare. So you
think to yourself what if I dump her body in the woods somewhere? Mother Nature
can take the bitch back!
    I bet I could have gotten
away with it too. You pour a couple of drinks down her throat and have her sign
a Dear John letter that you typed up on her behalf. Run down through the
checklist, rubber gloves, plastic bags, shovel and a pocket full of cash so
there are no records of your trip on your credit card account.
    You take a nice
leisurely drive, followed by a healthy hike and your woman problems are in your
rearview mirror. No more wisecracks from her about how her pussy must be like an
impossible Rubik’s cube that you could never figure out.
    Oh god, I should have
killed that woman!
    Leon laughed a little to
himself in the kitchen. He loved it when the dark side of his thoughts took
over and replayed that scenario. He never did it and never ever would have, but
it was a fun thought. As his laughter died off, his thoughts turned to Karen.
What was he going to do with her now that she was mad, disappointed or scared?
He was not quite sure what that woman was feeling towards him. He never knew
what any woman felt about him. He couldn’t get a solid read on his own mother
for that matter. Yes, she raised him and cared for him, but did she love him?
He couldn’t remember a time that she said it.
    Classic Leon, dragging
your dead mother into your current woman problems. Every time he clashed with the opposite sex his mother
would spring up.
    He ran the towel over his
scalp to make sure he had removed all of the big chunks from his hair. The
towel came back clean so he rinsed his hands off one more time and used the
excess water to slick back his hair.
    Be cool, Leon. He told himself. He was safe and no longer in that
jail cell. Even if Karen was mad at him she was much better company than
Sergeant Poole. Her cold shoulder was nothing compared to walking the streets
with those monsters on the loose. 
     
    Karen hauled lumber out of
the sewing room into Penny’s spare bedroom. She had not said a word to Leon
since they left the blood soaked backyard across the street. The sound of the
saw hitting the boy in the face played over and over in her mind. It sent a
horrible shiver down her spine, like the unwanted touch from a stranger’s icy
hand. Karen kept working and tried her best to shake it off. She was used to
having an unspoken language with Jim. They had been together so long that they
could pick up on what each other wanted and needed. She had forgotten that
dealing with most men was like dealing with another child. They need direct
instructions. They need to be told what to do and when to do it. You can’t
assume that they know what you mean, because most of the time they have no
fucking clue.
    Karen did not have the
time to hold a grudge. She knew that she