Free Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days by Jack Thomas Page A

in agreement and we crossed to the proper side of the street where the exit was to come up. A few miles and the sign showed up again to tell us the exit was only half a mile away, and a quarter mile away, a few yards away, and we made our way to the town.
     
    Morristown
     
    W e reached the entrance to the town to be stopped by pure amazement, confusion, fear and every other emotion you might come across when you are in front of so many buildings on fire, cars crashed with dead bodies pinned inside and under them; even the infected still devoured whatever bodies they found laying around. The beautiful thing about the town was the low number of infected on the street. But for all we knew, the greater numbers were closer to the center.
    It was going to be difficult to find food, as it would be in any town with infected that roamed its streets.
    Loud pop sounds came from somewhere in the town. Similar to fireworks but we didn’t know where they came from or what they were. The sun wasn’t in the sky yet but the sky was in the transition from black to a dark blue in some areas and to a dark orange in others.
    The brightening light from the sky allowed a larger field of view that assisted us while we searched for the source of the sound. Jason and I debated, as we made it closer, whether we should be worried. As we moved closer they sounded more like consecutive explosions. We noticed a decline of infected the deeper into the town we went.
    The sound led us to some sort of plaza, possibly located downtown, before they ceased. Jason and I briefly talked it over and decided to search the nearby stores for food and supplies. Although I ate like a pig back at the gas station, Jason was in more of a rush and didn’t have the chance to do the same. The stores stood to both sides of the street so we split up to search them.
    The explosions began again and assured us that we could safely split up while the infected in the town chased after the sound. I took one side of the street and Jason took the other side. The plan was for both of us to start at the same point on opposite sides of the street and work our way down to the last few stores in the plaza. Regardless of how sure I felt there were no infected left in the area, I did not plan to rush inside of any store without being cautious.
    The first store I visited was a two story clothes retailer. It was as usual; extremely dark which made visibility of anything nearly nonexistent. I tried to search through the areas of the store with the most visibility. I noticed the explosions became closer progressively. I wasn’t entirely sure what they were, but as the sound became closer it morphed into something else entirely. They were gun shots from fully automatic weapons.
    I made a run for the door to get outside and back to Jason before the gunshots could reach us. I didn’t know what came next and I wasn’t going to wait till I found out I needed to jump on the defensive.
    I stepped outside and looked down the street, three dozen soldiers dressed in their green and brown camouflage uniforms as they unloaded all their bullets into an army of the infected gathered after them.
    Something was different when it came to these infected, though. Many of them walked to a slow pace like the others from earlier, but many also ran at the soldiers at full human speeds. I flashed back to my neighbor’s house, when the infected girl attacked me and came for seconds, with a million times more strength and speed. Whatever change took over these infected also struck that girl and caused them all to behave different from the other infected. Stronger and faster; they were the Robocop of the infected. It was as terrible as it sounded.
    Jason ran out of the store he was in and joined me, paused in astonishment at the army of infected in a full sprint towards the soldiers that ran from them in our direction.
    The soldiers wasted full magazines before they reloaded and wasted that one; rinse, repeat. They