Free Infection Z (Book 5) by Ryan Casey Page B

him.
    “We need to weigh up the best option,” Hayden said.
    “I’ve weighed up all the fucking options,” Miriam interrupted. “There’s only one damned option worth taking, and that’s leaving this place.”
    “I’ve tried to tell him the same,” Daniel said.
    “Don’t you start,” Hayden said.
    Daniel narrowed his gaze. “What?”
    “If you hadn’t started fucking curing people willy-nilly in the first place, maybe we’d have had our guards up higher. Maybe these—these runners wouldn’t be around at all.”
    A smile did return to Daniel’s face at that point. Only it was one of disbelief. “So you’re saying this is my fault?”
    Hayden shook his head. “Not your fault, just—”
    “You’re saying it’s my fault, and you’re failing to be honest and open about the fact that you’ve been killing people who walk near to our gates because you’re too scared about what might happen if someone gets inside?”
    Daniel’s words knocked Hayden back. He knew he suspected as much. He’d said about what happened to Amanda, and that excelled Hayden’s fears that he was on to him.
    But to say that. To say out loud that Hayden had killed people simply because he was worried who they might be…
    “Is it true?”
    Hayden looked up at Miriam. She had that look in her eyes again. Looking at him like he was a monster. The most disgusting fucking monster she’d ever seen.
    “All I’ve ever tried to do is keep this place safe—”
    “It is true, isn’t it?”
    Hayden opened his mouth to argue. But he figured there were times to lie and times to be totally truthful, and right now the only option was the truth. “If I hadn’t then God knows how long ago this place would’ve already been attacked.”
    Miriam shook her head. Shelley looked at him with wide eyes. Even Amy, still caught in the throes of grief, looked at Hayden differently than she used to.
    “You fucking disgust me,” Miriam said.
    And then she walked, Shelley and Amy by her side, in the direction of the wall.
    Daniel held his ground. Just for a few seconds, he held his ground.
    “We can still get to the armoury,” Hayden said. “It’s the safest place here. Whether you… whether you hate me or not, it’s the safest place.”
    Miriam turned around. Shook her head. “I’m not going a single fucking place with you again. Because you’re dangerous. You get people killed. You’re so fucking caught up in your comfort zone, and I knew that. But to be so fucking caught up that you actually kill people who are out there—people who need our help? That’s seriously fucked up. And I won’t stand by and let that happen. I won’t stand for your bullshit. Not anymore.”
    Hayden watched her leave. He watched Amy, Shelley, Daniel, all of them leave. He felt alone again. Alone. Trapped. Because they were a part of his safety. They were a part of his comfort zone.
    Without them, he was just that same wanderer who aimlessly travelled the country after Sarah’s death.
    He was just the same as the monsters.
    But there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do to win them over. Nothing he could do to convince them to his way of thinking. Not anymore. Not after the damage that’d already been done.
    He started to turn around and head back in the direction of the armoury when he saw something just ahead of Miriam, Amy, Shelley, Daniel.
    No.
    Not some thing.
    Lots of fucking things.
    The group stopped. Stopped, right in their tracks.
    In front of them, standing between them and the wall, a group of infected.
    Ten of them. Maybe more.
    All of them standing there.
    And then, running.

Chapter Fifteen
    W hen Miriam told Hayden she never planned on going anywhere with him again, Hayden figured it was ironic that she was now running in the exact direction as him.
    Just a pity it was because they were being chased by a growing mass of infected.
    All of them running.
    They ran through the streets. Hayden panted, keeping his pace fast enough to