Free Infection Z (Book 2) by Ryan Casey

survival.”
    He walked past Newbie and Clarice and headed towards the front door of the cottage.
    There was something weird about this cottage. There were no signs of violence. No evidence that any zombies had even been around here, except for the barbed wire around the tops of the fences. The windows were boarded up with plywood downstairs, but the upstairs windows were empty, vacant. There were no lights on inside. No signs of shadows or movement.
    It was like whoever owned the cottage had just taken a long weekend away.
    Or at least, Hayden had to hope that was the case.
    “Can’t we just … just take the car?” Clarice asked.
    Hayden stepped up to the cottage door. “With what keys?”
    “And what makes you so certain we’ll find the keys just lying around in there?”
    Hayden put a hand against the door. “I just … I just have a feeling.”
    Clarice tutted. “Yeah. Right. A feeling. And what makes you so sure the front door will just be…”
    She stopped speaking when the front door creaked open as Hayden pushed it aside.
    He turned to look at both Clarice and Newbie. Clarice looked shocked. Newbie had narrow eyes. “I don’t like this,” he said.
    “Me neither,” Hayden said. He turned and looked into the cottage hallway. “Which is why it’s even more important we get this done with.”
    He held his breath and stepped inside.
    His footsteps creaked against the wooden floorboards. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air like a fire had been burning some time ago. There was a warmth to the place, too. A warmth that he hadn’t felt in what seemed like forever.
    “I could get used to this place,” Clarice said.
    Her words sparked an idea in Hayden’s mind. “Maybe we could get used to this place. Four walls. Relatively untouched. Seems pretty safe. What do you—”
    “We keep on moving to Warrington,” Newbie said, not even giving the idea any thought. “We take some supplies, grab their keys and then we move on to Warrington.”
    Hayden could feel his idea burst in his face.
    They walked over to a door to the left of the stairs and pushed it open. Inside, there was a well-lit kitchen area with clean white tiles and black granite surfaces. There was a delicious smell in the air. A smell like … like food. All sorts of spices and herbs and … wow. Hayden could feel his taste buds exploding.
    “We take enough to get us through the next two days,” Hayden said, as he walked over to a cabinet above the worktop and opened it up. He salivated as tins of beans and tuna stared back at him—and he didn’t even like canned tuna. “We … we don’t get over-indulgent.”
    “I think taking a car qualifies as over-indulgence,” Clarice said.
    “Well, except for the car.”
    They grabbed a bunch of tins and cans and shoved as many as they could in their pockets and under their arms. Hayden couldn’t help but fantasise over every bit of food he took. Sweetcorn. Tinned mushy peas. Stuff that he would never consider eating warm, let alone cold, in the days before the collapse. But foods that seemed like the most amazing things imaginable right now.
    “Any sign of the keys?” Hayden asked.
    Newbie searched the drawers around the kitchen. “Plenty of bottle tops. Plenty of old bills and invoices. But no keys.”
    Hayden scratched at his greasy head. What he’d do for a shower right now. And truth be told, it didn’t feel right raiding this place. Clarice was right—this place was somebody else’s work, somebody else’s haven.
    But Newbie hadn’t given any of them a choice. They were moving on. There was no sticking around here, as tempting as it was to try and make peace.
    Plus, who said these people wanted to make peace at all? Would Hayden want to make peace with a bunch of strangers who’d tried to ransack the bunker but had a change of heart all because they couldn’t find the car keys?
    “There’s other rooms,” Hayden said, walking to the door with cans of food stuffed under his