Free Infection Z (Book 2) by Ryan Casey Page A

arms. “They have to be lying around somewhere.”
    “Or maybe they aren’t lying around at all because they aren’t complete idiots and wouldn’t leave their car keys on the side in a shitting zombie apocalypse,” Clarice said.
    Hayden smiled at her. “Right. Sure. Just like they’re not stupid enough to leave their front door unlocked in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.”
    “Did you hear that?”
    Newbie’s voice caught Hayden’s attention. He turned to him, frowned. “Did I hear what?”
    Newbie didn’t respond. He just looked around the kitchen, slowly.
    “Come on,” Hayden said, grabbing the kitchen door and trying his best not to drop any of the cans. “We need to find the keys and get the hell out of here. We’ll check the lounge first. And then we’ll take a look upstairs and—”
    “Wait,” Clarice said. She walked up to the washing machine and opened up the door.
    “Sis, we’ve hardly got time for laundry, as nice as it would be.”
    She reached her hand inside the drum. “If you were trying to hide something, you’d choose a place that you think would be the least likely place for people to look, right?”
    She pulled out a hole-filled old sock that definitely didn’t smell like it had been washed any time recently.
    “I … I definitely heard something,” Newbie said.
    Hayden shook his head. “An unlocked front door and keys stuffed in a spunky old sock. I’m not sure I’d insult their intelligence that much …”
    But when Clarice opened up the sock, something tumbled out.
    A set of car keys in the palm of her hand.
    Hayden stood and stared for a moment. His sister smiled. Newbie kept on looking around the room, uncertain.
    “Let’s … let’s get out of here,” Hayden said. “I don’t like this.”
    “Amen to that.”
    They rushed out of the kitchen and towards the front door. Hayden could hear creaking now, too. Creaking, like there was somebody else in the cottage after all. Creaking, like they weren’t alone.
    And then through the front window, well in the distance, he saw the men who had left the cottage returning.
    “We … we need to get out before they—”
    Hayden didn’t hear the rest of Newbie’s words.
    An explosion rattled against the wall above the door. Made Hayden’s ears ring as he tried to figure out what it was.
    He had his answer when he looked over his shoulder and saw a man and a woman, both of them holding pistols, both of them pointing them at Hayden, Newbie and Clarice.
    Both of them squeezing their triggers and getting ready to fire another set of bullets.

Fourteen
    “ P lease . We… we don’t want any trouble. We’ll walk right out of here. Forget this ever happened. Please.”
    Hayden felt his words falling on deaf ears. He stood with his hands in the air as the bald man and the ginger-haired woman at the bottom of the stairs pointed pistols in their direction. Hayden’s ears rang from the sound of the gunshot echoing against the wall. The tastes of the foods he’d fantasised about—canned beans, canned peas, canned tuna—had drifted from his mouth, replaced by a familiar tang of fear. An inevitable feeling.
    “The car keys,” the woman said. She was dressed in a grey Parka coat with a furry hood wrapped around her head. She had grey eyes, which just added to the sense of distrust Hayden felt towards these two people. “Slide them over here.”
    Hayden looked at Clarice. He didn’t want to give up. He didn’t want her to comply. But he knew she had to. She had to, to survive. She had to if any of them were to stand a chance of getting out of this one.
    She crouched down and pushed the keys to the middle of the wooden floor. The two gun-wielders just stared at the keys, keeping their guns pointed in Hayden’s group’s direction.
    “We … we were going to wait,” Newbie said. “Wait for you to—”
    “Spare us the bullshit,” the bald man said, saliva trickling down his unkempt beard. “We heard you talking. Heard