Free The Infected (Book 2): Karen's First Day by Joseph Zuko Page B

the knots forming tight in her back.  
    One of the cases of beer sat beside her. She ripped into
it and took out two cans. Cliff stepped over a bag of beans and joined his wife
on the floor. She handed him one.
    “Thank you.” Cliff said with a grunt as his butt landed
on the floor.
    They popped the tops and took long drags of warm beer.
The children played quietly in the back bedroom. Two of them pretended to be
puppies as Eve trained them to roll over and play dead.
    “This is a…situation we are in here,” Tina took another
sip and rubbed at her thighs.
    “If this thing is worldwide…then we’re in it deep,” Cliff
wiped some sweat off his forehead.
    “Oh fuck!” Tina gritted her teeth.
    “What?” he sat up straight.
    “Your Mother!” Tina held her hand to her mouth as if
another word could further curse the situation. Cliff’s mom lived in a
retirement community a mile away. She was in her seventies, but her body had
withered away after years of substance abuse. She had been quite the rocker
chick and lived the hard life for decades. “You have to go get her!”
    “I can’t leave you and the girls!”
    “You can’t leave her there alone. That would tear you up
inside. You know it. You have to go, now!”
    “We can’t take care of her here! We don’t have the right
equipment.”
    “If it’s her time to pass, she would want to be here with
family. Not in that cold old folks home.”
    “You’re right. I’m just scared to go outside again.” Tears
formed in his eyes.
    Tina reached out and pulled him in for a hug. He rubbed
the tears out of his eyes and pushed himself up off the floor. He drained the
rest of his beer and then opened the hallway closet, took out his heavy leather
welding jacket that he wore to work.
    “Girls, come here.” Cliff called his children. The little
ones gathered around him.
    “Daddy has to go get Granny. You stay as quiet as you can
and behave for your Mama.” He squatted down to their level and wrapped his arms
around all three of them.
    “I love you.”
    “We love you too Daddy,” Eve dropped her head onto his
shoulder.
    Alex, the five-year-old noticed his red eyes, “Why are
you crying, Daddy?”
    Cliff struggled to find the words.
    “Daddy’s worried about Granny. That’s all,” Tina rose
from the floor and finished off her beer.
    “That’s it. Daddy’s worried.” He gave each of them a kiss
and one last good squeeze.
    “Don’t worry Daddy, it will be okay,” Eve whispered.
    His grip on them was tighter than normal and they grunted
from the pressure. He gave each girl a little bonk on the noggin. A forehead-to-forehead
kiss.
    “Bonk, bonk, bonk,” they said it together. He stood back
up, zipped his jacket and reached for his truck keys that hung off a hook by
the front door. His hand rested on the doorknob as he turned back to face his
wife.
    “I’ll see you, girl.” It was something he had said to her
thousands of times over the years, but it was the first time it brought Tina to
tears. Cliff checked the peephole.
    All clear.
    He raced out the door and Tina locked it behind him.
Again his boots crashed down onto the concrete steps leading out of his place.
His heart pounded, not from the run, but from the Mount Everest sized pile of
fear that was piling up around him. He felt stupid for leaving his family, but
the idea of someone chewing up his mother ripped out his heart. It was a
five-minute drive to her place. He should be there and back in fifteen.
    Cliff unlocked his 2002 black Dodge truck. He needed to
drive it to carry his mom’s wheelchair back home. A bunch of building supplies lay
in the bed. Some extra stuff he had to clean up yesterday at work. He looked
back at his apartment before hopping into the cab. Four heads looked down at
him from his bedroom window. He looked back at the top of the stairs to his
place. He could build a barrier with these supplies. A little something to keep
the freaks from his front door. He gave his