Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days Read Online Free PDF Page B

worse outside, but I will see all of you at the school for sure!” I shrugged and assured him that I was going my separate way and doing it safely.
    I moved to the door and Melissa rushed over to me and gave me a hug, as tightly as her mother did. “Thank you. Be safe,” she said with worry in her cute deaf girl accent.
    I pulled her off of me and focused her on my lips. “I’ll see you again when we are both at the school,” I assured her and she smiled.
    Melissa’s father vanished into another room for a moment and returned with another lantern also lit. “Take this with you,” he said and handed it to me, “it’ll make things a bit easier out there.”
    “Thank you so much!” I said. It was time for me to leave and head to my family. Melissa and her family gathered around the door and watched my leave, with Melissa and her mother waving at me. 
    The door shut behind me and I was alone. I walked; every step I took echoed louder than the last. I became suspicious of everything around me; every sound I heard, every shadow, all potential infectees ready to jump out at me and have a feast. My senses turned against me. Although having to travel alone created the illusion the trip was longer than it should have been, it was easier to maneuver around any of the infected I came across silently and carefully without an extra person to worry over. After a few minutes of my walk home I realized two things. First, my house was down the street which meant I was nearly there. Second, my mother’s car was gone, they left me behind. 
    I was understandably surprised that the driveway was empty and it stopped the world for a brief moment. No car meant my mother was gone which also meant my brothers must have left too. The open front door only confirmed this. I went down the street to my empty home. All the lights on the inside were dead like the rest of the town’s power. The front door was open but there was no clear view of the dark insides. The lantern revealed the same disaster found in the apartment that Melissa and I searched for weapons in earlier. Things thrown everywhere, furniture flipped over, broken glass, clothes and appliances all over the floor, the place was an absolute mess.
    I walked in through the front door. The mess now looked worse with the change in proximity. It actually looked worse than the apartment did. The mess left behind signaled to both a rush and distress, maybe even some sort of struggle that might have occurred in the house. My first thought was that they were attacked by the infected in the house, but I knew my family and how they have handled earlier stressful situations, it was likely they were just too scared and created this disaster themselves without additional help.
    I scanned everything while walking through the house and kept a tight grip on the baseball bat in case something or someone jumped out of nowhere. The living room, the kitchen, the hallway and the staircase, everything was vacant and everything was safe. Next, I searched the bathrooms and made my way to the bedrooms and saved mine for last. My room had the same mess the rest of the house did; this meant my family expected me to be wherever they went. They didn’t abandon me, they thought I abandoned them. They probably went out in search of where I could have been, couldn’t find me and doubled back to pack for me expecting me to be at the school. While I ran all these scenarios through my mind I sat on my bed and realized there was a note on my dresser I nearly missed due to the darkness. It was signed ‘Jason’, my older brother.
     
    The police department came by and they are making us pack and leave town. We are packing some of your things hoping you’ve been evacuated already. We looked for you at the college but couldn’t find you through all the chaos and assumed you’d come back home, but you weren’t here either. We are heading to The Hills high school. It’s been turned into a quarantine zone for all