The Last Outbreak (Book 1): Awakening Read Online Free PDF Page B

bathroom, Ethan turned on the shower and made his way back into his room. “ Where the hell did I leave my phone ?”
     
    Sliding his comforter off the bed and tossing his pillows aside, Ethan tipped the cup back and took another long sip. He quickly scanned the floor and the window ledge. The TV stand was also not the answer. Setting the coffee on the dresser, he crawled across the bed and over to the nightstand, getting brief glimpses of the last six hours.
     
    Steam began to pour out of the bathroom as Ethan found his phone and separated it from the charger. Rolling onto his back and depressing the home button, he glanced back behind the nightstand. Noticing the charger was never plugged into the wall, he tossed his phone onto the bed and hurried into the wall of steam now engulfing the left half of his bedroom. “Five minutes.”
     
    Finishing the too hot cup of liquid adrenaline, Ethan quickly moved to the sink, brushed his teeth, and stepped into the shower. Shampoo. Conditioner. Soap. Hot water. The combination had him leaning back against the tile and fighting to keep his eyes open.
     
    He could step out, dry off, and head out the door. He could be twenty to thirty minutes late and then apologize to his sister for once again not living up to the recommendation she’d given him. He could plead with her to not report his fourth tardy this month to their employer and hope they never found out. He could do the right thing. Or he could close his eyes… just for a moment.
     
    .      .      .
     
    The water was now running lukewarm. His legs had begun to cramp from the awkward position he found himself in, leaning against the back wall of his shower, and to save his life, Ethan couldn’t say how long he’d been asleep. Was it five minutes or two hours. He was fairly certain it wasn’t more than a few minutes, as he hadn’t heard a word from the living room since David began flipping through the three-hundred channels his satellite dish offered up.
     
    Standing and stretching away the aches of each individual vertebra, Ethan shut off the water and pulled back the curtain. “Dave?”
     
    Nothing
     
    “Hey bud, let me throw on my uniform and we’ll get out of here.”
     
    Again silence from the adjoining room.
     
    Across his bedroom, Ethan avoided looking out into the rest of the apartment and instead made a beeline for the closet. His powder blue shirts and navy pants lay in three separate piles. One for each day of the week—somehow they were unable to see their way into the hamper.
     
    Down on his knees, the stench emanating from the pile to his right appeared, for the moment, to be the least offensive. Digging free a pair of black socks, he pulled on the heinous poly-blend security uniform, grabbed his Forced Entry, black six-inch Tactical Boots, and strode quickly into the living room. “You ready?”
     
    David didn’t hear Ethan, there was something else possessing his attention on the illuminated box ten feet away. He hadn’t yet noticed that his friend walked into the room, much less the fact that his shower ended minutes ago. He was no longer in a hurry to get out the door as he flipped from one channel to the next.
     
    Standing at the hall closet, retrieving his firearm, belt, and vest, Ethan stopped to peer over David’s shoulder. People running. Chasing one another. Fighting. Attacking. Broken windows. Flames shooting from cars and street level businesses. “What the hell are you watching?”
     
    No response.
     
    Kicking the back of the couch Ethan yelled, “DAVID.”
     
    His friend did not turn away from the television, he instead waved Ethan over. “You need to see this.”
     
    “I am seeing it, but what is this? People rioting? And where is that, New York?”
     
    David nodded. “Yeah, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Houston, but it looks like the West Coast is getting the worst of it. Whatever this is, I mean they don’t really know what it is, but people are losing