After: Red Scare (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 5) Read Online Free

attacked, more interested in imitating humans than destroying them.
    Now, though, the obscenely intelligent Zaphead infants were building a new social order, one in which humans served a convenient purpose. But it was obvious that the Zapheads considered this enforced coexistence to be temporary. The coming takeover would be more refined, but it would be slaughter nonetheless.
    Jorge didn’t intend to wait for that day. Before the nearest Zaphead—a tall teenager with acne scars and wiry hair—could react, Jorge swung his bat and struck the teen’s arm with a resounding swack .
    Danny delivered a brutal blow to the other Zaphead, this one an overweight female. He wasn’t exaggerating his baseball skills. The woman’s face caved in, her cheek cracking and teeth flying, her remaining eye sparking silent mutant rage.
    The teen’s arm hung useless against his body, but he lunged for Jorge with his good arm. Jorge jabbed the boy in the ribs, then slammed the heavy length of oak into the teen’s knee, causing him to collapse in an awkward heap.
    The Zaphead babies bellowed in agitation, and the Zapheads who had left the gym now returned. But they were on the far end of the gym’s basketball court, a good two hundred feet away.
    “Let’s do this,” Danny said, blood dripping from his bat. He kicked open the metal door and Jorge entered the hall behind him, tensed in a tight coil while glancing both ways.
    “All clear,” Danny said.
    “Not for long.” Jorge shoved the door closed and jammed his bat inside the push bar that allowed access. The bat handle wedged against the door jamb, creating an impromptu deadbolt. Jorge hated to part with his weapon, but this would buy them a little more time.
    “Which way?” Danny asked.
    “We can see better from the classroom wing.” Jorge pointed to the right. “We can chart a course from there, once we figure out where all the shooting is coming from.”
    He didn’t care whether the attackers were Sgt. Shipley’s soldiers from the Army bunker in the mountains or a band of survivors. The attack sounded like the work of only a handful of people anyway, and the Zapheads would likely swarm all over them in minutes. But if he could find Rosa and Marina, they could be well away from Newton before the smoke cleared.
    Which gave Jorge another idea.
    “Have to make a stop first.” Jorge headed to the left.
    Danny hesitated. The door shook as Zapheads yanked and pounded on it from the other side. Then he followed, grunting, “This better be good.”
    Jorge passed several classrooms, glancing in each to make sure no Zapheads lurked inside. By the restrooms, he came to the janitor’s supply closet. The door was still unlocked from his last visit, and he entered, shoving aside a mop bucket on wheels. He fumbled along the shelves where he’d found the bottle of vodka. The cigarettes were still there, but it was the matches he wanted.
    “What the hell?” Danny said, seeing the cigarettes and reaching past Jorge. “You should have snagged these. They’re worth a shitload in trade.”
    “Toilet paper’s worth more,” Jorge said. He was just glad that tobacco had been banned from most public schools, making it a contraband item that Newton’s janitor had kept carefully hidden away. He wondered what had happened to the person who had apparently enjoyed his bad habits on the job. Was he or she a Zaphead wandering these same halls with wildly glittering eyes, or just another corpse the Zapheads had dragged to the stadium for their community art project?
    The shelves still contained several bundles of toilet paper, as well as stacks of paper towels and cartons of cleaning chemicals. Jorge wasn’t sure which of the bottles were flammable, but he figured they’d emit a nice cocktail of toxic fumes. He unspooled a roll of toilet paper.
    “Hell of a time to take a dump,” Danny said, shucking one of the cigarettes from the pack and jamming it in his mouth. “Now give me a light. May