Fall of the Seven Cities Saga (Book 1) Read Online Free

to move.
    Matt snapped out of his shock. Taylor was already halfway across the room and Matt didn’t want to be left behind.
    The main exit, where the patrol car’s were parked, was blocked by the crazy people. It seemed like the insane outnumbered the sane.
    Taylor and Matt ran past the dead nurse toward a stairwell with a large emergency exit sign.
    A few of the uninjured people started after Matt and Taylor, fearing the crazies who now filled the room. One of the men tripped and the other fleeing stumbled over him. The crazies pounced, distracted for a few moments from their pursuit of Matt and Officer Taylor.
    Taylor and Matt kept running, heading down the hall toward the emergency room. Matt pulled open the door to a stairwell but Taylor stopped him before he closed it.
    “Here,” Taylor said, handing Matt a fire extinguisher that he’d grabbed from a wall.
    “What do I do with this?” Matt asked, his words sharp with alarm.
    “Hit the door handle on the outside. Once the handle’s gone, we can close the door and no one will be able to get inside. I’ll cover.”
    Behind Taylor, the infected were attacking the remaining sane people. A man screamed, a drawn out shriek that made the hairs on the back of Matt’s neck rise. Before today he’d never heard a man scream like that. Now he’d heard it for the second time in an hour. He looked up just in time to see the screaming man’s stomach rip open like a burst sausage casing. Another man pawed at his abdomen, blood smeared on his hands and face.
    Matt began beating frantically with the fire extinguisher, aiming for the place where the handle met the door. Taylor stood with a squared-off stance, his gun trained on the infected people—who were savagely assaulting their victims—but made no move to draw their attention.
    Matt hit the door handle again, the sound of metal on metal rang through the hallway. The crazies looked up from their blood bath. As one, they sprang to their feet, leaving their victims behind, and ran toward the source of the noise. As soon as the infected were off of him, the man whose stomach had been ripped open rolled to his feet. Holding his intestines with both hands, he stumbled toward the exit, followed by anyone else who could still move.
    “Fucking hit it!” Taylor yelled.
    Two of the infected men running toward them were—or had been—police officers. Now their faces and uniforms were coated with blood and their eyes were wide. Taylor fired at them without hesitating. The bullets hit their target but the officers, safe behind their bullet proof vests, didn’t fall.
    At that moment the door handle fell to the floor with a clank.
    “Got it,” Matt said.
    Taylor stepped into the stairwell and slammed the door, just in time to see the crazed officers smash into it on the other side. They slammed their bodies against the door in a frenzied effort to open it. One of them actually used his head, hitting it against the small window in the door until the glass was smeared with blood. They seemed to feel no pain or fear. Matt wasn’t worried about the door—it was heavy and metal and now there was no handle—but the sight of people using their bodies like battering rams, with no regard for their own well-being, was disturbing.
    “The maternity unit is always locked up tight,” Taylor said. “Let’s get up there.”
    Matt turned in silent agreement and followed Taylor to a set of heavy metal doors on the third floor landing. Taylor rang the buzzer.
    A woman’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Who are you here to see?”
    “This is Officer Taylor with the Virginia Beach Police Department. Open the door.”
     

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    The doors swung inward and Matt and Taylor entered. They didn’t relax until the doors swished closed behind them. Taylor went straight to the nurse’s station. A young blond stood behind the counter. “Jenna” was printed in large letters on her name tag.
    “What can I