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

room.” It was the best plan I could come up with at the moment to get her mind off of the nightmare going on outside. I tried to reassure her with a fake smile, but I had no idea what was going to happen to us. I was as lost and confused as she was.
    Melissa relaxed a bit, smiled, nodded in agreement and stood up. She left to the kitchen, a good sign. I went into the living room.
    By the looks of things, the residents of the apartment took off in a hurry. The place was a mess. Clothes rested all over the floor, furniture knocked down, family photos and frames broken. The light in the living room came entirely from the windows but didn’t make the search for a weapon any easier with the mess still in the apartment. I looked under some furniture and through the random things thrown on the floor but could not find a single thing I’d call useful in the living room. I walked over to the only door in the living room which was open and I looked inside to be sure it was safe. It was a bedroom, and it was just as much a mess as the living room. I walked inside and looked around, scanned the room and kicked over things on the floor, moved things on the dressers and the bed, but the bedroom was just as useless as the living room. Mostly clothes were thrown around the apartment. If I wanted a new outfit, I now had the perfect location to find it. But my Need-A-Weapon problem found no resolution any sooner just because I had a wide selection of sweaters in all sizes and colors. The best this apartment offered was a fashionable death. On my way out of the bedroom, I noticed the closet. I didn’t even notice the closet in the bedroom at first. The closet was invisible behind the mess.
    I walked over to the closet to dig through it, moved things around, but still I found nothing good. I turned my attention to the shelf at the top of the closet, and surprisingly my day became a little better. A wooden, full sized baseball bat awaited my warm and comforting grip. I picked it up and swung it around with my left hand for a few seconds and continued to search the shelf. I didn’t find anything else, but I didn’t plan on complaining. The baseball bat was a million times better than ‘nothing’ will ever be.
    I left the bedroom and made my way back through the living room and into the kitchen. I spotted a fire escape through one of the living room windows before I went back to Melissa in the kitchen. She took all the knives, a crow bar, a broom stick and a large steel frying pan, and laid them out on the dinner table. She sat on the kitchen counter; she ate some cereal she prepared for herself in a bowl she found. This is approximately the time I’d normally assume she was crazy, but with all the mind-blowing, unbelievable crap we witnessed, she had the most composed reaction by comparison to everyone else thus far. She looked my way and smiled at me. “The hallway was too small to put it all.” She said with a smirk on her face when I presented my one lame find.
    “I didn’t believe this place was going to have anything else that we could use, aside from this bat. What do you think we should take?” I made sure I spoke only when she watched me so I wouldn’t talk to myself.
    “I’d do well with the broom stick, it has a long reach! I’m sure I’d feel safer if I kept them at a distance.” She said and put another spoonful of cereal in her mouth.
    “Let me know when you’re ready to leave. I saw a fire escape we can use to get out of here.” I walked over to Melissa and sat by the counter, next to her and rested my head against the counter. The whole time I held the baseball bat I picked out of the room. I pictured the fire escape in my head and walked my imagination through an escape route. Most of the buildings on the block we were on were connected, but connected only by their roofs. “Like most of the buildings in the area.” I told myself. If this information turned out to be accurate, we’d be able to use the fire