The 40th Day (After the Cure Book 5) Read Online Free

gun. The howl of pain turned into a shriek and Nella whipped around. The person was reaching for her, it’s pinned shoulder twisting too far, the angle all wrong, and the person started to slide forward, screaming in pain.
    “It’s an Infected, please, come back,” Frank was yelling behind her. She ducked away from the outstretched arm. There was a clunk and then a rattle as a few chunks of debris loosened and fell away. She glanced up and saw a screaming mouth above her. Unnerved, she slid away and down the loose stones. Frank didn’t wait. He shot and missed, once, and then again. Nella was beside him as he shot the third time. The person’s arm flopped onto the rubble and the screaming stopped.
    Frank pushed the gun into Nella’s hands. “It was an Infected,” he said.
    Nella was silent, looking at the weapon.
    “It was an Infected,” Frank insisted, “and we couldn’t do anything for it. You were right, we couldn’t leave it that way. It would have taken another day to die. We couldn’t—”
    She caught one of his hands in hers and squeezed it. “It’s done,” she said, when he had stopped. He took a deep breath and nodded. She knelt and tucked the gun back into her pack, taking the moment to think.
    She looked back at the rubble that had once been a bustling front gate. Then she looked back at Frank. “You have to trust me,” she said, placing a cool hand on his flushed cheek, “I made it a long time without anyone looking after me.”
    “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I thought you’d get sick—”
    “We might. Maybe we already are. But I’d rather spend the last few weeks of my life helping people and trying to be a decent human being than hiding from everyone and everything for the rest of it, hoping not to get infected—”
    Frank shook his head. “That’s because you don’t know what it’s like. It’s not the last few weeks of your life. You go on and on, month after month, hurting people. More than the few you would have helped before you turned. Killing them. Destroying families. I can’t let it happen. I can’t let us get sick.”
    “But if we go into the City— if we do what you are planning to do, destroy it so the Infection can’t spread, we will get sick, Frank. You understand what we’re talking about?”
    “I’ll find a way. You can’t get sick. Anything but that.” He pulled her into a hug.
    “And if I do?” she muttered into his shoulder.
    “Then I won’t let you suffer as I did.”
    She was quiet for a moment, the logical part of her realizing she ought to be horrified that he was willing to kill her, the rest of her oddly comforted by it.
    “Let’s go,” she said at last, “we can’t help anyone by standing around here. I think we can reach the top if we go slowly.” She let him go and began picking her way up the mound again.
    “What? Where are you going?”
    She looked back down at him. “To find Christine, of course.”
    “No— the plan was to get help first. We have no biosuits and we have nothing to defend ourselves with.”
    “We can’t just leave her in there, she’s waiting for us. We’re right here—”
    “She’s safe . Safer than us. She’s tucked away in that bunker, she’s got food and water and electricity. She’s fine. All she has to do is stay put. We’ll go get help and a way to stop this thing first. Otherwise, we’ll just be dragging her and us into possible infection or attack.” Frank shook his head. “I know you want to see her. I know you are missing Sevita too. But if we go get Christine now, we might not make it to her. Or we might get her sick. We just have to go a little further, and I know we’ll be able to help.”
    Nella turned to come back down, peering back through a small hole in the rubble for a few minutes.
    “She’s safe, ” said Frank again. Nella nodded and took his hand as he helped her down onto the street. They turned away from the slumping Barrier and the silent City and walked up the empty