Contagious Chaos by Emily Goodwin

Author:Emily Goodwin [Goodwin, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undead, government conspiracy, contagious, dystopian, survival, zombie, post apocalypse, outbreak, female protagonist, apocalypse
Publisher: Permuted Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

As soon as we had unpacked everything and lit a shit ton of candles in the kitchen, I plopped the EMT’s bag onto the counter and dug around until I found what I needed to clean Hayden’s bite wound. Only my friends and Hannah sat in the kitchen with us. Jon was breaking the news about their losses, so I figured it was as good of a time as any to take care of Hayden.

Hannah, rightfully so, freaked out just a little when she learned that her brother had been bitten. Tears filled her eyes and she was worried he would die. Hayden had to show her his other two bite scars to convince her it was all right.

“You’re infected?” she questioned.

“Technically,” Hayden answered, tensing as I rubbed an alcohol swab around the edges of the wound. Washing it with soap had definitely cleaned out the dirt, but I wasn’t sure how effective it was against preventing an infection. Jason, who didn’t know of Hayden’s unique condition sat on a bar stool with wide eyes, listening to Hayden quietly explain everything to Hannah.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean that the virus is in me. It just doesn’t affect me.”

“Are you serious?” Hannah asked.

Hayden nodded. “Matilda Burns was the first one to bite me.”

“Mrs. Burns?” Hannah exclaimed. “From the bank?”

Hayden smiled and nodded. “That’d be the one.”

“Holy crap,” she whispered. “What did you do?”

I smeared bacitracin over the wound, careful not to press too hard. The bruise around it was a deep purple now. Something thumped against the front gate, making us all jump.

“I’ll check it out,” Brock said and pushed off of the counter. Ivan and Wade followed. I let out a breath, a little annoyed that I had let my guard down.

“I shoved her away and ran,” Hayden admitted. “I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t know I would have to kill anyone until a few hours later when I saw Mr. Miller eating his wife’s intestines.”

Hannah shivered in disgust. “I’m glad we left when we did. There was a warning on the news about a new flu strain,” she explained. “We were told it was so strong that not even the flu shots could protect against it. A bus came through and took us down to Fargo. We stayed at NDSU for a while.”

Hayden opened his mouth but was at a loss for words. Contrition clouded his eyes.

“He looked for you,” I voiced for him. “That’s why he went to your home town as soon as he got back in the States.”

“Hayden,” Hannah said softly. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“You guys were right there,” he said through gritted teeth. Hannah put her hand on Hayden’s right shoulder. “I could have saved you all.”

Sensing the family tension, Jason excused himself from the room. I placed a thick piece of gauze and put it over the bite and taped it down.

“No,” Hannah whispered. “I told you that Heather…Heather is gone, but I didn’t tell you that she was one of the first to go.

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