Lucas reached down and grabbed her wrist, checking for a pulse. He looked at us and shook his head.
“No, you’re wrong,” Ethan said in a small voice. “She hasn’t turned. She must be alive.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucas whispered. “She’s gone.”
Before he could answer, there was a dull thud coming from the hallway.
Then another.
We froze.
“What was that?” Ethan whispered.
I walked out of the room and into the hallway. The sound came again. Bathroom at the end of the hall.
The door was shut.
“Dad?” Ethan whispered, his face pale.
There was a harder slam from the other side of the door this time. The handle rattled violently.
Ethan crouched down and covered his mouth with his hand, staring at the door and shaking his head.
The door bowed outward with the impact of another hit.
Lucas and I stepped forward.
Suddenly, the wood splintered, and a large, infected man barreled out.
Lucas didn’t hesitate.
One shot in the middle of the forehead.
The body dropped immediately.
Silence filled the hallway for a few tense moments. “That’s my father!” Ethan yelled and then began sobbing, “Whyis this happening?”
Unfortunately, neither of us had the answer to his question.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BECK
The ride back to the clubhouse was strange after everything we’d been through. Not to mention what we were witnessing now.
Abandoned cars blocked large parts of the road, likely out of gas after getting stuck in the huge traffic jam. People had taken everything they could carry and kept walking in the same direction. Many of them appeared ill, and those who didn’t were helping sick family members.
Nash hollered over our bikes' engines, “The government started broadcasting yesterday, advising people to bring their sick in for quarantine.”
I nodded, a little confused by that information. Surely the government knew more than we did. We’d witnessed people turning into slobbering monsters after being sick. It seemed to me that the quarantine was too little too late.
I squinted in pain from the headache forming behind my eyes.
“There is no way that the government hasn’t seen what we have.” Taryn leaned up to whisper in my ear. “How do they expect to contain this?”
I squeezed her hand in agreement, but I felt too nauseated from this damn headache to answer.
The formation stayed tight, and everyone kept their heads on a swivel. Any of these people would love to get their hands on these bikes.
