Contagious by Emily Goodwin Page B

it dawned on me that tons of other people lived in this apartment complex. Leaving Logan and Hilary to guard the sleeping girls, I led the way into the hall, pacing to the neighbor’s door. I knocked and pressed my ear to the door. Nothing stirred inside. Stepping back, I kicked the door.
    It didn’t break. I kicked it again, right next to the dead bolt. The frame buckled. Two more kicks and I was in. When I caught Jason looking at me like I was Wonder Woman, I said,
    “ These are really cheap doors. They break easily.” The smell of decay hit us. I almost puked when I saw the dead bodies lying on the floor. Both had gunshot wounds to the head. I pried the gun from a wilted, dead hand, clicked on the safety and stuck it in the back of my pants. “There has to be ammo in here somewhere,” I said. “Look for a box of bullets. And take anything that could be useful.”
    Padraic and I left Jason and went back into the hall. Padraic kicked the next door in on his second try, revealing to me that he was stronger than I expected. Another body lay on the floor, though this one must have died from the virus. We loaded up a bag with canned beans, tuna, and crackers. A set of keys hung on the wall. I grabbed them and went on to ransack the medicine cabinet.
    “ Padraic!” I called when my hands gripped something. “Will this help?” I tossed him the inhaler. He read the label.
    “ Yeah, I think so.” He gawked admirably at me. Glaring, I told him to hurry up and check the closet for clothes. I knocked on the next door. “Why are you knocking?” Padraic asked.
    “ One, I’m listening to see if anything reacts to the sound. And two, if someone kicked down my door, I’d shoot them.”
    “ Oh, right.”
    Eventually, we completely split up. I felt like I was burglarizing when I nosed through cabinets and drawers. I kept looking behind me, both for crazies or the homeowners, as if they would show up any second. Even if they did, what would they do? I wondered if there were any police left. It certainly felt like we were the last ones in the city, which couldn’t be true. If we had made it, surely others had. And what about Rebecca and Karli? Yes, they got infected in the end, but they survived for awhile and they weren’t prepared for the outbreak.
    “ Preparation is the key to survival,” I mumbled.
    “ What did you say?” Padraic asked, startling me. I hadn’t heard him sneak up behind me.
    “ Nothing. It’s just something my grandpa used to tell me.” I looked at the unopened bottles of cranberry juice in his hands. “Awesome, that’s my favorite,” I said honestly.
    “ Mine too.”
    “ Now only if I had a little Vodka…” I said with a hint of laughter, meeting Padraic’s eyes. He had changed into jeans and a light blue T-shirt. Since his body wasn’t covered up in baggy scrubs, I noticed for the first time that, though he was slender, he was firm and well built. A gray jacket was folded over his arm.
    “ We should get back and rest.”
    “ Sure.”
    We found Jason at the end of the hall, proudly carrying a box full of what he thought was useful supplies. I’d have to go through it later. We dumped everything out in the middle of Aunt Jenny’s living room, sorting the stuff into piles.
    “ So,” Hilary asked, pulled a sweater over her scrubs. “What is our plan?”
    “ Go North,” I said, my face serious and neutral. “There might be quarantine by Chicago since there are so many people.”
    “ There were a lot of people here,” Padraic interjected.
    “ It’s worth a shot,” I spat. “And it’s not that far. Since we have no traffic laws to abide by, it will take less than half a day.” He still didn’t look convinced. “And if there’s nothing we can try something else.”
    “ You make it sound so easy.”
    I pressed my cold hands on my cheeks, red and warm from the rush of looting others’ homes. “That’s where I’m going. You don’t have to come then.”
    Padraic actually