Infected Freaks Volume Three: The Red Tower Part One

By Jason Borrego

A FATHER CAN CLING TO HIS MORALS AND DIE, OR DO EVERYTHING IT TAKES TO SURVIVE!

"A dark journey through a very different world."

"Survival is never easy when family is involved!"

Armageddon began the day Red Dead entered the solar system. Fear leads to blame, blame leads to choosing sides--and both sides have bombs. Civil War in America turned into a worldwide conflict, leaving the planet in a new dark age.

Nothing has stirred about in the ravaged mountains for two years. Abraham's heart is broken save the fading hope of bringing his lost children home. He sets out without a destination searching for signs of life--what he finds is something infected.

Living husks riddled in fungus and straight out of a nightmare threaten the region. No one knows if the parasitic fungal outbreak is some sort of zombie created in a lab or something alien, related to the approaching red planet.

Where do you go when everything in the world is destroyed?
Who do you trust when each survivor is a wolf in sheepskin?
And how do you stop something you know so little about?

The alien fungus appeared right after the cryptic planet Red Dead stained the sky much like a distant moon. The cordyceps fungi has transformed much of humanity into mindless puppets--something straight out of a nightmare. Is the infection alien or something created in a lab? One thing is certain--the closer Red Dead draws to Earth--the more powerful the infected freaks grow. As the emotion thriller builds, Abraham is transformed into someone he tried to forget. He wages war on anything living and dead if it means protecting his family. He will stop at nothing to keep his loved ones safe.

For Abraham Heinz, understanding that help isn't on the way is the first step in the long journey to finding peace in a world, so cold. Survival is going to take him beyond moral limits. Hell on Earth is here in Jason Borrego's survival horror adventure--INFECTED FREAKS.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Borrego
• Release date: Feb 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310848582

Jason Borrego

Jason Borrego is author based in Denver, Colorado. He is leading the charge against hard-hitting political issues such as who would win in a fight—a pirate or a ninja. Please let him know on Facebook or Twitter.In addition, in these troubling times Jason aims to expose major cover ups such as dragons behind every major war, zombies boosting the coffee industry and the unicorns unionizing movement plaguing the nation.How is a lowly author supposed to focus? As an exhausted war veteran, a college grad with endless debt, a parent without a clue, and future knight of the round table—most will find his writing chronicles his own journeys and struggles in life. That should scare you!Are you still there?Great, you must be crazy too!Now we can share stories of fishing with Gollum in Mordor. Please join me on Facebook, Twitter, and visit my Website for all things bold, even though I feel italic.www.jasonborrego.comwww.jasonborrego.com/contests (FOR FREE STUFF)www.facebook.com/jasonborrego123https://twitter.com/JasonBorrego123www.youtube.com/user/jasonborrego123

Book preview

JASON BORREGO

INFECTED FREAKS

VOLUME 3

THE RED TOWER

PART ONE

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Infected Freaks Volume Three: The Red Tower Part One

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2015 Jason Borrego

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means –electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or another—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Broken Light Studios

First Edition: November 2015

http://www.jasonborrego.com/

Table of Contents

Copyright

Author’s Note

Prologue

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Volume 4

Cordyceps Fungus

About the Author

Other books by Jason Borrego

Contests

Author’s Note

INFECTED FREAKS isn’t your typical zombie apocalypse. The survival horror series brings to life the struggle of Abraham Heinz, his family, and the torment of a world facing extinction. The series, fused with emotion, will be delivered in a volume of novella-sized episodes that will make up a much larger tale of tragedy. Think of it as a favorite TV show or comic that will continue to build upon each breathtaking volume.

Dare to enter into the promise of heart-wrenching decisions? Make sure to leave the light on first.

Prologue

The nightmares that came with killing a man haunted Hunter Heinz. He was only a teenage boy back then, but he lived in a dark world filled with terrors. He hated thinking about the night he killed his own grandpa. Trying to stay strong, he kept the uncomfortable feelings to himself, buried under his thick skin. Still, the depressing image of Grandpa Glenn’s crumpled face hammered at his young mind. The exhausting sight existed in dreams, memories, and never-ending thoughts.

Darkness flooded his senses as he took a knee at the makeshift tombstone. Hunter was ushered back to a time when the killing was still fresh. It was hard for the teenager to fathom the reality of death. He would never see his grandfather again. Grandpa Glenn had always been a little crazy, but he didn’t deserve to die. Hunter placed a hand on the chalky headstone and sucked in a wad of snot. I didn’t have a choice, he thought. Somehow Hunter knew this was a dream, a recalling of a tragic memory from his past. He must have fallen asleep on the lonely road because this memory was from two years ago.

The pain gutted its way up to his mouth. He was sweating as he shouted, Why did you try to kill my father? Hunter knew the answer. He knew the deep hate that lingered between the North and the South caused its fair share of tragedy. Why?’ he asked again, knowing his dead grandpa couldn’t respond. Why couldn’t you accept my father?" Grandpa Glenn had always hated Robb Heinz.

The sky was on fire and bleeding through the tangle of branches above the mountain cemetery. Hunter’s innocent heart was blistered by his own actions. It’s your fault, he sobbed, thinking of his dad. The boy didn’t know how to walk these lines of blasphemy, and the stinging guilt punched him in the gut. He looked up and imagined Red Dead falling like a lifeless star. I hate you, he wept, caught up in the red spell. Everything is your fault, he said toward the approaching planet. This memory was from a time before the first infected freak staggered about the Rocky Mountains. This was right before the first bomb fell in the South. At the time, Hunter thought nothing could get worse. Yet, two years removed from the death of Grandpa Glenn, he discovered the true meaning of living in a dreadful world.

Behind him, he heard the dead leaves cracking under the weight of hurried steps. Turning, he wiped the edges of his misty eyes. Don’t show him you’re weak, he told himself. Approaching from the west, he saw Grandpa Abraham carrying a bouquet of freshly picked flowers.

It’s never easy, his grandfather said. Hunter only shrugged and pressed his head flat against the chalky headstone. He wanted to bash his own head against the rock. It’s never easy killing a man, especially when its family, Abraham continued.

Hunter hated the memory, he wanted to wake up, but he couldn’t.

What have I done? Hunter groaned, bursting into tears. I killed him. I killed my own granddad. He was battered by a storm of raw emotion. Yet, he found comfort in the strong grip of Abraham’s hand clenching his tense shoulder. It was Abraham who wrapped Hunter’s other grandpa in plastic and buried him on the rainy morning after the incident. The crime went unreported, and the death unnoticed. Abraham did his best to clean up the mess, and under the radar it remained.

Nonetheless, Hunter’s teenaged mind couldn’t let it go; it replayed over and over. I feel sick.

Abraham pulled off his glasses and shook his head before taking on seat on the cold ground. I killed my first man at the age of eighteen in a worthless war fought for ungodly reasons. The pain will dull with time.

Hunter ignored the prick of dead leaves as he took a seat next to his grandfather. Reaching out a hand, he moved the verge of the dead flower petals at the base of the tombstone. He cleared a spot and waited for Abraham to put down the fresh blooms. Hunter wanted to speak, but couldn’t find the words.

Killing a man takes a lot out of your soul. It leaves you second guessing everything. You did the right thing, my grandson, Abraham said to him on that day.

Hunter saw his grandfather fighting his own demons. The deep-rooted pain was painted across his age-spotted face. The right thing would have been to keep him alive, Hunter argued, staring at the curve of the tombstone.

I know what it means to sting, to burn in agony and regret. What happened was written in stone and if you didn’t kill him… I would have. I would do anything to save my son. I love your dad.

Looking up, Hunter saw the sky was still on fire thanks to Red Dead.

A father will kill to protect his children. And children will kill to protect their parents. It’s the bond of family. Glenn wasn’t right in the head and hadn’t been for a longtime. Don’t you dare think the fault was yours!

Hunter turned to his grandfather. Abraham’s deep wrinkles told of unspeakable horrors. How many… How many have you killed? he asked, afraid to look his grandfather in his bottomless eyes. It was sad, but Hunter felt safe in the graveyard, safe from the world outside its iron gate. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since his own father and mother left him and his sister in the name of science. Was it weeks or mere days?

Best to let it go.

Dejected, Hunter looked out across the small cemetery near the farm. He knew his grandfather had killed many men during his time in the Army. Abraham never admitted to the crimes, but Hunter knew— somehow his grandfather was tried and tested in battle. It was written in the courage he displayed so easily. Please, tell me the truth.

Honestly, Hunter, I lost count during my time in the service. Abraham pointed to a large section of tombstones. I killed more people than you can count tombstones in this graveyard. Abraham paused. But if I didn’t kill, if I didn’t do my job, I would have lost thousands of friends. War is something dangerous. I attended the funeral services of over twenty of my good friends. They died, but somehow I made it.

Looking back up, Hunter could almost hear church bells ringing in honor of the dead. He would never admit it, but his grandpa was making sense. Hunter killed because he had no choice.

I know about the nightmares. I know about the repeating images. I know it’s hard, but things will get better, Abraham said. None of them knew at that time the bombs were about to leave the world in a radiation cloud that would usher in the apocalypse.

Hunter had no reason to debate his grandfather’s wisdom. He knew in his heart he would never forget that moment when he pulled the trigger. Straightening out his wrinkled shirt, he stared up at Red Dead. He imaged what it might look like had a rocket exploded into the heart of the planet. Would it look like a giant firecracker stretched across the sky? Or would it rain down burning rock and destroy everything?

Hunter sat