The Becoming: Ground Zero (11 page)

“I know,” Avi said quietly. “I think it’s because the virus hit the kids and the elderly really hard. The few kids left after that usually didn’t last long around the infected.”

“Yeah, Cade had a niece,” Theo said. “A little four-year-old girl. She got infected. Ethan had to shoot her last year when she attacked Nikola.”

“God, that’s got to suck. Killing a child, even an infected one …” Avi trailed off and shook her head. “Terrible.”

“Yeah well, that’s the life we live now. Not much that can be done about it.” Theo heaved a sigh. “So let’s wrap up all this packing, yeah? I can think of some other stuff I’d rather spend the last couple of days doing in this house.”

Late that evening, Theo crouched on the shingled roof. He squinted through the glare of the setting sun, trying to make out the street below. It wasn’t actually his turn to be on watch. But Theo was too tightly wound up to even contemplate taking a nap like he’d planned, so he’d gotten up and climbed through the dormer window onto the roof. He figured he’d keep Gray company while his younger brother was on watch; he knew from experience that sitting alone on the roof for hours was the dullest experience ever.

But even as he sat there, Theo’s mind kept drifting back to thoughts of Avi Geller and her proposition. He didn’t want to go to Atlanta. He’d never been there before, not even prior to the Michaluk Virus’s explosion. But at the same time … well, Theo couldn’t deny the possibility that there were people inside the city to help. He liked to help people; growing up, he’d always been that way. Theo was the type of kid who’d intervened to help others being bullied on the playground in elementary school, a man who pulled over to help stranded motorists with flat tires or engine troubles. It was Theo’s nature, part of why he became a paramedic in the first place. And it was a part of his nature that warred against the common sense that told him to not go into Atlanta, Georgia.

But Gray was going. Theo had no choice.

Theo got up and moved slowly around to the side of the house. He walked carefully up the sloped roof, squinting through the dimming light at the assortment of vehicles parked around the house. Theo didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There was no sign of infected anywhere, and everything was quiet. He walked on to the back of the house, where Gray kept watch over the back yard.

“Hey,” Theo greeted his brother. He crouched down for balance against the slant of the roof and gave Gray a smile. He rested his arms against his knees and mentally noted how tired Gray looked. His brother obviously hadn’t been sleeping well, judging by the paleness of his skin and the dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey,” Gray replied. He didn’t look at Theo, simply kept his silvery blue eyes locked attentively on the ground.

“All quiet over here?” Theo asked. He shifted to get comfortable on the still-sun-warmed rooftop, sitting on the shingles and stretching out his legs, crossing his ankles and leaning back on his hands. The position reminded him of late last summer, not long after the group arrived at the safe house. He’d climbed onto the roof for watch and stumbled across Cade, Remy, and Nikola, their shirts tied up to expose their midriffs, shorts showing off their long legs, talking as they enjoyed the sun. The only thing that marred the scene was the large, intimidating rifle lying on the roof between Cade and Remy. Despite that, it’d been a lovely sight, especially Cade and Remy, and Theo still remembered the embarrassment he’d felt when they caught him staring and teased him mercilessly for three days.

Gray shrugged and leaned forward as Theo shook himself loose from the memory. “About as quiet as can be expected, considering all the excitement over the past few days.” His eyes scanned the back yard, following the fence line at the border of the property. “No sign of anything unusual.”

“That’s good.” Theo sat back and trailed his own eyes over the neighboring houses. They really had picked an excellent house to hide in, Theo thought. There’d never been any sign of the infected anywhere too close to it, and it was easy to get into and out of with their vehicles, the street mostly clear of debris and stalled cars. Plenty of storage, reasonably easy to defend, and not too many trees. Theo couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Theo peered at his silent brother out of the corner of his eye and wondered what was on Gray’s mind. It wasn’t like Gray to be so quiet. Theo usually had trouble getting Gray to shut up. He raised an eyebrow and asked conversationally, “So. You and Remy?”

“What about me and Remy?” Gray asked. He kept his tone carefully neutral, as if he didn’t care what Theo was talking about. The way he said it told Theo almost everything he needed to know.

“Well, have you
talked
to her yet?” Theo prompted. Gray refused to look at him, keeping his eyes on the fence line as if he were suddenly fascinated by the intricacies of fence construction.

“Not really. Haven’t had the time,” Gray said, shrugging and standing to stretch his legs.

Theo let out an exasperated breath. “Wait a minute. You two were alone for most of the day before yesterday, nobody around to even
think
about interfering with any conversation you could
possibly
have with her, and you … didn’t have time to talk to her?”

“What the hell am I supposed to say?” Gray asked. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, sitting back down onto the roof heavily. “I don’t think she wants a relationship, Theo. I overheard her talking to Cade about a week ago about how relationships weren’t worth putting the time into anymore, that as soon as you fall in love with somebody, they end up getting killed. She doesn’t want anything like that, and it’s not worth me getting stressed out over, okay?”

“I still think it’s worth a try,” Theo persisted. “I mean, you two obviously care for each other and—”

“Did you see that?” Gray interrupted with a swipe of his hand.

“Oh come on, Gray. You think I’m going to fall for that?” Even as Theo spoke, his brain registered the note of urgency in Gray’s voice that hadn’t been there before. He sat up straighter and followed his brother’s gaze. “Did I see what?” he asked, his eyes darting around the back yard. He couldn’t see anything; all was perfectly still and quiet. “Did I see what, Gray?” Urgency crept up Theo’s spine to tickle at the back of his neck as he rose to his knees. “What did you see?”

“I’m not sure,” Gray said, slowly and uncertainly. He stared into the shadows of the yard intently. “I don’t know what it was. It was just … I don’t know. Something moved down there.”

“Maybe it was a dog?” Theo suggested. Packs of formerly domesticated dogs had taken up with strays to roam the streets, attacking nearly anything and everything at will. It wouldn’t have been the first time they were startled by a wild dog on watch. Theo crouched and looked in the opposite direction of that in which Gray stared. He searched for anything resembling movement below.

“No, I don’t think so. It was too big to be a dog,” Gray answered distractedly.

Even as Gray spoke, the sound of breaking glass shattered the quiet evening. Theo twisted around, his eyes wide, his heart lurching into his throat. “That came from the front,” he said breathlessly. He scrambled to his feet and ran awkwardly to the other side of the roof. He pawed at his jacket frantically as he moved, unzipping it and retrieving his gun from its holster.

Once he reached the peak of the roof, Theo slid down the slope toward the edge. He dragged his feet on the shingles to slow his rapid descent and stopped at the edge. He crawled onto his knees and looked down.

What Theo saw on the ground below made his heart stutter in his chest.

Cade sat in the living room, keeping Brandt company as he sat watch in return for him doing the same for her. It’d been a reasonably quiet evening, though Cade knew that almost everyone in the house was still awake, too keyed up to sleep. Cade wasn’t sure where Ethan had taken off to—she thought maybe the office a few doors down from the kitchen—but she knew for sure that Remy and Nikola were upstairs, presumably sleeping. At least, Cade
hoped
Remy was getting some sleep; the woman had had a stressful couple of days and deserved the rest.

Brandt and Cade were involved in a deep discussion of plans for once the group got to Atlanta when the sound of breaking glass interrupted their conversation. Cade started as plate glass hit the porch. She jumped to her feet, facing the door and grabbing one of her ever-present sidearms. “What the hell was that?” she demanded. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the door.

“Sounded like the glass from the window by the door,” Brandt said. He stood with Cade and picked up his own gun. He seemed much calmer than Cade felt, a fact that made her a bit envious. She wished she had the ability to be so at ease when facing a potential battle. Brandt edged up to the door and looked through the peephole. Something slammed against the other side of the door, and he jerked back and raised his gun, pointing it at the closed door.

“What? What is it?” Cade asked. She made sure the magazine was fully loaded before she slid it back into her weapon with a click. She didn’t like Brandt’s reaction; it almost always meant something bad was about to happen.

“It’s them,” Brandt said hoarsely. He backed across the creaky floorboards, away from the door. He grabbed Cade by the upper arm and hauled her backwards a few steps. Cade wrenched her arm from Brandt’s grasp. “There are a lot of them,” he warned.

“That’s not something I wanted to hear,” Cade said. She unfastened her belt and pulled it halfway out of the loops to slide a holster onto it. Once the leather holster was securely in place, Cade looked back up at Brandt. “How many?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.”

Cade growled under her breath at Brandt’s useless answer. One of the infected outside slammed against the door again, and Cade brought her sidearm up to aim it at the door, acting purely on instinct. “How many, Brandt? Guess!” Cade snapped. There was no point keeping her voice down; the infected already knew they were there.

Brandt let out an exasperated breath and eased back to the door for another quick look. “Maybe a dozen or so on the porch, a good twenty, probably more, in the yard,” he reported.

“So full scale then?”

Brandt nodded. “Yeah, looks like it.”

A shock of alarm jolted through Cade. “Fuck,” she breathed, turning on her heel and striding toward the hallway that led past the kitchen.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to hold off that many for very long,” Brandt called after her.

Cade paused in mid-step and looked back at him. “Get everybody up, Brandt,” she ordered. She tried to ignore his warning; it left a horrible, unsettled feeling deep in her gut. “I’ve got to find Ethan.”

Cade searched only moments before she located Ethan in the back office, just where she thought he’d be. He hunched over a map of Georgia, a pair of wire-rimmed reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, squinting in the dim light from a single flashlight. Cade burst through the open door without knocking and went to the desk. Every step of her boots thudded in time with the nervous beating of her heart. She stopped in front of the desk and set Ethan’s gun on top of the map with a heavy thunk.

“We’ve got to move. Now,” Cade announced. “There are infected at the front of the house.” She went to the window and pushed the curtains aside, peering out through a space between the boards nailed over it. “And out here on the side too.”

Ethan didn’t hesitate. He rose from his desk chair and picked up the gun she’d dropped on his paper. “I’ll take this side of the house,” he offered. He removed the reading glasses from his face and tossed them onto the desk. “You handle the front. Get Brandt into the kitchen.”

“And the fourth side?” Cade asked. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, and her hands trembled. She stepped back to the doorway and swallowed hard. “Should I go upstairs and get one of the others?”

Glass shattered on the other side of the window. “There’s not enough time,” Ethan said. His voice held a new note of urgency. He wrapped his strong fingers around Cade’s bicep and pushed her roughly toward the living room. “Get moving! You know what to do.”

Cade shook off the ominous feeling settling into her brain and ran back to the living room. Her heart hammered uncomfortably in her chest, and she couldn’t steady her hands no matter how hard she tried. “Ethan says he wants you to take the kitchen,” Cade told Brandt. She stopped at the coffee table and scooped up her Galil rifle. “He wants me to handle it in here.”

Brandt gathered extra ammunition for his own weapon. “Where’s he at?” he asked as he tossed Cade a black messenger bag. Cade barely caught it, her fingers hooking the strap and pulling the bag to her. It was the one in which she normally kept her personal belongings and a few spare weapons. She nodded her thanks to Brandt and looped the strap over her head and across her chest.

“He’s covering the side of the house from the office,” Cade answered. “We don’t have time to get a fourth for the last side. Doubt we’ll be here long enough for that anyway.” The thuds against the door were louder than ever, and Cade imagined the door straining against its wooden frame. The number of infected outside had seemingly multiplied in the short time they’d been getting prepared. Cade grimaced, swearing under her breath. “This reminds me of Tupelo. Only worse,” she muttered, just loud enough for Brandt to hear. “At least
there
we weren’t stuck inside when they came for us. Fuck, I should be on the roof with my rifle.”