The Becoming: Revelations (22 page)

“What’s so bad about the Atlanta Medical Center?” Remy asked.

“It’s essentially hell on earth, or at least it was a year ago,” Brandt said. He hated the way his voice shook as he answered her. “It was a place so dangerous the military declared it a total loss. And now Cade might be near it.” He swallowed hard and added, “I don’t see how she could possibly survive for any length of time in that area without help.”

When Cade emerged from the parking garage into the hazy, foggy morning light, she was bone tired and starving. The thunderstorm she’d had to endure had kept her awake for most of the night, so she’d had only a couple of hours of fitful sleep, nowhere near enough to sustain her for a significant amount of time. But it’d be long enough for her to scavenge something to eat and drink. She wasn’t willing to wait any longer for that.

Cade stepped around the gate that once blocked vehicles from exiting without a ticket and stopped on the sidewalk beyond. She looked in either direction, frowning as she squinted into the fog, gripping her shotgun tightly in both hands. She couldn’t see anything moving within her line of sight, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything lurking behind the cars parked in jumbled messes along the roadway. Cade sucked in a fortifying breath and started forward, choosing to walk east until she reached an intersection that would tell her where she was.

The area of Atlanta through which Cade passed was home to the largest mess she’d seen yet. Store windows were broken, their glass littering the sidewalk and crunching under her boots with every step, their displays long since pilfered. Cars were parked and smashed everywhere, their frames bent and crunched, their contents spilled out across the pavement and adjoining vehicles. Cade even passed a large truck sitting almost completely on top of a small four-door coupe. The car was crushed under the weight of the truck; Cade wondered only fleetingly what had happened to its former occupants, but she didn’t dare go closer. She didn’t need to know
that
badly.

As Cade passed store after empty store, she began to worry that she’d be unable to find the food and water she so desperately needed. Weapons and ammunition were useless if she became too dehydrated to use them. She was already losing fluids; her tank top and flannel shirt were damp under the Kevlar vest. Taking the vest off wasn’t an option, however. She needed every ounce of protection she could get.

Cade squinted into the distance again, narrowing her eyes as she tried to make out the path ahead. Still, nothing stirred anywhere. She glanced at the shops around her, spotting a health-food store. The windows were broken, but she hoped there would be
something
left inside that could hold her over until she found a more substantial source of sustenance. She scanned the street one more time before crossing, weaving between vehicles and climbing and sliding over them as necessary, ignoring the pang in her side that the exertion caused. Thankfully, nothing assaulted her on her short journey, and she arrived in the broken doorway of the health-food store unmolested.

The interior of the shop was as dark as Cade expected. She hesitated in the doorway and examined the interior as closely as she’d studied the street outside, her shotgun against her shoulder as she scrutinized every inch of the store that she could see. She couldn’t make out any movement, but that didn’t mean it was safe. There could have been infected inside that just hadn’t noticed her yet. Considering how cunning they’d seemingly become, the infected could have been simply lying in wait, watching, waiting for her to walk into the store before they pounced on her. The thought alone made Cade shudder in disgust.

Giving in to the need for light, Cade fished the flashlight she’d pilfered from the police cruiser out of her bag. Once the cool metal was in Cade’s palm, her thumb depressed the squishy black power button, and a bright white light flared on, shining over the interior of the shop. Cade blinked rapidly as her eyes were flash-blinded by the brightness, but she ignored the stinging, watering sensation and stepped into the shop. She took a look around, easing forward, one careful step at a time, sweeping her eyes and the light over every nook and cranny in the shop.

When Cade didn’t see anything worth noting, she moved farther into the shop. Instead of eyeing the corners, she looked to the metal shelves and toppled displays. Most of the shelves were bare and dusty, long since ransacked of any food they once held. Cade bit her lip as she registered the lack of anything useful in her immediate vicinity, and then she continued on. Her blue eyes scanned every inch of shelf she passed, her head swinging from side to side to check the shelves on either side of her.

By the time she reached the end of the first row, the only thing Cade had found was a small box of raisins. She gently squeezed the box and then tore it open, peering inside. The dried fruit looked far drier than it should have, and it was covered in a fuzzy mold. Cade sighed in disappointment and tossed the box to the floor, crushing it underfoot as she moved on to the next aisle.

The next three aisles yielded no results, and by the time she reached the last aisle, Cade was near tears in frustration. It was ridiculous to be so upset over her lack of luck in this one store. There must have been dozens of stores within a mile radius that she could search. But suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, Cade sagged against the nearest shelf. She covered her eyes with her hand, shaking her head slowly and taking a moment to herself, breathing in deep, ragged breaths.

Cade swore under her breath and slapped the side of her own head. “Come on, Cade, get it the fuck together,” she muttered. “Now isn’t the time to have a fucking breakdown.” She pushed away from the shelf and lifted the flashlight, wiping haphazardly at her eyes with the back of her hand. She shone the flashlight over the shelves once more, hoping to see something she’d missed on the first pass.

A thud and the distinctive sound of something rolling across the floor rang out behind Cade. She spun on her boot heel and aimed her flashlight down the dark aisle. She didn’t see anything there. She narrowed her eyes and took a slow step, lifting her shotgun as a precaution. The squeak of a sneaker on the tiled floor drew her eyes to the right, and she caught a glimpse of hair over the shelf as someone hurried to the front of the store, bent low to stay hidden below the top of the short shelves.

“Stop right there,” Cade said sternly. She aimed her shotgun in the figure’s general direction, even as she briskly rounded the end of the shelf to step into the adjoining aisle. The dark figure froze and didn’t turn to face her, which was enough to convince Cade it wasn’t an infected person. “Put your hands up and turn around,” she ordered. “Slowly.” Her shotgun didn’t waver a fraction of an inch from the girl—and by then, Cade was absolutely sure it was a girl—who stood, her back to Cade, at the end of the aisle.

The sound of a pistol’s hammer being pulled back cracked out behind Cade. Her back stiffened. A steely male voice spoke up. “You let your guard down. Bad move.”

“You try to pull that trigger and I’ll drop her before I even hit the ground,” Cade warned.

“Don’t even try,” the man behind Cade warned. “We’re not here to harm you anyway. So you can put the damned shotgun away.”

Cade didn’t lower the shotgun. She didn’t dare. For all she knew, the moment she did so, the man would pull the trigger on his own weapon. Instead, she tightened her grip on it, her fingers clenching the weapon firmly enough to blanch her knuckles white. “Then what
are
you here for?” Cade demanded.

“We’re here to help you,” the man said. “We saw you escape from that Alicia bitch yesterday.” The way he said Alicia’s name reminded Cade of the way someone would discuss something smelly he found stuck to the bottom of his shoe. “We’ve been searching for you ever since. We’re just here to lend you a hand.”

Cade felt a surge of hope at the man’s tone, but she quickly tamped it back down. She couldn’t let her emotions show. To do so would risk making herself vulnerable, showing these potential enemies just what it took to get under her skin.

But these aren’t enemies,
her brain whispered. And she knew her instincts were right, despite the gun held to her head. They felt more like potential allies—something she desperately needed in this unfamiliar city. She hesitated, her brain swinging between her options. Then she lowered her weapon.

“Fine then,” she said to the man behind her. “You win. Now can you
please
get the gun off me?”

The man chuckled. “I’ve got to hand it to you. You’ve got some serious balls,” he said, the amusement clear in his voice. “But just so you’re aware, I haven’t had the gun pointed at you for a good thirty seconds already.”

Cade’s shoulders relaxed. She looked at the girl, who still stood at the end of the aisle, watching Cade with wide eyes. Cade turned her back on the girl to face the man who had managed to sneak up on her and hold her at gunpoint.

The man was older than Cade expected, somewhere in his late forties or early fifties. Taller, too—at least six feet. He had ebony skin that helped him blend into the darkness surrounding them. His dark eyes were slightly slanted and appeared amused, crinkling at the corners as he grinned at her. He took a step forward, and Cade forced herself not to take a matching step back as his imposing form was brought farther into the beam of her flashlight. As he extended a hand in offering, Cade blinked in surprise as she realized why the man looked so large.

“You’re wearing body armor,” she commented. She shifted her belongings around to free a hand and shook his proffered hand firmly.

“You noticed,” the man said. He gave her hand a light squeeze and then let go. “My name is Isaac Wright.”

“Cade Alton,” Cade introduced herself as she dropped her hand back to her shotgun.

Isaac nodded to the girl behind Cade; she approached cautiously, slipping past Cade to stand beside Isaac. She was blond and skinny—
too
skinny—and pale, almost nondescript in her plainness. “And this is Jocelyn Collins.”

“You know, the girl you almost shot,” Jocelyn said. She stuck close to Isaac, and Cade wondered fleetingly if the girl was afraid of her. She tried to guess Jocelyn’s age; she thought maybe the girl was around seventeen, definitely no younger than Nikola had been.

Thoughts of the dead teenager sent a pang of sadness through Cade’s heart. She quickly diverted her mind before it could go further. “Sorry about that,” she said contritely. “I just … well, you can’t be too careful out here. And I’m not familiar with the city, and—”

“Hey, no need to explain,” Isaac said, holding up a hand to stop her. “Really. It’s okay. I promise.”

Cade shuffled her feet against the floor and looked between Isaac and Jocelyn. Jocelyn edged half a step closer to Isaac, and he put a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder. Cade hesitated and then asked, “So where exactly are you heading?”

Isaac motioned to the shop’s door. “We have a base about a mile from here. You’re welcome to join us if you’d like. There’s plenty of food and water, a low number of infected, and we can put our heads together for information on the way.” He paused and looked her over once more. “That is, if you’d like to join us, of course. It could be beneficial to all of us.”

Cade hesitated again as she debated the man’s offer. It would be good to have some help, to have backup when she needed it. But at the same time, something in the back of her head said no. After the hellish time she’d had in Alicia’s hands, Cade wasn’t sure she was willing to trust just anyone with whom she crossed paths. She wavered, uncertain. Isaac noticed her indecision and spoke up.

“Look, Cade, I know you had to deal with Alicia, and that’s not a picnic for anyone,” Isaac said gently. “Believe me, I know that from personal experience. I can understand you’re nervous at the idea of throwing your lot in with people you don’t know. I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m just trying to assure you we’re definitely on the same side. There is
no
love lost between me and Alicia, and if anything, I have every intention of kicking her ass, either literally or figuratively—preferably both—as soon as I get my hands on her.”

“And why is that?” Cade asked, surprised at the man’s vehemence.

Isaac eyed her closely. “Now
that
is a long story. Come with us, and I’ll tell you on the way.”

Cade hesitated one more time and then nodded in agreement. “Okay.”

Gray watched Brandt closely as the man stared fixedly out the windshield in the early morning light, his dark eyes locked onto an unseen point far ahead of them, hopefully watching for hazards along the way. It’d been a tremendous fight to make him pull over for a second night of camping out, but he and Remy had managed, forcing him onto the side of the road for sleep before entering the city. Brandt hadn’t quite been himself since the radio message they’d overheard—since all this shit really started, Gray acknowledged. But
none
of them had acted quite right. All three of them were being driven by pure instinct, taking rasher, bolder actions than they would have in other circumstances. But
these
circumstances involved one of them, which gave everything a heightened sense of alarm and foreboding, a sense of urgency on a level that none had felt before.

If Ethan had been there, their behavior would have pissed him off by now. Gray could practically hear the man’s voice echoing in his ears as if their former leader were actually there.
This is an absolutely asinine idea
—asinine had always seemed to be Ethan’s favorite word—
and you’re going to get yourselves killed if you keep this up. You’re acting borderline suicidal, and it’s turning you into a bunch of idiots.
Still, Gray knew that if Ethan had actually been with them, he’d have been the one behind the wheel, barking orders and snarling out everything he’d want to do to the people who had taken his best friend.