The Becoming: Revelations (5 page)

“Things he wanted us to have if we outlived him,” Gray said. “Sort of like a will, I guess.” He stood and headed for the window again. “Wait right here. I’ll get yours.”

Gray ducked back through the window and went to his room. He dug all the way to the bottom of Theo’s bag and pulled out a small box with the word “Remy” written on three sides in his brother’s familiar messy handwriting. Gray’s chest constricted at the sight, but he shook the sensation off and tucked the box under his arm. He hurried back to the roof, hoping Remy hadn’t had the brilliant idea to leave and make him hunt for her. Thankfully, she was right where he’d left her. When he rejoined her, he set the box beside her hand and settled onto the roof once more.

Remy picked the box up, intrigued, and traced her fingertips over Theo’s handwriting before opening the box. Once she pulled the top free, a smile spread across her face. She lifted a small gun from the box and studied it in the overcast afternoon light. “What is this?” she asked, resting the gun flat in her hand.

“It’s a Ruger LCP,” Gray said. “I asked Theo to help me find one back in October, because I wanted to give you one for your birthday. We never did find it, but I guess he stumbled across this one and held on to it, maybe for this year instead. It’s good for a backup piece that you can hide on you. It holds six bullets, plus one chambered.”

“It’s awesome,” Remy said. She set the gun back into the box and wrapped her arms around him. Gray returned the hug, closing his eyes as he held her close. She dropped a kiss onto his cheek and pulled away to examine the gun again. “It’s a cute little gun. I love it.” She retrieved a bullet from the box and squinted at it. A genuine smile spread across her face, something Gray hadn’t seen in what felt like ages.

“Just don’t use it unless you absolutely have to,” Gray warned. “There are only seven bullets in the box, and I don’t know if Cade has anything left that’ll fit it. And be careful with it. The manual says it has a long-pull trigger, so there’s no safety. I don’t want to have to deal with another gunshot wound, okay? Cade’s was hell as it was.”

“The only safety that matters is the one between your ears,” Remy said sagely.

“You’ve been talking to Cade about guns too much,” Gray observed with a soft laugh. “I’ve heard her say that a million times.”

“It’s true, though. If you’re too stupid to handle a gun safely, then all the safeties in the world won’t keep you from getting your stupid ass shot,” Remy pointed out. She stood and brushed her jeans off, stretched, and picked up the box with the bullets in it. She tucked the box into her jacket pocket and gathered the bowl and water from the roof. “Let’s get inside. I’m tired, and I want your company. Inside.”

“Don’t we need somebody to keep watch?” Gray asked, though he was intrigued at the suggestion underlying Remy’s words. He stood to join her as she made her way to the window.

“Fuck the watch. I haven’t seen anybody in two weeks, maybe more than that. And that
includes
the infected. I think we’ll be okay for a few hours. Besides, I think you need my company as much as I need yours,” Remy said confidently. She ducked into the window—narrowly avoiding striking her head on the frame in the process—and looked at Gray with a raised eyebrow. “You coming?”

Gray glanced at the street behind him, wrinkling his forehead in a frown as he looked to Remy once more. She winked and offered her hand to him. It was no contest, really. He took her hand, climbing through the window and into the house again. “Hell, why not?” he said. “I doubt anything’s going to come after us here, right?”

A fist beating on the door broke the otherwise peaceful silence of Ethan’s room. Ethan tore himself from his nap and sat up straight. His gaze skittered frantically about the room. His heart raced in his chest, adrenaline rushing into him at the sudden rude awakening. Ethan rose from the bed and, after stopping long enough only to slip his shoes back on, headed straight for the door. He’d just reached it when it flew open, nearly hitting him in the face. A familiar redheaded figure stumbled inside and shut the door behind her.

Ethan caught Alicia’s shoulder and made the woman face him. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded. “I know you didn’t come up here beating on my fucking door like that just to see me.”

“The infected,” Alicia said. She pulled a spare gun from the waistband of her jeans and pressed it into his hand. Ethan recognized the familiar look and feel of his Glock 17. He’d thought it was long gone after his fight in the alley the month before. “They’re attacking en masse, trying to get into the building,” she continued. “I don’t think they’ve succeeded yet, but we’ve got to put them down long before they get that far.”

Ethan turned his focus from the weapon to Alicia’s pale face. “How many are out there?” he asked.

“Twenty, maybe thirty,” she said. “Could be more by now. We need everyone who has experience fighting the infected.”

Ethan blew out a breath and checked to make sure the pistol was loaded. “Where do you need me, then?”

“I want you with me,” Alicia replied. She wrenched the door open and led the way into the hall. Ethan followed her obediently, almost unthinkingly. “I want to see how well you handle that weapon. That’ll help me decide when it’s a good idea to let you roll out on supply trips with the rest of us.”

Ethan’s mood lifted, despite the presence of infected on the street far below them. The possibility, the very
idea,
of getting out of the hotel was too amazing to contemplate. He’d begun to feel like a prisoner, and the suggestion that he actually
was
one niggled at the back of his mind. He shook the suspicion aside and caught up to Alicia.

“Let’s go,” Ethan said, his mood uplifted by the chance to shoot something. “I’m sick of sitting around doing nothing. I’m ready for some action.”

“So I see,” Alicia said in amusement. She led the way to the stairwell, pulling a flashlight from her pocket and turning it on as she stepped through the door. Ethan blinked rapidly as the darkness was broken. Far below them, gunshots echoed. “I personally hope there isn’t more than a quick mop-up left when we get there. I don’t want to risk the infected getting inside.”

Ethan nodded understandingly, and they began a quick descent of the stairs. She pushed the stairwell door open on the fourth floor. The short hallway beyond was a beehive of activity. People Ethan had never seen before rushed about with pistols in their hands or shotguns and rifles strapped to their backs, looking harried and overworked. Tables were shoved against the walls between conference room doors. Ethan glanced at one table as he passed and spotted a map of Atlanta taped securely to half of the table’s surface. A wrinkled map of Georgia was similarly fastened beside it. On the city map, the metro area had been gridded off, and several of the squares were colored in. It seemed the suppliers for this small community were systematically searching for the necessary supplies to keep the building’s occupants alive. Ethan found the level of organization impressive.

As Ethan contemplated the state map, trying to decide why it looked so familiar, a blond woman brushed past him with a hunting rifle gripped in her hands. Alicia caught the woman’s upper arm to stop her and demanded, “Where’s Dominic?”

“He went to the street level,” the woman told Alicia. “He said something about checking the reinforcements in the parking garage to make sure the infected couldn’t get past the gates.” The woman’s eyes flicked past Alicia to Ethan, blatantly looking him up and down. Ethan nearly fidgeted under the woman’s scrutiny.

“Is there any risk of that happening?” Alicia demanded. Her voice brought the woman’s attention back to her. “Any sign of the infected getting in through there whatsoever?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but—”

“
Get
down there and
get
aware,” Alicia ordered. She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the lobby behind her and the escalators leading down to the parking garage. “And let me know as soon as possible.”

The woman nodded and pressed past them to head for the escalators. Ethan gave Alicia a questioning look that she ignored and followed her farther down the cluttered hallway toward the lobby.

“Where’s the emergency?” he asked as he pulled even with her and leaned close enough for her to hear him in the noisy hallway.

“Outside,” Alicia said shortly. Ethan glanced at her and imagined he could see adrenaline pumping under her skin. “
We
are going in here,” she added. She pushed open a conference room door and motioned for Ethan to enter ahead of her. “This is mine,” she said, pushing the door shut. The conference room was sparsely decorated, with only a bed and table shoved into a corner. The room’s long table had been moved aside, and it was lined with row upon row of handguns, rifles, knives, and even a few grenades. Alicia walked briskly across the room to the wall of windows, pushing the heavy curtains aside to reveal that two of the windows had already been broken out; large wooden boards were secured over the voids. She moved the wood aside from a window and leaned out to look at the ground below. “And
that
is the infected,” she said, seemingly to herself, as she squinted at the ground.

Ethan joined her and chose his own window, wrestling the wood board aside with some difficulty. The infected were smashed against the glass and stone of the building, clawing at the sides as they tried to get in. He started counting and lost track at twenty-four. More steadily made their way down Andrew Young Boulevard. “What happens if they get in?”

“We seal off the parking garage and pray they go away soon,” Alicia said. She raised her voice over the wind blowing into the conference room. She slid her pistol from its holster and leaned out enough to aim into the mass below, hanging on to the window frame. “If they take the garage, there’s no way we can get out for supplies. Once the food runs out after that, we’d be, in a word, fucked.”

Ethan mimicked her position, holding the window frame tightly with his right hand and aiming his Glock with his left. He picked his target and squeezed the trigger without hesitation. The weapon kicked back in his hand, but he kept his grip on it as his mind settled into the familiar feeling he’d get when qualifying at the shooting range, back when his life actually meant something. Unfortunately, the infected man for which he’d aimed didn’t go down. Ethan gritted his teeth and adjusted his aim, firing several shots even as he realized the distance between him and the infected was too great for his pistol to cover.

“Are they fucking multiplying?” Alicia asked in frustration.

Ethan didn’t bother responding. Instead, he lowered the sidearm, grimacing as he watched the crowd that kept growing, kept surging against the hotel in an attempt to break its defenses. He eyed the movement below them, watching as the infected began to flood around the corner of the building. “It’s not holding,” he warned Alicia. “There are too many. How many people do you have in the parking garage?”

“There isn’t supposed to
be
anybody in the parking garage,” Alicia said. “I know Dominic is down there, but he’s supposed to be hauling ass out of there and—wait, where are you going?”

As Alicia spoke, Ethan started for the door, his steps brisk. “If you think for
one second
I’m leaving Dominic down there to tough it out alone, you’ve got another thing coming,” he said. He jerked the door open and stepped into the hallway. Several people watched him, but Ethan ignored them and started across the lobby toward the escalators separating him from whatever danger lay below.

“I can’t
believe
you’re doing this,” Alicia said, hurrying after him. Her expression was a perfect mixture of anger, irritation, and apprehension. “You’re going to get killed.”

“So you decide to follow me and, what, witness my inevitable demise?” Ethan retorted. He rolled his eyes and focused on climbing down the escalators. Alicia lunged forward and grabbed the back of his jacket, hauling him back and nearly toppling him to the metal steps. He righted himself and turned on her. “I’m already a dead man, Alicia!” he pointed out. “The least you can do is let me do what I can to fucking help before I bite it.”

“You see,
this
is what I have a problem with,” Alicia snapped. “You’re so damned defeatist. It’s going to get you
killed
.”

“Do you really think I care?” Ethan asked. He pulled away from her and started down the escalator again, stepping onto the tiled hallway floor leading to the parking garage. He ran down the short hallway and burst through the glass doors at the end, emerging into the garage just as the infected managed to pull the parking garage’s gate high enough to break the chain holding it closed. They swarmed the garage with single-minded intent.

“Oh, you’ve
got
to be kidding me,” Ethan groaned. He lifted his Glock and aimed for the infected man leading the pack. It took two shots, but he brought the man down with a clean bullet to the forehead. The man fell back to the concrete, knocking two of his fellow infected down with him. Ethan fired twice more into the mass as they rushed toward him, his shots erratic and misplaced, striking limbs and torsos. He swore at the wasted ammunition and scanned the garage, spotting Dominic nearby. The man had a rifle to his shoulder, and he fired repeatedly into the cluster of infected coming toward him, his shots mechanical and rhythmic as he plugged one bullet after another into the infected, his aim unerring.