The Becoming: Revelations (9 page)

“See something interesting back there?” she teased. She waved for him to enter the stairwell. He stepped onto the landing, and she followed him, letting the door fall shut behind her before flicking on her flashlight.

“Maybe,” Ethan admitted. “There’s a map. It looks really familiar, but I can’t figure out where I’ve seen it before. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it either.”

“Oh, that’s the map we found in your stuff,” Kimberly said almost flippantly.

Ethan stopped and caught Kimberly’s arm, bringing her to a halt. “My stuff? You have my stuff? My bag?” he asked, his voice urgent.

Kimberly looked confused. “Yeah, we finished cleaning and sterilizing it earlier this week. I gave it to Alicia to give to you.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as suspicion filled his gut. He glanced at the fourth-floor doorway as they climbed toward the fifth floor. He felt the sneaking suspicion that something was being kept from him, that he was missing some important information that he desperately needed to know. “Where’s my bag now?” he asked Kimberly’s back.

Kimberly glanced at him. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Like I said, I gave it to Alicia. She was supposed to pass it to you. If she didn’t, then I have no idea what she did with it.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened as his mind lingered on the personal effects in the bag. Among the sundries packed away in its confines was his wife’s locket, which he’d recovered the year before in Memphis. He wanted that necklace. It was all he had left of Anna. They could burn everything else in the bag for all he cared, but he wanted that piece of jewelry.

“I’ll ask her about it when she gets back from wherever her group went,” Ethan vowed out loud.

Kimberly stopped halfway up the stairs, turning to look at Ethan again with a concerned look on her face. “Ethan … how close are you to Alicia?” she asked. Her eyes were wide and worried. She twisted her fingers into the hem of the thin black t-shirt she wore. She looked awkward as she stood under his scrutiny.

Ethan was puzzled by Kimberly’s question. He raised an eyebrow and leaned against the railing to observe her for a moment before answering. “We’re okay, I guess. I mean, we get along reasonably well.” He smirked in amusement as he fleetingly thought of the day before Alicia left, when he’d slammed the woman against the wall and very subtly threatened to kill her. There was certainly no love lost there. His eyes met Kimberly’s, and he noticed the curious look she gave him. “We’re definitely not close,” he confirmed. “Well, except physically. And I don’t think you need or want to know about that.” Kimberly didn’t look the slightest bit amused. Ethan cleared his throat. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just …” Kimberly paused, looking as if she were sorting things out in her head. Ethan knew the expression well; he’d seen it on Remy’s face countless times in the past year. He forced thoughts of the young woman away. Thinking about her made him think about the others—and about how much he missed all of them and the camaraderie they’d offered over the year before. There was nothing resembling that here. Kimberly sucked in a breath and said in a rush, “You shouldn’t trust Alicia. Or her people.”

Ethan blinked at the unexpected declaration. “What makes you say that?”

“They’re in it for all the wrong reasons,” Kimberly tried to explain. “We’re just trying to find the cure to help people. They want to use it to control people.”

Ethan’s eyebrows rose. “We?” he repeated, studying Kimberly’s face and body language for any signs of deception. There was none, as far as he could tell. For not the first time, Ethan wished for Remy and her people-reading skills. “Who is ‘we’?”

Kimberly motioned to the dark stairwell above her head. “The sixth floor,” she said almost cryptically. Ethan frowned, his forehead wrinkling in confusion.

“The hospital floor?”

“There’s
far
more to the sixth floor than just the hospital,” Kimberly said. She motioned for him to follow and began to climb the stairs again. “Come on. It’s about time you learned what goes on behind those doors.”

Cade watched Brandt closely as he stared into his backpack, carefully inventorying its contents, checking to make sure he had everything he’d need. She wanted to approach him, to talk to him, but he still wore the sour look he’d had on his face after their discussion two nights before—a discussion Cade regretted even having. Cade hated the direction the talk had taken, she hated what she’d said, and she hated how it had created the awful tension between them. It was a tension she knew Remy and Gray felt, because her two younger companions had been unusually quiet, talking only to each other, spending all their time together behind closed doors.

More than any of that, though, Cade hated the blatant lie she’d told Brandt when she’d said she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a relationship between them.

Cade heaved a sigh and took a step toward him, loathing how cautiously she felt the impulse to move. Brandt didn’t look up as she stopped beside him, and she shoved her hands into her pockets awkwardly. The stitches in her side pulled slightly at her skin with the movement. She tried to figure out something to say to the tall man, discarding several options before finally settling on, “Got everything you need?”

“Maybe,” Brandt said evasively. He didn’t raise his voice or his head.

Cade scuffed her boot against the floor and watched as he dug deeper into the bag. She bit her lip and struggled to dredge up something else to say. “Could you do me a favor? Maybe see what you can scrounge up for weapons?” she requested after another heartbeat had passed between them. “We’re running really low on, well, everything.”

“Guns might be a problem, but I’ll see what I can do about ammo,” Brandt said gruffly. He slung his pack onto his back and adjusted it to sit close to his body. He picked up his rifle and started checking it over, topping off the ammunition. He still didn’t look at her.

Cade cleared her throat. “Brandt, ah, look. Be careful out there, okay?” she requested. She put her hand gently on his forearm, and his motions stilled. He slowly lifted his head to look at her. His eyes were veiled, as if he were trying to hide whatever he was thinking from her. “I mean it. I don’t want to see Gray walk back in here alone.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll be careful,” Brandt said.

“Promise?”

“Of course.” Brandt resumed loading his rifle, cutting his eyes quickly away from her.

“I don’t want to have to lead this group by myself,” Cade admitted. “Or what’s left of it.”

“You’d make a fantastic leader if it came to it,” Brandt argued.

“But that’s the point. I don’t want it to come to that.”

“I get it, I get it,” Brandt said. “I’ll come back. And I’ll even come back in one piece.”

“Good.” Cade nodded in satisfaction and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “And when you get back, we need to talk.”

Brandt pulled something from his bag and palmed it. “You
do
realize those are the words no guy likes to hear, right?” he said. “We need to talk. Ugh. Every time I hear those words, it’s always something bad.”

“Well, maybe this time it’ll be something good, yeah?” Cade suggested with the barest of smiles.

“Yeah, maybe,” Brandt said. He glanced at her, and she saw uncertainty in his eyes. It was an expression Cade didn’t like seeing on the normally confident man. She swallowed hard, squeezing his arm before forcing herself to let go.

“So what’s the plan, then?” Cade asked casually. She rocked on her heels and watched him intently. He twisted a chain around his fingers and pressed his lips together before answering.

“We’re going to try the downtown area,” Brandt answered. “Mostly looking for food, but I’ll see if I can track down some ammo for you, like you asked. And we’ll grab whatever else we find that’s useful.” He paused and looked to Gray; the younger man stood by the front door, waiting for Brandt with visible impatience. Brandt sighed and slung his rifle’s strap over his head, settling it against his chest in a ready position. He glanced at Cade out of the corner of his eye and then held his hand out to her suddenly. “Will you keep this for me?” he asked. Cade looked down in surprise at the dog tags resting in his palm. “Just while I’m gone, you know? I’ll be back for them.”

A smile spread across Cade’s face, and she took the tags from him. “Yeah, okay. I can do that,” she agreed. She twisted the chain around her own fingers and palmed the tags, squeezing them tightly, and nodded toward the door. “Gray looks like he’s about to haul you out by your ears. Maybe you should get moving.”

Brandt caught a glimpse of the impatient look on Gray’s face and chuckled, but his attention didn’t remain on the man for long. He turned his eyes back to Cade and took a step closer to her before hesitating, looking undecided. “I’ll see you in two or three days,” he finally said. “If we’re not back in four, then we’re not coming back.”

“Brandt—” Cade started to protest. He held his hand up to stop her.

“In that case, I want you two to get the hell out of here,” Brandt continued. “If we don’t come back, then that means the infected are closer than I’d be comfortable with, and I don’t want either of you to stay here if they are.”

Cade hesitated before slowly nodding her agreement. She took his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “Okay, then. We’ll do that,” she said. “But if we have to get out of here, we’ll leave a note to let you know where we’re headed, just in case one or both of you gets back late. But I don’t see that happening. Two or three days from now, you’re both going to stroll through that door, loaded down with supplies, and we’ll be able to set up more comfortably than we already are.”

Brandt lightly clapped Cade’s shoulder and squeezed it before adding, “Sounds like a plan to me. See you in a few days.” He brushed past her without looking at her again and headed to the front door. Gray gave her a little wave and sent a smile in Remy’s direction before he stepped out behind Brandt. The two men disappeared through the door and headed down the street to begin their search for the group’s much-needed supplies.

“Well, I guess that’s it,” Remy said cheerfully. She pushed the door shut and locked it securely. “What do you say we find something entertaining to do, huh?”

“Think they’re going to come back?” Cade asked. She slid the dog tags into her pocket and watched Remy as she tested the front door’s security.

“Of course they’re coming back. When do they not?” Remy replied. “Hell, while you were sick and all out of it and shit, they left and came back twice. They’ll be fine.”

“If you say so,” Cade said doubtfully, her frown deepening. Remy turned away from the door and raised her eyebrow at Cade.

“Yes, I say so. Because I know so,” Remy replied. “Quit being so gloomy. I’m going on watch. You can join me if you want, but I think there are some guns that need cleaning in the living room, if you’d rather do that. It’s a lot less boring than sitting on the roof, anyway.”

Ethan had been on the sixth floor with Alicia only a few times, mainly when she picked up medications for Ethan and herself. She’d always made him wait by the stairwell door while she went out onto the floor to get the medications. As a result, Ethan knew next to nothing about the sixth floor, so anything Kimberly showed him would be completely new.

Kimberly paused outside the sixth floor’s stairwell door and faced Ethan. “I can’t
begin
to tell you just how important it is that you not tell Alicia I’ve brought you here,” she started. “She’d absolutely shit a brick if she found out.”

Ethan cringed, even as he suppressed a laugh. “That sounds … fairly painful, actually,” he acknowledged. He stepped up onto the landing and grasped the door’s handle, pulling the door open and making a sweeping gesture with his hand. “After you?” he offered politely.

A smile split Kimberly’s face, and she stepped into the carpeted hall beyond. “Why, thank you, sir,” she said playfully. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, though, Ethan noticed. Whatever she was about to show him on the sixth floor was something serious indeed.

“So what’s this you’ve got to show me?” Ethan asked after he’d followed her from the stairwell.

“It’s actually a who,” Kimberly clarified. She led the way down the short hall and into a lobby area, heading for the opposite side of the floor, her pace brisk and determined. She looked like a woman on a mission—and in essence, she was. Ethan just had no idea what that mission was. “I’m going to be introducing you to the mastermind behind it all.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with your use of the word mastermind,” Ethan admitted. “Especially if it’s something medically related. I’m pretty sure the last time the word mastermind was used in conjunction with the medical industry, the world went to hell.”

Kimberly stopped outside of the Overlook Ballroom, much to Ethan’s surprise. She looked at him thoughtfully and rested her hand against the door’s handle lightly. “Oddly, this particular mastermind is trying to pull the world
back
from the hell it’s burning in,” she said. She didn’t wait on Ethan’s reply. Instead, she tapped her knuckles against the door a few times before pushing it open and stepping into the room beyond.

Ethan wasn’t sure what he’d expected as he followed Kimberly into the ballroom. He found himself entering a surprisingly brightly lit room full of round dining tables butted against each other in straight, uniform rows. Equipment—most of which Ethan had never seen before—lined several tables, and binders and spiral notebooks were stacked in organized towers on a single table to his right. Despite the numerous tables, there were only two chairs in evidence; a bed was shoved into a corner beside a grand piano almost as an afterthought. There was no one in sight, and Ethan looked to Kimberly uncertainly. She smiled and waved his concerned look off before calling out.