Ground Zero

by Jessica Meigs

  The impact of the blade was enough to jar loose the woman’s grip on Cade’s arm. Cade stumbled back a few steps at the sudden absence of resistance and fell to her knees in the gravel beside the car. She scrambled for her rifle then brought it up and aimed, trying to get a clear shot at the woman. But the infected woman now grappled with Theo, and Cade let out a cry of frustration. “I can’t get a shot!” she yelled in a panic. “I can’t get a fucking shot!”

  Before anyone else could reach them to assist, the infected woman hauled Theo closer with a mighty pull of her arm and, in the blink of an eye, sank her teeth into Theo’s exposed forearm.

  Theo let out an agonized scream and thrashed away from her, kicking wildly. He braced his foot against her stomach and shoved her away from him, tearing his arm from her teeth. He scrambled backward as quickly as he could, taking shelter between two cars and cradling his arm to his chest.

  Cade and Brandt lifted their rifles at the same time. Two shots echoed against the trees. The infected woman collapsed into the grass beside the road.

  Ethan reached Theo as the body fell. Rapid footsteps behind him announced the arrival of the others. Gray shoved Ethan harshly out of the way, and Ethan fell against the car as Gray slid to the ground beside his brother.

  “Oh God, fuck, Theo,” Gray gasped, throwing his arms around Theo’s shoulders. “Are you okay?”

  “Get back!” Theo ordered and shoved Gray hard away from him. “Get back.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” Gray asked urgently.

  A sinking feeling settled into Ethan’s stomach. Gray didn’t know. He hadn’t seen what had happened.

  “Get back!” Theo yelled again, more desperately than before. “Get the fuck back! All of you!”

  Ethan took Gray by the elbow, tugging gently to pull him away from Theo, even as his eyes finally took in the sight of the wound on his brother’s arm. “Oh, Jesus,” Gray whispered softly. “Oh, Jesus, no.” His eyes were wide at the sight of the blood that ran down Theo’s arm.

  Theo pulled his arm tighter against his chest. His hand pressed hard on the wound as he tried to staunch the bleeding. “I need my pack,” he said, his voice trembling. “I dropped it when I started to run.”

  “Here,” Remy said breathlessly as she jogged up. Avi was just behind her, and she fell to her knees beside Theo. Remy set the bag on the ground beside him and added, “I found it back there when I almost tripped over it.”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Gray asked frantically, looking at Ethan. Ethan could see the fear in his eyes, and he knew he had to be very afraid if he was looking to him for guidance. He looked at Theo and watched as the paramedic held his arm tightly and directed Avi on what to look for in the bag. Then he shifted his eyes back to Gray once more.

  “I don’t know, Gray,” Ethan admitted, a slight tremor in his own voice. “I don’t think so.”

  Gray let out a pained, choked sound and turned away, putting his back to them. Remy moved to him in two strides and wrapped her arms around him tightly, attempting to soothe him. For once, Ethan wasn’t in the slightest bit jealous of the attention she was showing Gray; if anything, Gray desperately needed it at that moment, because he was facing something Ethan had hoped he wouldn’t have to face: the impending death of his brother.

  “I can’t go with you,” Theo said. Ethan looked up at him and saw he was holding his wounded arm out to Avi. She’d donned a pair of latex gloves and was carefully wrapping his arm in gauze to help stop the bleeding.

  “What? Why not?” Gray demanded, pulling free from Remy and looking at him with wide eyes. “Why not? You have to come! We can’t just leave you here!”

  “You have to, Gray! I can’t go with you!” Theo insisted, raising his voice. “I’m fucking infected! If I go, I’ll put all of you in danger, and I will not do that.”

  “There’s got to be something we can do!” Gray protested.

  “Yeah, you can give me a gun and a bullet and get the hell out of here,” Theo said, his voice heavy with bitterness. “I’m not going to live like one of those things, not knowing who I am anymore and trying to kill innocent people.”

  Remy slid past Gray, kneeling beside Theo and stopping Avi’s hands as she continued trying to wrap Theo’s arm. She dug a handgun out of her bag and ejected the bullets from the magazine, starting to unload them into her hand.

  “What are you doing?” Gray demanded, turning on Remy and grabbing her hands to stop her.

  “Gray, stop,” she said in a soft, steady voice. She didn’t look at him as she dropped the handful of bullets into her bag and put a single one back into the magazine. Once she’d returned the magazine to the gun, she chambered the round and set the weapon carefully on the ground beside his knee. “For when you’re ready,” she said, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

  Ethan felt his throat tighten up at Remy’s words. It was when she did things like this—helping others out in her own way, caring and showing love for her friends—that he realized just how much they’d all been hurt and changed by this virus, physically and psychologically. He closed his eyes and took in several deep breaths to calm himself before he lost it. The last thing he needed was to break down in front of the others when they needed him to take charge and keep them together.

  Disregarding any animosity that might have existed between them, Ethan put his arm around Gray’s shoulders and pulled him gently away. “Come on, you don’t need to be here for this,” he said.

  Gray pulled free again and went to Theo. He wrapped his arms around his brother in a tight hug and mumbled something none of them could hear.

  “I know,” Theo said simply, giving him a one-armed hug in return. “Now go. Please.”

  Gray gave him a short nod and straightened, then he started to walk, back straight, down the highway once more. His eyes shone with tears as he passed Ethan on his stoic journey.

  Ethan hesitated, debating whether or not he should go after Gray. Instead, he took a moment to look down at Theo. He asked the other man, softly, “You’re going to be okay. Right?”

  Theo looked up at him unblinkingly and asked in return, “Are you?”

  * * *

  Theo waited until Gray had walked away before he rested his head against the car behind him. Remy, Cade, and Avi all still lurked behind him, and Brandt stood guard nearby, his rifle up as he watched the tree line attentively. He loosely rested his hand on top of the gun Remy had given him, closed his eyes, and let out a slow breath. “I’m so sorry, guys,” he murmured.

  “Don’t be,” Cade said from somewhere to his right. “You saved me, Theo.” Her knuckles brushed down his cheek, and he couldn’t help but lean into the touch.

  He let a small smile grace his lips and nodded. “Yeah, I did. It was worth it, then.” He swallowed hard and fought back a wave of emotion that threatened to overcome him. “Just…do me a favor, all of you?”

  “Anything, Theo,” Remy said.

  “Take care of Gray for me,” he requested. “He’s not as strong as he likes to pretend he is. I’m all he had left. I don’t think he’ll handle this very well.” He opened his eyes and looked at Remy seriously. “Especially you, Remy. You know what it’s like for your whole family to leave you. He’ll need you to help him through this.”

  Remy nodded understandingly, and Theo looked to Avi. The blond woman wept openly. “Theo, there has to be something we can do,” she said.

  “Yeah, you can do as I’ve asked,” Theo replied. “That’s all you need to do. You know how this goes. I’m not the first person to get the Michaluk Virus, and I won’t be the last, either.” He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes once more, dropping his head back to the car again. “Now get the fuck moving. I don’t want any of you caught out here near me when the gun goes off. You know what the sound does to draw the infected out.” He lifted his head to look at the four of them again. They were reluctant to leave him; he could see it in their eyes. But he couldn’t do what he needed to do
with them around. He wiped his bloodied hand off on his pants. “Remy, get them out of here,” he begged.

  Remy stared at him for a moment, searching his face, then nodded, standing. “Come on, Cade, Avi,” she said. She tugged at their arms to get them to move. Avi seemed to resist, but Brandt came over to give Remy a hand, forcing the woman to her feet.

  “You’ll be okay, Theo,” Brandt said, pulling Cade up. “Take care of Nikola for us, would you?”

  Theo smiled slightly. He liked how Brandt thought of his impending death. It was comforting somehow, and his breath caught in his throat. “Of course,” he finally agreed, his voice hushed.

  And then they walked away, and he was left alone on a cluttered highway somewhere in Georgia.

  Theo blew out a breath and closed his eyes. His head and his arm both throbbed. A thin trail of blood oozed from the wound, trickling from beneath the admittedly sloppy bandage Avi had applied to it. His hands shook as he struggled to relax.

  He had options. He knew he did. He could avoid the idea of suicide and let himself become like those things that now wandered the earth, like the thing that infected him. But he didn’t want to live like that. That wasn’t living, not knowing who he was anymore and putting the people he loved in danger. He refused to let himself become an animal.

  Theo weighed his choices. He wanted to see a sunset again, but as he looked at his watch, he realized that sunset was simply too far away. He’d be far into the thrones of the virus if he waited that long. He imagined he could feel it already as it pumped through his veins, slogged thickly through the blood in his body. The thought was almost enough to make him gag.

  He looked in the direction the others had gone, and he couldn’t see them anymore. They still weren’t far enough away for his comfort, though; he didn’t want any of them to hear this. He dragged himself to his feet and started to slowly walk in the opposite direction, back the way they’d come, trying to put more distance between himself and them.

  This wasn’t how Theo thought his life would end. Growing up, he’d naively believed he’d be old when he died, that it was impossible for someone as young as him to perish. It was the typical invincibility of youth, and though he was older now and knew better, he still thought that twenty-five was too young to die. He hadn’t experienced all the things he wanted to do. He never got to marry, never got to have children, never got to start a life. Nothing normal ever happened to anyone since this outbreak had hit the scene. It’d robbed him of everything else, and now it was taking his life, too.

  Theo hoped like hell that the others managed to make it to Luckie Street. And he hoped that Avi one day found out exactly who it was who’d caused the massive viral spread. He had every intention of haunting the hell out of them.

  He found a shady spot on the side of the road and sank to his knees. He looked in the direction he’d come as he slid back to sit against the tree he was under. He couldn’t see his friends now. He couldn’t even see the car he’d walked away from.

  Theo was afraid of death, but he was more afraid of living as a victim of the Michaluk Virus. Ultimately, his death rested in his hands. And he wanted it on his own terms.

  He nodded slightly as he determined his own path and closed his eyes. He took several slow, deep breaths as he tried to relax himself further, tried to keep calm. This was what he had to do, he reminded himself. This was what he had to do to save his brother, to eliminate the risk he posed to those still living.

  He lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The gunshot echoed through the trees, and Gray flinched against Remy as it met their ears. He stopped walking and covered his eyes with his hand, bowing his head and taking several deep, shaky breaths. Remy could tell he was struggling to keep control of himself. She hugged him again, not sure what to do. Despite Theo’s words, she wasn’t that experienced with comforting someone who’d just lost the last of his family; when she had lost hers, there was no one there to comfort her, and she hadn’t wanted it anyway.

  Though she had been in the position of hearing a gunshot and knowing that her last remaining family member had just died.

  To Remy’s surprise, Gray jerked away from her as she tried to hug him. He gave her a cold, hard look and sped up his walk. “Don’t fucking touch me,” he hissed.

  “Okay, okay.” She shook her head and dropped back to walk with Cade instead.

  “Hey,” Cade said as she let her catch up. Cade had her rifle in her hands again, and she watched the area around them more attentively than ever before.

  “You okay?” Remy asked, pulling her bolo knife out. Just in case. It never hurt to have some semblance of preparedness.

  “I think I’m just shaken up,” Cade admitted. “It’s not every day I get grabbed by one of the infected, and it’s happened twice in the past week alone. Definitely not my best week.”

  “It’s not a very good week for any of us,” she agreed. She twirled her knife idly and sighed. “We’ve lost two people in a matter of days. That’s something I never thought I’d see happen.”

  “Before we left Maplesville, Brandt told me he thought we’d all be dead before we got out of Atlanta,” Cade said, frowning. “He thought there wasn’t much hope of us getting out of there. He said the same thing back at the hotel the other day.”

  She hesitated and said, “I’m thinking the same thing. Well, I thought it, anyway.”

  Cade raised an eyebrow and glanced at her before returning her gaze to the trees. “Really?”

  “Yeah. This shit stresses me out, makes me do things I normally wouldn’t do,” she admitted, twirling her knife again.

  Cade didn’t look at her. “Like sleep with Ethan?”

  Remy gaped at her. Cade knew about that? How in the world…? “How in the hell did you find out about that?” she demanded.

  Cade shook her head, smiling. “I know all, Remy. You can’t hide anything from me.” Remy’s eyes widened, and Cade’s smile turned into a smirk. “I’m kidding. Ethan told me about it earlier. And I would’ve figured it out with the way he looked at you around lunchtime anyway.” She paused before adding, “And he told me how long it’s been going on, too.”

  “Oh God,” she groaned, feeling her cheeks heat up at Cade’s scrutiny. “I wouldn’t normally…I mean, I didn’t really mean to—”

  Cade turned on her, and the look in her ice-blue eyes stopped her in mid-step. “If you ever think about hurting him, you’ll have to answer to me. And you know I won’t hesitate to kick your ass,” she threatened. “If you regret what you did, you better pretend you don’t. The last thing Ethan needs is to get his heart broken on top of his grief over Nikola and Theo.”

  Cade’s mention of Theo was enough to sober her, and she looked away. She surprised even herself as her eyes filled with tears. “Jesus, Cade, what kind of person do you think I am?” she asked shakily, keeping her eyes on their surroundings, refusing to look at the older woman beside her. “I’m not a cold-hearted bitch. Just because I want to kill all of the infected I can find doesn’t mean I don’t have a heart. I care for him. You have no fucking idea how much. I just don’t see the point in beginning a relationship, considering the world we live in.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t still love someone, even if you’re not planning on having an actual relationship with them,” Cade pointed out. Remy sensed that she was no longer talking about her and Ethan. She followed Cade’s eyes and saw they were locked onto Brandt’s muscular back. He led the group down the highway, keeping their pace brisk, his shoulders straight and tense.

  “So…you and Brandt?” Remy could help but ask. The temptation to fall back on her old teasing to distract herself from her own little mire of grief was too great to pass up. Cade gave her a sharp look and punched her bicep. She bit back a yelp and rubbed her arm. “What was that for?”

  “Oh, you know what it was for,” Cade said darkly. She took Remy by the shoulder and gently shoved her ahead. “Get back wh
ere you’re supposed to be. We should be in Douglasville soon, and we need to be on alert.”

  “We need to find shelter for the night,” Ethan said, dropping back to talk to Cade and Remy. Remy gave him a small smile, and he returned it. His green eyes were bloodshot, and she realized he’d been crying. The thought was nearly enough to choke her up. “We can’t travel after sunset, and we need time to track someplace down.”

  “We’re not stopping in Douglasville,” Brandt said, joining them. Avi followed him over, sticking close and looking around warily. Gray, for his part, simply stopped in the middle of the road and stood there, making no move to approach them. “It’s too dangerous. It’s larger than Villa Rica, and there was a big outbreak there within days of the one in Atlanta. It was one of the first areas outside Atlanta to get totally wiped out by Michaluk.”

  “So we need to stop before we get to Douglasville, then?” Avi spoke up. They all looked at her; Gray continued his studious examination of the road ahead. “But there’s no place here to stop, no shelter at all! It’s all trees and highways and cars.”

  “We’ll have to make it to the other side of Douglasville before sunset,” Brandt said. “And it won’t guarantee our safety. There are stores and houses and little suburban towns and shit almost all the way from here to Atlanta.”

  Ethan started to take the crumpled map of Georgia out of his pocket. “Is that possible?” he asked. “I mean, Douglasville is bigger than Villa Rica, like you said. I don’t know if we can move across the whole city in an hour.”

  Brandt ran a hand slowly over his face and back through his hair, letting out a heavy sigh. “We have to try, okay? We can’t get caught outside in the dark with the infected. It’s too hard to guard your asses when I can’t see everything around us.”