Origins (The Becoming Book 6)

by Jessica Meigs

  It took far longer than Gray wanted to get to his apartment building. By then, a deep, tight ache had settled into his chest. In the lobby, he jabbed the elevator call button repeatedly, slamming his fist against the button. He scanned the lobby and noted that there wasn’t a single person anywhere in sight. He was, in a way, relieved; it meant he was less likely to run into some crazy bastard intent on killing him, but at the same time, if he passed out in the lobby from lack of oxygen, he’d be pretty well up the creek without help.

  The elevator arrived, the cool steel doors sliding open. Gray flung himself inside and punched the third-floor button. His heart racing painfully, he squeezed his eyes closed and sagged against the wall as the elevator made its ascent. He prayed that Theo would get there soon, that he’d make it to the apartment before Gray collapsed. He was sure there were no more inhalers in his apartment; Theo wouldn’t have filled his prescription if there had been. He mentally ran through the different home remedies his mom had used when he was a kid and had fought near-constant minor asthma attacks that would hit him without warning. Coffee, black coffee, he remembered. Two cups. Something about hot water too. And breathing out heavily through his mouth to try to push out carbon dioxide. He wasn’t sure if that part was true, but he vaguely remembered reading it somewhere. Regardless of its validity, he started trying to breathe, taking in short breaths and letting out long, heavy ones as the elevator slowly dragged to a stop with a squeak and groan of the cables. The doors slid open noisily.

  Before Gray could step out of the elevator, a man darted inside. He pushed Gray against the back of the elevator with enough force to drive what little breath he had left in his lungs right out of them. He put his hands out defensively as the man grabbed at his throat. Gray let out a weak cry of alarm and shoved hard, managing to get enough precious space between them to work his leg up and put his knee into the man’s gut. The impact sent the man stumbling wildly backward to the edge of the elevator. Gray took another fast step forward and kicked him again. He caught the man’s head in his hands and drove his knee hard into the man’s face. The sound of cartilage and bone snapping met his ears, and sharp pain darted through Gray’s knee. The man collapsed onto the floor, and Gray started stomping, slamming the heel of his shoe as hard as he could directly onto the man’s face. When the man stopped moving, Gray stepped over the man, heading for his apartment door. He recovered the spare key taped to the top edge of the doorframe and then he was inside, slamming the door closed and throwing the locks home.

  Gray slumped against the closed door for only a moment before he forced himself forward. He leaned heavily on the wall and pushed himself along it toward the bathroom, hoping that a spare inhaler would be in the medicine cabinet. But his world began to spin sickeningly around him, and he knew he wasn’t going to make it that far. He managed a few more steps before he sank to his knees, panic invading his mind as he struggled desperately to breathe.

  Chapter 10

  Theo was shaking with overexertion when he reached Gray’s apartment building, his nerves getting the better of him. It had thankfully not been too hard of a journey for him to get from the ambulance to the apartment; he’d spent most of his time practicing the simple avoidance of everyone and everything he’d seen, animals included. He didn’t know if whatever was causing people to act insane was affecting animals too, so he’d decided to play it safe and take no chances.

  The lobby was empty when he stepped inside, his shoulders and back aching from the weight of the trauma bags. He stood in the doorway of the main entrance, examining every visible nook and cranny and dark-shaded corner in sight, making sure nothing lurked, waiting for him to pass. He cast a glance at the ceiling. The lights were still on. For some reason, Theo had expected the electricity to be out. He figured that if the chaos outside escalated, it would only be a matter of time until that happened. Heaving a sigh, he nodded and moved forward, heading to the elevator at his right.

  Theo pressed the elevator’s call button and shifted the bag on his right shoulder, trying to balance it better against his back and squeezing the axe’s handle. While he waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive, his blue eyes repeatedly flickering to the display above the elevator doors, his worries over Gray churned in his stomach, making him feel nauseated.

  “Come on, you fucking elevator,” he muttered. He slapped his hand hard against the call button and then looked at the display again. The red LED number still said “3.” Clearly, the elevator was stuck on the third floor. Gray’s floor.

  Turning away from the elevator, Theo resigned himself to climbing the stairs. He shoved the stairwell door open and stepped inside, squinting in the flickering light from the fluorescent light bar above him. Several months buzzed around the light fixture, slamming themselves against the plastic covering. Theo let the stairwell door fall shut and listened past the buzz of the lights for any noise. It appeared the stairwell was empty of everything but him and the bugs.

  Blowing out a heavy breath, Theo grasped the railing and started to climb the steps, taking them two at a time. His heart was racing by the time he reached the third-floor landing. After a bout of uncertainty, he kicked the door open and burst through it, the axe ready to swing at whatever came at him. He stepped into the dim hallway with only a momentary hesitation and made straight for Gray’s apartment door.

  As he approached the elevator, Theo slowed his rapid pace when he saw a body lying half inside the elevator, blocking the doors from closing. His pounding heart jammed itself into his throat. He swallowed hard, trying to stuff it back down, and took another step closer. When he got a clear look at the body lying there, a surge of relief ripped through him so powerfully that it nearly sent him to his knees.

  The man on the floor was much older than Gray, maybe in his late thirties or early forties, his dark hair going salt and pepper. Theo didn’t recognize him and didn’t have any way to; his face was bashed in, his nose shattered and the bones around his eyes and forehead crushed. He took another step closer, contemplating checking to see if the man was alive. Then he shuddered. No, he decided. Gray is more important.

  Theo forced himself away from the body and moved to Gray’s door. He knocked hard, digging his keys out of his pocket and thumbing the right one free. He slipped it into the lock and turned the key. The lock snapped, and he pushed the door open. The hinges squeaked softly, and the door brushed against the carpeted entryway with a soft shushing sound.

  The darkness inside the apartment was the first thing Theo registered. He fleetingly wondered if Gray had made it to his apartment or if he was, God forbid, lying somewhere outside on the pavement, dead or dying. The thought sent a lightning bolt of fear through Theo. He closed his eyes to listen carefully, then he called out, “Gray?”

  Gray knelt on the floor at the end of the hallway, slumped sideways with his head resting against the wall. Even from where he stood, Theo could see Gray struggling to breathe, his shoulders tight and tense, his hand pressed against the wall, fingers curled and blanched as if he were trying to claw his way into the sheetrock. Theo rushed forward and dropped to his knees in front of Gray, offloading the heavy bags from his shoulders to the carpet beside him. He took his brother’s face in his hands and forced him to look up at him.

  “Where is your inhaler?” Gray merely shook his head and closed his eyes, pressing his faintly blue-tinted lips together.

  Theo swore under his breath, unzipping a bag and digging into it, sorting through the supplies and cursing himself for not taking the time to get some semblance of organization inside the bag. When he finally found a nebulizer and the medications he needed, he blew out a breath of relief. “You drive me fucking crazy sometimes, you know that?” he said as he prepared the nebulizer, hooked it to one of the pilfered O2 tanks, and cranked the tank to six liters. A soft hiss greeted his ears as the oxygen flooded into the mask. Once a white mist started to come from the mask, Theo shoved it against Gray’s face. “Breathe, you stupid fucker.” />
  Gray gave him a dirty look even as he put his hand on top of Theo’s, pushing the mask closer to his face and breathing in as deeply as his lungs would allow. Despite his irritation at Gray for doing something he should have known would make him ill, Theo smoothed his hand over Gray’s dark hair before crushing him into a tight hug. Gray returned it, digging his fingers into Theo’s back.

  “Jesus Christ, you scared the hell out of me.” Theo listened to Gray’s lungs as he breathed. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

  “Couldn’t help it,” Gray replied hoarsely after a few more moments. The mask muffled his voice, and Theo had to lean closer to make out what he said. “They got in.”

  “Where is your friend?” Theo asked. The mask fogged over with one of Gray’s exhalations, obscuring the lower half of his face from view. “What’s his name? Jack?”

  “He told me to go,” Gray said. “He’s supposed to meet me here.”

  “Think he’s going to?”

  Gray hesitated. “Honestly?” He paused for several long breaths and shook his head. “No.”

  “And…April?” Even before Gray said anything, he could see the answer, and the hurt, in his brother’s eyes.

  “Didn’t make it.” Gray closed his eyes. Another several breaths fell in the silence between them. He opened his eyes again and said, “She…she died. Bled out. I think it hit her…” He tapped the side of his neck, where all the important veins and arteries would have been.

  “I’m so sorry, Gray,” Theo said sincerely. He caught his brother’s wrist in his hand and pressed two fingers to the inside of it, seeking out his pulse and starting to count. He lost track of where he was when Gray spoke again.

  “She didn’t stay dead, Theo.”

  Theo looked up from his watch, wrinkling his forehead in confusion. He leaned closer, unsure if he had heard Gray correctly. “What? What do you mean?”

  Gray pulled the mask away from his face so he could speak more clearly. “I mean just that,” he said breathlessly. “She died, and then she came back and attacked me.”

  Theo thought of the patient he and Jonathan had picked up at the accident site. “You know what the scary thing is?” He pushed the mask back firmly against Gray’s face and looped the elastic strap around his head so he couldn’t pull it off easily. “That’s not the craziest thing I’ve heard all day. Or seen, for that matter.”

  “What happened?” Gray asked, trying to pull the mask back down.

  Theo kept his hand on it, preventing him from moving it. “Breathe the meds in, damn it,” he snapped. “Jon and I had an MVA to work. The patient was insane. Kept trying to attack us. We tied him down to the stretcher, but he still kept coming, and…” He shook his head. “I killed the guy.” His voice cracked, much to his disgust, and he turned away from Gray, focusing on the trauma bag and the supplies stuffed haphazardly inside it. He started idly pushing them into some semblance of order.

  “I’m sorry,” Gray said. He shifted to sit with his back against the wall and closed his eyes again. He pulled his knees to his chest and reclined his head back on the sheetrock. “What the hell is going on? It’s like the whole fucking world’s gone crazy tonight.”

  Theo pressed his lips together and looked at his brother, studying him closely for any further signs of distress, thinking over what he’d said. “Maybe it has,” he said. “I’m thinking maybe…I don’t know. Some sort of biological attack? Maybe nuclear?”

  “Maybe,” Gray said. His voice was heavy with doubt, and Theo silently agreed. It was a ridiculous idea. Nuclear accidents didn’t make people behave that way. It just killed them.

  “Damn, I wish you had a TV,” Theo said. He pulled a pulse-ox from his bag and took Gray’s hand, slipping the sensor on the end of his finger and turning it on so the device could cycle through its processes, measuring Gray’s blood-oxygen levels and heart rate. “You got any idea what the hell might be going on?”

  “Zombies,” Gray said. “It’s got to be zombies.”

  “Zombies?” Theo asked incredulously. “I think you’ve been watching too many horror movies, Gray.”

  “Jack said the same thing,” Gray said. “But what if I’m right? I mean, April. She was dead. Totally stone cold fucking dead. You taught me how to check for that kind of thing. She was dead. No way someone could’ve survived that kind of blood loss. She got back up and attacked me at the same time the others from outside got into the bar. No way that’s possible unless it’s zombies.”

  “We’re not living in a Romero movie,” Theo said, his thoughts flickering back to his patient and what he’d said to Jonathan at the time: “He’s got the vitals of a dead man, but he’s kicking like he’s still alive.” “Zombies don’t exist,” he said, despite his internal misgivings. “No way. It’s not physically, humanly possible.”

  “They’re inhuman and unnatural,” Gray countered. “That’s why they’re called the undead.”

  “Just sit back and breathe, okay?” Theo said. “I’m going to find a radio, get some idea of what’s going on out there. When you’re feeling better, we’re going to try to make it to Mom and Dad’s house.” After a couple of stops, that is, he added silently.

  “We need weapons,” Gray said. “Guns or something. A headshot is supposed to kill zombies, right?”

  “I thought I told you to shut up and breathe,” Theo retorted. He noted Gray’s oxygen saturation and turned the pulse-ox off, shoving it back into his bag. He stood and stretched, then gathered the discarded plastic packaging from the supplies he’d used. He looked Gray over one more time, noting how much better he already looked. The blue tinge to his lips was gone, and he didn’t look quite so pale and desperate anymore. “I’m going in the kitchen to see what food you’ve got,” he said. “We should get supplies together while we can. You stay here and relax and let the drugs do the work.”

  Once the kitchen door was shut behind him, Theo slumped against the wall beside it, burying his face in his hands and letting out a slow, shuddering breath. The horror of what he’d done in the ambulance, what he’d seen happen to Jonathan, and what he’d encountered on his race to Gray’s apartment pounded at his temples, and he struggled to block the images from his mind. He couldn’t protect his younger brother and he couldn’t go after Dillon if he was too focused on the hellish thoughts rattling through his brain. Because ultimately, Gray and Dillon were his priorities, and he was going to do whatever it took to keep them alive.

  Even if it meant committing murder.

  Thoughts of Dillon prompted Theo to reach for his cell phone, and he pulled it free from a pocket and flipped it open. He click through to Dillon’s name in his contacts list, pressed the call button, and put the phone to his ear. His nerves fluttered in his stomach as it rang, stirring up fear at what he’d do if Dillon didn’t answer.

  “Theo?” Dillon’s voice came through on the line, and Theo felt the tension in his shoulders immediately begin to melt away.

  “Dillon, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” Dillon replied. “What’s going on out there? Things are getting crazy as shit out there, and it’s only gotten worse since I got home.”

  “I don’t know, but things have been bad,” Theo said. He glanced at the kitchen door and lowered his voice. “We wrecked the ambulance. Jonathan’s dead. And my patient tried to kill me.”

  “Jesus, are you okay?” Dillon asked, and Theo could hear the rising panic in his voice.

  “I’m fine,” Theo assured him. “I’m not hurt, other than a bump on the head. I’m with my brother at his place.” He paused, contemplating all of their options, and settled on his best course of action. “Look, do me a favor, Dill.”

  “Anything.”

  “Close up and lock down everything,” he instructed. “Bolt your doors, barricade them, do whatever it takes for you to stay safe. Get yourself a weapon and hole up.”

  “And then?”

  “Wait. Stay there,” Theo said. “And stay safe. I’ll be the
re as soon as I can. How is your father?”

  “Not doing good,” Dillon replied. “The power went out an hour ago, and his oxygen machine…” He didn’t need to say anymore.

  “Okay,” Theo said. “We’ll worry about that later.” He didn’t say what he was thinking. You’re more important to me than he is. He ran a hand through his hair, tousling it. “Just stay safe, okay? Don’t leave the house for anything. I’ll be there as soon as I possibly can.”

  “Theo, be careful,” Dillon said, his words coming out in a rush, as if he were in a hurry to get them out before Theo hung up.

  “Of course,” he said. “I’ll see you in a while.” He hung up then, tucking the phone away in his pocket. He shoved away from the wall and went to the nearest cabinet, opening it and looking into it without really seeing what was in front of him. His mind spun in circles, going over everything he knew about survival, considering everything he’d require in order to do what needed to be done to keep the three of them alive. They would definitely need better weapons; he wasn’t sure the fire axe and crowbar he’d pilfered from the ambulance would continue to be a reliable means of protection.

  Theo wanted a gun.

  The thought was a foreign one to him. He’d certainly never shot a person before. He didn’t have much experience with firearms, not past the instruction his father had given him as a teenager. He’d never been interested in instruments that could cause injury or death. Gray, on the other hand, had gone out hunting with their father on more than one occasion. While shooting deer was a world apart from shooting a human being, Theo thought maybe Gray could do it if necessary.

  Gray’ll be a far better shot than me, that’s for sure, he thought wryly.