“I can’t even imagine that,” Gray said. “New Orleans was bad enough. Worldwide sounds like something out of a horror movie.”
“This coming from the guy who suggested that everybody out here is turning into zombies,” Theo said. “Zombies are a physical impossibility.”
“Last week, I’d have said that all of this was a physical impossibility,” Gray said. “I think the world’s pretty much proven us wrong on that.” He slowed down and eased the stolen car around a wrecked vehicle jutting out into the roadway. “If it has affected places outside of Plantersville, what are we going to do, Theo?”
“What we have to do,” Theo stated. “Whatever it takes to survive.”
The ambulance base came into view, a white building sitting at the curve of its street in all of its single-story glory. Theo drew in a deep breath of relief, noticing that there wasn’t an ambulance in sight. “Fuck.”
“What?” Gray asked.
“There are no ambulances here,” Theo said. “That means nobody else made it back.”
“Oh,” Gray said quietly, realizing the implications of Theo’s words. He eased the car to the front of the building and pushed the gearshift into park. “Theo…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t start,” Theo said, reaching for the door handle. “Not right now.” He got out of the car and pulled the back door open to retrieve his axe and bag. He slung the bag onto his shoulder, crossing the strap over his chest and shifting it so it didn’t get in his way. Then he hefted the axe and leaned back into the car. “Gray, stay here.”
“What? Why?” Gray scrambled out of the car before Theo could stop him. He grabbed his own bag and crowbar and glared at him across the roof of the car. “I’m not letting you go anywhere by yourself.”
Theo gritted his teeth. “Gray, get back in the car.”
“No!” Gray snarled. “You might need backup. You never know what might be in there! None of the ambulances are here, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the building is empty.”
“Which is exactly why I want you to stay here,” Theo said, jabbing his finger at the ground to emphasize his point. “If there’s anything in there, you’ll only risk getting in my way.”
“Getting in your way,” Gray repeated. The cold fury in his voice was palpable, even with the entire car between them. Theo watched him closely for a long moment, reading the anger and desperation in his eyes, the determination in the muscles jumping in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.
“Fine,” Theo said. “Just stick close and stay behind me. And whatever you do, do not wander out of my sight.”
Gray slammed his car door hard enough to make the entire vehicle shake. “I’m not a kid, you know,” he snapped, moving to the front of the car. “I can take care of myself.”
“Humor me, Gray,” Theo begged. “Please?”
Gray rolled his eyes and followed Theo to the base’s front door, trying to be quiet even though by slamming the car door he had probably alerted everyone living and dead in a half-mile vicinity that they were there.
Theo cast a glance at the white and green house across the street as he mounted the front steps. It was shut up tight, no signs of movement anywhere near it. Theo hoped that meant Dillon had done what he’d asked him to do. He didn’t want to think of his friend going crazy like the people on the street and attacking innocent people. Or of him being a victim of the same.
Theo pushed the thoughts aside and tried the doorknob. Surprisingly, the door was unlocked, and he pushed it open a few inches before easing it the rest of the way open with his foot. He paused in the doorway, studying the entrance, searching for any oncoming dangers. He tried a light switch; the power was out. He grimaced and fished his flashlight out of his pant pocket, turning it on and shining it around the interior.
A quick check of every room revealed that the building was totally empty. Theo couldn’t lie and say that that didn’t relieve him. He motioned to Gray, leading him to the supply closet. He keyed the combination into the lock on the door and pulled it open, waving his brother inside. “Use whatever you need to pack up as many supplies as you can. Leave the monitor batteries and other things like that. We don’t need them. Grab every type of gauze in there, elastic bandages, oxygen masks, everything like that. I’m going to hit the drug cabinet.”
“How am I supposed to see to do this?” Gray asked. “You have the only flashlight.”
Theo held it out to him. “Here, take it,” he said. “I know my way around base well enough to get to the supervisor’s office without it.”
Gray took the flashlight from him and disappeared into the supply closet. Theo called after him, “Don’t forget to keep an eye on your back!”
“Yeah, yeah,” his voice replied from the darkness.
Theo made his way through the base to the supervisor’s office at the back of the building. The drug cabinet sat directly behind the desk, tall and imposing, and very firmly bolted shut. A clipboard hung from a nail on the side of the cabinet with forms clipped to it. The key to the lock would be on the supervisor’s key ring, which was likely in the pocket of the supervisor that had been on duty when everything blew up. He hefted the axe and made short work of the lock, delivering a single blow and shattering it. One of the doors swung open with the force of the strike, and he set the axe against the desk and threw it open, grabbing the tiny drug bottles by the handful and stuffing them into the bag over his shoulder.
Once he was done, he went further down the hall to the bunks in the rooms at the end. His personal belongings were still piled on the bed, and he checked to make sure it was all there before adding it to the bag already on his shoulder. His keys were on the table by the bed; he clipped them to a belt loop on his pants and headed out to find his brother.
Gray was just emerging from the supply closet with a bulging blue canvas bag when Theo came up the hallway toward him. He shone his flashlight right into Theo’s face, and Theo put up a hand to block the light. “Watch it, you spaz.”
The light skirted away. “Shit, sorry,” Gray said. “I didn’t know it was you. You scared the shit out of me.”
Theo tugged his keys from his belt and held them up for Gray to see. “Found my keys. We should take my car. I know for sure that it’s got a full tank of gas.” He took the flashlight from Gray and shined it into the supply room to make sure he’d gotten everything useful. “I want you to go to the front door and wait there,” he said, handing him the bags on his shoulder. “I’m going to bring my car around. We’ll transfer everything from the Camry into mine. Then I’ve got one more stop besides the pharmacy to make before we head to the house.”
“One more stop?” Gray repeated. “Where?”
Theo didn’t bother answering him. He just shook his head and pointed toward the entryway. “Front door. Now.”
Gray huffed in exasperation but, thankfully, complied. Theo slipped out the back door to the parking area where he’d left his car the night before. His Hyundai Santa Fe was still parked near the storage shed, untouched by the chaos that had engulfed Plantersville. He hit the remote unlock button, jumped into the driver’s seat, and started the engine. He made short work of pulling the vehicle around to the front of the ambulance base, where Gray waited impatiently on the front steps. Within minutes, they had the bags transferred from the Camry to the Santa Fe, leaving Theo to focus on the next task on his list. He squared his shoulders, preparing for a fight, because he knew Gray was going to give him one the moment he heard what he had to say.
“I want you to get in the car, lock the doors, and stay here,” Theo said.
“What? Why?”
“I’ve got something I need to do,” Theo said, ignoring his questions. “And I don’t want to risk you getting hurt while I do it, because I don’t know what I’m about to walk into.”
“If you think you might be walking into something bad, then why the hell are you going alone?” Gray looked ready to hit Theo with his crowbar.
“Because I don’t want y
ou to get hurt,” Theo repeated.
“Where are you going?”
Theo pointed to the house across the street. “In there. I won’t be long.”
“You hope,” Gray’s said, his voice surprisingly bitter.
Theo rubbed at one of his temples with the heel of his hand; he could feel a massive headache coming on. That, more than anything else, made him less than desirous of having this argument with his brother.
“Fine, you can come with me,” he conceded. “Move the car to the house’s driveway. I’ll walk over there. When you’ve got it moved, come inside and shut the door behind you. Stay in the foyer so I don’t accidentally attack you.” Without waiting for Gray to say anything else, Theo started across the street, axe in hand, intent on going into the house and finding Dillon before something else did.
Chapter 13
In a foul mood, Gray moved Theo’s SUV across the street to the green and white house that sat on a hill overlooking the street. He had never really understood his brother. At times, he seemed like an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and it was times like this that his lack of understanding made itself painfully obvious. Gray had watched Theo cross the street, climb the hill, and go to the house’s front door. He’d produced a key and unlocked the door, stepping inside the house as if he owned the place and disappeared into the darkness beyond the door.
Gray wondered what sort of reason Theo had for going into that particular house out of the several houses that lined the street. It couldn’t have been for supplies; he could have gone into any of the other houses if it were for food or water, other houses that were far easier to access and didn’t entail climbing a steep hill. But he’d gone straight into this house, as if he’d known what was inside, and he’d even had a key.
Maybe he had a girlfriend, Gray considered. Maybe she lived there, and he needed to pick her up and take her back to the house with them. That would have explained his constant cancelling of their nights out over the past several months. But why would he have not told him about a girlfriend? It didn’t make sense.
He retrieved the crowbar he’d left on the passenger seat, turned the engine off, and climbed out of the car. He examined the street below the house and, once he’d made sure it was clear, started toward the house itself. He remembered Theo’s orders about staying in the foyer, but when he heard voices deeper in the house, he couldn’t resist moving forward. He gripped his crowbar tightly enough to turn his knuckles white and eased across the foyer, down the short hall at the end of it that led to an even darker interior. There was a strange, musty odor to the air, like the house spent more time shut up than open and airing. It had the distinct scent of something medical, like the hospital emergency room that their parents had been taken to after their car accident. The smell brought back unpleasant memories and feelings of grief from that time, and he shuddered.
Gray followed the sound of Theo’s voice down the hallway to a bedroom on the right near the end of the hall. He hesitated outside the door and peered into the room, curiosity eating at his insides. The first thing he saw was a hospital bed set up in the center of the room. A thin, skeletal form lay on the bed beneath heavy blankets, unmoving, its head tilted back and its mouth open in a final rictus of death. An electronic oxygen system sat beside the bed, silent, the lights on its panel dark. The oxygen tubing connected to it ran to the still figure in the bed.
Theo’s voice was coming from somewhere on the other side of the hospital bed. It was low, soothing, and at the same time somewhat choked, as if he were struggling to hold off emotion of his own while he comforted someone else. Gray eased into the room, closer to the bed, and Theo came into view.
His brother knelt on the floor facing a man who was crammed back against the wall, his knees to his chest and a sofa pillow gripped in both hands. Gray didn’t know him, but he looked somewhere between his own age and Theo’s, thin and dark-haired, pale and frail-looking. His hands were shaking so badly that Gray could see the tremors even with the pillow he gripped, and his brown eyes were swimming with tears. Theo was making a gentle shushing sound, gripping the other man’s biceps.
“It’s okay, Dillon,” Theo was saying. “I promise, it’s okay. You did what you had to do. There wasn’t much in the way of options.”
“Yeah, but he was my father,” the man protested. He sounded stuffy, like he’d been crying for a while.
“And he was dying,” Theo said. He pried the pillow from the man’s hands and set it aside then wrapped the other man in a tight hug. The man clung to him, and Gray had the sudden feeling that he was intruding on something private and highly personal. He wasn’t sure what it was about the scene before him that made him think so. It just seemed so…familiar.
Gray swallowed and, though he was a bit reluctant to interrupt, cleared his throat. Theo jumped and released the man from his embrace, whirling to glare at Gray. Despite the angry expression on his face, Gray saw a flash of guilt and embarrassment in his brother’s eyes. “What the hell are you doing in here?” Theo demanded, rising from the floor. “I thought I told you to stay in the foyer!”
“I thought maybe you needed help,” Gray replied. “Especially since you wouldn’t tell me what you were doing in here.” He glanced at the man who was getting up from the floor. “Who is that?”
“A friend of mine,” Theo said. When Gray continued to stare at him, Theo said, “Gray, this is my friend Dillon Roberts. Dillon, Gray.”
Dillon wiped at his eye with the heel of his hand and gave Gray a weak smile. Gray didn’t bother to return it. “We should get moving,” he said, turning his attention back to Theo. “You said we were going to the house. We’re still a good bit away from it.”
He turned and strode out of the bedroom and into the hallway, intending to head for the foyer and the front door. He felt a cool draft of air gust down the hall from the open front door, but he barely paid it any attention.
Gray wasn’t an idiot. He’d known for a long time that his older brother had harbored bisexual tendencies. Though Theo had never felt the need to tell him that little fact about himself, it was a secret that hung heavily between them, unspoken but there nevertheless. The thought didn’t bother him, not really. What Theo did on Theo’s time was Theo’s business. However, the fact that he obviously didn’t feel that he could introduce Gray to the person he clearly cared about bothered him to no end.
Even now, he could hear the two of them, their footsteps moving toward the door. Theo’s friend—Dillon, Gray reminded himself—was murmuring something about getting a bag of clothes together. Gray wasn’t focused on the two, and with a glance out the front door, he wasn’t focused on his own thoughts anymore, either.
One of those zombie things was in the front yard.
Gray stopped short. He didn’t know how he knew the woman in the yard was a zombie. He just knew. Maybe it was the way she stood, awkwardly, like a newborn colt still trying to find its legs. Maybe it was the vacant expression on her face, the way she stared off into the distance, out of focus with everything around her. Maybe it was the blood smeared down the front of her white shirt and gathered at the ends of her sleeves like cuffs. Whatever it was, his instincts told him to avoid her and people like her at all costs.
Theo had seen her too. His fingers closed around Gray’s bicep, and he tugged him back from the door before the woman turned around and saw them. “Stay here,” he mouthed to Gray and Dillon, pointing at the floor to emphasize his instructions. Then he started toward the door.
Gray grabbed Theo’s arm to stop him. “You are not going out there!” he hissed.
“Of course I’m not,” Theo breathed back, leaning closer to Gray so his voice wouldn’t carry into earshot of the woman in the yard. “I’m just going to shut the damned door.”
Gray took a step back, bumping into Dillon, while Theo crept toward the door. As he neared it, Gray realized he was holding his breath, and he let it out slowly, gripping his crowbar tighter, ready to leap to Theo’s defense if nece
ssary. Theo stopped at the door, looking out onto the lawn beyond. The blood drained from his face until he was as white as a sheet. He grasped the door and eased it shut until it clicked, and then he slammed the lock and the deadbolt into place, scrambling back from the door.
“What?” Gray asked. “What is it?”
“There are more than just that one out there,” Theo said, his voice hushed, as if he were afraid it might carry outdoors.
“How many?” Dillon asked.
Theo looked between Gray and Dillon before glancing at the door again. Gray could see him trying to steel himself, the fear in his eyes and the worry in his stance. “Maybe ten?”
“Ten?” Dillon repeated. “That’s not so bad.”
“You haven’t seen what those bastards can do,” Gray replied. “What should we do, Theo?”
Theo looked around the foyer as if he was lost, and Gray could see the worry returning to his eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ceiling, as if he could see straight through it. “Maybe we should go up to the second floor and wait them out. They can’t stay out there forever. Once they’re gone, we can make a run for the car and get out of here.”
“Where will we go?” Dillon asked. “And what’s going on? There was all this shit going down in the street last night, and then you call me up and tell me to lock down the house and hide. I heard shooting for hours last night.”
“Where we’re going is our house,” Gray said. “There are supplies and a generator there, along with more weapons than we’ve got right now.”
“What kind of weapons?” Dillon asked.
Theo gave him a grim look. “Guns. Hunting rifles. Not much in the way of handguns, and I’m not sure what sort of ammunition we have, but we can manage with the rifles, I think. It’s better than what we’ve got now.” He held up his axe to emphasize his point.
Something banged against the outside of the door then, and Gray jumped at the sudden noise. The three of them all looked at the door at the same time, and Gray waved his hand at the stairs. “I think that’s our cue to get up there.”
Origins (The Becoming Book 6) Page 19