“So you kept them instead of sending them back to get bounced to someone else?”
Dominic waved his hand again and turned his attention back to the drawer. “Anyway, I’ve been downstairs getting some supplies together for us. As soon as the coast is clear and everyone else has gotten out, I want us to bug out, maybe head for Philly like we’d planned. Assuming you’re better, anyway.” He looked up from the drawer and asked, “Are you better?”
“Are you a doctor?” Remy quipped. “I don’t know if I’m better or not. Maybe we should ask Derek that question, since he’s the bloody doctor around here.”
“I’m not asking you to tell me what you think he’d say,” Dominic said, his tone snappish. “I want you to tell me how you feel. Do you feel any different?” He threw a too-big t-shirt at her. She snatched it out of midair, shook it out, and pulled it over her head.
Remy hadn’t given much thought to how she felt, but as she focused inward, she realized that she was much better now than before being injected from the vial. She probed deeper, searching her body for any of the aches, the pains, the hunger that she’d felt unyieldingly for months. The hunger was there, nagging but faint, where it wouldn’t plague her anymore.
Though she couldn’t say why, she decided to downplay her health for Dominic. “I’m fine. I feel okay. Did you tell Derek about what I did?”
“I haven’t,” Dominic said. “I didn’t want to leave you here alone, so I prayed for the best and hoped I wouldn’t need him.”
Before Dominic could take the conversation further, gunfire erupted outside again. They instinctively whirled to face the boarded-over windows. Out of habit, Remy felt at her waist, searching for her bolo knife and pistol, and then blew out a frustrated breath when she discovered they weren’t there.
“Where’s my gun and knife?” she asked, looking around the room, searching for the weapons.
“They’re downstairs,” Dominic said. “I took them down there when you got sick after we shot you up with that stuff in that vial. I didn’t want to walk in and have you go crazy and hack me to death with that blasted knife of yours.”
Remy smirked. “Yeah, good point,” she agreed. “I can’t promise I wouldn’t have done something stupid. I think I was pretty out of it.” She sat on the edge of the bed long enough to pull her shoes on, lacing them tightly, then headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Dominic asked, hot on her heels.
“To get my weapons,” Remy said, as if it should have been obvious.
“And then?”
“And then I’m going to go out and kill something,” Remy said. “I haven’t killed anything in forever, and I feel the need to. Besides, if things are bad outside, like I’m suspecting they are, then I’m going to need to get in shape sooner rather than later.”
Another pop of gunfire rang out as she descended the stairs, moving with a surprising amount of energy, feeling it flood her limbs the longer she moved. The adrenaline made her want to keep moving, just for the sheer pleasure of it. It was powerful, exciting, and intoxicating all at once. She’d never felt anything quite like it.
She wanted more.
But there were more important things at hand, like the activity stirring up outside, activity she wanted a hand in, too. She found her bolo knife, still sheathed, laying on the dining table, her holstered pistol laying beside it, the belt she kept them on rolled up in a coil between them, and the sheathed tactical knife horizontally above it all. She grabbed the buckle and uncoiled the belt with a snap. She took the weapons out of their sheaths and holsters and threaded the holsters onto the belt in smooth, practiced motions.
Dominic stood in the doorway, watching as she methodically belted on her holsters and slung the lot around her waist, fastening everything over her hips. She checked her pistol to make sure it was loaded and slipped her knives back into their sheaths.
“You said you’d listen to me,” Dominic said. “Do you still agree to do that?”
Remy gave him a slight, crooked smile. “Do you really have that much to teach me?”
“More than I can fit into the short time we have left here,” Dominic confessed. He started strapping on his own weapons then, sliding guns into holsters and buckling the belts across his chest, belts that secured machetes to his back. It occurred to Remy then that she’d never seen him wear the machetes unless he was about to do something dangerous. The thought excited her like nothing else had in months. And she knew that if she wanted to have a hand in whatever Dominic had planned, she’d have to do exactly what he said.
“I’ll follow your lead and do exactly what you say,” Remy vowed.
Dominic seemed satisfied by the concession. He slipped the final pistol into the holster strapped around his thigh and buckled the strap over it. “Do you need anything to eat before we go out?”
Remy shook her head. She felt invigorated, excited, almost jumpy with adrenaline, but nowhere near hungry.
“Well, let’s go then,” Dominic said. He moved to the front door and started to unbolt it. He paused, looking back at her. “We’re going to the main house, just for a few minutes,” he said. “I want Derek to look you over and make sure you’re not about to spontaneously turn on me and chew a hole in my neck.”
Remy wrinkled her nose. “Do we have to?”
“Just for my peace of mind, Remy, please.”
Remy heaved a heavy sigh and waved a hand at the door. “Fine, fine. Onward, good sir.”
Dominic gave her a smile that lit up his entire face, and then he pulled the door open. Cool air rushed inside.
Remy smiled in anticipation as she emerged into the darkness outside.
Chapter 25
Sadie O’Dell was exactly where she shouldn’t have been: outside, in the community proper, slowly roaming through the bushes, shrubs, and cars that sat hulking in the darkness. The air was crisp and cool with early fall, a welcome respite from the increasing stuffiness of the main house.
Sadie hated enclosed spaces. They made her feel trapped, which brought out a wildness in her that she was hard-fought to suppress. Jude had felt it too; she’d seen it in the brown eyes that were so like hers, a borderline panic. So the first opportunity she’d seen, she slipped out of the house, tugging her brother along with her.
“I’m not sure I like it here,” Sadie said, her voice low as she paused beside a Humvee. It was painted a dull Army green, maybe a military leftover abandoned in the chaos of the fall and commandeered by those who ran this place. She pressed a hand against the vehicle’s cool metal and added, “There are too many people here.”
Jude nodded, making several gestures with his hands that she interpreted easily. “We’re no safer here than we were in the woods.”
“I agree,” she answered. Jude signed to her again, and she sighed. “We can’t,” she replied. “It’s too late to go back now. Too dangerous, what with all the damned zombies out there.” She tapped her fingers against the holstered pistol on her belt, humming thoughtfully. “I’m a little surprised, though. I figured they’d take all our weapons away from us the minute we walked through the gates.”
“Seems like they’ve got more important things to worry about at the moment,” Jude signed.
“Yeah, maybe so.” Sadie heard a scuff nearby, and she snatched the pistol on her hip from its holster, whirling to aim it at the source. She dropped low so she couldn’t be easily seen. Jude followed her lead. The shush of a blade slipping from its sheath was the only sound that marked Jude’s movements. His hand touched her wrist to get her attention. He motioned in the direction of the front gates. There were two figures hurrying along through the darkness, heavily armed. The figures scurried alongside the rec center with the urgency of people on a mission. After a moment’s study, Sadie recognized Remy and Dominic. She lowered her pistol, silently castigating herself for her jumpiness and the fact that she’d put entirely too much pressure against the trigger. She stuffed the weapon into the holster.
“Son of a bitch, I hate it here,” she muttered, half to herself. “Too many fucking people.”
Jude touched her wrist again, and when she glanced at him, he motioned toward the front gates. “What, you want to go check things out?” she asked. He nodded, and a slow smile spread across her face. “Well, come on, then. Let’s go.” She straightened from her crouch, and they started toward the front gates.
There was only one person in sight. He stood on one of the two tall platforms that flanked the gates. As they approached, the sound of the infected grew louder; their bodies and hands slammed against the fence in a staccato drumbeat that seemed to pound in rhythm with Sadie’s footsteps. The gates themselves let out ominous creaks under the pressure, and Sadie’s breath came shorter and faster the closer she drew to them. She stopped short, halfway between the fence and the small courtyard full of cars, shaking her head as the full weight of what was mere yards away settled on her. Jude paused and gave her a questioning look.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Sadie explained. “Shouldn’t we be avoiding the gates and not walking toward them?”
Jude shrugged and then darted forward, running straight toward the gates; Sadie barely suppressed a cry of alarm at the suddenness of his movement. She raced after him, despite her trepidation. There was no way she was going to leave her brother—her twin, the other half of her soul. When she caught up with him, he was prowling at the gates, studying the walls around them, examining the gates themselves, and smoothing his hand over a massive crack that had formed right through the middle of the wood shoring up the gates. Sadie could smell the fresh, sappy pine scent of the broken wood, and she could hear the creaks and groans of the metal fittings that held the original gates in place. The sound sent chills up her spine and suggested it could give away at any moment under the immense pressure.
Jude touched her arm to get her attention again and made several gestures. She nodded and took his hand, taking several hasty steps back from the gates and pulling him along with her. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt a little sick from the surge of adrenaline that had washed through her. Jude looked just as shaken, his eyes wide and worried. Then he tugged away from her and moved back toward the gate again. She reached out to stop him, but he waved her off and went to the foot of the aluminum ladder, grasping it and climbing a few rungs. She grabbed his ankle.
“Where are you going?” she hissed.
He pointed to the platform.
“Why?”
He hooked an arm around a ladder rung and signed awkwardly, “I’m going up to talk to Keith.”
“Who’s Keith?”
Jude jabbed his finger up toward the platform and then started to climb again, leaving Sadie at the bottom to wonder just how he knew that the guy on the platform was named Keith—and when he’d found the chance to meet him. She paced, anxiously cutting her eyes toward the gates, her fight-or-flight instincts screaming at her to run but her brain refusing to ditch her brother. What was he doing up there? And what was so important that he had to harass the guard?
Jude slid down the ladder a few moments later, his cheeks flushed. “We should get back to the main house,” he signed to her almost as soon as his boots hit the grass. “Keith says he won’t be able to stay here much longer. Things are starting to get bad.”
“Just starting?” Sadie said, only half sarcastically. “How do you know that guy, anyway? I don’t know him.”
“What, I can’t meet people without you around?” Jude signed. He seemed irritated, his face a scowl of annoyance that surprised Sadie. He turned on his heel and started toward the main house without looking back, and she followed him, wondering what that was all about.
Sadie was just reaching to knock on the door when it flung open. A flashlight blinded her as the bearer shone it in her face. She put her arm up to shield her eyes. Then she saw Brandt glowering in the doorway.
“Where the hell have you been?” Brandt demanded, lowering the flashlight. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you two!”
“For what?” Sadie asked.
“What do you mean, for what?” Brandt said. “Get the hell in here.” He practically shoved them into the house and slammed the door behind them, bolting it shut and turning to face Sadie. “What the hell do you think you were doing, leaving this house unaccompanied and without permission?” he asked.
Sadie felt her anger rise as the older man castigated her, and she curled her fingers into fists, stepping up to meet him toe to toe and word for word. She could sense Jude lurking somewhere behind her, somewhere near the door. “I wasn’t aware I had to ask your permission for anything,” she said, struggling to keep her temper steady.
“I’m in charge here, Ms. O’Dell!” Brandt raged, his voice barely below a shout. “Me. And because of that, yes, you do have to ask for permission before going out during lockdown. You can’t leave the house alone when we’re on lockdown. I thought maybe you’d have had the sense to figure that out! There are rules—”
“That nobody has bothered to tell us!” Sadie snapped back. She felt a hand touch her shoulder and give it a gentle squeeze, as if wordlessly signaling for her to back down. She stiffened, resisting the suggestion, and added, “We’re new here, Mr. Evans! And nobody has told us shit. You expect us to just figure out and know these things without anyone telling us, and that’s not possible. You’ve lived here for months. We haven’t even been here a day yet. How the hell were we supposed to find out these rules?”
“Brandt, are you yelling at them after I asked you not to?” a woman’s voice asked from the direction of the stairs.
Sadie cut her eyes to the dark-haired pregnant woman with the odd accent who was coming down the stairs carrying a large rifle. Ethan and Kimberly were behind her, the two of them clearly dressed for the expedition they’d volunteered for during the meeting. Kimberly carried a bulging backpack, and Sadie saw another backpack propped beside the front door.
Brandt was still glowering at them, but at the sound of his wife’s voice, he seemed to relax imperceptibly. He stepped back from Sadie and Jude, giving them space and breathing room.
“We were just having a discussion,” Brandt said.
“A discussion?” Cade repeated as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “This is my fault. In all the craziness surrounding their arrival, I didn’t get the chance to sit down and explain the community rules and procedures to them. So don’t yell at them for something they didn’t know.” She looked Sadie up and down and asked, “So, did you spot anything interesting we might need to know about?”
Sadie shrugged. “We just needed some fresh air,” she said. “And we wanted to get a look at the condition of the gates for ourselves, so we could maybe get a better feel for how much longer they’d hold out.” Jude tapped her elbow and made a walking motion with his forefinger and middle finger, then held the fingers up to signal the number two. Sadie hesitated, unsure if she wanted to spill the beans on seeing Remy and Dominic out and about during the lockdown—something that was, she now knew, against the rules. But Cade and Brandt had both seen the gestures Jude had made, and they were looking at them pointedly, expecting an explanation. So Sadie sighed and said, “We also saw Remy and Dominic outside. They looked like they might have been heading in this general direction, maybe to the house next door, but we didn’t follow them to be sure.”
Brandt looked like he was ready to explode with curses again, but Cade merely said, “Huh,” and gave him a knowing look. Then she turned her attention back to Sadie. “We’ve got some business to attend to. Do you guys want anything to eat? I know most of us missed dinner earlier, and you’re probably pretty hungry by now.”
Sadie wasn’t particularly hungry, but she looked back to Jude anyway, prompting him for his answer. He shook his head and made a few gestures.
“No thanks,” Sadie said. “I think both of us could use more rest before everything goes crazy, though, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’
t mind,” Cade said, beckoning to both of them. As she moved away from Brandt, she grasped his forearm and squeezed it gently. She smiled at him before letting go and starting up the stairs again. Sadie gave the man one last glance before she followed, sending him a silent apology. Jude was right on her heels.
Chapter 26
Kimberly wasn’t going to lie: she was nervous about going outside the community. She hadn’t been outside the walls since the gates had been closed, and she was worried that she might be rusty when it came to fighting the infected. She hadn’t killed one in a while, and the last thing she wanted was to freeze up the moment she faced one down and end up getting killed. And, worse, putting Ethan in danger of the same.
Ethan stood beside her in silence as Cade led the twins up the stairs. He and Brandt watched each other closely—why, Kimberly didn’t know. Ethan looked alert but pensive, and Brandt just looked exhausted. She was sure, before the night was through, that they’d all be dancing on that line. Finally, Ethan tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and asked, “What was that all about?”
Brandt sighed. “I don’t know, man. I blew up, I guess. Too much stress, what with all this shit going on, and I’ve got no outlet for it all. I found out they broke a rule, and I snapped.”
“Happens to all of us,” Kimberly spoke up. “You can apologize to them for using them as a metaphorical punching bag later. For now, Ethan and I need your assistance.”
“With what?” Brandt asked. He came to attention like any good soldier would, his spine straightening and his shoulders squaring, seemingly out of pure reflex. Kimberly almost smiled at the gesture, but the monumental task that lay ahead of her was enough to squash the impulse before it could fully form.
“We need to get into the rec center for supplies,” she told him. The rec center was padlocked, a decision made shortly after one of the survivors, Rico Gutierrez, broke into the storage area where the food was kept and stole every drop of booze in the place. After that, only two people had access to the storage rooms: Cade and Brandt. But there was no way Kimberly would ask Cade to put herself at risk just to unlock a door for them. Brandt’s help would suit her just fine.
The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege Page 18