To say there were infected as far as the eye could see was a bit of a misstatement, because Dominic could just make out the street that led to the community’s front gates. But even so, there were more infected tumbling down to join the horde that was already inside. The sight and scope of such horror was breathtaking, and Dominic’s hopes of managing Woodside’s evacuation, despite the mass’s presence, were dashed. There was just no way anyone alive and uninfected could get through them all.
Remy hadn’t said anything after her first amazed utterance, and Dominic glanced at her, wondering what she was thinking. She chewed her bottom lip, her eyes darting around, closely examining one spot before moving on to the next. Just when he was about to speak, she broke the silence, pointing toward the right. “I think I could get through right there,” she said thoughtfully.
“Through to where?” Dominic asked, hoping she was putting together a plan.
“The main house, of course,” Remy said. “I want to check on Cade and make sure she’s okay. Hopefully, that will relieve any of Brandt’s concerns. And while I’m there, I want to get some more weapons for us, or at least some more ammunition. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have very much on me, and I’ll feel a lot better if I can get some more.”
Dominic nodded his agreement. “Can you make it?” he asked, gauging the distance with his eyes. It was at least four hundred yards between the rec center and the medical house and then a little more to the main house. He figured that if anyone could do it, Remy could, but all the same, he wanted her to be careful. For all they knew, what had happened on the ground outside the rec center had been a fluke, and the last thing he wanted was for her to step outside and be killed. The thought of that happening put a lump in his throat. He swallowed it down and clenched his fist.
“Yeah, I can make it,” Remy said, and while she sounded confident and assured, she didn’t sound boastful for once. “I’ll be fine. I can get over there, check on Cade, get some supplies for us, maybe take some over to them while I’m at it, and then get back over here. Hopefully before Brandt wakes up and wonders where I’m at.”
Dominic nodded again, trying to think over her plan—as sparse as it was—and look for holes in it. But he couldn’t think past the mental image of Remy making it halfway across the courtyard and the infected suddenly turning on her and killing her where she stood. Which was why, when she turned to go through the trap door, he reached out and caught her by the wrist, pulling her toward him. She gasped as her body collided with his, and then he caught her face in his hands and tilted it up.
The kiss he pressed to her lips wasn’t anything passionate or elaborate; he didn’t have time for that. Instead, it was a simple kiss, chaste, just lips against lips. “Be careful,” he requested as she looked up at him with wide, surprised eyes.
“Of course,” she replied. She still stared at him, not stepping away, as she asked, “What was that for?”
Dominic shrugged and dropped his hands from her face. “I just wanted to be able to say I’d done it once in my life.”
Remy smiled and squeezed his hand. “Maybe you’ll get to do it again sometime,” she said before stepping away from him and heading for the trap door.
“Really?” Dominic called after her.
Remy slid through the opening and looked back at him from the top rung of the ladder. Her smile widened, and she winked. “Count on it,” she promised, and then she descended the ladder and disappeared from view.
Chapter 34
Several hours passed, and Cade felt every minute of them slide by her, heightening her anxiety over where Brandt was. She’d spent a good portion of the past several hours lurking in the window of the second-floor bedroom that she and Brandt shared, a night-vision scope clutched in her hand, searching the crowds almost frantically for some sign of her husband, alive or dead.
In her heart, she knew he was alive. He had to be. She just had to find him; that was all. And then, if he was in any trouble, she had to plan out a rescue mission.
The sound of heavy footsteps met her ears, and then Isaac spoke. “Any luck?” he asked. He knew what she was doing; he’d figured it out the moment she’d taken up residence on the uncomfortable chair in front of the window, the moment she’d taken her night-vision scope out of her bag. She wondered if he thought it was futile, but she was afraid to ask.
Cade sighed and shook her head. “No, nothing. Just a bunch of stinking corpses.”
Isaac frowned and grabbed another chair from the other side of the room. He placed it next to hers and sank down on it with an exhausted sigh. “Anything I can do?”
“Develop psychic powers and get in touch with Brandt to make sure he’s okay and to find out where he is?” Cade suggested, and even as she said it, the barest of smiles tugged at her lips.
“I’m glad to see that you at least have a little of your sense of humor,” Isaac commented. He reclined in his chair, rocking it on its back legs. He watched her closely. “He’s okay, you know,” he finally said after a long silence. “Brandt’s never been the type to sit back and let himself get killed. He’s a fighter, and he’s a good one. I have no doubt he’s somewhere safe.”
“God, I hope so,” Cade murmured. “I couldn’t stand it if he wasn’t.” She leaned over and grabbed her water bottle from the floor beside her chair. She twisted the cap off and took a slow sip. “I’m ready for this to be over. I don’t care how it ends anymore. I just can’t take the stress.”
The silence fell again, as heavy as before. Cade returned her water bottle to the floor and took up her search, propping her elbow against the windowsill for support as she shifted her gaze from one wasted face to the next. It was like a slideshow of horror below, a mix of wounded and desiccated and rotted faces, ugly faces, ex-people that she knew would kill her and everyone she knew. The thought almost made her piss herself.
Speaking of…
“Hold this,” Cade ordered, shoving the scope into Isaac’s hands. He looked at her in confusion as she levered herself to her feet.
“Where are you going?” Isaac demanded, concern creasing his forehead.
“A girl can’t pee without getting the third degree?” Cade retorted, raising an eyebrow. Isaac grinned and let out a laugh, holding both hands up in mock defense.
“Sorry, my mistake,” he said. “I thought for a moment there you were about to go out and do something stupid. Next time, I won’t bother to think.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Cade said with a half grin, and then she turned and headed for the bathroom, feeling like she was waddling every step of the way. She’d definitely been sitting down for too long, she decided as she opened the bathroom door. She would have to remember to get up a little more often, if only to stretch her legs.
Cade was just about to close the bathroom door when she felt a warm, wet dampness against the inside of her leg. She reached down to press a hand against her inner thigh and wrinkled her nose. Oh God, I’ve finally done it, she thought with no small degree of embarrassment. I waited too long, and now I’ve pissed myself. Then a thought occurred to her, and her eyes widened. “Oh hell,” she said out loud, her voice echoing against the bathroom walls.
“Everything okay in there?” Isaac called. “You didn’t fall in or anything, did you?”
“No,” Cade replied, though she wasn’t sure which question she was answering. She cautiously sniffed her dampened fingers and frowned. It didn’t smell like urine; it didn’t really smell like much of anything, which told her everything she needed to know.
“It’s too early. It’s too early,” she said out loud, almost chanting the words, as if that would change the upcoming events. “Please, not now.”
“What is it?” Isaac’s voice called through the door, laden with the concern he’d clearly not shed yet. Good thing, too; Cade was going to need some concern to match her own.
She went to the door and pulled it open. She looked up at him with wide, almost frightened eyes. “Isaac, I need you to
go get your brother,” she said, keeping her voice as calm and steady as possible.
“Why? What’s wrong? Is something wrong?” Isaac asked, his questions rapid-fire.
“Yeah, maybe,” Cade said. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat before she added quietly, “I think my water just broke.”
Isaac’s eyes widened. “Oh, hell,” he said.
“My thoughts exactly,” Cade commented wryly.
“Oh, hell.”
“Your brother,” Cade said again, more emphatically, hoping to knock him out of his shock.
“It’s too soon, Cade,” Isaac said. “You’re barely eight months along. It shouldn’t be coming now.”
“I know.”
“This is the worst time for this.”
“I noticed.”
“What are we going to do?”
Cade gritted her teeth and nearly yelled, “Go get your brother, Isaac! Now.”
That seemed to do the trick. Isaac took a step back from her, moving in the direction of the bedroom door. “Derek. Right. I’ll go get him now. You just…” He made a settling motion with his hands. “Stay here.”
Cade rolled her eyes. “As if I have somewhere else to go?” she said, but Isaac was already clomping down the stairs as he went in search of his brother. When the sound of his boots faded from her hearing, she went to the dresser to fetch a fresh set of clothing. Her hands shook as she pulled free a clean pair of sweat pants. She wadded them up in her hands and breathed in deeply.
She’d read the books that the supply team had so thoughtfully scrounged up for her, and she had some idea of what to expect. But those books had been written for a world where there were doctors aplenty and hospitals to go to when one’s water broke. In the books, wonder-drugs were given via epidural to dull the pain. There was none of that now. There was only the sheer luck of having Dr. Derek Rivers present in Woodside. But if anything went wrong, there would be no drugs, no machines, nothing at the compound to help her if she needed it. Only Derek’s wits and medical know-how.
“If the women in biblical and medieval times could do it, so can I,” Cade said with a determination and confidence that she didn’t really feel.
It would be so much easier if she had Brandt beside her! She scowled at the thought as soon as it crossed her mind. Since when had she become so weak that she thought she had to have Brandt by her for every little thing? She had always prided herself on being tough, strong, and independent; she’d spent seven years in the Israeli Defense Forces honing not only her fighting skills but her mindset, strengthening both until she felt like she had been forged from steel. It had been long, arduous work, and she’d always been pleased with the results. And now, here she was, acting like she needed a man. What had changed?
“You fell in love like an idiot, that’s what,” she muttered. “And look where it got you: knocked up, moony, and about to shove a baby out in the middle of the fucking zombie apocalypse.”
There was a soft tap at the door, and she turned, sweat pants still in hand, to see Derek in the doorway. Isaac stood a few feet behind him. “Hi, Cade,” Derek greeted, giving her a tight smile that didn’t come close to reaching his eyes. “Isaac tells me that you believe your water has broken?”
Cade nodded but didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure she could manage words right that second, not as the full weight of what was coming started to crawl its way into her brain.
Derek either didn’t notice or wasn’t inclined to comment on her silence, because he turned to Isaac and said, “Can you give us a few minutes alone, please? And make sure we’re not disturbed.”
“No problem,” Isaac agreed, and he gave Cade a reassuring smile before leaving the room and closing the door.
Derek blew out a breath and slowly turned to face her again, looking her up and down, taking in the sight of her wet pants and nervous expression. “Okay, Cade, so let’s talk about what’s going on with you for a few minutes, shall we?”
Chapter 35
Remy stood in the rec center’s kitchen, wondering not for the first time what she thought she was doing. What the hell had she been thinking, offering to go out into the thick of things and wade right through the infected? It was suicide, pure and simple. And while she would be the first to admit that she was too reckless, she wasn’t exactly suicidal.
But the infected weren’t the only things that made her regret her decision to try walking right through them. No, Dominic Jackson seemed to be doing everything in his power to add himself to the list of regrets.
She stared almost emptily across the kitchen, her fingers pressed against her lips, as she thought back on the kiss he’d given her on the rec center’s roof. It hadn’t been the most spectacular kiss she’d ever received from a man, but somehow Dominic’s simple kiss had been the most passionate, the most intense kiss she’d ever received. That one act, combined with the look in the man’s eyes, had told her everything she needed to know about exactly how he felt.
Remy shook her head and started to gather her long hair into a ponytail. Then she braided it and curled it into a coil on her head. Now it would be harder for the infected to grab. Not that she expected to be grabbed, not after their behavior earlier. Regardless of whether they would do her harm or not, the feeling of their cold, clammy hands in her hair would still be creepy as hell. She wished she had long sleeves to wear, but her other clothes were still at the medical house.
“Nothing doing,” she muttered, and she shouldered her bag and turned to go. She stopped short as she caught sight of Dominic standing in the doorway between the kitchen and dining area, that same look of concern still marring his features, stirring up an odd flutter in her belly. “Is everything okay?” she asked. “I mean, aside from the obvious.”
“Brandt’s fever has spiked,” Dominic reported. “He’s up to one-oh-three.”
“Shit,” Remy breathed.
“If you can make it into the medical house and get some medicine for this, that might be a really good idea,” Dominic said. “Maybe even a higher priority than checking in on the others. They are safe for now, but if Brandt’s fever keeps going up, it could kill him.”
“Yeah,” Remy said, pressing her fingers to her lips again, this time in horror as she tried to imagine what things would be like with Brandt dead. The thought gave her chills.
“Are you getting ready to head out?” Dominic asked. She nodded, and he added, “Just…like I said earlier, be careful.”
“I will,” she assured him. “I’ve got my bolo knife and my guns. And I’ve got my confidence and good looks.” A grin spread across his face at the terrible joke. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good.” He nodded toward the back door that Ethan and Kimberly had come through earlier. “I checked things out from the roof, and the back of the building is the clearest. Your best chance of getting through them probably starts there.”
“Thanks.” Remy took a half-step towards him, the thought of returning his kiss with one of her own crossing her mind. But no, that would feel too much like goodbye, and this wasn’t going to be goodbye. So she just hitched her backpack higher up on her shoulders, gave him a soft smile, and said, “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere without me.”
Dominic actually laughed at that. “Believe me, I’m not going anywhere.”
Remy smiled and gave him a short nod, then turned and went to the back door. She grabbed the knob with one hand and the deadbolt with the other. She hesitated and glanced back at Dominic. He’d followed her to the door and lurked just behind her, his pistol in hand, ready to re-lock the deadbolt. Then she sucked in a deep breath, unlocked the door, and flung it open.
She stepped out into the cool night air scented by the stench of undead bodies.
The door clicked shut behind her.
“Oh hell,” she whispered, and then she forced herself to start walking, striding unhesitatingly around the corner and into the mob of infected that were attacking the community. In the time they’d been insid
e the rec center, more infected had come into Woodside and were starting to curve around the back of the rec center, making their ways toward more of the survivors’ houses. She hoped they were prepared and fortified against the bodies coming their way.
But she didn’t have time to think about that. Brandt needed her to focus, to toughen up, to do what she needed to do to get to the medical house. So she squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and began to walk more confidently into the mob surrounding the medical house.
Remy was almost halfway across the courtyard, reveling in her ability to walk through the infected unmolested, when she chanced a glance back the way she’d come. Dominic stood on the roof, watching her progress, a rifle in his hands. She couldn’t help but smile. Even though she wasn’t with him, Dominic was trying to look out for her. The backup was, at least, reassuring.
It took her only moments to reach the medical house. She shoved her way through the crowd until she reached the porch. There were more on the porch, and the front door hung crookedly on its hinges, broken by the beating hands and rotten bodies that smashed against it. She wrinkled her nose and pushed her way inside, drawing her bolo knife as a precaution. She didn’t spend much time trying to figure out how to bar the door; not many of the infected had come inside—or if they had, they’d left after discovering no prey in the house—and they posed no threat to her anyway. Despite that, she kept the noise level down; there was no sense in stirring the infected up any more than necessary.
Remy crept up the stairs in the dark, not bothering with a flashlight since, to her surprise, she could see well enough to navigate to Derek’s room. The door was closed and locked, and she scowled at the door as if it would magically unlock itself. She looked at the head of the stairs again, as if she expected something to lurch to the top if she made enough noise. She tucked her bolo knife back into its sheath and drew the KA-BAR she’d been given in Atlanta months before. She wedged the tip of the blade into the doorjamb, wiggled it around the gap, pushed, shoved, and twisted. Something popped, and the door opened with a squeak. She grinned and returned the knife to its sheath before stepping into the room.
The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege Page 23