The Becoming: Redemption (The Becoming Series Book 5)

by Jessica Meigs

  Dominic did a sweep of those present, and despite his disappointment over them being so few in number, he was pleased with what they did have. In the center of the room, as if she were the showpiece, Cade sat on the bed, reclining against the pillows, her newborn baby cradled in her lap. Her thin fingers brushed against the sleeping infant’s forehead, rhythmically and soothingly, though Cade appeared unaware that she was doing it. Her sniper rifle, always within arm’s reach, rested against the wall by the bed, close enough that she could lean over and grab it if need be.

  Remy sat at the foot of the bed, leaning against one of the bedposts with her legs crossed. She had a short-bladed knife in her right hand, twirling it between her fingers. Her dark hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and she looked relaxed. Dominic wondered if the aspirin she’d taken had finally helped her headache ease off. She caught him looking at her and smiled, then twirled the knife and tossed it into the air, catching it by the hilt. He returned her smile.

  Jude and Sadie sat against the edge of the dresser, side by side. Jude had his arms folded over his chest, staring at the floor as if he were deep in thought, an unhappy expression on his face. Sadie had her hands braced against the dresser, and she stared at Cade with a look of determination almost equal to the other woman’s. Her expression surprised Dominic. He hadn’t known she felt so passionately about Cade’s cause—she barely knew any of them. Still, the look was there, and it was undeniable. Both of the twins were outfitted as if they were ready to go to war, their Kevlar vests Velcroed on and their weapons holstered and sheathed and strapped in place.

  Keith was propped against the wall beside the dresser, his foot braced on the wall, knee bent, his head bowed as he wrote on a notepad with a stub of a pencil. Every few words, he’d pause and squint at the ceiling as if he were thinking, and then he’d return to the notepad and start writing again. Dominic assumed he was making a list of something—supplies, perhaps—for the trip that some of them would be taking in the near future.

  Derek and Isaac were the last two in the room. Both men stood near Cade’s bed on the opposite side from Dominic, Isaac looking at Cade intently and Derek looking annoyed. Dominic wondered who he was annoyed at, and he figured the likely culprit was Cade. She was stubborn enough to inspire annoyance in virtually anyone who crossed her path.

  The room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, the only sound everyone’s steady breathing, and no one seemed willing to break the silence. They all appeared content to stare at each other or the floor. Dominic figured if anyone was going to get the meeting started, it would have to be him.

  He cleared his throat. “So…”

  That broke the tension and silence in the room, as he’d hoped. Cade sat up straighter and adjusted her grip on the infant in her arms, her blue eyes scanning across every person in the room.

  “I’m going to start this off by stating the obvious,” she said. “I’ll keep it short and sweet, because I’m not in the mood for anything else.” She paused for as long as it took her to draw in a deep breath and let it out, and she said, “I’m going after my husband.”

  “We were expecting that,” Dominic said. Cade ignored him and continued talking like he hadn’t spoken.

  “The only problem we have to figure out is who’s going with me and who’s staying here, because not everyone can go.”

  “Why not?” Remy asked.

  “I thought that would have been obvious, Rem,” Dominic said. “We can’t take the baby in a potential battlefield with us.”

  “Oh, right,” Remy said. She tossed the knife and caught it again. “Well, you know I’m going. No way am I letting you wander around by yourself so something can spring out of the bushes and eat you.”

  “I think if anybody here should be voted least likely to be eaten by the infected, it’s Cade,” Isaac spoke up, a smile on his face.

  Cade ignored him too, so focused was she on her more immediate goal. “We’ve already decided that Derek will stay,” she said, “so he can keep an eye on Olivia. But he can’t stay alone, so I think at least two of you should stay behind with him.”

  “We’ve already established that Remy is going,” Derek spoke up. “I don’t think she’d have it any other way. That said, I’d like to put in my opinion that Jude and Dominic should stay here with me and the rest of you go with Cade.”

  “No,” Dominic and Sadie said at the same time. Dominic waved a hand for Sadie to continue.

  “I’m not going anywhere without my brother,” Sadie stated, “and I’m not staying here. We’ve already talked about it, and we’re both going with Cade.”

  “And I’m going with Remy,” Dominic said. “So don’t think I’m staying here.”

  “We can’t all go,” Derek said.

  “I’ll stay,” Isaac said. “Dominic can go in my place. I’d rather be here helping protect Olivia anyway.”

  Cade sighed. “Keith?”

  “I’m going with you,” Keith said, and Dominic caught him glancing at Jude before returning his gaze to Cade. “I’m sorry. I know you’d probably rather me stay here with Olivia, but I just…I have to go.”

  “I’m sure you have your reasons,” Dominic said, “but—”

  “In the interest of not prolonging a potential argument over this,” Derek interrupted, “I think Isaac and I will be enough. We’re running on potentially borrowed time, at least on Brandt’s part, because we don’t know what they’re going to do to him, if anything.”

  “And considering how roughly they treated him when they came into the rec center, I doubt it’s anything good,” Dominic said. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Let’s plan for two staying and six going. What do we need to do to prepare?”

  “We need infant formula,” Cade said. “As much as we can find. And we need to clean up and stock the downstairs. I’ve been told it’s not in the greatest condition. We should fortify the place and make it as safe and secure as possible. At the same time, we’ve got to plan for the six who are going. We’ll need supplies for us and for the house.”

  “Be easier if we knew where we were going,” Remy said. “We need to be able to plan how much we’ll need. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to end up stuck in the middle of Bumfuck, Tennessee, with no supplies and no idea where to get them.”

  “She has a point,” Dominic agreed. “Brandt could be anywhere, especially if that helicopter took him somewhere where he could be transferred to a different vehicle.”

  “That’s where I’m going to need your expertise,” Cade said. “I figure if we put our heads together, we can narrow it down. However, I think we need something more solid to go on, which is why I’m proposing we go back into Atlanta and see what we can find.”

  “Atlanta?” Remy repeated. “Atlanta? You actually think we’re going to be willing to go back to that hellhole? We almost died there, Cade!”

  “While I’m aware of that, please, hear me out,” Cade protested. “I was thinking maybe we could go back to the Tabernacle. Brandt told us the military was using it as a staging area during the outbreak, and I thought we could see if there’s any information there that we could use, perhaps stuff that involves military personnel evacuation. I was mostly unconscious when we were there and don’t remember much, but Remy, you weren’t. Weren’t there papers all over the place? Stuff the military left behind?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go all the way to Atlanta just to dig through those papers,” Remy said.

  “You thought it was a perfectly fine idea to go all the way to Atlanta just to dig through some papers the first time,” Cade pointed out.

  “That was different.”

  “How so?” Cade countered.

  “That time, I didn’t comprehend the danger in Atlanta,” Remy said. “And that was before Nikola, Theo, Avi, and Gray died, and Ethan and I got infected in that damned city. And before you got kidnapped by that crazy-as-fuck lady and her cronies.” She looked at Dominic and added, “No
offense.”

  “None taken,” Dominic replied. “Cade has a point though. Our best bet is to get to a military installation that would be most likely to have the type of information that she’s hoping for. We could drastically narrow our search corridors if we can get our hands on intel like that, and that means we could find Brandt’s location that much faster.”

  “That doesn’t even take into account trying to figure out how to get him out of wherever they have him,” Keith said.

  “That’s a stone we’ll have to step on when we get to it,” Dominic said. “Needless to say, it won’t be easy, and we’ll have to negotiate it carefully. This trip is going to take a lot of planning if we expect to pull it off.” He skimmed over everyone again, trying to gauge how serious they were taking this—very, not that he’d expected otherwise—and he asked, “When are we leaving?”

  “One week,” Cade said, and every eye in the room turned to her.

  “One week?” Keith repeated. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not kidding,” she said. “The sooner we get moving, the quicker we can narrow the lead they have on us. The longer we wait, the more screwed we are.”

  There was silence in the room again while everyone processed this. Dominic rubbed his thumb and middle finger over his eyes and sighed. “Let’s all break and go get some rest. Start thinking about what you believe we’ll need on the trip, and write it all down. We’ll compare notes later.” He locked eyes with Derek, even as he moved to Remy and leaned over, murmuring so only she could hear, “You go get some sleep. I’ll join you shortly.”

  She nodded and scooted off the bed, slipping her knife into its sheath on her belt and moving toward the door. Her movement was the spark needed for everyone else to head for their own rooms. Sadie pushed away from the dresser and said a few words to Jude before walking out, and Jude followed her with Keith on his heels. Isaac wasn’t long behind them, and then it was just Dominic, Cade, and Derek left in the bedroom.

  “Doc, I’ve got to talk to you,” Dominic said before he could leave. “Both of you,” he added, deciding to include Cade in the conversation. “I don’t think either of you is going to like what I have to say.”

  “Oh no,” Derek said. “This doesn’t sound promising at all. What does it have to do with?”

  “Remy,” Dominic said. He motioned to the edge of the bed. “Maybe it’s a good idea if you sit down.”

  Chapter 5

  Jude’s head hurt from lack of sleep. The little he’d gotten hadn’t been enough. He shunted the ache aside and headed back downstairs after the meeting with Cade and the others. He wasn’t happy about any of it, but he didn’t have a choice. Sadie’s determination to go with Cade had taken the choice away from him, and he was less than appreciative about it.

  Jude reached the bottom of the stairs and made a beeline for the living room couch, where he’d spent most of his time that day. Keith was already sitting on the end of the couch, his legs crossed, reclining against the cushions like he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked him over before he dropped onto the opposite end of the couch. He propped his elbows against his knees and rested his head in his hands, letting out a slow sigh.

  “You okay?” Keith asked. The couch cushions shifted, and Jude assumed that Keith had scooted closer to him. He shrugged with one shoulder and sat back, digging in his pocket for his pad and pencil.

  I’m tired, Jude wrote, and more than a little worried. I’m not sure I want to go on this trip.

  “Then why not stay here?” Keith asked.

  Because Sadie is going, and I can’t let her go by herself, he wrote.

  “She’s not going by herself,” Keith pointed out. Jude wrinkled his nose at his words. That wasn’t the sort of statement he’d been hoping for, though he wasn’t sure what he’d been hoping for. “She’s going with Cade and Dominic and Remy.”

  You know what I mean, Jude scribbled before flashing the notepad at him.

  Keith smiled. “Yeah, I know what you mean,” he acknowledged. “I understand the need to protect your siblings. I never had any brothers or sisters myself, but it doesn’t take an idiot to know that a brother’s going to want to follow his sister into any trouble she might be getting into. I assume it’s doubly so with twins.” He paused, then asked, “Have you ever been in Atlanta?”

  We went in once not long after the outbreak, Jude wrote. After that, Sadie and I avoided it at all costs.

  “For good reason,” Keith said. “It’s the definition of ‘hellhole.’ When we were left alone, it wasn’t that bad. Then, when the infected got stirred up, or when some gang of uninfected humans came along and decided they wanted our territory or our supplies… things tended to get really bad. People ended up dead or infected, and we’d have to pack up and move everyone again. Alicia wasn’t a good person, and she needed to be dealt with one way or another. At the same time, she was something of a stabilizing force for all those people who harassed other survivors. I don’t know what it’s going to be like in Atlanta now that she’s gone.”

  Jude nodded in understanding and wrote at the bottom of the page, That’s why I have to go with her—the unknown.

  “And that’s why I’m going with you guys,” Keith said. “I figure you might need a hand keeping an eye on that sister of yours. I don’t know her well, but she seems like the kind of person who’d run off to help someone in distress, regardless of the consequences to herself.”

  She is. Remind me to one day tell you about what she did to save me when the outbreak started. It’s a pretty wild story.

  “Duly noted,” Keith said. “So, what now?”

  Jude shrugged and chewed on the end of his pencil, thinking it over. Then he scrawled, Trip prep? on a fresh page in his notepad.

  Keith grinned. “Yeah, that sounds like a plan to me. I know of some guns that need cleaning. Medical supplies weren’t the only things that Dominic had stuffed into that ambulance, and we haven’t had the chance to go through any of it yet.”

  Sounds like fun, Jude scribbled, and he pushed himself off the couch. He showed Keith the notepad and offered him his hand. Keith took it, and Jude hauled him to his feet, a wide smile on his face. He tucked his notepad into his back pocket and followed Keith to the front door, watching as he unbolted it and pulled it open. Keith had his pistol out and aimed before Jude realized he’d drawn it, and he mimicked his move, sliding his own pistol out of its thigh holster and lifting it in a two-handed grip. Keith slunk out of the house first, cutting toward the right of the door, and Jude followed him, sidestepping to the left.

  Jude scanned the porch and the yard, sweeping his pistol along his line of sight, searching for dangers. When nothing presented itself, he lowered his pistol to his side and glanced at Keith. Keith smiled reassuringly and lowered his own gun, then beckoned to him with his free hand.

  “Come on, let’s get to the ambulance,” Keith said. “Most of the stuff is still in there. We haven’t had time to move any of it yet, what with your sister being unconscious and Cade giving birth. All we took inside were those MREs we’ve been eating and some medical supplies.”

  “Is there a lot of stuff in the ambulance?” Jude signed without thinking about it. Keith stared for a second and shook his head.

  “Man, I have got to learn how to do that,” he said. He reached the ambulance and grasped the back door’s latch, pulling on it. It popped open with a squeak, and he reached inside to unlatch the other door.

  Jude grinned and pulled his notepad out, writing down, I could teach you. He draped an arm over Keith’s shoulder, dangling the notepad into his face so he could read it.

  “I think I’ll take you up on that offer,” Keith said. “Mainly because eventually, we’re going to run out of paper for you to write on.” He grabbed the metal bar bolted inside the back door and hauled himself inside. Jude took the hand Keith offered him, clambering up into the truck behind him. “So, where should we start?”

  Jude looked around at th
e cabinets lining the walls inside the ambulance, getting his first real look at them, since he’d been too preoccupied with Sadie on their trip here. The cabinets on the right-hand side of the truck were full of medical supplies, packed to overflowing with gauze, bandages, IV supplies, and other things that he had no idea what they were or what they were for. On the left, through the dark, semi-opaque glass over the cabinet doors, Jude could make out stacks of boxes of ammunition. In another cabinet were makeshift racks that held pistols, and another with knives. In the cabinet above the seat bolted near the head of where the stretcher had been, the cabinet doors were missing in order to make room for the rifles that Dominic had stuffed inside. There was a veritable arsenal inside the ambulance, and as the size of it became more apparent, Jude raised his eyebrows in wonder and mouthed, “Holy shit.”

  Keith laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I said too when I got my first real look into the cabinets. I have no idea how he does it. Dominic is clearly talented at getting his hands on the shit we need.”

  Jude skimmed his hand over the pistol cabinet and slid it open, reaching inside and pulling free a Walther PPK. He held it up to study it, and his grin widened as he fumbled for his notepad again. My dad bought my mom one of these when I was twelve. She had it up until she died last year.

  “Assuming no one else needs it, maybe you can keep it,” Keith said. “For sentimentality’s sake.”

  An hour later, both of them were sitting on the bench seat, the space between them covered with a pile of pistols. They’d spent most of their time counting the bullets and weapons Dominic had packed into the ambulance, jotting the numbers down on the last sheet in Jude’s notepad. When they finished counting the last of the pistols, Jude flipped to a fresh sheet and started to write the alphabet on it in careful, neat block letters.