“Well, imagine being completely surrounded by those test subjects,” Brandt spat. He followed her onto the third floor and to one of the apartment doors, waiting until after she’d unlocked the door and they were inside before he continued. “You probably dealt with those test subjects in a controlled setting on a one-on-one basis. It’s not like that on the other side of the wall. Out there, there’s every chance you could get surrounded by the infected, and unless you keep a cool head and know what you’re doing, you’re going to get killed.”
“I’m more capable than you think I am,” Lindsey retorted. “I served in the IDF, the same as Cade, you know.”
“Yeah, but she was there for seven years,” Brandt said. “She made a career of it. Did you?”
“No. I did my mandatory two years, and I like to think I wasn’t that shabby at it,” Lindsey replied. “I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself.”
Brandt folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall next to Lindsey’s couch, studying her thoughtfully. She stared back at him, her brown eyes challenging, daring him to argue with her. He sighed and looked away from her, scanning his eyes over the living room. It was tastefully decorated, the couch beige and plump and covered with pillows, the coffee table holding several magazines and books, and the large-screen television mounted on the wall, the cable box resting on a small table below it. The place looked homey, but it didn’t appear lived in: the television had a thin layer of dust on it, and the pillows on the couch looked like they hadn’t been disturbed since they’d first been put on there. He looked longingly at the TV. It had been so long since he’d been able to relax and do something as simple as watch a show on television that he ached to pick up the remote and turn the device on.
While he’d been ogling the television, Lindsey had started to flip over couch cushions and dig through drawers, retrieving pistols and magazines and holsters. Brandt raised an eyebrow when she fished another holstered pistol out of the space between the recliner’s cushion and arm. “Do you always keep guns hidden all over your house like this?”
“Not normally,” Lindsey said. “I used to not do it, because I was worried about my daughter coming across one and accidentally shooting herself. Since she hasn’t been here, I’ve been stockpiling, even though the government has made that illegal.”
“Stockpiling is illegal?”
“Yeah, the government has decided they don’t want people hoarding weapons and ammunition, because there is, they claim, nothing to worry about,” Lindsey said. “I said fuck that, and I started collecting what I could as often as I could.” She smiled sheepishly. “Some of the ammunition might actually be stolen.”
“Oh, you’re a criminal?” Brandt said, his tone half joking. He thought it was horrible that people had been reduced to stealing what they needed to protect themselves and their families in the event of an outbreak—one that might be there now, knocking on their doors, if that explosion had been any indication.
“I do what I need to do to survive,” Lindsey said. “If that means stealing ammunition for my guns so I can shoot my way to safety in the event of a mass outbreak north of the Wall, then so be it.”
“I like the way you think,” Brandt said. She approached him with two different pistols and held them out to him. He accepted them both and reached for his belt buckle before realizing he wasn’t wearing one. “You got a spare belt I could use? One that, preferably, isn’t intended for women?”
“What’s wrong with women’s belts?” Lindsey asked, a distant smile flitting across her face, though the expression didn’t reach her eyes.
“Well, considering they’re not intended for men to wear…” Brandt trailed off with a helpless shrug. “I don’t know. I just want something that will actually go around my waist and isn’t as thin as a string.”
Lindsey did laugh at that, and she retreated to what Brandt assumed was her bedroom. After a minute, she emerged with a thick, heavy leather belt that was obviously military issued. “Will this work?”
“It’s perfect, thanks,” Brandt said. He took it from her and strapped it around his waist, sliding the gun holsters onto it and working it through his belt loops.
“What else do we need to have for our trip south?” Lindsey asked. “Obviously weapons, but what else? Food?”
“I think we should travel lightly,” Brandt said. “Out there, being weighed down with too many supplies can mean the difference between life and death.”
“What if we end up in a situation where we have no food?” Lindsey asked.
“It’s a bit of a Catch-22 kind of scenario,” Brandt admitted. “We should be able to scavenge enough to survive on while we’re there. If I have anything to say about it, we won’t be gone long.”
“And if we’re gone longer than you think we’re going to be?” Lindsey prompted.
“We’ll figure it out,” Brandt said. “Like me and Cade and all the others always do.”
Chapter 48
Keith scaled the fire escape staircase mounted to the outside of the building they’d been hiding in, a nervous wreck. Sadie climbed the ladder in front of him soundlessly, somehow keeping her boots from clanging on the metal steps. Keith tried to emulate her, without success. He wasn’t built to make that little noise.
Behind him, Jude trudged upward, his feet landing on the metal steps, making soft, metallic thunks. Cade brought up the rear, that mean-looking rifle of hers resting against her back, the look in her blue eyes hard and determined.
Keith couldn’t ask for better companions and allies on this crazy journey he was stuck on. If it hadn’t been for these people and the rest of their group, he’d have died back in Woodside, if not long before that. He’d follow every one of them to the ends of the Earth if they asked him to. He owed them that much.
Ahead of him, Sadie disappeared over the edge of the roof, and a few more steps brought him to it. He hauled himself up and over, then turned to assist Jude and Cade, even though it was likely that neither of them actually needed the help. Once all four of them were safely on the roof, Keith turned his focus onto the panoramic view of the building’s surroundings that the roof offered him.
What he saw made his heart sink.
A sea of infected surrounded the building, undulating in waves of bodies and stench and rot, staggering and stumbling down the street, heading toward the wall. Hundreds of them had been drawn by the sound of the explosion, but in the dark, it was impossible to tell how far back they stretched. Shining a flashlight to try to get a better look was out of the question, not if they wanted to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
By all appearances, they would be stranded on the roof until the sun rose and gave them a better view of what lay ahead of them.
“What do you think?” Cade asked, her voice low.
“I think we’re going to be stuck here for a while,” Keith answered. “With, I’d like to point out, very little food or water.”
“No need to remind me of that,” Cade replied. “If there’s anything I keep in mind pretty much always, it’s our current food and water situation. Trust me, I’m already stewing over that. Right now, my main concern is getting out of here, because if we don’t, the lack of food and water won’t matter, because we won’t have a chance of getting more.”
“Good point,” Keith acquiesced. “What are we going to do in the meantime?”
“Study the situation and pray for a break in the mess to slip through,” Cade said. “It could come at any moment, so we need to be prepared.” She turned away from him and went to Sadie, conferring with her. Sadie went toward the other end of the building, disappearing from view.
“Where is she going?” Keith asked.
“She’s looking for a safe escape route to the ground so when we have the opportunity, we can get out of here quickly,” Cade replied. “We should establish some sort of watch routine so we can keep an eye on things below and be ready to break at a moment’s notice.”
“I can ta
ke the first watch,” Keith volunteered. “The rest of you can get some sleep. You, especially. You’ve been through too much, and you look beyond exhausted.”
Cade frowned, but she didn’t look game to argue with him. She folded her arms over her chest and stared into the distance, like she was examining the unseen horde below. Despite her rail-straight back and her squared shoulders, she looked like she was about to melt down right there on the roof. Keith couldn’t imagine her actually melting down, though, and as the thought crossed his mind, he saw her draw up on herself, suppressing her emotions, stuffing them down deep inside her. Keith wondered how often she practiced that routine to do it so smoothly and easily.
“This is all our fault.”
Keith moved closer so he could hear her better, standing beside her with his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans. “What makes you say that?”
“Because it is.” She stared emptily in the direction of the Wall and the location of the explosion. “Remy had a problem. She’s always been a little…off, because she’d been through so much. Too much. But after she got bitten…things changed. She changed. And we kept treating her the same, like nothing had happened to her, when in reality she was coming unglued right in front of us. We didn’t do much of anything to help her. We just kept on going, blissfully acting like she hadn’t changed at all, when she saw herself as becoming the thing she hates the most.”
“You think that’s why she did this?” Keith asked, motioning to the blown-up gate with a wave of his hand.
“I think she’s not acting in her right mind,” Cade said. “I think that all the pressure of the past two years has finally gotten to her and Dominic’s death was the final straw. She’s hit the point where she can’t take it anymore.”
Keith sighed, long and drawn out. “What do we do?” he asked.
“We stop her,” Cade said. “We find her, and we stop her.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I’m still trying to figure that part out. I just know that we have to stop her. She’s our responsibility, and we can’t sit by while those people suffer.” She sighed. “In the meantime, I’m going to plot, plan, and try to get some sleep. Wake me up the moment you see a break in the crowds.”
Keith nodded, and she retreated from him, heading toward an air conditioning unit built into the roof. She sat down on the rooftop and leaned against it, set her rifle and backpack beside her, and shifted to make herself comfortable. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and visibly relaxed. Keith turned his focus on the building, heading toward the edge so he could look down at the teeming masses below.
Jude joined him at the edge. While the seconds ticked by, the unending horde surged toward the wall. A flutter in the corner of Keith’s eye drew his attention in Jude’s direction, and he discovered that Jude was holding his notepad out to him. In his neat, blocky handwriting, Jude had written, What’s the plan for getting out of here?
“We’re not sure yet,” Keith said. “Right now, we’re praying for the opportune moment.”
Jude looked toward the wall, squinting through the darkness. He took his pencil out of his pocket and wrote on the page.
Did Remy go crazy?
“I honestly don’t know,” Keith answered. “But whatever is going on with her can’t possibly be good.”
Chapter 49
Ethan’s heart pounded and his fingers ached from the force with which he gripped Kimberly’s hand. Jacob slipped out of the lab, through the decontamination showers, and into the outer office. There was a shuffling sound, like he was scrambling to do something quickly, and the noise was followed by the telltale squeak of the lab’s main door swinging open.
“What are you doing in here?” a man’s voice asked, hollow and muffled by a gas mask. Ethan felt the urge to rise up onto his knees and peer out the window. He fought it down. Now wasn’t the time to risk everything to satisfy his curiosity. He hunched down further, sliding a few more inches down to make sure no part of him was showing over the short wall.
“This is my lab,” Jacob replied. “Why would I not be in here?”
“We heard a gunshot,” another man spoke up. “It sounded like it came from here.”
“Yes, the explosion compromised a quarantine cell in the lab,” Jacob said. “One of the infected got out, and I took care of the problem.” He paused and added, “You don’t want to go in there. It’s a hot zone.”
“The problem is dealt with?” the newcomer asked.
“Yes, it is,” Jacob said. “I was told we’re evacuating the facility. I’m going to pack up my essential research notes before I leave. I don’t want to risk losing them.”
“First bus leaves in twenty minutes. If you require transportation, I recommend being on that bus before it pulls out. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to get a second bus out.”
“Gotcha,” Jacob said. “I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
Another long pause followed Jacob’s statement, and Ethan counted to twenty before shifting to peer over the wall into the office beyond. Jacob was heading their way, shoving open the doors to the decontamination chamber and walking straight through it to the labs. “You two are seriously lucky I was here,” he said. “I think they were going to search the lab, and when they found you, they’d have shot you.”
“Lucky us,” Ethan muttered. He pushed to his feet and offered Kimberly his hand, helping her up from the floor. Then he surveyed the room, looking for an alternate exit.
A gun appeared in his line of sight, and he staggered backward out of reflex, trying to avoid the weapon’s aim. Then he realized that the end of the barrel wasn’t pointing at him; the grip was, and he took the offered pistol back from Jacob.
“I figure you’d feel better about all of this and maybe be more inclined to trust me if I give the gun back,” Jacob explained. “But I do ask you to keep an eye out for any oncoming dangers. I’m reliant on you to keep us all safe.”
Ethan tucked the pistol into the pocket of the lab coat. There was no need to wave it around at anything that moved if he had the ability to delay the infected with his presence before shooting them. He made a sweeping gesture with his hand at Jacob. “Lead the way out of here,” he said. “Though I think it goes without saying that if you screw us, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Understood,” Jacob said quietly. He saluted and led them out of the lab and into the office.
The floor was littered with ceiling tiles and broken glass, and one of the glass windows that had lined the hallway was shattered. His footsteps crunching, Ethan followed Jacob across the office, the glass grinding down to pulverized bits underneath his tennis shoes. He clasped Kimberly’s hand in his and tugged her along behind him, hoping that Jacob wasn’t about to lead them into something that was going to get them killed.
The facility was in worse shape than Ethan had predicted it would be. Ceiling tiles were down everywhere, and the walls had thick cracks running the length of them. Ethan was sure that if the walls were cracked so severely, the floor had to be damaged too. He had more important things to worry about, though, like getting Kimberly out of any potential line of fire.
Jacob led them through the facility in silence, his focus on getting out of the building, the only sound the crunch and scuff of their shoes on the floor. Once they reached an exit door, thankfully unmolested, he stopped there and looked back at Ethan. “I have no idea what the conditions outside will be,” he said. “I hope you’re prepared.”
“I’m more concerned whether or not you are,” Ethan said. “This is same old, same old for us. We know how to handle ourselves around the infected. We’ve been doing it for two years now. In this situation, you are the weak link.”
“Touché,” Jacob acknowledged. “I didn’t think of it that way. I keep forgetting…” He shook his head. “Never mind.” He grasped the push-bar on the door, took a deep breath, and shoved the door open. A cool rush of air flowed inside, ruffling Ethan’s h
air, and Jacob pointed to a silver sedan parked on the other side of the parking lot. “That’s my car,” he said. “We’re aiming to get to it. If we encounter any infected between here and there, I trust you’ll take care of them?”
“Of course,” Ethan said with a nod that was as reassuring as he was willing to make it. He didn’t want to reassure the man too much; he wanted Jacob to stay on his guard around him.
The scientist examined the path ahead of them and stepped out into the night air. “Straight to the car,” he said. “Simple, right?”
“You’d be surprised,” Kimberly muttered.
The three of them rushed across the parking lot, heading toward the silver sedan with a prayer that they wouldn’t get stopped by any soldiers or encounter any infected. Thankfully, they made it to the vehicle unmolested, and Ethan climbed into the passenger seat, giving Kimberly the back seat in the hopes that it would keep her more protected from anything that came their way.
“Where are we going?” Ethan asked Jacob once the scientist was behind the wheel and the engine was running.
“There’s an abandoned house about a mile north of here,” Jacob said, whipping the car out of its space and steering through the parking lot. “It’s set off from the highway a bit, so no one will see us up there. Lindsey is going to meet us there. I don’t know if she’ll have the lieutenant with her, but hopefully she will. Maybe that will reassure you of our good intentions.”
Chapter 50
Lindsey made short work of getting her guns and ammunition into her car, loading everything up without any of her neighbors or any bystanders on the street catching sight of the weapons. Most of them—and all of the ammunition she possessed—were stashed away in the trunk, though she’d kept a couple of pistols and a box of ammunition for each in the front seat where she could get to them quickly if she needed to. Brandt had scrounged up some supplies from her kitchen, despite his oath to travel lightly; she figured the food he’d gathered was more for her reassurance than anything else.
The Becoming: Redemption (The Becoming Series Book 5) Page 29