They stared at the maps for a long moment. No one spoke, the weight of the silence hanging over their heads like a guillotine. Remy traced both paths with her eyes, examining the highways and rural roads between them. “What if we travel on the interstates when we’re not near any large cities?” she suggested. “That way we avoid the smaller towns we don’t really need to go through, and it puts us at less risk of coming into contact with any infected trapped in the traffic jams closer to the cities. And when we’re approaching more congested areas, we can leave the interstate and stick with side roads and highways until we’re safely past.”
“That … that might actually work,” Ethan said with a slow nod. Remy grinned widely at him. She was glad someone agreed with her ideas, because Brandt looked ready to come over the table and slap her. He’d obviously hoped they wouldn’t figure out a way to get to Atlanta and would give up the attempt. Remy hated to burst his bubble, but she would do everything necessary to make the mission happen.
“So long as we can get supplies together, I think we’ll be okay,” Ethan continued. “We’ll hammer out the finer points later. The question I’m asking now is if everyone’s on board.” He looked at them all, and Remy met his eyes unerringly. She gave him a slight encouraging nod. “If you don’t wish to go, no one here will fault you for it. Those who are going can go, and the others can remain here with enough supplies to last at least through the rest of the month. Or you can decide to simply move on elsewhere.”
“I’m going,” Remy said the moment Ethan’s words died on the air. “I said I would last night. Nothing we’ve talked about since has changed my mind.”
“I’m going too,” Gray spoke up behind her. Remy gave him a grateful smile. She really did like Gray. He was stubborn and entirely too much like Ethan for her comfort—which served only to muddle her already confused mind when it came to the two men—but he was also loyal and trustworthy to a fault. Despite her mixed-up feelings over Ethan and Gray, feelings compounded by the physical elements of her relationship with Ethan, Remy willingly acknowledged that she couldn’t have asked for a better friend than Gray.
Avi nodded and crossed her arms, resting her hip against the edge of the table. “I’m going, of course. I started this, so I have to,” she said, a tinge of sheepishness in her voice. Remy gave Avi a reassuring smile and nodded her head once in solidarity. At least the woman took responsibility for what she started and planned to help them finish it. Remy had to respect that.
“Cade? Brandt?” Ethan looked to the man and woman on Remy’s other side. Brandt and Cade exchanged an indecipherable look. Cade took the knife from Brandt and studied the blade absently. It was obvious, to Remy at least, that the two had had a discussion about that very issue the night before, much as Ethan and Remy had. Well, not exactly, Remy thought with no small degree of amusement.
“We’re going,” Cade said. Her accent was heavier than usual as she spoke for both of them. Brandt closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. Cade’s hand closed gently over the man’s muscular forearm.
“Nikola?” Ethan prompted, ignoring the exchange between Brandt and Cade.
The teenage girl looked at the rest of them nervously, her eyes wide. She took a deep breath. “You’ll need somebody to help with navigation and supplies and stuff, right?” she said.
Remy leaned forward to watch Nikola closely and saw Ethan do likewise. Nikola sounded uncertain, unsure if she wanted to help or not; her tone worried Remy. “Are you sure?” Ethan asked.
Before Nikola could reply, Theo interrupted. “I’m going,” he said in a rush, as if trying to get the words out before he chickened out. “If Gray is going, then I’m going.”
“Well, that settles it,” Nikola said, her voice stronger than before. “I am so not staying here by myself. Count me in too.”
Brandt shoved his chair away from the table, standing and knocking the chair to the floor. “This is so fucked up,” he muttered. He shook his head again and pushed the door open hard enough to slam into the wall, storming out of the dining room. He left the seven of them looking after him uncertainly.
Cade slid from her perch on the table. “Great. You’ve upset him,” she grumbled, her stilted accent so thick that Remy almost couldn’t make out what she said. “Just fucking great.”
“Something tells me he really doesn’t want to go,” Remy said. Her eyes focused vaguely on the door as she tried to decide why Brandt was so angry. He’d never displayed such anger over any other mission in which the group had participated over the past year. Perhaps Gray’s theory about Brandt was correct. Maybe it was true that the man was from somewhere around Atlanta.
Before Remy could pursue her thoughts any further, Cade growled and slammed her knife into the table. The tip of the blade bit deeply into the scarred wood. The rest of them jumped at the sound.
“No, you think?” Cade snapped. She glared at them all, but the majority of her ire was directed at Remy. “You’re asking entirely too much of him on this. It isn’t right. What you’re asking him isn’t right. But he’s going anyway, because he’s too fucking loyal to abandon his friends. And he’s not going to let me go while he stays behind.”
Remy gritted her teeth and faced down Cade as her own anger flared up. “He doesn’t have to go, and neither do you,” she pointed out heatedly. “Nobody is forcing either of you to go.”
Cade kicked the chair Brandt inhabited moments before, sending it skidding across the floor. The sound of it scraping over the floorboards echoed in the mostly empty room. “Fuck, Remy! What kind of people do you think we are? You think we’re going to let the six of you walk into the damned cesspool that is Atlanta while we continue to live our merry fucking lives in this fucking house? You couldn’t survive a damned day in a place as bad as that without our help! You wouldn’t know how to handle yourself on a real battlefield! You’ll probably get your stupid asses killed—”
Ethan slammed his fist on the table. Remy and Cade jumped. “We don’t have time for this!” Ethan barked. “Both of you shut the fuck up and stop bitching, because it’s not doing anything to help.” Remy opened her mouth to protest, but Ethan put his hand up to stop her. “Not another word,” he warned, standing and starting to gather maps from the table. “Nikki and I are going upstairs to work out the rest of the plan. Remy, you and Gray and Theo start getting supplies together. Avi, give them a hand, would you? Cade, just … go deal with Brandt. You’re probably the only person who can calm his grouchy ass down right now without bloodshed.”
Chapter 9
Cade stormed out of the dining room and slammed the door behind her. She fumed over Remy’s careless attitude about the whole mess. And “mess” it was. Cade had never seen such wanton disregard for safety and common sense in her life. She was so angry that she was nearly irrational; it didn’t take much to set her off anymore, and Remy had successfully managed it. Cade clenched her fists hard, her nails digging into her palms, and stomped toward the stairs. She swore nearly every horrible death she could imagine on Remy—though even in her anger, Cade fell short of actually wishing death by infected on the younger woman.
Cade spotted Brandt halfway up the stairs and slowed to a stop. He sat on the landing where Cade used to enjoy reading before she grew bored of the literature available in the house. Brandt’s elbows rested on his knees, his forehead pressed into his palms. He looked like he was in pain, isolated, alone in the world. Cade swallowed hard and approached him. Brandt didn’t move as she climbed the stairs and stopped a few steps below him.
“Hey, are you okay?” Cade asked. She sat on the step beside him and leaned to get a look at his face.
Brandt didn’t look up right away. He simply continued to sit with his head bowed, his hands braced against his head, staring at the steps below him in silence. Cade felt an impulse to reach up and run her fingers over his thick, curling dark hair in a gesture of comfort. She pressed both palms flat against her thighs to help fight the urge.
Brandt
’s voice was hoarse when he spoke. “I’m sorry about that.”
“About what?” Cade asked. She slid to a knee on the step below her to get a better look at his face.
Brandt shrugged. “I don’t know. For getting so pissed off. I acted like an ass in there.”
Cade shook her head and let go of her knee, resting her hand against Brandt’s forearm. She gave it a reassuring squeeze and felt his muscles give under her fingers. “It’s not your fault,” Cade said quietly. “I would have gotten pissed off too. Hell, I kind of did. Sort of threatened Remy with my big-ass knife in there. You should have seen it. I bet you would have loved every moment of it.” She smirked slightly. “Let’s just say there’s a new hole in the dining table.”
Brandt bit back a soft chuckle. “I’m sorry I missed it,” he murmured. His fingers worked into his hair, pulling gently at the strands. “I don’t want to go back,” he admitted. His voice was muffled by his arms, and Cade leaned in closer to hear him. “I really don’t know if I can.”
“Brandt, you’ve already told them yes,” Cade pointed out. “And I know you. You’re not one to back out on something once you agree to do it. And you’re not one to abandon your friends when the going gets tough.”
“The going is about to get a hell of a lot tougher.” Brandt lifted his head and rubbed both hands over his face. His eyes were red-rimmed, as if he’d been crying. Which was a ridiculous thought; Brandt didn’t cry. He was too tough for that. “Those people down there? They think they know what it’s like in Atlanta. They think they have some idea, but really? They have no idea what it’s like. It’s … God, it’s awful, Cade. There are infected everywhere. And they sniff you out. They can track you like fucking bloodhounds, and they always seem to know exactly where you’re hiding.”
Cade sat up straighter and locked her eyes onto Brandt’s. It was the first time in the entire year Cade had known him that she recalled him talking about his ordeal in Atlanta in any detail; it was the first time Brandt gave her more than just cryptic remarks and allusions that she couldn’t catch hold of well enough to build a detailed mental picture. “What … what is it like there?” she asked. She took his hand and held it tightly between hers. Brandt gripped hers in return, his fingers curling over her hand and pressing into her knuckles.
Brandt drew in a slow breath, and Cade mimicked his action. She held the air in her lungs as he licked his lips and pressed them together. He hesitated, and for a second, Cade wondered if she’d asked the wrong question. Maybe, even after a year of dealing with the infected, Brandt still wasn’t ready to talk about what happened to him in Atlanta.
But then Brandt began to speak, low and soft. Cade let out her breath and leaned in closer. He kept his eyes downcast as he tried to dredge up the words to describe the conditions of the city the year before, when the Michaluk Virus was fresh and new and victims were numerous.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” Brandt started. “So much happened back then. So much that I don’t want to think about.” He paused and squeezed her hand again before he continued. “But we’re going to need to know about it. Everybody needs to know what it’s like there, so we can all be prepared. Though I’m not sure there’s enough preparation you can do for something like Atlanta.” Brandt glanced at Cade, as if checking to see if she was listening, and then he shifted his eyes to the living room below.
“I was in the city when the quarantine failed,” Brandt admitted. Cade drew in a breath and shifted closer to him, her hands still clutching his. “It happened on January 24, 2009. That’s the date the world officially ended, I think. Beginning of the end or whatever. That’s the day the last battalion fell to the infected, anyway. Every single one of them, down to the last man. A lot of them fought and died, but just as many froze. Mostly the lower-ranking soldiers, I think. They didn’t see the infected as a danger on the level they should have. They just saw unarmed men, women, and children. They didn’t realize that the infection was a weapon. The teeth and nails of the infected were just as deadly as any knife.
“The orders had been to hold the quarantine at all costs,” Brandt continued. “No one in or out, no exceptions. When the quarantine was put in place, the government found a way to shut down the landlines, the cell phone towers, the Internet, anything with a connection to the outside world. They didn’t want word about what was going on in Atlanta to get out and cause a panic. They were about to give orders that would not have gone over well with the general public. ‘Shoot to kill,’ they said. ‘Don’t let a single soul out of the city.’ The men didn’t have a choice. Everybody in the city was a potential weapon against the rest of the world.”
“Jesus,” Cade breathed quietly. Her horror at his words and the terror she imagined he must have felt bled into her own voice.
“When everything fell apart, when everybody was dead except for me, I just … I ran,” Brandt confessed. “I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have any supplies. I didn’t have any water, any food, appropriate clothing. Nothing. Just the clothes on my back and the ammo in my guns. Everybody was dead. I couldn’t get in touch with a soul. Communications had deteriorated so badly or been eliminated so completely that calls for help weren’t going through. I wasn’t going to stick around and let those things kill me.”
“I wouldn’t have stuck around either,” Cade agreed. “I would have booked it the hell out of there.”
Brandt fell silent, struggling with whether or not to continue. His fingers were wrapped around Cade’s so tightly it hurt, but she didn’t say anything. She simply gripped his hand in return. “By all rights, I should be dead,” Brandt whispered. “I fucking cheated death once, and I’m worried that it will catch up with me when we all go into that city.” Brandt swallowed and added quietly, “But that’s not my worst fear. My worst fear is that the people closest to me are going to die. That … that you’re going to die.”
Cade let out a nervous laugh at Brandt’s words, shaking her head. “Brandt, come on, you know we’re totally going to live through this,” she said confidently. “All of us. I mean, hell, look at all the shit we’ve survived so far. Exploding RVs and jumping off buildings, and what about that incident with the escalator last fall?”
Brandt smiled slightly, reminded of one of their more interesting adventures. “We should have never gone into that mall. I thought it was going to turn into a very bloody reenactment of a scene from Dawn of the Dead.”
“I was thinking Aliens myself,” Cade admitted with a wry chuckle. “That movie used to give me really weird dreams about being dragged under escalators and shit. Don’t ask me how I equate Aliens and escalators. It’s a long, strange story.”
Brandt snorted. “You really don’t do well with horror movies, do you?”
“No, I really don’t,” Cade said. “Which is funny in a morbid way, because we’re living in one. But in my defense, I was nine at the time. At that age, I definitely couldn’t handle horror movies.”
Brandt cracked a genuine smile, and satisfaction settled into Cade’s gut. Her mission was accomplished. She had dragged her friend away from whatever dark pit he had been staring into. Cade gently released his hand and patted him on the knee. “So what should we do now?” she asked casually, leaning to look off the side of the stairs. Theo was just below, sorting through his ever-present navy-blue bag of medical supplies, a deep frown on his face as he shoved first aid equipment around inside it.
Brandt shrugged and flexed his fingers. He stared down at the hand Cade had held, as if he couldn’t believe her hands were no longer there. “Pack?” he suggested. He stood with a heavy sigh. “We’ll probably be moving soon, so we need to go ahead and get everything ready.”
Cade’s own shoulders slumped as she too rose to her feet. For reasons unknown, Cade felt like she’d been dismissed. It was a ridiculous feeling; Brandt was still likely emotionally rattled by the pending trip to Atlanta, and he’d never been very good at expressing his emotions. Cade knew this, just like she k
new nearly everything about his life before the outbreak. Which was why she didn’t understand the feeling of dismissal she had. She shook the sensation off and motioned with her hand.
“Come on, then,” Cade said. “You can help me get all the guns packed up. I’m not lugging those damned heavy bags around by myself.”
Chapter 10
Theo jammed a can of beef stew into the duffel bag on the counter, trying to stuff it in amongst the other cans and packages of food he’d already managed to fit inside. He was frustrated, and it showed in the way he packed the bags of food—as if the cans of tomato and chicken noodle soups and canned meats and ravioli had caused him some great injury. It took almost everything in him not to throw one of the cans across the room. He set the can onto the counter—a bit more heavily than he intended—and breathed in, slowly and deeply. He was shaking. He closed his eyes and gripped the edge of the counter, trying to calm himself down.
“Are you okay?” a soft, unfamiliar voice asked from behind him.
Theo took another moment to himself before he opened his eyes and turned around. Avi Geller stood just inside the kitchen doorway, looking uncertain and sheepish.
“I was just … I came to see if you needed a hand with anything,” Avi tried to explain awkwardly. “If I’m interrupting—”
Theo shook his head and motioned for Avi to come inside. “No, no. It’s okay. I was just thinking too much. I’m fine.” He cleared his throat, looking back down at the bag. “I’m just working on packing food for the trip.”
Avi joined Theo at the counter and gave him a small smile. She watched for a moment as he tried to fit the can of stew into the bag again before she spoke. “You really might want to think about getting another bag for that. I don’t think it’s going to fit.”
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