The Becoming: Ground Zero

by Jessica Meigs

  “Brandt!” Cade snapped furiously. “I thought you said it would only take out the stairs above the landing!”

  “That’s what it did, didn’t it?” Brandt said defensively. He stood and offered Cade a hand. Cade glared up at him, refusing to take it.

  “Yeah, and half the fucking hallway too!”

  “Don’t blame me! You and Ethan were the ones who asked me to build it!”

  “Why not blame you, you … you ben zona,” Cade snarled, reaching for a Hebrew insult when her mind didn’t immediately dredge up an American one strong enough for her taste. “You’re entirely too convenient, and besides, that shit was your fault!”

  Brandt stared at her for just a moment, clearly baffled. “I have no idea what a ben zona is, but the way you said it implies it’s something really unpleasant, and I don’t think I appreciate it!”

  “You are such a—” Cade started.

  “Cade, Brandt, that’s enough,” Ethan broke in, stumbling to his feet. Cade glanced at him as he helped Avi up and reached for Nikola. “Is everybody okay?”

  “Couldn’t be better,” Cade muttered wryly. She finally gave in and took Brandt’s hand, gritting her teeth as he pulled her to her feet.

  Remy groaned and sat up, pushing her dark hair out of her face where it had dislodged from her ponytail. She rubbed at her lower back with a grimace. “I feel like I’ve just been to a chiropractor,” she complained as Ethan helped her stand.

  That section of the second floor suddenly dropped at least a foot, tilting toward the blown-out end of the stairs, the entire hallway shaking violently. Cade slid backward, and she braced her boots firmly against the hardwood floor. Brandt grabbed her hand again to help her, and she managed to keep both of her feet on the floor without too much difficulty.

  “We’ve got to get the hell out of here,” Cade said to Brandt. She dislodged her hand from his and took a slow step toward the end of the hallway. Brandt retrieved his gun and nudged her along, walking backward as he trained his weapon on the remains of the staircase. Once everyone was in the bedroom at the end of the hall, Cade pushed the door shut for added security.

  Gray hovered on the roof outside the window, motioning for the others to hurry. “What the hell blew up?” he asked. Much to Cade’s surprise, Gray wasn’t particularly bothered by the prospect of an explosion. Perhaps they were all becoming oddly immune to Brandt’s creative ways of diverting the infected.

  “Brandt blew up the stairs,” Nikola announced. She followed Theo out the window, grasping Gray’s arm tightly. He put his other arm around her waist and set her lightly beside the window.

  Gray laughed and reached for Remy. “Come on, let’s go,” he said, helping her through. “I think we can get to the van from the roof. It’s parked right at the side of the house. If Cade can keep those bastards away with that badass rifle of hers, we can get inside through the sunroof.”

  Cade climbed onto the roof with a groan, waving off Gray’s attempts to help, and dragged her duffel bag and rifle out behind her. “Why me?” she complained.

  “Probably because you’re the best shot we’ve got,” Ethan said gruffly, sliding out the window. As his feet found the roof, he stumbled and slid down several inches on the sloped surface. He caught himself by the windowsill and straightened before he went to the edge and looked down.

  Cade knelt and quickly checked over her rifle, mostly out of habit, but partially out of nervousness. She glanced up in surprise as Brandt dropped down beside her and began to rummage through her bag. “What are you doing?” Cade asked, resisting the urge to snatch her bag back.

  “You should know that I’m not going to ditch you and make you cover all of us by yourself,” Brandt said. He pulled an additional sidearm from the bag and twirled the two guns he held like an Old West gunslinger. Cade rolled her eyes even as a large grin spread across her face. She was glad to have Brandt by her side in a tight spot yet again. He and Ethan were the only ones on whom she relied without question.

  “So how are we going to do this?” Cade called to Ethan. She slid down to the edge of the roof and checked out the ground below. Everything was comparatively quiet after the trouble they’d had inside; none of the infected had reached this side yet. The van sat like a quiet sentinel on the grass, completely undisturbed, waiting patiently for their arrival. “Just jump down?”

  “Yeah,” Ethan answered. He too studied the van’s surroundings intently. “It’s not too far, I don’t think. And like Gray said, we can climb in through the sunroof.”

  Brandt slid down to take a knee beside her. “If you can get down there and get the van started, I can help everyone onto the van,” he offered. Ethan stared off the roof for a long moment, as if measuring distances with his eyes. Then he jumped off. Cade’s heart leaped into her throat, and she sucked back an involuntary gasp. Ethan landed on the van with a thud, and Cade leaned forward to make sure he was okay. Thankfully, he was.

  “Jesus, Eth!” Cade called out. “Way to give me a fucking heart attack! A little warning next time, please?”

  Ethan merely waved at her and shrugged, grinning like a fool. “I’m not planning to jump off any more roofs anytime soon!” he called quietly. He leaned down and ripped free the blue tarp covering the front end of the van, revealing the already-opened sunroof, and shoved the tarp to the ground. He slipped down into the sunroof and waved again to get Brandt’s attention. “Get Remy down here first! She can help Cade guard while we get everybody else in the van!”

  Brandt reached out a hand to take Remy’s, but she pushed it away and moved to the edge of the roof. “I’ve got this,” she said confidently before she jumped off. Her ponytail flew out behind her as she leaped to the van unassisted. Cade was impressed; the slender woman’s jump had the grace of a gazelle.

  “Try to keep the noise down,” Cade ordered, rising to her feet. She tossed Remy some extra ammunition and looked at the ground again. They were making entirely too much noise, and the prospect of the infected noticing and coming after them before they were all off the roof did nothing to calm Cade’s nerves. “I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet. Let’s keep it that way, okay?”

  Once Nikola was safely on the van and sliding inside via the sunroof, Brandt assisted Avi down. Gray accepted Brandt’s help in turn, but Theo decided to go on his own. He landed on the van with a thud loud enough that Cade winced.

  “Fuck, Theo, keep it down!” Cade ordered hoarsely. She looked toward the front of the house. Sure enough, several of the infected had taken notice of the group. They began to make their way around the corner of the house, some moving quickly but most at a slower pace. Cade swore and brought her rifle to her shoulder, aiming at the infected man in the lead of the pack. He’d once been a young man in his late teens but was now skinny and gray, almost bald, with one hand missing below the wrist. Bullet wounds riddled his torso. He was obviously far into what they’d come to call the second stage of the virus’s effects, post-death but still animated and still violent. Cade shuddered and squeezed the trigger, sending the bullet directly into the infected man’s head. He crumpled to the ground in a heap. It was the only mercy she could offer him.

  Cade immediately repositioned herself, taking aim at a middle-aged housewife with the remains of an apron hanging haphazardly around her neck. She fired her rifle but was forced to shift her aim to the infected behind the woman she’d just dropped. “Damn it,” she swore under her breath. She ground her teeth together, squeezing the trigger again. Five more infected swept around the corner of the house as her bullet met its target. “Brandt, on the van, now!” she snapped. Remy opened fire from the van’s roof, joining her attack with Cade’s. “There’s too many of them! I can’t handle this many, even with Remy’s help!” Cade dropped to a knee to steady her aim, the shingles scraping at her skin through her jeans.

  “Not going without you,” Brandt said stubbornly. He aimed his weapon into the growing crowd of infected and fired three shots.

  Cade gri
tted her teeth again and took aim at another target. “Brandt Evans, I swear to God, if you argue with me, I’m going to shoot you myself,” she threatened.

  “Oh fine, fine, but you better be right behind me,” Brandt warned. He turned and took two steps, dropping out of sight and landing on the van almost silently. Yet another thing that impressed Cade about Brandt: Despite his stature and musculature, Brandt could be as silent as a cat when the need arose. Cade often wondered where he’d learned it—she’d met other United States Marines during her service in the IDF, and while all of them had been incredibly well trained, they hadn’t been anywhere near Brandt’s level. Brandt had yet to indulge her curiosity and tell her how he came by his skills.

  Cade shot down two more infected that got uncomfortably close to the van and her companions. She looked down at the vehicle itself and contemplated the distance. Brandt knelt by the sunroof, and Remy had slid down inside it; she stood on the seat and beckoned to Cade urgently.

  “Come on, Cade! We’ve got to get out of here!” Remy shouted, heedless of the noise she made. It was pointless to mind her volume anyway, since the infected had already zeroed in on them.

  Cade fired one more shot; it dug into the dead grass in front of its intended target. She shook her head in disappointment and grabbed her bag, tossing it to Remy as gently as she could. Then, as Remy yelled for Ethan to get the van moving and as the vehicle started to roll toward the nearest gap in the infected, Cade leaped, rifle in hand, and landed on her knees on the van. She slid across the smooth metal and let out a startled cry, nearly dropping her rifle off the side of the van as she scrambled to keep from falling to the moving grass on the other side. The infected were too close. If Cade hit the ground, they were sure to be on her before the van stopped to help her.

  A hand closed tightly around her wrist. Brandt knelt by her, hanging on to her arm to keep her from falling. She fleetingly wondered how he’d moved to her aid so fast, but mostly she let out a heavy sigh of relief and clutched his arm. Brandt dragged Cade more securely onto the van, making sure she wasn’t going to fall again before he let go of her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just … damn. I almost fell,” Cade said. Her voice trembled, and her hands shook noticeably as she slung her rifle over her shoulder. She made sure the strap was secure before she motioned for Brandt to head to the sunroof. Remy ducked inside, hauling Cade’s bag in with her. Brandt wrapped an arm around Cade’s waist and guided her to the sunroof as he moved to it himself.

  Once inside the van, Cade took a moment to stand on the seat and look back at their safe house as it receded into the distance. They’d been there so long that it’d begun to feel like home. It was a feeling she hadn’t had in a very long time, a feeling of peace and security despite the world in which they lived. That once peaceful and secure place was now completely surrounded by the infected, who threw themselves at the windows and doors and walls of the house, streaming inside to look for their prey. Several of the infected noticed the moving van and gave chase, but they were no match for the vehicle as it skidded onto the street and steadily accelerated. The infected quickly fell behind.

  Cade shuddered again and dropped into the van, pushing the sunroof closed with a click. They’d come so close to being overwhelmed, the closest they’d been to death since the world fell. The thought made Cade’s stomach cramp painfully in fear and shock. She slumped in her seat and let out a slow, shaky breath.

  Brandt leaned over Cade to pull her seatbelt across her chest, and he buckled it securely. He did the same for himself, and then he took Cade’s rifle from her. “Are you okay?” he asked again, his voice hushed.

  “Yeah, I think I’m okay,” Cade said just as quietly. “I’m just a little rattled. That’s all.” Brandt nodded and reloaded her rifle before he offered it back to her. She checked the safety and rested it on the floor between her knees, the barrel against the van’s carpeting. She breathed in slowly, trying to calm down. “So where are we going?” Cade finally asked.

  “Where else can we go?” Brandt asked. He motioned to the front of the van. Ethan was behind the wheel, Nikola in the passenger seat beside him; the maps they’d consulted the day before were spread out in her lap, crumpled and wrinkled as if they’d been hastily gathered and folded. “I think Ethan’s decided we might as well head on to Atlanta.”

  “Do we have a plan? Supplies?” Cade asked as she looked at Brandt worriedly. Brandt shrugged and glanced in her duffel bag, avoiding her gaze as she added, “Are you ready for it? Are we?”

  Brandt finally shifted his eyes to Cade. His gaze was solemn as he said quietly, “We have to be.”

  Chapter 15

  Ethan didn’t slow the van until he’d driven it well out of town. His heart hammered wildly in his chest, and his hands shook. He glanced compulsively in the rearview mirror as he drove, despite the fact that the van’s speed outpaced any infected in existence. The adrenaline pumping through Ethan’s veins made him mash his foot harder and harder on the gas pedal. It was exceedingly dangerous to drive so fast with the sun disappearing over the horizon. Darkness wasn’t a wise time to travel. It restricted Ethan’s view of the road ahead, and that could prove fatal.

  Ethan took his foot off the gas and let the van coast to a slow stop in the middle of the road. He shoved the gearshift to park and jabbed the hazard button out of habit; red and yellow parking lights strobed rhythmically across the cracked pavement. Once that was done, Ethan slumped over the steering wheel, trying to calm his breathing and heart rate. He gripped the wheel to hide the shaking of his hands and drew in breath after breath, fighting back the nausea stirring in his gut.

  Ethan shuddered as he realized how dangerously close to death they’d come. Anything could have happened. The infected could have bitten one of them. The detonation that had demolished the stairs could have easily taken out the entire second floor—hell, the entire house. When things went wrong for them, they went wrong drastically, and Ethan felt a heavy wave of relief as he realized how lucky they were. He swallowed and closed his eyes, feeling Nikola’s worried gaze on him. He turned his head, forehead still mashed against the steering wheel, and gave her a small smile. Then he straightened and flipped on the overhead light to get a look at everyone. He had to make sure they were okay, and he wouldn’t believe they were until he saw it with his own eyes.

  Cade and Brandt sat immediately behind Ethan. Both appeared okay. Brandt was digging energetically through a large bag, while Cade was slumped over, gripping her rifle tightly. Neither of them seemed to be injured, much to Ethan’s relief. He didn’t know if he could handle the idea of Cade getting hurt or killed.

  Remy sat on her knees on the seat beside Gray. Ethan was disappointed at the twinge of jealousy he felt. He itched to crawl back there and shove Gray away from her, but then he’d have to explain himself to the others. And that would open up a whole new can of worms. This whole emotion thing—the jealousy, the irritation, the anger at everything—was driving him nuts.

  Behind Remy and Gray were Avi and Theo. Avi looked exhausted, which reinforced Ethan’s belief that the woman didn’t see much action. Theo, too, knelt on his seat, hovering in the very back of the van, watching out the rear window attentively. He turned to look at Ethan and raised an eyebrow at the older man.

  “Everybody okay?” Ethan asked after he finished inspecting them. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it too.

  “Yeah, we’re okay,” Cade said. She leaned forward with a soft groan, rubbing at her lower back. Ethan frowned, worried that she’d hurt herself. That was the last thing they needed. Cade didn’t mention it, though. She simply rested her elbows on her thighs and let her hands dangle loosely between her knees. “What are we going to do, Eth?”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan admitted. He rested his head against the steering wheel again and tried to work out the problem in his head. He let out a slow breath and felt a hand touch the back of his neck. Ethan turned to see Nikola nodding as she pulled he
r hand away. He gave the teenager another smile and sat back up again. Her obvious trust in him was just enough to jar him loose from dwelling on his uncertainties.

  “Okay,” Ethan finally said. He huffed out another breath. “Okay so. Inventory. What do we have?” Everyone began to check over their weapons and look inside their bags and pockets. The sound of shuffling and rattling met his ears.

  “We’ve got four sidearms and a couple of shotguns in Cade’s bag,” Brandt reported. “Plus a crowbar. Some ammo for the guns, but there’s really not much. We hadn’t gotten the chance to finish packing the ammunition. My Beretta’s got half a mag in it, and Cade’s got her rifle and, I’m assuming, ammo for it in her other bag?”

  Cade looked inside her messenger bag and nodded absently. She still appeared bothered by something. The look on her face worried Ethan. It was a cross between stress and almost … fear, perhaps? The last thing Ethan needed was Cade falling apart on him. She was tough, but she wasn’t unsusceptible to cracking. Indeed, she spent so much time bottling up everything she felt, holding in her stress and worry and fear and grief, that Ethan knew it was only a matter of time before she fell apart. He wanted to know what was on Cade’s mind, but he didn’t have time to pick her brain for more information. He decided to save the discussion for later, when things had quieted down and she would be more receptive to talking to him about it.

  Ethan ejected the magazine from his Glock and studied it. “I have my gun and about half a magazine too,” he said. “Nothing more than that, though. I left my spare magazine on the desk in the office.” Ethan glanced past Cade and Brandt to the dark-haired young woman who still knelt on the seat. “Remy?”