The Becoming: Ground Zero

by Jessica Meigs

  Cade quickly found what she sought: one of several skinny screwdrivers she kept tucked away in her bag. She hooked her rifle over her shoulder by its strap and leaned down to study the door’s lock.

  “Geez, whoever owned this house must have been asking for a robbery,” Cade muttered. It was a brand of lock that she recognized as incredibly easy to pick. She wasted no time sliding the screwdriver’s flathead tip into the lock. She worked at it quietly, pulling up on the tool as she turned the knob. Though she heard the lock unfasten, the door refused to budge when she pushed on it. Cade frowned, perplexed, and then pushed harder, pressing her shoulder to it. The door still didn’t move.

  Cade let out a frustrated huff of breath and pulled the screwdriver from the lock. The door wasn’t going to open for her anytime soon. She stuck the screwdriver into her back pocket and backed away from the door. “How in the world do we get in?” Cade asked out loud, taking her rifle back into her hands. She shook her head and rejoined her friends at the front of the house. “I think the door is blocked from inside,” she announced as she approached.

  Brandt stood beside Ethan, his eyes on the house, scanning the façade carefully. He shifted his gaze to Cade as she spoke. “Yeah, I had the same problem with the front door,” Brandt agreed. “No side doors either, as far as I saw.”

  “So how do we get in?” Avi asked, frowning.

  They fell silent as they examined the house. Cade skimmed her eyes over the foundations as she looked for any telltale signs of a basement window or a cellar door or something that would yield to their assaults.

  “What about the upstairs windows?” Remy asked suddenly, pointing to the windows in question. They weren’t boarded up like the others, and they seemed to stare down at the group like large, dark eyes. Cade shuddered slightly at the thought.

  “What about them?” Gray asked impatiently.

  “Well, can’t we go in through one of those?” Remy suggested. “At least one of us can go in and let the rest in through the front door.”

  Cade hummed thoughtfully. She squinted in the setting sun, shielding her eyes and frowning as she tried to make out the condition of the roof. It looked safe enough to walk on. “How exactly do you propose one of us gets up there in the first place?”

  Remy had already begun to wade through the tall grass to a tree near the corner of the house. She put her hands on her slim hips and leaned back to look up into its thick branches. Cade could just imagine what Remy would say.

  “I think I can climb this tree,” Remy said, her voice laced with confidence.

  “You think you can manage without killing yourself?” Ethan asked. Cade looked at him and was surprised to see a small smirk playing at his lips, though the smirk didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “Hey, I’m not an idiot or a klutz,” Remy retorted with mock haughtiness.

  “You had me fooled.”

  “Hey!” Remy protested, and they all laughed. Even Ethan cracked a tiny grin, and it made Cade’s heart feel a bit lighter to see him give Remy an almost-smile after the difficult events of the day before. She knew Ethan still hurt, and she felt guilty that she hadn’t been there for him as much as she should have been while coping with her own grief. She moved to stand beside her friend and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

  “You okay?” Cade asked Ethan softly, pressing an affectionate kiss to his jaw.

  “About as good as can be expected,” Ethan admitted. He leaned against her and rested his cheek on top of her head. He draped an arm around Cade’s waist and let out a sigh. They watched as Remy sprang up into the branches of the tree and began to monkey her way up. “Twenty bucks says she falls,” Ethan said mildly.

  “Thirty,” Cade retorted with a quiet laugh as she too turned her eyes onto the younger woman, who quickly became invisible in the tree’s branches.

  Chapter 33

  Remy found her footing on the shingled roof, and she carefully eased herself out of the tree. Her hands were sticky with sap, and she wiped them ineffectually on her jeans before turning to look down at her companions. They looked so small from her perch. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and took a moment to look out from the roof at the surrounding area. There weren’t many trees, which was excellent; that would make it easier for whoever was on watch to spot anything sneaking up on them. The front yard was mostly clear of, well, anything other than tall grass. Remy couldn’t see a car in sight, in the driveway of this house or any of the other nearby houses. Maybe all the families in the area fled early on.

  Or perhaps they’d been caught up in that massive traffic jam the group spent over four hours navigating.

  Remy tried to shake off the sick feeling the thought gave her, and she turned to the nearest window. It was small, much smaller than the dormer window they’d used to escape the safe house in Maplesville. Remy examined the screen that covered it and then unsheathed her bolo knife and sliced the screen out of its frame. It’d be a tight fit, but considering she was the skinniest member of the group, Remy was sure she could wiggle through easily enough.

  “Everything okay up there?” Ethan called from the ground below. Remy moved to the edge and gave Ethan two thumbs up before she tried the window.

  It was, much like the rest of the house, locked tight.

  Remy swore under her breath and jerked at the frame again, trying to get the window to rise. Finally, she let out an exasperated sigh and flipped her knife around. Grasping the hilt in a fist and standing aside from the window, Remy slammed the point of the blade into the window. The plate glass shattered, and Remy used the blade to knock the remains of the window out before reaching in and finding the lock. She disengaged it, shoved the window open, and slipped inside, mindful of both the remaining glass shards that littered the windowsill and floor and the wound already in her side.

  The interior of the house was almost pitch black beyond the doorway across from her. Remy fumbled in her bag and found her flashlight. The beam shook slightly as she switched it on and shone it ahead of her. The room was incredibly dim; the only natural light came from the setting sun through the window behind her. There was a bed, a dresser, and a rocking chair in the corner. It was surprisingly Spartan, and Remy suspected it must have been a guest room at some point in its life. Judging by the sloped roof above her head, Remy would have to find her way down farther into the house.

  Fear slowly uncurled in Remy’s gut. It crawled out from its hiding place and flooded her with the old familiar feeling with which she’d lived for weeks after her family’s deaths. She hated doing things like this alone, exploring unknown territories without backup. The darkness was always worse when there wasn’t anyone with her.

  Remy drew in a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm her rattled nerves. “Get over it, Remy,” she coached out loud as she stared at the dark doorway. “Everybody else is counting on you. You’ve got to get it together.”

  Remy took another fortifying breath and forced herself to move toward the dark rectangle of door. The weight of the dark hall settled down on her. She shuddered at the feeling of loneliness and isolation that fell with it. The way the darkness crawled down her throat and choked her was oppressive. It felt like eyes were upon her.

  Unnerved by the feeling, Remy turned and pressed back firmly against the wall, grinding her shoulders into its surface as she shone her flashlight down the hall in both directions. There was nothing there, but the ominous feeling of being watched remained. She shuddered and eased away from the wall, making her way to the stairs. As she walked down the hall, she paused at the doorway of each room she passed and shone her light into it. Just like the first room, the bedrooms and bathrooms she found were all empty.

  Remy located the stairs easily enough, and she slowly made her way down them. The last thing she needed was to hurry down a flight of stairs and twist her ankle or something else equally drastic and painful. It would be her kind of luck for that to happen. There was no sign of any movement on the stairs, and Remy quickly re
ached the bottom. The first floor, if possible, was even darker than the second, thanks to the boards covering the windows. Absolutely no light came from anywhere except her flashlight. The nearly pure darkness that surrounded her made Remy incredibly nervous, and she forced herself to continue moving forward with only a moment’s hesitation.

  As Remy circled the banister at the end of the stairs and headed underneath the landing toward the front door, something brushed her shoulder. She froze, her ears straining for any sound. Her heart raced, pounding against her ribcage, as whatever it was that had brushed against her shoulder bumped into her again. An involuntary whimper escaped Remy’s throat, and she hesitantly turned her head to see what was behind her.

  Before Remy could fully turn, something heavy fell onto her and knocked her firmly to the floor. Remy gasped, throwing her hands out instinctively to catch herself. She dropped both her flashlight and her bolo knife, both of which slid out of her reach across the slick floorboards. She hit the floor face down, the breath knocked out of her, and the heavy person—it was a person, Remy’s brain shrieked at her—pressed down onto her.

  Remy clawed frantically at the floorboards and gasped harshly in an effort to get her breath into her lungs. She tried with everything in her to get away from the thing on her. The knowledge that she was being attacked, that she was about to be killed or infected, nearly drove her wild as she tried to haul herself from underneath the body on top of her.

  Unable to throw the weight from her, Remy did the only thing she could.

  She screamed.

  Chapter 34

  “What the hell is taking Remy so long?” Ethan asked impatiently, watching the front door of the house, waiting for it to swing open. Remy had been in the house longer than Ethan thought it should take for her to go down the stairs and unblock the front door. He worried that something had happened to her while she was alone without backup.

  “I’m sure she’s fine, Ethan,” Cade said as she let go of his shoulders. She took a step back from him and tilted her head to look at the house more carefully. Despite her words of reassurance, she seemed just as bothered as Ethan was. At least he wasn’t alone in his worry. “I mean, she can handle herself, right?”

  “Maybe,” Ethan said doubtfully. “Sometimes I wonder.” He crossed his arms and studied the tree Remy had climbed, frowning as he trailed his eyes up the branches. He wondered how difficult it would be to follow her up the tree and into the house to lend a hand.

  “You’re thinking about climbing that tree and going in after her, aren’t you?” Cade said with a small smile.

  “The thought has crossed my mind,” Ethan admitted. He looked to the house once more and studied any and all possible entry points as Avi raised a hand to get everyone’s attention.

  “I think I could fit in through that window,” Avi said. “The one Remy went into. We’re about the same size, I think. I could maybe go after her and see if she needs a hand, if you think it’s wise.”

  Before Ethan could consider her idea, a scream erupted from the house. Ethan felt his heart jump into his throat, and he immediately bolted for the front door, dashing through the thick, tall grass as he drew his gun and bounded up the porch steps. “Remy!” he shouted, slamming into the door without breaking stride. “Jesus! Brandt! Help me get this fucking door open!”

  The words had barely left Ethan’s mouth when Brandt appeared beside him on the porch, and he too shoved against the door. “Remy! Remy, are you okay?” he yelled. Gray ran up behind Ethan to help, and for once, Ethan was grateful for the younger man’s presence as he too put his shoulder to the door.

  Ethan could still hear Remy inside, which was a good sign, as the sound of her voice meant she wasn’t dead. But the woman was almost hysterical, which didn’t offer Ethan any comfort as he flung himself against the door again.

  “Wait! Wait!” Gray yelled, grabbing Ethan. “On the count of three, we all do it together,” Gray ordered. He backed up a step and added, “Otherwise we’ll never get this fucking door open.”

  “Fine. I’m counting,” Ethan said breathlessly. His heart still pounded in his chest as he moved to stand with Gray. “Ready?” He waited until Brandt and Gray both nodded, and then he began to count out loud, “One, two, three.”

  The three men threw themselves against the door, and the doorframe splintered and cracked. With a second ram, the door gave way and spilled the three men into the entryway. Ethan managed to keep his footing, and he saw Remy’s flashlight on the floor near his feet. He snatched it up and shone it around the room, searching frantically for the young woman.

  “Remy!” Ethan called, lifting his gun, ready to shoot anything that moved wrong. Remy sobbed somewhere to his left, and Ethan turned in that direction. He saw the woman almost immediately, sprawled on her stomach on the floor.

  Remy recognized Ethan as he hurried toward her, and she scrambled to pull herself to him. Ethan’s eyes widened at the sight of the body on her. Ethan aimed his gun at the body and motioned for Remy to lie still before he nudged the body with his boot. It was a rather large man, and he was half dressed, his skin pallid. A cord was coiled around his neck, digging deeply into the flesh. Ethan took his eyes off the body long enough to shine his light up, and he saw a broken rope above them, tied to the railing of the second-floor landing. The man had been dead for maybe two days.

  “He’s not alive,” Ethan told Remy, lowering the gun and leaning to push the body off of her. It took him a few shoves, but he managed to roll the body away. Once she was free, Remy dragged herself to her feet and fell into Ethan’s arms. Ethan squeezed her tightly and rubbed her back. “Jesus, Remy, are you okay?” he asked her softly. “You’re shaking like a leaf.”

  “I thought …” Remy trailed off and glanced over her shoulder at the body with a noticeable shudder. “I thought he was …”

  “One of the infected?” Ethan suggested.

  “Yeah.” Remy wiped at her tear-streaked face and shuddered again. “Fuck, I’m a mess,” she muttered, shaking her hair back from her face.

  Ethan looked behind him as the others piled into the room, weapons out and ready. Avi drew up short as she saw the body, but Gray and Theo moved straight to it and leaned over it to look.

  “Is everything okay?” Cade asked. She retrieved Remy’s bolo knife and offered it to her, hilt first. The younger woman took it with a grateful look and nodded.

  “Yeah. I think I broke a nail, though,” Remy said with a shaky voice, though Ethan could hear a bit of her confident personality coming through in the words. Cade and Ethan both laughed at Remy’s response, and Remy gave Ethan a smile and a quick squeeze before she stepped away. “Thank you for rescuing me from the dead guy, Ethan.”

  Ethan chuckled and shook his head. He reflexively reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, away from her face. “Any time, doll. You just let me know when you need it, okay?”

  Remy gave Ethan another grateful smile, and the look made Ethan’s chest tighten. He swallowed and nodded at her again, and she moved toward Cade. Cade, for her part, put her arm around Remy’s shoulders in a comforting gesture similar to the one she’d given Ethan earlier. Ethan smiled and turned away from the young woman. It hurt too much to see the caring, trusting look she gave him. It reminded him too much of Nikola.

  “Everything okay?” Brandt asked Ethan. Ethan glanced back at Theo and Gray, who still stood near the body, talking quietly.

  “Dead guy. Looks like he hung himself,” Ethan said distractedly. “We need to get rid of the body, and we need to barricade the doors again before sunset. I don’t want to do that by flashlight.”

  Chapter 35

  Gray and Theo managed to wrap the deceased man’s body in a couple of sheets and carry it to the house next door. The location had been decided on after a short discussion on the best place to leave the body. Theo had argued that it’d be disrespectful to the dead to leave him exposed to the elements in the back yard—a favored suggestion of Remy’s,
who still smarted over the scare she’d gotten earlier—so the others had left it to him and Gray to move the man to the empty house next door.

  Theo wiped his forehead with his jacket cuff once he and Gray offloaded the corpse onto the flowered couch. “Bastard was heavy, wasn’t he?” Gray asked, panting as he dug into his jacket pocket for his inhaler. His words were casual, but Theo could hear a faint tremor in his voice. Gray had yet to get over his fear of dead bodies, something Theo had worked out of his own system while working as a paramedic. Some things never changed.

  “Don’t call the dead names,” Theo admonished. He wiped at his face again and motioned toward the door. “Now come on. The others are waiting, and it’s almost completely dark outside.”

  The two men stepped out of the house and headed to the cracked sidewalk, Theo’s senses on alert for anything unusual as they walked back to the house in which the others hid. Gray was silent, his hands stuffed in his pockets, obviously relying on Theo to keep watch. Sometimes, despite his intelligence, Theo wondered just how smart Gray was. He did a lot of things absolutely stupidly, like relying on others to ensure his safety instead of only counting on himself. But maybe that was just a reaction to being out with Theo; maybe he counted on Theo having his back more than the others.

  “So what happened with you and Remy?” Theo asked. He scanned the road beside them for any approaching dangers. Everything was quiet and still, though; Theo didn’t think they’d have much to worry about in this area. He shifted his eyes back to Gray, but Gray was giving him a look so ugly it could have soured milk. Theo gritted his teeth and added, “Look, Gray, I can’t help you straighten out whatever the hell you’ve managed to cause now if I don’t know what’s going on.”