Cade let out a slow breath and nodded, hefting her rifle to get a better grip on it. “I’m not new to this type of picnic, Brandt,” she replied. “I learned urban street fighting a long time ago in the IDF. I think I can handle this.” She pushed her bangs out of her eyes and asked, “Should we leapfrog?” She leaned away from him to keep her eyes on the area around them.
“That might be a good idea,” Brandt said with a nod of his own. “You and I will be on point. I’ll go first. Let Ethan and the others know what we’re doing.”
Brandt moved ahead of the group to the center of the street, between two rows of cars, and lifted his rifle in a firing position. He heard Remy ask what was going on, but he continued on his way. He stopped about twenty yards out in front of the rest of the group and scanned the street ahead. There were no signs of anything coming toward them. Brandt glanced back at the others and saw Cade positioning herself ten yards behind him. He smiled slightly. She seemed so in sync with him now that it was almost ridiculous. They worked well together, and it was all he could hope that they’d be in tune enough to be alert to any dangers coming after them. Then again, the whole damn city was one massive danger as far as Brandt was concerned. The sooner they got to the Tabernacle and pleaded their case for help, the better.
Brandt turned in either direction and then signaled to Cade. He stayed in place as she moved forward ten yards past him and checked out the surroundings there. The others followed in their wake, well versed in the method they used to travel through larger cities: Brandt and Cade taking turns in the lead and Ethan and Remy guarding the rest of the group. It was a method they’d developed when they went into areas congested with the infected to help out people stuck in bad situations, and it was the best method they’d developed yet. Even in Atlanta, which seemed like an entirely different world to Brandt, he felt it was the method they should stick with.
“I’ve hardly seen anything at all,” Cade said to Brandt as she passed him on her way to the lead almost half an hour later. They were, by his calculations, nearing Marietta Street, one of the busier thoroughfares in the downtown area. He figured they’d undoubtedly begin to run into serious trouble in that area. This close to the epicenter of the Michaluk Virus, though, they should’ve been seeing at least some infected. Instead, so far, Brandt had seen nothing. He caught Cade’s elbow to stop her as she moved to pass him.
“I haven’t seen anything either,” Brandt replied. “It’s weird. There should be fucking infected all over the damn place. They should be practically pouring out of the fucking woodwork, especially with fresh blood nearby.”
“What’s going on up there?” Ethan called. Brandt turned to glare at Ethan and motioned with his hand for Ethan to keep his voice down.
“Shut the fuck up,” Brandt hissed for good measure before looking back to Cade. Her eyes were wide and visibly worried. “Something doesn’t feel right about this,” Brandt admitted to her, his voice hushed and tight with stress. “Something just isn’t right about it, but I can’t put my fucking finger on it.” He let out a frustrated breath, running a hand through his hair. “There should at least be … I don’t know, bodies.”
Cade tightened her fingers on her rifle. “Yeah, with what you told me, this place should be crawling with infected.”
“Shouldn’t be able to move ten damned yards without running into one,” Brandt agreed.
Remy jogged to them as Brandt spoke. She was breathless, and a faint sheen of sweat decorated her forehead and the sides of her face. She looked concerned as she asked Brandt, “What is going on?”
“We were just—” Cade started.
“Have you seen anything?” Brandt interrupted, putting a hand up to stop Cade and turning his attention to Remy. He frowned as he waited on Remy’s answer, relying on Cade to keep an eye on their surroundings as he tried to gather information.
Remy blinked and jerked her head back as if she’d been struck. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Anything? Anything at all?” Brandt persisted, his voice taking on a note of urgency. “Movement? Any infected? Any survivors? Animals? Birds? Fucking dogs or anything? Anything at all?”
Remy shook her head slowly in response to Brandt’s rapid-fire questions, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth. “No. No, none of us have.” She snorted slightly. “Fuck, you’d think you wanted us to run into something, Brandt,” she tried to joke. “Didn’t you know I’m the only one allowed to hope for that kind of shit?”
“No, I don’t exactly want us to,” Brandt said firmly. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a heavy breath. “We were just talking about how there doesn’t seem to be any—”
A loud pop snapped out from somewhere nearby. The sound echoed off the buildings and street and magnified as it bounced off brick façades and back at them. Brandt blinked and turned his eyes to Cade. Her own eyes were wider than ever as she stared up at him.
“Was that … was that what I think it was?” Brandt asked.
Before Cade could reply, another pop rang out. Ethan and Gray let out a shout. Brandt whirled around, lifting his rifle instinctively to his shoulder, and aimed it behind him, prepared to take out any infected that approached. He stopped just in time to see Avi stagger forward a step, a shocked expression on her face, before she tumbled face down to the pavement. She lay on the black asphalt, unmoving. Blood began to pool beneath her body.
“Jesus Christ,” Brandt gasped. His brain raced to catch up with his eyes, struggling to process the presence of blood, the lack of life in Avi’s body, the sound of gunshots that had reached their ears.
Remy too seemed to finally comprehend what had happened. “Avi!” she shouted, starting to run toward the blond woman’s body. Two more shots rang out. Brandt lunged forward and caught Remy by her bicep, propelling her in the opposite direction.
“Fucking run!” Brandt ordered, shoving the two women forward. “She’s dead! Go! Scatter!”
Brandt waited for the others to pass him, his eyes scanning the buildings for the shooter’s location. It was a terrible risk to take, to stand still in the full awareness that someone was shooting at them. It was like painting a target on his ass and asking for the bullet. But Brandt felt some level of responsibility for the others, and he would not allow them to die under his watch. Not any more of them.
Another shot struck the pavement at his feet, sending up shards of black asphalt to bite at his shins through his pants. Brandt stumbled back and swore out loud, starting to follow the others as several more shots rang out. Thankfully, none of them came close to actually hitting him, though he had his suspicions about the nature of the attempt.
“Ethan! Find us some cover!” Brandt shouted, dodging side mirrors and abandoned luggage among the cars that lined the street. Cade stumbled forward and almost fell. She put out a hand to catch herself against a blue truck before Brandt could go to her aid. The echoing report of gunfire still rang in Brandt’s ears as he veered to the right, following the others into a dim alley that Ethan had chosen for cover. He only hoped none of the infected was sequestered in the alley too.
Thankfully, the alley was empty. Brandt skidded to a stop beside a dumpster, slumping back against the brick wall behind him and struggling to catch his breath.
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Brandt growled once his breathing slowed enough for him to manage speech.
“What the fuck was that?” Ethan demanded, jabbing an angry finger toward the mouth of the alleyway, his eyes hard as he glared at Brandt. As if it were his fault that someone out there had a gun.
“Keep your damned voice down,” Brandt snapped. “It was fucking … I don’t know, some asshole with an itchy trigger finger taking potshots at whatever the fuck moves.”
“Guys?” Cade said softly.
Brandt waved a hand at Cade to motion for her to quiet down as he glared at Ethan.
“I told you it wasn’t a walk in the fucking park here,” Brandt continued. “There’s not just the infected to d
eal with in this city. We’ve got to handle the crazy little shits with guns and too much time on their hands too.”
“Guys?” Cade said a bit louder.
Brandt rolled his eyes and finally turned to Cade. “What, Cade?” Brandt snapped. He didn’t mean to speak so harshly to her, but his irritation at Ethan had begun to override his senses.
Cade looked up at Brandt, and tears streamed down her face. That in itself was enough to stun Brandt’s irritation straight into submission. She looked down and pulled her hands away from where she’d clasped them tightly to her side. Brandt sucked in a sharp breath.
Both of her hands were covered in blood.
Even as Brandt and Ethan both darted forward to catch her, Cade staggered sideways into the brick wall beside her and slid to the ground with a gasp of pain.
“I think I’ve been shot,” she managed weakly.
Chapter 44
Ethan lunged forward as Cade slumped over, and he reached her in three long strides. He caught the woman’s shoulders and helped her lie back on the pavement; then he tore at his clothes, pulling his jacket off. He wadded it up and stuffed it under Cade’s head for protection against the hard ground.
“Remy, Gray, guard,” Brandt ordered in three short, snapping words as he joined Ethan at Cade’s side. The two youngest members of the group moved quickly to obey, their weapons out and ready. Brandt lowered himself to his knees beside Cade. He smoothed his fingers over her side gently; his fingertips came back stained with red. “Where at?”
“Here,” Cade murmured, touching her side just below where Brandt’s hand had stopped. He could just barely make out a quantity of blood soaking into her dark jacket.
Ethan slid his hands underneath Cade’s back and helped her sit up slightly. “Come on, Cade. We need to get all this off you so we can see, okay?” he said as Brandt unzipped her jacket.
Cade grimaced as Brandt slid the jacket off her shoulders. When she lay back again, there was a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead from the exertion and pain. Brandt unbuttoned her flannel shirt and pushed it aside before he gingerly grasped the hem of her bloodstained tank top and lifted it from her torso. Cade groaned when the material pulled away from her wound, and Ethan caught Cade’s hand and held it tightly, rubbing her skin soothingly. Brandt sucked in a sharp breath as he got a look at the wound.
“What do you see?” Ethan asked, focusing on Cade’s face as she closed her eyes. Brandt shed his jacket and wrapped it around Cade’s side, pressing down hard. Cade choked back a muffled cry of pain, covering her mouth tightly with one hand.
“In and out,” Brandt replied hoarsely. “It’s ugly, but where it’s at, I don’t think it hit anything major.”
“It hit me,” Cade ground out through gritted teeth.
Ethan snorted and gave Cade’s hand a squeeze. “She’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, as long as she doesn’t go into shock,” Brandt said. He let the pressure off the makeshift bandage long enough to take a closer look at the still-bleeding wound before pressing down on it again. The pressure elicited another pained cry from Cade. “We’ve got to get the bleeding stopped. And we need bandages.”
Remy looked back from her intent staring at the entrance to the alleyway, pulling a bag from her shoulder. She tossed it to Brandt, and it landed at his side with a soft thump. “It’s Theo’s bag,” she explained. “He shoved it at me before we left him.”
“Thank God for Theo,” Ethan breathed. Brandt tore into the bag and pulled out first aid supplies as he searched for what he needed.
“We have to hurry,” Brandt said suddenly, as if the thought had just occurred to him. “We’re not going to have much time.”
“Much time for what?” Gray spoke up for the first time since they’d entered the city. He picked up the urgency in Brandt’s voice and moved closer to them, gun in hand.
“Much time until what,” Brandt corrected. He started to hastily bandage Cade’s side, pressing down to use the bandage to staunch the blood. He wound gauze around her midsection rapidly to hold the padding in place. “If the sound of the gunshots doesn’t draw the infected onto us, the smell of blood probably will.”
“The infected can smell blood?” Ethan repeated incredulously. “I’ve never heard that before. Are you sure, or are you just jerking my chain?”
“Absolutely,” Brandt said, not directly answering Ethan’s question. He tied off the Kling Gauze around Cade’s waist. “I haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s possible. I was told there was some guy who put raw meat out on the street to lure infected out so he could shoot them down.”
“Raw meat?” Remy sounded as astonished as Ethan.
Brandt rolled his eyes. “Is there an echo in this alley or something?” He looked down at Cade, a soft expression in his eyes as he double-checked the dressing and ran his knuckles along her jaw. “You going to be okay, babe?” he asked softly.
Cade nodded and let out a slow breath. Her voice was strained when she spoke. “Yeah, I think so. It’s essentially superficial, right?”
“Yeah, all things considered. You’re bleeding like a mother fucker, but it could have been worse.”
Cade breathed out again and closed her eyes for the barest of moments. “We need to move,” she said. Ethan reached to brush her hair out of her face. Cade started to sit up, but a cry of pain slipped out past her lips. Ethan pushed his hands firmly against her shoulders, pressing her back down.
“Lie down, Cade,” Ethan ordered. “You need to take a few minutes to just rest.”
Cade shook her head stubbornly. “There’s not enough fucking time for rest,” she objected, panting slightly, winded by the pain. “We have to get out of here. Just help me up.”
“She’s right, Ethan,” Brandt said. “We don’t have time to wait.” He put his hands out to take Cade’s in his own, and she gripped them tightly. Ethan moved to help, sliding his own hands under her shoulders to push as Brandt pulled. Between the two of them, they managed to help Cade back to her feet. She staggered woozily and caught herself against the wall, shaking her head as if to clear it. “Do you think you can make it to Luckie?” Brandt asked. His voice was heavy with worry, and he rubbed a hand soothingly over her back.
“I have to, don’t I?” Cade replied. She looked up, past Brandt and Ethan to the entrance of the alleyway. “Now, about this bastard shooting at us.”
“What do you propose we do?” Ethan asked. He retrieved his jacket from the ground and offered it to Cade, but she waved it away and continued to study the alley’s mouth.
“I’m pretty sure if I can figure out where he’s positioned, I can take him out,” Cade said confidently, tugging her tank top down to cover the gauze.
“Are you sure?” Ethan asked. “I mean, I know you were a sharpshooter in Israel, but I don’t know if your rifle—”
“My rifle is made for shit like this, Ethan,” Cade replied. She motioned toward it, and Brandt picked it up and passed it to her. “I just need someone to hold me steady. And I need to draw him out to pin down his exact location.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Ethan demanded.
“I need bait,” Cade replied.
“Wait a minute,” Gray spoke up, stepping forward and putting up a hand as if to stop everyone. Cade frowned at him. “What we’re talking about is the murder of another human being. It’s not right.”
“Gray, Avi is dead because of another human being,” Ethan snapped. He turned on Gray, glaring and crossing his arms. “I know you didn’t care for her too much, and I didn’t either, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was one of us.”
“It also doesn’t change the fact that I can’t move fast right now, and that bastard is going to start shooting again the minute we walk out of this alley,” Cade said. “I’m not willing to make it this far only to get taken down by some trigger-happy moron. And the infected could be converging on this spot as we speak. We have to get out of here, and we can’t do that until he’s dead.”
Gray shook his head, but he didn’t seem too intent on arguing the point any further, much to Ethan’s relief. He walked away, back to the alley entrance, and Cade leaned against the wall, exhausted, as she checked her rifle for damage. Her hands trembled, and she frowned as she tried to steady them.
“So how do you propose we lure him out?” Brandt asked, pulling Cade’s hair back, his fingers deftly braiding it. Ethan watched this silently, and he couldn’t help but think of that night he’d accidentally witnessed the last time Brandt had done this for her. Brandt noticed him watching and added, “She can’t aim well if her hair’s in her eyes.”
Ethan nodded without comment as Brandt tied the braid off. Cade spoke as Brandt worked on her hair. “We need someone or something out in the street so I can figure out where the gunfire is coming from.”
“What about Avi?” Brandt suggested. Cade raised an eyebrow.
“That’s a possibility,” Cade acknowledged.
“Wait, what?” Ethan asked, lifting his own hand to stop them. “What’s going on? What do you mean about Avi and possibilities?”
Brandt looked past Ethan to the alley’s entrance and swallowed hard. “We need to use the body to figure out what direction the shot came from.”
“I was looking right at Avi when she got shot,” Gray offered suddenly. Cade’s eyes were bright as she turned them onto Gray. Ethan noticed just then that Gray’s jacket was soiled with a faint spray of blood droplets. “She was standing right here,” Gray said. He grabbed Remy and moved her to stand beside him, using her as a visual aid. “She was facing this way. You and Brandt and Remy were just ahead of us, right that way.” He pointed to an imaginary spot ahead of them. “She stood at a bit of a slant, toward me.” He shifted Remy a bit. “And she was asking something about how much further until we got to Marietta. The shot sounded, and it hit her in the back, right here.” He touched Remy’s back, to the inside of her left shoulder blade.
“Kill shot,” Cade murmured softly. “That was no accident.”
The Becoming: Ground Zero Page 25