Jessica Meigs - The Becoming (16 page)

Theo nodded a short greeting at Cade, who had remained wordless throughout the entire discussion. She nodded back at Theo solemnly and then moved across the room to join Brandt and Ethan. “We should quarantine them,” she suggested, keeping her voice low as she glanced at Theo and Gray. “Just as a precaution, in case they’ve caught Michaluk and aren’t showing any symptoms yet.”

“How would we go about doing that?” Brandt asked. As he spoke, he watched Ethan carefully and tried to guess what was going through the older man’s mind. Brandt couldn’t be sure, but given the way Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Theo and Gray, it wasn’t anything good.

“I say we kick them out the front door and send them back where they came from,” Ethan grumbled. The man was moody, and the only thing the hardness in his voice made Brandt want to do was punch him in the mouth.

“
That
is not an option,” Cade snapped. Brandt was glad to see Cade dishing Ethan’s attitude back to him. Brandt knew that Ethan still didn’t trust him very much, regardless of the time they’d spent around each other and the effort Brandt had put into trying to prove himself to Ethan. As a result, the other man had been reluctant to even listen to anything Brandt had said; maybe Cade could get through to him.

“Maybe we can shut them up in one of the bedrooms and just keep an eye on them or something,” she suggested.

Brandt saw one glaring problem with her idea. “None of the bedrooms upstairs have locks on the doors,” he pointed out. “How are we going to shut them up in a room if we can’t lock the door?”

Cade didn’t speak, but her eyes slid sideways, past Brandt. Brandt turned to follow her gaze. His brown eyes landed on the nail gun he’d left by the door.

“Wait, you want to
nail the door shut?
” Brandt asked incredulously. “I mean…seriously? What if the house gets attacked while they’re stuck in there? We’d never get that door open in time to get them out.”

Cade rolled her eyes. “In this house? If the infected attack, we’re done for anyway, because you sealed off
all
the entrances when we got here. Nailing them into a bedroom upstairs would make them a hell of a lot safer than we would be in an attack. It’s our only option right now. I personally don’t want them wandering around the house if one of them is hiding an injury from us.”

A hoarse voice interrupted their discussion. “We’re not hiding anything.” Cade stopped talking, and all three turned to look at the two men. Gray stared up at them steadily, his face set in a look of determination. “We’re not injured
or
infected. If we were, we wouldn’t be here. We’re not bad people, and we wouldn’t bring that virus around people who aren’t sick.”

Brandt looked back at Ethan and Cade pointedly, a smirk playing at his lips. “See?” he said as he inclined his head toward the two men. “I think they’re okay.”

Cade made a disgusted face. “You’re too trusting,” she commented.

“What can I say? It’s part of my charm,” Brandt joked. He gave her a helpless shrug, even as his smirk spread into a wide grin.

Despite Brandt’s attempt to lighten the mood, Ethan still looked like he was ready to punch a hole in the nearest solid object. Brandt preferred that it not be him. “I still don’t like this,” Ethan muttered. “I still think we should just put them out.”

“Tough shit,” Brandt bit back. “I think we could use them, especially Theo. He’s a paramedic. That could come in handy, you know. Because between the three of us, all we really know is basic first aid and CPR.”

“Precisely,” Cade agreed. She wrapped her fingers around Ethan’s wrist in a white-knuckled grip, right below the knot of bone in his arm. Brandt winced involuntarily; that had to be painful. “We need to have a talk,” she said, directing her words at Ethan. “Because you’ve been acting like a royal pain in the ass, and frankly, I’m sick of it.” She waved her hand at the two men sitting in the room and added to Brandt, “You…I don’t know. Deal with them or something.”

Cade stormed out of the room, hauling Ethan toward the kitchen. She left Brandt standing in the center of the living room, watching the two newcomers and trying to figure out what in the world to do next.

Find Out What Happens Next in

The Becoming

The First Book in The Becoming Series

Available Now from Permuted Press

Click
here
to purchase it!

About the Author

Jessica Meigs is the author of
The Becoming
, a post-apocalyptic thriller series that follows a group of people trying to survive a massive viral outbreak in the southeastern United States. After gaining notoriety for having written the series on a variety of BlackBerry devices, she self-published two novellas that now make up the first book of the series. In April 2011, she accepted a three-book deal with Permuted Press to publish a trilogy of novels. The first of the trilogy, entitled
The Becoming
, was released in November 2011 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats. It was also named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Zombie Fiction Releases of 2011 and Best Apocalyptic Fiction Releases of 2011. In March 2012, she released a related novella entitled
The Becoming: Brothers in Arms
. The second novel in the series,
The Becoming: Ground Zero
, is coming in July 2012 from Permuted Press, with a third novel,
The Becoming: Revelations
, to follow. A fourth and fifth book are currently in the process of being written.

Jessica lives in semi-obscurity in Demopolis, Alabama. When she’s not writing, she works full time as an EMT. She enjoys listening to music and spends way too much time building playlists for everything she writes. When she’s not rocking out at concerts or writing or working, she can be found on Twitter @JessicaMeigs, on Facebook at facebook.com/JessicaMeigs, and on Goodreads at goodreads.com/jessicameigs. You can also visit her website at www.jessicameigs.com.