The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege (13 page)

But then, as Cade had known would inevitably
happen, Remy ran out of ammunition and was forced to stop and
reload. The infected swarmed her, taking her down underneath so
many of them that Cade lost sight of her.

“Remy!” Cade screamed. She scanned the
horde, searching for any sign of her friend underneath the heap of
infected that had fallen on top of her. As she did so, she had
horrible flashbacks from several months before, when a similar
crowd had swallowed up Remy outside of the Westin. Then, Dominic
had waded in and rescued her, and now he looked like he was ready
to do the same again.

He hung from halfway up the ladder, grasping
it with one hand, his pistol in his right hand. He aimed it into
the crowd, firing occasionally, picking off infected when he
could.

Cade joined his efforts, taking aim and
shooting the infected on the outer fringes of the pile that was on
Remy. Then there was a flash of failing sunlight against something
metal, and suddenly, Remy burst out from underneath the crowd,
swinging her bolo knife like a wild woman, slashing at bodies and
cutting at grasping hands and fingers. Limbs went flying, tumbling
down to the pavement in splashes of blood, both old and new.

Once Remy had emerged from the mess, blood
covered but alive, Cade swung her rifle around and fired with
renewed vigor. Another shot echoed in close proximity to hers, and
the infected woman in her sights fell to the ground, two bullets
having torn her head apart. Cade smiled, knowing Brandt had her
back, and took aim at another.

Below, Remy whirled on her heel and sprinted
the last thirty yards to the ladder. Dominic made a desperate lunge
for the top of the wall, clearing the ladder so Remy had enough
room to begin her climb.

The first wave of infected reached the wall
and slammed into it with enough force that Cade felt the impact on
the platform. She grabbed the wall as the platform swayed and
settled. Beside her, Allen did the same. After the platform
steadied, Cade looked over the wall.

Several of the infected had grabbed the rope
ladder that swayed tantalizingly above their heads. They pulled on
it until one side dislodged from the top of the wall.

Remy began to climb faster.

Cade cursed and let go of the wall,
repositioned her rifle, and pulled the trigger. She shot two more
infected as Remy scrambled for the top of the wall, but she
couldn’t shoot them fast enough. The rope ladder threatened to rip
free under the weight of Remy—and under the weight of the infected
who still hung from the bottom.

“Remy, move your ass!” Dominic yelled from
where he hung. “Come on, faster!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Remy yelled
back, sounding, if anything, irritated at his words.

“Not fast enough!” Dominic snapped. “If you
don’t pick it up, I’m not teaching you
shit!
”

That statement seemed to spur Remy into
action. She climbed up two more rungs, putting her almost in reach
of Keith’s hands. With a snap, the other side of the rope ladder
broke free. Remy didn’t let out a sound as she started to fall, but
Cade gasped and lunged toward her a few inches, as if somehow she
could prevent the young woman’s tumble into the hands reaching for
her below.

But then Remy jerked to a stop as quickly as
she’d fallen. Dominic hung by one arm from the top of the wall, his
other hand clasped around Remy’s wrist. His muscles bulged, and his
face was strained with the struggle to hold her above the fray.
Cade hovered, her rifle trained at the infected just below Remy’s
feet, ready to fire if any of them managed to get their hands on
her. Brandt stopped firing, and he and Keith were reaching,
stretching for the young woman. Cade sent every prayer she knew to
whomever was listening. She chanted under her breath, “Come on,
come on.”

Dominic hauled her within reach of Brandt’s
grasping hands. Brandt gripped the back of her shirt and pulled.
Between him, Keith, and Dominic, they dragged Remy onto the
platform. She crawled several feet, making room for the next
arrival, and slouched down onto her stomach, panting and sweating.
Then Brandt and Keith pulled Dominic over the wall. He too
collapsed onto the platform, lying on his back, his chest
heaving.

By her count, Cade had two bullets left in
the magazine attached to her rifle. With Dominic and Remy and the
two newcomers pulled to safety, she ceased fire. There was no point
in wasting more ammunition. She couldn’t shoot all of the infected
who pushed at the community’s gates. Not that she wouldn’t have
liked to.

“Allen, stay here and keep an eye on those
things,” Cade ordered, slinging her rifle onto her shoulder. She
adjusted the strap, to make sure the weapon was secure, and climbed
down the ladder. When she felt solid ground beneath her tennis
shoes, she breathed a sigh of relief before turning toward the
other platform.

Brandt, Dominic, and Remy had already
descended the ladder, and the two newcomers waited at the foot of
it, the girl—as always—standing protectively close to the boy.
Brandt glared at Remy and Dominic, his jaw bulging as he clenched
it. The tableau was silent, save for the hammering of hands against
wood and the loud moaning and groaning from the other side of the
wall. Cade glanced in that direction, but she didn’t have time to
worry about that right now, not with the questions stirring in her
head. She stormed toward the small group, fists clenched. When she
drew close enough for them to hear, she snarled out, “Remy
Angellette! What the
fuck
were you doing outside that
wall?”

“What’s it matter to you what I was doing
outside the wall?” Remy snapped back. She was pale and sweaty and
covered in blood. Her eyes had a crazed look when she stepped
toward Cade. “I came back, didn’t I?”

“Yes, and it looks like you brought a
fucking party with you!” Cade jabbed her finger toward the wall.
“Where the
hell
did all those things come from, and what the
fuck did you do to bring them here?”

“You act like I
planned
that or
something!” Remy yelled.

“Well you sure as hell went outside when
you’ve been told you can’t!”

Dominic stepped between the two women,
putting his hands up in a placating gesture toward Cade. “Calm
down—”

“Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down!”
Cade interrupted. “This is halfway
your
fault! You two have
probably singlehandedly caused the fall of this entire fucking
community because you left when I told you not to!”

“I don’t get what the big fucking deal is!”
Remy said. She shoved past Dominic to get to Cade.

As Remy carried on, the sound of running
feet met Cade’s ears. She half turned to see Ethan and Kimberly
jogging toward them from the main house, Ethan moving a bit
sluggishly and Kimberly adjusting her own pace to match his. Cade’s
heart leaped at the sight of Ethan up and about again, and she
swallowed hard to keep her emotions from spilling over.

Bloody pregnancy hormones. She’d cut off her
right arm before she let herself get knocked up again.

Ethan’s presence diffused the tension
between Remy and Cade. Ethan stopped beside Cade, but his eyes met
Remy’s. They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Remy
broke away, shaking her head in disgust as she backed up a few
steps. “I’m going to go clean up,” she muttered, heading for the
medical house.

Dominic gave the gathered residents one last
look. “I’m going to check her over for injuries,” he said. He
jogged to catch up as she hurried away. Ethan watched her go for a
moment before turning to Cade and Brandt. His eyes scanned over the
two newcomers and then shifted to the wall. Kimberly nodded and
climbed Keith’s platform to get a look at the problem. “What the
hell’s going on? We heard gunshots.”

“Infected,” Cade told him. “A literal
shit-ton of them. I think Remy and Dominic led them here.”

“Well fuck.” He looked away from Cade to the
two survivors again and asked, “Who are they?”

“I was just about to find that out,” Cade
said. She turned to them and gave them a pointed look.

The young woman stepped up. “My name is
Sadie O’Dell,” she said. “This is my twin brother Jude. A man named
Joseph told us to come here after we ran into him.”

“Where’s Joseph now?” Brandt asked.

“Dead, I think,” Sadie said. “He and the
guys that were with him saved us from the infected that were in
Hollywood. There were…well, a lot. As you saw.” She motioned toward
the wall and added, “We showed them to Dominic and Remy when we met
them on the road. They said they were from Woodside and that they’d
bring us here.”

“So where did all the infected come
from?”

“We’re not sure,” Sadie answered. “They were
massed in Hollywood. Something’s gotten them stirred up, but we’re
not sure what. Dominic thinks it might have to do with the roads
being cleared—”

“Wait, what?” Brandt interrupted, holding up
a hand to stop her. “The roads are being cleared? What are you
talking about?”

“The major highways between Hollywood and
Charleston are being cleared out,” Sadie explained. “Your friend
Dominic thinks a tank or something like it is doing it. We think
the military might be behind it. Anyway, whatever is going on with
the highway is, I think, stirring the infected up in a big way.
They’ve started traveling in these massive groups, like flocks of
birds. I think they caught wind of us and followed us here. And I’m
so sorry about that.”

“Aw hell,” Brandt muttered, and Cade saw his
jaw tense as he closed his eyes. She put a hand on his arm and
leaned close to murmur in his ear.

“Maybe we should deal with these two later,”
she suggested. “We’ve got bigger, more immediate problems at the
moment.”

Brandt looked at her, and she could see the
doubt and conflict in his eyes as he tried to decide what to do.
She didn’t blame him for his uncertainty; this was the first major
event he’d been in charge of since Woodside’s establishment. Even
Cade felt the weight of responsibility for the fifty-plus people
living under their watch. A wrong step now could cost them dearly.
She blew out a breath and finally made her own suggestion.

“We should start emergency lockdown
procedures,” she said. “Get everything nailed down, locked up, and
secured.”

Brandt nodded and turned on his heel to
issue orders. “Keith!” he called to the watch captain still on the
platform above them. When the man peered over the edge, he
continued. “We’re going into lockdown. I need you to keep an eye on
what goes on outside that fence. If anything changes, use the
two-way to let me know.” Then he raised his voice to address the
group who’d turned out at the sound of the whistle and the gunfire.
“The community is in lockdown. This is not a drill. Everyone needs
to return to their homes, bar all doors and windows on the first
floor, and arm yourselves as necessary. I need all heads of
households to do a headcount and make a list of all present in
their houses. In an hour, someone will be by to collect those
lists. Once they’ve been collected, you’re to keep everything
locked up tight. No one in or out. Are we clear?”

The crowd murmured its confirmations and
began to spread out, moving to collect their family members and
friends and follow through with Brandt’s orders.

Cade turned her attention to Ethan and the
newcomers. Sadie still stood guardedly by her brother, but the
longer she stood there, the more Cade could see the exhaustion in
her eyes. She nodded toward Sadie as she said to Ethan, “Eth, why
don’t you and Kimberly take these two to the house, get them
something to eat, and let Doc take a look at them?”

Ethan nodded and called out, “Kim! Get down
from there and help me out, would you?” Then he said to Cade in a
low voice, “I’ll talk to them too and see if I can find out more
information about what happened out there.”

“Yeah, you’re good at that kind of thing,”
Cade agreed. She turned away from him to join Brandt. “What do you
need me to do?”

Brandt barely glanced at her as he strode
deeper into the community. “I need you to get in the house and lock
the doors,” he said.

Cade gritted her teeth as irritation rolled
over her in a wave. “Brandt, seriously,” she insisted. “What do you
need me to do?”

Brandt stopped and faced her, his eyes dark
with worry. Cade squared her shoulders because she knew she
wouldn’t like whatever he had to say. “Look, you’re pregnant,
and—”

“And I
thought
we agreed that we
weren’t going to treat me like I’m made of glass,” Cade snapped
back as her suspicions were confirmed. “I may be pregnant, but I’m
still more than capable of properly aiming a firearm, as I
just
demonstrated less than ten minutes ago.”

Brandt sighed and ran a hand through his
dark hair. “Cade, babe…look, it’s nothing to do with you or your
abilities, okay? I know you’re perfectly capable of dealing with
just about anything anyone throws at you.”

“So what
is
the deal, then?” Cade
demanded.

“My paranoia is the deal,” Brandt admitted.
“You know how I am about you. Ever since what Alicia did…” His
voice cracked, and he shook his head. “I couldn’t stand it, okay?
I’m not going to let anything happen to you if I can help it. So
you’ll have to excuse me if I occasionally ask you to do things you
don’t like or don’t agree with out of my never-ending paranoia that
you’re going to end up dead because of my carelessness.”

“You can’t protect me from everything,
Brandt,” Cade said, softening the irritation in her voice. She
couldn’t be angry with him for that; Atlanta was a sore subject
with him—with
all
of them. All he had to say was “Atlanta”
and she would have understood.

“No, but I can damn well try.” He sighed and
rubbed his hand over his hair again. “Look, just…stick close to me,
okay? Give me at least that much in the way of peace of mind. Maybe
you can give me a hand with rounding up stragglers and getting them
into their homes.”