The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege (22 page)

Keith nodded and motioned towards the world
beyond. “So where have you two been hiding out at since this went
to shit?”

“
In the woods, mostly,
” Jude
wrote.

“No shit?” Keith sounded surprised. “This
whole time?”

Jude shrugged. “
For a few months, we
lived in houses. Then Mom died. We kept getting harassed by zombies
and didn’t want to deal with it anymore. We got our stuff together
and went to the woods. Been there ever since. Until today.
”

“Impressive,” Keith complimented, and Jude
grinned. “I heard a little about what happened out there with you,
your sister, Remy, and Dominic. Must have been some fight.”

Jude nodded. “
It was,
” he agreed.
“
Sadie and I had a handle on it. If they hadn’t jumped in, I
think we still would’ve beaten the zombies back.
”

“Why do you keep calling them zombies?”
Keith asked.

“
Why do you keep calling them the
infected?
” Jude retorted, and Keith laughed.

“Fair enough,” he conceded. “I call them the
infected because everyone here does. Because, I think, Dr. Rivers
started it. Or someone from the core group did, I’m not sure.”

“
Core group?
”

“Yeah, core group,” Keith said. “The ones
who founded the place.” He started counting them off on his
fingers. “Brandt, Cade, Derek, Kimberly, Remy, Dominic, and that
infected guy Ethan.”

“
Ethan is infected?
” Jude asked,
feeling alarm rising up in him. Ethan had seemed fine when he’d
seen him earlier. Then he remembered the scars he’d seen all over
the man’s forearms. “
How so?
” he wrote.

“I’m not sure of the mechanics of it,” Keith
said. “I just know he got bitten and then somehow got cured. But
he’s still got these weird side effects and stuff that, quite
frankly, make me uncomfortable.” Before Jude could ask for more
details, the sound of a whistle, short like a signal, chirped out
from the main house.

“
What’s that?
” Jude scribbled. He
held the pad up for Keith to see.

“Committee meeting,” Keith answered.
“They’re meeting about something. Probably what to do about these
guys.” He nodded toward the zombies—the infected, Jude mentally
corrected—that were throwing themselves against the wall just
thirty feet below. “You should go to it,” he suggested. “See how
the community works.”

“
Are you coming?
”

Keith shook his head. “No, someone’s got to
stay and keep an eye on things right here,” he said, motioning to
the infected. “They keep piling up and climbing over, or at least
trying to. I’ve got to keep them from doing that.”

Jude nodded and glanced toward the main
house, assessing how much time he had to join the proceedings. He
could see Dr. Rivers hurrying from the house next door, a small
stack of papers in his hands. Brandt stood in the frame of the
front door, waiting on him.

“
I’ll see you later then, yeah?
” Jude
finally wrote. “
I’ll come keep you company. It’s too stuffy in
that house.
”

“Yeah, it can get a bit claustrophobic
around here,” Keith agreed. “See you later.”

Jude tucked the notepad into his pocket,
gave Keith a final wave, and then scooped up his shotgun, returning
it to his shoulder. He grabbed the top of the aluminum ladder and
practically slid to the grass. Then he jogged toward the house
where the committee was meeting, curious about what was going to
happen and what they were going to do.

Night had fallen heavily over the community, but the
darkness brought no reprieve from the sounds of the infected. If
anything, their snarls, moans, and groans seemed all the louder and
more ominous with the fall of night. The occasional pop of gunfire
didn’t help matters. The unceasing sound was driving Cade slowly
crazy, and as if sensing her anxiety, the baby stirred restlessly
inside her, rolling and kicking and doing nothing to soothe her
nerves. If anything, the baby made everything seem worse, serving
as a reminder of everything she stood to lose.

Cade glanced at the people present for their
second meeting in as many days. Isaac stood at the foot of the
stairs, his large arms folded over his chest, his eyes closed as if
he were meditating. Derek sat on the stairs beside him, looking
exhausted, his hands surprisingly empty; he usually had a notebook
or file folder in his hands in his unceasing work on the viral
cure. Ethan was sprawled on the couch beside her, an arm draped
along the back, leg resting against his knee. He gave her a small
smile when he saw her looking at him. Dominic and Remy were both
absent—again—and she couldn’t help but wonder where the hell they’d
gotten off to this time. Brandt and Kimberly were talking in low
voices in the kitchen, accompanied by the rustle of paper. And on
the floor sat the community’s newest arrivals, Sadie and Jude
O’Dell, silent as they signed to each other; judging by their
facial expressions, they seemed to be arguing. Their presences
surprised her, and she leaned close to Ethan and asked in a hushed
voice, “What are the civvies doing here?”

Ethan shrugged. “Brandt told me he’s going
to pick their brains, since they’ve been in the thick of it
recently.”

Cade nodded and settled back in her seat.
“So what’s going on in there?” she asked, nodding toward the
kitchen. Whatever Brandt and Kimberly were talking about, it was
clearly private.

“I’m not sure,” Ethan admitted. He sounded
troubled, which drew her eyes back to him. “I was, obviously, not
invited.”

“Something going on with you and Kimberly?”
Cade asked, a small smile crossing her face as his cheeks flushed
red.

“Not at all,” Ethan insisted. He grinned and
added, “Yet.”

“Oh?”

He shrugged. “I’m not going to lie—I
certainly wouldn’t mind,” he admitted. “I’ve gotten a fair
bit…well, attached to her over the past few months. She’s been a
huge help.”

“You don’t like her just because you think
you’re obligated to, do you?” she asked. “Because I will seriously
kick your ass if you hurt her, best friend or not.”

“No, of course not,” Ethan said. “I like
her. Genuinely. Even if she
hadn’t
been taking care of me,
I’d still be attracted to her.”

“But fortunately, you got to spend a lot of
time with her while she nursed you back to health,” Cade teased.
“How’s her bedside manner? Or do you guys call it something else
nowadays?”

“If you weren’t pregnant, I swear I’d smack
you,” Ethan grumbled, though he was fighting a grin as he said
it.

“If I weren’t pregnant and you tried that,
you’d end up face down on the floor, begging for mercy and writhing
in pain,” Cade quipped.

“Too true.”

“Ladies and gents, we’ve got a problem,”
Brandt said as he entered the living room. Kimberly followed,
folding a piece of paper. She slipped past him and went to the
recliner, sinking into it with obvious exhaustion and worry on her
face.

“I don’t think I need to elaborate on what
the problem is,” Brandt continued, “but we need to come up with a
solution.

“Cade and I were discussing options earlier,
and we decided we need to evacuate the community. There are simply
too many infected outside to kill off, and we don’t have the
ammunition to even try. But, with the front gates completely
blocked off, we can’t go out that way anymore. We have to figure
out an alternate route out of the community that even the elderly
will be able to use, and we have to figure out where to go and how
to get there.” He stepped forward and dropped a handful of folded
maps onto the coffee table.

There was silence as everyone looked at one
another. Brandt’s eyes met Cade’s, and she could read his stress
easily. She tried to give him a small, reassuring smile, but she
could tell that it hadn’t reached her eyes. Finally, she cleared
her throat and spoke up to break the silence.

“Reconnaissance,” she said. “We need to
figure out our destination, and then we need to gather as much
information as possible about the conditions around it. And I think
we should scout out a temporary safe location close by to take
people to while we look for something more permanent.”

“I’m not sure we have enough time for all of
that,” Brandt said, “but we’ll look into it. Anything else?”

“We should go north,” Sadie said.

“Why north?” Cade asked.

“Because there might be military in that
direction,” she explained. “If we go that way, maybe we can link up
with them and get some extra help.”

“But we’re not sure the military will even
help us,” Isaac said. “Wouldn’t they be more focused on fighting
the infected than on helping out a bunch of civilians who have
already made it this far on their own?”

Brandt nodded. “We can’t count on the
military,” he said. “They’ll be concerned with their own
objectives. I haven’t heard of any references to survivor camps, so
as far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist. If we come across the
military and they’re willing to help us, then fine. But hunting
them down is not a priority.”

“What about what Kimberly and I are
proposing?” Derek asked. His voice sounded weary, with a face to
match, and Cade frowned.

“What are you proposing?” she asked.

“We’ll deal with that later,” Brandt said
before Derek could answer the question. “Evacuating our people is
more important.”

“No, it’s not,” Derek said. He rose halfway
off the stair, and Isaac put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a
squeeze. He sat back down with an exhausted sigh. “The cure is the
most important thing in this community, but I don’t have the
ability to finish it. We must get the samples out of here before
they’re lost. We
must
.”

“I understand the urgency,” Brandt said.
“Believe me. But in my mind, both of these problems are urgent. I’d
like to solve the problem of the defenseless before we move to that
one, please.”

“But this problem is faster to solve,” Derek
insisted.

“Brandt, what’s going on?” Cade
demanded.

Brandt growled low in his throat. “Fine,” he
snapped. “Derek and Kimberly want to get some samples out of here
and try to hunt down someone that can do something useful with
them. Kimberly has volunteered to go, but she needs to know if
anyone here knows of someone who they think will be willing to go
with her.”

“I’ll go,” Ethan spoke up barely before the
last words left Brandt’s lips.

“Ethan, I don’t think you’re healthy
enough,” Brandt started to say.

“I’m fine,” Ethan retorted. “I’m perfectly
fine. She needs help, and I’m willing to give it to her.”

“You
just
got off bed rest—”

“And I feel stronger than ever,” Ethan
interrupted.

“Not. Strong.
Enough,
” Brandt said
emphatically.

Ethan looked at Cade then, his green eyes
pleading. “Cade, for the love of God, back me up on this,” he said.
“I can handle it. I can. I’m a hell of a lot tougher than I
look.”

“I know,” Cade agreed. “Atlanta proved that.
I just…” She looked at Derek, feeling utterly helpless and
unsure.

“I think, considering he’ll be with medical
personnel the whole way, Ethan will be a suitable escort for
Kimberly,” Derek said.

Ethan sat back in his seat with a satisfied
gleam in his eyes. “Even Doc thinks I’m okay to go,” he said.

“But what about the side effects?” Brandt
protested. “We still don’t know what this strain will do to
you.”

“I think he’ll be okay, Brandt,” Kimberly
spoke up for the first time. “I’ll be with him. If something goes
wrong, we can handle it.” She glanced at Ethan and added, “Besides,
there aren’t many people that I’d trust to have my back. At least
he’s one of them.”

“Now that that’s settled, how are we going
to get all of these people out of here before the infected get
through the gates?” Isaac asked.

“I vote we do it house by house,” Cade
suggested. “One house at a time, with armed guards with each
group.”

“No, you should send armed folks to clear
the path and then send more to escort all the elderly and children
and pregnant women first,” Sadie said.

“Not all pregnant women are helpless, you
know,” Cade grumbled, folding her arms over her chest, ready and
spoiling for a fight.

“No, not helpless, but you’re front-heavy,
and it would really suck if you got attacked and lost your baby,”
Sadie said. “I’m sure you’re tough as nails when you need to be.
You wouldn’t have gotten this far if you weren’t.”

Cade opened her mouth to argue—mostly on
principle—but Ethan’s hand on her arm stopped her.

“I think Miss O’Dell is right,” Ethan said.
“But we have to be careful about this. The last thing we need is
people getting angry and panicking because they think we’re saying
that some lives are less important than others. We’ll need to
figure out the best way to explain this so they’ll understand
without getting angry.”

“I’m not even sure any of this is feasible,”
Brandt said. “Joseph’s group never came back, and that’s put us
short on guards. We barely have enough to hold things together as
it is.”

There was silence as everyone thought over
the options. Then Brandt sighed and shook his head. “Shit, I don’t
know. This is just…”

“Hopeless?” Isaac suggested.

Cade twisted in her seat to glare at him.
“Don’t you say that! Don’t you
dare
even suggest this is
hopeless! There’s always hope!”

“Look, we made it work getting these folks
out of Atlanta, and we can do it again,” Brandt said. “We’re just
going to have to get creative, that’s all.”

They all stared at each other, trying to
come up with an idea. Finally, Brandt sighed and said, “I’m going
to go to Dominic’s house and see what I can find out. If anyone has
any ideas how to get these people out of here, let me know
immediately. Kim, Ethan, I think you two have some planning of your
own to do.”