The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege (23 page)

After the meeting, Kimberly and Ethan descended the
basement stairs in silence. Neither had spoken a word since after
the meeting, when they’d agreed to leave within the hour. Derek had
gone down ahead of them, and when they arrived, they found him at
the workbench, stuffing notebooks and file folders into a backpack
and muttering under his breath.

Derek moved to the tiny refrigerator set
underneath the workbench, pulling out test tubes and lining them in
a small case he’d taken out of the mini-fridge’s freezer. Then he
packed it into an insulated case, stuffed blue ice packs in with
it, and sealed the case shut. He added the insulated pack to the
backpack already full of papers.

“Listen to me carefully, both of you,” he
began. “You have to get this to
someone
in authority as fast
as possible. I’m not sure how long the cold packs will last, but
I’m betting it won’t be as long as I’d like. Whatever you do,
don’t
open the insulation pack. We want to keep as much cold
air in the pack as possible to help preserve the samples. You
follow me?”

“Yeah, I follow,” Ethan answered. Kimberly
nodded her own acknowledgment. “Which way should we go?”

“North,” Derek said. “You go north. I think
we’ve already established that the CDC centers in Georgia—and
probably Florida—are total losses. There are satellite CDC
installations all over the place. Try some of those.”

Kimberly unfolded the map and spread it
across the workbench. Derek grabbed a marker and started writing on
the map. “Your closest bet is probably the facility in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. It’s still close to the outbreak’s origins, so it
might not have survived the initial wave of infected, but you can
try there before moving on.” He paused, scribbling a street address
onto the map, and continued. “Your next closest shot after that
isn’t until Maryland. I figure maybe they had enough warning to
lock down and fortify.”

“Maryland is a long way from here, Doc,”
Ethan said. “A hell of a lot could happen between here and
there.”

“And that’s why
you’re
going, isn’t
it? So you can protect Kimberly and make sure that that whole hell
of a lot
doesn’t
happen to her.” He circled an area of
Maryland and wrote another street address beside it. “Whatever you
do, don’t get killed. I don’t think I’m speaking lightly when I say
the fate of the world could depend on you getting these samples
into the right hands.”

“No pressure or anything,” Kimberly
muttered. She folded the map and stuffed it inside her backpack,
then slung the pack onto her back. She hesitated and then flung her
arms around Derek in a crushing embrace. Ethan turned away, giving
the two some privacy as they said their goodbyes. When she finally
rejoined him, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, prompting him
to catch her hand in his and give it a comforting squeeze.

“You sure you want to do this?” Ethan
asked.

“I’m sure I
have
to,” Kimberly
replied. “There’s no one else who has the expertise that I do,
except for Derek, and he can’t go.” She paused, glancing back at
Derek as if seeking reassurance, and then asked, “Are you sure
you’re willing to escort me?”

“You really going to ask me that?” Ethan
asked. “There’s no one else in this community I’d even consider
worthy of the task.”

Kimberly’s cheeks flushed red at his
declaration, and she gave him a tentative smile. “Shall we?” she
asked, motioning to the basement stairs.

“We shall,” he agreed.

Upstairs, everything was controlled chaos,
everyone moving around with their own personal tasks. Sadie and
Jude sat on the couch, side by side, methodically topping off the
ammunition in what appeared to be every firearm in the house.
Brandt was nowhere to be seen, likely on his self-imposed mission
to track down Dominic and find out what was going on with him.
Likewise, Cade and Isaac were missing. Ethan figured they were most
likely upstairs.

After a moment’s hesitation, Ethan signaled
to Kimberly that he was heading up to say his goodbyes.

He found Cade and Isaac in one of the
upstairs bedrooms, Cade in a chair at the window with her Galil
rifle resting against the windowsill. She stared through the scope
mounted on top. Every few seconds, she would shift the rifle just a
fraction of an inch, narrowing her blue eyes as she took in the
view. Isaac stood beside her, binoculars pressed to his own eyes as
he, too, studied the ground below. Cade looked up as Ethan stepped
into the room, sparing him only a passing glance before wordlessly
returning her attention to the scope.

Aw hell, she’s pissed at me,
Ethan
thought, the realization accompanied by a sinking feeling in his
gut. He cleared his throat, and Isaac tore his eyes away from
whatever he was looking at and smiled.

“Ethan, I didn’t hear you come in,” he said.
“Something I can help you with?”

Ethan ran a hand through his hair. “Not
really. I just…I need to speak with Cade. Preferably in
private.”

Isaac gave him a mock salute and stepped
back from the window. “Not a problem. I’ll be in the room next door
if you need anything.” He retreated, and the door clicked closed
behind him.

Ethan stood silently for several long
seconds, trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to say
to Cade when she was clearly mad at him. It had been so long since
he’d had to deal with an angry Cade that he wasn’t sure he
remembered how to handle one of her moods. He shifted his weight
from one leg to the other, contemplating the motionless woman in
front of him.

Cade didn’t move, didn’t even flinch, as she
said, “You are an asshole, you know that?”

“I’m…what?” Ethan asked. “What brought that
on?”

“You’re leaving,” Cade said. “Again. You’ve
barely been up and around again, and you’re already bailing.”

“I’m not
bailing,
Cade,” Ethan said.
He tried to keep the defensiveness out of his voice, which was a
struggle. “Kim needs help. I’m willing to give it to her.”

“Like there aren’t other people here who are
perfectly capable of helping her? Why does it have to be
you
?”

“Come on, Cade. That isn’t fair,” Ethan
protested.

“The hell it isn’t,” Cade muttered. “Just
tell me why. Tell me why you think it has to be you to go with
her.”

Ethan stared at the back of her head and
steeled his courage before admitting quietly, “Because I think I
might be falling a little bit in love with her. And because of
that, I don’t trust anyone else to do this.”

Cade abandoned her task of staring through
the scope and finally turned to look at him. “You barely know her,
Ethan. How can you say you’re in love with her? This isn’t like
with Remy, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ethan replied. “Because with
Remy, it was just sexual attraction and infatuation, plain and
simple. There was no love there between us, at least as far as I
ever felt.”

“Oh, really?” she said doubtfully.

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Cade, cut it out. I
know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work, so you
can go ahead and hang it up right now. I’m going to go. She needs
me.”

“
I
need you!” Cade exploded,
startling him enough that he took a step backward. “You’re my best
friend, or at least I always thought you were. But you keep bailing
on me when I need you!”

“Name one time I’ve bailed on you, Cade,
because I sure as fuck don’t see where I have!”

Cade’s blue eyes grew cold. “In Atlanta,
when I got shot and you thought it would be a cute idea to stay
behind and try to be
noble
.”

“I wasn’t trying to be noble. I was trying
to save you.”

“And nobody asked you to.”

They stared at each other, and Ethan’s blood
pounded in his ears. When he felt like he had a handle on his rage,
he ran both hands through his hair and sighed. “Cade,” he started
to say, drawing the word out as he pieced together his
thoughts.

“Don’t you use that tone with me,” Cade
snapped, her eyes still hard with anger.

“Cade! For the love of all that’s holy, shut
up
, would you?” Ethan demanded. “God, I’m trying to talk to
you, and I’d like it to not be a fight. Please. For all we know,
this is the last time we’ll ever see each other.”

“Why do you think I’m so mad at you?” Cade
asked. “You’re
leaving,
Ethan. Again. You’re supposed to be
my best friend, and it feels like you keep bailing on me. I know
you’re not, but still, that’s what it feels like. And I’m getting
tired of burying you.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Ethan said.
“Believe me, I am. It just feels like this is something I have to
do. I owe a debt.”

“To who?”

Ethan shrugged. “To Derek. To the community.
To the world at large. I don’t know.” He scrubbed his hand through
his hair again and closed his eyes for a moment. “I shouldn’t be
here. I should be dead. I should’ve been dead months ago when I was
attacked in Atlanta. That fate has tipped the balance in my favor
makes me feel like I’m meant to do something with the life I’m
fortunate enough to have.”

“But it’s a fool’s errand,” Cade protested.
“I hate to say it, but it is. There might not be anyone left to do
anything with them.”

“I think it’s more foolish to lose the
possibility of a cure because we didn’t take a chance,” Ethan
said.

Cade sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m being selfish.
But it’s just so
frustrating
. If I weren’t pregnant, I’d be
right there with you. But I can’t, and it makes me feel
useless
to not be able to do anything.”

The sound of footsteps hurrying up the
stairs reached Ethan’s ears. Someone knocked on the door.

“Cade, you’re
far
from useless,” he
said, ignoring the knock. “You’ve done so much for the people here
and saved and protected so many lives. I don’t think you could call
that ‘useless.’”

“Ethan?” Kimberly called from the other side
of the door. “We’ve got to get going.”

Ethan still didn’t move for the door.

Cade stood and stepped toward him, throwing
her arms around his neck. Ethan buried his face against the side of
her neck. “You take care of yourself, okay?” he said, his voice
muffled. He lifted his head and saw tears in her eyes; one escaped,
and he swiped a thumb at it before anyone saw. “I’m not going to
say goodbye, because I’m coming back,” he said.

“How are you going to find us?” Cade asked.
“I don’t know where we’re going yet, so how can I tell you where to
meet us?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Ethan said. “No matter
where you guys end up, I’m going to find you, okay?”

Cade pressed her lips together and nodded,
scrubbing her face harshly with a hand, as if wiping away further
tears that hadn’t fallen. “Be careful out there.”

“I will. And you take care of Brandt, yeah?”
Ethan added. “Man’s liable to lose his head without you around to
keep him on task.”

Cade laughed. “Don’t remind me. We
all
saw how he almost cracked up when Alicia’s people took
me. Man was a basket case.”

Ethan chuckled, and Kimberly knocked on the
door again.

“You should go,” Cade said. “You’re right
this is important.”

Ethan gave her one more squeeze and smiled.
“I’ll be back,” he assured her.

“I’m counting on it,” Cade said.

Ethan walked out without looking back. The
click the door made as it swung closed behind him felt as final as
a gunshot.

Remy awoke to the sound of gunshots, her brown eyes
fluttering open as her mind tried to slog its way through the fog
of sleep to the world of consciousness. She couldn’t remember where
she was or what she was doing there, and she struggled to remember
as she sat up.

She felt weak. So weak. Had she been sick?
She couldn’t remember. She pressed a hand against her right temple
and blew out a breath. Her skin was damp with sweat, and her hands
trembled. She looked down and discovered she was in her underwear,
both the bra and panties rendered almost sheer with sweat. She
brushed a hand down her ribs, feeling the slightest indentations
between them.

Another gunshot rang out, and Remy found
herself halfway across the floor before she realized she had moved.
Panting, she looked around the darkened room wildly, searching for
the source of the sound.

“Where the hell am I?” she whispered, her
voice hoarse and cracking. She slammed her eyes shut and forced
herself to breathe; her lungs felt constricted, like a vice had
been wrapped around her rib cage and was slowly being wound
shut.

Another gunshot popped out, and then she
remembered.

“Dominic!” Remy gasped. Then she managed to
raise her voice and say his name again. “Dominic!” She stumbled
across the room, bumping into the desk, trying to find a light. Her
hand hit a bottle of water, and she picked it up, drinking
greedily, trying to clear her throat of its soreness. Then she
tried again. “Dominic!”

There were heavy footsteps in the hallway,
something banged against the door, and it swung open. Remy almost
took a step back. Then she recognized the silhouette in the
doorway, a flashlight in his hand.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Dominic
asked.

“Yeah, I think—” Remy broke off and shook
her head. “What’s going on out there?”

Dominic didn’t answer her right away.
Instead, he stepped into the room and pushed the door shut behind
him. He stared at her, and she eyed him back.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

Irritation rose in a wave. “What does it
matter how I feel?” she demanded. “What the hell’s going on
outside? I heard gunshots!”

Dominic sighed. “The infected that followed
us here are trying to get inside, just like they were before. From
what I’ve seen, a few of them have figured out how to come over the
wall. I’m not going to say it’s not a big deal, because it is, but
it’s not something I want you stressing about right now. How do you
feel?”