Cade and Brandt sat in the seats immediately behind him. Both appeared okay. Brandt was digging energetically through a large bag, while Cade was slumped over, gripping her rifle tightly. Neither of them seemed to be injured, much to his relief. He didn’t know if he could handle the idea of Cade getting hurt or killed.
Remy sat on her knees on the seat beside Gray. Ethan was disappointed at the twinge of jealousy he felt. He itched to crawl back there and shove Gray away from her, but then he’d have to explain himself to the others, and that would open a whole new can of worms. This whole emotion thing—the jealousy, the irritation, the anger at everything—was driving him nuts.
Behind Remy and Gray were Avi and Theo. Avi looked exhausted, which reinforced his belief that she didn’t see much action. Theo, too, knelt on his seat, watching out the rear window attentively. He looked back at Ethan and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“Everybody okay?” Ethan asked after he’d finished inspecting them. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it, too.
“Yeah, we’re okay,” Cade said. She leaned forward with a soft groan, rubbing at her lower back. He frowned, worried that she’d hurt herself. That was the last thing they needed. She didn’t mention it, though. She simply rested her elbows on her thighs and let her hands dangle loosely between her knees. “What are we going to do, Eth?”
“I don’t know,” Ethan admitted. He rested his head against the steering wheel again and tried to work out the problem in his head. He let out a slow breath and felt a hand touch the back of his neck; he turned to see Nikola nodding as she pulled her hand away. He gave the teenager another smile and sat back up again. Her obvious trust in him was just enough to jar him loose from dwelling on his uncertainties.
“Okay,” Ethan finally said, huffing out another breath. “Okay so. Inventory. What do we have?” Everyone began checking their weapons and looking in their bags and pockets. The sound of shuffling and rattling met his ears.
“We’ve got four sidearms and a couple of shotguns in Cade’s bag,” Brandt reported. “Plus a crowbar. Some ammo for the guns, but there’s not much. We hadn’t gotten the chance to finish packing the ammunition. My Beretta’s got half a mag in it, and Cade’s got her rifle and, I’m assuming, ammo for it in her other bag?”
Cade looked inside her messenger bag and nodded absently. She still appeared bothered by something. The expression on her face worried him. It was a cross between stress and almost…fear, perhaps? The last thing he needed was her falling apart on him. She was tough, but she wasn’t immune to cracking. Indeed, she spent so much time bottling up everything she felt, holding in her stress and worry and fear and grief, that Ethan knew it was only a matter of time before it caught up to her. He wanted to know what was on her mind, but he didn’t have time to pick her brain for more information. He decided to save the discussion for later, when things had quieted down and she’d be more receptive to talking to him about it.
Ethan ejected the magazine from his Glock and studied it. “I have my gun and about half a magazine, too,” he said. “Nothing more than that, though. I left my spare magazine on the desk in the office.” He glanced past Cade and Brandt to the dark-haired woman still kneeling on the seat. “Remy?”
“My blade and my gun,” Remy answered. She glanced at Ethan, her dark eyes lingering on his face. A strange, unidentifiable feeling fluttered in his stomach. It vanished as she returned her eyes to the window beside her. “But I only have a few bullets left. I used too many covering Cade.”
“I don’t have anything,” Gray admitted with a shrug, speaking up before Ethan prompted him. “I dropped my gun on the roof while I was helping everyone through the window. It was empty, anyway.”
“I’ve got my machete,” Avi said. “I don’t have anything else. Just that.”
“And I have my gun but no ammo,” Theo said. “And no medical supplies. They’re all still bagged up on the coffee table in the house.”
Ethan looked to Nikola wordlessly. She shook her head. “I think we’re lucky to even still have the maps,” she admitted, lifting the wrinkled papers with a rustle.
“Fuck,” Ethan muttered, staring out the windshield into the darkness. There were so many problems they already faced, and they’d only just left the safe house. “Food?” he asked without looking back. In the darkened reflection of the windshield, he saw the shadow of everyone shaking their heads mutely. “Half a take of gas,” he muttered. His mind spun as he scraped up a plan. “Okay, first we need to get farther away from Maplesville. Then we need to figure out a place to stop and work on resupplying. We need food, water, weapons, ammunition, and probably camping gear.”
“And first aid supplies,” Theo called out.
“And first aid supplies,” Ethan repeated, nodding. “Nikola? Any suggestions? Something close, preferably.”
Nikola leaned over the map of Alabama. “I’m not sure. I think maybe…Clanton? It’s about fifteen miles from here and looks like it’s big enough to have most of what we need. But it’s not so big that we’ll drastically increase our risk of being attacked again.”
Ethan nodded and glanced at the others again. They still sat hunched in their seats or looking out the windows. Only Remy met his eyes, and her expression was unreadable. “Are we okay with that?” he asked. He got a round of silent nods in reply, so he put the van back in drive and started in the direction Nikola indicated.
Chapter Seven
It took the group almost two hours to make the fifteen-mile drive from Maplesville to Clanton, thanks primarily to congestion and roadblocks scattered haphazardly along their path. Once dawn came and after they’d managed to gas up the van, Cade found herself standing in the parking lot of a Walmart, her arms crossed over her chest as she studied the darkened building and its shattered automatic front door. She wasn’t sure what she thought, if it was safe enough to go inside. But they needed the supplies badly; they wouldn’t make it anywhere without food and water and weapons. And it was likely safer to go where they could get everything in one stop, since more travel and more stops meant more risks.
Brandt approached and stopped beside her. He crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking her stance, and joined her in her silent stare. “What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Right now? I’m thinking I could really go for a cheeseburger with all the trimmings,” she said, not looking away from the building.
“Yeah? I’m thinking a steak. Medium rare, of course. With a loaded baked potato on the side,” Brandt said. “Something tells me neither of us is going to get what we want, though.” He looked at her, and the motion made her turn her head. Their eyes met, and Brandt murmured, “At least, not everything we want.”
She drew in a slow breath and nodded, tearing her gaze from his almost reluctantly as her heart tried to stuff itself into her throat. She quickly choked it back down. “Yeah, I suppose so,” she said quietly. She studied the building for a long moment, trying to steady her nerves, then glanced behind them. The van was parked halfway down the lot, and she could see Ethan, Gray, and Theo standing outside its open doors. Judging by the hand gestures Ethan and Gray were making at each other, they were arguing again. Theo looked ready to strangle them both, a sentiment with which Cade could sympathize. “What are they doing?” she asked, changing the subject before it slipped into territory that made her uncomfortable.
“Bitching again,” Brandt said tiredly. “Basically, the usual.”
Cade snorted and looked back at the building. She pulled a sidearm out of her shoulder bag and ejected the magazine, carefully counting the bullets inside before jamming it back into place and sliding the weapon into the empty holster on her belt. “So are we going to go in?” she asked, tilting her head back to look toward the roof of the store.
“Yeah, just as soon as the others quit their bitching,” Brandt said. He turned on his heel and gave her a light pat on the back. “I’ll go tell them to move their asses.”
Cade laughed
and shook her head as she started across the parking lot. “I’m going to check out the lobby,” she said, “at least make sure the immediate entrance is safe for us.”
As she moved forward, Brandt caught her arm. “Hey, be careful, yeah?” he requested softly. He gave her arm a gentle squeeze, and a slight smile brushed his lips.
“Of course,” she said in surprise. She raised an eyebrow and looked from his hand on her arm to his face again. “Who do you think I am? Remy? I’m never not careful, am I?”
“Maybe you’re not when you dive into a big mess of infected just to grab a bag?” he suggested. His faint smile transformed into a huge, teasing grin.
“Hey, that bag’s probably going to end up saving our asses, you know,” she pointed out, playfully punching him on his bicep as he started to walk away.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll see,” Brandt said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Cade stared at the building for another moment before she eased her way to the front door. She paused outside the broken doorframe to pull her pistol out again, mainly as a precaution. The whole building made Cade nervous. Her instincts jabbed at the back of her brain with a sharp stick, trying to get her attention, but she pushed them aside as she eased a foot over the door’s frame and stepped into the darkened lobby. She slid her flashlight out of her bag’s side pocket and turned it on, shining it around the lobby, her pistol up at the ready.
The lobby was empty, save for the remains of a once-busy shopping center. Battered carts littered the lobby; several blocked the entrance into the store itself. A busted Coca-Cola machine rested on its side to her right, and several motorized wheelchairs—their baskets long since ripped from the arms—were lined up against the wall to her left. Next to the wheelchairs was tall machine that proudly proclaimed itself as RedBox. It bore an advertisement for some sort of comic book superhero movie. On the poster, a cluster of bulked-up superheroes, most of whom she couldn’t come close to identifying, were posing dramatically, one guy in some sort of super-suit with a glowing thing on his chest standing in a pose like he was being crucified; she figured he must die somewhere in the movie, the foreshadowing was so blatant.
The sound of crunching glass interrupted her thoughts. She whirled around, finger slipping past the guard to rest against the trigger, ready to fire, but stopped herself just in time as Remy appeared in the beam of her flashlight. The younger woman stepped in through the doorframe. “Hey,” she greeted. She glanced around and pushed stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail back from her face. “Man, this place is a dump. Think there’s anything left?”
“I sure hope so,” Cade admitted. She lowered her gun and eased toward the shopping carts that blocked the entryway. She was on high alert, her eyes darting everywhere, checking out the overturned black metal bench nearby, the closed door behind it through which she thought she heard the faintest noise, a sound she hoped she was imagining. She swallowed hard and motioned to the entangled pile of shopping carts, the only thing preventing their entry into the store itself. “Help me move these so we can get in?”
Remy nodded and holstered her pistol, moving forward to help. She grabbed a cart and dragged it out of the way, shoving it against the overturned drink machine. As they worked, sweat broke out on Cade’s forehead and back, dampening her shirts underneath her jacket and dripping down into her eyes. She wiped at her forehead with a grimace and pushed another cart into the cart well. Within minutes, the others joined the two women, and they chipped in to help. Once the entryway was completely cleared of carts, they stood, staring silently into the dark store and pondering their next move.
“Okay, so how are we going to do this?” Cade asked. She shifted to keep her eyes on the entryway while addressing her friends, resting her hand lightly on the butt of her holstered sidearm. None of them appeared comfortable with the idea of going into the store, but they were officially in a position where they had no choice. She squinted into the darkened store, trying to make out anything inside. It wasn’t very bright; a little light leaked in through the skylights in the ceiling, but mostly everything was in shadow.
“Split up?” Nikola suggested. She grabbed Cade’s bag and shoved a hand deep into it, rummaging around, pushing aside personal belongings to grab one of the handguns in the bottom of the bag. Cade twisted away and dislodged the girl’s hand from the bag.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not getting a gun?” Cade asked pointedly. “You’re too young, and you can’t handle it.”
“I can, too!”
“You shot a hole in the dining room wall,” Cade reminded her.
“And?” Nikola shot back defiantly.
“And the can you were supposed to be shooting was only ten feet in front of you!”
“We go in pairs,” Ethan interrupted. “Remy, Cade, you two go to the sporting goods department and scrounge up whatever you can for weapons, ammo, and camping gear. Theo, you and Gray handle the medical supplies. Nikola and Avi, I want you two to go to electronics and see if you can find some of those two-way radios, maybe some sort of solar chargers. Then stop by the closing and see what you can find. Nikki, you know everyone’s sizes. Brandt, you’re with me. We’re going after food. Nikki, you and Avi track me and Brandt down in the grocery section once you’ve gathered what you can.”
“Hey, if you can find any, get me some Cokes,” Remy piped up. She stepped into the store, stopping a few feet in to wait for the rest of them. Cade followed her in, narrowing her eyes and shining her flashlight at the cash registers in their immediate vicinity.
“Remy, they’re going to be hotter than the surface of the sun,” Ethan warned. Remy simply shrugged and gave him a big grin, as if to say who cares?
“Oh, so we’re taking requests?” Cade asked. She chuckled and moved toward the nearest cash register. The rack at the end had been scavenged, but there were still a few things left. She picked up several candy bars and shoved them into her bag. “I’ll take that big cheeseburger I wanted, then. With extra pickles.”
“Yeah, sure, Cade. I’ll bring it back with my steak,” Brandt offered with a laugh of his own. He and Ethan turned left to go toward the grocery departments. Cade shook her head and slipped out in front of Remy, walking slowly and cautiously along the main aisle between the registers and the clothing departments. The others trailed behind and alongside her, relying on her skill as protection. Just in case.
“So do you think we’ll run into anything exciting?” Remy asked, jogging to catch up with Cade. She plunged her hand into Cade’s bag, and Cade sighed and pushed her hand away.
“I sincerely hope not. And why is everybody so obsessed with sticking their hands in my bag today?” she asked in annoyance.
“But it’s such a nice bag. Why wouldn’t we want to stick our hands in it?” Remy asked with a jokingly flirtatious wink and a laugh. Gray let out a chuckle from behind them, and Cade rolled her eyes, offering Remy her spare flashlight.
“Well, I’m very picky about whose hands end up in my bag, so keep that in mind before you start sticking them in again.” Remy accepted the flashlight and gave her a huge grin, and Gray laughed again, prompting Cade to call out to him, “And you get those dirty thoughts about us out of your head, you perv.”
Before Gray could come back with a reply, the group reached the pharmacy section. Gray and Theo split off, heading for the first aid supplies without another word.
Once the men were gone, Remy turned to her, a devious look on her face. “So what about Brandt’s hands? Want them in there?” Cade scowled and punched her in the bicep, hard. “Ow! What was that for?”
“You know what it was far,” she warned. “Drop it.” She stopped beside the hardware department and looked around, trying to get her bearings. “Think we should get a cart so we don’t have to carry everything?” She shone her light down the aisles and hummed thoughtfully.
“Yeah, I think I saw one right back there. Let me go get it,” Remy offered. She disappeared into t
he darkness, and Cade followed her progress by the beam of her flashlight as she backtracked. Remy returned a moment later with a reasonably intact shopping cart. “And I hope we do run into something,” she said, continuing the conversation as if there’d been no interruption. “We need some excitement in our lives.”
Cade looked at Remy incredulously in the light from their flashlights. “Oh, for the love of everything holy. Tell me you’re kidding,” she begged, her tone heavy with dread. “Was what happened back in Maplesville not excitement enough for you?”
Remy laughed and shrugged, moving ahead of her with the cart. She pushed it hard, jumping onto the bar at her shins and riding the cart several feet before she dropped to the concrete floor. “So what do we need?” she asked after Cade caught up, avoiding her previous question. Cade rolled her eyes again and shook her head, exasperated with Remy’s behavior. She’d never figure Remy out, and she suspected the younger woman and her need for danger and excitement were going to be the death of them all. She also suspected Remy was borderline certifiable.
“I think we should get behind the counter and see what ammo they’ve got left first,” Cade decided, pointing in that direction and doing her best to ignore the freaked-out feeling Remy gave her. “If any, of course. And then we should hit the camping section and grab anything that looks usable.”
“Sounds good. Lead the way, fearless one,” Remy joked. Cade shook her head and headed for the sales counter. Somewhere nearby, she could hear Nikola laughing. “So how are things with you and Brandt?” she asked with a mischievous air.
Cade was in the process of dragging a blue-and-silver metal ladder behind the counter. She paused in mid-movement to raise her eyebrow at Remy. “What?”
“How are things with you and Brandt?” Remy repeated.
Cade rolled her eyes again and finished pushing the ladder against the ammunition cases, unfolding it and climbing up several rungs. “There is no me and Brandt,” she grumbled, shining her flashlight through the glass-fronted cabinets to check out the merchandise. Thankfully, there was a sufficient amount left; this Walmart hadn’t been hit too hard, probably because it was in a reasonably rural area. “There’s just me, and then there’s Brandt.”
Ground Zero Page 12
