“I know what it is,” he said, pointing in the direction they’d been walking. Fifty yards ahead of them, in one of the rare clearings in the mess of vehicles, stood a massive male lion, its huge mane framing its face. It stared down the road at them, so still that, for the barest of seconds, Remy thought she was looking at a statue. Then it shifted its weight, its muscles rippling under its tawny fur.
“Oh fuck,” Remy breathed, her brain scrambling to dredge up everything it had learned about lions from watching Animal Planet. The first thing that surfaced was how male lions never did the hunting, the females did. The males relaxed and waited for the females to bring home the bacon. She drew her Sig Sauer from its holster, gripping it in her right hand and her bolo knife in her left, wondering how much damage either weapon could do against what they were facing.
“Keep eyes all around us,” she said. “If the male is here, females might not be too far away.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than one of the feared female lions sprang from a nearby row of cars and launched itself right at Jude.
Chapter 19
The lioness had barely launched into the air when Sadie started moving. She grabbed Jude by his shirt and shoved him to the pavement, letting herself fall with him to land on her stomach beside him. The lioness was unable to correct her trajectory in mid-flight, and she slammed into the car alongside them. Her back claws snagged Sadie’s backpack, tearing it open and spilling ammunition, food, and arrows across the pavement.
The animal barely had time to recover before the others opened fire. This time, it was Jude’s turn to drag Sadie to safety. He hooked his left arm around her and hauled her sideways as he rolled, taking them both into the shelter underneath a Hostess snack truck. He kept rolling until he came out on the other side, and Sadie followed, her ears ringing from the sound of bullets pinging off the vehicles around them. Jude helped her to her feet, and she yanked a machete from its sheath on her belt, ready to start swinging as soon as she’d regained her footing.
She’d just steadied herself when Jude touched her arm and pointed down the row of cars they now found themselves on. There were at least ten infected making their way down the row, two abreast, drawn by the sound of gunfire, stumbling and tripping over each other in their haste to get to Sadie and Jude.
“Well, shit,” Sadie commented. She twirled her machete in her right hand and wished she had enough shells to use her shotgun, but it was only for last resort. “On the cars,” she said to Jude. “One on each side. We’ll take ‘em down like dominoes.”
Jude saluted and went left while she went right, and they climbed on top of their respective rows of cars. They started running, leaping from car to car, their boots making loud metallic thumps against the vehicles as they landed, careful to pace themselves against each other. When they reached the leading edge of the infected, they both swung their blades down simultaneously, hacking at the heads and necks of the first infected in the short line. The first two toppled to the pavement, and with two more steps, the twins had moved on to the next in line.
By the time she’d killed her second one, Sadie had fallen into a rhythm: a downward swing to partially crush the skull, then a forward swing to slice through the throat to the spine. When they fell, their necks would snap, severing or damaging their spinal cords so they’d be dead or incapacitated. When she reached the sixth in line and saw there were only three left, she redoubled her efforts, drawing the pistol out of her thigh holster, aiming it, and firing at one of the infected even as she swung down at a second with her machete. Both of them went down, and Jude took care of the last one.
When the last of the infected had fallen, Sadie turned her attention to the rest of their companions. The shooting had stopped. She moved to the side of the vehicle she stood on and dropped down to the pavement to check out what was going on.
The lioness lay on her side on the pavement not far from where she’d landed at the end of her lunge, peppered with bullet wounds and oozing blood that stained her blonde fur. Sadie felt a pang of sadness at the sight of the majestic animal lying slumped on the road, but it couldn’t be helped; they couldn’t outrun an animal like that, and killing it had been their only option. That didn’t stop her from feeling a distinct sense of guilt over it, though. As a big fan of animals in almost all their forms, the sight was difficult to take.
The male lion was gone. Maybe he’d run off when the bullets started flying.
“Everybody okay?” Cade called, and Sadie waited for Jude to join her before she started in the others’ direction.
“We’re fine,” Sadie told her as soon as she’d gotten to within earshot of the older woman. “Jude and I had to take care of some infected that were in the area.” It still felt weird to call them “the infected” after two years of referring to them as “zombies.” Since that was what the rest of the group called them, Sadie had figured it best to conform to prevent confusion. “Where did it come from?” she asked, nodding toward the dead beast on the ground.
“Maybe from the Atlanta zoo,” Dominic said. “We’re in Grant Park, and the zoo isn’t far from here.”
“Maybe we’ll run into a hippo while we’re out here,” Remy said with no small amount of sarcasm.
“This isn’t a joke, Remy,” Dominic replied. “The larger animals, the elephants and such, wouldn’t have been able to escape their pens unless they were intentionally released, but the predators would have had a fighting chance of it. We might be looking at leopards and tigers and other deadly creatures stalking the streets alongside the infected. We’ve already seen lions. It wouldn’t be a stretch for there to be other animals out here.”
That statement sobered the entire group, and they looked at each other, the uncertainty among them clear. Finally, Cade went to the lioness’s corpse, shoving it aside with visible difficulty and starting to gather Sadie’s arrows and ammunition from where they’d spilled out on the pavement. Sadie moved to help her, kneeling on the pavement and scooping up several arrows, stuffing them haphazardly into the remains of her backpack.
“We’ll get you a new backpack as soon as we find a place that might have some,” Cade said, handing her several more arrows.
“Thanks,” Sadie said. “Can it be the same kind of place I might find a good quiver for these arrows?”
“We’ll do our best.”
After they’d finished gathering Sadie’s spilled supplies, Cade stood and dusted her hands against the thighs of her jeans. “Let’s go,” she urged. “The longer we delay here, the higher the chance that something will happen to Brandt. I don’t want to find out he died while we were lollygagging in Atlanta.”
The group started to move down the road again, on higher alert than they’d been before.
Sadie murmured to Jude, “Did it seem like we were lollygagging to you?”
“Not at all,” Jude signed. “She’s a very angry person right now, though, so I don’t think we should be too bothered with anything she says.”
Sadie nodded, but she was annoyed by the woman’s borderline insults. They were all trying to do the best they could, and the only thing Cade had done was snap at them rather than thank them for their help. It was maddening.
“Don’t let it bother you,” Jude signed when she didn’t respond. “It will all be fine. I hope.”
Unable to do anything else, Sadie nodded again, deciding to take Jude’s advice and focus on their survival rather than on Cade’s anger.
Chapter 20
“I told them it wasn’t a good idea, but no one ever listens to me,” Lindsey complained after she’d clocked in for her shift in the labs the following evening. She’d slumped into her desk chair with such despondency that Jacob had left his lab, changed out of his biochem suit and deconned, and came into the office to see what was wrong. He hadn’t come over the night before like they’d planned, so she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to vent like she’d wanted to. As a result, her uncertainties over Evans’s mental state and her
irritability over Bradford not listening to a word she’d said had stewed inside her, threatening to burst out at the least opportune moment.
“I take it they took him up to see the Wall?” Jacob asked, rolling his desk chair over and sitting down in it, so close that their knees were almost touching.
“Yep, and it went about as well as I expected, which is to say, it didn’t.” Lindsey shook her head. “That poor man. He had no idea what hit him. It must be awful to realize that the help you thought was coming had written you off a long time ago.”
Jacob shifted in his chair, the wheels grinding on the floor as he scooted a few inches closer to her. “This got anything to do with your sister and your daughter?” he asked, a knowing look in his hazel eyes. “Because I can feel your bitterness all the way over here.”
Lindsey slumped over sideways so she could rest her elbow against her desk and her head on her hand. “Can you keep a secret?” she asked, her eyes flickering toward the camera in the corner of the room.
“Yeah, sure, of course,” Jacob said, raising an eyebrow. “Have I ever not kept one of your secrets?”
“Good point.” Lindsey hesitated, eyeing the camera again and shifting forward so she leaned closer to him. She murmured, almost imperceptibly, “I think the prisoner knows my sister.”
“What makes you say that?” Jacob asked, just as quietly.
“Because when they brought him in and I went to help with his medical assessment, he called me Cade,” Lindsey said. “What would make him think to call me that name if he didn’t know her? It’s not like Cade is all that common a name, especially for a woman.”
“If he knows your sister, what of it?” Jacob asked. “It’s not like he can take you to her. He’s locked up in here.”
“It means she’s alive, Jacob,” Lindsey said fervently. “It means she made it this far, because he didn’t hesitate to think I was Cade. If she were dead, he wouldn’t have called me that, because he’d have known she was dead.”
Jacob stared at her like he was trying to read her mind, and she could only imagine what he was thinking. Finally, after letting out a long, heavy sigh, he asked, “You want to break him out, don’t you?”
“Am I that transparent?” Lindsey asked.
“Why?”
“I want him to take me to Cade,” she said. “And before you ask, no, I don’t think he’s a threat. At least not to me.”
Jacob cocked his head to the side, studying her closely. “What’s your plan? I assume you have one?”
Lindsey let out a sigh to rival his. “Not yet. I’m still working on it.”
“It will probably be impossible,” Jacob warned. “Everyone has to submit to a test to get out of the facility. You can’t slip him past that.”
“I’ll figure something out,” Lindsey said. “I just have to think unconventionally. You’re not going to report me for thinking about this, are you?”
“To the fucking Gestapo? Hell no,” Jacob said with a snort. He was referring to the new division of government-run special police forces that were used to enforce the viability of the Wall, the population’s mandatory blood tests, and the illusion that those on the wrong side of the Wall were all infected. Anyone who heard someone talking about going to the south side of the Wall or letting someone through the Wall was supposed to report that person immediately. Jacob refusing to do so could get him into just as much trouble as Lindsey could for what she wanted to do. If there was anything Jacob hated, it was the special police, and he spoke derisively of them at any opportunity he had. For him to go against their requirements shouldn’t have been a surprise to Lindsey, but she still couldn’t deny the stir of thankfulness mixed with surprise that she felt in her stomach.
“Thank you,” she said, taking his hand and giving it a gentle, grateful squeeze.
“You’re welcome,” he said, returning her squeeze. “What do you say we get some work done today, and you think over what you want to do about this whole mess? When we get off work later, we can go out to get a bite to eat and maybe talk it over.”
“In public?” Lindsey asked. “Surely, you jest.”
“Of course not,” Jacob said. “I was thinking we could get something to go and take it to my place.”
“Will this count as that dinner I promised you?”
“Nope! That requires dressing up. I’m not taking you out to dinner in scrubs, of all things.”
“What’s wrong with scrubs?” Lindsey asked. She got up from the desk chair to gather what she needed to put on her biochem suit. “They’re stylish and pretty! Look, mine have flowers on them!” She held out an arm to show him the pattern of tiny flowers that dotted the fabric of her scrubs top.
Jacob laughed, but before he could respond, the lab’s door swung open, and a soldier that Lindsey didn’t recognize stuck his head inside. “Excuse me, I’m looking for a Dr. Alton?” he said.
“That’s me,” Lindsay said. “Can I help you?” A dart of fear rocked through her gut, despite the calm demeanor she plastered on her face. Had they found out what she’d said to Jacob about breaking Evans out of the facility’s lockup?
“Major Bradford requested that you go to the prisoner’s quarters and examine his physical and psychological health,” the soldier said.
“Is something wrong with him?” Lindsey asked, setting the clipboard she’d picked up back on her desk and gathering her medical supplies instead.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him,” the soldier said. “I’ve only been told to take you to him.”
Lindsey rooted through her bag, making sure she had everything she might need, then slung it onto her shoulder and gestured for the soldier to lead the way. She glanced back at Jacob, whose expression was far into the category of worried, smiled at him reassuringly. “I’ll be right back.” She stepped out into the hallway to follow the soldier to the prisoner’s quarters.
Lindsey hadn’t seen the inside of Evans’ prison cell since he’d first gotten there and had been deposited inside it, and the dank chill that wafted out of the room when the soldier opened the door surprised her. She took an involuntary step back and forced herself forward, shivering when she entered the concrete cell, her bag clutched in her right hand.
Brandt was sprawled across his bare cot. His breathing appeared steady from where Lindsey stood, but his skin looked pale, like he were sick or about to be sick. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his skin, at odds with the awful chill in the room, and Lindsey frowned in concern and knelt beside his cot.
The cell’s door clanged shut behind her, and she looked in its direction. One of the soldiers was staring at her through the small window inset in the door. Otherwise, they’d left her alone in the room with Brandt.
“Lieutenant Evans?” She pressed her fingers against his wrist, checking his pulse rate. It was faster than she’d expected, and she set her bag on the floor and unzipped it to find her stethoscope. She slipped the earbuds into her ears and leaned over him, pressing the cool disk to his chest over his thin t-shirt, listening to his breathing and the rhythm of his heart.
One of Brandt’s hands darted from his side and clasped her wrist. He held it, not tightly, just firmly enough that she wouldn’t be able to pull away without effort. Lindsey squeaked involuntarily, muffling it at the last second, casting a quick glance to the door before returning her eyes to Brandt’s face. His dark brown eyes had fluttered open a crack, enough for her to tell that he was awake. She wondered if he’d been faking the unconsciousness and for how long he’d been doing it.
She leaned closer, the cup of the stethoscope still against his chest, and whispered, “Lieutenant Evans, I don’t know if you remember me or—”
“Lindsey,” he interrupted, his voice hoarse.
“Yeah, I’m Lindsey,” she confirmed. “Lindsey Alton.”
“Cade’s sister,” Brandt said.
“You know Cade?” Lindsey asked. “Cade Alton?”
Brandt nodded and shifted on the cot, as if he we
re uncomfortable and trying to ease sore muscles.
“Cade Evans now,” he mumbled, and Lindsey’s heart leaped at the revelation. “We got married…oh hell, three months ago?” His eyes brightened with the thought of her, then clouded over with resignation and sadness.
“She’s not…she isn’t dead, is she?” Lindsey asked, scared to hear the answer.
“I don’t know,” Brandt answered. “She was in Woodside. I don’t know if she made it out before they dropped that bomb you said they dropped. She’s very, very pregnant. I don’t know how far she could have gotten with the baby to contend with.”
“Oh hell,” Lindsey breathed, shocked to find out that her sister, a woman who’d been adamant that she’d never get married or have children of her own, was not only married, but pregnant as well.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” Brandt replied. “I’ve got to find her. I can’t stay here not knowing whether or not she’s alive.” He let out a soft snort and muttered, “Now I guess I know how Ethan felt after his wife died in Memphis.”
“Who’s Ethan?” Lindsey asked, dropping the stethoscope into her medical bag and digging inside it. She had no idea what she was looking for; she was just wasting time until the soldiers said her time with the prisoner was up.
“He’s… I guess he’s my best friend after Cade,” Brandt said. “He and Cade are the two I’ve been surviving with the longest, almost since day one.”
Lindsey dug her blood pressure cuff from her bag and wrapped it around his bicep. It was pleasantly muscular, like he’d taken pains to keep himself toned and strong. “What about Josephine?” she asked, scared of the answer but desperate to know regardless.
Brandt shifted again, his hand catching hers and squeezing gently. “I’m sorry,” he said. “As far as I understand, she didn’t make it.” Lindsey’s heart sank and tears sprang to her eyes. “Cade won’t talk about it,” he said. “I met her two days after Memphis fell, and Josephine wasn’t with her then. She never did tell me what happened.”
The Becoming: Redemption (The Becoming Series Book 5) Page 12
