The Becoming: Revelations

by Jessica Meigs

  Remy nodded and started to pack away her own belongings. When she reached Gray’s bag, though, she paused and rested her hand against its outside with an expression so sad that Brandt’s heart ached for her. He knelt and caught her face in his hands, making her look at him.

  “Look, Remy, I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick today,” he said softly. Her eyes shone, and he stroked his thumbs gently over her cheekbones, hoping she wouldn’t start crying on him now. “It’s been a long few days, and I’m just … I’m overwhelmed. I’m taking it out on you, and that’s not okay.” He pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead before wrapping her in a tight hug. “I’m sorry,” he said, letting out a heavy sigh into her hair.

  “I am too,” she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. “I’ve been a bitch today. No reason I should’ve been snapping at you like that.”

  Brandt smiled and squeezed her once more before letting go. “Get some rest, okay? I’ll be at the end of the hall if you need anything.”

  Remy gave him a short nod, and Brandt rose to his feet again. He started back down the hall, retreating to the darkness to sit and wait and worry about what the future might hold for them.

  Chapter 44

  For the second time in recent memory, Ethan was awakened before sunrise and dragged into a planning session in which he wanted no part. He and Cade had stayed up late into the night, first talking about her pregnancy and the events of the past month, and then just lying silently on the bed before finally passing out from sheer exhaustion three hours before Isaac Wright knocked on the door to wake them up. Ethan hadn’t even been offered the luxury of coffee to help him wake up. His brain felt like it was knocking on his skull, insisting on being let out so it could go back to bed. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced them back open, struggling to focus on the map of Atlanta spread out on the dining table in front of the five people surrounding it. He glanced at Cade and gave her an uneasy smile.

  Cade didn’t look like she’d fared any better than Ethan in the sleep department. She propped herself against the table, the heels of her hands braced against it, fingers hooked around the edge, her elbows locked in place. Her dark hair was disheveled, loose around her shoulders and tumbling in waves and loops down her back. Ethan thought it strange to see her without her hair pulled away from her face. It gave the woman an unusually soft look, offset only by the paleness of her skin and the dark circles under her eyes. She pushed her hair back over her shoulders and barely looked at him. All of her attention was focused on the two brothers at the end of the table, arguing between themselves as she, Ethan, and Kimberly waited for the meeting to get truly started.

  “We can’t go after all those people, okay?” Isaac said in a low voice, his eyes focused solely on Derek. “You said there are over a hundred and fifty people in there. Where in the world am I supposed to put them? How am I supposed to feed them? Help them protect themselves? We barely have enough supplies for the thirty-four people who are here right now. I can’t take on one hundred and fifty more.”

  “But we have to do something,” Derek protested. “We can’t just leave them there. There are completely defenseless women and children and the elder—”

  “Children?” Cade interrupted, her interest piqued. “There are children there?”

  “There are about forty, ranging in age from infant to eighteen,” Ethan confirmed. “They’re generally kept on the seventeenth floor. I’m not sure why Alicia insisted on separating the kids from the rest of their families, but that’s what she did.”

  “I don’t know why either,” Derek admitted. “But we can’t just leave them there. If we’re going to go through with the plan to get those people away from Alicia, we can’t just capture or kill her and then walk away. If we’re going to save them, then we actually have to save them, not just leave them to fend for themselves.”

  “I agree with that,” Isaac conceded. “But we can’t bring them here. There’s no room.”

  “Then why don’t we take the thirty-four people we’ve got here to there once the dust settles?” Cade suggested. All eyes turned to her. “It makes sense, right? I mean, the Westin has, what, over seventy floors? That’s more space than we could ever possibly need. And though we don’t know what the food situation is actually like there—”

  “Passable,” Ethan said. “There’s enough food for everyone for a month at any given point in time, assuming good rations are kept.”

  Cade, thankfully, didn’t ask how he knew that information. “Okay, so the food situation is decent. All the more reason why we should take the people from here there.” She glanced at Ethan and gave him a tight smile before continuing. “Really, though, all the stuff you two are bickering about is inconsequential right now,” she said. “It can wait. The more urgent planning should be focused on what we’re going to do about Alicia Day and how we’re going to do it.”

  “And, for that matter, how we’re going to get to her,” Kimberly agreed.

  “We should sneak in, obviously,” Isaac said, his attention finally drawn away from his brother and to the map in front of him. Ethan was grateful the dispute had been set aside for the moment; the last thing he wanted to put up with was their planning session getting derailed by a bunch of brotherly bickering. “What can you tell me about the entrances into the tower?”

  “Most of the entrances are sealed off,” Ethan answered. “I only know of the one entrance that Kimberly and Derek took me through when we broke out of there.”

  “There are two entrances,” Kimberly corrected. “One of them is a little more accessible than the other. One of them drops off onto the street level right outside the Westin, and the other takes you into AmericasMart across the street. I think we can discount it, though. I’m sure it will be heavily guarded by now.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Cade said with a slow shake of her head. “That’s like locking the barn door after the horse has already run out. They might guard it, but not heavily. They have no reason to think you’d have any desire to come back.”

  “If it was me, I’d guard the hell out of the door,” Kimberly countered.

  Cade let out an explosive breath. “You’re not thinking right,” she protested. “You’re not thinking like her. Alicia Day is military, as far as my understanding goes. Therefore, she thinks like she’s in the military. She wouldn’t strategize the same way you do, wouldn’t do things the same way you would.” She pulled her hair back from her face, twisting it into a ponytail and holding it with her hand. Ethan smiled. There was the Cade he knew, attitude and all. “Quite frankly, it’s simple. So simple I’m amazed none of you have seen it yet. Considering she’s military, she’d think we would sneak in, that we’d organize a covert operation to get inside the Westin. I say we blow the fucking doors in and go in with guns blazing.”

  “Element of surprise,” Ethan said with a slow nod.

  “Wait, blow the fucking doors in?” Kimberly repeated. “How the hell do you propose we do that? It’s not like we’ve got any bombs or grenades or anything just lying around waiting for us to pick them up.”

  “I’m sure there are grenades lying around in the military trucks all over this damned city,” Cade argued.

  “Not if Alicia and her people have gotten to them first!”

  “Ladies, please, please stop with the bickering,” Ethan pleaded. He held both hands up as he begged for the two women to chill out before the arguing derailed the conversation again. He turned to Cade, who looked only mildly irritated at Kimberly, and said, “Cade, you’ve been around Brandt more than anybody else other than me, right?”

  “Right,” Cade confirmed.

  “Okay, so remember that bomb he built in Maplesville for the staircase? The one he showed you how to work and how it was assembled?”

  “Of course I do,” Cade said. “How could I possibly forget it?”

  “Think you can make something based off that?”

  Cade frowned. “If I had the materials, I might be able to co
me up with something, but there are no guarantees. I’m a sniper, and I’m not trained like Brandt is. It shouldn’t be too hard, though, right?”

  “Theoretically,” Derek muttered. He tore a piece of paper from one of his spiral notebooks and passed it to Cade. “Write down what you need. I’ll see if I can convince Isaac to send people out for it.”

  “So since you seem to know so much,” Kimberly said, not looking at Cade, “how do you propose we kill Alicia?”

  “Kim,” Ethan said, softly but firmly. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, half in warning, half in reassurance, before dropping it.

  “We shoot the shit out of her,” Cade said promptly. “What would be even better is if we can find a way to lure her out of the Westin, and then I could snipe her from one of the buildings nearby. I can’t count on us being able to do that, though. So put me out in front, get me in there, and I’ll drop her.”

  “Thus relegating the rest of us to, what, backup duty? Guard duty? Bomb squad?” Kimberly asked in exasperation. “She killed my sister! I want to get my fucking gun in her face too!”

  Cade turned on her, fists clenched at her sides. “Do you have any experience whatsoever in urban combat?”

  Kimberly was forced to shake her head, conceding Cade’s point even as she moved closer to the table, as if she were ready to face the Israeli woman down. Ethan had no doubt that would be a bad move.

  “Exactly. And I do,” Cade said. “I was fucking trained for this kind of shit.”

  “So? I’m perfectly capable of pulling the trigger on a fucking gun!” Kimberly exploded. She started around the table, and Ethan followed her, catching the woman by the arm to keep her from going after Cade. “I’m just as capable as you of shooting a person in the fucking head!”

  “You’ll only get in the way,” Cade muttered. She picked up Derek’s pen and began to write on the paper, her forehead scrunching in thought as she made her list of supplies.

  “Get in the way? Get in the way?” Despite Ethan’s attempts to hold her back, Kimberly broke loose and darted to Cade. She pushed the other woman away from the table and goaded her back toward the kitchen counter. “What are you saying? Huh? That you’re the only person who’s allowed to have a little vengeance? That you’re the only one capable of taking her out?”

  “I’m saying that I’m trying to save your life,” Cade snapped. She pushed Kimberly away and held her at arm’s length. “I don’t want anybody slowing me down, because I want to get in there, deal with her, and then get the fuck out of there with minimal loss of life.”

  “Nobody is getting shot!” Derek suddenly exploded. He threw his arms out to his sides, palms out, as if signaling for everyone to stop and shut up. “Not if I can help it! We’re not going in there to kill her, not unless it’s absolutely necessary! We’re going in there to try to convince her to just stop. And maybe to help us. That’s it.”

  “And that is good enough for me,” Isaac said. His voice was enough to break into the staring match between Cade and Kimberly. Kimberly looked away, her eyes traveling first to Isaac and then to Derek. The doctor gave her a short nod, and she backed away from Cade, going to him with a chagrined look on her face.

  A long, heavy silence hung over them all, settling over their heads like a wet, suffocating blanket. Tension snapped and crackled in the room. Ethan drew in a deep breath and let it out, trying to dispel the odd, uncomfortable sensation it gave him, and finally spoke. “We should do this as soon as possible,” he said. “The sooner the better, because the longer we wait, the longer those one hundred and fifty people we’re doing this for are under Alicia’s control and the longer she’s got to search for Brandt. The thought sits badly with me.”

  “Yet another thing I can get behind,” Isaac agreed. Cade moved to the table and scratched down a few more things on her list before holding the paper out to him.

  “This is what I need, and I need it fast,” she said. “Some of it might already be around here. But it’d save a lot of time if you would send some of your people out to search around the trucks and find a grenade or two.” She grinned and winked at Isaac. “I’d definitely prefer a grenade. They’re much more satisfying and a lot less risky than a homemade bomb, especially since I’m more confident in how to use one of those.”

  “We’ll see what we can do,” Isaac promised. He folded the paper and slipped it into the back pocket of his jeans. “We should come up with a Plan B though, just in case we can’t find all the supplies you’re asking for.”

  Cade nodded in agreement. “Sure, but can we do it later? I’m exhausted, and I’m pretty sure Ethan and I need more rest before we charge in and blow the bitch’s world to hell.”

  Ethan snorted. “I do love it when you talk tough, Cade. Makes me think of when we used to go out to the shooting range and you’d get pissed because you missed the target.”

  Cade smirked. “Ethan, my dear, sweet big brother,” she drawled out, draping her arm over his shoulders and pulling him closer. “When will you learn that I never miss?”

  Chapter 45

  Watching Brandt work his military-style magic had been something Remy found absolutely fascinating. She’d never known anyone in the military before and had never seen a military-trained person do his thing—except for in the movies, of course. As Brandt made his way along the street, rifle in hand, eyes locked to their surroundings, he’d seemed like a whole different person. He’d led her through the tangled mess of traffic jams and garbage left behind the year before by the fleeing hordes of uninfected before the tide of the Michaluk virus. Remy was sure she’d caught a few glimpses of corpses in cars here and there; she’d quickly decided she didn’t want to think about what she had or hadn’t seen.

  Brandt had snaked through the wreckage like a fox, sliding over cars with the ease of someone who did it every day, his every move almost silent. Remy had been impressed with the dexterity he’d displayed in swinging up into the back of a military cargo truck at one of the city’s many roadblocks, emerging minutes later with a spare magazine of ammunition for his M-4 Carbine and three grenades. Remy was sure the grenades would prove to be something she’d regret him finding.

  Now, though, they sat on the rooftop of what Remy believed was a hotel, the morning sun shining down from a partially overcast sky as she sorted through the supplies in her and Gray’s bags. Brandt lay low on the roof, his elbows resting on the ledge surrounding the edge, a pair of binoculars pressed to his eyes as he studied the street running along the front of the Westin tower.

  As she sorted the supplies into different piles, Remy glanced up at the skyscraper. It was perfectly round, and the sun reflected off the glass panes, making her eyes water in the brightness of the light. The building was larger than she’d imagined, so tall that if she tilted her head back to look at the top, she’d get dizzy. Despite the vertigo the building’s appearance gave her, Remy’s eyes were continually drawn to it, scanning up its sleek sides to the very top before quickly averting when her world began to spin. Brandt didn’t seem bothered by it; even through binoculars, he’d look up the tower’s sides and back down again, unfazed by the height. His lack of vertigo was enough to make Remy sort of jealous.

  “Why exactly would a group of people choose to live in such a tall tower, anyway?” Remy asked, pulling a white t-shirt free from Gray’s bag. She shook it out and held it up to see how big it was and caught a faint whiff of Gray’s scent on the fabric, a scent that made a new wave of sadness wash over her. The shirt flapped in a sudden gust of wind, drawing Brandt’s attention to her.

  “Put that damn thing down!” he snapped. His tone was vicious as he yanked the shirt from her hands and slammed it onto the rooftop. “Are you trying to get us caught or something?”

  “No,” Remy snapped. She scooped the shirt up and twisted it into a tight roll, continuing her line of thought from the moment before and ignoring Brandt’s ire. “That place is huge. Why would you need something that big anyway? I mean, God, think
of all the stairs.”

  “Good Lord, I don’t want to,” Brandt admitted. He focused his attention back to the street in front of the skyscraper. “There’s a high chance we’ll be stuck climbing a good bit of them to hunt down Alicia. There’s no telling where she’s hiding in that damn place. Are you up for that?”

  “Do I have a choice?” Remy pointed out. She slid the shirt into the bottom of her bag and started on the pile of medical supplies. It and the ammunition pile were by far the smallest; the medical supplies in particular looked almost forlorn. The lack of adequate supplies made Remy uncomfortable as she thought of all that could happen to them, but she pushed those thoughts aside and began to stuff what little they did have into her bag.

  “Good point,” Brandt acknowledged. He turned his head and used his finger to adjust the focus on the binoculars. Remy finished packing her bag, putting the items she’d decided to not keep into Gray’s bag and setting it aside. She slung her own bag onto her back and crawled down the roof to join Brandt at the edge.

  “You seen anything interesting?” Remy asked. She tightened her ponytail and inched closer to the edge to peer over.

  “A couple of stray cats,” Brandt muttered. “That’s about it. There’s absolutely no movement down there. Not a person in sight, infected or uninfected. No guards, almost no animals, nothing.” Brandt lowered the binoculars. “There’s something wrong with this picture, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

  “Do you think Duct Tape Boy back at the safe house lied about Alicia’s location?” Remy proposed. She pulled a bottle of water free from her backpack and cracked it open, taking a long swallow and offering it to Brandt. He waved the bottle off and returned the binoculars to his eyes.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted in frustration. “I have no idea what to think about this. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t absolutely nothing.”