The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege by Jessica Meigs Read Free Book Online

slipped her hand into his. He glanced down, maneuvered
his hand, and laced his fingers through hers, grateful for that
little bit of additional assurance and support. She led him out the
front door.
    “You are in for a serious treat,” Kimberly
informed him. “I’ll show you the wall and all the different
security features we’ve been working on, and if he’s not busy, I’ll
introduce you to Keith Fenton. He’s the Captain of the Watch, which
is the group of guys who patrol the perimeter to make sure none of
the infected get in. He’s doing a great job; I’m really impressed
with how he’s stepped up to the plate.”
    Ethan felt a pang of jealousy at the way she
talked about the man, but he didn’t address those feelings. He put
a hand up to shield his watery eyes against the bright sunlight. He
blinked as they adjusted and tilted his head back toward the darker
interior of the medical house. Kimberly’s breath caught, and she
made a concerned noise.
    “I’m okay,” he assured her. “It’s just
brighter out here than I expected.”
    “I probably should have brought you out
later in the evening when the sun was setting,” she said, a note of
regret in her voice.
    “No, no, it’s fine,” Ethan said. “I just
needed a minute to get used to it, that’s all.” He blinked and
smiled at her. Then he looked out toward the rest of the community,
scanning his surroundings with curiosity. Across the street, the
front yards of a few houses had been commandeered for agriculture
and were tilled up into rows. Several men and women were tending to
the small sprouts that were edging up out of the dirt. A few
children chased each other down the road toward a courtyard near
the center of the community, where more children played around a
couple rows of vehicles. Uninfected people were everywhere; the
scene was so close to what had existed before that he felt
tightness in his chest and a surge of emotion well in his throat.
He swallowed it down and squeezed Kimberly’s hand again. “Come on,
let’s go,” he said. She smiled at him and led him slowly to the end
of the porch and down the stairs.
    “The main house is right next door,” she
said, pointing to the house in question. It was almost cookie
cutter, so similar to the medical house he was leaving that he
wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference if he’d just arrived
in Woodside. A quick scan of the other houses around them showed
reasonably uniform buildings, mostly brick two-story affairs with a
few white-painted ones. “Across the street are our experiments with
growing fruits and vegetables. We’re still trying to figure out
what will grow around here. The people who volunteered to handle
the growing live in the houses that the gardens are in front of.
Most everyone else is divided into the rest of the houses in small
groups, except for Dominic. He’s got his own house way out away
from everyone else, somewhere off that way.” She pointed into the
distance.
    Ethan couldn’t see the house in question
from where he stood.
    “I haven’t been out there. No idea what he
does when he’s there, but I figure that whatever it is, it’s his
business.”
    “Maybe someday soon, I’ll be strong enough
to go out there and see him,” Ethan speculated. They continued
across the grass to the house next door, their steps slow but
steady. “I still haven’t thanked him for everything he did in
Atlanta to help us.”
    “I don’t think anybody has,” Kimberly said.
“But I also don’t think Isaac’s people realize how much of a hand
he had in helping everyone get here. He’s on his own most of the
time. He hasn’t made much of an effort to get to know anyone,
either, but they haven’t returned that favor. I think it’s a mutual
dislike.” She paused and glanced at him with a slight smile and a
raised eyebrow. “Are you hungry?”
    Ethan hadn’t even realized his stomach was
growling until she asked. The thought of food set it off again,