The Becoming by Jessica Meigs

frustration and let go of the radio’s tuner. “ Fuck, ” he snapped. “What the hell is going on? I can barely keep up with all this shit.”
    “It’s not just around here,” Cade said. “It sounds like it’s almost everywhere. Like it’s … I don’t know.” Cade rubbed her eyes with the heel of a hand and sighed. She dropped her hand as a thought occurred to her. “You don’t think that that virus has something to do with it, do you?” Cade vaguely remembered asking Ethan the question two nights before when they were on the phone, but in the hectic events that had followed the phone call, Cade had forgotten until this moment that she’d never gotten more than an “I don’t know” from him.
    “Virus?” Ethan repeated vacantly as he turned his eyes back onto the map. “What virus?”
    “The illness that was going around Atlanta,” Cade clarified. “You remember? The one you were asking me about that was in the newspaper. The one the hospitals are having so many problems treating.”
    Ethan sat quiet in thought for a moment before he acknowledged, “It sort of makes sense. But at the same time, it doesn’t. I mean, what kind of virus would make people act like that? ” Ethan jabbed his finger in the direction of the in-dash radio. Cade couldn’t help but agree with him.
    “I’ve never heard of one,” Cade admitted. She glanced at him again. “I don’t think a virus like that exists.”
    “But something exists,” Ethan pointed out. He looked out the window. “ Something is making these people crazy. Something is causing all these riots and murders. And I don’t think that that something is anything that’s been seen before.”
    “I don’t think it is either,” Cade said. She looked in the rearview mirror to check on Lisa and saw, to her surprise, that the other woman was sitting up in the back seat, her dark eyes watching Cade with a steady gaze. “Hey, Lisa. You feel any better?”
    Lisa didn’t reply. She simply continued to sit oddly upright and stare at Cade with a strange look in her eyes. “Lisa?” Cade asked.
    Ethan twisted around in his seat to look at the silent woman. As Cade looked forward out the windshield again, Lisa lunged forward from her seat, a horribly familiar almost-snarl erupting from her throat. An image of Andrew flashed through Cade’s mind. She started to turn her head, but Lisa’s arm hooked around her throat, stopping the motion. Cade let out a strangled cry as her head was jerked back hard against the headrest of her seat. Lisa’s forearm pressed down against her throat, cutting off her breath.
    Cade instinctively grabbed Lisa’s arm with both hands. She pulled desperately at Lisa’s arm as fingernails dug into the back of her neck. The Jeep swerved violently. Cade was forced to let go of Lisa’s arm with one hand to grab the steering wheel and get the car back in control. Cade managed to wedge her fingers between her throat and Lisa’s arm and push the limb away enough to gasp out, “Ethan, stop her.”
    Ethan sat in the passenger seat, eyes wide, in shock at Lisa’s sudden attack. Cade’s words were all he needed to prompt him into action. Ethan grabbed Lisa’s arm and tried to pull her away from Cade. He pried at her elbow and wrist with both hands and pulled with nearly all his strength. But he was unable to dislodge her grip. Cade opened her mouth and tried to suck air into her lungs as her head swam. She clawed Lisa’s skin as Lisa’s nails dug more firmly into the back of her neck. Cade’s skin broke with a sharp stab of pain.
    Cade took her foot off the gas as Ethan hauled on Lisa’s arm again. The pressure on Cade’s throat eased slightly. Taking the opportunity, Cade slammed both feet down on the brake pedal. Everyone in the car lurched forward. Lisa slammed into the back of Cade’s seat with the action, and her grip loosened enough for Cade to take a single deep, precious breath. Ethan yanked on Lisa’s arm again as her grip