“What? Wait—”
Keo didn’t wait. He spurred the Morgan, and they were pounding up the valley along the dirt road a second later.
“Keo!” Bunker shouted from behind him.
Keo didn’t stop or look back. He had to get back to the ranch.
Back to Lara.
Because it knew about them.
The fucker knew everything about them!
Three
Bunker’s ranch was situated in a valley about two miles from Longmire, surrounded by sloping hills that provided it with plenty of natural camouflage. A huge connected fence circled the property, though Bunker could have added even more acres if he’d wanted to. He didn’t, because there was no point. Not anymore. Land ownership didn’t mean a damn thing if you couldn’t hold it with a gun these days. Besides, there was no one around to stake their claims.
Besides the main house, there was a barn on the right side and a half dozen more buildings for supplies and various storage needs. The biggest structure of the group was the stables, fifty yards and to the left of the house, where Bunker’s horses were kept day and night. There was a water tank resting on a tower in the back, its rocket-like shape mostly hidden by the big two-story house at the front of the property.
He found Lara where he expected to find her—waiting for him at the big double doors of the main house, shielding her eyes against the sun as he pulled up on Annabelle. She looked tiny against the house, which was spread out to encompass the square footage of two bungalows put together. The exterior was white, with a brown roof and Ionic columns out front. Glass windows from the two rooms on the top floor reflected sunlight back at Keo. Each window, like the ones on the first, had protective metal slats that could be pulled into place in case of an attack. Keo had been glad to have those before, but even more so now.
The house had sharp edges all around and was more modern and contemporary than classical. With the exception of a few touches here and there, the overall look was very much something you’d find in a traditional working ranch, with extra additions to help it brave the new world.
Keo wasn’t surprised Lara was already outside and waiting for him. He’d already radioed back to the house earlier to make sure she was fine. They all carried two-ways on them, including Bunker, but you couldn’t always count on them with so many hills in the area to block the signals.
“What’s wrong? You sounded worried,” Lara said as he jumped off the Morgan. “What happened at Longmire?”
“It’s gone,” Keo said.
“Gone? Gone how?”
“Gone. They burned it to the ground last night.”
“Oh, God. There were eighty-two people in that town, Keo.”
Eighty-three, according to Bunker, Keo thought but didn’t say. He didn’t want to mention the recent addition of a newborn because he was afraid of how that might affect her. He probably didn’t have to worry. Lara was the toughest woman he knew, but he didn’t feel like taking a chance.
Besides the gun belt—a new addition since this morning—she was wearing slacks and a sweater for the chilly weather, and had her long hair in a ponytail. Despite being four months into her pregnancy, it was still hard to tell she was with child just by looking at her. Her stomach wasn’t that big, but it would get bigger in the coming months.
“Last night’s fire,” Lara said.
He nodded. “There wasn’t very much left when we got there. I don’t know what they used to set the blaze, but they did a pretty damn good job on the place.”
“You keep saying ‘they.’ Who is ‘they,’ Keo?”
“Ghouls, led by the same Blue Eyes that I fought in Paxton. It survived Felix’s C4.”
Lara’s body tensed noticeably. “You’re sure?”
“We ran into a wagon with a woman on the way back here. Bunker’s on his way back with her.” Keo took out the pacifier. “She gave me this.”
Lara’s eyes widened at the sight of the baby toy. Maybe she might have even noticed the specks of blood on the plastic nipple. “Is that a pacifier?”
“Yeah. The woman said it told her to give it to me. It mentioned me by name, Lara. That’s how I know it’s here, that it was responsible for Longmire last night.”
Lara picked up the pacifier with trembling fingers. “Is that blood?”
“I think so.”
“God, Keo.” She stared at the object in her hand, almost as if she weren’t sure how it had gotten there. Lara looked up at him. “It’s coming here next, isn’t it?”
He nodded somberly. “Longmire was a message.”
“Why? Why not just attack us last night? Why even bother with Longmire at all if it knows about you? About us?” she added, even as she put a hand over her stomach. Keo didn’t think she was even aware she had done that.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe it needs to make more ghouls, but…”
“But what? You know, don’t you?”
He sighed. “It’s part of a game. It wants me to know it’s coming. It gets off on messing with people’s heads. Back in Paxton, it made up ridiculous scenarios just to fuck with us. This is its MO.”
Lara looked past him, and Keo turned around.
Bunker had returned on Lucille, riding through the front gate, with the wagon and the woman on it following closely behind.
“That’s her?” Lara asked.
“Yeah,” Keo said.
“Where did she come from?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to question her.”
Lara reached over and took his hand, and squeezed. “We’ll be okay. All of us. If that thing comes here, we’ll kill it. We know how to do it. All it’ll take is a bullet to the head. What makes this one so different?”
Keo pursed a smile, but he thought, It’s different, Lara. This one is different.
They both looked over again as Bunker pulled up in front of them. The woman was still just halfway across the property behind him, her wagon moving slowly over the curving dirt road that led from the front gate all the way to the main house.
The rancher climbed off Lucille and took off his Stetson to run his gloved fingers through his hair. He glanced back at the approaching woman. “Invited her to stay with us. She looked like she could use some home cooking. Hope you guys don’t mind.”
“It’s your place, Bunker,” Lara said.
“So what’s the real reason you invited her back here?” Keo asked.
Bunker grinned. “Figured we should find out where she came from, what happened to her, and all that good stuff.” He nodded at the pacifier in Lara’s hand. “And how she ended up with that little gift for you.”
That reminded Lara she was still holding the pacifier, and she handed it back to Keo. He put it into his pocket. His instincts were to throw it as far away as he could, but that didn’t seem like the correct thing to do at the moment. He made a mental note to do exactly that, though, but at a later date.
“So it’s definitely the same one from Paxton,” Bunker said.
Keo nodded. “Yeah, it’s the same one.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Why? Were you hoping it was another blue-eyed ghoul?”
“Nah. I was hoping it wasn’t a blue-eyed ghoul at all, but given what happened to Longmire, that was probably wishful thinking. The Black Eyes aren’t usually that tactical when they descend on a place.”
Keo looked past him and at the woman riding up to them on the wagon. Her face remained as unreadable now as it’d been when they’d met on the road.
“What’s her name?” Lara was asking Bunker.
“Thuy,” Bunker said.
“Thuy?” Keo said.
“That’s what she said.”
“So she’s Vietnamese.”
“She sounded American to me.”
“I mean, she’s of Vietnamese ancestry, Bunker. I’m pretty sure she’s as American as you and me.”
Bunker lifted both eyebrows at him. “You’re American?”
&nb
sp; “You didn’t know that?”
The rancher shrugged. “I always assumed you were a filthy illegal taking advantage of our great union for your own selfish benefits.”
“Thanks for that, Bunker.”
“You know me. Always making Texas great again.”
Things were going to get dicey when night fell, but that was still eight hours away.
“Dicey?” You think this is going to get dicey?
Yeah, it’s gonna get worse than that, pal.
Keo spent the remaining daylight cataloguing what he had at the ranch and how best to use it. The good news was that Bunker had had a lot of time to fortify the place. The rancher had been using the property as his Eden since The Purge, and he’d only added to the defenses since. That was the good news. The bad news was that the main house was easily defensible against black-eyed ghouls. The Blue Eyes were a different breed—and brought with them a whole different set of dangers—entirely.
Meanwhile, Lara helped Thuy settle into one of the spare rooms on the second floor. Like most people Keo had encountered out there, Thuy looked older than her age. Lara hadn’t said it, but Keo knew she’d be interrogating the newcomer for details while not giving away she was doing so. She was very good at that, among many other things.
It turned out the lump of “something” Bunker had spotted in the back of the wagon wasn’t a second hidden person but clothing and food, half of which was already on the verge of expiring. They threw most of it away and kept the rest, not that they needed it. The ranch was stocked with plenty of food for them and the horses. Too much, actually, and there was even more that they never touched and kept for emergencies.
Emergencies, like the upcoming nights.
Keo had no illusions that things were going to be as easy as shooting a blue-eyed ghoul in the head. Not that he let Lara know his doubts. She was easily the most mentally tough woman he knew, but she was also four months pregnant. Right now, he wanted to be the rock that she needed and deserved, and if that meant pretending he had everything taken care of, then so be it. He just considered it another little white lie, though if he were being honest with himself, it was probably yet another one that she probably saw through without even trying, even if she didn’t call him on it.
Maybe, just maybe, she wanted to believe that things would work out, too.
I guess maybe we’re both putting on Captain Optimism’s cape a lot these days.
He wondered if their impending parenthood had something to do with that. Maybe. How long they could keep it up, though, was going to depend a lot on what happened in the next few nights. Or, at least, he hoped it was going to come down to the next few nights. If this thing went longer than that…
One night at a time, pal.
One night at a time…
Keo was still inventorying their weapons and supplies in the ammo room, located near the back of the house, when Lara knocked on the door.
He looked up from a bench covered in guns and bullets. “What did you find out?”
Lara walked over. “She and her friends—seven of them—were camped in a park about five miles from here, three nights ago, when it attacked. When it was over, Thuy was the only one left. She didn’t understand why until it told her, last night, to head over in this direction with that pacifier. And to ask for you. You were right, Keo. It knows where we are. It told her exactly where to find us.”
Keo nodded and pursed his lips. He didn’t know what he was hoping to hear, but the confirmation from Lara on his worst fears felt a little anticlimactic.
“You want to know how it relayed all this information to her?” Lara asked.
The hows of it hadn’t occurred to Keo, but he said, “How?”
She tapped her temple. “In here.”
“I don’t understand…”
“It appeared to her inside her head. Psychically.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No. The Blue Eyes can do that. I’ve experienced it firsthand. So have others I know.” She sat down on a chair in front of him. “It’s the same ability that allows them to communicate over long distances with one another. They can also use it to get into a person’s head, and when that happens, they stick.”
“Stick, how?”
“Like glue.” She shook her head, and he could tell she was reliving something he’d rather not know anything about. “It’s not a pleasant experience, Keo.”
“This has happened to you…”
Lara nodded somberly.
Keo stared at her, waiting for her to continue, but she didn’t.
Instead, Lara leaned back slightly in the chair and seemed to stare off at nothing.
“What’s it like?” he asked.
“It’s like a parasite has attached itself to your brain. It’s always there, at the corner of your eyes, even when you’re awake. Waiting, waiting…”
“Even when you’re awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Jesus.”
“I don’t wish it on my worst enemy, Keo.”
Keo had encountered the blue-eyed ghouls before. Gone toe to toe with them, even before this one from Paxton. And while it’d always been eerie and downright terrifying at times, he’d never felt what Lara described.
Looking at her face, he didn’t have any trouble believing those moments were still with her, even now. There were no windows in the room, but there were a pair of bright LED bulbs on the ceiling. The light, like all the electricity that powered the ranch, came from solar panels on the rooftops of every building on the grounds, including more in a field nearby. They were all linked to the same battery system that kept the lights on and heated the water, among other things.
“Did she describe the ghoul?” Keo asked.
“Not in so many words, but she said it was a Blue Eyes. I didn’t push her for more details than that. Given what it knows about you, about us, it’s clearly the same one from Paxton that you told us about.”
“Did she say how many ghouls it has with it?”
“She saw about twenty when they attacked the camp. She thinks there’s more, but she isn’t sure.”
“There has to be more. It had a small army in Paxton, and it’s had almost two months to rebuild it. Besides, it would take a lot to overcome Longmire in just one night. Those people weren’t pushovers. They’ve been out here for a while, and yet…”
“…they never stood a chance,” Lara finished.
“No, they didn’t.”
Keo put down the submachine gun he’d been cleaning and sat on another chair across from her. “What else did Thuy say?”
“That’s it. It gave her instructions and let her go.”
“Just like that? It let her go?”
Lara nodded. “Yeah.”
“Makes sense.”
“Does it?”
“It’s playing a game. The same game we were playing back at Paxton.” Keo paused for a moment before continuing. “I’ve met plenty of Blue Eyes—hell, too many—but this one…” He shook his head, searching for the right words. “It’s…different.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It is, Lara.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. Lara leaned forward and stared at him with that same steely determination that had allowed her to lead thousands of men to war in her previous life. “It’s just another ghoul. We’ll kill it, just like we killed the others.”
He smiled. “Just like that?”
She nodded. “Just like that.”
“Good. For a moment there, I was worried.”
There was a knock on the door from across the room, and they both glanced over to find Bunker leaning inside.
“Don’t mind me, folks, but I have some news that may be of interest to us,” the rancher said.
Keo and Lara stood up.
“Good news?” Lara asked. “Because we could really use some of that right now.”
“Depends,” Bunker said. “Could be good, could be bad. Could be a little of both.” He sh
rugged. “Probably a little of both.”
“So what’s the news?” Keo said.
Bunker held up the bulky long-range two-way portable radio that he was holding in his hand. “I reached out to Carlos to see if he’d made contact with our little ghoul problem.”
“Little” ghoul problem? Keo thought. This is definitely not all that little, Bunker.
But he said, “What did he say?”
“He hasn’t had any personal contact, but about six days ago they had some livestock go missing. They investigated and ran across tracks that he was sure were ghouls, on the outskirts of his property. He and his brother followed them back to Hamlock.”
Hamlock was a small town near the Texas-Mexico border about ten miles from where they were, and as far as Keo knew, had been abandoned for some time. Everything in the place that was useful had been looted years ago, and the population was a big fat zero. The last time they visited it, anyway.
“Carlos knows about Longmire, right?” Keo asked.
“Of course he knows,” Bunker said. “He saw the fireworks last night, just like we did. He showed up after we left.”
“What else did Carlos say about the ghouls?” Lara asked.
“The trail led into Hamlock, but he didn’t follow them inside. Which was awfully smart of him. Maybe we should try to be a little smart, too, huh?”
“He had any more cattle go missing since then?” Keo asked.
“Not as far as he knows. Things went back to normal, and he forgot about it. That is, until I radioed and inquired just a few minutes ago.”
“They feed on animals, too, when they have to.”
“I know. I told Carlos the same thing.”
“So he doesn’t know if there are actually ghouls in Hamlock right now?”
“Nope. But it has to be the same ones, right? It’s too much of a coincidence. Hamlock is close enough to us and Longmire for this to be another group of random ghouls. And you know how I feel about coincidences.”
“You don’t like them.”
“Not one iota, chamo.”
Keo looked over at Lara, and before he could even say anything, she shook her head.
“I didn’t say anything yet,” Keo said.
“You don’t have to, because I already know what you’re thinking,” Lara said.
Road to Babylon (Book 9): The Ranch Page 4