by Sam Sisavath
He hoped, anyway.
Keo was trying to convince himself that Gillian and the others were safe and sound, either on their way to Santa Marie Island or already there and sitting on the beach waiting for them, when the crack! of a rifle shredded the branch an inch in front of his face.
“Run!” he shouted.
Not that he had to. Norris was already ahead of him, moving surprisingly fast for a man in his fifties with a wounded leg.
Keo unslung his MP5SD as he ran, keeping as low as possible while still maintaining his speed as rifle fire shattered the woods behind him. Bullets zinged past his head and one came dangerously close to putting another hole in his body, this time much higher up than his leg but below the one already in his shoulder.
He kept running, telling himself not to look back.
The gunfire was hellacious, which meant more than one shooter.
Run. Don’t look back. Keep running!
But he couldn’t help himself, and Keo threw a quick look over his shoulder.
He glimpsed black clothes, assault vests, and painted faces emerging out of the woods all around them. At least three that he could see, possibly more.
Who the fuck are these guys?
Norris looked back at him.
“Don’t stop!” Keo shouted at him.
Norris didn’t stop, and neither did Keo, even though his leg and shoulder and every inch of his body was killing him.
Around him, the woods continued to explode as if they were being bombarded with heavy artillery shells. Keo had never seen anything that could be mistaken for a full-blown battlefield, but he imagined it had to look and feel and sound just like this.
Who the fuck are these guys?
*
They ran for hours, stopping to rest whenever they could, then ran some more.
Keo wasn’t sure what direction they were going; he was only aware that soon he couldn’t hear the river anymore, which meant they had unwittingly run away from it. He told himself they could locate the river again later. It was a long stretch of water, reaching all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It was difficult to lose track of something that long. Sooner or later, even just stumbling around, they’d eventually run across it again.
He hoped, anyway.
By nightfall, they had found salvation on a wooden platform about twenty meters off the ground. It was a hunting perch, high enough that they could see most of the woods even lying down on their bellies so they wouldn’t be seen from below. In the months since someone had used the basic construction to stalk wildlife, the branches had grown back, providing enough cover that they had almost missed it when they walked across it during the day.
Keo hated the idea of being outside at night, but there wasn’t much of a choice with no signs of a possible building to take shelter in. Thankfully, it was a cloudy night, and what little moonlight there was wasn’t enough to illuminate them on the scaffolding. He could barely see Norris lying a few inches from him, so he assumed they were safe from prying eyes on the ground.
The coming nightfall had also sent their black-clad pursuers into hiding. He wondered if they had gotten caught by the darkness and kept waiting to hear desperate gunfire, and was disappointed when he didn’t hear a single thing throughout the night and early morning.
There were also no signs of the creatures below or around them, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. There was no humanity around here, and if he had learned anything, it was that the bloodsuckers always seemed to know where people were hiding, and they flocked there like moths to a flame.
He drifted off to sleep thinking about Gillian and the sandy beaches of Santa Marie Island…
*
He woke up in the morning to Norris elbowing him in the gut.
“Wakey wakey, Sleeping Beauty.”
He opened his eyes and rolled over onto his back, staring up at what parts of the sun he could see through the thick canopy above him. He took in the brightness and let last night’s dream slowly drift away.
They didn’t say anything for a while, and Norris was content to stare down at the ground below, his carbine in front of him.
Finally, Keo said, “You know what this means, right?”
“What’s that?” Norris said.
“They’re not going to give up.”
“I kinda figured that.”
“They followed us for a week, for God’s sake. That’s some goddamn determination right there. Makes me wonder if Joe lied about those three back at the garage being his only living relatives.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure the little bastard lied about a lot of things. All he did was run back for his pals.”
“Doesn’t matter now. What matters is they’re going to keep hunting us.”
“Yeah,” Norris said quietly. He had clearly come to the same conclusion during the night. “So what are we going to do about that?”
“We can’t lead them to the others. Not if they’re still downriver waiting for us.”
“You think they might be?”
“Gillian’s stubborn enough.”
“So we try to lose them first. Don’t give them a chance to stumble across the kids. I don’t like the idea of doing all of this, risking my life and jumping into a river, only to lead them right back to the others.”
“That’s what I figured. It’s a big state. If they want a fight, we’ll give them one. Besides, Santa Marie Island isn’t going anywhere.”
“Sounds about right.”
“You good with this?”
“Shit, I’ve already overstayed my welcome,” Norris said. “Why the hell not?”
Keo grinned. “Daebak.”
Norris grunted. “Yeah, day-whatever.”
Snap!
Keo rolled onto his stomach and peered out over the edge of the hunting stand as a black-clad figure stepped out from behind two thick bushes in front of them, clutching an M16 rifle. The man’s face was painted black and green, and he was carrying a tactical pack and wearing heavy boots that crunched and snapped everything under him as he moved.
“You see him?” Norris whispered.
“Yeah,” Keo whispered back, while peering through the sight mounted on top of his MP5SD.
He lowered the red dot over the man’s forehead, clear as day under the swarming sunlight. Keo flicked the fire selector to semi-automatic and slipped his forefinger into the trigger guard.
“We really gonna do this?” Norris whispered. “We’re probably going to die, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” Keo said.
He pulled the trigger.
“One down…”
Hi there, boys and ghouls.
For those of you just getting your first taste of the Purge of Babylon universe with The Walls of Lemuria, the whole shebang originally began with The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival back in 2013. While Lemuria was designed as a starting point for newcomers to the series, and indeed follows an all-new cast of characters, if you liked what you’ve read there’s a bigger ongoing universe waiting for you with Purge and its two follow-ups, The Gates of Byzantium and The Stones of Angkor.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…er, I mean, if you enjoyed The Walls of Lemuria, please consider taking a brief moment to leave a review for it at a bookseller of your choice. Even a short review would be tremendously appreciated.
As for Keo, his storyline concludes in…
The Fields of Lemuria
(Coming in September 2014)
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www.roadtobabylon.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Books in the Purge of Babylon Series (Reading Order)
Dedication
About The Walls of Lemuria
Part One – The Survivors
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Part Two – The Woodsmen
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part Three – Summerland
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33