by Sam Sisavath
“I can hear you,” Gwen said through the radio.
It took all of Lara’s self-control not to tear into the twenty-something right then and there. “Are you and Roy all right?”
“We’re fine,” Gwen said. “We have them, Lara.”
“The other boat?”
“Yes. There are two women onboard. They’re both unarmed.”
She was halfway to the beach, the wooded area that separated the hotel grounds from the water to both sides of her. Birds took flight as her footsteps warned them of incoming humans.
“Two women?” she said into the radio. “On a boat in the middle of a lake at night?” Alarm bells went off inside her head. “You and Roy need to be careful. It could be a trap.”
“What should we do with them?” Gwen asked.
Oh, so now you want orders? she wanted to ask, but instead said, “Bring them in.”
“Will do.”
The soothing breeze brushed up against her as soon as she reached the soft, mushy sands and heard the slowly lapping waves. It was always colder on this part of the island and was the main reason everyone loved to sneak in an hour or two near the evenings. There was no better place to forget about the state of the world than running barefoot across the white sands.
Which, she guessed, explained what Roy and Gwen were down here at night. She tried very hard not to picture them hiding in the woods somewhere doing…something.
She spotted Benny standing on top of the boat shack, peering through binoculars out at the water. It was impossible to see much of anything too far out beyond the lights along the piers—except for the bright spotlight of the boat that Roy and Gwen were on at the moment. Next to them, she guessed, was the other boat….with the two unarmed women.
Blaine was moving up one of the piers and Lara jogged past the shack, exchanging a quick nod with Benny. She headed up the middle pier, one of three that stuck out of the beach like the teeth of a fork. The wooden planks clapped loudly under her boots.
Blaine glanced back. “Doc.”
“You heard?”
“Two unarmed women in the middle of the lake, at night? Doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
The loud outboard motor had started up again and the bright light floating on the surface of the lake started moving, this time coming back toward them.
“How did they catch up to the other boat?” she asked.
“Benny said he heard a low whining sound, so they were probably using a trolling motor,” Blaine said. “It would explain how they managed to creep so close to the island without being seen. Well, until they were spotted, anyway.”
“How did that happen?”
“Benny saw it first with his binoculars. I guess they were drifting and got too close. He said Roy and Gwen were walking back to the hotel when he called them over. It didn’t occur to him those two idiots would jump into one of the boats and take off to intercept.”
Lara ground her teeth together. She had a lot of things to say, most of them vulgar. But this wasn’t the time. Not now. Roy and Gwen had come to the island at the same time as Bonnie and her sister Jo. They were in the same group, and it made perfect sense the two of them would be drawn to each other. It was almost inevitable, in a way.
It didn’t take long for the boats to reach them. The bass fishing boat was towing along a white vessel by a rope, and the two women they had caught were sitting on the floor at the front, while Gwen, all five-two of her, stood next to them (too close for Lara’s liking) with her Glock in her hand. Roy steered the boat over to the pier and cut off the engine.
Lara stared at Roy, who quickly looked away. She wasn’t sure if that was embarrassment or realization that he had done something she didn’t approve of. She ignored him (for now) and turned her attention to the two women while Gwen tossed a second line over to Blaine. The women were a brunette in her twenties and a blonde teenager peering back at her through long, stringy hair that seemed to shine under the pier lamps.
The older woman met Lara’s eyes. There wasn’t fear there, just a lot of reluctance. “We didn’t mean to start any trouble.”
“What are you doing here on a boat in the middle of the night?” Lara asked.
“Looking for a place to stay. We heard a message on the radio. It said to get to an island…”
Lara exchanged a glance with Blaine.
The radio broadcast. Her radio broadcast. A lot of things were happening because of what she had sent out into the world. A lot of it was good, but a part of her, deep down, wondered if the bad was around the corner…
“What’s your name?” she asked them.
“I’m Carrie and this is Lorelei,” the brunette said. “We were just looking for a safe place—”
The crack! of a gunshot exploded across the island from behind her.
She spun around and traced the shot back to Benny, standing on the roof of the boat shack. He was looking down his rifle at something further up the beach.
Benny fired again.
Lara looked where he was shooting and glimpsed a figure moving out of the water and darting up the white sands. It was a man, and he was moving fast. Sand erupted behind him as Benny fired a third time and missed badly.
“Blaine!” Lara shouted.
Blaine was already pointing his rifle at the two women in the boat. They stood frozen and terrified because both Roy and Gwen had also drawn their weapons.
“I got ’em, go,” the big man said.
Lara ran back up the pier, looking right, trying to track the figure’s progress as it slashed across the beach, making a straight line for the trees. He was moving too fast for her to see any details, except that he was running in wet clothes and was still somehow managing to outpace Benny’s shots. That was one hell of a feat. Could even Will move that fast?
She heard voices through the radio in her hand.
Bonnie, from the hotel patio: “I hear shooting. Guys?”
Maddie, in the Tower with the ACOG: “I can’t get a shot!”
Carly, also at the hotel: “What’s happening? Is everyone okay?”
Lara leaped off the pier and landed in the soft sand. She almost lost her balance, but managed to regain it quickly enough to run up the beach. She unslung her rifle as she ran and took aim—
—when the man disappeared into the woods.
Shit.
Lara lowered her rifle and pulled up. Her heart was pounding and the adrenaline was pouring through her.
You wanted to be a leader? Well, here’s your chance. Make it count.
She keyed her radio. “Someone’s in the woods. I repeat: we have an intruder in the woods. Consider him armed and dangerous. If you get a shot, take it.”
CHAPTER 19
WILL
TOMMY WOKE UP around one in the morning along with another man, Bratt, to take their turn on guard duty over Will and Danny in place of Rachel and Milch. Rachel had gotten up and disappeared into the shadows while Bratt replaced her in the light, sitting down next to Tommy.
It was dead silent outside the basement, and the only sound was the breathing of the people inside. Will watched Tommy continuing to struggle to keep his eyes open while Bratt looked as if he had gotten his full eight hours, even though Will knew for a fact he had only slept about four since they fled to the basement after the massacre.
And that was exactly what it had been. Rachel and the others didn’t want to admit it, but everyone they knew in the city was likely dead except them. Kate’s ghouls—especially the blue-eyed ones—had made sure of that. That was bad for Rachel, but it was also bad for him and Danny. They had come to Dunbar expecting to find Gaby. Unless she had made it out of the city before everything went to hell, chances were she was just as dead (or worse) as Rachel’s people.
What were the chances she had actually gone around the city? There was a small—very, very small—possibility of that. But unlikely. Dunbar was too big. It would have taken too long to go around. Ea
sier to just go through it. Plus, Gaby would have wanted to look for supplies on the way to Song Island. She was traveling south—and there was only one thing down there.
Home.
The more he turned over all the possibilities in his head, the more Will reluctantly concluded that the chances of finding Gaby now had lessened dramatically. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he and Danny were going to survive tonight. Despite Rachel’s assurances about letting them go in the morning, Will wasn’t too confident there was going to be a morning.
Not with Kate’s ghouls out there. Her blue-eyed ghouls.
Four of them. Jesus. There were four of them out there right now. One was bad enough, but four that didn’t go down even after you shot them with silver bullets?
Then there was what Kate had said about the island, about Lara’s broadcast:
“Like a certain little island that should have stayed quiet. This is what happens when you stick your head out and get my attention, Will. I grab a hammer.”
He needed to get his hands on the radio. Even if Lara was asleep, someone would be monitoring the emergency frequency twenty-four hours a day in the island’s Tower. It was protocol. He should know; he was the one who put it together.
But to get to the radio, he needed to get through Tommy and Bratt. Maybe if he could talk to the kid, get him to understand. It was always easier to convince someone to do something when he didn’t look at you as an enemy.
Then there was Bratt. The man was cleaning a silver-chromed Smith & Wesson automatic with a small toothbrush. He was quiet and invisible for a big man—240 pounds easy—with a full graying beard and dark eyes. Bratt hadn’t said a word since he sat down.
Will only really needed to convince one of them, so it had to be Tommy. It was a no-brainer.
“Where did you get that?” Will asked the teenager.
Tommy was clutching the M40A3 sniper rifle, the same one he had been shooting during the gun battle yesterday afternoon. “It’s my dad’s. He taught me how to shoot with it.”
“It’s a hell of a rifle. Was he a Marine?”
“How’d you know?”
“I’ve only seen Marines using the M40 when I was in Afghanistan.”
“You were in Afghanistan?”
“Danny and me. You good with it?”
“Not bad. I’ve been shooting with it since I was eleven.”
“So, five years ago?”
Tommy grinned. “Eight going on nine, wise guy.”
Will smiled back at him, feeling like a pervert on a playground trying to lure a kid into his ice cream truck.
“I always thought I’d enlist when I was old enough,” Tommy was saying. “Never got the chance, with everything that happened. What branch were you in?”
“I was Army.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Will chuckled. “Yeah, well, we all have our crosses to bear.”
Tommy glanced briefly at Danny, sleeping with his back against the wall next to Will. “Is he really asleep?”
Will looked over at Danny, then shrugged. “I think so.”
“He doesn’t look asleep.” Tommy narrowed his eyes. “He’s faking it, isn’t he?”
“He’s tired. We’ve been moving on water and beef jerky for the last couple of days, trying to get home.”
“I’m sorry,” Tommy said. “If it was up to me, I’d have let you guys go.”
There it is. There’s the opening.
“I need the radio, Tommy,” Will said. “I really need to give my friend a message. It’s a matter of life and death.”
Tommy didn’t answer right away. But he also didn’t say no right away, either.
“Tommy,” Will said, keeping his voice calm, conversational, “it’s just a radio. What’s it going to hurt?”
“I can’t,” Tommy said finally, shaking his head. “Rachel’s orders. I’m sorry.”
“She doesn’t have to know.”
“She’ll know.” The kid shrugged. “Anyways, it’s not going to work. Look around you. Concrete walls and floor. It’d be a miracle if you could get a signal out of this room.”
“I have to try. You have to let me try. A lot of lives are at stake.”
This time Tommy shook his head faster without even taking a moment to think about it. It was a bad sign.
“I can’t,” the teenager said. “I’m sorry. You’ll get it back tomorrow. It’s only, what, six hours away?”
Six hours too long…
This wasn’t going to work. So he tried another tact.
“You saw them?” Will asked.
“Saw what?”
“The blue-eyed ones.”
Tommy looked hesitant, uncertain, maybe replaying what he may or may not have seen in his head. Will knew for a fact Tommy was there at the parking lot along with Rachel. They had seen the four blue-eyed ghouls emerging out of the U-Haul trailer like demons from hell. You didn’t forget a sight like that. Will certainly wasn’t going to anytime soon.
“I don’t know what I saw,” Tommy said. “Everything happened so fast…”
“You saw them,” Will said. “I saw them, too. Blue eyes.”
The kid nodded reluctantly.
“How many of them were there?” Will asked.
“I saw four,” Tommy said. “They had blue eyes like you said, and they were fast. I mean, the others—the black-eyed ones—they’re fast, too, but these ones were… They were way faster.”
“Shock troops,” Bratt said suddenly, surprising both Will and Tommy. Bratt’s voice was deep and sounded as if he were swallowing gravel with every word.
Dammit. Not now. Can’t you see I’m working on the kid here?
“What?” Tommy said, looking over at Bratt sitting next to him.
“Shock troops,” Bratt repeated. He hadn’t stopped working on his gun and didn’t look up. If Will didn’t know any better, he would swear the man was talking to himself. “In wars, they’re the point of the spear, lightning-quick and mobile. They’re sent to break through the enemy lines to lead the way for the rest of the army. That’s what they were doing here last night. They were sent into Dunbar for us.”
“Us?” Tommy said. “What are you talking about, Bratt?”
“We’ve been causing trouble. It’s Harrison’s fault.” The click-click of meaty fingers slid gun parts into place. “Attacking their convoys around the area, killing their soldiers, all that stupid-ass stuff. I told Harrison he was asking for trouble, but he wouldn’t listen.” Bratt chuckled—or was that a cackle? “I guess it’s kind of an honor. I bet they don’t send those blue-eyed freaks out for just anyone, right?”
You’re not wrong, Will thought, remembering again what Kate had said:
“This is what happens when you stick your head out and get my attention, Will. I grab a hammer.”
“Shock troops,” Tommy said to Will. “Crazy, huh?”
Will almost laughed.
Crazy? If you’ve only seen the things I’ve laid eyes on in the last eleven months, you’ll realize this is the least crazy thing, kid.
He said instead, “Yeah.”
“I mean, what makes us so special?” Tommy shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing that I can think of.”
You’re not. You’re just an annoyance to her. That’s all we are to Kate, to Mabry. Cockroaches running around, dirtying up their new house. And cockroaches get stepped on if they stray into the light—
He felt it. It was a very soft vibration at first, and there was almost no sound.
Slowly, as he listened more carefully, it grew in volume…
Danny opened his eyes next to him. “You felt that?”
“Yeah,” Will said.
Tommy said across from them, “That wasn’t just me, right? You guys felt that, too?”
Will nodded and stood up, Danny and Tommy mirroring him.
Bratt followed suit, holstering his sidearm and unslinging his AR-15. “They’re coming,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I think you
better wake the others up,” Will said to Tommy.
The teenager nodded and vanished into the darkness. Will heard urgent whispering, then Rachel’s groggy voice.
The sound had picked up noticeably and it was definitely coming from above them—the basement door. Will and Danny wandered over to the landing and looked up the flight of stairs. Even in the semidarkness, the steel door seemed to gleam at the other end.
“What are the chances they’ll give us back our weapons?” Will said.
“Maybe if you ask nice like,” Danny said.
“I did. Again and again.”
“Questionable noises weren’t coming from the other side of the door then.”
Will looked over as Rachel and Tommy emerged from the blackness. Milch and two others, Eaton and George, were moving slowly after them, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
“What the hell’s happening?” Rachel said.
“Listen,” Will said.
Rachel did. So did the others.
Slowly, their eyes wandered over to the top of the stairs. They could all hear it now. The slight vibrations, the dull thump-thump-thump of something tapping against the thick metal door from the other side.
“I thought they gave up?” Tommy said, whispering for some reason.
“They did,” Will said. “Now they’re back.”
“They’ve never done anything like this before,” Milch said. He unslung his M4 rifle and held it in front of him at the ready. “Right?” Milch added, looking over at the others. “They’ve never stopped and start over again, right?”
It’s the blue-eyed ghouls, Will wanted to tell them. The black-eyed ones behaved differently when they were around. They became more unpredictable, more creative.
And this time there are four of them out there.
A little overkill, don’t you think, Kate?
Will exchanged a brief knowing look with Danny before he sought out Rachel in the semidarkness. “If they get in…”
“They won’t,” she said.
He didn’t buy it for a second. “We need our weapons.”
“No.”
“I thought we already came to an understanding. We’re not a threat to one another.”
She didn’t answer right away, and Will saw conflict playing across her face.