The Gates of Byzantium (Purge of Babylon, Book 2)

by Sam Sisavath

He could see a figure moving in front of him. Away from him.

  Oh, thank you, God.

  He lifted his head slightly, watching as the man—a big man, though he looked like he was in pain and was leaning a bit on one leg as he walked—crossed the street, holding something in his left hand. Josh looked for a long time before he decided it was a gun. A shotgun. One of those sawed-offs that Mel Gibson carried in The Road Warrior. That shotgun was responsible for the big boom he had heard moments ago.

  The man was walking back toward the courthouse.

  Josh pushed himself up into a crouch. He looked over his shoulder, in the direction he thought the man had come from. What was back there? What had the man shot? He considered backtracking to find out. Maybe an animal…or a person.

  The gun battle was over a long time ago, even before he had started off from the house. Folger and the others seemed to have left, or maybe they were hiding in another part of town, waiting to strike. Folger struck him as that kind of conniving asshole. If Folger was still around, the man with the shotgun hadn’t seemed particularly concerned about it. And Josh was sure he hadn’t seen the man before—he would remember someone that big—so he wasn’t part of Folger’s crew.

  Josh remained still and went over his options. The way he saw it, he didn’t really have a whole lot of choices. It was either stay here or go back.

  He decided to stay put for a while, to see who else came out of the buildings across the street. He remembered what the Hispanic had said over the radio. There were a “lot” of people in the two trucks, but only two men were shooting back at them.

  He reminded himself that Gaby and Sandra were waiting for him back at the subdivision. By now, they would be worried, especially Gaby. How long had he been gone? Josh checked his watch.

  A little over fifty minutes.

  He decided to give it thirty more minutes before heading back.

  *

  Instead, he stayed for forty minutes.

  Then forty became an hour.

  He couldn’t leave. Not yet. Gaby was probably hysterical by now, but he reasoned he had to stick it out. He had to make sure he saw them first, this new group of people. The fact that they had fought it out with Folger was a good sign. What was that old saying?

  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  He just hoped his enemy’s enemy didn’t turn out to be his enemy, too. That was a very real possibility. But he didn’t have many choices at the moment. This was the world he lived in now. And here, he had to take chances, like back in the semitrailer with Gaby and Betts. He had put her in harm’s way by playing a hunch. The old Josh would never have done something so reckless, so risky. But the old Josh was dead, replaced by Josh 2.0. Time would tell which version of him was better.

  Finally, Josh’s patience was rewarded when the police station/courthouse doors opened and he saw two men emerge. Neither one was the same big man with the shotgun Josh had seen earlier. He could tell because they were thinner (not skinny, just leaner) and carried assault rifles, sidearms, and looked like they had some kind of assault vests on, though Josh was still too far away to make out details.

  Josh got off his butt and went into a crouch. He watched one of the men close the tailgate of the blue truck before they started talking about something. Strategy, maybe. He couldn’t quite tell who was in charge. Maybe they both were. Maybe neither.

  A moment later, the big man with the sawed-off shotgun came out, still walking gingerly on one good leg. Josh wondered if the man’s limp was from this afternoon’s gun battle with Folger. The big man joined the first two at the truck, and they looked at a map spread out across the black truck’s hood.

  The three men were talking, pointing at the map and up and down the street, when the courthouse doors opened again and two women came out. Then behind them, two little girls. They ran around the trucks, chasing each other. They looked to be seven or eight, and they were laughing.

  Josh waited and listened and watched.

  He considered all the new evidence and weighed his options again.

  Pros and cons: What were they?

  Pros: These could be potential allies. People who took care of kids who were obviously not afraid of them were the exact opposite of people like Folger and Manley and the others. Maybe these new people were even married and those were their children. Even better. That meant family, loyalty, and bonding. People like that might welcome additions to their group.

  Cons: Or they might not. Just because the people in front of him looked decent, it didn’t mean they were. Maybe instead of a semitrailer, they were keeping their victims locked way inside the courthouse. And these people were obviously violent. They were good at it, too, to have fought off Folger’s people. Even killed one of them. Could he really trust his life, and by extension, Gaby’s, to people who were so good with guns?

  Conclusion: Fuck it.

  Josh pulled Matt’s gun out of his waistband and laid it down on the dirt and stood up and began walking across the street. He did it quickly, trying to think as little as possible, because he knew if he thought about it too much, he would change his mind.

  Have to risk it. Have to risk everything…

  One of the kids saw him first. She said something and pointed, and the men turned. The first two men unslung their rifles. The two women were staring. The big man with the shotgun seemed to be making sure he had shells in his weapon.

  This is a mistake. I’m going to die.

  Oh God, I’m going to die.

  “Don’t shoot!” he shouted across the street, raising his hands as far above his head as they would go. “I’m not armed! Don’t shoot!”

  They watched him for a moment, then one of the men jogged forward. “Stop!” the man shouted.

  Josh stopped in his tracks and didn’t move. He was in the middle of the street, and instinctively glanced left and right before realizing, Oh, right, no traffic.

  The man moving toward Josh looked young and had slightly brown-ish blond hair. He moved smoothly toward Josh, then circled him, the point of his rifle aimed low. Not threatening, but ready.

  Please, don’t shoot me, he thought, but was too afraid to say the words out loud.

  The man continued circling him, looking him over, probably checking him for weapons. “What’s your name, kid?”

  “Josh.”

  “What are you doing here, Josh? You alone?”

  “Yes,” he lied, his heart racing. “Josh. My name’s Josh. Please don’t shoot me.”

  “You already said that,” the man said, looking slightly amused.

  “I did?”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh. Please don’t shoot me.”

  “Only if you tell me your name.”

  “But I—” Josh realized the guy was messing with him and stopped. “Oh.”

  The man chuckled, then motioned for Josh to move forward. Josh did, but it took a few seconds before his feet would start behaving normally enough that he didn’t almost fall on his face with every step.

  Josh heard the man moving behind him, but he decided to concentrate on the group waiting for them instead. The other man with the rifle was scanning the roads and the area, while the women had gathered up the kids and put them into one of the trucks. The girls peered curiously out at him through one of the few windows that was still intact.

  “Hey, kid,” the man behind him said.

  “Yes?” Josh said.

  Please don’t shoot me.

  “You know anything about computers?” the man asked.

  “What?”

  “Computers,” the man said, as if that was the most normal topic in the world to be talking about at the moment. “You know anything about computers? You look like you do.”

  I do?

  “A little,” he said.

  “You know how to fix them?”

  “A little,” he said again. This conversation was going in a very odd direction. “Why?”

  “Just wondering. You can put your
hands down now.”

  “Oh, thanks.”

  “No sweat. Hey, you wanna hear a joke?”

  “Um, okay.”

  Just as long as you don’t shoot me.

  “So these two subway conductors are out to lunch one day, and one of them says to the other, ‘You know what, I think my sex life is getting too boring.’ The other guy asks, ‘Why do you say that?’ The first train conductor groans, then says, ‘Well, it’s always the same thing. In and out, in and out, and I never get anywhere!’”

  Josh didn’t know whether to laugh, or cry, or beg the guy not to shoot him again.

  “You’re all right, kid,” the guy said.

  Oh, thank you, God.

  CHAPTER 10

  LARA

  The kid said his name was Josh, and they put two and two together and deduced he was one of the two teenagers that escaped the man named Folger’s captivity last night. Which meant he knew where Sandra was, a fact that instantly got Blaine to move toward him, so fast that the poor kid stumbled back and almost fell down in surprise—or fear.

  Will quickly grabbed Josh by the shirt collar and kept him upright. “Relax. This is Blaine. He’s been looking for Sandra since yesterday. Where is she?”

  “You know Sandra?” Josh asked, looking at Blaine.

  “Yes,” Blaine said, and Lara could almost see him restraining himself from shouting questions at the kid. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine,” Josh said, though looking at him, Lara thought he knew something else that he wasn’t saying. It was probably about Sandra, after she had been captured by Folger and his men yesterday, while Blaine lay bleeding and dying in the road.

  She thought about the Sundays…

  No. Don’t think about them.

  It had been months since she had remembered the Sundays ever existed. She had scrubbed them so thoroughly from her mind that it took a lot to trigger her memory of those days with them. But now, listening to Josh and Blaine, and thinking about what Sandra had gone through since yesterday, all those tainted memories came rushing back.

  “I’m going inside to see if Carly needs help,” she said, and hurried back into the courthouse before Will could catch her eyes.

  Carly was near the cells in the back, pulling blankets and bedrolls out of the moving crates they had transferred inside earlier. Despite the attempted ambush by Folger and his men, they had decided Lancing was too big a city to just abandon. Which meant they were going to need a place to stay, and the courthouse was as good a place as any unless they found a better location. They could easily barricade the two front windows and door, as well as the two extra doors in the back. If push came to shove, there were the cells in the back. Lara didn’t look forward to being literally locked inside those, but she reminded herself that she had been in worse situations.

  Lara walked over and helped Carly unpack their belongings—just the essentials they would need to sleep through the night. It wouldn’t be a very comfortable temporary base, but it would do for now.

  Until we get to Song Island.

  God, please, let it be real…

  “Was that one of the kids who escaped last night?” Carly asked.

  “Yeah,” Lara said. “And Sandra’s alive, too.”

  “Wow, that’s good news. I bet Blaine was happy to hear that.”

  “He was.”

  The girls raced around the front reception area and wound their way through the courthouse. They seemed to have boundless energy, and Lara could only look after them and smile. For a while, she hadn’t been sure if Elise could adapt. But she had. They all had.

  Adapt or perish.

  “So what’s this make, three more people?” Carly asked.

  “If they decide to come with us.”

  “Of course they will. After what they went through? Trust me, they’ll come with us. Until last year, I was a teenager, too. I still know how teenagers think.”

  “God, I forget how young you are sometimes.”

  “Good, because I feel fifty years old,” Carly said, and made a face.

  Lara laughed. She really did sometimes forget just how young Carly was. Heck, she sometimes forgot how young most of them were. She wouldn’t be twenty-six for another month, but she already felt so much older than that.

  Twenty-six going on forty…

  She heard the front doors opening and looked back to see Will coming in. He walked over to them, dodging Vera and Elise as they darted across the room. He smiled after them, and seeing that brought a smile to Lara’s lips, too.

  “Are we going after Sandra?” Lara asked.

  “Josh is taking Blaine and Danny to her now.” He glanced at his watch. “Once they get back, Danny and I will go looking for supplies. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a better place to spend the night. Josh said they were staying in a basement in one of the subdivisions. That might work out better for us than out here in the open.”

  “Great,” Carly said. “So I’m doing all this unpacking for no reason?”

  “Probably.”

  “Then I’m going to fix the girls something to eat. I could use a snack, too.”

  Carly headed off, leaving them alone at the holding cells.

  When Carly was gone, Will asked, “You okay?”

  “Don’t I look okay?”

  Lara pulled some new shirts out of a crate. The one she was wearing was already damp from the heat. She went through at least two shirts on a good day, and more when it was really hot, which it usually was. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand how Will and Danny managed to wear the same odor-drenched clothes throughout most of the day, and sometimes for days at a time until, inevitably, either she or Carly complained.

  “Not really,” he said.

  “I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You know you can talk to me.”

  “I know. I just don’t have anything to talk about right now, that’s all. But if I do, you’re the first person I’ll come to. Promise.”

  He slipped one hand around her waist and kissed her neck. She sighed and inhaled his usual mix of sweat and dirt.

  “Blaine must be excited,” she said.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  “I don’t really know the guy.”

  “You saved his life.”

  “I wouldn’t say I saved his life. I gave him a ride. You did more for him than I did.”

  “Well, he thinks you saved his life.”

  “It’s his right to. This is still America, after all.”

  “I can’t figure out if you’re just being humble or if you’re being a jerk.”

  “That depends. Which one turns you on more?”

  She turned around in his arm and sought out his mouth. His hands were already tugging her shirt out of her waistline and were searching for more when the radio clipped to his vest squawked and they heard Danny’s voice:

  “We just arrived at the house the kid was staying in.”

  Will grunted, pulling away from her briefly to key his radio. “Roger that.”

  “Nice neighborhood,” Danny said. “We should get a couple of places here. Ones with really big lawns. The girls can raise the kids and we can have barbeques on the weekends.”

  “Why just the weekends?” Will asked, playing along as usual.

  “Because if I had to see your face seven days a week, I’d probably shoot myself. That, or turn on the car engine in my garage and end it peacefully. I haven’t decided yet.”

  “You guys sound like married old ladies,” Lara said, rolling her eyes at Will as she pulled herself free and walked off, tucking her shirt back into her pants. “I’ll go help Carly make dinner. A woman’s work is never done.”

  *

  Blaine returned later with Danny and Josh and a pretty teenage girl Josh introduced as Gaby. But there was no Sandra, which explained why Blaine looked like someone had punched him in the ribs, then shot him three more times. Lara thought about going over to c
omfort him, but realized she didn’t really know him all that well, and she wasn’t sure how he would take it. Maybe he didn’t want some stranger to comfort him at that moment.

  The positive news was that Sandra was still alive.

  “She left about an hour after Josh did,” Gaby told them.

  They were gathered back inside the courthouse, eating canned fruit. Gaby seemed to relish every drop of the same syrupy flavor that Lara had grown tired of, and she envied the teenager’s appetite.

  “She found a car in the garage of the house we were hiding in,” Gaby said. “There were keys, and she packed up as much stuff as she could carry. The last I saw of her, she was driving off.”

  “Did she say where she was going?” Will asked.

  Blaine had apparently heard all this before, either on the ride over or at the house, and he left the courthouse without a word. Lara considered going after him again but thought better of it. He didn’t look like he wanted company.

  “She went looking for him,” Gaby said, looking back at the door after Blaine. “She thought he was dead. She said he had been shot, and he looked like he was dead when they dragged her out of the woods and threw her into the semitrailer and brought her here.”

  “Why did she go back looking for him if she thought he was dead?” Carly asked.

  Lara thought she knew the answer. She looked over at Will, but he didn’t catch her glance. She would go back for him, too, even if she knew he was dead. She knew without a doubt Will would do the same for her.

  “She wanted to bury him,” Gaby said. “He wasn’t bitten, so he wouldn’t have turned, right? Isn’t that how it works?”

  “We’re not sure,” Lara said. “I don’t think anyone is.”

  “Sandra didn’t think he had turned, anyway, which was why she went back. Or maybe she just wanted to be sure he wasn’t still lying out there on the road.” Gaby shrugged. She turned her attention back to the can, tilting it up to her lips, and drank down the sugary liquid. “God, these are good.”

  Carly handed her another Del Monte can, this one with peaches.

  “Are you sure?” Gaby said, looking almost embarrassed by her appetite.

  “We have more than enough to spare,” Carly said. “Take it.”