“Thanks,” Sharon said. “You too.”
“Yeah, you too,” Liz said.
The women picked up their packs and shrugged them on. Jackson, the smallest of the trio by a mile, struggled a bit but finally got the straps in place. She looked like a child playing army with the rifle slung in front of her and the possibly-too-big belt that carried not just a gun holster but also the knife on the other hip, and pouches. Looking at her…
Dammit, Keo thought, wondering what Lara would say if she found out he’d let these three women—with the way-too-young-and-small Jackson—go out there on their own. That was the problem with Lara—she was too good for him, and in all the time he’d been with her, Keo had been trying to make up that ground. Bottom line: He wanted to be good enough to deserve her. He’d done some shitty things in his life, most of which Lara would never know about. He could live with them because he could tell himself he didn’t know any better then.
But now? After finding and convincing someone like Lara to love him back?
Fuck it all.
“How can I help?” Keo asked before he could change his mind.
They told him the plan, and it was as bad as he’d expected.
They were going to go out there, into the surprisingly cold Texas night, and look for the building holding Carter. Failing that, they would die trying. It was the latter part that Keo had a problem with and considered telling them that he’d changed his mind.
I could have probably come up with a better plan.
Probably.
Ten years ago he wouldn’t have any problems changing his mind and backing out of this, but this wasn’t ten years ago and he wasn’t the man he once was. Unfortunately, Keo couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not.
He tried not to think too much about it (Just do it, pal, like Nike says!) as he got into position next to the door, with Liz already across from him. Jackson was slightly behind Keo with her rifle, giving him just enough space that he could barely feel the warmth of her breath against the back of his neck as she breathed in and out just a little bit too hard. Sharon stood in the middle, one hand on her slung rifle while the other got a grip on the door’s handle.
Sharon looked to Liz first, then to Keo. She didn’t say anything, but they did exchange a nod. Keo assumed Sharon did the same with Jackson behind him, but he’d already focused back on the door.
Liz was watching his face from across the door. “So what made you change your mind?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Keo said.
“Not really. Most men in your shoes wouldn’t be here right now.”
Keo wondered how many men she’d run across since The Purge that did everything possible to smear the reputation of his gender.
He said, “I’m an idiot, that’s why.”
Liz grinned. “I guess we all are.”
He sighed and thought, Some of us more than others.
But it was too late to change his mind now (Crap.), because Sharon had turned her wrist and the door was opening and Liz’s tall frame blurred by him as she slipped outside first. Keo went next, the KA-BAR in his hand. He had the Glock holstered and would have felt pretty good having it on his person if he didn’t know how useless it was right now, in the dark.
…in the dark.
He heard slightly-accelerated breathing behind him as Sharon and Jackson came out after him, followed by the surprisingly soft click! as the door slid shut. Jackson had been given the task of keeping it from slamming, and the kid had done her job.
Keo waited for the inevitable—ghouls that had been hiding out here to reveal themselves, to prove that he was right and that this was a monumental mistake. Except nothing came out of the shadows, and no sickly figures leaped off the rooftops above them when he scanned the moonlit sky.
The lack of immediate attack didn’t keep his heart from pounding against his chest. The same was happening with Sharon behind him and Liz in front of him, because Keo could hear it.
Well, at least I’m not the only idiot out here in the dark with no silver bullets.
As soon as they were outside, Liz turned left, then went around the back of the office building. The warehouse that Keo had voluntarily abandoned earlier was somewhere behind them. The bar that Jackson remembered was farther up the street, which was the direction they were headed now.
Liz was staying purposefully close so she didn’t lose the rest of them, but she was also keeping a steady pace so they wouldn’t get bogged down in the back alleys. The tall woman had her rifle in front of her the entire time, moving like a trained infantryman, sweeping the dark corners and shadowed buildings as she went. Keo guessed she had a lot of experience with the weapon. Even Jackson, back there somewhere, was no virgin to gunfights.
His surroundings looked a hell of a lot darker than the last time Keo was out here, but maybe that was just his imagination.
He sneaked a look back at the other two women.
Sharon was a few meters back, Jackson farther behind her. Sharon’s face was stoic and unafraid. Either that or she was very good at hiding her fears. Small spurts of cloud filtered out between her clenched lips, her face paling somewhat against the cold air. He couldn’t make out Jackson’s appearance in the back of their moving line. There just wasn’t enough lights to see with, and the teenager had turned off her wrist LED so they didn’t draw any unwanted attention. And out here, every attention was unwanted.
Sharon locked in on his gaze. He could tell that she was thinking the exact same thing that he was:
Where are they? Where are the ghouls?
Keo looked back to Liz in front of him. She was about to approach the first alleyway, squeezed in between the car wash and the building next door. Somewhere up the road was the bar where Carter was being kept. That is, if the kid was even still alive. Keo was beginning to have doubts.
Everything about Carter’s situation was confusing. Why would ghouls abduct her and put her in a basement? Why would they leave her with her radio? If he were the paranoid type, Keo would almost think someone was trying to lure the others out of hiding in order to go rescue Carter.
…trying to lure the others out of hiding…
Keo stopped and glanced back at Sharon, closing in behind him. He locked eyes with her again and was about to say, “This is a mistake. We have to go back,” when Jackson, moving behind Sharon, opened fire.
“Ghouls!” Jackson shouted, the staccato flash of her weapon’s muzzle lighting up her young face.
Keo didn’t look at where Jackson was shooting. He was too busy turning back to Liz as she, too, opened up with her AR, peppering dark shapes that were pouring out of the rear door of a building across the alleyway from them. Keo hadn’t seen it before, but had that door always been open? Or did the ghouls open it? How did ghouls learn to open doors?
This isn’t right.
Then: Are you kidding me? Nothing about tonight has been right!
The back alleys had lit up against the muzzle flashes of Liz’s weapon in front of him and Jackson’s behind him. Keo had no trouble seeing skeletal figures leaping out of the shadows around them, dark black eyes gleaming against the flashes of gunfire even as their bodies jerked back against the bullet impacts.
But that wasn’t going to stop them, because they were all using bullets that didn’t have a trace of silver in them. The wrong kind of ammo.
We’re fucked. We’re so fucked!
Keo tightened his grip on the KA-BAR and breathed in the cold air. Then he steeled himself for what was coming.
“Get back! It’s a trap! Get back to the office!” Sharon was shouting from behind him just before her own rifle joined the fray.
Too late for that, Keo thought as hellacious gunfire pounded in his ears and echoed off the back alley walls around him, and the thick, oh-so-thick stench of death closed in on them from every side…
Eight
“You remember everything I told you?”
“Yes.”
“And everything
we need?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Lara. You wrote a list, for God’s sake. I know how to read a list. I’m not that dense, despite what Bunker says. I’ll just hand it to the first medic I see and ask very nicely for them to fill it. Failing that, I’ll use my gun.”
“Don’t use your gun!”
“I was just kidding. I’ll just ask nicely.”
“And what if they say no?”
“They won’t.”
“But what if?”
“They won’t.”
“I just want to be sure, that’s all. This is very important.”
“I know it’s very important. Trust me, babe, I know this is very important. It’s probably the most important thing I’ll ever do.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Yes. I absolutely mean that.”
“It’s just that I don’t like you going out there by yourself.”
“There’s no way around it. You need to stay here, and Bunker needs to keep you out of trouble. Besides, I’ll be able to travel faster on my own. Bunker’s lending me his fastest horse.”
“Mirabelle?”
“I thought it was Mirror Ball.”
“There’s no Mirror Ball, but there is a Mirabelle.”
“Must be that one, then. I don’t really keep up with their names.”
“You prefer to name all your horses Horse.”
“It works.”
“What if you have more than one horse?”
“Horse One, Horse Two, et cetera.”
“I should be going with you. That’s the only way to be sure. They might say no to you, but they won’t say no to me.”
“Someone might recognize you.”
“That’s unlikely. My hair is longer.”
“Long hair or not, you’re still Lara. They probably have pictures of you hanging on walls.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m totally serious.”
“If you’re going to be stupid like this, then it’s just more reason for me to come with you.”
“You’re not coming with me.”
“It’s just a few days’ ride.”
“It’s five days to Galveston and five days back. That’s more than a few days’ ride.”
“So it’ll be five days there and five days back. You’ll be with me the entire time.”
“No.”
“Bunker doesn’t need me to watch the ranch with him.”
“We both know the reason you’re not going has nothing to do with Bunker or this ranch, Lara.”
“I’m going, Keo.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not. And that’s final.”
“Don’t talk to me that way. I’m not a child.”
“So stop acting like one.”
“I’m really not liking you right now.”
“I don’t care. You’re still not coming with me. So relax. Get some rest. Everything will be fine.”
“I hate you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Okay…”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
“But promise me this.”
“Anything.”
“No meandering. Get there, get what you need, and come home. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I mean it, Keo.”
“I know you do.”
“If I have to go after you, I’m going to be really angry.”
“We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
“Get back! It’s a trap! Get back to the office!”
Oh, now she wants to go back into the office!
Keo wasn’t sure who was doing the shouting, but he assumed it was Sharon. Then again, it could have been Liz or the kid Jackson, for all he knew. The voice was mostly lost in the pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire and the pek-pek-pek of bullets impacting brick walls, with a few pings! as the occasional round bounced off a metal siding. Keo swore he could even hear the clink-clink-clink! of bullet casings landing on the floor and ricocheting off the walls against all the other sounds.
The night itself seemed to have come alive, and he had trouble distinguishing brick from metal from shadows from concrete. He wasn’t sure where the creatures were coming from—Doors? Alleyways? Holes in the ground that had spontaneously opened up?—just that they seemed to be coming from everywhere.
He shot a ghoul at almost point-blank range, drilling the 9mm round through its right eye socket. The bullet popped the eyeball as if it were a grape and exited the back of the skull before vanishing into the pitch blackness. All that did was cause the creature’s head to snap back, its forward momentum toward him momentarily paused. That was just enough time for Keo to slash it across the chest using the KA-BAR.
Don’t lose the knife! You lose the knife, and you’re FUBAR’ed, pal!
FUBAR’ed or worse. Keo didn’t want to think too much about the “worse” part. Fortunately, he didn’t have time to dwell on all the possible “worse” ways this could go wrong.
How many ways can I die horribly? Let me not count the ways!
He was moving, cutting, shooting, and when he had to, kicking. They lunged at his legs, spindly arms trying to get a literal foothold. He stomped on a pair of limbs, then something that might have been a skull, though it felt just a little too light. All he’d needed to see what he’d just stomped on was to glance down, but he didn’t have the time. He didn’t have time.
All he cared about was that he was still upright and moving, constantly moving.
Keep moving! Keep moving! Stop, and you die! Don’t stop, and you won’t die!
Sure, should be simple enough!
He didn’t for a second think any of the gunfire was going to stop the ghouls, but it slowed the creatures down. Mostly. That is, until the Glock in his left hand ran dry and Keo wasted exactly a second and a half to holster it. He still had two spares for the weapon, but it would have cost him way too much time to reload. And he just didn’t have that much time to waste on something that wasn’t going to do real damage.
At least the KA-BAR never ran out of ammo or needed to be reloaded. The knife already felt noticeably heavier in his hand as he swung and stabbed and slashed. There was a generous coating of dripping black sludge over it, from the sharp point all the way down to the brass guard. Soon it was going to feel like he was wielding a halberd.
From somewhere behind him, he heard Sharon’s voice (Or was that Liz’s? Jackson’s?), screaming, “Go back! Go back!”
Then, someone else shouting, “What are you doing?”
“Do what I tell you, goddammit! Go now! Now now now!”
Then what sounded like ten rifles firing at once, but it was really just a single AR firing on full-auto. That was a mistake because that kind of fire selection was going to drain the weapon faster. And then what? Surely Sharon or Liz (Jackson?) would know better than that. Wouldn’t they? They’d been out here long enough.
Unless they didn’t have any choice…
Keo kicked at a ghoul that launched itself at him in the chest, sending it flailing back and into two others. They fell to the ground like bowling pins, and Keo almost chuckled. Almost, because he didn’t really have the time.
Keep moving! Keep moving, or you’re dead! You don’t wanna be dead, do you? Well, do you?
No, sir! No sirree!
So keep moving, pal!
Yes, sir!
He glanced over his shoulder and was somehow able to locate Sharon among all the shadows and darkness that were belching ghouls out of every orifice. She had to be at least fifteen meters away (How’d she get so far from him?), spraying one of the alleyways as a wave of ghouls flooded through the narrow passageway. When she was empty, Sharon quickly ejected the magazine and slapped in a new one and continued firing. Keo wondered how many more spares she had left. It couldn’t have been that many considering how long the
y’d been fighting.
No, he was wrong. They hadn’t been doing this for very long at all. Not even a minute. Thirty seconds? It had to have been longer than thirty seconds since the ghouls revealed themselves. He couldn’t be sure about anything. Time had a way of slowing down when undead things were trying to eat you.
Liz and Jackson. Where were the other two women?
Keo scanned the back alleys around him—
There! They were running away from him. How’d they gotten so far away? Were they abandoning him, or—
No, it was him. He was moving away from them.
And they weren’t both running. Liz was dragging Jackson away by the arm, pulling the younger girl as she resisted.
“Sharon!” Jackson was shouting. “Sharon!”
But Jackson’s voice was mostly lost in Sharon’s gunfire, the continued brap-brap-brap! of her fully auto rifle unleashing against a horde.
Something landed on Keo from above, sharp toes digging into his shoulder blades through his thick clothing. What the hell? It was a ghoul. Had it fallen out of the sky? Or from a nearby roof?
Keo reached up and grabbed for it, finding something round and slick and wet. His fingers dug right through the flesh, and slimy wetness covered his palm. Keo yanked the creature off him and threw it at two of the three ghouls that had picked themselves up from the ground where he’d sent them earlier.
He slashed at a fourth creature, unintentionally decapitating it with the knife. The head went in one direction and the body the other, falling across the toes of his boots.
Keo took a step back, then another one, when the world around him went dead silent.
He glanced over at where he’d last seen Sharon. She was smashing a ghoul in the head with the butt of her AR, then using the barrel to skewer another one through the chest. Her face was awash in a film of black liquid, more of the substance flicking from her head and hair as she twisted side to side, hitting a third, a fourth, then a fifth ghoul as they swarmed at her.
“Sharon! Sharon!”
Jackson’s voice coming from somewhere to the right and behind him.
Keo was turning to follow the other two women so he could also retreat back to the office when he felt the explosion before he heard it.
Road to Babylon (Book 8): Daybreak Page 7