“Like I said: they really have a bug up their ass for you people.”
Will was right. Kate’s coming, and nothing’s going to stop her.
Keo grabbed a glass of water and gulped it down and didn’t stop until he had drained the entire thing. Even Blaine and Bonnie, eating across the table from him, looked impressed. Lara exchanged a brief grin with them.
“Ice cold water,” Keo said, putting the glass down. “Worth its weight in gold these days, especially in the summer.”
Lara had already eaten with the others two hours ago, so she was the only one at the table not pulling apart fish at the moment. Blaine and Bonnie still looked a bit shell-shocked by their experience, and to hear them tell it, they hadn’t really done much except dropped Keo off, then picked him back up when the shooting started. Keo, who had been in the middle of the firefight, didn’t look the least bit fazed. At first she thought it was an act, a tough guy façade. She only had to watch him eating for a few minutes to realize that wasn’t the case.
“What happened exactly?” Lara asked Keo. “It sounded like you had to improvise.”
“There was a kid,” Keo said. “He ruined the plan.”
“We didn’t see him,” Bonnie said. “But then we had to stop the truck pretty far away so they couldn’t hear us coming.”
“Carrie told me about them,” Keo said. “The soldiers are using them as lookouts. They send the brats across the cities to look for survivors, then radio in if they find any.” Keo wiped fish oil from his lips. “I should have shot the little bastard.”
Lara and Bonnie stared at him.
“I said should have,” Keo said. “I didn’t, for the record.”
“So, in your expert opinion,” Lara said, “do you think you stopped them?”
“Stopped them? Not even close.” He shook an ice cube out of his glass and popped it into his mouth, crunching it loudly. “Delayed them, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know these ghouls as well as you do, so I can’t predict what they’re going to do next. I would have liked to take out more. That house, for instance. But situations being what they were…”
“The kid,” Lara said.
“Yeah. The kid.”
“They’re using children,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. “It’s hard to believe they’ll stoop that low.”
“It’s actually pretty smart,” Lara said. “Kids are impressionable. Adaptable, too.” She thought about Elise and Vera and how the two young girls had carried on despite everything they had been through. “You give them a job and they’ll glom to it. Especially if you make them think it’s the most important thing in the world. And by extension, they’re important for doing it.”
“Yeah, well,” Keo said, “I still think I should have at least stolen the little tyke’s bicycle. That was a pretty sweet-looking ride.”
“There are plenty of rooms left to choose from if you don’t like the one I picked out for you,” Lara said when she was walking with Keo up Hallway A after dinner. “This is assuming you’re at least staying the night.”
“It’s a little too dark out there to be sailing, don’t you think?” Keo said.
“I didn’t want to presume. You’ve already done more than enough to earn everything I promised you. We’re grateful. I’m grateful.”
“Are you propositioning me?”
“What?”
He laughed. “I’m just messing with you, Lara.”
“Oh.” Then, because she thought she had been blushing just a bit, “You’re anxious to get going.”
“I made a promise, and I’m way overdue.”
“She doesn’t know you’re trying to make your way over?”
“No. We didn’t exactly plan to separate. It just came up at the last minute, so we didn’t put any kind of communications system into place, the way you have with your boyfriend. You guys are a lot smarter than us.”
“We have our moments.”
“But it’s not going to last, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Regardless of how many times you push them back, delay them, or repel a full-on frontal assault. You can’t do it forever. Sooner or later, if they want this island bad enough, they’ll get it. And when that happens, a lot of people will die.”
She didn’t answer him because she knew he was right. She had spent countless days and hours thinking about it, trying to find a way out, a way that would keep them all alive. And each time she failed to see the answer. Always.
They walked in silence for a moment, the only sounds coming from their footsteps against the hallway and the slight hum of the lightbulbs.
“What would you do if you were in my position?” she finally asked.
“The odds are against you,” he said with that matter-of-fact tone that annoyed her, but at the same time she found herself grateful for because it was the truth—or at least, as he saw it. “Even with the Army Rangers, you won’t be able to keep the island indefinitely. I understand why you don’t want to leave. The hotel, the power supply, the beach… Hell, I’d risk it just to have ice water every day, but that’s me. I’ve survived past my sell-by date even before the world went kaput. Bottom line? There’s no reason why you and the others can’t start again someplace else.”
“Where would we go?”
“I can’t tell you that.” He paused, then added, almost reluctantly, “This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for. What’s that old saying? ‘Home is where the heart is’? These days, it might be enough just to have a home that isn’t constantly under attack.”
It was almost dark outside when she stepped out onto the hotel patio with Keo’s words echoing inside her head.
“The odds are against you… This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for.”
Wasn’t it, though? If Song Island wasn’t worth spilling blood for (and God knew, they already had, too much), then what was these days?
She just wished Will were here with her. Right now, she would be satisfied with just hearing his voice.
She looked toward the Tower, where Carly was still posted with Jo, Bonnie’s little sister. The two of them were moving from window to window with night-vision binoculars. Lara had doubled up on the watch to improve their chances of catching an attack if Kate decided to send her collaborators anyway. It was dead quiet out there, so if they were coming by boat (which they would be—was there any other way?), even using those trolling motors, they would give away their approach.
“This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Lara unclipped her radio and said into it, “Everyone in position?”
“Lake looks quiet from up here,” Carly said. “Jo and I are good to go.”
“Keo’s coming up to relieve you later tonight, Carly.”
“He’s staying?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“For tonight.” Then, “Roy?”
“Beach is clear,” Roy said.
“Piers, too,” Blaine said.
Blaine and Roy had the beach tonight, with Bonnie scheduled to relieve Roy in an hour, and Gwen for Blaine an hour after that. Not that she expected two people on the beach to repel a full-scale attack. But if they could see an assault coming, it would give them time to set up the real defense at the hotel and, if necessary, start putting Will’s Plan Z into motion.
God, that’s such an awful name for a plan that’s supposed to save our lives, Will. We need to come up with a better, more optimistic-sounding one.
“Benny?” Lara said.
“Looks good from up here,” Benny said.
Lara glanced up at the roof of the hotel behind her but couldn’t see Benny up there. He wasn’t alone; Stan the electrician and Kendra’s son Dwayne were also up there somewhere. Lara had been hesitant to make use of twelve-year-old Dwayne until she saw him shoot with his bolt-action rifle. Even Benny and Blaine were impressed.
The kid was, easily, the best shot on the island. She hadn’t asked the boy if he had ever shot anyone before, because she didn’t really want to know.
She listened to the others calling out through the radio. Gwen and the fourteen-year-old Derek were with Sarah, along with Carrie and Lorelei, in the hotel lobby. They had looked nervous when she walked through the room a few minutes ago. She didn’t blame them and she wondered if they were thinking the same thing:
“We’re prepared…but are we really?”
She didn’t know the answer to that, and she wouldn’t know until the real thing. Lara prayed none of them had to find out tonight.
One more day. Until Will and Danny come back.
And then what? We do it all over again, because Kate isn’t going to stop. She’s going to keep coming, and coming, because what’s one or a dozen more human sellouts to her?
“This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for,” Keo had said.
Maybe he was right. Maybe…
Her radio squawked and Carly’s excited voice came through. “Lara. It’s your boyfriend on the radio. Should I tell him you’re busy?”
Lara smiled and ran down the patio, then across the grounds toward the Tower. She felt ten years old again and didn’t care.
If she was going to die tonight, at least she’d get to hear Will’s voice first…
30
Will
Once they realized they weren’t going to catch up to the Bronco, the technicals slowed down, then stopped completely. An hour after that, they resumed traveling cautiously up Route 13, showing surprising patience. Then again, he guessed they could afford to take it slow and easy—the night was their ally.
Will checked his watch for the third time in the last hour: 3:16 p.m.
Three and a half hours before nightfall, give or take.
Josh’s soldiers were a kilometer out before he could actually see their vehicles as more than just flickering mirages under the sun. One was a bright cherry red mid-size Toyota Tacoma. The other was a gray full-size Nissan Titan. Both trucks moved on large tires and each had a soldier in the back positioned over an M240 machine gun (Where the hell did they find those, and where can I get one, too?) mounted on the roof by bipods. There was a driver and a passenger in each vehicle, making the total number six, unless there was additional personnel in the truck beds that he couldn’t see from his position. That was unlikely. It was way too hot to be lying down back there.
Not that he could see everything from the side of the ditch where he had been positioned for the last hour, bathing in his own sweat. Wearing the assault vest didn’t help, but Will was used to discomfort, especially with the smell of upcoming combat lingering over the horizon.
He lowered the binoculars and keyed his radio. “They’re on approach. One klick.”
Danny’s voice came through Will’s right ear. “Two little piggies went to market, while the other little piggies stayed home. Two little piggies in trucks, with more little piggies in the back with machine guns. Two little piggies are about to get shot, and they’ll be crying wee wee wee all the way home.”
Will opened one of his pouches, pulled out a granola bar, and took a bite.
“What are the chances we’re making it to the island today?” Gaby asked through his earbud.
“Not while they’re out here,” Will said.
The problem was the flat terrain around them. It didn’t matter where they drove, on or off the highway, because the soldiers would be able to spot them from a safe distance. That would lead to a car chase and a running gunfight. The Bronco was a decent vehicle, but it wasn’t going to stand up against two trucks with mounted machine guns. And those were just the bad guys they could see. There were probably (likely) more waiting closer to the interstate. A radio call later and they could easily run into an ambush without realizing it.
No, they weren’t going to avoid this. That much was clear now. The soldiers knew exactly where the Bronco had turned off the road, and it was there they were moving toward at the moment. Hopefully, they hadn’t also seen him and Danny making their way back up Route 13 on foot using the ditches as cover.
Hopefully.
“Better to shoot our way through, anyway,” Danny was saying. “Funner.”
“‘Funner’ isn’t a word,” Gaby said.
“You’re wrong and I’m righter,” Danny said.
Will imagined Gaby rolling her eyes back at their temporary base, where she was staying at the moment with the girls and Lance and Annie. The farmhouse was the best they could do in a pinch, since retreating all the way back to Dunbar was a non-starter. Gaby had mentioned a cemetery, but that was too far back, though he was impressed when she told him she had stayed in a crypt the previous night.
The enemy trucks were close enough now that Will could hear the sounds of their engines, even at their current slow, almost painfully deliberate pace. He swallowed the last piece of nearly stale granola down.
He didn’t have to use the binoculars to see them this time, with the Tacoma in one lane and the Titan in the other. The men in the back were swiveling the mounted LMGs around, looking for targets. They were scanning the ditches, fully expecting some kind of an ambush. The bipods holding up the weapons looked firmly attached to the roof.
He slipped the binoculars into his pack and scooted backward until the curved angle of the ditch allowed him to slide all the way down to the floor. He unslung the M4A1 and leaned back against the cool earth wall and waited.
“They’ll be on top of you in five,” Danny said in his right ear. “Try not to screw this up like you always do.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“That reminds me of a joke…”
“Of course it does.”
“Two high school best friends are sick and tired of being virgins, so one day they cook up a scheme to both get laid at the same time. One of the boys comes up with the perfect girl to seduce. So they go on the Internet and watch hundreds of videos about what girls like. When they’re finally ready, they plot their move. One day, as their target is walking home from school, our virgins jump out of a bush and both shout at the same time, ‘Hey, you wanna have hot sex? We guarantee we’ll please you!’ The girl squeals, ‘Ew, gross!’ Then she points at virgin number one and says, ‘I’m going to tell mom, Rob!’ And runs off. Virgin number two is understandably confused. He turns to his buddy and says, ‘Dude, we are so screwed! Why didn’t you tell me she was your sister?’ To which virgin number one replies, ‘Well, her room’s right next to mine and she’s always screwing guys every night, so I figured she’d be pretty easy!’”
“Gross, Danny,” Gaby said.
“You gotta be there, I guess.” Then, “Speaking of which, one minute until they’re on top of you, Kemosabe.”
“Roger that,” Will said.
Not that he needed Danny to tell him. He could hear the tires crunching against the hard asphalt. He guessed they were moving ten, maybe fifteen, miles an hour. From this distance, the drivers could see the bright red barn and the two-story house where Gaby was currently watching from, along with the Bronco parked in the front yard.
“I counted six,” Will whispered into his throat mic.
“Sounds about right,” Danny said. “Four inside, two in the rear. Speaking of rears—”
“Be careful, guys,” Gaby said, cutting him off. “I don’t like the look of those machine guns.”
“Neither do I,” Danny said. “950 rounds per minute is not my idea of a fun prom date.”
“What’s the range on that thing?”
“Don’t worry; they’re not going to be shooting at the house until they’re way closer.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better, Danny.” She sighed, then, “Where did they get something like that, anyway?”
“Probably the same place they got the rifles and ammo, and army boots, and MREs…”
Will glanced up just as the first truck—the Tacoma—was directly on the road in f
ront of him. There was a slight squeak as the gunner swiveled the machine gun around on its bipod. The M240 was a heavy weapon at just under twenty-eight pounds, which was why it was more effective when mounted instead of being carried by a single soldier. It utilized an ammo belt, which was the source of the clink-clink noise he was hearing now as the dangling bullets tapped against the metal of the car.
“You good?” Danny said in his right ear.
“Go for it,” Will whispered back.
“I call shotgun,” Danny said just before a loud crack! rang out.
Will was moving even before the shot had finished its echo. He stretched up to his full five-eleven height and his vision filled with the cab of the Tacoma that had stopped directly in front of him.
Danny fired again, then again, and again. Calmly, putting every bullet where he intended them.
The driver was fumbling with the gear, trying to reverse, when Will shot him in the left temple, shattering the closed window in the process. The man slumped forward, his head slamming into the horn and causing it to fill up the countryside with a headache-inducing blare.
Then the brap-brap-brap-brap of one of the M240s firing, overpowering even the loud car horn. Bullets weren’t hitting the ditch around him, so Will assumed the man was trying to hit something else (Danny) down the road and still didn’t know he existed.
Will couldn’t see the Titan from his position, with the Tacoma in the way. He had to climb out of the ditch before he could see the rest of the road.
The Tacoma wasn’t going anywhere. He had shot the driver and Danny had taken out the front passenger and the one manning the machine gun in the back. But while the Tacoma was down, the Titan was still alive and kicking, its machine gun firing at Danny’s position, the clink-clink-clink of bullet casings pelting the bed of the truck like falling rain. A second soldier was adding his own fire, standing behind the open driver side door. Will couldn’t tell if the passenger was still alive on the other side of the truck. Not that he wasted too much time thinking about it.
The Purge of Babylon Series Box Set, Vol. 2 | Books 4-6 Page 42