Not bleeding to death is good. Definitely very good.
Or, at least, he didn’t think he was bleeding to death. The comfortable mattress (was it a mattress?) he was lying on didn’t feel the slightest bit damp. There was still natural sunlight around him, so he hadn’t slept through the day. Unless, of course, he had and was waking up days later, which would not have been ideal given what was out there—or more specifically, what was incoming.
Buckies. A whole mess of Buckies.
Sherry must have heard him stirring, because she glanced over. “Look at you, still alive. Jonah and I took bets on when you’d wake up.”
“Who won?” Keo asked.
“No one. I said tomorrow at the earliest, and he didn’t think you would.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” He paused. Then, “Speaking of Short Round…”
Sherry smiled. “He’s busy coordinating the evacuation.”
He thought about trying to sit up, to test how badly off he was after his little stunt in the fields, but decided the consequences weren’t worth finding out. Besides, he was lying on some kind of soft cot—or a mattress on a pallet. Whatever it was, it was damn soft, and the wind and sun in his face was so soothing.
I’m still at the beach. Definitely still at Jonah’s.
“So how long have I been out?” Keo asked.
“A few hours,” Sherry said.
“What time is it?”
“We’re coming on noon. You’re lucky to be alive, Keo. You were bleeding like a stuck pig when the girl brought you over. But fortunately, we got to you in time.” She seemed to wince. “I wouldn’t move too much, if I were you. That bullet hole in your side’s not going to disappear anytime soon.”
“You’re up and walking around.”
“I was shot yesterday. Big difference. Besides, I don’t have any choice.”
“And I do?”
“You have plenty of choices. One of them is to stay down until you’re healed. We have some sedatives that will help with that.”
“No,” Keo said. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
She frowned. “That might not be a long way off.”
“Hey, jokes are my territory.” Then, “You said the girl brought me back here?”
“I think her name is Megan? She got you up on that horse of yours and led it over here. Brave kid. She told us you were going to go back out there to look for her mother after you got better.”
Keo sighed, and this time did try to sit up, despite his better judgment. He managed it just barely, thanks to the wall on his left providing support. He turned around on the bed and slid his feet off the cot. He was shirtless and his side had been bandaged, and when he touched his temple, he found more gauze up there.
The pain continued to throb, except this time it was coming from below and above his torso, simultaneously trying to see which one was going to kill him first. Moving any part of his body was like being punched in the gut, repeatedly.
It could have been worse. You could be dead right now.
“I saw a plane,” Keo said.
“The Warthog?” Sherry said.
He nodded. “You know what it is?”
“They come through here every now and then. Carl was in the military; he recognized what they were.”
“They?”
“There’s a fleet of them out there, somewhere. Jonah says he started seeing them years ago when that whole Battle of Houston thing was happening. He thinks they might have taken part in it, launched from an island somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Jonah’s right, Keo thought, and said, “Where was the one from this morning going?”
“Don’t know. None of them have ever stopped to chat with us.”
“Never?”
She shook her head. “I guess they’re doing their own thing.”
“I guess so.” Keo sighed again and leaned back against the wall. He took a breath, found it easy enough, and took another one. “Who shot the snipers?”
“I did,” Sherry said. She nodded at a bolt-action rifle leaning against the railing next to her. It looked familiar. “I’ve never shot that far and well in my life. I think he was up there guiding my aim.”
“He?”
“Carl. That’s his rifle.”
“Ah.”
“I take it you’re not a believer?”
“Depends on what you’re talking about.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Six years ago, I would have said no without having to think about it. But I’ve seen a lot of things since then…”
“Exactly,” Sherry said. “How can you still not believe after everything you’ve seen out there? After everything that’s happened?”
“I’ve been accused of being a little stubborn before.”
“A little?”
He smirked. “But you do, apparently. Believe, I mean.”
“Yes.”
“Did you always?”
“No. Not always.” She turned around and leaned against the railing. “But like you said, Keo, the things I’ve seen out there...”
There was a loud banging sound, then car doors slamming below them.
“What’s going on?” Keo asked.
“We’re leaving. Guys are loading up the trucks as we speak.”
Keo clenched his teeth and stood up. It was a mistake, and pain rippled across his body.
“You really shouldn’t be up,” Sherry said, looking back at him.
“I’ll be fine.”
He forced himself to walk gingerly over to her. Every step was a knife shooting through his side, a reinforcement of Sherry’s comment.
But Keo kept stubbornly going forward anyway. “I’ve been in worse shape.”
“I believe you.”
He finally reached the railing and grabbed onto it for support, and looked down.
There was a full-blown evacuation going on below them. Jonah’s men were in constant motion, transferring boxes, bundles, and everything else they could carry from the other buildings over to the vehicles. Keo hadn’t counted when he was here earlier, but there had to be over two dozen cars down there. Christine and the refugees were also around helping with the moving.
Keo glanced behind him, into the building he was standing on. There was furniture and beds but no people. Megan also wasn’t back there.
“Living quarters,” Sherry said. “Everyone took their emergency personal items. The only thing left to carry down is you.”
He snorted and turned back to the activity below. “Where’s Megan?”
“She’s walking Horse around on the beach.” Sherry chuckled. “One of the sentries saw it running off about ten or so minutes after you went swimming. Jonah and I were wondering if it knew you’d left it behind.” She glanced at Keo when she said that last part.
Keo shrugged. “It’s a weird horse.”
And it saved my life, he thought, remembering how the thoroughbred had burst out of the bush and headbutted the blue-eyed ghoul. Great. I owe my life to a horse. How the hell am I going to pay that off?
He looked past the hustle and bustle below and at the empty fields beyond. There were no signs of Buckies and no hints that anything had happened, or that he had almost died out there. There was just a lot of grass rippling against the wind.
But that calmness wasn’t going to last forever. Sooner or later, Buck was going to show up, and after what had happened yesterday, then this morning, Keo didn’t think he was going to be in any mood to negotiate.
He checked his watch: 11:45 a.m.
“How long has this been going on?” he asked.
“Right after you got back,” Sherry said. “We’re almost done.”
“Then what?”
“Then we’re gone,” Jonah said as he climbed up the stairs to join them on the deck. His shirt was damp with sweat, and he wiped at his face with a rag. “I hate to abandon this place, but it’s better than sitting here and waiting for your Bucky pals to come back. This time they
might bring more than just eight guys.”
“Was that how many were out there this morning?”
“Five regular guys and three snipers,” Sherry said.
“You were right,” Jonah said to Keo. “If you hadn’t gone out there and done what you did, they could have pinned us down here for days waiting for their reinforcements to show up. Then all our asses would have been cooked.”
“I saw two of them making a run for it,” Keo said.
“One got away,” Sherry said.
I guess Carl’s heavenly aiming assist was a little off.
Jonah leaned against the railing next to him and looked down at the ongoing evacuation. He shook his head and sighed. “I’m really going to hate leaving this place. But dammit, it isn’t worth dying for.”
“Where are you guys going?” Keo asked.
“There are a few places farther down the shoreline that could make for a decent replacement. It won’t be the same, but, well, we started from scratch before, and we can do it again.”
“Here,” Sherry said. When Keo looked over, she handed him the same bottle of painkillers he’d given her earlier. “Thought you’d need it back. We refilled it for you.”
“Hallelujah.” Keo took the bottle, shook out two white pills, and downed them in one swallow. “You doing okay?”
“I got my own refills this morning.” She took a similarly small and unlabeled bottle out of her pocket and jingled it. “Thanks for asking.”
“I guess getting shot isn’t anything new to you, huh?” Jonah asked him.
Keo smirked. “I’m still around. That’s all that matters.”
“I hear that.”
“How long before you guys take off?”
“Thirty minutes, give or take,” Jonah said. “We’re loading the nonessentials now. I wanted to wait until I was sure we had extra space.”
“Even with all the refugees?”
“We have eleven trucks, two sedans, two motorcycles, and a Jeep.” Jonah nodded. “We got plenty of space. For you and the girl, too.”
As if on cue, Keo spotted Megan walking over to the crowd, pulling Horse by the reins behind her. She made a beeline for Christine and the group from Winding Creek.
“Where’d you get all the gas?” Keo asked.
“We put a storage tank underneath one of the houses a while back, filled it with as much fuel as we could find before they went bad,” Jonah said. “One of my guys is a former airport mechanic; he’s been keeping an eye on it for us until we needed it—like now. Guy’s a magician. I wouldn’t know the first thing about that stuff. Most of these cars were already here before I showed up. The rest came with everyone else.”
“How much fuel is left down there?”
Jonah shook his head. “Not much. We filled up every spare can we have to take with us. Why, you need fuel?”
“Nah. Horse can pretty much eat anything except gasoline.”
“So does that mean you’re going with?”
Keo shook his head.
Jonah grinned at Sherry. “I told you.”
“You’re nuts,” Sherry said to Keo.
Probably, he thought, but said, “I need you to watch her for me. Megan.”
“Me or Sherry?” Jonah asked.
“No offense, man, but she’d be more comfortable with Sherry.”
Jonah chuckled. “Hey, I can be pretty good with kids. Don’t let the beady eyes fool you.”
“I have no doubt.” He looked over at Sherry for confirmation. “She knows Christine, but I’d feel better if there was someone watching her who could actually protect her if necessary.”
Sherry nodded. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll be in good hands.”
“You sure you don’t wanna tag along?” Jonah asked. “We could use a man with your skill set.”
“I can’t,” Keo said.
“Can’t, or don’t want to?”
Keo didn’t answer right away. Instead, he watched Megan standing next to Christine. The girl must have sensed him staring, because she looked up and over, and when she saw him, waved.
Keo smiled and waved back. “I promised her I’d find her mother.”
“You can barely stand,” Jonah said. “You won’t be much good against the Buckies in your current condition. Better if you come with us, get healed up first, then go looking to get yourself killed. I mean, go looking for her mother.”
Keo chuckled. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Jonah.”
“No sweat.”
“She told us the Buckies got Emma on the way over here,” Sherry said.
“Uh huh,” Keo nodded.
“You know where she is?” Jonah asked. “I mean, if you’re going to go after her, you need to at least know that.”
“Doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.”
“Fenton.”
“Yup. Fenton.”
“What the hell are they doing with the women and children in Fenton?” Sherry asked. “Christine and the others told us the same thing; they were taking just the women and children. What is going on in that place?”
Keo shook his head. It was a very good question and wasn’t anything he hadn’t asked himself over and over again since Winding Creek: What are they doing with the women and children in Fenton?
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “But that’s where they took Emma, so that’s where I have to go.”
“Must be the end of the world fever, making everyone a little nutso,” Jonah said. “That’s assuming you even make it there. And I’m not talking about the getting-shot-on-the-road type of misfortune. I’m talking more about you falling down and dying with no one around to stop you from bleeding to death.”
“He’s right,” Sherry said. “You really should come with us, Keo. You’re in no shape to be going out there on your own. You’re in no shape to be doing anything on your own right now. At least wait twenty-four hours if you’re dead set on doing this.”
“I’ll be fine,” Keo said. “Besides, I won’t be alone. I’ll take Horse with me.”
“You can’t even ride in your current condition.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“The man’s made up his mind, Sherry,” Jonah said. “I can respect that. I think it’s pretty dumb, mind you, but I respect his determination to get himself killed.”
Sherry didn’t look like she was ready to give up, though. “Even if you make it to Fenton, you’ll be walking into the lion’s den. I’ve heard about what they did to Dresden, Juno, and Winding Creek. If they find out who you are, you’ll never make it out of that place alive, Keo.”
Keo watched Megan and Christine below, waiting for their turn to pile into the waiting vehicles.
Finally, he said, “Wouldn’t be the first time I did something I wasn’t supposed to walk away from. I’ll just add this one to the list.”
Twenty-Eight
Horse didn’t seem to notice that everyone was leaving Jonah’s except for them, but then the thoroughbred appeared more occupied with the pair of crabs that had washed up on the beach behind them. Keo kept expecting Buckies to come out of hiding, either running out of the trees or popping up from the surrounding fields to start raining bullets in their direction, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, Jonah’s people disappeared up the shoreline one car at a time, carving a makeshift road along the spot where the grass met the beach.
“Head over there if you’re still alive after this,” Jonah had said. “If we’re not at one of those places, we’ll be at the other ones. Just keep going.”
“You don’t sound very optimistic about seeing me again,” Keo had said.
Short Stuff had chuckled. “I’ve been around a long time, Keo. Seen a lot of things that would make your hairs stand up. I even had a back-and-forth with a couple of guys who managed to do things I didn’t think were possible. So I absolutely believe we’ll be seeing you again, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t.”
“Take care of Megan for me.�
�
“I thought that was Sherry’s job.”
“Just in case.”
“Just in case,” Jonah had nodded.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Only if I don’t have to answer.”
“Why are you doing this?” Keo had asked. “Is this about saving these people, or is it about self-preservation?”
Jonah had grinned back at him. “Can’t it be a little of both?”
And then they were gone, along with Megan. The girl had waved to him as the truck she was in with Sherry drove off. Keo had put on a forced smile and waved back, but even that took a lot of effort and he had thought, Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
But it was too late to change his mind now as he watched the last of the vehicles vanish up the shoreline, sunlight blinking off its roof. He continued to hear the sounds of their engines in the open air for a long time afterward. Until, eventually, even that faded and it was just him and Horse standing on a beach with the Gulf of Mexico batting against the sands behind him.
Keo glanced over at Horse. “You should have gone with them. You know that, right?”
The animal ignored him and continued playing with the two crabs.
“I’m just saying, don’t say I didn’t give you the chance.”
Keo grabbed the saddle horn and gingerly lifted himself up and into the stirrups, then spent a few minutes adjusting the two slung packs to achieve a better balance. Mostly, he just wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to black out and fall right back down. The thought of lying on the sand, dying, with no one around to pick him up was a very real possibility.
His temple still throbbed, but the painkillers were helping with that, and also with the continued pain from his side. The stitching was better than anything he could have done himself, and he was lucky to be near Jonah’s when he was shot.
Lucky? You wouldn’t have been shot if it weren’t for them.
“Good point. Very good point.”
Horse lifted his head to look back at him.
“Don’t mind me, just talking to myself,” Keo said, and patted the animal on his mane. “Let’s take it slow, huh? Easy does it.”
Keo took out the bottle of painkillers and popped two more into his mouth, chasing them down with some warm water this time. He spent an extra few minutes letting the chilly air from the ocean wash across him, then closed and reopened his eyes to see if he was in any danger of toppling off the saddle.
Road To Babylon Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 24