The Isles of Elysium (Purge of Babylon, Book 6) (37 page)

“You see them a lot back in town?”

“Sometimes.”

They were within sight of the marina when Dave cut the motor and Keo dropped the anchor, leaving the twenty-footer to drift back and forth against the slight waves. He tightened his grip on the M4 in his lap, wishing badly for his MP5SD—and more importantly, the silver ammo inside the magazine—as he watched them pouring into the parking lot and spreading out along the fingers of the docks in waves.

“They can’t swim, right?” Dave asked behind him. He was still whispering for some reason.

I think they can hear and see you just fine, Dave,
Keo thought, but said, “No, they can’t swim.”

At least, the black-eyed ones couldn’t. He had seen that himself back on Song Island, and the ones back at T18 had stayed as far away from the river as they could while still crowding the banks.

So what about the blue-eyed ones?

“They’re smarter than the rest,”
Danny had told him during one of those days when there was nothing to do on the
Trident
but watch the endless ocean.
“If you see them, run the other way, Obi-Wan Keobi. Or shoot them in the head. That seems to work pretty well.”

Shoot them in the head? How the hell was he going to do that? Keo had seen that thing back there, the way it was moving. Danny wasn’t kidding. The creature that had assaulted the horsemen was just a blur. How do you put a bullet in the head of something that could move
that fast?

But that was a problem for another day. Right now, he focused on the black-eyed creatures along the marina. There weren’t nearly enough of them to fill up the whole place, which he guessed was the good news. The bad news, unfortunately, was that there were still enough that it was difficult to make out the docks and the parking lot floor under the sea of black, writhing flesh.

“How many are on the island?” Dave asked.

“Anywhere from one to 200…or possibly more.”

“Jeez Louise. And we want to go
there?
”

“There was a teenager who lived on the island for months by himself.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any desire to stay on that rock for months.”

“We won’t have to. Steve will find us by morning and try to kill us first.”

“Oh, okay, no worries then.”

Keo smiled. “Point is, if we can’t find any spare fuel, we’ll either kill Steve and take one of his boats and use it to get off the island, or he’ll kill us. Either way, this thing’s going to be over in twenty-four hours.”

“Man, if you’re trying to cheer me up, you’re doing a real shitty job of it.”

“Just the facts.”

“Yeah, whatever, Sergeant Joe Friday.”

“Who?”

“Joe Friday. From
Dragnet?
”

Keo shook his head.

“You know who James Bond is, but you don’t know
Dragnet
or Stanley Kubrick’s
2001?
”

“Should I?”

“Hell, yes. They’re classics, dude.”

“Ah,” Keo said.

“Clueless,” Dave said. Then, “Hey, she’s waking up.”

Keo got up and hurried to the stern. “Take the front.”

Dave nodded and they swapped places.

Keo crouched next to Jordan and pulled down the zipper of her thick parka until her entire face was exposed. She had opened her eyes—or at least the one still capable of opening—and was looking back at him. Her lips were pale like the rest of her face. She was ghostlike, and she blinked up at him, overly long eyelashes flickering back and forth.

“Hey,” he said.

Her good eye darted left then right before picking his face back up. Then, softly, like she had to summon all of her strength just to get the sounds out, “Did I pee myself?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Then why are my pants wet?”

“We’re all wet. You don’t remember the rainstorm?”

“No…”

“Lightning? Thunder? Gunfire?”

“No, no, and no. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You weren’t even supposed to wake up until tomorrow.”

“Is that why I feel like my head’s about to break open?”

“Probably.”

“Good to know.” Then, “You said ‘we’…”

“Me, Dave, and you.”

“Who’s Dave?”

“Great, she doesn’t even know who I am,” Dave grunted from the bow. “Man, I should have stayed at the cafeteria.”

“The guy who saved you,” Keo said.

“Then what are you doing here?” she asked him.

“I’m the guy who saved the guy who saved you.”

“Oh.” She blinked once, then a second time. “I dreamt of Gillian…”

“Oh yeah?”

“She’d gotten really fat in the dream, but don’t tell her I said that.”

“Scout’s honor,” Keo smiled.

Morning came and
chased the ghouls back to wherever they had been hiding before nightfall. There, they would wait and wait, because inevitably their time would come again.

“Look at them,” Jordan said. “That’s all they do, isn’t it, day after day? They come out at night and hide in the day. Then they do it all over again the next night. Do they ever starve, you think?”

“I don’t know,” Keo said.

“You ever think about it?”

“Not really.”

“You’re not the curious type, is that it?”

“I’m curious, I just don’t have any answers, so I figured I should probably keep it all to myself until I do. What’s that saying about opening your mouth and proving to the world you’re a fool?”

“Are you calling me a fool, Keo?”

“Not at all. Maybe if we’re still alive after tonight, we can talk about what these things do and don’t do, and blah blah blah.”

“I just realized what I missed most about you.”

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

He chuckled. “I don’t believe that.”

Keo sat next to her at the bow of the twenty-footer as Dave turned on the trolling motor and guided the boat toward the marina. Now that he was approaching the island from the western side, Keo could see the large area reserved for the ferry, the ball-diamond-ball day shapes still hanging off the large metal pole next to the ramp. They were staying away from it and angling toward the docks designed for smaller crafts.

Jordan had taken off most of her swaddling, though she still kept the raincoat on. She looked better in the sunlight, and the swelling around her right eye had gone down enough that it was a good sign she’d keep improving.

“So how long before he finds us?” she asked.

The question prompted Keo to glance behind him. He expected to see Steve and his soldiers bearing down on them in a group of fast-moving boats. But there was just the brightening horizon and glimpses of sporadic and fading landmasses in the distance. In the aftermath of last night’s torrential downpour, the coastline had become ghostly serene.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said.

They didn’t say anything for a while, and instead just watched the marina grow in front of them. It looked utterly inviting—wide open and empty—but of course he knew better. There were things on Santa Marie Island that would tear them to pieces if given the chance.

“Did you see Gillian?” Jordan asked.

“Yes,” Keo said.

“How’d it go?”

How did it go? It went swell. She’s with another guy. And she’s having his baby. Couldn’t have gone better.

“That well, huh?” she said when he didn’t answer.

“You knew she was living with Jay all along, even before last night.”

Jordan sighed. She had apparently been dreading the question.

“Jordan…”

“Yes,” she said. “How’d you know?”

“You told Dave to go to her house. How would you know where she lived, or who with, unless she had already moved in with Jay before you escaped? Was the whole point of going there to get help from Jay or Gillian?”

“A little of both, I guess.”

“It was a smart move. Probably saved your life. Of course, if it hadn’t rained, they would have tracked you straight to her house. Dave didn’t exactly do a good job of hiding your tracks.”

“Hey, I did my best,” Dave said behind them. “I work in the cafeteria for a reason, you know.”

“You did great, Dave,” Jordan said.

“Thanks. Nice to be appreciated.”

Jordan looked over at Keo. “And I’m sorry. About Gillian. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

He nodded, surprised that he wasn’t madder at her. He should have known though. All those times when he asked her about Gillian and it always seemed as if she was choosing her words carefully. Too carefully.

“I’m sorry, Keo,” she said again. “I should have told you sooner. I always wanted to, but I just didn’t know how. I guess I was too much of a coward.”

“Water under the bridge.”

She nodded, but he wasn’t sure if she believed him. He wasn’t sure if
he
believed himself.

“How’s the eye?” he asked.

“My swelling will go down eventually, but your face isn’t going to get any prettier anytime soon.”

Dave chuckled behind them.

“Stop being a bitch, Jordan,” Keo said. “I saved your life last night, remember?”

She smiled back. “Sorry. Thank you for saving my life.”

He grunted.

With the docks almost within sight, Keo drew his Glock and handed it to her. She took it, along with the extra magazine that she slid into her raincoat pocket.

“Stay here,” he said, standing up. He glanced back at Dave. “Easy does it.”

“Hey, who got us through that snake of a river last night?” Dave asked.

Keo grinned. “Point taken,
el capitan.
”

*

Keo hopped out
of the boat and was on the dock before Dave even turned off the trolling motor. He moved inland, the M4 in front of him, hoping he didn’t see anything behind the red dot scope so he didn’t have to shoot.

It wasn’t the possibility of shooting someone that worried him; it was the fact that if he had to kill at all, that meant there were others already on the island. There was no telling who might have sneaked onto Santa Marie while they waited out the night. The bad guys, as he kept reminding himself, didn’t need to be afraid of the darkness.

Fortunately, no one was hiding behind one of the dozen trucks still frozen in the parking lot, or poked their head out from the ridges that flanked the marina.

He stepped off the docks and kept going. He would have moved faster if his clothes weren’t still partially soaked in last night’s rain and he wasn’t half-running and half-limping, the pain in his thigh reasserting itself this morning. The painkillers had begun kicking in a few hours ago, and though he had been tempted to down a couple more before sunup, he had resisted.

He swept the trucks and picked up the fresh, muddy footprints along the floors. Bare footprints.

Ghouls.

The storm system that had drowned T18 last night had been moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico. It had clearly hit Santa Marie Island first before moving on, and he was looking at the rain-slicked results. It also reinforced what he had seen back in town. The ghouls weren’t afraid of the rain, just the rivers, the oceans, and the lakes. Why? What was the difference? Water was water, right?

Apparently not.

He let himself breathe easier only after he had reached the marina entrance. Keo leaned out and looked left, then right, up the streets. Scanned the houses on both sides, and it was only when he couldn’t detect any signs of movement that he finally lowered the M4 and let himself relax for the first time since jumping out of the boat.

He turned around and waved to Dave and Jordan, the two of them still waiting in the boat. He watched as Dave hopped out with the line and tied it into place, then helped Jordan out. They carried Dave’s pack and what weapons they had brought with them and hurried up the docks. Unlike him earlier, they seemed to be moving fine, even Jordan.

Keo took a moment for himself and glanced up at the warm sun. The mid-November weather was becoming more prominent, the air getting cooler every day. For now, the sky was wide open in the aftermath of last night’s storm. He imagined this was one of those days that made owning a home in a place like this worth every penny.

Santa Marie Island, whether he wanted it to or not, would make a hell of a good last stand.

*