Author: Sam Sisavath
Date: 2018-07-13 07:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Thriller
Description: THEY DON’T KNOW WHO THEY’RE MESSING WITH. Keo isn’t an easy man to kill. Many have tried, and none have succeeded. His skills are becoming legendary, but everyone has an Achilles heel. In the aftermath of Buck’s bloody surprise attack on Darby Bay, Keo has rushed to help his friends. But he’s too late, and the battle has already been decided. Yet, while the fates of many have been sealed, others still hang in the balance. One of those people is Lara, the only woman Keo can’t seem to put behind him. She’s back in his life, and the situation is more dire than ever. The world is suddenly full of
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Press

The Distance

Copyright © 2018 by Sam Sisavath

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Road to Babylon Media LLC
www.roadtobabylon.com

Edited by Jennifer Jensen, Wendy Chan, and Shavonne Clarke

Cover Art by Deranged Doctor Design

Contents

Books in the Road to Babylon Series

Also by Sam Sisavath

About The Distance

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Epilogue

Books in the Road to Babylon Series

Glory Box

Bombtrack

Rooster

Devil’s Haircut

Black

The Distance

Also by Sam Sisavath

The Purge of Babylon Post-Apocalyptic Series

The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival

The Gates of Byzantium

The Stones of Angkor

The Walls of Lemuria Collection (Keo Prequel)

The Fires of Atlantis

The Ashes of Pompeii

The Isles of Elysium

The Spears of Laconia

The Horns of Avalon

The Bones of Valhalla

Mason’s War (A Purge of Babylon Story)

The After the Purge Post-Apocalyptic Series

Requiem

Tokens

The Allie Krycek Vigilante Series

Hunter/Prey

Saint/Sinner

Finders/Keepers

The Red Sky Conspiracy Series

Most Wanted

The Devil You Know

About The Distance

THEY DON’T KNOW WHO THEY’RE MESSING WITH.

Keo isn’t an easy man to kill. Many have tried, and none have succeeded. His skills are becoming legendary, but everyone has an Achilles heel.

In the aftermath of Buck’s bloody surprise attack on Darby Bay, Keo has rushed to help his friends. But he’s too late, and the battle has already been decided. Yet, while the fates of many have been sealed, others still hang in the balance.

One of those people is Lara, the only woman Keo can’t seem to put behind him. She’s back in his life, and the situation is more dire than ever. The world is suddenly full of enemies again, and it will take all of Keo’s abilities to keep them both alive.

In The Distance, Book 6 in the Road to Babylon series, the chase is on, but the enemy will discover that you hunt Keo at your own peril.

One

Three Buckies in a city that had seen better days. Three Buckies doing bad things. Keo wished he could have said this was unexpected, but truth be told, this was the least objectionable thing he’d run across since sneaking back into the port city.

Pfft! as the modified AR bucked in his hands, and the 5.56 round sailed thirty meters and struck one of the Buckies in the back of the head. Keo imagined he could hear the bullet rattling around inside the man’s skull as the Bucky fell sideways off the stack of plastic crates he’d been sitting on and crumpled on the debris-strewn floor. Keo also imagined hearing the audible gasp of surprise from the dead Bucky’s comrade as the man turned around.

One Bucky down.

The second target got up. Or tried to. He made it halfway before Keo shot him in the neck. Keo had aimed for the head, but the man’s sudden lurch upward had spared his life. For a second, anyway, which was exactly how long it took Keo to tilt the rifle slightly and fire again.

A second pfft!, the sound of another suppressed gunshot. It was loud enough to Keo’s ears but not for anyone else around him.

The second Bucky collapsed.

Two Buckies down.

One to go…

Keo got up and slung the rifle, then stepped out of the flower shop and onto the sidewalk. Midday sun beat down on him, a welcome warmth after the chill he’d been braving all morning on the way back here. And then there was the added security of daylight. After five years of not having to fear the night, that had all changed.

More proof of that came in the pile of bleached white bones belonging to two dead ghouls on the sidewalk that Keo walked around. One had a hole in its temple, and the other featured a shattered chest cavity. Dead nightcrawlers, their flesh stripped away by sunlight. They weren’t the only two he’d run across—far from it—and they wouldn’t be the last. Not as long as it was out there.

Merrick.

He shivered at the thought of its name, remembering the sound of its voice, its stench, its very existence. He should have been avoiding the creature at all costs, but instead here he was, moving around the same city that it had roamed just last night.

Where was it now, he wondered? Keo had no idea. And frankly, he hoped that didn’t change anytime soon.

He strode casually across the street. He was wearing the right clothes—khaki cargo pants, boots, a long-sleeve thermal shirt, and, more importantly, a black assault vest with a circled M over one of the pouches. The gas mask clipped to his left hip, over the sheathed knife, was an extra precaution. He’d seen too many Buckies carrying the breathing apparatus to think it was coincidence. No. This was the new Bucky “uniform,” and Keo had relieved it from its original owner in order to fit in.

There was no one in the streets, but that wasn’t too much of a surprise. Darby Bay was big and spread out, and there were more dead bodies than living ones in the seaside town at the moment. The human and the formerly human variety. His nostrils twitched at the lingering, acrid smell of evaporated ghoul flesh in the air. He’d detected the familiar stench before he even neared the city. It was everywhere, and the readily apparent nature of it meant a lot of ghouls had died here last night.

Where did they all come from? Where had Merrick been hiding them all this time?

More questions, and so few answers.

But right now, they didn’t matter anyway. Right now, he only had one goal.

“Find Lara. Save Lara. Kill everyone that gets in the way.”

Shards of glass crunched under his boots, bringing his focus back to the present. Debris—chunks of brick and mortar, walls, and metal fragments—dotted the roads and sidewalks. Most of the buildings showed signs of collateral damage, evidence this part of the city hadn’t been spared the fighting that had ravaged it last night.

Keo had walked through war zones before—hell, he’d been part of the people responsible for creating those war zones once or twice in his career—and he could see and sniff and feel it in Darby Bay. It had to all have taken place last night, because yesterday morning Keo was here and this place was still in one piece. But that was before he stepped onto a helo and inserted into Fenton, only to come running back. Too late, as it turned out.

There were still visible thin wisps of smoke across the city, from the north side where the heaviest of the fighting had taken place. A couple of buildings had been knocked down, and the mile-long field between the town’s north end and the woods beyond were scorched.

A-10s raining down heavy ordnance. Fighting in the streets. A destroyed command center. Those were all bad clues to what had gone down.

He ground his teeth together. While he was trying to survive Fenton, Buck was over here attacking his friends. It was all planned out. Keo knew that now. What was that Buck had said to him?

“I hope you said your good-byes before you left Darby Bay, because that was the last time you’re going to see them again. It took five years, but it’s here. The night of reckoning. You didn’t think we’d all forget, did you? Well, did you?”

Nice one, Buck. Nice one, pal.

He stepped through a shattered window and into the remains of a pet store. The two Buckies he’d shot lay sprawled on the floor. Keo stepped over them, shooting each one in the head as he did so (Just in case) before moving on toward the back. He slung the rifle and drew his SIG Sauer, then took out the extra suppressor from behind his back and quickly screwed it into place.

He passed rows of empty fish tanks and went around the counter. There was a door marked Employees Only, and Keo put one gloved hand on the doorknob and turned it.

There were two people inside—a third Bucky and a woman huddled in the corner, staring wide-eyed at the man crouched in front of her. Her knees were pulled against her chest, and she had both hands wrapped around them so tight he was afraid she might cut off circulation. The Bucky in front of her had a knife in one hand, the blade resting casually on one bent knee so the woman—a girl, really; she couldn’t have been more than sixteen—could see how sharp it was.

The man glanced up and over as Keo stepped into the room. “I got first dibs, motherfucker,” the man said just before Keo shot him in the shoulder.

The pfft! of the suppressed gunshot was followed by the clink! of the brass casing as it bounced off the dirty tiled floor and rolled underneath a filthy sofa.

The Bucky screamed, and Keo thought, Way too loud!

Keo ran forward as the man dropped his knife and grabbed for his holstered sidearm. He kicked the Bucky in the chest and knocked him to the floor on his back. The guy was still reaching for his gun when Keo put his boot on his wounded shoulder and pushed down. The Bucky opened his mouth to scream again, but he hadn’t gotten the sounds out before Keo shoved the cold suppressor at the end of his SIG into the widening mouth.

That kept the Bucky from screaming but didn’t stop his hand from still continuing with the motion of going for his pistol. He had just gotten a grip on it when Keo’s eyes shifted to the gun, then back at him, and he flashed the man a Are you being serious right now? smirk.

The wounded Bucky took his hand away from the gun and dropped it to the floor.

“That’s a good boy,” Keo said.

He removed his boot from the man’s shoulder and pulled the suppressor out of his mouth. The Bucky swallowed but didn’t make a sound. Instead, he cringed silently as blood gathered under him from his bleeding shoulder.

Keo remained standing over his prey, the gun still pointed at the man’s face. The Bucky stared up at him, the girl in the corner of the room all but forgotten.

Not by Keo, though. He looked over at her. She had stayed quiet throughout the whole thing. Maybe she was too shocked to react. Layers of soot covered her jeans and long-sleeve shirt, and dirt clung to long, blonde hair. She was noticeably trembling from her mud-caked and blood-flecked sneakers to her puffy, round face.

They exchanged a look, and Keo put a finger to his lips. The girl bobbed her head quickly up and down in acknowledgement.

Keo turned back to the wounded Bucky. “Your friends are dead. You will be too, if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

“What are you doing?” the Bucky said. His eyes zeroed in on the M on Keo’s chest. “What the fuck are you doing, man?”

“Ignore the clothes. I borrowed them from a dead man.”

“Fuck…”

“Yeah,” Keo said. Then, “Black Tide. Where are they?”

“What?”

“Black Tide. Where did they all go?”

“They’re dead, man. They’re all dead.”

“How?”

“We took the city last night. We killed every Black Tider we saw. There was a lot of them, but we got them all eventually.”

“All of them?”

“Yeah. All of them. Pretty much.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true. I swear it.”

Keo narrowed his eyes at the man. It was hard to believe someone answering questions at gunpoint. Was it possible every single Black Tider was dead like the man had said?

No. That’s impossible. No fucking way.

Keo put his boot back over the Bucky’s shoulder, and the man reflexively opened his mouth to scream. Keo shushed him, and the Bucky snapped his mouth closed, but a pained yelp managed to slip through anyway. Beads of sweat popped along his temple and forehead as he grimaced.

“Lara,” Keo said. “What happened to Lara?”

“I don’t know,” the Bucky said. He’d all but hissed the words out, so intent on not screaming while he answered.

Keo pulled his foot off the man’s wounded shoulder to ease up the pressure. The Bucky let out an overly loud sigh of relief.

“I don’t know,” the Bucky said, the words coming out easier now. “I don’t know what happened to her.”

“Then how do you know she’s dead?” Keo asked.

“Because they’re all dead. All of them.”

“Where’s her body?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know very much, do you?”

The Bucky didn’t answer. Keo thought he was probably trying to search for the right answer—the “right” one being the same one that would keep him alive.

“Then what good are you to me?” Keo asked.

“Wait—” the Bucky said, holding up his hands just before Keo pulled the trigger.

Three Buckies down.

The girl, who still hadn’t moved from the corner, slapped both palms over her mouth to keep from screaming at the sight of the Bucky’s brain smearing the floor.

Keo put the gun away, then walked over and crouched in front of the girl. Her eyes were big as she stared from the dead Bucky to him and back again. She also hadn’t moved her hands away from her mouth.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Keo said. “I’m not one of them. You understand?”

It took a few seconds before the girl nodded.

“You can put your hands down,” Keo said.

She did. Tentatively, her eyes on him the whole time now, as if afraid he might change his mind at any second.

Keo stood back up. “There are two more bodies outside. I need to bring them in here so no one sees them. Wait here, okay?”

She nodded, even as her arms relaxed slightly—just slightly—from around her bent legs.

Keo left her and came back with the Buckies, dragging them into the employee lounge and dumping them next to the third one. The girl had stood up in the corner when Keo came back in with the first dead Bucky, and she had moved away and found a black leather jacket and put it on when he returned with the second. The jacket fitted her, so he guessed it was hers.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

“Keo,” he said. “What about you?”

“Nora.”

“Nice to meet you, Nora.”

“You killed them.”

“Yeah, I did.”

Keo crouched next to the bodies and went through them, looking for things he didn’t already have. Eureka. A two-way portable radio.

“Where is everyone?” he asked the girl.

“What?” the girl said.

“Where is everyone?” Keo stood up and noted the frequency on the radio before putting it away. “I’ve spent an hour moving through the city, and you’re the first civilian I’ve stumbled across.” The first living civilian, anyway, he thought, but said out loud instead, “So where is everyone?”

“They’re either dead or gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Left. They left the city.”

“Then what are you still doing here?”

She stared down at the three dead men on the floor. “I was looking for my brother, Gene. He’s missing.”

A lot of that going on this morning, Keo thought, and said, “There were ghouls here last night. I’m guessing not all of them ended up sunburnt. What happened? Where did they all come from?”

Nora wrapped her arms around her chest. Keo thought she might have also shivered slightly when she answered, “I don’t know. I was hiding all last night.”

“You and Gene.”

“Yes…”

“How many did you see? How many did Gene see?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. We were hiding when the attack began. They came later. The ghouls.”

Keo nodded. He hadn’t been all that optimistic about finding answers from a civilian—a kid, at that—grabbed off the street by some freelancing Buckies, but he’d been hoping anyway.

He walked over to the girl, and when she didn’t flinch or try to move away, put two reassuring hands on her shoulders. “What about Black Tide, Nora? Do you know what happened to the Black Tiders that were here?”

She shook her head again. “There was so much shooting, so many things going on last night. I don’t know what happened.”

“You and Gene were hiding.”

“Yes.”

“Where’s Gene now? You said you were looking for him?”

“He went out to look for supplies. When he didn’t come back…”

“You went looking for him.”

She nodded.

“Okay,” Keo said. He turned and walked to the door.

The girl followed. “Where are we going?”

“We?” Keo thought, but he said, “I need to keep looking for the others. You should find a way out of the city.”

“By myself?”

“Head north. I didn’t see a lot of Buckies on that side of the city when I came in.”

Keo opened the door and peered out briefly at the pet store lobby to make sure no one had stumbled inside while he was occupied in the employee lounge. Empty, like before, with a perfect view of the sidewalks and streets beyond the shattered front glass windows.

He stepped outside, with the girl at his heels.

“What about Gene?” she asked.

“Forget about Gene,” Keo said. “Save yourself first. Get out of the city, like everyone did.”

“I can’t just leave Gene behind. He’s my brother.”

“You can’t help him. You couldn’t even help yourself.”

Keo went around the counter and walked to the front. He looked up and down the streets, but they were just as deserted as before. He’d seen a half dozen Bucky foot patrols on his way to the heart of Darby Bay’s commercial district, but there weren’t any out there at the moment. Whatever reasons Buck’s boys had for still hanging around this place, they were too spread out to cover even a small part of it.

Before he could step outside, there was a slight vibration from behind him, and Keo took out his radio. Not the one he’d taken off the dead Bucky moments ago, but the one he’d brought into the city with him. The two-way had squawked, but the volume was turned too low for him to hear it; feeling its vibration was another matter.

He turned the volume up slightly before pressing the transmit lever. “Yeah.”

“Did you find them?” a voice asked. Claire.

The kid was somewhere in the woods right now, with just the scorched open field separating her and the city. Getting the teenager to stay out there while he made his way in to hunt for their friends hadn’t been easy, and she’d only relented when he told her he would keep in touch every thirty minutes or so. He guessed he must have missed the last deadline or she wouldn’t have contacted him first.

“Not yet,” Keo said into the radio. He looked over at Nora, standing behind the counter, still hugging her chest with her arms while staring at the pool of blood left behind by the two Buckies Keo had shot earlier. “I found a civilian, though.”

“But not Gaby or Lara?” Claire asked.

“No.”

“What about other Black Tiders?”

“No luck on that end, either,” Keo said, and thought, Not living ones, anyway, but didn’t think the teenager needed to hear that.

The truth was he had found plenty of Black Tiders as he made his way through the city. The problem was that they were all dead. He hadn’t recognized any of the faces, but it wasn’t too hard to distinguish the Black Tide BDUs—with that Inguz patch of theirs—from Buckies. And then there were all the bones of dead ghouls. Darby Bay had turned into a cemetery that Keo was more than happy to abandon as soon as he could.

But not yet. Not with Gaby and Lara still out there…somewhere.

“What now?” Claire was asking through the two-way.

“Now, I keep looking, and you remain where you are,” Keo said.

Claire didn’t respond.

“Kid,” Keo said. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah, I heard you,” Claire said.

“I need you to stay out there. Understand?”

“I heard you the first time,” Claire said.

“But do you understand?”

Again, she didn’t respond right away.

“Claire,” Keo said, “it’s dangerous in here. The place is still crawling with Buckies. They’re on every corner.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true, but she didn’t know that. He added, “I can’t do what I need to do and look after you at the same time.”

“I can take care of myself,” Claire said.

There was more than a little indignation in her voice, and he didn’t blame her. She had, after all, been operating in Fenton all by herself for days before he even arrived. He had been thinking of her as a kid all this time, but she really wasn’t one anymore. You grew up fast during The Purge, or you didn’t grow up at all.

She’s definitely not going to stay outside. So now what?

“Claire,” Keo said, “give me two more hours. If I can’t find them by then, I’ll come back and get you, and we’ll keep looking together.”

“One more hour,” Claire said.

“Two hours, kid.”

“One hour.”

“This isn’t a negotiation.”

“One hour.”

Keo sighed. “All right, all right. Ninety minutes.”

“Deal,” Claire said.

Keo sighed and thought, Tough kid.

“In the meantime,” he said into the radio, “I’m sending someone over to you. Be on the lookout for her coming out of the north.”

“Roger that,” Claire said.

Keo put the radio away. He looked over at Nora, watching him back. “Head north and through the fields. Her name’s Claire, and she’ll be there with two horses waiting for you.”

“What about Gene?” Nora asked. “He’s still out there.”

“Tell me where you last saw Gene and what he looks like. When I find him, I’ll send him after you.”

The girl nodded and told him about her brother, because she apparently believed him.

Damn, I guess I got better at lying, Keo thought.

Two

He wasn’t going to completely ignore Nora’s brother, but Keo wasn’t going to go out of his way to find the kid, either. Well, Gene wasn’t really a “kid.” He was twenty-two, according to his sister, and a big, strapping guy who shouldn’t have been an easy mark. He was also armed with a pistol when he’d left her at their hiding place, a building half a block from where Keo had found the girl.

He kept an eye out for Gene, but he was thinking more about what the Bucky at the pet store had said to him:

“We took the city last night. We killed every Black Tider we saw. There was a lot of them, but we got them all eventually.”

The man had seemed damned certain of that. Keo didn’t think he was lying, either. There was really no reason to, given the situation.

Or was there?

Bullshit. No way Buck’s people could have taken all of Black Tide out in one night.

He didn’t believe it. Lara was too organized and too smart for that to happen, and an army always took after its leader. Then there was Gaby to lend a hand, and a few others who Keo had met and liked. Parrish, the guy in charge of Lara’s personal security, was one. A capable enough soldier in Keo’s eyes. Peters, Jolly, and a few others could also be relied on in a fight, even a surprise attack.

And yet, all the signs pointed to Black Tide having lost last night. If he needed more proof of that, there was another body in blue BDUs in front of him at the end of the alley. Keo crouched next to it and turned the figure over. A man with two holes in his chest and a third in his forehead. His name tag read Barkley, and he was unarmed, but anyone could have taken his weapons and supplies. There were two piles of bones nearby. Both bleached white. Ghouls. Who killed whom? Maybe they’d killed each other.

Keo got up and moved on, before turning into a back alley. He had been staying out of the open as much as possible, despite wearing the right “uniform.” It was better to dodge eyeballs than to offer himself up for inspection.

He guessed he was somewhere near the heart of Darby Bay, having entered from the north and then skirted the city limits to the west, where Black Tide had made their base. There hadn’t been much left of the place where he last saw Lara and Gaby, except for burnt carcasses of the airfield and surrounding buildings. It didn’t take much to figure out that the bad guys would have attacked the airfield first, taking away Lara’s biggest advantage: airpower. That could explain how Black Tide had lost the fight.

If Black Tide had lost.

He still didn’t believe it. Or maybe he just didn’t want to.

He was about to squeeze through a fence when he felt the familiar vibration, but this time it came from his side. The portable radio he’d taken off the dead Bucky. Keo stopped and unclipped the two-way, then turned up the volume just loud enough for him to hear while holding it up to his ear.

A male voice, speaking through the comm: “…three.”

“Three?” a second male voice asked.

“Three dead,” the first one said.

“Anyone know what happened?”

“They were shot, that’s what happened.”

“Shit.”

“You got that right,” the first man said.

Keo didn’t recognize either of the men’s voices, but they were clearly Buckies talking about the three he’d left behind at the pet store.

“So we got at least one more live one running around out there,” the second man said.

“At least one, probably more,” the first said.

“You got any ideas?”

“Not a one. Whoever he is, he’s a dead man when we find him.”

“That’s the trick, isn’t it?” a third voice said over the comm.

The new speaker was also unfamiliar, but Keo detected an accent, though he couldn’t put it to a region. He was usually pretty good with accents, but this one was throwing him off.

“We have to find him first,” the third man was saying. “Not like we have a lot of manpower to spare. Someone should tell Buck to send some back here.”

“He’s not gonna do that, too much left to do that doesn’t involve hunting a dead city,” the second man said. “Put everyone we still have on alert. Tell them to watch their ass until we split this burg.”

“So we’re not going to look for the killers?” the first man asked.

“Smarter to just let them go,” the third one said.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, he—or they—or whoever—wasted three guys without making a sound. You really want to be running around what’s left of this city looking for people that can do that?”

“He’s right,” the second voice said. “We don’t have time for this. We got bigger fish to fry. Finish up what we need to finish up and vamos.”

“I don’t like it,” the first man said.

“You don’t have to like it, you just need to follow orders,” the second one said.

I guess we know who’s the boss, Keo thought as he waited for more conversation, but there wasn’t any. The three Buckies had apparently said all they needed to say, and the radio remained silent for the next twenty seconds.

Keo turned the volume back down and put the radio away.

So they’d found the three he’d killed. That didn’t mean very much, but the rest did. That was the kind of intel he was looking for. It didn’t get him any closer to finding Lara or Gaby, but it did tell him a little more about his enemy.

“We don’t have time for this. We got bigger fish to fry. Finish up what we need to finish up and vamos,” the leader had said.

So the ones who hadn’t already were now preparing to leave Darby Bay. He wasn’t sure what that meant for him in terms of finding his friends, though. Did that mean his time was running out?

Or maybe not. If Lara and Gaby were hiding, the Buckies leaving would give them the opportunity to resurface. There was no reason to believe the Bucky back at the pet store, that every Black Tider was dead. How would the man know that exactly? Considering what Keo had just heard over the radio, the ones he had killed were just spokes in a machine, not even important enough to launch a manhunt over.

“We took the city last night. We killed every Black Tider we saw. There was a lot of them, but we got them all eventually.”

Bullshit, Keo thought and continued moving. Definitely bullshit.

Then: I hope it’s bullshit…

* * *

The Buckies weren’t looking for him, but they were definitely preparing to leave the city. It was 3:15 p.m. when he saw the first truck dragging a utility trailer filled with equipment up the street, heading east toward one of the two main roads in and out of the city. The vehicle was a technical with a man in the back standing watch behind a mounted machine gun with a metal plate. Keo glimpsed two Buckies in the front, along with boxes and heavy equipment in the trailer as it flashed by the alley he was hiding inside.

By four p.m., the bad guys were active everywhere, and Keo settled inside a destroyed Denny’s and watched the parade of vehicles pass him by. Not all of them were battle-weary Buckies like the ones he’d avoided earlier, or the three he’d taken out at the pet store. Many of the ones clearing out now looked too clean, from their exposed faces to their bloodless clothes.

Reinforcements. Definitely reinforcements.

Where the hell did Buck get all these reinforcements from?

He watched them go, hoping for clues among the vehicles or their occupants, but those were in short supply. The Buckies were leaving Darby Bay with whatever they could carry, but he didn’t see any civilians or Black Tiders among them. Prisoners or otherwise. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, especially after what Nora had almost endured—and would have if he hadn’t intervened.

Then the radio behind his back vibrated again. Claire.

Keo took the two-way out and turned up the volume before pressing the transmit lever. “Hey, kid.”

“What’s going on, Keo?” Claire asked. “I’m seeing vehicles leaving the city.”

“Bad guys. Looks like they’re moving on to the next fight.”

“What about Lara and Gaby? Did you find them?”

“Not yet.” Then, “Is Nora with you?”

“No,” Claire said.

“What do you mean, no?”

“I waited for her where you told me to, but she never showed up. I’m sorry, Keo.”

Not as sorry as I am, Keo thought, wondering what had happened to the girl. Had she even gone north like Keo had told her? Or did she try, only to be intercepted? And if it was the latter, was it his fault?

Goddammit.

“Keo,” Claire was saying through the radio.

“Yeah,” Keo said.

“It’s almost ninety minutes.”

He glanced down at his watch. She was right. “Give me time to head north. I’ll meet you there.”

“No, don’t do that. Stay where you are.”

“Kid…”

“I mean it,” Claire said. “Two of us looking separately can cover more ground.”

“It’s too dangerous for that.”

“Not if the bad guys are leaving the city.”

Two additional vehicles zoomed past him in the street, dragging more trailers behind them.

Where are you getting all these men, Buck? Where have you been hiding them all this time?

“And what if they leave some behind?” Keo said into the radio.

“Doesn’t matter,” Claire said. “I’m coming in, and I’m not waiting for you.”

“Kid, let me—”

“Claire out.”

“Kid,” Keo said. “Are you there? Kid.”

But Claire didn’t answer.

“Claire, answer me,” Keo said. “Don’t do anything stupid. It’s too dangerous in here.”

He waited for a response, but there was none.

Five seconds.

Ten…

“Claire,” Keo said into the radio. “Please respond.”

More silence.

“Kid’s as stubborn as you are, Gaby,” he said to himself as he put the radio away.

He had to admit, though, that she was right. Two of them could cover more ground separately, and the kid could definitely take care of herself. She’d proven that back at Fenton when she saved his life more than once.

Right this very moment, she would be making her way through the mile-long field from the woods. If he hurried, he could meet her at the north end of town. Okay, if he really hurried, but it was possible. Probably.

Except he didn’t move and instead watched three men on horseback gallop up the street, the clop-clop-clop of their mounts’ horseshoes echoing well ahead of their presence. The riders were Buckies, carrying heavy tactical gear on their backs.

Keo watched them go before leaving the Denny’s and slipping into the narrow passageway between two buildings in the back. He turned into an alley and stepped over a puddle of dry blood, before going around a half dozen bullet casings—

The click of a door opening in front of him, just before two figures stepped outside.

Buckies.

Keo tightened his grip on his AR and was ready to swing it up and open fire when he saw the unconscious Black Tider the two Buckies were carrying between them. It was a man, and he was bleeding from a cut along his temple, blood dripping down the length of one of his dangling arms. The Black Tider was badly hurt, but looked alive.

The two Buckies stopped in the alley, and one of them turned around and locked eyes with Keo. They both had their rifles slung, and all it would have taken Keo was two pulls of the trigger to kill them both. And with the suppressor, the incident would go completely unnoticed by the evacuation happening in the streets nearby.

But Keo didn’t do that.

Instead, he loosened his grip on the rifle and said, “You guys need a hand?”

If the Buckies were surprised to see him, they relaxed when they saw what he was wearing.

“What’re you doing back here?” one of them asked.

“Looking for stragglers, what do you think?” Keo said.

The two men exchanged a quick glance, but if they were suspicious, Keo couldn’t read it on their faces. Of course, he could have been reading them wrong…

“Give us a hand,” one of them said. He was taller than his partner, with black hair and a fresh scar along one cheek.

Keo walked over. “Where we taking him?”

“Same place we took the rest,” Scarface’s partner, who had short blond hair, said.

Daebak, Keo thought.

From the looks of both men—the dry blood and soot in their hair and on their faces—Scarface and Blondie had been in Darby Bay since last night and had seen their share of the battle.

Definitely not replacements.

Scarface passed the unconscious Black Tider’s legs off to Keo while Blondie kept both hands underneath the man’s armpits.

“What’s your name?” Scarface asked.

“Chang,” Keo said.

“You Chinese or something?” Blondie asked.

“Or something.”

Scarface chuckled as he led the way. “Come on, everyone’s already bugging out. We might miss our ride if we lollygag.”

The back of the alley was big enough that they could move with the Black Tider between them, side by side instead of front and back. Which was unfortunate, because Keo was fully prepared to casually let Blondie go first so he could stay in the rear where he could keep his eyes on both men.

“Where’d you find him?” Keo asked, getting his first real good look at the Black Tider.

Keo had never seen the man before, and his name, helpfully written on his name tag—Kennison—didn’t ring any bells. But like his captors, Kennison had definitely seen his share of last night’s battle, and besides his fresh wound, his uniform was smeared with old blood and dirt. Mid-thirties, brown hair, and probably more dead than alive, though Keo hoped that wasn’t the case because it was the first Black Tider he’d found since reentering Darby Bay who could potentially provide him with some answers.

“Hiding in there,” Blondie said, nodding at the building they’d come out of. “Looked like he was scavenging for supplies.”

“You shot him?” Keo asked.

“Francis stabbed him. I knocked him out with the butt of my rifle. Tough bastard. Had to hit him twice.”

Keo took a closer look at the Black Tider’s shoulder wound. Apparently not a gunshot, as he had first assumed. “Who is he?”

“You can’t read English, Chang?” Scarface asked from in front of them.

“I don’t read so good,” Keo said. “You got anything in pinyin?”

“What the fuck is pinyin?”

“It’s what you do before you pin it out.”

Blondie chuckled. “Funny. You’re a funny guy.”

“I have my moments,” Keo said.

Unlike Kennison, the Buckies didn’t have name tags on their vests. Which was the only reason the two didn’t know who he was. For all these guys knew, Keo could be one of this morning’s reinforcements.

In front of him, Scarface had taken out a radio. He clicked the transmit lever and said into it, “This is Francis. I’m bringing in a POW. You guys still where you’re supposed to be?”

“Negative, we’re on the move,” a voice answered through the radio.

“Shit,” Scarface said, stopping.

Keo and Blondie had no choice but to stop with him.

“Where am I supposed to take this POW, then?” Scarface said into the radio.

“Find a ride, or dump him,” the voice said. Keo didn’t recognize the speaker from the conversation he’d overheard earlier.

“Roger that,” Scarface said, and put the radio away. He looked back at Keo and Blondie. “I guess we hitch a ride.”

“So we’re not taking him to the others?” Keo asked.

“You heard the man. Everyone and everything’s already on the move.”

“On to the next mission.”

“That’s that word.”

Scarface turned and continued on. Keo and Blondie followed.

Now what?

The only reason he hadn’t shot both men right away was because he thought they could take him to where other Black Tiders were being held. Maybe Lara was there. Or Gaby. Or possibly both, if he was really lucky.

But that wasn’t going to happen now.

Keo looked down at the Black Tider between them. At least he still had Kennison.

He said, “So everyone’s moving on to the next mission already. You guys have any idea where that is?”

“Don’t you?” Scarface asked, looking over his shoulder at Keo with something that almost looked like suspicion. Or maybe it was suspicion.

“Not a clue,” Keo said.

Blondie grunted. “No one tells us anything. Why start now?”

“Exactly,” Scarface said. “Why start now?”

“So you guys don’t know anything, huh?” Keo said.

“We know as much—” Blondie was saying, when Keo let go of Kennison’s legs, unslung his rifle, and shot the Bucky in the face.

The man’s head snapped back, blood splashing the wall behind him, and he fell, taking Kennison down with him.

Keo turned as Scarface, having heard the pfft! of the suppressed gunshot, spun around. His eyes were widening, and he was trying to unsling his own rifle when Keo shot him twice in the chest. Then, after the man had fallen, Keo took a quick step toward him and put a third round into his forehead.

He turned and hurried back to Kennison, who had luckily fallen on top of Blondie. Kennison’s head rested on the dead man’s chest.

Keo crouched next to Kennison and tried shaking him awake. When that didn’t work, he gave the Black Tider a couple of light pats on the cheeks. When Kennison still didn’t open his eyes, Keo hit him harder.

Nothing.

Just to be sure, Keo felt the wounded man’s pulse. There. Not the strongest Keo had ever encountered, but it would do.

He took a moment to cut away Kennison’s shirt in order to treat his knife wound. It was ugly but not life-threatening. He wiped away the blood, disinfected it with the first-aid kit from his pouch, and covered up the gash. Then he did the same to Kennison’s forehead, covering up the cut with a Band-Aid.

He radioed Claire while he worked. “Claire, come in.”

“Keo,” Claire said through the radio.

“What’s your position?”

“I’m halfway through the fields. And no, I’m not turning back.”

“You don’t have to. Look, I found someone. A Black Tider.”

“A live one?”

“Uh huh. There’s a Johan’s about a block after you enter the city limits. You can’t miss it; big ass sign on top. Meet me there.”

“Will do.”

Keo put the radio away and finished up with Kennison. When he was done, Keo replaced his used first-aid kit with Blondie’s, then hiked Kennison over his shoulder and headed off in the opposite direction.

After hours of searching, he’d finally found a Black Tider. It wasn’t who he was hoping to find, but it was a good start.

“We took the city last night. We killed every Black Tider we saw. There was a lot of them, but we got them all eventually,” the Bucky at the pet store had said.

Lying assholes be lying, Keo thought, not sure why he was so surprised.

Three

The Johan’s Galleria of Jewelry storefront had seen better days, but unlike a lot of the structures in this part of the city, it had gotten through last night’s firefight mostly untouched. The store was squeezed inside a strip mall that had already been looted and was empty when Keo arrived with Kennison and slipped through the back door.

Claire was already inside waiting for him, and she rushed over, slinging her Heckler & Koch MP5K. “About time. What did you do, take a nap?”

Keo grunted. “Give me a break, kid, I’m old and slow.”

“You’re not that old.”

“I’m old enough.”

He “stood” Kennison up, and together with Claire’s help, dragged the unconscious Black Tider into a back office and laid him down on a dust-covered sofa. Keo had given the place a cursory scout earlier and felt good enough about using it again. Claire went back outside and returned with a large backpack.

“You forgot my stuff?” Keo asked. He’d left his behind with Claire so he wouldn’t need to sacrifice speed and stealth when he reentered the city.

“I left them in the woods,” Claire said. “I can barely carry mine, forget about hauling yours over, too.”

She told him where exactly she had hidden his packs, and Keo committed the location to memory. They stood next to Kennison and watched him sleep, the steady rise and fall of his chest a good sign that he was still alive.

“Had trouble getting him here?” Claire asked.

“Had to dodge a couple of patrols, but nothing I couldn’t handle,” Keo said. “The fact that they’re all heading for the exits didn’t hurt.”

“He was the only one you could find?”

“Just him.”

“That’s not good, is it?”

No, it’s not, Keo thought, but he said, “It could be worse.”

“How?”

I could have found Lara and Gaby’s dead bodies, Keo thought but also didn’t say. He added instead, “Trust me, kid, things could always be worse.”

Claire nodded but didn’t pursue the topic.

“The horses?” Keo asked.

“I left them where you told me to,” the kid said. “You sure I shouldn’t have tied them up to a tree so they can’t wander off?”

“I’m sure.”

“Why?”

“Tying a horse up by the reins to a tree is a good way to get them hurt if they decide to run off. I’ve seen horses choke themselves to death trying to break free. If no one stumbles across them, then they’ll still be there when we go back.”

“And if someone does scare them off first?”

“Then I guess we’ll have to go look for them. Failing that, that’s why God gave us these,” he said, patting one of his legs.

Claire sighed. “I hate walking.”

“You’ll get used to—”

Keo stopped in mid-sentence when Kennison opened his eyes, saw them, and tried to get up. Pain must have lanced through his body from his wounds, because he spasmed violently instead and ended up falling right back down to the sofa on his butt.

“Hey, hey, relax,” Keo said. “You’re with friends.”

Kennison’s eyes zeroed in on the big circled M on Keo’s chest (Oh, right, forgot about that) before going to Keo’s face.

“It’s just camouflage,” Keo said. “I used it to move through the city. To keep the bad guys from shooting me.”

“It’s okay. We’re Black Tiders, too,” Claire said.

Kennison’s eyes snapped from Keo to Claire, then back again. He was grimacing from pain and breathing hard. Too hard.

“I know you,” Kennison finally said, staring at Keo.

“Do you?” Keo said.

“You’re Keo.”

“Hunh. I guess you do know me.”

“It must be the face,” Claire said, grinning at Keo. “Hard to forget.”

“Must be,” Keo said. Then, to Kennison, “Have we met?”

“No, but I’ve seen you around the OP in the days leading up to the attack,” Kennison said. “Around Lara.”

Keo and Claire exchanged a quick look, before he said to Kennison, “What happened here last night?”

Kennison moved into a more comfortable sitting position on the sofa as Claire took out a canteen and handed it to him. He drank greedily while telling them what had happened. The surprise attack, the loss of the airfield, then the long-running gunfight that never seemed to end.

“We were going to counterattack and take back the city, when they showed up,” Kennison said.

“Who is ‘they?’” Claire asked.

Keo knew exactly who they were—he’d seen their bones in the streets and alleys outside—but he didn’t interrupt Kennison.

“Ghouls,” Kennison said. “Maybe even the same ones that took Galveston and Larabie.”

Keo and Claire exchanged another look, and Keo thought, Well, that explains why we couldn’t reach either FOBs this morning.

“What happened to them?” Keo asked Kennison.

“They’re gone,” Kennison said.

The wounded Black Tider told them about the reports from Galveston and Larabie, then about the horde of ghouls that returned to Darby Bay later, as Lara and survivors of the attack prepared for a counter assault on the Buckies.

“There were so many of them,” Kennison said. Claire had taken out a half-eaten bag of MRE, and the Black Tider devoured its contents as he talked. The smell of chicken chunks and cheddar cheese filled the back room. “They came out of the woods. The A-10s tried to stop them, but…” He shook his head. “There were just too many of them. Lara ordered everyone to the secondary location, and the captain sent me over to help her get there. But we never made it.”

Kennison told them about the apartment next to the temporary OP, where some of Overwatch had taken positions. It took a few seconds, but Keo figured out which building he was referring to—the big pile of rubble less than half a block from their current position. It was hard to miss; besides the destruction, there was the literal sea of ghoul bones spread out for half a block.

When he’d first stumbled across the mess, Keo had thought, Someone made a hell of a last stand here last night.

Now, after hearing Kennison’s tale, he thought, I guess I was right.

“After Overwatch went quiet, we hunkered down and tried to survive the night,” Kennison continued. He had finished the military rations—emptied it, actually—and tossed it into a nearby bin that still had garbage from six years ago piled high.

“Who is ‘we?’” Keo asked.

“Me, Chambers, and Lara.”

“She’s alive.”

“Yeah, she’s alive,” Kennison nodded.

“Thank God,” Claire whispered.

“Where is she now?” Keo asked Kennison.

“About two blocks from where I ran into those Mercerians,” Kennison said. “We had to keep moving all night because there were search parties looking for us and we couldn’t afford to stay in one place for too long. We were hoping to reach Parrish and the other survivors.”

“Did you?” Claire asked.

Kennison shook his head. “They went dark about an hour before morning.”

“‘Dark’ how?” Keo asked.

“We couldn’t raise them on the radio, and when we arrived at the location, there were Mercerians everywhere. They got reinforcements sometime during the night. There were more of them than when they first attacked, and there were a lot of them then already.”

“What happened to Parrish’s group? The survivors with him?”

“There was a firefight. We could hear it while we were still blocks away. When we got there…” He paused and stared off for a moment before continuing. “It was over before we got there.” Kennison shook his head. “We didn’t think there were so many of them. Mercerians. Hundreds, we thought, but…”

“But what?” Keo said.

“There had to be thousands,” Kennison said. “There had to be thousands of them to have done what they did. Not just here, in Darby Bay, but at Galveston and Larabie, too.” He pursed his lips. “They beat us, Keo. They beat us in one night.”

Claire had walked over to a hard wooden chair and sat down. Keo didn’t blame her; he was feeling a little weak in both legs, too, but he forced himself to remain standing anyway.

“We took the city last night,” the Bucky had said. “We killed every Black Tider we saw. There was a lot of them, but we got them all eventually.”

“…but we got them all eventually.”

Not quite all, Keo thought as he watched Kennison check on his bandaged shoulder.

“What about Gaby?” Claire was asking Kennison. “Why isn’t she with Lara?”

“We got separated at the apartment last night,” Kennison said. “I don’t know what happened to her after that. She was with Becker.”

“Who’s Becker?” Keo asked.

“One of our guys.”

“But you don’t know what happened to her?” Claire asked.

Kennison shook his head. “Everything was chaotic. We were constantly moving, trying to stay one step ahead of the search parties.”

Keo sneaked a look back at Claire and saw the disappointment on her face.

He asked Kennison, “What about Black Tide Island? Have you made contact?”

Kennison glanced down at his watch. “About two hours ago. They finally came back online.”

“‘Finally?’”

“The island’s main comm was damaged during the initial attack. Commander Hartford got the island back, but it took them a while to fix all the gear. When they did, they sent out a broadcast.”

“So Danny’s okay?” Claire asked.

“He’s more than okay. He got there in time, while the Mercerians were still trying to get a foothold. The island’s security didn’t let them get too far before they sealed off the buildings. All the civilians and most of the staff survived the assault.”

“All the civilians?” Keo asked.

Kennison nodded. “Commander Hartford emphasized that. I guess he wanted to let everyone who had family back there know their loved ones were safe.”

Everyone, sure, but mostly Lara, Keo thought, because Danny would know that the only other person who cared as much about his wife, Carly, and their son, William, was Lara. He would know it would be eating Lara up until she finally knew for sure if they were safe.

“I don’t think the Mercerians really had enough men to take the island by force,” Kennison continued. “We think they were just trying to damage it, take out our systems, and throw us into disarray by cutting off our communications. They almost succeeded.”

“What else did Danny say?” Keo asked.

“They’re preparing a counterattack, but he didn’t give any specifics, which of course makes sense because the message was sent out on all the emergency channels, and anyone could be listening in.”

“And you couldn’t make contact with them?”

“No. We had a long-range radio on us, but it was damaged and the power was already running low when we received the commander’s message. That’s one of the reasons I was out there. Looking for a power source or a replacement. I couldn’t locate either one.”

“So Black Tide doesn’t know Lara’s alive?”

“No. The only person who knows is me and Chambers…and now you guys.”

“Danny’s up and running again,” Claire said. “That’s good. Other than Lara, there’s no one else better equipped to lead Black Tide’s counterattack.”

Keo nodded, before turning back to Kennison and finally asking the man the question he’d been desperate to know for the last few minutes:

“Lara,” he said. “What is her exact location?”

* * *

“Did you see it? While you were out there?” Claire asked. “Did you see what happened to Parrish’s group?”

Keo shook his head. “I didn’t know where to look.” And after what Kennison said, I’m glad I didn’t stumble across it, Keo thought, but he said, “I need you to stay here with Kennison. He’s in no shape to travel, and I’ve already gone through half of the city once. I can do it again faster and safer without having to lug you two around with me.”

Claire frowned, and Keo was fully expecting an argument, but the teenager said instead, “What about Gaby?”

“She’s as much a priority for me as she is for you,” Keo said, even though he thought that was probably a bit of a white lie. He liked Gaby, and she was a good friend, but she wasn’t Lara.

Claire glanced through the open door at Kennison, who was resting inside the back room. The two of them were standing outside in the hallway.

“What should we do?” Claire asked.

“Stay here for as long as you can, until it’s no longer safe,” Keo said. “We’ll stay in contact over the two-ways like before. When I find Lara, we’ll make our way back here.” Keo looked over at Kennison. “I’m not sure he’s ready for a fight, so I wouldn’t count on him to have your back.”

Claire nodded. “I’ll take care of him.” Then, pursing her lips at Keo, “Promise me you’ll look for Gaby, too.”

“Of course I will. I have a feeling Lara will know where she is.”

Or what’s happened to her if they’re not together, Keo thought but didn’t say.

He glanced down at his watch. 4:46 p.m.

“Two more hours before nightfall, give or take,” Keo said. “If we don’t make it back by then, we’ll have to wait till tomorrow.”

Claire gave him a wry smile. “Remember when we didn’t have to worry about nightfall anymore?”

“Yeah, the good ol’ days.”

“So what’s the plan?” Kennison asked as he walked gingerly over to them. “When are we leaving?”

“We’re not; I am,” Keo said. “You’re staying here with Claire.”

“Are you serious?” The Black Tider gave Claire a quick look. “No offense, kid, but—”

“This isn’t a conversation,” Keo said, cutting him off. “You’re staying here with her while I locate Lara. Once that happens, I’ll bring her back here and we’ll get the hell out of Dodge posthaste.”

“I’m responsible for her,” Kennison said. “It’s my job to keep her safe.”

“And you did your job, last night and this morning. Now you can barely walk, and you’ll just get in the way. You’re a liability to the both of us.”

Kennison lowered his head but didn’t say anything.

“Hey, I don’t wanna stay here any more than you do,” Claire said to Kennison. “But Keo’s right. He’ll be able to move faster and safer out there on his own.” The teenager turned back to Keo. “Good luck.”

Keo nodded when he felt the vibration from his hip. The radio he’d taken off the dead Bucky. He took it out.

“That new?” Claire asked.

“Yup. I acquired it from a Bucky,” Keo said.

“‘Acquired?’” the kid said with a grin.

“He didn’t need it anymore.”

Keo turned up the volume on the radio just loud enough for them to hear.

Someone was already in mid-sentence. “—out there. Can you hear me?”

“Who is that?” Claire asked.

Keo shook his head. He’d heard the voice before earlier, in the day during the back-and-forth after he had killed the three Buckies in the pet store. That strange accent he still couldn’t quite place gave it away.

“Don’t be shy,” the man was saying through the radio. “I know you’re listening. You took a radio that didn’t belong to you. I’m guessing you left it as is, and is using it now to eavesdrop on our conversations. What a smart little punter you are.”

“Who’s he talking to?” Kennison asked.

“You,” Claire said, staring at Keo. “He’s talking to you, isn’t he?”

Keo shrugged.

“Is it six or more?” the Bucky said through the radio. “Six for sure. The three at the pet store, the two in the alley, and maybe a few others we haven’t found yet. We thought it was more than one Black Tider at first, but all the signs point to one man doing all the damage.”

“He’s definitely talking to you,” Claire said.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” the Bucky continued. “It’s not like we can track you through the radio, now can we?”

“That’s not Buck, is it?” Kennison asked. Keo wasn’t sure if he had sounded hopeful or a little afraid when he had asked the question.

Keo shook his head. “I know Buck’s voice. That’s not him.”

“Who is it, then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Besides, we’ve already changed frequencies,” the man with the accent continued through the radio. “The only conversation you’ll get to listen in from now on is this one. So you might as well give me a shout back.”

“Are you going to answer him?” Claire asked.

“Why should I?” Keo said.

“I don’t know. Maybe you can get him to tell you something?”

“Good point,” Keo said. He pressed the transmit lever on the radio and said into it, “You got a name?”

“Ah ha, there he is!” the Bucky said. There was a giddiness to the voice that grated on Keo’s nerves. “The others didn’t believe me, but I knew I was right. There was just one of you out there. So, was it six or more?”

“Twenty,” Keo lied.

The man laughed. “I doubt that.”

“Hey, you asked. Don’t ask if you’re not going to believe the answers.”

“Maybe in your lifetime, but not today, not here,” the man said. “It’s Clive, by the way. And you are?”

“Dundee,” Keo said.

“Dundee?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“All right. Dundee it is, then.”

“Dundee?” Claire mouthed at him.

Keo smiled back before clicking the radio again. “Where you boys headed off to, Clive? I’m seeing an awful lot of traffic in the streets.”

“More work to do, Dundee,” the man named Clive said. “You know how it is. So little time, so many Black Tide punters left to kill.”

Claire frowned, and so did Kennison.

Keo didn’t, though. He recognized someone trying to get a rise out of him. It was a tactic he’d used often himself.

“Since you’re leaving the city, I guess this is our first and last conversation,” Keo said into the radio.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Clive said. “I like your style, Dundee. Takes some big brass ones to go around knocking off Mercerians when you know we have the whole city on lockdown.”

The whole city on lockdown? Now who’s doing a little exaggerating?

Keo said into the radio, “No one’s ever accused me of having style before.”

“The way you took them out, I’m impressed,” Clive said. “I’m trying to picture you scurrying around the city like a ghost. All those headshots at close range. I couldn’t have done it better myself. Gotta be sure, right?”

“Who is this guy?” Claire asked.

“Someone who loves the sound of his own voice,” Keo said, before saying into the radio, “Definitely gotta be sure.”

“That’s what I tell the boys,” Clive said. “But it’s like talking to a wall sometimes.”

“Good help is hard to find.”

“You don’t know the half of it, but this is what I get for trying to teach a bunch of farmers to be soldiers. By the way, were you here last night during all the fun?”

“That’s what you call last night? ‘Fun?’”

“Wasn’t it? What do you call it?”

Nice try, Keo thought, before answering, “Be sure to leave the city with the others, Clive. You don’t want to meet me face-to-face.”

“Are you that dangerous, Dundee?”

“You don’t want to find out.”

Clive laughed. “But you see, Dundee, I do want to find out. Things have been kind of stale lately. Last night was a blast, but I expected so much more from you Black Tiders. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“Some fish shoot back,” Keo said.

Another laugh. But like last time, this one was also clearly for Keo’s benefit. “I’ll see you soon, Dundee. I’ll see you real soon.”

The radio went silent.

“What the hell was that about?” Kennison asked.

“Asshole sounded like he was really enjoying himself,” Claire said, gritting her teeth.

“Yeah, well,” Keo said as he put the radio away, “as Mom always says, it’s always fun and games until someone gets shot in the head.”

“Your mom says that?” Kennison asked.

Keo shrugged. “She can be eccentric.”

“So what now?” Claire asked.

“Now I go out there and find Lara.”

“And what if you run into that asshole on the radio?”

“Then I’ll probably shoot him in the chest and once in the head, just to be sure.”

“Your mom tell you to do that, too?” Kennison asked.

“Mom was also very pragmatic,” Keo said.

Four

The “conversation” with Clive stuck in his head as he moved back across the city. It wasn’t the man’s accent—Keo had met plenty of transplanted Texans in the last six years or so—but the way his choice of words left Keo thinking the same as Claire.

That asshole is enjoying himself.

In his old line of work, Keo had run across plenty of guys who joked their way through combat, but the humor was really just an attempt to lessen the horrors they were confronted with. When men were being torn apart by bullets around you, sometimes the best thing you could do was laugh your way out of it. The only other option was to let it overwhelm and paralyze you, and that was a good way to get killed.

But the way Clive had talked, Keo didn’t think it was a coping mechanism. Not even a little bit. It was very genuine.

The asshole is enjoying himself way too much.

Keo pushed aside further thoughts of Clive when he finally reached his destination. It was a two-story bed-and-breakfast called Brenda’s, about two blocks from where he had run into the last two Buckies, just as Kennison had said. The front windows on the first floor were blown out, and the door was missing. From his vantage point, inside an alley across the street from the B&B, Keo could make out debris in the lobby.

There were zero movements along the streets and sidewalks when he peeked out, though there were fresh horse droppings in the road and the remains of a technical parked in the same spot where it had been taken out last night. The pavement around the vehicle had also been upended by heavy caliber rounds.

A slight breeze washed over him, a reminder that he was close to the Gulf of Mexico somewhere to the south. Besides the chill air pushing against his face, he could taste the lingering scent of explosives. Something had dropped on the city’s southern part not very far from his current location and taken out a city block. It was likely the same “something” that had taken out the technical down the street. And yet, that hadn’t been enough to turn the tide of the battle.

Not when Black Tide was confronted with an alliance of ghouls and Buckies. There had simply been too many for Lara’s people to repel.

And the question he had been asking himself all day: Where did they all come from?

“There had to be thousands,” Kennison had said. “There had to be thousands of them to have done what they did. Not just here, in Darby Bay, but at Galveston and Larabie, too.”

Thousands of men and ghouls had, as far as Keo could tell, taken out all of Black Tide’s forces in Texas in the span of one night. He might not have believed something like that was even possible if he hadn’t already spent half the day going through the remains of Darby Bay and seen the results for himself. He couldn’t imagine what the other two FOBs looked like today.

Forget about that. Focus on the here and the now.

He remained where he was even as the temperature around him dropped some more. Twenty minutes past five o’clock now, and that left him with only an hour and change before nightfall. Like Claire had said, he missed the good ol’ days when he didn’t have to worry about night.

The more things change and blah blah blah.

He listened for sounds of Buckies in the area, but there was just the wind carrying litter and garbage across the street in front of him. There were pools of dry blood on the sidewalk outside of Brenda’s but no other signs that he was in the right spot.

“She’s hiding in a bed-and-breakfast called Brenda’s,” Kennison had told him. “Her and Chambers.”

Brenda’s didn’t look like much. Just another brick-and-mortar structure squeezed between a pub called Leroy’s Cave and what might have been a diner. But half of the building had been blown up, leaving just another pile of rubble. There was a sign, but it was buried under all the debris and hard to make out. The rest of the street were storefronts that had been repurposed by the citizens of Darby Bay for other uses.

He focused on the B&B. There were two windows on the second floor, both with curtains blocking his view of the rooms on the other side. Unlike the first floor, those were still intact.

“They’re on the second floor,” Kennison had said. “Second room. The one on the right side.”

Keo stared at the second window on the right while keeping the one on the left in the corner of his eye just in case Lara and Chambers had moved—either on purpose or were forced to—since Kennison left them. He waited to see the curtains move, but it didn’t happen.

A minute went by.

Then two…

Five…

Keo sat back in the alley and took out the bottle of Tramadol he’d scored from one of Copenhagen’s medics. He palmed two and swallowed them down. The wounds he’d sustained from Fenton weren’t going to heal anytime soon, but he’d checked on and replaced their bandages earlier today and felt fine. Or “fine” enough for him to do what he needed to do, anyway.

Good enough, good enough.

He stood up, the jagged wall pricking at his back as he slid up along its length and counted down to ten. He listened for sounds of anyone—or anything—in the vicinity the entire time.

At ten, he jogged across the street toward Brenda’s, eyes snapping left and right over and over again, with every step. The entire block looked, felt, and appeared abandoned, but you could never be too sure when Buckies were involved.

He made it to the other side in one piece, and glass crunched underneath his boots as he entered the B&B and headed toward the stairs. He went up, keeping as quiet as possible, but it was probably not nearly quiet enough for someone paying attention on the second floor. It didn’t help, of course, that there didn’t seem to be any sounds anywhere else in the entire city except for his movements and slightly accelerated heartbeat.

Calm down. What is this, your first rodeo?

He reached the top of the stairs and leaned around the newel to get a look at the hallway. Four doors, two on each side. The one he was looking for was the second on his right, which meant the two on his left were empty. That probably explained why both doors on that side were open but the two on his right were closed.

There was dry blood on the faux wooden tile flooring in front of him, and sunlight coming from the window at the very end of the short hallway gleamed off a pair of stray brass casings. Varied sized holes dotted the left side wall, and when Keo slipped into the corridor, he saw that one of the open doors to his left was riddled with bullet holes.

He thought about calling Lara’s name but decided that was probably a bad idea. It would have been easier if they had answered his radio call, but according to Kennison, their radio was already on its last legs. There was a chance they had heard him but just couldn’t respond.

Hey, who needs easy anyway? he thought as he began moving up the corridor.

He was trying to make as little noise as possible, but that was difficult with the fake wooden floor creaking underneath his boots.

Stupid floors.

He passed the first door on his right and looked briefly into the open one to his left. There was more blood in there, but no signs of a body. He did see a shattered vase and a broken TV resting on the carpet on its side.

He faced forward, the AR gripped tightly in front of him but not raised to shoot. The last thing he needed was for either Chambers or Lara to pop out of the second door, see the rifle, and open fire. It was a little hard to pay attention to someone’s face when all you could see was the barrel of a gun pointed at you. Keo knew that from experience. Sometimes it was just easier to shoot first and ask questions late—

The click! of a door opening behind him!

He spun around just as the door swung all the way open and a figure lunged outside. Keo glimpsed blue BDUs (Black Tider!), but his eyes were immediately drawn to the rifle swiveling to take aim at him. A man (Not Lara!), and he was whirling in Keo’s direction even as Keo’s mind shouted, Chambers. It’s Chambers! Don’t shoot Chambers!

Except Chambers—if it was Chambers to begin with—didn’t have that same thought, and as soon as the man turned all the way around and saw Keo, he pulled the trigger.

Keo struck the barrel of Chambers’s rifle with his own, knocking it slightly off target just as Chambers fired and the round zipped! over Keo’s head. The pop! of the gunshot was like thunder crackling in the hallway, and Keo thought, Dammit, there goes the neighborhood!

Before Chambers could fire again, Keo launched himself inside the man’s defenses and swung with his AR, smashing the butt of his rifle into Chambers’s face. That stunned the Black Tider enough to keep him from squeezing off a second shot, and as Chambers (I hope it’s you, Chambers!) was staggering back, Keo followed and hit him in the stomach, again with the butt of his rifle.

Chambers doubled over at the waist, gasping for breath but still clutching to his rifle with one hand. Keo grabbed the man’s M4 carbine and pinned it against the wall, while he pointed his own rifle at Chambers’s face as the Black Tider glanced up.

“Don’t make me shoot you, Chambers,” Keo said, because unlike Kennison, apparently Chambers didn’t recognize him.

“The fuck?” Chambers said between gasps. “How do you know—”

“Kennison sent me.”

A flash of confusion. “Kennison? You know Kennison?”

“Yeah, I know Kennison. He’s safe.”

Like Kennison before him, Chambers’s eyes immediately went from Keo’s face to the circled M on his vest, then back again.

“Camouflage,” Keo said. “I took it off a dead Bucky to move freely through the city.”

Keo saw understanding in Chambers’s eyes, and he let go of the man’s rifle. Chambers straightened up, one hand still clutching his stomach while blood dripped from the corner of his mouth where Keo had struck him earlier.

“Kennison?” Chambers said, wiping at his bloody lips with the back of a shirt sleeve.

Keo nodded. “Kennison, yeah.”

“He’s alive?”

“Yes. That’s what ‘safe’ means.”

“Where—”

“Later,” Keo said. “Where’s Lara?”

“Lara,” Chambers repeated.

“Yes. Lara. The person you and Kennison were supposed to be keeping safe. Where is she?”

Keo looked past Chambers and at the door he’d come out of, but the Black Tider shook his head.

“She’s not here,” Chambers said.

“The fuck you mean she’s not here?”

“I mean she’s not here. She’s gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Gone,” Chambers said quietly. “She’s just…gone.”

* * *

They left Brenda’s, and as Keo had been doing all day, used the back alleys to stay out of the open. Keo waited to hear Buckies incoming, but they never showed up. He was sure that Chambers’s gunshot—even just the one—would bring them, but there were no signs of them. Either he had overestimated the decibel of that one single unsuppressed gunshot, or there just weren’t enough Buckies still left to hear and respond to everything.

But they left the B&B behind anyway just to be safe. Besides, Lara was gone, according to Chambers, and the Black Tider didn’t think she was coming back. He seemed certain of it, and Keo decided to trust him. At least, for now.

“Where did she go?” Keo asked Chambers as they put more distance between them and the bed-and-breakfast.

“I keep telling you, I don’t know,” Chambers said.

The Black Tider was in his late twenties, brown hair, with baggy eyes that hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep. He walked with a limp, which he told Keo was because he’d injured it in a fall sometime during the night. His BDU was dirty and speckled with blood, and besides the M4 he was carrying, he had a Glock in a hip holster and exactly one spare magazine for each weapon. Chambers carried the now-powerless long-range radio in a backpack, refusing to leave it behind when Keo told him to ditch it.

“Tell me what happened, exactly,” Keo said.

“After Kennison left to go looking for supplies, she told me to rest,” Chambers said. “So I did.”

“Lara.”

“Yes.” Chambers hesitated before continuing. “I didn’t want to. I wasn’t going to, but… It’s been a long night, and I was tired. I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes. When I woke up, she was gone.”

“How long did you sleep?”

“I don’t know. Two hours, I think.” He sighed. “I don’t know where she went, or why. She was just gone.”

“So how are you so sure she won’t be coming back to the B&B?”

“Because of this,” Chambers said. He took a piece of paper, folded in half, out of his pocket and handed it over.

It was a yellow sticky note with writing on one side in small cursive letters. Keo read it:

“When Kennison comes back, leave the city and save yourselves. Tell Danny Black Tide is his now. Tell him not to try to find me.”

He read it a second time, then a third just to be sure.

“Is this her handwriting?” he asked Chambers.

The Black Tider shook his head. “I don’t know what her handwriting looks like. It was on the floor next to me when I woke up, but it wasn’t there before I went to sleep.”

“What does it mean? ‘Tell Danny Black Tide is his now?’”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, man. I don’t know.”

“So what do you know?” Keo asked, unable to hide his irritation.

Chambers didn’t say anything, and they kept walking for a bit. Keo folded the sticky note back up and slipped it into his pocket, but he couldn’t stop turning her message over in his head:

“When Kennison comes back, leave the city and save yourselves. Tell Danny Black Tide is his now. Tell him not to try to find me.”

The first part was for Kennison and Chambers. The second part, about Danny, was more troubling. According to Kennison, Lara had also heard Danny’s message about having taken Black Tide Island back. So she knew Danny was alive; not just that, but actively preparing a counterattack. Lara would know that Danny was much more than just a capable soldier. He was one hell of a good soldier, in fact. Maybe even great, not that Keo was ever going to tell him that to his face.

“Tell Danny Black Tide is his now. Tell him not to try to find me.”

What are you doing, Lara? What are you doing?

“Why weren’t you in the second apartment?” Keo asked Chambers.

“What?” the man said.

“The second apartment. Kennison told me you guys were in the second apartment, on the right. But you were in the first one.”

“We changed rooms after Kennison left. Lara said not to stay in one place for too long, and we were already in that other room since morning.”

Keo nodded. It was a reasonable answer, but it didn’t tell him anything about why she’d abandoned Chambers at the B&B, leaving behind just a note.

“Tell him not to try to find me.”

That was, if Lara had written the note. But if wasn’t her, then who would have? Any Bucky who stumbled across Chambers would have just shot him while he slept.

“So Kennison’s alive?” Chambers was asking.

Keo nodded. “He’s on the north side of town.” Then, “So Lara could have left anytime, from when you fell asleep two hours ago to when you woke up?”

“I guess so.”

“She was on foot?”

“We’ve been ever since we started moving after that blue-eyed bastard almost found us.”

Keo stopped and turned to face Chambers.

The Black Tider stopped, too. “What?”

“Blue-eyed bastard? What blue-eyed bastard?”

“There was a Blue Eyes here last night,” Chambers said.

Merrick? Keo thought, but didn’t say. He didn’t want to say the creature’s name out loud.

“Kennison and I swore it’d found us—that it’d been tracking us,” Chambers continued. “It had us—or we thought it did—at this factory. I think Lara thought it’d found us, too, because I heard her radioing Commander Gaby.”

“And then?”

“I don’t know. It just left.”

“Blue Eyes…”

“Yeah. It left the factory, and we didn’t see it again. It took all the black eyes with it.”

“And it never came back?”

“No.”

Keo saw something in Chambers’s face. The man knew something—or thought he did—but was reluctant to say it.

“What is it?” Keo said. “What are you not telling me?”

“I’m not sure,” Chambers said. “Kennison and I talked about it, but Lara… She didn’t want to.”

“What happened, Chambers?”

“After Blue Eyes left, Lara was on the radio with Commander Gaby and the others. Peters, some of the other guys on Overwatch.”

“And?”

“I didn’t hear everything, but…”

“But what?”

“It sounded like Lara wasn’t keen on what Gaby and Peters were planning to do.”

“But you don’t know what that was?”

“No. She had the radio down so low we could only really hear her end of the conversation, and she was doing a lot of whispering.” He paused before continuing. “But…”

“But…” Keo prodded.

“It sounded like she was pleading with Gaby not to do something.”

Pleading? Pleading with her not to do what?

He asked Chambers, “And then what happened?”

“There was an explosion. We weren’t close to it, but we could still hear and feel it from where we were hiding.”

“What kind of explosion?”

“Like missiles striking a building.”

“Buckies?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“And then what happened?”

“Then the building that got hit came down. After that, we didn’t have to worry about ghouls anymore.”

“How so?”

“I mean, we still saw them—in the streets and sometimes in the alleys—when we were moving between hiding spots during the night, but they never attacked. They looked…lost.”

“Lost?”

“Yeah. Once or twice I swore they saw us, but they didn’t attack. It was like they were hypnotized. I can’t explain it.”

“Keep going.”

“Then morning came, and they were all gone. Just like that, they were all gone, and it was just the Mercerians to deal with again.”

Keo stared at him, processing everything Chambers and Kennison had said, and everything he knew, or thought he knew:

Lara’s note…

Blue Eyes abandoning his search for Lara…

Gaby’s plan that Lara didn’t agree with…

The last stand at the apartment complex a.k.a. Overwatch…

The fate of Parrish’s group…

And Merrick, who may or may not have been here last night…

And now, Lara was missing.

No, not missing. Gone. She had left on her own accord and told Chambers not to try finding her.

“You know what happened, don’t you?” Chambers asked. He was staring at Keo. “Why she left? You know.”

“No,” Keo said. It wasn’t entirely a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either.

“I don’t believe you,” Chambers said.

“I don’t care what you believe,” Keo said, and turned and walked away.

Even as he continued through the back alley, one ear listening for sounds of Buckies nearby—listening for sounds of anything but them—he couldn’t stop turning all the information at his disposal ‘round and ‘round in his head.

Then he thought about Claire and how much information he was going to have to keep from the kid, because Keo had a bad feeling he knew what had happened to Gaby.

But it always came back to those crucial lines in the note Lara had left with Chamber. One in particular:

“Tell Danny Black Tide is his now…”

Five

They had been moving for ten minutes, Keo unable to stop thinking about Lara’s note. He had a good idea of what had happened to her since last night, along with Gaby. Her message to Chambers was a clear indication she didn’t want to be found. It was, for all intents and purposes, a Dear John letter.

“When Kennison comes back, leave the city and save yourselves. Tell Danny Black Tide is his now. Tell him not to try to find me.”

Chambers hadn’t said anything since and kept to himself as they moved between buildings, always on the lookout for enemy contact. Keo heard the occasional roar of engines in the distance, but the city was light on human noise pollution. It was a stark contrast to when he first entered the city.

He checked his watch again. 5:49 p.m.

Time flies when you’re running around without a clue, he thought, glancing over at Chambers (limping) walking next to him.

“You good?” he asked the soldier.

Chambers nodded. “I’m fine.”

“You sure? You want me to take the radio?”

“I’m okay. Really.”

“It’s dead. Throw it away.”

“No. I might still be able to fix it. Right now, it’s our only lifeline if Black Tide really is preparing a counterattack.”

“Assuming you can get it working again.”

“Assuming that, yeah.” He glanced over at Keo. “Did you hear anything more about that?”

“Just what Kennison told me. The same two-minute long message repeated over and over.” Then, when something else occurred to him, Keo said, “How did Lara look when she heard the message?”

Chambers thought about it for a moment. “Relieved. Really relieved. You know she’s friends with Commander Hartford, right? I mean, really good friends. With his family, too.”

“I know.”

“She was relieved, especially when she heard about the families on the island being safe.”

Keo nodded. He imagined the news being the one bright spot in what was otherwise probably a miserable twenty-four hours for Lara.

“What about last night?” Keo asked. “What else do you know about what happened?”

“That Louisiana sent some ground troops to Darby Bay along with the Warthogs,” Chambers said.

“Reinforcements?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened to them?”

“I don’t know. They never showed up.”

“And you’re sure Galveston and Larabie got hit by ghouls at the same time?”

“That’s what I heard the captain say before we split up.”

“Parrish.”

“Uh huh. It’s not like they tell us everything—a lot of it goes back and forth with the command staff—but we heard some things.” He looked over. “You think that’s what happened to our rescue? Ghouls intercepted them along the way?”

“I don’t know what to think. A few weeks ago, I’d laugh if you told me the ghouls were a threat again, but after everything I’ve seen…” Keo shook his head. “Anything’s possible, which is not a good thing.”

“No, I guess not,” Chambers said.

The Black Tider was about to say something else when they heard the pop-pop-pop of automatic rifle fire from somewhere to their right. They both turned in that direction, hands on their own weapons, and listened.

Pop-pop-pop!

Pop-pop-pop!

It was some kind of gun battle not too far from their position. If he had to guess, Keo would put the distance at a block or two. Maybe closer.

He looked over at Chambers. “Was Lara armed?”

Chambers nodded. “She had a rifle and a sidearm.”

“But no supplies.”

“No. None of us did.” Then, when Keo’s question about Lara finally registered, “You think that’s her?”

“Anything’s possible, right?” Keo said as more gunfire crackled.

He began jogging down the alley and toward the street. Chambers was behind him, though Keo wasn’t sure how well he was doing back there with one gimpy leg. But he wasn’t too concerned about Chambers; he was more worried about what was happening in front of him.

What were the chances it was Lara? That would probably depend on what kind of luck he was dealing with. Then again, after the lousy few days he’d had to endure, maybe he was due for a little luck.

Come on, Lady Luck. Come on, girl!

The gunfire had quickly decreased in intensity, with only the occasional pop! followed by a return pop!

A running gunfight, from the sounds of it.

“Hey, hey,” Chambers was calling behind him.

Keo slowed down just enough to look back. Chambers was a good five meters behind him, limping up the sidewalk with a mask of pain on his face.

“Slow down, slow down,” Chambers said. “My leg…”

“Go find Kennison and Claire at the spot I told you about and wait for me,” Keo said.

“What? No way. I’m coming with you.”

“You’ll just get in the way. Go!”

Keo spun back around and took off running. He picked up speed, thankful for that double dose of Tramadol from earlier, otherwise Fenton’s injuries would be nagging him. It might be anyway, but he couldn’t feel it.

“Wait!” Chambers called from behind him, but Keo was already angling off the sidewalk and darting across the street onto the other side, before turning into an alley to cut across the city.

He could still hear the gunfire, even though there were fewer of them now for him to track.

* * *

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Keo thought as he stepped out from between two buildings and strode confidently across the street toward Darby Bay City Park. I just hope the enemy of my enemy doesn’t shoot me, too!

Because he wouldn’t blame them if they did. He was, after all, wearing a Bucky “uniform”—complete with that very obvious big circled M emblem on the front of his vest. The gas mask bouncing against his left hip was an extra indicator he was one of the “bad guys”—at least according to whoever the Buckies were surrounding at the moment.

The gunfight had bogged down in the park. It was a round area with cobblestone walkways and expansive (and unattended) lawns. The lack of care and maintenance had extended to the statues and monuments. But then, most of the park had lost its luster a long time ago, with plenty of bird excrement giving every piece of stone a new coating.

There were three horses tied up to a tree near the entrance into the park, the animals fidgeting under the fading sun as their owners crouched behind a water fountain featuring a large fish that used to spit out water, but had gone dry years ago. The two men were facing a shack about fifty meters across from them—some kind of brick toolshed. The building’s door was open, its two windows facing the streets shattered, with fresh glass sprinkled across the pavement.

The two Buckies were reloading as Keo walked up to them.

Wait. Two? Why are there three horses?

He glanced around, before spotting a body lying in the street about a hundred meters away. Too far for Keo to see any identifying marks, but it was a good bet he was a Bucky.

Keo was still halfway to the two survivors when one of them heard his footsteps and turned around. The man lifted his rifle as he did so, and he might have fired if Keo didn’t throw his hands up—making the circled M on his chest more obvious—and shouted, “Whoa, whoa, don’t shoot! Friendly incoming!”

The Bucky squinted at him, then relaxed when he saw Keo’s clothing. His partner glanced over one shoulder, but quickly returned his focus to the brick target.

Keo jogged the rest of the way over, expecting whoever was hiding in the building to pop up and open fire on him from behind one of the windows, but they didn’t. He might have seen something that looked like a head appearing from underneath one of the windowsills, but that could have just been the fading sun playing tricks with his mind.

Fading sun.

Whoops. It’ll be dark soon, pal. Pay attention!

He sneaked a look at his watch as he reached the Buckies.

5:55 p.m.

Cutting it real close, pal.

He crouched behind the two Buckies as the one that had almost shot him turned back around, both men kneeling on the hard cement. The first Bucky was bigger than his partner by a good half foot and at least fifty pounds, sporting something that almost looked like a mohawk. His buddy was younger, skinnier, with pale skin to complement a bushel of red hair.

“Where did you come from?” Mohawk asked.

“Here and there,” Keo said. He leaned around the fountain to get a better look at the shed. “What happened?”

Mohawk nodded down the street at the dead body. “We were doing a last sweep when we ran across a Black Tider.”

“How do you know it was a Black Tider?”

“Blue BDU,” Ginger said. He was armed with a matte black AR-15; the rifle had a scope that looked a bit oversized, and the man was peering through it at his target. “Shot Newsome off his horse.”

“Man or woman?” Keo asked.

“What?” Mohawk said.

“The Black Tider. Was it a man or woman?”

“Dunno. I only saw their backside.”

“Who cares if it’s a man or a woman,” Ginger said. “He’s dead either way. Or she. Whatever.”

“I thought we were supposed to take them alive,” Keo said.

“Says who?” Mohawk asked as he turned around to face Keo again. Unlike his buddy, he was carrying a FAL battle rifle.

“That’s what Clive told me,” Keo said, remembering the name of the man from the radio earlier.

Ginger glanced over at Mohawk. “Is that right?”

Mohawk shrugged. “Maybe. But they killed Newsome, so it doesn’t matter.”

Keo had been sure that Clive was more than just another no-name Bucky after their conversation, and he was even more certain of it now. The two in front of him had hesitated when he brought up Clive’s name, even if they did dismiss it moments later.

He looked past the giant fish in the middle of the round water fountain and at the toolshed. “How many’s in there?”

“Just one,” Mohawk said.

“You sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. I know how to count.”

“Since when?” Ginger asked.

“Blow me,” Mohawk said.

Ginger chuckled. “Just wanna make sure, man, that’s all. Don’t have a cow.”

“Don’t have a cow? What are you, ten?”

“Ten inches.”

“You wish.”

Keo focused on the path between him and the brick building. He was trying to figure out how to get there without getting killed when he noticed the small wet drops of blood on the cobblestone walkway. It led to the open door in front of them. There wasn’t a lot, and he might have missed them completely if he hadn’t lingered on the pathway.

“Looks like they’re hit,” Keo said. “I see blood.”

“I told you I got a piece,” Ginger said, grinning behind his scope.

Mohawk grunted. “Yeah, yeah.” The Bucky glanced back at Keo. “Where’s your partner?”

My partner? Keo thought. I guess I’m supposed to have a partner.

“He’s busy with something right now,” Keo said.

“Busy with what?” Mohawk asked.

“Um…”

Mohawk narrowed his eyes at Keo. “What’s your name?”

“What’s your name?”

“Griffin,” Mohawk said. “Now, what’s your name?”

“Keo,” he said, and shot Mohawk in the chest.

It was an easy shot, and all he had to do was tilt the AR up slightly and pull the trigger two times. Pfft-pfft! and it was over.

Ginger pulled his eye away from his rifle’s scope, turned around, and said, “Hey,” before Keo hit him across the face with the butt of his rifle. Ginger grunted and plopped to the ground on one cheek, leaving his carbine resting on the side of the fountain. Keo grabbed it and tossed it down the pavement.

He checked briefly on Mohawk. The Bucky was on the ground, gasping for breath. Still alive, and trying to get a desperate grip on his rifle but having trouble because of his blood-slicked hands. Keo picked up the FAL and tossed it next to the AR. The wounded man gurgled blood and seemed to be trying to say something, but he never got it out before he closed his eyes and stopped moving.

Keo turned back to Ginger, who was groaning while groping at his broken nose. Blood seeped through his fingers as he peered back at Keo. The man mumbled something, but Keo couldn’t make it out. It sounded a little like, “Who the fuck are you?” but he could have been mistaken.

Keo took out the man’s handgun from its holster so the Bucky wouldn’t be tempted, and slipped it behind his back. He took another moment to peer over the fountain at the shack to see if its current occupant had witnessed what had happened. He couldn’t see anyone or even the top of a head. Whoever was in there was being very careful.

He looked back down at the Bucky. “What’s your name?”

The Bucky mumbled something, but Keo couldn’t understand him with both his hands pressed against his nose and parts of his mouth. Keo tapped the back of the man’s hand with his rifle’s suppressor and motioned for him to remove them.

Ginger did, and said, “Billy.”

“Okay, Billy,” Keo said. “How many other patrols are still in the city?”

The man who called himself Billy seemed to think about the answer. Either that, or he was thinking about what lies to tell.

Keo shot him in the thigh. The man screamed and forgot about his busted nose. He grabbed for his leg with both hands to stanch the bleeding.

“No, no, don’t think too hard,” Keo said. “Just answer quickly,” he added, pointing his weapon at the man’s other leg. “Understand?”

Billy nodded. With his pale skin and freckled cheeks, he could have passed for an adult Dennis the Menace. Keo was afraid the man might start crying at any second, but instead the Bucky just made a pained face and sniffed.

“How many other patrols are still in this part of the city?” Keo asked.

“A few,” Billy said.

“How many is a few?”

“Two. Three?”

“Two or three?”

“Um…”

Keo made to shoot the man’s other leg.

“One!” Billy shouted. “There’s just one as far as I know!”

“You sure, Billy?”

“Yes.” Then, much louder, “Yes!”

“Okay, okay,” Keo said. “No need to shout. My ears are working fine.”

Keo sneaked another look at the toolshed. Whoever was in there had to have heard Billy screaming, but they still hadn’t shown themselves. That was smart; you could never be too certain when it came to Buckies and their motives.

He looked back at Ginger. “The other patrol. Horses or cars?”

“Horses,” Billy said.

“How many?”

“Three.”

“Is that a thing? Three per patrol?”

“Yes.”

“Where are they now? If they were close by they would have been here by now, but I don’t see anyone. So where are they?”

“I don’t know…”

“Guess.”

Billy didn’t answer right away again, but this time Keo was sure he was just thinking about the answer and not trying to come up with a lie. He recognized the face of a defeated man when he saw one, and the Bucky in front of him just wanted to live through this interrogation.

“They might be headed across town already,” Billy finally said. “We’re leaving. Everyone’s leaving.”

“And Clive?”

“Clive?”

“Where is Clive now?”

“I don’t know,” Billy said. “He’s in charge of something else, not us.”

So I was right. Clive is in charge of something, just not everything.

“Don’t kill me, please,” the Bucky said.

Keo stared at him for a moment.

“Please,” the man said. “Please.”

“Tell me about Clive,” Keo said.

“Clive?”

“Tell me about him.”

“What do you wanna know?”

“He has an accent. Where’s he from?”

“Hell if I know,” Billy said. He grimaced and pressed his hands harder down on his bleeding leg. Blood dripped from his nose and cracked lips. “I think I need medical attention.”

“Yeah, you probably do,” Keo said. “And I’ll make sure you get it. First, tell me more about—”

There was a flurry of movement from above the water fountain. Keo glanced up in time to see a figure charging out of the shack’s open door. The falling sun was in his eyes, and it looked like a black specter of death flying toward him.

Keo squinted, and blue BDUs came into focus. A second later, he managed to make out a black handkerchief covering the lower half of the charging figure’s face just before the bang! of a pistol shot shattered a part of the concrete structure and fragments showered him and the Bucky.

Keo ducked, but he’d moved too fast and lost his balance and fell on his ass.

Fantastic, pal! Just fantastic!

Now get up!

The Black Tider was racing down the cobblestone walkway toward them, firing as they did so. Keo hadn’t gotten a good enough look to know if it was a man or woman, but he was pretty sure he had glimpsed blond hair. Or maybe that was just the sun again, messing with his eyes.

Bang-bang-bang! as more chunks of the fountain flicked into the air and pelted the walkway around him. The gunshots were getting louder as the shooter got closer—

“Hey, stay down!” Keo said when Billy suddenly stood up in front of him.

Keo almost shot him, but the man was unarmed and not dangerous at the moment. He was also clearly out of his mind with fear and had his hands over his head as he ran off. Or tried to, anyway.

Billy made it five feet before he fell back down next to Keo, this time with a hole in one of his cheeks.

Should have stayed down, Billy!

Keo was pushing up from the pavement as he swiveled to his right, in the direction the shooter would be appearing from. He had deduced that from the trajectory of the gunshots, which had stopped and been replaced by the sound of reloading and the loud pounding of footsteps. The Black Tider might have been wounded, but that hadn’t stopped them from running full-speed at him.

He lifted his rifle and took aim, but instead of a target appearing to his right, he heard the tap-tap! of footsteps in front of him.

Wait. In front of him?

Aw, dammit.

He twisted around, but it was too late. There was already a figure standing at the top of the destroyed fountain above him, their darkened figure blotting out the sun. He couldn’t make out the face, but there was no mistaking the gun in their hand. Hair that could have been blond or brown or black moved against the wind.

“Don’t shoot!” Keo shouted, throwing up his hands.

The figure hesitated, the gun aimed at him.

The vest, Keo thought. Shit, I’m wearing the vest—

“Jesus, I almost shot you,” the figure said before it lowered its gun hand and reached up to pull down the scarf.

Slowly, the face hovering above him came into view, along with crystal blue eyes.

“I’ve never been called that before,” Keo said, lowering his hands. “I like it.”

She hopped down from the fountain and ran into his arms.

“Keo,” she said. “I thought you were dead, too.”

He smiled, liking the sound of his name coming from between her lips. “I meant to come back sooner.”

She pulled back and smiled at him. “You’re here now.”

Before he could say anything else, she kissed him.

It was the best kiss of his life.

Six

“You look good.”

“I’ve been shot.”

“Who hasn’t? But you still look good for someone who’s been shot. Not everyone can say that.”

She pursed a smile. “You look…rough.”

He grinned. “I’ve had a long night. You too, from what I’ve heard.”

That brought out a frown from her, and Keo wished he hadn’t gone there. He had decided a long time ago that he preferred the sight of Lara smiling to just about every other expression. And right now, he barely recognized the same woman who’d sent him off to Fenton. If he didn’t already know everything (or, well, most of it) about last night, he would have been able to read it on her face. If not the details, then the outcome.

“You know, for a medical student, you did a pretty shoddy job with this,” Keo said as he finished wrapping up her arm.

“I was in a hurry,” Lara said.

“Excuses, excuses.”

The bullet had gone through her arm about an inch above the elbow, and fortunately hadn’t clipped bone or struck a vital artery during its passing. It undoubtedly still hurt, if the cringing Lara did as he cleaned and then bandaged up the wound was any indication. She had temporarily stanched the bleeding with a strip of rag she’d found inside the park shack, and the bloodied cloth lay nearby.

Keo packed up the remains of the first-aid kit and slipped it back into one of his pouches. He figured he was probably going to need it again sooner rather than later, and half of a kit was better than none. In hindsight, he should have stripped extra supplies from the dead Buckies before they abandoned the bodies, but there hadn’t been any time.

The reason for that lack of time was outside the window and across the street from them right now. They had heard the clop-clop-clop of shod horses racing toward them from half a block away, followed by the sound of car engines. If Keo and Lara had lingered any longer, they would have been spotted.

The incoming horses were expected, but the technical that followed on their heels wasn’t.

Only one other mounted patrol in the area, huh, Billy? Lying sack of Bucky. Why am I still so surprised?

The vehicle was parked in the street now, along with the horses. Three Buckies were standing around the vicinity of the gun battle trying to figure out what had happened earlier, pointing and talking. There was a fourth bad guy in the back of the Chevy truck, manning a machine gun and eyeing the surrounding buildings, while a fifth sat in the driver’s seat, waiting.

Keo and Lara had managed to vanish before the Buckies arrived and escaped unseen. Barely. They were camped inside a small mom and pop gift shop that had been stripped of anything valuable a long time ago, across the street and about five buildings down from the park. It wasn’t exactly the best hiding spot, considering the firepower out there, but it was the best they could do given the time constraints.

They might have run off when they heard the Buckies coming without grabbing some much-needed supplies, but Lara had been quick-thinking enough to snatch up the FAL. She hadn’t, unfortunately, taken another second to strip the dead man who had been carrying it of spare magazines. Fortunately, the rifle was carrying a full load, the dead Bucky having swapped mags before Keo killed him.

Keo peeked over the windowsill and out at the street now. He wasn’t too worried that the window didn’t have curtains. Most of the windows along this side of the street didn’t—the ones that even still had glass to begin with, anyway. Sunlight was fading fast outside, with maybe ten or so more minutes before night fell over Darby Bay. It was close enough that he had trouble making out the three figures standing around.

“I wish you weren’t wearing that,” Lara said from across the window. “I really did almost shoot you.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Keo said.

“Can you take it off now?”

“I can’t. The pouches are too useful.” He rubbed his forefinger against the white circle and the M inside it. “And this is permanent marker.”

One of the LED lights attached to a lamppost on the sidewalk outside had come on and was slowly gaining in intensity. Other lights strategically placed up and down the street had also activated. The Buckies also noticed, and the driver of the Chevy switched on the technical’s headlights, but the men themselves didn’t look to be in any hurry to dodge the coming darkness or get out of the open.

“You think they know something we don’t?” Keo asked.

“Like what?” Lara said. She had her back against the wall and was looking across the empty lobby at the far wall. She seemed disinterested in what was happening outside.

“Maybe they know the ghouls from last night aren’t coming back.”

“It’s possible.”

“Kennison told me what happened. He said there were a lot of them.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t quite read her face, and it wasn’t because the room had grown darker. Lara just looked…lost.

“You okay?” he asked.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

“Were you hit somewhere else?”

“No.”

Then what? he was going to ask, but didn’t. Sometimes the hardest wound to get past was the one you couldn’t see with the naked eye.

He peered out the window again. It was easier to watch the Buckies moving around out there than trying to read Lara. She would talk, he reasoned, when the time was right and she felt like it.

The Buckies had brought out flashlights and were still moving around, a couple walking along the cobblestone pathway while another searched the brick building. Keo couldn’t see the man but could spy his flashlight beam moving around on the other side of the two broken windows and open door.

“What happened back there?” Keo asked. “Running outside with three Buckies waiting wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do. I mean, sure, I could see me doing that, but you’re supposed to be smarter.”

She looked over and pursed another smile. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Or you were trying to get yourself killed, Keo thought, but he said, “And the thing with Kennison and Chambers?”

“We needed supplies…”

“I understand with Kennison. What about Chambers?”

She didn’t answer that one quite as quickly. In fact, she didn’t respond at all and looked away again.

Keo took out the note Chambers had given him and handed it to her. She took it and crumpled it into a ball and threw it into a bin in a corner without opening it.

I guess she did write that, he thought, before asking, “What happened to Gaby?”

“She’s dead,” Lara said.

She had said it so matter-of-factly that Keo would have believed it meant nothing to her, but of course he knew better. He knew exactly how much Gaby meant to Lara.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Does it matter? She’s dead, Keo. Gaby’s dead. Everyone’s dead.”

“Not everyone.”

“A lot of people are dead. Ours. Theirs. A lot of people are dead.”

“People die every day.”

“How many of them die because of something you did or said? Because of the decisions you made? I made choices last night that killed hundreds of people. I told them they would be safe as long as they did what I told them. I was wrong. They weren’t safe. Civilians, Black Tiders… They died because I underestimated the enemy.”

Keo didn’t interrupt her, but he knew she was talking about Parrish and the survivors. Kennison had said pretty much the same thing.

“There was a firefight. We could hear it while we were still blocks away. When we got there… It was over before we got there.”

Keo kept quiet and let her continue.

“I meticulously constructed a plan to lure hundreds more to a makeshift killing field and then gave the order to drop bombs on them. I murdered people last night, Keo. The very thing I told you not to do with Buck before you went to Fenton. I lured them into a trap, and I murdered them. I justified it by saying they attacked first. At the time, it worked. But things are always different in the light of day. When you see the bodies, when you smell the remains of charred flesh, and you say to yourself, ‘I did that. I’m responsible for that…’”

Keo sat back down and rested against the wall, and remained quiet. She didn’t need him to interject.

This is why I don’t lead people, he thought. This is why I don’t give orders.

This is why…and a hundred other reasons.

“Then there was Gaby,” Lara continued. “She was trying to save me.”

She was still staring across the room, at the warped rectangular light reflected against the wall by the growing artificial light coming through the window between them. But of course Keo knew she wasn’t seeing that reflection; she wasn’t seeing anything, because her mind was elsewhere.

She was reliving the events of last night.

“She saved me,” Lara said. “She put everything on the line to draw it away from me. Blue Eyes.”

Merrick, Keo thought but didn’t say out loud. Its name was Merrick.

“It had found me, you see,” Lara said. “We were hiding in a factory not far from the temporary OP when they cornered us. First it was just the black eyes, but then it showed up. It knew I was there, Keo. I don’t know how, but it knew.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “She saved me, Keo. She saved me.”

Keo thought about what Kennison and Chambers had told him. About the ghouls, about Gaby, about hearing and feeling (but not seeing) an explosion that was likely missiles striking a building. He had seen that building for himself. Or what was left of it. Some kind of surgical strike had reduced a multi-floor apartment complex to rubble, the sidewalks and streets around it littered with the bleached white bones of dead ghouls. There were probably hundreds more he couldn’t see still buried underneath all those concrete slabs.

“Gaby, Parrish, the others,” Lara continued. “They’re dead, Keo. They’re dead because of the choices I made.”

It’s not your fault, he wanted to say, but didn’t because it wouldn’t have done any good. This was a confession, not a discussion.

Instead of opening his mouth, he reached over and put his arm around her. “Come here.”

Lara leaned over and laid her head in his lap and curled up into a ball.

On the street outside, the technical fired up and drove away, the clop-clop-clop of horses following behind it. Keo barely heard them leaving; he was too focused on Lara.

“Danny’s alive,” Lara said quietly. “He took back Black Tide Island and he’s leading them now. This was always what he was meant to do. I was always just in his way, pretending to play soldier, when he was the real soldier. It’s Danny’s Black Tide now. It’s his now, the way it was always meant to be.”

He stroked her hair. It, along with the rest of her, smelled of gunpowder and sweat and dirt and blood.

“I’m tired, Keo,” she whispered. “I’m so tired.”

“Go to sleep,” Keo said. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Promise you won’t go anywhere…”

“I promise,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

* * *

Lara eventually fell asleep, and Keo might have, too—he was operating on only a few hours of sleep since escaping Fenton alive—but he stayed awake for both their sakes. Lara was snoring lightly, and she had moved closer, until her legs were pressed against his as she slept. She was sleeping so soundly he didn’t think anything short of a bomb could wake her.

He spent his time listening to the quiet outside and thought he could almost hear the crashing of waves coming from the shoreline nearby. He also thought about everything Lara had said and everything he’d learned up to this point.

Keo had already believed that she was attempting to disengage herself from Black Tide, and she had all but confirmed that now. He didn’t blame her. He would have thrown in the towel years ago. He wasn’t cut out for leadership, and the idea of leading men into battle—and knowing it was inevitable some of them might die—was something he could never see himself doing. It was one of the reasons he liked to work alone. At least that way if he died, he died, not someone else’s husband or wife or brother or—

One of the two radios lying on the floor next to him was vibrating.

Claire?

No. Not Claire.

Keo reached for the radio he’d taken off the dead Bucky. He stared at it for a moment, running through the pros and cons of answering it. He had a feeling he knew who was “calling.” It would have to be Clive. Who else could it be?

He turned the two-way’s volume up slightly and caught the familiar voice in mid-sentence:

“—many is that now? Nine? Ten? More?”

Clive. Of course it would be Clive.

Keo didn’t click the transmit lever and instead held the radio at arm’s length. Lara remained still in his lap, oblivious to the noise.

“Doesn’t matter,” Clive was saying. “What matters is that I know you’re still in the city. Did you rescue someone at the park? It looked like you did. Was she at least pretty?”

Does he know?

Then: No. There’s no way he could know. Everyone who knew Lara was there is dead.

Which meant Clive was fishing for information.

Nice try, pal.

Keo held the radio up and clicked it. “Nine sounds about right.”

“Ah ha, so you are listening still!” the Bucky said. “For a second there I thought you’d ditched the radio, but then I thought, nah, he’d keep it. This guy’s a pro, I said to myself. He’ll want to cover all his bases.”

“You’re smarter than you sound.”

Clive chuckled. It was entirely for Keo’s benefit since the man didn’t need to have his radio’s transmit lever pressed when he did it. “I like you, Dundee. You’re my kind of punter.”

“Am I, now?”

“Smart, cunning, gets shit done. That’s me in a nutshell.”

“Is that what you’re doing here? Getting shit done?”

“Things are already done. I’m just cleaning up.”

“How’s that going?”

“I’ll let you know when I see you.”

“You make it sound like you’re looking for me. You’re not looking for me, are you, Clive?”

“They wanted to let it go, the brass,” Clive said. “A Mercerian here and there, who cares, right? People die in wars. I would have let it go, too. It’s not like I knew the ones you took out. But the way you did it…” A brief pause. “Nine and counting, and no one has seen hide nor hair of you. That’s impressive.”

“You’re too easily impressed.”

Another laugh. “I’m not. I’m really not. For instance, I was told these Black Tiders were supposed to be top of the shelf. Real badass. Turned out they were all a bunch of pussies.”

Lara stirred in Keo’s lap, but when he looked down she was still sound asleep. It wouldn’t surprise him if she could subconsciously hear Clive and the use of “Black Tiders” had registered.

“There was one in the tunnels,” Clive was saying. “He turned out to be quite a chore. Ballsy fellow. Don’t know what happened to him, though. Probably dead, like all the others.”

Keo craned his head toward the window to listen. A part of him thought there was a chance Clive was trying to distract him as Buckies moved in for the kill.

But there was nothing out there. It was as quiet as it had been the last three hours since night fell. There were no sounds of movement, human or machine…or other.

“I’ve been looking for a guy like you,” Clive continued through the radio. “I’ve scoured what’s left of this country, but it’s been disappointing. Buck told me I’d get all the challenge I could handle if I joined up, so I did. He told me Black Tide was going to be the fight of my life.” The man sighed. It was too heavy and too dramatic to be genuine. “Color me disappointed when your friends crumpled, Dundee. Paper tigers, the whole lot of ’em.”

“What makes you think they’re my friends?” Keo asked.

“Oh, come on. I know you’re not a civilian. Not the way you’ve been going through the boys. You’re a Black Tider. An exceptional one.”

“It’s always nice to be appreciated.”

“Skills like yours should always be appreciated. Especially now. We’re a dying breed, you and I. Everyone has a gun, but not everyone knows how to properly use one. You do.”

“And you too, I’m assuming.”

“At the risk of sounding overly narcissistic—”

“Too late.”

“—yes. I’m pretty good myself. Why did you think Buck put me in charge of his boys? I’m his ace in the hole. The bullet you don’t see coming.”

“Does Buck know you’re running out of boys?”

“There are always more boys, Dundee. The question is: Now that all your mates are dead, why are you still running around out there making a nuisance of yourself? This isn’t a suicide mission, is it?”

I’ve done dumber things, Keo thought but didn’t say.

“You can’t possibly think Darby Bay is worth taking back,” Clive went on. “It’s gone. All over, red rover. So is your Black Tide, by the way. We’ve taken the island, and we’re running down every one of your units in the state. Soon, we’ll take the rest. One by one, by one.”

Someone isn’t up to date with what’s going on out there, Keo thought, and smiled to himself. Either Clive wasn’t nearly as plugged in to the latest news as he wanted Keo to think, or he was trying to gauge Keo’s knowledge.

Keo didn’t bite either way.

He said, “Good luck with that.”

“Thanks,” Clive said. “Not that we need it.”

“You that good, huh?”

“We’re that prepared. What? Did you think what happened last night was a lark? Perish the thought. It was planned. Like everything else, including the final and complete destruction of Black Tide; it was planned from the very beginning.”

Now that Keo could believe. Buck had said pretty much the same thing to him last night in Fenton.

When Keo didn’t respond to him, Clive said, “Where are you right now? Somewhere in the city, I’m sure. Hiding from me. I wish I knew what you wanted, but I don’t suppose it matters.”

“You still haven’t told me what you want,” Keo said into the radio.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“I don’t swing that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Clive laughed. “Are you that pretty?”

“Not as pretty as I used to be…”

“Nonetheless, I want a piece of you, Dundee. I want a challenge. Which is why I’m going to hunt you down. Block by block, if necessary. Or you could make it easy for me and tell me where you are…”

“Now what would be the fun in that?”

“You’re right, you’re right. This is so much better. Good things in life should be hard. That’s the only way to fully appreciate it.”

“Dying ain’t that hard, pal.”

“Are you going to be the one to kill me?”

“Stranger things have happened.”

Another overly forced laugh. “I look forward to meeting you in person, Dundee.”

“I wish I could say the same, but if you’re as ugly as you sound, I might have nightmares. And who needs that?”

“Sticks and stones may break my bones—”

Keo turned the radio off and tossed it onto the floor.

Jackass.

Lara stirred in his lap, but didn’t wake up. Keo brushed away some hair that had fallen over her face. He leaned back against the wall and listened to her snoring softly. It was a peaceful sound, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

At least, for one night.

He, on the other hand…

Well, he could always sleep when he was dead.

Seven

“Who were you talking to last night?”

“Some asshole named Clive.”

“Who’s that?”

“Some asshole.”

“He’s one of them?”

“Uh huh.”

“What did he want?”

“To annoy me, but mostly to kill me.”

“You seem to have that effect on a lot of people.”

“It’s a gift,” Keo said. Then, smiling at her, “You look good.”

Lara smiled back. “Are you going to say that every time you look at me?”

“Maybe.”

“I have blood on my clothes, and dirt, and God knows what on my face and in my hair. I don’t look good, Keo. I look like shit.”

“Not from where I’m sitting. Besides, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to see you again after Fenton, so everything now’s a plus.”

Lara finished spreading the peanut butter onto the crackers she’d gotten from their open bag of MRE. “What happened over there, anyway? Gaby and I…” She paused, staring at the cracker for a few seconds, before continuing. “We thought it might have been a trap. I was worried I had sent you right into Buck’s hands.”

“It wasn’t a trap,” Keo said. He took a bite out of his cracker, except his was spread with jelly instead of PB. “Well, not really.”

“Not really?”

“The whole place was a façade. Buck never had any plans to use Fenton for anything other than a staging area. The Buckies that were there—those were just the ones he wanted us to see. The rest were waiting somewhere else to strike.”

“The ones he used to attack the city and the other FOBs…”

“Those guys, and the reinforcements that showed up here yesterday.”

Lara bit into her cracker, but he could tell she didn’t have much of an appetite, even though he knew she hadn’t eaten since last night. She finished off the cracker anyway and picked up the pack of fruits and nibbled on them. The biggest entrée in the MRE—the last in his pack—was the chicken with egg noodles and vegetables, still in its package waiting for one of them to heat it up. Keo was saving it for her.

They sat across from one another next to the same window in the gift shop, with the park somewhere across the street. The dead Buckies were gone, taken by the ones that had shown up after the gunfight. Not that Keo could tell there was a battle outside very recently; at least not with the current shape of Darby Bay.

The night had come and gone without incident, and sunup had brought the welcome relief of sunlight. The room was cold, but they had the proper clothes for it. In the fresh glow of morning, Lara looked as tired now as she did yesterday. Keo didn’t blame her; he probably looked like a mess himself. Last night and this morning, he realized quite suddenly, were the first times either one of them had had the chance to just sit and rest without worrying about being found or shot at.

Try not to jinx it, pal.

There were birds in the park, chirping away. He hadn’t heard them yesterday or last night, but they were out in full force this morning. Other than that, the city was as (dead) quiet around them as it had been since he reentered it. That was, in some ways, comforting.

“Did you find out where Buck’s other forces came from?” Keo asked.

Lara shook her head and took another small bite of her cracker. “No. You?”

“I was too busy trying to stay alive.”

“We all were.”

“I saw.”

“He played us, Keo. All these years, he was building up his army, waiting to spring his trap.” She looked up at him. “We should leave the city.”

“That’s a given. Where are we going?”

“Does it matter?”

“It kind of does, yeah. There’s that whole direction thing. Also, are we walking, running, riding, or swimming? ’Cause I’m a pretty good swimmer, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I haven’t.”

“So. Where are we going?”

“I don’t know yet. Will you come with me?”

“Just the two of us, huh?”

“Yes.”

“What about—”

“Just the two of us,” she said, cutting him off before he could finish.

“Okay,” Keo said.

“Okay?” she said.

“Hey, it’s not like I have anything else better to do anyway. My calendar’s pretty free these days. So why not?”

She held his gaze, looking as serious as he had ever seen her. “I mean it, Keo. I want you to leave the city with me. Leave it behind. Leave everything behind.”

“Everything?”

“You never wanted this. Isn’t that why you left us five years ago?”

Not quite, he thought but didn’t say.

“Danny’s taken control of Black Tide,” Lara continued. “He’ll lead them from now on. This was always meant to be his command anyway. Now that they have him, they don’t need me anymore.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“It’s the only thing I’m sure about these days.” She put the half-eaten cracker down and pulled her legs out from underneath her and wrapped her arms around them. Then she peered at him from between her knees. “I’m not the woman I once was.”

“You look the same to me.”

“Bullshit. We both know that’s not true.”

“What about Carly? Maddie? The others?”

“Danny will take care of them.”

“Danny’s just one man.”

“I was just one woman, too.”

You were more than that, he thought as he leaned forward to offer her his jellied cracker.

She stared at it but didn’t reach for it.

“You need to eat,” Keo said.

“I’m not hungry.”

“How are you going to run around out there with me on an empty stomach? I can carry you, sure, but that’s going to get old after a while.”

She pursed a smile and took the cracker and ate it. “I’m a coward, aren’t I?”

“You’re just tired.”

“I’m a coward.”

“You’re the least cowardly person I know. The things you’ve done, for five years…” He shook his head. “I couldn’t have done that. No one could. But you did. You did all that.”

“I had a lot of help.”

“Sure you did, but it was still mostly you. You’re responsible for most of this.”

“Yes, I am,” she said, but he had a feeling they were now talking about two completely different things.

Dammit. Should have seen that coming.

He struggled for the right response, but the words eluded him. It was a reminder that he wasn’t cut out for this.

You suck, pal.

Keo said instead, “So you want to leave the city. Leave all of this behind.”

“I know it’s the easy way out, but I’m tired, Keo. I’m just so tired.”

She looked toward the window. The sun was bright against her face, and Keo couldn’t deny that she looked so much older than the last time he had seen her, before he left for Fenton. And at the same time, there was a serenity about her, as if she had shed the weight of the world that once threatened to suffocate her.

She looked back at him. “Will you run away with me?”

He picked up the unopened package of chicken noodles. “I will, if you finish this.”

“What is it?”

“Chicken noodles and veggies.”

“I hate chicken noodles.”

“What about veggies?”

“Those are okay.”

“So, eat up. You need your strength if you’re going to keep getting shot like this. Who do you think you are, anyway, me? I’m the only one who gets shot around here, lady. I have vast experience at it.”

She took the bag at the same time one of the two radios next to them vibrated.

“Your buddy again?” Lara asked.

“Wrong radio,” Keo said. He picked up the two-way but didn’t turn up the volume right away. Instead, he looked at Lara. “It’s Claire. She’s with Kennison and Chambers right now. I think she tried to contact me last night, but I was too tired to answer. The kid’s probably freaking out.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

“I don’t know yet. But we both know what she’ll ask.”

Lara nodded and looked at the radio as it vibrated again. Keo turned up the volume, and they heard Claire’s voice:

“—alive out there? Please respond if you are.” Then, after a brief pause, “Dammit, Keo, please respond.”

He pressed the transmit lever. “Hey, kid.”

“Jesus, Keo, you’re still alive,” Claire said. “I was beginning to think otherwise. Where are you?”

“I’m hiding out. What’s your situation?”

“We’re okay. Just waiting for you. I tried reaching you last night, but you never answered.”

“Sorry about that. Must have fallen asleep.”

“You should have answered. Jesus, I thought you were dead.”

“I’m not that easy to get rid of.”

“But you’re okay?”

“Okay-ish.”

“Good enough. Chambers told me what happened, why you guys split up. Did you find her? Did you find Lara?”

Keo looked over at Lara.

She stared back and didn’t say anything.

“Keo, you still there?” Claire said through the radio. “Keo. Please respond.”

“No,” Keo finally said. “I didn’t find her.”

There was a moment of silence from Claire’s end. Keo imagined the kid looking disappointed, maybe shaking her head at Kennison and Chambers, standing next to her while the two men waited anxiously to hear the answer.

“What happened at the park?” Claire asked.

“Some Darby Bay survivors got into a shootout with some Buckies,” Keo said.

“But it wasn’t Lara?”

“No.”

Keo watched Lara slide the packet of chicken noodles into the flameless ration heater bag and then pour some water in it. He didn’t think she looked very hungry as she watched the heater do its job, wisps of vapors escaping through small slits near the top.

“Anything new with the radio Chambers brought over?” Keo said into the two-way.

“That’s what I wanted to tell you,” Claire said. “Kennison went back out after you left and found another radio. A working one, this time. We were able to make contact with some Black Tide assets in the area. Not the island itself, but a recon plane nearby. They’re running surveillance ahead of the counterattack on Buck’s forces.”

“That’s good to hear. What else?”

“That’s it. The guys we talked to either didn’t know more than that or they didn’t want to say. We’re trying to reach Black Tide Island itself, but the radio’s got limited range.”

“At least you finally have a working one.”

“Yeah, at least we have that. It’s better than nothing.”

“Did they say anything about a rescue?”

“There are still too many Mercerian forces in the area to risk sending a chopper in here. Those guys are armed with shoulder-mounted rockets that could bring the birds down. But if we can get to them, to a secure location, they can send a helo to pick us up.”

“So why haven’t you left yet?”

“We agreed to wait until you found Lara, then leave together.” Claire paused. Then, “Do you think she’s even still in the city?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll keep looking for her. In the meantime, you and the other two need to evac and get on the right side of the battle lines before the counterattack begins.”

“And leave you behind?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Give me one good reason why I should do that?”

“There’s nothing for you to do here but get caught or get pulled into an unnecessary gunfight. There are still Buckies running around the city. Not a lot, but enough to be trouble. The longer you stay, the more dangerous it’ll be for everyone, including me.”

Claire didn’t answer.

“I work better alone,” Keo continued. “If I have to keep worrying about you and those two gimpy lads, I won’t be at my best. And I need to be that in order to find Lara. If she’s even still in the city.”

“What do you think happened to her?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I intend to find out. Right now, you need to exfil the city and rejoin the fight. That’s your job. You’re a soldier now, Claire. You’re not a kid,” Keo added, but thought, That means I should probably stop calling her kid, then. “But first, what did you see on your side of the city? Anything I should know?”

“Nothing much last night, but they were out there this morning.”

“What were they doing?”

“Going from building to building, like they were looking for something. I’m guessing you know what that ‘something’ is?”

“I may have a hint or two. How many did you see?”

“A dozen, maybe more.”

So Clive hadn’t remained in the city all by himself, despite his brash talk about taking Keo on mano a mano. The man with the funky accent had “a dozen, maybe more” Buckies with him to lend a hand.

Another lying Bucky. Color me shocked.

“It’s time for you to go, Claire,” Keo said. “Link back up with Black Tide and fill them in on what we found in here.”

“What do I tell them about Lara?” Claire asked.

Lara had been watching him as he talked on the radio, but she looked away and out the window when her name came up again.

“For now, tell Kennison and Chambers to keep their mouths shut until you get the chance to talk to Danny,” Keo said. “No one else but Danny can know about Lara’s situation. No one.”

“Roger that,” Claire said. “What about you?”

“Those Bucky stragglers are looking for me. The last thing I want is to lead them straight to you. I’ll bide my time on this side and keep looking for signs of Lara. Maybe that counterattack will get here sooner rather than later, and I won’t have to go too far to catch up to you guys.”

“You have enough supplies to last awhile?”

Not even close, Keo thought, but said, “You need to stop worrying about me. Head back to where you left the horses, and take both of them. Grab my supplies, too, if they’re still there. The three of you might need them more than I do.”

“Even your horse named Horse?” she asked, and he pictured her smiling when she did it.

“Even Horse,” he said, smiling on his end.

Lara gave him a confused Why are you smiling? look.

“They probably won’t even be there,” Claire was saying. “I didn’t tie them up, remember?”

“Think positive, kid.”

“Captain Optimism?”

“Yeah. Captain Optimism.”

The radio went silent for a moment.

Then: “Keo,” Claire said, “what about Gaby? Did you find out anything more about what happened to her?”

Lara was staring at him again.

“No,” Keo said into the radio without hesitation. “But I’ll keep looking. For her, for Lara, for anyone else who might have survived.”

“Okay,” Claire said. He could hear the disappointment in her voice even over the radio waves.

“Good luck, kid.”

“Yeah, you too, Keo,” Claire said.

He put the radio down and watched Lara staring at the ration heater as it warmed the packet of chicken noodles between them.

“You sure about this?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she said, but he didn’t believe her.

“You have to be sure, Lara.”

She looked up at him. “I’m going to be asking myself that question for as long as I live, Keo. That, and a million other decisions I’ve made. So no, I’m not sure about this one, and I’ll never be.”

They stared at one another for a while without saying a word.

Finally, Keo nodded. “All right.”

“All right?” Lara said.

“All right.” He picked up his rifle and took out the magazine. “As far as I can tell, we have one advantage against the Buckies still in the city with us.”

“What’s that?”

“They don’t know you’re with me.”

“They think you’re alone. This Clive guy thinks he’s just hunting you, when there’s actually two of us.” She nodded. “I guess that’s some kind of an advantage.”

Keo smiled. “No, Lara. I meant that if Buck’s people knew you were with me, he’d be sending more than just a dozen people to look for us.”

“Me, me.”

He nodded. “You, you.”

“Oh. That’s what you meant.”

“Uh huh.”

She frowned. “Who is this Clive asshole, anyway? And what does he have against you?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? He’s staying behind when every other Mercerian is already moving on to Buck’s next agenda. How is that ‘nothing?’”

“I guess you could say he’s a big fan of my work.”

“Are you serious? That’s it?”

“Pretty much.”

“So, he’s your stalker.”

“Hunh,” Keo said. He hadn’t actually thought of it that way, but she had a point. “I guess that’s one way to put it.”

“Jesus, Keo,” Lara said. “Can you try to be less popular from now on?”

Keo grinned. “It’s a natural gift, what can I say?”

Eight

They didn’t move right away, and instead bided their time listening for Buckies. Lara preferred to call them Mercerians, but Keo had been calling them Buckies for too long to start changing now. Besides, the name reminded him that there was one very specific man pulling the strings out there.

You still out there, Buck? You nearby?

Come say hi, pal, so I can shoot you in the face.

Keo couldn’t forget the conversation he’d had with Buck in Fenton, before the man took off with his army. The fact that Buck hadn’t shown up in Darby Bay himself was a mystery. Or maybe he had and no one had just seen him. Lara hadn’t. But then, like the other Black Tiders, she’d been too busy running and fighting all night. For all they knew, Buck could have been calling the shots the entire time.

“Where else would he be if not here?” she had asked.

Keo had shaken his head. “A lot of places. Who knows what else he had going on two nights ago that we still don’t know about yet.”

“What about now that he’s destroyed Darby Bay? Do you think he’d attack Louisiana next? Is that where his men are going?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him. With Danny busy in Black Tide coordinating everything, maybe he thinks this is the perfect opportunity.”

“Even without Danny, the FOBs in Louisiana are still formidable. And after everything that’s happened in Texas, they’ll be on high alert.”

“There’s also Colorado,” Keo had said. “There are a lot of places he could attack next. That’s the problem. He’s had five years to plan this.”

“He’s not going to attack Colorado.”

“Why not?”

“Beecher is there.”

“So?”

“Beecher has an air force that rivals Black Tide’s. He’s been the most important ally we’ve had since all of this began five years ago. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish half the things we did.”

So where the hell was Beecher when you needed him two nights ago? he thought but kept to himself. The less he got her talking about that night, the better it was going to be for the both of them. Besides, he had a feeling Lara had been reliving it nonstop even without his prompting.

“You decided on a direction yet?” he asked her instead.

“No,” Lara said.

“East, west, north, or south? We need to at least choose a direction once we get out of the city.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Keo.”

In the hours that followed, he expected her to have a change of heart, that she wasn’t going to just run away from all of it, after all. But she never did. He sneaked looks at her as she stared out the window. He saw guilt on her face, but something else he didn’t think he’d ever see: defeat. For all her strength and resilience and ability to adapt and overcome and inspire, Buck’s surprise attack had driven her to the edge—and all the losses had pushed her off it.

In a lot of ways, news that Danny had taken command of Black Tide and was orchestrating a counterattack was the impetus Lara had needed to leave it all behind. Keo didn’t try to change her mind. He didn’t think he had any right to. In her shoes, he would have run a long time ago, but she had stuck it out for five years. Five long, hard years. He couldn’t have done that. He knew himself too well. He couldn’t have done it for one year, never mind five.

With nothing to do while they waited, he went over their inventory, feeling like an idiot for not grabbing all the weapons and ammo from the dead Buckies yesterday. He still had two spares for his AR, and Lara had a full magazine in the FAL. She had one more spare for her Glock sidearm, but unfortunately Keo was carrying a SIG Sauer, which meant he couldn’t share his two remaining spares for the handgun with her. The knife on his left hip finished off his list of weapons, and their supplies were limited to what he had in his pack and pouches.

Lara had been running around in a Black Tide BDU but had no supplies of her own. They were down to one first-aid bundle and a half-full canteen of water between them. There were also packets of fruits and three crackers left from the MRE they’d eaten this morning. It wasn’t much, but he told himself he’d made do with less.

While they sat and rested, Keo took apart their weapons and cleaned them with a small kit that the Bucky he’d killed and taken the pack from had been nice enough to carry around. Lara watched him work in silence, sometimes glancing out the window, but always keeping quiet. He imagined she was thinking about everything—the last five years, two nights ago, this morning, and maybe what was in front of her. He wished he could have said he understood the full impact of what she was going through, but the truth was, Keo had never allowed himself to be in that position. He simply knew his limits too well.

After a while, Lara said, “I’m glad you’re still alive, Keo.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, me too.”

“I mean it. I’ve been worried about you. But you’re here now, safe and sound.”

“Ish,” he said.

“Mostly,” she smiled.

“Mostly is good enough these days.”

“You’re right. It is good enough.” She paused for a moment as he took apart her FAL. “Thank you, Keo.”

He looked up. “For what?”

“For everything.”

“That’s a lot.”

“It’s not nearly enough for everything you’ve done for us.”

“You’re giving me way too much credit. Truth be told, everything I’ve done, it’s been for me. If it helped other people along the way…” He shrugged. “Nothing I can do about that.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“It’s not about believing. It’s the truth.”

“No, it’s not. You’re a good man, whether you want to admit it or not.”

“Stop it, you’re going to make me blush.”

“I’d like to see that.”

“Keep talking that way, and you will.”

He continued cleaning the battle rifle. The Bucky had left it in a bit of a mess, and from the looks of it had never bothered to take the weapon apart.

“What about California?” Keo asked.

“California?”

“I hear it’s nice this time of year.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Here and there. Or Arizona. I hear the desert is desert-y.”

She managed a smile. “I really haven’t thought that far. For the first time in a long time, I haven’t thought about more than what’s in front of me.”

“You’re beginning to sound a little like me now.”

“Am I?”

“Uh huh. And that’s a little worrying.”

“If a lot of people were more like you, the world would be a better place.”

He chuckled. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

She smiled again. It wasn’t the usual Lara smile he was used to seeing, that he liked seeing, but it was good enough for now. He returned it.

“What if they try to stop us?” she asked. “Your stalker, Clive, and however many he’s got with him out there?”

“He’ll try, but he won’t be able to.”

“What if Claire’s wrong, and he has more than a dozen men with him?”

“It’s a good thing we have more than a dozen bullets on us,” Keo said, snapping the magazine back into the FAL.

* * *

They finally got moving at five minutes past noon, heading out the back door and using the alleys the way Keo had been doing for the last two days. He took the lead, and every now and then Keo glanced back to make sure she was doing fine behind him. He hadn’t forgotten about her wound. Not the one from yesterday, but the one from a week ago, when Buck’s men nearly killed her.

“How you doing back there?” he asked, his voice just loud enough for her to hear, but, hopefully, not be overheard by anyone nearby.

“The pills are helping,” Lara said.

He had shared his Tramadol with her and taken two himself. Fenton seemed like another lifetime ago, but every now and then he was still reminded that he hadn’t left that city completely unscathed.

“You have to tell me if you need to rest or slow down,” Keo said.

“I will.”

“I mean it, Lara.”

“I know, Keo. And I will.”

“It’s just the two of us now. We have to be honest with one another, or we’re not going to get very far.”

“I promise. I’ll let you know if I need to rest.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

They continued on, hurrying past a side alley. Keo glanced out at the streets beyond as they did so. Like the last few minutes, there were no signs of the enemy. He hadn’t heard or seen anything to convince him Clive and his boys were even still in the city. No obvious sounds of car engines or the clop-clop-clop of horses moving on paved roads. Of course, an unshod horse would make less noise, but from what he could tell, every Bucky horse was wearing shoes.

Keo had given Lara his AR with the suppressor and taken the FAL in its place. The battle rifle was bigger, longer, and heavier, and was equipped with iron sights instead of the red dot scope of the AR. It was a handful, and Lara hadn’t looked very comfortable with it. The fact that Lara had combat experience made the decision to swap weapons easier for Keo.

They headed north, back toward where Claire and the others had been hiding. By now the kid and the two men would have already abandoned the city. Keo took it as a good sign that he hadn’t heard anything that even remotely sounded like a gun battle. That meant Claire, Kennison, and Chambers had made it to the woods and, hopefully, made contact for a rescue.

Keo was carrying just one radio on him, while Lara had taken the other one. His was still tuned into the Bucky frequency, but it remained quiet throughout their trek.

“Why are you still carrying it?” Lara had asked him.

“My biggest fan might call back,” Keo had said.

“This Clive guy?”

“Yeah.”

“Why do you want to talk to that maniac?”

“Clive is the kind of guy who can’t keep his mouth shut. When your enemy is voluntarily giving out information like candy, the last thing you wanna do is get in their way.”

“You think he’s that dumb?”

“No, but I think he likes running his mouth, and there’s always a chance he’ll tell me something he doesn’t want me to know but just can’t help himself.”

Lara had smiled at him. “You sound like you have experience with this.”

He had grinned back. “I’ve known guys like Clive before.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Eh,” he had said with a shrug.

Except Clive didn’t reach out over the radio again. Either the man was busy with something else—what was that Claire had said, about Buckies going building-to-building looking for something?—or he wasn’t quite as chatty as Keo thought.

They stopped only occasionally to rest and to listen to the nothing that had replaced a once-thriving Darby Bay. The city was dead around them. There were still plenty of signs of combat everywhere they looked, along with blood in the streets and on the sidewalks. Abandoned weapons, some broken, and shell casings glinted under the sunlight among the bodies and bleached bones of dead (again) ghouls.

After about half an hour of silence, Keo said, “I heard Carly was okay.”

Lara nodded. “He made a point to say all the civilians on the island were safe and sound. That includes Carly and William.”

“I think that was for you.”

“I know. Danny’s… He’s smarter than most people give him credit for. He plays the clown when it suits him, when he knows the mood calls for it, but that’s not him. Not really. Not many people know that, but Carly and I do.”

“Yeah, but what about all the bad jokes?”

Lara smiled. “Except for all the bad jokes. Carly and I haven’t been able to completely help him grow out of that.”

“I guess we all have our crosses to bear.”

“Yeah. I guess we do,” Lara said, and stared off into space again.

Goddammit. Stepped right into it again, didn’t you? Maybe you should just keep your trap shut from now on, pal?

He did, and didn’t say anything again until they were half a block or so from Jonah’s. Keo should have been glad for the lack of Bucky presence so far, but it wasn’t in him to let his guard down. He kept waiting to see bad guys pop up around him, but there was no one. The streets remained empty, and the only sounds were his and Lara’s footsteps, and the occasional flurry of garbage moving with the wind. Darby Bay had become absolutely still.

It was just them and the dead, now.

Or, at least, that was how it sounded, looked, and felt.

This should be a good sign, right?

Right?

Keo crouched next to the alley opening. Lara did the same next to him, and they looked out at the street beyond. He couldn’t see Jonah’s from here, but he thought he could smell the charred remains of the field, now a graveyard of bones, somewhere on the horizon. On the other side of that were the woods. Keo told himself he would be able to breathe a lot easier when he finally reached those trees.

“You’re convinced he’s out there, aren’t you?” Lara asked. She wasn’t quite whispering, but it was close. “That’s why you keep looking around. This Clive guy. You think he’s out there looking for you.”

Keo nodded. “He sounded pretty determined.”

“Maybe he was just playing with you. Trying to get on your nerves.”

“Maybe.” Keo shrugged. “Anyway, we’re almost home free. Just gotta be careful from this point on.”

“You mean, we weren’t being careful before?”

“Carefuller.”

“I don’t think that’s a word.”

“It’s close.”

“Not really.”

“Hey, give me a break. The last book I read was an old issue of Playboy.”

“That’s…sad. And I don’t think that qualifies as a book.”

“You’re right. I only look at the pictures anyway,” Keo said, when he caught a glimpse of something moving, reflected off a storefront window across the street from their position.

It wasn’t coming from the building right in front of them, but farther down the road.

He looked over—

You’ve got to be kidding me.

He hadn’t heard it before, because the animal was unshod and he was barely making any noise. But there he was, walking down the street like he was on a casual Sunday stroll in the park, with absolutely no worries in life.

“I’ll be damned,” Keo said.

“What is it?” Lara said.

Keo pointed, and Lara leaned out slightly to see. She stared at the animal for a moment before pulling her head back into the alley.

“It’s a horse,” Lara said.

“It’s not a horse,” Keo said, grinning. “It’s Horse.”

Nine

The thoroughbred stood in the middle of the street like he owned the place. How had he found his way into the city? Why had he decided to come here when there was a perfectly peaceful world of woods out there for him to roam?

“It might be a trap,” Lara said.

“It’s not a trap,” Keo said.

“How do you know that?”

“That’s my horse.”

“That’s your horse?”

“Yeah.”

“You have a horse?”

“I do now.”

As if he could hear them—and maybe he could, Keo thought—the horse lifted his head and looked over in their direction. In fact, he looked right at them.

“That’s your horse,” Lara said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah,” Keo said.

“What’s it doing here?”

“I have no idea. I told Claire to take him.”

“Did it…run away?”

“I don’t know. Remind me to ask him later.”

“The horse.”

“Yeah.”

“Keo. Horses don’t talk.”

“Not every horse is a horse.”

Lara sighed. “I don’t know what that means.”

“His name’s Horse, by the way,” Keo said.

“It’s a horse named Horse?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

Keo stood up and leaned slightly out of the alley. He snapped a quick look left, then right. Empty streets greeted him in both directions. The same for the rooftops of the buildings around them.

“Keo,” Lara said.

“Yeah?”

“It’s coming toward us.”

Horse had resumed walking up the street and was definitely angling in their direction. The animal was dragging his reins behind him on the pavement. Horse was still wearing his saddle, but that was all.

“Where did you find it?” Lara asked.

“Outside Winding Creek,” Keo said. “He was with me at Axton and Cordine City, but I had to leave him behind to come here with you. But we met up again in Fenton.”

“You met up with your horse in Fenton?”

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s a horse, Keo. How complicated could it be?”

“You have no idea.”

He waved the animal over, hoping the thoroughbred would pick up his pace.

But he didn’t. Horse continued to walk slowly toward them, as if he had all the time in the world.

“Can’t it move any faster?” Lara asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t think he wants to,” Keo said. “He’s kind of his own man. Er, his own horse.”

“I can see that.”

Horse wasn’t moving very fast, but at least he wasn’t making any noises as he neared their position. If someone were to see him, they might just think the animal was wandering around the city looking for…something.

Keo thought about Claire and why the horse was here. Had the thoroughbred run off on them? Horse certainly had a habit of doing that to people he didn’t know very well. What was that saying about leading a horse to water but not being able to make him drink it?

As Horse continued his purposeful pace, Keo kept his eyes on the streets around them and his ears open. Horse’s mostly silent movements helped him to concentrate on listening for the clop-clop-clop of Bucky mounts in the area.

There weren’t any—at least, none that he could detect.

“It’s really taking its time,” Lara said, watching Horse.

“Yeah, he does that,” Keo said.

“You keep calling it ‘he.’”

“He’s a male.”

“No, I mean, most people refer to horses as ‘it.’”

“He’s saved my life more than once. I figured I owe him that courtesy.”

“But you couldn’t give him a better name?”

“What’s wrong with Horse?”

“It’s silly.”

“That’s a matter of—”

He stopped short when Horse froze in the middle of the street. The animal was thirty meters from their position and had come to a complete stop. He was also lifting his head and glancing up the street.

Keo did, too, and saw them coming.

Four men on horseback, flying down the empty road. They were close enough (Where the hell did they come from?) that he could hear the gradual clop-clop-clop of their horses’ hooves pounding on the concrete growing with every passing second.

A hundred meters, maybe less, and they were moving fast.

Keo crunched the odds in his head:

He had seconds—not minutes; or even one minute—before the Buckies reached them. What were the chances both he and Lara could make it to Horse and escape? It wasn’t very good. Maybe fifty-fifty, which normally were pretty good odds as far as he was concerned.

But not this morning. Not with Lara’s life at stake.

So what, then?

If he could take out two, leaving just two riders, he could see their chances getting better. Maybe up to sixty or seventy. Hell, seventy-five, if he were feeling very generous, and he was. But to get the numbers where he needed them meant taking a big risk.

Oh, what the hell.

He turned to Lara. “Stay here while I draw their fire.”

“What?” she said.

“They haven’t seen us yet, just Horse. When they get closer, take out as many as you can from in here. I’ll do the same from out there—”

Lara was standing up before he had even finished there.

“Lara!” Keo shouted, when she ran past him.

Oh, goddammit, he thought as she reached the sidewalk, turned, and ran down the street toward Horse.

Keo almost ran after her, but stopped just short of exposing himself, and quickly stepped back behind the cover of the alley. He knew exactly what Lara was doing: What he had just told her he was going to do. She beat him to it, and to run out there after her would mean exposing both of them.

“Goddammit, Lara,” he said under his breath.

He looked after her. He was afraid the thoroughbred might see her coming and turn and flee in the other direction. But the animal didn’t. Instead, Horse held his ground and watched Lara running toward him with some kind of expression that Keo couldn’t quite make out. Was that…curiosity?

Keo hurried over to the other side of the alley and readied the FAL. There was no choice now. Lara had taken his plan and tossed it out the window, leaving him to adapt.

Adapt or perish, right?

The Buckies were still charging hard down the street toward them, maybe moving even faster now that they could see Lara out there. The clop-clop-clop! of their horse hooves grew louder and as far as he could tell, they hadn’t seen him yet. The same couldn’t be said for Lara, but at the Buckies’ current distance, they wouldn’t know it was her. They would just see a figure in blue BDUs running toward a horse.

Keo changed up his grip on the FAL. It was noticeably heavier than the AR he’d been carrying for the last couple of days, but it made up for the extra weight with better stopping power. Of course, that wasn’t going to do him a bit of good if he couldn’t hit his target, which was going to be extra difficult without a proper optic. Iron sights were fine, but there was a reason scopes were invented.

Beggars can’t be choosers, pal.

He waited for the riders to get closer. They were moving fast, really flying down the street now.

Fifty meters…

Forty…

He let them hit the thirty-meter mark before he lifted the battle rifle and pinned it against the jagged corner of the alley to steady it. He took aim, sucked in a breath, and as he expelled, he simultaneously squeezed off the first booming shot.

Keo was prepared for the recoil, but he was still caught off guard by the kick. As a result, the round went high, missing his first target by a good foot or so (Jesus Christ. What are you, new at this?), but it did spook the Buckies enough that two of them immediately pulled up on their reins while the other two kept going. For a bit, anyway, before they too stupidly stopped and began looking around, unslinging their rifles as they did so.

Keo adjusted his aim, lining the iron sights on the chest of the nearest Bucky (Twenty-five meters. Are you really going to miss at twenty-five?). The man was turning, whirling around on his horse when he saw Keo and they locked eyes—

He fired, and the Bucky jerked back in his saddle and fell to the street.

Keo swiveled and fired again, and a second rider dropped.

That third shot used up all of his element of surprise, and the remaining two Buckies turned toward him and unloaded.

Keo spun and dived away from the alley opening as the pop-pop-pop! filled the streets. Even as he slammed onto the filthy paved floor on his chest and scrambled away, he thought, That’s gonna bring the rest of them running! If Clive doesn’t know where I am, he does now!

He was crawling away as fast as he could when he heard the clop-clop-clop of horse hooves behind him. He turned around, onto his back, just as a Bucky appeared at the mouth of the alley, one hand clinging to his reins while the other gripped an AK-47—

They both fired simultaneously, but Keo had the advantage: He was lying on his back and had a steady aim, while the Bucky was struggling to maintain control over his horse and shoot with one hand. The man’s bullets ripped up the pavement next to Keo, sending small chunks of concrete flicking at his face and his body, while he got off two shots.

The Bucky fell, and his horse whirled around and galloped off.

Pop-pop-pop! from the street outside.

Lara!

He scrambled back to his feet and ran toward the sidewalk, ready to shoot the first thing he saw.

But he didn’t have to, because the third and last Bucky was fleeing. The man was slightly bent over at the waist, either to lower his profile or because he had been wounded. Keo was hoping for the latter as he glanced down the street at Lara, standing next to Horse and still shooting after the Bucky.

Keo lifted the FAL to aim, but the rider was already well beyond his range. Not the rifle’s, but his range. Keo was never an especially good long-distance shooter, and the iron sights of the battle rifle wasn’t going to help with that.

He decided not to waste the bullet and instead ran over to the dead Buckies on the road. He would have gone for their horses, but all three animals had scattered, two of them racing after the fourth Bucky, while the one from the alley had taken off in the opposite direction. Lara, along with Horse, watched the black animal run off.

They had struck out with the horses, but not with weapons. Keo tossed the FAL and had his choice of two rifles on the road. He grabbed an M4 with an ACOG scope, then took out spares from the man’s pouches. He salvaged a tactical pack from the second Bucky and thought about returning to the alley for the third dead guy’s stuff, but thought better of it and jogged over to Lara instead.

“Are you okay?” Lara asked.

He nodded. “You?”

“I’m okay.”

“Did you get him? The last guy?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“That was a stupid thing to do, by the way.”

“You were about to do the same thing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m an idiot. You’re supposed to be the smart one, remember?”

“What about the one in the alley?”

“Forget about him,” Keo said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Can it—he—carry both of us?” Lara asked, handing Keo the reins to Horse.

“And then some.” He grinned at Horse and rubbed down the thoroughbred’s mane. “Can’t seem to get rid of you, can I?”

The horse whinnied before he looked past Keo and up the street.

Keo followed the thoroughbred’s gaze.

“What is it?” Lara said.

Keo was about to say, I don’t know, when he heard the faint clop-clop-clop of horse hooves echoing from somewhere in front of them, slowly but surely growing in volume. More Buckies. He couldn’t see them, but there was no missing their presence. Not in a city as dead as Darby Bay.

“Come on,” Keo said.

He swung into Horse’s saddle and pulled Lara up and behind him. As she slipped both arms around his waist, Keo turned Horse around and tapped his flanks. Not that Horse needed the encouragement.

“Don’t ever do that again,” Keo said as they raced down the street. “You hear me?”

“Yes,” Lara said, but for some reason Keo didn’t quite believe her.

He decided to save that argument for another time. Right now they had to get out of the city, but he didn’t for one second believe Clive—or whoever was behind them—would give up the pursuit anytime soon.

Fine. I’ve been chased before.

Bring it on.

* * *

Horse was either faster than Keo gave him credit for, or the thoroughbred recognized the threat on their heels. They sped through the streets and hit the city limits without once stopping for a breather. The wide field of deformed bones and scorched earth awaited them, along with the animals that had arrived to pick at the remains. Keo glanced back once or twice, and each time he didn’t see anyone behind them.

When they finally reached the woods and slipped inside, Keo jumped down from Horse and hurried back to the tree line. He unslung the freshly acquired M4 and peered through the ACOG scope, adjusting it as he took in Darby Bay in the near distance and waited for a target to appear.

Except none did.

Come on, come on, I know you’re out there.

He waited, sweeping the area with the optic, but saw nothing except knee-high grass and sunlight gleaming off the bones of dead ghouls. He could hear Horse chewing grass behind him and Lara shuffling her feet, anxious for news.

“Are they coming?” she finally asked.

“I don’t see anyone,” Keo said.

Just to be sure, he turned the ACOG all the way left, then right to see if the Buckies had chosen the longer path and were going around the city instead of riding right through it the way they had.

Still nothing.

“Why aren’t they pursuing?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know.” Keo pulled back his rifle and walked over to her. “We should keep going. The more distance we can put between us and the city, the better.”

“Horse looks tired.”

“It’ll take more than that little jaunt to tire him out. He’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“We once outran a horde of ghouls in the middle of the night.” Keo stopped next to Horse and rubbed down his mane. The thoroughbred gave out a whinny of approval. “He’s used to running hard and fast.”

“It’s your horse. I guess you would know.”

“First, let’s see if Claire left me anything.”

They climbed back on the thoroughbred and trotted over to the spot where Claire had told him she’d hidden their supplies earlier. He didn’t have any expectations that they would actually still be there, but Keo crossed his fingers anyway.

As it turned out, he shouldn’t have bothered, because the bush where she told him she’d hid his pack was empty. There were boot prints all over the area, along with the tracks of one unshod horse.

“You did tell her to take them,” Lara said when he walked back to her empty-handed.

“That’ll teach me to be Captain Optimism.” He picked up Horse’s reins. “You decided where we’re going yet?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t thought this far ahead, Keo. I didn’t think I was going to make it out of that city alive.”

He replayed her crazy charge at the Buckies in the park, then later, running out into the street to draw the four Buckies’ attention, and knew that she meant it. She really didn’t think she was going to leave Darby Bay. What he didn’t know was, was that because of the odds stacked against them or because she didn’t want to?

“We’ll figure it out as we go,” Keo said, and climbed back into the saddle. “Right now, let’s keep moving.”

Lara didn’t answer. She was busy looking back toward the field of bones, visible between two large trees.

“Lara,” Keo said. “Come on.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “He saw me.”

“Who?”

“The Mercerian back in the city. The one that got away.”

“So?”

“He stared at me. Maybe for just a second or two, but he stared at me like he knew who I was.” She looked back toward Darby Bay. “I think he recognized me, Keo.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

She didn’t answer.

“Lara,” Keo said. “We gotta keep moving.”

She finally turned around and let him pull her up behind him. Keo nudged the thoroughbred, and they started winding their way around trees. He could feel Lara behind him looking back at the city the entire time.

He knew it wasn’t Darby Bay that she was staring at, or the Buckies that she knew (and so did he) weren’t going to give up the chase now. It was the ghosts they were leaving behind back there. It was all the people who had died two nights ago. They haunted her then, and they still did now.

Keo knew a little something about that, too.

“We’ll get through this,” Keo said. “Together. Just you and me.”

“Just you and me,” she repeated, tightening her arms around his waist and pressing her body against his, as if she were afraid he might slip away.

No way, Keo thought. No way…

Ten

2:19 p.m.

It had taken them two hours to move across Darby Bay and make it into the safety of the woods. That was actually better than Keo could have hoped for. It gave them four-plus hours before they had to dodge nightfall.

Horse carried them at a slow walk, because there was no point in running and tiring the thoroughbred. Keo couldn’t detect anything that even looked like pursuit from behind or anywhere around them. Was it possible Clive wasn’t going to chase him after all?

Am I that lucky?

They stopped only once to rest and to dip into their food supply. Keo also took the opportunity to go through the pack he’d taken off one of the dead Buckies. There was clothing, a pair of socks, and food inside, including an unopened can of SPAM and an MRE bag. They stowed the bagged rations and dug into the tin can while Horse grazed the plentiful grass nearby. Keo kept a close watch on the constant stream of chirping birds in the branches. How the animals reacted—or didn’t, in this case—was a good indicator they were still the only humans in this part of the world.

They didn’t say much, but Lara did sit down next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, and they stayed that way for the next ten minutes or so. By three, they were back on their feet, but instead of riding Horse, they walked beside him. Keo was feeling lighter now that he didn’t have to lug the FAL around. Not that the AR he had swapped it with weighed that much less, but it was noticeable.

Once or twice they thought they heard movement behind them and stopped to listen, but they proved to be false alarms. Even so, Keo kept one hand on Horse’s reins while the other hung loosely at his side, within easy reach of the holstered SIG Sauer—

Horse stopped suddenly and lifted his head.

“What is it?” Lara asked.

Keo didn’t answer. He was too busy watching the tree crowns above them moving against a large gust of wind.

The whup-whup-whup came seconds later, followed by the green belly of a helicopter as it slashed by overhead. There were too many trees and branches between him and the aircraft for Keo to make out if there were any markings on the chopper.

Then it was past them, there one second and gone the next. Keo and Lara turned around to follow its path—south, in the direction of Darby Bay. Soon, they couldn’t hear its engines or feel the effects of its spinning rotors anymore.

“One of ours?” Keo asked.

“I don’t know,” Lara said.

“Did they have airpower two nights ago? The bad guys?”

“No. But that was two nights ago. A lot of things could have changed since then. They took Larabie and Galveston, remember?”

He nodded. The Galveston FOB, like the Larabie one, had their own small air units stationed there. If Buck’s people had overwhelmed the Black Tiders and taken both bases over, they would now be in possession of everything.

Keo looked across Horse at Lara. “If it’s ours, it could be the one that’s supposed to exfil Claire and the others out of here.”

Lara nodded. “I hope so.”

“Come on.” He gave Horse a light smack on the side. “Let’s go, pal. You’ve had enough rest.”

Horse seemed to “nod” agreement before starting to move again. Keo walked on one side, Lara on the other.

“We’re going to reach the end of the woods soon,” Keo said. “Before the end of the day at our current pace. You figured out where we’re going after that yet?”

“No,” Lara said.

“We’re going to need to make a decision, Lara.”

“I know.” She looked across at him. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Me?”

“You’re on this trip, too, aren’t you?”

“I always thought I was just your chauffeur.”

“You’re not.”

“Glad to know.”

He thought about it. Where were they going to go? He had no idea. His one goal had been to find her, and now that he had…

Where to next, pal?

“What if it’s someplace you don’t want to go?” he asked.

“You know where I don’t want to go, Keo,” Lara said. “Everything else is open.”

“How about Utah?”

“What’s in Utah?”

“Utahns.”

“What’s that?”

“Utahns?”

“Yeah.”

“People who live in Utah.”

“Is that what they’re called?”

“That’s what they call themselves.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Some of them go by Utahans.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

“That’s what the ones that prefer Utahns say.”

She smiled. “You learn something new every day. When did you ever visit Utah?”

“A few years back. I was bored and found a horse, and we just started heading north.”

“This Horse, horse?”

“Nah, another one. But don’t tell him that. He gets jealous.”

Lara ran a hand through Horse’s mane. “He wouldn’t even leave with Claire and the others, and instead he went into the city looking for you. What did you ever do for him to make him so loyal?”

“I have no idea. The first time I saw him, I shot his previous owner. After that, I couldn’t get rid of him.”

“That’s it? You didn’t do anything for him?”

“Not a thing. In fact, he’s probably in more danger since he started hanging out with me.”

“And he’s still here…”

“He’s a weird horse.”

“Maybe he’s just stubborn, like someone I know.”

“Sounds like a winner.”

They had put enough distance between them and Darby Bay that Keo was feeling a little more optimistic they might actually get to wherever they were going (Wherever that is.) without having to deal with Clive after all. Or any Bucky, for that matter.

Feeling a little overly optimistic today, aren’t we?

Maybe he was. Then again, maybe he was due for some luck. Two nights ago he didn’t think he’d be here, walking beside Lara. She was alive, and so was he. Now that was something worth celebrating.

Definitely feeling a whole lotta optimism today.

He smiled to himself, then glanced over at Lara to see if she’d witnessed it. She hadn’t. Lara was too busy staring forward, lost in her own thoughts. He could imagine what she was thinking about at the moment.

Black Tide, Danny, Carly, Gaby…

Or a hundred other things. Maybe a thousand other things.

Keo stopped and looked back at the same time that Horse did.

“Keo,” Lara said.

“I know,” Keo said.

The growing sounds of engines, filling up the woods behind them.

* * *

There were more than two, polluting the crisp air that filled the woods with their noise and the stench of diesel gasoline, but he could only make out the two in his immediate area. The ones that he couldn’t see—but could hear easily enough—were no doubt scouring their sectors for signs of him or Lara.

The two that he could see with the naked eye weren’t being shy about their presence. They were scattering birds and chasing woodland creatures as they diesel-powered their way around trees, through bushes, and skipped over bumps in the ground.

Make a little more noise, why doncha.

It wasn’t until they got closer that he realized he was wrong about his initial assessment. There were two dirt bikes, but each one had two men riding per vehicle. So four men in all.

They were slicing through the woods at way-too-dangerous speeds, but only one was really close enough for Keo to get a good look. A yellow Yamaha, the roar of its engine scaring everything within a mile of it. The rider sported a helmet and goggles, but his passenger didn’t have that luxury. Keo could just make out the clothing of the driver, including the vest with the circled M in the front.

Buckies.

But of course they were Buckies. What did he expect?

I should have known ol’ Clive wasn’t going to let me off the hook so easily.

The second bike—a bright-red speed demon—was at least a hundred meters away, appearing almost like a stop-motion picture book as it flashed past one tree after another. It was too far away to be of any concern to Keo at the moment. There was only one dangerous bike, and it was coming right at him.

Eighty meters and closing fast.

Seventy…

Sixty…

Keo glanced back at where Lara and Horse were hiding, behind a large tree with moss growing around its base. He could just make out Horse’s flank, sticking out from behind the tree’s trunk. There had been enough time for them to find a better hiding spot, but it would have also put too much distance between Keo and Lara, and neither one of them wanted to risk that. This way, they could keep each other within sight.

Even with the extra time, Keo had barely gotten up the tree before the bikes showed up. It was a good thing he was a fast climber. Wonsungi, as his mother used to call him.

He changed up his grip on the AR, the one with the suppressor that he had taken back from Lara and given her the M4 with the ACOG. Being able to fire bullets without making too much noise was going to come in handy, but first he had to find a good shot at his targets.

They were forty meters now.

Thirty-five…

Thirty…

And they were headed right at Lara and Horse. Did they know? Had they somehow tracked them?

No, that couldn’t be it. This had to be coincidence. A bit of bad luck on their side.

Keo looked for the red dirt bike across the woods. It was almost entirely gone, and he could barely see it between the trees.

Stay that way, pal. Stay that way.

He turned, took aim, and squinted through the red dot sight as the yellow Yamaha neared. There was a chance it could miss Lara and Horse completely and ride right past them.

Keep going, you fucker. Just keep going.

Two riders, but just one of them was wearing a helmet. The other one was hanging on for dear life—

The bike slid to a stop, its tires skidding against the soft ground as the driver cranked back on the brake and the Yamaha turned slightly.

Shit, they know, Keo thought as the passenger hopped off and unslung his rifle.

Keo fired, the pfft! of his gunshot sending a squirrel that had been perched nearby racing away.

The first Bucky jerked and collapsed, a spray of blood arcing through the air where his head used to be. Both Buckies were almost directly below Keo, and it was an impossible shot to miss.

The driver, still sitting on the bike, spun around, but not toward Keo. He was reacting to the sudden movement behind him when the other Bucky fell. Keo moved the AR slightly and shot the man in the head. There was a loud, echoing ping! as the round ricocheted off the helmet, and Keo thought, It had to be bulletproof, didn’t it?

Keo’s second bullet might not have punched through the helmet, but it did knock the Bucky off his bike. The man fell onto his side, but he didn’t stay that way. He quickly rolled over and grabbed at, then began drawing, his handgun.

The man was on his back, and he looked up and straight at Keo, their eyes locking. The visor on the helmet was up, and Keo saw blood dripping down the man’s face even as the Bucky desperately blinked through the wetness and raised his sidearm.

Keo shot him first, striking him once in the chest. Before Keo could pull the trigger a second time, the Bucky fired, and a piece of tree trunk a few feet underneath the branch Keo was sitting on shattered.

Goddammit! Keo thought as the Bucky’s gunshot echoed in the air.

He shot the man again, putting the second round almost at the same spot as the first one, and the Bucky dropped his hand and lay still.

Keo looked up, toward where he had last seen the red dirt bike. What were the chances those other two riders hadn’t heard the (way too loud) gunshot? Maybe the sounds of their engine was enough to camouflage it—

Yeah right, Keo thought when he heard the roar of another vehicle growing louder.

Keo remained where he was, lifting the AR and peering through its scope as the second vehicle reappeared through the trees. It was impossible to miss its bright-red colors, a stark contrast against all the brown and green of the woods.

It was a Honda with two riders. The man in the back had his rifle unslung and was looking for something to shoot even as he held onto the driver in front of him with one hand.

This time, instead of aiming for the driver’s head, Keo dropped the red dot on the driver’s chest as they neared.

Fifty meters…

Forty…

Thirty…

The passenger hadn’t fired yet, because he couldn’t see Keo. And as long as they didn’t look up, it would remain that way.

So don’t look up, jackass. Don’t look up!

The man didn’t—neither he nor the driver did—as they streaked toward the Yamaha, resting on the ground, its bright yellow colors drawing them in. That was good for Keo, because it kept the Buckies’ eyes glued onto—

A flicker of movement below him.

What?

Keo took his eyes off the scope and looked down, and saw Lara stepping out from behind the tree. She had his SIG Sauer, the one with the suppressor attached, in her hand and was walking straight at the incoming dirt bike. The slung M4 thumped against her back.

What the hell are you doing, Lara?

The Buckies saw her immediately and righted their course. Keo thought the driver actually cranked on the throttle, and the Honda seemed to jump as it gained speed.

Keo couldn’t hear the sound of the SIG shooting against the loud roar of the nearing dirt bike, but he could see empty bullet casings ejecting out of the handgun in Lara’s hand. She had stopped walking and was shooting, pulling the trigger over and over.

He lifted the AR to aim when the Honda’s front tire dug into the dirt and the bike upended, sending both driver and passenger into the air. A rifle disappeared into a bush as the two bodies slammed into the ground a split second before their vehicle struck a nearby tree with a loud crushing crash!

Smoke and spilled gasoline hit Keo’s nostrils as he scrambled down the tree. He was halfway to the ground when he heard a voice pleading, “Don’t shoot. Please don’t shoot!” before there were two very purposeful pfft-pfft!

Then there was silence.

Keo jumped down the last few feet and hurried over to where Lara stood over one of the Buckies. The SIG hung loosely at her side as she stared down at the body. Keo looked past her and found the second man. He lay on his stomach some distance away after being catapulted by the flipping Honda. He wasn’t moving.

Lara looked over as Keo walked to her. The expression on her face was the same one he’d seen when she almost shot him back at the park. He didn’t know what it was exactly, but it wasn’t fear. Far from it.

Keo glanced around them, listening for more vehicles in the woods. He could hear them, but they were distant and moving away from them. But they were out there. Did Clive get reinforcements, or had these dirt bikes been in Darby Bay the entire time? And which answer made him feel better?

“Check the other one,” Keo said.

Lara nodded and walked over to the other Bucky, while Keo crouched next to the one she had shot. Twice, both times in the chest. The man was still wearing his helmet, but it was cracked along the side. Keo was about to stand back up when he glimpsed something in one of the Bucky’s pouches. The button was undone, and a glossy piece of paper stuck partially out of it.

Keo took it out and stared at it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“He’s dead,” Lara said, walking back to him. Then, when she saw he was holding something in his hand, “What is it?”

He showed it to her.

It wasn’t a piece of paper, but a Polaroid photo of another photo. The picture-within-a-picture was a close-up of Lara’s face, clearly snapped with a camera from a long distance, judging by the slightly grainy image. There were other people around her, but only her face was cropped. Someone had snapped a Polaroid of that picture. A crude way to duplicate the image.

Lara stared at it for a moment before looking up at him. “It’s me.”

“Sure looks like you, all right.”

“The fourth Bucky in the city,” Lara said, saying out loud what he was already thinking. “The one that got away. I was right. He recognized me.”

“That would seem to be the case.”

“What does this mean?”

Keo looked around at the four dead men and their dirt bikes.

“Keo,” Lara said. “What does this mean?”

“It means Clive’s got reinforcements,” Keo said. “I was just fun and games for him when it was just me, but now that he knows you’re out here…”

Lara didn’t say anything and stared at the photo again.

“Come on, we need to get going before more show up,” Keo said.

He began walking back to Horse. The thoroughbred was waiting for them next to the same tree he and Lara had been hiding behind. The animal didn’t seem all that bothered by all the violence that had taken place. Then again, Keo had seen the horse shrug off worse things than a few dead men.

Keo had almost reached Horse when he stopped and looked back. Lara hadn’t followed him. She had actually walked away and was pushing the yellow Yamaha up from the ground.

“We don’t need that, Lara,” Keo said. “It’s too loud.”

She didn’t answer him, and instead righted the bike and climbed onto it. She was tall enough that she didn’t look completely ridiculous straddling the raised seat. The key was still dangling from the ignition.

“Lara,” Keo said. “We don’t need it. It’ll just draw a lot of unwanted attention.”

She finally looked over at him. “Thank you, Keo.”

That caught him by surprise, and it took him a few seconds to respond. “For what?”

“For everything,” she said, and kick-started the bike. The Yamaha roared to life, diesel fumes immediately stinking up the air.

“What are you doing?” Keo asked as he began walking back to her.

“You’re better off without me!” she shouted over the growing engine noise.

“Lara!”

She smiled at him. “I should have left with you five years ago! Every day since that night, I’ve regretted it!”

He started running toward her but hadn’t gotten halfway before she twisted the throttle, turned the bike around, and rode off. Sheets of dirt flicked against his pants legs and chest, and he reflexively shielded his eyes with his hands.

By the time he put both arms down, she was already flying through the woods, heading in the other direction. It didn’t take long before he lost sight of the bike’s yellow paint among all the trees. He could still hear the Yamaha, but that was also fading fast.

“Hunh. Didn’t see that coming,” he said quietly to himself.

Something nudged him on the shoulder, and Keo looked over at Horse. The thoroughbred gazed back at him with big brown eyes.

“No, no, you’re right. I definitely should have seen that coming,” Keo said. “After the city, and what just happened, I should have seen that coming a mile away.”

Horse sniffed the air and went back to chewing grass.

“Glad you agree,” Keo said, looking after Lara.

Or where he had last seen her, anyway. He could still hear the bike, but it was getting harder to make it out as it got farther away. He could no longer glimpse anything even remotely yellow among all the brown and green.

“Yup, should have definitely seen that coming,” Keo said quietly, to no one in particular.

Eleven

“Find Lara. Save Lara. Kill everyone that gets in the way.”

It had seemed easy enough. Well, mostly.

Women. Sheesh.

Keo liked it so much better when he could just love them and leave them. It had been like that for a long time.

Then she showed up.

And now she was giving him a way out. All he had to do was keep going one way while she went the other. Sure, he might still run into Clive or another Bucky (Or a lot of Buckies), but Keo could deal with that. Men with guns with bad intentions was easy peasy when he didn’t have to worry about whether to shoot first or not.

The answer was simple: Always shoot first.

But noooooo.

Remember when you weren’t so soft, pal?

Yeah, those were the good ol’ days.

Lara had taken off in a southward direction, but he didn’t think for a second she was going to stay that way. More likely, she would turn west well before she got anywhere close to Darby Bay. East would take her to the shoreline, and there were too many roads there, increasing the chances of her running into the Buckies as they moved around the area.

No. Lara would be heading west once she put enough distance between herself and him. It was easy enough to track her. Dirt bikes weren’t exactly subtle modes of transportation, and besides the very distinct odor of lingering diesel fumes, there were the tire tracks that even a blind man could follow.

Keo was back on Horse and moving south at a fast gallop. As he expected, Lara turned west about half a mile later, and Keo did the same. He knew from having previously traversed the area that the woods would end pretty soon, and on the other side would be a state highway that curved and eventually led to another route into Darby Bay. It was one of two main roads, with the other one on the other side—

Keo stopped and turned around as the crackle of gunfire echoed behind him.

They were coming from far enough that he couldn’t distinguish the weapons being used, but there was definitely a fight going on. He sat quietly on Horse and listened for a bit.

They were definitely coming from well beyond the wooded area. South, and very close to the Gulf of Mexico. Probably along one of the roads in and out of Darby Bay that he had just been thinking about. Buckies were leaving the city using those roads. And now he was hearing gunfights.

Better them than me.

Horse hadn’t bothered to lift his head and glance back at the noise. The horse instinctively knew it was too far away and wasn’t worth the time.

Keo leaned down and patted the animal on the side of his head. “Come on, boy, it’s none of our business.”

They started off again, while the shooting continued behind them. The pop-pop-pop of automatic rifle fire, now mixed in with the ferocious brap-brap-brap of machine guns.

Yeah, definitely better than me.

Keo thought he also heard explosions, but he could have been wrong. He continued moving farther away from the noise, and eventually the echoes faded into the background, allowing him to focus on what was ahead.

Lara, on the dirt bike.

He couldn’t hear it anymore, which was a good indicator she had put enough distance between them. That was to be expected. She was on a machine, and he was riding a horse. The good news was that if he couldn’t hear her, then the Buckies searching for them in the area couldn’t, either. Or, at least, he hoped that was the case. For all he knew, they could be on her tail right this very second. But he didn’t think so. More likely, the Buckies would have other problems to contend with at the moment.

A faded, echoing boom! from behind him.

That was definitely an explosion. Even Horse couldn’t help himself. The thoroughbred stopped and glanced back.

Keo patted him on the head. “None of our business, boy. Keep going.”

They moved on at a casual walk, Keo keeping the tracks in front of him while thinking about what Lara had said before she took off:

“I should have left with you five years ago, Keo! Every day since that night, I’ve regretted it!”

He was happy to hear that, even if he didn’t particularly like the situation that had brought it out. But still, he had always wondered, and now he knew.

What are you, back in high school now? Passing notes back and forth in class?

He chuckled to himself.

Yeah, maybe.

Lara’s tracks were easy to follow until they finally reached the edge of the woods. There were another ten meters or so before the green gave way to a pale gray two-lane country state highway that stretched west and east. Keo stared at it from between a pair of trees. It was flat and open and empty, and just about anything could be waiting out there.

Like Buckies. A lot of Buckies.

Not that he had a lot of choices. The tracks from Lara’s Yamaha took her out of the woods and onto the highway. And west.

“Go west, young woman,” Keo said quietly.

Horse whinnied and lifted his head to bask in the warm sun, peeking through the tall trees in front of them. Keo glanced up. Still three hours or so before nightfall. Plenty of time to find shelter if he couldn’t locate Lara first.

Plenty of time...

He walked Horse out of the woods and to the highway, but didn’t take them onto the pavement. Horse was unshod, and it would have been painful for the thoroughbred to move too long on the hard road. So they stuck to the shoulder, among the soft earth and grass, and followed Lara’s trail as it began to thin out, the dirt clinging to her tires falling off little by little.

Even when her tracks disappeared completely, Keo kept moving west on the highway. Although he didn’t think she would, he made a concerted effort to keep an eye on the shoulders flanking the gray top for signs she might have, for whatever reason, veered off-road. There was still nothing in front or behind him, but there were plenty of woods to both sides.

Horse picked up speed, and soon they were galloping. Keo didn’t push the animal, but he assumed Horse would let him know when he was tired and needed rest. It wasn’t like the thoroughbred had ever been shy about giving him hints.

Keo could still pick out faded echoes of gunshots in the distance, but it was getting increasingly easier to ignore. He concentrated on the road instead, the last thing Lara had said to him still reverberating inside his head.

“I should have left with you five years ago, Keo! Every day since that night, I’ve regretted it!”

Maybe, if she hadn’t said that, he might have been able to let her go. Maybe.

But she had said it, and now he couldn’t.

It’s not like I got anything else better to do today, he thought, giving Horse a little nudge on the flanks.

That was enough for the thoroughbred to pick up more speed until they were flying up the road.

* * *

A chopper.

No. Choppers.

They flashed by overhead, appearing and disappearing on the other side of the tree crowns that Keo was (hiding) camped underneath. He’d only made it back into the woods in time because he had heard the turbine engines coming from miles away.

Keo hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the aircraft to know who they belonged to. It hadn’t seemed prudent to wait out there, in the open, for them to get closer. What if they weren’t friendlies? At this point, Keo wasn’t willing to take that chance. After all, there was a war going on out there. And wars, in his experience, usually brought out the trigger finger in soldiers.

Horse, standing next to Keo, hadn’t showed much interest in looking after the choppers. He was too busy chewing grass when Keo patted him on the head. “Let’s go find Lara, boy. She’s out there somewhere.”

Keo started walking them back toward the road about twenty meters ahead. He had a general direction: west.

Then after that? That was where things were going to get a little tricky. But that was fine with Keo. If it were easy, then anyone could do it.

Although, he had to admit, he wouldn’t mind a little “easy” every now and—

The echoing snap! of a piece of twig breaking behind him.

Keo had to let go of Horse’s reins in order to spin and unsling his rifle at the same time. He immediately dropped into a crouch and scoured the woods from behind the AR’s optic.

Next to him, Horse stood perfectly calm even while he sniffed the air.

“Yeah, I can smell them, too,” Keo whispered.

Body odor. Human body odor.

Snap! as another twig broke in half somewhere in front of him, but still out of view. The only reason he could hear it at all was because the woods had gotten deathly quiet. The animals in the trees had known about the presence of other men nearby way before he did. He blamed it on the choppers stealing his attention.

Choppers. Potential Black Tide friendlies.

What were the chances the ones coming toward him now were also friendlies? Black Tide ground forces heading to join Danny’s counterattack? It would make sense. The helicopters had come from the north and were heading south, the same direction as the ones walking toward him now.

Shit. The last thing he wanted was to shoot a good guy. He might have decided not to get involved, but killing—accidentally or not—a Black Tider was so far down on his list of “things to do” that it fell completely off the page.

Aw, fuck it.

Keo stood back up, slung his rifle, and swung into Horse’s saddle. He was leaning forward, reaching down for the reins when—

The pop! of a gunshot, followed by something small but fast zipping! past his left ear and striking a thick branch hanging low in front of him, smashing it in half.

Here we go!

Horse immediately took off, moving so quickly and with hardly any effort that Keo might have been tossed right off the saddle if he wasn’t already firmly in place. He held on for dear life as someone opened fire, their pop-pop-pop! followed instantaneously by the zip-zip-zip of bullets striking trees around him, showering the air with bark.

Keo bent down to hug Horse and lower his profile as the thoroughbred picked up speed. But instead of heading for the tree line and vaulting out into the open where he would be a much easier target, Keo veered Horse left so they would remain in the woods, where there were plenty of trees to take some of those bullets coming at him.

Pop-pop-pop! as more rounds tore apart leaves and broke branches. Whoever was shooting was having trouble tracking him, thanks to a combination of Horse’s speed and all the natural foliage around them.

Keo glanced over his shoulder and glimpsed blue-clad figures among the stationary trees. It was hard to tell how many were chasing him. There could have been two or maybe ten.

No, it couldn’t be ten. Or could it?

But the uniforms. Those were definitely uniforms. Blue uniforms.

Black Tiders. Great!

Keo didn’t have to see the Inguz on their shoulder patches to know who was shooting at him. The question was, why were they firing—

Oh, right, he thought, suddenly remembering what he was wearing.

The vest. The Bucky vest. He still had it on, complete with that damned circled M in the middle. No wonder they were trying to kill him. The Black Tiders thought he was the enemy, and he didn’t blame them one bit.

There was no way he could take off the vest now, not while hanging on top of Horse and trying not to get thrown off. Besides, even if he somehow managed that while perched on a speeding thoroughbred, the shooters had already spotted him with the vest on. They would know he had simply taken it off.

He looked forward instead. At least he had put enough space between him and the shooters that the Black Tiders had stopped trying to pick him off. He didn’t like running for his life—not that he hadn’t done it before, more than once—but the thought of killing a couple of friendlies who assumed he was the enemy was unpalatable.

Since when? Did you forget about Ghana?

Definitely not, Keo thought, when Horse suddenly stopped.

Too suddenly.

Oh, crap, Keo thought just before he was launched out of the saddle and went flying over Horse’s flailing mane. He may or may not have seen Horse’s eyes looking back at him as he flew past the thoroughbred—

Bam! as he slammed into the ground.

The impact should have hurt, but it didn’t, mostly because he was too busy feeling all the sharp edges of the slung AR as it dug into his back and limbs and side as he rolled once, twice, three times before settling on a patch of cold, clammy dirt.

Get up! Get up!

He tried, but couldn’t get his legs to obey. Just pushing his hands against the ground took a lot of effort. Keo was still lifting himself up when he heard a loud whinny from Horse, followed by the heavy tap-tap-tap of booted footsteps getting closer.

Now would be a good time to get up, pal!

But he might as well be stuck in quicksand. He was almost certain one of his shoulders had separated. Or, at least, it felt like it, given how much pain was going through him—

Something struck him in the chest (A boot. That’s a goddamn boot!) and Keo careened back down, his breath flooding out of both lungs. For the second (Third? Fifty? Twentieth?) time, parts of the rifle dug into him, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out.

He hadn’t completely landed flat on his back again before a figure appeared above him, large, round eyes peering out from a black face. No, not a black face. A dirty face, though how much of that was on purpose was open to debate. It certainly looked as if she had spread them generously around. There were lines along her cheeks and forehead that made him think of Native American warpaint.

It was a woman in blue (Black Tide) BDUs, but he quickly stopped fixating on the figure’s gender and her clothes when the smooth, cold barrel of a suppressed M4 rifle poked at one of Keo’s cheeks. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but plenty to send a message.

A voice that was way too young-sounding said, “Move, and I put a round through your face, sweet cheeks.”

“Sweet cheeks?” Did she just call me “sweet cheeks?”

A second figure—then a third—appeared next to the first. Both men, and they towered over the girl in the middle. It was hard for Keo to concentrate on the new arrivals, with the gun in his face. Now that all three were closer, Keo could make out the Inguz on their shoulder patches.

Definitely Black Tiders.

Both men were gasping, white mists forming in front of them with every labored breath, but Keo only had eyes for the girl in the middle as she pushed her rifle’s barrel harder against his face.

“We got ’em. Christ, we got ’em,” one of the newcomers said. He bent over at the waist to catch his breath.

“Grab the horse,” the girl said calmly.

“Horse?” the other newcomer said.

“His horse. Grab it, before it runs off.”

The two men disappeared out of Keo’s peripheral vision. He heard Horse whinnying before the thomp-thomp-thomp of the animal running off.

“Grab it, grab it!” one of the men shouted.

“I can’t, it’s too fast!” the other one said.

“Don’t let it get away!”

Keo listened to them running after Horse and thought, Good luck with that, boys.

The woman (Girl? How old was she, anyway? It was hard to tell with all the dirt on her face.) looked up briefly to check on her allies before returning her gaze to Keo. She gave him a wry smirk. “They’re not going to catch that horse, are they?”

“He’s pretty fast,” Keo said.

He grimaced through the pain, even as he realized that the girl hadn’t taken his weapons. She didn’t have to worry about the rifle, because it was pinned behind him. But the SIG was close enough that he could—

The girl smiled down at him.

Or not.

“Go ahead,” the Black Tider said. “Maybe you’ll make it. Maybe you won’t. What do you have to lose?”

My life? Keo thought.

He said instead, “Don’t shoot. I’m one of the good guys.”

He made sure both hands were as far away from his sidearm as possible when he said it, the thoughts, Don’t get shot. Can’t find Lara if you get shot, now, can you? running through his mind.

“Is that right?” the girl asked.

“Yes,” Keo said.

She poked at his vest with her rifle’s barrel, lingering on the circled M over one of the pouches for just a second or two before pointing the weapon back at his face. “You sure about that?”

“Would you believe this vest doesn’t belong to me?” Keo asked.

She grinned, and Keo thought, Guess not.

Twelve

Stupid vest. I should really take it off.

Keo sat on the ground, bark from an old tree scraping against his back through his clothes, as one of the two men bound his hands with zip ties. Brick was written on the man’s name tag, though maybe “man” wasn’t the right word. He looked to be in his late teens, which was about the same age as his pal Kelson, who stood nearby with a rifle pointed at Keo’s face while Brick worked. They hadn’t bothered to bind his legs, maybe because Keo getting up and running off wasn’t something he was liable to do at the moment. Still, in their shoes, Keo would have done it.

Just in case.

The girl stood nearby at the edge of the clearing, trying to reach someone on the radio she had taken off Keo. She was a lot shorter than the two men, but older by a few years, and the way she carried herself told Keo she was used to leading. Maybe she wasn’t quite in the same class as Gaby, but in a few years’ time, she might eventually get there.

Like the boys, the girl had a name tag. Thomlinson was stenciled across it. He watched her speaking into the radio in an even-keeled voice. That never changed even when it became obvious she wasn’t reaching anyone. Keo could have told her the two-way had limited range; that, and all the trees around them made it doubly difficult.

Kid’s cool as a cucumber. Don’t mess with her.

One of the boys, Brick, walked over to the girl while Kelson stayed behind. The teenager was the youngest by far of the trio (Keo guessed sixteen or seventeen, and the sandy blond hair made him look even younger) and had left a good ten or so feet between them. He was cradling his own AR-15 while he had Keo’s slung over one shoulder and the SIG Sauer shoved into his front waistband. That was a bad way to carry a handgun, but Keo wasn’t going to tell him that.

“No one?” Brick was asking Thomlinson.

She shook her head, then glanced around at the trees. “We gotta get out of this place to boost the signal.”

“How far are we from the city?”

The girl handed the two-way to Brick and produced a map from her back pocket. She scanned it for a moment before answering. “We’re next to the highway, and that’s a good five, maybe six miles from Darby Bay.”

Darby Bay? Why were these three headed to Darby Bay? There was nothing there but a dead city. The real fight—Danny’s counterattack—was happening in the south along the shoreline, miles away from the city.

“You think that’s where they were headed? The choppers?” Brick asked.

“Where else would they be headed?” the girl said.

“So what now?”

The girl put the map away and unslung her rifle. It was an M4 carbine, and she handled it like she’d been doing it all her life. “We keep moving. Sooner or later, we’ll find someone, either on the radio or on foot.”

“You don’t wanna do that,” Keo said.

The female Black Tider and Brick glanced over at him.

“No telling who else you’ll run into out here,” Keo continued. “You do know these woods are crawling with Buckies, right? And you guys made a hell of a racket with those gunshots earlier.”

“Buckies?” Brick said.

“He means Mercerians,” the girl said.

“Oh.”

“Listen to me,” Keo said. “We should be going. They could be coming right this second. I’m telling you, they’re out there.”

The girl didn’t say anything, and instead walked over to Keo. He was impressed with her demeanor, her command of not only the situation but the two less-experienced Black Tiders with her. She was young, but what surprised him most about her were those not-quite-and-never-going-to-heal scars along her cheeks and temple. They had been put there a while ago by something very sharp, and while most of them had lost their sheen, they were going to stay with her forever.

Keo ran through a hundred scenarios in his head where a kid her age would get something like that, but none of them were very pleasant. They reminded him of his own scar, but he had just the one. This poor kid hadn’t been as lucky.

“Who’s out there?” she asked him. “Your friends?”

“I told you, I’m not a Bucky,” Keo said.

Her eyes dropped slightly to the circled M on his vest. “No?”

“Again, this isn’t mine,” Keo said. “I took it off a Bucky.”

“What happened to him? This Bucky?”

“I killed him.”

The girl exchanged a look with Kelson and Brick, who had also walked over. It was hard to really read Thomlinson’s expression, but it was easier with the two boys. They were tired and uncertain, and more than a little scared even though they tried to hide it.

How long have they been out here?

Long enough to freak out the first time they saw someone wearing the wrong colors, apparently. (Or the two boys had, anyway.) At first he had thought the trio was part of a larger Black Tide contingent moving to engage the Buckies, but that was clearly not the case. They were on their own, but how they’d gotten that way was the real question.

“What happened to your face?” Keo asked the girl.

“What happened to yours?” she asked right back without missing a beat.

He grinned and felt a slight tingle along the big scar on his left cheek. It, like the girl’s, hadn’t completely healed, and never would. “I should have seen that coming.”

“Yeah, you should have.”

“I’ve been missing a lot of obvious things today.”

Thomlinson stared at Keo as if she was trying to figure him out.

“I’m Keo,” he said.

“Nice to meet you,” Thomlinson said.

“What kind of name is Keo?” Kelson asked.

“Brick was taken,” Keo said.

“Huh?” Brick said.

“I briefly considered Mortar, but, you know, I don’t like being tied down.”

Brick and Kelson exchanged a confused glance, but the girl snickered.

Well, someone got the joke, at least.

“What’s he talking about?” Brick asked Thomlinson.

“Brick-and-mortar,” the girl said.

“So?”

She ignored him and walked closer to Keo before crouching in front of him. “Where were you going, Mercerian?”

“I’m not a Mercerian,” Keo said. “But a lot of them could be on their way right now. You should have told the boys not to open fire. Sound travels these days. Even in wooded areas.”

“You keep saying that.”

“That’s because I’m trying to save our lives.”

“Prove it.”

“How? I’m not exactly carrying an ID card with my Black Tide credentials written on it.”

“Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it?” Kelson said. The young man tilted his cradled rifle until the muzzle was pointed at Keo’s chest. “It’s not like we can bring you along with us, hoss.”

“Hoss?” Keo said.

“That’s you.”

“My name’s Keo.”

“You’re Hoss.”

“House?”

“Hoss.”

“How do you spell that?”

“H-o-s-s.”

“What’s it mean—”

The girl had taken out a knife with a serrated edge and a black handle and plunged it into the ground, cutting Keo off. The blade would have gone right into one of Keo’s legs if he hadn’t jerked them apart seconds before she did it.

“Hey,” Keo finished instead. “No need for that, kid.”

“Where are the others?” she asked him.

“I have no idea.”

“You’re lying. Not that we have time to prove it. Kelson’s right. We can’t afford to bring you along. So, unless you give us a good reason to keep you around…” Thomlinson stood up and unslung her rifle. “You know where this is going, right?”

Keo sighed and thought, Well, this isn’t going well.

“Just shoot him, and let’s go,” Brick said.

“Let’s not,” Keo said.

“He’s annoying,” Kelson said. “I think we should definitely shoot him.”

“That’s because you haven’t gotten to know me yet,” Keo said. Then, staring at the girl, because he had a feeling she had the final say on whether he was going to live or die, “You’ve never heard of me?”

She shook her head. “Should I have?”

“I’m the guy who killed Mercer.”

“Who?” Brick said.

“That name sounds familiar,” Kelson said.

Damn, they’re young, Keo thought.

But while the name didn’t register with the boys, it was different with Thomlinson. By her reaction—which she’d tried to conceal from him—she definitely knew who Mercer was.

“She knows,” Keo said, nodding at Thomlinson.

“What’s he saying?” Brick asked.

“Mercer’s the guy who used to lead Black Tide before Lara took over,” Thomlinson said. Then, to Keo, “So you were the one who killed him, huh?”

The way she had said it told Keo she didn’t believe him.

Guess I’m going to have to try harder.

“That’s me,” Keo said. “And I can prove it.”

“How?” the girl said.

“Who’s your commander?”

“How’s that going to prove it?”

“Because I’m pretty sure whoever it is, they’ll know me.”

“Anyone can claim to be this Keo guy.”

“Look at me, kid,” Keo said. “I kind of stand out, don’t you think?”

Thomlinson snorted. “Yeah, you do.”

“So try getting your commander on the radio again. Or anyone in a command position will do. Chances are good I’ll have already met them before, and they’ll know what I look like.”

“Well, see, that’s a problem. We can’t reach anyone on the radio.”

“You can try again when we’re beyond the woods.”

“That would require dragging you along. And like Kelson said, we can’t afford to do that. Not with, as you say, Buckies crawling all over this place.”

Shit. Now that’s a catch-22 if I’ve ever heard one.

Keo said, “So how am I going to prove to you I am who I say I am?”

The girl shrugged. “You tell me.”

“Give me a second to think about it.”

“Fine. You got ten.”

“What?”

“You got ten seconds. Nine, now,” the girl said. She looked over at Kelson. “Shoot him when I reach one.”

“Pleasure,” Kelson said, and took aim at Keo’s head with his rifle.

“Eight,” the girl said.

“Whoa, whoa,” Keo said. “Let’s not do anything rash.”

“Seven…”

“Hey, come on—”

“Six…”

Behind Thomlinson and Kelson, Brick shuffled his feet slightly. Keo wasn’t sure if that was nervousness or something else, not that it did Keo any good. The guy didn’t look like he was going to interfere.

“Four,” the girl said.

“Wait, four?” Keo said. “What happened to five?”

“I don’t know how to count,” the girl said. Then, without missing a beat, “Two…”

Keo looked over at Kelson. The Black Tider had slipped a finger into his rifle’s trigger guard and was squinting behind the red dot scope, as if he could possibly miss his target at this range.

“Kids, you don’t wanna do this,” Keo said. “We’re on the same team.”

The girl ignored him and opened her mouth, when someone else from behind her shouted out, “One!”

At first Keo thought it was Brick, but no. The voice was too deep and loud, and both Thomlinson and Brick spun around, along with Kelson to Keo’s right. Gunshots rang out—pop-pop-pop!—and Kelson fell to the ground even as four men stepped into the clearing with their rifles aimed at the girl and Brick.

Ah, well, Keo thought when he saw what the men were wearing. Civilian clothes with black assaults vests and circled M’s in white permanent markers.

“Drop it!” one of the Buckies shouted. “Drop it now, or we drop you!”

Brick immediately complied and let his rifle fall before raising his hands. The girl, though, didn’t, and though Keo could only see her from the back, he thought he could feel her fingers tightening around her weapon as her muscles prepared to spring.

“Do it! Drop your weapon!” the same Bucky shouted at Thomlinson. “Do it now! Do it fucking now!”

But the girl didn’t.

“Don’t be stupid,” Keo said to Thomlinson.

The four Buckies formed a semicircle around them, one nervously wiping at beads of sweat across his dirty face.

But Keo only had eyes for the girl, and she still hadn’t dropped her M4.

“Trust me,” Keo said.

He thought he detected a slight movement from the girl’s head, as if she were trying to look back at him in response.

“Trust me,” Keo said again.

Thomlinson dropped the carbine, and Keo breathed a sigh of relief. It was less for her and the other kid and more for himself, in that if there was shooting, he would be right in the field of fire. He could think of worse ways to go than by stray bullets, but he still had too many things to do.

“Find Lara (Again). Save Lara. Kill everyone that gets in the way.”

Two of the Buckies rushed forward, while the other two stayed back with their weapons aimed. One of them pulled out Brick’s handgun from its holster, while the other searched Thomlinson, patting her down before finally grabbing the knife and pistol. He tossed both items before stepping back.

The other two Buckies relaxed, and one of them—the one who had done all the shouting—walked past the Black Tiders and over to Keo. He was a big man with short black hair and pale lips that curved into an amused grin.

“Aren’t you one lucky motherfucker,” the Bucky said.

“Luckiest man alive, Mom always said,” Keo said.

The girl glanced over her shoulder at Keo, her eyes like daggers. She was still doing it when the other Buckies shoved her and Brick across the clearing and made them sit down. Two Buckies stood guard while the third kneeled next to Kelson and began going through his pockets.

Keo focused on the man in front of him, standing with his hands on his hips. Keo held up his bound hands. “Well?”

“Well what?” the Bucky said.

“You gonna cut me loose or not?”

“I don’t know you. You may be wearing the right clothes, but from what I hear, that’s no longer a guarantee you’re who you say you are.”

Keo groaned. It might have been just a tad too dramatic. “You must be some of the reinforcements that just showed up. Clive told me you guys were green.”

That had the effect Keo was hoping for. It was either Clive’s name or the mention of “reinforcements,” or both.

Whatever it was, it was enough to convince the Bucky, who drew a knife and crouched in front of Keo. “Who you calling green?”

“No offense, but it wasn’t like you guys were around to help out two nights ago.”

“Hey, we were where we were supposed to be.” He cut Keo loose. “So, any luck finding her?”

“I wish. Instead, I bumped into these three kids.” Keo rubbed his wrists. “I’m Williams.”

The Bucky put his knife away. “You don’t look like a Williams.”

“I’m fucking adopted.”

The man chuckled. “Sanderson.” He stood back up. “How’d they catch you, Williams?”

Keo took Sanderson’s proffered hand and let the man pull him up. “They ambushed me. Came out of nowhere and killed Jackson.” He pretended to glance behind him. “His body’s back there somewhere.”

“Your partner?”

“Yeah. Clive makes us go everywhere in pairs.”

“I heard.” Then, “Sucks for Jackson.”

“Definitely sucks for Jackson.”

Keo turned to the Bucky kneeling next to Kelson’s body. The man was standing up after having relieved the dead Black Tider of Keo’s rifle.

“That’s mine,” Keo said.

The Bucky glanced over. “What is?”

“The rifle. That’s mine. They took that off me.”

The Bucky looked to Sanderson, who nodded. “Give the man back his gun.” Then, grinning at Keo, “Try not to lose it to some kids this time.”

“Don’t be a smartass,” Keo said.

He caught the rifle when the Bucky tossed it back to him. He checked it—but mostly to make sure the fire selector wasn’t on safe. It wasn’t.

“Where’s Clive now?” Keo asked.

“I have no idea,” Sanderson said. “Radios are shit in here. We were just stumbling around, trying to find a way out of this place when we heard all the commotion. You know this area?”

“Sure do.”

“Good. Then you can get us the hell out of here.”

Sanderson turned his back on Keo. The other three Buckies were now standing over the Black Tiders, who were sitting on the ground. Keo didn’t miss the fact that Thomlinson was still staring daggers at him, while Brick was trying to do anything but look.

Sanderson took something out from one of his pouches and held it up until he could compare it to the girl. It was another Polaroid of Lara.

“Not her,” Sanderson said.

“Hey, Sanderson,” Keo said.

“What?” Sanderson said, turning around.

Keo shot him twice in the chest at close range, then as Sanderson stumbled and began falling, Keo flicked the fire selector on the AR to burst fire and swung the rifle around.

The remaining Buckies reacted quicker than he had anticipated, but they were still caught off guard, and he pulled the trigger three times while swinging the rifle from right to left. Most of the bullets missed their marks and struck trees in the background, but enough didn’t, and all three Buckies collapsed. It was a good thing Thomlinson and Brick were sitting and Keo could spray and pray without worrying about hitting them.

Keo turned back to Sanderson, who was lying on the ground. The Bucky was still alive and struggling to get his pistol out of its holster, but it didn’t look like he was going to achieve his goal anytime soon. He was staring accusingly up at Keo while he did it.

Join the club, pal.

There was a flurry of movement out of the corner of Keo’s eyes, and he looked over to find Thomlinson on her feet. She had retrieved her M4 from the nearest dead Bucky and it was, not surprisingly, already pointed at Keo’s head.

“Seriously?” Keo said. “You really need more proof that I’m not one of them?”

It took a second or two longer than it should have, but the girl finally lowered her rifle. “I guess not.”

“That’s better.”

“What about him?” the girl said, nodding at Sanderson.

Keo looked back at the Bucky. The man still hadn’t managed to get his gun out, but he hadn’t given up trying.

“Thanks for the rescue,” Keo said, and shot Sanderson in the forehead.

He looked over at the girl again. She was staring back at him.

“Like I was saying, I’m Keo,” he said.

“Rose,” she said.

“Your name tag says Thomlinson.”

“Yeah, well, that’s my last name. But no one calls me that.”

“Rose it is. Where did you guys come from, Rose?”

“It’s a long story.”

“It’s a good thing I got plenty of time.”

“Kelson’s dead, Rose,” Brick said. He had walked over and was kneeling next to the other Black Tider.

Rose didn’t say anything. She turned and shot the nearest Bucky in the head instead. Then she walked over to the other two and did the same to them. As far as Keo could tell, none of them had moved or looked the least bit alive.

Rose glanced over at Keo when she was done. “Just in case.”

Keo nodded back. “Just in case.”

And he thought to himself, Definitely don’t mess with her.

Thirteen

“It’s Lara,” Rose said, staring at the Polaroid Keo had picked up from the ground after Sanderson dropped it. “Why do they have a picture of Lara?”

“They’re looking for her,” Keo said.

“These guys?”

“Them and their friends.”

He glanced around the clearing, listening for more Buckies in the area. He heard birds chirping but nothing that sounded like incoming men. Still, after the unsuppressed gunshots that had killed Kelson, Keo didn’t feel like hanging around.

He turned to the girl. “We have to go. There are more of them in the area.”

“What about Lara?” Rose asked.

Brick, who had rearmed himself, walked over. “Did you say Lara?”

“You know where she is,” Rose said, staring at Keo.

He shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“‘Not anymore?’ What does that mean?”

I knew where she was—standing right next to me. That is, until she decided to take off on a dirt bike. Now I don’t have a clue.

He said instead, “We gotta keep moving. Your gunshots brought those Buckies, and their gunshots might have brought more. You heard what he said. There’s more of them stumbling around out here.”

She nodded, even though he could see the questions on her face. She turned to Brick. “You got everything?”

Brick nodded. Besides his own weapons, he’d taken as much supplies as he could from the dead Buckies. He was bigger than the girl, and Keo found it amusing she was using him as a pack mule of sorts.

“What about Kelson?” Brick asked, looking over at his dead comrade. “We’re not just going to leave him like that, are we?”

“We don’t have time,” Rose said.

“He wouldn’t leave us.”

“Yes, he would, because he was smart.”

Keo had been looking around while they talked, and he spotted the tracks he had been searching for. Horse’s unshod prints. He started following them, and the two Black Tiders fell in behind him.

“This isn’t the way to Darby Bay,” Rose said when she caught up.

“There’s nothing in Darby Bay for you,” Keo said.

“You know this how?”

“I just came from there. It’s a dead city. Even the Buckies have abandoned it.”

“But we heard shooting. They sounded like they were coming from the city.”

“They’re not. East of it, along the shoreline.” He glanced over at her. “Where did you and the boys come from?”

“Waco.”

“What did you call me?”

“Waco. It’s a city near Dallas.”

“I was just messing with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “We were making a supply exchange with some towns when we got the call that Darby Bay was under attack. We mobilized and were on our way here when we were ambushed yesterday morning.”

“What happened?”

Her face was suddenly somber. “They were waiting for us. Tore our caravan to pieces with heavy weapons. Me, Brick, and Kelson barely got out alive. There were two others with us, but they didn’t make it through the night.”

“Just Buckies?”

“Just Buckies. We were told to be on the lookout for ghouls, but we didn’t see any on the road south.”

“What happened to everyone else?”

“They’re dead.”

“All of them?”

She nodded. “All of them.”

“How many were in your group?”

“Sixty-five. The commander was one of them.”

“So that leaves…”

“Me in charge, I guess. I have the most experience out of the three of us.” She paused for a moment. “The two of us, now.”

Keo sneaked a look back at Brick, bringing up the rear. He was in a daze, constantly glancing around them.

Keo faced forward again. “And you haven’t been in contact with Black Tide since the ambush?”

“No,” Rose said. “Your radio was the first one we got our hands on since.”

“So you and the boys have just been walking toward Darby Bay since yesterday?”

“Pretty much. We didn’t know where else to go.” Then, when something occurred to her, “Those choppers we saw earlier. Were they ours?”

“I don’t know, kid. They could be anyone’s. That’s the problem with a war like this. It’s messy.” He smiled. “You put on the wrong vest, and suddenly kids with guns are chasing you through the woods.”

Rose grunted. “You should take it off.”

“Why? It’s proven to be very useful.”

“If Kelson and Brick hadn’t opened up on you, I would have shot you, and I wouldn’t have missed.”

She’s got a point there.

“What were you doing all the way in front of me when the others were behind me?” Keo asked.

“I was scouting ahead. I had you in my crosshairs when your horse tossed you off. I don’t know how it saw me in the first place.”

“He’s smarter than he looks.”

“It’s a horse.”

“A horse is a horse, of course, but not every horse is like Horse.”

Rose shot him a quick annoyed glance. “That made perfect sense to you, didn’t it?”

“Of course it did.”

“Yeah, right.”

Keo chuckled, when Brick said from behind them, “Hey, guys?”

They stopped and looked back at him. Brick was holding a radio in his hand—or holding it in front of him like he was afraid it might blow up in his face. Keo could just barely make out voices coming through the two-way’s speakers because the volume was so low.

“I took it off one of the dead Mercerians,” Brick said. “I think it’s them.”

Keo reflexively glanced around them and tightened his grip on his rifle.

Rose did the same, even as she said to Brick, “Turn it up so we can hear what they’re saying.”

“Not too loud,” Keo said, walking back to Brick.

“…where?” a voice was asking.

“I don’t know, but it’s gotta be nearby,” another voice answered.

“Spread out, but don’t wander off on your own,” the first speaker said. He had a noticeable accent.

Keo smiled.

“What are you smiling at?” Rose asked.

“That’s Clive,” Keo said.

“Clive?”

“The one giving the orders.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“I mentioned him to get Sanderson to trust me,” Keo said. He held out his hand, and Brick gave him the radio.

Rose flashed Keo a somewhat suspicious look. It wasn’t point-a-gun-in-your-face suspicion, but more along the lines of how-do-you-know-all-this?

“Trust me, kid,” Keo said. “I really am on your side.”

“If you say so,” Rose said, but he noticed she hadn’t relaxed her grip on the carbine.

They waited to hear more conversation through the radio, but it had gone silent. Keo continued walking, keeping an eye on Horse’s trail in front of him. They had put enough space between them and the clearing—and the dead bodies in it—that he felt safe.

Or safe-ish, anyway.

“They must be nearby if the radio’s receiving their signal through all these trees,” Rose said.

“That’s a safe bet,” Keo said.

The girl glanced over at Brick. “Keep your eyes and ears open.” Then to Keo, “So we’re looking for your horse?”

“Yeah,” Keo said.

“And after that?”

“I don’t know.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“I don’t know the answer to that either, kid.”

“You said the fighting is nearby. Along the shoreline. And that there’s no one left in the city.”

“Yup.”

“So we’ll head over to the city and wait for orders. The three of us. It’s better than walking aimlessly around in here.”

Keo shook his head. “Not me, kid.”

“Why not? I thought you said you were one of us.”

“I’m one of you, but I’m not one of you.”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is helping you stay alive but not voluntarily putting myself in the line of fire if I don’t have to.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you scared?”

“I’m practical,” Keo said, when the radio in his hand squawked.

They stopped as Keo turned the volume back up.

“…fifteen now?” the familiar voice said. “Or is it sixteen? I’ve lost count.”

They waited to hear someone respond, but no one did.

“Yoohoo. Are you out there?” the accented voice said through the radio. “I know you’re listening. Eavesdropping again, like the scoundrel you are.”

Goddammit, this guy, Keo thought.

“Who’s he talking to?” Rose asked.

“Me,” Keo said.

“He knows you?”

“We met back in Darby Bay. Well, sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“We talked.”

“But you’re not one of them…” It wasn’t a question.

“It’s complicated.”

“You there, Dundee?” Clive was asking through the radio. “I know it was you who killed my men and took one of their radios. That means you now have access to this frequency. Which means I now have to switch over to a new one yet again.”

“You’re Dundee?” Brick asked.

“I thought you said your name was Keo?” Rose asked. That glimmer of suspicion was back.

“Like I said, it’s complicated,” Keo said. He lifted the radio to his lips.

“What are you doing?” Rose asked.

“I’m going to talk to him.”

“Why?”

“Clive’s a talker. Maybe I can get him to reveal how close he is, or if he’s any closer to finding Lara.” He couldn’t tell if Rose bought that, but she didn’t stop him when he pressed the transmit lever and said into the radio, “I see you got reinforcements, Clive. Nice to have a lot of friends willing to die for you.”

Clive chuckled through the radio. “Looks like I’m going to need reinforcements for my reinforcements.”

Keo nodded at Rose and Brick, and they started walking again, even picking up their pace slightly as they continued following Horse’s tracks. Keo glanced behind them a few times just to make sure Clive or one of his Buckies wasn’t back there, because Rose was right: If he was having no difficulty receiving Clive’s radio signal, that meant they were close by. And if he knew that, then the Bucky did, too.

“You shouldn’t have followed me into the woods,” Keo said. “Now you’re going to lose even more men.”

“I had to,” Clive said. “I just had to.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did, Dundee.”

“You don’t understand what’s happening here, do you? This is what I’m good at. You’re fucking with the wrong guy.”

Clive laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong, Dundee. I’m fucking with the right guy. I told you before: I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

“You know what they say about having too much fun…”

“What’s that?”

“Be careful you don’t get shot in the face.”

“Is that what they say?”

“That’s what I hear.”

Another laugh. “I’ll have to keep that one in mind. Sounds like sage advice.”

“Oh, it is.” Keo glanced around him again, but there were just the birds chirping nearby. “Does Buck know you’re in here running around chasing ghosts when Black Tide’s already counterattacking?”

“Knows?” Clive said. “I’m here on orders, Dundee.”

Keo exchanged a quick look with Rose.

“Of course, I had to convince him Lara was out here, too,” Clive was saying. “When he found that out, he couldn’t wait to send me more men.”

“That’s awfully nice of him,” Keo said.

“Yeah, that’s Buck. The man knows what he wants and how to get it.”

“And here I thought it was just going to be me and you. Mano a mano.”

“That’s how I wanted it, but you had to go and run off.”

“I couldn’t exactly make it easy for you now, could I?”

Clive chuckled. “Don’t you worry, Dundee. I’ll find you. It might take a little while, but I’ll find you. And when I do, it’s all over, red rover.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Give Lara my love,” Clive said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to order everyone to change frequencies again so you can’t be a naughty little punter and eavesdrop on us anymore.”

Keo turned down the volume and clipped the radio back to his hip.

“Did he just call you a punter?” Brick asked.

“Sounded like it,” Keo said.

“You used to play football or something?”

“Nope.”

“They’re chasing Lara,” Rose said. “We have to find her before they do.”

“That’s the problem,” Keo said. “I don’t know where she is, either. The last time I saw her, she was on a dirt bike riding down the highway. The choppers chased me back into the woods, but I’m assuming she’s still on it, still heading west.”

“So why aren’t we already on the road, too?”

“I told you—”

“Your horse.”

“Uh huh.”

“What about Darby Bay?” Brick asked from behind them. “We still going to Darby Bay?”

“You heard Keo, the city’s gone,” Rose said. “Besides, Lara’s out here. We have to find her before those Mercerians do.” The girl looked back at Keo. “Are we close? To the highway?”

Keo nodded to his right. “Half a mile in that direction would be my guess. Give or take.”

“But we’re still in here because you need to find your horse.”

“Yup.”

“Screw your horse.”

“I don’t think he’s into that.”

Rose stopped suddenly. Keo did, too, along with Brick.

“So go find your horse,” Rose said. “Brick and I will go look for Lara.”

“You don’t want to do that,” Keo said.

“Give me one good reason.”

“I’ll give you three. Lara’s on a dirt bike. You’ll be on foot. Then there’s the couple of hours head start she has on you.” He glanced down at his watch. “And it’ll be dark in about ninety minutes. Make that four reasons.”

Rose frowned. “So what’s your plan?”

“Find my horse, look for a place to hunker down, survive the night, and then go back to looking for Lara in the morning.”

Rose exchanged a glance with Brick, who shrugged.

She turned back to Keo. “But we are going to go look for her.”

“Yeah,” Keo said. “That’s the plan.”

Rose nodded, and she was about to say something else when they all heard it—engines approaching their position fast.

“Hide!” Keo hissed.

Rose threw herself to the ground while Keo ran toward a big tree and slid behind it. Brick had done the same, sliding behind another tree a few meters over to his right. Keo watched Rose crawling toward a large bush and nestling herself against it, pushing her blue-clad body partially under cover while the rest of her remained exposed. She was readying her rifle as the roar of engines got closer.

Two vehicles, both dirt bikes, flew by the girl and kept going. They hadn’t come close enough to Keo to make him react, but all it would have taken was one of the passengers—they were riding two per bike like last time—to glance over, and Keo would have been revealed. But the bikes were moving so fast that the guys in the back had to hold on or risk getting tossed, never mind looking around at their surroundings.

That’s right, boys, keep going, Keo thought as he watched them get farther away, leaving behind tire tracks on the ground and diesel fumes in the air.

And then they were gone.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but didn’t pry himself from the tree until he couldn’t hear the engines anymore. He glanced over at Brick nearby. The kid was waiting, too, and judging by the bluish color of his face, still holding his breath. Soon, he would be the same hue as his clothes.

Rose jumped to her feet and jogged over to them. “We should go before they come back.”

Keo nodded and fell in behind her along with Brick, and the three of them moved with purpose. They could make out more engines around them, but Keo was comforted by the fact he could hear them coming before he could see them. Those bikes might have gotten the Buckies from A to B faster, but they also made a hell of a ruckus doing it.

“Those bikes, they were headed for the highway,” Rose said.

Keo nodded. “Looks like it.”

“After Lara?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Unless they know something I don’t, Keo thought but didn’t say. He said instead, “If we can’t find Horse in the next thirty minutes, we need to look for a place to spend the night.”

Next to Keo, Brick might have shivered slightly.

“What’s the matter, kid?” Keo asked.

“It’s been a while since I was afraid of the dark,” Brick said.

“Black Tide said there were ghouls in Darby Bay,” Rose said. “A lot of them.”

Keo nodded.

“Did you see—” Rose was asking him when she stopped and glanced back.

Keo did, too.

It was an explosion. A powerful one, crackling like thunder across the countryside and scattering birds in the trees between it and them. It was too far away for Keo to get a bead on what had caused it, but whatever it had been, it was big.

Rose looked over at him, and he could read the anxiousness on her face. She wanted to rejoin the fight. Badly.

“There are way too many bad guys between here and there,” Keo said. “You’re better off sticking with me.”

“They’re our friends,” Rose said.

“You really think you and Brickster here are gonna make a difference? The two of you?”

Rose seemed to think about it.

“Your priority now should be to help me find Lara and keep her safe,” Keo said.

Lara’s name got the response he had hoped for from both Black Tiders. But especially Brick, who didn’t have the same anxious look to get back to the fighting that Rose did.

“Come on, shelter’s not gonna find us,” Keo said and continued walking.

He couldn’t see Rose or Brick behind him, and he also couldn’t hear them moving. He imagined they were trying to figure out what to do next.

It took a few seconds before they finally made their choice, and Rose appeared alongside him, matching him stride for stride.

“We are going to find Lara,” the kid said.

Keo nodded. “Like I said. That’s the plan.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Brick asked from behind them.

Hell if I know, Keo thought, but he said, as confidently as he could muster, “Lara’s not stupid. She’ll find shelter before nightfall, too. We’ll catch up to her eventually. All we have to do is keep following the highway.”

“Keep following the highway,” Rose repeated, even if she didn’t sound as if she was completely buying it.

“Yup. Just follow the highway,” Keo said, and thought, Unless she leaves the highway, which she can do pretty easily being that she’s on a dirt bike and all, but he decided to keep that last part to himself.

Fourteen

They lost Horse’s trail when the thoroughbred left the woods, but did get lucky and found a roadside gas station about five miles up the highway from where they had encountered the Buckies on the dirt bikes. There was only one building, the store, with the gas pumps up front. The awning over the pumps had partially caved in, though the structure remained standing somehow.

A small rusted bell, draped over the top of the front door, rang loudly as Keo pushed it open. The store was predictably empty of anything valuable, the floor covered in old stains and dirty tiled flooring. There were signs that someone had also arrived very recently before them—maybe the Buckies that had passed them earlier, or Lara before them. There was money on the floor behind the counter and empty old cartons of cigarettes scattered about. The place smelled, probably because the door and windows were still intact and kept the room from airing out over the years. The perishables had rotted and cockroaches and other rodents had fed on the paper and spoiled food, or whatever else they could find.

Keo walked through the store and peeked into a small room in the back. Manager was written across a faded sticker on the door. There was an old couch and a desk, but nothing of value. The door was cheap wood that wouldn’t last very long against a determined human, but there were other things to fear at night besides men.

Rose had followed Keo inside the store. “Are we really spending the night here?”

Keo glanced down at his watch. Twenty minutes before nightfall. “Unless you have a better idea.”

“It smells,” the teenager said, wrinkling her nose.

“Bad smells never killed anyone.”

“You haven’t traveled in a caravan with a bunch of guys who don’t shower, have you?”

Keo chuckled. “Can’t say as I have.”

He returned to the front of the store and looked out at the graying skies. The wall was half-glass on top and half brick-and-mortar on the bottom, the glass part smeared with dirt and God knew what, providing a warped view of the outside world. The country road ran by them on the other side of the gas pumps, and it was just as empty now as it had been when they were still looking for Horse’s trail earlier. Things were noticeably darker out there as the sun continued to set.

Rose came over to stand next to him. She had found a handkerchief and had it wrapped around her mouth and nose to filter out the stench. Keo thought she was being a little dramatic; he could barely smell anything.

“What was it like in Darby Bay?” Rose asked.

“You mean, two nights ago?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. I only got there the morning after. What did you guys hear?”

“That they were under attack and for everyone to get there as soon as possible.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. Things were chaotic that night. It took us forever to get on the road. We thought it’d be all over by the time we arrived.” She paused. Then, “I guess we were wrong.”

Or right, depending on your perspective, Keo thought.

“You know what happened to everyone who was there, don’t you?” Rose asked.

He shook his head. “Not everyone.”

“What about Peters? Do you know what happened to him? The last I heard, he was in Darby Bay with Lara.”

“After Blue Eyes left, Lara was on the radio with Commander Gaby and the others,” Keo remembered Chambers telling him. “Peters, some of the other guys on Overwatch.”

Overwatch was that apartment building that was nothing but rubble when Keo finally reached the city in the morning. Gaby had also been there, along with Peters and a few others, as far as he knew.

“I don’t know,” Keo lied. “You knew him?”

“He was one of my instructors on the island,” Rose said. “He was also my friend.”

Neither one of them said anything for a while after that, and they stood silently and stared out at the gray road as it began to darken further.

Rose finally said, “You said we’re counterattacking, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You know this for sure?”

“Black Tide sent a message out on the radio earlier today, and everything I’ve seen and heard confirms it.”

“We need to get in touch with Black Tide. They need to know Lara’s still out here.”

Maybe she doesn’t want anyone to know, Keo thought but didn’t say.

They had tried to reach the island or any Black Tide assets in the area with their handhelds as they walked up the highway, but didn’t have any luck. Either they were beyond range, or there was no one out there to receive them. No one nearby, anyway.

“You should definitely keep at it,” Keo said. “Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to reach Lara before those Buckies do.”

“Who is this Clive guy, anyway? He sounded British on the radio.”

“I don’t think that was a British accent.”

“Irish?”

“Not quite.”

“What was it, then?”

“I have no idea, and I’ve been around. I’ve probably heard a hundred different accents, but Clive’s doesn’t ring any bells.”

“But he’s not from here, is he?”

“Texas, you mean?”

“America.”

“Ah. I don’t think so. But I could be wrong.”

Keo glimpsed Brick walking past them outside, just before the bell above the door jingled and the Black Tider stepped inside the store.

“We good?” Keo asked him.

Brick nodded while pinching his nose. “We good,” he said, though it sounded more like “Wee food.”

“We’ll settle down here for the night. Use the back room if we have to.”

“That door’s not going to stop someone from knocking it down,” Rose said.

“It’s not ‘someone’ I’m worried about.”

“Then what—” Brick said, but stopped short. He finished with, “Oh,” instead.

“You think they’re still out there?” Rose asked. “The ones Black Tide warned us about?”

Keo remembered all those bleached white bones in Darby Bay. Then there was the cemetery in the field outside the city.

“I hope not,” he said. “But there’s no point in taking any chances.”

He looked out the window. He could barely make out the trees on the other side of the road, and a dark blanket had fallen over the caved-in awning and the gas pumps.

“But I didn’t see them last night,” Keo continued. “I haven’t seen traces of them in the woods all day, either.”

“Does that mean something?” Rose asked.

“Could mean something, could mean nothing. Hard to say when those little bastards are involved.”

“I heard about what happened to Cordine City,” Brick said. He was going through the cash register behind the counter for some reason. “Is it true?”

“Yeah, it’s true,” Keo said. “I was there.”

“You were there?” Rose asked.

“Uh huh.”

“What were you doing there?”

“This, that, a little in-between.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Consider yourself lucky.”

“I don’t believe in luck.”

There was a loud crash! and Keo glanced over at the counter. Brick had knocked the cash register down and was holding wads of cash in his fists.

The teenager gave him an embarrassed look. “Oops.”

“Don’t go spending it all in one place,” Keo said.

Brick grinned, then went back to counting the money.

“Keo,” Rose said.

Keo turned back to her, but before he could ask “What?” he heard it first.

Engines!

Keo hurried to the door and opened it. The sound grew louder as its source grew closer. It was coming toward them.

I guess we’re not the only ones looking for shelter.

“Get back,” Keo said.

Rose and Brick hurried to the back while Keo remained where he was, crouched behind the covered lower half of the front wall. It was four feet high, which was plenty to hide him completely, but still allow him to peek up and look through the glass top half as the vehicle approached.

It was a dirt bike. Keo couldn’t see it yet, but he recognized the sound. He’d been hearing it all day and would know it from anywhere.

How many of those things do you have, Clive?

He glanced over at Rose, leaning out from one of the product aisles behind him. He had no idea where Brick was.

“How many?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Keo said.

He peered out the glass half again, just as the bike, its headlight lighting the way, pulled into the dirt parking lot outside. It was just one vehicle, and the rider was a Bucky. Keo knew that because of the man’s black assault vest with the circled M almost exactly in the middle, the emblem seeming to glow against the darkening world. The man was wearing a helmet and a scarf over his mouth, which made it hard to see his face.

For a second, Keo thought it might have been Lara, having retraced her steps down the highway after not finding anything farther up to spend the night. But that possibility vanished when he saw the color of the bike. Despite the fading light, he was looking at a white dirt bike with black seats. The one Lara had taken earlier was yellow.

The Bucky had parked next to the gas pumps, underneath the awning, and climbed down. He looked around as he unslung a pump-action shotgun. Another clue it wasn’t Lara. She was armed with the ACOG-mounted M4 when she left him, not a shotgun.

Keo ducked his head and turned around, pressing his back against the wall. He checked on the suppressor at the end of his own rifle to make sure it was still securely in place. It would have been nice if he’d had the much more maneuverable SIG handgun, but Lara had also taken that.

Rose was watching him from across the store. Keo looked up and mouthed, “Let me handle this.”

She nodded back and slipped behind the aisle. Keo still hadn’t seen where Brick had put himself, but he hoped the kid stayed there. The last thing they needed was a full-blown gun battle. That would make a lot of noise, and they weren’t that far from their last encounter with the other Buckies.

A shadow appeared above him before moving over to the door on his left. Keo turned around while still crouching and lifted his rifle slightly to aim. It would be a little tricky to get a headshot from this angle, but there was nothing to stop him from firing more than once with the suppressor in place.

He waited for the door to open, for the bell to chime, but neither things happened. Instead, Keo listened to booted footsteps walking past him.

What the hell?

He waited, but the footsteps only continued to fade.

He’s going around the back!

Keo lifted himself up from the floor and glanced out the window just in time to catch the black-clad figure as it disappeared around the corner of the store on his left.

Smart little bastard.

He turned around just as Rose peeked out from behind her aisle. It was growing darker in the store too, and Keo could just barely make out her eyes as she mouthed at him, “What happened?”

Keo shook his head and stood up, then quickly opened the door and slipped outside—

And forgot about the goddamn bell above the door!

Sonofabitch!

Keo ran toward the corner even as the bell jingled loudly behind him. He lifted the AR to aim, fully expecting the Bucky to reappear around the turn after hearing the bell before Keo could get there.

But the man didn’t reappear.

Maybe he hadn’t heard the bell? Maybe he was too far away—

Yeah, right!

Keo pressed against the jagged brick wall about a foot from the corner and sucked in a deep breath. Sunlight had almost completely faded around him, and if not for the gray highway, Keo wouldn’t have been able to make it out from the wall of woods on the other side.

He let out a slow breath and tightened his grip on his rifle.

Where was the Bucky? There was no way the man couldn’t have heard the bell chiming. It was too quiet out here, too empty—

“Looking for someone?” a voice asked.

Keo thought, Fuck me, and turned around.

There was a figure standing on the other side of the building. The Bucky. Instead of retracing his steps, the man had gone all the way around and come out the other side.

Should have seen that coming, Keo thought even as he dived away from the wall a split second before the shotgun in the man’s hands boomed! and thick chunks of brick showered the air around him.

Keo landed on his chest in the parking lot, but even as pain lanced through him, a thought raced across his mind: Wait a minute. I know that voice.

I know that voice!

He looked up as the Bucky (?) walked toward him, racking the shotgun as he did so. The man was almost at the store door when the window next to him shattered.

Rose, shooting from inside with her suppressed rifle!

The dark figure ducked.

No, not ducked.

Falling.

I know that voice! Keo thought as he lunged back up to his feet and ran over.

The Bucky lay on the ground, the fallen shotgun nearby.

A flicker of movement as Rose appeared on the other side of the destroyed window, aiming her rifle down at the Bucky, and Keo remembered how she had gone from Bucky to Bucky, shooting them in the head “just in case” only a few hours ago.

“Don’t shoot!” Keo shouted.

Rose looked over at him. “What?”

“Don’t shoot!”

Keo kneeled next to the Bucky and turned him over.

“What are you doing?” Rose asked. “We should probably leave before more of them show up.” Then, when Keo didn’t respond, “Keo? Keo!”

He ignored her and gingerly pulled the helmet off the Bucky. Blonde hair spilled out, but Keo was more concerned with the warm feel of blood against his fingers. There wasn’t a lot of it, but there was enough to worry him. And the fact that the figure hadn’t moved after falling wasn’t a good sign.

He glanced at the helmet he’d removed. There was a big dent in the side where Rose’s bullet had impacted. It was a good shot. A hell of a good shot, especially with a glass window between the kid and her target. The round hadn’t penetrated the helmet, but it had still done damage.

“Keo,” Rose was saying. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to keep her alive,” Keo said.

“Why?”

He pulled the Bucky’s scarf down, even as crystal blue eyes blinked up at him. The eyes were confused for a second before recognition flashed across them.

“Keo?” the Bucky said.

No, not Bucky. Someone posing as a Bucky.

Lara.

It was Lara.

Blood trickled down the corner of her face as she continued to blink, as if not believing her own eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Keo said.

He snapped open one of his pouches and took out the first-aid bundle. He didn’t think the bullet had penetrated her head, but it had definitely broken skin.

“Oh, God,” Rose was saying as she stared out and down at Lara. “Is that…?”

“It’s Lara,” Keo said.

From inside the store, Keo heard Brick’s voice: “Did he say Lara?”

“Oh, Jesus,” Rose said, and she hurried through the door and kneeled on the other side of Lara. “I didn’t know, Keo. I couldn’t see her face…”

“I know,” Keo said. “I know.”

He placed one hand against the side of Lara’s head, not liking the feel of warm blood pushing back against his palm.

“What can I do? Keo, what can I do?” Rose asked.

“Jesus, that’s Lara,” Brick said. He was now standing inside the store where Rose had been earlier.

Keo looked up at Rose. “Go clear out space on that couch in the back room.”

Rose got up and ran back into the store.

“That’s Lara,” Brick said again.

“Shut up, and go help Rose,” Keo said.

Brick left.

Keo concentrated on Lara, wrapping the gauze around her head while holding her up with one hand.

She kept blinking up at him, trying to focus. “Keo?”

He grinned. “Why the hell are you running around out here wearing that stupid vest?”

Lara managed something that almost looked like a smile. “I got the idea from some idiot.”

“That fucking idiot.”

The attempt at a smile faded and was quickly replaced by a frown. “I almost shot you…again.”

“Yeah, well, ‘almost’ only counts in grenades and horseshoes.”

He stood up and lifted her in his arms. She groaned with pain, but he ignored it and pushed the door open and hurried toward the back of the store.

“You’ll be all right,” Keo whispered to her. “You’ll be all right. There’s no way in hell you’re dying on me tonight, lady. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Fifteen

“I almost killed you. It’s that stupid vest. All I saw was the M. Like it was begging me to shoot it. I didn’t even look at your face when you turned around.”

Keo smiled. “Yeah, that’s kind of the point. It’s the first thing people are supposed to notice. Worked for the Buckies, and works for everyone else trying to pass for Buckies, too.”

“I almost killed you, Keo. Again.”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I could have.”

“But you didn’t.”

She sighed and blinked up at him. She was whispering, which was all she could really manage after her injury. Keo was surprised she was even still awake after the meds he’d given her, courtesy of the dead Buckies that Brick had looted back in the woods.

They were in the back room of the roadside gas station, Lara lying on the dirty couch. Not that she knew how dirty it was. He would be surprised if she could feel anything but throbbing pain and that sledgehammer pounding away in her skull. There was a big gash along the left side of her head where Rose had shot her, but thankfully the bullet hadn’t gone any deeper than breaking skin.

There wasn’t any light in the room, so Keo had to peer close to make sure the gauze he’d wrapped completely around her head wasn’t going to fall off. There was dry blood along the left side of her face and on the collar of her clothes. She had swapped shirts—it was brown instead of the blue of the Black Tide colors—but left her cargo pants on. The vest now lay on the floor next to them.

Keo crouched beside her, watching her closely. She was stable, if zapped of energy. Her hands were clammy whenever he touched them to feel her pulse, but her eyes still had that sparkle of life in them, convincing him she was in no danger tonight. Even so, after losing her, then almost losing her again, he wasn’t taking any chances.

“The others?” Lara asked.

They were in the back room by themselves, but the door behind Keo was slightly ajar, revealing moonlight flooding into the store outside.

“Standing guard,” Keo said.

“It’s dark,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“Uh huh.”

“They should be in here, where it’s safe.”

“They will be, if they have to. Right now, they don’t have to.”

He pulled up her shirt to check her old wound but didn’t bother with her left arm, where she had been grazed yesterday.

“How’s it look, doc?” she asked with a slight smile.

“Coming along,” Keo said. “Stitches are in place. No bleeding.” He pulled her shirt back down. “You’re doing pretty good for someone who’s been shot twice in the last, what, week?”

“Not three?”

“The left arm doesn’t count. That’s just a graze.”

“It’s still a gunshot wound.”

“Barely.”

“Tough crowd.”

“Yeah, well, you did abandon me in the woods. That was a stupid thing to do, by the way.”

“I know,” Lara said. She sighed and closed her eyes briefly before opening them back up and looking at him. “I’m sorry. I’m saying that a lot lately. But I am sorry, Keo.”

“You should be.”

“I did it to protect you.”

“Is that right?”

“Everyone around me gets hurt. I don’t want that to happen to you, too. And now I’m back here, endangering you again.”

“You’re not endangering me. Clive is endangering me.”

“Clive wouldn’t be after you if it weren’t for me.”

“If it’s not Clive, it would have been someone else. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m just naturally gifted at attracting gun-toting psychos.”

“But you wouldn’t be back here if it weren’t for me. You can’t deny that.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I like seafood; maybe I would have ended up here eventually. You don’t know that.”

She gave him a wry smile, but he could tell she wasn’t buying it.

“Darby Bay wasn’t your fault,” Keo said.

“Wasn’t it?”

“It was Buck’s fault. It was his Buckies’ fault. But it wasn’t yours.”

“They came there for me.”

“It still wasn’t your fault.”

“They came there for me, Keo. For me.”

“Because you happened to be the one leading Black Tide at that moment. If it weren’t you, it would have been someone else.”

“But it was me, Keo. It was me.”

He didn’t answer as quickly that time. The truth was, she was right: Buck had attacked Darby Bay to get to her. It was the perfect opportunity to cripple Black Tide, to get his revenge for Mercer’s death. Black Tide was Lara, and Lara was Black Tide. There was no denying that.

He said instead, “You’re tired. You need to get some rest.”

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Time for you to get some rest.”

“Keo…”

“It’s late,” he said. “Go to sleep.”

She might have kept arguing if she had the strength to, but she didn’t, and Lara closed her eyes again. Keo pulled the dirty duvet Brick had found behind the store counter up and over her chest, then tucked it underneath her chin. He watched the painfully weak rise and fall of her chest and didn’t stop until she slowly drifted off to sleep.

He didn’t go anywhere. He sat down on the floor and watched her sleeping for the next thirty or so minutes. When he was convinced she wasn’t pretending, he reached for his AR leaning nearby, then the SIG Sauer she’d given back to him, and holstered it.

He stood up and walked to the door and slipped outside.

* * *

There were two figures huddled near the front wall, staying away from the patches of moonlight that shone through the windows. The smaller of the two glanced over as Keo moved across the store toward them, but the bigger one was still as a statue. Keo found out why when he reached them and shook Brick awake.

The Black Tider opened his eyes. “Huh?”

“Go into the back room and keep an eye on Lara,” Keo said. “If she wakes up, come get me.”

Brick got up to leave.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Keo said.

Brick nodded before heading into the back room.

“He’s going to fall asleep, you know that,” Rose said when Keo slid into Brick’s old spot, to the left of the door and away from the broken window on the other side.

“Yeah, I know,” Keo said. “Maybe he’ll give me thirty minutes.”

“You’ll be lucky to get ten.”

“Ten’s good.”

Keo placed his rifle next to him and took a bag of beef jerky out of his pocket, when he heard a hoooooo from outside.

“Owl?” Keo said.

“Yeah. It showed up about thirty minutes ago and hasn’t left,” Rose said. “Why?”

“Some cultures believe owls are bad luck. Especially when someone in the house is sick or on their deathbed.”

“Is Lara…”

“No,” Keo said before she could finish. “She’ll be fine.”

He took out a piece of jerky and offered the bag to Rose.

She grabbed a couple of sticks. “Where’d you get these?”

“From the same Bucky Lara got the shotgun and vest from.”

“Cool.” Rose chewed loudly. “Better than anything I’ve eaten in years.”

“That’s because you’re hungry.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Hoooooo from outside.

“So she killed some guy and took his stuff?” Rose asked. “Including his bike?”

“Their bike. The one she took off on ran out of gas. Luckily another one came along. There are now two missing Buckies somewhere out there.”

“She took them both out by herself?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

Keo smiled. “She has been doing this for a while, you know.”

“I know,” Rose said. “You grow up fast, or you don’t grow up at all these days.”

He looked over at the kid. He still didn’t really know how old she was. It was hard to tell age these days. Like she said, you grew up fast or you didn’t at all these days.

“I’ve heard about a lot of the things she’s done, what she’s capable of,” Rose was saying as she nibbled on another stick of jerky. “I didn’t know taking out a pair of Buckies for their stuff was one of them. She’s awesome.”

Keo grinned. “She has her moments.”

They sat quietly after that, eating jerky and listening to the crickets from the woods around them. Keo passed the bag over to Rose again, and the teen took out another stick. The store was mostly dark with splashes of moonlight shining across different spots. It was almost pitch black outside, a combination of no artificial lights and the awning over the gas pumps providing extra cover.

And there was the lone owl, hooting all by itself out there. Keo wondered if it was waiting for something, maybe a friend or a mate. He thought about going out there to shush it away but didn’t feel like braving the cold.

“What was she doing back here?” Rose finally asked. “She was already farther up the road.”

“There’s a reason they call this place the boondocks. She couldn’t find any shelter, so she took a risk and came back here.”

“And she knows there are Buckies all over the place?”

“Yeah, she knows.”

Rose wiped her hands on her pants legs. “I’ve never met her before, you know. Lara.”

“No?”

“I mean, I’ve seen her, but I’ve never really met her.”

Keo sneaked a look at Rose. She was staring forward as if she could see through all the empty shelves and into the back room where Lara was asleep.

“She’s taller than I thought,” Rose said.

“She’s not that tall.”

“She’s taller than me.”

“Kid, everyone is taller than you.”

Rose snorted. “There’s something going on between you two, isn’t there?”

“You’re imagining things.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Let’s keep our focus on what’s out there and not what’s in here, kid.”

“Why do you keep calling me ‘kid?’”

“Because you’re a kid.”

“I haven’t been a kid in years.”

“Kid, when you get to be my age, anyone younger than you qualifies as ‘kid’ regardless of how old they are.”

“You’re that old, huh?”

He chuckled and thought, Old enough, but didn’t say it out loud, because something else had just occurred to him.

Keo didn’t move or speak or even breathe for the next five seconds.

Ten…

Fifteen…

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked. She had dropped her voice, probably unknowingly because she had seen him go dead silent next to her. “Keo?”

Twenty…

“Hey, you’re freaking me out,” Rose said.

She had something else to say, but Keo lifted his hand to shush her before she could get it out. Rose grabbed her rifle leaning against the wall nearby.

“The owl,” Keo whispered.

“The owl?” Rose whispered back.

“It stopped hooting.”

Rose tilted her head to listen for a few seconds. “So?”

Keo didn’t answer her. Instead, he picked himself up from the floor, turned around, and slowly raised himself until he could peer out the glass half of the front wall, allowing only the very top half of his head to be exposed. With so much darkness in the store with them, he didn’t think he was all that visible. Unless, of course, someone was looking at him with a night-vision device.

He didn’t see anything outside at first, but that was mostly because the gas pumps and their caved-in awning was blocking his view. Slowly, he began to make out the gray concrete of the country road in the background, the only color other than pitch-black—

Individual black shadows were moving across the pavement toward the gas station, coming from the other side.

He sighed and thought, I guess someone heard Lara’s shotgun blast after all.

At first Keo thought they might have been ghouls, but their movements were too purposeful, too careful.

Too human.

“We got incoming,” Keo whispered.

Rose turned around and looked out the window next to him as Keo scanned from side to side. He counted four—no, five—figures emerging out of the large swaths of shadows. They formed on the other side of the gas pumps, a few kneeling and taking aim with their weapons. Keo spotted the telltale signs of green neon on one of the weapons being pointed and quickly ducked back down. He reached over and pulled Rose to the floor with him.

“Night vision,” he hissed. “They have night vision.”

Rose settled next to him, her rifle in her hands. She looked over, but if he expected to see fear, he would have been disappointed. She was calm, in control, and Keo thought, Kid’s definitely seen her share of action, all right.

“Stay here,” Keo said, and darted across the door—which like the front wall was half-glass on the top and wood on the bottom—and onto the other side. It was colder here, with the blown window above his head.

Keo glanced back at Rose. She had turned around and was kneeling, rifle in front of her, ready to pop up and take a shot.

“Wait for them to make their move,” Keo whispered.

She nodded back.

“How many did you see?” he asked.

“Seven,” Rose said.

“I only saw five.”

“I saw seven.”

“You must have good eyes, kid.”

“Well, I’m not an old man like you.”

Keo grinned. “Good point.”

Turning around to face the wall himself, Keo adjusted the AR in front of him and made sure the fire selector was off safe.

“Keo,” Rose whispered. Then, when he looked over, “The back door.”

Shit. He had forgotten about that. There was another door into the building in the back, to the right of the manager’s office. It was metal and stronger than the front, but a well-placed explosive could easily knock it down.

It took a few seconds before Keo made his decision. “Stay here. Kill anyone that tries to come in.”

Rose nodded back.

Keo got up and, bent over at the waist as much as he could to lower his profile, rushed across the store. He made it without getting shot at, which was a little surprising, but he thought, I’ll take it!

He went to the back door to make sure it was still secured. There was a heavy dead bolt over it, but that wasn’t going to stop men with guns determined to come in. Still, it was better than nothing.

He stayed among the shadows as he moved over to the back room. The door was open, and Keo stepped inside.

Lara was asleep on the couch, but so was Brick, who lay curled up on the floor next to her. Maybe because he had such low expectations of the kid, Keo didn’t feel any real anger at the sight of the snoring Black Tider. After all, they couldn’t all be Gabys and Roses.

He shook Brick awake first.

The kid opened his eyes with a start. “What…?”

“Wake up,” Keo said. “There are bad guys outside.”

Brick’s eyes went comically wide, and he almost jumped up from the floor. Keo moved closer to the couch and nudged Lara awake.

It took longer with her, but eventually she opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Keo?” Then, seeing his face, “Something’s wrong.”

“Buckies incoming,” Keo whispered.

She tried to get up, but Keo stopped her.

“Slowly,” he said.

She nodded and slowly rose from the couch until she was sitting. Lara looked around for her weapons. “How many?”

“Enough. You need to stay in here—”

The loud crash! of glass shattering, and Keo glanced over his shoulder. Brick was kneeling on the floor in front of the open door. No, not kneeling, exactly. The kid had been shot while he was about to step outside and had fallen awkwardly. His torso was bent backward while his legs folded underneath him. As Keo watched, Brick toppled sideways and lay clutching his chest, struggling to breathe.

“Keo!” Rose shouted from somewhere outside.

“Stay put!” Keo shouted back at her and ran to Brick.

“What happened to Brick?”

“Stay put!”

He grabbed the kid and was pulling him away from the open door when a bullet zipped! past his head and struck the far wall about three feet from where Lara was sitting.

“Get down!” Keo hissed.

Lara did, and moved away from the exposed part of the room.

Keo took a second to look back at the door. The shooter could clearly see them moving around in the manager’s office. Besides the clear view, he also had a wide-open shot all the way from outside.

I bet the night-vision device he probably has on helped.

Keo was dragging Brick away from the open door when he realized it was a waste of time. Brick wasn’t struggling because he was dead. Keo laid him down and checked his vitals. Nothing. A big, fat nothing. The bullet hole was right about where Brick’s heart would be underneath his vest.

“Keo?” Lara whispered from her hiding spot.

He looked up and shook his head, when he heard the pfft-pfft-pfft! of suppressed gunfire coming from the front, followed by the echoing clink-clink-clink of bullet casings bouncing off the store’s linoleum flooring.

Rose, shooting.

Which could only mean the Buckies were attacking…

Sixteen

The pfft-pfft-pfft of gunfire mixed with the clink-clink-clink of bullet casings bouncing around was mostly lost among the sound of more glass shattering, then smashing against the store’s tiled flooring. It wasn’t just Rose shooting, but the Buckies returning fire.

Keo slipped out of the back room, pulling the door closed behind him. Instead of continuing forward, which would have exposed him to fire coming from outside, he turned left to use the closest shelf as a shield—

Ping-ping-ping! as bullets struck the metal shelf in front of him, which meant whoever was out there—maybe even the same guy that had shot poor Brick—had definitely noticed him exiting the back room. Just a second too late, fortunately.

So much for sneaking around!

He kept moving until he had reached the end of the aisle, then proceeded forward, passing a series of dirty cooler glass doors.

“Coming up behind you!” Keo shouted, to make sure Rose didn’t shoot him as he approached.

She didn’t, maybe because she was too busy popping up and shooting, then ducking down and moving so the Buckies couldn’t just wait for her to come up for air again in the same spot. All the windows at the front of the store were gone, swaths of moonlight gleaming against a carpet of glass up and down the length of the front area. Keo could hear the pek-pek-pek! of bullets hitting the brick half on the other side, a few sailing high and pinging! off metal shelves behind him.

Glass shards crunched under Keo’s boots as he reached Rose. He remained standing, safe behind a five-feet long wall that extended out from the corner of the store and was all brick and mortar. From his position, he could see out at the parking lot but was limited to only one side—the right. There could have been a hundred Buckies coming from his left, and he wouldn’t know it.

Rose had stopped shooting to reload. The Buckies fired a few “searching” rounds, but they too eventually stopped when Rose didn’t pop back up. In the sudden silence, Keo could make out the clacking sounds of magazines being swapped.

“You good?” Keo asked.

Rose looked over. “Brick?”

“He’s dead.”

“Fuck.” She worked her rifle’s charging handle. “What now?”

“How many are out there? Still just seven?”

“It was seven, but I’m pretty sure I got two. Now there’s about a dozen out there.”

“A dozen? What happened to seven?”

“There was more than seven to begin with.”

“Well, shit.”

“Yeah,” Rose said.

Keo poked his head out from behind the wall and glanced out.

He had a two-second—maybe it was more like one and a half second—element of surprise on his side that allowed him to take stock of the situation. There were two bodies on the ground between the gas pumps and the store—both wearing vests with circled M’s prominently displayed—and more in the background moving—

Keo pulled his head back when he saw the flash, and a chunk of the wall broke loose in front of his face as a shooter finally noticed him peering out.

Close one!

“What did you see?” Rose asked.

“Two dead, more not dead,” Keo said.

She made a face. “Can you be a little more specific? Where are they?”

“Behind the gas pumps. Probably somewhere else that I couldn’t see.” He nodded at the walled cover on the other side of the store, behind the counter. “Can you get there?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Of course you do. It’s a free country, isn’t it?”

Rose smirked. “It used to be,” and was on her feet and running a split second later.

The kid was fast, and like him earlier, she also had the element of surprise on her side. She needed every second of it too, as she made a run for the other side of the building. Gunfire exploded immediately and bullets pinged! off shelves while others struck the far wall. But they all missed their intended target, and Keo grinned at the sight of Rose leaping over the counter instead of taking the longer (and infinitely more dangerous) route around it.

A flurry of movement from outside as a shadowy figure took advantage of the chaos and raced out of the gas pumps. He was making a run for the front door. Keo fired three times and hit the running Bucky and knocked him off his feet.

But the man didn’t stay down, and he was picking himself back up when Keo shot him again. He fell a second time, and stayed down.

Across from him, Rose slid up the wall behind the counter and immediately opened fire toward Keo’s side of the store. She squeezed off a half dozen shots before she stopped and leaned back as Buckies returned fire. They were just wasting bullets, though, forming clouds of pulverized brick and mortar in the cold air outside. It was going to take more than sustained volleys of small arms to get through the store’s wall.

The Buckies must have realized that too, because they finally stopped shooting, and Keo once again heard the echoey clack-clack of guns reloading.

Load up, boys. It’s gonna be a looooong night.

Now that he and Rose had both sides of the store covered, they could keep an eye on the entire parking lot. The bad guys might have figured that out too, because no one else attempted a mad charge up the front.

Keo locked eyes with Rose. Or where he assumed Rose’s eyes were in the shadows. The truth was he could barely make out the teenager’s form behind the counter.

“Keo,” a voice whispered.

He looked over and was surprised to see Lara standing at the back, on his side of the store. She had her shotgun, but judging by the way she was leaning against the empty cooler doors, he doubted if she could fire it without falling on her butt from the recoil.

“What are you doing out here?” he whispered back.

“Watching your back,” Lara said. “How many are out there?”

“A dozen.”

“A dozen?”

“Maybe more, maybe less.”

“Which one is it?”

“No idea.” Then, “Get back into the room.”

“No,” Lara said.

“I said, get back into the room.”

She started moving—toward him.

Keo sighed. “Goddammit, woman.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said as she reached him.

Lara leaned against the wall next to him before peeking out of the store—or as much as possible without being seen. Unlike with him earlier, no one shot at her. It helped that she pulled back quickly and looked across at Rose’s shadowy form.

“Rose?” she asked.

“That’s a ghost; you’re seeing things,” Keo said. “Which is why you need to get back into the room.”

She ignored him and said, “Why aren’t they attacking?”

“Don’t jinx it.”

“They have the numbers. They must know there’s a back door. So why aren’t they attacking?”

Keo didn’t respond right away. The Buckies had tried to attack in the beginning—and a few times since—but they weren’t anymore. And she was right—there was more than one way into the store. There was the back exit that they hadn’t even attempted to breach yet.

There was one viable explanation he could think of, though…

“Maybe they’re smarter than they look and don’t feel like taking any unnecessary risks,” Keo said. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going anywhere. They know that. Tomorrow morning is just as good, if not a better, time to attack.”

“Maybe,” Lara said.

“You think otherwise?”

“Maybe someone told them not to attack.”

“Someone?” Then, “Clive?”

She shook her head, then closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, as if she was having trouble focusing. “If they know I’m in here…”

“How would they know that?”

“I don’t know, Keo. I’m just trying to see all the possibilities.”

He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. He hadn’t seen it in the semidarkness, but touching her revealed that she was shivering slightly. “Jesus, Lara.”

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah, right.”

He put both hands on her and forced her to sit down. She did, probably because she had no strength to protest. Keo took the shotgun from her and laid it on the floor within easy reach. Lara immediately wrapped her arms around her chest and pursed a smile at him, but it was hopelessly unconvincing.

He felt her forehead and frowned. “You’re burning up.”

“It’s a fever. I don’t feel very good, Keo.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“You always say that.”

“Because it’s true.”

“It can’t always be true.”

“It’ll be goddamn true as long as I’m breathing.”

She was reaching for his face with one shaking hand when someone opened fire with an unsuppressed rifle. Keo turned around, rifle in hand, fully expecting that frontal assault that hadn’t come but he knew—he just knew—was going to happen sooner or later.

Except something was wrong—nothing was coming into the store or pinging off shelves or pekking off walls.

“Stay here,” Keo said, and hurried back to his spot at the front.

He looked across the store and saw Rose where she was supposed to be. She wasn’t shooting either, but she was trying to get a better look outside. Keo did the same, even as the shooting continued. This time he could hear the pfft-pfft-pfft of suppressed gunfire along with the pop-pop-pop of unsuppressed ones. They were all coming from outside but were not aimed at the store.

What the hell are they shooting at?

He leaned out quickly and jerked his head back behind cover before he could really see anything. It was a test, and he waited for the cloud of pulverized brick as a Bucky fired on his position and hit only the wall.

Except nothing like that happened. No one had shot at him.

And yet, he could still hear it—the pop-pop-pop and pfft-pfft-pfft of continuous small arms fire outside.

Keo peeked out again, and this time didn’t pull his head back as quickly.

One second…

Two…

He kept his head exposed for five full seconds and was still breathing.

And then he saw what was going on out there.

“Keo, what’s happening?” Lara asked from behind him. She had stood back up, but hadn’t come any closer.

Keo watched shadowy forms dancing in the parking lot. No, not dancing, but fighting. Shadows were shooting at other shadows that were running at them, emerging out of the woods on the other side of the highway. Bodies were falling all across the gray concrete pavement.

The Buckies were shooting with everything they had, even as they began to move frantically out there. A few took off running. Keo thought about snapping off a shot, but decided not to waste a bullet. He didn’t have to anyway, as two—three—a dozen shadowed forms intercepted and swallowed up the fleeing figures.

“Keo,” Lara said behind him.

“Ghouls,” Keo whispered.

“What did you say?”

“Ghouls,” Keo said, louder.

He was watching a wave of ghouls attacking the Buckies. They were coming from everywhere, like the night itself was spitting them out.

Keo turned and slung his rifle, then hurried over and grabbed Lara by the waist. “We have to go.”

“Where?” Lara said, trying to look out the windows.

“The back room.” Keo turned in Rose’s direction, and though he couldn’t see her with the shelves in the way, shouted, “Rose! The back room! Get to the back room now!”

He didn’t wait to be sure the kid had heard him. He was too busy keeping both arms around Lara to prevent her from falling down. He was halfway to the back of the store when Rose appeared in front of them. The teen slung her rifle and rushed over to grab Lara, and together they rushed toward the room.

The shooting outside continued, except now they could hear screams, too. Something that might have been a grenade exploded. Keo glanced over his shoulder just in time to see a bright ball light up the darkness. In that brief second or so, he glimpsed bodies—detached limbs and decapitated heads—in the air.

“The corner, take her to the corner,” Keo said as he passed Lara off to the teen.

He hoped Rose was stronger than she looked, because Lara was taller and bigger. But Rose seemed to be handling Lara just fine. Or well enough that they weren’t already collapsing on the floor, anyway.

That had to be good enough, because Keo was too busy slamming the door shut and turning the tumbler lock. He had to step over Brick’s dead body, lying in a pool of blood, in order to get to the big desk. He tried lifting it and carrying it over by himself, but only managed a few feet. It was way too heavy for one man. Pushing it also didn’t work; the legs wouldn’t slide against the tiled floor.

He grabbed the desk by one corner and swung it forward in a wide arc, placed it back down, then picked it back up by another corner and repeated the process. It was slow and tiring work, and sweat broke out all over his face. It didn’t help that he had to go around Brick’s body a second time. Even in death, the kid managed to let Keo down.

But he didn’t stop, not while he could still make out the pop-pop-pop of gunfire outside. It sounded like they were getting closer to the store, and it wouldn’t surprise him if the Buckies had begun fleeing toward them for shelter. Maybe a few had even made it inside already.

Then Rose was there. “You need a hand?”

Keo grunted and she grinned back. Rose grabbed one side of the desk and he took the other, and they lifted and carried the heavy furniture across the rest of the room. The kid was straining badly, but she never let go. Keo didn’t think he could be more impressed with Rose, but his respect for her just kept growing.

Finally, they got the damned thing where he needed it. Rose stepped back, bending over to catch her breath. She sounded like she was drowning, and Keo figured he wasn’t doing all that well himself. But he pushed through it and got behind the desk. He lifted it up, up, until it was balanced precariously on one edge, two of its legs keeping it from toppling over. He pushed it forward until it slammed against the door.

“The couch,” Keo said.

“The couch?” Rose said.

“Just in case.”

He rushed back to the couch, where Lara was already standing on one side, trying to lift.

“What the hell are you doing?” Keo asked.

“I’m trying to help,” Lara said.

“Sit your ass back down.”

“Keo…”

“Now.”

She moved away as Keo took one end of the couch and Rose grabbed the other. It was so much lighter than the desk that they had no trouble, even in their weakened state, carrying it over to the door. Keo upended the couch too, then used it to pin the heavier and thicker desk against the door.

They hadn’t taken two steps away before something began pounding on the wooden frame from the other side.

“They’re in the store,” Rose said as she rushed over to where she’d laid down her rifle and picked it back up.

The pounding stopped almost as quickly as it began, and they heard a very human voice shouting, “Open the door! For God’s sake, open the door! Please!”

Then the banging resumed—for a while, anyway.

Five or so seconds later, it stopped and they heard screaming.

Then the scream began to fade, as if something was dragging the screamer away.

Keo took another step back along with Rose, before looking over his shoulder at Lara. She was leaning against the far wall with her hands across her chest. It was dark in the room, but he could make out her hands shaking as she attempted to open a small plastic bottle.

He walked over and took the bottle from her. “You okay?”

“I’m not feeling very daebak right now, Keo,” Lara said, her voice as weak as he’d ever heard it. She’d also tried to smile, but it came out pathetic.

“You’ll be all right.” Keo opened the cap and peered in at white and brown pills. Some were different shapes and sizes. “What’s this?”

“I took it off one of the Mercerians earlier.”

“Which one do you need?”

“The brown one. Two.”

He shook out two of the brown, round pills. “What is it?”

“Ibuprofen.”

“That’s it?”

“The white ones are codeine, but I don’t need those right now. I just need to get rid of this fever first.”

He handed the pills to her, and Lara popped them into her mouth and swallowed them down. Keo put the cap back on and slipped the bottle into her pocket.

“Come here,” Keo said.

She did, and he wrapped his arms around her body. She was cold and clammy and continued to tremble against him. He sat them down on the floor while Rose remained standing next to the barricade, rifle in hand, listening to the sounds of frantic movement on the other side.

The shooting had stopped. So had the screaming. There was just the tap-tap-tap of bare feet moving around out there now. Then something scraped against the door and the knob jiggled, but there wasn’t the banging Keo was expecting. Maybe, he thought, the creatures had more than enough food outside to bother trying to get in at them.

Lara continued to shiver against him, and Keo held her tighter. It was going to be a long night, but it could have been worse.

They were alive, for one, and he was going to keep them that way.

Seventeen

The ghouls didn’t go anywhere anytime soon and Keo could hear them moving around outside the door. They would jiggle the doorknob as if testing it, but they never attempted to brute-force their way in. It was somewhat unsettling, actually. Ghouls always acted like ghouls, but the ones outside, for whatever reason, didn’t.

He remained at the back of the room with Lara, while Rose sat to the side halfway to the door. The kid watched the only way in and out like a hawk. Sometime around two in the morning, Keo forced Rose to go to sleep, and he took over staring at the barricaded entrance. Or at the couch, pinning the desk in place, anyway.

Lara eventually stopped shivering, and the rise and fall of her chest took on a more regular, less struggling rhythm. That allowed Keo to breathe easier, not that he ever let her leave his lap. He kept her close so he would be aware of every little change in her condition.

With nothing to do and no one to talk to, Keo thought about that night back on the island. The first and only night she’d spent in his room. The days after that were a blur, but that night, that first night, had stayed with him throughout the five years. That had never happened before with any other woman.

And maybe, he thought, that was why he had asked her to leave the island with him, because he knew she would say no. Maybe he already had a strong feeling she wouldn’t abandon Danny and Carly and Gaby and all the others, now that Mercer was dead and people needed her more than ever. Her No had allowed him to run away.

Was that what he did? Did he run away?

Maybe.

The night passed without any attacks. He heard some shuffling about thirty minutes before sunup, and by morning the only sounds were Lara’s steady breathing and birds chirping outside. And if the birds were feeling safe to come out…

Keo moved Lara off his lap, careful not to wake her. He nodded at Rose, who had woken an hour earlier. They slung their rifles and took the couch down, then the desk. Keo went outside first, his boots stepping in puddles of blood scattered across the floor. He could have gone around them, but that would have required looking down and taking his eyes off what was in front of him.

There was no one (or thing) in the store, but there was plenty of evidence it hadn’t been as empty last night. The blood on the floor and along the shelves, but no signs of the people that had bled them. Glass from last night’s gun battle gleamed against the bright sunlight, and Keo was grateful for the warmth as he moved from the back to the front, forefinger on the trigger of his AR every inch of the way.

He was only halfway across the store when he flinched at the strong acrid stench in the air, reaching him through the destroyed glass half of the front wall. Evaporated ghoul flesh. The dead ones from last night.

Dead again ones, to be more specific.

Keo relaxed a bit when he stepped outside, his shirt pulled up and over his mouth and nostrils, and took in the scenery. His eyes stung, and the scar along his left cheek tingled more than usual against whatever was still lingering in the air.

Bleached white bones of dead ghouls covered the dirt parking lot. There were more little islands of blood everywhere. The blood that was still here this morning belonged to the Buckies, because ghoul blood, like their tainted flesh, didn’t survive the sun’s rays. A few hundred or so spent shell casings glinted from one end of the roadside gas station to the other, along with the weapons that had ejected them.

He spotted a couple of tactical packs that had been left behind, but less than what he had expected, given the number of Buckies out here last night. But it quickly dawned on him why: When the ghouls left, they took their victims with them. Some of those victims, more than likely, hadn’t managed to take off their gear before they succumbed.

Lara’s dirt bike was where he’d last seen it, lying on its side with one of its tires punctured. There were bullet holes in the gas tank, and the leaked fuel had dried out on the ground hours earlier.

I guess we’re walking.

He couldn’t see any other vehicles, which told him the Buckies had come out of the woods on foot. The same general direction as the ghouls. He wondered if the creatures had been following them, not that it mattered anymore. The most important takeaway for Keo was that there was no one outside shooting at him, which was all he cared about.

Footsteps, as Rose came out of the store behind him. The kid had found a white hand towel somewhere and wrapped it around her mouth and nostrils.

“Lara?” Keo asked.

“She’s still asleep,” Rose said. She squinted her eyes against the tainted air. “God, I’ll never get used to the smell.”

“The packs. Grab them and anything else that’s still useful.”

“What about Lara’s bike?”

“Flat tire, and no fuel left.”

“Damn.”

“It could have been worse.”

“How?”

“We could be dead.”

“Oh yeah, that.”

Keo left her outside and went back into the store.

Lara was already awake when he stepped into the manager’s room. She sat against the far wall, rubbing her eyes. He liked the smile on her face when she saw him.

“What happened?” Lara asked.

“We’re in the clear,” Keo said. He pulled his shirt down. “How you feeling?”

She touched the bandage around her head. “Better than yesterday.” Then, “What happened last night?”

He sat down next to her. “What do you remember?”

“Gunshots. Running back in here. Then… That’s about it.”

“Ghouls saved us.”

“Ghouls?”

“Uh huh.”

“How?”

“They attacked the Buckies. There’s a graveyard of bleached white bones out there.”

“And they attacked the Buckies?”

“Yup.”

“Why would they do that?”

Keo shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“They’re allies,” Lara said. He could see the gears turning behind her eyes, trying to put the pieces together. “Weren’t they?”

“As far as I know.”

“They were working together in Darby Bay. Were the ones that attacked us wearing the vests with circled M’s?”

Keo nodded. “I saw a couple of them up close. They were both wearing vests with circled M’s. I assumed the others were, too. Wouldn’t make sense for them not to be.”

“And the creatures still attacked them…”

“Apparently.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe it does…”

“How?”

“Who tells the black eyes what to do? Who not to attack?”

“The blue eyes.”

“And there was one in Darby Bay three nights ago. Merrick.”

“Who?”

“Merrick.”

“Who’s that?”

“What is that. It’s the name of the blue-eyed ghoul that Buck threw his lot in with.”

“It has a name?” Then, “Of course it has a name.”

“I know. What’s with all the M’s, right? That’s the first thing I thought of.”

“I wasn’t really thinking that…”

“Okay, just me, then. Anyway, you said a blue-eyed ghoul had found you sometime after the attack began?”

Lara nodded, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was already reliving some bad memories. She didn’t stop him, though, so he kept going.

“But then it left, after Gaby radioed you,” Keo said.

“I remember,” Lara said quietly.

“You see where I’m going with this?”

“Gaby killed it.”

“Yeah. She took out the blue-eyed cocksucker. Now whatever’s left of that ghoul army it built is running around out there without anyone to control them. To tell them what to do. Who not to attack.”

Lara didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to ask her what she was thinking. He could see it in her eyes.

Gaby.

“She was a soldier,” Keo said. “A damn good one, too. She did what soldiers do—”

“Keo,” Lara said.

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

“Okay,” he said.

* * *

Rose was standing behind the counter inside the store, turning the frequencies on a bulky military-grade radio sticking out of a backpack. It wasn’t something they had previously, so Keo assumed she had salvaged it from the Bucky items outside.

“Where’d you get that?” Keo asked.

“Outside,” Rose said. “But it’s partially busted. The antennae’s snapped off, and I can’t find it, so range is pretty shit. I’m trying to make contact with Black Tide or anyone who might be out there.”

“Any luck so far?”

She shook her head. “I can’t even get that repeating message from Black Tide Island you told me about. But like I said, the range—”

“Shit,” Keo finished.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“You need to be careful with that, Rose,” Lara said.

“Why?” Rose asked.

“The Mercerians were monitoring our communications three nights ago in Darby Bay. They had spies among our ranks that knew all of our backup frequencies. We managed to make that work in our favor, but they could still be eavesdropping.”

“Keep trying anyway, kid,” Keo said. “Just be careful about what you tell whoever answers.” He looked over at Lara. “Especially about her. Don’t say anything about her.”

Rose nodded, understanding.

Keo went outside with Lara and looked around again at the remains of last night’s battle. Lara had taken off the gauze that had been wrapped around her head all night and was using it to shield her mouth and nostrils from the smell. Keo had gotten used to it—or it didn’t bother him nearly as much anymore.

“No one has to know,” Keo said, quiet enough that he didn’t think Rose could overhear. Then, when Lara looked over at him, “That you survived Darby Bay, I mean.”

“She knows,” Lara said, just as quietly.

“I can fix that.”

“Keo, don’t.”

He chuckled. “I don’t mean I’m going to kill the kid. For Christ’s sake, I’m not that much of an asshole.”

Lara looked relieved. “How, then?”

“We’ll ask her not to tell anyone.”

“You think she’ll agree?”

“She will, if you ask her to.”

“Me?”

“Lara, that kid worships you. They all do. If you tell her to run a hundred miles, she’d ask which direction, and start running.”

Lara pursed a smile but didn’t say anything. Keo understood why as soon as he had made the comment—because that dedication to Lara was exactly the reason Gaby was dead, and the same responsibility Lara was running away from.

Should have kept my mouth shut.

He said instead, “Point is, if we ask her, she’ll agree.”

Lara nodded and walked out into the sun. She looked up at the sky and basked in the morning glow, closing her eyes and letting the warmth caress her face.

Keo went over to join her.

The morning had finally brought out the animals, and birds and land carrions were grabbing their share of the bones around the highway. Keo kicked at a malformed skull with a hole in its side and watched it roll away.

Hunh.

He stared at the skull for a moment. Or specifically, at the holes in it. A bullet had caused them, punching in one side and out the other, killing the ghoul on contact. Because any other bullet would have just annoyed the ghoul. But not a silver bullet.

Silver bullets…

Keo walked to one of the fallen rifles and picked it up. It was light, and the magazine had only three rounds left when he took it out.

“What are you doing?” Lara asked.

“Confirming a theory,” Keo said.

He thumbed the first round out of the magazine and held it up to the light. Sunrays gleamed off the silver-tipped head.

“Is that…?” Lara said.

“Silver,” Keo said. He stood up and walked over to a fallen pistol. He picked it up and ejected the magazine and found another silver-tipped round at the top.

“Silver bullets,” Lara said, slowly realizing what he had already figured out. “They were armed with silver ammo last night. That wasn’t the case when they attacked Darby Bay three nights ago. I remember, because we grabbed spare magazines and found only regular ammo in them.”

“That’s because back then they didn’t need silver. They had an alliance with the ghouls. With Merrick.”

“But not anymore.”

“Sure doesn’t look like it.” He pushed the silver round back into the magazine. “It’s just more confirmation that Merrick is dead. Gaby snuffed the fucker out.”

He turned back to Lara, but there wasn’t anything that even looked like triumph on her face. Of course there wouldn’t be. Gaby was still dead, no matter what she was able to take with her in the process.

“We need to collect as many of these bullets as we can, swap them out with our regular ammo,” Keo said.

Lara nodded, but before they could get to work, Rose called from the store behind them: “Guys! I got someone on the radio!”

He exchanged a look with Lara, who followed him back into the building. Rose had the radio’s handheld microphone in one hand and was fidgeting with the dial.

“Black Tide?” Keo asked.

Rose shook her head. She didn’t look quite as enthusiastic as when she had called out to them seconds ago. “I thought it might have been at first, but the guy was asking me questions about Black Tide’s movements instead of the other way around.”

“It’s them,” Lara said. “Makes sense they would be monitoring our frequencies.”

“Which one did you use?” Keo asked Rose.

“The default emergency channel,” Rose said. “It was the only one I could get working.”

“You there?” a voice said through the radio’s speakers. “Hey, you still there?”

“Don’t answer,” Lara said. “That channel’s been compromised for a while now.”

“I guess it worked for them once, so why not keep trying it?” Keo said. Then, with an amused smirk, “That’s what I’ve been doing to them.”

“Dundee? Is this you?” a new but familiar voice said through the radio.

Sonofabitch, Keo thought.

Rose looked over at Keo. “I think it’s for you.”

Keo sighed and took the microphone from her.

“Your number one fan,” Lara said, with something that might have been mild amusement.

“I really need to stop being so popular,” Keo said, before he pressed the transmit lever on the mic. “Clive, buddy.”

A chuckle through the speakers. “Now how did I know you’d be at the end of this radio call?”

“Lucky guess.”

“Who’s the girl?”

“What girl? You’re imagining things, Clive.”

The man with the unrecognizable accent snorted. “Let’s not play games, mate.”

“I’m not your mate, pal. And I thought that was the whole point of this.”

Something that sounded like gunfire crackled in the background. For a second, Keo thought it was coming from outside the store, but no, the sound was all wrong. It was coming from Clive’s end.

“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full over there,” Keo said into the radio while exchanging a glance with Lara.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Clive said. “After all, I’m a lucky man. Once I told Buck who you have running around out there with you, he sent all the reinforcements I could handle. I have people all over the countryside looking for you, Dundee.”

“Funny you should say that. I ran into a bunch of them last night.”

“Did you, now?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be missing an entire unit this morning, would you?”

Clive didn’t answer right away. Keo imagined the Bucky talking to someone, conferring about the missing status of one of his units.

“What’s the matter?” Keo asked. “Dingo got your tongue, Clive?”

“No matter,” Clive said. “There’s more where those came from. Like I said, Buck’s been very generous with the manpower.”

“Between me and a reconstituted Black Tide kicking your boss’s ass, I’m shocked you guys have any manpower left to spread around.”

“Enjoy your little victories while you can. It’s not going to last very long.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Oh yes, we will. We definitely will.” Then, minus the usual glibness Keo was used to from the man, “See you around, Dundee.”

“Later, Clive,” Keo said, and handed the mic back to Rose.

“The gunfire in the background sounded pretty close,” Lara said.

Keo nodded. “Danny’s counterattack. Hopefully it’s going well.”

“Hopefully…”

“I can keep trying to reach our people,” Rose said. “There has to be someone in the area that’s within range.”

“Danny would have switched to a new frequency by now, one that even I wouldn’t know,” Lara said. “He wouldn’t risk compromising battlefield communications after what happened in Darby Bay.”

“Would he do that?” Keo asked. “What if, say, you or I wanted to contact him?”

“We’d still be able to. He just wouldn’t use any of the known channels to make command decisions to people in the field.”

Keo nodded, understanding. “He really is smarter than he looks.”

Lara smiled. “I keep telling you that.”

“So I should keep trying,” Rose said. “Right?”

“Yes,” Keo said, “but not here.”

He glanced out the window, past the gas pumps and at the woods on the other side.

“You think more of them are coming?” Lara asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Keo said. “But I don’t think we should stay here to find out either way.”

Eighteen

They left the gas station with everything they could salvage and was worth taking from the dead Buckies. That included three tactical packs and as much silver ammo as they could carry. Lara had swapped her shotgun, which had only a single shell left, for one of the fallen ARs. They’d also scored some food and water, though not as much as Keo had hoped to find. But it was still more than what they’d had before last night. In a lot of ways, the Buckies’ attack was the best thing that could have happened to them.

Rose and Lara hadn’t wanted to leave Brick’s body behind in the back room, but Keo was able to convince them to do so. He felt bad for the kid, but taking thirty minutes to an hour just to dig a grave wasn’t going to bring him back. Besides, Clive had intercepted Rose’s radio message and given the limited range of the gear, it meant he was close enough to their position to make Keo nervous.

Lara and Keo debated whether to take off the Bucky vests they both had on, but that was a more complicated discussion. They needed the pouches to hold spare magazines and extra supplies, but the “uniform” had almost gotten them killed more than once, sometimes by each other. The problem was that the circled M’s were written in permanent marker and wasn’t going to come off easily. They thought about washing them off, but didn’t want to waste the water. Carving them off with a knife might have worked, but that would also damage the pouches.

“Maybe we can cover them up,” Lara said.

“With what?” Keo said.

“Tape?”

“You have any tape on you?”

“No…”

“I think we should keep them until we can find something better to replace them with. Besides, as long as we’re behind enemy lines, they might still come in handy.”

“Danny’s already counterattacking. We might not be behind enemy lines very soon.”

“Let’s hope that’s true.”

“God, I hope we don’t get shot while wearing these things,” Lara had said.

Me too, Keo had thought.

It was a risk—especially considering all the near misses the vests had cost them in recent days—but then, what wasn’t a risk out here? There were enemies all around them and bombs being dropped from the air. At any moment, they could run into another Bucky patrol. Or another group of inexperienced Black Tiders that might shoot first and ask questions later.

Everything about their current situation was a risk. What was one more?

After the gas station, they headed west in the same direction that Lara had been traveling yesterday before she ran out of time and had to hurry back to the gas station. They stayed out of the open and stuck to the woods, always keeping the gray pavement to their left and within sight at all times.

Keo expected Rose to start asking about where they were going or why they seemed to be heading in the opposite direction from the Black Tide counterattack they could hear taking place somewhere in the south. Except she didn’t, either because she had figured it out or the kid assumed he or Lara knew what they were doing, and it wasn’t her place to speak up. Keo was leaning toward the former, since Rose would have heard enough of their conversation last night and this morning to understand what was happening and why.

He kept an eye on Lara the whole time, looking for any signs that the blow she’d taken to the head by Rose’s almost-headshot was still affecting her. She seemed fine and kept pace with him without any real trouble, with Rose taking point the entire time. Keo would have taken turns with the teenager if he didn’t already know what she was capable of. After last night, he no longer had any doubts about the kid’s abilities.

When they finally stopped to rest for the first time, they took out a bag of MRE and split the contents. Rose had her own titanium spork/multipurpose tool, while Keo and Lara shared the included plastic spoon. The entrée was shredded barbecue beef, with black beans, tortillas, dried fruits, and cheddar cheese as the sides. They washed everything down with the beverages that came in powder forms and sat in the shade listening to birds and crickets chirping around them.

Like him, both women had one eye on the road and their ears opened for signs of Buckies. Every now and then they thought they could hear engines in the distance, but when they waited for them to near, nothing appeared. Something was definitely going on out there, whether it be Clive and his men pursuing them, or Black Tide assets either preparing or already in the midst of carrying out Danny’s counterattacks.

For the moment, the world was as peaceful around Keo as he’d ever felt it. Then again, maybe that had a little something to do with the fact he wasn’t being surrounded by people that wanted to kill him. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There were still people out there who wanted nothing more than to end his existence, but he couldn’t see or hear or feel their presence, and that made all the difference.

Then there was sitting next to Lara as she watched a squirrel moving around on a tree branch in front of them. There was a serenity about her this morning that he hadn’t seen before since they reunited.

But then Rose had to go and ruin the mood.

“So, uh, where exactly are we going?” the teenager asked.

Keo and Lara exchanged a look. He guessed she had been waiting for it too, like parents dreading the inevitable “Are we there yet?” from the impatient kid in the backseat during a long vacation drive.

“West,” Keo said.

“I figured that,” Rose said. “But what’s west? The fight’s back there.”

“Yeah, kid, we know.”

“So why are we headed away from the fight?” She looked from Keo to Lara, then back again. “Or is that the point?”

“Ding, ding, ding, give her a prize, Earl.”

“Who’s Earl?”

Keo smiled. “That’s exactly what we’re doing. Leaving the fight behind.”

“But why?”

“Because we’re not fighting anymore.”

“I don’t understand…”

“We’re out, kid.”

“‘Out?’ Out of what?”

“Out of everything. The fighting. Black Tide. Everything. We’re out.”

The teenager looked from Keo to Lara again.

This time, Lara answered her. “We won’t be going back, Rose. Danny—Commander Hartford—has taken over Black Tide. It’s his command now.”

“But you can take it back,” Rose said.

“You don’t understand. I don’t want to take it back.”

“Oh.”

The kid stared at them in silence for a moment. He didn’t really blame her confusion. She’d grown up during The Purge, and the years since had involved nothing but fighting. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn that, like Gaby and Claire before her, Rose had never really had a “normal” life. To her, this was normal, and that thought made him a little sad.

“So that’s what we’re doing,” Rose finally said.

“No, that’s what Keo and I are doing,” Lara said. “You’re free to do whatever you want.”

“Sorry, kid,” Keo said. “We didn’t know how to tell you.”

Rose nodded, just barely fighting back a frown. “It’s okay. I guess I kind of figured it out earlier, but…”

But you just didn’t want to admit it? Keo thought, but of course didn’t say.

He said instead, “Keep trying the radio. There has to be some Black Tide assets out there.”

“And then?” Rose asked.

“And then you can hitch a ride back to your unit.”

“I don’t have a unit anymore, remember?”

“Then they’ll assign you to another one.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Rose,” Lara said, in that sisterly voice Keo had heard often when she was speaking to Gaby or someone else that needed an understanding big sister, “you can come with us. I don’t know where we’re going, but there’s room for you.”

The teenager pursed a smile at Lara. “I can’t.”

“You can do anything you want. Your unit’s gone. Brick’s gone. You can do what you want, Rose. Start over, if you want.”

“But I can’t. I still have friends back there. I can’t just leave them.”

Lara nodded. “I understand.”

Keo watched Lara’s face closely and wondered if she, too, was thinking about all those friends she was leaving behind. It was times like these that he was glad he had difficulty making friends. You never know when one of them would do something stupid, like go and die on you.

“So what now?” Rose asked.

“Now you do what every adult does,” Keo said. “You make a choice, and you live with it.”

Rose looked toward the road, the gray pavement visible between the trees. “I have to go back.”

“I know you do,” Lara said. She smiled at the girl. “Keo and I will help you make contact with Black Tide. After that, you’ll be on your own—”

She stopped short, because Keo had put a hand on her shoulder. When she looked over, he put a finger to his lips even as he turned his head to listen—

“Hide!” he hissed.

Rose jumped up to her feet, snatched up her rifle, and ran to the closest tree. Keo and Lara stood up simultaneously and pushed against the large trunk of the tree they were already sitting against. Lara drew her Glock from its holster, leaving her AR slung over her shoulder.

Keo grabbed his rifle off the ground and listened to the sound of horse hooves pounding the soft ground.

Five seconds…

Ten…

Then they appeared. One—two—three horsemen moving about ten meters to their right, on the other side of the big tree. They were going fast, which Keo thought was probably the only reason they hadn’t heard his and the two women’s conversation. If they had been walking their horses, they would have spied them without any effort. Sound traveled these days, even in the woods.

Keo glanced across at Rose, hugging a trunk a few meters away to his left. She looked ready. But then, she always did.

Tough kid. Don’t mess with her.

Lara was pressed against him, shoulder-to-shoulder. He put one hand on her arm and when she looked over, he mouthed, “Don’t do anything stupid. Again.”

She rolled her eyes back at him.

“I mean it this time,” he mouthed.

She sighed and nodded.

Keo looked out and around the tree as the horses kept going. He glimpsed jeans, khakis, and black assault vests. Rifles thumped against their backs, and they were holding onto the reins with both hands. Wherever they were going, they were clearly in a hurry.

Keep going, boys. Just keep going.

Then, a second later: Aw, shit, because one of the horsemen had begun to slow down. What are you doing? Keep going, you idiot. Keep going!

But the man didn’t.

Instead, he slowed down even further about thirty meters away from their position and started to turn his mount around. The horse was a big black mare, and it sniffed the air, and Keo thought, It can smell us. It can definitely smell us.

Rose had seen the animal’s reaction too, and she shot him a quick glance.

Keo shook his head, Not yet, as he leaned closer against the tree. Thank God the trunk was big enough to cover both him and Lara with about a foot to spare. Unfortunately, the size of the trunk also meant Keo couldn’t see around it and at the horseman anymore without exposing himself. He didn’t know if there was a big white circled M on the rider’s chest or not. What were the chances there wasn’t one?

About as good a chance as you getting out of this without having to kill someone, pal.

He didn’t like those odds. Not that he could do anything about it, because the horse was still there, turned in their direction. Keo couldn’t see it, but he could feel those two pairs of eyes—the rider’s and his mount’s—staring at them.

“What are you doing?” a voice called. “We gotta go.”

“I saw something,” another voice answered.

“What?”

“I don’t know. But I saw something.”

“We’re wasting time,” a third voice called. This one was farther back.

“Tell this idiot here,” the second voice, which was closer, but still behind the first, said.

“I saw something,” the first voice insisted.

Keo tightened his grip on his rifle and whispered to Lara, “Don’t shoot unless you have to.”

When she gave him a questioning look, he tapped the suppressor at the end of his AR. Lara nodded, understanding.

Keo looked across at Rose, who stared back at him.

“You smell that?” the first voice said.

“Smell what?” the second one asked.

Oh great, Keo thought, and looked down at the individual MRE packets they’d tossed on the ground after devouring their contents. The big one for the barbecue beef and the smaller one for the baked beans. Even he could still smell them.

“There!” someone shouted just before the pop-pop-pop! of automatic gunfire shattered the calm woods. Keo watched the trunk on the other side of Rose’s tree explode with bark and the teenager bracing herself against the onslaught.

Keo spun out from behind his cover, lifting the AR at the same time and peering through the red dot scope.

Three men, all on horseback, the circled M very visible on the vest of the closest one (Of course they’re Buckies. What else would they be?) that was firing at Rose’s tree. The other two were just now reacting—the next closest man, about ten meters behind the first, was unslinging his rifle, while the one farthest back was trying to keep control of his horse as the agitated animal reacted badly to the sudden explosion of gunfire.

The Bucky shooting at Rose’s position saw Keo out of the corner of one eye and turned in his saddle. He was only halfway through the move when Keo shot him in the chest. Then, as the man lowered his rifle, Keo shot him a second time and watched him fall off one side of his mount while his gun disappeared into the grass in the other direction. The horse, suddenly unburdened with a rider, whirled around and took off.

Keo was thinking, Dammit, we could really use that horse, but his attention was quickly diverted to the second Bucky, who had gotten his rifle out and was aiming—at him.

Move, you idiot, move!

Keo ducked back behind the tree as bullets slammed into the other side of it, but all it did was shower the area with more bark. There was no way those bullets were going to chop their way through the big trunk.

Lara looked over and Keo shook his head. She had put away her handgun and unslung her rifle.

Before either one of them could respond, the pfft-pfft-pfft! of a suppressed weapon firing from nearby rang out. Keo glanced over at Rose, standing next to her hiding spot and shooting at the Buckies. She fired three times very quickly, before stepping out even farther into the open for a better view and snapping off a fourth, then a fifth shot.

“He’s running!” Rose shouted.

Who’s running? Keo thought as he peeked out from behind his tree and saw the third Bucky racing off. The man was bent low at the waist as he fled.

“Don’t let him get away!” Keo shouted as he stepped out into the open and fired.

Rose joined in, the pfft-pfft-pfft! of their shots sending rounds after the fleeing Bucky. A branch snapped—then another one—but the man kept going. Keo thought he might have hit the rider in the shoulder by the way the man jerked up suddenly before going back down. But if he had landed a shot, it hadn’t been enough to stop the Bucky from continuing on until they couldn’t see him anymore.

That’s not good, Keo thought, before he ran toward the last known spots he’d seen the first two Buckies.

They weren’t there anymore—or, at least, he couldn’t see them right away—so he assumed both were down and hidden by the knee-high grass. He found the first one on the ground, still alive. The man was gurgling blood while clutching his chest as blood pumped through his fingers. He looked up at Keo and struggled to say something.

Keo shot him once in the forehead, then stepped over him and rushed over to the other Bucky. This one wasn’t moving, but Keo shot him in the head anyway, just in case.

You can never be too sure.

He spotted fresh blood on the grass and on a series of dangling branches ahead of him. The third Bucky. So they had nailed the man after all, but hadn’t been able to bring him down. Almost, but not quite.

Keo turned around and focused on the horse that hadn’t taken off. It was staring back at him from a distance with its big black eyes. He walked over to it, reaching for the reins, when the horse snorted loudly and reared up on its hind legs in a defensive posture.

“Whoa, whoa,” Keo said, jumping back. “Relax, I’m not—”

The animal turned around and trotted off in the same direction as the last Bucky.

“—going to hurt you,” Keo finished.

He briefly thought about running after the animal, but that didn’t last for very long. Instead, he watched it disappear between the trees and wished he had Horse with him right now. He hadn’t thought of the thoroughbred since yesterday, and Keo couldn’t help but wonder where he had gone and if Keo would ever see him again.

A horse was a horse, but not really.

Keo walked back to the second dead man and checked his rifle. An AR. Keo grabbed the spare magazines and searched the man for a radio, but came up empty. When he returned to the women, they had already put their packs on and were waiting for him. None of the Buckies were wearing backpacks, so any hope they had of adding to their rations was dashed.

Lara had taken out the small bottle of meds from her pocket and was shaking out a round white pill before swallowing it with some water.

“You okay?” Keo asked.

She gave him a forced smile. “A little too much excitement,” she said, putting a hand over her side. It was the same area where she’d been shot not too long ago and was still healing. Buck’s first strike against them.

“How is it?”

“I can do without it, but…”

“Take what you need. No point in walking around hurt.”

“Did the other guy get away?” Rose asked.

“Just barely,” Keo said.

“I was sure I clipped him.”

“You did, but it wasn’t enough.”

“Dammit.”

“Yeah.”

“What happened to the other horse?” Lara asked.

“It didn’t like me, apparently,” Keo said.

“That’s impossible.”

“I know, right? Go figure.” Keo nodded at the first dead Bucky. “Did he have a radio on him?”

“No,” Rose said.

Zero for two, Keo thought, turning to Lara. “We should get moving. The other one might have a radio, and if he calls this in…”

“I know,” Lara said.

Keo scanned the area before turning back around. “We’ll head north. That Bucky was going west along the highway. That might mean he has friends up there. We’ll figure out a new direction later.”

“Okay,” Lara said.

They headed north, moving farther into the woods. Keo walked alongside Lara, with Rose on her left. It didn’t take very long before he had trouble seeing the gray highway when he glanced over his shoulder to check. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to see it at all.

He wasn’t sure how he was feeling about leaving the road behind—there was something comfortable about using it as a marker—but one glance at Lara, walking beside him, and he realized it didn’t matter.

Lara must have sensed him staring, because she looked over and smiled.

He returned it. “We’ll figure it out. Adapt or perish, right?”

“Adapt or perish,” Lara said.

Nineteen

It was an old mobile home next to a pond, the surface of which was covered in green and gray foliage from the surrounding woods, and if there were any fish in there, Keo would be shocked. The structure was a double-wide, its lower half fenced off with corrugated aluminum. Random strips of peeling white paint along the side of the house rose and fell against the occasional cold breeze.

The clearing came out of nowhere, and if not for the flashes of white paint that stood out against all the nature, they might have walked right past it. The land was longer than it was wide, and there wasn’t anything that looked like a road leading to the property. (How the hell did they get this thing in here?) He’d eyeballed the place at about two and a half acres from the woods while waiting to see if anyone would poke their heads out of the house for him to shoot.

But no one did, so Keo lowered his rifle and glanced back at Lara and Rose standing behind him. “Looks clear.”

“Looks clear?” Lara said.

“Looks pretty clear.” He turned to Rose. “Kid, go out there and see if anyone takes a shot at you.”

“Say what?” Rose said.

“He’s kidding,” Lara said. Then, to Keo, “Right?”

Keo grinned and turned back to the clearing. The mobile home looked empty, but appearances could be deceiving. After all, this was a perfect spot to hide—literally a home among the woods. A person could survive here for years without being bothered or having to bother with another human being.

It was perfect. Almost too perfect.

Captain Optimism, pal, Keo thought as he stood up and walked out of the tree line.

“Keo, what are you doing?” Lara whispered behind him.

He ignored her and kept going. Turning around now to respond would let anyone who was watching him know he wasn’t alone. At least this way he would be shot first and the women could retreat unseen.

Great. This way you’ll be the only dead idiot. That’s your big plan?

He sighed, thought, You used to be so much smarter than this, and stepped out even farther into the opening.

Knee-high grass swatted at his legs as he walked. Keo kept the rifle in front of him, ready to swing up and fire at a second’s notice. Of course, if someone was watching him right this second through one of the dilapidated home’s boarded-up windows, they’d be able to put a solid round into him before he could even react. Once he heard the gunshot, it would be too late.

So what are you doing?

Being stupid, apparently.

He was halfway to the mobile home, and there was still no shot. Keo was close enough now to see that while all the windows on this side were covered up with pieces of lumber, there were plenty of openings for someone to squeeze a rifle barrel through.

But no one had fired yet, so that was good.

Until it stopped being good, anyway.

When he finally reached the house and he was still alive, Keo figured there was no one calling the place home. He went around the building and found a truck parked back there. But if he had any ideas about using it, he gave up when he saw the rust, broken windows, and the open hood. Not that the sight of an open hood was necessarily bad, but the grass and vines growing out of the engine block was.

There were no doors back here, just bedroom windows with more boards covering them. Four in all—two per bedroom. Nothing moved behind either window when he peeked through the makeshift barricade. He glimpsed mattresses and debris and what might have been a furry animal or two (or more) scurrying away when he blocked the sunrays temporarily with his head.

There were also no ghouls or indications of one inside either bedroom. Covered windows could mean ghouls were using a building as a nest, but Keo had never met a nightcrawler yet that knew how to nail wooden boards in place.

He walked back to the front of the property and went up a flight of rickety wooden steps. He tried the doorknob, and it moved easily for him. The door, too, opened without resistance. Keo stayed back and sniffed the air. Old and stale and a dozen other aromas, but nothing like the rotting garbage stench of a ghoul nest.

So far, so good.

He leaned in, the barrel of his rifle leading the way. Clouds of dust filtered through the empty spaces in the large living room, floating between swaths of sunlight invading through the barricaded windows. There was a kitchen in the back, on the other side of a wall that jutted out from the left side, and opposite a hallway on the right that led into those extra bedrooms he’d spied earlier. Another door, to the left of the living room and before the kitchen, led into what Keo assumed was the master bedroom.

The interior was surprisingly roomy, but then Keo reminded himself he was peeking in at a double-wide here, not a single. The walls were old and stained with a variety of dark brown colors. The carpet was blacker than it was brown, and the lone couch… Well, he wasn’t going to be sitting on that anytime soon. Likewise for the stools around the island countertop in the kitchen and what looked like a big solid oak table in the dining area. Plaster on the ceiling had cracked and more than a few spots were drooping, an extended rainy day or two from caving in completely. But they hadn’t yet. He’d be shocked if the bathrooms were in any better shape.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

Keo pulled back and looked across the field toward where he assumed Lara and Rose were hiding, probably watching him back right this second. He couldn’t see the women, so that was good because it meant no one else could, either.

He turned around and took the final step into the house.

“Hunh,” Keo said when he got a good look at the door from the inside.

From outside, the door hadn’t appeared all that impressive, and there was no reason to believe it would be different on the other side. But as it turned out, it was. There were two dead bolts that had been added to the original lock, and the door had felt slightly heavy when Keo pushed it open, though he hadn’t thought to consider why. He saw the reason for that now: There was an extra layer of protection, a second “door,” this one made of heavier wood than the cheap version that had come with the double-wide. Even if the original door was breached, its backup would last much longer. Certainly, no ghoul was going to be able to force it open.

No black-eyed ghoul, anyway.

There was even a latch on the wall and a place to slide in an extra piece of lumber for additional strength. Keo couldn’t find anything in the immediate vicinity that would fit the latch, but he did make a mental note to look for one later. After all, you didn’t find a ready-made barricade like this very often.

It took him five minutes to go through all the rooms—the one on the left was indeed the master, as he had guessed—and the two on the right were smaller bedrooms. All three rooms were in similar shape, filled with useless junk and mattresses that had seen better days, as if the previous owner had been using them to store…well, everything he could find.

Keo was checking out the sad state of the bathroom when he heard Lara’s voice. “Keo. Where are you?”

She was in the living room with Rose, the two of them looking around at their surroundings with the kind of disgust he had expected.

“You’re supposed to be waiting in the woods,” Keo said.

“You were taking too long,” Lara said.

“And we were bored,” Rose said.

Keo snorted. “Bored’s better than dead, kid.”

“Not if you’re bored to death.”

Keo flashed Lara a Can you believe she just said that? look.

Lara smiled back before looking down at her watch. “It’s midday. We don’t have to stay here.”

“Might not find anything better,” Keo said.

“There’s always a chance we might.”

“This is a gift. Let’s take it.”

Lara nodded, but he could see that she wasn’t fully convinced. He wondered if the Lara from last week would have kept arguing. This Lara didn’t have it in her. Keo wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, though.

Rose sniffed the air and made a face. “Oh my God.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Keo said.

“I doubt that.”

“I’ve slept in worse places.”

“Oh yeah? Name one.”

Lara groaned. “You shouldn’t have asked that, Rose.”

Keo grinned and said, “There was this time in Nicaragua, where I was doing this thing for these people, and I had to stay in a hut with these two idiots who thought showering was for losers…”

* * *

Cleaning out the place was a nonstarter. They didn’t know how long they would be around, and changing anything too drastically might alert someone that there were people now occupying the house. So they aired the place out the best they could and scrubbed down the furniture and mattresses just enough that they wouldn’t fear for their lives when they had to sit or lie down on them.

It took Keo walking past the boarded windows at least a dozen times before he realized whoever had put them up hadn’t been as random as he had first thought. There were clear patterns, with multiple murder holes in each barricaded window. They were just big enough not only for a rifle barrel to poke through, but additional openings for a scope to see out of. It was the same for all the other windows, including the ones in the master and smaller bedrooms.

Keo mentioned that to Lara and Rose, and the teenager took something out of her pocket and tossed it to him.

He caught it—an empty brass casing that had rusted over. “Where’d you find this?”

“Under the couch,” Rose said. “Probably the same people who put the boards up.”

“I wonder where they went,” Lara said.

“Wherever they went, they did it voluntarily,” Keo said.

“How do you know that?”

“Outside. I didn’t see any evidence this place ever came under attack. The building’s falling apart, but that’s just from age.”

Lara glanced around the living room where they were standing. “So I guess they just decided to leave.”

“Looks that way.”

“I hope they don’t come back,” Rose said.

“Yeah, that would be a little awkward,” Keo said.

Later, Keo went back outside and did another walk around the double-wide. Like the first time, he didn’t see anything that even hinted at a battle having taken place around the building. There was nothing that looked like bullet holes in the walls or dry blood on the surrounding grounds. He didn’t expect to find bodies and wasn’t disappointed. It should have made him feel better, but it just made him more paranoid. This was a good spot, so why had the previous owners abandoned it?

Lara came out later, wiping at her sweaty face with the same bundle of gauze he’d wrapped her head with last night and had used to block out the scent of dead ghouls this morning at the gas station.

She walked over to where he was standing, next to the pond, watching ripples moving across the water. “What is it?”

“Catfish,” Keo said.

“Catfish?”

“A big ol’ one, too.”

“How big is a ‘big ol’?’”

“At least two feet.”

“That’s…big.”

“That’s pretty big, yeah.” He pointed at other ripples. “Smaller fishes. The big cat’s been feeding on them for years. Probably weighs a ton by now.”

“You know how to fish?”

“Sure I do, but I don’t think we should eat Catty.”

“‘Catty?’ You named the catfish?”

“Figured he was due for a name.”

She smiled. “But why don’t you want to eat him?”

“He’s survived this long to become king of the pond. It would be kind of shitty for a bunch of people to show up and ruin it for him.”

“I didn’t know you cared so much about a catfish you’d never met until today.”

“It’s less about the fish and more about everything else.”

“What’s ‘everything else?’”

“You, me, Rose, this place. This war. Everything else.”

She stared at him, as if waiting for him to continue, and when he didn’t, she said, “You’re full of surprises.”

He looked over at her. “Am I?”

“Yeah, you are.”

They stared at each other for a moment. He liked the way the sun reflected off her face and seemed to make the strands of her short blonde hair glint. Her eyes were more crystal blue this afternoon than they had been since he found her in Darby Bay. She had bruises along her cheeks and forehead, and there was dirt and specks of old, dry blood on her chin and neck that she probably didn’t know existed.

And still, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was as breathtaking now as she’d been that day when he climbed onto the chopper and left her for five long years. He’d thought of her every day since, and dreamed about her constantly, but all those memories were nothing compared to the real her.

Here, standing in front of him, looking back at him with kind eyes.

Lara looked away first, and he thought, Did she just blush?

He smiled and said, “Where’s Rose?”

“Getting lunch ready.”

“How many MREs do we have left?”

“Last one. But we still have the can of beans and bags of jerky and nuts. Lucky for us some of those Buckies were carrying chow last night.” Lara glanced back at the mobile home. “Did you check to see what was under there?”

Keo followed her gaze. “Under where?”

“The house.”

She was talking about the corrugated aluminum that ringed the structure. Keo had never really thought about it. He had always just assumed it was there to keep things out, like small critters from the surrounding woods.

“No,” Keo said.

“Should we find out?” Lara asked.

“Why? You think there’s something under there?”

She shrugged.

“There’s nothing under there,” Keo said.

“How do you know that?”

“Because we’ve been here for hours. If anyone—or anything—was under there, they would have shown themselves. Or made noises. I didn’t hear any noises. Did you?”

“No,” she said. She didn’t look entirely convinced, though, but like last time she let it go. “You’re probably right.”

“Of course I’m right.”

“First time for everything.”

He snorted, and she smiled again.

* * *

The last bag of MRE was unremarkable: nearly flavorless chicken chunks with trans-fat free chewy bars, tortillas with cheddar cheese, two types of way-too-sour sauce, and more powdered drinks and instant coffee. They split the pieces of just-a-little-too-hard candy and took inventory of what they had left.

It wasn’t much, but it would last them for the night and get them through tomorrow until they could find more. Keo thought about spending a few hours in the woods to hunt game, but decided they didn’t need that yet. Besides, anything he killed would have to be eaten right away, and that would require making a fire. And fires sent out smoke that could be seen for miles.

They settled down and waited for nightfall, taking turns looking out the windows for signs of someone in the clearing outside. Rose later went into the master bedroom to “nap” for a bit, and before Keo knew it, the kid was snoring loud enough that they could hear her through the open door.

Lara went over to check on the teen, maybe worried by the loud snoring, but she came out with a smile on her face, closing the door after her. “She’s tired. Did she get any sleep last night?”

“Three or four hours,” Keo said.

He sat on the dirty floor next to one of the living room windows, having wasted the last hour or so cleaning their guns. Not just his, but the women’s as well. The front door was closed to his right, the tumbler lock and both dead bolts in place. He couldn’t locate any lumber to use with the latch, unfortunately, but he didn’t think he’d need it anyway. Anyone who could break through the dead bolts wasn’t going to allow a four-by-four to stop them.

Keo put the final pieces back onto his AR and leaned it against the wall as Lara sat down next to him.

“What about you?” she asked. “Did you get any sleep back at the gas station?”

“A few hours.”

“When she wakes up, it’ll be your turn.”

“What about you?”

“I got more than my share last night.”

She looked across the dirty living room at the equally dirty wall. The three of them had spent enough time inside the house that they had all gone blind to the smell by now. Most of it, anyway.

Keo was relaxed, with one ear open to the crickets outside.

After a while, Lara said, “We never really talked about it.”

“About what?’

“That night.”

“No?”

“Not really.”

“Is there a lot to talk about?”

She looked over at him. “Isn’t there?”

He shrugged. “It happened.”

“I didn’t want you to think it was something I regretted. Because I don’t. Not then, and not now.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Not that you were ever worried, of course.”

He grinned. “Not that I was ever worried, of course.”

Lara glanced over at the master bedroom when it sounded like Rose’s snoring had increased in decibel, almost as if the kid had heard them talking and wanted to butt in. “What are we going to do with her?” Lara asked.

“You mean besides keeping her around as a reminder never to have kids?”

“Besides that, yeah.”

“I dunno.” He looked over at the Bucky radio resting on the couch in front of them. Rose had been playing with it all day, trying to reach someone. “Sooner or later, someone will answer, and we’ll put her on a chopper.”

“And back to the front lines…”

“That’s where she wants to be.”

“She doesn’t know what she wants. She’s just a kid.”

“She’s a kid that grew up during The Purge. She stopped being a kid long ago, Lara. They all did.”

“They’ll always be kids to me. Rose, Claire…”

And Gaby, Keo thought even though Lara didn’t say the name, but he could almost feel it on the tip of her tongue.

“They’re just kids,” Lara said. “They should be in school somewhere, learning about history and science and math. They should be passing notes in class and talking about boys, not fighting psychopaths that get off on cutting their faces.”

“Is that what happened to Rose?”

Lara nodded. “She ran into some assholes who didn’t care that she was just a kid.” She looked down at her hands and scratched at the dirt clinging to her fingers. Most of her nails were chipped. “I should have kicked them out, forced them to do something with their lives. Rose and the others. All of the kids.”

“You gave them purpose.”

“I gave them a reason to die. I tried to save the world, and all I had to sacrifice to do it were their lives.”

Keo didn’t know how to answer that. How did you respond to that kind of statement?

I really, really do suck at this.

He reached over and pulled her closer to him instead.

She came willingly, placing her head against his shoulder. “Thank you for coming back for me. I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve you.”

“Yeah, well, you got me anyway.”

He saw her smiling out of the corner of one eye, and he smiled, too.

Rose continued to snore from behind the master bedroom door, doing battle with the crickets outside and the birds chirping from the trees that surrounded them. He wasn’t sure when Lara fell asleep, but it was soon after that. Keo drew his SIG Sauer from its holster and laid it on the floor next to him within easy reach.

Just in case.

He was resigned to not getting a lot of sleep tonight, but that was fine. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time, and he’d learned to adapt ages ago. You had to, doing the things he used to do for a living.

“Find Lara. Save Lara. Kill everyone that gets in the way.”

He was two for three, and there was still a chance he could make it three for three before the week was over. That, though, would probably depend on what Clive or Buck or whoever were out there chasing them decided to do.

Whatever that turned out to be, he’d be ready.

Twenty

He opened his eyes to voices in the living room with them.

“…do you see?”

“Double-wide.”

It was dark, but he could easily make out Lara’s blonde hair fanning out in his lap. She wasn’t moving—and she was definitely not talking.

“No shit. I can see that from my position. What do you see inside the double-wide?”

“Not much. Windows are boarded. There are holes… Give me a sec.”

Moonlight filtered in through the barricaded windows to his left and right. Keo was sitting between them. There were no signs of Rose, and the master bedroom door remained closed, and Keo could hear the kid snoring on the other side.

“Looks empty.”

“Are you sure?”

“Looks empty.”

“You said that already.”

“Well, it looks empty. I don’t know if it is.”

He listened to the voices coming from in front of him. He might not have heard them at all if the building and the night outside wasn’t so quiet.

Except there was nothing in front of him but the couch. Their backpacks rested on the floor, covered in dark patches of shadows.

He leaned slightly forward to hear the voices better.

“Get closer.”

“I am close.”

“Closer.”

“Shit.”

There was no denying it: The voices were clearly coming from in front of him. Two speakers, both male, talking back and forth. The conversation was slightly muffled, as if he were listening through ear muffs.

“Well?”

“Give me a sec…”

“What do you see?”

“Give me a sec, goddammit.”

If the voices were coming from in front of him, and he was sure they were, then why couldn’t he see who was talking? Why—

The radio.

The same one Rose had salvaged from the Buckies back at the gas station. She had been playing with it all day, trying to reach someone, and had left it on the couch before retiring to the master bedroom. Apparently, she had also left it on.

Right now, Keo was listening to a conversation that was bleeding in from another nearby frequency. That explained the lack of clarity, the “muffled” nature of the voices.

“What do you see?”

“Will you stop asking me that?”

“Get closer.”

“I am closer.”

Keo looked to his right and picked up the SIG Sauer. He could barely make out its black frame against the semidarkness. It was dark inside the mobile home and equally as pitch-black outside. Swaths of moonlight penetrated the open spaces between the boarded windows, some washing across the peeling wallpaper around him, while others brightened the stained carpets. But because Keo had sat down between the two window frames, he was perfectly positioned and invisible for all intents and purposes to anyone looking in.

“Well?”

“It’s empty.”

“You sure?”

“It looks empty.”

“Find out for sure.”

“How?”

“You know how.”

“Fuck me.”

Keo didn’t move. He didn’t dare breathe. He was too afraid a little movement might wake Lara up and she would alert whoever was out there—because someone was out there; likely someones.

What was that one of the men had said? Something about finding out “for sure.”

What did that mean? Whatever it meant, the other one hadn’t been too fond of the idea, given his response. “Fuck me” was definitely not how you answered something that sounded good.

So how was the other guy going to find out “for sure?”

How—

A click! from his right, and Keo turned his head as the doorknob jiggled slightly. Not too much and not too loud, but in absence of anything outside and inside, the noise might as well be a gunshot.

So that was how the man was going to find out “for sure.” He was going to come in. Or try to.

But the door was locked. Not only that, there were the two dead bolts and the secondary “door” that the house’s original inhabitant had put in place. It was going to take more than some jiggling to come in.

Keo said a silent Thank you to whoever lived here before them, even as he calmly nudged at Lara’s shoulder.

She stirred but didn’t wake.

He did it again, harder this time, and she finally opened her eyes and started rising from his lap. She turned her head and was about to say something when he put his hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock until she saw him shaking his head, then nodding toward the door. Her head turned in that direction, and Lara saw the doorknob jiggle again before going still once more. He took his hand away.

“It’s locked,” one of the voices said on the radio.

“Break it open,” the other one said.

“If someone’s inside, they’re going to hear that.”

“But if no one’s inside, you don’t have anything to worry about, do you?”

“Goddammit.”

“Hey, you drew the short straw. You know the rules.”

Lara had traced the voice over to the radio sitting in the shadows on the couch. The volume was still low, but he could tell by her reaction that she could hear the words being spoken—along with the intent behind them.

Keo pointed to the windows to both sides of them, before reaching for his rifle lying nearby and handing it to her. Lara had her sidearm but not her rifle. She took his AR and remained kneeling next to him as he quietly unfurled his legs until he was crouching. He turned to face the door with the SIG in his hand.

The problem was that he hadn’t put the suppressor on during the night, and if he used it now, it was going to be very loud. As soon as that thought hit him, it was quickly replaced with, You really think stealth’s an option when whoever’s out there breaks their way into the place?

Good point, me.

He focused on the door as the intruder stopped messing with the doorknob. Keo wondered what the man was going to do—or what his comrades were going to do, because there was definitely more than one of them out there. Probably a lot more.

Keo checked on Lara, now on her knees behind him. She looked calm, all traces of sleep gone from her eyes. She gripped his rifle and pursed a smile back at him.

He started to turn back around, wondering how the man was going to come in—

BOOM! as a shotgun blast punched a hole in the door, right in the spot where the doorknob used to be.

Oh, that’s how, Keo thought, just before what might have been a boot slammed into the door.

Except the door didn’t swing open, thanks to the two dead bolts.

“What the fuck?” Keo heard someone say right outside.

That was followed by the unmistakable sound of a shotgun racking, but before the man could fire again—and possibly destroy one or both dead bolts—Keo stood up, sidestepped toward the door, and shoved the barrel of his pistol into the jagged hole and fired three times in quick succession.

There was no returning fire, and when Keo pulled the gun out of the hole, he glimpsed a figure falling down the stairs on the other side.

Nailed it!

Keo crouched a bit and peered through the hole and looked out. He spotted tall grass and an impregnable wall of black woods in the background, but no—

There was a muzzle flash just before he heard the pop-pop-pop! of an automatic rifle opening fire, followed by the pek-pek-pek! of rounds slamming into the door on the other side. The bullets would have gone right through the flimsy material and possibly into Keo’s face or chest if not for the thicker wooden frame bracing against it. Even so, Keo could see the indentations appearing across the secondary door with every shot that rang out.

He backpedaled even as the wall around the door began breaking up and bullets zip-zip-zipped! around his head like bees.

“Get back, get back!” Keo shouted as he ducked, flattening himself against the dirty carpet.

Lara scrambled away from the door as more rounds zipped! past her and struck the couch and wall and everything else in the living room with them. But they didn’t stop there—the bullets kept going, penetrating the other wall and disappearing into the night.

Flimsy ass walls! Keo thought as he got up and ran toward Lara, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up from the floor. She stumbled, struggling to find her footing, but eventually she did and they braved the tide of bullets punching through every part of the living room and chasing them like living sentient beings.

Thankfully the shooting was limited to the immediate area around the front entrance, which meant they were finally out of the line of fire by the time they reached the master bedroom. The door snapped open and Rose staggered out, clutching her rifle. The teenager had managed to put on her vest but hadn’t cinched it in place.

“What—” the kid got out.

Keo grabbed her by one arm and shoved her toward the kitchen after Lara. “Follow Lara!”

The girl didn’t argue—maybe she was still in too much of a sleep-induced fog to figure out what was happening—and did as she was told. All three of them went around the extra wall separating the kitchen and the living room before sliding between the island counter and the cabinets and rusted-over range appliances.

It was a good thing they did, because soon the bullets were coming from both sides of the house. The bad guys had spread out and were now shooting at them from the back of the house, too. Keo glimpsed pieces of the radio—green plastic covering and electronic guts—flying through the air as bullets tore it apart.

“What’s going on?” Rose shouted over the roar of gunfire, of bullets striking everything and ricocheting into walls around them and even the ceiling above them. “Jesus, who’s shooting at us?”

Everyone in the world, from the sounds of it! Keo thought even as he watched round after round puncture the living room wall and exit both sides. Soon the large space was lit with dozens—Two dozen? Three? A hundred?—of individual streams of moonlight crisscrossing the area like lasers.

And then, as quickly as it had erupted, the shooting stopped and was replaced by the audible clack-clacking of guns being reloaded and someone shouting, “Watch your fire! Watch your fire! The wall’s too thin! Watch your fire!”

Keo grinned. The bad guys had surrounded the house and had been firing indiscriminately into it, not realizing how easily their bullets would go right through the building…and at their comrades on the other side. He wondered if someone out there had been hit as a result.

“What’s going on?” Rose said, whispering instead of shouting. “Who’s out there?”

“No idea,” Keo said. “But I don’t think they’re friendlies.”

“How you figure that?”

“’Cause they just tried to kill us, for one.”

“Well, you did shoot one of them first,” Lara said.

“There’s that.”

“Jesus,” Rose said, peeking out from behind them to get a better look at the living room. Or what was left of it. “They must have fired a hundred rounds.”

“A hundred, two hundred—maybe a thousand—but who’s counting,” Keo said.

He looked over at the entrance. Miraculously, the backup door was still in place. A few rounds had managed to punch through, but the bulk of it was intact. That, along with the dead bolts, had kept the door closed even now.

Damn, that’s one tough door!

But it wasn’t the lifespan of the door he was worried about. It was the rest of the house around them.

Lara, apparently, had figured out the same thing. “Keo, forget about the door. Those walls aren’t going to last against another barrage like that.”

He nodded and glanced around, searching for a way out.

There was the master bedroom, but it had the same weak walls. Likewise for the two smaller bedrooms on the other side of the house. The bathrooms weren’t going to be much help when the bad guys started coming in. That is, if they decided to come in at all and didn’t just stay outside and blast the place to pieces. The way they had fired earlier was a good indicator they either didn’t know who was inside the house—namely Lara—or didn’t care.

That was his ace in the hole. If all else failed, he might be able to save Lara by revealing her identity. But that came with its own host of problems, the biggest being what would happen to her after Clive and Buck got their hands on her.

Yeah, that’s not going to work, either.

“Keo,” Lara said. Then, when he glanced over, “The floor.”

“The floor?” Keo said.

“It has to be as weak as the walls.”

“So?”

“We can’t go out the back or the front. They’ll kill us as soon as we step outside.”

“But down?”

She nodded. “Those corrugated aluminum sidings down there, around the base of the house, remember?”

“You want to go hide down there?”

“I wasn’t thinking about hiding down there.”

“What, then?”

“They’re watching the doors and windows. But they won’t be watching the ground. We would have the element of surprise in our favor.”

He almost laughed. He had come up with some crazy ideas before, but this…

“Barely,” Keo said.

“It’s something.” She nodded at the living room. Or what was left of it. “If they come in while we’re still up here…”

She didn’t finish, and she didn’t have to.

Talk about bad ideas.

He glanced around them again. It was a bad idea, but what choice did they have? The only option left was to surrender Lara to the men outside, and he’d be damned if he did that. He didn’t even know if those were Buckies out there, for one. For all he knew, they could be crazy survivalists. Or maybe even the house’s original owners, though that seemed unlikely given how freely they had opened up on the double-wide. And even if they were Buckies and they wanted Lara, what would they need him and Rose for?

Yeah, bad ideas, all right. Nothing but bad ideas.

Keo sighed. “I’ll go down first, look for a way out, then you and Rose follow me.”

Lara nodded, but he could tell by her expression that she hated the idea just as much as he did, even if she did come up with it.

“This doesn’t sound like a very good plan,” Rose said.

“It’s not, but Lara’s right. It’s all we have,” Keo said, even as he began thinking about what awaited him down there.

The original homeowners had put those barriers around the base of the house for a reason. Were they trying to hide something? Or was there something already down there, trying to hide itself from the world? Keo hadn’t bothered to check, because there was no reason to. They also hadn’t heard anything moving around down there the entire day, so all of this could have just been the product of an overactive imagination.

Unless he was wrong. Which was highly possible, because he had been wrong before. Hell, he had been wrong a lot of times before.

And yet, Lara was right. They couldn’t go out the front or the back, so there was only one other way left.

Down.

“I should go first,” Lara said. “You’re too tall anyway—”

“You’re not going anywhere first,” Keo said. “Where’s your rifle?”

She nodded at the pieces of a weapon in the living room.

“I’m going to need a distraction,” Keo said.

“What kind?” Lara asked.

“The loud kind.” He turned to Rose. “Take the suppressor off your rifle.”

Rose did, while Keo took his suppressed AR back from Lara. “I’m going to need that for a bit.”

Lara nodded, understanding what he was doing. “Be careful,” she said, drawing her Glock from its holster.

Keo nodded and began crab-walking away from them and toward the dining room area. He had a good view of the front door, but couldn’t see anything out the windows. The boards were still in place despite all the new holes in them, and that helped to conceal his movements. The wall between the kitchen and the living room did as well.

He stopped next to the big dining room table. The floor was covered in cheap plastic tiles, and there wouldn’t be much underneath it but wooden floorboards. Probably rotting, termite-infested wooden floorboards.

He looked over at Lara. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Lara exchanged a look with Rose, then the two of them pointed their weapons in different directions. Lara took the front of the house with her pistol while Rose aimed her rifle toward the back. It was dead silent out there—no movements or voices, or any signs that the bad guys were preparing to assault them.

What are they waiting for?

Lara fired first, squeezing off a shot—then another, and another—at different sections of the wall. Her bullets, like the attackers’ earlier, easily punched their way through the flimsy house construction. Rose opened fire as soon as Lara did, and the two women swiveled their aim from left to right to cover as much ground as possible, giving the impression they were trying to hit something out there. And if they did, hell, that was just a bonus.

Keo looked down at the floor as soon as the two women began shooting, and he opened up on the spot in front of him. The tiles easily cracked, and the floorboards underneath them split open under his assault. Keo moved the rifle around, stitching together a half-assed circle. Not too big, because that would require more bullets, but just big enough—about a foot and a half wide—to fit him. He hated wasting an entire magazine, but there was no other choice. It would have been nice if he’d had an ax to chop his way through.

It would be nice if I had a friggin’ helicopter to fly out of here, too, he thought as his rifle stopped firing and he began smashing the bullet-riddled floor with his boot while the women continued to shoot at the walls, their gunfire covering up all the noise he was making.

The “circle” finally broke open—or half of it did, anyway. It simply caved inward, but didn’t come completely loose. It was, though, wide enough that Keo could see down at—

Darkness.

Complete and utter darkness.

…staring back up at him.

Twenty-One

This is a bad idea.

The thought raced through his head even as he heard the pop-pop-pop of semiautomatic gunfire coming from outside the building. Lara and the kid had stopped shooting, and now the bad guys were responding. Keo pictured what little remained of the double-wide’s walls thinning even further against the renewed onslaught.

This is such a bad idea.

He was kneeling in darkness, because to lift himself any higher would bump his head against the bottom of the house. The building had been raised about four feet off the ground—maybe three and a half—which was all the space Keo had to maneuver.

Such a bad, bad idea.

The shooting outside went on for a while, the gunfire seemingly louder from down here. But they didn’t last forever, and soon the last shot faded and there was the familiar clack-clack of guns being reloaded from seemingly all around him.

Christ. They really do have us surrounded.

But men with guns out there were the least of his problems. There was nothing but darkness in Keo’s immediate surroundings. It didn’t matter where he turned—left, right, north, or south—there was just pitch-black.

Fuck. Did something just move behind me?

He spun around. Or “spun” as much as he could without slamming his head straight into the house. It was hard enough to stay on his knees without losing his balance. Keo had been stuck out in the wilds at night before—too many times to count, in fact; way too many times to count—but he’d never been trapped inside a suffocating garbage bag after someone had cinched it tight.

Then threw it down a hole…

…that turned out to be a never-ending abyss.

And it was hot. Jesus, why was it so hot down here when it was so cold out there? It was like being inside a furnace. A sticky, melting, landfill of a furnace.

Stop thinking about it, dummy.

Yeah, like that’s possible.

He fought through a couple of gag reflexes as he turned to look behind him. Fortunately, the SIG Sauer allowed him to hold it with one hand while groping the ground around him with the other. He had slid the AR back to Lara before jumping down the hole; it was already going to be a tight squeeze with the handgun; he didn’t need the added length of a rifle to make things even more difficult on himself.

When he was fully turned around, there was nothing back there. Well, almost nothing. He was close enough to the edge of the house—the kitchen was in the back—that he could make out the corrugated aluminum siding from the wall of black. That was a relief, because for a second he thought he might have gone blind.

Stale air, infused with unnatural heat, made breathing difficult. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised by the conditions down here. The room was covered up, with nowhere for the air to go but round and round. Keo hadn’t taken note of it before, but now that he was below, he could tell that whoever had put the sidings in place had done a hell of a thorough job. There were barely any slits for moonlight to shine through, and what there was, were so limited they did nothing to help Keo see any better.

The scar along the left side of his face tingled, and he resisted the urge to reach up and scratch it. He remained where he was, a few feet from where he had jumped down the hole. As dark as it was inside the house above him, there was enough natural light from up there that when he glanced to his right he could see a huge shaft shining down, revealing rough and hard gravel underneath his boots. Very few weeds had managed to survive down here, away from the sunlight.

Away from the sunlight…

“Keo,” a voice said.

He looked over at the hole. Lara was on her knees, her head lowered tentatively into the opening and looking for him.

Then, when she found him (he was surprised she could even see him; Keo couldn’t see his own hands), “Are you okay?”

“Sure. Never better,” he said.

She forced a smile. “Any, uh, thing down there?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“You sure?”

“For now.”

“Well, if there’s something—”

He turned, the SIG coming up, and aimed at—nothing.

Or, at least, nothing that he could see, but he swore he’d heard something.

Hadn’t he?

God, it’s so dark and hot down here.

Why is it so goddamn dark and hot down here?

“Keo, what was it?” Lara asked from behind him. She was whispering.

He shook his head but didn’t take his eyes off the “nothing” in front of him. “Nothing. It was nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

No. Not in a million years, he thought, but said, “Give me a few minutes to work before you come down.”

She nodded. “Be careful.”

“Roger that.”

Lara disappeared, leaving him alone again.

Or he hoped he was all alone down here, in the dark.

Great. Freak yourself out some more why doncha, you big dumb idiot.

He calmed down and closed his eyes briefly. For a few seconds, Keo did nothing but force himself to just breathe.

Just…breathe.

Slowly.

In and out.

In and out…

He opened his eyes back up and stared at the darkness, then past it. He’d been down here long enough—a few minutes, at least—and there was no way his presence was a secret anymore. So if there was anything already underneath the house, waiting for him, it would have either attacked or run and hidden.

But there was no attack, so…

Man, you almost convinced yourself that time, didn’t you?

Almost.

He began crab-walking toward the back of the house, to the nearest visible piece of metal. The SIG and the suppressor led the way while he groped the ground with one hand before every tentative step. Wet dirt pushed against his palm, and sharp rock edges bit into his fingers. Cobwebs flicked at his face; there were more than a few strands clinging to his hair and ears and nose already. He stopped temporarily to pick them off before continuing on, but he shouldn’t have wasted his time, because more just replaced them.

Finally, he reached the sheet of metal. He leaned toward it and tried to see if he could hear anything on the other side. Voices, movements, the clack-clack of magazines being changed. Anything at all.

But there was just silence. Either he had chosen the right spot on pure dumb luck (Hey, I’m due for some dumb luck this week!), or the bad guys were being very good about keeping quiet out there. Was that it? Was he dealing with a bunch of very disciplined assholes? Were these some of Buck’s best and brightest? Were they even Buckies at all? For all he knew, he, Lara, and Rose could have been playing house when the original homeowners came back and, like Goldilocks and the three bears, decided to take back their double-wide. Of course, the three bears wouldn’t blast the place with automatic rifle fire if this were their house, so that was probably unlikely.

So who was he dealing with, then? The answer was out there, not in here.

Now that he was squatting next to a part of the siding, he could see it much better. That, unfortunately, revealed just how well put-together the whole thing was. The previous owner had nailed the individual sheets into place from outside, which of course made perfect sense. What idiot would do it from the inside? When he tested the strength of those nails by pressing against the aluminum, they barely moved. If they moved even a little bit at all.

Well, that’s not good.

The plates were hammered into the ground, at least two (maybe more) inches deep that he could tell, before they were nailed in place. The previous owners had definitely known what they were doing. No wonder the siding was still standing five years after The Purge, even if the house above it was basically a smelly junkyard—

Scratch-scratch from behind him, and this time Keo knew it was real.

He whirled around, the SIG Sauer swinging up.

Black eyes peered out of the darkness at him, but it was too low to the ground.

Keo almost fired, but held up just in time as the rat scurried away, vanishing back into the shadows.

Goddammit. I think I just had a heart attack.

Keo turned back around and refocused on the piece of metal. How the hell was he going to dislodge it without making a lot of noise? It was tough material, but he didn’t think it could survive a couple of kicks. Okay, maybe more than a couple. He could definitely get it open, but it would mean making a lot of noise.

Unless he found a weaker section of the siding. If there was a weak link—

“You in there!” a voice shouted. Male, and booming. “Can you hear me?”

There was no reply as Keo crab-walked along the corrugated siding, looking for that precious weak spot among the links. There had to be one, somewhere, that wouldn’t require him to kick the damn thing down. God, he hoped there was one somewhere…

“Can you hear me?” the same booming male voice shouted from the front of the house. “I know you’re in there!”

The man sounded close, but maybe that was just because Keo was under the building and could hear better down here. Or was that supposed to be the other way around? He didn’t know. It wasn’t like he’d crawled around the asshole of a dark, dank manufactured home before.

“This can only end in one way!” the man continued. “We’re not coming in after you, if that’s what you’re thinking! I’m not sending men in there just to have you kill them.”

Wow, a commander who cares about his guys? Keo thought. Maybe these guys aren’t Buckies after all.

“We can get to you another way!” the man continued. “We got grenades to frag you out with! Or we can smoke you out! But if you think I’m sending men in there for you to shoot, you got another thing coming!”

Keo kept moving along the wall, searching, searching for a weak point. But there was none. There was none. Whoever had put the damn thing in place had done too good of a job. Each and every plate was hammered into the ground a couple of inches before they were nailed.

At the end of the world, and I gotta find the one shithead that still takes his job seriously. Fuck my life.

“Keo,” a voice whispered.

He glanced back toward the hole. It wasn’t hard to locate it from all the suffocating darkness.

Lara, her head poking through, looking back at him. “If he really has grenades…”

“He could be lying,” Keo said.

“And what if he’s not?”

“If he had them, he would have used them already.”

She nodded, but Keo couldn’t be sure if he’d actually convinced her. He’d barely convinced himself.

“Did you find a way out?” Lara asked.

Not even close, Keo thought, but he said, “Almost there. Give me a few more minutes.”

“We might not have—”

BOOM! as a part of the house exploded and the foundation around Keo shook so much he thought the entire building would come crashing down on him. The corrugated steel next to him trembled while layers of dust and dirt clinging to the underbelly of the double-wide rained down on top of his head. It was all Keo could do to quickly pull his shirt up to protect as much of his face as he could—

—as a large section of floor where the living room was located caved in at the center, sending more dust and debris pluming outward and right at him.

Oh, hell.

He lost his balance and fell down on his ass as something hairy—no, multiple somethings—raced over his hands and legs in an effort to escape the collapsing half of the house. He managed to get back up on his knees, gripping the SIG and looking for something to shoot, but there was just bugs and spiders and…other things…crawling around him, trying to reach the other side of the structure that was still standing.

Keo let them go and concentrated on the caved-in half of the house instead.

I guess he wasn’t lying. He did have a grenade…or two.

He looked back at the hole, but Lara was gone.

“Lara!” he hissed, but either she didn’t hear him or she was—

No, she wasn’t dead. The explosion had come from the living room, not the kitchen where Lara and Rose were camped. This was just a warning, a demonstration by the men surrounding the place that they had what the shouter had claimed they did.

As if on cue, the same booming male voice shouted, “There’s more where that came from! You got sixty seconds to come out! After that, I’m taking out the other half of the house!”

Keo looked back at the hole. “Lara!”

She still didn’t appear, and he couldn’t hear her moving around up there.

Could he have been wrong? Could that explosion have done more than just take out one half of the house? The entire building was so dilapidated (Except for the steel around its base, apparently) that a single grenade might have been enough to knock the whole damn place down. But if that were the case, why was the Bucky (and Keo still assumed they were currently surrounded by Buck’s boys) giving ultimatums?

“All right!” someone shouted. Lara. That was Lara! “We’re coming out!”

What? What did she just say?

Keo began crab-walking back to the hole. It seemed like a mile away, which was weird because he didn’t remember having moved that far away from it.

“You got thirty seconds!” the booming voice shouted.

“We’re coming out!” Lara shouted back.

No, no, no. What are you doing, Lara?

“Twenty-five seconds!” the man shouted.

“We’re coming out!” Lara answered.

He was almost at the hole when he glimpsed a flurry of movement through the opening. Two pairs of legs moving desperately around up there.

“Lara,” Keo said. “What are—”

Something big and heavy slammed down over the makeshift hole, and Keo couldn’t see anything anymore. The bottom of the house also blacked out—even more so than before—and Keo lost sight of his own hands and the gun.

What…?

It took him a few more seconds before he finally reached the hole. Or where the hole used to be. There was something covering it up. Something that was shiny and wooden. He shoved his palm against it, but it wouldn’t move. Some kind of furniture. Big and heavy, and it had effectively sealed his only way out. He pushed harder, but he had no leverage.

The table. The big dining room table he’d stood next to when he made the hole in the floor. Someone had overturned it and dropped it back down over the exit.

No, not just someone, but Lara and Rose. The table was much too heavy for just one of them, but both…

“We’re coming out!” Lara again, shouting. “Don’t shoot!”

What are you doing, Lara? What are you doing?

“How many of you are in there?” the booming voice shouted back.

“Two!” Lara shouted. “There’s just two of us!”

What am I, chopped liver? Keo thought and wanted to laugh. What else was he going to do in his current situation? He was stuck underneath a house while Lara and Rose were giving themselves up to men with guns.

Lara and Rose were giving themselves up…

“There’s just two of us,” she had said.

But there were three, including him. Of course, the bad guys didn’t know that. They also didn’t know he was underneath the house. And unless they pushed the table aside, they wouldn’t know.

They wouldn’t know…

Keo sighed and sat down and listened to footsteps—Lara and Rose—moving away from him. He couldn’t do anything about that right now. Not right now, but that would change once he got out of here. But before he could do that, he had to stay alive.

And Lara would know that. She would know that…

“Don’t shoot!” he heard Lara shouting. “We’re coming out! Don’t shoot!”

“Throw your weapons out first!” the man shouted back.

Keo heard voices—but they weren’t shouting anymore—and movement from the other side of the corrugated metal behind him. All around him, in fact. Then the sudden thump-thump-thump of heavy boots inside the house above.

Someone said, “Check the rooms,” and more boots jumped to obey.

Keo stared at what little of the hole he could still make out. There wasn’t much, really, and he could just barely distinguish the smooth countertop against all the blackness. From the sounds, someone was roaming the dining area. Whatever pieces of dust still clung to the bottom of the house filtered down over his head when the man walked directly above Keo.

He waited for the inevitable, for one of the Buckies to get curious and pick the table up. Would they? It was probably fifty-fifty. Had Lara and Rose covered up enough of the hole that the searching Buckies wouldn’t think anything about an overturned piece of furniture? There was a good chance of that. He certainly wouldn’t unless there was a reason to. Besides, the table had been heavy enough that it had taken both Lara and Rose, from what he could tell, to turn it over.

The sound of wood grinding, and Keo thought, Shit. He’s moving the table.

Keo scrambled forward on his hands and knees, back toward the hole. He stopped when he was once again directly underneath the table and aimed the SIG upward, finger in the trigger guard.

The table was moving, but slowly. Too slowly.

“What the fuck you doing?” someone asked.

“Moving the table,” someone else said.

“What for?”

“To make sure.”

“Make sure what?”

“I dunno, man, come give me a hand!”

Someone else laughed. “You too weak to do it yourself?”

“Give me a hand!”

“Come on, the others are already leaving.”

“What?”

“See ya!”

“Hey, wait for me!” Keo heard the guy who had been trying to move the table shout.

Thump-thump-thump! as the same boots ran across the floor above him.

Keo relaxed and listened to voices fading into the background. They were talking and laughing, probably congratulating themselves about a job well done. All it had cost them was the guy Keo had shot through the door, and they were leaving with Lara and Rose. That definitely counted as a win in anybody’s book.

He wondered if they already knew it was her. All it would take was for one of them to be carrying around her picture. If they were Buckies, that was. He still wasn’t 100 percent sure of that.

But even if they were Buck’s men, it was dark out there, so maybe they wouldn’t notice what they had.

At least, not right away.

Keo sat back and sighed. Sweat covered his face and made his clothes stick to his skin, but he barely felt them. Something small and fast scurried past behind him, then something else came dangerously close to brushing against his waist, but Keo ignored them.

He thought about Lara and Rose instead.

Out there, currently being taken away. Getting farther and farther away every second he spent down here.

One Mississippi…

Two Mississippi…

Three Mississippi…

Twenty-Two

He gave it ten minutes—then an additional ten more just in case—before he began assaulting the nearest corrugated aluminum sheet. It took a lot of effort, and Keo had to brace himself against the ground to get maximum leverage before the damn thing would break loose from its nails and bend backward. It snapped right back, but this time it didn’t stick to the outside of the house, and he was able to push it down and crawl out into the cold night.

He sucked in a lungful of crisp chill air, thankful to finally be out of the furnace. His face was covered in sweat, his hair matted to his forehead, and the scar along his left cheek began to slowly stop its irritated tingling.

Keo got up on one knee and looked around him, the SIG Sauer in his right hand. Blackness in front and to his left and right, and the smell of gunpowder and soot everywhere. When he was sure he was alone in the darkness, he stood up and hurried around the house, turning the corner while fully expecting the Buckies to have left someone behind.

But there was no one, and he reached the other side unobstructed.

The house, as he had already assumed, was no longer in one piece. The half with the living room had collapsed on itself from the explosion, leaving just the kitchen and back area standing. Keo was surprised the dilapidated double-wide had managed to stay up after the damage it had taken.

He climbed up the slanted floor and made his way to the dining area. There, the big oak table that Lara and Rose had overturned to cover up the hole. Keo headed to the kitchen, looking for signs of a struggle. He didn’t find any and breathed a sigh of relief. The bad guys had left with the women, but there hadn’t been any violence during their capture. That meant they were still very much alive, just getting farther away every second he wasted here.

Keo jumped down from the house and jogged toward the woods on the other side of the clearing. It was easy to track where the party had gone—all he had to do was follow the line of trampled grass to the tree line.

He slid inside the woods and was momentarily caught off guard by the overwhelmingly dark surroundings he suddenly found himself in. Moonlight shone through the trees behind him, but the ones farther in were too large, the natural canopies above him too thick, to allow very much light to pierce. He could see—and his eyes were adjusting little by little—but it wasn’t going to be very easy looking for signs—

There. Broken branches dangling in front of him, and more trampled grass and pushed-aside plants. Easy enough to follow even in the middle of the night without any lights.

He checked his watch: 12:41 a.m.

Way too many hours before sunup. Hours that he couldn’t afford to wait for. Every second that passed meant the Buckies were slipping farther away with Lara and Rose.

He took off, sucking in air with every stride. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or the urgency, but he didn’t feel any cramping from being under the house for so long. He stopped only when he thought he’d detected sounds that didn’t naturally belong to his environment. He reminded himself that the Buckies were moving with a party of at least four people (including the women), but it was probably more. It was likely more.

And all he had was ten bullets left in the SIG, plus one fully-loaded extra mag in his pocket. The rest of his pouches were empty because he’d given the spares for the AR to Lara, along with the rifle itself. His only backup was the knife, but knives weren’t going to do any good if men with semiautomatic rifles opened up on him.

Think positive, pal. Remember the power of positive—

Keo stopped on a dime, spun, and lifted the 9mm.

He’d caught the scent earlier while in mid-stride, and now that he’d fully stopped, it had only grown in intensity. There was no denying it; no mistaking what it was.

Ghouls.

A bush separated, and the creature bounded toward him. It was fast, despite its rail-thin legs pistoning underneath it like chopsticks. The stench that covered every inch of it spread across the woods to Keo like physical fingers groping at his face.

He fired, and the silver round struck the creature in its sunken chest. The bullet punched its way through the rubberlike flesh and pekked! against a tree trunk a few meters behind it. The ghoul flopped to the ground, slamming down face-first.

Keo turned as three more ran at him. They came out of the shadows, fighting for space. One was bigger than the other two, but even so it would have only gone up to Keo’s chest if it were standing next to him.

Like the first creature, these three were fast, their pruned black skin almost indistinguishable against the patch of darkness they had appeared out of. But fortunately for him, they hadn’t waited to pounce, and he had a good five—no, just four now—meters of open space between him and them.

Pfft-pfft-pfft! as Keo fired three times, moving the SIG with each shot.

They dropped one by one, the nearest ghoul sliding forward on the ground until its domed head pushed up against the nose of Keo’s right boot.

He stepped back and turned around, expecting more. The smell was still there—rotting garbage mixed with vomit. It was burrowing up his nostrils and scratching at his eyes, and the scar along his left cheek had begun to tingle again.

So where were they? Where were the others hiding?

The pop-pop-pop of gunfire came from behind him. Keo whirled in that direction.

The Buckies.

But they weren’t shooting at him, that much was clear. Keo would know—either he would be dead or the air around him would be filled with lead.

Pek! as a round snapped a branch about three feet to his right in half.

Spoke too soon!

He dropped down to one knee and took aim, but no one appeared out of the shadows and there were no follow-up shots, even though he could still hear the pop-pop-pop of automatic rifle fire, now mixed with the bang-bang! of handguns.

There, muzzle flashes from farther in the woods.

The Buckies were shooting at something other than him. The round that had almost hit him had to have been a stray shot. That, or like his own bullets, it had punctured something and kept going.

Ghouls. They’re shooting at ghouls.

Keo got up and took off running again.

He wasn’t thinking about the Buckies, but instead about Lara and Rose. The women were with the enemy—in the midst of what sounded like an attack in progress. And there was a very good chance they would not only be unarmed, but restrained. It would just be their hands and not their legs, because it wouldn’t make sense to bind their feet; that would require carrying them, and that was more trouble than it was worth.

The gunfire got louder and more intense as he neared the battle. Soon, he could make out voices. Men shouting, then screaming.

There was a lot of screaming.

A man in khaki pants, wearing a black assault vest over a long-sleeve white shirt, stumbled out between two trees directly in front of Keo. The man was moving backward, firing with an M16 at something Keo couldn’t see. Keo also couldn’t spot a circled M on the front of the man’s chest, but he was pretty damn sure it was there.

The Bucky was moving backward blind and caught his legs on something. He went down, landing on his ass but somehow managing to hold onto his rifle like a good soldier. Or a piece of shit Bucky, which was probably what he was. Keo wouldn’t go so far as to call any of them “soldiers.”

“Hey,” Keo said.

The man turned around while still sitting on his butt, and as he did so, Keo caught a glimpse of a white letter on the vest.

Bingo.

Keo shot the Bucky in the face from a few feet away. It took one shot, which was good because that knocked Keo down to five in the current mag. He still had the spare, but he was running out of bullets fast, and he had a feeling there were a lot of Buckies left to kill. And that was just the living threat. There was the undead, too.

The man was collapsing to the ground when Keo reached him and snatched up the dead man’s M16 as he passed. He’d had to slow down just a bit to pull that stunt off, but not completely, and he was back to running full speed again in no time. Except this time he had a rifle.

He put the SIG away and kept moving through the woods, charging toward the continuing rattle of gunfire.

Pop-pop-pop!

Someone shouting, “Get back! Get the fuck back!”

More pop-pop-pop!, followed by even more shouting, but these were incoherent and lost in the screaming. More than one person was doing a lot of screaming. They sounded male, though he couldn’t be 100 percent sure.

Keo knew one thing for certain: He was getting closer.

Just like an idiot, running right into a life-and-death battle!

He jumped over two unmoving ghoul bodies on the ground. Victims of the Bucky Keo had just killed, he assumed. Which meant the man was carrying the right kind of ammo.

Right on, pal.

The rifle felt a little light in his hands, and Keo regretted not taking a few seconds to search the Bucky for spares. But he hadn’t had time. Every second he delayed was another second that put Lara and Rose in more danger.

He had to hurry. He had to run.

Run run run run, son!

A flurry of movement appeared on his right. Keo turned slightly but not enough to stop his forward momentum completely.

Two Buckies appeared out of the shadows, charging in the opposite direction. Their faces were straining—one had blood all over it—and they held their weapons in front of them like clubs instead of guns. The circled M’s on their vests were as clear as day.

They saw Keo going the other way, and one of them stopped. The man was about to say something when Keo fired—pop-pop-pop!—and dropped both of them. He was pretty sure the only reason they hadn’t shot him first was because he was still wearing the Bucky vest. Days after he’d acquired it in Darby Bay, and it was still paying off.

Best investment ever!

He angled right toward the bodies. One of them was still alive and rolling around, but Keo ignored him and tossed the now very light M16 and snatched up an M4 to replace it. The wounded Bucky was clutching to a pump-action shotgun, but Keo easily wrestled it away from him.

“Thanks,” Keo said and jumped over both men.

He used the clatter of gunfire and the visible muzzle flashes as a beacon. Keo slung the carbine and kept the shotgun out. He thought about racking it, but if its previous owner had already done that, then he would be ejecting a perfectly good shell for nothing. And if the man hadn’t, well, Keo could fix that within half a second—

Two ghouls crawled out of a bush in front of him. They were missing feet and arms, and their eyes snapped to Keo as soon as he appeared.

He almost shot them, but didn’t.

Save your ammo!

Instead, Keo hopped over them. The one that still had arms reached for him, but he easily sailed over its extended fingers.

He landed on the other side and kept going.

The gunfire was so much louder now, and someone was letting loose with a shotgun of their own. More muzzle flashes flickered in front of him. Soon, Keo had to jump over unmoving ghoul bodies and dead Buckies on the ground. There were a lot more shriveled corpses than fully-grown men, but Keo counted at least five of the latter.

This, he thought, was where the initial attack had happened. The large number of bodies was proof of that, and so were the ghouls that had begun feeding on the Buckies. There had to be a dozen, maybe more of them, perched over the recently dead. The greedy slurp-slurp-slurp noises were everywhere.

There was nothing special about the location that Keo could see. It just happened to be where the ghouls attacked. After that, the fight broke off into different directions. Three of the Buckies ran south, back in the direction they’d come, while the others went—

Left!

Keo sped through the dozen or so ghouls feeding on the dead. A few of them looked up as he passed, but the rest didn’t bother. Even those few went back to feeding, Keo’s presence no longer of interest to them. He was fully prepared to waste the shotgun on anything in his path but was thankful he didn’t have to.

He continued following the sound of rifle fire. They were too loud and too obvious for him to miss. The same, apparently, was true of the ghouls that were already in front of him.

Moonlight gleamed off the plastered flesh of bony bodies as they raced ahead of him, oblivious to Keo’s presence behind them. He would have liked to keep it that way, but couldn’t, because the closest ghoul suddenly stopped and turned around.

Boom! as the shotgun obliterated everything on the ghoul from the neck up.

The body was still falling when Keo leapt over it, racked the shotgun, and fired again just as three more ghouls stopped in front of him. He dropped all three, the shell’s spreading silver buckshot taking them out with one blast.

Then a voice, cutting through all the shooting and screams:

“Keo!”

He stopped and turned and saw Lara and Rose standing side-to-side, swinging broken branches at the heads of ghouls lunging at them.

Keo almost used the shotgun, but thought better of it. The buckshot might hit more than just nightcrawlers. Instead, he tossed the pump-action and unslung the M4, and jogged over to their position.

Three shots—pop-pop-pop—and the creatures fell.

Lara bent over at the waist to catch her breath. She was still clutching to the branch even though most of it was gone and thick black liquid clung to the shredded top half. He saw that she was still zip-tied at the wrists, but as he had guessed, not around the legs.

Rose was in the same state, though the teen’s stick was almost completely gone. She was leaning against a tree to keep from falling, black sludge dripping from her cheeks and chin. There was more on her clothes, but she didn’t seem to notice it.

Other than that, both women looked fine.

“You hurt?” he asked as he hurried over to them.

Lara shook her head and held up her bound wrists. “I knew you’d catch up to us.”

He grinned. “Captain Optimism, huh?”

She smiled back. “No. Just faith in you.”

“That’ll work, too.”

He drew his knife and cut Lara free, then did the same for Rose. He handed the kid the shotgun, then gave Lara the M4 while he took out his SIG Sauer.

There was still shooting in the woods, but none of them were anywhere near it. The other Buckies had kept going, leaving Lara and Rose behind. There were no dead Buckies in the immediate area that Keo could see, which explained why no ghouls had stopped to enjoy their still-fresh corpses. Right now, it sounded like every bloodthirsty nightcrawler that hadn’t found a source of food was in the woods chasing the remaining Buckies.

Fine with me.

“Let’s go,” Keo said.

“Where are we going?” Lara asked.

Keo shook his head and started jogging away from the gunfire. “Anywhere but here!”

They jogged for a while, putting as much distance from the fighting as possible. The shooting was starting to slow down, the pops of automatic gunfire coming at longer intervals. That was a sure sign the Buckies were either running out of rounds or running out of space. Either way, as long as they were there and he and the women were far, far away, Keo couldn’t give a shit.

The only reason they slowed down, then stopped completely was when Keo noticed that Lara was lagging behind. He turned around and walked back to her. She was bent at the waist, one hand pressed against her side.

“Shit, I forgot,” Keo said. “Your side…”

“I’m okay,” Lara said.

“Yeah, right.”

He walked her the short distance to a nearby tree where she could lean against and continue catching her breath.

Keo put a hand on her arm to steady her. “We’ll rest for a while.” He looked over at Rose. “I need you to keep an eye out.”

Rose nodded and hurried past them, but didn’t go too far. She stopped and stood guard while Keo peered at Lara, trying to see past the sweat and dirt and some bits of fresh blood on her face. That last part wasn’t hers, thank God.

“We should keep going,” Lara said. She was still breathing hard and squinting, as if she was having trouble focusing on him.

“We will, when you’re ready,” Keo said.

“I’m ready now.”

“Bullshit.”

He reached into her pocket for the pill bottle, but it wasn’t there.

“One of them took it off me,” Lara said. “I tried to find him, but…” She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, you will, because we’re not moving until you can tell me how many fingers I’m holding up,” Keo said, holding up three fingers.

“Three,” she said without hesitation.

“Wrong. Two.”

She gave him a wry smirk but didn’t argue as he continued to hold her up.

She said instead, “By the way, we have a problem.”

“Really? Since when?”

“I’m being serious, Keo. They recognized me. While we were walking through the woods, before the ghoul attack, they radioed him.”

“Clive?”

She shook her head.

“Who else is there?”

“Buck,” Lara said. “They radioed Buck. I heard his voice.”

Dammit. He’s still alive?

For some reason, Keo was convinced the man was dead. He guessed he should have known better. He had a feeling that when Buck finally did bite the bullet, that bullet was going to come from Keo’s gun.

“What did he say?” Keo asked.

“He was sending more men back here to intercept the group that captured me and Rose,” Lara said. “To take me back to him.”

“How many more men?”

“I don’t know, but I got the feeling it was a lot. From what I overheard, they’re getting pounded by Danny’s counterattack. I think Danny’s already taken Larabie back with the help of Beecher’s forces.”

“Buck said that?”

“No, but that’s what I inferred from their conversation. Specifically, Buck said he was sending leftovers from Larabie to intercept the Mercerians that caught us. That’s the exact word he used. ‘Leftovers.’ Why would he call them ‘leftovers’ if they were still defending Larabie?”

Keo nodded. What she was saying made sense, but none of it really helped their situation at the moment.

“Hey, guys?” Rose said. Then, when Keo and Lara looked over at her, “Listen.”

They did—and heard nothing.

The woods were dead silent all around them. They couldn’t even hear birds or crickets.

“It’s over,” Lara said.

“Not yet,” Keo said. “Not while we’re stuck in this place with all those things.”

“We should get going. I’m better.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

She smiled. It was half-convincing. “I can walk.”

He nodded and released her. “Come on, kid.”

Rose came back and they started moving again, this time walking at a steady pace. Not slow, but not fast, either. They constantly listened for sounds of men or undead things around them and stopped a couple of times, but those proved to be false alarms.

It took a while—much longer than Keo would have liked, given their present environment—but eventually they found what they were looking for: the double-wide mobile home. It was still there, just as half-destroyed as the last time he’d seen it. But that also left two bedrooms in the back with standing walls and barricaded windows.

“Home sweet home,” Keo said as they stepped into the clearing.

“Ugh, we came back here?” Rose said. “You guys didn’t say we were coming back here.”

“Better this than running around out there looking for shelter. It’s just for tonight, kid.”

Lara looked over, and though she didn’t say it, he could read her face: Let’s hope it’s just for tonight.

He nodded back, before glancing over his shoulder to be sure nothing had followed them out of the woods.

Nothing had.

At least, not yet.

Twenty-Three

The rest of the night came and went without fanfare. They took turns resting while one of them stayed awake for an hour at a time. Keo took the first watch, then Lara, and finally Rose. Except when it was Keo’s turn to wake up and stand watch the second time around, the women decided not to wake him up. He slept through the night and didn’t open his eyes until there was morning sunlight coming through one of the smaller bedrooms at the back of the double-wide.

Keo wasn’t sure if he was annoyed or grateful when he finally sat up on the disgustingly dirty mattress and wiped dirt off his face. His mouth was parched, and there might have been a family of caterpillars crawling up and down his esophagus. His body was stiff from all the bending over he’d done while underneath the house, and his legs were numbed from the running afterward. He hadn’t felt any of it last night, but it was a different story now. There was nothing quite like good ol’ morning sunshine to let you know that you’d had a long night.

His stomach grumbled, demanding food that he didn’t have to feed it. Rose was asleep on the bed next to him, curled up in a ball with the shotgun he’d given her last night lying on the floor nearby.

Keo got up without disturbing the teenager and went outside. The crisp morning air was a major improvement over last night, when the whole place smelled of gunpowder and smoke. The Buckies had blown apart the living room with a grenade round attached to a rifle, according to Lara.

He found her sitting at the edge of the remaining half of the building, her legs dangling off the destroyed section, with a perfect view of the clearing and surrounding woods. She had the M4 in her lap and was watching something moving around in the tall grass nearby. A pair of rabbits, he saw, when the creatures took off at his sudden presence.

She looked over her shoulder. “You scared them away.”

“Yeah, I sometimes have that effect.”

She smiled and held up a bottle to him. There was still some water inside, near the bottom. “Be careful, there are holes in it.”

Keo turned the bottle so the water didn’t accidentally pour out of the two bullet holes near the middle when he lifted it to drink. “Where’d you find this?”

“I was bored and dug around what’s left of the living room.”

“Did you have some?”

“I took a few sips.”

Keo nodded and took a drink while scanning the woods, now easily visible without a wall in his path. The blown-out section of the house was a big pile of debris to his left. Looking at it, Keo wondered how the whole thing hadn’t caved in on him when he was downstairs last night. It really did look as if a semitruck had run through it, leaving behind piles of termite-infested materials.

He finished up the water—it took exactly three sips—and tossed the bottle away. “Rose forgot to wake me last night.”

“She didn’t forget,” Lara said. “I told her not to.”

“And why did you do that?”

“Because you needed the rest.”

“So do you. And her.”

“You needed it more.”

Keo scratched at his stubble. He hadn’t shaved in… He couldn’t remember. “What would have happened if someone had attacked last night?”

“You would have woken up at the first sound of gunshots.”

She has a point, Keo thought, but said anyway, “Still…”

“Still nothing,” Lara said. “You needed the rest.” Then, lifting the carbine from her lap, “By the way. This is almost empty.”

“I figured. How many?”

“Eleven bullets.”

“Wanna trade?” he asked, patting the SIG in his holster.

“Maybe later. Also, that shotgun you gave Rose?”

“What about it?”

“It’s empty.”

“It is?”

“Uh huh. She found out when she was checking it last night.” Lara smiled. “She wasn’t very happy.”

“Oops.”

“And oh, I also found this while I was digging through the piles.” She produced a familiar bottle out from her pocket. “Your Tramadol.” She tossed it back to him. “I took a few. I hope you don’t mind.”

He caught it but tossed it right back to her. “You need it more than I do.”

He could see she was about to argue, but she knew he was right, and Lara put the bottle away instead.

Keo smiled when he heard it.

He glanced out at the clearing. “You hear that?”

“Yes,” Lara said, and hopped into the grass and ran forward before glancing up.

Keo joined her outside, just as they appeared above them.

Three aircraft, moving in formation. Sunlight glinted off their gray wings as they slowly grew larger.

“A-10 Thunderbolts,” Lara said.

“Ours or theirs?”

Lara grinned, looking after the planes as they flashed by overhead and kept going. “Ours.”

“How do you know?”

“Because the one in the middle has a clown face.”

“Clown face?”

“Mayfield.”

“Ah,” Keo said, remembering the pilot from weeks ago when she’d saved his and Gaby’s life back at the farmhouse. Mayfield’s plane had featured a clown decal painted on the nose, the Avenger cannon protruding out of its gaping mouth.

Lara shielded her eyes against the sun. “They’re heading south.”

“Darby Bay?”

“More like Larabie, if they keep on this course.”

“Buck.”

“I think so. Remember what I told you he said on the radio last night?”

“Something about sending leftovers from Larabie to meet the group that got turned into ghoul chow.”

“Yes.”

Keo squinted after the planes, but they were little more than dots in the distance now. Of course, if not for the fading sounds of jet engines, those could also be birds up there, and he wouldn’t know the difference with the naked eye.

“You wanna go back?” he asked.

She looked over at him, and for a second or two she didn’t say anything, almost as if she didn’t fully understand his question.

Finally, she said, “Back?”

“We can go back,” Keo said. “If you want to go back, we can. It’s your—”

“No,” Lara said.

Keo watched her face closely. “Are you sure?”

She nodded and turned back around to look after the planes. “Danny’s in charge now. He’s taken back Galveston, and he’s probably already taken back Larabie. Now he’s sending Mayfield and the others to pound Buck’s troops as they retreat.”

He continued to observe her. Was this all an act for his benefit? Or did she really mean it?

He couldn’t tell. But then, he’d always been bad at reading people, especially women.

“Lara,” Keo said, “you have to be absolutely sure. If we leave now—”

“I’m not going back,” she said before he could finish. “They don’t need me anymore. They have Danny. And he has Carly and William. Danny was always better at the military stuff than I’ll ever be. Five years ago they needed me, because we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we did if a soldier like Danny had simply replaced Mercer. But I was a civilian. I was one of them.” She paused, before continuing. “But now…” She shook her head. “They don’t need me anymore.”

“What about Elise? You practically raised that kid, didn’t you?”

“You’ve been gone too long. Carly’s been more of a mom to her than I ever was. She’s the one who’s been raising her while I’ve been doing…other things. Elise will miss me for a while, but she’ll grow out of it.”

“You really think it’s going to be that easy for her?”

“No, but she’ll adapt. That’s what we do, Keo. We adapt, or we perish.”

Keo didn’t say anything for a moment. He had a feeling she’d already thought about all of these things already, and more that hadn’t even occurred to him.

He said, “Okay. So you put Black Tide behind you. What then?”

She turned to him and smiled. It was a genuine smile, and she almost glowed under the sunlight. “I want to go someplace and be Lara again. Not Lara, the voice on the radio. Or Lara, the woman leading Black Tide. I just want to be Lara. Just…Lara.”

He chuckled. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then that might not work, either.”

She gave him a confused look. “What won’t work?”

“Your name.”

“What about it?”

“If you don’t want people to recognize you, maybe you should change your name to something else.”

“Like what?”

Keo shrugged. “How about Isabella?”

“Isabella? You think I should change my name to Isabella?”

“Or not. I just came up with that on the spur of the moment. But you should definitely think about changing your name. Lara is…kind of famous, you know.”

She nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

“What about Pam?” a voice said from behind them.

They glanced back at Rose, standing inside the house, yawning.

“Pam?” Lara said.

“That’s not bad,” Keo said.

Lara gave him an annoyed smirk. “Do I really look like a Pam?”

“You don’t like Pam, and you don’t like Isabella. So come up with your own name, then.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“Good,” she said, before smiling. “We should probably get going. Take advantage of the morning.”

Keo nodded. “Figured out a direction yet?”

“West still sounds good.”

“What about me?” Rose asked.

They looked back at her a second time. Lara was about to answer when they heard the explosion, like thunder rolling across the Texas countryside.

There was a second detonation, followed by a third.

They weren’t close enough that Keo was instantly alarmed, but they were just close enough for him to hear them and know exactly what they were.

Way too close…

“What was that?” Rose asked.

“Warthogs,” Keo said.

“Ours or theirs?”

“Ours.”

“Who are they attacking?”

Keo looked at Lara. “The leftovers from Larabie?”

“If that’s the case, that means they’re closer than they were last night,” Lara said.

“Which means we should probably get out of here,” Keo said. “Those Thunderbolts are effective, but they’ve been known to leave people alive once or twice.”

* * *

The problem was Rose. They couldn’t just leave her behind or send her off on her own. They also had no idea where the front lines were—where it had been yesterday and where it would be tomorrow. That was the problem with warfare these days; the battlefield was always changing from day to day, city to city. The lack of a radio was also a big problem, but they figured out a way to solve that.

“The ones that captured us were using a long-range military-grade radio,” Lara had said. “They managed to contact Buck even while we were in the woods.”

“You think it’s still out there?” Keo had asked.

“Has to be. Ghouls wouldn’t take it. So it has to still be there, somewhere. All we have to do is find it.”

“Should be simple enough,” Keo had said with a chuckle.

They both knew it wouldn’t be an easy task, but it was a possibility. They had a good idea where the Buckies had encountered the ghouls last night, and knew with certainty the creatures would be long gone by the time morning arrived. They would also take all the bodies with them, but not the supplies. Of course, it was possible the guy carrying the radio (according to Lara, one of the Buckies was carrying it around in a backpack) had been dragged off along with his equipment. It wasn’t as if ghouls took the time to undress someone before they took them to wherever they nested during the day.

But the opportunity was there, and they had to take it. Whatever happened, their priority now was to see Rose safe, and that meant finding a way to help her return to one of the Black Tide units that, they were almost certain, were moving around out there. It didn’t take a genius for Keo to recognize that Lara had become invested in Rose’s safety. Even though they both had only known the kid for a few days, to Lara the teenager was more than that. Rose wasn’t just a soldier, she was one of Lara’s, and represented all the other teenagers who had joined Black Tide because of her.

That was one of the problems (among many) with taking on leadership roles. It usually came with a lot of guilt and emotional headaches.

Keo kept all that to himself, though, as they traveled back into the woods, retracing their steps from last night. They moved slowly, making as little noise as possible, while listening to a battle that was taking place many miles away. Every now and then, Keo could hear the still (Thank God) distant brooooooooooorrrrttttttttt of a Warthog strafing some poor bastard. The noise was unmistakable even as it echoed off the trees around them. There wasn’t the ferocity of hearing it up close and in person, but it still made Keo shiver slightly every time.

I’m glad they’re on our side.

To keep it that way, they had taken off the enemy vests. With the battle lines now moving closer to their position, they had just as much chance of getting shot by the enemy as they did by friendly fire. Even more so when it came to the latter, if those running around with an Inguz on their shoulder patches were as young as Rose, Brick, and Kelson had been, but minus Rose’s experience.

It took them about an hour to find the first dead ghoul. Or what was left of it. There was just bleached white bones, and most of them had already been stolen by critters. The skull and torso, along with one leg, remained behind. As they went around it, Keo noticed the bullet hole in the skull’s forehead.

After that, they followed the trail of deformed bones to dried blood splatters on the ground and clinging to bushes and broken branches. There were no Bucky bodies to be found, but there were plenty of empty shell casings and some weapons. Rose, who had been clinging to her empty shotgun to use as a weapon, now tossed it and snatched up an M16. Lara found a pump-action shotgun but threw it away when she discovered it was empty. Instead, she grabbed a 1911 model handgun with a mostly full magazine.

They found two more rifles, both using the AR-15 system, but they were empty. There was a Bucky vest, but it was shredded and its equipment, including some energy bars, were half buried in the ground when someone—or something—stepped over them. Lara found a canteen and took a drink before passing it around. There was no food, but the extra water was a godsend.

Eventually, they reached the area where the Bucky group had first come under attack. There was a lot more blood on the ground here, along with, unfortunately, empty weapons. Bodies had been dragged away, leaving behind obvious trails flanked by bare footprints.

“Spread out and make sure we cover the area,” Keo said.

The women went in separate directions, guns at the ready. Keo took east and found more twisted ghoul bones, some that were already showing signs of being chewed on by animals. A squirrel perching on a branch over one lonely bloody boot eyed Keo as he walked underneath it.

“What are you looking at?” Keo said to the animal.

It turned and was scurrying away when Keo heard Rose shouting from somewhere behind him, “Guys, I found it!”

Keo ran over. Lara had beaten him there, and was standing next to Rose as the kid kneeled in front of a bloodied backpack and pulled the bulky radio out.

“Nice going, kid,” Keo said.

Rose beamed. “Let’s hope it still works.” The teenager twisted the power switch on the gear, but the radio didn’t come on. “Shit.”

“Let me see,” Keo said. He picked up the radio and smacked it on the side with his palm, but it stayed dark.

“Really?” Lara said, giving him an amused look.

“Hey, this is how we solve electronic issues where I’m from,” Keo said.

“And where’s that?”

“Some cave somewhere,” Keo said, and banged on the radio again.

When nothing happened, he repeated it a third time—

Static blared as the radio powered on.

Keo grinned at Lara. “See?”

She rolled her eyes. “Lucky.”

“Yeah, that’s me, Lucky Keo.” He gave the radio back to Rose. “See if you can make contact with Black Tide.”

Rose took the radio back and fidgeted with its dials, while Keo exchanged a look with Lara and they walked over to the other side of the clearing for some privacy.

“If that works, we’ll get her to some friendlies,” Keo said. “She’ll be safe, and we’ll be on our way.”

Lara nodded but didn’t say anything.

“You still want this?” Keo asked, watching her closely.

“Yes,” Lara said. She hadn’t taken too long to answer. A couple of seconds, max.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Keo.”

“Are you sure, Lara?”

She pursed a smile. “Yes, Keo. I’m sure.”

It was mostly convincing, if not entirely.

“All right, then,” Keo said.

“Guys,” Rose called. When they looked over, the teenager was grinning at them. “I have them. I have Black Tide on the radio. The real Black Tide this time.”

* * *

It was an MH-6 Little Bird, and it appeared over the trees. At first they thought there was just one, but a second emerged behind it, and together they hovered over the clearing for about thirty seconds. The Black Tiders in goggles, sitting outside on the benches, scanned the area for threats with their rifles. When they were certain there was no enemy presence, one of the Little Birds lowered to the ground next to the partially destroyed double-wide mobile home.

Rose appeared out of the woods and ran over, bracing herself against the wind of the chopper’s rotor blades. Two of the soldiers jumped down from the craft to meet her, then escorted the teenager back. Thirty seconds later, they were up and gone, skating over the trees on the other side of the clearing.

Keo and Lara didn’t stand up or emerge out of the woods until they couldn’t see the twin MH-6s anymore, though they could still hear the whup-whup-whup of their rotors. For a few seconds, as they watched the aircraft hover, Keo was afraid the soldiers would spot them and let loose. One of them, he saw, was carrying a machine gun. He’d always been a little afraid of friendly fire throughout his career, and that hadn’t gone away any since the world ended.

But both he and Lara were in one piece as they listened to the choppers fade into the background, until there was just the noise of the birds and crickets chirping again. Keo finally let himself breathe easier.

“No going back now,” he said.

Lara looked over at him. “Good, because I don’t want to go back.”

“And where do you wanna go?”

“Wherever you go.”

“That’s my line.”

“I mean it, Keo. It doesn’t matter where I go, as long as you’re there, too.”

He grinned. “Aw. That’s sweet. Makes me want to blush.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said, and kissed him before he could respond with another smartass remark.

This is way better, Keo thought.

He kissed her back, wrapping both arms around her waist and pulling her closer—

The BOOM! came out of nowhere and was close enough that birds took off into the air. Trees shook around them, and the ground trembled slightly.

Half a mile, maybe less.

They both turned, looking across the clearing and toward the direction where the Little Birds had gone, just in time to catch a rocket streaking into the air with a trail of white clouds flickering behind it. Whatever it had been fired at, it missed and kept going, before starting to fall back down—

BOOM! as it struck the ground inside the woods.

“Rose,” Lara said, her voice so low Keo barely heard it. “Oh God, Rose…”

Twenty-Four

They ran as much as they could, slowed down to a brisk walk when they had to, and once, when Lara didn’t look like she could stay upright, they stopped so she could catch her breath.

“Take the Tramadol,” Keo said.

“We’re running low,” Lara said.

“Take it, Lara.”

She nodded and took out the bottle, then shook out two pills and swallowed them down.

When she started to turn around to start off again, he grabbed her arm and shook his head. “Five minutes.”

She might have argued if she had the strength, but she didn’t.

She said instead, “We could really use your horse right now.”

Keo chuckled. “My horse, Horse?”

“Your horse, Horse.”

“Maybe he’s around here, somewhere.”

“How do you call him?”

“I don’t. He just sort of comes and goes as he pleases.”

They rested for five minutes before moving again. Lara gripped the M16 that Rose had found and given to Lara before she dashed off for the chopper. Keo sneaked looks at her side to make sure she wasn’t bleeding down there from time to time, but she wasn’t. She was running out of breath, though, and squinting, trying to push through it, but struggling badly.

“Lara,” he said.

She cut him off: “Keep going!”

So they did.

They knew exactly where to go. It was easy to see where the explosions had come from. Like last night, when Keo was chasing after the Buckies, all they had to do was run toward the crackle of gunfire. Even if they couldn’t hear that, they could see the tendrils of smoke in the air from multiple sources. There were also the animals racing toward them, away from the source of the chaos, only to scatter when they saw Keo and Lara running from the other direction.

Keo thanked God it was only half a mile (maybe less, maybe a little more), or else Lara might have fallen down and never gotten back up. Even he was out of breath, and his legs were sore all over by the time the gunfire grew so loud that he knew they were almost on top of the chaos.

The smell of plastic and wood burning reached them first, followed by a growing blanket of smoke flooding outward from the main battle site. Something was burning and had been for some time. And yet, the fire looked contained; at least, they hadn’t spread to the trees around Keo and Lara. There was no real threat of a forest fire that could devastate everything in sight, which Keo thought was somewhat surprising.

A bullet zipped! past Keo’s head while another one snapped! a branch in front of him. He ducked, reaching for—and finding—Lara’s arm and dragging her behind a big tree with him. They hadn’t fully slid behind the massive truck before two bullets slammed into it on the other side.

Keo waited for more gunfire, but none came.

At least not toward their position. They could hear plenty of back and forth in front of them—two sides exchanging automatic fire.

But no one was shooting at them.

“Stray bullets,” Keo said, barely getting the words out between gasps. “Just stray bullets. They don’t know we’re here yet.”

Lara nodded, but if she wanted to say something, she was similarly too winded to reply. Instead, she pushed against the tree and changed up her grip on the M16. Her hands were slicked with sweat, and more beads of perspiration poured down her face. He was probably perspiring just as much after that long run, but he didn’t have time to deal with it.

Instead, Keo drew his SIG Sauer and took out the mostly-empty magazine and put in the full one. He preferred having fifteen bullets at his disposal instead of five, and not having to waste the seconds required to reload.

Keo replayed what he’d seen before the stray rounds almost took his and Lara’s head off. It hadn’t been much, just flashes of figures moving between trees, a couple of fires chewing up bushes, and a lot of muzzle flash.

He fought through a sudden desire to cough as smoke wrapped around the tree and formed around them. Keo slipped his shirt up over his mouth and nostrils, and Lara did the same. His eyes stung, but he ignored it and leaned out from behind the tree to get a better look at what was happening out there.

It was a hell of a mess.

The first thing he saw—that his eyes were immediately drawn to—was the twisted metallic carcass of an MH-6 Little Bird perched on top of a tree more than a hundred meters away. It was impossible to miss. The remains of the chopper looked to be dangling off some branches, somehow remaining up there despite being upside down with its rotors impossibly bent at every possible angle. Thick plumes of black smoke poured out from the aircraft’s openings, and Keo didn’t want to think about the poor bastards who were inside when it came tumbling down.

The large tree that held the Little Bird was partially on fire, its branches and leaves feeding the flames that were trying to consume it and a couple of other trees around it. That accounted for some of the smoke filling up this part of the woods around them, with the rest coming from small individual brushfires spread out around a fifty-or-so-meter circle from the crash site.

Keo could locate the unmoving bodies on the ground. Men in black uniforms, some in blue. He couldn’t tell if any of them were women, or a kid named Rose. He was going to have to get much closer to even have a chance of finding that out.

But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, because the fighting had bogged down, with the two sides exchanging fire from behind the safety of protective trees—

Two men in jeans and black assault vests darted out from behind some trees on the left, but they didn’t get very far. The pop-pop-pop! of automatic gunfire and both men fell as if some invisible force had grabbed their legs and upended them. One of the men wasn’t dead, and he tried to get up, but there was a single pop! and he collapsed, and this time stayed down.

Well, that didn’t work. Any more bright ideas, boys?

He was looking at a stalemate. The Black Tiders—Keo glimpsed three, maybe four of them on his right—were more than holding their own, even though they were clearly outnumbered by the Buckies to Keo’s left side. Keo couldn’t get a good enough look at the Black Tiders to know if they were the same ones from the Little Birds that had picked up Rose or if they had shown up later. He couldn’t even tell if they were wounded or able-bodied, but they were still shooting, keeping the Buckies at bay.

Definitely have to get closer.

Keo pulled his head back.

Lara had gotten a good look out the other side of the tree and pulled back at the same time as him. “Can you see her?”

Keo shook his head and thought, If she was in the chopper hanging off that tree, then she’s dead, or she’s wishing she was dead right now.

He said, “We’ll have to get closer.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. One tree at a time?”

She shook her head and was about to say something when a series of rifle fire, so much louder and more intense than before, cut her off.

Lara quickly peeked out behind the tree and whispered, “Oh God, no.”

Keo did the same, and understood why she’d said that: More Buckies had appeared behind the Black Tiders, and were moving on their position, shooting them down one by one. There had to be twenty, maybe thirty men with black assault vests.

Where the hell did they come from? Keo thought, and he guessed the Black Tiders were probably thinking the same thing. A few of them managed to turn and drop some of the newly arrived Buckies, but they, too, eventually fell.

Keo sighed. What was a standoff a few seconds ago had been reduced to a massacre in the blink of an eye.

You didn’t watch your six. Why weren’t you watching your six?

Lara pushed off the tree and started to move out from behind it, but Keo grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She whirled around on him, anger flashing across her face.

He shook his head. “Don’t.”

She tried to jerk her hand free, but Keo wouldn’t let go.

He shook his head again. “We can’t do anything for them. It’s over. Lara, it’s over.”

The shooting had stopped completely, and in the silence, there was just the crackling of flames and low voices talking, indistinguishable from where they hid.

Lara leaned back against the tree. Keo let her go and peered out.

Buckies were moving through the Black Tiders, checking the bodies that lay on the ground. A few were poking at the blue uniforms with their weapons as their comrades, across the field, came out from behind cover and walked over. They were shouting back and forth, but Keo had a hard time hearing them.

He pulled back behind cover while Lara slid down to the ground, the M16 lying in the dirt next to her. She stared forward and didn’t say anything.

Keo crouched next to her. “I didn’t see Rose out there. For all we know, she’s safe.”

Lara looked back at him as if to say, Do you really believe that?

“I didn’t see her,” Keo said. “Anything could have happened. Anything.”

It wasn’t a total lie. He really hadn’t seen Rose out there among the Black Tiders…because he couldn’t tell one apart from another, or even if they were men or women.

“We should get out of here,” Keo said as he pulled her up. She didn’t fight him, but she didn’t help him, either. “If they start looking for survivors…”

“You didn’t see her?” Lara asked, looking at him.

He shook his head. “I didn’t see her.”

Then something occurred to him. Something that was missing, but he hadn’t realized it until now.

“The second Little Bird,” Keo said.

“What?” Lara said.

“Where’s the second Little Bird? I only saw one up there in the tree.”

“You’re right. I didn’t see it, either.”

“So there’s a chance her chopper didn’t go down. They could be on their way to the Black Tide lines right now.”

“What about the ones back there? Where did they come from?”

Keo shook his head. He didn’t have any answers for that, and before he could make one up to convince her to leave, they both heard a branch snap! and a voice shouting, “Hey!” from somewhere on the other side of the tree.

It was followed quickly by, “Show yourselves!”

Like hell! Keo thought, just before he whispered at Lara, “Run!”

She did, taking off like a bullet. He was actually surprised and impressed how quickly she went from standing still to running, almost as if she wasn’t injured at all. Keo was right on her heels as—

Pop! as a bullet zipped! past his head. Not quite close enough to feel the heat, but probably a little too close for what was clearly a quick-snap shot.

They didn’t stop, and Keo didn’t know how long they ran—it could have been a minute, or five, or an hour—but they were going fast. Maybe too fast.

“Lara!” Keo shouted.

She didn’t answer, but when she looked back at him, he could see her straining. She was in pain but trying to struggle through it, and failing.

“Slow down,” Keo said. “Slow down.”

She began to ease up, and Keo quickly caught up to her. He jogged beside her, and she smiled back. Or tried to, anyway. The pain was all over her face, and he was thinking it might be better for the both of them if he started carrying her—

Wait. The shooting. It had stopped.

Keo slowed down and turned around until he was just backpedaling, but still moving.

Why had the guy stopped shooting?

Lara had also slowed behind him. He could easily make out her labored breathing as she said, “Why… Why are we slowing?”

“He’s stopped shooting,” Keo said.

“What?”

“The guy. He’s stopped shooting.”

Keo couldn’t see the man anywhere back there. He didn’t understand how that had happened. They hadn’t gone that far that fast, so why did the guy just…give up? And he had to have given up quickly some distance back, because Keo couldn’t see anyone in front of him.

“Keo,” Lara said.

He turned around. She was stationary behind him, bent over at the waist and gasping for breath, while holding her side with one hand—

Keo saw a flash of black clothes behind Lara as something—someone—slid out from behind a tree.

“Get down!” Keo shouted.

She did, throwing herself to the ground, when Keo fired his first shot—pfft!—and struck the trunk of the tree the Bucky had just come out of and was now standing beside. He’d fired too fast and from too great a distance—thirty, maybe forty meters?—and hadn’t had the chance to properly aim.

But the round did have an effect. It spit loose bark at the man, who winced reflexively as fragments flicked at his face and chest. That gave Keo an extra couple of seconds to move the SIG to compensate for the distance and fire three more times—pfft-pfft-pfft!

At least one of his rounds struck the Bucky, and the man staggered but didn’t go down. Keo was about to shoot him again when the black-clad figure staggered sideways, like a drunk with little control over his legs, and disappeared behind the same tree he’d come out from earlier.

Keo aimed, waiting for the man to reappear, even as he thought, Where the hell did he come from? raced across his head.

He glanced back briefly, wondering if that was why the Bucky behind them, who had discovered them, had stopped his pursuit. Did the man know they had other Buckies back here to intercept Keo and Lara? And if there was one, maybe there was more—

Two of them, appearing out from behind another tree to Keo’s left side. They were already taking aim, and Keo thought, It’s a trap. It’s a goddamn trap!

He didn’t even aim—he didn’t have the luxury of aiming—and just began squeezing the trigger as fast as he could at almost the same time the two men opened up on him. Keo hit one of the men, and the Bucky twisted, but instead of going down, he grabbed at the tree for support. Before Keo could even think about finishing him off, something struck Keo in the side, and he fell. He was halfway to the ground when he glimpsed muzzle flashes coming from his right.

Lara, shooting, the pop-pop-pop! of her M16 like thunderclaps next to him.

Then Keo slammed into the soft dirt on his face and chest, and everything went numb.

“Keo!” Lara, shouting behind him. Wait, how had she gotten behind him? Or was she in front of him? It was hard to tell, with his face pushing against the damp earth.

He tried to get up, but his legs had turned to jelly, and he lost his balance halfway through and fell right back down. Then Lara was there, her hands under his armpits, trying to pick him up.

“Keo, Keo. Oh God, Keo. You’re hit. Jesus, you’re hit.”

Oh, right. I’ve been shot.

His mind wasn’t registering the pain, but his body knew he was bleeding. He had difficulty finding his footing, and Keo watched helplessly as his boots kicked at the ground while he tried to get up with Lara’s help.

“Keo, get up,” she was saying behind. This time, he was certain she was behind him. Right? “Get up, Keo. Get up!”

I’m trying, he thought but couldn’t make the words come out.

He blinked at the sight of black-clad figures moving between the trees in front of them, converging toward their position. He counted five, maybe ten men. Probably more.

Definitely more. With my luck, more than more.

Fifty meters.

Forty-five…

They were getting closer but moving cautiously. They weren’t in any hurry, and he understood why. They were in front of him and Lara, and there were probably more Buckies behind them as well. It was a well-coordinated pincer move. The three he’d spotted earlier must have just gotten ahead of the rest.

“Lara,” he said, struggling to form words. Even his mouth wasn’t being cooperative.

“I see them, I see them, Keo,” she said, struggling to simultaneously lift him up and drag him back at the same time.

“Go,” he said. Now that he’d gotten her name out, everything was easier. Or it seemed easier, anyway. “Go, now.”

“No. No.”

“Go now.”

“No.”

“Lara!”

“No!” she shouted. It was too loud. Way too loud, and he was pretty sure the Buckies in front and behind them could hear it.

“Lara,” he said again, trying to stay calm. She wasn’t going to respond to him shouting orders at her. Not Lara. Not the Lara before Darby Bay, and not the Lara now. “You gotta go. Now. Before it’s too late. Go. Please.”

“Shut up. I’m not going anywhere.” She sat down behind him with a heavy, almost relieved sigh. “I’m staying right here.”

Someone was prying the SIG out of his hand—no, not just any someone. Lara. She was trying to take the gun away from him. Why?

He had no strength to resist, and she easily wrestled the gun away and threw it into a nearby bush.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“They’re going to shoot you if you resist,” she said.

Her M16 arced through the air and landed a half dozen feet away. She had thrown it so the Buckies could see, so they would know she was surrendering.

Keo stared forward as the Buckies continued to approach them.

Thirty meters now.

Twenty-five…

They were still moving cautiously, staying behind cover whenever they could. Rifles were pointed at them, eyes peering behind scopes.

But they hadn’t fired. For some reason, none of them had fired a shot yet.

“Lay down,” Lara whispered behind him. “You’re bleeding out. God, you’re bleeding so much.”

She guided him down until his head was resting in her lap. He felt pressure against his side and looked down to see Lara’s fingers covered in bright red blood.

Damn, that’s bright. Why is it so bright?

The Buckies finally reached their position, and one of them kicked at Lara’s M16, while others formed a semicircle around them. They didn’t say anything, but they also didn’t stop aiming their weapons at Keo’s head—and, he assumed, Lara’s too—either.

“You’re not going to die,” Lara whispered into his ear. “I won’t let you die.”

Keo believed her. It was Lara, after all.

He decided to ignore the group of black-clad men crowding around them and concentrate on the warmth of her body pressing against his instead. She was still whispering, but he could no longer make out the words. That was fine. He didn’t need to hear her voice to know she was still there, holding him, as he tried not to bleed to death.

One of the Buckies surrounding them broke free from the others and walked closer. Keo reached for his empty holster as his alarm bells sounded. It was the way the man moved, the way he grinned at Keo...

The man had short blond hair and gray eyes, and he crouched in front of Keo with what looked like a submachine gun nonchalantly draped over one knee. “You’re a hard man to catch, Dundee,” the man said. “But I told you I’d catch up to you eventually. And here we are.”

Keo did his best to zero in on the man’s face, but it was difficult to concentrate despite their close proximity. Even so, there was something about the Bucky’s voice. Keo had heard it before. The strange accent was a dead giveaway.

The man looked away from Keo and at Lara behind him. “Buck sends his regards, by the way.”

“Who the hell are you?” Lara asked.

“You can call me Clive,” the man said.

Twenty-Five

He wasn’t sure how long it took him to regain consciousness, or if this was even the first time. It could have been the second or third (or tenth), for all he knew, because he couldn’t remember a single thing. It was hard enough just staying alive.

But he was alive, and when he came up for air (again?), he heard voices.

Two of them, but it was like entering a room while people were already in mid-conversation. Except every word was tinged with suspicion and distrust. It was difficult to focus on the words being spoken when the world was splitting open and he could hear every creak and groan and explosion.

Wait. Explosions?

Why were there explosions?

“…I don’t trust you,” someone said. Lara. That was Lara’s voice, he was sure of it.

Wasn’t he?

He tried to open his eyes, but couldn’t. His eyelids were unfathomably heavy, and he wasn’t sure if he was sitting or lying down or standing. But he couldn’t be standing. He’d been shot and was bleeding out the last time he had any awareness, so how could he be standing?

Lying down. He had to be lying down.

But where?

Gunfire, followed by more explosions.

Gunfire!

Explosions!

They sounded close, but he could just be imagining things. Hell, he could be imagining all of this. The truth could be darker—he could be dead or dying, and this was the product of a delirious mind.

And maybe that was for the best, because he had a feeling he recognized the voice that came next:

“You don’t have a choice,” someone else said.

Clive. That’s Clive.

He recognized the accent. That nebulous accent that could be British or Irish or Scottish or Aussie. Maybe all of the above, or none of the above.

But it was definitely the same accent.

Wasn’t it?

Yes.

No.

Maybe…

“It’s either me or Buck,” the man who might be Clive said. “And you’re not going to like what Buck has planned for you. Trust me, I’m the safer choice right now.”

“I don’t trust you,” he heard Lara say. She sounded very close to him, but he wasn’t sure how close.

If he could only open his eyes…

“Again, you don’t have any choice,” Clive said.

“Neither do you,” Lara said.

“Oh, I have plenty of choices. I’m just choosing the best one, and that happens to be you at the moment.”

“What are you afraid of, Clive?” Lara asked.

Clive. I was right. It is Clive.

My biggest fan…

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Clive said. “What I am, is smart. This ship’s sinking, and I’d rather not be on it when it falls under the surface.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Lara said.

“It’s me or Buck. Get that through your thick skull.”

Lara didn’t answer that time.

Don’t answer him, Lara! Keo thought but couldn’t say out loud. He couldn’t even open his mouth. Had someone sewn his lips shut? God, he hoped no one had sewn his lips shut. Now that would seriously suck.

Gunfire.

More gunfire and explosions.

Too many explosions.

Why did they sound closer?

“You hear that?” Clive asked. “They’re getting closer.”

So I was right. The chaos is getting closer.

“They’ll be on us soon,” Clive continued. “When that happens, you’ll have blown our chances of getting out of here.”

“So will you,” Lara said.

Clive grunted. “There’ll be an opening soon. Make your choice before then.”

“I’m not doing anything until you give me what I asked for.”

“He’s going to die anyway.”

“He’s not going to die if you give me what I asked for.”

“You’re wasting your time. He’s bled out too much. It’s too late.”

“Get me what I fucking need!” Lara shouted.

There was silence.

Five seconds…

Ten…

“I’ll get you what you need,” Clive said. “Just make sure you’re ready when the time comes.”

“When?” Lara said, calm again.

“I don’t know when yet.”

“Then how will I know?”

“You won’t, because I don’t know. Just get ready to move when the time comes. Your boyfriend, too.”

“Stop wasting time. Get me what I need, or there’s no deal.”

Clive might have laughed. Or someone else in the room with them had. Maybe it was even Keo. Was he the one who had just let out a chuckle?

Possibly…

Clive said something, but Keo couldn’t hear it. There was too much chaos going on in the background.

More explosions and the distant pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire.

Someone’s having a party, he thought, when he felt a hand caressing his face. It was soft and warm and comforting.

“Hang on, Keo,” Lara whispered. “Just hang on, okay? I need you to hang on a little longer.”

Sure thing. I got all the time in the world.

“Stop it,” she said. “Save your strength.”

Had he managed to form words? That would have been quite a feat, because he didn’t remember.

“Don’t fight it,” she whispered. “Don’t fight it.”

Don’t fight what? he wanted to ask, but he was just too tired.

“Just go to sleep,” she whispered. “I’ll take care of you. I promise I’ll take care of you from now on.”

Slowly, the sounds of fighting began to fade into the background, and soon he couldn’t even hear the explosions and rattle of machine gunfire anymore.

Good riddance.

His last thoughts were of Lara’s voice, whispering to him, “I’ll take care of you. I promise I’ll take care of you from now on…”

He liked the sound of that, and went back to sleep feeling content.

* * *

“We have to go,” someone said. The speaker was male, but it wasn’t Clive. At least, Keo didn’t think it was Clive. The man didn’t have a non-American accent that he could detect. “We have to go now, ma’am, or we might not get out of here.”

“We can’t move him yet,” he heard Lara answer.

“It’s now or never, ma’am,” a second male voice said. This one did have an accent, but it was a Southern twang. Not Texan, but more southeastern. “We have to go. We really, really have to go.”

As if to back up the second voice’s urgent plea, Keo heard explosions and gunfire in the background. A lot of them.

And close.

Shit, they’re getting closer.

He thought he could feel the ground trembling underneath him. Aftershocks of the explosions.

Way too close…

“Ma’am,” the first one said. “We have to go now.”

“Help me with him,” Keo heard Lara say.

Then Keo was moving. Or being lifted up. He would know for sure if he could open his eyes, but he couldn’t. It hurt too much just to breathe.

“Easy,” Lara said. Then, louder, “Easy!”

Yeah, guys, easy, Keo thought when he felt a sudden stab of pain.

Then the stab turned into a gusher.

Easy, boys, easy!

Thankfully, he didn’t feel anything a few seconds later. He didn’t know why. Had they given him something? Or was the pain too much that his brain had shut it out to keep him from going into shock? Maybe he was already in shock?

So many possibilities, and every one of them bad.

He focused instead on Lara’s voice, even as it began to fade gently into the background. “It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of you. You’ll be fine. I promise, you’ll be fine. I won’t leave you. I won’t leave you, Keo.”

He smiled. Or thought he did.

He might have just smiled in his mind, and that was plenty good enough.

* * *

He regained consciousness once again to the unrelenting rattle of gunfire.

Who’s shooting?

There were also explosions.

And who’s dropping bombs?

Something that sounded like a mechanical beast from the pits of hell bellowed from nearby. He imagined a carpet of fire ravaging the world, swallowing everything up within its path—man, woman, children, and even undead things.

Dammit. Can’t a guy die in peace around here?

Except he wasn’t dead, even though opening his eyes and taking the full force of the LED lights in his face made him wish he were. But at least he could open his eyes, unlike last time (Unlike the last couple of times? Five times? Twenty?), which meant he was still alive.

I’m still alive!

It was good to be alive. So, so good.

“Don’t rush it,” a voice said. It was low, almost whispering, but Keo wasn’t sure if that was because he had something in his ears or he just had a hard time distinguishing voices from all the shooting and explosions in the background. “You lost a lot of blood. Too much blood for one man.”

Lara. It was Lara.

Thank God it’s Lara.

“But you’re alive,” Lara was saying. “That’s all that matters. You’re alive, and you’re going to stay that way.”

Good, because I like being alive. I really, really like being alive.

But for how much longer? Keo thought when he heard it again. The monster from his nightmares.

Brooooooooooorrrrttttttttt!

No, not a monster.

A Warthog.

(Well, sort of a monster, if you were at the receiving end of its strafing.)

The question was: What was it firing at?

Brooooooooooorrrrttttttttt!

He saw flames, death, and misery in his mind’s eye.

Brooooooooooorrrrttttttttt!

Keo tried opening his real eyes again, and this time he was able to keep them open. Lara was hovering above him, smiling down at him. Short blonde hair cascaded over her face, and with the bright LED hanging off the ceiling above her, she looked nothing short of angelic. Though why she was tilting back and forth, as if having difficulty staying in one place, was strange. Or was that him, having a hard time focusing?

“What happened?” he asked. Or croaked. He couldn’t quite tell what he sounded like, but it was weak and it took a lot to push those two simple words out. His lips were cracked, his mouth dry, and that family of caterpillars was back, crawling up and down his esophagus.

Stupid caterpillars.

A cold breeze swept over his exposed face, but he quickly forgot about the chill when the ground underneath him tried to toss him into the air. Lara clung onto him, keeping him from jostling around too much.

Where am I? What is this place? he thought, but couldn’t put the questions into words.

“It’s okay, just a bump,” Lara said.

Just a bump? What was just a bump?

His head started moving on its own—no, not on its own. A hand was underneath it, tilting it slightly upward. Lara was holding something in her other hand, and soon lukewarm wetness pressed against his lips. He opened them and hungrily drank water that washed away those nuisance caterpillars.

Die, caterpillars. Die!

It wasn’t just water, but the best damn water he had ever tasted in his whole life.

“Oh, that’s good,” he croaked. “More.”

She gave him more, and he gulped it down.

“You have to take it easy,” Lara said. “You’re in no condition to do anything right now.”

He blinked up at her, at the bright light at the back of her head. Why was there an LED light up there? Were they in some kind of house? Were they back at the double-wide?

Oh, Jesus. I’m never going to escape that place.

At least, not alive.

But no, it couldn’t have been the mobile home again, because he didn’t remember there being any lights there.

Unless someone had put one up…

“Where are we?” he asked, when the hard ground (Metal. That’s metal underneath me.) trembled as something exploded nearby.

A bomb. Someone had dropped a bomb, and though he could barely hear it, he could feel its impact. The light above Lara’s head shook again, along with Lara. Front to back, side to side…

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Black Tide,” Lara said.

“Black Tide?”

She nodded. “They’re pounding the Mercerian positions. We’re lucky we got out of there when we did, before the aerial attacks began.”

Yeah, lucky. That’s me. Lucky Keo.

He listened to the faded pop-pop-pop of gunfire.

Were they in the middle of a warzone? And where the hell was Clive?

Brooooooooooorrrrttttttttt!

Keo shivered. “Goddamn.”

Lara might have smiled. He couldn’t be sure. Her head was moving too much.

More bumps?

He tried to look around them, but it was hard to turn his head. He managed just enough to see drab dark green canvas sheets blowing to the side.

Wait. They were moving.

What?

How long had they been moving? Was it all this time? Had he woken up and not even realized he was in some kind of moving…

Car.

No, not a car.

Well, yes, a car, but more specifically, a truck.

They were in the back of a truck, moving through a battlefield. The constant cracks of gunfire, small arms and machine guns, and the whoosh! of something flying by overhead. He shivered, imagining the pilots of whatever was up there zeroing in on him with their weaponry…

Keo turned his head to his left and found two figures in the moving truck with them. They were sitting on the bench along the side, both with rifles tucked between their legs. One of them stared blankly, almost emotionless, back at Keo. He was young, early twenties—maybe even younger than that, but it was hard to tell with the dirt and blood on his face. The other one was just as young, and he was peeking out the flaps behind him, giving Keo a glimpse of a bright red orange mushroom as it lit up the night sky.

Then his eyes focused in on the circled M’s on the black assault vests both men (boys?) were wearing.

Buckies!

“It’s okay,” Lara was saying above him. “They’re not going to hurt us.”

“Buckies,” he croaked out.

“No,” Lara said. “Well, yes. It’s hard to explain. Just trust me, okay?”

Do I have any choice? he thought as she turned his head around until he was staring up at her again.

The truck hit some kind of pothole, and Lara’s head, along with the light behind her, shook. That light. It was an LED lantern hanging off a hook. That was why it refused to stay still and was constantly tilting back and forth. They were driving over uneven dirt road.

Where were they, and where were they going? And why were they going there (wherever “there” was) in the company of Buckies?

So many questions.

No, just three.

Still three too many…

He concentrated on Lara instead. They were seated (Well, she was seated; he was lying on his back, his head in her lap) near the middle of the truck, flanked by the benches. Keo assumed there were more Buckies on the other side of them, but he didn’t have the strength to turn his head in that direction to confirm the theory.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“We’re getting as far away from the Mercerian base as we can, as fast as we can,” Lara said.

“Who is ‘we?’” Keo said, and tried to get another look at the two Buckies somewhere on his left.

“Don’t worry about them,” Lara said.

He refocused everything he had on her. She sounded pretty certain about that, but in Keo’s experience, Buckies were preferable dead.

“They’re Buckies,” he said.

“They were,” Lara said. “They’re not Buckies or Mercerians anymore. Now they’re just kids trying to get out of the line of fire. That’s why they helped us escape.”

Escape?

“It’ll be all right,” she said. “I’ll take care of you. I’m not going to let you die on me. No way.”

He managed a smile. “Good, ’cause I like living.”

“That’s the Keo I know.”

“Where are we going?”

“That’s not for you to worry about. Your job is to stay alive.”

“Easy as pie.”

“It better be.” She looked away from him and might have picked something up from nearby. “I’m going to give you something for the pain. Close your eyes.”

He shook his head. He didn’t want to. If he closed his eyes, he was afraid he might not be able to open them again.

“Wait,” he said. “Clive. I heard his voice earlier…”

“Don’t worry about him,” Lara said.

He felt a slight sting somewhere along his right arm, but nothing happened.

At least, not right away.

“Go to sleep,” Lara whispered, leaning down toward him, as if she only wanted him to hear her soothing voice. “Don’t fight it. I’ll be here with you the entire time. And I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He wanted to answer, but couldn’t. His mouth didn’t work anymore, and he couldn’t make his lips part.

He struggled to stay awake (Don’t go to sleep, or you’ll never wake up. Don’t go to sleep! Clive is out there!) even as the truck hit another bump and Lara’s head swayed violently left and right. His body was already numbed before, but it became heavier now, along with his eyelids.

He closed his eyes to the sound of a godless monster somewhere in the distance, letting out a ferocious roar as it breathed death and destruction down upon its foes.

He shivered, and thought, God, I hate those things.

Then: God, I love those things…

Twenty-Six

Things were more pleasant the next time Keo woke up. (His sixth time? Seventh? Or tenth, maybe?) There was no real pain, just a general numbness from his toes all the way up to his jaw. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not—pain let you know you were still alive, right?—but being able to open his eyes again without feeling as if the Jaws of Life were clamping them shut was more than he could have hoped for.

I’m alive, and alive is good.

Really good.

Sunlight poured in through holes in the drab green canvas that covered up the back of the truck. An army truck. He knew that now. Only the U.S. Army could make something so practical and at the same time so aesthetically unpleasing to the eye. He glimpsed brown trees and green branches through the flaps.

He was back in the woods.

Great. I can’t seem to stay out of the woods.

Birds chirped in the background, part of the natural orchestra that surrounded him. That was a good sign. When the animals stopped making noises was when he had to start worrying about bad guys nearby.

He was alone, and looking left or right only revealed empty benches. That was good, too. Buckies were bad for his health. Lara’s absence, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as good. He didn’t like the idea of something happening to her while he was laid out like a hobo in a dark alley.

Sitting up took some effort, but he managed after a couple of tries. He was resting on a makeshift bed of dirty blankets and thick winter clothing. If not for them, he would have really felt the hard metal floor underneath him.

Keo stared out the back of the transport vehicle. The tailgate was open, but all he was really paying attention to was the wide-open country spread out about twenty meters away, visible between two massive trees that stood like sentries guarding a makeshift hiking trail. Underneath the bright morning sunlight (it felt like morning, anyway, though for all he knew it could have been midday), the world looked peaceful and innocent, and he wouldn’t know that they had been driving through a war zone last night.

Was it last night? Or had more than one night passed since he was last conscious? It was hard to tell time when you were trying not to die.

Slowly, he began to hear voices coming from outside. Calm voices, so no shouting or anything to alarm him. Not that he still wasn’t partially alarmed anyway, even though Lara had seemed pretty certain he had nothing to fear from the Buckies he’d spotted in the vehicle with him.

What was that she had said?

“They’re not Buckies or Mercerians anymore. Now they’re just kids trying to get out of the line of fire. That’s why they helped us escape.”

“…they helped us escape.”

Unless he had misheard her. That was entirely possible, given his situation at the time.

Last night? Two nights ago? A month ago?

One of those.

Keo got up. That also took some effort. His legs were weak, his knees threatening to buckle if he moved too fast. So he moved very slowly, first rising, then grabbing one of the metal struts along the inside of the truck to stay upright.

He took a second or two (or ten) to get a better look at himself. His pants were stained with dry blood (You almost bled to death, remember?) and he was wearing a different shirt. Army green and about a size too big. He lifted the hem and stared at the thick bandage wrapped around his midsection. There was no blood that he could see, so whoever had fixed him up had done a good job.

The wind picked up as he reached the opening, and Keo had to hold on to an extra set of struts.

Yeah, that’s it. It’s the wind’s fault you almost fell on your ass that time.

He blinked at a pool of bright sunlight raining down at him from a big tear in the ceiling and squinted out at a field of Texas bluebonnets outside the tree line. They covered the land from one end of the clearing to the other, so many of them that Keo thought the world had been splashed with a blue-purple paint while he was asleep.

“Sir, you shouldn’t be walking around,” a voice said.

Keo glanced over at a young man standing outside the truck, looking up and in at him. It was one of the two Buckies he had seen last night. The kid had a rifle but wasn’t pointing it at Keo. He looked, in fact, as threatening as a baby cub fresh out of the womb, and Keo thought about going for that rifle—or that holstered sidearm—but then he was hit with a dizzying spell and gave up on that stupid idea.

“You okay, sir?” the kid asked.

Keo stared at the Bucky. “Who the hell are you?”

“Ron, sir,” the kid said. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen, and there were still dry specks of blood on his chin and cheeks. His clothes were as dirty as the rags Keo had been sleeping on, and the teenager looked as if he’d been wading through garbage, but minus the smell.

“That doesn’t explain anything,” Keo said.

“Um…” Ron said.

“Where’s Lara?”

“At the front, sir.”

“Why the hell do you keep calling me ‘sir?’”

“Um,” Ron said.

“Never mind.”

Keo sat down on the truck and dangled his legs off the open tailgate. He was winded by the time his feet were swinging free.

“You, uh, need a hand, sir?” Ron asked.

“Stop calling me sir.”

“Yes, si— Um, okay.”

Keo hopped off the tailgate.

It was a bad idea, as pain lanced through his body. It was the first real reminder that he had been shot, and it was a bad one.

He held onto the truck to keep from falling, at the same time glimpsing Ron reaching to help him. But the kid held back at the last second, which was a good thing, because Keo was really, really considering reaching for the Bucky’s sidearm if he got any closer.

Or that rifle. Yeah, the rifle would probably be better…

“Where’s Lara?” he asked Ron.

“Um, up at the front,” Ron said.

“Did I already ask that?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

Keo pushed off the Army truck and took a couple of steps away to test his footing. Better. At least, a great improvement over when he first woke up. He was shoeless, which was why he could feel the warming soil underneath his soles. Texas was heating up, with spring somewhere on the horizon.

Don’t like Texas weather? Just wait an hour.

He walked around the parked truck, getting more confident with every step. Ron watched him go but didn’t follow, which was, again, good because Keo was liable to deck the kid if he’d tried.

Keo spotted a second Bucky standing guard nearby, the man’s head craned up toward the trees as he listened to something—

The sound of jet engines moving through the air above them.

Keo stopped briefly to glance up, too. He could just barely make out the cloudless sky through the heavy crowns above. A perfect canopy to hide an army truck full of Buckies from aerial surveillance. The plane he’d heard was passing them by right now, oblivious to their presence underneath it.

“They’re everywhere,” Ron said from behind him. “We barely made it in here before one of them spotted us.”

“What’s your name again?” Keo asked.

“Ron, sir. You sure you don’t need a hand?”

Keo heard Lara’s voice coming from the front of the truck, and he immediately forgot about Ron’s question.

He walked over and found her standing next to another Bucky. This one was older than Ron and the other kid by about ten years. They were looking at a map and pointing, Lara doing most of the talking. There was someone else with them, on the other side of the hood, but Keo couldn’t get a good look from his angle.

“…do what we say, and you’ll all make it through this,” Lara was saying. “You do anything else, and I can’t guarantee your safety. Do you understand?”

The man nodded and said, “And they’ll let us through the lines?”

“Yes. That’s the idea.”

“Are you sure about that?” another man asked.

Keo moved closer and could finally make out the other speaker, standing on the other side of the truck.

Clive.

Keo’s hand dropped reflexively to his hip, but there was nothing there.

Gun. I need a gun!

As if he could hear Keo’s alarmed thoughts, Clive glanced over and grinned. “Look who’s finally up. Didn’t think you’d make it through last night.”

Keo narrowed his eyes back at the man.

Lara turned in his direction and frowned. “What are you doing out here? You shouldn’t be walking around yet.”

“Too late for that,” Keo said, and walked over to her.

He took the opportunity to scan the area, searching for something that could work as a weapon, but there were just a lot of flowers and trees and branches. A few rocks on the ground had some potential, if he could lift them. And right now, that was a big if.

As if she, too, could read his thoughts, Lara said, “It’s okay, we have an agreement.”

“Agreement?” Keo said.

“Don’t look so shocked, Dundee,” Clive said. “Or should I call you Keo? Nah, on second thought, I’ll stick with Dundee.”

“And I’ll stick with your original name. Asshole.”

Clive smirked. “By the way, you’re Chinese-ier looking than you sounded over the radio.”

“And you’re just as ugly as I thought you’d be.”

“Now, now, let’s be civilized. We’re partners now, after all. Work with me, not against me here, mate.” The man turned to the other Bucky. “Come on then, let’s give the lovebirds some privacy. It’s not like they’re going to run off anywhere. Poor Dundee can barely stand.”

The two men walked off, leaving Keo with Lara at the hood of the truck. Keo looked after them, trying to hear what Clive was saying to the other man, but the blond was speaking too low for Keo to pick anything up.

“I don’t like that guy,” Keo said.

“Neither do I,” Lara said.

He looked over at her. “Is it the accent?”

“No. Mostly it’s the eyes.”

“The eyes?”

“He’s got squirrelly eyes.”

“‘Squirrelly eyes?’” Keo said, smiling.

“Something we used to say back in the day.” She had also been looking after Clive and the other Bucky, before focusing on Keo. “I trust them as far as I can throw them. Clive in particular. That’s why I saved this when I was stitching you up last night.”

Keo glanced down at Lara’s hand. She had taken something out of her pants pocket: a small pair of scissors. It was about four inches in total length, with one inch or so consisting of the cutting part that ended with a blunt point. It was made for sewing threads and bandages, but in the right hands…

He looked up and smiled. “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”

She smiled back. “Just in case.”

Lara put the scissors away while Keo took a cursory glance at the map of Texas spread out on the hood of the car. It was heavily annotated and torn around the edges, with most of the markings made along the southeastern coastline of the state.

“What am I looking at?” he asked.

“The battle lines as it stands this morning,” Lara said.

“You know what’s happening out there?”

“The other guy, Mitchell, filled me in.”

“Voluntarily?”

“We’re on the same side now.”

“Are we?”

She shrugged. “Ish.”

“If ish means no one’s shooting at me, then it’s good enough. For now.” He nodded at the map. “What’s going on?”

“Bottom line: Danny’s kicking Buck’s ass all over Texas.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Me too.” She traced the map with a finger as she talked. “Black Tide forces took Galveston back first, then proceeded south and met Buck’s men as they were leaving Darby Bay. While that was going on, Danny attacked Larabie from the Gulf of Mexico. That took longer, but eventually he got that FOB back, too. Everything led to last night, when Black Tide forces caught up to the Mercerians, many of them retreating from Larabie.”

“The ‘leftovers.’”

“Uh huh. That was all the fighting you heard while we were leaving their camp.”

“Danny did all that?”

“He had some help from Colorado.”

“Beecher?”

“And a few others,” Lara nodded. Keo could see the unrestrained pride on her face as she filled him in.

You did good, Danny. You did real good.

“What about all the armor in Larabie?” Keo asked.

“Most of it was lost during the battle,” Lara said. “Our air force was heavily augmented with Beecher’s. They carved out airfields in the countryside for the attacks. It was highly coordinated and went on day and night. It’s a lot easier to learn how to drive a tank than it is to fly a plane. And Black Tide, despite everything that’s happened, still has air superiority.”

“So what’s happening now?”

Lara tapped the shoreline area on the map. “Here. That was where we were last night. A Mercerian OP. Black Tide forces were closing in for the kill and were flattening the place when we left just in time.”

Keo looked over at Clive and the other Bucky, Mitchell, talking about…something at the back of the truck.

“I don’t trust them, but I trust their survival instincts,” Lara said. “They know that Buck is losing. Badly. Mitchell saw it for himself in Larabie. They don’t even know what’s happened to Buck. There are rumors that he’s already dead, but no one knows for sure. Not even Clive, and he’s a part of their main command.”

“So they’re running. Rats jumping a sinking ship.”

“Pretty much. We made a deal. They help me keep you alive and get us out of the Mercerian OP, and in turn we help them get through the Black Tide lines.” She pointed at a large but rough circle on the map. “Danny’s got this part of the countryside on lockdown. There is surveillance in the air watching everything moving on the ground, which is why we’re hiding in here. Now that Danny’s got Galveston back, he’s got plenty of fuel to spare.”

As if on cue, they heard another jet engine moving above them, and gray metal flickered as it passed by overhead.

“Good ol’ Danny,” Keo said. “Coming through in the clutch.”

“I told you he was more than capable of taking over,” Lara said. “He’s even better than I was, or could ever be, at this.”

“Maybe, but he’ll never be prettier than you.”

Lara smiled. “Except for that.”

“Of course, with some makeup and eyeliner…”

“Let’s not go there.”

“Yeah, Carly probably wouldn’t like that.” Keo checked on the Buckies at the back of the truck again. They were still talking in hushed voices. “So, we know Danny’s doing well. What about us? How are we going to get these bozos out of here in one piece? I’m assuming that’s the only reason we’re still alive.”

Lara also glanced toward the back of the truck. “There are Black Tide roadblocks on every highway and back road, and planes watching everything else. One radio call, and this truck will be intercepted by a Black Tide vehicle within minutes. And that’s if a Warthog doesn’t blow them to hell first. They know they’ll never make it through the lines without us.”

“How exactly?”

She looked over at him. “That’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“Did you think I kept you alive because of your good looks?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Partially, but also because I need you to make a call.”

“Who am I calling?”

“Danny.”

“Ah,” Keo said.

Twenty-Seven

One of the things Clive’s fellow escaping rats had secured before they left the Mercerian OP was a long-range radio. Keo was on it now, trying to get the right frequency while Lara extended the antennae to its fullest height.

“This would work better if we were outside in the clearing where I could get a clean signal,” Keo said.

“Not with those birds out there looking to fill us with holes,” Clive said. “They spot us, and before you know it there’s a couple of Humvees on our ass. Those boys aren’t playing around. They’re out for blood.”

Like you and Buck were back in Darby Bay? Keo thought but didn’t say.

The Bucky stood next to Keo and Lara, his ever-present MP9 in front of him, one hand tapping it like he was trying to remember a tune. In reality, it was just a not-so-subtle reminder to Keo that he had the upper hand in their current situation. Not that Keo needed it.

Keo sat on the step up to the driver-side door of the truck to limit the strain on his legs. He didn’t want to admit it, but just walking around earlier, then standing with Lara, had taken a toll on him. Lara, of course, could see it, which was probably why he was operating on a nice dose of codeine at the moment. The drug was also courtesy of Clive’s boys.

Those boys were spread out around them—Ron and the other kid, Gordon, were in the back, while the older one, Mitchell, stood guard a few meters up the trail. They hadn’t moved from their hiding spot since Keo woke up, and for good reason.

“Okay, try it now,” Lara said.

Keo held up the handset receiver. “Black Tide, come in. Black Tide, this is Keo. If anyone can hear me, please respond.”

He waited for an answer, but heard only static.

After about five seconds of silence, with the only sound coming from a plane buzzing the skies somewhere above them and drawing everyone’s glances, Clive said, “You sure you got the right frequency, Dundee?”

“Shut yer trap, and let the adults work,” Keo said.

Clive chuckled, but didn’t say anything else.

Keo said into the receiver, “Black Tide, come in. This is Keo. If anyone can hear me, please—”

“This is Black Tide. Who is this?” a female voice answered. Keo didn’t recognize it, but he knew it wasn’t Jane, the person in charge of Black Tide Island’s communications.

Still, he had to be sure, and said into the handset, “Jane?”

“Negative,” the woman said. “Identify yourself, and explain why you’re clogging up our emergency channel.”

“This is Keo.”

“Who?”

“Keo.”

“I don’t know any Keo.”

“I’m the reason you have Black Tide Island.”

The woman on the radio wasn’t impressed. “Look, whoever you are, you’re not allowed on this frequency. This is for Black Tide Command staff only.”

Clive was narrowing his eyes at Keo. He couldn’t hear the woman chastising Keo—he and Lara could only hear Keo’s side of the conversation—but the Bucky could probably read it on Keo’s face that things weren’t going well.

“Maybe you’re not as important as you claim to be, Dundee,” Clive said. “Maybe you’re just some random punter, like I thought.”

Keo gave him the finger, before saying into the receiver, “Listen, kid, I don’t know who you are, but listen to me. Locate Commander Hartford and tell him that Keo is on the line. Do you understand?”

The woman on the other side of the radio didn’t answer him right away.

“You still there?” Keo said.

“One minute,” the woman said, before there was just static again.

“Well?” Clive asked.

“She’s patching me through,” Keo said, and thought, Or I hope she’s patching me through, anyway.

“It’s not Jane?” Lara asked.

Keo shook his head. “Someone else.”

“Who’s Jane?” Clive asked.

“Your mom’s secret mistress,” Keo said.

The Bucky snorted. “Couldn’t be. Her name was Glenda.”

Keo smirked back at him, when he heard a familiar voice through the receiver:

“Keystone?”

Keo grinned at the sound of Danny’s voice. “Hey, Danny. It’s been a while.”

“It’s been a goddamn long while, all right,” Danny said. “Glad to know you’re still running around out there, Trapper Keeper.”

“You know me, harder to kill than an American cockroach, and twice as stubborn. How goes the war, by the way? Heard your boys kicking up a hell of a ruckus last night.”

“Taking ass and kicking names. Where are you? Last I heard, you were looking for Lara in Darby Bay.”

“I was, but I’m not there anymore.”

“Kennison and Chambers gave me their reports. Claire, too. I have units specifically tasked with scouring the countryside looking for her.”

“I wish I could give you some good news on that front, Danny, but I can’t,” Keo said, meeting Lara’s curious gaze as he did so.

She bit her lip and leaned back against the truck. She obviously understood what was being said even if she could only hear his side of the conversation. Clive, for his part, was keeping quiet so his voice didn’t leak into the call.

“That’s too bad,” Danny was saying. “I was hoping you’d have more luck.”

“Unfortunately, no. I barely got out of there alive myself,” Keo said. “I heard they attacked Black Tide Island on the same night they took out Darby Bay.”

“Yeah, they swung for the fences. Got a bunt single for their troubles.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s baseball.”

“I don’t play baseball.”

Danny chuckled. “Basically, they gave it the ol’ college try, but got demoted back to the minor leagues instead.”

“I still don’t know what that means. What about Carly and William. They okay?”

“Yeah, my girl got everyone sealed off inside the buildings when the attack began. She’s a quick one. Saved a bunch of lives.”

“Good. That’s good to hear.”

“So why are you calling home, Keo? You bored out there?”

“I need a favor.”

“Sorry, man, but I’m already married.”

“And I’m going to have to live with that. But no, it’s something else.”

“In that case, name it.”

“I’ve gotten my hands on an Army truck, and I’m trying to get some people out of the war zone. I need you to let me through. Between your aerial sorties and checkpoints all over the place, I can’t fart out here without getting shot at.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what you get for not leaving when you had the chance.”

“Don’t rub it in.”

“So who are you trying to get out?”

“Civilians. People who don’t want to get accidentally stuck between your boys and Buck’s.”

“You said you have an Army truck?”

“Yeah.”

“There are a lot of Army trucks running around out there carrying bad guys…”

“What if I put a big X on top of my vehicle. Will that work?”

“It might.”

Lara tapped him on the shoulder, and when Keo looked over, she mouthed, “Rose.”

He nodded and said into the radio, “There’s something else, Danny.”

“I can’t spare a kidney, either. Carly’s already got both, according to my will,” Danny said.

“Again, I’ll have to live with that. But I wanted to find out if one of your people made it back to the lines. A girl named Rose.”

“One of mine?”

“Yeah. She was running around out here for a while with me. The last I saw of her, she was on a chopper heading back home.”

“The name doesn’t ring any bells. What’s her last name?”

“Thomlinson. Rose Thomlinson.”

“No, that still doesn’t ring any bells. But I have a lot of people out there. I don’t know all of their names.”

“Do me a favor and look for her?”

“I’ll do that. In the meantime, I’ll send word to let you and those civvies through.”

“Thanks, Danny. I owe you one.”

“De nada,” Danny said. Then, after a few seconds of silence, “Hey, Keo.”

“Yeah?” Keo said.

“If you run across Lara out there—”

“That’s probably not going to happen.”

“If,” Danny said. “If you happen to run across her out there one of these days…”

Keo looked over at Lara, who stared back at him. He could tell just by the somewhat sad expression on her face that she already knew the conversation had steered back to her.

“You have a message you want me to give her, in case I do run into her?” Keo said into the handset.

“Tell her I’m just keeping her seat warm,” Danny said. “It’s hers whenever she wants it back. It’s always been hers, and it’ll always be hers. Anytime, anywhere, any when.”

* * *

It was an MH-60 Little Bird, and it spotted them almost immediately after they left the shelter of the woods and drove onto one of the many roads in this part of the countryside. The only reason it didn’t fire on them was the big X on top of the truck. Or, well, a black blanket that the Buckies had cut into strips, then tied into an X over the green canvas, using the metal struts at the front and back to keep it in place.

The Little Bird stayed with them, following from a distance. Keo didn’t need to lean out the open front passenger-side window to make out the two commandos sitting on the benches outside the chopper, both with machine guns waiting to unleash on them should they stray from the path.

“Keep driving,” Keo said.

Mitchell, the driver, was the oldest of the three Buckies that had thrown their lot in with Clive. He was sweating despite the chill air, and every time they hit a bump in the road—or even a rock—Keo was afraid the poor guy might have a heart attack. Like Keo, Mitchell was unarmed, and Keo assumed that was because Clive didn’t trust Keo not to make a grab for the Bucky’s weapons.

Asshole’s smarter than he looks, too, because I definitely would have done that.

The lack of a weapon on Mitchell meant Keo had to come up with another way to defend himself and Lara against Clive. Because he knew it was coming. It was inevitable. Keo thought he had a pretty good idea of the when, but not the how yet.

“Relax,” Keo said to Mitchell. “Everything will work out.”

“Yeah, relax, right,” Mitchell said. Then, “Have you seen what those Warthogs can do? If these guys don’t let us through, we’re going to have to shoot our way out, and then someone’s going to call those Warthogs in.”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“You sure about that?”

“I got the okay from the big man himself,” Keo said, and thought, Don’t screw me over, Danny. Don’t you screw me over now.

“Who are you, anyway?” Mitchell asked.

“I’m Keo.”

“Yeah, I got that part, but who are you?”

I’m the guy who’s been killing a bunch of your friends until yesterday, he thought with a grin that he hoped Mitchell couldn’t see.

He said instead, “Just a guy, Mitchell.”

“Yeah, right, you’re just a guy.”

Keo smiled. “What about you? What are you doing running around with Buck and his Buckies?”

“Buckies?” Then, “Oh. Buck. Buckies. I get it.”

“Clever, huh?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Everyone’s a critic.”

“I’m a cook,” Mitchell said.

“You’re a cook?”

“Yeah. I’m just a cook.” Mitchell brushed at some sweat on his brow. It was amazing how much the man was sweating despite how cold it was outside their open windows. “I should have stayed in Fenton.”

“You’re from Fenton?”

Mitchell nodded.

“What happened in Fenton?” Keo asked. “The last time I was there, it was under attack.”

“I heard the same thing, but I don’t know,” the Bucky said. “I was already out of there before you guys attacked the place.”

“You guys?” Keo thought.

Then: He doesn’t know about Copenhagen. What else aren’t you telling your boys, Buck?

“But you’re from Fenton,” Keo said.

“Yeah. Why?” Mitchell said.

“What’s in the warehouse?”

“What warehouse?”

“The big ass warehouse on the island next to Fenton.”

Mitchell didn’t think about it for very long. “I have no idea. I was outta there before they started building it.”

Keo wasn’t too surprised. Mitchell was, after all, “just a cook,” so what would he know about Buck’s moves?

There was one person who would know what was inside the warehouse, though. Copenhagen. Keo didn’t have any doubts that the man had taken Fenton back by now, and all Keo had to do was ask him.

Yeah. I’ll add that to my to-do list.

Talking about Fenton again reminded Keo that he still hadn’t fulfilled his promise to Megan. Even now, he didn’t know what had happened to her mother, Emma. Was she inside that warehouse? Had she been liberated by Copenhagen’s forces? Or had she even made it there at all? Where were Buck keeping all the women and kids his people had taken from their raids?

You sure you want to know, pal?

A part of him wasn’t sure he really wanted to find out the answers to those questions. Maybe, what happened to Emma and the others had something to do with how Merrick had built his army of ghouls in secret. Maybe…there were a lot of other possibilities. It was a big state, with a lot of moving parts in play. And he was just a guy with a gun.

Focus on the here and now.

And right now, there’s a guy with a submachine gun in the back of the truck with squirrelly eyes that you’re gonna have to deal with pretty soon.

Keo said, “What about those kids back there? Ron and the other one?”

“Gordon,” Mitchell said.

“Yeah. Ron and Gordon.”

“They helped me in the kitchen.”

“Just cooks, too?”

“Well, I cooked, and they helped out. Cleaned, mostly.”

“So how did you guys get roped into this?”

“Clive came to us. Said we could help you escape and us right alongside you, or stay at the OP and get bombed to death.” He flashed Keo an awkward grin. “It wasn’t a hard choice.”

“Lara said you were in Larabie.”

“Yeah,” Mitchell said, and Keo thought he might have shivered unwittingly when he had said it.

Warthogs. That’s definitely the reaction of someone who’s seen what those Warthogs can do up close and personal.

“What about Buck?” Keo asked.

“What about him?” Mitchell said.

“I heard there are rumors he’s dead.”

“I heard that, too. But I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows for sure. I just know that he never showed up at the OP when he was supposed to. So he’s either dead, or he hightailed it outta there. No way I was going to stay when he’s taken off.”

“Smart move.”

“If I survive this, it’ll be. If not…” He leaned forward and peered out the front windshield at the MH-60 that was somewhere still out there.

Keo couldn’t see the chopper, but he could hear the whup-whup-whup of its rotors nearby. “Relax, Mitchell.”

“Yeah, relax, right,” Mitchell said, sitting back.

Keo turned around in his seat and pulled open the rear window, then the flap to look into the back of the vehicle. Lara, sitting closest to him, looked over. She was wearing a ski cap that hid her blonde hair and would be mostly unremarkable to anyone looking in from the tailgate.

“It’s still up there,” Lara said.

“It hasn’t opened fire yet,” Keo said.

“Better hope it stays that way, Dundee,” Clive said. The Bucky sat on the bench behind Lara, his Brügger & Thomet MP9 hanging off a sling in front of him.

Clive and Mitchell, along with Ron and Gordon—the two kids currently sitting across from Clive on the other bench—had taken off their vests, officially removing any vestiges of their Mercerian connection. To anyone who didn’t know better, anyway.

Specifically, Keo and Lara.

“Are they just going to let us go after this?” he had asked her earlier, when they had another brief moment of privacy after the radio call with Danny.

“That’s what he said,” Lara had answered, watching Clive getting ready to leave the sanctuary of the woods with the other Buckies. Then, looking back at him, she had added, “We need to be careful.”

He had nodded, and thought, Damn straight.

“For all our sakes, but mostly for you and your girlfriend,” Clive was saying now as the truck hit another bump in the road.

Keo smirked at Clive. “You and your slick pillow talk. Makes me want to take off my boxers just hearing it.”

Clive chuckled, but he never untightened his grip on his submachine gun.

Keo looked over at Lara. “You good?”

She nodded. “Yeah. You?”

“Right as rain and twice as wet.”

Lara smiled, then looked past him. “There’s the checkpoint.”

Clive tilted his submachine slightly, the suppressed muzzle pointing in Lara’s direction. It was a not-so-subtle threat. “Easy does it, loverboy.”

Keo ignored him and smiled at Lara, and she returned it.

He slid the window shut, then turned back around to look out the front windshield of the truck.

“Just relax,” he said to Mitchell, who had begun to slow their vehicle down.

It was an impromptu checkpoint, with two Humvees parked in the middle of the road, grill-to-grill, while men in blue BDUs aimed the machine guns in the back of the vehicles at them. A big white Inguz rune decal was painted on the vehicles’ doors, along with smaller versions on the shoulder patches of the half dozen or so men in full combat gear standing on the highway with rifles waiting for them.

Keo didn’t have to look for the Little Bird to see that it was still up there. He could hear it circling, just waiting for the truck to do something it wasn’t supposed to so it could unleash death on them.

Easy does it, easy does it.

One of the Black Tiders left the checkpoint and walked toward them. He held up his hand, and Mitchell stepped on the brake until they had come to a complete stop. The soldier walked the rest of the distance over, staring at the driver, before turning his attention to Keo.

“Turn off the engine,” Keo said.

Mitchell did.

“Sit back in your seat and take your hands off the steering wheel,” Keo said.

Mitchell did that, too.

The Black Tider appeared at the passenger-side door and looked up at Keo. Thirties, with light brown hair and dark eyes. Keo had never seen him before, but the name Wilson was stenciled across his name tag.

“Which one of you is Keo?” Wilson asked.

Keo raised a hand. “That’s me.”

Wilson eyed him for a few seconds before relaxing a bit. “Commander Hartford sends his regards. He also wanted me to ask where you were going, in case he needs to make contact in the future.”

“Tell him I don’t know.”

“I have to tell him something, sir.”

Keo shrugged. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know. Tell him I’m playing it by ear.”

Wilson nodded. “All right. I’ll tell him that.” He turned up the road and waved his hand, and the Humvees reversed out of the road.

“You don’t want to check the back?” Keo asked Wilson.

The Black Tider shook his head. “No need, sir. Commander was pretty clear with his orders. You’re good to go. Good luck.”

“You too, Wilson. Try not to get killed.”

“That’s the plan.”

Wilson stepped back, and Keo nodded at Mitchell, who fired the truck back up and drove them through the checkpoint. The Humvees had backed all the way onto the shoulders to let them pass.

Keo grinned at Mitchell. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”

Mitchell tried to smile back, but it came out awkward. “Yeah, not so hard.” Then, “Jesus, I might just survive this week after all.”

“That’s the spirit.” He turned around in his seat and slid open the back window again.

Lara pulled the flap to the side and looked out at him from the rear of the truck. “That went well.”

“I never had any doubts,” Clive said.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Keo said.

He glanced at the other two Buckies sitting across from Clive. They looked relieved, and the two young men were smiling at each other. Clive was, too, at Keo, except Keo didn’t think there was anything genuine about it.

“What now?” Keo said to Clive.

“A deal’s a deal,” Clive said. “Once we’re free and clear, we’ll go our separate ways. And this chapter in our exciting lives will be all over, red rover.”

“Sounds good to me,” Keo said, and looked over at Lara.

She met his gaze, but didn’t say anything.

And she didn’t have to. He could read her thoughts, and he was pretty sure she could read his:

It’s not over yet. Be ready for anything.

Twenty-Eight

Mitchell didn’t completely calm down until they had put almost ten miles between them and the checkpoint. The extra distance, along with the disappearance of the MH-60 (and, most importantly, its guns) did wonders for the former Bucky, who finally stopped looking at his side window or peering out the front windshield and up at the sky.

Damn, Danny. What were your boys and girls doing to these guys that they’re terrified of anyone with an Inguz on their shoulder?

He wouldn’t know, and he didn’t care to find out. He was out of the war zone, and he was alive and mostly intact. After all the running and hiding and fighting, simply climbing into a truck and driving up a country road was…anticlimactic. Not that he was complaining.

It’s not over yet, pal.

“Where did Clive tell you to go?” Keo asked Mitchell.

“He didn’t,” the driver said. “We never talked about what to do after we got out of there.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Who?”

“Clive.”

Mitchell didn’t think about it for very long. “I don’t know him. He offered me a way out of that shithole, and I took it. But other than that…” He shook his head. “I don’t know him.”

Keo glanced over his shoulder at the rear windshield. It was closed, and he couldn’t see into the back of the truck without opening it, then the canvas after that. He thought about Lara back there with Clive, and the look she had given him.

The wild card was Clive. Despite all their conversations over the radio, Keo didn’t know the man nearly well enough to predict his actions, and that made Keo nervous. He prided himself on understanding what drove other men, but Clive…

Just be ready.

Just be ready for anything.

“You shouldn’t trust him,” Keo said to Mitchell as he turned to face the road again.

“I don’t,” Mitchell said. “We’re partners because we have to be. That’s it. Once this is over, I’m hoping I never see him again. Or you and the lady. No offense.”

“None taken.”

Keo sat back in his seat and ran the scenarios over in his head.

His biggest obstacle besides Clive was himself. He wasn’t as weak as he had been this morning (that was mostly thanks to the codeine Lara had given him for the pain), but he wasn’t even close to being at 100 percent. At best, he was at 50 percent strength.

Oh, who are you kidding? You’ll be lucky to register at 20 percent.

Maybe twenty-five…

Keo took out the plastic bottle and shook out a small white pill. He popped it into his mouth and swallowed it.

“What’s that?” Mitchell asked.

“Vitamins,” Keo said.

He thought about Lara. She wasn’t at full strength, either, but she was in a lot better shape than him at the moment. That was the good news. The bad news was that she was in the back of the moving truck with Clive. There was a reason for that: Clive had wanted to separate them because he knew full well Keo wouldn’t do anything to endanger Lara. And with her back there in the crosshairs of his submachine gun, it was as good as a guarantee that Keo would get them out of the Black Tide lines without trying anything.

The other factors were Mitchell and the two kids, Ron and Gordon. He wasn’t too concerned about the teenagers. Mitchell might become a problem, but Keo didn’t think so. Talking to the man had settled a lot of Keo’s doubts. Mitchell just wanted to get out of here, to survive to see another day. As much blood as every Bucky had on their hands, Mitchell and the teenagers probably had the least. But least was still some, so they weren’t completely innocent, either.

So where did all of that leave him?

He wasn’t sure yet, but maybe if he could get Mitchell on his side…

A knock on the glass behind him. Keo glanced back and saw Clive, instead of Lara, peering out between the canvas.

Keo slid the window open.

“Pull over,” the Bucky said.

“Now?” Mitchell said.

“Yeah. Pull over.” Clive gave Keo a quick look—but didn’t linger—before disappearing behind the shifting fabrics again.

Here we go…

Mitchell glanced over at Keo as he eased his foot off the gas and began to maneuver toward the shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Keo said, “but better do what the man says.”

The driver did, parking on the shoulder of a long stretch of country highway with nothing in front or behind them for miles. An endless field of bluebonnets, with what might have been old ranch fence lines, greeted Keo’s right side.

He glimpsed a shadow and glanced up as something flew by above him. Not metallic or gray, but brown and white. A falcon. Keo wondered if the bird knew something he didn’t.

There was a nice breeze, and Keo was thankful he had a thick jacket on. His side felt good, thanks to the recent dose of codeine. There was nothing like some addictive narcotics to take his mind off his recent wound.

He hadn’t yet opened his door when he saw Clive appearing in his side mirror. The Bucky was tossing something that looked like a “bag” he had made from the same blankets that Keo had been lying on not very long ago into the field next to the road. The bundle landed about ten meters among all the bluebonnets.

What was that?

Keo narrowed his eyes, and his mind spun at the same time Clive turned and began walking up the length of the truck. He had the MP9 hanging off one shoulder and was moving slowly, as if he had all the time in the world. The man with the unrecognizable accent saw Keo in the side mirror and grinned back at him.

“Mitchell,” Keo said, his eyes glued to Clive’s reflection. “Clive just killed Ron and Gordon.”

Mitchell glanced over at Keo, then at Clive’s image in Keo’s side mirror. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Clive just killed Ron and Gordon, and he’s coming here to kill you next.”

“What?”

Keo whirled on the Bucky and hissed, “Get out. Get out now, before it’s too late.”

Mitchell’s eyes widened, but thankfully he obeyed and opened his door and jumped out. Clive was almost at the front passenger side when Keo ducked and slid across the front seat toward the opening.

Instead of running to the back—or away—Mitchell rounded the hood of the vehicle to confront Clive on the other side.

Keo heard Mitchell saying, “What happened—” Before there was the pfft-pfft-pfft! of suppressed gunshots, then the sound of a body falling.

Here we go!

Keo swung his legs out the door, felt the step below, and exited the vehicle. He did it as fast as he could, expecting to get punished by all the sudden movements, and wasn’t disappointed. He gritted his teeth through the stabs of pain as he found the hard flattop and hobbled his way to the back of the truck.

“Dundee!” Clive called out. He sounded as if he was still on the other side of the vehicle.

Keo knew he was right when he heard the front passenger side door creaking open.

“Where are you?” Clive shouted. “I told you we’d end up here eventually! I told you this was going to be fun!”

I wouldn’t exactly call this “fun,” you psycho piece of shit, Keo thought, but of course didn’t waste his time shouting that response. He was too busy gimping his way to the back of the truck, then rounding it.

The tailgate was open, and Keo looked in—

Ron and Gordon lay on the metal floor, both unmoving. There were holes in Ron’s chest, and blood dripped out of them. Keo assumed the same was true for Gordon, but the other Bucky was lying on his stomach, and Keo couldn’t see any wounds.

He looked past them at Lara. She was still all the way in the back where he had last seen her, but she was alive. She lay on her side, her hands and legs bound with zip ties and a strip of tape fastened over her mouth. Her eyes widened as they locked eyes, and he heard muffled sounds as she tried to shout out something, but of course he couldn’t hear a word.

“Dundee!” Clive called. His voice was coming from the front of the truck now. Keo guessed the man was moving cautiously, knowing that he had all the advantage.

Or not, Keo thought when something caught his eye. A pile of guns near Gordon.

Eureka!

The armaments were close enough that Keo only had to stand on his tiptoes to reach for the barrel of a rifle. But he knew the AR was empty as soon as he picked it up. There was no magazine in the mag well, and when Keo checked the chamber, found it just as bare.

Then again…

A quick glance told him there was no magazine in the second rifle, either, and he didn’t even bother with the sidearms as everything clicked:

The “bag” Clive had tossed earlier. The magazines were in there.

That sneaky little bastard!

Keo glanced over at the field of bluebonnets nearby, when Clive shouted, “Dundee!” and this time it came from much closer.

Too late!

He dropped to the ground and rolled underneath the parked vehicle. The undercarriage was heated from all the driving, and Keo recoiled slightly when his shoulder touched one of the burning metal parts.

Suck it up, pal!

He did and bit back any possible sounds. Keo took out Lara’s scissors from his pants pocket and gripped it by the handle in his right hand.

There, Clive’s boots, halfway toward the back of the truck on the driver side, and walking past Keo. The man still didn’t look to be in any hurry, and Keo guessed he didn’t really have to be. He knew Keo was hobbled and wasn’t going to get very far even if he abandoned Lara and took off. That MP9 might have limited range, but Keo wasn’t going to make it beyond its capabilities at his current state, even with a flush of codeine-inspired numbness washing over him.

Gotta make this count. It might be the only chance you get, he thought as he tightened his grip around the scissors.

And that was all he had. Four inches with a blunt end. It was better than nothing, though not by a whole lot.

Clive had reached the back of the truck and taken several steps back, before his boots pivoted as the man took aim into the vehicle.

“Dundee!” Clive shouted. “Work with me, not against me!”

Keo turned over onto his stomach and crawled along the cold highway toward the side of the vehicle. He emerged out from underneath the truck and slowly raised himself back up—

“Gotcha!” Clive shouted just before Keo heard the pfft-pfft-pfft! of suppressed gunshots and his left leg buckled as one of the MP9’s 9mm rounds struck him in the calf. Blood gushed out instantly, but Keo didn’t stop to see how bad it was because he was busy running toward the back of the vehicle.

Pfft-pfft-pfft! as Clive kept trying to hit from underneath the truck. Keo didn’t see where the bullets were going or how close they were missing because he was running, running, running for all he was worth.

There was pain. There was a lot of pain, but he managed to push them aside with one thought: Don’t stop, or Lara’s dead.

Don’t stop, or Lara’s dead!

DON’T STOP, OR LARA’S DEAD!

He must have surprised Clive (running toward the man with the submachine gun instead of away from him) because the Bucky was just beginning to pick himself up from the road when Keo cornered the vehicle—

Cut the distance! Get in there now now NOW!

—and plowed into Clive’s defenses before he could lift the MP9 to aim.

Clive’s eyes widened in shock as they came face-to-face. It was just a heartbeat of hesitation on Clive’s part, but it was enough for Keo to snake both arms around the man’s waist and lift him two feet off the ground. Then Clive was whaling on Keo’s head with the submachine gun’s collapsible stock.

Ignore it!

It doesn’t hurt!

Much!

Keo grunted, drawing forth every ounce of strength he had left, from whatever reserves he still had at his disposal, and threw himself—and Clive, trapped within Keo’s grip—forward and down, slamming the Bucky back-first into the hard asphalt. He was hoping to crack open Clive’s skull like a watermelon, but the man managed to raise his head in time. But Keo was still rewarded with a massive grunt exploding out of Clive’s mouth, and even better, a glimpse of the Brügger & Thomet as it clattered onto the shoulder of the road.

Keo didn’t let the excruciating flames burning up and down his left calf and throughout his entire body slow him down. He couldn’t afford to.

Don’t stop, or Lara’s dead!

DON’T STOP, OR LARA’S DEAD!

He scrambled to get on top of Clive, even as the Bucky snarled up at him while his right hand snaked down for his holstered pistol.

“Dundee! There you are!” Clive shouted. Or laughed. It sounded like the maniac was actually laughing.

“You found me!” Keo shouted back.

The scissors were still in Keo’s right hand, and he swung it down at Clive’s face.

Bull’s eye!

Clive let out an ear-bleeding shriek as the blunt point of the scissors disappeared into his left eye. The eyeball made a squishy popping noise, and blood splashed Keo’s hand, but he kept pushing down, pushing down, trying to get to the brain on the other side.

Bang-bang-bang! as Clive pulled the trigger on his pistol.

Bullets zipped! past Keo’s left ear, but they didn’t all miss him. There was now a new source of pain coming from his left arm, around the shoulder blade area, but he ignored it and launched himself off Clive and rolled on the highway for a bit.

But not too far. A one-eyed Clive wasn’t going to stay down. Not by a long shot.

Clive was screaming incoherently as he sat up and looked around, searching for Keo with his one remaining good eye. When he finally located Keo, he swung his gun—a Glock—around and shouted, “That fucking hurt, you punter!”

It was supposed to! Keo thought as he scrambled on his hands and knees and dove as Clive fired again.

A miss!

Keo landed behind Clive, got up on his knees, and wrapped his left arm—the same one that was covered in blood now (Damn, that’s a lot of blood!)—around the Bucky’s neck and pulled tight.

“I told you this would be fun!” Clive shouted as he stuck his gun over his right shoulder and fired.

Keo jerked his head to the other side of Clive’s, but the gunshot still left his ears ringing.

Deafness, here I come!

But he didn’t let a little ringing (okay, a lot of ringing) stop him. Keo pressed the palm of his right hand against the back of Clive’s head and twisted the man’s torso slightly to the left. Clive fired again—and missed again. Before he could get a third shot in, Keo shoved the Bucky’s head forward and down.

Clive managed to croak out something, but it was mostly lost in the sound of the man’s face colliding with the highway. Keo swore he heard the scissors, still embedded in Clive’s eye, make a sickening plomp noise as it slid even further into the man’s skull with the impact.

The Glock clacked to the road, but Clive was still moving.

No, just twitching.

Death throes.

Two seconds…

Three…

Then Clive went still.

“About fucking time,” Keo said before finally allowing himself to lie back down on the road.

He stared up at the sun while trying to catch his breath and doing his best to ignore the warm sensations of wetness gathering underneath him. He told himself to get up, to go untie Lara, but he couldn’t make himself move no matter how hard he tried.

Get up. Get up!

But he couldn’t. He just…couldn’t.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay there staring up at the cloudless sky, gasping for breath like a dying man (Not too far from the truth. Any time now, any time…), but eventually a shadow blotted out the sun.

Lara, leaning over him.

Somehow she’d made it down from the truck and removed the tape from her mouth, though her hands were still bound. He hadn’t seen it before, but she had a fresh cut along her forehead and it was bleeding, though not nearly as much as he was, that was for sure.

I’m definitely winning on that front.

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

Lara picked his head up from the road and placed it in her lap. She looked over at Clive, lying on his side nearby, before turning back to Keo.

“I needed those scissors,” she said quietly.

He grinned. “Sorry. Spur of the moment.”

“It’s okay. I forgive you.”

She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead, then the lips.

“As long as you stay with me,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Sure. Got some free days coming up.”

She smiled, then laid his head back down. “Wait here.”

He couldn’t find the energy to answer that time, so he didn’t do anything. Instead he watched Lara kneeling next to Clive’s body as she pulled the scissors out of his eye. It took a while, because it was buried almost halfway up to the big handles. Lara didn’t let a little spurting blood stop her, and Keo thought, That’s my girl.

Lara cut her legs free before crawling the short distance back to him. “I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” he said.

She got up and hurried off.

Keo turned his head—it was really the only motion he had left under his command—and stared at Clive’s unmoving form. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but there was plenty of blood underneath his head. Maybe almost as much as the puddle (Puddles, you mean) forming generously underneath his own body.

“Find Lara. Save Lara. Kill everyone that gets in the way.”

Check. Check. And check.

He closed his eyes.

Before he lost consciousness again, his last image was of a small gray-winged beast gliding majestically across the cloudless sky above. Keo thought that was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, just before Lara reappeared above him, and he realized he was wrong.

Epilogue

They saw the white sails from a distance and figured whoever was driving the boat could probably see them, too. If not them, then the big green Army truck sitting on the beach nearby, its tires half buried in the sand after sitting there for the last five days. There was nothing else for miles in either direction.

Lara spotted the boat first. It was all white, and using the lone figure onboard as a guide, Keo guessed it was an eighteen-footer, with a waist-high cabin near the front. The man guiding the water craft saw them, but instead of turning away, he veered the sailboat in their direction.

Keo thought that was kind of odd. In the man’s shoes, he would have gone the other direction. After all, what idiot parked an Army truck on a beach along the southeast Texas coastline in the middle of nowhere? Because that was exactly where they were. Literally nowhere.

But there was the boat, getting closer.

Maybe it was the sight of Keo and Lara sitting on the sand. They had their hands over their bent knees, casually (and nonthreateningly) watching the fisherman back like two beachgoers enjoying the last thirty minutes or so of daylight. The man had binoculars, the remaining lights glinting off their lens, so he could definitely see them with ease.

The man wasn’t completely alone. There was a brown dog sitting calmly at the bow of the boat like some furry figurehead. The animal occasionally licked itself, looking very used to being out there in the Gulf of Mexico surrounded by water.

“What’s he doing?” Lara asked, watching the boat get bigger.

“Coming over here,” Keo said.

“I get that. But why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

“Maybe we look friendly. Just don’t let him see all your bandages.”

“Don’t worry, they’re hidden under my clothes.”

“Good.”

“Maybe he just really likes blondes.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. I like blondes, too. And brunettes. And redheads…”

“But you’re settling for a blonde, is that it?”

“Something like that.”

“Watch yourself, mister.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Keo said, watching as the boat ran aground and the fisherman went to work pulling down his sails with practiced ease.

Now that’s a man who’s been doing this for a while.

The dog hopped off the craft first and raced across the sand. The fisherman shouted after it, but the animal ignored him and kept coming.

“That’s a fast animal,” Lara said.

“Not as fast as Horse,” Keo said.

“Whatever happened to that horse of yours, you think?”

“No idea. Probably still running around out there somewhere.”

They watched the dog get closer. It was a big one, and it stopped in front of Keo and sniffed him.

“Someone smells food,” Keo said.

“Don’t feed strange animals,” Lara said.

“Oh, come on. What harm could it do?”

“Plenty.”

“You’re just being paranoid.”

“After what we went through, you’re still saying that?”

“Gotta look at the bright side of life. We’re still alive, aren’t we?”

“Captain Optimism,” Lara said, but he saw her smiling out of the corner of his eye.

Keo held out his hand to the dog. He had a piece of pound cake in his palm. The snack was part of the box of MREs that Mitchell and the other two Buckies had smuggled out of the Mercerian OP besides Keo and Lara. There had been enough food and water in the truck to last the two of them for months. The fuel, on the other hand, hadn’t been as plentiful, and they’d run out of gas five days ago. With Keo still healing from his many wounds, there hadn’t been any hurry to abandon the vehicle.

The dog came closer, sniffing the food in Keo’s hand, before swiping at a chunk with a big, wet tongue. It must have liked what it tasted, because the animal gobbled up all the pieces of pound cake and swallowed them down.

“Good boy,” Keo said, scratching the animal’s head. It leaned in closer to get more.

Lara reached over to lend a hand, scratching the dog under the chin.

“Don’t scratch strange animals,” Keo said.

“Oh, shut up,” Lara said.

He grinned, watching as the dog’s owner jumped off the boat and walked over to them. He was an older man—early fifties, with almost all white hair and a healthy tan. He was wearing cut-off jeans and a long-sleeve denim shirt that had seen a lot of wear and tear. Keo imagined the fisherman wasn’t always a fisherman.

Adapt or perish.

“Hey, folks,” the man said.

“Hey yourself,” Keo said.

“Hi,” Lara said.

The fisherman stopped in front of them and glanced over at the truck before looking back at his dog as it crumpled into a ball between Keo and Lara. Keo continued scratching the animal’s head while Lara took out another piece of pound cake from the open bag of MRE next to her. The dog opened its mouth without prompting, and Lara fed it.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the fisherman said. “Now he’s going to expect a scratch and snack every time he sees you two.”

“He’s a good dog,” Keo said. “Good dogs get scratched and fed.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He held out his hand to Keo. “George.”

Keo shook it. “Bob.”

“You don’t look like a Bob.”

“Don’t I?”

“Nope.”

“What can I say, every other name was taken.”

“Hunh.”

Keo liked that reaction. He nodded at Lara. “This is Edna.”

“Edna,” George said, shaking Lara’s hand.

“Nice to meet you, George,” Lara said.

George put his hands on his hips and looked around at the long stretch of beach. There was really nothing to see, with the main highway about two miles behind them on the other side of a field of waist-high grass. Lara, who had done all of the driving, had chosen this spot for a reason.

“Does that still work?” George asked, nodding at the truck.

“Yes, but it’s out of gas,” Lara said. “But we have plenty of food, if you want some.”

“You have anything besides fish? ’Cause I really, really would like to eat something other than fish again before I die.”

Lara smiled and stood up, brushing sand off her hands and pants. “I’ll grab something that isn’t fish for you.”

“Thanks kindly, Edna.”

“No problem, George.” Lara put a hand on Keo’s shoulder, and when he looked up, “Don’t you run off on me now…Bob.”

Keo grinned up at her. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be stuck with me for a long time, Edna.”

“I’m a lucky girl,” Lara said, and walked to the truck.

George looked after her, before turning back to Keo. “She doesn’t look much like an Edna, either.”

“No?” Keo said.

“Nope, but I guess folks can call themselves whatever they want these days. Me, for instance, my name’s not really George, though I probably do look like a George.”

“What does a George look like?”

“Guy with a dog. Probably an ex-lawyer. Or patent attorney. Something boring like that but well-paying, so he puts up with it.”

Keo chuckled. “Nice gig, if you can get it.”

“Too bad the pay’s not what it used to be.”

“Too bad a lot of things are not what they used to be. Where you from, George?”

“Fishing village about twenty miles down the coastline.”

“Isn’t Mexico twenty miles down the coastline?”

“Close. I was heading back for the day when I spotted your truck. You don’t see something like that a lot these days.”

“You must not get out much, George.”

“Actually, I don’t. I fish and I go home. Then I wake up and I fish some more. It’s a pretty easy life. Boring, but that’s how I like it, especially these days.”

“Amen to that. There’s nothing wrong with boring.”

“So what are you and Edna doing here, Bob? If I may ask?”

“I guess you could say we’re at a crossroads. Putting our past behind us and all that good stuff.”

“Does it have anything to do with where you got that big ugly green truck?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Keo smiled. “This village. Does it have a name?”

“Nope. We just call it home.”

“You and the dog?”

“He and I, and some other people.” George watched Lara returning with a new bag of MRE. “You got lucky there, Bob. Damn lucky.”

Keo grinned. “Yeah, that’s me, Lucky Bob,” he said, staring over at Lara as she walked back to them.

Lara gave him a What are you staring at? look, but that turned into a smile, and he thought she might have even blushed a little bit. Of course, it could have just been the fading sun playing tricks with him.

“You picked out something good for George, Edna?” Keo called over.

“You betcha, Bob,” Lara called back, holding up the MRE.

They exchanged a smile, and Keo thought, Find Lara. Save Lara. Then take it from there.

Check, check, and check.