The Ashes of Pompeii

CHAPTER 12 LARA

As she moved through the Trident for the second time, Keo’s words from last night kept echoing inside her head:

“Regardless of how many times you push them back, delay them, or repel a full-on frontal assault. You can’t do it forever. Sooner or later, if they want this island bad enough, they’ll get it. And when that happens, a lot of people will die.”

She had resisted it at first, but she knew he was right. She had always known. Even when Will and Danny finally returned, how long could they possible keep Song Island afloat? Sooner or later, Kate was going to throw more men at them. Even if they fought back one wave, what about the next? Or the one after that?

Kate had soldiers. Maybe not authentic soldiers, but they were real enough when you gave them assault rifles and pointed them at a target. Anyone could squeeze a trigger. She knew that personally, as did everyone else on the island at the moment. Bonnie, Jo, Gwen, Carly…and her. It didn’t take a lot of skill to storm an island, especially one that didn’t (couldn’t) move. You just needed manpower. And that was something the enemy had an abundance of.

Which was why she had wanted the yacht when she first laid eyes on it last night. Her mind had swirled with possibilities then, and it still did now. Was this what it was like to be Will? Always trying to think of the next move before the bad guys did?

This would be easier if you were here with me, Will. So what the hell’s taking you so long?

She was inside the dining room on the main deck of the Trident when she heard a boat cruising by outside. She didn’t have to look out one of the windows to know who it was.

Keo. Leaving.

Dammit.

Her best-case scenario had been to keep him around, even after Will and Danny came back. With Danny in the Tower with the ACOG-mounted rifle and Will and Keo on the beach organizing the defense, they could have held out for a while.

But not forever. Never forever.

“Sooner or later, if they want this island bad enough, they’ll get it. And when that happens, a lot of people will die.”

He was right from day one. As much as she wanted him to be wrong, she knew he wasn’t.

The trick is to keep everyone alive. So how do I do that? Can I do that? Or am I staring down the barrel of inevitability?

Wow, that was almost poetic, Lara. You should write a poem.

The squawking radio snapped her out of her thoughts. Carly, watching from the Tower. “There he goes, boss lady. We should have thrown Bonnie at him. She would have totally been able to convince him to stay.”

Lara smiled and said into the radio, “You know Bonnie’s listening to this, right?”

“Oops.”

“No, no, I would have done it,” Bonnie said through the radio. “Take one for the team, as it were.”

“I wouldn’t have asked you to, Bonnie.”

“You wouldn’t have had to. But I don’t think he would have gone for it, anyway. It sounds like he’s loyal to the girlfriend.”

“Wow, a faithful boyfriend,” Carly said. “Wonder what that’s like.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Lara said. “Yours is coming home right now.”

“Speaking of which, when are they supposed to radio back? It’s past noon, and I keep looking at the radio and it refuses to make a sound. Stupid radio. Are you sure it’s not broken?”

“It’s fine. They’ll radio when they’re closer.”

“How are you so calm?”

Because I don’t have a choice. If I think about Will, I’ll just end up paralyzed with worry. Because I love him. Because I can’t imagine life without him. Because I’m afraid he’ll never come back to me and that possibility terrifies me, and right now, I can’t afford to be terrified.

“Relax,” she said. “They’ll be here. Until then, keep your eyes on the lake. You see someone in a uniform, you shoot him.”

“They’ll have to come pretty close,” Carly said. “I’m not exactly Annie Oakley up here.”

“Hey, guys?” Maddie said, cutting into the conversation. “Sorry to break up the girl talk, but there’s something you have to see down here, Lara.”

“Where are you?” Lara asked.

“The swimming area on the lower deck.”

“I’m on my way.”

Lara cut through the fancy dining room to reach the back of the boat sooner. She hadn’t expected to find something like it onboard, but then she’d never been on a luxury yacht before. The more she explored, the more possibilities she saw. There were so many rooms and spaces that could be put to other uses. It could work, she thought, with enough time and preparation. She just had to make a decision.

Because they’ll do what I tell them. God help me, they’ll actually do what I tell them.

She climbed down the rung of stairs at the rear of the boat and hopped the last few feet to the lower deck. Maddie was waiting for her with her hands on her hips.

“What is it?” Lara asked, walking over.

“We’re not alone,” Maddie said. “Keo was right. There’s someone else still on the boat.”

“How do you know?”

Maddie pointed at a pair of shoe prints on the all-white deck. Lara didn’t know what she was supposed to see. There were a lot of prints, which made sense since she, Maddie, and the others had been coming and going all morning.

“What about them?” Lara said.

“They’re not ours, Lara.”

“How can you tell?”

“We’re all wearing boots. Those are tennis shoes.”

Lara stared again, but she couldn’t tell the difference. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent,” Maddie nodded.

Lara instinctively put her right hand over her holstered sidearm and looked back at the two decks above and behind them. “How long ago?”

“I just noticed them now, but they look pretty fresh. They weren’t here when we came back earlier. That means whoever it was, he was checking out our boat. Maybe looking for a way off.”

“Just one pair of prints?”

“Just the one.”

Lara unclipped her radio and keyed it. “Blaine, where are you?”

“I’m still on the bridge,” Blaine answered. “What’s wrong?”

“It looks like that eighth guy exists after all.”

“Figures,” Blaine said. “What do you want us to do?”

“I’m heading back to the island with Maddie, then I’m sending her back over with Roy. Until then, I want you to lock the bridge door. Don’t open it for anyone until we have more men onboard to take this boat apart floor by floor.”

“Roger that.”

Lara looked into the deck behind them. The windows weren’t tinted enough to hide the rooms on the other side, but she had discovered for herself that the Trident was deceptively larger in person than it appeared on the outside. There were too many rooms, too many hallways, and too many corners to hide in.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she whispered softly to herself.

Gage, the “captain” of the Trident, looked healthy for a man who had just been shot in the kneecap with his own gun less than twenty-four hours ago. He sat on one of the beds they had repurposed from the unused hotel rooms and put into the makeshift infirmary. He was still wearing the same clothes from last night, though one of his pant legs had been cut away to treat his wound.

Zoe looked over from the counter where she was scribbling on a notepad when Lara knocked on the open door. Benny, who sat guard across from Gage, looked up before quickly turning off the PlayStation Vita portable gaming console in his hands. One of the benefits of the island was the electronic devices. They didn’t have the Internet anymore, of course, but laptops and computers (and the games on them) were still useable.

Lara pretended she didn’t see Benny scrambling to put the PS Vita away and said to Zoe, “How is he, doc?”

“See for yourself,” Zoe said. She swiveled around in her stool. “Stan’s making him one of those leg braces like Benny’s. Once he has that, our fair captain should be up and marauding again in a few days. He’ll just be a lot more gimpy, that’s all.”

If Gage was insulted by being called a “marauder,” he didn’t show it. Not that he had any right to take offense. The word was appropriate, given what he and the friends had planned to do to Song Island. In the few minutes she’d talked to the man, Gage hadn’t lied to her once. Or, at least, she hadn’t caught him in an obvious falsehood yet. In fact, the man seemed at home with what he was and what he had done. She hadn’t expected that, and a part of her was actually impressed with his frankness.

She sat down on a chair at the foot of his bed. “The eighth man. Does he have a name?”

“I thought you didn’t believe he existed,” Gage said. “You didn’t care about his name back when I told you and that Chinese guy about him.”

“Korean,” Benny said.

“What?” Gage said.

“Keo’s half-Korean, asshole.”

“Same difference.”

“Answer the question,” Lara said.

“Boris,” Gage said, turning back to her. “His name’s Boris.”

“Is he Russian?”

Gage smirked. “Nah. It’s just what we call him.”

“Why?”

“Did you find him yet?”

“No. But we will. Tell me about Boris.”

“What’s to tell? He was a crewman on the Trident before I even signed up. After we, er, took over, he decided to stay onboard. He knows that boat better than everyone, including me.”

“You gave him a choice to stay or leave?”

“Of course I did,” Gage said, sounding almost offended. “Everyone who stayed did so because they wanted to. I didn’t have to force anyone.”

“What happened to the owners of the boat?” Zoe asked.

Gage looked past Lara at the doctor. “We took the boat,” he said, as if that should explain everything.

“How did you take the boat?”

“How do you think we took the boat? They didn’t exactly want to give it up. So we took it.”

“What will Boris do next?” Lara asked.

“What do you mean?” Gage said, shifting back to her.

“Will he try to get off the boat? Like the other two did last night?”

“I have no idea. It’s not like we’re joined at the hip. I captained the boat, and he worked the decks.”

“He sweep the poop deck?” Benny grinned.

Lara ignored him and said to Gage, “Is he dangerous?”

Gage shrugged. “It’s a dangerous world. Who isn’t, these days?”

Lara stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if the man was holding something back. Gage was in his late thirties, with a hardened face that had seen a lot of sunlight over its lifetime. She could imagine this man nonchalantly shooting the Trident’s previous owner and assuming command simply because he could. She’d guess that anyone who traveled with him would be capable of that same level of violence.

She nodded and stood up. “Okay.”

“What about me?” Gage asked.

“What about you?”

“What happens to me now?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Right now, you’re still valuable because I might need someone to pilot the boat. But that doesn’t mean I’ll hesitate to throw you into the water if you endanger my people in any way. I’m betting that with time, I can teach someone to push all those buttons on the bridge.”

“Yeah, but there are so, so many buttons,” Gage said, grinning at her. When he didn’t get the reaction he was expecting, he lost the stupid grin and frowned instead. “Look, truth is, I was a captain before all of this, and I can be your captain, too. I mean, I’m not above taking orders. I did it for most of my life. I can do it again.”

“Good to know.” She glanced at Benny, who sat up straighter. “Keep an eye on him. If he does anything that’s even the least bit threatening toward you or Zoe, you have my permission to shoot him in the other kneecap.” She looked back at Gage. “Who needs legs to push some buttons, right?”

Gage swallowed.

“Gotcha,” Benny said.

Lara walked back to the door, where Zoe was waiting for her. Lara was glad to see the doctor up and moving around. She might have been a third-year medical student back when the world still made sense, but Zoe was the real deal. Lara had a feeling they would need her in the days to come.

Lara nodded at the hallway outside. Zoe understood and followed her out, and Lara closed the door behind them.

“Any word from Will?” Zoe asked.

“He’s on his way back now. He’ll radio in when he’s closer.”

“Good. For a moment there, I thought he might be in trouble. Then I remember who I’m worrying about.”

“Will can take care of himself. It’s us I’m worried about.” She looked back at the door. “You have to be careful around him. Gage. He’s dangerous.”

“I know. That’s what Benny’s here for, right?”

“Benny’s just a kid.”

Zoe smiled at her.

“What?” Lara said.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Jesus, you’re just a kid, too. All of you guys, except for Mae and Kendra, are just kids.”

Lara smiled. Zoe had a point there. “I guess I haven’t felt like a kid in a long time.”

“I know. Everyone grows up fast these days. You have to.”

We all adapt and grow, or not at all. Adapt or perish.

“Just remember not to relax too much around Gage,” Lara said. “He’s not our friend.”

“Oh, trust me, I know. I just spent an hour with that guy.”

“Good. I gotta get back to the boat and look for Boris.”

Lara turned to go, when Zoe said, “Hey.” When Lara stopped and looked back, Zoe said, “I’m glad Will’s fine, and that he’s coming home.”

“Yeah, me too.”

They exchanged an awkward smile before Zoe went back into the infirmary.

Lara continued up the hall. She unclipped her radio and keyed it. “Blaine, come in.”

“You headed back?” Blaine answered.

“I have to collect a few more bodies to help with the search. Anything happen while I was away?”

“Nothing exciting. Any word on our mystery man?”

“His name’s Boris.”

“Boris? What is he, some kind of Russian?”

“Apparently that’s just what they call him.”

“Hunh.”

“That’s what I said.”

She was halfway back to the beach when a slight echo, like a warm and wet popping sound, from far away drifted across the island. It sounded like it was coming all the way from the other side of the lake.

“Anyone hear that?” Maddie asked through the radio. “I’m pretty sure that was a gunshot.”

“Did it come from the yacht?” Lara asked, alarmed.

“Definitely not the yacht,” Blaine said through the radio. “I’m on the bridge, and it doesn’t sound close.”

“Okay, stay where you are, Blaine,” Lara said. “Maddie…”

“We can take off as soon as you show up,” Maddie said.

Lara smiled to herself and started jogging down the pathway that connected the hotel grounds to the beach.

We’re like a well-oiled machine. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but we’re definitely getting pretty good at this.

She said into the radio as she ran, “Everyone hold your positions. I repeat: hold your positions.”

Two more shots rang out, followed by a long silence, before two more popping noises echoed across the water. It had to have come from the other side of the lake. She remembered hearing the ferocious gunfire between Will and some of Kate’s collaborators months ago from the nearby marina, and those had sounded much louder.

She was halfway back to the beach when there was a long series of gunshots. These came faster and furious, the pop-pop-pop signaling the unmistakable exchange of automatic rifle fire between two sides.

What was going on out there? It couldn’t have been Will. He would have radioed as he got closer. Plus, the shooting seemed to be coming from the other side of the lake. Will had no reason to venture that far out, especially when a simple radio call would bring a boat to him.

Maddie was waiting for her on the pier, looking out at the lake with binoculars as Lara walked up behind her. “Anything?”

Maddie shook her head. “It’s too far south. The only reason we can hear it is because we’re downwind.”

“So it’s probably not meant for us.”

“I don’t think so, no.” She looked over. “What should we do?”

Lara didn’t answer right away. What should they do? If the shooting was coming from the other side of the lake, it was closer to the Gulf of Mexico than the island. Was what was happening out there worth finding out? What if it was some kind of elaborate trap to lure them out? The last thing she wanted was to send someone out there and have them be picked off by snipers along the shoreline.

What would Will do?

“Lara?” Maddie said. “What should we do?”

“I don’t—” The loud boom! of a shotgun blast cut her off.

This one was much closer to home.

The Trident.

Even as that revelation hit her, there was a second boom! and moments later, the pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire. It sounded like they were coming from the upper parts of the boat.

The bridge.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Maddie said. “That’s him?”

“I guess,” Blaine said.

“Him” was Boris. Or a man she assumed was Boris, though she couldn’t be sure without bringing Gage over to the boat to ID him.

The man was large, almost as big as Blaine, with a bushy red beard and a very pale complexion, which was amazing given that he probably spent most of the last year on a boat, basking in the sun. Or maybe he spent most of his time in the engine room, which would explain how he could have hidden from Blaine and Roy earlier in the day.

Whoever he was, he was lying on his stomach a few feet inside the bridge. Blood pooled under him and his head was turned to one side, black eyes staring almost accusingly across the room at Blaine.

A pump-action shotgun leaned against a nearby wall where Blaine had put it. That shotgun had blasted a hole in the bridge door where the lock and doorknob used to be. Having stumbled inside, Boris (unless, of course, there was a second man running around on the Trident) had taken a shot at Blaine only to miss, sending buckshot into another part of the wraparound windshield and adding to the existing damage.

Lara looked at Blaine. “You okay?”

He nodded. “He surprised me, that’s all.”

“Man, we need to stop people from firing guns on the bridge,” Maddie said. “We’re lucky no one’s shot out the control panels so far.”

“I guess he was waiting for just one of us to be on the boat,” Blaine said. “Lucky me.”

“Or maybe he was using the shooting across the lake as a diversion,” Lara said. “Maybe he thought it was his best chance to take back the bridge.”

“Well, the poor bastard figured wrong.”

“Looks like it,” Maddie said. “So, who’s gonna clean up this mess?”

“Don’t look at me.”

“You shot him.”

Blaine pretended he didn’t hear her and said to Lara, “You guys figured out what all the shooting before was?”

“We don’t know, but it was coming from the southern part of the lake,” Lara said.

“It has to be Keo. He went in that direction, and the timing’s right. Maybe we should go see if he needs help.”

Lara didn’t answer right away.

“Lara,” Blaine said. “He could be hurt.”

“No,” she said finally. “Keo’s on his own.” She glanced at her watch. “Besides, we have other work to do now that Boris isn’t a problem anymore. It’s past noon, which means it’ll be dark in less than seven hours.”

Maddie and Blaine exchanged a worried look. Maybe they were hoping she’d change her mind about Keo.

“Head back to the island and bring Gage over,” Lara said to Maddie. “I need to find out what this boat’s fully capable of.”

“So we’re definitely using it,” Blaine said.

Lara nodded. “I don’t know how yet — not exactly — but yeah, I think we’re going to use it.”

CHAPTER 13 KEO

It was eight kilometers from Song Island to the mouth of the channel that connected Beaufont Lake and the Gulf of Mexico. After thirty minutes of traveling at full speed across the wide-open lake, seeing the narrow corridor coming up made Keo slow down to half speed. He instinctively loosened the MP5SD and laid it on top of the console behind the steering wheel.

Better safe than sorry.

Like the rest of the shoreline, the channel was flanked by swaying sunbaked grass on both sides and buildings rose in the distance farther inland. He guessed the channel was about 300 meters wide, which was big enough for most vessels, including the Trident that had come through last night.

He cruised the sixteen-footer toward the familiar bridge that arced over the water and connected the two sides of the channel. The metal structure looked as dangerously old now as it did when he had driven over it yesterday with Blaine and Bonnie. After making sure there was no one on top of it, he glided the boat underneath and onto the other side, passing floating red and green buoys marking the edges of the channel.

More flat and uninteresting fields of grass greeted him. It was peaceful out here, but instead of putting Keo at ease, it only made him more alert. He belatedly noticed that the windshield in front of him only went up slightly higher than his waist, which made it useless in terms of protection. Not that he expected a thin piece of clear plastic was going to deflect a bullet, but, well, something was better than nothing.

A kilometer and a half into the channel, the buildings started to become clearer in the distance. He spotted eerily empty marinas and abandoned shrimp barges, and warehouses dotted both sides of the landscape. Cranes and towering equipment, part of whatever industry had once thrived here, crisscrossed the skyline like ancient sentries. He wondered how long they would remain like that before the elements pulled them back down to earth.

He was glad for the motor running behind him. Keo thought he would become used to the silence of an empty world by now, almost a year in, but that was always proven false whenever he went through an area that was, once upon a time, a nest of activity. The marina back at Lake Dulcet was one of those places. The desolation always got to him, a reminder that no matter what he did, how many promises he kept, or bad (badder) men he killed, the world as he knew it was gone. And in its place was…this.

Whatever “this” was.

He was too far away from land to make out a group of businesses, but they looked like stores or possibly offices. He hadn’t really gotten the chance to explore the area yesterday, and Lara and the others had no reasons to. He did think the two Army Rangers would have at least taken some time to scout their immediate AO for potential dangers, though, and was surprised to learn that they, in fact, hadn’t—

Crack!

The windshield in front of him shattered and Keo instinctively grabbed the submachine gun with one hand, pulled back on the control lever with the other, and hit the plywood floor a split second later.

He waited to hear a follow-up shot, but there wasn’t one. Instead, there was just the boat continuing to move, its forward momentum keeping it going up the channel even though he had put the shift into neutral. Thank God this part of the lake was wide enough that it would take a miracle for him to run aground—

Crack!

The hull in front of him splintered, and a round zipped! to the right of his head and exited the other side before plopping! into the water.

A sniper.

Jesus Christ. There was a sniper out there. A pretty good one, too, since the guy was probably shooting at him from 150 meters or more from land.

He’s a better shot than me, that’s for damned sure.

The boat’s momentum had lessened by quite a bit now, but it hadn’t stopped completely. How much farther was the channel entrance? If he could reach the Gulf of Mexico, he had an entire ocean to escape into. Even the world’s best sniper couldn’t hit him out there.

Of course, Keo hadn’t lifted his head to make sure of his current position. That would have been a fool move that, quite possibly, also ended his life. Judging by the angle of the first two shots, he guessed he was getting closer to the shooter. The first round had hit from in front of him, and the second had penetrated the boat at an almost 120 degree angle at the port side. Pretty soon, he’d be sidling right alongside the bastard. That, unfortunately, was also going to make it much easier for the guy.

He thought about reaching up and pushing the throttle forward to hasten his trip to the channel’s entrance. That might work, as long as he kept going straight like an arrow. Of course, if the boat started to drift to either the left or right side, he might very well run right into one of those barges or hit the shoreline. It was kind of hard to steer when he couldn’t even see over the sides at the moment.

He kept waiting to hear a follow-up torrent of gunfire and was again surprised there wasn’t any. What was the man waiting for? Maybe the guy couldn’t see him. Keo was flat against the floor of the boat, and if he couldn’t see above the portside gunwale, chances were very good the guy (or guys, if his luck was really that bad) couldn’t see him, either. The fact that the man hadn’t fired again was unsettling. A man who didn’t shoot randomly was a lot more dangerous than one who just fired blindly at a target.

So how did that help him?

It didn’t, really.

He was stuck, and the boat had slowed down to a crawl now even though the engine was still coughing behind him, threatening to shut down at any second. His only available line of sight was up at the open skies, because looking left, right, front, or back only offered up the same ugly navy color.

He realized now how stupid pulling back on the gear had been. The smarter move would have been to pour on the power, because his best chance to survive was to blast right up the channel and stay low. Even a great shooter was going to have difficulty hitting a moving target, and that was what he would have been.

Live and learn, pal.

How good was this guy, anyway? That was the million dollar question. How long would the shooter need to acquire a target and pull the trigger? A second? Half a second? Two? Because that was how long Keo guessed he would need to lift himself up from the floor and expose himself (or, at least, his nice, big juicy head) while he reached for the lever, made sure of his direction, and pointed the boat at the Gulf of Mexico.

Two seconds.

Okay, maybe three…or four.

That was a long time. He had killed men in less time than that, and he was a lousy shot. This guy, on the other hand…

Four seconds.

Damn. Stuck between the Gulf of Mexico and a wet grave. What a way to go.

Keo put the MP5SD down and pushed both palms against the floor and readied to spring himself up. The first motion would get his feet back under him and the second would send him straight up, just far enough to reach the steering wheel and control lever. It wasn’t exactly brain surgery, and all he’d have to do was keep from getting his head blown off in the four seconds he probably had. Probably. Once he made sure the boat was pointed in the right direction and the motor was at full throttle, he could jump back down and only expose his hand. If the sniper managed to shoot off his arm while he was moving at full speed, then more power to him.

Who needs two arms, anyway?

Keo sucked in a deep breath. It was slightly stale and smelled of dead sea life, not to mention whatever chemical they had been pumping out of those industrial buildings from the nearby areas.

Two breaths…three…

On five, he jumped — got both feet under him, pushed up, twisted to his right, grabbed the rubber-covered steering wheel with one hand and the metal lever with the other and—

Oh, crap.

It was a Jeep. About a hundred meters farther up the channel. The vehicle was bright yellow against the brown and green fields, and men were jumping out of the back. He didn’t need binoculars to know they were probably all armed, and from the way they were running toward the shoreline, they knew exactly where he was and what they were going to do when they reached it, and he reached them.

And then there was the sniper—

The loud crack! of another gunshot split the air, just before something hit him in the right shoulder and spun him slightly. He fought through the pain, ignoring it (or at least telling himself to) and shoved the throttle all the way back up. The motor roared and instead of holding the steering wheel straight, Keo spun it right until the boat turned away from the swarm of men and he was arcing in a wide U-turn.

Water churned under him and he ducked just as another shot zipped over his head, right where he had been standing a brief half-second ago. The boat was swinging around in a wide circle — too wide — and he was holding on for dear life. There was a solid thunk! as he broadsided one of the buoys, warning him that he was getting too close to the shallower parts of the channel.

He waited for the sniper to shoot again, but the man either didn’t have a bead on him or—

Crack! Another round buzzed past his head just as the boat completed its U-turn, coming dangerously close to ramming into the other side of the channel. He righted the vessel, spinning the wheel back left as the sixteen-footer fought against the surface while tearing up the lake, back in the direction he had come moments ago.

He expected to hear the pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire as the men from the Jeep opened up on him, but to his surprise, they didn’t. Not that he spent more than a few seconds thinking about it. He remained kneeling, steering with one hand, hoping something didn’t pop up in front of him and take him out in a collision.

Five seconds…ten seconds…

He had put enough distance between him and the shooter that Keo felt safe enough to stand up. A good thing, too, because he had swerved dangerously too close to the left shore in the last few seconds and had to quickly right the boat again. He slashed underneath the bridge a second time and finally burst back into the wider section of Beaufont Lake.

Then, and only then, did he let himself glance over his shoulder back into the channel.

Silhouetted figures, like twigs in the distance, were scrambling around on land. If the sniper was among them, Keo couldn’t tell. Not that he had seen the man during the whole ordeal. But he had to be somewhere in the weeds, close enough to the water that he could see everything in the channel. He knew for a fact the gunshots had all come from ground level. If the guy had been higher up — positioned on one of those cranes, for instance — Keo would have been a dead man.

The drip-drip of blood on the console reminded him he hadn’t made it out of the channel completely unscathed. The bullet had clipped his right shoulder, taking a quarter inch of flesh for its trouble. He was bleeding, but it looked worse than it really was. A dripping wound was better than a pouring one.

He didn’t stop the boat until he had gone for a few more minutes. Keo opened the compartment under the console and fished out the first aid kit. It was a dirty white box, but the contents were clean the last time he checked. He rolled up the sleeve and disinfected the wound, then wrapped it up with gauze and taped it into place. The pain was slight and nothing he couldn’t handle. After surviving all those months in the woods with a pair of holes in him, this was more of an inconvenience.

He hadn’t finished putting the first aid kit back under the console when he heard a second outboard motor filling the air behind him. Keo glanced back just as a fast-moving white boat blasted out of the mouth of the channel. It was pointed straight in his direction and men clung to it. He couldn’t tell how many, or if they were wearing uniforms or not from the distance.

The sight of them set him off. He wasn’t sure if it was annoyance, anger, or maybe a little of both. Probably a lot of both, now that he thought about it. He picked up the M4 from the floor and pulled back the collapsible stock. He flicked the fire selector to semiautomatic, then moved toward the stern and balanced himself for a few seconds before settling in behind the red dot scope. The optic wasn’t anything fancy, but he could see the moving vessel coming easily enough. Three hundred meters, and closing in fast.

Keo fired, waited, then fired again, then again, and again.

He didn’t know if he hit anything, but by the way the boat slowed down before breaking off the pursuit entirely, he assumed he had gotten close enough to spook them.

He lowered the rifle and waited for a response. He didn’t have to wait long. They fired back in his direction a moment later. Two shooters, and they were apparently just as bad at long-distance shooting as he was, because while a couple of rounds landed in the water off his starboard and one sailed harmlessly over his head, most of them didn’t even come close.

Keo thought about returning fire to let them know he was still standing, but decided they could probably see him just fine. The fact that they hadn’t kept coming was a sign they either weren’t ready to risk their lives chasing him, or they had orders to stay back. He wasn’t keen on either possibilities, but the latter gnawed at him.

By the time they stopped shooting, it was clear they weren’t going to chase him anymore, but they weren’t moving, either. That meant the channel was blocked off to him. Unless, of course, he was willing to shoot his way through. But even if he could get past these bozos, there was still that sniper out there, lying in wait in the weeds. Keo had a feeling that dickhead wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and he probably hadn’t hopped onto the boat along with these other guys.

Keo slung the M4 and walked back to the console. He pushed the throttle, and the boat jumped back to life and headed off. He glanced back once, to see if they would pursue, but they were just shifting back and forth against his waves, content to watch him go. Soon, they faded into the background.

So much for escaping into the Gulf of Mexico. He’d have to find another way to reach Santa Marie Island and Gillian.

Maybe he could try the roads. That had to be safer, right?

The Trident was where he last saw it, next to Song Island, with the long strip of white beaches on the other side. A small boat drifted off the stern next to the swim platform, where the beautiful people gathered to soak in the sun and take a dip when the wind moved them. At the moment, there was just Maddie’s small figure facing him, one hand shielding her eyes from the sun. He couldn’t tell if that was a smirk or a grin on her face as she watched him near.

Keo felt another pair of eyes and looked up at Blaine peering back down at him through his rifle’s optic. He lowered the M4 and waved from the rear of the upper deck, and Keo, feeling like a failed college student returning home to mom and dad, waved back.

“We figured you had something to do with all that shooting,” Maddie said when Keo sidled his boat alongside the yacht. “What happened? You ran into more old friends?”

“Not quite.”

“What happened to your arm?”

“Mosquito bite.”

“Must have been a big ass mosquito.”

“You have no idea.”

“And my boat?” she frowned. “You putting holes in my boat, Keo?”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.” Then, “Where’s Lara?”

“Up here,” Blaine called down. “You need a doctor?”

“No, I just need to talk to her. What’s happening up there?”

“Lara’s doing what she does,” Maddie said.

“I don’t know what that means,” Keo said.

“She’s looking for a way for us to survive tonight.”

“Did the Rangers show up yet?”

“Not yet.”

“When are you expecting them?”

Maddie looked anxiously down at her watch. “I have no idea, but it shouldn’t be long now.”

Or maybe they’re already dead. That seems to happen a lot to people out there these days.

But he said instead, “Yeah, they’ll probably be here soon.” He picked up his line, said, “Heads up,” and tossed it to Maddie.

He found Lara in the captain’s cabin behind the bridge on the upper deck of the Trident, looking at a large map spread out on a table in the center of the room. Sunlight poured in through two curtainless windows, and she looked up when he knocked on the open door.

“What happened to the bridge?” Keo asked.

“We found the eighth guy,” she said. “Or, actually, he found Blaine.”

“That explains the mess.”

“Yeah.” Then, “What happened out there?”

“Soldiers. I guess they weren’t keen on me leaving.”

She looked from his face to his bandaged shoulder. “You okay?”

“I’ll live.”

“How many were there, and where?”

He walked inside and slumped down on a felt armchair. Clothes were strewn about the floor, others draped off the large queen size bed behind her. The place looked and smelled heavily lived in.

“A handful of shooters at the channel,” he said. “It doesn’t look like they want anyone leaving this place. You can assume they’ve got people on the roads, too. Maybe even technicals.”

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“The last thing. Technicals?”

“Machine gun-mounted vehicles. Usually trucks. I saw a couple of soldiers with machine guns back at the staging area. Along with the M4s, I’m guessing they’re flushed with weapons, probably from one of the state armories in the area.”

Lara didn’t say anything for a while. He saw that mind of hers turning again, absorbing this new information and slotting them in order of importance. It was kind of impressive to see someone who was obviously smarter than him working in real-time.

“You think the Trident’s appearance had something to do with why they’re cutting off the Gulf?” she finally asked.

“They probably heard the commotion from last night and realized there was a possibility you might take off in that direction.”

Which means if I had left when I was supposed to, I would be at Santa Marie Island right now, on the beach with Gillian.

He sighed, and added, “Of course, they probably had no idea you were going to fight to the death to keep the island.”

“I don’t have a death wish, Keo,” she said, sounding slightly annoyed with him.

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’m not the one with a bleeding shoulder.”

“It’s just a flesh wound.”

“Go let Zoe fix it up anyway. You’re no good to me bleeding to death. Flesh wound or not.”

“You assume I’ll still be here by nightfall.”

She was already looking back at the map. “Call me Captain Optimism.”

“Maybe we should get you a captain’s hat, too.”

“Go, Keo, before you bleed to death on my fancy new boat.”

He got up, but instead of leaving, he walked over to her. “Maddie says you’re looking for a way to save everyone.”

“She’s being overly dramatic.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Looking for a way to save everyone.”

He chuckled. “What’ve you come up with so far?”

He looked down at the map. It was spread out with the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding areas, including the southern United States, with Mexico to one side and the Caribbean Islands on the other.

“Are you staying?” she asked, not looking up at him.

“It doesn’t look like I have much of a choice. At least, not today.”

“How bad is it?”

“It’s a choke point, Lara. The channel’s wide and deep enough for a large boat like this, but it’s tight enough that a half dozen men with assault rifles could make it difficult for anyone attempting to run through it.”

She didn’t respond; her mind churned silently next to him.

He nodded at the map. “So, what’re you looking for specifically? Maybe I can help.”

“Maybe you can. I’m guessing you’ve traveled more than me.”

“Other people go out of the country for vacation, but I go in country for mine. That should tell you something.”

“You’re an odd one, Keo.” Then, “I’m looking for someplace to take everyone just in case we have no choice but to abandon Song Island. God willing, we won’t need it.”

“I didn’t know you believed in God.”

“I don’t.” She hesitated, then, “At least, I didn’t use to.”

“But you do now.”

“Maybe.”

“‘Maybe’?” He smiled. “You either believe or you don’t, Lara.”

“I’ll let you know when I figure it all out. Anyway, you have any ideas?”

“When was the last time you left the States?”

“I went to Paris when I was twenty-one for summer vacation with my roommate.”

He was going to ask, “What happened to your roommate?” but of course he already knew the answer, so he kept his mouth shut about that and said instead, “You thinking about sailing this thing to Gay Paree?”

“You got any better ideas?”

He scanned the map, noticing just how close the Texas coastline was to his current location. He could easily have reached it by boat. So easily…except for those soldiers waiting to pick him off in the channel.

So close, yet so far.

He looked past the Gulf and moved into the Caribbean Sea. There was Cuba and Jamaica, and nearby, a familiar spot of land that he recognized. It was hard to forget one of the few places where he almost died.

“There,” he said, pointing at a tiny dot. It was so insignificant compared to everything else on the map that it didn’t even have a name. “Bengal Island.”

“Bengal Island?”

“It’s actually two islands. Grand Bengal and Little Bengal. The one that shows up on the map is Grand Bengal, but there’s a smaller companion island—”

“Let me guess. Little Bengal?”

“That third-year medical school education is finally paying off.”

She snorted.

“Here,” he said, putting his finger over an empty spot on the map.

“I don’t see anything.”

“It’s a good-size island, about 160 kilometers—”

“I still get my kilometers and miles mixed up. What’s that in miles?”

“About 100, give or take.”

“Okay. Go on…”

“It’s about 100 miles—”

“Give or take.”

“Can I finish?”

She smiled. “Sorry.”

“I was saying, it’s about 100 miles from its big brother, Grand Bengal, and is about ten kilometers in length and one-point-six in width, though the middle is more like two-point-four.”

“So, about six miles long?”

“Yeah, about ten times the length of Song Island. Big enough for an airfield on the east section and a hotel resort on the west, with the two sides linked by roads. There’s a strand of white beaches in front of the hotels where the rich and infamous bunk. The water is blue and everything is expensive, but depending on the state of the island, you may or may not have to fight for a spot in one of those suites.”

“You’ve been there before.”

“I almost died there.”

“Which Bengal?”

“Both.”

“Hunh.”

“Yeah. Anyway, the place used to be a notorious pirate den until the British Empire took it over in the seventeenth century. You know the Brits. Law and order and Queen and Country, and all that good stuff. These days, it’s treated as a British Overseas Territory.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s technically a part of the old British Empire, because apparently they enjoy the prestige of being linked to an old carcass, but for all intents and purposes, it’s entirely self-governed.”

“I’ve never even heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t have, because you’re a normal, decent person. The main island is only fifty square miles with about 5,000 locals, and the rest are all tourists and criminals.”

“You mean tourists or criminals?”

“No, I mean tourists and criminals. Bengal Island is where you put your money if you want to hide it from Uncle Sam or some other government body. As long as you pay for the privilege, the government there will hold pretty much an unlimited amount of funds for you. That includes your own private villa to live out the rest of your miserable, criminal life.”

She gave him a curious look.

“What?” he said.

“You really know a lot about this place.”

“I’ve had occasions to go there in my old job. The point is, Little Bengal is a perfect replacement for Song Island. You wouldn’t necessarily have to deal with the main island, and the closest countries are Cuba to the east and Jamaica to the southeast. Both are well over 300 kilometers away with nothing but open Caribbean sea in the middle.”

“Around 200 miles?”

“Close enough. But you understand where I’m going with this?”

“It’s isolated.”

“Yes. It’s very isolated. Both physically and internationally. That’s what makes it so attractive to the criminal element. You’ll be able to see anyone coming for, literally, miles away.”

“And all that water…”

“There’s that, too.”

Lara pulled out a marker and circled Little Bengal, then drew a line from it to the channel that connected Beaufont Lake with the Gulf of Mexico.

“How far?” she asked.

Keo did the numbers in his head. “Less than 2,000 kilometers and more than 1,000 miles?”

“Can you be more specific?”

He grunted. “You know there’s a bridge on this boat? In it, there are all kinds of neat computer doodads that you can program to tell you the exact distance of places and such. Just sayin’.”

She ignored him and continued looking at the map. “I like it.”

“You should. It’s exactly what you’re looking for. The only thing you have to worry about are the criminal elements that may or may not still be there.”

“Guys with guns?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Well, then,” she said, “if we actually do go there, it’s a good thing we have plenty of guns of our own.”

CHAPTER 14 GABY

As much as she longed for the white beaches and blue waters of Song Island, she dreaded finally reaching it after being away for so long. It was less about the island and more about who would be waiting for her there.

Lara. She would be there.

What am I going to tell her? How am I going to explain Will not being with us?

“You should smile more,” Nate was saying from across the back of the moving truck.

She snatched hair out of her face with one hand, the other holding the M4 in her lap. “What did you say?”

“You don’t smile enough,” he said, shouting a bit to be heard over the roar of the wind. “You should smile more. It brings out the cut on the bridge of your noise.”

She smirked. “Funny guy.”

“I try.”

“Well, stop. This isn’t the time.”

“So when is the time?”

“I don’t know. But this isn’t it.”

“Relax, Gaby. You’re almost home. Look around you. There’s nothing but road and grass and fields out here. I haven’t seen a building in…ten minutes? Twenty?”

Nate had a point. There was nothing out here except large acres of sun-bleached and overgrown grass to one side and the clear, calm waters of Beaufont Lake on the other. She couldn’t see Song Island yet because they were still too far north, but it wouldn’t be long now. An hour, maybe less, and the first signs of home would appear in the distance. She found herself getting more anxious and at the same time more alert as they got closer.

How many days and nights now had she been waiting for this moment? It had been too long, and the prospect of finally getting there was overwhelming, both exhilarating and terrifying.

What am I going to tell Lara?

“Maybe it won’t be that bad,” Nate said.

“What’s that?”

“At the island. Tonight.”

She looked at him curiously for a moment. Did he actually believe that, or was he trying to make her feel better? Or maybe he was trying to convince himself. Looking at him, she felt guilty all over again. She had to remind herself of all the troubles he had gone through just to find her, and now having done so, she was dragging him straight into another hellish gunfight. Somehow, the fact that he was coming willingly — even anxiously — made it just that little bit worse.

“Do you really believe that?” she asked.

“Why not?”

Because you didn’t see them. Back at the farmhouse. The blue-eyed creatures. This is their world now, Nate. We’re the trespassers. And they might be coming for us tonight. Are you ready for that, because I’m not.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He gave her a confused look. “For what?”

“Bringing you here.”

“I don’t understand…”

“They’re going to attack tonight, Nate. Will is certain of it. And he’s rarely wrong.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“Not this. He was so sure of it he risked his life so we could get through the ambush back at Route 13. And as much as Danny and me wanted to come home — and God, we did, desperately — Will wanted to come home more.”

He nodded and went quiet for a moment.

After a while, he said, “I never heard anyone talking about it, you know. Song Island. Back when I was with the others in town. I don’t think most of the soldiers knew it even existed.”

“What did you hear?”

“What do you mean?”

“Back at the town. What did the soldiers talk about?”

The question had been nagging at her ever since L15. The guards assigned to watch her back then hadn’t been very talkative, and she was confined to a room where she didn’t get to interact with the townspeople. She saw them from her window — the way they lived, went about their lives, and sometimes she could hear the tail end of their chatter — but she never really knew them.

“Mostly about everyday things,” Nate said. “What they used to do before, that sort of thing. They weren’t all bad, you know.”

“The soldiers…”

“Yeah.” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Some of them were in it for the power trip, but most of them…” He shook his head, then pursed his lips into a forced smile. “There were a couple of good guys back there.”

She didn’t ask him if one of those “good guys” had been back at the highway because she decided she’d rather not know. They’d all had to do things these days that they weren’t completely proud of. Gaby didn’t regret very many things, but sometimes the more violent situations stuck with her for days afterward. Every now and then when she closed her eyes, she still remembered Mercy Hospital back in Lafayette, and the blood and the screams and the gunshots…

This is our existence. Surviving from day to day. Night to night.

Everyone dies, sooner or later. Everyone.

“Gaby,” Nate said, smiling across the back of the moving truck at her. “We’ll make it through tonight. We’ll be around to see tomorrow, and the day after that. We have to, otherwise I won’t be able to convince you what a charming devil I am.”

She smiled back at him.

Or tried to, anyway. It may or may not have been all that believable, but at the moment it was all she could manage, and he looked like he desperately needed to see it.

Her watch had just ticked to four in the afternoon when Danny finally slowed down and stopped the Chevy in the middle of the two-lane highway. The heavy vehicle creaked as Danny turned off the engine and climbed out.

“Stretch ’em if you got ’em,” he shouted.

The girls climbed out, and Gaby hopped out of the back with her M4. She exchanged a brief grin with Claire, who had also come out of the Silverado, still clutching onto her FNH shotgun, ready for battle.

“Are we almost there?” the thirteen-year-old asked.

“Almost,” Gaby said.

She glanced around at their surroundings. Every inch of grass looked like the last few thousand they had passed. The same went for the water on the other side. The truth was, without Song Island anywhere in the distance, she had no idea where they were. This side of the lake was all new to her.

Danny had placed the portable ham radio on the hood of the truck and was fiddling with the buttons and dials.

She walked over. “Where are we exactly?”

“We should be directly beside the island if my internal GPS is correct.”

“Internal GPS?” she said doubtfully.

“By which I mean, the map.”

She looked back at the lake, but despite her best efforts, she couldn’t make out any signs of the island in the distance. “There’s nothing out there, Danny.”

“It’s there. Just too far to see from this side of the lake.”

“So why did we stop here?”

He showed her his watch. “We don’t have time to circle all the way around to the marina. Besides, we’re running low on gas.”

“How low?”

“I’ve-been-driving-on-fumes-for-the-last-thirty-minutes low.”

Nate had walked over. “We’re out of gas?”

“Unless you have a secret stash hidden somewhere, Famous Nathan, that’s an affirmative.”

“I still don’t know what that means.”

“That’s what ESPN’s for,” Danny said. He turned back to the radio and pressed the lever and spoke into the microphone. “Song Island, come in. Roger if you roger me, roger.”

A male voice answered almost immediately. “Danny? Is that you?”

“It ain’t Danny Elfman. Although I was known to play a pretty mean Casio keyboard back in college.”

“Holy shit, you’re alive,” the man said.

“You sound surprised.”

“Yeah, well, you know…” The man disappeared from the line for a moment before returning about ten seconds later. “I just told Lara over the two-way. She’s still on the yacht.”

“Who is that?” Gaby asked. “I don’t recognize the voice.”

“That’s Roy,” Danny said. “He came over with a handful of people after you left on your helicopter adventure.”

“Danny?” a female voice said through the radio, sounding slightly out of breath. This one Gaby recognized instantly. Carly. “You asshole. You had me worried.”

Danny smiled. “Sorry, babe. You know I love you. Girls have been throwing themselves at me, but I told them to back off because there’s only one redhead for me.”

“I want names,” Carly said.

Gaby nodded at Nate, and they drifted to the back of the truck to give Danny some privacy. That, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be around when someone on the island got to asking about Will, which they would, eventually.

The girls were skipping rocks across the calm lake on the other side of the truck while Annie watched them. The sight of the girls being so carefree for the first time in such a long time made Gaby smile.

“They look happy,” Nate said next to her. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen kids that happy.”

“What about back at L17? Did you have kids there?”

“A lot of kids. Most of them were happy to be there. Not all of them, but most. Did both girls come from L15?”

“Just Milly,” Gaby said.

She thought about Peter, the man whom Milly had treated like a brother. Peter was gone, and in so many ways Annie had taken his place. That was how it worked these days. You needed someone to cling to, because the emotional loneliness was sometimes worse than the physical isolation.

Gaby glanced back as Danny walked over to them.

“Are we at the right spot?” she asked him.

“Close enough,” Danny said. “Looks like running out of gas might have saved our lives.”

“How’s that?” Nate asked.

“Apparently there is a very strong possibility of bad guys with big guns lying in wait at the bridge up the road. So instead of us braving that snake pit, the kids from Song Island will be coming here to pick us up. It’ll take longer, but it’ll keep us from being dead, and gosh darn it, that’s a good thing.”

“How long before they get here?” Gaby asked.

“Long enough. So I need you and the Natester to pull security until they arrive.”

“Did you tell her?”

Danny shook his head. She didn’t have to say who “her” was; he already knew. “She was busy on the yacht.” He pointed down the road. “Former bad guy, you take that side. Gaby, the other one. Stay within shouting distance in case you see or hear anything that isn’t us or the fishies.”

Nate gave her an exasperated look before heading off to take up position farther down the road. She did the same thing in the opposite direction, with Danny falling in beside her. Gaby made a concerted effort to walk slower to accommodate his limping pace.

“What are you going to tell her when we get back?” she asked.

“I’ll think of something between now and then.”

“Do you want me to?”

“No,” Danny said. “She deserves to hear it from me.”

She nodded. As much as coming back home without Will pained her, she knew it was nothing compared to what Danny was going through.

“Keep an eye out, kid,” Danny said. “We’ll be back at Song Island and drinking ice cold water before you know it.”

He turned around and limped off.

“Hey,” she said after him.

He stopped and glanced back. “What’s up?”

“We made it. I didn’t think we’d ever see Song Island again, but we made it.”

“We’re not there yet.”

“Close enough.”

“It’s never close enough until you’re chewing on the cheese.”

“That makes absolutely no sense, Danny.”

“Of course it does,” Danny said, turning and walking back to the truck. “Think about it.”

“Yeah, no,” Gaby said after him.

After sitting in the back of the Chevy with the wind pounding against her face for most of the day, standing in the middle of the road under the sun was a nice change of pace. The combination of warm and cool air was almost enough to lull her into a sense of calm, and for a moment, just a moment, she almost forgot that they were cutting it too close, that it would be dark soon.

Always running from the night. Always running. How long before I get tired of it? How long before I just lie down and decide not to do it anymore?

She pushed those thoughts away. They were defeatist, a lingering part of her old self that refused to completely go away no matter how hard she tried, because she knew the old Gaby could never survive in today’s world.

Claire, a reminder of how much times had changed, appeared next to her. The girl cradled the heavy shotgun across her arms and squinted down the barren road. “Do they take the dead, Gaby?”

The question caught her off guard, and it took her a moment to answer.

“I don’t know,” she said finally.

It was the truth. She really didn’t know, and it was one of those nagging questions that she tried not to think too much about it because there didn’t seem to be any point.

“Will had some theories about that,” she added, “but we don’t know for sure. Why?”

“We haven’t seen any bodies. I’m just wondering where they all went.”

“I’m sorry, Claire, I don’t know.”

“It’s okay.” She kept staring down the road, as if she expected to see something (or someone) coming down it anytime now. “I miss Donna.”

“I know.” Gaby put her arm around Claire, who leaned against her. “Donna’s in a better place now.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely,” she said, wondering what kind of special hell was waiting for her for lying to a thirteen-year-old. “You still have me, and if you want, I can make fun of how you stink.”

“I stink?” Claire said.

“Oh yeah.” She sniffed for effect. “The BO’s so bad I’m about to barf.”

Claire laughed. “You’re such a liar.”

“Maybe.”

They exchanged a brief smile.

“Do I get my own room and bed on the island?” Claire asked.

“Yup.”

“I’ve never had one before.”

“Well, first time for—”

“Incoming!” Nate screamed behind her.

She turned around in time to see sunlight glinting off the hood of a vehicle driving up the road toward them. It was coming from the southern part of the lake and looked like a Jeep, its bright yellow color making it obvious against the gray of the road and the brown and green of the surrounding fields.

“Into the truck!” Gaby shouted.

Claire took off without a word, and Gaby actually had to run just to catch up to her. The girl was deceptively fast, even hauling that huge shotgun around.

Danny was climbing out of the Silverado, still moving gingerly on his bad leg. “How many?” he called back to Nate.

“Just that big ugly mustard thing coming at us,” Nate said, peering through his binoculars.

Gaby also pulled out hers and looked through it. The Jeep was still too far off to make out a lot of details. A mile, she guessed, maybe two. But it was bearing down at them at full speed and they could already hear the sound of its engines despite the distance.

“Gaby,” Danny said. “Keep an eye on your side.”

She nodded. Danny was worried about a two-prong attack, and so was she. They had been here long enough for the enemy to set up some kind of coherent plan. Of course, these men weren’t exactly seasoned tacticians, but it didn’t take a combat veteran to know that attacking from two directions was better than one.

Claire, Annie, and Milly had already disappeared back into the truck, and Danny slammed his door shut and unslung his M4A1. “Kid, in the truck,” Danny shouted at Nate. “Man Big Bertha.”

Nate slung his weapon and ran back, then hopped into the bed of the Chevy. Gaby had to be satisfied with looking back one second for every five she paid attention to her side of the road.

“Wait until they get closer before you shoot,” Danny said.

“How much closer?” Nate asked. “I’ve never fired one of these things before. What’s the effective range on it?”

“You’re overthinking it, Nateroni. Squeeze the trigger when you can smell them.”

Nate grumbled as he perched the machine gun against the closed truck gate and settled down into a crouch. The ammo belt clinked against the truck with every movement he made.

Danny had stepped forward a bit and was now looking through his rifle’s scope.

“Danny!” she shouted.

“Yeah?” he shouted back.

“Stop messing around and kill them already.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and fired.

A single shot. She waited for him to pull the trigger again, but he didn’t.

Instead, she listened to the shot echo for a second — maybe two — before the Jeep began swerving as if the driver had suddenly lost control. Then the vehicle seemed to make a sharp right and disappeared into the ditch, even as two men in the backseat were flung into the air, arms and limbs and rifles flailing wildly around them. Clouds of dirt plumed briefly about 200 meters from their position.

“Holy shit,” Nate said, sitting up in the back of the truck. “Nice shot.”

“Eh, I was aiming for the engine block,” Danny said. “But I guess that’ll do.”

A lone figure stood up from the fields, but there were no signs of a second or third man. The survivor picked something up from the ground, seemed to hesitate for a moment, then after stumbling around, turned and began jogging back in the direction he had come.

They waited to see if anyone else would rise from the grass, but no one did.

“Should we go see if there are survivors?” she asked.

“We might be able to use the Jeep,” Nate said. “If it’s not too damaged.”

“Fuck ’em,” Danny said. “We’re not going to need a Jeep where we’re going.” He glanced to his left. “Besides, our ride’s here. Everyone look presentable. First impressions count and all that.”

She looked over at the lake as a vessel appeared, getting bigger as the sound of a boat motor made its presence known. There were two figures onboard, mostly silhouettes against the bathing sun. One of them was pointing a rifle up the road, looking for something to shoot, which meant they had either seen the Jeep or heard Danny’s gunshot and were taking precautions.

Nate looked through his binoculars. “Two people. A man and a woman. The woman’s short and the man’s a blond.”

“That’ll be Roy, the guy I was talking to earlier,” Danny said. Then, to Gaby, “You’ll like him. Handsome kid. Good with his hands, and I hear the ladies like that in a man.”

Gaby wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she didn’t say anything.

“Then, of course, there’s Benny,” Danny continued. “Face it, kid, you’re going to have your hands full with the gentlemen callers when we get back to the island.”

“Hey, I’m right here,” Nate said.

“So you are, Natepoleon Bonaparte, so you are.”

“Give it a rest, guys,” Gaby said, smiling anyway, because it allowed her to think about something other than what she was going to say to Lara when she finally saw her again very soon.

Maddie steered the old but dependable pontoon around the big white vessel anchored in front of Song Island. It was massive and occupied a ridiculous amount of real estate. Or maybe that was just her imagination, since she’d never seen a yacht up close before, never mind one that probably cost more than her parents made in their entire lifetime. The word Trident was written along its side.

Gaby saw a familiar figure leaning over the railing at the top of the boat waving to them. Blaine. She’d recognize his hulking size anywhere. She waved back, as did Danny and the girls. Blaine wasn’t alone on the yacht. Two women on the other two decks watched them coming in. They were all heavily armed and looked the part of soldiers waiting for a fight.

Song Island has been getting ready for war. God help us.

Gaby felt the familiar pangs of guilt whenever she looked back at Claire, Maddie, and Annie. The three of them seemed awestruck by the sight of the big white yacht, and then later the beaches of Song Island and the towering solar panels that ringed it. She couldn’t shake the nagging fear that she had made a terrible mistake by bringing them here. What was she doing? Song Island might have been a sanctuary once upon a time, but if Will was right and Kate was going to throw her human forces at it tonight, the place might as well be a death trap. And she had led them here with promises of a soft bed, their own rooms, and ice-cold water.

Song Island’s not safe. I shouldn’t have brought them here. Anywhere but here.

And then they were past the yacht and slowing down as they approached the piers. And there, standing at the end of one of the wooden structures sticking out of the beach, was what Gaby had been dreading since she stepped onto the boat.

Lara.

She was standing with a man Gaby hadn’t seen before. Like Blaine and the two women on the Trident, Lara and the stranger were heavily armed and wearing assault vests.

Lara looked so different from the last time Gaby had seen her, and she suddenly realized that it wasn’t just her who had gone through the kind of metamorphosis that even her parents wouldn’t have recognized while she was running around out there trying to stay alive. Lara had changed, too. They all had. You had to, these days, or you didn’t survive.

“Who’s that?” Nate, standing next to her, asked.

“That’s Lara,” Gaby said.

“I thought you said she was some kind of medical student.”

“She was. I mean, she is.”

“Wow,” Nate said. “Medical school in Texas is, uh, really different.”

Gaby couldn’t help but smile a little bit.

“Who’s the string bean?” Danny asked Roy. The two of them were standing at the back of the boat.

“Keo,” Roy, the blond who had come to pick them up along with Maddie, said.

“What kind of name is Keo?”

“You’ll have to ask him. Showed up a couple of days ago. He’s the reason the collaborators haven’t attacked the island yet.”

“So that’s Keo.”

“Yup. That’s Keo,” Roy said.

Gaby was listening to their conversation, but she was mostly focused on Lara standing on the pier with Keo. They were watching the pontoon on approach and talking. Gaby wondered how long it would take Lara to notice that Will wasn’t among them.

She caught her breath and waited for the inevitable.

“Welcome home,” Lara said as Maddie shut off the pontoon’s motor and sidled it alongside the pier. “Guys, this is Keo. Keo, this is Gaby and that’s Danny and…I don’t know who the rest are.”

The tall Asian guy nodded at them. Gaby could just barely make out a long, thin scar running down one side of his face, and he seemed to be favoring his right shoulder for some reason. Instead of an assault rifle like the others were carrying, he had a weapon with a long suppressor attached to the end. It looked mean and dangerous, and she wanted one.

“What kind of name is Keo?” Danny asked, climbing out of the boat.

“Lou was taken,” the guy said.

Gaby hadn’t made it onto the pier yet when Lara said, “Gaby, Danny — where’s Will?”

CHAPTER 15 JOSH

“We almost had him,” Travis said. “Smiley said he might have even tagged him.”

Smiley? Right. The sniper.

Or as close to a sniper as he was going to get out here. Josh had to constantly remind himself that he wasn’t actually leading a group of soldiers. It took more than a nice polished uniform to turn some accountant or restaurant manager or, in Travis’s case, a construction supervisor, into a full-blooded killer.

Will and Danny would laugh at these guys.

“But he was too fast,” Travis was saying. “Lucky bastard somehow managed to do a U-turn in the channel and slipped back into the lake before the others could catch him.”

“So where is he now?” Josh asked.

“Back on the island’d be my guess.”

“Just one guy?”

“Just one guy.”

“I guess one more or less won’t matter.” Then, “Have you heard back from Mason?”

“Sonia didn’t say anything, so I’m guessing not. He’s probably still trying to deal with those other guys that popped out of nowhere and laid waste to his group back at Route 13.”

“The Dunbar people.”

“Yeah.”

“I thought we killed everyone in that city.”

“That’s what Mason thought, too. But apparently not. It’s funny…”

Funny? Nothing about this is funny, Travis, Josh thought, but he said, “What’s that?”

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard of them not being able to finish a job.”

“First time for everything,” Josh said.

The “them” Travis was referring to were the blue-eyed ghouls. They had slaughtered almost everyone in Dunbar a few nights ago and took the women and children. Or, well, most of the ones that were still alive at the end of the night, anyway. Josh didn’t want to think about it too much. He accepted what the ghouls were, what they did, but it didn’t mean he wanted to dwell on it. As long as he wasn’t directly involved, it was easy to pretend it wasn’t actually happening.

“I don’t know what’s giving Mason so much trouble,” Travis said. “He’s got what, thirty or forty people with him?”

“Something like that.”

“He should have had them by now. They were right there for the taking.”

Mason.

The man was irritating. Or was that aggravating? Maybe both. The worse part of it was that Mason just didn’t care. Sometimes Josh wondered if he should bring it up with Kate during one of their talks. It would serve Mason right. What Josh needed were dependable men, not lazy ones that did whatever the hell they wanted.

Will and Danny could whip them into shape. Maybe I just don’t have what it takes. Or maybe some people just aren’t meant to be soldiers.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Travis said behind him.

“What’s that?” Josh said, even though he knew the question, because it always came up.

They were always so curious about how it worked. He couldn’t really blame them. Even now, after having gone through it dozens of times, it still freaked him out, though he would never admit it out loud. He had learned in those first few weeks that the only way to lead men was to make them fear your authority. Josh was never the biggest or most imposing kid, and he didn’t have to be. He had something better. He had them standing behind him. Most of all, he had her.

“How does it work?” Travis asked. “How do they contact you?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“It’s dreaming…but not really dreaming. It feels more like reliving a memory.”

“Whose?”

“Yours, theirs… Whatever they want it to be.”

“So they control it.”

“You really have to ask that question?”

“No, I guess not.”

Travis paused, and Josh could see him weighing the pros and cons of continuing this conversation. Like the rest of them, Travis was trying to balance wanting to know more and being afraid of the answers.

Finally, Travis said, “And they tell you what to do while you’re in these dreams?”

He nodded. “It takes some getting used to, but yeah, that’s essentially how it works.”

“Freaky,” Travis said. He might have also shivered involuntarily.

Josh smiled. He didn’t bother telling Travis that in the dreams, Kate always came to him as her former human self, a major change from the first time he had seen her. It was sometimes difficult for him to reconcile the beautiful thirty-something woman, who moved with dreamlike sensuality and elegance, with the ghoul-Kate that had first recruited him not far from where he was standing now.

As much as he told himself he had become used to Kate’s presence, or the sound of her voice inside his head, he could never quite shake the feeling there was something odd about her existence that went beyond the skeletal frame, pruned black flesh, and blue eyes. It was as if she was straddling the line between human and ghoul, trying to hold onto something that was long gone.

Why? he always wanted to ask her. Why bother?

He knew why he was bothering, though.

Gaby. I’m doing this for you. For us.

Josh lowered his binoculars and wrinkled his nose. It had been months since Will burned down the two-story house across the small inlet, but Josh thought he could still smell the damage. The marina had also been reduced to ashes, but the wild grass around it hid the scent better.

He looked down at his watch: 3:36 P.M.

It wouldn’t be long now before Josh could finally leave this place and put Song Island into the back of his mind for good. He was looking forward to that. Beaufont Lake hadn’t been very good to him. He still remembered getting shot and almost drowning and dying out here. Those were memories he’d rather bury in the past.

“You used to live there, didn’t you?” Travis was saying.

Josh didn’t need binoculars to see Song Island in the near distance. It was the only thing to break the monotony of calm lake water for miles around, its Tower jutting out like a sore thumb. It looked so insignificant, like a stain holding back progress. How did Will ever think this place could save them?

“I wouldn’t say I used to live there,” Josh said. “I was there for a couple of days, long enough to know it’s just another island.”

“Still,” Travis said, “it must feel a little weird to be leading the attack on it.”

He had thought the same thing, once upon a time. It only took looking at the place from afar to realize it wasn’t true at all. Song Island was just another patch of dirt on a lake. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less.

“No,” Josh said, turning and walking back to the Jeep, “it doesn’t feel weird at all.”

Travis jogged after him. “So, it’s settled. We’re attacking tonight. Even with that guy going back? That’s an extra gun.”

“You see that big thing sticking out of the island?”

“The lighthouse?”

“Yeah. There’s a basement at the bottom. Song Island’s always had all the guns and ammo it needs. One more guy isn’t going to make any difference.”

The former construction supervisor glanced back at the island one more time. “Man, it’s gonna get bloody. I was hoping it’d go down easier.”

“It could have, but that ship’s sailed.”

“What about the big boat that showed up last night? Did you tell them about that? Maybe they’ll let us delay the attack—”

“They don’t care,” Josh said, cutting him off. “Besides, if we’re lucky, all that shooting last night did was cut down their numbers. Either way, it’s going to happen tonight.”

Josh climbed into the front passenger seat of the Jeep while Travis slipped into the driver side. He still had to fight back a big smile whenever one of the older men had to drive him around, which was pretty much every time. Nineteen-year-old boys weren’t supposed to be leading armies, but here he was anyway, doing just that. All of this, because he was one of the chosen ones.

Soon you’ll be one, too, Gaby. Then you’ll understand why I’m doing this.

I’ll make you understand.

Sonia jogged down the outer stairs of the two-story red house as he and Travis arrived in the Jeep. She looked excited, which told Josh she probably had news from Mason (finally). Sometimes Josh thought Mason was the most capable man under his command, and other times he couldn’t be trusted to look for gas for their vehicles.

Travis parked in the driveway, among the trucks and people in uniforms milling about and talking excitedly among themselves. They were anxious and scared, and they had every right to be. Most of them had never shot anyone or been in real combat. Some of them knew how to use the weapons they were carrying, but the majority had never fired at a living, breathing person in their lives.

He felt almost sorry for them, for what they were about to experience tonight. But whenever that pity threatened to paralyze him into backing out of the plan, he just had to remind himself that this was for the best. He was doing this for them — he and Gaby. He needed to prove himself to Kate and Mabry and the others. And once tonight was over, he could move on and prepare for the future.

With Gaby. Because none of this mattered a lick without Gaby at his side.

Sonia smiled at him as he climbed out of the Jeep. She was here the last few days and had lived through the grenade launcher attack. She was a Southerner, like Travis, minus the accent for some reason. Of course, that could have just been the hormones talking. For all he knew, she sounded exactly the same as Travis, except the visual was throwing him off.

“Mason?” he asked.

“Got word from him about ten minutes ago,” Sonia said.

She fell in beside him as they walked across the large yard. Josh liked the fact that she hadn’t even acknowledged Travis’s existence, and Travis no doubt noticed that, too. He could tell the older man had a thing for the twenty-something. He didn’t blame the guy. You had to be dead not to pitch a tent at the sight of Sonia. Somehow, that gun belt around her slim waist only made her more—

Gaby. There’s only Gaby!

“What did he say?” Josh asked.

“They lost the trail at the interstate around Lake Dulcet.”

“What does that mean?”

“They killed some guys he had stationed outside the city. Apparently, they used a machine gun. One of ours, if you can believe it.”

Oh, I can believe it. You don’t know half of the things these ex-Rangers are capable of. If you did, you’d be more scared about tonight.

“So where are they now?” he asked.

“He doesn’t know.”

Josh felt the familiar flurry of annoyance flaring up.

Mason. Goddamn Mason. Simultaneously the most capable man under him, and the most aggravating.

“What about Salvani?” he asked.

“They haven’t seen them,” Sonia said.

“So that means they left the interstate at Lake Dulcet.” He stopped and glanced north, where he imagined the casino town was in the distance. “They could be anywhere by now. Maybe even on their way down here this very moment. How long ago did Mason say he lost them?”

“He couldn’t be sure. He guessed two, maybe three hours ago.”

Goddammit, Mason.

“What do you want me to tell him?” she asked.

“Tell him—” He paused, then shook his head in frustration. “What about Will? Did he reacquire Will after the attack by the Dunbar people? Is he even still alive?”

“He says he’s working on that.”

“What does that mean?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t elaborate.”

Fuck, shit. Goddamn you, Mason!

He could feel Travis watching him closely to his right and Sonia doing the same thing in front of him. A couple of the other soldiers loitering around were also eavesdropping. They were all waiting for him to blow up, to finally reveal the nineteen-year-old kid (because they all thought of him as a kid, despite everything he had done and all the power he wielded) instead of the commander of men he had become since he struck out on his own.

But he was one of the chosen ones, and although Josh was flustered, pissed off, and angry, he reined it all in and tempered down his emotions and didn’t let any of them show.

“Tell him to get his shit together, or he’ll be answering to me,” he said finally.

“Okay,” Sonia said.

Josh continued to the house and climbed up the outer stairs to the second floor with Sonia beside him. He was proud of himself. Despite how badly the day was going (Mason, you worthless piece of shit, you better get it together!), he had maintained his composure and was still on track to finish this whole messy affair with Song Island tonight. By morning, he could move on with the rest of his life with Gaby at his side.

Christ, Sonia smelled good. It was just generic soap, but women always had a way of making the ordinary extraordinary. Then again, for all he knew, Sonia could have put something extra on just for him. He had seen the way she looked and acted around him. She gave out all the signs and was all but begging him to make a move.

But he couldn’t. Not with Gaby out there. Not with Gaby waiting for him.

I’m doing all of this for you, Gaby. I know you won’t understand. Not at first. But one day you’ll finally come around and then we’ll be together. You’ll see.

“Josh,” Sonia was saying.

He stopped on the second-floor patio. “Hmm?”

“You’re gone again.” She frowned. “Gaby must really be something.”

“She is,” he said. She’s the most beautiful girl in the world, he thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. He liked Sonia and didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so he asked instead, “Did you eat yet?”

“Not yet.”

“You should, if you’re going with us tonight.”

“I was waiting for you to come back.”

Gaby. There’s only Gaby.

“I already ate,” he lied. “I need to get some sleep. Wake me up when Mason radios back with news.”

“About Gaby, or just anything?” she asked.

“Anything,” he said, and slipped into the house before she could keep the conversation going.

Around five-thirty, he got good news and bad news.

“Sorry, didn’t know you were still napping,” Sonia said when she entered the bedroom after knocking once on the door.

Fortunately he had lain down and gone to sleep in his clothes. The last thing he needed was to be caught in his underwear by Sonia. It was hard enough keeping his hormones in check around her when he was fully clothed.

He sat up and swung his legs off the bed, then absently flicked at the hardened pieces of dirt his boots had left on the mattress. “It’s okay. What’s up?”

“Mason finally radioed back.”

“What took him so long?”

“He didn’t say.”

Mason. Christ.

“What did he say?” he asked.

“He caught that Will guy,” Sonia said. She had sat down on a chair at the foot of the bed. “It took him a while, and he says it was messy, but he got him again.”

“And he’s still alive?”

“Mostly.”

“‘Mostly’?”

“He said the guy was injured, but that he’s still breathing.”

“I guess that’s all that matters.”

“What’s so special about him, anyway?”

Nothing, except she wants him, and what’s important to her is important to all of us, because she’s the only thing holding back the sea from drowning us all.

“He’s just a guy,” Josh said, standing up and yawning. It was a good nap, and he was glad he had taken it. Tonight was going to take a lot out of him and the more energy he could save up for it, the better. “Anyway, Will’s not our problem now. The island’s the only thing we should be focusing on.”

“Speaking of which, one of the guys watching the other side of the lake just intercepted a vehicle heading toward the bridge.”

“Reinforcements?”

“Looks like it.”

He picked up a canteen from the windowsill and took a sip. “How many?”

“He couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe half a dozen, though he says he thinks some of them were women and children.”

“You said ‘he’?”

“Yeah. Only one of the scouts came back alive. The rest are dead.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

“Apparently the newcomers had a really good shooter with them. He shot the driver of their vehicle from two football fields away, according to the survivor. That forced their vehicle into a ditch, and the crash killed the driver and another guy in the back.”

“Aw, shit,” Josh said.

“What?” Sonia said, eyeing him curiously. “Does that mean something to you?”

“Danny. It has to be Danny.”

“Who’s Danny?”

“He’s an ex-Army Ranger. He’s by far the best shot on the island, and he’s one of the guys Mason was supposed to stop at Route 13.”

“The one that escaped somewhere around Lake Dulcet?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“So that means…”

“Gaby,” Josh nodded. “She has to be with him, which means she’s already on the island right now.”

No wonder he had felt differently when he woke up just a minute ago. He thought it was just the aftereffects of the nap, but there was a strangeness in the air.

Because Gaby was nearby.

He didn’t say that out loud to Sonia. Besides the fact that the other woman was probably a little jealous of Gaby, it might sound a little crazy to tell her that he could feel how the air changed when Gaby was around.

But it wasn’t crazy. It was the truth.

Sometimes Josh wondered if he had developed the same kind of connection to Gaby that Kate had with him, this thing that couldn’t be explained to people who hadn’t experienced it. Sonia wouldn’t understand, and neither would Travis, regardless of how hard he tried to break it down for them. It was like something out of a comic book; unreal, unless it was happening to you night after night.

“So what does this mean?” Sonia asked. “Are we still attacking the island tonight? Even with Gaby there?”

Josh didn’t answer right away. His mind was whirling, trying to process this new wrinkle in what had, up to this point, been smooth sailing.

Danny was back, but not Will. That was the only bright spot in all this mess. He didn’t like that Gaby had returned, though. It was going to make tonight more difficult. Goddammit, why couldn’t Mason have taken her on the interstate? Or back at Route 13? They had promised him.

Mason, and Kate. They had promised him they would keep Gaby away from the island.

“Josh?” Sonia was saying, trying to get his attention. “About tonight. Are we still going through with it?”

He stood up and walked to the window and peered out at the darkening skies. It was almost time. He could feel it coming without having to look at his watch.

Maybe he was seeing this all wrong. Maybe Gaby returning to Song Island, just as he was about to attack it, was a sign. Maybe it was always destiny that he would find her again at the same place where he had lost her, where everything had changed for both of them.

This is fate. It has to be.

“Tell the men to get ready,” he said. “We’re taking Song Island tonight.”

CHAPTER 16 LARA

She was numb all over and had to summon every ounce of strength to push through it. The others were watching her. Keo beside her, Danny and Gaby in front of her, and the kids whose names she didn’t know, even though Gaby had just told her a few seconds ago.

Will. You promised me. You goddamned promised me.

“He’s still alive,” she finally said.

“The last time I saw him,” Danny nodded.

“What kind of shape was he in?”

“I couldn’t tell you. He was in a car and so were we, and everyone was going fifty to sixty miles an hour. And, oh yeah, bad people were shooting at us, so that didn’t help.”

“They wanted us alive,” Gaby said. “They were shooting at the tires.”

“Which means he’s definitely still alive,” Lara said.

“Yeah,” Gaby nodded.

Lara could see it in the teenager’s eyes: Gaby was saying all the right things, but she didn’t fully believe in them.

The girl had changed so much since the last time Lara saw her, and she wanted nothing more than to welcome her home like a big sister, but the pier suddenly felt too unbalanced and the air became suffocating, and she needed to leave.

Now. Now.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay?” Danny repeated.

“Yeah. Okay.”

“Lara…,” Gaby said.

“We can catch up later, but right now you guys need to go get cleaned up and eat something. It’s going to be a long night.” She ignored their searching gazes and turned around and walked down the pier. “Keo…”

Keo followed without a word.

She could feel the others watching after her. Danny and Gaby, even Maddie and Roy, and the newcomers. The woman and the kids, and the young man who stood protectively next to Gaby. Maybe she should have spent a few more minutes talking to them, hugging and making useless welcome-back talk. But there was no time for that. The sun was setting and the hours were dwindling, and soon, very soon, they would have to get ready.

There wasn’t enough time. There was never enough time.

She kept walking and didn’t look back. She was afraid of what might happen if she stopped. She had never been particularly good at keeping her emotions in check, but Lara had discovered she was capable of a lot of things that would have been unfathomable a year ago. Maybe it was the constant life-and-death choices, or this label of leader everyone had given her the last few weeks, or maybe it was because she knew he was alive.

Out there, alone, maybe even captured, but still alive.

Will was the most capable man she had ever known in her life, and as long as he was breathing, he would find a way back to the island. Back to her.

I’ll wait for you, Will. I’ll wait for you as long as I can.

She snapped another look at the skies. It would be dark soon, except for the halo of lights emanating from the LED lamps around the island. Then it would be just them and the people coming to kill them, using the blanket of night as cover.

“So your boyfriend’s not dead?” Keo said. His voice came out of nowhere, and for a moment she forgot he was keeping pace beside her.

“No,” she said.

“You sure about that?”

“If you knew Will, you wouldn’t need to ask.”

“So we’re going on faith, then?”

“You honestly think your girlfriend actually made it to Santa Marie Island? That she’s wearing a bikini and waiting on the beach every morning, waiting for you to finally show up?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, okay. Hit a guy while he’s down, why don’t you.” Then he shrugged. “One ex-Army Ranger ain’t bad, I guess. Even a gimpy one.”

“We’ll be fine, as long as everyone follows the plan. Including you. Like it or not, you’re stuck here with us now, Keo.”

“Lucky me.”

Carly was running down the beach toward them and jumped onto the pier. Lara didn’t know she could even run that fast. She and Keo made room as Carly darted past them — she might not have even noticed they were there — and ran straight into Danny’s arms.

Lara turned back around and quickened her pace down the beach.

“How good is he?” Keo asked, still walking beside her.

“Danny?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s good.”

“And the girl?”

“Danny and Will taught her themselves.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Lara.”

“Will says she’s the best soldier on the island after him and Danny. He says she’s gotten better since she’s been out there.”

“What is she, twenty-five?”

“Nineteen.”

“Damn,” Keo said. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or a little scared of you people.”

While Carly and Benny welcomed Danny and Gaby back in the dining room, Lara spent the rest of the remaining daylight making sure everyone knew where they were supposed to be. Blaine, Bonnie, and Gwen remained on the Trident to keep watch, while she sent Roy over with Gage. The captain figured out pretty quickly what she was planning and seemed to be moving fine on the leg brace Stan had made for him. The painkillers Zoe had given him probably helped, though the doctor assured her it wouldn’t be enough to dull his ability to pilot the boat.

Lara was in the basement under the Tower, making final preparations. She could have given the job to anyone, but she needed the solitude only the room’s concrete walls, floor, and ceiling could provide. Ironic, since she always hated coming down here alone. Now, though, surrounded by the reminders of people who had come to Song Island seeking shelter only to find tragedy, she felt perfectly at home.

Nothing lasts forever. So why did I think this island would?

She remembered a conversation she’d had with Will not all that long ago.

“The island is vital, Lara,” he had said to her.

“It’s just an island,” she had responded.

“But you’re on it. And Carly. And the kids…”

The people. That was what mattered. The people on the island, not the island itself. There were other islands out there, like the Bengals, that Keo had shown her. Islands were just patches of dirt and could be replaced. But its people were another story.

She wasn’t surprised to hear Danny climbing down the steps behind her. She knew he would seek her out sooner or later. Under the bright LED lights of the subterranean room, the scars along the bridge of his nose and face looked more pronounced, as if he had just stepped out of the boxing ring. He limped across the room, wearing another one of Stan’s custom-made leg braces.

“How’s the leg?” she asked.

“My dancing days are definitely over,” Danny said. “At least until the break heals.”

He ran his palms along the leather padding held together by Velcro straps and rigid hinged steel bars. The elastic material went all the way over his knee and down the calf. From what she could tell, Stan had done a marvelous job making it practical, and she made a mental note to ask him to make more, just in case.

Danny was looking at the nearly empty weapons rack at the back of the room. “Been busy, huh? I guess it’s true what they say: Give a woman the key to your place, and before you know it, she’s reorganizing everything. Should I ask what you’ve been doing with all the stuff me and your boyfriend collected over the last few months?”

“They’re around.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Here, there, everywhere.”

“Ah. All part of the plan?”

“Yes.”

“So, tell me about it. That is, if you have the time. I mean, if you don’t, maybe I can make an appointment or something. I can see you’re a very busy gal these days.”

“I’m sorry about before. At the pier…”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Water under the yacht. So tell me about this plan of yours that’s supposed to keep everyone alive.”

She did.

“Hunh,” he said when she was finished. “I guess it’s a good thing we stocked up on those cheap boats and emergency ladders.”

“That’s Will, Danny. He’s always thinking ahead. That’s why he’s such a good leader and I’m…barely hanging on.”

“You’re doing all right from what I can see.”

“Barely.” Then, “So tell me. Am I going to get everyone killed?”

He thought about it for a moment. “It’s risky,” he said finally.

“It’s very risky. But I don’t see any other way. If we need to abandon the island, the Trident has to be ready. For that to happen, it can’t be involved until we need it.”

“It’s a big boat.”

“We’ll have the cover of darkness, and I’m hoping they won’t be able to adjust their assault plan on the fly. Or want to, given their overconfidence.”

“So many maybes, Aunt Bee would be jealous.” He seemed to think about it some more before nodding. “What’s the worst that could happen? They try to board the big boat?”

“Keo did.”

“Yeah, but from what everyone’s told me, that guy is half-dolphin. Besides, I brought something that’ll discourage them if they do decide to go that path. Have you ever stared down the barrel of an M240? It’s guaranteed to make anyone cry for their momma.”

“The other option is to pack everyone and everything onboard the Trident now and take our chances at the channel before nightfall.”

“And you say they’ve got that place sealed tight?”

“Keo barely survived.”

“He’s a merc. You can’t really trust a merc. Even one that’s half-dolphin.”

She sat down on one of the crates and looked over at him. “Tell me the truth. Am I going to get everyone killed, Danny?”

“Like I said, it’s risky, but I trust you.”

“Why?”

“You’re smarter than me.” He grinned, and despite the bruises and cuts, she could almost believe he was the same Danny who had left her and Carly to go look for Will. “Let’s face it, you’re smarter than everyone on this island. I used to think it was just book smarts, but Willie boy’s convinced that’s not the case. And I’ve learned to trust his instincts, even though this time it got me a busted nose.”

“Funny, because I don’t feel so smart.”

“Now you know how I feel every day. Wait, did I just say that out loud?”

She managed a smile, but her mind was already elsewhere. She hesitated with what she was going to say next because she had been dreading it, but knew it was inevitable.

“What happened out there, Danny?” she finally asked.

“What do you wanna know?”

“It’s her, isn’t it? Kate?”

He sat down next to her. “They went to great lengths to take us alive back at Route 13. Kate’s orders would be my guess. I don’t know what that bitch has up her fleshy sleeve, but it’s got everything to do with Willie boy.”

“He was only with her for one night. Or did he lie to me?”

“Nah, I think that was it. But it’s not like I have a bell around his ankle or anything.”

“So what is this, some kind of schoolgirl crush?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then what?”

He shook his head, and she could see that Danny had been thinking about it for some time now, too. “Putting on my serious hat here, but I don’t think it’s something we would understand. You know how she would sometimes show up in his dreams?”

Lara nodded. It was one of the more infuriating things about Kate.

“He used to tell me they had this unexplainable connection,” Danny said. “Some psychic shit, or something. Maybe it happened back in the early days of The Purge. The Kate you met on the road wasn’t the same Kate we first saw back in Houston. She’d changed a lot by the time you joined us.”

Everyone changes. You adapt or perish.

“So I don’t know what happened between them,” Danny continued. “You should ask him when he comes back.”

“I will.”

“And he will come back.”

“I know.”

“Your boyfriend’s stubborn. It’s one of his most annoying qualities. Sometimes I want to punch him in the face just for being him.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.” Lara reached over and squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you’re back. You know I love you, right?”

He grinned. “What would Carly say?”

She kissed him on the cheek. “Welcome home. I’m sorry you’re not going to be able to spend a lot of time with Carly.”

“Fortunately, I don’t need all that much time. Back in college they used to call me Speedy Danny. You don’t wanna know.”

“I think you’re right,” she smiled, and this time it came out easier.

“I could tell you.”

“No.”

“It’s a funny story.”

“Save it for tomorrow.”

“Right-o.” Then, “So. Your own little Plan Z, huh?”

“I’m trying to come up with a better name, but yeah. If we need it, that’s what I’ve come up with.”

“Eh. I’ve heard worse.”

“When?”

“Whenever your boyfriend opens his mouth.”

Lara laid her head against his shoulder. “He’ll be back. As long as he’s alive, he’ll come back to me. He promised, and he knows I’ll kick his ass if he breaks that promise.”

“Well, that settles that, then.”

They didn’t say anything for a moment, and the only sound for the longest time was the humming of the lights around them.

Finally, Lara said, “What if they don’t do what I think they’ll do? What if they’re smarter than that?”

“They’ll definitely go for the beach,” Danny said. “They won’t be able to help themselves. They have the manpower and firepower for it. They’ll overwhelm us with force. Shock and awe. Or, at least, that’ll be the plan. Personally, Willie boy and me could have come up with something better. Like, a billion times better. But we’re not talking about professionals here. They’ll take the path of least resistance because they’ll be overconfident in their numbers.”

“Do they really have that many soldiers?”

He nodded. “However many you think they have, they actually have more. Everyone loves a winning side, right? And you don’t get any more winning than taking over the planet in one night. Hell, if we’re smart, we would have joined them long ago.”

“It’s a good thing you’re not that bright, then.”

“Ouch.”

“But I love you anyway.”

Danny put his arm around her and pulled her tight against him. “One more day. That’s all we need. Just long enough for Big Willie to make his way home. I don’t like to tell him this, but he’s the brains of the operation, you know. If there’s a Will, there’s a way.” Then he added, “Get it?”

“I’m not an idiot, Danny.”

“Well, you did drop out of school.”

“I had a really good excuse,” she said.

She found Gaby in her room. The same one she had left behind weeks ago when she climbed into the helicopter with Will and didn’t come back to until now. It still looked the same because Lara hadn’t touched it since, and Carly had visited it once every few days to keep the dust at bay. From the looks of the clean carpeting and bed, Carly had done a good job of it.

Gaby was sitting on the end of the bed, looking at the open bathroom door across from her. Someone was in the shower singing some song that sounded familiar, but Lara couldn’t quite place it. It was probably the young blonde girl who had stood on one side of Gaby while the young man, Nate, stood on the other when they arrived on the island earlier. Looking at the two girls was like seeing sisters, and she wondered if that’s what people saw when she stood next to Gaby.

A dirty T-shirt and pants lay crumpled on the floor next to the supply packs Gaby and the girl had brought with them. Gaby was still wearing her gun belt, and her M4 rifle leaned against the bed within easy reach. There was an awareness about her, as if she was waiting for something to happen so she could explode into action, that hadn’t been there when she had last seen the teenager.

Always the soldier. You trained her too well, Will.

“Hey,” Lara said.

Gaby looked over. Despite the bruises, the cuts, and the healing broken nose, she still looked very much like the painfully pretty eighteen-year-old teenager who had come to her and Will not all that long ago. Josh had been with her then, but that was another life. These days, Gaby had other boys scrambling for her attention, and no amount of bodily injury was going to stop that.

“Some homecoming, huh?” Lara said. “‘Welcome back. Oh, by the way, we’re about to be attacked by an overwhelming force. Can you grab that rifle?’”

Gaby smiled. “Beats what’s going on out there.”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“Who hasn’t?”

Lara nodded. She couldn’t argue with that.

And Will was still out there…

“I was hoping you’d come by,” Gaby said. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me after…earlier.”

“I’m sorry about that. I reacted badly.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t shoot me and Danny.”

They exchanged a brief smile, then Lara pointed at the open bathroom door.

“Claire,” Gaby said.

“Mini you.”

Gaby chuckled. “I guess we do kind of look alike.”

“What’s she singing?”

“I think that’s a Taylor Swift song.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“Taylor Swift?”

“Yeah.”

“She was a country singer, sang mostly about boys and breaking up and all that girlie stuff. Then she became a pop singer. Then…well, I don’t know what she did after that. This happened.”

Lara walked over and sat on the bed next to her. Gaby hadn’t changed clothes since she arrived. She was still wearing the same cargo pants and long-sleeve shirt, clothes that would make other women look tomboyish or plain, but of course other women weren’t Gaby.

“You should have seen me this afternoon,” Gaby said. “I was wearing a dead man’s uniform.”

“Why in the world were you doing that?”

Gaby told her about posing as soldiers in order to get past the barricade at the Lake Dulcet exit.

“Oh,” Lara said. She wondered how many of those “soldiers” were running around out there right now. More importantly, how many Will would have to elude (kill) in order to come back to her.

However many it takes, Will. You better come back to me.

“From what Carly told us in the dining room, it sounds like you have everything ready,” Gaby said.

God, I hope she’s right, Lara thought, but she said, “Will has a saying: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. I just hope I don’t get everyone killed.”

“We’ll do fine. I was trained by two of the best, and you guys have been fighting for this island for a while now. We’re going to give them a hell of a fight.”

They didn’t say anything for a while. Instead, they sat quietly and listened to Claire singing inside the shower. Gaby was right; the song was about a boy and heartbreak, and maybe a high school was involved somehow. They could make out Claire’s figure behind the curtain, scrubbing herself down as heavy mist drifted through the open door.

“I told her there was a five-minute limit,” Gaby sighed. “I think she’s way past that.”

“It’s okay. Let her enjoy it.” Because it might be the last shower any of us gets for a while, she thought about adding, but didn’t. She said instead, “Then you should take one, too.”

“I will. I have a lot to scrub off.” She paused for a moment, before adding, “Thanks for keeping my room clean, by the way.”

“Thank Carly. She did all the work.”

Gaby looked toward her patio window. “What are the chances he’s out there, you think?”

“Who?”

“Josh.”

The question caught her off guard. It had never occurred to her that Josh would be out there right now, somewhere on the shoreline waiting for nightfall. Would Kate send him to do her dirty work? The Josh she knew was still eighteen, tall but gangly, even nerdy, and if she had to pick someone to lead a battle, he would have been the last person on her list. But according to Will and Gaby, that teenage boy was long gone, replaced by a very capable (and dangerous) ghoul collaborator. So who was to say what he was capable of now?

Adapt or perish. Maybe Josh has adapted, too.

“I don’t know,” Lara said. “Would they let him join in the attack?”

“The Josh I saw out there wouldn’t be a part of the attack, Lara; he would be leading it.”

“Josh?” She knew he had changed, but had he changed that much?

“He’s gone, Lara.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s gone. He’s not a boy anymore. You can’t think of him as the same boy who you met in Lancing. If you get the chance — if you see him tonight — don’t hesitate. Shoot him, because he’ll shoot you.”

Lara was speechless for a moment. Finally, she said, “I guess it doesn’t matter who leads the attack. One man in a soldier’s uniform is the same as another.”

Gaby looked over at her. “Just don’t hesitate, Lara.”

Lara nodded. “I won’t.” Then she stood up. “I’m going to need you tonight, Gaby.”

“That’s why I came back. You just tell me where you want me, and I’ll be there.”

“Meet me in the lobby in—” she glanced at her watch “—half an hour.”

“Should I bring my gear?”

“No. And you won’t need the M4, either. I’ll have something else for you.”

Gaby nodded. “I’ll be there.”

Lara walked to the door.

“Lara,” Gaby said.

She stopped and looked back.

“What about Will?” Gaby asked.

That’s the question of the century. What about Will?

“He can take care of himself,” Lara said. “Right now, we need to worry about us.”

“Danny’s convinced Kate’s the one pulling the strings out there. Is she capable of something like that?”

“I don’t know,” Lara said. “Let’s save that question for Will when he comes home. Until then, let’s make sure he has someplace to come back to.”

CHAPTER 17 GABY

The island had changed. She didn’t think it was possible it could look and feel so different since the last time she had walked along its white sandy beach or dipped her feet into the cool blue waters. But maybe it wasn’t Song Island that had changed. Maybe it was her. She wasn’t the same girl who had left this place. She had killed. More than once. If not for The Purge, the lives she had taken would have made her notorious.

The conversation with Lara hadn’t really gone as planned, but in many ways it went better. She loved Lara. She hadn’t realized that until they sat together and simply talked. They had both changed a lot, and maybe not all of it for the better. They had become survivors. They always had been, of course, but there was a difference between surviving and being survivors.

Was that a good thing? It was hard to say.

Once Claire finished showering, Gaby took her turn. She didn’t linger too much. Five minutes, tops, standing underneath the scalding hot spray and letting it cleanse away the days on the road, the night slept in that crypt outside of Dunbar, and whatever remained of L15 and Josh’s company.

Are you out there right now, Josh? Are you the one leading tonight’s attack?

She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she saw him tonight. Josh in that uniform, with a rifle in his hands, running toward her. Could she do it? Could she shoot him the way she had told Lara to?

Stay away, Josh. Please stay away.

Claire was already gone by the time she came out of the shower. Gaby put on clean black cargo pants and socks, then pulled on an olive green long-sleeve sweater. She dressed silently while sneaking looks at the clock on the wall.

6:15 P.M.

The audible clicking of the second hand was like a grenade going off inside the quiet room. One of these days, the batteries were going to die and the hands would stop moving. That was life now. Sooner or later, everything just stopped.

She glanced at the patio window for the fifth time in as many minutes. The curtains were pulled halfway, revealing the falling night outside. Soon, very soon, it would be complete darkness. She should have been afraid, but she wasn’t. Maybe it was being back home again, or the fact she was now surrounded by friends.

Tonight felt different somehow. She was calm. Amazingly so.

The lack of activity in the hallway outside was surprising, given how many people were now calling the hotel home. She made sure to close her door before heading up to the lobby with just her pack in one hand. She walked past two doors before stopping at the third.

She took a breath, then knocked on it.

“Come in,” Nate called from the other side.

She opened the door and stepped inside.

He stood next to his bed, shirtless, with his back to her. His hair was wet, and fresh steam drifted out of the open bathroom door. His dirty clothes were in a pile on the floor, and Nate looked cleaner than she had ever seen him.

She smiled briefly, remembering the look Benny had given Nate back in the dining room. Benny had burst inside, not expecting to see her sitting next to Nate. The next few minutes had been incredibly uncomfortable, and Gaby felt miserable about not preparing either one of them for that moment.

I’m back in high school all over again, she remembered thinking.

Nate glanced over and gave her a wide smile. “You weren’t kidding about this place. Your own room, a big soft bed, and working plumbing. I could definitely get used to all of this.”

If we’re still alive after tonight, she thought, but asked instead, “How was your reunion with Mary, Kendra, and the others?”

“It was good to see them again. A lot of questions, though.” He pursed his lips. “I didn’t know how to answer most of them.”

“Mary must be especially happy to see you back.”

Mary was the teenage girl who had been a part of Nate’s group back when they were still out there on their own. The girl had stuck close to Nate the entire time, and Gaby used to feel a little guilty about Nate just leaving them behind to go with her. That guilt was compounded by what happened to him afterward.

“She was,” he nodded. “I was happy to see her, too. They all look healthier than I’ve ever seen them. Coming here was a good thing.”

Gaby wasn’t so sure about that. She couldn’t help but think about Claire, Milly, and Annie, and bringing them to a place that was about to be attacked. It must have shown on her face, because Nate gave her a reassuring look.

“We’ll get through tonight,” he said. “We’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

He turned around and picked up a shirt from the bed. She was so used to seeing him with that stupid Mohawk that not to see it perched on top of his head still took some adjusting. She was staring at his head when her eyes fell down to his arms as he pulled the shirt on.

Teeth marks.

They covered both his arms, extending from the wrists to the shoulders blades. There were dozens of them, like tiny mazes crisscrossing his flesh, or poorly thought-out tattoos. Most looked healed, but some still looked fresh. Too fresh. She stared and couldn’t look away, and couldn’t stop herself from wondering where else they were on his body that she couldn’t see at the moment.

Nate looked back and saw where she was staring. The look on her face must have betrayed her thoughts, because he quickly grabbed a knitted black sweater and pulled it over the T-shirt.

“It looks worse than it really is,” he said.

“Do they hurt?” she asked, feeling stupid as soon as the words blurted out of her mouth.

He didn’t look offended, though. If anything, she had the impression he had been waiting for this conversation.

“Not anymore,” he said. “In the beginning, yeah. Back at the pawnshop, when I was still conscious. I could feel their teeth breaking skin.” He seemed to drift off a bit, maybe flashing back to that night. “But after a while, I blacked out. When I woke up, they told me that was how it usually worked. Once they put you under, you don’t feel anything anymore.”

“Usually?”

“Some of the guys had stories…”

“What kind of stories?”

“You know all those scary stories people tell about how some coma patients in hospitals are still awake when everyone else thinks they’re asleep? But in reality they’re trapped inside their bodies and can still see, hear, and feel everything? But they just can’t move or talk? I think there’s a medical term for it, but I can’t think of it right now.”

“Maybe Lara knows,” she said absently.

“Probably. Anyways, some guys said they could still feel the ghouls drinking them when they were unconscious.” He shook his head. “But I didn’t, so I can’t really say for sure either way.”

“Then you woke up…”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Nate,” she said quietly.

“What for?” he said, smiling across the room at her. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Gaby.”

“You wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like you forced me to. Or even asked me to. I volunteered, remember?”

“I know. Still…”

“Gaby,” he said, and there was a forcefulness in his voice she hadn’t heard before. “You didn’t do this. Understand? Those things did. Everything else was my choice. Okay? You don’t ever have to apologize for what happened to me. I don’t blame you. I never did, and I never will.”

She didn’t know what to do or what to say, so she just did what felt right at the moment, and that was to walk silently to him. Nate opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, she slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him down and kissed him. His arms slipped anxiously around her waist, and he pulled her body to his and ground his mouth down against hers with a hunger that momentarily took her breath away.

They kissed for the longest time. Or maybe it was just a few seconds. It wasn’t until she couldn’t breathe anymore that she pulled slightly back, but she was still so close to him that she could feel his warm breath against her face. He was, she noticed, breathing harder than usual. Maybe even harder than her.

“You wanna see this wicked scar I have on my back?” he asked with a grin.

She gave him a confused look. “Why would I want to see that?”

“I dunno, but you saw the scars on my arms and I got this. I figured, scars must turn you on.”

She shook her head. “They don’t.”

“Wow. Totally read that signal wrong, then.” He glanced at his wall clock. “We still have a few minutes—”

“Not nearly enough for everything I want to do with you,” she said, and pulled him down and kissed him again.

She sent Nate to the lobby ahead of her to join the others while she made a detour to the infirmary first. Carly had given them a quick tour of the new rooms as they were walking through earlier, so Gaby didn’t have any trouble finding it again. It was also close enough to the lobby that she could hear voices on the other end of the hallway. Muted conversations, part anxious and scared, but there was a determination among them that heartened her.

The only person in the infirmary was a blonde woman sitting on a stool at a counter, her back to Gaby. When she entered and knocked on the open door, the woman turned around and Gaby smiled at Zoe.

“Long time no see,” Gaby said.

Zoe smiled back, which was something Gaby found amusing, since the last time they were in the same room, she had threatened to kill the other woman. More than once, actually.

“Gaby,” Zoe said. “Welcome home.”

“Glad to be back.” She walked over and sat down on a stool. “You look pretty healthy. Will told me you were shot.”

“Yeah. Word of advice? Don’t get shot.”

“Good advice.” She looked around the room. “Not bad. Beats working out of a tent in the woods.”

“I know, right? It only took the end of the world to get my very own medical practice. And on a tropical island, no less. I still don’t know where they got those palm trees from, though.”

“They were here when we showed up.”

“That’s what Lara said. This place was supposed to be a resort for the rich and famous. I bet they didn’t expect it to become a refuge for humankind’s last holdout.”

“Wow. I never thought of it quite like that.”

Zoe laughed. “What, too ominous?”

“Just a bit,” she said, pinching her fingers together. “You’re not going to the lobby for the big powwow?”

Zoe shook her head. “That’s just for the badass warriors like you. The rest of us already got our marching orders. I’m just finishing up here before heading off. Lara’s got it all figured out.”

Gaby had seen the way Lara took control of the island, giving orders with the kind of authority she’d only seen Will exert.

You would be proud of her, Will. She’s like you — only prettier.

“I spent most of this afternoon following Lara’s orders,” Zoe was saying. “She’s got me running back and forth from the yacht.” She looked thoughtful, adding, “I can see why Will likes her so much. She’s the female him.”

Likes her? Will doesn’t like Lara. He loves her. We should all hope for something close to that at least once in our lives.

“So,” Zoe said, “what can I do for you? Or is this just a friendly visit?”

“I was hoping to stock up on something for tonight.”

“What kind of something?”

“You have any painkillers you can spare?”

“Is it your nose?” Zoe leaned forward slightly. “Does it hurt? It looks like it was broken recently.”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

She thought about complaining to Zoe about her shoulder, which still bothered her if she sat around in one place for too long, but decided the occasional numbness wasn’t worth mentioning.

She said instead, “I want to make sure I have something to fall back on if I need them. Maybe a field first-aid kit. Just in case.”

“Just in case,” Zoe repeated. “You sound like Lara.”

Gaby smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

By the time she reached the lobby, the only people left were Danny and Lara. They were talking quietly next to a large granite table in the center of the room, which looked cavernous with just the two of them inside at the moment. There were extra gun belts, magazines, and two ammo cans on the table between them, along with a pair of M4s and shotguns that hadn’t been claimed yet.

“Where is everyone?” Gaby asked. “I didn’t know I was that late.”

“You’re not,” Lara said. “Everyone’s where they should be.”

She looked at Lara, then Danny, and realized they had stayed behind on purpose. They were waiting for her.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Lara picked up one of the M4s. It looked like the one she had left behind in her room except for the long and slightly bulky scope mounted on top. She took it from Lara and turned it over under the harsh lobby lights.

“Night vision,” Danny said. “You’re going to need it. It doesn’t have the range of the ACOG, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

“How many of these do we have?” Gaby asked.

“Not nearly enough,” Lara said.

Danny held up his M4A1, the same rifle he had been carrying around ever since she had known him, though it had gone through plenty of fixes and replacement parts. It was also equipped with the same scope as hers.

“Just you and me, kid,” he said. “Keo’s going to have to make do with a laser pointer and NVD.”

“NVD?”

“Night-vision device. Basically, goggles with glowing green beer cans for lens.”

“The laser sounds cool.”

“This is cooler.”

“I feel so special.”

“That’s because we are special. Special snowflakes in an ocean of dripping crap.”

“Oh, nice vision, Danny.”

He grinned. “I’m here to serve.”

“How’s the leg?”

“How’s the nose?”

“Still busted.”

“There you go.”

“Wise ass,” she said. Then to Lara, “What about Nate?”

“Don’t worry about your boyfriend,” Danny said.

“Shut up, Danny.”

Danny chuckled.

“Benny and Nate have everything they need,” Lara said. “They’ll be fine.”

“So who’s going to be in the Tower?” Gaby asked. “I thought Danny and I were the best shooters on the island.”

“Long-range isn’t going to get it done tonight, kid,” Danny said. “We’ll be on the beach. Up close and personal. When those little buggers show up and ring the doorbell, we’ll be the ones to greet them. With a face full of lead.” He grinned. “I always wanted to say that. Did I get the tone right?”

“I got chills,” Gaby said.

“Awesome.”

“So how is this going to work?” Gaby said to Lara.

“I’ll fill you in on the way over,” Danny said.

He picked up an ammo pouch and tossed it to her. It was a lot bigger than the ones she was used to, with two slots already filled with two magazines each, for a total of four.

“Shove what you can carry into your pack,” Danny said. “Just pretend you’re a really well-armed pack mule.”

She strapped on the pouch, then begin grabbing extra magazines for the Glock in her hip holster. “Silver bullets?”

“Nothing but,” Danny said.

“Are we expecting ghouls tonight?”

“We’re not expecting them, but we’re not not expecting them.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it does. Think about it.”

“I’d rather not.” She sensed Lara watching her and looked over. “What’s wrong?”

Lara smiled. “You’ve grown up.”

She grinned back. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“Tonight? Absolutely.”

“What if they don’t come tonight?”

“Everything points to it happening. I wish I was wrong. But they’re coming.”

Gaby glanced reflexively at the wall clock. 6:46 P.M.

“The funny part is, they know that we know they’re coming, but they’re coming anyway,” Danny said. “If I was a betting man, I’d say they’re a lot more scared of not attacking than they are of facing the Wrath of God, a.k.a. Danny and Gaby’s Shoot-o-rama.”

Kate. He’s talking about Kate.

“Meet me outside when you’re done getting all dolled up,” Danny said. He slung his M4A1 and headed across the lobby, whistling as he went. He still had a noticeable limp, but he was either doing his best to hide it or the contraption on his leg was actually doing its job.

“Here,” Lara said, handing Gaby an LED flashlight. “It’s going to get really dark out there.”

“No moonlight tonight?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Gaby shoved the heavy Maglite into her pack, then slung it. “How long have you been thinking up tonight’s plan?”

“Since noon. But I’ve been considering it for a while now. I call this Plan D.”

“Plan D?”

“Will has his Plan Zs, but I never liked that name. It’s too…”

“Last resort-ish?”

“Yeah.”

They both chuckled.

“Plan D,” Gaby nodded. “I like the sound of that. Not quite as last resort-ish.”

“That’s the idea.”

“If that’s Plan D, then what’s Plan A?”

“You, Danny, and Keo,” Lara said, patting her on the shoulder, “saving the island.”

“Oh,” Gaby said.

No pressure. No pressure at all.

Danny was waiting for her on the raised front patio when she stepped outside the hotel. “We good?”

She nodded. “We’re good.”

“You ready to kick ass and ignore the whole taking names part?”

“Not so much.”

“That’s my girl.”

She followed him down the steps and they continued along the cobblestone pathway toward the beach. The silence of the island, except for the steady and ever present hum of the lamps, was the first thing she noticed. That, and the blanket of darkness that had fallen around them. Instead of making her anxious, she felt growing excitement.

God help me, I’m ready for this.

There was no activity around them except for her and Danny’s movements, as if the entire island had shut down. Which, she guessed, wasn’t far from the truth. She looked behind her at the Tower, literally a beacon of light shining on the northeast cliff. Two shadowy figures moved around on the third floor.

“Where’s Nate, Danny?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about your boyfriend. He’s doing his job.”

He’s not my boyfriend, she thought about saying, but it sounded too much like something a high school teenage girl would say, so she said instead, “Where are the girls? Claire and Milly and the others?”

“They’re safe and sound and tucked away. Don’t worry about them, either.”

“What should I be worried about, then?”

“Shooting straight and reloading fast.”

She grunted. “Thanks for the advice. You’re full of pearls of wisdom tonight.”

“I aimsta please.”

“So what’s the objective? Besides not dying, I mean.”

“The objective tonight is to put enough hurt on them to convince them to back off.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Well, that’s what contingency plans are for, kid. Any more questions?”

“Yes.” She glanced around them. “Where’s that Keo guy? Lara said he was going to be on the beach with us.”

“He’s around.”

“What’s your opinion of him?”

“He’s a merc.”

“Merc?”

“Mercenary.”

“I take it that’s not a good thing.”

“A year ago I would have said yes, but these days?” He shrugged. “Times change, pants go out of style, and everyone’s suddenly wearing long johns again. Plus, Carly seems to like him.” Then he added, with what sounded like a slight annoyance, “Just a tad too much, if you ask me.”

They reached the corridor between the woods, with the smell of lake water wafting from the beach in front of them. It wasn’t a full moon tonight, but there was enough to see with. Coupled with the solar-powered lamps that lined the island, it would be incredibly difficult to miss them from any part of the lake.

Men are coming. Men with guns.

So why am I so calm?

“Danny,” Gaby said.

“What’s up?”

“Are we really going to survive this?”

“I’d say the chances are pretty low, but hey, stranger things have happened. Like, say, the end of the world. Who saw that coming? But here we are.”

She frowned. “That isn’t very reassuring.”

“I got a joke that’ll take your mind off it. Wanna hear it?”

“No.”

“A priest, a rabbit, and a horse walk into a bar,” Danny said anyway. “The bartender sees them and exclaims, ‘Whoa, whoa, didn’t you read the sign outside? This is a No-Animals bar!’ To which the priest harumphs, puts his fists on his hips, and indignantly replies, ‘Animals? I’m not an animal, good sir!’”

“‘Good sir’?”

“He’s a priest. They talk old-timey like that.”

“Since when?”

“Since forever. Now shaddup. You wanna listen to the rest of it or not?”

“Are you saying I have a choice?”

“No,” Danny said, and continued. “So the bartender reaches under the counter and pulls out a shotgun…”

CHAPTER 18 KEO

I’m so screwed.

Gillian was so going to kill him. If she was even still alive out there, and if he ever made it to her if she was. There were a lot of maybes. He really was just operating on faith, and had been for some time. Maybe he always knew it, but it took Lara trying to convince him — and herself — that her boyfriend was still alive to bring it home.

She wants to believe it. Badly. Just like I want to believe Gillian’s still out there waiting for me.

We’re both suckers.

Between the two of them, he was definitely the bigger sucker. After all, he was the one stuck on a doomed island. It didn’t get any worse than that. It might have been different if he had a battalion of soldiers fighting with him. Or, hell, he would have settled for some seasoned mercs. But no, just kids and women and…more women. Way too many women. Maybe it was a sign from God that he’d end up surrounded by double X chromosomes. A really sick and perverted sign. He’d be angry about it if he actually believed in a higher power.

So screwed.

He had to admit, when it came to suicidal plans, Lara had him beat by a mile. His friend Norris would have had a heart attack if he’d heard what she was planning. Then again, Keo recognized his own shortcomings when it came to tactical decisions, so what did he know? Maybe this was the only way out. Could he have come up with something better? Probably not. Most of his ideas ended up with him nearly dying anyway.

The lights up and down the beach had buzzed to life by the time darkness enveloped the island in a nice thick blanket, and soon even the quiet hum of the lamps was drowned out by the sloshing of water against the sand. The wind was picking up, and a nice breeze washed over him. He was glad for the long-sleeve wool sweater he’d found at the hotel’s lost-and-found room. Even the lake seemed to know something was about to happen as soon as night fell.

He heard their footsteps against the cobblestone pathway before someone called over, “Shouldn’t you be hiding with the women and children?”

They looked like brother and sister with their blond hair, matching broken noses, and facial scars. The girl, Gaby, was gangly but obviously athletic, and actually looked comfortable with the M4 for a civilian. The gun belt sagged a bit against her narrow hips, mostly thanks to the heavy ammo pouches she was carrying.

“Apparently I’m neither women or children enough,” Keo said.

“Coulda fooled me,” the guy, Danny, said.

Keo smirked.

“See what I mean?” Danny said to the girl. “Mercs have no sense of humor. It’s always shoot this, shoot that, and where’s my money with them.”

“Not all of us get to live off Uncle Sam’s teats,” Keo said. “Some of us actually have to work for a living.”

“You good at keeping the lights on, Kia?”

“I’ve sent a few Army Rangers packing in my time.”

“Oh ho, don’t mess with this guy.”

They walked over and stood next to him, and the three of them stared off at the darkening lake in silence for a moment. It wouldn’t be long now until the shoreline in the distance became indistinguishable from the nothingness gathering beyond the lights of the island.

“Wind’s picking up,” Danny said.

“Is that a good or bad sign?” the girl asked.

“Depends…”

“On?”

“If you believe in good and bad signs. Me, I just pay attention to the ones that say ‘Stop’ and the ones with dresses on the door.”

Gaby was focusing on the white yacht at the end of the piers. It looked like a sleeping whale waiting to be awakened, moving slightly against the waves. “What exactly are we going to do with that thing?”

“Part of Lara’s Plan Z,” Danny said.

“Plan D,” the girl corrected him.

“Plan D?”

“Yeah. She says it sounds better than Plan Z. Less last resort-ish.”

“Sure, if you want to take all the fun out of it.” He looked over at Keo. “What about you, Karaoke, you prefer Plan Z or Plan D?”

“As long as it keeps me alive at the end of the night, I don’t really give a shit,” Keo said.

Danny chuckled. “Listen to this guy,” he said, jerking a thumb at Keo. “He actually thinks we’re going to survive tonight. Looks like someone wants the Captain Optimism title.”

At exactly 7:00 P.M., the earbud in his right ear, connected to the throat mic and Motorola radio clipped to a stripped-down assault vest, clicked, and he heard Lara’s voice. “Stan, come in.”

Stan was the Mexican electrician, who as far as Keo knew was at the power station on the western part of the island. “I’m in position,” Stan said through the radio.

“It’s seven,” Lara said. “Do it.”

“Shutting down the power in five, four, three, two…one.”

Then it got dark.

Really, really dark.

The lamps that lined the beach and stretched out into the lake along with the three piers shut down one by one. Even though they were all solar-powered, the lighting system had a built-in manual power override, or so he’d been told. In a matter of seconds, the white sand and blue water of Beaufont Lake seemed to blink out of existence.

His heartbeat actually accelerated as he sat there in complete darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the sudden shift. It had been so long since he found himself outside and exposed at night that for a very brief moment, Keo remembered what fear was.

It took about thirty seconds, but he’d be damned if it didn’t feel more like thirty minutes before his vision finally adjusted to the new reality, and he could once again make out the waves lapping against the beach in front of him under the moonlight.

“And so it begins,” Danny said in his right ear. Then, “Was that ominous enough?”

“I give it an eight out of ten,” Gaby said through the comm.

“I was going for at least a nine.”

“Better luck next time.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Better Luck Next Time Danny. That’s what they called me in college, you know.”

“What school did you go to?” someone else asked through the radio. A woman. It sounded like either Bonnie’s little sister what’s-her-name or one of the other women whose names he hadn’t bothered to learn yet.

“Um, I don’t know,” Danny said.

“You don’t know?” the woman said, slightly amused.

“Well, no one’s ever had a follow-up question before.”

“Shouldn’t you have thought of one just in case?”

“Everyone’s a critic.”

“Hey, everyone, leave my boyfriend alone,” someone else said. Keo recognized Carly, the redhead. “Don’t listen to them, baby. Your jokes are awesome.”

“Ah, thanks, babe. You’re the bestest. Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“Not yet, but the night’s still young.”

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Gaby said.

Keo tuned them out, which was difficult because he was connected to the same channel as the entire island. After a while, their playful back and forth faded into the background and he was able to focus on…absolutely nothing.

He was sitting on the ground, his back pressed against a tree. The beach started less than a meter in front of him, and from his position he could see all of the piers, including the Trident, its white paint easily distinguishable in the darkness. Gaby was all the way on the other end of the beach, with the ex-Ranger somewhere in the middle.

Finally, Lara’s voice cut through all the jokes that were still going back and forth. “Blaine, come in.”

“Read you loud and clear,” Blaine answered.

“Is he there with you?”

The “he” in question was Gage, the boat captain.

“In front of me now,” Blaine said.

“Is he listening?” Lara asked.

“He’s listening…”

“Good. If he does something you don’t like — if it even looks like he might be thinking about doing something you won’t like — I want you to put a bullet in his other kneecap.”

“I hear you loud and clear.” There was, Keo thought, almost giddiness in Blaine’s voice when he answered.

No one likes you, Gage. That’s what happens when you go around marauding at the end of the world, dipshit.

“All right, it’s time for you guys to go,” Lara said.

“Roger that,” Blaine said. “We’ll see you when we see you.”

The Trident came alive, its whisper-quiet engine and 1,400 horsepower starting as a low whine before rising in volume. A moment later, its anchor rose out of the water like a metal serpent.

Keo hoped for their sake that whatever eyes the enemy had along the shorelines at the moment couldn’t make out the boat against the now-darkened island despite the white paint. The fact that the luxury yacht had powered up without turning on any of its lights would help to keep it invisible from a distance.

The large vessel began moving, turning and sending waves crashing against the beach as it did so.

“Thar she goes,” Danny said.

“How’s he doing that without lights?” Gaby asked.

“I guess that’s how he earned his captain’s hat. The rest of us have to parallel park, but they have to navigate by total darkness.”

“Are you just making that up?” Carly asked.

“Pretty much,” Danny said.

Keo held the night-vision goggles up to his eyes in order to see the vessel more clearly. It was cautiously moving away from the island, the water under it churning, before it turned completely around with all the speed of a bloated metal whale. For a one-legged marauding asshole with no redeeming values, Gage was a hell of a boat captain, because the man was doing all of this without the benefit of a single spotlight on or off the vessel.

“He’s wearing night-vision goggles,” Lara said through the comm. “That’s how he’s able to pilot in the dark.”

“I guess he’s not that special after all,” Danny said.

Keo could just make out Bonnie, the leggy ex-model, moving along the side of the main deck on the Trident. There was a third figure on the lower deck, but she had ducked inside as soon as the boat started moving. Probably Gwen, the short one with the impressive rack. He had yet to memorize everyone by name, and a part of him didn’t want to know.

A click in his ear, and Gaby’s voice. “Can’t they still see the boat from shore?”

“Can you see it without your night vision?” Lara asked.

“Let me see…” A brief pause, then, “Barely.”

“And you’re closer. If we’re lucky, they won’t be able to see it from the shorelines even with night vision.”

‘If we’re lucky,’ Keo thought with a slight smile. If you’re lucky, someone will survive tonight. If you’re unlucky, everyone will be dead, including me.

Which sucks for all of us, but especially me.

“We should have painted the whole thing black,” Danny was saying.

“There was no time,” Lara said.

The Trident was turning, before disappearing completely around the western corner of the island. He could still hear the engine, but it was already fading.

“Seven-thirty,” Lara said in his right ear. “If they’re coming, it’s going to be soon. Everyone buckle down for the night. No one goes anywhere unless I give the order.”

“Sheesh, who died and made her boss?” Danny asked.

“Everyone,” Carly said.

Eight o’clock came and went, and nothing happened.

The chatter over the radio had since died down, with only the occasional updates between Lara and the others spread out across the island. Or, in the case of Blaine, off-island. Everyone who didn’t have a gun and wasn’t in position to shoot something had been given explicit instructions not to break into the radio channel unless absolutely necessary. Much to his surprise, they were actually obeying protocol. Keo wasn’t used to civilians having that kind of discipline, but then he had to remind himself that everyone here had survived the end of the world. That, he guessed, took more than just dumb blind luck.

“Nate, come in,” Lara said around 8:17 P.M.

“Nate here.”

The kid who had just arrived on the island with Gaby and Danny was patrolling the northern cliffs, with Carrie and Jo (or was it one of the other girls?) moving around in the same general vicinity. The beach was the obvious target — it was wide and easily accessible — which was why he and two others equipped with night vision were watching it. But there was a chance the collaborators might risk scaling the cliffs, the way they had the last time the island came under attack.

“Anything on your end?” Lara asked.

“Nothing so far,” Nate said. Keo could hear a slight wind in the background from Nate’s side. He guessed the kid was very close to the cliff.

“Stay sharp, everyone.”

“Will do,” Nate said.

The other two women echoed him a second apart. He still couldn’t tell if one of them was Jo.

“Danny,” Lara said.

“Yes, milady,” Danny said.

“How’s it going down there?”

“No complaints. It’s a real beach.”

“Nice,” Gaby said.

“Thanks, kid.”

“Stay sharp,” Lara said.

“Don’t worry,” Danny said. “I’m so sharp they used to call me Danny The Really Sharp Guy back in college.”

“And what college would that be?” someone asked.

“Ah, man,” Danny groaned.

Nine o’clock came and went.

Then ten…

Click. “Maybe they’re not coming after all,” Carly said in his ear.

“Babe, I’m Captain Optimism here, remember?” Danny said. “I just wrestled the title back from Kazaam over there.”

“Who?”

“Kazaam.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Carly said.

“Shaquille O’Neal?”

“Okay, now you’re just making it worse.”

“Nineties movie. Shaquille O’Neal played a genie named Kazaam.”

There was silence over the radio.

“You know who I’m talking about, don’t you, Kablooey?” Danny asked.

“I don’t watch a lot of movies, sorry,” Keo said.

“Ah, you guys suck. Remind me never to invite any of you over to movie night.”

“Promise?” Gaby said.

“That hurts. That really, really hurts.”

“Hey, if you can’t take the heat,” Gaby started to say, when she stopped and said instead, “Danny.”

“I see it,” Danny said. “Karaoke, your ten o’clock.”

Keo had no trouble making them out against the green phosphor of the night-vision goggles he had put on an hour ago. Lara had given him a first-generation device, which was not nearly as bright or clear as the third-generation he was used to working with back in his old job. It was good enough, though, to let him spot the bright circles of light — at least a dozen of them — moving in their direction.

They were spotlights at the front of a fleet of boats.

He clicked his radio’s Push-To-Talk switch. “I see them.”

“You have the better angle,” Danny said. “What’s the count?”

“Ten.”

“That’s more than last time. Looks like they’re going to love us to death with sheer numbers.”

“You guys must be really special.”

“It’s the special sauce. Everyone wants the special sauce.”

“Ten boats?” Lara said through the radio. “Or ten spotlights, Keo?”

“Boats,” Keo said. “Ten boats. Confirmed.”

“Can you see what kind of boats?”

“Not a chance. Give them ten more minutes.”

“Benny, Carly?” Lara said.

“Keo’s right,” Carly said through the radio. Carly was in the Tower with Benny, using night-vision binoculars to keep an eye on the surrounding lake. “I see ten separate lights moving from the southeast shoreline. They’re launching from the old marina.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lara said. “They have the entire lake to launch from. Why the marina?”

“Crazy kids be doing crazy things,” Danny said.

“You think it’s a trick?” Gaby asked.

Lara didn’t answer right away. After awhile, she said, “It doesn’t matter. What matters is where they’re headed. Nate, Carrie, and Jo, report in.”

“I don’t see anything back here,” Carrie said.

“Nothing here, either,” Jo said. “I can’t hear a single engine or see anything moving out there.”

“Confirming the big fat nothing,” Nate said. “It looks like they’re going to hit the beach straight on, just like you said.” Then, sounding slightly anxious, “I’m heading over there now.”

“No, stay where you are,” Lara said.

“I’ll be more useful down there.”

“Nate, I need everyone exactly where I put them. That’s an order.”

“There’s nothing back here,” Nate said. “You were right. They’re going to assault the beach. That’s where I should be.”

“Stay where you are.”

“I’m coming—”

“Nate,” Gaby said, “do what Lara says. We’ll be fine over here.”

“I can be more useful down there,” Nate said.

“Please, hold your position. Lara knows what she’s doing.”

“Gaby…”

“Nate,” the girl said. There was a surprising hardness to her voice. “Please, stay where you are. We’ll be fine down here.”

There was a brief pause, then Nate said, “Roger that.”

Keo had to admit, he was impressed with the girl. He didn’t know a lot of nineteen-year-olds who had that kind of control over not just her emotions, but others as well. Nate might as well be putty in her hands.

“Blaine, Bonnie,” Lara said through the comm. “What do you see?”

“Confirming that everything’s clear back here,” Blaine said.

“Night vision?”

“Yeah, and still nothing.”

“Ditto for me,” Bonnie added. “You were right, Lara. They’re going to attack the beach with everything they have.”

“Weekend warriors,” Danny snorted. “These yahoos wouldn’t know a sound tactical plan if it bit them on their keisters.”

“Everyone maintain your positions,” Lara said. “Everyone has a job to do, so do your part.”

She sounded firm and in control. To listen to her, Keo could almost believe she wasn’t scared shitless at this very moment. Of course, he knew better, but she was doing exactly what she needed to — giving off the aura of confidence that the others needed to hear. Not bad for a third-year medical student.

“Lock and load, boys and girls,” Danny said. “Shoot first, shoot straight, and shoot often. And if all else fails, shoot some more.”

“You practiced that one, too, Danny?” Gaby asked.

“Yeah. How’d I do?”

“I’ll give it an eight.”

“Sweet, just two short of perfection,” Danny said.

The Heckler & Koch MP5SD had been a lifesaver, but right now it wasn’t going to do him a lot of good until the bad guys actually stepped foot on the sand.

Oh, look who’s calling other people ‘bad guys’ now. My, my, how times have changed.

He slung the submachine gun and slid it behind his back and picked up the M4 leaning against the tree next to him. He patted the ammo pouch along his left hip to make sure it was still there — six mags in all, loaded with silver bullets. Not that he was going to need anything that special on the people coming in the boats now.

Better safe than sorry, I guess. Seems to be the island’s other motto, right after ‘just in case.’

He slipped the night-vision goggles back on and moved closer toward the tree line until he was less than a yard away. In his dark clothes, he would be completely invisible (or pretty damn close) even if the men on the approaching boats had their own night-vision gear. Which, of course, they did. He remembered seeing them when they were prepping a few days ago back at the staging area. Even so, the tree line would provide him plenty of cover. That was his one and only advantage when the soldiers stormed the beach.

Should have left when you had the chance, pal. Live and learn.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the sound of the first boat motor reached him. It had taken them a while because they weren’t moving very fast. He guessed the fact that the island was pitch dark was the reason for their cautious approach. That, or they were dragging it out, dreading what awaited them. So maybe they were smarter than he gave them credit for.

A click in his right ear, followed by Danny’s voice. “Hey, Keo.”

“Yeah,” Keo said. He didn’t bother whispering. There was no point. The enemy was still too far away and the closest person to him was Danny, further down the beach.

“Carly tells me you’re on your way to see a girl in Texas.”

“Uh huh.”

“How’s that going?”

“About as well as you and this island.”

Danny chuckled. “That good, huh?”

“Yup.”

The boats had begun to spread out, which signaled they intended to hit the entire length of the beach at the same time instead of concentrating their forces into one spot. Too bad, because he would have loved to see what ten boats landing a few yards apart would have looked like, especially while he, Danny, and Gaby were pouring as much lead as they could manage at them.

“You’re all right, for a merc,” Danny was saying.

“You’re not bad, for a soldier.”

“You don’t like soldiers?”

“Never had much use for them.”

“Oh, I don’t believe that. I bet it goes deeper. Parental involvement, perhaps?”

Keo grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, grunt.”

“Heh heh, I knew it. What’s the matter, the old man rode you too hard?”

“Something like that.”

“You should have rode him back. Old people hate it when you ride ’em like a horsey.”

“Yeah, I should have thought of that.”

Watching the boats moving against the phosphorous green of his night vision was a surreal experience. The way the spotlights were bouncing up and down as the vessels picked up speed (and the rumble of motors gaining in intensity as a result) made him think of a legion of BMX bikers doing stunts as they charged.

“You wanna hear a joke?” Danny was asking.

“No,” Keo said.

“So this couple are out on a date and the guy realizes he’s out of condoms. He decides to make a pit stop at a grocery store and runs inside…”

“Hey, Danny,” Gaby said.

“What’s up, kid?”

“I’ll give you a buck if you shut up.”

“Tough beach,” Danny said.

Party boats, Keo thought when the first vessel emerged out of the black canvas like some demon from the pits of hell.

It was white and long, with red-hot rod flames along the sides, and flat. The driver sat in the middle, guiding the steering wheel while two men crouched at the stern and two more manned the bow. They were wearing battle gear, complete with ballistic Kevlar helmets and knee and elbow pads. Keo could almost see their faces constricted into tight grimaces as they held onto the speeding boat as it burst out of the water. Like him, they were all wearing night-vision goggles, the long lens bobbing up and down like extra appendages.

Hot rod was the first boat to hit the beach fifty meters in front of him, its sharp front hull digging a trench as it was driven forward by a roaring motor. The driver was battling with the steering wheel, looking almost spastic, while the passengers hung on to keep from being thrown off by the erratic vessel. When they were closer, he saw that the two up front were actually attached to the boat by coiled cables clipped to their belts. Flurries of sand arced through the air as the propellers came into contact with the beach.

Still on one knee, Keo lifted the M4 and switched on the laser pointer underneath the barrel. A red beam pierced the darkness, clearly visible through the green of his NVG. Keo stood up and focused on the boat that had made landfall first; it just happened to be directly in front of him. He watched the two on the bow struggling furiously to free themselves from the cables. One of them finally got himself unattached and was standing up when Keo settled the half-inch red dot on the man’s chest and put two rounds into him. Despite being unsuppressed, unlike his MP5SD, both shots were barely audible against the raging storm of ten boat motors roaring in his ears at the same time.

The dead man slumped off the boat and his partner, seeing his comrade go down, decided to give up trying to manually detach himself and began ramming the butt of his rifle into the hook that held him hostage.

Losing your cool during the heat of battle is a good way to die, pal.

Keo shot him in the right thigh, then squeezed off two more rounds even as the man was going down. He was pretty sure he hit the guy at least one more time. Fifty meters should have been a difficult shot for him, even with the long-range ability of a rifle, but the red laser dot made it a cheat. Not that he spent more than a nanosecond giving a damn.

The two on the stern had already decoupled themselves and were hopping off the boat, even as more vessels shot out of the water and made landfall to the left and right of them. More sand arced into the air, and the roar of the motors became deafening.

Meanwhile, the driver of the hot rod had ducked his head behind the steering wheel, and the only thing Keo could make out from him was the twin protruding lens of his NVG over the console. Keo ignored the hidden man and turned his attention to the two running up the beach, one of them struggling to maintain control of his rifle while the other had lost his night vision along the way.

They weren’t the only two trudging their way forward, their heavy boots and equipment causing them to sink into the soft beach, further slowing them down. They should have considered that when they were gearing up for the attack. He thought of something the British used to say called the 7 Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

More boats were landing one by one now, hitting the long stretch of sand many meters apart. He wondered if that was part of the plan or a byproduct of the drivers trying not to crash into each other in the darkness.

As soon as he fired his first shot, Danny and Gaby immediately joined in, pouring bullets into the surging mass of black-clad bodies trying to jump off their vessels up and down the beach. The pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire clashed with the continuous whirl of machinery, creating an odd melody that was painfully out of tune.

They had plenty of targets to choose from. Too many, in fact. The surging men looked like ants trudging and falling and stumbling as they attempted to flee from the open. They might not have any combat experience, but he couldn’t fault their tactical awareness. They knew just enough to understand that standing on the beach right now was a death sentence. Most of them hadn’t even returned fire, probably because they had no idea where he or Danny and Gaby were.

Keo flicked the fire selector on his M4 to full-auto and emptied the remaining magazine into the group of black-clad figures directly in front of him. They were already angling left toward the opening in the woods that led to the hotel grounds. Most of the soldiers were irresistibly drawn to it like moths to the flame, while only a few stayed behind to use the beached boats as cover and to return fire into the woods.

He didn’t know how many had already fallen, and he didn’t bother counting. He just knew that men were going down as he oscillated his fire from left to right, shearing the leaves and branches that had kept him hidden until now. The smell of burning foliage filled his nostrils and Keo was still smelling it as he emptied his weapon.

He hustled to his right, ejecting the magazine and slamming in a new one as he went.

A group of charging men was returning fire. They didn’t know where he was exactly inside the tree line, but even an idiot could tell his general vicinity after his last barrage. And that was where they were concentrating their fire now. Fortunately he wasn’t there anymore, and was still moving right, continuing to use the woods to his advantage.

He took a step closer toward the beach, stopping only when he could see out again, and went down on one knee, ignoring the zip-zip-zip of bullets slamming into the section of the woods where he had been just seconds ago. He was now a good twenty meters from his last position and the soldiers were still stuck in no-man’s land. The group of battle-dressed figures that had unleashed on him was reloading, while others continued running toward the passageway.

Fallen black-clad bodies zig-zagged the length of the beach, stretching from the parked boats to the trees. That was a sign Danny and Gaby were doing their part. Not that he expected any less from the soldier, though the girl continued to be a revelation. The pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire continued back and forth, still smashing against the roar of motors that had been left unattended as their drivers darted for safety.

The group that had returned fire on his last position had just finished reloading when Keo stepped outside of the trees and onto the beach, opening up on them. He felt the sand sinking under his boots as he pulled the trigger. He was so close to them that he didn’t even need to use the red dot this time; he just kept the trigger depressed until all four men had fallen down and stopped moving.

Keo quickly searched for more targets, but there were none to be found. The rest had already made it into the opening at the center of the beach and were on their way to the hotel grounds right this moment.

How many had gotten through? He couldn’t tell. If there were at least four per boat (five in some), that meant over forty soldiers, easily. And he was pretty damn sure he didn’t see forty-plus bodies lying on the beach at the moment.

He tossed the carbine, then unslung the MP5SD. The familiar feel of the submachine gun immediately reassured him, and Keo took hurried steps back into the tree line where he wouldn’t be exposed. He hadn’t gotten completely back inside cover when he heard the hellacious explosion of gunfire coming from the cobblestone pathway to his right.

It seemed to go on forever, and Keo found himself standing still and listening, wondering how many were dead or dying. That would depend on how many had managed to survive the beach.

Ten? Twenty?

A lot.

He looked back at the bodies lying under the moonlight. Too many to count. Some were his, some were Danny’s, some were Gaby’s. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Soldiers died — often. Even weekend warriors. And these poor bastards were only shot with small-arms fire. It beat having an arm or leg amputated by a large-caliber round from close range. He’d seen plenty of that, too.

You pick up a gun, this is what happens. Sooner or later, someone has a bigger gun, or has a better fighting position. Either way, live by the gun, die by the gun.

One of these days, that same thing would happen to him. Keo was fully prepared for it. He had been ready, even before the world ended. Surviving when so many had perished that first night had been a miraculous event. It was akin to making it through the Rapture. He was pretty sure someone, somewhere, had screwed up.

Keo looked back at the beach, past the unmoving figures and at the boats. Almost all of the motors had shut down except for a couple still running, still sending streams of sand and water into the air behind them.

He could take one of those boats and leave right now, take his chances back at the channel…again. (Second time’s the charm, right?) Would the sniper still be there? What about the men in the Jeep? Or was everybody already here, storming the beach? It made sense for the collaborators to throw everyone at them at the same time. That’s what he would have done—

BOOM!

The island shook under his boots and continued for at least two full seconds before settling again.

An explosion. Not a big one, judging by the short duration of the aftershock, but big enough for him to hear it over the continued churning of the few remaining motors on the beach.

Keo looked back into the woods, toward the northwest part of the island. He knew the sound (and feel) of an explosive device going off when he heard one, even from a distance.

“What was that?” a voice gasped in his right ear. Lara. “Anyone know what that was or where it came from? Someone answer me!”

No one answered for the longest time. Or maybe it just seemed like a long time. It could have been only a few seconds.

Keo looked back at the boats again. Nine of the vessels had gone silent, leaving a lone one to continue spinning sand into the air. It was a nice white bass fishing boat, just big enough to take him wherever he wanted to go.

So what was he waiting for?

He sighed, turned around, and waded through a sea of black and green and shadows, dodging trees and pushing his way north as fast as he could. He was carrying a noticeably lighter load now without the M4 and most of its ammo. The MP5SD was gripped tightly in front of him, and he used it to bat at branches in his path.

“The shack!” Carly finally shouted through the radio. “It’s the shack!”

“Shack?” someone else said. Male. It sounded like Nate, but it was hard to tell because his heart was beating too hard against his chest. “What shack?”

“The one at the power station!” Carly shouted. “It’s open! Lara, the shack’s open!”

CHAPTER 19 JOSH

“It’s dark; I think they turned off the lights,” Travis said, his voice partially obscured by the harsh sound of wind rushing against him. “I can’t see shit.”

“It’s an island,” Josh said, his own voice slightly muffled by the gas mask over his face. “It’s not going to start moving now. Just keep going straight and you’ll run into it eventually. Besides, that’s why I ordered everyone to pack night-vision goggles.”

“Have you ever assaulted an island with night vision?”

“Just get the job done,” Josh said, slightly irritated.

Travis might have laughed at the other end of the radio. Or snickered. It was a little difficult to tell, because sounds echoed inside the close confines of the tunnel.

“This is a stupid plan,” Travis said.

That’s your part of the plan, but it’s not the plan.

“Keep going,” he said. “We’re taking Song Island tonight—” even if I have to sacrifice you to do it “—because that’s what she wants.”

That did it. Just mentioning her was enough to shut Travis up.

Next to him, Sonia shifted her legs again, the soft plopping sound of her boots moving against the puddles of water that had settled and still continued to drip-drip-drip lazily from the ceiling above them. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when they were moving through the length of the tunnel about an hour ago. He was glad he was wearing combat boots because there was no telling what types of infestation had taken root inside the concrete structure ever since Will and the others sealed it up months ago. Or thought they had, anyway.

The gas mask he was wearing helped, the breathing apparatus filtering out all the suffocating stink of the long tube that connected the shoreline with Song Island, eventually opening up onto a large shack next to the power station.

Josh glanced down at his watch and was glad it had glow-in-the-dark hands. Travis and the boats had just started off from the marina a few minutes ago. It would take them a while moving at their current speed to reach their destination. Making them take off from the familiar marina was on purpose; Josh wanted the island to see them coming, to draw all their attention.

“How long?” Sonia called up the stairs.

“Five minutes!” a voice shouted back down at them.

Josh could see and feel the staccato glow of the cutting torches working their way against the steel shack door above the stairs right now. At one point, the people responsible for constructing Song Island had used the tunnel to bring supplies over from the mainland, transporting them by trucks to this cavernous room that looked like some kind of tomb at the moment, even with strategically placed LED portable lamps to light their way. The door was going to be a tight fit, and he would have preferred to use the wider cargo elevators, but those weren’t going to work without any power available down here. No, it would have to be the stairs and the shack.

He spent the next few minutes glancing at the gas-masked faces standing, sitting, or leaning against the thick walls around him. Thirty. That was how many heavily armed soldiers in battle gear he had brought with him through the tunnel, unnoticed by whoever was in the Tower at the time.

It hadn’t been easy, but once darkness fell and the island, predictably, went into action to get ready for the impending attack on the beach, Josh’s people were able to sneak over to the tunnel entrance and remove just enough of the rubble to gain entry. Under the cover of night, and wearing all-black while carrying nothing that would give them away against the blackness, they had made the almost mile-long walk from their vehicles to the tunnel entrance. Josh had been counting on whoever was in the Tower tonight being accustomed to movement on land by Kate’s creatures as soon as darkness fell. Removing the debris took time, but he had plenty of men to make short work of the necessary labor.

After that, it was a matter of jogging through the tunnel that extended under Beaufont Lake like an unused limb. The thought of moving under the large body of water had been unnerving at first, but that was just the side effect of having once “died” out here. It had been one of his worst experiences, and the idea of being trapped down here was almost paralyzing. But all he had to do was remind himself that the others were watching him, waiting for signs of weakness, and he was able to power through.

Drip-drip-drip.

Most of the men gathered round him looked anxious, and some were clearly terrified. They tried to hide it by looking away or chatting quietly among themselves, but he could hear the quivering in their voices even behind their gas masks. They had every right to be afraid. Even if their approach to the tunnel entrance had been discovered, Josh would have still stuck to the plan. He had brought plenty of men for just that possibility. Even if every gun on Song Island was concentrated outside the power station at the moment, Josh would have ordered these men out there anyway.

And they would have gone through with it, because she had given the order through him, and these men had sold their souls. Guns were scary, but a legion of mangled teeth coming at you relentlessly, night after night, was more terrifying.

Josh didn’t blame them. He remembered those nights before he saw the light and stopped fighting the inevitable. This wasn’t a war, as Will falsely believed; this was conquest. It was already over, and only the stubborn kept pretending it wasn’t.

Except for Sonia and a few others crouched nearby, Josh didn’t know the names of most of these people he was leading at the moment. If not for the name tags, he wouldn’t be able to tell one man from another, which, Josh had found, was a good idea. What was the point of memorizing the names of dead men?

What’s that old saying? Can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Or killing a few guys.

Okay, a lot of guys.

He remembered the looks on their faces when he told them their roles in the attack. Half of them wanted to curse him, and the other half wanted to shoot him right then and there. Travis, he was certain, wanted to do both.

But they did neither of those things. Because they knew who Josh was. He was one of the chosen ones. To disobey him was to disobey the ghouls. To disobey her.

“Take the island,” Kate had said to him last night in his dream (nightmare?).

“I will,” he had replied.

“Whatever it takes,” she had said, “Song Island has to fall. It’s become a symbol. It has to fall at all costs.”

But not at the cost of Gaby’s life, Josh thought to himself now.

Drip-drip-drip.

She was on the island right now. His Gaby. He knew it with absolute certainly, even if he had no visual confirmation. She would have returned with Danny and the new arrivals from earlier, all because Mason had screwed him over and was solely concentrating on capturing Will. Josh guess he couldn’t really blame the guy. Mason was doing Kate’s bidding, just like he was. Just like they all were. At the end of the day, Kate’s needs were the only things that mattered.

He looked back at Sonia. “How much longer?”

She leaned into the stairwell and glanced up. “How much longer?”

“Almost done!” a voice shouted back down.

“Almost there,” she repeated to him.

Josh nodded and turned back to the gathered men. They had heard, too, and the ones who were sitting had stood and the ones leaning were straightening. Electricity filled the room, emanating from the almost three dozen bodies squeezed into the tunnel. They were ready, anxious, and terrified at the same time.

Drip-drip-drip.

“Take the hotel,” Josh said to them. He wanted to be loud and commanding, but his words came out flat and echo-y to his own ears. He gathered himself and continued. “That’s your job. That’s your only job. Once the hotel falls, the island will follow. Got it?”

Some nodded, but others were too scared to do much besides fumble with their rifles or equipment in an attempt to stop their hands from shaking. Josh didn’t quite understand why he was feeling so calm. Like these men, he’d never (willingly or not) gone into a war zone before, which was what he was about to do right now.

And yet, and yet…

I’m one of the chosen ones. Whatever happens, I’ll be fine. Because it’s fate. Just like Gaby and me. We belong together.

Always. Forever.

“What about them?” one of the men said. He was looking behind them at the wide half-circle entrance that connected the large room they were inside now with the rest of the tunnel.

He couldn’t see them, because they were keeping their distance just as she had ordered them to. He wasn’t quite sure how many were back there, invisible in the darkness beyond the ring of LED lamps spread out across the large room, but there had to be hundreds, maybe more. They had entered the tunnel only after Josh’s people had begun moving through the over-half-mile-long concrete structure.

Kate’s ghouls. Or were they his?

Maybe ours…

Josh pulled the gas mask off and breathed in the stench. It reeked in here, made worse with the creatures nearby. One of them was bad, but so many crowded into one room without ventilation was unbearable. He pushed through the smell and sucked in a large lungful of the stale air anyway.

“Forget about them,” he said, hoping the confidence came through in his voice that time. He couldn’t be sure if he had succeeded, though a couple of the men did look comforted, even if he could only see their eyes behind their gas masks. “They’re only here as a last resort — not that we’ll need them. We’ll get this done, men. Everyone just do your jobs, and this will be over in a few hours.”

He must have been pretty convincing, because that seemed to placate most of the men; there might have been one or two (or a dozen) that weren’t moved. It was less about him and more about being so close to the creatures gathered en masse behind them. They might not have been able to see those black eyes, but their stink…

Josh slipped the gas mask back on and was grateful for the filtered air that flowed to his lungs.

“They’re done,” Sonia said.

Footsteps echoed as two men wearing welding masks, rivers of sweat dripping off their faces and clothes, trudged down the stairs carrying heavy portable equipment, the two cylinders inside clinking with every step. They looked exhausted and were leading two more men hauling a thick metal plate between them. The door. Or a part of it that had been cut free. It must have been extremely heavy by the way the men’s eyes were clenched behind their gas masks.

Josh and Sonia stepped aside to let them exit the stairwell. Then he leaned inside and glanced up, not that he could see much of anything even with the portable LED lamps sitting at the very top step.

After Will and Danny closed and then locked the shack, they had sealed it with two layers of brick and mortar. That was why Josh couldn’t see anything now, even with the hole where the door used to be.

“You ready?” Sonia said to someone behind him.

Hank and two others walked over to his position. They were carrying backpacks, and while Hank seemed comfortable with the items, the other two couldn’t hide their nervousness. It almost looked as if they might both bolt at any second.

“Relax,” Hank said. “Nothing’s going to blow up unless I want them to.”

That didn’t make the other two relax at all. Josh stood aside to let the three men go up the steps.

Sonia leaned closer to him. “What’s in those bags?”

“C4,” Josh said.

“Explosives?”

“Uh huh.”

“Should we, uh, move farther away?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Josh nodded.

He took a couple of steps back, and Sonia did the same. They stopped, looked toward the stairs, then at each other, before taking another half dozen more steps backward.

Around them, the other black-clad figures tried to move as far away from the stairwell as they could, though of course there weren’t a whole lot of places for them to go. The only possible way to retreat further was the adjoining tunnel, and it was already occupied.

He knew Travis and the others had finally landed on the beach when the pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire penetrated the thick walls around him. The gunshots sounded wet and echo-y, like everything else around him at the moment.

He was heartened that the battle seemed to be getting louder, which was a sure sign Travis (if he was even still alive) and the men were pushing inward, just as planned. Josh didn’t know how many guns Lara would have on the beach waiting for them, but he knew she would have everyone she could afford over there right now.

That’s it, Lara. Concentrate on the beach. Just like I want you to.

Where else was he going to land people, after all? Was he going to make them climb up the cliffs? That wasn’t going to work. Besides the fact that his soldiers weren’t really soldiers, they had seen armed guards walking around everywhere. Not to mention in the Tower. They could see every damn thing from that building. Besides, Lara and Danny would remember that Karen had sneaked onto the island that way the first time, and they’d be ready for it.

No. It had to be the beach. It was the most obvious access point to the island. Everyone knew it; there was no point in getting cute. That knowledge, more than anything, was why he was down here at the moment.

Josh had an idea about how things were going up there, but he hadn’t been in contact with Travis in almost twenty minutes. He didn’t really need to know all the details anyway. The men had their orders: Attack the island and take the hotel. What could be more simple than that? Did he really expect them to reach the hotel? Not really. Even without Will, there was still Danny. The guy was an ex-Army Ranger. He would know how to coordinate a proper defense. With enough people and enough rifles, you could do a lot of damage. Even an idiot could fire a gun.

Josh was crouched next to Sonia, with Hank’s large form in front of them. The older man, a former demolitions expert in his past life, had his gas mask perched on top of his head and was wrestling with a thin, bright-yellow plastic rope that snaked all the way around the stairway entrance ten yards in front of him. The detonation cord. The rest of the line was connected to a six-inch-long tube. Josh had expected something more dangerous looking given what was on the other end of the wiring, but apparently all you needed to set off C4 was something that looked like a Roman candle.

Finding Hank among the soldiers had been serendipitous. Locating the C4 had been more troublesome, but with the army depots open to them, all it took was some searching. Fortunately for Josh, he had plenty of manpower to throw into the simple job.

When he was finished, Hank threw a quick look over his shoulder. His bright red beard and hair stood out even in the semidarkness. “Better cover your ears. It’s gonna get real loud in here.”

Josh took out the earplugs Hank had given him earlier and slipped them on. Sonia did likewise. The rest of the men had to make do with pressing their hands over their ears. Some were curling up into a ball on the floor as if that would protect them if Hank misjudged and the ceiling caved in on them.

He glanced up. The entire room was made of concrete, and the faded gray looked surreal against the LED lights. What if the room actually caved in on him? After all, it had been a while since Hank blew something up, and maybe his skills had gotten rusty?

That last thought, more than anything, made Josh shiver slightly.

“You okay?” Sonia said quietly next to him. She had said it just low enough that the others (hopefully) couldn’t hear.

Josh nodded back. Then, to Hank in front of him, “Are you sure this is safe?”

“Should be,” Hank said. The man sounded just a bit too glib for Josh’s tastes. “I put just enough to blow through the walls.”

“‘Should be’?” Sonia said.

“You’ve done this before, right?” Josh asked.

“Of course,” Hank said, sounding almost offended. “I used to do this for a living, remember?” He squinted at Josh in the semidarkness, his heavily lined face covered in sweat and grime. “You want me to do this or not? It’s up to you, kid. You’re the boss. You want me to shut this down?”

Josh stared back at him.

I am the boss.

He saw the challenge in Hank’s eyes. It was the same look all the others gave him whenever he told them to do something. They despised the idea that a nineteen-year-old “kid” was leading them, giving orders. They couldn’t stomach that he was chosen and they were not, even though, like him, they had all sold their souls to the ghouls.

But he had done it for Gaby. In order to save her and to ensure their future.

I’m the boss. I’m in control.

“No,” Josh said, staring back at Hank. “Do it.”

“You’re the boss,” Hank said.

You’re damn right I am.

Hank slipped the gas mask back down over his face, while Sonia slid closer until she brushed up against Josh. He didn’t know if she’d sought out the contact or if it was an accident. Not that he minded. He enjoyed the warmth of her closeness.

“Fire in the hole!” Hank shouted, just before there was a soft click.

Almost instantaneously, there was a loud, crashing BOOM!

The walls and floor and even the ceiling shook, and continued to shake for what seemed like an eternity. Despite the earplugs, the explosion was earsplitting in the close confines of the tunnel, and he actually flinched even though he knew it was coming. Thank God it was just dark enough and everyone was probably too busy keeping their heads down to notice his response.

Pek-pek-pek as debris trickled down the stairs in front of him, followed by a thick cloud of dust — red and white from the brick and mortar — that plumed out of the stairwell opening like some kind of smog monster. Josh snapped his eyes shut, expecting to be hit full in the face by the spreading aftermath, but of course he didn’t have to because the gas mask protected him.

He continued to breathe normally, even though men were coughing erratically around him. Sonia had moved even closer, and he fought the urge to wrap one arm around her slim body to keep her safe.

He thought about Gaby instead.

I’m doing this for you. Everything I’ve done, it’s for you. Please be safe up there. If anything happens to you, all of this will be for nothing.

He summoned all the courage he had and stood up in the swirling smoke. “Go!” he shouted. “Get your asses moving now! Move move move!”

To his surprise, they burst into action. Maybe he was more convincing than he gave himself credit for. Or maybe they were too shocked and disoriented and were looking for the first voice to give them orders, and it just so happened to be him. Or maybe, finally, they recognized his authority and were reacting accordingly.

I’m the boss. I’m in control.

They ran past him and up the stairs, boots crunching debris as they went. It was a long stream of black-suited figures, one after another, and for what seemed like forever, Josh stood tall and proud and watched them go.

“Take the hotel first!” he shouted after his men (his soldiers!). “Take the hotel, and the island will fall!”

CHAPTER 20 LARA

“It’s okay to be nervous. When they come, just shoot straight. Don’t be afraid of friendly fire. No one we know will be coming up this path. It’ll just be the bad guys. Okay?”

Stan nodded and tried to smile back at her. She could just barely make him out on the other side, with just the moonlight to keep the both of them from standing completely in darkness. He was much older than her and could have been her father, and she wondered if he found the idea of her attempting to comfort him just as absurd as she did.

She was crouched next to some trees and listening to the sound of boat motors getting closer. It seemed as if they had been coming for hours now. What was taking them so long?

Be careful what you wish for.

It wouldn’t be long now before heavily armed men began rushing up the beach in an attempt to kill her and everyone on the island. It was going to be bloody. Even more so than the last time. And back then she had Will, and there weren’t nearly as many men coming.

Ten boats. At least four men to a boat. At least.

How were they going to kill so many? And could they really go through with this? Could she? The idea of spilling so much blood just to keep the island should have horrified her, but it didn’t. That, more than anything, made her hands tremble so much she had to rub them against her pants just to give them something to do.

This wasn’t what she had envisioned doing with the rest of her life. Not that she had any choice in the matter. The decisions had been made for her. Out there. By Kate.

Where did you get so many men willing to die for you, Kate? Was this the plan all along? Make us kill each other?

She pushed those useless thoughts away and focused on the here and now. It didn’t matter where these men came from or who they were. They were coming fast and armed and they had only one goal, and she couldn’t allow that. Not with everyone’s lives at stake. Carly, Vera, Elise, and all the poor souls who had come here hoping for a new start.

As afraid as she was about what was about to happen, Lara was also angry. More than that, she was pissed off. She wondered if this was how Will felt whenever he went into battle. No, probably not. Will was always pragmatic. He wouldn’t really look at the men coming on boats now as anything but obstacles to overcome.

You should be here with me right now, Will. Where the hell are you?

You promised you’d come home…

She remained crouched behind the wall of trees, next to the ten-yard-wide pathway that connected the beach and stretched about half a football field until it reached the wide open grounds behind them. Without the lamps that serpentined across the island, everything was blackened, including the hotel and the unfinished swimming pools. The only structure on the entire island that still had lights was the Tower, glowing brightly behind her, and that was only because of the LED lamps on the third floor.

Even the birds that usually chirped away, oblivious to human presence on the island, had gone uncharacteristically quiet tonight.

Did they know? Of course not. How could they?

Behind her, Sarah shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet, apparently unable to decide whether she wanted to sit down or remain standing.

“You okay?” Lara whispered over her shoulder.

Like Stan a few seconds ago, Sarah tried to smile, and just like Stan, it came out poorly. “I’ve never shot anyone before.”

“You’ll do fine. Just follow my lead.”

“What’s it like?”

“What?”

“Killing someone. What’s it like?”

“Don’t think about it. Shoot, reload, and keep shooting until there’s nothing to shoot at anymore. They’re coming here to kill us. Just keep reminding yourself of that. Do it for Jenny. For Mae. For everyone who is counting on us right now.”

Sarah nodded mutely, then went back to trying to decide whether to sit or stand, and constantly changing up her grip on the M4.

“You’ll do fine,” Lara said again, and hoped it was at least convincing. Judging by Sarah’s face, she guessed she was only halfway successful.

There was a time when Lara had been just like Sarah — scared and uncomfortable with a gun in her hands. Those days were long gone, and even as she turned back to the darkness, she wished Will’s face was looking back at her.

You promised me, Will. Where are you?

But he wasn’t there. Instead, she saw Roy, his blond hair easy to spot in the semidarkness. He had moved away from the trees and was standing next to Stan in a spot that allowed him to remain behind cover while still able to peer down the pathway and at the moonlit beach on the other side. Compared to Stan, Roy looked strangely serene, the M4 hanging almost naturally from a sling in front of him. She knew better, of course. Roy was a former IT man, and the closest he’d ever come to holding a gun in his life before The Purge was playing Call of Duty on the PlayStation.

Roy glanced over and grinned at her. “Remember that time in the woods? When we were chasing West?”

She smiled back. “Yes.”

“Man, I was so unprepared back then.”

“Not anymore.”

“Not anymore. What’s that motto of yours again?”

“Which one?”

“‘Adapt or perish’?”

“Ah.”

“I guess you can say I’ve successfully adapted.”

And not a moment too soon.

“They’re taking their sweet time,” Roy said. “I wish they’d get here already. My legs are cramping up from the waiting.”

Be careful what you wish for, Lara thought for the second time as the sound of motors seemed to increase in decibel on cue.

It wouldn’t be long now…

There was a click in her right ear, and she heard Blaine’s voice through the earbud connected to her radio. “Lara.”

Lara pressed the PTT dangling from her vest. “Yeah, Blaine.”

“They’re getting closer, right? We can hear them all the way on the other side of the island.”

“Yeah, they’re getting closer.”

“Keo said ten boats?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t understand why they’re just attacking the beach with ten boats. Is that all they have?”

“I don’t know,” Lara said. Then, “Keo.”

“Yeah,” Keo said through the radio.

“How many boats did you see when you were at their staging area?”

“I didn’t exactly do an official count. Most of them were already in the water.” He paused, seemed to think about it some more, before adding, “Remember what we talked about? How they’ve been going around sinking boats for a while now, trying to keep everyone on land? Maybe these ten are all they have left in the area.”

“What a bunch of asshats,” Danny said. “I bet a lot of people paid good money for those boats.”

“What are you thinking, Blaine?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know what I’m thinking,” Blaine said.

“Spit it out,” Danny said.

“It’s just that…this is pretty bold of them, to just think they can invade Song Island by hitting the beach,” Blaine said. “Especially knowing how it all turned out last time.”

She didn’t blame Blaine for being suspicious. That was all she had been doing since they spotted the ten boats. But there was no way to alter the plan now, not with the attackers bearing down on them.

“Blaine has a point,” she said into the radio. “This could all be one big diversion. There could be more approaching from the other sides. Report in as soon as you see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Anything at all. Understand?”

The others responded one by one.

“I wish Will was here,” Sarah said quietly behind her.

So do I. God, so do I.

On the other side of the trees, the sound of boat motors seemed to have picked up in volume. She knew what that meant: They were getting closer.

“Look alive, boys and girls,” Danny said through the radio. “Here they come. Shoot straight, shoot often, and keep moving. Do not — I say again — do not let them get a bead on you. It’s a big beach. Use it.”

Keo fired first. She knew it was him because the gunshot came from the other side of the pathway. Danny was in the middle, while Gaby was camped to her left.

Once Keo let go with the first shot, the shooting didn’t stop. It sounded like thunder crashing against the beach over and over again, first concentrated on one side, then the other, and before she knew it, it was impossible to pinpoint where the bulk of the gunfire was coming from because it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

If Sarah was nervous, she was on overdrive now. Lara could feel the other woman’s anxiety in the warm breaths hitting her in the back of the neck. Across from her, Stan was equally anxious, gripping and ungripping his M4 at least a dozen times in as many seconds. Roy seemed to be faring better, though even he had gone into a crouch to keep his feet from fidgeting.

Lara had to fight her own instincts. She wanted badly to peek into the pathway, to see if they were coming yet, or get a glimpse of the gunfight that was taking place on the beach at this very moment. But she didn’t, because doing so might give away her position. That, and the prospect of getting hit with a stray bullet flying from the beach was more than enough motivation to keep her rooted in place.

Staying still became more difficult when bullets began pelting the trees behind and around her. Branches snapped off and whenever a round zipped! nearby, she flinched, while Sarah gasped audibly. The assaulters were pouring everything they had into the woods, obviously trying to hit Danny, who was somewhere in front of them, moving constantly and using the trees as cover. That didn’t stop them from firing into the woods anyway, and branches were continually snapping around her, some just a little bit too close for comfort.

She exerted every ounce of control she had to remain perfectly still, even if every instinct she had told her to move, move, move.

No one was talking — not Danny or Keo or Gaby, or anyone else plugged into the channel, which was everyone on the island with a radio. Like her, they were mesmerized by the chaotic back and forth, the never-ending pop-pop-pop of assault rifles crashing up and down the length of the beach.

It went on and on, and whenever she thought it would calm down, having run its course, it picked up again.

My God, how many men are out there? How many have they killed already? How many more do we have to kill? I don’t want this. This bloodbath.

God help me, I never wanted this…

Then, through the tumultuous pounding of gunfire and her own thrumming chest, she heard the click! that she had been waiting for, followed by Danny’s voice, slightly out of breath, shouting into her ear. “Hot Gates! Persians in the Hot Gates!”

Lara snapped her eyes shut and counted down from ten.

The first step was to rein in her heartbeat. It was racing too fast, threatening to overwhelm her.

Nine…

She clutched and unclutched the pistol grip under the M4’s barrel.

Eight…

Made sure the fire selector was on full-auto.

Seven…

Behind her, Sarah whispered, “Oh, God.”

Six…

Opened her eyes back up.

Five…

Roy was staring across the pathway at her, and he managed a nervous smile.

Four…

She smiled back at him, hoping the confidence she was faking came through all right, but knowing it probably wasn’t even close to being convincing.

Three…

“Oh, God,” Sarah said again.

Two…

She located the trigger on her rifle.

One…

“Now!” she screamed.

She might have run or walked really fast. She wasn’t quite sure. One second she was hiding behind the trees, the next she had moved out from behind cover and into the open, spun around sixty degrees until she was facing the beach, and even before she saw the first black-clad figure rushing up the cobblestone path right at her, she was already squeezing the trigger.

There had to be a dozen of them — maybe more — racing up the ten-yard-wide opening with wild abandon, the adrenaline of the beach landing clearly surging through them. She didn’t need the lamps to see they were wearing black uniforms and helmets. Moonlight glinted off the rifles swinging back and forth in their hands as they charged forward.

They had no idea she was there. Or Stan, running out from behind his part of the woods and going into a crouch. Or Roy, positioning himself behind the electrician. Sarah might have followed her out from cover and into the open, too, but Lara didn’t have the second or two it would have taken to make sure.

She was too busy shooting.

They fell like dominos. She was glad it was too dark to make out each individual man, because that would have meant thinking of them as men. Right now, she couldn’t afford that, because killing was still unnatural to her even as she tried to convince herself this was necessary, that it was kill or be killed. The anger that had carried her through the last few minutes flooded out of her with every bullet she poured into the mass of bodies, replaced by pity and horror.

But none of that made her take her finger off the trigger — all she had to do was think of Elise, of Vera, of the teenagers who had come with Bonnie — and she was able to hold on as the rifle bucked and the magazine emptied at a dizzying rate. She wasn’t shooting at any one person — she was shooting at all of them.

Roy and Stan were still firing into the ten-yard-wide pathway when Lara ejected her magazine and grabbed a new one, slamming it home. She became vaguely aware of Sarah crying while the rifle in her hands was bucking again and again. The other woman still had her weapon set to semi-automatic for some reason.

They were crumpled in front of her, the closest one having gotten halfway up the road before she felled him. She didn’t count the number of lumps lying across the cobblestone floor. She didn’t want to.

(A dozen? Two? Too many…)

She finished reloading and started shooting again. She didn’t even know what she was shooting at. There may or may not still be men moving around in front of her. She might have simply been firing into the pile of bodies now, looking for survivors that might not even exist.

She thought of Elise and Vera again and didn’t stop shooting until she was empty a second time. Then she instinctively ejected the magazine and groped for a third one from around her waist.

Roy and Stan were frantically changing magazines to her right, but Sarah was holding her M4 uselessly at her side. The woman had stopped crying, and the sudden quiet was deafening, with the only noise coming from the clicking of metal as they reloaded their weapons.

“Oh, Jesus,” Roy said.

He was looking at a lone black-clad figure crawling out of the pile of bodies. It was a man, but he might as well have been a ghoul because that was all they could see — a twisted, bloodied black thing moving slowly, painfully toward them. He might have been groaning, or moaning, or even saying something, but it was hard to tell. Or maybe she just didn’t want to know for sure. The man was having trouble pulling his legs out of the unmoving bodies stacked on top of him.

Roy put away his rifle, drew his handgun, and aimed at the man.

Lara waited for him to shoot, but the gunshot never came.

Roy finally let out a sigh and lowered the gun to his side. “I can’t,” he said, almost breathlessly.

Lara drew her own sidearm slowly. It was the only way she could get it out because her hand was shaking, her fingers having a difficult time gripping the Glock.

She took aim at the figure, even as the man lifted a hand toward her, but before she could fire there was a loud bang!

One side of the man’s head exploded and showered the cobblestone. The body slumped to the ground and didn’t move again.

A figure walked calmly out of the tree line to their left side, and a voice said, “I come in peace.”

Danny.

Lara gratefully holstered her gun. Her hand was still trembling slightly, and she had to grip the M4 to give it something to do.

Danny walked toward them with a noticeable slight limp. He opened his mouth to say something when—

BOOM!

The ground shook for a few seconds, and Sarah gasped loudly behind her.

“What the hell was that?” Roy almost shouted.

“That was an explosion,” Stan said.

“What was that?” Lara said into her radio. “Anyone know what that was or where it came from?” When no one answered, she shouted, “Someone answer me!”

She waited for a response, but there wasn’t one for what seemed like an eternity, until Carly finally said, “The shack! It’s the shack!”

Oh, God, did she just say the shack?

“Shack?” Nate said through the radio. “What shack?”

“The one at the power station!” Carly shouted. “It’s open! Lara, the shack’s open!”

The power station was halfway between the hotel and the western cliff. It was a large but unremarkable gray building that controlled the island’s power source. Without it, Song Island was just another dry patch of dirt. But the station itself wasn’t “the shack” Carly was referring to. That was the building next to it — a structure no bigger than what you’d find in someone’s backyard. It was locked and sealed, because on the other side was a tunnel that connected the island to an entranceway along the shoreline of Beaufont Lake. There hadn’t been any activity there for months. Even if someone had managed to sneak their way into the tunnel unnoticed, the door was sealed. It would take…

“The explosion,” Lara said breathlessly.

She was still trying to wrap her mind around the last few seconds when a new burst of gunfire ripped across the island. It wasn’t coming from the beach, because the landing had failed and the invaders were dead. This time it came from the other side of the sprawling but darkened hotel, from the direction of the power station.

Lara spun around and almost bumped into Danny.

“It’s time,” he said.

He was amazingly calm despite everything that had happened, despite what he must know (because she knew, too) what was about to happen.

“Will,” she said, her voice coming out in gasps. “What about Will?”

“He can take care of himself,” Danny said. “We have to go. Now.”

“Lara, what do we do?” Roy asked.

“The shack,” Stan said. He was looking in that direction. “Without the shack…” He didn’t finish.

“Lara?” Sarah said. “What should we do?”

She glanced at Danny one last time.

He nodded.

She turned around and fumbled with the radio, found the right switches, and shouted into it.

“This is Lara! Everyone who isn’t already there, head to your designated exit points now! I repeat! Head to your exit points now! The island is lost! I repeat! The island is lost! We’re evacuating Song Island!”