The Gates of Byzantium

CHAPTER 33 JOSH

Pros and cons: What were they?

Pros: He was with Will. That was a hell of a pro right there. When there were men with guns around, he preferred to have the guy next to him be an ex-Army Ranger. Then Blaine had showed up. Josh hadn’t really gotten to know Blaine except for that brief time in Lancing, but he seemed like a good enough guy. And he was huge. As someone who had spent his fair share of time learning to escape bullies, Josh appreciated size in his friends. Blaine probably didn’t consider him a friend yet, but they were on the same side, so it was all good.

Cons: They were on enemy soil. Or close to it, anyway. Behind enemy lines would probably be the better description. Either way, there were people across the inlet with guns who probably wouldn’t like it if they discovered Josh and the others were in the marina. Never mind that they were only taking what was theirs. The men in the house had tried to attack the island and gotten repelled. They were probably not very happy about that, either.

Conclusion: As long as they stayed invisible, got what they came for, and left with no one the wiser, Josh had nothing to complain about. But that was the trick, wasn’t it?

Josh was hiding on the right side of the garage at the end of the marina, next to a side door. He watched Will and the others jog over to him, keeping low and sticking to the four-foot-tall grass. He wouldn’t have spotted them if he didn’t already know they were there.

Just to be sure, Josh leaned out from behind the garage and looked toward the house. There was no one on the roof or looking out from any of the second-floor windows, but he was alarmed at the sight of two men walking around the front yard of the house. By the time Will, Blaine, and the other two reached him, the two men had walked from one end of the yard to the other and were now moving up the driveway toward the road.

Where the hell are they going?

Then Will was next to him. “Josh, you remember Blaine.”

“Hey,” Josh said, and exchanged a nod with Blaine.

“Hey, kid,” Blaine said. He indicated a short woman with dark hair and a guy in his twenties next to him. “This is Maddie and Bobby.”

“Hey, Josh,” the woman named Maddie said.

Bobby just nodded at him.

“Bobby doesn’t speak,” Maddie said.

“Oh,” Josh said.

Wait, where’s Sandra?

The last time he had seen Blaine, he was going in search of Sandra, the woman who had helped Josh and Gaby escape from Folger. He remembered Sandra — tall, beautiful, and hell on wheels when the chips were down. They would never have escaped Folger without her help. He also remembered how desperate Blaine had been to find her.

So where was Sandra now?

Something about Blaine’s face told him this was probably not the right time to ask. Blaine could be intimidating. No, Blaine was intimidating. Josh decided to save his questions for later. Maybe he could find out about Sandra through Will.

Will spared him the awkwardness by tapping his shoulder. Josh moved back and Will took his place. He leaned out and scanned the house for a moment.

Blaine moved to stand alongside Will. “Trouble?”

“Probably not,” Will said. He looked back at the rest of them. “The priority is the equipment inside the garage. We’ll come back for your stuff the first chance we get. For now, we have enough to work with.”

“I hate the idea of leaving all that silver and guns out there,” Blaine said.

“Can’t be helped.”

Will walked over to the garage door and opened it soundlessly, then slipped inside. They followed him in, Josh falling in behind Maddie, with Bobby coming up behind him.

The garage was mostly dark, with a few spots brightened by shafts of light poking in through holes in the walls and roof. Will flicked on his flashlight, using a wide beam to illuminate where the sunlight couldn’t reach. Over the months, rainwater had seeped inside, leaving patches of wetness under their shoes as they walked across. The whole room had that aroma of abandonment and occasional flooding. It made Josh gag a bit.

The old boat they had seen parked inside when they had first arrived was still there, parked across half of the available space. The crates of food, water, and supplies were also where they had left them, stacked along one corner of the warehouse.

“There,” Will said, pointing at the crates. “We’ll take what we can in the first run and come back for the rest later.”

The equipment Will and Danny had been using to melt down and recast bullets was stored in separate crates at the very bottom of the stack. They had to remove the others — filled with food, water, and clothes — first before they could get to the ones they were after.

Josh had to admit, Will had the right idea. Anyone raiding the garage would definitely poach the food, water, and clothing first, and when they finally got to the bottom and saw the smelting pot, the pairs of rubber mallets, the dies and presses, the urge would be to leave them. Who wanted to drag around someone else’s heavy tools? Josh hadn’t even known what these things were when he had first seen them. But then again, he hadn’t known people even made their own bullets.

The silverware and jewelry were all bundled up in another crate, also at the very bottom of the pile. More things that your average raider wouldn’t have bothered with, not with jewelry and gold and other precious metals waiting to be taken in almost every house and building you went into. There was a time when Josh was awestruck by the sight of gold lying around. He got over that real quick. Gold was less valuable these days than a bag of chips that hadn’t yet gone stale. Plus, bags of chips didn’t weigh a ton.

Will pointed at the crate with the silver. “Maddie and Bobby, that’s yours. We’ll follow you with the tools. Head northwest for 200 meters and the boat should be below the ridgeline.”

Maddie and Bobby slung their weapons and picked up the crate. Josh could tell it was heavy by the way they were straining. The crate was stuffed with so much silverware that, in the old world, it would probably have fetched a few hundred thousand. Now, though, it was only useful to people who understood its significance.

Maddie and Bobby grunted as they moved the crate over to the door one foot at a time. Josh hurried past them and opened the side door for them.

“Thanks, kid,” Maddie said.

Josh nodded back. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“Take your time,” she grinned back.

Maddie stuck her head out the door first before leading Bobby out. Josh watched them lug the heavy crate between them through the grass, keeping as low as possible. It wasn’t easy, but they seemed to be managing well enough.

He closed the door and hurried back over to the other side of the garage, where Will and Blaine were re-stacking the crates into an orderly pile against the wall, having removed the one they needed.

Will picked up a small box of canned food and gave it to Josh. “This should come in handy.”

“Any fruit in there?”

“Pretty much all of them.”

“Awesome. Gaby’ll be happy.”

“I know, that’s why you’re taking it back to the island.”

Josh grinned appreciatively at him.

Will positioned himself on one side of a large crate opposite Blaine. “How are the bullet holes?” he asked Blaine.

“Duct tape’s working miracles,” Blaine said. “But I could use a refill on those painkillers.”

“Lara can take care of that. Ready?”

“Try not to drop it on my foot.”

“No promises.”

They clutched their respective ends of the crate and lifted with a loud grunt. Blaine’s face almost instantly turned pale and sweat popped all along his forehead. Josh thought the big man was going to faint, but somehow he didn’t.

“Lead the way, Josh,” Will said, his voice straining a bit.

Josh nodded and hurried across the garage again, this time with the box of canned fruits in his arms. He skated around the big, dilapidated boat and was almost at the side door when he heard shuffling noises outside.

Josh froze, and so did Will and Blaine behind him.

Footsteps moved outside the front doors. He looked down, where the doors met the ground, and saw a pair of shadows moving on the other side. The voices of two men drifted through the small opening, and Josh knew instantly it was the same two he had spotted at the house, walking toward the road.

“What did you see?” a man asked.

“Something,” a second man said.

“You brought me here because you saw ‘something’?” The first man laughed. “You’re a fucking idiot.”

“I saw something,” the second man insisted.

“Birds. Geeses. Whatever those things are that’s flying around the lake.”

“Pelicans. And the plural for goose is geese. Not geeses, idiot.”

“Whatever,” the first man said dismissively. “Let’s go back. It’s too fucking hot out here to be going for a walk.”

“I told you, I saw something.”

Josh watched the shadows moving up the length of the garage doors, toward…

The side door.

Josh looked back and was surprised to see Will and Blaine had already put the crate down. Blaine drew his sidearm while Will put a finger to his lips, signaling for Josh to be silent, and moved forward, passing Josh, until he was almost pressed up against the wall next to the side door. He beckoned, and Josh, realizing he was just standing in the middle of the garage like an idiot, hurried over to stand next to him. Josh forgot he still had the box of canned fruits in his arms until Will gave him an amused look.

Josh returned a nervous smile and watched Will reach down and soundlessly slip a knife out of a sheath fastened to his left hip. Josh had seen that knife before, but he had never seen Will use it. The handle of the knife looked more like a cross that had been sanded down, like something a holy person would fashion, which surprised him because Will wasn’t even remotely religious.

Blaine moved toward the back of the garage, slipping behind an old metal shelf filled with plastic oil cartons and rusted metal tools. The crate sat in the middle of the garage.

Shouldn’t we move that?

Josh listened to the footsteps looping around the garage, shuffling lazily from the front to the side. The men were still talking, oblivious to how much noise they were making.

“There’s nothing here,” the second man was saying.

“I told you, I saw something,” the first man insisted.

“From the house?”

“Yeah.”

“You have bionic eyes or something? I can barely make out this building from over there.”

“You should get your eyes checked.”

“You know any good optometrists?”

The first man chuckled, and the second man joined in.

They sounded like good friends. Or at least, that’s what he envisioned buddies sounding like. He and Matt were kind of like that once they got to know each other.

Josh jumped slightly when he heard Will whisper, “Yes,” next to him.

Josh glanced over, expecting Will to be looking at him, but Will’s eyes were fixed on the door two feet to his left, and he was talking to himself. No, not to himself. He remembered the earbud dangling from Will’s right ear and the plastic mic wrapped around his throat.

“Hi, I can’t take your call right now, I’m in the middle of a life-and-death situation.”

Josh sucked in his breath when he heard the doorknob on the side door move as someone touched it on the other side. He didn’t have to look around Will’s body to see the doorknob moving because the big, metallic motor hanging from the back of the boat in front of him was reflecting the side door like a mirror. Sunlight splashed across the image, giving Josh an even better view of what was happening next to him.

Josh might have stopped breathing entirely when the door opened and one of the men stepped cautiously inside. Josh heard the crunch of a boot on the soft ground and saw the man’s reflection as he looked down, and Josh knew he had seen the tracks they had left behind when they first entered the garage.

The man might have opened his mouth to say something, but then Will was suddenly moving and Josh saw Will’s form spinning away from the wall and something sharp flickering, and he heard what might have been a gurgling noise, like someone spitting water.

Josh stumbled away from the wall, barely holding on to the box of canned fruits. He looked back toward the door and saw a man with long, dirty blond hair and a beard falling through the door, into the garage, his hands grabbing frantically at his neck, where blood was spurting out in thick, shiny streams. There was so much blood. Josh didn’t know how one man could bleed so much, so fast.

The man stumbled to his knees a few feet inside the warehouse, but Will was already moving past him, slipping outside.

Josh heard a voice say loudly, “What—” But the man never got the chance to finish. Instead, there was the sound of a body falling to the ground.

And then silence.

A second later, Will reappeared in the open doorway with the cross-knife, its double-edged blade slicked with blood. He looked calm, like he had just been out for a Sunday stroll and had somehow ended up with a bloody knife in his possession.

“Everything’s fine,” Will said, not to Josh or Blaine, but into the throat mic.

Who is he talking to?

Will walked inside, crouched, and wiped the knife clean on the jeans of the man with long blond hair. “We’re about to head back now,” he said into the mic. Will picked the man up by the legs and dragged him over to a corner, where he deposited the body in the darkness. “Will do.”

Will walked back to the crate and nodded at Blaine. “You good?”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, grimacing a bit. He didn’t really look “good” at all, and if anything had gotten paler. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

They picked up the crate and started toward the door again.

Josh hurried out after them, almost tripping over the second man, who was lying on his back outside the door, his hands positioned out at his sides like he was enjoying the sun splashed across his face. He had short black hair and there was a big, old scar along his left cheek that was mostly hidden by a full beard. There was a big, red bloody circle over his chest, where his heart was. The man’s face looked almost pleasant, like dying hadn’t hurt at all.

“Josh,” a voice called patiently.

Josh looked up at Will and Blaine, waiting for him about ten feet away.

“Come on,” Will said. “We’re burning daylight. Let’s get those canned fruits to Gaby.”

Gaby!

Her name snapped him back to the present, and Josh nodded and walked around the dead man. There was no blood on the ground, so at least he didn’t get any on his shoes.

They moved steadily across the tall grass, back toward the ridgeline and the boat waiting on the beach. Josh caught sight of Maddie and Bobby, crouching across the field, waiting for them with weapons in their hands.

Josh glanced up briefly at the sun. Still high. Still plenty of time.

There was no one else around them, and they moved at an almost leisurely pace. They were halfway to Maddie and Bobby when Will and Blaine suddenly stopped and looked back at him. No, not at him, but past him. Josh turned around and looked back at the marina and saw the sunlight glinting off the hood of a huge, bright red truck barreling into the parking lot. There was a man standing in the back of the truck and there were two more inside, one driving, the other leaning forward, hands on the dashboard, like he was afraid he might go flying through the windshield.

The man in the back of the truck was peering through binoculars, holding them with one hand while clutching the side of the truck with the other to keep from falling off. The man must have spotted them because he lowered his binoculars and began banging on the roof of the truck and pointing right at them.

Oh, shit.

“Josh, go,” Will said behind him.

Josh turned and began running. He passed Will and Blaine, who were unslinging their rifles and moving into a crouching position. Josh kept going even as he heard the first sounds of gunfire from the marina and the ground exploded around him, chunks of dirt kicking into the air and what sounded like bees screaming past his head.

Don’t look back! Whatever you do, don’t look back!

Then he heard more gunfire, this time closer. Will and Blaine, returning fire. He didn’t know for sure. That would mean looking back as he ran. That would slow him down, and he didn’t want to be slowed down at the moment.

So he ran, clutching the box of canned fruit in his arms. It had really gotten much, much heavier since he had taken it from Will. The equally heavy Remington shotgun thumped freely against his back as he ran, and it hurt. He thought about swiveling the shotgun around, but that was impossible with the box in his arms.

Can’t drop the canned fruit. Gaby will love it. She loves this stuff.

He had to get back on the boat. He had to go back to the island. Back to Gaby. That was the most important thing.

Maddie and Bobby were in front of him, frantically waving him over, their faces twisted into that odd expression people have when they’re trying to hurry other people along. He wondered what they thought he was doing.

Gee, thanks for the advice, guys. I couldn’t have done it without you.

He almost cracked a smile until he felt a sudden stinging sensation in his left leg. He stopped running before he even knew what was happening, and the box of canned fruit went flying out of his hands and he was tumbling forward like an acrobat. He saw the ground coming up and quickly tucked in his shoulders, the way he remembered seeing action heroes do in movies.

The Remington smashed into his back as he landed on the ground and rolled over, tall grass slapping at his face and arms. He thought his spine might have snapped on impact, paralyzing him. But no, he was still in one piece. Mostly, anyway. He found that he could still roll over and sit up in the grass, even as dirt splashed into the air and he heard the sound of more screaming bees trying to sting him.

Get away, bees!

Someone screamed his name. “Josh!”

He wasn’t sure if it was Will or someone else. It sounded like it was coming from in front of him, and when Josh looked up he saw Maddie running back toward him, Bobby moving alongside her and firing into the distance with his rifle.

Maddie grabbed him and pulled him up with one jerk of her hands. She was deceptively strong for such a little thing. He looked down and saw that he was bleeding and there was a neat hole in the front leg of his cargo pants.

Oh, shit, I’ve been shot.

He was surprised it didn’t really hurt all that much. But maybe that was the adrenaline pumping through him. Maybe it would hurt later. Probably.

“Hold on to me!” Maddie shouted at him.

She didn’t have to shout. He was right next to her. Maybe she felt like she needed to shout because of all the gunfire around them. There was a lot of it, especially with Bobby standing right next to them firing one shot at a time. Josh wondered why he wasn’t firing the whole magazine. Wasn’t that what people did in action movies? Unleash the whole magazine on the enemy?

He heard another voice behind him. “How is he?”

“He’s shot in his left leg,” Maddie said.

“Go go go,” the voice said.

Josh felt another pair of hands grab him around the waist, and he was suddenly lifted up like he didn’t weigh anything and dragged forward. Bobby, moving on his right, holding him around the waist. They were running. Or a combination of walking and running, with Bobby holding him on one side and Maddie on the other. They were making pretty good time, the ridgeline coming up fast.

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and Josh risked a glance backward.

Will and Blaine were jogging casually after them, the big, heavy crate swinging dangerously back and forth between them. Well, Will looked casual. Blaine’s face was locked in a tight, pained grimace. Josh wondered if Blaine had gotten shot, too.

Back at the marina behind them, the red truck had driven into the grass until it couldn’t go any farther. The man in the back of the truck was firing at them with a rifle. A second truck had shown up and three men were climbing out of it. They were armed and were running, joining others already rushing through the tall grassy field.

Bullets zipped through the air and burrowed into the ground to their left and right, but Josh guessed they had a good 100 yards on their pursuers, and it was hard to hit a moving target from that distance. Or at least, that’s what he had heard.

Will and Blaine suddenly stopped and turned, then began firing back. One of the men chasing them stumbled on something and pitched forward into the grass and didn’t get back up.

The others kept coming.

I guess 100 yards isn’t that great of a distance to shoot someone after all.

Will and Blaine snatched up the crate once again and started running after them. Josh was certain the heavy crate was going to spill its contents all over the grass at any moment. Then what would they do? Pick them back up, probably.

Amazingly, it never happened, but Josh couldn’t help but hold his breath anyway every time the crate swung forward, then swung back, then forward again….

Then Will and Blaine were suddenly running next to them, and Josh didn’t know how they had caught up with Bobby and Maddie so effortlessly.

“Look on the bright side,” Will shouted at him, “now there’ll be a reason for Gaby to spend all that time in your room!”

Josh grinned back at him. He had a point there.

“Hold on!” Maddie shouted.

Josh looked forward just in time to see Bobby and Maddie, with him hoisted like a child between them, jumping down the ridge and landing on the wet ground below. Mud splashed, some spraying the boat. The crate full of silverware was already inside, in front of the steering wheel in the middle.

Josh heard heavy grunting and looked over to see Blaine landing beside him. The big man instantly turned around and grabbed his end of the crate — dangling dangerously off the ridge above them — just as Will hopped down after him. The crate came down with Will, slamming into the ground and sending thick patches of mud in every direction.

“Go go go!” Will shouted.

Maddie and Bobby stumbled forward, dragging Josh between them. They practically threw him into the boat, and he grabbed at the silverware crate as it came rushing up at him. He managed to get his hands on the edge at the last second, then somehow got himself turned around to sit down on it. The crate was hard and uncomfortable, but it was better than sitting on the floor.

Josh unslung the Remington shotgun and looked up at the ridgeline, expecting the men with guns to show up at any second. He thought he could hear them coming by the heavy trembling around him, but after a second he realized it was just his body shaking uncontrollably.

Will and Blaine almost tossed their crate into the boat, and it slammed home behind the steering wheel. The boat dipped dangerously under the sudden added weight, but the Carver somehow stayed afloat anyway.

Thank God.

He was still looking at the ridge, the shotgun at the ready, when he heard the big outboard motor fire up in the back, the sound so much louder than the trolling motor that it made him jump.

Then they were moving away from the beach, thanks to Blaine, who pushed off with a paddle. He was grunting with the effort of moving five people in a boat designed for four, not counting the two unwieldy crates between them.

They were twenty yards from the beach when Josh saw the first man appear along the ridgeline. He was short and stocky and wearing an old, faded Houston Astros cap with the five-sided star on the brim. The man was holding one of those AK-47 assault rifles that even a gun virgin like Josh recognized instantly.

Josh saw the man and the man saw Josh at almost the exact same time. The man lifted the AK-47 to aim and Josh pulled the trigger on the Remington purely on instinct. He thought he was prepared for the recoil, unlike last night, but the blast still knocked him loose from the crate. Even as he fell backward, Josh saw bright red wetness spread across the man’s chest before he vanished from the ridgeline as if by magic.

Josh continued falling, slamming into the floor of the boat when he heard someone — probably Will — yelling, “Covering fire!”

Gunfire exploded around him, so much louder than before. Something small and hot fell on Josh’s head. It burned his scalp, but before he could get out a scream and swat at it, the spent bullet casing fell away and clattered to the boat floor next to him. Other casings were falling around him and on the crates, the click-clack sounds almost melodic.

Josh struggled back up into a sitting position while Maddie and Bobby shot back at the beach. The boat was moving fast now, the speed of the outboard motor making Josh completely forget about the snail-like pace of the trolling motor. Despite the burden they were putting on it, the boat was moving smoothly, with Will driving in the center, keeping just low enough to not get his head shot off.

By the time Blaine, Bobby, and Maddie stopped shooting in order to reload, the boat was almost a full 150 yards away from the beach. Far enough that when the men chasing them finally got the courage to stand up and shoot back, their bullets harmlessly sank into the water around them, the plop-plop-plop of bullets disappearing into the lake.

“Look,” Maddie said, pointing toward the mouth of the inlet.

A boat appeared out of the inlet, hitting the main lake at full speed. It immediately turned left, pointing in their direction. It slowed down real fast when Blaine, Maddie, and Bobby all unleashed a torrent of bullets in its direction. Josh saw men on the boat diving to the floor and the boat seemed to jerk off-target.

There was a loud ping! and Josh jumped. One of the bullets fired from the ridgeline had actually hit the side of the boat, kept going, and almost put a hole in Josh’s right sneaker, missing only by a few inches. The bullet punched through the bottom of the boat and water sprang inside.

But the bullet had surprised him, and Josh stood up without thinking, ignoring the electric pain in his left leg.

Oh, there’s the pain.

He looked down and saw a thin trickle of blood from the earlier gunshot. He was still marveling at how little blood there was when he heard one of those bees screaming right next to his ear. He looked up and saw one of the men on the ridgeline taking careful aim with a rifle. Josh couldn’t tell if it was an AK-47, but he did remember that AK-47s were notoriously bad for long-distance shooting. Or at least, that’s what he had once read on the Internet.

Josh grinned at the man.

Give it up. You’re not going to hit anything, dude.

Behind him, he heard Will’s voice: “Josh, sit the fuck down!”

Josh looked back at Will and smiled. “He’s too far away to hit anything,” he said, when he heard that loud, screaming bee coming back for another pass, but this time instead of zipping by harmlessly, the bee actually hit him in the side of the head.

Josh stumbled across the boat, suddenly very light-headed. His legs didn’t seem to be doing what he was telling them (Stop, you idiots, stop!), which was annoying.

He caught sight of Will, who for some reason looked like he was moving sideways, lunging at him from across the boat, his hand reaching out, screaming, “Josh!”

Oh, shit.

Josh reached out for Will’s hand — but missed it by inches.

Then he was falling, falling, and there was water all around him and he knew he was in the lake.

And he was sinking.

Sinking…