The Isles of Elysium

CHAPTER 15

After the near-miss with the riders, then the surprise at the cabin, they took the rest of the way back to T18 slowly while listening for sounds of more soldiers and other things that might be hiding in the darker parts of the woods around them. And there was a lot of it, further increasing Keo’s paranoia.

Gradually, he noticed that the air had become chillier, and when he glanced up at the sky, it had darkened since the last time. He had to look at his watch to make sure it wasn’t even noon yet.

“You feel it?” he asked.

“What?” Jordan said.

“The air.”

She paused for a moment. “I think it’s going to rain.”

“Does it rain a lot out here?”

“This far inland? It’s only rained twice since I’ve been here.”

“Maybe you guys are due.”

“I guess. How’s your head?”

“I took two more pills.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“The pills are kicking in, but I’ll feel better when we finally reach T18.”

Finally, around midday, he heard the familiar rush of water and they approached the tree line slowly before going into a crouch and looked out.

Like yesterday, there were people on the opposite riverbanks, maybe even the same ones. Women were washing clothes while children jumped into and frolicked in the river. A few soldiers stood around in the back, some chatting with the civilians. The sound of laughter and inane chatter was completely incongruent with the world as Keo knew it, and had been surviving in, for the last year.

He stared at them in silence for a moment. These people were at home and at peace with their choice. He could tell that just from the way they talked and moved around. His first instinct was to pity them, but maybe they were the smart ones. They had accepted and embraced the reality of the world, and from the looks of it, they were happy. People like him and Jordan, on the other hand, were living hand to mouth, getting by on what they could scavenge, and always looking over their shoulders.

Who was he to pity them? They would probably pity him, and he would have a pretty hard time convincing them it should be the other way around.

Jordan hadn’t said a word since they looked out across the river. He wondered if she was rethinking the last few months of her life. She had been trying to rescue these people, but they probably had no idea and might not have been all that grateful if she had succeeded.

“Jordan,” he said softly.

She looked over.

“You okay?”

She nodded, then got up. “Let’s get going. I don’t want to be caught out here when it starts raining.”

She stood up and pushed through the brush. She was moving too fast, as if she was in a hurry to get away from the civilians and their carefree laughter on the other side of the river. She was already a full meter ahead of him when Keo saw something black moving against the green and brown of the trees and branches in front of her. Jordan had her head slightly down and didn’t see it. He would have screamed at her if he could, but there was no time and he was afraid someone else might hear him anyway.

Jordan finally looked up and froze at the sight of the man stepping out through two large trees. He was wearing a black uniform and he mirrored her response, halting completely at the sight of her. They stared at one another for just a second, though he imagined it must have seemed longer to the both of them. Time had a habit of stretching endlessly when you were staring death in the face.

“Hey, wait up,” a voice said behind the man.

That seemed to spur the man into action, and he reached for his sidearm because his M4 was slung uselessly behind his back.

Jordan, on the other hand, hadn’t moved at all.

Keo fired past Jordan, the pfft! of his gunshot sounding much too loud to his own ears even though he knew for a fact it was little more than a coughing noise. The soldier had a name stenciled across his name tag, but Keo didn’t get the chance to read it before the man fell to the ground on his stomach and face-

Revealing a second figure coming out through the same trees behind him.

Jordan was still stuck in time, and by now Keo had already caught up to her. He almost pulled the trigger again at the sight of the second black-uniformed body but somehow stopped himself. It wasn’t the fact that the second one was barely out of his teens. Age didn’t enter into Keo’s calculations at all.

The teenager’s eyes went straight to the dead man in front of him. For a split second Keo thought he would turn around and run for it, but instead the kid scrambled to unsling his rifle.

Jordan finally snapped out of her stupor and began fumbling with her carbine, but she was having as much difficulty getting a handle on it as the soldier seemed to be. Keo didn’t let either one of them get to their weapons first before he fired a second shot, his bullet sailing over the soldier’s head and hitting the tree behind him on purpose. Bark flew into the back of his head, and the kid ducked as if missiles were coming at him.

That gave Keo another extra second or two, enough time to grab Jordan’s arm. He said, “Don’t,” and kept going.

The soldier had gotten back up. He was already gasping for breath, and when he saw Keo coming right at him, it only made him scramble faster for his weapon. But he was having so much difficulty Keo wondered if his rifle was covered in oil.

The teenager had finally gotten a firm enough grip to raise the M4 when Keo reached him and slammed the stock of his submachine gun into his neck. He gagged, the rifle forgotten, and reached up as Keo shoved the MP5SD’s suppressor into his cheek, putting a finger to his lips. “Shhh.”

Jordan hurried over, skirting around the dead man on the ground. She was hyperventilating but slowly getting control. “Jesus, where did they come from?”

The soldier was looking at Keo, his face turning slightly blue. Keo grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar and sat him down on the ground, his back against a tree, before disarming him. The teenager didn’t fight, probably because he was too busy trembling.

“When was the last time you shaved?” Keo asked. When he got a confused look back, he said, “Never mind, just thinking out loud.”

He crouched in front of his captive and waited for him to gather himself. Like all the other soldiers he’d met, this one had a name tag with letters stenciled across it: “Eric.”

“In and out, slow breaths,” Keo said. When Eric had turned less blue, “There you go. Better?”

Eric nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, but Keo shook his head and Eric stopped short.

“Just listen,” Keo said. He produced Tobias’s ring from his pocket and held it up, then turned it around, making sure Eric got a good look and had enough time to read the inscription at the top. “See it?”

Eric stared at the gaudy piece of jewelry as if his life depended on it.

“Got it memorized?” Keo asked.

The teenager looked unsure.

“Good enough,” Keo said. He stood up. “I want you to go back to Steve and tell him what you saw. Tell him Keo wants to give it to him. He’s to meet me at the bridge in an hour. Got all that?”

Eric nodded.

“Get up.” The teenager stood up and Keo patted him on the shoulder, then pointed him across the river. “Off you go.”

The soldier looked at him, then at Jordan, maybe wondering if this was a trick. It didn’t take him long to decide to risk it anyway, and soon he was running off. They could hear him snapping branches as he barreled his way through the woods long after he had disappeared out of view.

Keo turned back to Jordan and found her staring at the dead soldier behind them.

“You okay?” he asked.

She didn’t answer, and he wasn’t even sure if she had heard him.

Keo put a comforting hand on her arm. “Jordan. You okay?”

She finally looked up. “I know him.”

“The kid?”

“No, him,” she said, looking back down at the dead man.

“Who was he?”

“He was in the camp when we first arrived. His name’s Dominic. He helped us get used to how things were. We…” She paused. “We were friends. I always thought I’d be helping him escape one of these days. The last thing I expected was to see him out here in that uniform.”

The last thing he expected was to see you out here, too, Keo thought, remembering the stunned look on the dead man’s face when he saw her.

Jordan had gone silent next to him. She had said they were friends, but the way she was looking down at the back of Dominic’s head, with broken twigs in his hair, he guessed they were more than that.

“Sorry,” he said. “I had no choice.”

“I know,” she said. Then, already moving off again, “Let’s get out of here before your messenger boy decides to bring back more of his friends.”

*

“So how’s this brilliant plan of yours going to work?” Jordan asked. “You’re going to kill him when he shows up on the bridge? Then what?”

“Killing him isn’t going to get me closer to Gillian,” Keo said. “That’s the whole point of this, remember?”

He looked out of the tree line and toward the bridge, almost a full 200 meters in front of him. They were far enough to be invisible among the woods, but close enough to see with binoculars. It had taken them an hour to find the location, most of that time spent skirting around areas that could potentially have soldier presence.

By the time they reached a safe spot, his watch had ticked to 2:16 P.M.

He could see the two behind the guard station in the middle of the bridge easily enough. They looked alert behind the M60, as did the four soldiers walking around them. Four, instead of just the two that were there yesterday. They kept to their half of the steel structure, probably because they didn’t want to get caught in front of the machine gun. Smart.

There were no signs of Steve, which was problematic. It shouldn’t have taken Eric all that long to report in. Unless Steve sensed an ambush, then he wouldn’t show up. It wouldn’t surprise Keo if he was wary of just that, especially after what he had done to Tobias less than twenty-four hours ago.

Maybe he’d even send Jack in his place-

Or not, Keo thought as Steve himself appeared on the other end of the bridge with Jack riding on a horse next to him. The lesser Miller, perched in his saddle, made for an awfully tempting target.

Next to him, Jordan was clutching her rifle so hard he could hear the sound of her fingers tightening.

“Don’t,” he said. “I need him alive for now.”

Jordan didn’t say anything.

“Jordan…”

“I heard you the first time,” she snapped. Then, in a softer voice, “So what now?”

“I’m going to go out there and give him the ring.”

“And then?”

“Hopefully he’ll keep his word and take me to Gillian.”

“‘Hopefully’? Christ, Keo. I didn’t know you were that stupid.”

“I think he’ll keep his word.”

“What makes you think that, for God’s sake? He can’t be trusted.”

“I’m relying on what I know about men like Miller.”

“What, that they’re all assholes?”

“That, too.”

“And if he does exactly what I think he’ll do, and shoots you as soon as you hand the ring over?”

“That’s what you’re here for.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Can you hit him from this distance?” he asked.

“Are you kidding me? It’s too far. I’m not that good.”

That makes two of us.

“Then you’ll have to get closer,” he said.

“How much closer?”

“As close as you need to make the shot if I’m wrong. But you have to promise me you won’t kill him if I’m still alive.” He looked at her, catching her eyes and holding them. “Remember, we’re here to save Gillian. After I make sure she’s fine, we can all get out of here. I told you about the Trident?”

“The yacht?”

“Yeah.”

“What about it?”

“I know how to contact them. All I’ll need is a ham radio. When I get Gillian, we’ll leave Texas behind. The three of us.”

“Your friends on the boat will come get us?”

He nodded. “All I need to do is make contact.”

She clenched her teeth for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. But what about Miller?”

“If he gets in the way, I’ll kill him.”

“What if Gillian doesn’t want to leave, did you think of that? She didn’t want to leave with me last time.”

“Yes, but I have to find out for certain. I spent six months looking for her, Jordan. I can’t just half-ass it now.” He paused, still holding her gaze. “Agreed?”

“You’re risking a lot on a hunch, Keo. Miller could order them to shoot you down as soon as you show up and just take the ring from your cold, dead hand.”

“I agree, he could do that. But I’m going on faith that he won’t.”

Jordan almost laughed. “Faith in Miller?”

“Not in him, but in men like him. He thinks of himself as a commander, and every commander collects soldiers. Certain types of soldiers. If he believes that I’ve killed Tobias for him, I think he’ll want to keep me around.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Any man who accepts the kind of job I did-and can pull it off-is valuable these days, don’t you think?”

She smirked. “You ever consider that maybe you’re thinking way too highly of yourself?”

He chuckled. “That’s entirely possible, but I don’t think so.”

“You willing to bet your life on that?”

“Why not? I’ve been doing it for the last six months, looking for you guys. What’s one more day?”

She shook her head before staring intently back at him. “Just shoot him, Keo. Then we can try to save Gillian my way. Without Miller around, the town won’t be nearly as dangerous. We can do this together. You don’t have to go out there and risk everything on some stupid hunch.”

“I’m relying on human nature.”

“Whatever you want to call it, it’s not worth your life.”

She looked conflicted, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t put it into words. Keo wished he were better at reading women, but he didn’t know what was going on behind those deep brown eyes of hers at the moment.

“If everything works out, can you find someplace to survive the night alone?” he asked.

“Big if…” But she nodded. “There are plenty of places around here to lay low. Don’t worry about me.”

“I can’t help it. It used to be I was just worried about me, but these days, I find myself worrying about other people, too. Frankly, it’s annoying.”

“Welcome to the human race.”

“Eh,” he shrugged.

She smiled, and he thought it was a very nice smile despite the dirt on her cheeks and flecks of something green and brown in her hair.

“If this blows up in your face, there’s another way out of town,” she said.

“Your inside guys?”

“One of them. His name’s Dave. I’ve never actually met him before, but Tobias seems to trust him.”

“How do I make contact?”

“He works in the main cafeteria. Most of them wear name tags when they’re working, so you won’t have any trouble finding him. Oh, and he’s a black guy.”

“Okay. A black guy named Dave who works in the cafeteria.”

“The main cafeteria.”

“There’s more than one?”

“Two. One for the soldiers and one for the general population. Big town, remember?”

“So what does Dave look like?”

“Didn’t I just say I’ve never met him?” She looked annoyed, which wasn’t anything new. He had that kind of effect on women lately.

“Right. So Dave the black guy who works in the cafeteria.”

Keo turned back to the bridge.

Miller had reached the middle and was looking around with his hands on his hips. Jack, on the horse next to him, was saying something.

He looked back at her. “You don’t have to do this. It’s not too late to catch up to Tobias.”

“Are you tired of me already?” she asked with a slight smile.

“It’s not that-”

“I’m just messing with you, Keo.”

“Ah.”

She stood up. “Good luck. I hope you’re right about Miller, because otherwise you’re a dead man.”

Tell me something I don’t already know.

He watched her jog off with her rifle. When he couldn’t see her anymore, he listened to the soft crunch-crunch of her boots against the ground. Eventually, even that faded, and he was left with just his slightly elevated breathing.

Why was he breathing so hard?

Right. Steve. The soldiers.

And that M60…

He slung the MP5SD just as Steve shouted, “Keo! You out there? You said you wanted to see me, so here I am!”

He paused for a moment at the sight of a squirrel perched on the biggest tree he’d ever seen in his life. The tree had been there before Wilmont was a glimmer in its founder’s eyes, and would likely be here long after he and Steve and everyone else in T18 were gone. The squirrel was staring blankly at him.

Keo grinned back at the animal.

“Keo!” Steve shouted. “Where are you?”

He could hear the growing agitation in Steve’s voice. Apparently everyone was getting annoyed with him today.

Keo decided to let the man keep waiting a little longer, just to give Jordan enough time to get to her spot.

“Keo! Get out here or I’m gone!” Steve looked down at his watch for dramatic effect. “You have one minute!”

Keo stood up.

This is such a bad idea. A really, really bad idea.

The squirrel must have agreed, because it seemed to shake its head at him before turning and trotting off along the massive branch of the tree.

“Keo!” Steve shouted. “You out there? I don’t have all day!”

He sighed and took a step outside the tree line and onto the road and waited for the M60 to cut him down like the idiot he clearly was.

Any minute now…