The Isles of Elysium

CHAPTER 25

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

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

“I don’t know,” Keo said.

“You ever think about it?”

“Not really.”

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

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

“Are you calling me a fool, Keo?”

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

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

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

He chuckled. “I don’t believe that.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Did you see Gillian?” Jordan asked.

“Yes,” Keo said.

“How’d it go?”

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

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

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

Jordan sighed. She had apparently been dreading the question.

“Jordan…”

“Yes,” she said. “How’d you know?”

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

“A little of both, I guess.”

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

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

“You did great, Dave,” Jordan said.

“Thanks. Nice to be appreciated.”

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

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

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

“Water under the bridge.”

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

“How’s the eye?” he asked.

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

Dave chuckled behind them.

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

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

He grunted.

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

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

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

Keo grinned. “Point taken, el capitan.”

*

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

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

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

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

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

Ghouls.

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

Apparently not.

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

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

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

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

*

It was easy to find the two-story white house where Gene had taken him that morning when he first arrived on the island. All he had to do was find the hill again-not a hard task, since it was right in the center-and then walk up to the front door.

Like Gene had done when they were last here, Keo took note of the surrounding area-the unmowed front lawn, the sidewalks, and the doors and windows. Everything was intact, and unlike at the marina, there were no muddy footprints on the driveway or nearby streets. It was as if the creatures just knew there would be no one here so there was no point in raiding the place.

Even though he was certain the house hadn’t been touched since he was last here, Keo moved cautiously anyway. There was no point in taking risks now. He wanted what the house had, but he could also easily make do with what he had on hand. With that in mind, he left the door wide open, using a rock to keep it pried so a gust of wind didn’t push it close, and didn’t touch anything else as he made his way upstairs.

Everything was where they had left it a few days ago, including the stack of weapons in the master bedroom’s bathtub. Keo picked and chose what he thought they could use (and wished he had a few more hands).

He left the house and made his way back to Dave and Jordan, who were waiting for him at the ridgeline overlooking the western marina. Dave was crouched next to a large boulder, and Jordan was peering up at the sun next to him with her good eye.

“That bad, huh?” she said as he walked back to them.

“What’s that?” he said.

“I saw your reaction.”

“What reaction?”

She frowned. “The good news is, I still have one good eye.”

“That’s definitely good news.”

“The bad news…”

“There’s bad news?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Which would be?”

“I don’t know how to shoot with my left eye. I usually squint with my right when I’m aiming.”

“Most people do.”

He put the weapons down on the ground in front of her. The damned things seemed to have doubled in weight since he stepped out of the house and made the long walk back to the marina. Of course, it could just be his sore shoulder and thigh. Keo unslung his pack and pulled out boxes of bullets, stacking them next to the guns.

Jordan picked up a Colt AR-15 and turned it over. “Am I wrong, or do you expect this to go on for a while?”

He nodded. “If we’re lucky, yeah.”

“‘If we’re lucky’?” Dave said. “Your definition of luck sucks.”

“Desperate times call for desperate luck,” Keo said. He picked up a box of 5.56mm rounds. “Catch,” he said, and tossed it.

Dave caught it with one hand. “That’s a lot of bullets.”

“It’s really not, but it’ll have to do for now. You good with the M4?”

“One’s enough for me.” He patted the Walther P22 in his back waistband. “I still got this.”

“What happened to your fancy German gun?” Jordan asked Keo.

“Jack took it,” he said.

“Miller’s little brother? The one Dave-”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

Dave groaned. “I didn’t even want to shoot the guy. Or the other soldier in the living room.”

“So why did you?” Keo asked.

“I didn’t know Jack would be inside Bannerman’s garage. But there he was, and the stupid asshole went for his gun. Then the soldier comes barging in, right at me.” Dave shook his head. “It got bad really fast.”

“It usually does when guns are involved.”

Keo picked up a Mossberg pump-action shotgun with a pistol grip and slung it, then opened a box of shells and began shoving them into the leg pockets of his cargo pants.

“You didn’t happen to get me one of those, did you?” Jordan asked.

“As a manner of fact, I did.” He picked up a Remington 870 from the bundle and handed it to her. “Designed for the fairer sex.”

“I’m touched.” Jordan clutched and unclutched the weapon. “I gotta admit, it feels pretty good.”

“That’s the point.” He handed her another box of shells. “Use it in close quarters. The AR-15 for everything else.”

He handed her a spare gun belt and she put it on, then slid the Glock he had given her earlier into the empty holster.

“How’s the body?” he asked.

“Why, you wanna cop a feel?”

He smiled, and she returned it.

“Maybe later,” he said. “Can you walk without pain?”

“I can’t even breathe without pain.” She looked down at her chest, as if she could see past the raincoat to where Steve had cut her with his knife. “They’re going to scar, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.”

“There goes my meet cute moment with Prince Charming. Hard to make a good first impression with bodily scars.”

“You’ll get by.”

She frowned.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

She nodded and gave him her best forced smile. “You got shot twice last night, and you’re still running around. So I’ll be a big girl and suck it up.”

“Good. You’re going to need to move around, or you’re going to be a sitting duck. I’ll do what I can to keep the both of you alive, but you’re going to have to do your part, too.”

“Relax. I know you’re the badass with the past, but it’s been half a year since you last trained me, and I’ve picked up a thing or two while I was with Tobias.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Dave added.

*

Despite all three of them having unwittingly drunk enough water last night during the rainstorm to last a lifetime, they were all parched by midday and desperate for liquid. Keo knew exactly where to find them and went looking for houses with exterior access to the rooftops. He thought it would hurt the more he moved around, but thanks to a combination of Jay’s painkillers and constant motion, the pain started to ebb into the background.

It took him a half dozen homes to find the same one he had spotted Gene on top of the other day. There was a long extension ladder in the back of the house that he used to climb up to the rooftop, where he found a pair of two-liter plastic soft drink bottles duct-taped to the pole of a satellite dish. They were both almost topped off thanks to last night’s rain. Keo looked around but couldn’t find the caps, so he reused the duct tape to cover up the bottles and carried them down one at a time.

Dave was now on the other side of the island, keeping an eye on the eastern marina, when Keo handed him one of the bottles, then walked across the island to Jordan’s position, stopping just once to take more of the painkillers, silently thanking Jay for being so damn well-stocked.

Jordan glanced over as he walked back to her. “You went shopping without me? I hope you at least got me something nice.”

She was at Dave’s old position overlooking the marina, the AR-15 leaning against a boulder nearby, and she had the Remington slung over one shoulder. From up here, she could see all of the marina and the Texas coastline. They were in a perfect position to spot any approaching boats, because there weren’t a lot of places to hide out there.

Their twenty-footer was still tied to the dock below them, and easy enough to spot from a distance. That was the point. All he needed was to draw Steve in and they could unleash on him and his men. Of course, that was assuming Steve would be approaching from the west. If he decided to come from the east, they’d have to run over to back up Dave.

He had a fifty-fifty chance of being right, which was pretty good odds these days.

“Water?” Jordan said when she saw what he was carrying.

He handed her the bottle. “Drink up.”

She pulled off the duct tape and didn’t stop drinking until she was splashing water down her chin.

“Oh my God, that hit the spot,” she said, handing the bottle back to him. “Rain water?”

He nodded and drank some himself. It wasn’t Evian, but it wasn’t salt water, so he couldn’t really complain.

“Found any food?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“But you think they’re around?”

“Gene, the kid I told you about, hid a lot of things around the island. He called them go-bags. Of course, finding them is another matter.”

“Big island.”

“Eight kilometers.”

“Yup. Big island.”

Keo sat down next to her, trickled some water onto a rag, and dabbed at his forehead. The cut, courtesy of Tobias’s “love tap,” had scabbed over, and it itched more than it hurt. He felt Jordan’s eyes on him the whole time.

“You need to stop going around and pissing off people, Keo,” she said. “That pretty face of yours can only take so much.”

He chuckled. “Thanks.”

“No offense.”

“None taken.”

“I mean, you’re still not bad looking, but adding in that love tap from Tobias and those two bullet holes, and you’ve definitely seen better days.”

“Stop trying to butter me up,” he said, and handed the bottle back to her.

She drank again, and this time didn’t stop until there was just half remaining in the container. “I’m starving,” she said when she was done.

“You already said that.”

“Well, just in case you forgot.”

“I haven’t.”

She sighed and leaned back against the boulder.

“There’s a bright side in all of this,” he said.

“Oh yeah? Pray tell.”

“Steve’s coming soon, and he’ll probably bring some food.”

“That’s the bright side?”

“I mentioned he’d probably be bringing some food with him, right?”

“I’ve missed your screwed up sense of humor, Keo. By which I mean, I haven’t really missed it.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes, listening to birds chirping as they swarmed the wide-open skies above them. Even the sloshing of the ocean was calming, as if last night’s rainstorm had drained the sea of its power and it was only now starting to regain its strength. It was so peaceful he wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep.

He did close his eyes, but he didn’t go to sleep. That wasn’t going to happen for a while, no matter how tired or sore or numbed he was. Instead of lingering on what he couldn’t control, Keo spent the next few minutes swapping out the bandages with fresh ones.

“Need a hand?” Jordan asked.

“Nah, I got it.”

“I was just trying to be nice. I hate the sight of blood.” She watched him working for a moment before asking, “So what’s the deal with you and Gillian?”

He didn’t answer right away, because he didn’t know how, though the more he thought about it, the more simple the answer was. So much so that it pained him to finally realize it.

The deal with him and Gillian? There was no deal. That was the painful truth of it.

“She has Jay and the baby,” he finally said. “I guess that’s the deal.”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is.” He finished up and shoved the supplies back into the pack. “When you were with Tobias, did you ever shoot anyone?”

“I’ve shot plenty of people.”

“Maybe I should say, did you ever kill anyone?”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “There were a lot of skirmishes and bullets were always flying, but if you’re asking me if I’m one hundred percent certain I killed someone during those moments, then no. I can’t say for sure if I’ve ever killed anyone or not.”

“What about that ambush at the strip mall? The day I showed up?”

“By the time I got there, Tobias had already sounded the retreat. I fired a magazine into where I thought there were some soldiers, but again…”

“You can’t be sure.”

“I can’t be sure. Sorry.”

“That’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Considering what’s about to show up soon, I think there is. You don’t know if you can count on me.”

“That’s not true.”

“No?”

“I know I can count on you.”

She looked at him seriously. “How?”

“The same way I knew I could count on you to keep Gillian and the others safe back at the cabin.”

“And I did a hell of a good job with that. Gillian and I got captured, Mark’s dead, and Rachel and…” She let the rest go unsaid.

“But you got them safely away from the cabin and here, just like I knew you would. What happened after that was out of your control.”

“You weren’t there…”

“You did the best you could.”

She wasn’t convinced, and turned her head and looked over at the solitary houses that lined both sides of the street instead.

“You should have been there with us, Keo,” she said finally. “Things would have turned out differently if you had been.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I know…”