The Gates of Byzantium

CHAPTER 25


JOSH




PROS AND CONS: What were they?

Pros: He was finally safe, on an island the ghouls couldn’t get to, and he had never been closer to Gaby. She finally accepted him as more than just a neighbor and a friend, and there were signs she was willing to be more, something he never could have expected just a few days ago.

Cons: There were none. At least, none that he could see. It was hot on the island, but then it was hot everywhere. In Texas. In Louisiana. Where wasn’t it hot?

Conclusion: Sure, the world had essentially come to an end, but his life was looking pretty bright right about now.

Suck on that, mofos!

After he settled into his room, Josh spent the first few hours on the island exploring, careful to stick to the cobblestone paths that snaked everywhere. He had planned to invite Gaby along, but he could hear the shower running in her room next to his. His face still throbbed, and it felt good to be out in the sun. There was a nice breeze, and it soothed Josh’s bruises and seemed to help with the swelling around his eyes.

He had left his gun back in his room. There was something about the island, about the way the islanders walked around without guns—except for the big guy, Tom—that made it seem all right for Josh to do the same. If it was good enough for them…

While everyone stuck to the hotel and the air conditioning, Josh was irresistibly drawn to the Tower, about half a football field from the back of the hotel, perched on the eastern cliff. He stood next to the concrete base of the thick, conical structure, craning his neck to look up at the unfinished glass housing at the top. It was high up, and his neck hurt trying to take in the entire sight.

Josh pulled open the thick wooden door to the Tower. It was a lot heavier than it looked. Or maybe he just needed to work out more. Probably a little of both.

He stepped inside.

There wasn’t much of a first floor. There was a chair in a corner and another thick wooden door built into the concrete floor with a ring handle. The basement, he guessed. There was for a bookcase with hardcover books, paperbacks, and stacks of yellowing magazines. A spiral cast-iron staircase wrapped around the wall of the Tower’s interior like a skeletal snake, gradually extending upward before ending at another wooden door in the first-floor ceiling.


Josh climbed the staircase and was out of breath by the time he reached the door at the end. He pushed at it, felt it giving way grudgingly, and had to put his shoulder into it just to push it all the way up. The damn thing was heavy, and he felt like one of those submariners pushing open the top hatch of the sub in order to step outside. He poked his head through the rectangular opening, not quite sure what to expect.

The second floor was smaller than the first, which made sense since the Tower contracted inward the higher it went up. There was another bookcase across the room, but what really caught his attention were the paintings along one side of the wall. A dog with something in its mouth, a big deer, and a guy peering out from behind some bushes. There was a cot with meticulously folded blankets and sheets. Another section of spiral staircase circled the wall, leading up to yet another thick door in another floor above him.

Josh climbed all the way up and walked to the window across the room. The breeze up here was definitely cooler. There were no curtains on the windows, which were really just big square holes in the wall. He wondered if there was supposed to be more—like window frames with glass, maybe.

Josh leaned out the window and looked around. He could see almost everything on the eastern side of Song Island, including the beach to the south. There was a solar-powered LED floodlight directly above him, hanging just below the windowsill of a third-floor window.

“Nice view, huh?” a voice said behind him.

Josh was startled and turned quickly, surprised to find Tom sitting on the other side of the floor, behind the open door. Tom had apparently been there the whole time, eating what looked like blueberries out of a Ziploc bag; his lips had turned purple from berry juice. The cheap fold-out chair under him looked as if it shouldn’t be able to support a man of his weight.

Tom looked pleased at Josh’s reaction. “Sorry, kid, didn’t mean to scare you. This is sort of my place.”

“I didn’t know anyone was up here,” Josh said. And how the hell didn’t I see you sitting back there all this time?

“No worries.” Tom wiped his hands on his cargo shorts, smearing purple juice over the fabric. “Ugh. Now that’s going to stain.”

“Baking soda will get that out.”

“That right? Baking soda?”

“You can usually rub it out with a wet rag.”

“I think we have some baking soda in the kitchen,” Tom said, flicking at the stains on his pants. “Josh, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened to your face?”

Josh flushed a bit. “I ran into this guy.”

“Did you at least give as good as you got?”

“Well, he’s dead, and I’m not, if that’s what you mean.”

Tom nodded approvingly. “That’s not a bad trade-off.” He grinned, showing juice-stained teeth. “You ever been in a lighthouse before?”

“First time. What’s up there?” Josh pointed at the third floor above them.

“More of this, but also where the radio message you heard gets sent out into the world. I guess they were planning to run their own radio station or something. Go on up. The view’s even better up there.”

Josh hesitated. “So you live here?”

“Here, there, everywhere. But I come here for the privacy. Not everyone likes to climb the stairs.”

Tom dug out another Ziploc bag filled with more blueberries and began popping them into his mouth. Josh didn’t know where he was hiding those bags.

“Got any questions, shoot,” Tom said.

“What’s with the door?” Josh asked.

Tom looked amused. Apparently he had wondered the same thing. “I guess the guy who designed the place was trying to do something new. It gives the Tower three separate, private floors, so it kinda works. What do you think?”

“The door’s a little heavy, but it looks pretty cool.”

“That’s what I said.” Another juice-stained grin. “What do you think of the island so far?”

“It’s more than we thought it would be. Which is good. It’s really good.”

“Wait ’til dinner. Al cooks a mean fish.”

“We’re all looking forward to it. We’ve been eating nothing but canned fruits and stale chips for the last eight months.”

Tom chuckled. “Yeah, I can see how fresh fish will taste really good after that.” Tom tossed the empty bag into a nearby trash bin. He stood up and glanced down at his stained pants. “I’m gonna go find that baking soda now. Stay as long as you like, kid.”

Josh watched Tom come out from behind the door, then start down the stairs. He thought Tom was gone and started to turn back toward the window, when the big man stuck his head back up through the opening.

“Hey,” Tom said. “That girl. The blonde. She taken?”

“You mean Gaby?”

“I don’t know, is that her name? She’s a looker, huh? I mean, the other girls, too, but that one. Wow.”

“Yeah,” Josh said, and thought, A*shole.

“How old is she? Seventeen?”

“Eighteen.”

“Not that it matters,” Tom smiled. “It’s not like there are statutory rape laws anymore, am I right?”

*

AFTER LOITERING AROUND the Tower for a few more minutes, mostly to make sure Tom was gone before he went back down the stairs, Josh continued his tour of the island.

He was still trying to shake off his encounter with Tom. It was unsettling, more so because the man didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with lusting after Gaby in front of him. In Josh’s experience, what guys said was usually the least objectionable thing about how they really thought.

What an a*shole.

Josh pushed it out of his mind and continued along the cobblestone path.

The Kilbrew Hotel and Resorts was confined almost entirely to the east side of the island, with nearly the entire western half covered in thick vegetation and sprouting trees. Obviously the developers had plans for this half of the island, too, but had never gotten around to it. They weren’t really going to leave an entire half unclaimed, were they?

He walked aimlessly for a while, eventually stumbling across a big, gray concrete building. It was an ugly thing, two stories high, with long white poles sticking up along the flat roof like skinny metal limbs. The building was surrounded by hurricane fencing, including a padlocked front gate. Electrical coils extended out from the building, vanishing underground. There was a small, almost insignificant shack next to it with a steel door.

He could hear a persistent humming noise coming from inside the building, and knew right away that this was where the island got its power and where all those solar panels delivered the sunlight they stored all day to be processed into electricity. There was a big generator somewhere inside the building, doing all the work.

A sign read: “Power Station.”

Josh walked around the building, taking it all in, until his teeth started chattering from the noise. He found the cobblestone pathway again and followed it south, all the way back down to the beach, where hard rock gave way to soft, mushy sand.

He was about to return to the hotel when he saw Debra farther down the beach. She was pulling a casting net out of the water slowly. When he got closer, he saw that the net was full of fish.

“Wow, that’s a lot,” he shouted down the beach at her.

Debra gave him a big grin before plopping the net into a big, aluminum bucket. She jerked on the net and the fish fell out, sloshing and thrashing for their lives. Josh didn’t know his fish, but it looked like there were at least a dozen different species, most of them as big as his arm.


“This is nothing,” Debra said. “Wait until next year. I’m going to need two people just to pull this net out then. Used to be, this lake was full of fishermen, taking fish out of the water as fast as they could spawn. Now, you can’t throw a rock in there without conking a dozen fish on the head.”

Josh grinned at the image.

“Good for us,” Debra continued. “As long as you’re a fan of fish, anyway, because we’re never going to run out of them. Ever.”

Josh did like fish, though he wasn’t sure if he liked them that much. He supposed he would have to get used to it. Hell, it beat running around abandoned cities looking for canned goods, anyway.

He caught Debra sneaking a look at his face, but unlike Tom, she was too polite to come right out and say anything about it.

“Is it hard to throw that thing?” he asked, watching as she assembled pieces of the net along her right arm to cast again.

“Nah. It’s all in the arms. Here, I’ll show you.”

She walked back to the water’s edge and fluidly tossed the net out. It looked like a spreading spider-web, expanding before falling into the water and dipping underneath the surface.

“The trick is to give it time,” Debra said. “Usually you need to know your terrain when you’re casting. If you’re doing it from the shore and you know there are rocks or other things it could get snagged on nearby, you pull it up faster. Here, though, it’s pretty much just sand below, so I’m going to let it sink all the way to the bottom to get maximum coverage.”

She started to pull, and once again the net was teeming with fish.

“Voila,” Debra said. Instead of throwing the fish into the bucket with the others, Debra pulled a line and the net opened up. Right away, fish began making their escape back into the lake. “We already have more than enough for today, so these lucky suckers get a reprieve.”

“We can’t just put them all in the freezer for later?” he asked.

“Sure we can, but fish are always better fresh. Besides, they’re not going anywhere. As far as I know, the creatures don’t like seafood.” She hiked the net, now in a tight and neat bundle the size of his head, over her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here. I was wondering how I was going to get all this fish back to the hotel. I usually don’t take this many back with me, but since we have a few extra mouths today, I wanted to make sure I got enough.”

Josh grabbed one side of the bucket as she took the other, and they headed up the beach toward the cobblestone pathway.

“What happened to your face?” she asked after a while. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Everyone’s asking, so why not?” He shrugged. “This guy in Beaumont decided I’d look better with a busted nose.”

“Ouch. Did you at least tattoo him back?”

“I didn’t, but Gaby did.”

“Which one is she?”

“The blonde.”

“Young one or older one?”

“Young one. She basically saved my life. Twice now.”

“She’s pretty.”

“Yes, she is.”

Debra grinned at him. “You and her…?”

“We’re just friends for now.”

“‘For now.’” Debra laughed. “Teenagers will be teenagers.”

Josh felt himself blushing a bit. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Probably in the lobby playing his games. He’s like you—not much of an outdoorsy type.”

“How do you know I’m not an outdoorsy type?”

She gave him a wry look.

He laughed. “Guilty.”

“I’ve been working out here all my life,” Debra said. “I started on fishing boats when I was fourteen, helping crews catch fish and crawdads and you name it, all up and down the Gulf.”

“How did you come to Song Island?”

“I fished on the lake on and off. When everything went bad, I figured there were probably worse ways to go than on an island, so I packed Kyle up and came here. I heard they were fixing up the place for a resort, and was hoping someone would already be here.”

“You found Marcus?”

“Yeah, Kyle and I were actually at the marina about to come over when he showed up in this big SUV. I don’t even know how he got out here, but he knew about the resort, too, and was probably thinking the same thing I was. We didn’t know it would be the godsend it turned out to be, though.”

“So the whole thing with the creatures not liking water, that was an accident?”

“Pretty much.”

“When did you guys know for sure they wouldn’t—or couldn’t—swim over?”

She seemed to think about it. “I’m not sure, really. You’d have to ask Karen. She was here before all of us. She’s sort of the leader. We follow her lead.”

They walked up the path through the woods, their soft shoes tapping against the stones. They could hear birds fluttering in the air and the wind rustling through the trees around them. Josh hadn’t realized how much he had missed nature until now.

“Your parents?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No.”

“Sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“I guess I’m lucky, I still have Kyle.” She paused, then added, “At least when he’s not vegging out in front of the TV. It’s the end of the world, and I still can’t get my kid to turn off the TV. Go figure.”

“Kids will be kids,” Josh smiled back.

*

AL, THE MAN with the bad comb-over, did most of the cooking, with Sarah, the other single mom, helping out. After delivering the fish, Josh stuck around the kitchen long enough to watch Al take a big meat cleaver and chop off the fishes’ heads—some of them were still alive, which made him a bit queasy—before grabbing a long, thin knife and slicing their skin free with the practiced ease of someone who had been doing it forever. Sarah grabbed the fillet strips and washed them, then tossed them into a waiting bowl.

After seeing the fourth fish lose its head, then watching its headless corpse quivering on the cutting board, Josh hurried off. He thought he might have heard Al chuckling behind him as he fled the hotel’s kitchen.

He rejoined the others back in the lobby and spent a few minutes watching the girls being girls. Sarah’s daughter, Jenny, had gotten over her shyness. Along with Vera and Elise, she ran in and out of the hotel lobby, disappearing down one hallway only to appear out of another one moments later. The adults watched them come and go with smiles on their faces.

Debra’s son Kyle was still “vegging” out in front of the same TV, oblivious to everything behind him. The kid had swapped out Halo for a Call of Duty title, one of the Modern Warfare iterations. Josh wondered if he would have stuck himself into a cocoon like Kyle if he were younger. He couldn’t blame the kid too much. He was probably like that at Kyle’s age, and he hadn’t had the end of the world to deal with.

He searched through the smiling faces and finally found Gaby on a couch by herself, looking content to watch the others, living vicariously through their laughter and conversation. Gaby looked cheerful in new clothes, and he had forgotten how bright and shiny her hair could be. Seeing her smile made him smile, too.

Even Will and Danny seemed to have embraced the island. The two ex-Army Rangers still wore their gun belts, while Carly and Lara, like Josh, had put theirs away. Josh had swapped clothes and splashed his face with water before starting his tour of the island. Given his bruises and swelling, he couldn’t really get to work scrubbing the dirt and mileage out of his face and hair. In the back of his mind, he was still trying to conserve water, the survivalist in him not quite able to completely let go. He couldn’t imagine how much harder it was for Will and Danny.


He walked over to Gaby and sat down next to her. She glanced over and smiled at him. “Where have you been?”

“Exploring the island.”

“You’ve been gone a while. I went to your room and you weren’t there.”

“It’s a big island, and I’m a slow explorer.”

Someone had put food on a table in front of the couches. Bags of chips and cold (cold!) spring water bottles, the condensation glistening over the plastic labels.

Gaby put her hand over his and squeezed. “Don’t wander off too far.”

“Okay,” he said.

The touch of her hand, despite the fact that he had felt it a dozen times in the last few days, still made him breathless.

*

IT WASN’T SO much a meal as it was a feast. Al and Sarah served up fish of every kind. Most of them were types Josh had never seen before, but nudged on by Gaby and the others, he dived in and found them all to be universally good. Or maybe it was just the way Al fried and baked and boiled them. He hadn’t known there could be so many different kinds of fish in the world or that he could ever eat so much he could barely move. Then another plate with another fish he had never seen before landed, and he ate until he was full, again.

He had forgotten what real food tasted like after living off canned goods and chips and warm bottled water for so long. Or maybe Al was just that great a cook, and Josh had never really tasted good cooking before. His mom did her best, but he would never mistake her for a restaurant chef.

They had moved into the dining room next to the lobby. The room was huge, and unlike the lobby, which was mostly finished, the only completed part of the dining room was the floor. The walls and ceiling were still all Sheetrock and wooden frames, dangling wires, and a big hole in the ceiling where chandeliers were supposed to go. Not that the aesthetics mattered. The table was marble and long, and there were plenty of chairs for everyone to sit, so they gathered around and dived into Al’s cooking with relish.

Josh ate and mostly listened to the others talking. Amusingly, the seating broke down to Josh and Gaby, along with Will and Danny, Carly and Lara, and the girls sitting to one side, while Marcus and the islanders sat on the other. People were just naturally drawn to those familiar to them, similar to how he ended up sitting next to Gaby without thinking, and Will ended next to Lara, and Danny with Carly.

He stole glances in Gaby’s direction every now and then, and couldn’t help but smile at how happy she looked.

Around seven in the evening, Sarah and Sienna, Jake’s girlfriend, brought out trays of glasses filled with red wine. While they went around the table setting a glass in front of everyone except the girls, Karen stood up and made a toast.

“It’s been a while since we had company like this,” Karen said. “Drink up, and don’t worry about what’s out there. We’ve been here for months, and they’ve never crossed the water. They’re not going to start now, I can promise you that.”

“Is there a backup plan in case they do?” Will asked.

“It’s not going to happen,” Karen smiled.

“Still, better safe than sorry, right?”

“The Tower. It’s the strongest building on the island. Of course, you’ll have to fight Tom for it. He spends most of his nights there.”

Tom grinned. “Everyone’s welcome to join me in the Tower. We can have a sleepover and sing songs. Ladies? Any takers?”

“Only if I can take my gun,” Carly said.

Everyone laughed…except Josh. He watched Tom closely.

It’s a front. The man’s got two faces. This is his public face. The one I saw back in the Tower this afternoon was the real Tom.

Next to Josh, Sarah had brought out plastic cups filled with Coca-Cola and ice cubes for the girls. They grabbed at their cups and drank up, spilling the soft drink all over themselves and the table, crunching and savoring the ice cubes like they were the most amazing things in the universe.

Josh didn’t have a clue what to do with the red wine in front of him. He looked around the table and saw everyone sipping theirs, so he did the same, sticking his tongue down to taste the liquid. It tasted bitter and unwelcoming, and Josh recoiled and didn’t touch it again. Everyone else seemed to like it just fine, even Gaby, who kept drinking until her glass was almost empty thirty minutes later.

They drank and ate and talked well into the night, and Josh caught glimpses of Will and Danny glancing toward the windows every few minutes as it started to get dark outside. The solar-powered lampposts coiled around the island began lighting up one by one, glowing brighter and brighter with every passing second. Someone turned on a light switch, and lights around the dining room walls lit up.

Throughout the night, Will and Danny exchanged silent looks, whole conversations passing between them with a glance or two. Josh wondered what they were thinking and felt a little naked without his gun belt. Whatever had possessed him to give up his weapons so easily? The islanders hadn’t even asked him to do it; he had simply left them in his room of his own accord.

It was the electricity. The comfort. The air conditioner. The sight of Kyle playing games in the lobby. Tom reading a book, without a care in the world. Everyone was so calm, so oblivious to what was happening out there, that he couldn’t help but fall in line.

“Are the lights enough for the entire island?” Will asked Karen.

Karen nodded between spoonfuls of fish. “More than enough. That’s how we’re able to conserve so much energy generated from the solar panels for things like Kyle’s videogames and the AC.”

“It’s a hell of a setup you guys got here,” Danny said.

“It is,” Karen nodded. “We were very lucky to find it.”

“How can you be sure the ghouls can’t cross the water?” Will asked.

“Because we can see them on land, watching us every night, and it’s been eight months. Don’t you think they would have crossed by now if they could?”

“She’s got a point, Will,” Lara said.

“I don’t blame you for being cautious,” Karen said. “I don’t have a clue what you’ve gone through out there, or just to get here. But tomorrow, when you wake up, you’ll feel like it’s the first day of your new life.”

Maybe the wine was finally doing its job, because Will and Danny stopped sneaking looks toward the windows. They were smiling more, talking more, and had all but stopped noticing the falling night outside.

And when that happened, Josh stopped noticing, too.

It wasn’t until around nine that dinner finally wrapped up and the conversation tapered off. Josh could feel the energy sapping from everyone around him, including the islanders. Everyone agreed to call it a night, and Josh was more than happy to finally get up from his chair. It felt like he had been sitting for the last three days instead of hours.

Everyone helped out by taking plates and silverware into the kitchen, then cleaning up the marble table until it was spotless. After that, people began drifting off one by one. Tom had slipped out of the room unnoticed earlier. The man had a real gift for lurking.

Jake and Sienna followed, Sienna leaning tiredly against Jake’s shoulder.

Karen excused herself, declaring that she needed a big, hot bath that got a “Hallelujah!” from Carly, who quickly left with Danny.

That left Debra and Marcus talking with Will and Lara about something that, from their expressions, looked important. Josh caught fragments of conversation, bits and pieces about defending the island if something were to happen. Despite the serious topic, Will didn’t sound nearly as alert as he had earlier in the day. It reminded Josh of his parents after one of their Date Nights, returning home filled with good food and too much wine.


Will’s human after all. Go figure.

Josh and Gaby took their share of the dinner plates into the kitchen. Gaby looked a little wobbly, and at one point he grabbed her arm to keep her from toppling over. “Hey, there, Humpty Dumpty,” he said.

She smiled back at him, and he saw mischief glinting in her eyes. “I’ve never drunk wine before, but I think I really like it.”

“Great, you’re becoming an alky at the end of the world.”

“What better time?”

“Just remember, we don’t have AA anymore.”

“You’re no fun,” she said playfully.

Sarah was in the kitchen, wiping down the counters with a wet rag. “Just dump them in the sink, guys. I’ll deal with them tomorrow.”

There were already piles of plates and silverware in the large industrial sink behind her.

“Are you sure?” Gaby asked. “I can help.”

“That’s sweet, but the kitchen belongs to Al and me. He cooks, I clean up. Besides, you guys must be tired from the long trip here. I know how it is out there, always running, looking over your shoulder. Go get some rest, and we’ll do it all again tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Josh said, putting the plates in the sink. “For the food and for everything else, too.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sarah said, smiling back at him. “Go get some sleep. And don’t worry about anything. You’re safe here.”

Josh turned to go, but Gaby paused to embraced Sarah. The other woman looked momentarily embarrassed, but she quickly hugged Gaby back, and he thought both women looked close to tears.

“Thank you,” Gaby said. “Thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome…God, you’re going to make me cry,” Sarah said, sniffling.

Gaby wiped at her eyes. “I have something in my eyes.”

“Me, too,” Sarah said.

They laughed and embraced again.

Josh stood back and watched them awkwardly, not quite sure what to do next.

*

THEY FINALLY LEFT Sarah in the kitchen, wiping away tears, while Gaby dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. As they were making their way back across the lobby, Josh caught a glimpse of Tom, standing outside on the patio smoking under the bright halo of the floodlights.

Tom disturbed Josh, in more ways than one. He was always showing up where you least expected him, like a bogeyman in a horror movie. And Josh still couldn’t shake that conversation in the Tower.

“That was a good meal,” Gaby said.

“That was a great meal,” he nodded.

“I think I’m going to really like it here. What about you?”

“Definitely.”

“Even Will and Danny looked pretty happy by the end of the night.”

“It must be the wine.”

“Probably. I’m still a little light-headed from the wine, too. Did you have some?”

“I tasted a little bit. Not my thing.”

“What is your thing?”

“You,” he blurted out before he had the chance to stop himself.

“That’s sweet. I think.”

He did his best to grin away his embarrassment. “I meant that in the best way.”

She laughed. “What other way is there?”

They were halfway to their rooms when Gaby stopped in the hallway and reached over and took his hand. She looked him in the eyes and smiled. He was suddenly very nervous, afraid and anticipating where this was going. Maybe she felt his nervousness, or actually saw it on his face, because she said, “Relax.”

“I am relaxed,” he lied.

They were the only two people in the hallway, and it seemed like they were the only two people in the entire hotel. The hallway had working lightbulbs, and he could see every inch of her lips and the tip of her nose and her light, incandescent green eyes. She was perfect in every way, and he was always reminded of that every time he looked at her.

Compared to her, he was a mess. And that was before the swollen eyes, bruised lips, and cracked nose. What did she even see in him? He had saved her, yes, but she had saved him back. Twice. He was the one who owed her, not the other way around. Yet here she was, looking at him with a smile that could make men do just about anything.

What did he ever do that was so right in a past life to deserve this?

“I know we have our own rooms,” she said.

“Yeah…”

“But you should come and stay in mine.”

“Why?” he was going to say, before he realized why, and said instead, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said, then turned and walked up the hallway, leading him by the hand.

He went willingly, floating on air.

*

THEY WERE SITTING in the middle of her bed when Josh asked the question he hadn’t thought he would ever get to ask in this life, much less to the girl of his dreams. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of protection?”

“I’m on the patch,” Gaby said.

“What’s that?”

“The patch. It’s a contraceptive. Lara gave it to me, just in case of, well, this.”

“How does it work?”

“You stick it to your skin and it keeps you from getting pregnant.”

“So it’s like a patch? Literally?”

“Yeah. You wanna see it?”

“Where is it?”

“Over my right shoulder.”

“Does it have to be there?”

“Not really, but that’s where most women put it.”

“Oh.”

Gaby lifted her arms and pulled off her T-shirt. She tossed it to the floor next to them, then turned back to face him in a white lacy bra. For some reason, he had always expected her to wear lacy white undergarments. “Your turn.”

He pulled his shirt off. Or at least tried to. He was trembling so badly she had to reach over and help him. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“I’m nervous.”

“I know.”

“This is my first time.”

“I didn’t know that.”

He almost laughed. “But I’ve always loved you,” he said, surprised at how earnest the words sounded tumbling out of his mouth.

“I know,” she smiled. “We’ve lived across the street from each other most of our lives, Josh. You don’t think I’ve noticed you watching me from your bedroom window?”

“I didn’t think this would ever happen. I mean, I knew it would happen eventually, but I never thought it would happen with you.”

“Why?”

“Look at you, Gaby. And look at me.”

“It’s not as swollen as this morning…”

“I don’t mean that. Even before that guy in Beaumont beat the crap out of me, I was still just me, and you were—are—still you.”

“I don’t know what that means, but it sounded sweet.” She smiled at him again. “Besides, you probably would’ve ended up being a millionaire if none of this had happened. I read somewhere that most millionaires who didn’t have a lot of luck with girls end up marrying trophy wives who resemble the girls they lusted after back in school.”

“Where did you read that?”

“I don’t know. Cosmo or US Weekly or one of those. You think it’s true?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re here now.”

She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. Softly, like she was afraid he would crumble against her. Josh leaned into her and kissed her back. When their noses made accidental contact, he felt a stinging sensation, but didn’t pull away. He was kissing Gaby in bed.


He was kissing Gaby in bed!

He was still repeating that to himself when he felt her fingers against his bare chest and electricity raced through him.

*

I’M A LOUSY LAY, Josh thought, when he heard her sighing with disappointment after it was over, even though he knew she didn’t mean for it to come out so loudly, or for him to hear.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her, out of breath.

“Don’t be,” she whispered back.

He lay on top of her, feeling useless and lacking, and as manly as a wet paper bag left out in the rain for a month. He wasn’t sure if he should move or roll over or stay perfectly still. It wasn’t like he had a lot of experience during, so his experiences after were just as lacking.

“God, I suck at this,” he groaned.

“It’s okay,” she said, and he felt her fingers in his hair. “The night’s still young.”

“Yeah?” He lifted his head and looked at her beautiful face in the darkness.

“You have someplace else to be?” she said, smiling back at him.

He grinned. “No.”

“Good. Lay down on your back.”

He did, and she climbed on top of him. The room was dark, except for a night-light in a corner, and they had closed the patio curtains. Still, he could see enough of Gaby in the semidarkness to know that naked, she was even more glorious than clothed.

“Now just relax,” she said.

Josh didn’t think he could do it again so soon, but when she reached down between them and touched him, he realized he was wrong. Man, was he wrong. She guided him back inside her and he almost died.

This time, he lasted longer, and when she shuddered and lay down on top of him, their bodies slick with sweat despite the cold air pouring from the vents, Josh thought, Maybe I’m not such a bad lay after all.

Suck on that, mofos!

*

JOSH DREAMT OF walks in the park, marrying Gaby, having kids (two or three—that part of the dream was a bit murky) and opening a computer repair shop, of all things. He didn’t even like computers that much.

All of that faded when he felt cold, alien fingers around his left calf and something smooth but cold brushing against the back of his head. Josh opened his eyes to find a dark, silhouetted figure moving in front of him. It was a big man, wearing all black, with broad shoulders and dark black hair. And he was dragging Josh by the feet along the hotel hallway.

This is such a shitty dream.

He had always assumed post-coital dreams would be better. He had just had sex with the most beautiful girl in the world, and what did he dream about? Some guy dragging him through the hotel hallway.

So Josh lay back and waited to wake up.

And he waited, and waited…

It wasn’t until he felt a stinging pain against the back of his head that Josh finally accepted that he was very much awake. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. He tried to lift his hands from the polished marble floor, but they wouldn’t move. His fingers stared back at him, pliant and useless. The only thing he had control over were his eyes and his mind. The rest was asleep.

He was tilted onto his left cheek, and he couldn’t lift his head off the floor. The coldness of marble seeped through his hair and scalp. There was a big bump at the back of his head, and it looked like someone had put his boxers back on him, because he remembered going to sleep with Gaby in his arms, both of them naked.

Oh God, why couldn’t this be a bad dream?

The hallway lights stung his eyes, but he couldn’t turn his head to look away. At least he had control over his eyelids, so he blinked and allowed himself to slowly become accustomed to the brightness. He didn’t know how long they had been moving down the hallway, but it seemed like minutes had flown by. Or maybe it was seconds?

The man turned left, and as he did, Josh’s head tilted over onto his right cheek and he saw he wasn’t alone. The man was dragging not just him, but Gaby, too. Her long blonde hair streamed behind her like a dirty mop, scooping up dirt and dust from the floor. He was relieved to see Gaby wearing a T-shirt. It looked like his. It was a size too big for her, and it flapped around and sometimes got stuck behind her body as she was dragged, and he caught glimpses of her breasts and lacy panties. Josh flushed with embarrassment for her.

Gaby’s eyes were closed, but she didn’t look hurt. She actually looked asleep. Peaceful. He didn’t understand how that was possible, unless she was drugged. But then wouldn’t he have been drugged, too? Why had he woken up—well, mostly, anyway—when she hadn’t?

There was a soft clicking sound, and Josh heard a female voice, muffled and slightly distorted: “Where are you?”

The man stopped, causing Josh’s head to involuntarily flop back onto his left cheek, and he lost sight of Gaby. He felt his leg falling, dropped from the man’s grip, then thudding against the floor.

Another clicking sound, and the man’s voice: “I’d be there already if you didn’t keep calling me.”

Tom.

Josh shivered. Or at least, he shivered in his mind. He wasn’t sure what his body did, if anything at all.

“Hurry up,” the muffled female voice said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tom said, and there was a brief two-second pause before Josh felt Tom’s big fingers grip his calf again and lift his leg off the floor, and he was being dragged through the hallway once more.

They turned another corner, and Josh’s head returned to his right cheek, and he could see Gaby again. Her hair was now a dirty shade of brown, with dirt and dust and God knew what else from the floor entangled in it.

Finally, Tom stopped again, and Josh heard a door creak open; then they were dragged through. His head was knocked ruthlessly against the side of the door and pain lanced through his body. He couldn’t have let out a scream even if he had wanted to.

The ground under him became gritty and hard, and Josh felt like someone was raking his skull over coarse sandpaper. He glimpsed a concrete floor and knew he was in another unfinished part of the hotel. Josh was suddenly very grateful he had limited control over his body; otherwise he might have kicked out at Tom’s grip in an instinctive attempt to escape. That would have gotten Tom’s attention, and then what?

When Tom came to a stop again, Josh saw what looked like some kind of ballroom. A big chandelier dangled from the ceiling above him, though it had no lightbulbs. Patches of shadows moved along the ceiling, and it was hard to make out details in the semidarkness. The wall in front of him was unfinished, and whenever he heard a sound, it echoed back and forth inside the large room.

“About damn time,” a male voice said from somewhere across the room. This voice sounded familiar, too, but Josh couldn’t quite place it yet.

“Hey, I’m carrying two. You idiots had one apiece,” Tom said.

“Excuses, excuses,” the other man said.

Tom dropped Josh’s leg to the floor again, and Josh quickly closed his eyes. Somehow he was still awake—if not entirely in control of his body—while Gaby wasn’t, despite the discomfort of being dragged through the hotel. They were drugged. He was sure of that now. And right now, he needed the islanders to think he was out, too.

“Is that everyone?” a woman asked. It was the same voice he had heard back in the hallway, talking to Tom, only now without the distortion.

“One, two, three…” the second man (who wasn’t Tom) counted. “Yeah, except for the two girls. Berg’s bringing them now.”


“Zip them up,” the woman said. “All of them. And make sure they’re on tight, I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the wrestler. Especially with the two soldiers. They’re too dangerous.”

“That’s why we should just kill them,” Tom said. “Put a bullet in their heads and be done with it.”

“No,” the woman said. There was finality in her voice. “It wants them.”

“We can just say we had to, that they fought back,” Tom insisted.

“You don’t understand. It wants them. That means it gets them. It’s not up for discussion.”

“Whatever,” Tom said.

Tom turned, his sneakers squeaking loudly against the concrete floor, and he began walking away. The same door they had come through earlier slammed shut in the background.

Cold fingers (probably the other man’s) turned him over onto his side, and what felt like thin, plastic rope tightened around his ankles. Then the rope (no, more like a strip) was pulled tight until his ankles were squeezed against each other. The man grabbed Josh’s arms with the same cold fingers and pulled them behind his back, and the same plastic sensation wrapped around his wrists and pulled them tight against one another.

“Karen,” the other man said, “maybe Tom’s right.”

Karen.

The woman was Karen. That’s why the voice was so familiar.

Tom and Karen. Then who was the other man?

Marcus.

“Yeah, I know he’s right,” Karen said. “That still doesn’t change the fact that it wants them.”

“You mean it’s coming here? Personally?” Marcus said. Josh detected more than just a little bit of dread in his voice.

“Yeah.”

“That’s a first.”

“Like I told Tom, it made it very clear it wants the two soldiers intact.”

“How long before they show up?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t say.”

“This is stupid.”

“Everything about this is stupid, but you should have gotten used to it by now. Go find out what the hell is taking Berg so long with the girls. I don’t want that idiot doing something he’s not supposed to.”

Josh listened to the sounds of Marcus’s footsteps fading, then another door—a different one this time—on the other side of the ballroom opening and closing. There was a brief moment of silence while Josh waited to see (hear) what Karen would do next.

Warm fingers touched both his cheeks and turned his head, and he knew it was Karen. What was she doing now? It could have been his imagination, but he thought she might have lingered on his face a bit.

Oh God, does she know?

After a while, she let his head drop, and this time he landed on his right cheek.

He heard footsteps as Karen walked away. Moments later, a door opening and closing.

Josh opened his eyes.

He wasn’t alone. Almost all of them, except for Elise and Vera, were here. Will and Lara, lying on their sides next to each other, not too far from him. Will was in his boxers, Lara in a T-shirt that was too big for her. Will’s, probably, the same way they had dressed Gaby up in the first shirt they had found, which turned out to be his.

And there, not far from Will and Lara, were Danny and Carly, in the same posture and clothing. Boxers for Danny, T-shirt for Carly. Their eyes were closed, and like Gaby, they looked asleep, blissfully unaware of their surroundings and what was happening to them.

Why am I the only one still awake?

He became frantic, and it only got worse because the only part of his body he could move at all were his eyelids. He still couldn’t turn his head, couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. But he could feel the coldness of the concrete floor pressing up against his body.

Why am I the only one awake?

Oh God, we’re so screwed.





Book Three


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SHUDDER ISLAND