The Gates of Byzantium

CHAPTER 28


LARA




SHE WAS SIMULTANEOUSLY trying to reach the surface of a swimming pool filled with dense, sticky mud and process what Josh was telling her and ignore the flaring of pain in her left arm. The bullet wound had suddenly re-manifested itself after taking a leave of absence for most of yesterday. That led to her wondering if her painkillers were still in her hotel room. The Tramadol would be nice about now, maybe even a Percocet, or a Vicodin…


Lara could tell from the looks on Carly’s and Gaby’s faces as they sat next to her that they were having the same difficulties—but minus an old gunshot wound, lucky them. The fact that she was wearing panties and one of Will’s shirts didn’t help her to adjust quickly to the situation. The shirt was about two sizes too big, though the most disturbing part was realizing someone had dressed her. She had been nude when she had fallen asleep in Will’s arms last night.

She shivered a bit as she tried to push the repulsive idea of someone molesting her while she was in bed out of her head.

She was also barefoot and the floor was hard and cold and pricking against her feet and legs and butt, despite the air around her feeling heavy and humid. How was that possible? And the itchy sensation in her left arm was getting more intense, and it was all she could do to grit her teeth and force herself to ignore the urgent desire to rake at the scabbing wound under the bandages.

“Where’s Will?” were the first coherent words out of her mouth.

“He went to look for some clothes and weapons,” Josh said. “That was about five minutes ago.”

“Figures,” Danny said, yawning behind them.

Danny was wearing boxers covered in leaping dolphins. Unlike Lara and the others, he didn’t look like he was having very much difficulty accepting what Josh had told them. But that was Danny. Army Ranger. Ex-SWAT commando. Flippant comedian. Like Will, he adjusted amazingly well to almost any situation.

“He’s always going off and having fun without me,” Danny said. “I really need to start putting bells around that boy’s neck.”

“What about the girls?” Carly asked, looking back at Elise and Vera, still asleep on the floor behind them. Elise had curled up into a ball, her hands under the side of her head as makeshift pillows. Vera was snoring lightly with the strangest smile on her face. Lara wondered if she had looked like that while she was under, too.

Rohypnol, Josh had told them. Or roofies, the date-rape drug. She had known right away they had slipped it to her and the others during dinner, in the red wine, before Josh had even filled her in on that part.

“Will says to let the girls sleep,” Josh said.

Lara nodded. “There’s no point in waking them up.” She looked over at Sarah, standing nearby, not saying a word. Lara thought the other woman looked scared.

She should be.

“Sarah,” she said, “the wine last night. That was you.”

“I had no choice,” Sarah said.

“Of course you did,” Carly snapped. “We all have a choice. Don’t stand there and tell me you didn’t have a f*cking choice. You decided to go along with this.”

“You don’t understand,” Sarah said. She sounded close to tears. “I came here with Jenny, hoping to get away from those things out there just like the rest of you. Karen and Tom and the others were just dragging people out of their rooms by gunpoint back then. People got hurt, some got killed. A boy we came with got shot because he fought back. I convinced them they could use Rohypnol instead so that wouldn’t happen again. It was safer. That was how I saved my family. I had no choice.”

“How many times did you have to tell yourself that before you started to believe it?” Carly asked. The hard edge in her voice hadn’t softened a bit.

“Carly,” Josh said, “she came back here to help us.”

“So what’s the new angle, Sarah?” Carly’s eyes were still zeroed in on Sarah.

“There is no new angle,” Sarah said, almost offended by the suggestion.

“Bullshit. Spit it out. What angle are you playing now?”

Lara watched Sarah’s face carefully, and she thought she understood. What would she do for Will? For Elise? Or for Carly?

Lara walked over and got between the two women. “Not now. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about this later.” Before Carly could respond, Lara looked over at Josh and said, “What else did Will say? When is he coming back?”

“He didn’t say,” Josh said. “Just that we should stay here until he comes back with the weapons.”

“So where are they?” Danny asked Sarah. “The party people?”

“Karen, Marcus, Tom, and Berg are usually the only ones involved,” Sarah said. “The rest stay in their rooms until morning. Tom is in the lighthouse—the Tower. Berg is in the unfinished part of the hotel, going through the things we brought out of your rooms. He’s kind of odd; he spends a lot of time doing things the rest of us find a little disturbing. Karen and Marcus are probably asleep.”

“What about guns? I didn’t see them wear any all day except for Tom.”

“It’s part of the fa?ade. It’s how they get people to let their guard down. Once you’re convinced the island really is as safe as they say it is, then it’s easier…later, with the Rohypnol during the feast.”

“Clever buggers. But they have guns?”

“Yes. Karen and Marcus have weapons in their rooms. The others don’t. Al, Jake and Sienna, myself—we’re not armed. I don’t know, I don’t think they really trust us that much. We came here because of the broadcast, like you did. They let us stay because we could contribute something.”

“Can’t blame them. A good cook’s hard to find in the apocalypse.”

“How many?” Lara asked. “How many have come before us? Not counting you and the others still here?”

Lara watched her reaction to the question. It wasn’t that Sarah had to think about it, because Lara thought she knew the number exactly—it was more that the answer was not going to be well received.

“How many?” Carly pressed, when Sarah didn’t answer fast enough.

“I only know of twenty-one,” Sarah said. “I don’t know how many there were before I got here.”

“Jesus Christ. Twenty-one?” Carly’s voice had risen noticeably, the menace coming through loud and clear. “You sentenced twenty-one people to their deaths, and you stand there trying to justify it?”

Sarah started to respond, but thought better of it and said nothing instead. It was smart of her, because it would only have encouraged Carly to wade into her even further. After that, Sarah seemed to drift away, even though Carly continued to stare daggers at her.

“I need clothes,” Danny said, casually breaking the thick tension in the air. “You said Will already went for them?”

“Yeah,” Josh said. “About five—well, ten minutes ago now.”

“So that means whoever’s watching over our stuff is either dead or dead-ish. That saves me the trouble. You stay here with the girls. I’ll be back soon, preferably dressed and with boots on.” He started off in his bare feet, looking absurd in his dolphin-covered boxers. “In the meantime, try not to kill each other until I get back, ladies. I love me a good ol’ fashioned chick fight. Carly, that means you.”

“No promises,” Carly said back through gritted teeth.

*

THEY SPENT THE next ten minutes waiting for something to happen, and when nothing did, it only added to the already conflicted atmosphere in the room. The island itself went on as if nothing had occurred, the silence outside the hotel matched only by the silence inside what was supposed to be a ballroom, but was, at the moment, really just one big unfinished hall with concrete floors.


Lara kept busy by making sure the girls were fine. The Rohypnol had put them both into a deep slumber, as it had done to the adults. If Josh and Sarah hadn’t been tapping on their faces and nudging them awake, they would probably have slept through the entire night and most of the day. She still felt the grogginess lingering, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been in the first few minutes after opening her eyes.

Josh stood near one of the doors with Gaby, the two of them whispering softly to each other. It wasn’t hard to tell they had become more than just friends. Watching the two of them made her smile.

“I noticed they turned off the AC,” Carly said. “It’s getting swampy in here.”

“I guess they don’t need the fa?ade anymore,” Lara said.

They stood quietly in the dark, listening to the silence. Beads of sweat appeared along Lara’s neck and temple, despite the odd chill from the floor under their bare feet.

“He’s taking too long,” Carly said after a while. She looked toward the door. “I should go after him, in case he’s in trouble.”

“Carly, the last thing he wants is for you to go after him. If he’s in trouble, there’s not going to be a lot you can do. Danny is an Army Ranger. Remember?”

Carly nodded, but she didn’t look any less concerned. Knowing didn’t keep away the fear, something Lara knew all too well. She felt the same nagging anxiousness whenever Will left her side. She knew he could take care of himself, that if anyone was equipped to survive in this new world, it was him and Danny. Knowing and accepting weren’t the same, though.

Lara looked over at Sarah, standing by herself against the other door into the ballroom. Lara felt sorry for the other woman, and her thoughts flashed back to Kevin, a young man who had sold them out to the ghouls back in Dansby, Texas. Will had killed him. Or at least she assumed he had. One moment Kevin had been there, the next he was gone. So why didn’t Will do the same to Sarah? Maybe he knew Sarah had a better reason to do what she did. Maybe he was thinking about her daughter, Jenny.

She came back to the present when the door next to Josh opened, and Josh stiffened, preparing to fight. He didn’t have to because Danny walked in, wearing cargo pants and a T-shirt and carrying one of their supply crates.

“Santa has brought clothes,” Danny announced.

They swarmed the box—all except Sarah, who was already dressed. They pulled out shirts and pants and shoes like eager kids given early Christmas gifts.

“I stuffed in as many as I could find that would fit you guys,” Danny said. “But I’m no fashionista, so if there’s something that doesn’t match, or God forbid, clashes, you’ll have to make do for now.”

Lara found a pair of cargo pants and a T-shirt that actually fit her and pulled them on. She expected to feel embarrassed stripping down to her panties in front of everyone, but the need to get some clothes on easily overwhelmed that silly notion of modesty.

The others dressed just as quickly around her, pulling on clothes and shoes and socks.

“Did you find Will?” Lara asked Danny.

“He was already gone. Went out the back door from the looks of it.” He took a knife out from behind his back. “I found this, though.”

“That’s the knife I brought over from the kitchen to cut you guys loose,” Sarah said.

“Why did he leave it behind?” Lara asked.

“Probably because he found something better,” Danny said. “Berg had a gun belt on him with an empty holster.”

“What happened to Berg?” Sarah asked.

“He’s alive. Will zip-tied him and left him gagged on the floor. I would say that’s his idea of irony, but I know for a fact Will doesn’t know what irony means.”

Lara rolled her eyes at him and got a grin back in response. “Maybe it’s time we go looking for him.”

“Now why would we want to do a fool thing like that?”

“You’d rather we just wait for him in here?”

“I don’t want to wait for him in here. I’m not a waiting around kinda guy, in case you haven’t noticed. But it’s the smart move. Right now, the rest of the island doesn’t know we’re free and footloose. We have the advantage. As long as they stay clueless—”

A loud gunshot from outside the hotel cut Danny off.

“Or not,” Danny finished.

“What now?” Carly asked.

Danny looked back at the others, saw that they were all dressed—or close enough, anyway—then scanned the room. “Everyone move away from the open.” He pointed to the two doors. “Stick to the walls, make like darkness so they can’t see you from the doors. Carly and Lara, get the girls.”

Carly picked up Vera, while Lara picked up Elise. Lara couldn’t help but notice the girl had packed on a few pounds since the last time she had held her. They moved toward the wall, into the patch of darkness, and laid the girls back down on the floor.

Gaby and Josh slinked back against the wall a few yards from them, melting into the shadows, hands finding each other in the semidarkness.

Danny, knife in hand, moved back to the door he had come through. He didn’t say a word, only pressed his back against the wall and stood perfectly still.

There had been no sounds after the gunshot.

Lara waited to hear some kind of commotion, either from outside the hotel where the gunshot had come from, or inside, as Karen and the others woke up. Instead, there was just the silence. It was suffocating and quiet and so damn still, and Lara’s left arm was still itching like it was on fire. She rubbed against the bandages with the palm of her right hand, fighting the urge to tear the bandages free and swipe at the scabbing wound.

They waited.

Five minutes went by. Then ten.

Lara looked over at Carly and saw the other woman looking back at her. She was thinking the same thing. What now?

After a while, Lara started to think maybe the rest of the island hadn’t heard the gunshot after all. Maybe Danny was wrong. She had almost convinced herself when the door to her left opened and Marcus stepped inside with a silver automatic in his fist.

Lara’s head snapped in Danny’s direction and she opened her mouth to scream, but she didn’t have to. Danny had either heard or seen Marcus coming through the other door and was already sprinting across the room. She had never seen him move so fast, and hadn’t known he was even capable of that kind of speed.

Marcus fired at Danny—too fast.

Either adrenaline or fear had gotten the best of him and Marcus’s first shot went wide, slamming into the wall behind Danny, at least three feet off its mark. Realizing his mistake, Marcus took careful aim with his second shot.

“No!” Lara screamed.

Marcus jumped at the sound of her voice. He swung the gun in her direction, but he quickly got over the shock and turned back toward Danny, who was halfway across the room by now.

Marcus shot again—and missed again. Though this time he came closer to hitting Danny, and Lara swore Danny flinched as the bullet zipped past his head.

Danny, still running, threw the knife while in mid-stride and the sharp blade flashed across the room and embedded into the side of Marcus’s neck. Marcus let out a wheezing sound and dropped the gun and stumbled sideways.

Lara scrambled forward and snatched the gun from the floor even as Marcus moved around in front of her on wobbly legs like some hopeless drunk. He grabbed the handle of the knife in his throat and Lara thought, No, don’t do that, don’t pull the knife out. Jesus, don’t pull the knife out.


But he did—and blood gushed out in a thick stream and Marcus collapsed to the floor, already slick with his blood. He seemed to convulse, his arms and legs like fish out of water, while blood kept pumping out of the ghastly wound in his throat.

Lara heard another door opening, and she looked up and saw Sarah running out of the room, the door slamming shut behind her.

“Should we go after her?” she asked Danny, who was crouched next to Marcus, watching the other man flopping in a pool of his own blood. Marcus’s fingers looked like ants dancing in a thick sludge of Hawaiian punch.

“Let her go,” Danny said. “She’s probably just going to get her daughter.”

“What if she’s gone to warn them?”

“They already know. Besides, she’s already committed to us.”

He was right. There was no way back for Sarah now, and Lara was reminded again of what a hard choice it must have been for the woman to risk everything to help them. To turn her back on a sure thing. She was risking not just her life, but her daughter’s, too.

She’s a lot braver than I gave her credit for.

“Danny,” Lara said, and handed him Marcus’s gun.

Danny took the Smith and Wesson and checked the magazine.

“What now?” Carly asked, coming over.

“Karen, Tom, and Marcus are the ringleaders,” Danny said. “Tom is probably dead, and Marcus is dead. That leaves Karen.”

“What about the others?” Lara asked. “Jake and Sienna. Debra and her son…”

“Cut off the head of the snake, and the body slithers away. Or something to that effect.”

“Sounds about right to me,” a voice said behind them.

They looked back at Will, coming through the same door Marcus had left open. He had his M4A1 slung over his shoulder and was carrying two familiar-looking duffel bags. And more importantly, he was alive, and when he stepped into a pool of moonlight, she saw a fresh cut over the bridge of his nose. He had cracked lips and bruises along his temple and chin.

“You don’t look so hot, Kemosabe,” Danny said.

“It’s my disguise,” Will said.

“I can see it. Lon Chaney, right?”

Will smirked, then looked down at Marcus’s still body. “What did he do, kill himself so he wouldn’t have to listen to your jokes?”

Danny grunted. “Those for me?”

Will dropped the bags on the floor. They clattered loudly. He pulled back the zipper on one, reached in, and pulled out a Remington shotgun that he tossed over to Danny. Will also pulled out a pouch full of shotgun shells.

“Sweet, you always bring me such nice things,” Danny said. “Where’d you find them?”

“Tower basement. They’ve been storing things down there for a while now.”

Danny opened the pouch and pulled out one of the shells. “Silver buckshot?” He held up the shell. It had a white “X” written on the side. “You see something out there besides some backstabbing humans?”

“It’s night. Better safe than sorry.”

“Sarah told us there have been twenty-one people before us that she knows of,” Lara said.

Will pulled out four Motorola radios—theirs—from the bag and handed one each to Danny, Josh, and Carly, keeping the last one for himself. “Where’s Sarah now?”

“She ran off,” Josh said.

“Tom?” Danny asked.

“He’s taking a nap,” Will said. “So how many are left?”

“Karen.”

“What about the others?”

“According to Sarah, we don’t have to worry about them.”

“Good.”

“So now what?” Lara asked.

“Let’s go find Karen,” Will said.

“Maybe she’s still asleep in her room,” Danny said.

“Captain Optimism,” Carly smirked.

Danny grinned back at her. “Just doing my part, babe.”

Will handed Lara another one of the Remingtons. “How’s the arm?”

“Itchy,” she sighed.

He leaned in and kissed her. He caught her off guard, but she quickly got over it and kissed him back. When he pulled away, she touched the bridge of his nose, then ran her fingers across the cuts on his lips and felt the swelling along his cheeks and temple.

“My hero,” she whispered, smiling at him.

“You should see the other guy,” he smiled back.

“Get a f*cking room,” Danny said behind them. “Better yet, let’s go get Karen’s. I’m sure that bitch won’t mind.”

*

THEY DIDN’T FIND Karen in her room. The door was open, but there was no one inside. There were signs she had left in a hurry, though it was unclear how long ago. Maybe she had sent Marcus over while she snuck out of the hotel.

Just like a politician.

As they came out of Karen’s room and back into Hallway A, they spotted Al farther down the hallway, coming out of his own room. He saw them, and for an instant Lara thought he might run back inside.

They know. They’re all in on it, just like Sarah said. They’ve all been expecting—dreading—the night when their actions come back to haunt them.

Al stood frozen in the hallway as Will and Danny reflexively swung their rifles in his direction. Lara could imagine how intimidating the sight of them must have been. They were wearing the no-frills version of their urban assault vests, M4A1s in their hands and the Remingtons slung over their backs. Their pouches were brimming with magazines and shotgun shells, and they had those very distinctive cross-knives of theirs on their left hips. Will had found all their gear conveniently stacked near the basement door, not yet tossed in with the rest already down there.

Lara had the Remington and a Glock in a hip holster, and even with just those two weapons, she was already sweating profusely in the hot hallway.

“Where’s Karen?” Will asked Al.

“I don’t know,” Al said, shaking his head. He was wearing Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas, and his big belly poked out noticeably from underneath a yellow nightshirt. “Please don’t kill me. I only did what they told me.”

The men walked toward Al, their weapons lowered a bit. Lara still expected Al to flee back into his room at any moment, but he didn’t. She didn’t know if it was bravery or stupidity on his part.

“Please, I only did what they told me,” Al said. His voice sounded like it was about to crack. “I even tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Where are the others?” Will asked, ignoring Al’s protests.

“I don’t know. In their rooms, I guess.”

“Go back into your room and stay there.”

Al nodded anxiously and hurried back inside. Locks snapped into place, then heavy footsteps faded.

They continued moving up the hallway, toward the lobby.

Farther up Hallway A, another door opened and Danny and Will swung their weapons up. Debra came out of her room and froze at the sight of them. She had put on jeans and a T-shirt.

“What’s going on?” Debra asked. “I heard gunshots. Why is everyone armed?”

“Where’s Karen?” Will asked.

“I don’t know. She’s not in her room?”

Lara couldn’t tell if Debra was playing a role or if she really didn’t know.

Bullshit. She knows.

“Go back into your room and stay inside,” Will said.

“What’s going on?” Debra asked again.

“Go back into your room.”


“Not until you tell me what’s going on—”

Danny fired into the wall above her door, the sound of the gunshot thunderous in the narrow hallway. Debra crouched and clung to the open door with both hands. She looked at them, all pretenses of defiance vanished from her face, replaced by terror.

“Go back in your room and stay inside,” Will said. Calmly, without any menace whatsoever.

Debra nodded and disappeared into her room without another word.

They walked past Jake and Sienna’s door. It was closed, but Lara thought she heard movement inside. Maybe someone was even looking through the peephole as they went by.

“I got two donuts that say the bitch bugged out,” Danny said.

“Probably,” Will nodded.

“It’s a big island.”

“Yup.” Will keyed the radio Velcroed to his assault vest. “Josh, what do you see up there?”

“Nothing,” Josh said through the radio.

The others were back in the Tower—Josh, Gaby, and Carly, along with the girls. According to Will, the Tower was the most secure building on the entire island. It was probably the only thing Karen hadn’t lied about. It had strong doors, and there were two extra floors that could be defended.

“What about the beach?” Will asked.

“Nothing, no movements at all,” Josh said. “Where are you now?”

“Hallway A, moving toward the lobby.”

“Karen?”

“Nowhere in sight. Keep an eye out and let me know if you see anything on or off the island.”

“Will do,” Josh said.

They were coming up to the lobby now.

Will and Danny flattened against each side of the hallway while Lara stood back. She felt odd being with the two of them. They were so good together, moving without even talking—at times, without even looking at one another. They just knew what they were supposed to do and what the other was going to do in turn.

Will glanced back at her. “Stay back.”

She nodded and took a step backward.

They moved out into the lobby, Will sweeping right, while Danny, slightly behind him, swept left. They covered the large room, constantly in motion behind their weapons. They looked almost poetic, and a part of her envied Danny for being so in sync with Will.

“Lara,” Will said.

She hurried out after them.

The lobby was empty. Someone had opened the windows, and a nice breeze flooded inside. The doors were also open, and the big solar-powered floodlights outside illuminated the black marble patio.

Danny came out of the kitchen to their right. “She’s gone, but at least she didn’t take the spatula. That would have really sucked.”

“She couldn’t have gone far,” Lara said. “Where would she go if she didn’t head straight for the beach and one of the boats?”

Will’s and Danny’s radios squawked, and they heard Josh’s excited voice: “Will, I see her. She’s on the west side of the island.”

“What’s over there?” Will asked.

“Nothing, except for the power station.”

“Where is she now?”

“Halfway to the building. She’s moving slowly, too.” Josh paused for a moment. “Guys, I think she’s wearing one of those hazmat suits. The Level B kind.”

“She’s got a hell of a head start on us,” Danny said.

“Is she alone, Josh?” Will asked into the radio.

“She’s alone,” Josh said.

“All right. Keep an eye on her.”

“Will do.”

“Why the power station?” Lara asked. “And why the hazmat suit? The last time we saw those…”

She didn’t have to finish. They all remembered Dansby.

“Let’s find out,” Will said.

He jogged out of the hotel, Danny right behind him. Lara followed them out onto the patio, then down the steps, and they were racing across the lawn toward the western side of the island, leaving the cobblestone pathway behind quickly.

Will and Danny were moving fast, and she had to push herself to keep up.

She heard Josh’s voice through Will’s and Danny’s radios ahead of her: “She’s at the power station fence. I think she has a key, she’s opening the padlock…”

They had been running for about thirty seconds when the number of lampposts started dwindling, and soon they were moving through darkness, with only the moonlight to guide their way. She glanced down at her watch as she ran, but there was nothing around her wrist.

Dammit, I liked that watch, too.

Even without lights, she could see they were racing across open ground now. Tree branches and dirt crunched under her shoes, and the Remington in her hands felt like it had doubled in weight in the last few seconds.

“She’s inside,” Josh said through the radios.

Will and Danny hadn’t said a word. They kept running, even gaining speed and starting to slowly pull away from her. She resisted the urge to yell at them to slow down, to let her catch up. She could feel the urgency in their pace, because they knew, just like she did, there was a reason Karen was wearing a hazmat suit. And there had to be a damn good reason why Karen was retreating to the power station, of all places.

Finally, Lara burst through a wall of trees and saw the power station dead ahead. It was a big, gray brick building, two stories high, surrounded by hurricane fencing and ringed by LED floodlights. It was ugly and squat, poles jutting out from its roof. The building was designed for one purpose—to generate the power that ran the island. There was a reason it was hidden all the way on this side of the island, among the woods. The tourists were never supposed to see how the sausages were made.

Will and Danny were halfway across the fifty yards that separated the trees and the power station. They were making a beeline toward the open front gate. Karen was nowhere in sight. Lara could just make out a smaller, shack-like building next to the big gray structure where all the humming noise was coming from. The air around her crackled like every particle was heavily charged and ready to burst.

Will and Danny were at the gate when she saw them come to a sudden stop. For a split second, anyway. Then she heard the almost simultaneous loud booms of shotguns firing, their flames stabbing the night air, searing the area around the gate in hot flashes of orange light.

She slid to a stop forty yards away from them, and saw Will turning and running back as Danny stayed behind and fired again—and again—into the power station. Danny finally stopped shooting, turned and ran about the same time Will stopped and turned back and began firing back into the darkness—once, twice, three times—as Danny jogged past him, feeding shells into the shotgun as he ran.

“Go go go!” Danny shouted at her.

Lara backpedaled, but she couldn’t turn and run. Not yet. She had to see what was happening. What they were shooting at? She couldn’t help herself, curiosity gnawing at every fiber of her being.

As Danny got closer to her, Lara heard Josh’s voice through Danny’s radio, alarmed, “What’s going on, guys? I can’t see a damn thing down there. What’s going on? What are you shooting at? Is everyone all right?”

Danny didn’t answer. He didn’t have time to answer. He was too busy feeding shells into his shotgun and running at the same time. Lara looked past Danny’s running form and saw Will turning and running, feeding shells into his own shotgun as he did.

Behind him, the darkness seemed to shift and move, as if alive.

Because it was alive.


It wasn’t the darkness, or the night. It was something else. Something familiar.

Ghouls.

A wave of them, pouring out of the power station gate, moving so fast and crashing so indiscriminately against each other, against everything, that the fence shook and threatened to collapse under their charge. But the fencing didn’t fall fast enough, so they began vaulting it, leaping over each other to get to the other side, until finally there were too many of them clinging to the fence at one time and the whole thing careened forward and buried itself into the ground with a loud, grinding squeal, like nails on a chalkboard.

She had forgotten how fast they were, how thin and skeletal, and how inhumanly dark their eyes were. It was like staring into the abyss and seeing the blackness staring back.

Danny was almost on top of her. He grabbed her arm and dragged her with him, shouting, “Go go go!”

She turned and ran alongside him. “What about Will?”

“Keep going!”

Danny stopped and turned around just as Will flashed past him.

Will reached for her arm, found her wrist, and pulled her along with him, even as she heard Danny’s shotgun firing behind them.

Guys, I’m not a baton, she thought to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted by Danny’s shotgun blasts.

Once, twice, three shots.

Then four, five, six, and seven shots.

Seven shots. The Remingtons have a limit of seven shots.

Will released her hand and stopped and turned.

She looked back and saw Danny coming, passing Will, who had begun firing back at the moving, surging wall of ghouls, each one of his blasts sending a wave of flaming death that shredded the creatures. They were still far off, the closest one thirty yards away, but they were close enough she could see the silver buckshot ripping into them, searing flesh—or what little they had left—from bone. They fell in a row, but it didn’t matter, because one, two—a dozen—were soon leaping over the fallen ones, coming in a relentless deluge across the open ground.

She felt her heart sink at the sight of them.

Where the hell did they all come from?

“Go go go!” Danny was shouting, grabbing her wrist and pulling her with him. She thought her arm might snap out of its socket, but it didn’t.

Lara ran as fast as she could, and suddenly the pain in her left arm came screaming back like a roaring train, engulfing her in a firestorm. The Remington seemed to have tripled in weight, and it was all she could do to hold desperately to it, too afraid to let go. She gritted through the pain and kept running, her legs pumping hard under her.

Behind her, she heard Will’s shotgun roaring, firing again, and again…and again.

And each shot got closer, and closer…and closer still.

We’ll never make it. We’ll never make it…