The Gates of Byzantium

CHAPTER 34


WILL




GOOD NEWS AND bad news. The good news is, we got what we went back to the marina for. The bad news? I got the kid shot up and now he’s at the bottom of the lake.

Of course, he didn’t say that when Lara and Sarah came out to greet them at the pier. It didn’t take Lara very long to notice Josh wasn’t in the boat with them, though, but he thought her face looked pale even before that.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Sienna shot Carly,” Lara said.

“Is she okay?”

“She lost a lot of blood. I won’t know for sure until tomorrow, and maybe not even then.”

“Where’s Sienna now?”

“Danny shot her.” She looked at the boat, at the faces that were climbing out, and looked back at him. “Where’s Josh?”

“He got shot and fell into the water. I had to leave him behind.”

“You left him behind?”

He couldn’t tell if she sounded incredulous, angry, or confused. Maybe none of the above. Possibly all three. “I had to leave him behind,” Will said again.

Lara looked at him blankly. He could tell she was still traumatized by what had happened with Carly and Sienna, and wasn’t quite sure how to process what he had just told her about Josh.

After a while, she nodded. “Let me tell Gaby.”

Will nodded back. He felt relief and guilt, but mostly relief. He had lost men in combat before, but it wasn’t the same as losing the kid. Josh wasn’t a soldier, and Will hadn’t expected him to contribute much in a firefight. But he was a decent enough kid, and that counted for something when there were so few decent people still around these days.

They transferred the crates from the boat to the pier, then carried them back to the hotel. Will and Blaine took the tools to one of the unfinished rooms in the back where there were plenty of walls without windows for ventilation. Maddie and Bobby followed inside with the crate of silver.

Danny showed up later to shake hands with Blaine. “Good to see you back in one piece.”

“Good to be in one piece,” Blaine said. “Mostly, anyway.”

“Sorry about Sandra.”

“Yeah,” Blaine said. “I hope Carly’s okay.”


“She will be,” Danny said, with absolute certainty.

“This is Maddie and Bobby. Bobby doesn’t speak.”

“Yeah? I bet the girls go crazy for that,” Danny said.

Bobby grinned sheepishly back at him.

“Don’t worry, I make up for his lack of speaking,” Maddie said.

“Welcome to Song Island,” Danny said. “Unlike the previous landlords, we’re not going to feed you to the ghouls.”

Maddie, Blaine, and Bobby exchanged a confused look.

Blaine looked over at Will. “Wanna fill us in? There seems to be an awful lot of shooting around this place. I didn’t quite expect that.”

“I know you thought you came here to get away from the fighting,” Will said, “but it’s more complicated than that.”

“How complicated?” Maddie asked.

*

WILL AND DANNY gave them a brief, half-assed tour of the island, filling them in on Karen, Tom, and Marcus along the way. They told them about the previous night, about the ghouls, and ended the tour at the power station, where they stood in front of the concrete wall they had built over the door of the shack.

“Are you serious?” Blaine said. “They’re in there right now?”

“Yeah,” Will nodded.

“How many?” Maddie asked.

“A few hundred,” Danny said. “Give or take. If by ‘take’ you mean possibly lots of hundreds. Or thousands.”

“The only way to tell is to go in there,” Will said.

“We’re taking volunteers,” Danny added.

“Where do they come from?” Maddie asked.

“We think there’s a tunnel under there,” Will said. “We don’t know where it goes, or how far it runs under the lake. Eventually, we’ll have to figure it out, but that’s for later.”

“But the island is safe, though? They can’t swim over?”

“We don’t think so. As far as we know, this tunnel seems to be their only access to the island.”

“As far as you know?” Blaine said doubtfully.

“We can’t be sure,” Will said. “But as far as we know, yeah.”

“So they’re stuck in there?” Maddie asked, exchanging a private look with Bobby.

“That’s the going assumption,” Will said.

“And you know what happens when you assume,” Danny said.

“They’ve been down there all day?” Blaine asked.

“Since last night, yeah,” Will nodded.

“Jesus Christ.”

Danny chuckled. “Get to the island, it’ll be safe. No more ghouls to worry about. Except for the few thousand already waiting underneath it. Hey, it beats running around out there, right?”

Blaine, Maddie, and Bobby exchanged a look that said they weren’t entirely sure about that anymore.

“It’s not too late,” Will said. “They want the island, but you don’t have to be here when they try to take it. If you decide to leave before they come back, we’ll give you everything you can carry—food, ammo, weapons, and supplies—and we’ll give you a boat and help you get back on land, avoid the people at the house. There are other places to dock that don’t involve the marina, and we’ll do everything we can to help you move on. No hard feelings.”

They listened quietly, not saying a word. He could see their minds reeling, then gathering, then trying to sift through the pros and cons.

“But if you want to stay here,” he continued, “you’ll have to fight for the privilege. That may sound like a shitty deal, but it’s all I have to give you at the moment.”

Maddie and Bobby exchanged another private look that didn’t involve Blaine.

Then Maddie said, “One question.”

“Shoot,” Will said.

“Who the hell are those guys at the house?”

“Ghoul collaborators,” Danny said. “A*sholes working with the creatures in exchange for their hides. Like Song Island’s previous tenants.”

The three of them exchanged another series of quick looks, and he wondered if they believed Danny. The concept of collaborators, human survivors throwing in their lot with the ghouls, was a hard pill to swallow. He might not have believed it himself if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes twice now.

Blaine said to Maddie and Bobby, “If you guys want to go, I’ll go with you.”

“You were the one who wanted to come here,” Maddie said. There was no accusation in her voice, it was just a statement of fact. She even sounded a bit confused by his offer.

“I know, but Sandra’s death changed things for me. My priorities have changed.” He seemed to struggle with his thoughts. “Let’s face it, it’s no better out there. Hell, it’s probably worse. Here, at least, there’s a chance at something approaching a normal life for you and Bobby. So we’ll have to fight for it. So what else is new?”

Maddie glanced over at Bobby again. The mute boy nodded and gave her the “OK” sign with his fingers.

“Why the hell not,” Maddie said. She looked over at Will. “So, silver bullets?”

*

SO THEY MADE silver bullets.

A lot of them.

Maddie and Bobby proved to be good workers. Neither one had made bullets before, but Maddie knew her way around a rubber mallet, and Bobby took instructions easily. Blaine wanted to help, but Will sent him to Lara to see to his wounds instead. The gunfight at the marina hadn’t done Blaine any favors, even if he insisted otherwise.

Will also decided Danny should go back to the Tower to keep overwatch with the ACOG.

“You think they’ll hit us back this quickly?” Danny asked.

“I would,” Will said. “They lost a few people back there.”

“Man, you’re just going around the end of the world making friends, aren’t you?”

After Danny left, Sarah and the girls chipped in, bringing more silver from around the island, even raiding the kitchen and closets and racing through all the rooms.

They didn’t stop until they had melted all the silver and pounded out as many 5.56x45mm and 9mm bullets and as much buckshot as possible. There was enough ammo from the Tower’s basement, collected over months from all the poor souls lured to the island before them, that they ran out of silver long before they ran out of bullets to recast.

At one point, Maddie said, “If I knew I’d be working this hard, I would have stayed behind in Beaumont.”

Bobby, drenched in sweat next to her, grunted his agreement.

The acrid fumes of smelting metal, iron, and brass, mixed with silver, lingered over the island long after they were done. Will didn’t let them stop until they were literally walking around in puddles of their own perspiration.

“Load up with what you can carry,” he told them. “Silver and regular ammo. The rest goes into the Tower.”

“And these will actually work?” Maddie said, holding up one of the silver bullets.

“They work,” Will said. “Shotguns for close quarters. You’ll need to keep all three types of ammo with you at all times. There are two more Benellis in the Tower. When in doubt, load the silver. They’ll kill a man just as easily as a ghoul.”

Bobby tapped Maddie’s shoulder excitedly and nodded at Will.

“He wants to know if you have any more assault vests,” Maddie translated.

*

BEFORE SIX IN the evening, he took away the M4s that Maddie, Bobby, and Blaine had arrived with and gave them new ones from the Tower’s basement. The new M4s had fully automatic capabilities, which would come in handy in a frenzied firefight. Amazingly, the more they searched the Tower’s basement, the more useful things they found, including assault vests and more radios.


Later, they ate in the lobby, loading up on calories and proteins from fish and MREs. Blaine had rejoined them, looking better. Or at least, not walking with nearly the same noticeable limp as earlier. Bobby took to the MREs, and that got a chuckle out of Will and Danny, who had never really seen anyone who wasn’t ex-military take a liking to the bagged food the U.S. military was known for. The MREs were designed for maximum efficiency, supplying nutrients and over a thousand calories per bag. The taste, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired.

Afterward, he got them set up along the beach, where he expected to need them to repel the coming attack on the island. If they were lucky, the people at the house would wait for tomorrow, and all of the preparation would be a waste of time.

If they were lucky.

Yeah, right.

Lara was waiting for him on the hotel patio, arms folded across her chest as if she was cold. “You really think they’re going to attack?”

“I would.”

“But they’ve already lost too many men. Why would they attack again so soon?”

“Who says that’s all they have? There could be more coming.”

She frowned. “That’s a terrible thought.”

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Isn’t that our motto?”

She gave him a wry smile. “You’ll have to fight with Carly about that. She likes the ‘Adapt or Perish’ one better.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s stable. That’s the good news.”

“The bad news?”

“She lost a lot of blood, Will.”

Will nodded. He put his arms around her, and she sighed into his chest. “She’ll be fine,” Will whispered. “She’s a tough kid. Remember before The Purge? It was just Carly and her sister, and she got through it. She’s a fighter.”

“I know,” Lara whispered back, though he wasn’t sure if she actually believed it.

*

WILL WALKED WITH Lara back to the Tower. Carly had been moved to the second floor and was lying unconscious on a bed Danny had brought over from the hotel. They had dumped Tom’s old cot and most of Tom’s stuff out the window. Lara had set up an IV drip, and there were fresh flowers in vases. The place reminded him of a patient recovery room, minus the suffocating, cold, and sterile feel of a hospital.

Carly looked like she was in a deep slumber, which wasn’t far from the truth. Lara had given her enough sedatives that he wondered if even an attack on the island would wake her up. Probably not. He had seen wounded soldiers sleeping through firefights before.

“How’s Vera taking it?” Will asked.

“She’s worried. She wouldn’t leave Carly’s side after it happened. Danny and I had to practically drag her out. Elise is taking care of her.”

“Elise?”

“Yes, Elise.” Lara smiled. “They’re more than sisters now, you know. They pick each other up when the other is down. It’s amazing how fast kids adapt.”

Will looked out the window. He could see the marina and the house from here. Well, silhouettes of the buildings, anyway. It was quiet, and he couldn’t detect any activity across the lake.

He stuck his head out of the window and looked up, and wondered if Gaby was up there looking at the marina, too.

When he pulled his head back in, Lara was watching him. “You should go up there. I talked to her, but it’s not the same. I think she needs to hear it from you.”

He nodded reluctantly.

*

GABY WAS AT the south window, looking at the shoreline with binoculars. She stood very quietly, almost relaxed, when he opened the third-floor door and climbed up. She looked over and smiled a bit, though he could tell she had been crying, and her eyes were still slightly red.

He understood why Josh had been so head-over-heels about her. Gaby was a pretty girl. In a lot of ways, she reminded him a bit of Lara. A younger, taller Lara. In a few more years, she would have men tripping over themselves to get her attention. Not that they wouldn’t be tripping over themselves already, given the option.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Nothing yet.” She walked back to the east window and peered out at the house and marina.

He walked over and stood silently next to her.

Say something, you idiot.

“They kept a boat outside the mouth of the inlet for a few hours after the shoot-out,” she said, “but then they pulled it back and I haven’t seen them move again since.”

Her voice sounded normal, but what did he know? He was never that good at reading women. Even worse at comforting them.

“I’m sorry about Josh,” he said.

She didn’t say anything for the longest time, or seem to react at all, and Will wondered if she had actually heard him.

After a few excruciating seconds that felt more like minutes (or hours), she said, “I know you did your best to save him. I don’t blame you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know.”

“You and Danny always do your best to keep everyone safe. I know that. We all do.”

“He was a good kid.”

“He was a pretty good guy. Funny thing is, it took the end of the world for me to realize that.”

“You guys…” He started to say, but stopped himself. What the hell was he doing? Jesus, he was bad at this. “I’m sorry,” he said instead.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t know what else to say, so Will said nothing. Thankfully, she seemed just as willing to let the rest go unsaid.

There was a fair breeze, and he could feel the coming night despite the heat coating the island like a thick wool blanket. He didn’t dread the night. He never did. He anticipated, expected, and prepared. That was how he lived his life, how he had survived The Purge.

“Can anyone learn to shoot?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.

He was surprised by the question. “Anyone can learn to shoot, yeah.”

“I mean, shoot like you and Danny. I was watching Danny earlier today, when those two boats came over. He could have hit every single one of them from this Tower, but he didn’t. I know that rifle scope he was using helps, but I don’t think just anyone can use it, especially on moving targets.”

“No, you’re right. Danny’s the best shooter on the island, by far.”

“That’s what I figured. Anyways, after Danny shot at them—those warning shots—the people on the boat shot back. They were just shooting at anything, like they didn’t know what they were doing. The difference was so obvious. Can anyone learn to shoot like that? Like you and Danny?”

“Anyone can learn to shoot, but not everyone can shoot.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Have you thought about that man in Beaumont? The one you shot to save Josh? Or the one in the semitrailer. What was his name?”

“Betts.”

“Have you thought about them since?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel? Thinking back on those moments?”

“I’m not happy about what I did, if that’s what you mean. I did it because there was no other choice.”

“Would you do it again, if put in the same situations? Knowing what you know now? How it made you feel afterward?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “To save Josh, or to save any one of you guys. I’d do it again.”

He nodded. “To answer your question, anyone can learn to shoot. Not everyone has the will to shoot. You did. Twice. The first time wasn’t with a gun, but it’s the same thing. So yes, you can learn to shoot like Danny and me. We’ll teach you when this is over.”


“Thanks.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“I know.”

“You’ll want to quit.”

“I won’t.”

“You’ll want to.”

“I won’t,” she said.

They said nothing for a while.

“I’m sorry about Josh,” he finally said.

“I don’t want to talk about that anymore,” she said.

*

WILL STOOD AT the western cliff, beyond a large swath of untapped forest taking up nearly half the island, looking down at the ten-meter drop from the ridgeline to the water below. He had circled the entire island on foot, making sure there was no other way onto it except through the south side using the beach.

He kicked at a pebble and watched it drop into the water below. Climbing a cliff took skill. Someone had to come up first, then throw ropes down to pull the rest up. He and Danny could do it, given time and cover, but it would be a hell of a stretch for weekend warriors like the ones Danny had sent away earlier.

It was doable, but unlikely.

The beach. They’d have to storm the beach to get onto the island.

He was emerging out of the wall of trees when his earbud clicked, and Danny’s voice: “You hear that?”

Danny was back in the Tower with Gaby. They had decided Danny would be on the third floor for the entire night with the ACOG. Not that he could have pried Danny away anyway, with Carly on the floor just below him.

“No, what?” Will said.

“Vehicles. I think they just got more reinforcements.”

“How many?”

“Looks like three… No, make that four trucks. It’s always gotta be trucks, doesn’t it? You gotta love the South. Throw a rock on the road and you’re liable to hit a dozen trucks before you get to the first sedan. Yee haw.”

Will jogged back to the hotel through the grass. “I’m on my way back.”

“Oh, and you won’t believe this…”

“More good news?”

“Depends. You like fishing?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then not so much good news.”

“What’re you seeing?”

“They’re bringing over more boats.”

“How many?”

“I count two. That gives them four that we know of. I put a bullet through one of the boat motors, so maybe three and a half, depending on whether they have a mechanic who knows boats or not.”

“Keep an eye on them.”

“I was going to go bowling, but okay, just this once.”

Will met Blaine as he was coming out of the hotel with MRE bags.

“How’re the stitches?” Will asked.

“I’m not bleeding to death, so that’s good. Lara gave me some kind of pill cocktail that seems to be doing the job. I’ve lost all feeling except for my tongue.”

Will grinned. “You heard on the radio?”

“Yeah.” Blaine fell in next to him as they moved toward the beach. “Four more trucks. Assuming two to a truck, that’s eight people. And that’s lowballing it. It’s probably more like three to a truck, maybe four if you really want to get pessimistic about it.”

“Sounds about right.”

“All collaborators, too? Why are they converging here? The ones I met in Beaumont didn’t have any contact with any of the others. I got the feeling they didn’t even know the others existed the whole time I was with them.”

Will had considered the question, and he had always come back to the same answer: Kate.

“There’s a blue-eyed ghoul,” Will said. “She’s in charge of the blood farms and pretty much everything that happens in Texas as far as I can tell. Maybe Louisiana, too. My guess is, she’s the one calling them over here.”

She wants me. No, not her. The other blue-eyed ghoul. She said his name was Mabry…

Blaine didn’t respond right away. Will wondered if the other man thought he was nuts.

But no, that wasn’t it. He saw something else in Blaine’s eyes. Recognition.

“You’ve seen it,” Will said.

Blaine nodded. “A few nights ago, when Sandra and I were hiding in that house you patched me up in. I saw one. Then later, in Beaumont, Maddie told me she saw a blue-eyed ghoul talking to the guy in charge of the collaborators there. She thought it was a woman, but she wasn’t sure.”

Damn, Kate, you get around, don’t you?

“How many collaborators were there? In Beaumont?” Will asked.

“Five. You guys killed one of them, so they were desperate to recruit us.”

“You, Sandra, Maddie, and Bobby?”

Blaine nodded.

“So she’s bringing them from a lot of places,” Will said.

“You talk about this blue-eyed ghoul like you know her. Or it.” He shook his head. “Whatever it is now.”

“I did. Once upon a time.”

“How’s that?”

“I slept with her,” Will said.

*

AT 7:14 P.M., with nightfall an hour away and sunset spraying the horizon in a picturesque red and orange glow, he expected them to attack.

But they didn’t.

He waited in the relative darkness of the woods, watching the beach and the piers extending out into the lake in front of him, calm under solar-powered LED lampposts flickering on around the island. He couldn’t see Blaine, who was somewhere to his left, or Maddie, farther up the beach to his right. Bobby was somewhere between the hotel and the Tower, watching their backs in case they had to retreat.

Danny and Gaby had the Tower, with Lara and the girls on the second floor of the structure, watching over Carly. Sarah was on the first floor, manning the door. Everyone had a radio.

Finally, he heard what he had been expecting for the last half hour, coming from land. It was a low rumbling sound.

His right ear clicked, and Danny’s voice: “Hear that?”

“I hear it,” Will said.

“Are those engines?” Blaine asked through the radio.

“Outboard motors,” Maddie said.

Just as quickly as they heard them, the motors stopped.

For a while, anyway.

Then they heard the noise again, starting up, loud despite the distance. Then it went away again.

It went on like that for a while. One minute, two—five.

“They’re testing out the motors,” Maddie said. “They must be making sure the new boats they brought over are working.”

He glanced down at his watch. “It’ll be dark soon. Everyone stay frosty.”

“Maybe they got tired of playing with their motors and decided to take the night off,” Danny said.

“Captain Optimism,” Will smirked.

*

THE SOLAR-POWERED lampposts did their jobs around them while darkness fell over the calm lake surface. There was no fanfare, just the exchange of day for night. Such a simple transition, but so monumental these days.

Will hadn’t moved from his spot in the last hour, the M4A1 on the ground next to him, the Remington slung over his back. With the blanketing darkness, he could make out lights from the shoreline with the naked eye. Straining his ears a bit, he heard what sounded like the hum of generators.

By nine, there was still no attack, but Will didn’t move from his position.

Neither did Blaine or Maddie, or Bobby behind them. Danny and Gaby didn’t wander very far from the four windows on the Tower’s third floor, either.

No one was going anywhere tonight.

Not by a long shot.

*

MIDNIGHT CAME AND went, and Will was starting to think the collaborators weren’t going to attack after all. He didn’t move from his position, but he did sit down and dig out a bag of MRE and laid the M4A1 on the ground next to him.


“I don’t think they’re coming, Kemosabe,” Danny said in his right ear.

“We’ll wait until the hour of the wolf,” Will said.

“What’s that?” Maddie asked.

“Three in the morning,” Danny said. “Otherwise known as the time when anyone with half a brain should be asleep, but the wicked are up thinking about their evil deeds. Or more affectionately known as the best time to attack a sleeping enemy because they’re at their lowest point of the day.”

“This MRE is good,” Blaine said through the radio.

“What are you eating?” Maddie asked.

“Turkey and mashed potatoes. Or it’s supposed to be turkey and mashed potatoes. Looks like something someone threw up, but it actually tastes like turkey and mashed potatoes. Sorta.”

“Welcome to the glamorous world of professional soldiering,” Danny said. “Don’t forget to grab some T-shirts at the gift shop on your way out.”

Will heard movement behind him and was about to reach for his rifle when he got a whiff of her scent and relaxed. She pushed her way through the branches and sat down next to him, laying a Benelli shotgun on the ground.

“Thought you wouldn’t mind some company,” she said quietly.

“I never mind your company.”

She smiled. “Wow. That’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me. And that’s…kind of sad.”

He chuckled. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh, I didn’t fall in love with you for your ability to romance me off my feet. It was more the whole shooting undead creatures thing.”

“Have gun, will shoot.”

Her face grew a bit more serious. “How did the talk with Gaby go?”

“As could be expected. She’s a tough girl.”

“She really liked him. Josh. You want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“What happened with Josh.”

“He got shot and fell off the boat. That’s about it.”

“Will…”

“Lara, I’m not sure what you want me to say. I’m sorry about the kid. I liked him. But there was nothing I could do.”

She watched him intently, trying to read his face. “All right,” she said after a while. “You can talk to me about anything. Anytime.”

“I know. That’s why I love you.”

She climbed up on his lap and sought out his mouth in the semidarkness of the woods. Will tossed the MRE bag away and wrapped his arms around her. After a moment, she pulled slightly back and looked down at him as if trying to memorize every inch of his face. She looked beautiful in the moonlight, and he found himself wanting to become lost in the crystal blue of her eyes.

“You take me to the best places,” she smiled.

“Nothing but the best for my gal.”

“Now that’s the kind of sweet nothings guaranteed to get a girl’s pants off.”

She kissed him again and put her hands on his chest before trailing down. She started to unbuckle his belt.

“Lara,” he managed to say, pulling away from her for just a moment, “I want this. God, I want this. But this is probably not the time or place—”

“Oh, shut up,” she said. “This is exactly the right time and place. We could die in a few hours. Or tomorrow. After Josh and Carly… I want to make the most of every minute and every hour with you, Will. Don’t deny me that, please?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

She kissed him again, and he slipped his hands under the warm cotton fabric of her shirt. She sighed when he cupped her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and she felt soft against his rough palms, her nipples hardening instantly. It never ceased to amaze him how sensitive she was there.

She had already unbuckled his belt and was slipping her hand into his pants when he heard the soft, familiar sound in the distance.

It came almost lazily, wafting through the night air, like something out of a dream. He wasn’t even sure how he managed to hear it with his chest pumping and other parts of him enflamed with Lara’s mouth and breasts and heated body pressed up against him.

He didn’t think Lara had heard it because she was about to pull his pants off when he put his hands on her shoulders and stopped her. “Wait.”

Lara was out of breath and flustered. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, I hear something.”

She lifted her head and listened. “I don’t hear anything.”

“You don’t hear that?”

“No.” She gave him a wry look. “Is this your way of saying you’d rather not have sex with me on the beach?”

“No. God, no.”

“Good answer.”

She climbed off him and he scanned the sky. There wasn’t enough light to really see anything beyond the halos of the lampposts around the island.

He pressed his radio’s PTT. “Danny, do you hear that?”

“I hear it,” Danny said through his right ear.

“Hear what?” Lara asked.

“I don’t hear anything,” Blaine said through the radio.

“Me neither,” Maddie added.

Will snatched up his rifle and went into a crouch. He looked southeast, toward the marina.

There.

He could hear it again, getting louder. The gradual but familiar whup-whup that was such a constant during his tours of duty in Afghanistan. It was so common that the only days he had felt something was wrong, that something wasn’t quite right with the world, was when he didn’t hear it.

Whup-whup-whup-whup.

Lara was frantically shoving her shirt back into her pants next to him. “Will, I don’t hear anything.”

“There,” he said, pointing.

She squinted her eyes at the dark skies. “What is it?”

“You don’t see it?”

“No, I—” She stopped, and he saw her mouth open slightly. “Holy shit.”

“You see it?” Will said into his mic.

“I see it,” Blaine said.

“F*ck me,” Maddie whispered.

The helicopter came in low, gliding at a smooth, unhurried pace. It had a spotlight in front, under its cockpit, and the light skipped along the water’s surface and flashed across the beach, lighting up the piers and the boats tied to them.

“Danny, do you have a shot?” Will said into his throat mic.

“I have a shot,” Danny said.

“What do you see?”

“Squat. Spotlight’s doing its job. I can’t even make out if it’s military or civilian.”

“Any guns on the side? Armaments?”

“None. But like I said, it’s like staring into the sun. I can put some holes in it, but forget about details.”

“Hold your shot.”

“Ah, you’re no fun.”

“They could be friendlies.”

“Now who’s Captain Optimism?”

They watched the helicopter keep going, swooping high above them, running its light over the woods, before raking the side of the Tower. Then it was gone, passing over the island’s eastern section.

For a moment, Will thought it would keep going, but then the helicopter began to turn, coming back for a second pass…