Black (Road To Babylon, Book 5) Read online

  Black

  Copyright © 2018 by Sam Sisavath

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Road to Babylon Media LLC

  www.roadtobabylon.com

  Edited by Jennifer Jensen, Wendy Chan, and Shavonne Clarke

  Cover Art by Deranged Doctor Design

  Contents

  Books in the Road to Babylon Series

  Also by Sam Sisavath

  About Black

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Books in the Road to Babylon Series

  Glory Box

  Bombtrack

  Rooster

  Devil’s Haircut

  Black

  Also by Sam Sisavath

  The Purge of Babylon Post-Apocalyptic Series

  The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival

  The Gates of Byzantium

  The Stones of Angkor

  The Walls of Lemuria Collection (Keo Prequel)

  The Fires of Atlantis

  The Ashes of Pompeii

  The Isles of Elysium

  The Spears of Laconia

  The Horns of Avalon

  The Bones of Valhalla

  Mason’s War (A Purge of Babylon Story)

  The After the Purge Post-Apocalyptic Series

  Requiem

  Tokens

  The Allie Krycek Vigilante Series

  Hunter/Prey

  Saint/Sinner

  Finders/Keepers

  The Red Sky Conspiracy Series

  Most Wanted

  The Devil You Know

  About Black

  THE LONG NIGHT IS UPON THEM.

  After five years of hard work, dedication, and too many sacrifices, Lara thought she had made progress in bringing what remained of humanity together in her small part of the world. She also thought they had seen the last of the ghouls as a major threat.

  She was wrong on both counts.

  An unnatural alliance between two enemies, forged in secrecy, has finally been revealed. With Keo away on a mission, the real threat is at the gates, leaving Lara, Gaby, and a city full of civilians unprepared for a long and relentless night of fighting.

  The survivors thought the worst of times were behind them, but they were mistaken. Fenton was always just another front in a secret war that Gaby and Lara didn’t know they were still fighting. Before the night is over, they will discover that the only thing more powerful than hope is vengeance.

  In Black, the fifth book in the Road to Babylon series, it’s all-out war, and no one will be safe.

  One

  We’re not ready for this. I’m not ready for this!

  Gaby darted up the steps, clenching her teeth as her right leg throbbed the entire time. It was a reminder that the bullet hole down there hadn’t completely healed, and if not for the painkillers she’d grabbed as soon as she woke up, she might not have made it past the second floor.

  Get to the rooftop. Get to the rooftop!

  There were two soldiers making out on the third-floor landing in front of her. They were standing in the corner, still in their uniforms (Thank God), looking up the final flight of stairs that led to the roof access above them. When they heard her coming, they both glanced over. Gaby saw embarrassment flicker across the woman’s face, which was already flushed red underneath the LED light on the wall above her head.

  The female Black Tider was blonde, tall, and attractive, and she got out, “What’s happening?” as Gaby blew past them.

  “Get downstairs!” Gaby shouted. “Get back to your posts!”

  “Why?” the man said after her.

  “Now, goddammit! Get your asses downstairs now!”

  She didn’t waste another second on them and continued up, taking the steps two at a time. Her thighs ached, and every one of her senses were heightened. She could hear her heartbeat thrumming against her chest and feel the weight of the pistol at her hip. The only thing missing was her rifle, but she hadn’t thought to grab it before running out of her room and over to Lara’s down the hallway, when she heard the unmistakable pop-pop-pop of gunfire in the distance.

  “What should we do?” she heard the blonde asking the man below her.

  Follow orders like I told you, you idiot! Gaby thought just before she crashed into the roof access door shoulder first.

  The cold overwhelmed her instantly, but she pushed through it, thankful for the warm thermals she had gone to sleep in. The apartment building they had repurposed for barracks still had a fully-functioning HVAC system, but that required power to run; power that could be put to better use elsewhere. Small creature comforts, like a little heat, were a luxury these days.

  Despite being used to the cold, the chilly Darby Bay air still caught her temporarily by surprise, and cloud bursts appeared in front of her as she let out a series of alarmed breaths. Before she could worry about freezing to death on the rooftop, a long string of gunfire crackled across the port city skyline, and Gaby thought, We’re not ready for this. God help us, we’re not ready for this!

  She could hear them while she was racing up the staircase, and even earlier in her room on the first floor. Everyone could hear it. The world had become a quiet place, especially at nights, and sound traveled great distances these days. The unnatural rattle of gunfire was simply impossible to ignore, even from inside a thick concrete building. It helped that once the shooting began, it hadn’t stopped for longer than a few seconds before picking up again.

  The pop-pop-pop of automatic weapons around her meant men. Humans. Ghouls, as far as Gaby knew, had yet to master the simple task of using a gun. But it was a no-brainer for men. Dumb, smart, weak, or strong, anyone could pick up a rifle and pull a trigger, which was what made them so dangerous in the first place.

  “God may have created men, but Samuel Colt made them equal,” someone once said. Or wrote. Or maybe both.

  But how good you were with that gun you just picked up depended on many factors. Training—or lack thereof—being the biggest. Gaby could tell how well-trained someone was just by looking at the way they held their weapon. Just like she could tell the young man whose name she didn’t know, who was standing guard when she burst out of the door behind him, could have used more drilling before being put out here. With that extra month or two behind him, then maybe he might not have almost shot her by accident.

  Thank God the guard—Sanchez was stenciled across his name tag—was struggling to unsling his rifle and turn around at the same time. If he’d already had his weapon in his hands, he might have actually shot her, given the startled look on his face.

  When he saw her, Sanchez relaxed, but he either forgot to lower his
rifle or it never occurred to him to do so. “Ma’am, what’s happening?”

  “Point that thing somewhere else,” Gaby said as she hurried past him.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said behind her, but she was already focusing on what was happening out there in the city. “What’s happening, ma’am?”

  She ignored him and rushed to the edge of the rooftop. The apartment was only three stories high, but it gave her a good enough view of what was happening out there. There were higher buildings with better vantage points across the city, but there was no time to reach them. This had to be good enough.

  She was already expecting the worst, but was still surprised by what she saw:

  It was an attack, and it was coming from the north side, beyond the cluster of buildings that made up Darby Bay. There was a large field out there between where the city ended and the woods began, about a mile worth of tall grass and little else. Or there was supposed to be nothing out there, anyway. There should have been darkness peering back at her, but instead there were flickers of light, like ropes of firecrackers going off.

  Except she knew they weren’t firecrackers. They were muzzle flashes. Even if she couldn’t hear the constant streams of pop-pop-pop, she would have known what they were just by looking at them.

  How the hell did they get so close? What happened to the sentries?

  The patrols that were supposed to watch that vulnerable part of the city had gone dark ten minutes ago. It was never a good thing when people stopped answering their radios.

  Tires squealed from nearby, and Gaby glanced off the edge of the rooftop and down at the streets below in time to see vehicles racing away, toward the direction of gunfire.

  “Ma’am? What’s happening?” Sanchez was asking behind her. Apparently he hadn’t gotten the hint when she didn’t answer him the first couple of times.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Where’s your partner? There should be two of you up here at all times.”

  Sanchez shuffled his feet nervously. “He went to take a nap.”

  “He went to take a nap?”

  “Yes, ma’am. He was, uh, tired.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Gaby said, and wondered if the man downstairs she had caught necking with the blonde was the partner, or if it was someone else entirely. She wasn’t sure which answer made her feel better.

  Oh, who are you kidding? They’re both bad.

  Gaby glared at the younger man (he couldn’t have been more than twenty), but before she could say anything, the portable radio on her hip squawked:

  “Gaby, come in.”

  She unclipped the two-way and pressed the transmit lever. “Gaby here.”

  “What do you see up there, Gaby?” Lara asked through the radio. She sounded sleepy, and Gaby wondered if her own voice was the same even though she felt wide awake.

  “They’re definitely attacking from the woods. I don’t know how, but they made it through the fields. They’re at the city limits.”

  “Who? Who’s attacking?”

  “I don’t know. I’d have to get closer to know that.” She tracked down the red taillights of the vehicles she’d seen earlier, now farther up the street. “I just saw vehicles moving toward the fighting.”

  “I sent one of the QRF units. The others are getting ready. We need to find out who’s attacking. What else do you see up there, Gaby?”

  “Nothing, without getting closer to the action.” She paused for a moment. Then, “Lara.”

  “Yeah.”

  “This is just getting started. It’s going to be a long night.”

  “I have that feeling, too. But at least they didn’t catch us completely with our pants down.”

  Close enough, Gaby thought, looking back at Sanchez and wondering where his missing partner was napping at the moment. Or if he was already awake and running around like everyone else on one of the floors below her.

  She glanced down at her watch, the numbers glowing neon green: 10:15 p.m.

  She looked out across the city again and this time really paid attention to where the attacks were coming from. The pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire was still as spread out as when she had looked a few seconds ago, but there was something odd about them that hadn’t occurred to her before. Now, like then, she couldn’t figure out what that was, exactly.

  Something’s missing. Something’s…not right here.

  Gaby clicked her radio. “Lara, has anyone on the perimeter security responded?”

  “No,” Lara said. “We’re still trying to reach them.”

  “There’s what, five units out there?”

  “Seven. I added two more after what happened with Loman and the other guy. I forgot his name.”

  “Which means there should be over twenty men out there.”

  “More like thirty. Why?”

  “So where are they?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I sent the QRF and getting the others ready. We need answers.”

  “Lara, something’s not right here. If the perimeter security isn’t answering, they’re probably dead.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “If they aren’t—if even just one of them is still alive—wouldn’t they be answering their radios? Letting us know what’s going on out there?”

  Lara didn’t answer right away. Gaby imagined her friend thinking the same thing she was—Something’s missing; but what? Maybe Sanchez was even doing the same thing behind her, because he had gone completely silent, and if not for the occasional shuffling, she wouldn’t know he was even still back there.

  The continued shooting had woken up the city of Darby Bay around her, with candlelight appearing behind formerly darkened windows. There were more men in the streets below her—blue-uniformed Black Tiders, some preparing vehicles while others raced back and forth between their building and the ones around them.

  “What are you thinking, Gaby?” Lara finally said through the radio.

  “I don’t know, but this feels…off,” Gaby said. “If the security force is gone, why is there still so much shooting? The QRF couldn’t have gotten there yet, and they’ll be the first ones to reach the perimeter. The civilians have all but abandoned the north part of Darby Bay. There should be no one out there except our people. You said we had close to thirty people watching that side, and even if one of them is still alive, they should be answering their radio. But they’re not. So who or what are the attackers still shooting at?”

  “What does it look like out there?”

  “It sounds and looks like full-blown battles are still going on.”

  Again, there was a moment of silence from Lara before she finally responded. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying this doesn’t feel right. There’s something wrong here, Lara. I just don’t know what.”

  “Get down here, Gaby,” Lara said. “I need you to coordinate and lead the rest of the QRF—”

  The BOOM! from behind her nearly threw Gaby off her feet. It was close enough that the building trembled and she heard glass shattering around her as the concussive force of the explosion slammed into the vulnerable windows below.

  Jesus! What was that?

  Gaby righted herself and turned around to face the west side of Darby Bay just as a fireball shot into the sky like a big fist, rising higher and expanding at the same time. She didn’t have to think very long or hard to know what she was looking at: Someone had just set off an explosion using the fuel depots that were stored back there. The same fuel that had been brought here to Darby Bay to power their vehicles, from the Jeeps to the trucks to the planes—

  The planes. The planes!

  A second BOOM! was just as strong, and the building shook again. This time she did lose her balance and fell to the gravel rooftop on her ass. Sanchez, nearby, landed just as hard, almost losing his rifle as he went down.

  “Lara!” Gaby shouted into the radio. “The airfield! They’re attacking the airfield!”

  She waited for a response, but not
hing came back through the two-way.

  “Lara!” Gaby shouted again, even as she scrambled frantically back to her feet. “Lara, are you there? Lara!”

  Again, there was no response.

  Gaby ran across the rooftop. She felt the heat growing exponentially around her, pushing back against the cold night, even before she reached the other side.

  And when she finally did, “Oh, Jesus.”

  The airfield across the street from the apartment was entirely engulfed in flames. She couldn’t tell where the fencing they had put up to separate the area from the rest of the city had gone. There was too much smoke, and fire was swallowing everything like a living, breathing monster, from the planes to the support vehicles to—

  A scream as a figure raced out of the inferno, only to fall to the ground when the fire that was consuming him finally finished its job. The man (or woman?) wasn’t the only victim. Gaby watched in horror, her mouth slightly agape, as two—no, three more desperate souls rolled around on the tarmac trying to put out fires that were eating them alive.

  “Ay dios mio,” a voice said softly next to her.

  Gaby glanced over and was surprised to find Sanchez there. When had he gotten—

  Another BOOM! raked across the flaming airfield, this one so massive that the heat of the blast pushed across Gaby’s face and she staggered back, unnatural warmth spreading over every exposed part of her body.

  Sanchez, mumbling something in Spanish, was backing away from the ledge beside her when Gaby grabbed his arm. “Get downstairs.”