The Ashes of Pompeii (Purge of Babylon, Book 5) Page 4

  I feel like every choice I’m making is the wrong one. Why aren’t you back here with me now, Will? Why are you still out there?

  “It’s not undefended,” she said into the microphone. “I know it’s hard to believe, but we’re actually not nearly as incompetent as we seem.”

  He chuckled on the other end. “Yeah, but I have a couple of M240s that’ll come in real handy when they try to land on the beach next time.”

  “What’s an M240?”

  “It’s a machine gun. Spits out enough lead really fast to make things uncomfortable for an invading force. Put two on the beach and we’re all set. What do you think?”

  Machine guns. On the beach. It was as if she were living in a World War II movie.

  “Lara,” he said when she didn’t respond right away.

  “I’m still here…”

  “I love you. Have I said that lately? I’ve always meant to.”

  He said it with such seriousness that it made her catch her breath slightly.

  “I love you, too,” she said, barely getting the words out.

  “You hesitated for a moment,” he said. Was that an attempt at humor? Will was bad at jokes. That was Danny’s department.

  “I didn’t,” she said.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve found someone else. You always did have eyes for Blaine.”

  “He’s already taken, so you can relax. No one’s replacing you yet.”

  “I hear a warning in there somewhere.”

  “Good, because I was afraid I was being too subtle.”

  “Loud and clear, babe.”

  “Glad to hear it. Now, how much longer until you come home?”

  “Soon,” he said. “We’ll be on the road soon, and then home.”

  She recycled through their conversation from yesterday. The farmhouse. The soldiers on the roads. The town of Dunbar…

  “What happened to the soldiers from last night?” she asked. “I thought you said they had you surrounded at the farmhouse?”

  “They did. But they were gone when the sun came up.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “I didn’t do anything. They were just…gone. It doesn’t matter why.”

  “Doesn’t it?”

  “No.” He paused for a moment before adding, “What matters is that we should be back on the road in half an hour. If all goes well, we’ll be home by three or four today.”

  “With Gaby and Danny…”

  “That’s the plan.”

  This time it was her turn to pause. After a while, she said, “What if it’s a trap, Will? The soldiers. What if they pulled back to ambush you further down the road?”

  “Maybe. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Then, with more than a hint of approval in his voice, “You’re thinking like a soldier now. I like that.”

  “I’ve been hanging around you and Danny for too long, picking up bad habits.”

  “Danny will be happy to hear that. He likes spreading his bad habits around. Among other things. Smelly things.”

  “I’m sure he does.”

  “Lara…”

  “Yes, Will.”

  “I love you.”

  Again, there was something in his voice, a surprising seriousness that made her wonder what was actually going on out there with him, Danny, and Gaby. He had told her what had happened last night at the farmhouse, how they had made it through, and that they were all “in one piece.” That should have comforted her, but Will’s idea of “one piece” was a little different than hers…and every other person in the world.

  Despite all that, hearing him tell her that he loved her made her smile anyway. “I thought we already did this…”

  “Do it again anyway.”

  “I’m tired, Will.”

  “You’re not that tired.”

  “I slept inside the boat house on the beach last night. Did you know that? I think I clocked a few minutes total.”

  “Ouch.”

  “That’s what my back says.”

  He chuckled again. “I’ll be home soon.”

  “Promise?” she said. She realized how silly she sounded as soon as the word left her mouth, but she didn’t care, especially down here on the second floor alone with just Will on the other side of the radio.

  “I promise,” he said. “Whatever it takes, whatever happens, you won’t have to face another night alone.”

  “Because you’ll be here with me.”

  “Yes…”

  There was something about the way he said that. “Yes.” It should have put her mind at ease, because Will making a promise was as close to a sure thing as you could get these days. But the way he said it made her hesitate for some reason.

  “Now,” he said before she could put her troubled thoughts into words, “what’s this Carly was saying about a new boat?”

  “It’s a yacht.” Lara smiled. “And it’s big…”

  CHAPTER 3

  WILL

  Sunrise brought the peace and tranquility that he always longed for, but also that nagging sense of incompleteness, because it was another day without Lara. How long had it been now? Weeks? It felt like months. Even his daily communications with her through the radio only left him needing more.

  Feeling the morning’s warmth against his face after the brutal encounter of the previous night made him smile for the first time in hours. He should be grateful to have another day when so many people didn’t have that luxury. Lance was one of those poor souls, but Annie, his girlfriend, had made it through. So had the two girls that had come out of Dunbar with Gaby. Both Danny and Gaby had also made it, though, like him, they had seen better days.

  So what else is new?

  “Smells like a trap,” Danny said through the radio now.

  Will picked up the two-way from the front passenger seat. “What does a trap smell like?”

  “Warm and fuzzy, and not the nice kind of warm and fuzzy. Slightly odorous, with a hint of sewage.”

  “Nice imagery.”

  “I do my best.”

  “We gotta find out one way or another, right? Can’t stay at the farmhouse another day, not after last night.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Last night was a hoot and a half. And you know how much I like my hooting and halfing.”

  “How far are we from the interstate?” Gaby asked.

  He didn’t have to look at the folded map on the seat next to him. He had been counting the distance ever since they left the farmhouse this morning. “Ten minutes, give or take.”

  “Ten minutes to death,” Danny said.

  “That’s the spirit.”

  “Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud? My bad.”

  Danny and Gaby were in the Nissan Titan behind him, carrying the two girls and Annie in the backseat. Their truck followed closely behind his, leaving just enough distance for both vehicles to stop on a dime and (retreat) maneuver around any obstacles, if necessary. Will drove the Toyota Tacoma by himself, the wind rushing in through the missing driver-side window. The Nissan was the bigger of the two vehicles, so it made sense for it to carry the others, including most of their supplies, while he used the smaller (and disposable) mid-size Tacoma.

  “Is this really a good idea, Will?” Gaby asked through the radio. “Splitting up like this?”

  “We’re not splitting up. We’re just making it harder for them to hit us with an ambush.”

  “But if we know there’s an ambush up ahead…”

  “Can’t be helped. We need to get home, and there’s only one way to do that. Straight ahead.”

  “Right into the jaws of death,” Danny chimed in. “Oops. Did I say that out loud, too? Damn my charming mouth.”

  Will understood Gaby’s apprehension. In fact, he shared it. But he had spent the entire night, while waiting for the second attack that never came, thinking about this, turning the options over in his head. There were always options, but some were more possible than others.

&nbs
p; And time was against them. Time was always against them.

  Time…and Kate.

  “Like a certain little island that should have stayed quiet. This is what happens when you stick your head out and get my attention, Will. I grab a hammer.”

  Kate was talking about Song Island. About the message Lara had broadcast out into the world.

  How much of it was true? How much of it was just an excuse to attack? Kate wasn’t Kate anymore; this Kate, this ghoul Kate, wasn’t above a bald-faced lie.

  But they had to get back home to Song Island. That was the only thing he knew with absolute certainty. Lara and the others had made it through yesterday thanks to a combination of guts and tough decisions, but what were the chances of that kind of favorable circumstances two straight nights?

  Maybe, maybe not.

  He couldn’t risk it, because the stakes were too high…and time was running out.

  It was still a kilometer away from their position when Will took his foot off the gas, slowing the Tacoma from thirty-five miles per hour to thirty, then twenty-five, until he had stopped completely in the middle of the two-lane highway.

  Route 13.

  Not-so-lucky thirteen.

  Then again, given how they’d managed to stay alive, maybe it wasn’t such a bad stretch of road after all.

  He glanced at his left-side mirror. Danny, in the Titan behind him, had also parked and left a twenty-meter space between the two cars.

  On cue, his radio squawked, and Danny’s voice came through. “Home sweet home.”

  “Not quite,” Will said. “But we’re getting there.”

  “You and what army?”

  “You, me, the girls…”

  “The bad guys don’t stand a chance…says the two idiots in the trucks about to drive right through an ambush.”

  Will grinned. “Captain Optimism.”

  “Hey, you know me, always bringing the funk. Just ignore the BO.”

  “It’s getting harder by the day,” Gaby said.

  “Ouch,” Danny said. “You really know how to hurt a guy’s feelings.”

  Will leaned forward against the steering wheel and focused out the front windshield. The portion of the glass in front of him was dirty, but at least it didn’t have a bullet hole to obscure his vision like the passenger side half. Danny’s bullet had caused that, along with the bloody spot left behind on the seat and headrest.

  He unzipped his tactical pack on the passenger seat, pulled out a pair of small binoculars, and peered through them. The same buildings from yesterday rose out of the flat scenery flanking the highway, looking like something humanity simply decided to drop into the middle of nowhere. The last time he was here, men on horseback had been trying to kill Gaby, forcing them to retreat backward. They couldn’t do that today. Going back was out of the question. Everything was in front of them, including the gray concrete structure on the other side of the buildings.

  Interstate 10.

  It would take him west toward a small town called Salvani. From there, it was a straight shot south down to Beaufont Lake and Lara. He needed to reach that stretch of gray concrete in the worst way.

  “What do you see, Will?” Gaby asked through the radio.

  It was a good question. What did he see, really? Seemingly empty (Yeah, right) buildings on both sides of the road, and I-10 beckoning them. This was the first sign of civilization other than the half dozen or so abandoned farmhouses they had passed since they took off this morning.

  “Will?” Gaby said through the radio again. “What do you see?”

  It’s not what I see, it’s what I don’t see.

  Nothing and everything.

  “The same feeder road businesses from yesterday,” he said into the radio. “And I-10 on the other side.”

  “What about the posse from yesterday that tried to perforate our little Gaby?” Danny asked. “They didn’t seem like the ‘wander off and not come back’ types.”

  “No signs of anyone on horseback.”

  “Hunh. I guess my prayers last night worked. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for that private jet to take me to Song Island. You guys can hop along if you want. I’ll only charge half-price.”

  “You’re a swell guy, Danny.”

  “Just don’t tell anyone. I got a reputation to maintain.”

  Will reached over and pulled his M4A1 off the floor where it had been leaning against the hump between the two front seats. He laid it on the passenger seat with the stock facing him for an easy, fast grab.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Danny said through the radio. “We gonna sit here on our hands and wait for your ghoulfriend to try her luck again?”

  “‘Ghoulfriend’?” Gaby said.

  Danny chuckled. “I came up with that, you know.”

  “Somehow, I figured that, Danny.” Then Gaby said, “Are we really going to do this, Will?”

  We don’t have any choice, Will thought, but said instead, “We have to get home. It’s not about the island. There are a thousand islands out there. It’s about the people on it. Lara, Carly…”

  “…Maddie, Blaine…,” Gaby continued.

  “Carly,” Danny added.

  “He already said Carly.”

  “I know, but she’s so special she deserves to be mentioned twice.”

  “You’re such a charmer.”

  “Why do you think Carly lets me do questionable things to her?”

  “I think I just threw up a little in my mouth,” Gaby said.

  “There goes breakfast,” Danny said. Then, “So, back to our little Sophie’s choice here. I don’t know about you guys, but I got people to see and things to shoot, and if that means pulling a Clint Eastwood and Gauntleting it through that little two-horse town, then so be it.”

  “What’s Gauntlet?” Gaby asked.

  “Damn, kid, what are you, a kid?”

  “Kind of.”

  “It’s a movie starring the baddest man alive, Clint Eastwood. Ol’ Dirty Harry plays a cop—of course—who has to get a witness to court in order to testify and all that good stuff. But in order to do that, he has to brave an army of gun-toting bad guys waiting to shoot him. Which he did.”

  “Clint had an armor-plated bus,” Will said.

  “And you got me. Same difference.”

  “God, you guys are old,” Gaby said.

  “Shut up and get off my lawn,” Danny said.

  Will tuned them out for a moment, letting the group of buildings in front of him fill his vision.

  Options. What were his options?

  There were a couple, but all of them would take time. Too much time. That was the one thing he didn’t have at the moment.

  “Like a certain little island that should have stayed quiet. This is what happens when you stick your head out and get my attention, Will. I grab a hammer.”

  Time. They were always running out of time.

  Will put the truck back in gear, but didn’t take his foot off the brake.

  “Well, make up your mind already,” Danny said through the radio. “Some of us got places to go and things to do, ya know.”

  “Stick to the plan,” Will said. “Understand?”

  “About damn time.”

  “Will, are you sure?” Gaby asked.

  No, he thought, but said, “Yes. Stick to the plan.”

  “Okay,” she said, even though he could hear the obvious hesitation in her voice. “What about the machine guns? I can go out there and man one of them.”

  She was talking about the two M240s mounted on the roofs of the Titan and Tacoma, each one capable of unleashing a hellacious number of rounds per second. But someone had to stand out there in the open in order to use them. That made them too easy a target. He knew, because both he and Danny had shot the two men who had been manning those guns a day earlier.

  “No,” Will said. “You’d be too vulnerable back there. All it takes is one sniper on a rooftop and you’re done. Stay inside with Danny, and sti
ck to the plan we came up with this morning. You’re in the full-size truck for a reason.”

  “All right,” she said, but he could tell she still wasn’t the least bit convinced.

  He didn’t blame her. He wasn’t convinced either, but he had spent all night and morning thinking about it, and it was the only path he could come up with.

  Time. That was the culprit. There was so little time, and the island was still so far away…

  “We’ll get home,” he had promised Lara. “Whatever it takes. We’re not going to leave the island undefended for another day.”

  “Danny,” he said into the radio.

  “That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” Danny said.

  “We can’t let the island go undefended for another night. Agreed?”

  Danny didn’t respond right away.

  “Danny,” Will said. “Agreed?”

  “Yeah,” Danny said finally. “Agreed.”

  “Rangers lead the way.”

  “Is that why your blinkers are still on? How many times have I told you about that? You’re making us look bad in front of the kids.”

  Will grinned. “Okay, everyone. Ears up, eyes open, and guns within easy reach.”

  “Roger, Roger,” Danny said.

  “We’re ready back here,” Gaby said, and Will almost believed her that time.

  If only we had more time.

  If only…if only…

  He took his foot off the brake and pressed down on the gas pedal, and the Toyota started moving forward again. At first slowly, then picking up speed. Five miles an hour, ten, then twenty, until the buildings in the distance started to grow with every passing second, including two large signs glinting under the sun. There were no indications of movement. Nothing that would tell him people had been gathering all morning.

  What kind of game are you playing, Kate? I know you’re behind this. In the background somewhere, pulling the strings…

  Something one of the blue-eyed creatures had said to him last night was still stuck in his head:

  “Don’t worry,” it had hissed. “It’s not going to end that easily for you, Will. Kate made us promise her this time. I think she has big plans for you.”