She heard him loud and clear through the earbud, connected to a Motorola radio clipped to her hip. Danny and Will only had two of their assault vests, but Danny had brought along an additional comm rig when he came looking for them days ago and found Will outside of Lafayette. She reached up and pulled at the plastic band wrapped around her throat. Gaby didn’t think she would ever get used to the constricting feel of it against her skin.
“Nothing in the front yards,” Will said. “You?”
“I got zilch and nada,” Danny said.
“What about the soldiers?”
“Still hanging around. Buggers aren’t leaving anytime soon. All dressed up and nowhere to go.”
“Ghouls?”
“I see them.”
“How many?”
“How do you say ‘a shit lot’ in Spanish?”
“What are they doing? How are they reacting to the soldiers?”
“They’re leaving them alone.”
Gaby keyed her radio. “How do they know to leave the soldiers alone? Is it the uniforms?”
“Maybe,” Will said.
“Like with the hazmat suits.”
“Likely.”
“Aw, shit,” Danny said.
“What is it?” Will said.
“Buckle up your seat belt, kids, here comes trouble. And the bitch brought friends.”
Will didn’t respond. Gaby waited impatiently, wanting to ask what they were seeing, but somehow managed to bite her tongue. She felt a pair of eyes on her and glanced over at Lance. He was watching her and had been for a while. Questions flooded his eyes, but like her, he was exercising amazing restraint. Lance was in his late twenties but looked older.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head at him.
He nodded, grateful for at least that much.
Then Will’s voice, finally, in her right ear. “Gaby.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Remember: shoot them in the head.”
“In the head,” she repeated. Then, “How many of them are out there?”
“Four.”
“Four?” Gaby said, almost shouting the word out.
“You think it’s a new group, or did they get reinforcements?” Danny asked.
“I have no idea,” Will said. “I can’t tell them apart. One blue-eyed fuck looks like the other to me.”
“You’re such a racist.”
“Four?” Gaby said again.
“It’s probably because of what Willie boy did back in Dunbar,” Danny said.
“Or protocol,” Will said. “They operate as squads of four. They lose two, they replace two. Or maybe it’s an entirely different group. That doesn’t seem likely, though.”
“Maybe one of them’s your ghoulfriend.”
“Ex-ghoulfriend.”
“What are they doing, Will?” Gaby asked.
“The black-eyed ones are staying back along with the soldiers. It’s just the shock troops.”
“Shock troops?”
“That’s what this guy back in Dunbar called them. It’s not a bad theory.”
“What was that guy’s name, Brick?” Danny said.
“Bratt,” Will said.
“Ah, that’s right.”
“What happened to him?” Gaby asked.
“He didn’t make it,” Will said.
Of course not. What a stupid question.
Gaby heard a soft tapping noise and looked over at Lance. His fingers were moving nervously against the side of the AR-15 while his eyes had returned to the same patch of dirty wallpaper in front of him.
“Lance,” she whispered.
He glanced over. “Hmm?”
“You okay?”
He nodded and tried to smile. “Yeah. You?”
“We’ll be fine. Will and Danny are really good at this. Just do what we talked about, okay? Exactly what we talked about, and you’ll get through this fine.”
“Okay,” he said, and made another futile attempt at a smile.
She turned back to the stairs and peered down at the pool of darkness below, wondering just where her ability to suddenly bullshit with such conviction came from. She had never been a particularly good liar, but these days, lying came easier. She wanted to think it was because Lance needed the assurance, but maybe it was for her own benefit, too.
A click in her right ear, followed by Danny’s voice. “Gaby.”
“Yeah?” she said.
“You’ve never seen one of them before, right?”
“No…”
“Come take a look.”
Gaby stood up and said “Stay here” to Lance then jogged up the hallway toward the bedroom.
Danny peeked over his shoulder as she approached. “It’s time you find out what all the crazy kids are talking about. It’s a real gas, man.”
Gaby moved across the large bedroom, looking briefly over at Claire, Milly, and Annie huddled on the floor next to the king-size bed. Claire had the FNH gripped tightly in her hands, while Milly was lying across Annie’s lap, her eyes closed. Annie stroked the girl’s hair, the two of them finding comfort in each other. Claire, though, was all business. She caught Gaby’s eyes and nodded. Gaby smiled back at her.
She’s going to make a great soldier one of these days.
Gaby reached the window and slid against the wall across from Danny. They had left plenty of slots to see out through, with the biggest being a few inches wide. He pointed at the front yard, lit up by the moonlight. It was amazingly bright out there and she could make out a lone figure standing next to one of the trucks with the mounted machine guns.
The first thing she noticed was the way it stood — tall, like a human male. It also looked noticeably healthier than the other ghouls she was used to seeing, which usually made her think of loose flesh draped over skeletal remains. And its eyes. If she couldn’t quite make out the details of its body, she had no trouble seeing its eyes.
Blue eyes. Blue fucking eyes.
She always believed Will and the others when they told her about the existence of the blue-eyed ghouls, but maybe there was a part of her (a very, very small part) that was doubtful. But here, now, staring down the window at one of them — and being watched back by it — she felt a hollowness in the pit of her stomach.
They’re real. Jesus, they’re real.
In some ways, she thought she knew the world. Even after The Purge when she was confronted with an all-new set of realities, she had become accustomed to it and understood its rules: Stay out of the dark. Silver kills. Bodies of water. Now there was something new, and suddenly everything was upside down again. It was almost enough to make her want to scream and pull out her hair.
“There and there,” Danny said.
She followed where he was pointing and saw a second one standing next to the supply shack on the left side of the yard. And there, a third, perched on top of the same building. Three pairs of blue eyes glowed in the darkness.
Radiant blue, like diamonds…
“Three,” she said, her voice coming out strangely calm (Why am I so calm?). “You said there were four.”
He pointed again. “And heeeeeere’s Johnny.”
The fourth blue-eyed ghoul emerged out of the sea of black, moving with impossibly fluid steps for something that shouldn’t even exist. It was pulling a man behind it by a strap it held almost nonchalantly in its right hand. The other end of the line was wrapped around the man’s neck, like some kind of dog leash. The man didn’t struggle against his restraints or seemed capable of resistance. All the fight had clearly been beaten out of him.
The ghoul and its “pet” stopped about ten feet from the front door of the farmhouse. It tugged at the leash and the man staggered forward until he was standing beside his “master” before falling (gratefully, tiredly) to his knees. The man had distinctive red hair, the color providing an absurd contrast next to the black-skinned creature with the smooth black skull.