“Technically, you owe me since I’m the one who told her to run.” He looked over at Annie and Milly. “I told them, too, but they weren’t quite as good at following orders. Anyway, when ol’ Blue Eyes was distracted, I managed to judo it and got on top and did my thing with the knife.” He mimed it for her. “I feel sorry for it, actually. It never stood a chance.”
“I didn’t know you knew judo,” she said.
“I didn’t tell you? Judo and me go way back. She still calls me every time she’s in town. She loves to wrestle, oh boy, does she ever.”
Gaby couldn’t help but laugh. Even her left arm didn’t seem to be hurting quite as much as when she had first opened her eyes a few minutes ago. Well, that wasn’t quite true, but she figured as long as she told herself that, the pain was manageable.
Mostly, anyway.
Epilogue
They didn’t like seeing him around, and though they did their best to hide it, it was never really good enough. Sometimes he wondered if they were trying at all, or if their hatred for him managed to seep through anyway despite their best efforts. Not that it mattered. Their opinions didn’t have any effect on him either way.
He had been chosen. It was something they would never understand.
“Something’s happening over there,” Travis said. “Turner says there’s a lot of shooting. He could hear it from half a mile away.”
“On the island?” Josh asked.
“Yeah.”
“What did he say was happening?”
“He’s not close enough to know for sure, but he says it sounds like a gun battle, and it’s been going on for the last thirty minutes.”
Josh liked being out here, in the open at night. It was such a luxury after so many months of hiding in smelly basements and other people’s houses, and he took advantage of it whenever he could.
This is the privilege of the chosen. Freedom.
He leaned against the patio railing on the second floor of the red house overlooking Beaufont Lake. A pair of men in uniforms walked along the docks, and there were more on the other docks up and down the shoreline. Just over thirty men in all. Josh had arrived before nightfall with twenty soldiers to augment the twenty or so already here. Except when he showed up, there were only twelve left. Eight were dead.
“They hit us,” Travis had said. “They had a grenade launcher.”
Josh hadn’t bothered to ask for details, because it didn’t matter. Thirty-two men wasn’t going to be enough to overwhelm Song Island. He was already hesitant to move on them with forty, but without Will and Danny, he thought it was doable. Just women and children mostly, he had thought.
“What should we do?” Travis asked now. He sounded nervous when he added, “What does she want us to do?”
Travis was in his thirties and could have passed for Josh’s dad. He used to be some kind of supervisor at a construction company and was used to giving orders, which made him ideal to take over this group, now that the guy who was supposed to lead them had gone and gotten himself dead earlier today. Caught in an explosion, according to Travis.
“She hasn’t told me yet,” Josh said.
“When was the last time you talked to her?”
“Earlier today, before I came here.”
“I thought they slept in the day?”
“They do.”
“So how…?”
“If she wants you to know, she’ll tell you,” Josh said, cutting the older man off. “Tell Turner to get as close as he can without being seen and find out what’s happening on the island.”
Travis nodded. Josh could tell he wanted to say something else, but Travis turned and went back into the house instead. The glass door opened and slid shut behind him. Like everyone these days, even though he was safe in the night, Travis couldn’t quite shake the nervousness and preferred to stay indoors when possible.
And for good reason, too. Josh could see them out there, skirting around the spotlights his men had set up around the perimeter. After two attacks in two days, Josh wasn’t going to take any chances. He had men all the way up the highway watching everything—
Josh smelled it before it even announced its presence. They gave off a scent that was different from the black-eyed ones. Travis probably couldn’t tell the difference, but he had never really been around these new breed of ghouls. Josh had. Too many times to count.
So he didn’t have to glance back at the tall, silhouetted figure standing in the shadows behind him, blue eyes glowing softly against the darkness.
“Why haven’t you taken the island yet?” the ghoul asked. Its voice, like all the other blue-eyed ones, came out as more of a soft hiss, almost like a lisp. It was male, though sometimes it was hard to tell, even for Josh. “It’s become a haven. A beacon of hope. It has to be taken at all costs.”
“We don’t have enough people,” Josh said. His voice was calm and steady. The trick was not to let them know you were afraid. “I’ve sent for more. They’re coming tomorrow, with additional supplies.”
“And you can take the island then…”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes,” Josh said. Did his voice just quiver a little bit? Of course not. He wasn’t afraid of them. He didn’t have to be. He was one of the chosen. “Where’s Kate? She usually gives me the orders herself.”
“She’s busy.”
“With what?”
“It’s none of your concern, meat.”
“You don’t scare me.”
“Don’t I?” It sounded amused that time.
Josh fought the urge to whirl around and face the creature. It was testing him, trying to see if it could get under his skin. But he wasn’t afraid. Why should he be? He was one of the chosen. He didn’t have to fear anymore.
“Tomorrow,” the creature said. “No more excuses. You’ll take the island tomorrow.”
“What about Gaby? Kate told me she’s still alive.”
“Don’t worry; we’ll save your precious lover for you.”
“Don’t hurt her.”
The creature might have snickered. “Just do your part, meat. We’ll bring your female to you, as promised.”
“I’ll take the island, don’t you worry,” Josh said. “What else—”
He stopped. He didn’t have to look back to know it was gone. He could feel it in the way the air hung and the sudden loss of the familiar scent.
Josh refocused on the calm water of Beaufont Lake in front of him instead.
Pros and cons: What were they?
Pros: Gaby was alive. Thank God. She had escaped L15 and hadn’t perished inside the cave outside of town as reported by his men. (Those idiots.) She was stuck outside of Dunbar now. Trapped and surrounded and outmatched. But they wouldn’t harm her once they killed the others. Will and Danny, and some kids he didn’t know and didn’t care about. Gaby was all that mattered. Gaby had always been the only thing that mattered.
Cons: He would storm Song Island tomorrow once the replacements showed up. They had no shortage of manpower these days. All the civilians in the towns were volunteering by the dozens. It had to be the uniforms. Everyone was a sucker for uniforms. It was why he had come up with the military idea in the first place. Even Kate hadn’t thought of it. She and Mabry were already replicating his success in the other states and around the world. Soon, he’d join them in the global effort to domesticate the planet. But that was for later. For now, there was Song Island to deal with.
Conclusion: Gaby was alive and soon they would be reunited. He had failed to convince her before, but he couldn’t give up now. Gaby was too important. She was everything. Even if he had to lock her up for a month or a year. Sooner or later, she would come around. He just needed time. And to get that precious time, he would have to take Song Island and show Mabry he could do more than just think outside the box, that he could act — and do it successfully — too.