The Bones of Valhalla (Purge of Babylon, Book 9) (37 page)

But she knew she needed to be back on the yacht. More than that, she
wanted
to be here. There wasn’t the feeling of triumph she was hoping for as Peele and the others confirmed what they had initially seen—that the ghouls had simply stepped out of their hiding places to burn in the sun.

“I have to show them,”
Will had said.
“They won’t do it unless I show them that there’s nothing to fear. It’s the only way.”

But there was a lightness in her, brought forth by a sense of accomplishment. There wasn’t quite the pangs of regret and guilt from her losses that she had been fully prepared to confront, even though she continued to feel it in her very soul.

Carrie. Bonnie. Blaine…and Will.

And who else whose names she didn’t know? Even now, Riley and Rhett were trying to get a head count of the people they had lost in the mission. The tankers, Wheeler, the members of Keo and Danny’s Striker team…

She was leaning against the railing on the main deck, watching Elise, Vera, Jenny, and some of the other kids running around on Black Tide’s beach in the near distance, when her radio’s squawk broke in through the serenity of the moment.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Ten minutes out,” Danny answered. “I heard you were looking for me. What can I do you for?”

Danny was putting on an act, but she appreciated it anyway, and said, “Are you okay?”

“In one piece. At least until I get back there and Carly tears me a new one.”

“Justifiable homicide, some would say.”

“No arguments from me,” Danny said. Then, quietly, “About Will…”

“I know, Danny.”

He didn’t say anything right away. Then: “How?”

“I’ll tell you when you get back here. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Broken leg, maybe a punctured lung. Whatever. I’ll get by.”

“I know you will.”

“He didn’t, you know,” Danny said. “Will. He didn’t suffer at the end. Of course, I could have just misread that stupid smile on his face.”

“He was smiling…”

“Yeah. A big ol’ grin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Willie boy smile that big in my life. Like he was going on vacation with three high-priced escorts or something equally awesome fantastic super duper.”

Lara couldn’t help but smile. “Did he say anything?”

“He told me to look after you, on account of how you’re always getting into trouble and whatnot. So, that’s on my plate.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Eh, that’s why God gave me an extra arm, amirite?” Then, without missing a beat, “By the way, I think we should try to convince Keo to stick around. That guy’s pretty useful. Ugly as sin with those scars of his, but pretty useful in a pinch.”

Somewhere on Danny’s side of the connection, she heard Keo’s voice: “Hey, you know I’m sitting right here, right?”

“Did you hear that?” Danny said. “Some weird buzzing noise. Shoo, fly, shoo!”

“Tell her about the other thing,” Keo shouted in the background.

“What other thing?” Lara asked.

“Keester had a thought,” Danny said. “I know, dangerous, right? But it might be worth spending a sleepless night or two on it.”

“What is it?”

“The time zone differences.”

“Time zones?”

“Willie boy timed it to kill the black eyes in our area, when it was still bright and shiny out. What Kilo was wondering was, what about in the rest of the world, where it was dark when Will sent out the call? Are those buggers still going to follow through, even after knowing what happened to the others? And they would know, right? With that whole connected hive mind of theirs?”

Lara didn’t answer him right away. She didn’t know how to, because the mere thought that all of this might have been for nothing, that for every million or so ghouls Will’s death
(again)
had erased from the world there was still countless more out there, made her want to retch.

“I know, sorry to poop on the party,” Danny said through the radio. “I told Kimbo Slice over here he was being a real buzzkill.”

“Tomorrow,” she said finally. “We’ll find out what’s happening out in the rest of the world when people start talking again. For now, let’s just enjoy this.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Hurry back. I’ll be waiting on the
Trident.

“Roger that,” Danny said. “Striker and company outro.”

Lara put the radio away and continued leaning against the railing.

Was it possible? Could Will’s sacrifice have been in vain?

No, she couldn’t believe it. She
wouldn’t
believe it. Will would have known about something like that. He would have taken it—along with countless other factors she hadn’t even thought about or realized even existed—into consideration when he came up with his plan.

Right?

Elise and Vera were in the water now, trying to splash Jenny and the other kids. They had decided to team up and looked to have victory well in hand.

She thought of what Will had said on the beach, in the dream that only she would ever know about.

“Take care of our friends. Take care of Danny. Take care of everyone for me.”

She would do that. She would take care of their friends and everyone else who needed her help.

She would do it, because she had it in her.

And because she wanted to.

Lara smiled again and looked up at the sun. It was bright. As bright as she had ever seen it. How was it so bright? It didn’t matter, as long as it was there and she could close her eyes and let the warmth wash over her.

And she did that now, and thought about her next move…

Epilogue


T
his is Lara
, and if you’re listening to this, then you’ve survived the unimaginable. It doesn’t matter how you did it, just that you did when so many didn’t. By now you’ve seen the endless piles of bones outside and you’ve heard the rumors. They’re true. All of them. We’ve struck a crippling blow against the ghouls, but it’s not over. It’s far from over. They’re still out there, along with the blue-eyed ones. But they don’t control us anymore, and we know how to defeat them. It’s their turn to be afraid. We’re going to organize and we’re going to hunt them down and destroy every single one of them, and they’re going to find out that the night is no longer theirs. Make no mistake, this is the chance we’ve been waiting for—this is the start of a new beginning. For all of us. Because we’re in this together, whether we called ourselves collaborators or rebels, or didn’t call ourselves anything at all in the last year. None of it matters. Not anymore. A lot of very good and brave people paid the ultimate sacrifice to give us this second chance. Don’t waste it like we did before with endless bickering and petty grievances. Let the past die with the past. This is our chance to make the world ours again. Help me—join me—and we’ll take it back. I’m Lara, and I’m a survivor. If you’re listening to this, then so are you…”

A Word From the Author
(About The Past and the Future of The Babylon Universe)

T
he Bones
of Valhalla
closes out a story I had originally started writing while in college and worked on over the years (back when it was just a solo book called
The Road to Babylon
). I never envisioned it would become a series, never mind one with a fan base. For those of you hoping I would somehow find ways to save certain characters or reverse the end of the world, all I can say is that this was always the ending I had in mind; I just didn’t know how long it would take to get here. (The original
Road to Babylon
was over 800 pages long…and unfinished.)

With the storyline now at its natural conclusion
,
I wanted to thank all of you for sticking with me for nine books (okay, ten if you count the Keo prequel), and let you know about what I have planned. Because yes, there
are
plans afoot.

The original idea was always to introduce and expand on an (in gaming parlance) open-world universe. Moving forward, I hope to pick up where
Bones
left off, with brand-new standalone storylines that new and longtime readers alike can climb aboard. But of course fans of the series who have read the previous books will get much, much more out of them.

How are the survivors going to deal with those very dangerous blue-eyed ghouls still roaming the land? What about all those collaborator towns with their own isolated ecosystems? And what is going to prevent another Pollard or Mercer from rising up and trying to fill the power vacuum now that the ghouls are no longer calling the shots?

But those questions will have to wait.

Besides building a bridge to future adventures, the ending of
Bones
serves another purpose—as a possible jumping off point for readers who would rather not stick around, but still wanted a conclusion before telling me to go
bleep
myself (judging by some of your emails and Facebook messages, and Amazon reviews). I hope I’ve rewarded your patience, and if not, all I can say is,
I’m sorry, but I truly did my best.

For everyone else, I look forward to telling more stories in
The Purge of Babylon
universe for years (dare I say, decades?) to come, and hope you’ll keep revisiting this world with me. I always knew exactly how things were going to end before I dusted off
The Road to Babylon
and turned it into
The Purge of Babylon,
but now that that particular storyline has wrapped…

Well, let’s just say, I’m as excited to find out what happens next
as the rest of you!

Sincerely and with the greatest of thanks for allowing me to write stories for a living,

S
am

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