The Gates of Byzantium (Purge of Babylon, Book 2) (57 page)

She should be.

“Sarah,” she said, “the wine last night. That was you.”

“I had no choice,” Sarah said.

“Of course you did,” Carly snapped. “We all have a choice. Don’t stand there and tell me you didn’t have a fucking choice. You decided to go along with this.”

“You don’t understand,” Sarah said. She sounded close to tears. “I came here with Jenny, hoping to get away from those things out there just like the rest of you. Karen and Tom and the others were just dragging people out of their rooms by gunpoint back then. People got hurt, some got killed. A boy we came with got shot because he fought back. I convinced them they could use Rohypnol instead so that wouldn’t happen again. It was safer. That was how I saved my family. I had no choice.”

“How many times did you have to tell yourself that before you started to believe it?” Carly asked. The hard edge in her voice hadn’t softened a bit.

“Carly,” Josh said, “she came back here to help us.”

“So what’s the new angle, Sarah?” Carly’s eyes were still zeroed in on Sarah.

“There is no new angle,” Sarah said, almost offended by the suggestion.

“Bullshit. Spit it out. What angle are you playing now?”

Lara watched Sarah’s face carefully, and she thought she understood. What would she do for Will? For Elise? Or for Carly?

Lara walked over and got between the two women. “Not now. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about this later.” Before Carly could respond, Lara looked over at Josh and said, “What else did Will say? When is he coming back?”

“He didn’t say,” Josh said. “Just that we should stay here until he comes back with the weapons.”

“So where are they?” Danny asked Sarah. “The party people?”

“Karen, Marcus, Tom, and Berg are usually the only ones involved,” Sarah said. “The rest stay in their rooms until morning. Tom is in the lighthouse—the Tower. Berg is in the unfinished part of the hotel, going through the things we brought out of your rooms. He’s kind of odd; he spends a lot of time doing things the rest of us find a little disturbing. Karen and Marcus are probably asleep.”

“What about guns? I didn’t see them wear any all day except for Tom.”

“It’s part of the façade. It’s how they get people to let their guard down. Once you’re convinced the island really is as safe as they say it is, then it’s easier…later, with the Rohypnol during the feast.”

“Clever buggers. But they have guns?”

“Yes. Karen and Marcus have weapons in their rooms. The others don’t. Al, Jake and Sienna, myself—we’re not armed. I don’t know, I don’t think they really trust us that much. We came here because of the broadcast, like you did. They let us stay because we could contribute something.”

“Can’t blame them. A good cook’s hard to find in the apocalypse.”

“How many?” Lara asked. “How many have come before us? Not counting you and the others still here?”

Lara watched her reaction to the question. It wasn’t that Sarah had to think about it, because Lara thought she knew the number
exactly
—it was more that the answer was not going to be well received.

“How many?” Carly pressed, when Sarah didn’t answer fast enough.

“I only know of twenty-one,” Sarah said. “I don’t know how many there were before I got here.”

“Jesus Christ.
Twenty-one?”
Carly’s voice had risen noticeably, the menace coming through loud and clear. “You sentenced twenty-one people to their deaths, and you stand there trying to justify it?”

Sarah started to respond, but thought better of it and said nothing instead. It was smart of her, because it would only have encouraged Carly to wade into her even further. After that, Sarah seemed to drift away, even though Carly continued to stare daggers at her.

“I need clothes,” Danny said, casually breaking the thick tension in the air. “You said Will already went for them?”

“Yeah,” Josh said. “About five—well, ten minutes ago now.”

“So that means whoever’s watching over our stuff is either dead or dead-ish. That saves me the trouble. You stay here with the girls. I’ll be back soon, preferably dressed and with boots on.” He started off in his bare feet, looking absurd in his dolphin-covered boxers. “In the meantime, try not to kill each other until I get back, ladies. I love me a good ol’ fashioned chick fight. Carly, that means you.”

“No promises,” Carly said back through gritted teeth.

*

They spent the
next ten minutes waiting for something to happen, and when nothing did, it only added to the already conflicted atmosphere in the room. The island itself went on as if nothing had occurred, the silence outside the hotel matched only by the silence inside what was supposed to be a ballroom, but was, at the moment, really just one big unfinished hall with concrete floors.

Lara kept busy by making sure the girls were fine. The Rohypnol had put them both into a deep slumber, as it had done to the adults. If Josh and Sarah hadn’t been tapping on their faces and nudging them awake, they would probably have slept through the entire night and most of the day. She still felt the grogginess lingering, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been in the first few minutes after opening her eyes.

Josh stood near one of the doors with Gaby, the two of them whispering softly to each other. It wasn’t hard to tell they had become more than just friends. Watching the two of them made her smile.

“I noticed they turned off the AC,” Carly said. “It’s getting swampy in here.”

“I guess they don’t need the façade anymore,” Lara said.

They stood quietly in the dark, listening to the silence. Beads of sweat appeared along Lara’s neck and temple, despite the odd chill from the floor under their bare feet.

“He’s taking too long,” Carly said after a while. She looked toward the door. “I should go after him, in case he’s in trouble.”

“Carly, the last thing he wants is for you to go after him. If he’s in trouble, there’s not going to be a lot you can do. Danny is an Army Ranger. Remember?”

Carly nodded, but she didn’t look any less concerned. Knowing didn’t keep away the fear, something Lara knew all too well. She felt the same nagging anxiousness whenever Will left her side. She knew he could take care of himself, that if anyone was equipped to survive in this new world, it was him and Danny. Knowing and accepting weren’t the same, though.

Lara looked over at Sarah, standing by herself against the other door into the ballroom. Lara felt sorry for the other woman, and her thoughts flashed back to Kevin, a young man who had sold them out to the ghouls back in Dansby, Texas. Will had killed him. Or at least she assumed he had. One moment Kevin had been there, the next he was gone. So why didn’t Will do the same to Sarah? Maybe he knew Sarah had a better reason to do what she did. Maybe he was thinking about her daughter, Jenny.

She came back to the present when the door next to Josh opened, and Josh stiffened, preparing to fight. He didn’t have to because Danny walked in, wearing cargo pants and a T-shirt and carrying one of their supply crates.

“Santa has brought clothes,” Danny announced.

They swarmed the box—all except Sarah, who was already dressed. They pulled out shirts and pants and shoes like eager kids given early Christmas gifts.

“I stuffed in as many as I could find that would fit you guys,” Danny said. “But I’m no fashionista, so if there’s something that doesn’t match, or God forbid, clashes, you’ll have to make do for now.”

Lara found a pair of cargo pants and a T-shirt that actually fit her and pulled them on. She expected to feel embarrassed stripping down to her panties in front of everyone, but the need to get some clothes on easily overwhelmed that silly notion of modesty.

The others dressed just as quickly around her, pulling on clothes and shoes and socks.

“Did you find Will?” Lara asked Danny.

“He was already gone. Went out the back door from the looks of it.” He took a knife out from behind his back. “I found this, though.”

“That’s the knife I brought over from the kitchen to cut you guys loose,” Sarah said.

“Why did he leave it behind?” Lara asked.

“Probably because he found something better,” Danny said. “Berg had a gun belt on him with an empty holster.”

“What happened to Berg?” Sarah asked.

“He’s alive. Will zip-tied him and left him gagged on the floor. I would say that’s his idea of irony, but I know for a fact Will doesn’t know what irony means.”

Lara rolled her eyes at him and got a grin back in response. “Maybe it’s time we go looking for him.”

“Now why would we want to do a fool thing like that?”

“You’d rather we just wait for him in here?”

“I don’t
want
to wait for him in here. I’m not a waiting around kinda guy, in case you haven’t noticed. But it’s the smart move. Right now, the rest of the island doesn’t know we’re free and footloose. We have the advantage. As long as they stay clueless—”

A loud gunshot from outside the hotel cut Danny off.

“Or not,” Danny finished.

“What now?” Carly asked.

Danny looked back at the others, saw that they were all dressed—or close enough, anyway—then scanned the room. “Everyone move away from the open.” He pointed to the two doors. “Stick to the walls, make like darkness so they can’t see you from the doors. Carly and Lara, get the girls.”

Carly picked up Vera while Lara picked up Elise. Lara couldn’t help but notice the girl had packed on a few pounds since the last time she had held her. They moved toward the wall, into the patch of darkness, and laid the girls back down on the floor.

Gaby and Josh slinked back against the wall a few yards from them, melting into the shadows, hands finding each other in the semidarkness.

Danny, knife in hand, moved back to the door he had come through. He didn’t say a word, only pressed his back against the wall and stood perfectly still.

There had been no sounds after the gunshot.

Lara waited to hear some kind of commotion, either from outside the hotel where the gunshot had come from, or inside, as Karen and the others woke up. Instead, there was just the silence. It was suffocating and quiet and so damn still, and Lara’s left arm was still itching like it was on fire. She rubbed against the bandages with the palm of her right hand, fighting the urge to tear the bandages free and swipe at the scabbing wound.

They waited.

Five minutes went by. Then ten.

Lara looked over at Carly and saw the other woman looking back at her. She was thinking the same thing.
What now?

After a while, Lara started to think maybe the rest of the island hadn’t heard the gunshot after all. Maybe Danny was wrong. She had almost convinced herself when the door to her left opened and Marcus stepped inside with a silver automatic in his fist.

Lara’s head snapped in Danny’s direction and she opened her mouth to scream, but she didn’t have to. Danny had either heard or seen Marcus coming through the other door and was already sprinting across the room. She had never seen him move so fast, and hadn’t known he was even capable of that kind of speed.

Marcus fired at Danny—
too fast.

Either adrenaline or fear had gotten the best of him and Marcus’s first shot went wide, slamming into the wall behind Danny, at least three feet off its mark. Realizing his mistake, Marcus took careful aim with his second shot.

“No!” Lara screamed.

Marcus jumped at the sound of her voice. He swung the gun in her direction, but he quickly got over the shock and turned back toward Danny, who was halfway across the room by now.

Marcus shot again—
and missed again
. Though this time he came closer to hitting Danny, and Lara swore Danny flinched as the bullet zipped past his head.

Danny, still running, threw the knife while in mid-stride and the sharp blade flashed across the room and embedded itself into the side of Marcus’s neck. Marcus let out a wheezing sound and dropped the gun and stumbled sideways.

Lara scrambled forward and snatched the gun from the floor even as Marcus moved around in front of her on wobbly legs like some hopeless drunk. He grabbed the handle of the knife in his throat and Lara thought,
No, don’t do that, don’t pull the knife out. Jesus, don’t pull the knife out.

But he did—and blood gushed out in a thick stream and Marcus collapsed to the floor, already slick with his blood. He seemed to convulse, his arms and legs like fish out of water, while blood kept pumping out of the ghastly wound in his throat.

Lara heard another door opening, and she looked up and saw Sarah running out of the room, the door slamming shut behind her.

“Should we go after her?” she asked Danny, who was crouched next to Marcus, watching the other man flopping in a pool of his own blood. Marcus’s fingers looked like ants dancing in a thick sludge of Hawaiian punch.

“Let her go,” Danny said. “She’s probably just going to get her daughter.”

“What if she’s gone to warn them?”

“They already know. Besides, she’s already committed to us.”

He was right. There was no way back for Sarah now, and Lara was reminded again of what a hard choice it must have been for the woman to risk everything to help them. To turn her back on a sure thing. She was risking not just her life, but her daughter’s, too.