The Stones of Angkor (Purge of Babylon, Book 3) (45 page)

Josh’s entire body seemed to flinch under her words, and he looked away.

Will holstered his gun. “All right, kids. Enough with the
Days of our Lives.
We’re going to get Nate. Everyone. Together.”

“Then what?” Gaby said.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

*

Will walked through
the camp toward the big blue tent for the second time. This time Gaby was beside him while Josh led the way up front. The kid walked awkwardly, as if he had to force his unwilling legs to move. He hadn’t tried to run yet, which surprised Will. He wondered if Josh was afraid of getting shot trying to escape, or if he still thought he could salvage this somehow.

Gaby. He’s still clinging to hope that he can convince her. That’s why he hasn’t run.

Josh’s gun holster was empty, but no one seemed to notice. The few men in hazmat suits they saw along the way either nodded to Josh, who wasn’t wearing his gas mask, or didn’t acknowledge him in any way. They did the same to Will and Gaby. Somehow, all of this made sense to these people.

They’ve had it too good for too long. They don’t know how to do it any other way.

Will felt a little bad for Josh. He believed the kid when he said everything he did was to protect Gaby. He had seen them together in the days before Josh “died.” Everything the kid did, he did it with the singular goal of keeping Gaby safe. The problem for Josh was that the Gaby he remembered was an eighteen-year-old high school senior. That Gaby was long gone. The fact that this Gaby survived the Mercy Hospital attack, while most of Mike’s people died, was proof of that.

“The towns,” Will said. “Where are they, Josh?”

“They’re everywhere,” Josh said.

“You didn’t build them from scratch?”

“There was no need, not with so many small towns just lying around.”

“So you’re just repurposing them.”

“Yeah.”

“Your idea, or Kate’s?”

“Both,” Josh said. There was none of the pride Will had heard earlier when Josh was trying to convince Gaby. “It seemed easier, and most people don’t care. Swap out the carpets, fix the windows and sometimes the doors, and it’s almost like new again.”

“Except for the blood, and the stench of death.”

Josh didn’t reply.

“You’re moving the next group tomorrow,” Will said. “What time?”

“I haven’t decided.”

The kid really is in charge.

Will looked around him at the camp, at the woods beyond. “Are they around?”

“Who?” Josh said.

“You know who.”

“A few.”

“How many is a few?” Gaby asked.

“A few hundred. Maybe a few thousand. It’s not like I’ve sat down to count.”

“In the forest,” Will said.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t see any while I was running through earlier.”

“Neither did I,” Gaby said.

“You wouldn’t. They—” He stopped.

“What?” Will said. “They what, Josh?”

“They’re very good about hiding from the sun,” Josh said. “But you already know that.”

*

“What now?” Gaby
said, when they were inside the blue tent.

“This is where it gets dicey,” Will said. “If anything happens, grab Nate and run. Even if you can’t get to him, you need to run, Gaby.”

“Not without Nate.”

“Gaby…”

“Not without Nate,” she said stubbornly.

He sighed. “All right. Not without Nate.”

Will wondered if Josh had heard their little back-and-forth. Maybe not. The tent was loud with conversation and noise, the sounds of people eating, drinking, and even snoring. It was entirely possible Josh hadn’t heard, but it was also very possible he had heard every single word, including Gaby’s very clear pronouncement she wasn’t going anywhere without Nate.

Ah, teenage love in the apocalypse. So unpredictable.

“Where would they take Nate, Josh?” Will asked.

“He’s being watched by armed guards, so it’ll be one of the private tents,” Josh said.

“Lead the way.”

Josh led them across the large room toward the dozen or so smaller tents lined in a row near the back. One of the tents belonged to Zoe, the doctor, and Will was relieved to see it wasn’t her tent that Josh was making a beeline for. The one they were approaching had an armed man in a hazmat suit standing outside of it. The label on his left breast read “Henry.”

The man saw them coming and nodded at Josh.

“How is he?” Josh asked.

Henry shrugged. “He’s alive. Doctor’s in there with him now.”

Josh slipped inside the tent, and Will and Gaby followed. Will glimpsed Henry looking after Gaby, ignoring him completely. It was a good thing Gaby was between the two of them. Will was still waiting for his Givens cover to get blown, but apparently the guy hadn’t been all that remarkable or made much of an impression on anyone, judging by how little reaction the name Givens got from those he had met so far.

There was a second man in a hazmat suit standing near the back of the tent, his gas mask clipped to his hip. His label read “Williams.” He looked bored and was staring down at an old copy of
Playboy
.

Nate was shirtless and lying on a cot in front of a woman in a white doctor’s coat. Fresh gauze was wrapped almost entirely over the left side of his body, all the way down to his elbow, as if someone were getting ready to turn him into a mummy. He looked cleaned up, but that wasn’t hard to do; the last time Will had seen him, Nate had been covered in blood and dirt.

Nate opened his eyes when he heard them coming in. He might not have recognized Will with the gas mask on, but he didn’t have that problem with Gaby.

The doctor was putting her supplies into a small bag as she stood up. Will knew who she was before she even turned around.

“How is he?” Josh asked.

“He’ll live,” Zoe said. Then she looked over at Will, standing behind Josh, and smiled a bit. “Hey.”

Will nodded back at her. “Doc.”

“You got my list?” Zoe asked Josh.

“What list?” Josh said.

She looked irritated. “I gave Givens the list of everyone going on the transport tomorrow. I also told him about the problem with the trucks getting too hot during the trip.”

Josh glanced briefly at Will, then back to Zoe and nodded. “Oh, that. He told me.”

“So?” Zoe said.

“So what?”

“The transport arrangements. You’ll change it for tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Good.” She looked back over at Will. “Seriously, Givens, you must really like that gas mask. I haven’t seen you without it all day.”

“Yeah,” Will said.

Dammit,
Will thought when he saw Williams looking up from the
Playboy
at the mention of Givens’s name. The man’s eyes zeroed in on Will’s face.

“Givens?” Williams said. “Bullshit. You’re not—”

Will drew his Glock and shot Williams in the chest. A thin bullet hole appeared in the suit as Williams collapsed, all the blood captured inside the fabric as if it were a vacuum.

Gaby quickly scrambled forward and snatched up Williams’s rifle, while Will spun around just as Henry, the other hazmat-suited guard, pushed his way into the tent.

“What the hell’s going on?” Henry said.

Will shot him in the head.

Zoe stumbled backward, shocked, eyes darting from Josh to Will to Henry’s body on the grass floor. She bumped into Gaby, who pulled out Williams’s handgun—a 9mm Beretta—and handed it to Nate.

Nate sat up on the small cot with a grunt and reached for a shirt that looked about a size too big hanging from a hook nearby. He pulled it on with his one good hand, until Gaby hurried over and helped him into the sleeves. Nate grimaced with pain the whole time, but tried not to show it. It was a losing battle, though, and he looked worse than some of the walking wounded Will had seen from his time in Afghanistan.

Josh whirled on Will, his face red with anger. “Why did you do that? You shouldn’t have done that!”

There was already a commotion outside the tent. He heard heavy footsteps, and men’s voices shouting for people to get out of their way.

Will pulled off the gas mask and looked past Josh’s and Zoe’s horrified faces at Nate, as Gaby struggled to do the bottom two buttons on his shirt. “Can you walk?”

Nate nodded grimly. “I can walk.”

Will looked back at Josh and Zoe. “The two of you are coming with us.”

“What?” Zoe said. “Just go!”

“Sorry, doc, but we need hostages.” He focused on Josh. “And I get the feeling Kate made it very clear to everyone that you’re her golden boy. Am I right?”

Josh said nothing.

“Gaby, Nate,” Will said.

He didn’t have to tell them the rest. Nate, still leaning against Gaby for support, positioned himself behind Zoe, while Gaby pulled Josh in front of her, standing the two hostages between them and the tent entrance, as the sound of running feet got louder as they drew nearer.

Will slipped out his cross-knife and moved toward the back of the tent. He shoved the knife into the fabric and sliced it across, then down, before pulling the flap aside to reveal the blue color of the bigger tent directly behind it.

“What’s going on in there?” a voice shouted from the front of the tent. “Josh? Doctor Zoe? You both still in there?”

“Answer him,” Gaby said. She was calm, but there was an edge to her voice.

“Doctor Zoe and I are being held hostage!” Josh shouted back.

“By who?” the voice asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Gaby said.

“Doesn’t matter!” Josh shouted.

“Williams? Henry?” the voice asked.

“Dead!”

While they were exchanging questions and answers, Will had slashed his way across the back of the tent, then continued through the blue fabric behind it. He sliced from top to bottom, then side to side, before peeling it back to reveal open air and the frightened faces of civilians staring back at him. They immediately began running away, except for a couple of boys eating apples who stopped to gawk, until older people dragged them away, too.

“Stay back or we’ll kill them!” Gaby shouted behind him.

He went through the makeshift “door” first. “Gaby, Nate…”

Josh and Zoe followed him out, with Gaby and Nate closely behind them. Nate was essentially working with one good arm, his left hanging uselessly at his side.

“You going to die on me, Nate?” Will asked.

Nate gave him a forced grin, then wiped at a thick bead of sweat along his temple. “I’m good. They gave me some great pills back there, and the doc was nice enough to sew me back up.”

Will nodded. He didn’t believe a single word of it, but if he could walk… “Gaby, take Josh up front. Nate stays in the middle. Hold on to my rifle and lead me and the good doctor.”

Gaby grabbed Josh by the arm and led him forward. Will could see the hurt expression on the kid’s face as he silently obeyed. Gaby seemed to be moving on automatic pilot, like some kind of unfeeling automaton. He knew better, of course. She had simply shifted into what he called War Mode. He and Danny did it all the time during combat. It was easier to compartmentalize the superfluous and concentrate on the matter at hand—survival. Gaby was far from ruthless and emotionless at the moment, but she was putting on a good front.

That’s my soldier.

Will was backpedaling with Zoe in front of him, which made walking difficult. He made sure to keep a firm grasp on her arm so she didn’t stumble, and when she did, he was there to keep her upright—at least, for the most part.

Will didn’t think the “don’t come in or we’ll kill them” threat was going to last very long, and it didn’t. They hadn’t gone more than twenty meters through the camp before he saw the first hazmat suit poking his head out from the slashed tent flaps in front of him.

Zoe gasped at the sight of the man emerging out of the tent in pursuit, perhaps expecting everything to suddenly devolve into gunfire with her caught in the middle. He didn’t blame her. She was probably close to being right.

“Relax,” Will said.

“Relax?” she said, almost shouting the word out. “Go to hell, Givens!”

Yeah, Givens, to go hell.