Road to Babylon (Book 9): The Ranch

by Sisavath, Sam

  Was it an ambush, though?

  Of course it was. Why would they shoot at me if it wasn’t?

  Unless there was another reason.

  Which would be what?

  He didn’t know. That was the problem. He didn’t know.

  Not yet, anyway.

  He wanted desperately to poke his head out to get another look but fought the temptation. But he had to know what he was dealing with. And besides, he couldn’t stay here forever. Sooner or later, he was going to have to run after Annabelle. That, or take off on foot and begin the long trek back to the ranch.

  Yeah, don’t wanna be doing the latter.

  Fortunately, while she’d run off, the big black mare had stopped about fifty yards away and was now loitering around in the middle of the street. The horse was even looking back in Keo’s direction as if to say, Well? Are you coming or not? I don’t got all day, you know.

  I’ll be there in a jiff, Keo thought. Hold your horses.

  He grinned to himself. Too bad Bunker wasn’t here. He was pretty sure the rancher would have appreciated that little pun.

  Keo still wasn’t sure if the shooter was a bad shot or not, or if that made any difference. He replayed the action over in his head.

  The first shot had startled him and Annabelle more than anything. The second one hadn’t come close. The third, fourth, and fifth…

  Was he dealing with an inept gunman or someone who didn’t actually want to kill him? Which one made him feel better? Maybe a little of both; of course, the latter would be way more preferable.

  So how was he going to find out one way or another?

  “Hey!” Keo shouted. “Can you hear me?”

  He knew the shooter could hear him even if he hadn’t shouted, but it seemed like the thing to ask. Besides, it was a good way to open a line of dialogue. Throw out an easy question and see if they bit.

  He waited for an answer.

  Five seconds…

  Ten…

  The only sounds were the wind continuing to move through the abandoned buildings around him and a door banging somewhere down the street.

  Keo tried again: “Hey! I come in peace! Don’t shoot!”

  He waited for a reply.

  And again, he was disappointed.

  After another ten seconds of silence…

  “Why don’t we talk—”

  “Who are you?” a voice shouted back.

  Eureka.

  The response told Keo three things immediately:

  One: The shooter was willing to talk.

  Two: They were female.

  And three: They were young.

  “Keo!” he shouted. “My name’s Keo!”

  “What kinda stupid name is that?” the shooter shouted back.

  Keo grinned. It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard worse responses to his name.

  “It’s the one my momma gave me!” he shouted.

  He waited for another insult, but there was just silence again.

  “Hey, you still out there?” Keo asked.

  “Of course I’m still here. Where would I go, dummy?” the young voice responded.

  Another grin. He was definitely dealing with a kid. Maybe that explained why the first shot had gone so wide even though Keo had been moving slowly down the street on Annabelle. A decent shooter would have had him dead to rights.

  “Why did you shoot at me?” Keo asked.

  “Why not?” was the answer.

  It was exactly what he’d expect from a kid who probably thought that was the bee’s knees of responses. Of course, the shooter probably didn’t even know what the expression bee’s knees was.

  “What are you doing here?” Keo asked.

  “What are you doing here?” the shooter said.

  “I heard there were ghouls in town. I came to find out if that was true.”

  “Ghouls?”

  Keo wasn’t sure, but he thought he detected slight alarm in the voice. It was something that wasn’t there earlier.

  “Yeah, ghouls,” Keo said. “You seen them around here?”

  “No,” the shooter said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Well…”

  Definitely not sure, Keo thought.

  He shouted, “Look, don’t shoot, okay? I’m not your enemy. I didn’t come here for you. I didn’t even know there was anyone home. I was just looking for ghouls.”

  “What do you want with them?”

  “What else? To kill them.”

  “Oh.”

  Oh? Keo thought. That was an odd response. It didn’t sound like a disappointed one, though; more like a Oh, but of course that was the obvious answer.

  Unless, of course, he was wrong. He’d been wrong before.

  Lots of times, actually.

  “Don’t shoot, okay?” Keo said again.

  “Why not?” the young girl shouted back. “Give me one good reason why not.”

  “I told you, I’m not the enemy.”

  “So you say.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “So you say, mister!”

  She’s got a good point.

  There were a lot of bad people out there. Assholes, in a word. Keo was one of them, once upon a time (he liked to think that phase of his life was in the past, but maybe he was just being a tad generous on himself), so he recognized the breed when he saw it.

  He took another tact instead, and shouted, “Because it’s a big world and there isn’t a lot of us left, and I’d rather be friends than shoot at each other. So, how about it?”

  He thought that sounded pretty good, and maybe it did to the shooter, too, because there wasn’t any snappy smart-alecky comeback.

  Keo continued: “Can we talk in person instead of shouting at each other like this?”

  “Why?” was the response.

  “Because it’s the civilized way to communicate. Shooting at each other? Not so much. Or if you don’t wanna talk, can I just get on my horse and ride outta here? I came here to find ghouls, but if you’re telling me they’re not here, then I’ll be on my way.”

  Again, there wasn’t any immediate reply.

  “You still there?” Keo asked, even though he knew they were still there. He imagined them mulling over his answers. That was a good sign, as far as he was concerned.

  “Yeah,” came the answer. Then, “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Keo said.

  “Okay, you can get on your horse and leave. We won’t shoot ya.”

  We? Keo thought. So there was more than one out there?

  Or maybe there was just one, but the shooter wanted him to think she wasn’t alone. Either that, or…

  Let’s find out, shall we?

  He stood up and walked out from behind the Camry, his arms raised high above his head in the most non-threatening manner he could think of. He imagined Lara asking him why he’d done a foolish thing like that—take such a big risk on a hunch—and felt even dumber.

  But no shots came as he revealed himself, and Keo breathed a sigh of relief.

  Keo looked across the street, then to the rooftop of some kind of homemade donut store called Shelby’s. He waited for the shooter to reveal themselves.

  It took six seconds before a small figure stood up behind Shelby’s sign—a big baby holding a donut above its head—with a rifle in its hands. It was a girl, all right, and she couldn’t have been more than twelve.

  A few seconds later, another figure appeared next to the first one. Another girl, judging by her small shoulders and frame, and she was even smaller than the first.

  Swell. Almost shot dead by a pair of kids with a rifle.

  I’m definitely not telling Lara or Bunker about this…

  Six

  Two sisters, both under five feet tall, though the older of the two made up for her lack of height with a Henry lever action rifle. It wasn’t the most fearsome weapon he’d seen out here, but the .22 it was loaded with would have taken him out just the same. If not right away, then eventually, e
specially if she had managed to pump two or three of them into him while he was riding through town earlier.

  “I’m Wilson, and this is Gummy,” the older girl said.

  “Wilson?” Keo said.

  “Yeah. What of it?”

  Keo smiled. “Nothing. Just a weird name for a girl, that’s all.”

  “So’s Keo.”

  “Yes, well, I didn’t have a choice when my momma gave it to me.”

  He waited for a snappy comeback, but Wilson didn’t have any. That led Keo to believe “Wilson” wasn’t her real name. She wasn’t willing to share what was, though, so he didn’t push his luck.

  All things considered, his foray into Hamlock could have gone much worse. At least he didn’t have to dodge bullets; even more importantly, he hadn’t made the mistake of returning fire and potentially killing two kids who, from the looks of it, were just trying to survive on their own.

  Wilson wouldn’t tell Keo how old she was. When he asked, she’d said (with that same smart-alecky tone), “Old enough to shoot you with this rifle, mister.”

  He supposed that was a good point, though she’d gotten her chance and missed. Badly. More than once. That made him conclude that she was just a bad shot, and not because she was trying to purposefully miss him. He wasn’t sure if he should have been happy about that or not, though.

  The younger of the two, Gummy, couldn’t have been more than ten, and she was dangerously malnourished. They both were. That led Keo to wonder how they’d gotten here or how long they’d been wandering around Texas without adult supervision. He was convinced that although Wilson knew how to use the rifle, it wasn’t hers. She just didn’t carry it like someone who was familiar with the weapon but had picked it up somewhere. Neither one of them wore gun belts, but they both had on backpacks that were too big for their thin frames.

  “How’d you two end up here?” Keo asked them.

  They stood in the streets with Keo rubbing down Annabelle’s mane. The horse had returned after Keo reappeared in the streets and the shooting stopped. The two girls stood on the other side of the mare, both appearing even smaller next to the tall animal.

  “We found it yesterday; seemed as good a place as any to spend a few nights,” Wilson said.

  “You’ve been here since yesterday?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “You were here last night, too?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “And you didn’t see any ghouls?”

  Wilson shook her head. “We didn’t see, hear, or smell nothing.”

  Keo took their word for it. After all, he didn’t see any reason for them to lie to him now. The fact that Wilson and Gummy had gone through all of last night without encountering the creatures might have been all the proof he needed that they weren’t here. Maybe they were, six nights ago when Carlos and his brother first tracked them here, but they were long gone. Or maybe they had never made a nest here, but had just gone through it. If there were no people—and Hamlock was as empty as Keo had ever seen a town, the two sisters notwithstanding—there would be no reason for ghouls to linger.

  Which meant he’d come here for nothing.

  Well, at least I’m still alive.

  He glanced down at his watch. He was still under his own self-imposed time limit. Three hours before nightfall. It would still just take an hour to reach the ranch with Annabelle. So two hours to spare. Hell, he didn’t even have to tell Lara about this little side adventure.

  He looked up at the girls. “Are you guys going to stay here?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Wilson said.

  “You were hunting for supplies?”

  “Supplies, food, maybe some water.”

  “What do you have in those packs of yours?”

  “What’s it to ya?” she said quickly, defensively.

  Keo smiled. “Kid, I don’t need anything you have.”

  She gave him a I’ve heard that before, and I don’t believe you look.

  “You don’t have to believe me,” Keo said. “I’m just trying to be friendly, that’s all. It’s up to you if you want to be friendly back.”

  “Where’d you come from, mister?” Wilson asked.

  “A ranch about an hour’s ride from here. Do you know where Longmire is?”

  Wilson shook her head. “We’re not from around here.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “West.”

  “Where west?”

  “Just west.”

  Like pulling teeth, Keo thought.

  He said, “All right. You don’t have to tell me.”

  “So where you going now?’ she asked.

  “Home.”

  “This ranch?”

  “That’s right. You’re welcome to come with me if you want. Both of you.”

  “Why’d we want to do that?” Wilson said quickly.

  Keo smiled at her. “It’s not an order, kid. I’m just making an offer.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why’re you making an offer?”

  “Because I can, and you both look like you could use a good meal or two.”

  He looked from Wilson’s suspicious expression to Gummy’s not-quite-as-suspicious and cherubic face. The younger of the two had dirt on her cheeks, and her lips were dry and cracked. She was impossibly thin, and he assumed even thinner underneath her sagging earth-tone clothes.

  “Your sister looks hungry,” Keo said. “You both look hungry.”

  “We get by,” Wilson said.

  “You got food in those packs of yours?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.”

  Keo chuckled. “All right.” He opened up one of Annabelle’s saddlebags and took out a bundle of food and a full canteen. It wasn’t a lot, just enough in case he felt hungry on the way here and back. He passed them over to the kids. “You can have that. There’s plenty more at the ranch.”

  Wilson took the canteen and Gummy reached, tentatively, for the bag of food. They could easily smell the beef jerky and bread inside the wrappings. He thought he saw Gummy lick her lips as her mouth visibly watered.

  They’re starving. Jesus.

  He sighed, knowing how much Lara would hate it if he didn’t do everything he could to convince these kids to come back to the ranch with him. Even before her pregnancy, Lara was the ultimate momma bear. She would never forgive him for allowing these two kids to wander around Texas—especially now, with the kind of trouble out there—by themselves when there was a perfectly good shelter for them, with plenty of food and water.

  Then again, the ranch had its own problems, namely the imminent attack by a blue-eyed ghoul and its minions. Maybe not bringing these two kids back there was the best thing he could possibly do for them.

  “Look,” Keo said, “I think it’s my job to tell you this: There are ghouls out there. Around this area. You need to be extra careful.”

  “You said that’s why you came here, looking for them?” Wilson asked.

  “Someone told me they’d tracked ghouls to Hamlock. I came here to see how many of them there were.”

  “You found us instead.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But we didn’t see any ghouls last night.”

  “That doesn’t mean they weren’t around before you two showed up.” He told them about what had happened to Longmire last night. “You can come back to the ranch with me if you want, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure that’s a very good idea. It’s going to get dangerous tonight, and maybe you’re better off out here by yourselves.”

  “You think they’re going to attack you next?”

  “I know they’re going to attack us,” Keo said. “It’s just a matter of when, and how.” He paused and looked around Hamlock again. “Staying here, on your own, may be the safest option right now.”

  “Maybe,” Wilson said, but she sounded doubtful.

  That was surprising because she’d taken a very defensive posture up to now. But suddenly she’d
not only softened up but seemed to be questioning her original stance.

  Keo climbed onto Annabelle and looked down at the two of them. The young girl, Gummy, had to crane her neck almost to its limit in order to gaze back up at him. She blinked, the sun in her soft blue eyes. If he thought she looked delicate before, she was practically on the verge of breaking into a few million pieces now. He had to wonder, again, how the two of them had managed to survive all the way out here on their own for so long.

  “You’re leaving?” Wilson asked him.

  “I have to go back, get ready for tonight,” Keo said. “You kids be careful, okay?”

  “Okay. You too, I guess.”

  He pursed a smile back at her. “Take care of your sister.”

  “I always do,” Wilson said.

  Keo turned Annabelle around.

  “Hey,” Wilson said.

  Keo looked back at her. “Yeah?”

  “This ranch of yours. Who else is there?”

  “Me, my lady, another woman, and the guy that owns the place.”

  “And you say it’s about to be attacked? Tonight?”

  “That’s right. Tonight, or tomorrow night. But if I were a betting man, I’d put everything down on tonight.”

  “By ghouls, you said?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “That doesn’t sound very good.”

  He smiled, thought, Understatement of the century, kid.

  “No, it’s not,” Keo said, and started to turn the horse around again.

  “Hey, mister,” Wilson said.

  Keo stopped and looked back at the sisters again. “Yeah?”

  “You think all three of us can ride on your horse back to this ranch of yours?” Wilson asked.

  The question surprised him. Not whether Annabelle could carry all three of them—he was sure she could, given the short distance and how little the two girls weighed—but that Wilson was all but requesting to return to the ranch with him. This, despite everything he’d told her. Either the kids were unafraid of a ghoul attack, or they thought the prospect of a sanctuary with free food and water was worth it.

  Jesus Christ. How long have they been out here? And what the hell have they been through?

  Keo nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I think she can carry all three of us.”