The ghoul raised its right hand as if to ward off Blake’s next shot. It didn’t work. Buckshot tore away its fingers and continued on, also taking most of its right leg.
The creature slumped harmlessly to the grass.
A third ghoul leapt over its fallen brethren, but even before it had landed back on the slightly damp ground, Smith shot it—and missed. The bullet pierced the creature’s left leg but missed the bone entirely, before exiting the other side.
Dammit, he thought, hating the very idea of wasting a bullet, even though the gun was still heavy in his hand with its mostly-full magazine.
Blake did the job for him, taking the speeding creature’s left leg out from underneath it. The emaciated figure fell five yards from Smith, who was still backpedaling. Before it could stagger back on its one remaining leg, Smith crippled it at the kneecap with, this time, a sure shot.
“You owe me,” Blake said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Smith said.
Two more, coming fast.
Smith pivoted and fired, and this time hit his target where he aimed. Even before the ghoul could completely collapse to the ground, Smith shot it again, taking out its other leg from underneath it.
Blake finished off the last one with two blasts, and it, too, fell in a pile to the tall grass. A brief second later it was trying to claw its way toward them, dragging its elongated form by its hands, one inch at a time.
“Go!” Smith said, even as he turned and went back to running.
Blake jogged next to him. She had already thrown away the Benelli and was now holding the Glock. Like Smith’s SIG, her pistol was loaded with regular bullets. That wasn’t going to help them if more able-bodied ghouls showed up.
Fortunately, Smith couldn’t see more behind, to the sides, or in front of them. That was the good news. The bad news was that they had made a hell of a lot of noise, and there was no way the people at the ranch hadn’t heard all the commotion. No way in hell. The shotgun blasts by themselves was bad enough, but Smith had joined in with his pistol.
Yup. They definitely heard that, all right.
Which left him with only two options that he could see:
One was to keep retreating and hope no one from the ranch pursued them. If there was even a pursuit, that is. At the moment, Smith wasn’t sure. Would the Judge’s men come out of their sanctuary in the middle of the night, or would they take precautions? People that survived The Purge, while still not fearing the night the way they used to, were smart to be wary of it.
The other option…
Smith began to slow down.
Blake didn’t notice until she was a few paces ahead of him. After a few yards, she slowed down too, and looked back at him. “What are you doing?”
“Wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“Wait a minute.”
“Why?”
Smith slowed into a walk. He turned around and looked back toward the pursuing ghouls. He could still see them back there, but the threat was gone. The one-legged ones were hobbling in their direction while the headless ones were still far, far away. So much so that Smith could barely make out their thin outlines in the background.
Blake waited for him to catch up to her. “What? What is it?”
“The ranch,” Smith said.
“What about it? They would have heard all that. We have to get out of here before they come out to check.”
“Right. That’s what I’m counting on.”
Smith turned and went up the side of the hill, back toward the top. He thought he might have heard Blake sighing, just before hearing her moving behind him on his heels. If she’d kept running, he wouldn’t have blamed her one bit because even he wasn’t entirely sure what the hell he was doing.
And what was he doing?
Probably something stupid.
Again.
“Keep an eye on them,” Smith said even as he climbed the last few feet to the top of the hill and flopped down on his belly. He hadn’t bothered to elaborate on what “them” was. He assumed it would be obvious to Blake. He hoped it was, anyway.
Smith didn’t glance back to check on her but instead peered through the darkness at the ranch spread out about two hundred yards, give or take, in front of him.
Lights had come on along the house in the center, as well as around the big red barn nearby. He thought he could see shadows flitting across the windows of the two-story house but couldn’t be certain from this distance. He knew one thing for sure: His and Blake’s little adventure hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Smith,” Blake said from behind him.
He glanced back at her. She was crouched a few feet away, the Glock in her hand, while her eyes were glued down the hill and toward the approaching ghouls. Smith couldn’t quite see them, but he thought he could smell them. Barely.
“What are we doing?” Blake asked.
“My guess is they’re going to send a party out here to find out what’s happening,” Smith said.
“So, shouldn’t we be running?”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“I mean, if they’re going to send people out here, there’s a good chance they might spot us, then run us down. I can’t outrun horses. Can you?”
“Of course not. I’m fast, but I’m not that fast.”
“It’s a big ranch,” Smith said, turning back around. He still couldn’t see anyone outside on the ranch property, but there was definitely activity happening inside the barn. He pictured the Judge’s men saddling up. Or maybe getting another car ready. How many cars did they have, anyway?
“And?” Blake was saying.
“And they can’t watch every inch of it. If they send people out here to see what’s going on, that’s less people to notice us going in.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“You are serious.”
“I just said yes.”
“But they’ll be alert now, not sleeping like before.”
She’s got a good point.
Even so, Smith thought his plan was a decent one. He didn’t like the idea of running around out here in the open, and potentially being run down by men on horses. The people at the ranch may have been alerted, but that still didn’t mean they could watch every corner of the place. And it was a big place, too, surrounded by rickety fencing that couldn’t keep out a crawling toddler.
“Smith?” Blake said. “This is a dumb idea.”
“I need to find out what’s happening in that place. Don’t you? Have any of you guys been in there?”
“No…”
“So here’s your chance to find out what this ‘reeducation’ is all about.”
“Yeah, but…”
“This is our best chance.”
“How you figure that?”
“We have a distraction. The ghouls. When they get out here, the Judge’s men will be dealing with them.”
“That’s not going to take them very long. Unlike us, they probably have silver bullets.”
Smith couldn’t help but agree with that. Out here, in the open, the people at the ranch would be dumb not to at least have silver bullets lying around, just in case.
“Long enough,” he said.
“You hope.”
“Yup.”
He picked himself up from the ground, then turned around and took the knife out of its sheath and handed it to her. “Take it.”
“What?” Blake said, staring at the knife.
“I’m going to the ranch to find my friends. I owe it to them. But you don’t owe them anything, so you can take off. You already paid me back by coming here with me. You don’t need to do anything else.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She squinted at him. It was dark but not dark enough for him to see the momentary confusion, followed quickly by annoyance on her face.
“Go,” Smith said, motioning with the knife for her to take it.
Bla
ke shook her head. “No.”
“No?”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Are you?”
He grinned. That was a good question.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said.
She smirked. “I know that. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to, but I’m doing it anyway.”
“Why?”
“I want to know what’s happening in there, once and for all.”
“That’s all?”
“You need more?”
“No,” Smith said, and put the knife away.
He stood up on the hill, looking back down at the base. He could see a couple of ghouls getting closer, but they were still just silhouetted stick figures underneath the moonlight. Not dangerous whatsoever to them.
He turned back around and stared at the ranch.
There was continued activity inside the big red barn, but no one had shown themselves yet. That wasn’t going to be the case all night, though. The Judge’s men would come out to investigate the shooting. If he were lucky, they’d bring a lot of men, leaving just a few to watch all the many ways into the property behind them.
If he were lucky.
“Let’s go,” Smith said, and began hopping down the side of the hill.
“Smith,” Blake said behind him.
“What?”
“If you get me killed, I’m going to kill you.”
Smith grinned to himself. He hadn’t thought it was possible, but he was liking Blake more and more. Of course, it could just be his little head talking, but he didn’t think so.
Not entirely, anyway.
Nine
Three horses left the barn and trotted across the ranch grounds, heading for the hills. It was too dark for Smith to get a proper look at the makeup of the riders. It didn’t help that he and Blake were hidden about fifty meters away, hiding among the tall grass as the ranchers streaked toward the source of the gunfire earlier. If any of them even noticed Smith and Blake, no one stopped to investigate.
“They don’t see us,” Blake whispered. She didn’t really have to since they were so far away from the closest rider.
“No,” Smith said. “Let’s keep it that way.”
“Am I being too loud?”
“No.”
“It feels like I’m being loud.”
“You’re not. Relax.”
“Relax. Right. Just a walk in the park.”
Not quite, Smith thought as he pushed himself up onto his knees, then scanned the ranch in front of them.
The lights he’d seen come on earlier had remained lit, but there wasn’t any additional illumination. Three warm bodies had come out of the place, so how many were left? That was the question. One that he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out. If Smith had his way, he’d find Mary and her son and get the hell out of here.
Like you’ve had things go your way all week.
He checked his watch, the hour and minute hands glowing along with the indices in the darkness. Three-fifteen. He still had plenty of time before sunrise. Not a lot, but enough to do everything he needed to.
Blake got up onto her knees next to him and brushed at dirt clinging to her clothes. “So we’re really going to do this?”
“Having second thoughts?”
“Second thoughts? I’m already on fifth thoughts.”
Smith smiled. “You can still turn back.”
“Nah. I came this far; I might as well go through with it.”
“You know you don’t have to.”
“You keep telling me that.”
“It’s true, though.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve always wondered what was going on in this place.”
“You guys never tried to find out?”
“We scouted the place lots of times, but there were always too many guns around. Mandy decided the best way to free the people here was to take out the Judge. That was the plan, anyway.”
“Having fifth thoughts about that, too?”
“No.” She paused for a moment. Then, “Maybe a little.”
“Let’s find out what’s going on in this place,” Smith said, and got up.
He jogged across the field toward the nearest fence. There wasn’t any barbed wire, and it was easy to slip through two of the three pieces of rickety lumber. Blake followed suit and did likewise until they were both inside the perimeter.
Smith went down on one knee again, his right hand casually next to his holstered SIG. Oh, how he wished he had silver bullets. Not that he needed them to take out another warm-blooded human being, but he didn’t know what was waiting for him further inside the ranch.
That was the problem: He just didn’t know what he’d find.
He eyeballed the distance to the closest building. About 70 meters, give or take. It looked like some kind of supply shack. Not very big at all, but perhaps just enough room for a couple of shelves and tools on top of them. Wooden sides, faded white paint making it just barely stand out in the semidarkness.
“Ready?” Smith said.
“Yeah,” Blake said.
They got up and jogged over to the shack, when the first pop! of a rifle shot rang out from behind them.
Smith immediately went down on one knee even as his right hand dipped to his holstered sidearm. He didn’t draw the pistol, though, because the shot hadn’t been directed at him.
It had come from the other side of the hill.
Two more shots: Pop-pop!
Then the bang! of a handgun.
A series of shots, about a dozen in all, followed.
He exchanged a glance with Blake, crouched next to him. She had the Glock in her hand.
“They definitely have silver bullets,” she said.
Smith nodded. “Yeah, sounds like it.”
He knew that because the riders hadn’t continued shooting. Instead, they had only fired about a dozen times—which was about the same number of ghouls that Smith and Blake had left in their wake around the base of the hill. If the riders weren’t properly armed, then they would have been forced to keep shooting since the nightcrawlers wouldn’t have stayed down.
But they hadn’t. There was just silence in the fields around them again.
“Come on, before they come back,” Smith said.
He got up and jogged the rest of the way over to the shack. Blake was right behind him, then beside him when he finally reached his destination. They slid up against the cold wall, keeping to the darkest part of the building.
Smith glanced back toward the hill—a big hump in an otherwise flat land—but there were no signs of the riders. Right now, he imagined them performing some kind of investigation, trying to figure out what had happened earlier. They would have no doubt noticed the way the ghouls were crippled and put two and two together.
He looked over at the big barn, about fifty meters away. The house was in front of it—another fifty meters or so. The other structures—some bigger than the one they were hiding behind now, others about the same size—were spread out, though they were clustered around the eastern part of the ranch. Smith hadn’t realized that when he was looking at the place from the hillside. He guessed that had something to do with his angled perspective while he was up there.
The barn wasn’t much to look at up close—big, red, and ugly. The colors along the walls and slanted roof on the second floor were badly faded and peeling, with just as much strips of brown and white as there were sheets of red. Twin double doors at the front, with two large windows above them that gave the front of the structure the appearance of a menacing creature with wooden teeth.
“What now?” Blake asked. She was still whispering, small wisps of white clouds coming out between her lips every time she spoke. It had gotten noticeably colder, though not enough for Smith to wish for a jacket.
“The house,” Smith said.
“That’s pretty far away.”
“It’s not that far.”
&nbs
p; “It’s pretty far.”
“Is it?”
She gave him a look that might have been annoyance. Or worry. “Is there something wrong with your eyes?”
“I don’t think so.”
He got up and hustled around the shack, moving in a straight line toward the next closest one. It was also white but had recently been repainted, and seemed to almost glow in the shadows. Smith slid up against it, with Blake doing likewise next to him a second later.
“Might want to give me a heads-up next time you move, handsome,” she said.
Smith glanced over at her. “Handsome?”
“What?” Blake said.
Smith smiled, and said, “Ready?”
“Where are we going now?”
“The house.”
“Not the barn? It’s closer.”
He shook his head. “We’d need to run across the property to reach the barn. The house may be farther, but we won’t have to expose ourselves to reach it. Stick to the shadows.”
She nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Does it?”
Blake shrugged. “As much as anything that’s happened tonight makes any sense, I guess.”
He moved again, and they hopped from building to building, eventually passing the barn all the way across the property. To reach it, they would have had to race across open grounds. It was still dark enough and there weren’t any bright lights to illuminate them if they’d tried it, but it was more risk than he was willing to take. This way, they could remain along the outskirts of the ranch by sticking to its darker parts.
It wasn’t hard to key in on the house—besides the barn, it was the only one with lights illuminating its frame. There were three that Smith could see: One above the double front entrance and two hanging off the corners from posts. He could also make out additional lights on the other side of a window along the first floor. There were more windows on the second, but those remained dark.
There was only one more shack before the house—this one was double the size of the first and had a fading mural of what looked like two kids playing on the side—and Smith and Blake reached it just as—
After The Purge, AKA John Smith Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 35
