The Gates of Byzantium (The Babylon Series, Book 2)

by Sam Sisavath

Josh flushed a bit. “I ran into this guy.”

  “Did you at least give as good as you got?”

  “Well, he’s dead, and I’m not, if that’s what you mean.”

  Tom nodded approvingly. “That’s not a bad trade-off.” He grinned, showing juice-stained teeth. “You ever been in a lighthouse before?”

  “First time. What’s up there?” Josh pointed at the third floor above them.

  “More of this, but also where the radio message you heard gets sent out into the world. I guess they were planning to run their own radio station or something. Go on up. The view’s even better up there.”

  Josh hesitated. “So you live here?”

  “Here, there, everywhere. But I come here for the privacy. Not everyone likes to climb the stairs.”

  Tom dug out another Ziploc bag filled with more blueberries and began popping them into his mouth. Josh didn’t know where he was hiding those bags.

  “Got any questions, shoot,” Tom said.

  “What’s with the door?” Josh asked.

  Tom looked amused. Apparently he had wondered the same thing. “I guess the guy who designed the place was trying to do something new. It gives the Tower three separate, private floors, so it kinda works. What do you think?”

  “The door’s a little heavy, but it looks pretty cool.”

  “That’s what I said.” Another juice-stained grin. “What do you think of the island so far?”

  “It’s more than we thought it would be. Which is good. It’s really good.”

  “Wait ’til dinner. Al cooks a mean fish.”

  “We’re all looking forward to it. We’ve been eating nothing but canned fruits and stale chips for the last eight months.”

  Tom chuckled. “Yeah, I can see how fresh fish will taste really good after that.” Tom tossed the empty bag into a nearby trash bin. He stood up and glanced down at his stained pants. “I’m gonna go find that baking soda now. Stay as long as you like, kid.”

  Josh watched Tom come out from behind the door, then start down the stairs. He thought Tom was gone and started to turn back toward the window, when the big man stuck his head back up through the opening.

  “Hey,” Tom said. “That girl. The blonde. She taken?”

  “You mean Gaby?”

  “I don’t know, is that her name? She’s a looker, huh? I mean, the other girls, too, but that one. Wow.”

  “Yeah,” Josh said, and thought, Asshole.

  “How old is she? Seventeen?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “Not that it matters,” Tom smiled. “It’s not like there are statutory rape laws anymore, am I right?”

  *

  AFTER LOITERING AROUND the Tower for a few more minutes, mostly to make sure Tom was gone before he went back down the stairs, Josh continued his tour of the island.

  He was still trying to shake off his encounter with Tom. It was unsettling, more so because the man didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with lusting after Gaby in front of him. In Josh’s experience, what guys said was usually the least objectionable thing about how they really thought.

  What an asshole.

  Josh pushed it out of his mind and continued along the cobblestone path.

  The Kilbrew Hotel and Resorts was confined almost entirely to the east side of the island, with nearly the entire western half covered in thick vegetation and sprouting trees. Obviously the developers had plans for this half of the island, too, but had never gotten around to it. They weren’t really going to leave an entire half unclaimed, were they?

  He walked aimlessly for a while, eventually stumbling across a big, gray concrete building. It was an ugly thing, two stories high, with long white poles sticking up along the flat roof like skinny metal limbs. The building was surrounded by hurricane fencing, including a padlocked front gate. Electrical coils extended out from the building, vanishing underground. There was a small, almost insignificant shack next to it with a steel door.

  He could hear a persistent humming noise coming from inside the building, and knew right away that this was where the island got its power and where all those solar panels delivered the sunlight they stored all day to be processed into electricity. There was a big generator somewhere inside the building, doing all the work.

  A sign read: “Power Station.”

  Josh walked around the building, taking it all in, until his teeth started chattering from the noise. He found the cobblestone pathway again and followed it south, all the way back down to the beach, where hard rock gave way to soft, mushy sand.

  He was about to return to the hotel when he saw Debra farther down the beach. She was pulling a casting net out of the water slowly. When he got closer, he saw that the net was full of fish.

  “Wow, that’s a lot,” he shouted down the beach at her.

  Debra gave him a big grin before plopping the net into a big, aluminum bucket. She jerked on the net and the fish fell out, sloshing and thrashing for their lives. Josh didn’t know his fish, but it looked like there were at least a dozen different species, most of them as big as his arm.

  “This is nothing,” Debra said. “Wait until next year. I’m going to need two people just to pull this net out then. Used to be, this lake was full of fishermen, taking fish out of the water as fast as they could spawn. Now, you can’t throw a rock in there without conking a dozen fish on the head.”

  Josh grinned at the image.

  “Good for us,” Debra continued. “As long as you’re a fan of fish, anyway, because we’re never going to run out of them. Ever.”

  Josh did like fish, though he wasn’t sure if he liked them that much. He supposed he would have to get used to it. Hell, it beat running around abandoned cities looking for canned goods, anyway.

  He caught Debra sneaking a look at his face, but unlike Tom, she was too polite to come right out and say anything about it.

  “Is it hard to throw that thing?” he asked, watching as she assembled pieces of the net along her right arm to cast again.

  “Nah. It’s all in the arms. Here, I’ll show you.”

  She walked back to the water’s edge and fluidly tossed the net out. It looked like a spreading spider-web, expanding before falling into the water and dipping underneath the surface.

  “The trick is to give it time,” Debra said. “Usually you need to know your terrain when you’re casting. If you’re doing it from the shore and you know there are rocks or other things it could get snagged on nearby, you pull it up faster. Here, though, it’s pretty much just sand below, so I’m going to let it sink all the way to the bottom to get maximum coverage.”

  She started to pull, and once again the net was teeming with fish.

  “Voila,” Debra said. Instead of throwing the fish into the bucket with the others, Debra pulled a line and the net opened up. Right away, fish began making their escape back into the lake. “We already have more than enough for today, so these lucky suckers get a reprieve.”

  “We can’t just put them all in the freezer for later?” he asked.

  “Sure we can, but fish are always better fresh. Besides, they’re not going anywhere. As far as I know, the creatures don’t like seafood.” She hiked the net, now in a tight and neat bundle the size of his head, over her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here. I was wondering how I was going to get all this fish back to the hotel. I usually don’t take this many back with me, but since we have a few extra mouths today, I wanted to make sure I got enough.”

  Josh grabbed one side of the bucket as she took the other, and they headed up the beach toward the cobblestone pathway.

  “What happened to your face?” she asked after a while. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Everyone’s asking, so why not?” He shrugged. “This guy in Beaumont decided I’d look better with a busted nose.”

  “Ouch. Did you at least tattoo him back?”

  “I didn’t, but Gaby did.”

  “Which one is she?”

  “The blonde.
”

  “Young one or older one?”

  “Young one. She basically saved my life. Twice now.”

  “She’s pretty.”

  “Yes, she is.”

  Debra grinned at him. “You and her…?”

  “We’re just friends for now.”

  “‘For now.’” Debra laughed. “Teenagers will be teenagers.”

  Josh felt himself blushing a bit. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “Probably in the lobby playing his games. He’s like you—not much of an outdoorsy type.”

  “How do you know I’m not an outdoorsy type?”

  She gave him a wry look.

  He laughed. “Guilty.”

  “I’ve been working out here all my life,” Debra said. “I started on fishing boats when I was fourteen, helping crews catch fish and crawdads and you name it, all up and down the Gulf.”

  “How did you come to Song Island?”

  “I fished on the lake on and off. When everything went bad, I figured there were probably worse ways to go than on an island, so I packed Kyle up and came here. I heard they were fixing up the place for a resort, and was hoping someone would already be here.”

  “You found Marcus?”

  “Yeah, Kyle and I were actually at the marina about to come over when he showed up in this big SUV. I don’t even know how he got out here, but he knew about the resort, too, and was probably thinking the same thing I was. We didn’t know it would be the godsend it turned out to be, though.”

  “So the whole thing with the creatures not liking water, that was an accident?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “When did you guys know for sure they wouldn’t—or couldn’t—swim over?”

  She seemed to think about it. “I’m not sure, really. You’d have to ask Karen. She was here before all of us. She’s sort of the leader. We follow her lead.”

  They walked up the path through the woods, their soft shoes tapping against the stones. They could hear birds fluttering in the air and the wind rustling through the trees around them. Josh hadn’t realized how much he had missed nature until now.

  “Your parents?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I guess I’m lucky, I still have Kyle.” She paused, then added, “At least when he’s not vegging out in front of the TV. It’s the end of the world, and I still can’t get my kid to turn off the TV. Go figure.”

  “Kids will be kids,” Josh smiled back.

  *

  AL, THE MAN with the bad comb-over, did most of the cooking, with Sarah, the other single mom, helping out. After delivering the fish, Josh stuck around the kitchen long enough to watch Al take a big meat cleaver and chop off the fishes’ heads—some of them were still alive, which made him a bit queasy—before grabbing a long, thin knife and slicing their skin free with the practiced ease of someone who had been doing it forever. Sarah grabbed the fillet strips and washed them, then tossed them into a waiting bowl.

  After seeing the fourth fish lose its head, then watching its headless corpse quivering on the cutting board, Josh hurried off. He thought he might have heard Al chuckling behind him as he fled the hotel’s kitchen.

  He rejoined the others back in the lobby and spent a few minutes watching the girls being girls. Sarah’s daughter, Jenny, had gotten over her shyness. Along with Vera and Elise, she ran in and out of the hotel lobby, disappearing down one hallway only to appear out of another one moments later. The adults watched them come and go with smiles on their faces.

  Debra’s son Kyle was still “vegging” out in front of the same TV, oblivious to everything behind him. The kid had swapped out Halo for a Call of Duty title, one of the Modern Warfare iterations. Josh wondered if he would have stuck himself into a cocoon like Kyle if he were younger. He couldn’t blame the kid too much. He was probably like that at Kyle’s age, and he hadn’t had the end of the world to deal with.

  He searched through the smiling faces and finally found Gaby on a couch by herself, looking content to watch the others, living vicariously through their laughter and conversation. Gaby looked cheerful in new clothes, and he had forgotten how bright and shiny her hair could be. Seeing her smile made him smile, too.

  Even Will and Danny seemed to have embraced the island. The two ex-Army Rangers still wore their gun belts, while Carly and Lara, like Josh, had put theirs away. Josh had swapped clothes and splashed his face with water before starting his tour of the island. Given his bruises and swelling, he couldn’t really get to work scrubbing the dirt and mileage out of his face and hair. In the back of his mind, he was still trying to conserve water, the survivalist in him not quite able to completely let go. He couldn’t imagine how much harder it was for Will and Danny.

  He walked over to Gaby and sat down next to her. She glanced over and smiled at him. “Where have you been?”

  “Exploring the island.”

  “You’ve been gone a while. I went to your room and you weren’t there.”

  “It’s a big island, and I’m a slow explorer.”

  Someone had put food on a table in front of the couches. Bags of chips and cold (cold!) spring water bottles, the condensation glistening over the plastic labels.

  Gaby put her hand over his and squeezed. “Don’t wander off too far.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  The touch of her hand, despite the fact that he had felt it a dozen times in the last few days, still made him breathless.

  *

  IT WASN’T SO much a meal as it was a feast. Al and Sarah served up fish of every kind. Most of them were types Josh had never seen before, but nudged on by Gaby and the others, he dived in and found them all to be universally good. Or maybe it was just the way Al fried and baked and boiled them. He hadn’t known there could be so many different kinds of fish in the world or that he could ever eat so much he could barely move. Then another plate with another fish he had never seen before landed, and he ate until he was full, again.

  He had forgotten what real food tasted like after living off canned goods and chips and warm bottled water for so long. Or maybe Al was just that great a cook, and Josh had never really tasted good cooking before. His mom did her best, but he would never mistake her for a restaurant chef.

  They had moved into the dining room next to the lobby. The room was huge, and unlike the lobby, which was mostly finished, the only completed part of the dining room was the floor. The walls and ceiling were still all Sheetrock and wooden frames, dangling wires, and a big hole in the ceiling where chandeliers were supposed to go. Not that the aesthetics mattered. The table was marble and long, and there were plenty of chairs for everyone to sit, so they gathered around and dived into Al’s cooking with relish.

  Josh ate and mostly listened to the others talking. Amusingly, the seating broke down to Josh and Gaby, along with Will and Danny, Carly and Lara, and the girls sitting to one side, while Marcus and the islanders sat on the other. People were just naturally drawn to those familiar to them, similar to how he ended up sitting next to Gaby without thinking, and Will ended next to Lara, and Danny with Carly.

  He stole glances in Gaby’s direction every now and then, and couldn’t help but smile at how happy she looked.

  Around seven in the evening, Sarah and Sienna, Jake’s girlfriend, brought out trays of glasses filled with red wine. While they went around the table setting a glass in front of everyone except the girls, Karen stood up and made a toast.

  “It’s been a while since we had company like this,” Karen said. “Drink up, and don’t worry about what’s out there. We’ve been here for months, and they’ve never crossed the water. They’re not going to start now, I can promise you that.”

  “Is there a backup plan in case they do?” Will asked.

  “It’s not going to happen,” Karen smiled.

  “Still, better safe than sorry, right?”

  “The To
wer. It’s the strongest building on the island. Of course, you’ll have to fight Tom for it. He spends most of his nights there.”

  Tom grinned. “Everyone’s welcome to join me in the Tower. We can have a sleepover and sing songs. Ladies? Any takers?”

  “Only if I can take my gun,” Carly said.

  Everyone laughed…except Josh. He watched Tom closely.

  It’s a front. The man’s got two faces. This is his public face. The one I saw back in the Tower this afternoon was the real Tom.

  Next to Josh, Sarah had brought out plastic cups filled with Coca-Cola and ice cubes for the girls. They grabbed at their cups and drank up, spilling the soft drink all over themselves and the table, crunching and savoring the ice cubes like they were the most amazing things in the universe.

  Josh didn’t have a clue what to do with the red wine in front of him. He looked around the table and saw everyone sipping theirs, so he did the same, sticking his tongue down to taste the liquid. It tasted bitter and unwelcoming, and Josh recoiled and didn’t touch it again. Everyone else seemed to like it just fine, even Gaby, who kept drinking until her glass was almost empty thirty minutes later.

  They drank and ate and talked well into the night, and Josh caught glimpses of Will and Danny glancing toward the windows every few minutes as it started to get dark outside. The solar-powered lampposts coiled around the island began lighting up one by one, glowing brighter and brighter with every passing second. Someone turned on a light switch, and lights around the dining room walls lit up.

  Throughout the night, Will and Danny exchanged silent looks, whole conversations passing between them with a glance or two. Josh wondered what they were thinking and felt a little naked without his gun belt. Whatever had possessed him to give up his weapons so easily? The islanders hadn’t even asked him to do it; he had simply left them in his room of his own accord.

  It was the electricity. The comfort. The air conditioner. The sight of Kyle playing games in the lobby. Tom reading a book, without a care in the world. Everyone was so calm, so oblivious to what was happening out there, that he couldn’t help but fall in line.

  “Are the lights enough for the entire island?” Will asked Karen.