Road to Babylon (Book 8): Daybreak

by Sisavath, Sam

  “How many of them are out there?” Carter was asking him.

  “A lot.”

  “How many is a lot?”

  “More than a little, and less than infinity.”

  That elicited a grin from Carter. “You’re alone?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Who else—” Then, “Oh. You mean me.”

  “Unless there’s someone else other than the two of us down here?”

  Carter shook her head. “There’s just us. I checked. This place is empty.”

  “But it wasn’t always?”

  “No. There are piles of clothes down there.” She shivered, wrapping her arms around her chest. “At first I thought there was just one pile, but there are others. I’m not the first one they brought down here. I don’t even think I’m the first one they brought down here today. The blood is still wet on some of the clothes.”

  “You keep saying ‘they’ brought you down here. Who?”

  Carter shook her head. “I don’t know. I woke up and I was here. I don’t know what happened before that, or how.”

  “Sharon said you were running with the others when the ghouls attacked.”

  She nodded. “After we lost the horses, we tried to take shelter in a bookstore down the street, but they were already inside, almost…” She stopped.

  “Almost what?” Keo prodded.

  “Almost like they were waiting for us. Like they knew we’d go in there.”

  “Let me guess. The door was wide open, while all the others were closed?”

  “Yeah. How did you know?”

  “Because that’s what happened to me.”

  Carter’s eyes got wide. “Hey.”

  “What?”

  “The door…”

  “What about—” He stopped, because he quickly realized what she was trying to say.

  The door. The banging had stopped. The ghouls had ceased their attack.

  Now what?

  Keo turned to look at the door, but the only sounds he could pick up was his own slightly-labored breathing and that of the girl’s behind him, filling up the stale air of the basement. He leaned forward and placed one ear against the door but still couldn’t pick up any noises other than his cheek rubbing against the hard wood.

  “What happened?” Carter whispered behind him. “Why did they stop?”

  “I don’t know,” Keo said, remembering that the same thing had happened back at the office where he’d found refuge with the three women.

  Someone’s playing games. Someone’s playing fucking games.

  Keo pulled back slightly but never took his hand off the doorknob. He didn’t trust the door not to burst open once he let his guard down.

  He glanced back at Carter. She hadn’t moved from her spot, but the bat had returned to its ready position in front of her. She was choking up on it like a slugger ready to do battle.

  “There’s no way to lock this door from this side,” Keo said. “Did you see anything down there that we could use?”

  Carter seemed to think about it for a moment, before shaking her head. “I don’t know. It’s really dark. I don’t think… Wait.”

  “What?”

  “There’s a pool table.”

  “A pool table?”

  “I think it’s heavy enough to block the door.”

  Keo chuckled. “I’m sure it is, but how am I going to get it up here?”

  “I could help.”

  “What are you, fifty pounds soaking wet?”

  She puffed up her chest slightly. “Three times that.”

  Doubtful, Keo thought but he said, “We need something smaller, but still strong enough. A cabinet, maybe. Or a bookcase. Did you see anything like that below?”

  Again, the girl took a moment to think.

  Finally, she shook her head. “I don’t think so. But there might be, and I just didn’t see it. Like I said, it’s really dark down there.”

  It’s really dark up here too, kid.

  The only option Keo could come up with was to leave her up here to hold the door while he went down to check for himself. That, unfortunately, meant leaving a kid up here to hold the door while he went downstairs.

  No, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t risk it. She looked like a healthy girl, and he had no doubt she was stronger than a ghoul. Hell, she could probably go toe-to-toe with two of them with that baseball bat. Maybe even three. But there wasn’t just two or three of them out there; there was a whole goddamn horde.

  Or, at least, there used to be. Right now, he had no idea about the state of the hallway outside.

  And there was that nagging feeling that he couldn’t shake, that told him someone—or something—was toying with him. All of this felt manipulated, as if he were being led from point A to point B like a rat through a maze.

  Keo didn’t like that. He didn’t like it one goddamn bit.

  Carter had been watching him closely, not saying anything, as Keo went through the possibilities in his head. The girl finally spoke up: “They’re dead, aren’t they?”

  “Who?”

  “The others. Sharon, Liz, and Jackson.”

  “No,” Keo lied. “The last time I saw them—”

  “You’re lying.”

  Damn, she can see it on my face.

  “They’re dead,” Carter said. She sat down on the top of the stairs and turned her back to him. “I can feel it. They’re dead, aren’t they?”

  Keo sighed. “Sharon’s dead, but I don’t know what happened to Liz and Jackson.”

  Carter looked back over her shoulder at him and narrowed her eyes, as if trying to read him. Oh, who was he kidding? That was exactly what the kid was doing.

  And she must have believed him this time, because she nodded and said somberly, “It’s my fault. They were coming here to rescue me. If it wasn’t for me…”

  “They weren’t going to leave you behind. What happened to the others? The ones you got separated with?”

  “They’re dead.”

  “All of them?”

  Carter nodded. “I saw them die. I thought I was going to die, too.” She paused. Then, “I don’t know what happened exactly. It’s still a blur.”

  “How did you get down here, kid?” he wanted to ask. “Something out there brought you down here. Why? What is the point of all this?”

  But he didn’t ask those questions because Carter didn’t have the answers. She was just a scared kid who had just found out all of her friends were either dead or probably dead.

  “Liz and Jackson,” Carter said.

  “What about them?”

  “You think they might still be alive?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know. The last time I saw them, they were.”

  “What were they doing?”

  Running for their lives, Keo thought, but he said, “Retreating back into the building we were staying in.”

  “But you don’t know if they made it or not.”

  “No. I was too busy running for my life.” Then, because he thought it was the thing to say, “I’m sorry, kid.”

  “Yeah, me too,” she said, and turned back around. She laid the bat across her lap and stared off at the thick darkness in front of her.

  Keo wanted to assure the kid that it wasn’t her fault, but he didn’t know how to. The truth was, it probably was her fault the others were dead—Sharon, for sure—but saying that wasn’t exactly going to help their cause.

  He said instead, “What else did you find down there? Anything that could explain who brought you here, or why?”

  She shook her head but didn’t glance back. “No. And I looked in every corner. Besides those barrels and the pool table, there’s just piles of bloody clothes.”

  “Ghouls?”

  “I didn’t see any.”

  And I don’t smell them, either.

  It was the first thing he did after he slammed the door shut. He’d sniffed the air, searching for the toxic stench that usually filled rooms where ghouls had made
their nests. But there was none to be found down here. Not then, and still not now.

  “But someone brought you down here for a reason,” Keo said.

  Carter nodded but didn’t say anything. She continued staring forward, lost in her own thoughts. And guilt, no doubt.

  Keo left her alone and glanced down at his watch.

  8:11 p.m.

  Ten more hours to go before daybreak, which might as well be a lifetime given everything that had happened.

  And, he had a bad feeling, was still to come.

  Ten

  Something’s out there, and it’s fucking with me.

  I don’t like to be fucked with.

  I don’t like it at all.

  Knowing that (Okay, so maybe he didn’t really know that for certain; maybe the correct phrasing was highly suspicious of.) and doing something about it was another thing entirely. Especially at the moment, stuck inside a dark basement with a fourteen-year-old girl who had just lost another one of her friends. That was the best-case scenario, anyway. The worst case had her losing all her friends in the span of one night. Keo had had to endure some shitty nights before, but even he had to admit this was eligible for the Shittiest Night Ever crown.

  Carter had disappeared down the stairs to look for something they could use to defend the door and hadn’t returned yet. That gave Keo a lot of free time to think about what he was going to do next, and to count down the slowly—so, so slowly—time ticking by on his watch.

  8:15 p.m.

  8:16 p.m.

  8:16 and 30 seconds p.m.

  8:16 and 31 seconds p.m….

  It’d been a while since he was afraid of the dark, and today was a reminder he’d had it too easy for too long. The last time he hated staring into the pitch blackness was back in Axton when that blue-eyed bastard had cornered him in a church. Keo hadn’t been alone then; he’d had Gaby at his side and a few other capable guys. He wasn’t really alone now, either, but there was a massive difference between battle-hardened Black Tiders and a not-so-battle-hardened teenager.

  The silence didn’t help Keo’s flagging confidence any. It was so damn quiet out there on the other side of the door. So much so that he almost preferred the relentless pounding. At least he knew what was happening then.

  This, on the other hand…

  Why did they stop? What the hell is going on out there?

  Footsteps, as Carter came back up the stairs hauling something with her. Keo stood up—he’d been sitting down, giving his legs a rest—to get a better look. The teenager was carrying a tall wooden chair with her. The furniture was almost as big as her, and Keo kept expecting Carter to drop it from fatigue.

  But she never did and sat it in front of him with a big sigh, before brushing at beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. “This is all I could find. Will it work?”

  It was a heavy chair, which made him even more impressed that the kid had been able to carry it up here all on her own. The damn thing must have weighed half her.

  He leaned the chair against the door at an angle, sticking the headrest underneath the doorknob. It was an old-fashioned way to barricade a door, but it wasn’t like he had any other choice at the moment.

  Beggars can’t be choosers, pal.

  Keo glanced back at Carter, and just to be sure, asked, “This is the best you could find?”

  She nodded. “I looked everywhere. Maybe we could use those beer barrels?”

  “Are they empty?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Then they’re no good to us. We need something heavy.”

  Keo took a step away from the door to get a better look at the chair pinned underneath the doorknob. He didn’t have a whole lot of faith it would work, but…

  Beggars can’t be choosers, remember?

  “Let’s see what’s down there,” Keo said.

  Carter headed back down, and Keo followed. He shot a few quick glances over his shoulder at the door once or twice (or five times, give or take) on the way down, expecting the ghouls to recommence their attack on cue.

  But they didn’t.

  Not yet, anyway.

  Let’s stay that way, boys. Give me a breather, okay? Maybe an hour.

  Or two…or ten.

  It was darker at the bottom than it was at the top as Keo stared down the long flights of steps. He could barely see anything waiting below or even make out the floor. The way down wasn’t easy to navigate either, and Keo ended up relying on Carter’s tan shirts and pants, along with her blonde hair in front of him, to get his bearings. The kid had been down here longer and had clearly developed a better sense of their surroundings.

  A part of him was glad he couldn’t see everything. Keo had a feeling he knew what the basement was being used for, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be able to see all the bloody stains on the floor or walls. Those were things he was almost certain were there but couldn’t prove, or really, wanted to.

  He could smell it, though. Not the foul stench that usually accompanied ghoul presence, but blood. It was in the air. Carter was right, someone—or someones—had bled down here very recently. He thought he could even taste it against the tip of his tongue. It wasn’t a very good sensation.

  “You doing okay, kid?” Keo asked.

  Carter glanced back at him with a somewhat surprised look. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, are you injured? Hurt?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You’re not sure?”

  “I don’t think I am.” She shook her head. “I don’t feel hurt.”

  “You have blood on the right side of your face.”

  “I do?” The teenager stopped at the bottom of the steps and touched the right side of her face. She brought her hand back and stared at the blood on her fingertips. “It’s not mine.”

  “You sure?”

  She touched the blood again. “It’s not mine,” she repeated somberly before turning—

  Keo reached forward and grabbed her arm.

  Carter whirled around, her eyes widening in shock. Keo lunged forward and slapped one hand over her mouth before she could say anything.

  “Shhh,” he said.

  She struggled against him, but Keo was bigger and stronger and held her in place. Thank God she had put down the bat, or she might have hit him over the head with it.

  “I hear something,” Keo whispered.

  That got her to calm down, but not completely. He let her go, taking a step back while putting one hand to his lips. Carter didn’t say a word, but judging by her expression, Keo thought he might have lost a lot of her trust with that move. But he’d had to do it because he had heard something.

  Keo rushed back up the stairs. Carter didn’t follow immediately but was soon coming up behind him. They were making a hell of a lot of noise as their boots pounded on the wooden steps, but it couldn’t be helped.

  The door was still closed and the chair was where it was supposed to be, jammed underneath the doorknob. Keo breathed a sigh of relief as he crossed the landing and leaned against the door, pressing one ear to the smooth surface. He was keenly aware of Carter behind him, waiting patiently even as her breathing increased slightly.

  “What did you hear?” Carter whispered.

  Keo lifted one hand to shush her, even as he continued listening.

  What did he hear?

  A noise.

  No, not a noise.

  Noises.

  He couldn’t place them, but they sounded familiar. The presence of the door made it difficult to pinpoint their source with absolute certainty, but Keo swore he’d heard a series of—

  There, again.

  Not voices or movements.

  Not ghouls, either. At least, he didn’t think they sounded like ghouls out there. It would have been so much easier if he could open the door and get a good listen.

  “Keo?” Carter whispered. “I don’t hear anything. What did you hear?”

  He didn’t answer her. He was too busy listening f
or—

  Pop-pop-pop.

  There. Gunshots.

  Not just gunshots, but muffled gunshots. Someone was using a rifle with a suppressor.

  Pop-pop-pop.

  Pop-pop-pop.

  The question was, were the shots coming from the bar or in the streets? It couldn’t have been from the back hallway. The sounds were too faded, too obscured. He could barely make them out or tell how many weapons were firing at the same time. It could have been one lone gunman squeezing the trigger at high speeds or multiple shooters.

  And what were they shooting at? Why were they using suppressors? You didn’t use silenced weapons unless you were trying to stay low-key.

  “Keo?” Carter said, sounding even more anxious than the last few times.

  “Gunshots,” Keo finally said. “Someone’s using a suppressed weapon outside.”

  “Suppressed weapon? What’s that?”

  “A silencer.”

  “Oh.” Then, barely able to contain her enthusiasm, “Maybe it’s Liz and Jackson. Maybe they made it after all.”

  “Maybe. Do you guys use suppressors for your weapons?”

  Keo didn’t look back at the kid’s face, but he assumed it was frowning when Carter answered, “No. None of us did.”

  Then it’s probably not them.

  He continued listening but couldn’t pick up anything else. It was as if whoever was making all the ruckus earlier knew he was eavesdropping and decided not to give him anything to play with. Which was, of course, ridiculous. Then again, after everything that had happened—or more precisely, how—anything was possible tonight.

  “Anything?” Carter whispered behind him. She’d gotten closer, and he could feel her warm breath against the back of his neck.

  Keo shook his head, hoping she’d get the hint.

  She didn’t, because she asked, “What’s going on out there?”

  “I don’t—”

  He hadn’t gotten all of don’t out when something struck the door about a foot above his head and he heard the subsonic zip! of that same something moving through the air.

  A bullet! That was a bullet!

  Keo looked up at the hole in the door that hadn’t been there before. Thank God he was crouched on one knee or else the round would have gone right through his skull.