Road to Babylon (Book 8): Daybreak

by Sisavath, Sam

  “I don’t know. The way this thing is playing with us…” He shook his head. “It seems personal to me. It’s going out of its way to fuck with us. I get that the blue eyes like to play games, but this one… Man, it feels personal.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe he didn’t tell you everything.”

  “He did.”

  “Did what?”

  “Told me everything,” Huston said, but she didn’t elaborate.

  Keo guessed she didn’t have to. He’d seen the way the two of them were together today.

  Yeah, they’re definitely more than just friends and comrades.

  He said, “Martin told me that he wounded it.”

  “He did, but it managed to get away.” She paused briefly, still looking at Martin’s covered body. Then, “If he’d gotten it then, everyone would still be alive right now. Terminal, Rogers, Rondo, Jack…”

  Huston let the rest trail off. Keo waited for the tears, but none appeared. He guessed she was a lot tougher than he gave her credit—

  Something flashed across a moonlit part of the lobby below.

  What…

  It was oval and looked as if it’d been tossed inside through one of the open doors.

  …the…

  It landed almost exactly in the middle of the mall and rattled around before settling in one spot.

  …fuck.

  “Jesus Christ,” Keo whispered.

  “What?” Huston said.

  He didn’t answer her, but she caught the shocked look on his face. Huston quickly stood up and turned around.

  It was Martin.

  Or actually, just Martin’s head.

  It lay below them, the face turned upward and, while not exactly looking up at them, was in their general direction. It was almost as if whoever had thrown it inside had planned it exactly that way, but of course that was impossible. There was just as good a chance the head would land on its face or turn in the wrong direction.

  “Huston, remember the plan,” Keo said.

  The medic didn’t respond, but her entire body was shaking.

  “Huston,” Keo said again.

  She still didn’t answer, but she drew her sidearm and turned around to face the side of the second floor that Keo couldn’t see.

  “Felix!” Keo shouted.

  “What?” Felix shouted back from somewhere behind him.

  “It’s time!”

  “Already?”

  “Yes!”

  “You sure?”

  I’m staring down at Martin’s decapitated head as we speak! he thought but shouted back, “Yeah, I’m sure!”

  The first one entered through the back door. It was a single ghoul, and instead of racing across the lobby and toward the non-functioning escalator, it hung back in the shadows.

  Okay, now that’s new.

  The ghouls didn’t normally do that. They attacked. They didn’t wait. They also didn’t try to hide when there was prey around.

  “I’m almost done!” Felix shouted.

  “Work faster!” Keo shouted back.

  “You wanna do this?”

  “Shut up and work faster!”

  “Bite me!”

  The second one appeared almost directly below Keo, having entered through a side door. It stopped as soon as it revealed itself and craned its neck up to look at them. Before Keo could shoot it, the skeletal figure dashed behind cover.

  “It’s here, too,” Keo said quietly to Huston.

  “It’s here?” Huston said. She kept her eyes glued to the back of the second floor, but Keo could sense her anxiousness. She wanted desperately to turn around to look for herself, but was sticking to the plan. “The blue eyes? It’s here? Downstairs?”

  “Yes, but I don’t see it yet.”

  “Then how do you know it’s here?”

  “The black eyes. They aren’t behaving like usual. The only reason they’d do that is if a blue eyes is around, giving commands.”

  “Almost done!” Felix shouted from behind him.

  “How many so far?” Huston asked.

  “Just two,” Keo said.

  “Just two?”

  “Yeah, just two so far.”

  “Maybe that’s all it has left.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  The ghoul that had entered through the rear door darted into the light and made a beeline for the escalator. It was fast, but not fast enough.

  Keo moved along the length of the wall and opened fire.

  It took him three bullets, but he finally struck the fast-moving creature in the neck. Black liquid sprayed the wall as the ghoul ran alongside it before seeming to trip on an invisible wire and sprawling across the tiled floor. It actually skidded for a few feet before crumpling in a heap against the escalator.

  Bang-bang! from nearby as Huston opened fire.

  Keo looked over and saw where she was pointing her gun and faced that direction.

  They were coming out of the darkness from the other side of the second floor. It was the most obvious point of entry if they wanted to get up here, so Keo wasn’t too surprised. There were only three of them that he could see.

  Just three?

  Huston was firing, steadily pulling the trigger, but the creatures were still too far away. Fifty meters, at least, but closing in fast. Keo kept waiting for more of them to reveal themselves.

  One second…

  Five…

  But there remained just the three.

  Just three? he thought again even as one of Huston’s rounds finally struck a ghoul and it pitched forward.

  The remaining two simply jumped over the dead one and kept coming.

  Then Keo remembered the second ghoul that had showed itself in the lobby earlier and turned back around, looking instantly toward the escalator.

  You sneaky little devil, Keo thought as he located the nightcrawler. It was already halfway up the escalator.

  Keo shot it, striking it once in the shoulder. The creature twisted in midair from the impact, but even as it fell back down the stairs, Keo thought, This is it? This can’t possibly be it. Can it?

  Goddamn. I might actually survive tonight!

  Twenty-Five

  Before he could survive the night, there was still the two remaining ghouls to deal with. Huston was trying to take care of them, but she was using a pistol from thirty-five meters away—thirty, now, as her targets closed in—and missing. Keo helped her out and took off a ghoul’s arm at the shoulder; the rest of the creature flopped to the floor, along with its now-useless appendage.

  Huston took down the third and final ghoul with two shots. As soon as the nightcrawler skidded across the tiles and bumped harmlessly against the bottom of the wall that lined the edges, Huston was already reloading.

  “How many do you have left?” Keo asked.

  “One more,” Huston said. “You?”

  “Two. I have spares for the pistol.”

  “I’ll let you know if I need them.” She glanced over. “But I just need one bullet to end this.”

  That’s the trick, isn’t it?

  He didn’t blame her for positive thinking. This was all going a lot better than he’d anticipated. Keo was expecting one of those endless swarms of ghouls to come at him, not a couple here and a couple there. Now this, he could deal with. If this was all Blue Eyes had at his disposal, then Keo was feeling pretty good.

  He glanced over at Rosetto’s, the Italian clothing store where Felix had been busy inside this entire time. “Hey, Felix, you done yet?”

  “Get your asses in here!” Felix shouted back. Keo could make out the slayer’s shadow moving around on the other side of the opaque windows.

  “You heard the man,” Keo said to Huston.

  She nodded and began moving toward the store. Keo turned around to make sure nothing had come up the escalator while they were busy with the ghouls on the second floor.

  There wasn’t anything back there.

  There was noth
ing in the lobby either when he glanced down to check it.

  Can it really be this easy? It can’t possibly be this easy.

  Can it?

  Why the hell not? The entire night had been one close brush with death after another, so why shouldn’t he catch a break at least once?

  Because you don’t catch breaks, pal. Because nothing is ever this easy.

  And so far, this was easy. This was just too easy.

  Keo turned around just as one of Rosetto’s windows exploded outward, glass fragments firing like missiles at Huston. She reared sideways and back, lifting both arms to protect herself against the projectiles.

  But it wasn’t just small and sharp things coming out of the store—Felix also crashed his way through and slammed into the floor, before sliding across it and stopping just short of Huston’s boots.

  This’ll teach me to be Captain Optimism! Keo thought even as he ran over.

  He was halfway to Huston, who had gone down on one knee, when something landed with a solid thunk! very close by and to his left. Keo spun in that direction just as the ghoul picked itself up. It had broken both legs from the fall, not that the creature seemed to notice.

  A second and a third ghoul fell down from the sky and crashed into the first, pummeling it to the floor like an accordion. Keo heard bones snapping, and blood splattered the wall behind them. He was pretty sure that wasn’t the plan, not that the creatures gave a damn about what had happened to the first one as they leapt at Keo.

  There was no time to aim with the rifle, so Keo smacked the closest one in the head with the butt of the Colt. A loud cracking sound as its skull caved in and its head snapped back, before its body also flung backward.

  The third one kept coming, but by then Keo was able to turn the AR and squeezed off a shot. He hit it with the first round but fired again anyway just to be sure as the creature flopped to the floor. His second shot went wide and pekked against the wall behind it.

  The ghoul with the crushed skull was already picking itself back up when Keo shot it in the head. The bullet punched through the weak bone and sailed across the floor and pekked into plywood somewhere in the darkness on the other side.

  He stepped forward and took quick aim at the first one as it attempted to pull itself forward by nailless fingers. It dragged useless legs with it, the spinal column twisted at an awkward and impossible direction. It scowled at Keo just before he shot it in the face.

  “Felix!”

  Huston, screaming behind him.

  Keo whirled around. Huston was already back on her feet and was standing between him and Felix. She was clearly hurt—he could see blood dripping to the floor around her feet and knew they were coming from her—but wasn’t done. She was far from done.

  The problem was Felix. The slayer wasn’t on the floor where Keo had last seen him. He was floating in the air. No, not floating. Felix was being held up by the blue-eyed ghoul. Mr. You’re-My-Playthings-Until-I-Get-Bored-With-You had finally made his grand appearance. The black eyes were just the prelude, the setup to this payoff.

  Fucker really likes to make dramatic entrances.

  Why did he think it would be so easy? Nothing had ever come easy. Ever. So of course this made perfect sense. If he was going to survive tonight, it was going to have to be over Blue Eyes’ body.

  Fine. Your corpse it is, pal!

  The creature had a firm grip on Felix’s throat even as the slayer thrashed in the air, his legs searching for ground to stand on while he whaled away at the hand that held him in place with hardly any effort. Felix was throwing haymakers, connecting with the thing’s face. Not that any of it did any good.

  Huston hadn’t fired because she didn’t have a shot. Every time she moved left or right to get a better angle with her pistol, the ghoul mirrored her movements with Felix, using the slayer as a human shield.

  “Let him go, you fucker!” Huston was shouting. Blood poured down one side of her face from cuts she’d sustained when the Rosetto’s window shattered, and what looked like a two-inch piece of glass sticking out of her right cheek.

  Huston kept moving anyway, constantly trying to get a clear shot, and didn’t let her wounds stop her.

  She’s way tougher than I gave her credit for.

  It was either that or Huston was really determined to kill Blue Eyes, even if it killed her, too.

  “Face me like the sack of shit you are!” Huston was shouting. “Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid of me, you fucker?”

  Yeah, she’s definitely determined to kill it.

  Huston’s demands only made the monster smile. Then it did something, and Felix jerked spastically against its grip…then stopped moving altogether.

  Keo made his move, running over to try to outflank the ghoul by going left while Huston kept edging right. The creature’s piercing blue eyes snapped in his direction, and Keo saw recognition flickering across its face.

  Before Keo could finish his plan, the ghoul flung Felix at him, as if the slayer was little more than a football to be tossed around. It was all Keo could to do drop the rifle—thank God it was on a strap—and reach up. He did it more out of self-preservation than an actual attempt to catch Felix, because there was no way—

  Felix struck him in the face and chest with his body, the blow sending Keo backward and down to the floor.

  Goddammit, Felix, you need to lose some weight!

  Keo landed on his ass, then his back, but luckily not his skull, too, because that would have really hurt. Pain exploded from everywhere, including his gut, where Felix’s body had landed over the slung rifle and sent the gun’s sharp edges into Keo’s stomach.

  The bang-bang! of gunshots from in front of him as Huston, now free to shoot, did so.

  Nail it, Huston! Nail the fucker!

  Keo struggled to get up, but first he had to push Felix’s limp body off him. Was he dead? Keo hoped not, but he also knew what it felt like to have those icy cold fingers around your throat. It wasn’t pleasant, to put it lightly.

  Felix finally rolled over and twumped! against the floor. It sounded bad—his head must have struck the hard tiles—but Keo didn’t have time to check on him. Right now, Huston was on her own.

  Bang-bang!

  His hands were scrambling to find, then get a grip, on the rifle slung in front of him while he struggled up.

  Huston, retreating while still firing.

  Bang-bang-bang!

  The creature was walking toward her. Slowly, purposely, with that twisted expression on its face it probably thought resembled a smile but wasn’t even close. It was milking every second of this and was clearly not expecting a single one of Huston’s bullets to land.

  And it was right. Its body twitched every time she fired—moving so fast Keo could barely keep up—and the rounds vanished into Rosetto’s behind it. Some struck the wall, and others pinged off metal.

  Looks like the plan’s out the window!

  Felix had been inside the Italian clothing store when the creature attacked, likely catching him by surprise. The slayer was lying unconscious next to Keo now. His throat was almost entirely black and purple, and his limbs had rested at awkward angles. He was probably still alive—Keo didn’t waste two or so seconds he would have needed to confirm—but certainly out of the fight.

  And the plan…

  It’d been a good plan. Ok, maybe “good” wasn’t the right word. It was a decent one. At least Keo thought so. All they had to do was lure Mr. Joker into Rosetto’s. He, Felix, and Huston would escape into the back room while it was coming and bring the ceiling down on top of it using Felix’s C4. If it was still alive after getting a whole roof dropped on its head, they would rectify that with a bullet in its head. It was strong, but it wouldn’t have been able to climb out of a pile of rubble so quickly before they could finish the job.

  That was the plan, anyway.

  Now it was about improvising. Keo was good at that, too. So was this undead bastard, apparently.

  Keo w
as scrambling to his knees when Huston let out the kind of scream that shook the walls and unfinished roof of the mall. Keo raised the AR, but he didn’t have a shot. Huston was between him and the creature, and it was doing something—

  Oh, God.

  The sickening sound of flesh tearing filled Keo’s ears as the ghoul ripped Huston’s right arm out as if it were little more than a piece of cooked turkey leg. Huston’s scream grew louder and more shrill as blood poured out of her right shoulder. It let her go, and the medic slid to her knees on the floor, her left hand reaching across her body in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. It was a futile gesture, but Huston didn’t know that. Blood squirted out between her fingers as she continued to scream.

  And scream…

  It was a disturbing sight, one that Keo hoped he never had to see again, but that was probably wishful thinking. This was going to stick with him long after tonight. That is, if he managed to somehow survive. At the moment, that wasn’t a given.

  Hell, all the odds were probably against him surviving this.

  The ghoul waltzed around Huston. It was almost sauntering, like it was taking a stroll in the park.

  You fucker, was all Keo could think. He didn’t stop the rising anger building from deep down and trying to get out. He didn’t want to. This fucker had just mutilated Huston, and now it was coming for him. It was grinning, too, like the maniac it was.

  This fucker.

  This fucker!

  He calmly flicked the fire selector on the rifle to full-auto and fired off a burst at the creature. Ten rounds left the AR in less time than it took Keo to inhale and another ten also sailed before he could exhale the same burst of air.

  For some reason, it hadn’t expected Keo to do that, and he hit it twice in the chest even as it reacted, jumping to avoid his fire. Keo hadn’t been aiming for the head—it would have been too difficult, and it was just too small a target. But he’d been hoping for a lucky shot anyway.

  As it turned out, he wasn’t so lucky.

  There was no time to reload the AR, so Keo tossed it and pulled the Glock. The ghoul was already halfway to him by the time Keo got the gun out, and it burned through the remaining distance by the time he was straightening his arm to fire.

  Goddamn, it was fast.