After The Purge: Vendetta Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Sisavath, Sam

  “It was here, this entire time,” Wash said. He stared across the yard at the fire.

  “It’s the same one? The one you were hunting outside of Harrisonville?”

  “It has to be. The girl knew my name.”

  “Washington…”

  “Yeah.”

  “It told her to wait for you, didn’t it?”

  “I think so.”

  “Why would it do something like that?”

  “They like to play games. The blue-eyed ones. It’s almost like their form of torture.” He stopped for a moment, before continuing. “They’re sadistic bastards, Ana. You don’t understand how truly evil they can be until you’ve stood face to face with one of them. The black eyes are simple and instinct-driven, like children. They don’t hate or love you, they just want what we have. The blue eyes are different. They’re so different…”

  “The girl mentioned Texas…”

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “That’s why you’re going down there.”

  He sighed. He hadn’t wanted to have this conversation—had done all he could to steer her away from it—but there was no choice now.

  “Yeah,” he said. “You were right.”

  Ana went quiet. Maybe she was thinking about everything she’d heard and seen, trying to process something that would make most people run away screaming in terror. She wasn’t a slayer, after all, and as capable as she had shown herself to be, Ana was still just another girl from the towns in over her head.

  Finally, she said, “What does it want with you?”

  “It’s personal,” he said. “I’ll help you find your sister, take out this Mathison fucker, and then we’ll go our separate ways. I’m not going to ask you to go after One Eye with me. You won’t want to, anyway. It’s dangerous beyond belief.” He clenched his teeth. “I’ve already made peace with it.”

  “Made peace with what?”

  “That it’s going to be a one-way trip down south for me,” Wash said, and stood up and walked away.

  He could feel Ana’s eyes on him the entire time as he crossed the yard, but he wasn’t thinking about her.

  I’ll kill it, old timer. I’ll put it down.

  For you, for the others.

  Even if it kills me…

  “What do you think happened to her family?” Ana asked when they were back on the road.

  “I’m not sure I want to think about it too much,” Wash said. “They’re either dead, or worse. Either way, that family’s gone. There’s no point in talking about them.”

  Ana didn’t argue, even though he sensed that she wanted to. Instead, they rode on for another ten, then twenty minutes in silence.

  Finally, Ana said, “We need to start looking for a place to stay the night. It’ll be dark soon.”

  Wash glanced up at the sky. It was still bright, but he could see hints of darkness on the way. They had spent nearly three hours at the farmhouse, and combined with getting ready at the mountain men’s place this morning, had burned away too much traveling time. Night wasn’t the danger it once was back when there were more ghouls running around in the shadows than people, but there was no sane reason to risk traveling at night if you didn’t have to.

  He rode forward until he was moving along next to her. “We’ll be coming up to a town called Kanter 11 soon.”

  “What kind of name is Kanter 11?”

  “It was K11 five years ago. I guess they decided to keep the K and spelled it out.”

  The fact that Kanter 11 was once K11 meant it was a former ghoul town, just like Harrisonville and the hundreds of other places Wash had gone through over the years. The ghouls weren’t very concerned with creativity when they renamed the repurposed settlements, with the first letter of the state used followed by a number. So collaborator towns in Alabama started at A1 and went up. It was N1 and up for settlements in Nebraska, and so on. Things got dicey when a state shared the first letter with another state, such as Texas and Tennessee. But then, no one ever accused the nightcrawlers of being good at recordkeeping.

  “I didn’t see anything indicating a Kanter 11 up ahead,” Ana said. “How do you know it’s out there?”

  “It’s on my map.”

  “It wasn’t on mine.”

  “My map is different than yours. When slayers meet up, we usually spend some time trading information about what’s out there. Ghoul activity, potential jobs, quick sands. Stuff like that. I know slayers who’ve been all the way west to California and east to New York. A few even tried crossing the oceans to see what was still out there.”

  “What is still out there?”

  Wash shrugged. “I don’t know. I never heard back from them.”

  “So they could be dead? Or drowned?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “You said quick sands. What’s that?”

  “Spots that aren’t as welcoming as, say, Harrisonville or your Newton. I know it’s hard to believe, but not everyone rolls out the red carpet for us.”

  She smiled. “You’re right. That is hard to believe.”

  Wash grunted. “More places welcome us than not, though. And the ones that don’t, well, they change their tune pretty quickly when they need us. When a ghoul gets hungry enough, it goes for the nearest human every time.”

  “So, Kanter 11, then.”

  “Beats sleeping out in the open.”

  “Yeah, let’s try to avoid that,” Ana said.

  Kanter 11 wasn’t much to look at except for the stream that ran next to it and was probably its most vital commodity besides its people. There might have been more to the place once upon a time, but these days it was a lone main street flanked by twenty or so buildings that looked in reasonable shape. The place was ringed by trees, and it had taken Wash and Ana two miles traveling through the woods along a hiking trail to find it. If a slayer in Utah hadn’t told Wash about its existence, he would have ridden right past it.

  “The stream,” Ana said, nodding in the direction of the water.

  “What about it?” Wash said.

  “It might be part of the same one that Marla crossed back at the warehouse.”

  “Makes sense. There’s a lot of lakes around the state, so there would be plenty of connected streams. That’s why there’s a lot of towns in the area. Silver’s good, and so is food, but drinkable water is always priority number one.”

  They approached Kanter from the south, making sure to stay within view at all times. Soon, they were moving alongside the flowing stream where they spotted a dozen or so people, most of them kids, bathing in the water near the edge of town.

  The kids, to Wash’s unsurprise, were almost all under five years old, with a few even younger than that. The adults were all women, a couple of them grabbing at their clothes lying on nearby boulders or on the ground when they spotted Wash and Ana approaching.

  Ana smiled and nodded at the bathers and got a few positive responses, while the rest relaxed and went back to what they were doing. All except one woman, who climbed out of the water and walked to a nearby tree where she had hung her clothes. She hadn’t bothered to cover herself as she made the ten-foot journey, water dripping from her naked skin the whole time. She was tall, with an athlete’s build, and was squeezing water out of a patch of long brown hair as she looked over in their direction.

  Ana glanced back at Wash. “Be careful there, Wash, don’t want your horse to step on your tongue.”

  “What?” Wash said.

  “Don’t stare too hard,” Ana smiled before turning back around.

  The woman pulled a long-sleeved T-shirt from a branch and slipped it on, then did the same to a pair of pants. Ana veered her Tennessee Walker toward the woman, who came over to meet them halfway. She put her hands on her hips and smiled at them, water still dripping from her hair and chin. She had light blue eyes that went from Ana to Wash and back again.

  “Hey there, strangers,” the woman said. “You guys lost?”

  “We’re looking for Kanter 1
1,” Ana said.

  “You found it.” She gestured at the town behind her. “What can we do for you?”

  Ana looked over at Wash, and he guessed she was thinking the same thing. The way the woman had spoken, even her pose, indicated she was more than just one of the townspeople.

  “You’re in charge?” Ana asked.

  “I guess I am, but don’t tell anyone. Call me Marie,” the woman said, and walked over to shake Ana’s hand.

  Ana shook it, then nodded at Wash. “I’m Ana. That’s Wash.”

  “Wash?” Marie said, maneuvering around Ana’s horse to shake Wash’s hand. She had an impressive grip. “That’s an interesting name.”

  “It’s really not,” Wash said.

  Marie smiled at him, and Wash returned it.

  “We’re looking for a place to stay for the night,” Ana said. “We can pay for it.”

  Marie took a quick peek at the bags hanging off their horses before nodding. “Come on in, and let’s talk.”

  “You guys bathe out here all the time?” Wash asked.

  “Beats a bucket and a bowl,” Marie said. She turned and waved at the others before walking on ahead of them.

  Wash and Ana followed on their horses.

  Kanter 11 grew larger in front of them, and the more Wash saw of it up close, the better the place looked. It had clearly seen a lot of wear and tear but plenty of upkeep, too. Not that he and Ana had any choice but to find lodging here. A quick glimpse up at the slowly darkening sky confirmed that.

  “Where did you folks come from?” Marie was asking Ana.

  “North Dakota,” Ana lied.

  “What’re you folks doing all the way down here?”

  “Looking for our Shangri-La. You know where we can find it?”

  “Your Shangri-La, huh?” Marie said. Wash didn’t have to be able to see Marie’s face to know she was nowhere close to buying Ana’s answer. “You think it’s down here?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Ana said. “We’re heading into Arkansas after this. Maybe cross through Oklahoma first.”

  “It’ll be the first time I hear anyone call Sooner country Shangri-La,” Marie said with a chuckle.

  “It won’t hurt to take a look.”

  “Well, I don’t know if you’ll find your paradise down here or not, but you’re both welcome to stay in Kanter for as long as you want. We won’t ask for much in return, just what you can spare.”

  “I’m sure we can work something out.”

  “I’m sure we can,” Marie said, and walked on ahead of them.

  Ana slowed down her mount noticeably, and Wash did likewise. They were close enough to the town now that Wash could make out a young woman in her late teens sitting in a rocking chair feeding a baby with one breast, while two young men in their twenties sat on the porch of what looked like an apartment playing checkers. The streets were mostly empty, but there were a couple of trucks and ATVs parked in front of buildings. Whether they still worked or not was another question.

  “What are you thinking?” Wash asked, keeping his voice low so Marie, who had lengthened her lead in front of them, couldn’t overhear.

  “I’m not getting any mountain man vibes from her or this place, but we should be careful anyway,” Ana said. She glanced up at the sky, then back down. “Let’s not tell them more than they need to know.”

  “We should also stay together.”

  “You sure you wouldn’t rather stay closer to Marie?”

  Wash glanced over and saw her grinning at him. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

  “Just that she put on quite a show for you.”

  “You’re crazy. You were there, too.”

  “Yeah, but the way she was looking at you…”

  “Where is this going?”

  Ana shrugged and looked forward. “Just remember: You’re not one hundred percent. If there are any horizontal aerobics, you need to be careful about your stitches.”

  “Horizontal aerobics?”

  “It’s not like I blame you. She’s gorgeous. And she’s definitely not shy.”

  Wash sighed. “Are you done?”

  “I’ll let you know,” Ana said, before riding on ahead until she had caught up to Marie. “So, how many people do you guys have in Kanter?”

  Wash looked after her and thought, What was that all about?

  Fourteen

  “He’s gone now, but he says to tell you he’ll be waiting in Texas. He says not to keep him waiting too long, because he gets bored easily.”

  He couldn’t get the teenager’s voice out of his head, and the knowledge that he had been so close pounded inside his skull over and over.

  It was here all along, old timer. Just down the road. Just down the road.

  He was still thinking about that missed opportunity as he zombie-walked through Marie’s introduction of the town and its one hundred or so population. (He was pretty sure it was one hundred or so.) Marie took them to an old bakery that hadn’t been used for a while, and she had to unlock the front door using a key ring that was as big as her entire hand.

  The place smelled of mold and abandonment, but that was better than the stink of ghouls hiding in the shadows. A hallway led into an office in the back and the counter was covered in dust, as were the empty display cases in one corner. Fading sunlight filtered in through the two windows behind them, each fitted with security gates soldered into place on the other side.

  “It’s either this or one of the rooms in the apartments,” Marie said. “But there’s no privacy there, and the walls are pretty thin.” She winked at them. “If you know what I mean.”

  Neither Ana nor Wash corrected her, and Wash said instead, “What about the horses?”

  “We’ll put them in the stables on the north side of town. It’s secure, and we have two people on guard throughout the night. You can bring your things in here with you, just to be safe.”

  “What about beds?” Ana asked.

  “There’s a couch in the back office. It’s not a pullout, though, and probably too small for the both of you. I’ll fetch someone to bring you pillows and blankets later. You guys can use the floor. More, you know, room.”

  “Thanks, we’ll make it work,” Wash said.

  “My pleasure. We’ll talk about what you guys have in those bags in the morning. Maybe you can part ways with some things we could use.”

  “You don’t want to do that now?”

  “Nah. I trust you two.” She smiled at him. “Besides, I know where you’ll be until morning.” Marie opened the door, but before stepping through it, said, “Someone will come and take your horses for you.”

  “Thanks,” Ana said after her.

  “See you for breakfast tomorrow,” Marie said as she closed the door after her.

  Wash walked to the window and looked out through the steel bars. Marie was waving to one of the twenty-something young men Wash had seen earlier, and a lanky figure jogged over. They talked in the streets for a while, Marie pointing back at the bakery, before she headed over and into a two-story white building just a little farther up the road.

  Ana had gone to look at the office in the back and returned a few minutes later. “There’s a couch back there, but she’s right, it’s definitely too small for the both of us. It should fit you just fine, though.”

  “You can take it,” Wash said.

  “You’re the one with the bullet holes. The floor’s fine for me.”

  “I thought we agreed we should stay close?”

  “We’ll still be in the same building.”

  “Anyway, the last thing I want is to roll off that couch in the middle of the night.”

  Ana shrugged. “Up to you. But don’t say I didn’t offer.”

  She joined him at the window and peered out. The sun was dipping in the horizon, and they could see the town preparing for it. Calmly. There wasn’t anything out there that looked even close to chaos. Kanter had gone through plenty of nightfalls from the loo
ks of it, and the people at the stream were only now starting to file back.

  Ana pointed at a red two-story brick and mortar across the street from them, next door to the white one Marie had gone into earlier. “That’s probably the apartments. Everyone’s going in there.”

  “Looks like it,” Wash nodded.

  He watched as people appeared at the windows and began closing them. Like their windows, the ones outside were also secured with bars. A few had boards instead.

  “What do you think?” Ana asked.

  “About what?”

  “The town.”

  “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. The slayer who told me about the place did some work for them a few years back. He had nothing special to say; in and out.”

  “I don’t see any farms or livestock…”

  “There’s the stream.”

  “Fish?”

  “There’s a lot of fish and not a lot of fishermen culling them. You could live on fish if you had a stream right next door, like Kanter does. And there’s the woods. Plenty of food in there if you know how to hunt, which they probably do.”

  “Marie said there were only a hundred and twenty-one people in town. Half of the buildings are empty, or almost empty.”

  “They must have lost a lot of people after The Walk Out.”

  “Did you notice all the women?” She smiled. “The place is overflowing with estrogen.”

  “I saw that.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “You’d have to ask Marie.”

  “Maybe you can ask her. She might be more forthcoming.”

  He gave her a curious look. “I feel like you’ve been trying to say something since we got here. Wanna spill it?”

  “She seems to like you, that’s all.”

  “Where did you get that idea?”

  “She kept staring at you. And vice versa.”

  “I wasn’t staring at her.” He added quickly, “Maybe back at the stream, but I couldn’t help that. Gorgeous women don’t climb out of a stream soaking wet in front of me every day, contrary to popular opinion.”

  She smiled and might have been about to say something when there was a knock on the door.