Road To Babylon Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Sisavath, Sam

  An empty and flat field waited in front of them, just barely visible against the thick mist that seemed to cover everything. There was a wall of trees on the other side, some two hundred meters away, but there was no chance she could see any of it this morning.

  Fortunately they didn’t have to wait very long.

  It started slow and soft before gradually gaining speed and intensity: The whup-whup-whup of an incoming chopper.

  Gaby glanced at Peters, kneeling next to her. He might have smiled behind the rag that covered his mouth, but of course she couldn’t be sure. She was certain of the nod he gave her, though, and she returned it.

  About five seconds later, a Warthog flashed by overhead, slicing through the wide swath of fog like a hot knife through butter, scattering a huge portion of the gathered clouds in its path. Gaby glimpsed the clown’s face on the front of the cockpit just in time.

  Mayfield.

  The A-10 buzzed the town of Axton behind them before starting to bank.

  A few seconds later, a second Thunderbolt appeared, this one with a wide-open shark’s mouth staring down at her, the plane’s rotary cannon in the center of a ring of ferocious white fangs.

  “Damn, I’m glad to see those guys,” Peters said next to her.

  Gaby smiled and thought, Yeah, me too.

  The whup-whup-whup grew closer and louder just before bursting through the mists, rotor blades shredding the fog and slowly, slowly revealing portions of the wall of trees across the huge acres of wet grass.

  “That’s our cue,” Peters said as the Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk touched down in the wide-open field fifty meters from their position.

  As the chopper settled on its landing struts, one of the Warthogs reappeared above them. She had lost sight of the second A-10 but could hear it moving around somewhere up there, and that was more than enough.

  Gaby got up first and jogged toward the waiting helicopter, while Peters and his team followed closely behind. She swung her rifle left and right, grateful for the chopper’s spinning rotor blades as it continued to thin out even more of the fog.

  They loaded Carter into the Jayhawk first, with Bart and Donald climbing in after him. Peters and Jolly stood watch with Gaby before Peters patted her on the shoulder.

  When she glanced back, Peters shouted over the roar of the rotor blades above them, “Time to go!”

  She nodded and watched Peters climb onboard the chopper after Jolly.

  Gaby turned back toward Axton, its buildings slowly revealing themselves underneath the bright morning sun. But it wasn’t really the town she was looking at—it was what was on the other side, because that was the direction Keo had gone last night as he took the blue-eyed ghoul with him.

  “I think it was hunting me,” Keo had said, “for what happened that day. I think it’s hunting all of us now…”

  A hand on her shoulder, drawing her back to the muddy field. “Gaby! Time to go!”

  She climbed into the helicopter, settling into a seat next to Peters. As she buckled up, one of the Warthogs buzzed nearby, but there was too much sunlight for her to make out who it was.

  They lifted off. Slowly at first, then gaining speed as they ascended.

  Gaby looked past the blanket of white clouds that hovered over Axton and could just barely make out the state highway in the distance, much of it still shrouded by heavy fog.

  He was out there, somewhere.

  Alone.

  Well, not really alone.

  “He made it!” Peters shouted next to her.

  She looked over at him.

  “Keo!” Peters said. “He made it! I’m sure of it! Have faith!”

  She smiled back at him, hoping it was at least semi-convincing, before looking back out the open hatch as the chopper banked and began moving away.

  Axton slowly faded into the background as the fog swallowed it back up.

  And somewhere out there was Fenton.

  Gaby opened her pack and took out the portable two-way. She looked out at the wet and muggy Texas countryside flashing by below them before pressing the radio’s transmit lever.

  “Keo, come in. If you can hear me, if you’re out there, come in. I say again: Keo, if you’re out there, if you can hear me, please respond. I say again: Please respond…”

  About Rooster

  (c) 2017 Sam Sisavath

  HOUNDED, CORNERED, AND RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS, BUT NEVER DEFEATED.

  Keo has been in tough situations before. Some have been tougher than others, but he’s always managed to come out on top thanks to an innate stubbornness, the skills he’s honed from a previous life, and a whole lot of Lady Luck.

  But Luck can sometimes be a fickle mistress, there are always people with more skills, and stubbornness has a tendency to bite you in the ass if you’re not careful.

  Since leaving Gaby at Axton, Keo finds himself being stalked by a highly-trained group of humans in the day and hordes of the undead at night. Someone, something out there wants him, and it won’t be denied.

  In Book 3 of The Road to Babylon series, a man who has survived against all odds will find his resolve tested like never before. But if anyone can do it, it’s Keo. After all, he simply refuses to lose…even if it kills him.

  One

  He was tired and dirty, and he hadn’t shaved in over a week. He’d been wearing the same clothes for over four days now, and everything was starting to stink from his toes all the way to his unkempt (and getting longer) hair. Fortunately, he’d been able to pick up a couple of new socks along the way. After all, there were much more important things to scavenge these days than a fresh pair of socks. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been so lucky with clothes that fit, or that were an upgrade from the ones he currently had on.

  All things considered, he was in fine shape. Of course, people had often told Keo that his definition of fine could be a little skewed. But that was probably not the case this time. He was sure of it.

  Mostly.

  Things would have been even more fine if he could just ignore the scar along the left side of his face, which was tingling a lot more these days, like some kind of sixth sense trying to warn him of impending danger. As if he needed Pollard’s gift for that. Keo knew full well that he was balancing on a razor’s edge and had been ever since he left Gaby behind in Axton.

  If he had any doubts, he had woken up this morning to a reminder of his precarious situation.

  There were six of them. All humans. That one threw him for a loop. But then, it was day—thirty minutes past sunrise, to be exact—and this was the first time he’d seen them out in the open, and this close. They’d been careful the last two days, but so had he. They’d been sniffing his trail ever since he shot out of Axton like a bat out of hell.

  Humans. Definitely humans.

  He hadn’t been sure of their exact number the first day when he noticed the swirl of dust as they raced across the flat Texas land on his heels. They had spread out to cover as much ground as possible, and it was a damn good thing he took great pains to cover his tracks even before he knew they were out there. He thought he’d lost them a couple of times, but the following day had proven him wrong.

  They were good. Too good.

  Or maybe they’d just gotten lucky. That is, if they were even after him in the first place. Maybe it was just coincidence; they happened to be heading in the same direction as him. Which, of course, would be one hell of a coincidence given that he didn’t even know where he was going from hour to hour.

  There were other questions, like who had sent them, if anyone? How many were there? But those could wait.

  Keo peered out from his hiding place and, for the first time since they followed him out of Axton, got his best look at his pursuers yet. The sparkling sunlight gave away that they were humans, and the red facial hair sticking out underneath one of their ballistic helmets confirmed it. They were wearing urban assault gear—vests, boots, and tactical packs. Then there were the weapons. They had slung rifles and gun bel
ts, with the rest of their stuff hanging off the horses tied to one of the crossing sign posts. They were flanked by buildings, store fronts, a lot of abandoned cars, and enough litter in the streets to fill up a dozen (or more) landfills.

  He could see them, but was too far back to make out if there were any emblems or markers on their clothing. Keo had a pretty good idea who they were. They’d been on his ass ever since Axton.

  Keo eased his forefinger off the trigger of the MP5SD and pulled the weapon back, away from the spreading sunlight. The Heckler & Koch submachine gun was matte black and would have been difficult to spot from all the way down the street, especially with the black tint on the tempered glass window in front of him, but there was no point in risking possible exposure if he didn’t have to. After all, despite his best efforts, they had still tracked him into the city.

  Damn, they’re good.

  Or just really lucky.

  Either/or, pal.

  From his position inside the building, lying on his stomach and looking through one of the dirt and elements-caked windows on the fifth floor, he was mostly (You hope) invisible to eyes looking from street level. That included the six figures about half a mile up the road. They had stopped in the open and exposed themselves as they rested to drink and eat. Two of them sat on the curb while two more stood guard, watching the empty two-lane downtown roads and scanning the buildings around them. The last two stood next to the hood of an abandoned truck looking over a map.

  Maybe he was wrong. Maybe they didn’t know he was here. Maybe they weren’t that good, after all.

  Captain Optimism.

  Keo chuckled, imagining the ex-Ranger smirking as he thought that.

  He wondered what Lara would say. He’d come close to asking Gaby about her, beyond what she had been doing since he left almost five years ago. He couldn’t care less about all that saving the world stuff. He was dying to know more about Lara.

  “She hasn’t been with anyone seriously since you left,” Gaby had said. “There’ve been a couple of guys on and off, but nothing serious.” Then, “Just in case you were wondering.”

  He’d replied with “I wasn’t,” which was a lie, and he thought the kid knew it, too.

  He took his hands off the MP5SD in order to reach behind him and unzip the well-used pack sitting nearby. He pulled out a pair of jerky strips and was chewing on one when he heard a soft nickering sound behind him.

  Keo glanced over his shoulder. “Has anyone told you that you eat like a horse? Go easy, or we’ll both be starving in another day or two.”

  He flipped the bigger piece of meat through the air, and Horse caught it in his mouth while barely moving from the floor, where it had been lying behind Keo. In fact, the thoroughbred had lazily lifted its head to snatch at the jerky before returning to the warm carpeting, resuming a pose it had been enjoying since night fell outside their sanctuary yesterday.

  Getting the horse up all five floors of the office building had been a lot easier than Keo had anticipated. The animal had done most of its own work, with Keo only occasionally prodding it up the semi-dark flights of stairs. The horse was clearly glad to be out of the streets with night quickly catching up to them. Even after all they’d been through, the thoroughbred’s survival instincts still amazed him, and it wouldn’t have surprised Keo if mastering stairs was old hat to the animal.

  Keo picked up the binoculars again. They were a present from Peters, who had said to him, “Go fast, and don’t stop,” two nights ago.

  Gee, thanks for that advice, Peters, Keo had thought then, but he’d only smiled back and said instead, “Get the kid back to Black Tide.”

  “I will,” Peters had said.

  “Tell them what you found out. And make sure they don’t ignore it.”

  “They’re not going to. I guarantee you that. If nothing else, she won’t ignore it.”

  He’d been tempted to quiz Peters about what he’d found out about Fenton during his recon mission. “What the hell is going on in that place?” was a question that had been bouncing around in his head ever since he discovered Buck’s people were taking the women and children from the towns they were raiding.

  What are they doing in there? Why are they taking the women and children?

  But all of those questions took a backseat to keeping them alive. Especially Gaby. He liked the kid, even though she wasn’t really a kid anymore. She wasn’t even the same girl he’d last seen on Black Tide Island. She was prettier than he remembered, even with dirt and junk over her face. But it was more than the superficial. He’d always known Gaby was a good soldier—she’d been trained by two of the best, after all—but even he was surprised how efficient she’d become in combat. And that stunt she’d pulled, jumping from the second floor of the barn to save his hide…

  You guys trained her well, Will and Danny. The kid’s all grown up and deadly.

  More than the fact that he liked Gaby, he knew that Lara was fond of the kid even more and treated her like a little sister. And if something was important to Lara…

  You’re getting soft in your old age. Real soft.

  He shoved all of that into the back corner of his mind and concentrated on the here and now. And here and now, he was only concerned with surviving this morning. He would deal with everything else later.

  Keo crawled back another couple of feet from the window to get away from a new shaft of sunlight that had fallen across the floor. When he felt the coolness of shadows again, he stopped and sat up, and returned to looking through the binoculars.

  They were still out there, in the open, almost as if they were tempting him. It didn’t jive with the posse that he’d tried to shake for the last forty-eight hours but couldn’t. But this—just revealing themselves—was careless of them.

  Or was it?

  Were they trying to bait him? Trying to lure him into taking a shot and revealing his position? They had to know he was still in the city, that he hadn’t left. Which was why they also hadn’t left yet.

  Or did they?

  Oh, my head hurts.

  He focused in on the two figures looking over the map. He had no chance of hearing or reading their lips from nearly eight hundred meters away, but they appeared animated as they pointed around them. He wasn’t sure how much of that was for his benefit, or…

  It’s gotta be a trick.

  Right?

  Maybe. Maybe…

  Cordine City, Texas, hadn’t been his intended destination. Hell, he hadn’t even known the place existed until he stumbled across it last evening. Not that Keo had any ideas where he was going after Axton; he’d just needed to get as far away—and as fast—as possible. It was a good-size city with an airport on its south side and a cartoonishly large golf course on its east, where he had approached it. Its main center was stuffed with everything a small Texas city would need to survive, including a Walmart superstore and a mall that Keo had skirted because dark malls were never a good idea even now, five years after The Walk Out.

  Fifty or so thousand people once called this place home, but they were all missing this morning. He’d made it into the city with an hour before nightfall and hadn’t met a single soul. It was easy to believe everyone was gone and that the whole city was abandoned, but Keo had found that not everything was what it seemed these days. Especially when greeting a stranger riding like the devil was on his tail through the streets with fading sunlight at his back could get you a bullet in the head for your troubles. Keo also didn’t discount the fact that he’d only seen a small part of the city, with two-thirds of it still hidden from view, so there were plenty of other places where Cordine City’s residents could be calling home.

  There were a lot of possibilities, but if all went well, he’d be out of this place before he could find out for sure one way or another. He wasn’t looking toward crossing paths with more people if he didn’t have to. But maybe he’d spend a few hours looking for some new clothes that fit first…

  He spent more silent minutes
eyeballing his six pursuers. Or the six that he could see, anyway. There were probably more out there waiting to pounce that he couldn’t see. Unless, of course, he was wrong about this whole thing.

  Make up your mind already, will you?

  Eight hundred meters was a safe distance in most situations, but the six individuals milling about out there wouldn’t necessarily know how far he was from their current position. With a favorable wind and a good enough scope, plus skills that were decent to good with a rifle… Which wasn’t him. Keo knew a few people who could pull it off, but he wasn’t one of them. Not by a long shot.

  Hah. Long shot. Good one.

  Behind him, Horse nickered again.

  Keo looked back. “Already?”

  The animal snorted while barely lifting its head from the cushy carpet. It was probably the most comfortable ground Horse had slept on in days, possibly months. After the animal had saved his hide in Axton, Keo thought he owed the thoroughbred that much. More, actually.

  He hadn’t been sure it could even outrun the ghouls that night, but Horse had proven him wrong. The thoroughbred had been fast, cutting through nightcrawlers like Moses through the Red Sea. Keo hadn’t even had to do very much except pick off a dozen or so ghouls that had attempted to intercept them within the town limits. As fast as he could, he’d pointed Horse toward a river he’d scouted earlier to further separate himself from the horde. After that, it was just a matter of running until daylight, and Horse was more than up to the task. He would have been worm food now (or worse) if not for the animal.

  It’s going to outlive me. Easily.

  How sad is that?

  “You’re going to eat me out of supplies, you know that, right?” Keo said, and this time tossed the whole bag to the thoroughbred.

  The horse sniffed the contents before using its teeth to grab a piece of jerky.