Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

Then he told her about Song Island. About Lara. And about the soldiers.

“Jesus, how many of them are out there?” she asked.

“My understanding is that they’re everywhere. Every state. Maybe every country. Who knows?”

She was speechless for a moment. After a while, she shook her head. “I guess it makes sense. Everyone we knew in the camp was either from Texas or Louisiana, so we didn’t get any information about what was happening in the rest of the country. Talk about a myopic view of the world, huh?”

“The big picture is overrated.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

They walked on for another few minutes in silence before Keo said, “Are we almost there yet?”

“What are you, ten?”

“It’s going to get dark soon, Jordan.”

“We’re almost there. The base is temporary because we never stay at one place for too long. Sooner or later, they find us.”

“The soldiers?”

“No.”

She’s talking about ghouls.

He thought about his guns again, about the silver ammo inside them…

“What are you carrying?” he asked.

“About five pounds lighter since the last time you saw me,” she said, grinning back at him. “I like to think I’m at my perfect fighting weight.”

He chuckled. “You got funnier.”

“You think?”

“Uh huh.”

“I try.”

“What about silver?” he asked. “Do you guys know about silver?”

She stopped and turned around, then stared at him curiously for a moment. “Do you?”

“About silver?”

“Yeah.”

“I know a lot about it.”

“What do you know?”

“The people I told you about, on Song Island? They’re the ones who sent out those broadcasts about the silver.”

“No shit? We picked up their broadcast over a month ago. We didn’t believe it at first, but we tested it out and now we’re believers.”

She pulled out a spare magazine from her pouches and tossed it to him. Keo thumbed off a round and held it up to what little light managed to pierce the canopies, easily making out the silver tip.

“Silver bullets,” Keo said.

“The problem is finding enough silver lying around out there.” She took the magazine back. “I just have the one for the Glock. Everyone has just one, too. Everything else is loaded with regular ammo. We put them in at night and never before. They’re more valuable than gold these days.”

He kept his mouth shut about the silver loaded in his weapons that one of her people was carrying around out there. Chances were the man hadn’t inspected his belongings very closely, so he could still retrieve them later. Hopefully. The last thing he needed was to “share” the valuable bullets with strangers he was planning to double cross as soon as he got Tobias in his crosshairs.

“What else do you know?” Jordan asked. “Do the other things the islanders mentioned actually work? Bodies of water? Ultraviolet lights?”

“The bodies of water, yeah.”

“How?”

“I have no idea. I just know it works.”

“You saw it?”

“I saw it.”

“What happened?”

They turn to stone and drown, he thought about telling her, but it sounded crazy even in his own head.

“It works,” he said instead. “I don’t know how. Just like I don’t know how shooting or cutting them with silver works. It just does.”

She nodded. “Where’s a scientist when you need one, huh? An explanation would be nice.”

Keo glanced at his watch again. 3:14 P.M.

“Clock’s ticking,” he said.

“Relax, we’re close. This isn’t our first rodeo, you know. We have this entire area mapped out. We know where everything is.”

“And yet T18 still managed to ambush you.”

Her entire body flinched, and Keo instantly regretted saying it.

“Sorry,” he said. “Were some of them your friends?”

“A lot of them were my friends.”

“I’m sorry, Jordan.”

She sighed. “Whatever.”

“I mean it.”

She nodded but began walking faster in front of him. He had to pick up his pace to catch up.

“Have you come up with a better story yet?” Jordan asked after a while.

“I’ll just tell him the truth,” Keo said. Then, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Can I stop you?”

“Probably not.”

“Then go ahead.”

“What are you still doing here? You, Tobias, and the others. Why are you guys spending your days making life miserable for T18?”

She didn’t answer right away.

“Jordan?”

“These guys helped me escape,” she said finally. “I’m paying them back.”

“That doesn’t explain why they don’t just pack up and leave. Why is Tobias keeping the others here?”

“Almost all of them still have friends and family in town. They won’t leave until they get everyone out.”

He recalled seeing the soldiers along the riverbanks, at the marina, and riding around on horseback. It wasn’t just their numbers or their weaponry that Tobias’s people were going up against, but the enemy also had the night, not to mention the creatures inside them, at their side. Steve and his brother had all the advantages. All of it.

Keo had seen lost causes before, but this was ridiculously unfair.

“Jordan,” he said.

“What?”

“How many did you lose back there?”

“Seven.”

“How many do you have left?”

“Not enough,” she said quietly. “Not nearly enough.”

The temporary base Jordan took him to was a YMCA building, about half a kilometer from the long and empty stretch of I-45 in the distance. It was part of a business center, but had its own separate area. Two empty swimming pools greeted them as they stepped out of the woods and trudged through thick, overgrown grass that covered the backyard.

Keo followed Jordan while the rest of Tobias’s people emerged out of the tree lines around them. Wyatt was among them, along with the two familiar scouts. They were greeted by sentries along the rooftops of the YMCA. One of them waved, and Jordan returned it.

Keo checked his watch again. 4:41 P.M.

“How long have you guys been here?” he asked.

“Two days,” Jordan said. “Counting today. Can’t afford to stay in one place for too long. Like I said before, it’s not the soldiers we have to worry about. They usually don’t wander out this far unless they come with everything they have. You saw all the boats they have back there? They can afford to stick to the river, use it to go back and forth from the Gulf. This far from T18, it’s just the crawlers we have to stay one step ahead of.”

“It must be tough, fighting a two-front war.”

“It’s not easy, no.”

The YMCA building was only one-story, but it was spread out with multiple wings. There was a shooter on three of the rooftops, possibly even the same men that had been at the strip mall earlier.

“I usually try to steer clear of big buildings,” Keo said.

“So do we,” Jordan said. “They like using them for nests. But this one’s secure, for now.”

They skirted around the bigger of the two swimming pools and entered the main building through a metal back door guarded by a man with an M4.

Jordan nodded at him. “Hey, Tim.”

“Welcome back,” Tim said. “I heard things went sideways out there.”

“Yeah, they did.”

“Who’s he?” the guard asked, looking at Keo.

“Keo.”

“What kind-”

“Don’t,” Jordan said.

Keo smiled and followed her into a back hallway. It was surprisingly bright inside, thanks to a series of high ceiling windows flooding the room with sunlight. He could hear activity on the other end even before they stepped out into a large cafeteria where Tobias’s men were gathered.