Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

He was hoping one of the soldiers might be Jack Miller, who would have made for an even better bargaining chip than Tobias’s ring. But that turned out not to be the case. Even though he only saw the two men from the back as they were riding away, one was too thin and the other was too tall to be Jack.

Next to him, Jordan had eased her carbine forward and was gripping it perhaps just a little too tightly. He could tell she wanted to fight.

He shook his head and they exchanged a brief look, then waited for the clop-clop-clop to slowly fade into the background.

When they couldn’t hear the soldiers anymore, they picked themselves up and brushed the dirt off their clothes.

“They’re heading for the YMCA,” Jordan said.

“If we move farther back into the woods, away from the road, can you still find T18?”

“I’ve been walking and running and fighting around here for months now. I could find T18 with a blindfold on.”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Yes, smartass.”

They continued on, but also moved deeper into the woods. It wasn’t a guarantee they wouldn’t run into more soldiers, but Keo didn’t feel like taking any chances now. He’d already taken too many unnecessary risks on his way here, and having found Gillian, he wanted to play it as safe as possible.

“Kill Steve. Save Gillian. Live happily ever after.”

*

His head had started bothering him as soon as they left the YMCA behind, and it only continued to get worse during the long walk back to T18. The quick spurt of adrenaline from the near-miss with the mounted soldiers hadn’t helped, either.

“You okay?” Jordan asked when she saw the way he was touching his head.

“A little dizzy,” he said, stopping momentarily and leaning against a tree. “I guess I’m still not over getting my head bashed in by your friends.”

She looked at him worriedly for a moment. “You need to rest. Get off your feet.” She glanced around them, then bit her lips for a moment. Finally, she said, “Come on. I know a place around here.”

They headed off again, Jordan taking him deeper into the woods.

“So everyone’s gone?” Keo asked when they had been walking for a few minutes.

“Gone?”

“Tobias’s people.”

“Except for the ones still in town, yeah.”

“How many inside agents do you have?”

“Two that I know of for sure, more that only Tobias knows about. They’re risking a lot to help us, and he doesn’t want to unnecessarily endanger them. The more people know, the greater their chances of being discovered.”

“So except for the undercovers in T18 and you, that’s it. Tobias has officially thrown up the white flag.”

“You heard him. He said he was just going to rest, to let the others heal up.”

“And you believe that?”

She sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Sorry.”

“What are you sorry about?”

“You followed Tobias because you believed in him. It’s never an easy thing when your leader decides he’s had enough, and vamos. ”

“I guess.”

“And you’ve never slept with him?”

She threw him an annoyed look.

Keo raised his hands in surrender. “I was just double checking.”

“When you feel like triple checking, just keep in mind that I know where we’re going and you don’t,” she said, moving ahead of him.

He smiled and followed her.

They were now moving through a part of the woods that made him a little uneasy. The canopies were getting thicker, which meant the sun was having a harder time finding its way through. As a result, the air had grown chillier and Keo instinctively clutched the MP5SD in front of him.

“You know where you’re going?” he asked after a while.

“The woods might look endless, but it’s not. There’s a cabin not far from here that we’ve used before.”

“Is that a good idea? If you know about it, what are the chances that the soldiers do, too?”

“We’ll have to risk it. You need to rest for a while. That lightheadedness you’re feeling is a result of the blows you took. You might have even gotten a concussion, and it’s just now showing up.”

Keo felt his forehead again. The cut had started to scab over, but it was going to be a while before it healed. The good news was that it would definitely heal, unlike the scar along the left side of his face. Pollard’s farewell gift wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, if ever.

Thanks again for that, Pollard, you sonofabitch. I’m glad both you and your son are dead.

“Okay,” Jordan said as she finally slowed down before stopping completely.

She held her rifle at the ready as she peered through two trees at an old cabin sitting in a rough circular clearing that would be, in a few years, swallowed back up by the woods. Two dirt-encrusted windows flanked a door and a chimney jutted out on one side of the roof. The building looked just big enough to have a couple of bedrooms in the back.

The bright spot was that the clearing was wide open to the skies, and a thick pool of sunlight shone down on the cabin. It was a far cry from the last few minutes, when it seemed like they were walking deeper and deeper into the lightless bowels of the woods.

Jordan crouched at the edge and listened, and Keo joined her. He had to put his hand down against the ground because the sudden movement nearly made him keel over.

“You okay?” she whispered.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Mom.”

She pursed her lips.

“Anything?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Looks clear. You ready?”

She got up and jogged into the clearing and slid against the wall next to one of the windows before he could respond. Keo sighed. He would have liked to sit and listen for another thirty minutes, maybe an hour. Not just to be sure they were the only people around, but because he could have used the rest. But that was just wishful thinking now, and he hurried over to join her outside the cabin.

The window next to them revealed a dust-covered floor, along with a kitchen lit up with sunlight through the windows above the sinks and a barren fireplace on the other side. There was no furniture to speak of, and the only thing staring back at them were the heads of two deer mounted on the far wall next to a darkened hallway that was just a bit too dark for his liking. The passageway led into the back of the house.

“Anything?” he whispered.

She shook her head. “You?”

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I can rest in the woods,” he said, even as another throbbing pain rushed through him. He gritted his teeth and hoped she didn’t notice.

It must have shown on his face anyway, because she looked more determined when she said, “No cover. If they find us out here, we’ll have nowhere to run. In here, at least we have a chance.”

He started to argue, but she had already moved toward the door, and Keo had no choice but to follow.

The handle was a simple lever, and she pressed it and pushed the door inside and stepped in a half-second later. Keo had to admit, she had developed a pretty nice rhythm since the last time they saw each other back at Earl’s cabin. Being out here with Tobias’s people, fighting Steve and the town, had definitely increased her battle movements. Now all she needed was a little more patience, a notion that Keo thought was funny since he’d never really been known to have a whole lot of that himself.

Dust brushed against his face as he stepped inside the cabin. The living room smelled slightly stale, but he blamed that on the lack of ventilation thanks to all the closed windows. The back hallway was partially submerged in shadows, but he didn’t detect movement or see obsidian eyes staring back at him.