“Then let me be the first to say, hi-ho fucking Silver!”
They found a jewelry store not far from the SWAT house, in a strip mall along Highway 59.
It wasn’t hard to spot the big tan and brown building with the large Johan logo on top. Johan’s Galleria Of Jewelry was one of the bigger and more expensive jewelry chains in the city. Will was optimistic they would find everything they needed inside — if not under the displays, then in the back, where the inventory was kept.
As soon as he parked in front of Johan’s, he noticed the covered windows. The rest of the buildings in the wealthy area were also covered, reminding him that they were in enemy territory.
Just like Afghanistan all over again.
But this time they had an advantage — sunlight.
Or at least, that was their advantage out here. Sunlight had a way of disappearing when windows were closed and doors got shut, or hallways twisted and turned, which they invariably did the farther into a building you ventured.
He glanced at his watch as he climbed out of the squad car: 11:13 a.m. They had saved a lot of time by finding a Johan’s this close to the SWAT house.
“Johan’s sure has let itself go,” Danny said. “Look at those window displays. Talk about uncouth. Bleh.”
Will slipped the cross out of his pouch and looked down at it for a moment. He had cleaned the flesh and blood off it with water and rags, and the silver glinted like new under the sunlight. He couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
“What’s so funny?” Danny asked.
“How much do you think Uncle Sam spends to turn out one fully functional Army Ranger per year?”
“Do I look like someone who knows something completely random and pointless like that?”
“Guess.”
“I dunno. Five grand?”
“Conservative estimates have it between $250,000 and $500,000 per person. Obviously I’m in the latter camp.”
“Oh, obviously,” Danny said, rolling his eyes.
“Point is, all that money to train me, and this…” Will held up the cross “…is what it takes to keep me alive. God bless the United States Army.”
Danny held up his cross. “Mine’s bigger.”
“They’re the exact same size.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
The ghoul looked confused, almost afraid, as Will rushed it head-on instead of retreating. He slammed the sharp end of the cross up into the bottom of its chin and drove the makeshift weapon straight up into its brain. His momentum sent the long length of the cross up too high, and even as life slipped from the ghoul’s black eyes in a rush of confusion, fear, and resignation, Will knew he was in trouble.
They were inside Johan’s, jammed in a hallway that led to the back of the store. The ghouls were waiting in the darkness, unwilling — and too smart — to come into the front of the store, where Will and Danny had stripped away the window coverings to allow sunlight to pour inside. Though not far enough, as it turned out.
They had already cleared out all the silver they could find under the glass displays. It had taken them about thirty minutes, and thankfully Johan’s kept boxes underneath the counters that they used to carry the jewelry outside to the squad car.
They knew the ghouls were inside the darkened hallway that led to the back room where the inventory was kept. A part of Will didn’t want to risk it, but the practical part knew it would be worth the effort. They might not find another place like this again, and time was not on their side.
So they went into the hallway where the ghouls waited and, as soon as Will stepped into the darkness, one hand on his tactical flashlight, the other holding the cross in front of him, the creatures swarmed.
The first ghoul he killed didn’t make a sound; it slid to the floor and lay still. As he stepped over it, stabbing a second one in the chest, a third leaped over the others, but he had expected it and took a step back. The creature landed in front of him and he ran toward it, his momentum sending the cross all the way up the ghoul’s chin and into its brain.
As he scrambled to pull the cross out of the impaled head — the ghoul’s body was slack, sliding to the floor, and pulling the cross and Will with it — two ghouls emerged out of the darkness, surging forward.
Danny stepped in front of Will and stabbed one of the creatures through the chest, then swiped at the second one, sending it hopping backward, just out of reach.
Will grabbed the dead thing by the head and finally pried the cross free using his boot as leverage. He took another step back, hands and much of his shirt covered in black blood. Danny stepped back with him, their flashlights illuminating pale, shriveled faces, dark black eyes, and crooked, chipped teeth moving in the shadows.
Danny was out of breath. “You take me to the best places, Kemosabe.”
“I aim to please.”
“How many you think are in here?”
“You still wanna find out?”
“You?”
“It’ll probably be worth it.”
“Probably, huh? Not exactly a world of confidence there, chief.”
“We can always go back.”
“We could,” Danny said, “but where’s the fun in that?”
Danny took a step forward and Will followed, the two of them moving side by side. The silver crosses flashed, blood splattered, and haggard breaths labored within the tight confines of the hallway.
It took them another twenty minutes of slowly, methodically moving up the hallway, taking the enemy territory inch by inch, killing as they went. They reached the end, walking over and around dead ghouls in their path, and stepped into the store’s tightly packed back room.
There were five more waiting inside, but they were staying well within the shadows and away from pools of sunlight that blistered the room from small, high windows. Will felt almost sorry for them.
They dispatched the remaining creatures quickly, and with most of their clothes now soaked in thick, pungent black blood and what looked like severed, wrinkled skin and layers of gooey muscle, Will and Danny sat down on a crate to catch their breath.
Will looked down at the cross in his hand. He couldn’t see the silver anymore, and wondered if he had been wrong, that maybe it was the cross and not the silver. Was that possible?
“What?” Danny said, looking over at him.
“Hmm?”
“You got that look.”
“What look?”
“The ‘I’m thinking of something super deep right about now’ look.”
“I was just thinking…”
“What?”
Will shook his head. “Nothing. Forget it.”
He stood up on tired legs and scanned the inventory with his flashlight. They were surrounded by crates, stacked high along the walls, and shelves filled with bagged jewelry in a row along the back. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of items. Some were silver.
“Jackpot,” Will said. “You wanna grab something pretty for yourself, too?”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Danny said.
CHAPTER 11
KATE
“Listen!” Luke said.
He sat on the hood of the Jeep, the baseball bat tapping anxiously at his legs, when he froze and looked off in the direction of the I-45.
Kate sat in the driver’s seat behind him, trying to get as comfortable as she could behind the steering wheel. It was the first vehicle they had found with a full tank of gas with the keys on the driver’s side floor. The Jeep felt too rough, even uncivilized, to her, but it had gotten them almost to the I-45 before they lost the police siren. It was there one moment, then gone the next.