Path of the Horseman (11 page)

I grimaced. When I could use my powers, the
Soulless were a challenge at best. I could cut through Plagued like
paper. But trying to pretend to be human would make things more
difficult.

“Your human collection’s getting woken up,”
Simon went on, explaining why Josh was running around playing fire
alarm. “You need to get out of here.”

“Fair enough.” I was already slinging my
machete over my back, holstering my knives, and grabbing my
rucksack from the floor. “Is your shit ready to go?”

Simon paused. “What makes you think I’m going
with you?”

I stopped at the door. “Are you kidding? You
want to stay here and be corpse chow mien?”

He scowled. “I never said that. But I’m not
going with you. I’ll find a new place, since you shot this one to
hell.”

I walked closer to him. “Not a fucking
option, lone wolf. If you stay here alone, you might as well leave
Ciaran a billboard saying you’re here.”

Simon flinched when I spoke the demon’s
chosen name. Everybody knew that you never, ever,
ever
spoke
a demon’s true name. Not unless you wanted to give yourself a
helping of torture and death.

“We need to check this haven thing out.
Something about it doesn’t feel right.”

“Because it doesn’t exist,” Simon pointed
out.

“Maybe, but if it does, Ciaran might be
involved.” I paused. “We both know there can’t be enough humans
alive to fill a haven of any kind.”

Simon didn’t argue.

“Besides, if Ciaran is gunning for us and has
a plan for the rest of the humans, we need to find Kade and Logan.
We’ll need them as backup.”

“Whoa, no. I’m not going to look for them. No
fucking way.”

The humans were shouting in the hallway,
listening to Josh’s orders. I didn’t have the time or patience for
Simon’s whining.

“We’re stronger together, Sime. We don’t have
to like it.”

He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath,
ready to go on a massive rant. The gunfire from down the hall cut
him off. I spun on my heel and took off through the door and down
the hall. Jerry and Laurel were standing at the top of the
staircase, holding handguns and looking nervous. They jumped about
a foot in the air when I leaped to their side, but at least they
didn’t shoot me. I shouldered between them and looked down.

Josh, Maddy, Ricardo, Theo, and Gwen were
huddled at the very bottom of the stairs. Theo and Gwen were
holding guns at the door Josh, Maddy, and Ricardo were struggling
to keep closed. Six Plagued arms were lazily waving in the
doorframe, reaching for anything human they could grab. Even with
their combined strength, they couldn’t keep back the horde much
longer.

I bolted down the stairs and shoved past Theo
and Gwen, pulling the machete off my back. I ran to the crevice of
the door and slashed down with both hands. Two and a half Plagued
arms were severed, easing the top of the door closed. Two more
strikes lopped off the other three and a half arms, allowing the
humans to shove the door closed. Josh locked it on instinct and
Ricardo found a heavy step ladder in a service corridor to prop
under the doorknob. It was a cheap solution, but it was all we had.
The four of us stepped back to the nervous humans with guns.

“That’s not going to hold the Plagued back
forever,” Josh stated. “Let alone the Soulless. I couldn’t see them
past the Plagued, which doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

“Then let’s find another way out.” I looked
at Josh. “Which one of you can fix the Rust Bus?”

Ricardo raised his hand. “I can do it. But I
need time.”

“And I need a house in Tahiti, but wishes and
horses, right?”

Ricardo frowned. Definitely not the answer he
was hoping for.
Join the club, buddy.

“There has to be another exit,” Maddy said,
gripping her gun with white knuckles and staring at the door like
it was about to bite her.

“We don’t know how many are out there,”
nervous-sounding Gwen said. “There could be hundreds. The only way
we knew something was going on at all was because Simon warned
us.”

“How do we know he didn’t bring them here?”
growled Josh, glaring at me. “He wasn’t exactly happy to see us, or
you.”

If looks could kill, Josh would be splattered
all over the wall. “Shut the fuck up about my brother, asshole. He
saved your life.”

Josh didn’t cower away, but he didn’t argue
with me, either. Another miracle could be tacked onto my list of
wonders.

“Simon knows this hotel,” Maddy intervened.
“He’ll have a way out. Come on.”

I considered telling her that Simon had no
intention of going anywhere, but she was already hauling ass up the
stairs. Theo and Gwen chased after her, and I refused to move until
Josh followed them. Getting knifed in the back and left like a
juicy steak for a pack of starving corpses was not on my agenda for
today.

Laurel and Jerry were standing next to Simon
when we made it back to the top. I turned and closed the service
door blocking the lower exit from the level we were on. I could
still hear the Plagued hammering on the door below us. I was
surprised to see Simon taking control of the situation. I’d been
almost certain he was going to lock himself in his hotel room and
wait until the bloodshed stopped.

“Exits,” I rushed out, jogging to a stop
beside my brother. “Name ‘em.”

“That’s the main one,” Simon nodded to the
direction we’d just come. “But I built another. It’s a fire escape
that leads to the grounds.” He turned and started moving down the
opposite end of the hall. I noticed the messenger bag he had
hanging over his blue hoodie, held in place by his bow and the
quiver full of arrows on his back.

“We don’t know where the horde came from,”
Laurel said. She was clinging to Theo the way a drowning person
clings to a life preserver. “They could be waiting for us down that
way.”

“They could be,” Simon agreed. He looked over
his shoulder and smirked. “But they probably won’t be getting
far.”

I thought back to Simon’s trap in the pool
and grinned.

We were the first ones to reach the large
pane windows at the end of the hall. We looked through the dusty
glass and down onto the cracked desert. Simon had dried out the
lake, but there was a manmade dock he must have made under a large
metal fire escape, so we wouldn’t be stuck in a trench when we
climbed down.

The fifty or so Plagued were another story,
however. They lay on the side of the remnants of Lake Las Vegas,
trying to climb the trench that was
way
too steep for them.
Some of them were actually getting close to the dock. The moment
they put their hands on a plank, a trigger must have been set off,
because metal spears jutted out and pierced the middle of their
faces.

I looked at Simon, who was proud and
smug.

“When did you come up with that idea?” I
asked.

He grinned. “I had a lot of time on my
hands.” He looked back when the humans caught up with us. We could
still hear the Plagued hammering on the door. They must have broken
through the one below us, because the slams were coming from the
door leading to the staircase.

Not good.

Simon moved over to the side of the hallway
and started picking up a heavy oak side table. I helped him with
the other end and we carried it back to the window. We looked at
each other and nodded, ready to swing the table back and forth to
get momentum–

There was a heavy crash underneath us. We all
jumped and looked down the far end of the hallway. The Plagued had
broken through the door connecting to the stairs. I was sure I
heard some Soulless hissing and screeching their excitement.

Josh lifted his gun, Maddy at his side with
her Sig Saur. Their human friends stood next to them, but were way
more nervous when they raised their guns.

“Get that damn window open!” Josh ordered,
but we were already swinging.

After three good heaves, we hurled the table
out of the window. It broke with one loud shatter, and that was
when the guns started going off. I pulled the machete off my back,
Simon taking out his bow and nocking an arrow.

Most of the monsters scrambling over one
another up the stairs were Plagued, but I started picking out
Soulless from the mix. They shoved aside or stepped on the slower
corpses, speeding toward us like a freight train. The humans shot
at the two of them that approached, but the Soulless absorbed the
bullets entering their bodies, never once slowing down. Whenever
Josh or Maddy took a shot at their heads– it was obvious they
were the best shooters– the Soulless would duck or tilt their
heads and let the bullets hit the walls.

Maybe they’d have been able to kill the
Soulless when they got closer, but with the piles of Plagued
shambling their way up and into the hallway, we didn’t have time to
wait.

“Get moving out of the window!” I managed to
shout over the gunfire.

The shooting halted, and that was all I
needed to happen before I got in front of the humans and charged
the Soulless. The closest one skidded to a stop, confused about why
I was running for him instead of away. He registered what I was
doing and tried taking a swing. I took off his arm.

While he howled, I swung the machete up
toward his head. The Soulless was quicker and twisted to absorb the
hit into his body. The machete crunched into his upper ribs just
under his good arm, and though it might have hurt him, the blow
wasn’t enough to kill him.

And now my machete was trapped, which was
perfect for another Soulless running for me to open his jaws for a
bite.

His fangs were nearly at my throat when a
black arrow flew past my head and sank into the Soulless’ eye. His
head rocked back once before he dropped like a bag of rocks.
Nice kill shot, Sime.

Rather than focusing on my brother, I decided
to finish permanently killing the Soulless trying to take my
machete away. He lunged for my neck too, but missed because I
shoved my knee into his stomach. He buckled and I twisted my wrist,
turning the flat of the blade against his side. I pulled, and it
slid free with all the resistance of thick mud. I gave the Soulless
another knee and flipped the machete in my hands. I swept it up
like a golf club, and watched the Soulless’ head go flying.

Fore.

During my little display, the Plagued had
gotten past the stairs. They were now half way down the hall,
stomping quickly when they saw the fresh meat. There were so many
crammed shoulder to shoulder that they had to wiggle to move
anywhere. It was a zombie-shuffle-line dance.

Part of me wanted to let loose a little power
and poison every one of those undead bastards, but the sensible
part of me remembered that a bunch of terrified humans were behind
me. Possibly the last humans alive. They needed to stay that way,
no matter what the cost to my ego.

I turned back to the window. Maddy was
halfway through the broken windowpane, watching me with wide eyes
and gripping the rails of the fire escape tightly. Josh started
shooting again while I leaned out of the window and looked
down.

The survivors were making their way steadily
and carefully, knowing better than to put too much weight on the
ladder. It was sturdy, but we were living in a post-apocalyptic
world. “Sturdy” was a relative term.

Simon was already at the bottom, switching
his attention from the survivors descending to the dock, to the
Plagued trying to crawl onto it, to me. I couldn’t see his
expression, but his bow was out and ready. He was either really
determined, or really,
really
pissed.

“Better start moving, Maddy,” I said.

When I looked over to check on her, she was
already climbing down. Smart girl.

The gunfire stopped suddenly and Josh cursed.
I changed weapon hands and swung the machete out as I blindly
turned. I missed Josh’s head, but the Plagued reaching out for him
wasn’t as fortunate. I gave its neck a gash so deep I could see its
trachea when its head flopped back. It couldn’t move its head
forward, so I kicked it back into the crowd. Some of the other
Plagued were knocked down with Cutthroat, but not nearly enough.
They were so close, I knew that only one of us was going to have
time to escape. I took a step forward and stabbed another Plagued
in the head.

“Got any grenades?” I shouted at Josh,
concentrating on becoming a headsman.

“Only a couple.” There were some sharp
clicks, and then Josh’s rifle began shouting again. Plagued on the
sides of me went down. When there was about ten feet between them
and us, I stepped back and grabbed Josh’s arm. He glared at me, but
never lowered the rifle.

“Give ‘em.”

That got his attention. If only for a
second.

“You’re not staying up here.”

Aww. He actually sounded like he cared. Too
bad I wasn’t in the mood for sweet-talk.

I grabbed Josh again and pulled him toward
the window. He dropped the rifle so he wouldn’t shoot me by
accident, but I imagined his fingers were starting to get
itchy.