There were three types of ghouls that we knew of: water, land, and… fucking tall and terrifying. The tall ones, which we called the sentries, seemed to be in charge of the others, like commanders of the army. They wore a metallic type of armor and seemed to be rarer. The water ones we called skids. We didn’t worry too much about those unless we fell in the lakes in the Dream Wars. The land ghouls, which we called grunts, were everywhere, your basic soldier that could consume an entire human’s blood, flesh, and bone in under a minute. Sometimes they killed you for food, while other times they injured you and brought you to the sentries to be their food. Either way, you were going to geteaten.
Humanity was their food source, and once they’d eaten us all, they would move on to another planet that had a similar life-form and consume them too. This was the thirty-seventh planet they had terraformed of all life. Bone marrow, plasma, and blood were what kept them alive. At least that’s what Dawn toldme.
“I see a heavily armed group just beyond the tree cropping,” she stated, bringing me out of my dark thoughts. Now that I was in the Dream Wars, I could be as un-Zen as possible and it wouldn’t affect where Iwent.
“All right, let’s head over and see if they don’t mind teaming up.” One good thing about the ghouls was that they had brought humanity together. It didn’t freaking matter who you were, where you were from, or what language you spoke—in here, it was us against them, so humans stuck together. Only one time had I ever had a human turn on me in here, and it was because they’d lost their gun while running from the ghouls and tried to stealmine.
That was how I met Tatum. Her mom was the one who’d tried to steal from me, and in return I stuck with her, her husband and their kids, protecting them all night until she could wake up. They ended up being from Los Angeles too, and we becamefriends.
I heard footsteps behind me and noticed everyone had packed up, and were now following me. I glanced back and saw that Jeremy had left his equipment stuck in theground.
“We might not be able to come back for that,” Isaid.
Jeremy whispered to Josephine, who nodded. “It’s all right, it’ll send readings back to your brother’s lab. If it gets destroyed or lost after tonight, it’s fine. He hasmore.”
Of course he did. Billionaires tended to have that luxury, an endless supply ofeverything.
I looked at Maxine. “I’m going to greet them first. If I signal, fall back.” In the rare chance this was a bunch of stim junkies or looters, I didn’t want to lead us into atrap.
As I started my approach, my eyes flicked to the sky. I kept wishing Dawn was wrong or mistaken, that tonight would go fine, with no injuries or close calls. But I couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in mygut.
I approached the tree cropping, or what I liked to call “alien orchard,” and noticed a symbol on the jacket of one of the guys guarding the perimeter. It was a local Hispanic militia in LA that I was friendly with. Tons of militias and gangs had cropped up after the ghouls landed. Armed citizens banded together in groups of ten and went into the Dream Wars together, thanks to the dream bands that Striker Industries invented. I wanted to keep my new clients on the down-low, so I wouldn’t mention who they were unless I had to or they wererecognized.
“Santiago!” I called out as weapproached.
The tall, lanky Hispanic male broke his notorious scowl and smiled as he recognizedme.
“Kit! I haven’t seen you in forever, but when I saw blue hair, I hoped it might be you.” As I stepped closer to give him a hug, my body pressed against his and I counted two guns strapped to his back, on top of the two in hishands.
“It’s been too long. You need to bring over some of those black bean tamales with Emilia some time.” His fifteen-year-old sister was also an attraction for theghouls.
He nodded. “We’d lovethat.”
I always found myself staring at the tattoo along his jawline: “AlienKiller.”
Santiago Lopez was the leader of the three-hundred-strong militia in downtown Los Angeles,Asesinos de Extraterrestres, which loosely translated to “Alien Killers.” I couldn’t have asked to be dropped next to a better team. The ghouls always tried to pull everyone into ground zero, near their city where the bloodbath was unavoidable, but you had some leeway if you could regulate your mental state. Be calm and not fear. Santiago had that mental control. He’d spent one year in solitary confinement for a crime he said he never committed, and in that place he’d learned to manage his thoughts to keep from goinginsane.
“Damn, Kit, is that the Striker brothers? You protecting some high-profile shit nowadays,” he said as the groupapproached.
Damn. I didn’t expect Santiago to have readTech Monthlyor whatever magazine Damien was on the cover oflately.
I ran my hand through my hair. “Yeah, I wanted to keep that on theDL.”
He waved his hand in front of my face. “Don’t even worry about it. I’ve already forgotten who they are, and my crew is too dumb to know ofthem.”
I laughed. Santiago was a solidguy.
“You know, full disclosure, one of my clients is a ghoul attraction.” I didn’t want to get into a beef with these guys by not telling them, then have some shit go down and get blamed forit.
He shrugged. “So is Emilia, remember? It’s all good. Better that there’s more of us. Although I’m not sure the old guy can pull his weight.” He looked Mr. Hansen up anddown.
I chuckled. “That old guy is formerMI6.”
He looked impressed. “No shit. Well I’m glad we get to hang tonight. Go see Emilia, she’s got some news to tell you.” He motioned behindhim.
I nodded before turning away fromhim.
“Ronnie girl!” he catcalled, then went into some long Spanish conversation with her. He was always flirting with her, much to Brisk’sannoyance.
