Free The Stones of Angkor (Purge of Babylon, Book 3) by Sam Sisavath Page A

way it moved, the thin, almost skeletal shadow it cast against the moonlight in the background.
    How many were out there now, climbing the sides of the hospital? A hundred? A thousand?
    Gaby swore she could hear them moving in the floors under her, too, scurrying about like cockroaches. She hadn’t heard them earlier today, even though she knew they were down there the whole time. It was the night, she thought. They lived—they thrived —at night.
    The ghoul outside seemed to be tapping its fists lightly against the window. She could barely make out the noise through the thick glass.
    Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap…
    She wasn’t nearly as terrified as she thought she would be. Maybe it was her training, maybe it was all the days and weeks working with the M4 and the Glock that infused her with a surprising amount of courage.
    The creature stopped its odd activity when it was suddenly joined by a second skeletal figure. This one looked even thinner than the first, with what looked like shadowed bones sticking out of its skin.
    Gaby wasn’t sure when she made the decision, but she was only vaguely aware of standing up and walking forward and reaching for the blinds’ drawstring. She jerked it with one smooth motion, and the hypoallergenic blinds opened up in a loud rush.
    The first ghoul had wandered off, leaving behind the new arrival to cling perilously to the windowsill. Hollowed eye sockets and something that might have been eyeballs peered back curiously at her from the other side. Moonlight reflected off its hairless, pruned skin, and its slightly upturned, almost impish nose flared at her presence.
    She wondered if the creature could smell her, too. Probably not…
    The creature opened its mouth, revealing devastated teeth jutting out from gums that were pink and black and oozing thick fluids. It might have been drooling, or maybe it was just bleeding. The bones of its left leg below the kneecap were sticking out from punctured flesh, matching bones protruding out of its ribcage. When the creature moved, it did so awkwardly, in a way that made her think it was in great pain—if they even felt pain at all.
    Gaby leaned toward the window, ignoring the black eyes staring back at her, and looked down. She thought she was ready for what she would see, but she was wrong. The sight took her breath away.
    They were everywhere, crawling up the side of the building. She imagined they must have looked like spiders scaling the brick structure, scurrying wildly from handhold to handhold like adrenaline junkies.
    She looked to her left and right, and saw more of them.
    Hundreds. Definitely hundreds.
    Gaby walked back to the bed and sat down. She laid the M4 and Glock on both sides of her and stared back at the ghoul outside the window. There was movement, and a second ghoul appeared and joined the first.
    A moment later, two became three, then four, crowding around the window, so many that one was knocked loose and fell, plummeting out of view. Not that it stopped the others. They kept coming, squirming into the small rectangular area, leaving sticky puddles on the glass.
    They stared in at her as if they were deformed mimes incapable of speech, their nostrils flaring from time to time. She wondered what was going through their minds at the moment. Did they even still think? Or was it all instincts now?
    “Dead, not stupid” was how Will described them.
    Gaby picked up the can of Dole Pineapple Chunks off the floor next to her. She used the spork to fish out one of the half dozen or so remaining pieces and tossed it into her mouth. She chewed slowly, savoring the sweet syrup.
    She watched the creatures watching her.
    For the life of her, Gaby didn’t know why she wasn’t afraid. Not even a little bit.

CHAPTER 6
    LARA
    She should call Will. That was the smart thing to do. Will would know how to handle this.
    So why hadn’t she called him yet?
    It was the way Danny had asked her about what they should do. They were friends, but