The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  Crap, what was the plan again? It didn't involve mass slaughter, so it was hard to remember.

  No, wait, that was the plan. Attack as much as possible, do as much damage as possible, while killing as few as possible. That's what they said, anyway, and it wasn't like the Composer had much of a choice. The Nine were stronger even as individuals, and as a group it was no contest.

  But they had promised this would work out. The Composer didn't trust them, of course, but went along anyway. This would all come together in the end.

  Back to the matter at hand. A conductor with a strong instrument was needed, something that would naturally lend itself to infecting others. The Composer could take control of any of created conductors or chorus directly, of course, but that was difficult. Far easier to just guide them, and let their instincts do the rest.

  Without a decent instrument, though, direct control would be the only choice. I had a number of good combat conductors ready. Their instruments weren't suited for infection, but with careful control, they could be used to spread the Score and just keep them out of harm's way.

  But the Paladins weren't fools. They'd notice the discrepancy quickly, and go hunting for conductors. And if they killed them before the chorus' connections were rest, there would be a horde of angry directors, immune to the Score and baying for the Composer's blood.

  Actually, that might be fun.

  No, no, that wasn't an option. The Nine were very clear on that. Avoid making directors if at all possible, except for the Paladins.

  But that meant...

  The Composer held up a finger and licked it, tasting the blood from the immunist who had just been killed.

  Yes... that meant killing the little changeling was an option. More than that—a requirement. Who would miss him? He was a changeling. Well, his clan might get mad. But that was even better. More blood, more killing. And just the logical result of following orders, of defending from attack... yes, this could work beautifully.

  The Composer still needed a distraction. A new batch of chorus. And remote control definitely wouldn't be an option. They'd have to be an instrument that could infect on their own.

  The Composer mentally paged through the options. There were a few telepaths and detectors, useless for combat. Lots of kineticists, and genists, those were always popular. Healers... maybe. The internalized ones, who healed themselves, might work... swarm the enemy, bleed on them, infect them...

  Blood.

  Of course.

  This would be fun indeed.

  The Composer thrust out with a mental effort and found the conductor. He was awake, though drunk, and stumbling down a street about a mile south of AU. The street was pretty crowded. It was only one in the morning, which was midday for half the population of the city.

  The Composer whispered a command into his mind, and he began to sing...

  Chapter 46: CRUOR

  ADAM

  Derek shook Adam awake. Adam had never expected to go to sleep at reasonable hours at college, but when zombies could attack at any moment, they didn't really have the luxury of staying up too late. They got whatever rest they could.

  Adam glanced at the clock. One in the morning. Dammit, it was a Thursday, too. He had classes early. Well, I guess I'd have to skip them, he thought.

  He jumped out of bed, dressed in a small set of tactical armor—basically just black cloth with plastic plates woven in—and grabbed his gun case. He belted everything in their now-familiar positions: Pistol on his right hip, SMG on his left, shotgun over his right shoulder and the rifle over his left.

  The others were ready before him, of course. Akane was wearing the new black gi Ling had given her, but she wasn't wearing Flynn's earrings. Adam figured that wasn't all that surprising, but she had seemed so excited when she first got them. Whatever. He had more important things to worry about.

  They collected Laura in the lobby, and met the retinue out front. It seemed as though Necessarius was using Laura's changeling as an early warning system. Not to mention that they were always outside the dorm in the van anyway.

  Kat was conspicuous by her absence, and no one talked much. Usually Adam ended up striking up a conversation with George, but he was too subdued. He hadn't been very close with Kat, Adam knew, but it was still hard when someone was just ripped out of your life like that.

  Adam didn't say anything stupid like “she'll be fine,” or “we'll find a cure.” She might be and they might find one, but right now they were just empty platitudes.

  Their destination was under a mile away, so at least the silence didn't stretch for more than a couple minutes. Before it had any real chance to get awkward, they were already there, at the Necessarian redoubt, piling out of the van.

  “Where is everyone?” Kelly asked, glancing around. Alex followed, fumbling for her night vision goggles.

  Jarasax frowned. “I don't know. MC said they were here. Something's not right.”

  Adam agreed. Even disregarding MC, there was obviously a redoubt here, built within the last five minutes or so. It wasn't anything fancy, just a bunch of upended tables arranged outward in the hopes it would keep the screamers out, but that isn't something that people just left in the middle of the street.

  But there was no one around. No 'sarians, no civilians, and no screamers. Adam couldn't even hear them.

  Adam nudged Derek. “Where are they? Can you tell?”

  “Up ahead,” he said. Listening closely, Adam could hear a dull drone coming from that direction. “I have a bad feeling. It's a big group.” He gestured Akane and Ling forward, and they headed off at a fast pace, with only the slightest hesitation on Ling's part. In the darkness, they fell out of sight very quickly.

  “Let's get up in the buildings,” Kelly said. “Travel by rooftop.” Domina's structures were so close together that it was actually a viable option to jump from roof to roof. Hell, half the time there were ziplines already set up for the bigger gaps.

  They went for the structure to the left, a vertical mall of stores, leaving Derek on the ground with Akane and Ling. They actually had to pick the lock since none of the windows were broken, and Kelly didn't want to risk any screamers hearing them. It only took a moment, though. Alex was pretty good at this part of the job, even if she never got to show off.

  The ground floor was just clothing, mostly winter stuff, and the second floor was their storeroom. They could have used the customer elevator, but no one felt comfortable with that, so they used the stairs in the back, peeking at each floor in case there was anything useful.

  There wasn't. There were a few electronics stores, but most were more clothing. Every other floor was another storeroom, and they did see some useful things in those, but nothing really worth grabbing.

  It was a twenty-story building, but they finally managed to come out on the roof. Adam's legs were sore, but not aching. Weeks of running and fighting for your life toughened you up pretty fast.

  They made good progress over the rooftops. As expected, there were various planks, ziplines, and ladders that made the whole thing easier. Laura had a bit of trouble on some of the more difficult jumps, but she was hardly helpless.

  Eventually they reached the last building, overlooking the square where the screamers were. It was about thirty stories, so with the darkness it was hard to tell what was going on below, but Adam could see a massive crowd writhing around. Their screams wafted up slowly, that same emotionless sound they had all come to dread.

  Laura glanced down, then stepped back from the edge and pulled out her phone. The rooftop was relatively uncluttered, just a couple air conditioning units and a short wall to keep maintenance men from falling. She leaned against one of the boxy metal units, more tired than the rest of them.

  “Derek, what's it look like down there?”

  The rest of the group could hear heavy breathing, since Laura had her phone on speaker. After a moment, Derek spoke.

  “Not good. There are maybe a thousand screamers here. I have
n't seen them use their powers, but I think they already infected everyone in the area. I can't see any survivors.”

  “What about the 'sarians?” Adam asked. He noted out of the corner of his eye that Kelly was looking down on the crowd with a pair of binoculars. With her nighteyes, she'd be able to see more than the rest of them.

  “I see a few,” he said. “All infected. They're kinda just... milling around. They aren't as destructive as most of the other screamers. I don't know why.”

  “Probably because there's no one for them to fight,” Laura said. “Do you see any singers? If the Composer was smart, that might be why they all got infected so fast.”

  “No, no, I don't see any.”

  “One second, Derek.” Adam turned to Kelly. “How about you?”

  She lowered the binoculars and scratched the device on her left arm, shaking her head. “No, me neither.” She frowned. “I don't like this. It doesn't make any sense.”

  “We need to know their power,” Jarasax said. “But the second those three strike, the zombies are gonna be on them like maggots on a corpse. They can't hold them all off.”

  “If their power is geared completely towards infection, we should be fine,” Ling said from over the phone.

  Alex shook her head. “Not something we want to test. That's still a lot of zombies.”

  George shifted the weight of his minigun, frowning. “Hey... if they're not attacking at all...” He trailed off.

  “Yes?” Adam said. George might not be the smartest in the retinue, but he knew it, and kept his mouth shut unless he actually had a good idea. He wouldn't have spoken up unless he had something to contribute.

  He shook his head. “I'm just wondering—if they're all infected, and they're not attacking, that means that there are no civilians left to get hurt, and no one to shoot down a chopper.”

  Laura brightened. “Of course. Have Necessarius airdrop some knockout gas. That'll do the trick.”

  Adam threw up his hands. “Why didn't we do that before? Not all of them had ranged attacks.”

  She shrugged. “Most did, but more importantly, screamers have a higher resistance to that sort of thing than civilians. The rage adrenaline acts sort of like Buffout or another chem, though not as extreme. The sleeping gas takes longer to take effect, and it won't last as long. The civvies would get torn to shreds in the meantime.”

  Adam snorted. “Seems like an acceptable price to pay, considering the losses we've been taking.”

  “There is a difference between failing to protect civilians and signing their death warrant yourself,” Derek said from the phone. “This was never an option until now.”

  “Besides,” Laura said, “the biters were the only ones without a ranged attack. They sent a helicopter near the burners, and it got shot down.” She scratched her chin. “Of course, we'll need backup. The gas will only work for about an hour. MC? You listening?”

  MC's voice chirped from the phone. “Yes, I am. You said there were about a thousand, all confined to the one square?”

  Adam blinked. They hadn't said that. But it was true regardless, so Laura confirmed it. “Yes.”

  “Good. I'll have a chopper and a company of peacekeepers down there shortly. You might want to figure out the screamers' power first, though. Don't want them walking into it completely blind.”

  “Agreed,” Laura said tersely. “But we'll still need to wait for reinforcements. Derek, you on board?”

  “Yeah, of course. Just give us a minute to get in position.”

  It was a small thing, but those were always the ones that gave you pause. Kelly had started looking down on the horde again, and she spoke. She didn't say “crap,” or “uh-oh” or any of a thousand other things that would have immediately clued us in on the danger.

  She just said “Huh,” in a curious tone of voice. Like she had seen something unexpected and unimportant.

  That got Adam's attention pretty quickly, though he wasn't sure why. He walked to her side with a frown.

  “What's up?”

  She shook her head, not putting down the binoculars. “I'm not sure. It's... interesting, but I don't quite know what to make of it.”

  Adam rolled his eyes. “Out with it.”

  She shrugged sheepishly. “Well... the screamers are bleeding.”

  Adam blinked.

  “It took me a while to notice. At first I thought they were just covered in blood from their victims. But every single one I've seen has been bleeding, usually from the hand. It's curious.”

  Adam flipped out his phone and speed-dialed Derek. He picked up quickly.

  “Their power has something to do with blood,” Adam told him. “Hell if I know what, but Kelly noticed that they're all bleeding. Be careful down there.”

  “We will,” he promised, and hung up.

  Somehow, Adam wasn't reassured.

  Adam walked back to the others and spoke to Laura. “We think their ability is blood-based. What's your research say about that?” Laura and Doctor Clarke—mostly Clarke—had been studying the powers as much as possible. She had explained that progress was frustratingly slow, since the screamers obviously wouldn't cooperate, and the sane people with powers were too busy to help.

  She shook her head. “It's hard to say. We've identified a few interesting things, but nothing that will really help here.”

  Adam leaned against the air conditioner. It wasn't like I had anything else to do. “What kind of interesting things?”

  She warmed to the subject. This was probably a perfect time to ask. Keep her mind off Kat's absence, and more specifically her inability to fix it.

  “Well, it seems powers are both more and less specific than you'd think. Take Ling's power, for instance. What would you call it?”

  Adam shrugged. “The power to control earth?”

  She grinned. “Yes, but it's more than that. You see, she's actually telekinetic.”

  “Meaning... she can move objects with her mind.”

  “Yes, exactly. That's her power. But it seems like everyone—or the kineticists, anyway, since they're our largest sample group—have a talent as well.”

  Adam slowly got it. “Ling's is to move earth.”

  “And the burners' is to move fire,” she said, excited. Adam had never seen her animated like this before. “We don't have any conclusive list of powers yet, of course, but it seems like the first one we encountered was actually a pyrogenic, rather than a kineticist. She could create it, but not control it.”

  Jarasax put his phone away. “Alpha Company is here, and is advancing on the southern flank.”

  “Good,” Laura said with a nod, jumping back on track. “Tell them to lay down some suppressing fire, get the screamers' attention, while Derek's team does recon.” Jarasax nodded and pulled out his phone again to relay the orders.

  Something didn't feel right.

  Sax's phone chirped. “This is Alpha leader.” Sax had apparently thought to put it on speaker. “All platoons are moving forward now.”

  Adam was missing something important.

  “We are in visual range of the enemy. Advancing. They don't seem to have spotted us.”

  Something about what Laura had said...

  “Engaging now.” There was a brief pause. “They seem to be returning fire...”

  That was enough. He finally figured it out.

  Adam grabbed Jarasax's phone frantically. “Alpha leader, fall back now! I repeat, fall back now!”

  Sax tried to grab his phone back. “What the hell, Adam?” The rest of the retinue were staring at him too, though George was moving towards the edge with his minigun. He was confused, but he was better at trusting his instincts.

  “Negative, sir,” Alpha leader said. “Enemy fire is minimal. We can handle it.”

  “It's not fire! It's blood! That's how they infected everyone! They're shooting infected blood!”

  The only response from his end was screaming. A tuneless, emotionless scream of pure noise. Then the l
ine went dead, probably as a zombie stepped on the radio.

  Adam cursed and tossed the phone back to Jarasax. “They're lost,” he said tiredly. He brushed his hair back from his sweat-stained forehead. “Derek, you hear all that?”

  “Yes, and we can still save them—”

  There were sounds of a scuffle from his end of the line.

  Laura immediately jumped up, her hand on her necklace. “Derek, respond. What's wrong?”

  Ling's voice replied instead. “He's trying to run into a horde of zombies. Akane's trying to stop him. One sec.”

  Adam cursed. “Derek, Alpha Company is gone. We'll collect them when we gas the rest of the screamers.”

  There was muffled cursing from the line, then Adam heard his voice in the background. “No... I... get off me—”

  A moment passed.

  “Derek is out cold,” Ling said. “We have to run. There's no way we can fight while protecting him.”

  Laura muttered something unprintable. “Fine. We'll take it from here.” She hung up the phone and looked at the rest of them, a determined expression on her face. “We're going to have to be careful. One drop and you'll turn. But we should be safe up here.”

  “Wait,” George said. “I'm still confused. What's their power?”

  “Something to do with blood,” Adam said. “Either controlling it or creating it and shooting it like a squirt gun, it doesn't matter.”

  “Probably the former,” Laura said. “If it was the latter, it might not be infectious.”

  “Whatever. When's that chopper getting here?”

  She wiggled her hand from side-to-side. “Eh, twenty minutes. We can just wait. It's dark, and the helicopter is remote-piloted. They won't sense any blood on it, and probably wouldn't be able to reach it if they did.”

  Adam frowned. “Wait, back up. What do you mean sense any blood?”

  “Oh, didn't I mention that?” She shrugged. “Yeah, from some of the things Loga and Ling said, it's become clear that kineticists can sense things they can control. That's why using a helicopter against the burners was right out; they could sense the heat of the engine, and make it explode. Well, they did do it.”

  Adam stared at her. “So these bleeders can sense us?”