“Are we sure he was telling the truth?” Laura muttered as she closed another door. “I’m not seeing or hearing anything.”
“Perhaps it’s moved on?” Okane guessed.
“Maybe, maybe not. Don’t let your guard down,” said Clae.
As the group climbed up to the third floor, Laura shook her Egg, causing it to give off more light. The renewed glow illuminated marks in the wooden stairs. They all paused to inspect them. The scratches were fairly deep, but not terribly so. It was like someone swiped at the stairs with a knife, a back-and-forth kind of movement with a larger, deeper, main gouge scribbling in the midst of the others. They ended a third of the way down the stairs, then doubled back.
“You think that’s it?” asked Laura.
“Probably.” Clae ran his fingertips across the scrapes, frowning.
“So it’s got a fixed form, now?” Laura wasn’t sure what kind of form or body could make this sort of damage, and she wasn’t looking forward to seeing it.
“I don’t think so. It’s developed enough to eat furniture and people. If it had a fixed form it would be big enough to fit those inside. These marks were made by something fairly small. I don’t think it has a fixed form at all.”
“Then how’s it making the marks? Or is that something completely different?”
“If we’re judging by that story earlier, they’re one and the same. I think this one’s dragging its amulet around.”
“They can do that?” said Okane.
“Usually, no. It’s in their best interest to keep their roots in one place and protect them at all costs, so this one’s a bit of a maverick. That could be good or bad. It drags its weakness in plain sight, but again, it moves. No way to pin it down.”
“If the amulet made the marks, what’s it shaped like?” said Laura.
She’d heard stories about previous occasions when infestations sucked themselves completely into an amulet to hide. She didn’t want to walk right past it while it was hiding, only for the thing to pounce when she looked the other way.
“How the hell should I know?” Clae straightened up. “Whatever it is it can’t be much bigger than a cat. Probably smaller.”
13
TWO FOR ONE
The scuffs on the floor continued down the hallway. At some points they skittered away from the main, middle pathway. Some traces trailed up the walls too, as high as Laura’s head. It made her think of a spider. She shuddered.
Okane made an odd sound, and Laura felt his shoulder bump into her back.
“What?” she whispered.
Okane stared at one of the doors, eyes wide and spooked. “Did --- hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Listen.”
Laura strained her ears but heard nothing. The only things she could detect were their own breathing and the sounds of people outside. She glanced at him again in question. Almost as soon as she did, she heard it. A quiet, scraping noise. She tensed.
“Clae.…”
“I heard it.”
After some hesitation, Clae approached the door. The other two crept along in his wake, giving him a good head start. The door was already ajar, so Clae kicked it gently open. As he did he pulled out one of his guns. There was a split second of nothing. Laura thought maybe they were mistaken, but then came a high-pitched shriek. Clae jerked backward, but even before he did Okane moved, practically trampling Laura’s feet as he scrambled back toward the window. Laura lost her balance. She stumbled, and the world was a dark blur. She could hear Clae give a pained grunt, and a sudden splintering sound. There was a smash and a crash from either side of the hall, accompanied by an awful hiss and finally a burst of light before she caught the back of Okane’s vest. She blinked furiously, trying to haul herself back up and recover from that light.
“What the hell is going on?”
The hissing went off to her right and she jumped, still unable to make anything out. Soon enough the hiss ended, replaced by an odd skittering that faded quickly.
“Look,” came Clae’s voice, and gradually her vision cleared enough that she was able to see him again. “I get it, you don’t like it. But for god’s sake, don’t panic and take out your coworker.”
Clae happened to be glaring at Okane, who looked caught somewhere between the vestiges of fear and embarrassment. The remnants of an Egg were scattered on the ground, broken glass and kin liquid spreading along the floorboards. There was no sign of whatever had made that skitter noise, beyond a large chunk taken out of the doorway and a dent in the wall opposite. It looked like something had been launched through with enough force to rip pieces of the wall out with it. Laura gawked at it while the others squabbled.
“And you wasted an Egg. Didn’t I tell you to aim?”
“--- know I hate it!” Okane hissed. “What did --- think I’d do, seeing one of those things?”
“Use some sense,” Clae grumbled. “You were doing well with infestations in private lessons.”
“That one wasn’t flinging itself at my head!”
“You’ve got better defenses than we do, but we aren’t panicking.” He paused, took a deep breath. “You know what? Go outside. Wait by the briefcase.”
Okane looked horrified. “What?”
“I told you to go outside. If you’re going to be more hindrance than help, I don’t want you in the way. The light outside will keep you out of the infestation’s range.”
“But—”
“But what?”
Clae glowered. Okane quailed, but choked out, “--- said I’d be a good Sweeper.”
“If you’re under control. Are you under control?” Okane didn’t agree, but he didn’t deny either. Clae huffed. “Stay or leave, just commit to the choice you make. Remember what I said at the temple.”
He pulled down his goggles in a manner that seemed very arrogant. Laura wasn’t sure how he managed it. She pulled down her own in case of more unexpected Egg explosions. She pulled up her bandana too.
“You’re okay though, right?” she asked Okane. “It didn’t get you?”
“Of course not,” he muttered. He made a big deal of straightening his vest before sulking after Clae.
The new set of scratches led them around the floor, in and out of two bedrooms. Here beds were overturned, a few bunks warped or even missing, and the contents of footlockers strewn in a mess across the floorboards. Their quarry was nowhere to be seen, and neither were any soldiers. At the next staircase, though, they heard shuffling. Laura squinted. Between the darkness and the goggles, she couldn’t spot anything up there. She held up her Egg as they began to ascend. The noise started up and stopped three different times, going from one side to the other. Laura couldn’t help but think it sounded gleeful.
“I don’t like this,” she muttered.
“And you did before?” said Clae.
“No, but—”
A particularly loud, long scratch came from above. Their footsteps wavered.
“Okane? You sensing anything to go along with that?” asked Laura.
He said something quiet and unintelligible, but she got the idea. He didn’t want to go up there. She walked in front of him this time; she didn’t want to be knocked over again, especially on stairs. As they reached the landing they saw nothing out of the ordinary. Marks on the ground, yes, but that was no longer unusual. The three milled about at the top of the stairs.
“We definitely heard it, so where’d it go?” Laura looked around, to no avail. She wished the lights were on in here; the darkness set her on edge just as much as the noise had. She clenched her free hand a few times, trying to keep shaking to a minimum.
“It’s a fast little bastard,” Clae grumbled.
Another sound caused them all to whip around. Farther down the hall, in a patch of faint light from the window, sat a large wooden object. It was a disc the size of a plate, dipping in deeply. It was weirdly shaped, with protrusions on the bottom so it lay lopsided.
“Is that the amule
t? It’s a lot bigger than the others I’ve seen,” said Laura.
“That’s definitely the source,” said Okane.
Before their eyes, the wooden object moved. It jerked to the left, then back, then up. It stood upright on its thinnest portion, revealing exactly what it was. The thing was a mask. And god, it was creepy. It had stubby little horns, bulging eyes, and strange curved carvings and marks twisting its features into an ugly grimace. Its eyes glowed rosy red in comparison to its dark brown body. The nose was huge, almost a beak. Clae swore at the sight of it.
“Two!”
“What?”
“There are two amulets! The eyes! They’re amulets!”
The mask hissed, and the red sockets began to ooze blackness. That blackness grew, turning into long, thin, reedy arms that bent sharply and touched the floor like spider legs. It pushed itself forward, faster than a charging horse. The bumps on the front dragged brutally along the floor, nose gouging that deep mark from the previous tracks.
It seemed hell-bent for the wall, so Laura sprang out of the way. She nicked the Egg against her amulet and slung it down at the approaching creature. The glass cracked.
“Scatter!”
They fled as fast as they could before the inevitable happened and the Egg detonated. It went off with a roar and a blast that sent everyone reeling. Laura was thrown completely off her feet and tumbled onto the floor. She yelped in pain as she came to a stop, but the sound was overpowered by the shrieking of the creature. The Egg blast sent it straight up in the air so it smashed into the ceiling. It dropped back to the floor with a loud crunch against the glass shards. The kin liquid and glass pieces spat angrily and leapt up, stinging the mask’s sides. The creature hopped madly to avoid it. Unfortunately it was dancing toward the corner by the stairs, exactly where Okane was huddled. He stared at it like it was death approaching. Laura scrambled up at the sight, heart in her throat.
“Run!” she cried. “Get out of there, you idiot!”
But he didn’t move. He just tensed up more as it got within two feet of him. That was when it realized something was there. Halfway through a hop it raised some of its arms, ready to strike.
“Move!”
Okane still didn’t make to get up. Instead he drew back his legs, and in one suicidal move, he lashed out in a kick. It was a very bad idea to touch one of these monsters. They stuck to any living thing they touched, wrapped them up, and pulled them in to eat. As far as Laura knew, no one had ever gotten away from them before. Okane’s feet connected with the mask with a loud retort, but instead of latching on to him the creature let out an even more piercing sound. Its hands recoiled as if burned, and with a deafening snap it tumbled away. It rolled through the glass again, shuddered violently.
“Get up!”
Clae grabbed Okane’s shirt and heaved him up, shoving him away from the wall. Okane stumbled before bolting past the creature, only slowing when he passed Laura. The creature, meanwhile, began to grow. The darkness swelled, slimy body roiling and swallowing up the mask entirely. Soon it ballooned to take up the entire width of the hallway, a pulsing black mass that shone particularly slimy.
“C-Clae?” said Laura. “Clae, what now?”
“Get out of the damn way!” he yelled back, completely obscured.
Okane tugged at Laura’s sleeve, shaky but getting more adamant as the infestation hit the ceiling. Its black mass uncoiled there and spread, a disarray of muddled tentacles with acrid black smoke issuing from their midst. Laura gaped at it in horror, and Okane’s tugging increased.
“Laura, Laura, Laura—”
The ceiling tendrils began to fall, and Laura finally pedaled backward. She and Okane ran as fast as they could down the hall, and the blackness followed, crashing against the walls like a tidal wave. As she sprinted, Laura wrestled with the clasp of her belt bag, searching for more ammunition. She fished out another Egg and tapped her amulet before tossing it over her shoulder. She didn’t look to see if she aimed right. They rounded the corner just in time. This explosion shook the floor, and Laura heard windows shattering. More glass shards flew across the ground, hissing and spitting, and the creature wailed horribly. Their footing was thrown off. As she stumbled, two Bijou fell out of Laura’s pocket to clatter on the floor. She stopped short.
“What are --- doing?” Okane screeched.
“Lighting it!”
Laura fumbled with the wire from her bag, and once she’d wrestled it out, she flicked it. Just like before, it sparked, and she dropped it down by the fallen Bijou as she dug the rest out. The first two lit up with a bang. More of the windows nearby smashed, and the force and heat caused Laura to fall over. Screw it. She chucked the rest of the Bijou at the hissing wire, then scrambled farther away. Okane practically dragged her to her feet. With the following blasts, the entire building shuddered. They were lucky to get around the other corner before it could reach them, but the roaring, rending, and crashing behind them made Laura’s heart sink.
The Bijou took out the entire wall and ceiling. A gaping hole was all that remained of that wall, and part of the floor above had fallen through, littering the hall with debris and dust. Underneath it all the Bijou popped and shrieked, throwing up sparks and causing patches of wreckage to rumble and quake. Laura doubled back, and Okane stumbled to a stop.
“Where are --- going?”
“Bijou! Don’t worry, I’ll be okay!”
She hopped onto a busted beam and balanced there, looking out over the damage. She couldn’t see the creature, but she couldn’t see Clae either. Maybe he was around the corner. Out of the way of the blast. She hoped so. The popping grew nearer and a Bijou hopped up out of the bricks. It crackled and squealed and jumped some more, probably sensing the amulets in her boots.
“Clae?” she called. “Are you there?”
Another portion of the debris shifted. For a moment she was afraid he really did get caught up in it. There was an apology on her tongue that died as another beam shifted, and the mask shot up. Its dark arms sprouted again, gooier this time, and it landed in a cloud of dust. Laura nearly tripped in her haste to get off the beam and run. Three more Bijou followed the first, rolling under the beam after her, and she forced herself to go slower so they could keep up.
“Faster, faster!” Okane hissed, gesturing madly.
“No, you get over here!” she retorted.
“No way in—”
“The Bijou, stupid! Clae said they’d help!”
Okane made a long-suffering sound and joined her. The Bijou circled them as they moved, spouting tongues of white-hot sparks. In the meantime the creature had scrambled over the beam to follow them. Laura glanced back at it and wished she had a gun. The creature gained quickly. Two of its arms reared up, aiming down at them. Laura and Okane ducked, but it didn’t get within a foot of them before the Bijou spat even higher. They stung the monster, causing an acrid smell to taint the air. The creature recoiled immediately. Smoke rose from its burned limbs.
“Where’s Clae?” asked Okane. “Shouldn’t he be doing something?”
“I don’t know! I think I might’ve cut him off,” groaned Laura, hoping she was wrong as the Bijou assaulted the creature again. “It might take a little while for him to get over here.”
“Great, that’s just great,” Okane hissed, and Laura glared at him.
“What have you been doing, huh? At least I’m throwing things at it!”
“And blowing up the whole floor—”
“At least I hit it!”
The creature shrieked and swiped. They jumped out of the way in time, but it caught one of the Bijou. The bead was hit so hard it flew right through the wall, causing another crash and creating a hole big enough to be a window. As a result, though, the creature lost a limb. The rest of the arms kept scuttling, gaining, but one stump simply drooped, dragging along the floor and giving off black smoke. Okane slowed just enough to kick another Bijou at it, hoping to take advantage of this weakness. It caught th
e creature smack in the middle of the mask, sticking in the dip between nose and forehead, and let out a noise like a train whistle. The creature stopped completely, rearing back with a wail as its arms groped at the mask, trying to dislodge the thing causing it so much agony. It swung itself from side to side, crashing into the wall and flailing madly.
“We’re dead,” Laura said under her breath, “we are so dead.…”
“Well, what are we supposed to do?” cried Okane.
“Get to the amulets and douse them with kin! But we can’t get through that!” Laura replied, gesturing back at the creature.
As she did this, the monster decided it was impossible to get rid of the Bijou. Instead it turned on them with new vigor, blackness seething through the teeth and nostrils of the mask. It lunged, screeching a battle cry. Okane grabbed Laura by the sleeve and dragged her along, running so fast Laura could barely keep up. The infestation gave chase, thundering on uneven legs and spitting blackness to spatter the floor. They arrived at the stairs to the fifth floor. Okane took them two at a time, but while Laura did that going upstairs at home, she couldn’t do it at this speed. With a yelp, she tripped and went sprawling. Her fall yanked Okane down too, and he wiped out with a howl of pain. The Bijou spat near the foot of the stairs, but they were too far away to do anything. The creature’s legs grew longer, allowing it to walk right over them. Laura held up her last Egg, hoping kin light would deter the monster, but it was useless. The mask descended, and the creature shrieked with glee.
A shot rang out, and the mask jerked violently. Half of it was blown to bits in a flash of gold. The creature squealed. With half its form gone it couldn’t steady itself, so it plowed into the wall and slipped down to the floor. Laura stared at it in shock, then looked up. Clae strode down the hall looking rather the worse for wear. He was battered and dusty, blood smeared on his face and favoring his left leg, but he was still on the move.
“Thank god,” Laura whispered.
She scrambled over to Okane, pulling him out of his daze and onto his feet. As she did, Clae got close enough to plant one foot on the mask. The creature reached up to attack, but his eyes promised pain. He shot at the blackness, severing more limbs and making the creature squeal loud enough to hurt their ears.
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