by Jon F. Merz
“Them?” I shook my head. “No. We were run out town for a more deliberate reason.”
“Which is?”
I turned back to the direction of Diablo and frowned. “They’re protecting her.”
“Her?”
“The Source,” I said. “They have to be. In exchange for giving her some sort of sanctuary, she doesn’t ravage the inhabitants. Warsaw can operate his own fiefdom there with impunity. He’s got a nice setup going. He can extort, or even murder, without fear.”
“Murder? Who did he murder?”
I frowned. “Rask. Most likely. He probably came into town the way we did, although knowing Rask, it was a bit more…abrasive.” I grinned at the thought. “Instead of dealing with him, they just opted to kill him and burn his body.”
“So why handle us differently?”
I shook my head. “No idea. Maybe they think it’ll be more expedient if they let her take care of us. You know, kick us out of the safety of the town and then let the Source kill us both.”
Ares shivered as a breeze swept in from the east. “Great.”
I shifted the staff in my hands. “We need shelter, or at least some sort of defensible position.”
“Where though?”
“Some place she wouldn’t expect us to go.”
Ares gestured around us, which was wide open save for a few trees scattered far and wide. “Not exactly a whole bunch of options here.”
I looked. The sucker would expect us to hightail it back down the road, trying to put as much distance between us and Diablo as possible. But I knew she could also smell us with the accuracy of a dog, so we needed something that would mask our visibility and our scent. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter where we were, she’d find us.
“Come on.” I tugged her arm rather than the chain and we started moving across the wide open field to our left. As we walked, the sun continued to dip toward the horizon.
“How much time?” asked Ares.
“Not enough,” I said. “Maybe thirty minutes. Maybe. And if she’s really powerful, she might even be able to tolerate the last rays if she’s anxious to get hunting us.
“Is that even possible? I thought the sun killed them.”
“It does,” I said. “But only if it’s still visible. If it dips beyond the horizon and it’s still light out, she might - just might be able to emerge sooner.” I pushed the pace now, urging us on faster. I had a feeling I knew what was around in the area. It was just a matter of finding it.
My nose located it before I did. Any outpost like Diablo had to have some sort of sewage capabilities. They had running water in the rooms, after all. And toilets. That meant they had to have piping leading somewhere, to some sort of septic system or - what I was banking on - was a field where the sewage and waste water came together in a marshy mess.
Ares wrinkled her nose as I increased our gait. “What is that awful smell?”
“Good news, bad news,” I said. “The good news is that I’ve got us a great place to hide. The bad news is that bath you took is going to be wasted.”
Ares shook her head. “Oh my god, is that what I think it is?”
We stood at the edge of a bog that was rife with awfulness anywhere you looked. I retched once and then got myself under control. Ares wasn’t as used to being in the nasty as I was and she vomited everywhere. The flies buzzed around us and the grasses grew really tall here. The sewage and waste water created the perfect growing environment for a lot of scrub grass and weeds. In places, the grass came up to our chests. I stopped about fifty meters before the sewage field really started and scooped up handfuls of mud and began slathering them all over our clothes and skin.
Ares vomited again.
I tried to calm her down. “I know this is pretty much the worst thing you’ve ever done, but trust me, it will shield us from her abilities. We lay low in the tall grass and let the stench obscure our scent. She’ll cast about for it, but she won’t ever think that a couple of humans would willingly submerge themselves in this shit.”
“Literally,” said Ares around another retch.
“But you’ve got to stay absolutely still and quiet. I doubt any sucker would tolerate this place. And hopefully, she’ll buzz the area and then move off. She won’t find us if we’re quiet and still. So tell yourself that this is just smelly mud.” I pointed at her chain. “Hold still.”
I moved to her neck as her eyes grew wide. I unlocked the collar and it fell away to the ground. Ares stared at me. I smirked. “The chances of you running away right now are pretty damned remote, I think. Plus, I can’t risk the chain shifting and making noise.”
She looked at me as if I was crazy for letting her loose. “Maybe you’re not such an asshole, after all.”
“I’m still an asshole and I still have a job to do.” I shrugged. “But right now we’re in deep shit. I don’t like fighting when I can’t control the terrain or situation. So we lay low for tonight and then I’ll figure something else out.”
Ares rubbed her neck. “Are you sure this will work?”
“Almost a whopping eighty percent,” I said. In truth, I didn’t know. But given their hatred of the herbs, I was hoping that their olfactory senses were repelled by the stench of raw sewage as well.
Ares squatted down in the tall grass and I pulled up clumps to hide us both. Luckily, the area was used by animals, too, apparently and the stalks were bent and uprooted in every direction, meaning someone looking at our position wouldn’t necessarily think it odd.
“You ready to get even dirtier?” I asked.
“As long as you buy me all the baths I can ask for,” said Ares. “I have a feeling this smell will linger on me forever.”
“Better than being dead,” I said around another retch.
16
By the time I’d constructed our hide site - such as it was - the sun was already below the horizon. I crawled out and around, checking the tufts of grasses and mud over from a variety of angles, but it held up to scrutiny. A good hide site will look like a natural part of the landscape. And I didn’t want “she” to be able to see anything out of the ordinary. I was also betting that even if she caught our scent, she’d be turned off by the sewage stench and never think that a pair of humans would subject themselves to the filth we were currently engrossed in.
But the need to survive has a way of making you forget that you’re laying in shit. It was one of the the things I’d never forgotten from my time with the Teams. You can literally wallow in muck and filth and if you separate the physicality of the experience from your mind, you can shut out all of the grossness and concentrate on doing what you need to do: waiting for a bad guy so you can pop him.
Or avoiding being hunted by a sucker.
I snaked my way back into position and pulled the grass and gunk over myself like a cloak. I had a small view out from under the concealment I’d created. Ares was positioned opposite of me, giving her a view to my rear. In this way, we could cover each other’s backs in case the sucker didn’t mind walking through sewage and muck.
We stayed quiet as the bugs and flies buzzed around us. Fortunately, the mud we’d smeared all over our bodies and clothes kept us from being bitten by the flying nasties. They had other things to feast on rather than our skin. And it was just as well they did, because neither one of us could risk swatting any of them away without giving away our position.
I hoped that Ares wouldn’t fall asleep. I suspected she wouldn’t, given how scary the night could be. We were, in effect, right out in the open. If a sucker was determined enough, they could come walking right into the filth and haul us out of there.
I had my staff with me of course and could defend us if necessary, but I wasn’t looking for a fight tonight. I wanted nothing to do with that. Tonight was all about surviving long enough to get back into Diablo and find out what was really going on. If, as I suspected, the Source was being protected, then I needed to find out where she was hiding up during the day and kill it
. Then Warsaw and I had some unfinished business to attend to. I didn’t think he was going to be especially excited about it. After all, I don’t tolerate people who kill my friends.
Or co-workers.
I snapped back to the present because my instincts were yammering at me about something being amiss. I waited, listened. The first indication that something was close by was when all of the insects went quiet. They went utterly still. I didn’t know if they were all dead of if they were scared the same as Ares and me.
I caught a flash of movement far off on the periphery of the sewage swamp. A shadow passing through the grass without disturbing any of it in its wake. I couldn’t see any detail, nothing at all. Just a presence.
I shivered as if a breeze had blown through. The hair along my forearms stood up. The air around us felt electric. Charged with the sort of supernatural energy I’d encountered in the past when I’d dealt with particularly powerful suckers.
But this was off the charts.
If this was the “she” that Sam the bartender had spoken of, then she was truly powerful. And it made sense that she would be, if she was indeed the Source of all of the other suckers across the world.
I gripped the staff just a bit tighter, expecting at any moment to have the grass blanket we were under thrown back as the sucker attacked. My plan was to roll over and stab right up as she did so, hoping for a quick fatal strike to her chest.
I doubted it would be that easy. Something like the Source wouldn’t telegraph her moves so a Mortal Maker like me could take her out that easily. She’d no doubt lasted through power struggles in order to establish herself as the queen of her ilk.
No, she’d be every bit as dangerous as I thought she would be. Anything less would mean another sucker could have battled her for supremacy and won.
The air went still. Utterly and completely still. Nothing moved. And we certainly didn’t either.
I caught another flash of movement. And then I heard her sniffing. She sounded a bit like a dog casting for scent, but she stayed where she was, on the periphery of the sewage swamp, not willing to come into the filth.
I hoped she thought that we’d used the sewage to try to disguise our scent and then continued on beyond it. If she crossed over to the other side and then picked up the scent, she might continue on her way. But if she didn’t, then she’d stay here, probably confused.
If there had been time before sunset, I would have done a runner away from the sewage swamp and off into the woods somewhere to try to lure her in that direction. But we’d barely had enough time to get ourselves covered and concealed. If I’d pushed it any longer, we might both be dead by now.
Better to let the Source get frustrated. Who knew? Maybe she’d go back to Diablo and take it out on Warsaw. Rough him up some. After all, she’d probably been told that we’d be an easy kill. That she’d be able to feast at her leisure tonight instead of needing to hunt and then retreat back into her refuge.
But we weren’t going to be an easy kill. Not Ares. Not me.
I felt Ares tense up and willed her to relax. I had no doubt that the Source had the same sort of night vision every sucker had. It was as sharp as mine was during the day. If Ares even flinched, the Source would see it and pounce.
It must have been behind me. I was glad we’d arranged ourselves like this. Even if Ares couldn’t necessarily do what I could do, she would at least warn me if the Source attacked from that direction. Then I could take the necessary steps to protect us.
I heard more sniffing. It was far closer than it had been just a few minutes earlier, leading me to think that the creature was venturing closer to our position. That wasn’t good. If it came too close, I’d have to go on the offense and take a chance that I could surprise it long enough to gain the upper hand. The realistic part of me told me that would never happen. A sucker as powerful as this one was would have heightened reaction time and be able to sense me coming.
Stealth and concealment were the far better option at this point. Provided we could stay hidden long enough to wait until the sun came up.
And then I heard its voice for the first time. “Where? Where are they?”
It was quiet, but insistent and even horrifying at the same time. She sounded like nothing I ever wanted to face in combat, such was the way her voice made my skin crawl. It had that edge that told me she was a killer with absolutely no remorse.
None.
That made her the most dangerous sucker I’d ever faced. And I’d faced enough of them to know. The fact was, in recent years, the suckers I’d killed were less than what they’d once been. But I knew this one would surpass all of them in terms of sheer ferocity.
That worried me.
I caught more flashes of movement throughout the next hours. Finally, I heard it speak again and I didn’t like what I’d heard.
“Lies. He told us lies. They have vanished and left no trail. The hour grows late and I must feed.”
She hissed and instantly, the bugs all around us came back to life, buzzing and zipping everywhere. It was like someone had thrown a switch and zapped the energy back into the landscape. I kept my eyes moving from position to position but I could no longer see anything.
I wanted to ask Ares if she could see anything, but I stayed quiet.
If the Source was still close by, we would wait her out. But I suspected she was gone. Off to hunt another victim that she would no doubt kill with savagery, especially since she’d seemed pissed that she couldn’t find us.
Tomorrow, though…she was mine.
17
We lay covered in the gunk until the darkness faded and the sun started its slow climb. I drifted off as soon as I sensed that the danger was no longer present, allowing myself the blissful release of sleep and enjoyed an utterly dreamless state of relaxation.
Ares nudged me awake an hour or so later. “Can we move now? I feel disgusting.”
“If you think you look bad, you should get a whiff of yourself.”
“I can and it’s all I can do to not keep vomiting.” Ares stood, her feet squishing down into the muck again. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel completely clean ever again.”
“Would you rather be food for a vampire?”
“Probably not, although after last night, I’m not so sure.” She shook some of the grasses off as I got to my feet, checked to make sure my weapons were still dry, and surveyed the scene.
The immediate priority was to find some place to wash off completely and thoroughly. Laying out in sewage presented the real danger of contracting some nasty diseases. We needed to get clean and fast.
The problem was we couldn’t go back to Diablo. I didn’t know the area, but I suspected there had to be a water source nearby that Diablo drew its supply from. As we’d walked through the town, I hadn’t seen any wells, which meant they had to be piping it in from somewhere. Despite the fact that a lot of the infrastructure had fallen into disrepair after the Event, some outposts had figured out how to draw from reservoirs and lakes.
We just had to find the place that serviced Diablo.
I was guessing it would be at the opposite end of where we were. No outpost would pump sewage in the same direction as where its drinking water came from. They’d all be dead if they did.
Which meant we had to box around Diablo and then continue in the opposite direction of where we stood currently. I sighed. The thought of walking with all this gunk drying and caking on my clothes and skin didn’t thrill me.
But I was used to being in the shit, so I nodded at Ares. “Time’s wasting. Let’s get going. The sooner we find some water to properly sanitize ourselves, the better.”
“How in the world do you propose to sanitize ourselves?”
“Hot water,” I said. “I’m a bit short on chemicals.”
“Hot water sounds amazing,” said Ares. “But where will you find some?”
“I’ll make some,” I said. “But we won’t get any closer to getting clean if we don’t start m
oving.” I lifted the chain out of the muck and grimaced. It looked utterly repulsive. Probably about the same as I did.
We moved out of the sewage field and then started back the way we’d come after leaving Diablo the night before. As soon as I recognized our position, I took a bearing and then turned us to the left ninety degrees.
“Why are we changing direction?” asked Ares.
“We’re only temporarily changing direction,” I said. “It’s called boxing. Ever heard of it?”
“No.”
I stopped and picked up a twig, using it to draw in the dirt in front of us while trying to ignore my entourage of flies. “This is diablo. We’re here, say to its south. We can’t be seen by anyone in Diablo, so we need to avoid it as much as possible.”
I paused and swatted a fly from my nose. “If we’re here, due south, then we turn to the left and walk parallel to Diablo for a distance. Once we’ve put enough distance between us, we turn right ninety degrees and head north.” I drew the line with the stick, almost making it look like I was drawing a box around Diablo. “And then we turn ninety degrees right again.” I drew a line beyond the top of the box that represented Diablo. “And finally, we turn left ninety degrees again, having boxed around the outpost and resumed our original heading, as if Diablo hadn’t been there in the first place.” I looked at her. “Easy.”
She smiled. “I get it. Did you learn that in the military?”
I nodded. “There’d be times when we’d need to box around a house or building in order to not alert anyone we were in the area. But we still had to keep on our original bearing, so boxing was the method we used.”
I tossed the stick and then wiped away the drawing in the dirt. No point letting it remain there for someone to stumble across. The less sign we left in our wake, the better. We’d be coming back to Diablo soon enough. But for now, the priority was making our way to the water. Once we were there, I could build a makeshift steam bath for us to clean ourselves with. And if we were really lucky, I might even find some aromatic plants that we could use to get rid of the funky smell that seemed to now be embedded in every pore of our skin.