Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

  “I thought you could wear them under your pants if you were expecting a serious fight. I gave you an inner layer with a really fine weave for the inner thighs, for when you’re riding, so there’s less chafing.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I went out of my way to give you lots of pockets like you had in the other jacket. I don’t think it’ll be too hot. There’s zippers in the armpits so you can ventilate some cool air inside, and you can detach the hood if you want, but I liked how it looked with the fur. I’m planning an inside liner for when it’s-”

  “It’s fine,” she interrupted me. ”Stop talking. It’s good.”

  “Yeah? I didn’t get a chance to get your measurements, so I went by memory, based on the jacket you lent me.”

  She pulled it on and adjusted the front. ”Fits fine.”

  “Here,” I said. I turned around and grabbed the next piece. I handed it to her.

  She turned it around in her hands. I’d cheated and formed the base sculpt out of chicken wire, covering the remainder with layers of dragline silk and painting the end result. It was, as close as I’d been able to manage, a recreation of what her power did to her dogs in the form of a mask. Except I’d made it half human and half dog.

  “Looks like Brutus,” she said.

  I didn’t see it, but I didn’t see fit to correct her either.

  She pulled it on.

  “It’s just a little bit flexible, if you want to bend any bits that are rubbing in the wrong place, or shape it to fit your face better.”

  “It’s fine,” she said. She adjusted her jacket again.

  “If you want me to change anything-”

  “No.”

  Her refusal was so curt it gave me pause. I couldn’t tell if she was upset or happy.

  I forced myself to keep my mouth shut. I’d give her a few seconds to let me know either way. If she didn’t, I was ready to escape by pointing out that lunch would be waiting for us.

  “You made stuff for the others?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But I didn’t ask for it. I told you to fuck off when you asked me for my measurements, remember?”

  “I made it anyways.”

  She adjusted her mask, turning it so it hung off one side of her head. She was glowering at me. ”Why didn’t you listen when I told you to fuck off?”

  Two ways I could interpret that question. ”Don’t worry about it. Look, the hamburgers will be ready soon…” I trailed off.

  An awkward silence reigned. I turned to head downstairs.

  “What do you want for this?”

  I looked over my shoulder. ”What? Nothing.”

  “You’re trying to get some favor from me.”

  “No, I’m really not. It might feel like it, with the timing and what we’re going to talk about with Lisa and the others, but it’s really not. You’re free to argue and disagree with me or the rest of us, just like usual. The costume’s a gift.”

  “I don’t get many gifts.”

  I shrugged. What was I supposed to say to that? I couldn’t help but feel that if I were a little more socially adroit, I’d have had a snappy answer.

  She kept talking. ”All of the stuff I’ve gotten, it’s been with strings attached. Used to get gifts from one of my foster dads,” she paused. ”And I get the money from Coil.”

  “Those aren’t really presents. They’re more like bribes or enticements. Really truly, this is no strings attached. You can act like you normally would, I won’t expect any different.”

  Again, that glower.

  I swallowed. ”Wear it or don’t wear it. It’s okay either way. It’s not a big deal.”

  “I’ll wear it,” she said.

  When I turned to head downstairs, she followed.

  I guess that means ‘thank you’.

  We were greeted by the others in the kitchen. There was just enough time to grab and prepare our burgers before the others arrived. Grue, Tattletale, Imp, Regent and Shatterbird. They turned down the offer of food, and together, we ventured back upstairs.

  With everyone gathered in my headquarters, I handed out the costumes. Like Bitch’s, the other costumes were in various stages of completion, primarily with minor details missing or askew. I ate while the others tried it all on.

  Lisa’s costume was virtually the same. The complicated aspect had been maintaining the crisp differences in color without any bleeding of black into lavender or vice versa. There’d also been the issue of getting the mask to fit her face well. I’d accomplished the former by making the black and lavender pieces separately and attaching them to a gossamer-thin sub-layer when I was done. We had the boys and Shatterbird turn away while Lisa and Aisha changed at one end of the room. The mask was a failure, it didn’t sit right around the eyes, but I was left with an idea of what to do.

  Grue’s costume was not unlike his motorcycle leathers in terms of thickness and design, making him one of the most heavily armored of our groups in terms of the amount of material he was wearing. His headwear was the part I’d changed the most: I’d modeled the face-plate after a figurine he’d bought at the market. It was a step away from the visor he’d worn up to now, more demonic than skeletal. The only real trick there had been making it non-porous enough that his darkness wouldn’t bleed through. A quick experiment proved that my efforts had turned out alright. In costume, the face-mask down, the darkness framed his mask but didn’t cover it unless Grue forced it to. A demon’s face in dark gray in a vaguely human-shaped twist of darkness.

  For Regent and Imp, I’d settled on bodysuits and masks. Regent would wear his beneath his costume and Imp would wear hers as a simple black bodysuit, complete with a scarf and the horned mask Coil had provided.

  There was more to do: belts, Imp’s scarf, Tattletale’s mask and Bitch’s shirt, not to mention finishing my new mask, and my plans for different masks for our various minions.

  When we’d been fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine, I’d lamented the fact that I hadn’t better outfitted the team, and people had been hurt where the costumes would have otherwise protected them. In the days I’d had to wind down, focusing on getting people organized and working on cleaning up the area, I’d been in range to get a serious effort going on the costumes.

  I was satisfied with this.

  By all appearances, they were too.

  “Safe to turn around,” Tattletale told the boys.

  They did. I gestured, and people found seats in the various chairs.

  “Feels like we’re different people than we were an hour ago,” Imp said, looking around.

  I considered her words. ”I appreciate the sentiment, but I think it’s more accurate to say we’re different people than we were a week ago.”

  There were some nods. I glanced at the scar on Tattletale’s cheek, at Shatterbird, who stood obediently behind Regent, and at Grue, who had transformed more than any of us.

  And I couldn’t forget the change I’d undergone, even if I didn’t have the objectivity to nail down exactly what about me was different from a week ago. Sure, my costume was different, and I had the three hundred pound beetle that was resting on the roof.

  “You wanted to touch base?” Brian asked, after he’d pulled off his mask.

  “I had some words with Skitter,” Lisa answered. “I think it’s about time we all got on the same page.”

  “In terms of tactics?”

  Lisa shrugged, “There’s that. I think working independently is kind of throwing us off, and it leaves us weak against any coordinated attacks from the Chosen. We work best when we complement one another.”

  Alec shrugged. ”Okay. That’s easy enough to arrange. Not really a reason to throw a major group meeting.”

  “There’s something else,” I said. I swallowed, looking at Regent, Imp and Bitch. “I’ve already talked about this at length with Lisa, and I’ve discussed it some with Brian. This isn’t an easy topic to broach, because it sort of fucks with the team’s status quo.”

 
; That had their attention.

  “I guess the question is, how keen are you guys on continuing to work for Coil?”

  “Are we talking quitting in the short-term or what?”

  “I don’t know exactly what we’re talking about, because so much depends on how you guys respond and how things unfold in the next while,” I said. “But this thing with Dinah, I’m not happy with it. I know Lisa and Brian have their issues with that, even if they don’t share my perspective in how culpable we all are in that.”

  “I’m not responsible at all,” Aisha pointed out.

  “Aisha,” Brian’s tone was a warning.

  “Just saying.”

  “You aren’t responsible, I know,” I told her. ”I get the impression you’d side with Brian, Lisa and me if it came down to it. The people I’m really directing this question at are Alec and Rachel. I’m under the impression they’re the least invested in helping Dinah out, and they’re most interested in what Coil has to offer.”

  “Doesn’t Brian have a stake in this?” Alec asked.

  Brian shrugged. ”Coil approached me a few days ago about increasing my pay. I think he knows I’m not that reliant on him anymore. I got into this because I wanted to get Aisha away from my mom. With the way things in the city have been turned upside-down, I know and Coil knows that I don’t need help. The fact that I can say I’ve got money saved up, I can arrange to get a place and Aisha’s safe and sound with me? That’s almost enough to decide the court case as is.”

  “And mommy’s on a bender,” Aisha said. ”Don’t think it’ll end anytime soon.”

  It was odd, but Brian looked more upset at hearing that than Aisha was about saying it aloud. Hadn’t he grown up with his dad?

  “So it’s really down to you two,” I addressed Alec and Rachel.

  “If I were to say I wanted to stick around? That I like the status quo?” Alec asked.

  “That’s fine,” Lisa said. ”You’d be an asshole and a prick, but we’d work around you.”

  “That’s vague,” Alec commented.

  “We can’t exactly share our game plan with you if we’re going to wind up on opposite sides,” I pointed out.

  “It’s a hassle. Why make things complicated for all of us, because one member of our group has a moral quibble?”

  “A preadolescent girl was kidnapped, with our help, and she’s spent the last few months in a dungeon, drugged out of her mind, all so Coil can use her power,” I said. ”That’s not a quibble.”

  Alec sighed dramatically. ”I’m just pulling your legs. World’s going to end in a couple of years. Won’t kill me to help you make peace with yourself before it does.”

  There was a long pause where nobody spoke.

  “Nice, Alec.” Brian said.

  Alec chuckled. ”What? It’s true. That Dinah kid said it was. Don’t pretend it’s not going to happen. Might as well live it up before everything goes to hell in a handbasket.”

  “There’s a chance it won’t,” I replied, my voice quiet. ”And with the sheer variety of powers out there, there’s got to be an answer.”

  “That optimism’s bound to be wearing thin by now,” Alec commented.

  “Enough,” Brian said.

  “Why are you guys freaking out? Because I’m calling you out on your willful blindness? The world’s gonna end, and I’m okay with that. Therefore I’m saying I’ll go along with your plan, whatever it is. Why argue with me?”

  Brian sighed.

  “Bitch?” I asked. ”I know Coil’s set up your dogs in those shelters, and we’d be asking you to potentially lose that, depending on how this plays out, but…”

  “I’ve managed without money before,” Bitch said. ”Smarmy bastard conned me. Promised me I’d be left alone if I joined the group. That hasn’t happened. If he thinks I’ll forget that because of what he’s given me, I’d like to see the look on his face when he finds out how wrong he is.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “So we’re all in?” I asked.

  “It was fun,” Alec shrugged, “That’s why we got into this, wasn’t it? Easy money, fun, get to do what we wanted. No pressure, no responsibilities. It’s become something else. So maybe we end that.”

  “I don’t necessarily want to end it,” I said. ”I’m not talking about taking Coil head on, and I do want to preserve my territory, if I can help it. It’s helping people.”

  “So what do you want?” he challenged me.

  “For right now? I mainly wanted to know you’re on my side. I really appreciate that you are,” I said. I looked at Bitch and repeated myself, “Really.”

  “And for the future?”

  “We’ve got an awfully small window,” Lisa said. ”One and a half weeks, roughly, before Dinah’s power is back online. Once that happens, Coil becomes a thousand times harder to take on. There’s the mayoral elections, the question of whether the city gets condemned-”

  “What?” I cut in.

  “It’s arguably more expensive to fix the problems here than it is to abandon the city entirely. Depends on what the consensus is from the President and all the other folks in charge.”

  “If that happens, what will Coil do?” Brian asked.

  “Leave. Start over somewhere else, transporting any resources he can, leaving behind all liabilities. He might bring some of you with him, offering some hefty bribes. Somehow I don’t think he’ll bring Skitter. Even my own currency is running pretty thin,” Lisa shrugged.

  “He can’t afford to lose you,” Brian said. ”You’re too dangerous as an enemy.”

  “Oh, I think he’s studied me enough to feel pretty confident he can off me if he wants to,” Lisa said. “Trick is making it a sure enough kill that there’s no chance of it backfiring on him.”

  “And me?” I asked, feeling a pang of alarm.

  “He knows your weak points. The gaps in your power, your dad, your identity, your morals. You already know that.”

  I did, but hearing it said so clearly, it was one of those cases where having the details laid out in front of me didn’t make me feel more confident.

  “So this is going to be a different kind of fight,” Brian mused. ”It’s about control and subterfuge. If he figures out what we’re doing, if we clue him in, he’s probably better equipped than any of our past opponents when it comes to knowing how to deal with us. If the city gets condemned, we’re boned. And if Dinah gets her powers back, he’ll be impossible to beat.”

  “That’s the gist of it. Even I don’t know what he has planned for his endgame, here. It’s looking pretty ugly, to be honest.” Lisa counted off the points on her fingers. ”The Chosen will be gunning for us, Coil’s got a small army of pretty excellent, well-equipped soldiers at his disposal, he’s got some pretty fucking heavy hitters with the Travelers, the heroes are going to be going into overdrive to establish some sort of control and last but not least, he’s Coil.”

  “Well,” Alec said, chuckling a little, “At least we’ll have something to help pass the time while we wait for the world to end.”

  15.x (Donation Interlude #1; Carol)

  Darkness. Almost a physical presence, bearing down on her as though she were deep underwater and the weight of all of the water above her was pressing against her head and shoulders.

  Some of that was fatigue, some of it was hunger, some was thirst. She had no idea how much time had passed. She might have been able to guess from her period, but her body had decided such would be a waste of precious resources. It hadn’t come, and she had no idea how many weeks or months it had been.

  Darkness, so absolute she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed. As she breathed, it almost felt like the dark was pressing down on her, making exhaling harder with every breath. It didn’t help that the room smelled like an open sewer mingled with body odor.

  Reaching out, she fumbled, felt the dim warmth of skin. An arm so thin she could wrap her hand around it, middle finger and thumb touching. Her hand slid down t
he arm and her fingers twined with those of a hand smaller than hers. The physical contact seemed to put the physical sensations of air on her skin into a kind of context. The sense of pressure faded.

  “I’m hungry,” the girl beside her spoke.

  “I am too.”

  “I want to go home.”

  “I know.”

  There was the sound of a key in the lock, and her heart leapt.

  The light felt like knives being driven into her eye sockets, but she stared anyways. A man, tall, tan and long-haired, entered the room, a lantern in one hand and a plate of food in the other.

  He set down the food and then turned to leave.

  “Thank you!” she called after him. She saw him hesitate.

  The door slammed shut after him.

  “You thanked him?” The words were accusatory.

  She couldn’t justify it. Her heart was pounding. She stared at the plate. Soup and bread: enough food for one person, barely enough for two. She could have said she did it in the hopes that he would feed them more often, but she wasn’t sure she would be telling the truth.

  “Let’s… let’s just eat,” she spoke.

  ■

  “I knew you were here when I was a block away,” Alan spoke. “The number of lights on in these offices is asking for troublemakers to notice and come by. And the doors were unlocked.”

  Carol looked up in surprise. Composing herself, she answered, “I’m not concerned.”

  The man laughed, “No, I imagine you aren’t.”

  “You’re back?”

  “For a little while, at least. The partners asked if I could come by in case we had to close up shop in a hurry.”

  “In case the city is condemned?”

  “That’s it. What are you doing? Are those the files from downstairs?”

  Carol nodded, glancing at the crate of paperwork marked ’1972′. “We’ve been saying we would copy them over to digital format the next time business got slow. It won’t get much slower than it is now.”

  “The idea was that everyone in the office would pitch in,” Alan answered.

  “Everyone in the office is pitching in.”

  “Except you’re the only one here,” Alan said. His brow creased in worry, “What’s going on? Are you okay?”