by J. L. Murray
“Just one last job, Novak,” he said. Mike looked around. There was the empty nursing station where the old crone had held her ground like a warhorse in a frothy pink sweater. Mike blinked his eyes as they recovered from the frigid cold. His eyeballs defrosted and he saw the gurneys against the walls. They all had handcuffs attached. He looked around at the doors, all with deadbolt locks on the outside of the doors. Each also had a slide lock set high on the outside of the door.
A radio was on somewhere and he could hear a tinny voice. Not Ambrose Conrad, as usual, but it was similarly raspy and authoritative.
“Stay in your homes. Do not incite violence and you need not be afraid. We are here to protect…” Static garbled the voice then, and the radio went silent.
“Okay, Sia,” Mike said. “Where are you?”
Mike opened the first door, unlocking it as quietly as he could. The room was empty. The next one was empty too. As was the next. Mike stood in the last doorway and looked over the empty room. A hospital with no patients.
“What in the holy hell is going on?”
Mike walked to a set of double doors, but this time they were locked. As he started for another door on the other side of hall, Mike stopped at the last door, which had been left open. And, unlike the other rooms, this one had a large picture window. The curtain was only open a gap, but the light had caught Mike’s eye. He walked in and threw the curtains open and looked down over the courtyard. He saw a very thin woman in an old fashioned black dress walking through the snow toward a copse of trees. Her hair was loose and the wind blew it around her wildly, the black of it standing out in the snow.
“Are you here to save her?” said a voice behind Mike.
He jumped and turned, prepared to fight. The old nurse was standing in front of him, but she looked different. Her skin hung from her face and neck like cloth, her eyes were red and lined with dark circles and her skin was sallow. She hadn’t bothered with makeup and her movements were jumpy, nervous. Her eyes twitched from the window to Mike and back again. If she hadn’t been wearing the same pink sweater, he would have thought she was a different person.
“I know you,” she said, her voice impossibly tired. “You’re the man who spoke to her, the night she arrived. You are very well-known now, Mr. Novak. What did you say to her?”
Mike studied her. She didn’t seem at all upset that he was here. She barely seemed to care. The old nurse came to stand by him at the window where they watched the black-clad figure make her way across the snow.
“I told her I was going to help her,” Mike said.
“And did you?” said the old woman. “Did you help her?” She put a thin, frail hand to the glass as the woman disappeared into the trees.
“No,” Mike admitted. “I couldn’t.”
“I’m not sure any of us can,” she said. “And even if we could, she wouldn’t take it. I thought she was small when she came. I thought she was just like rest of them. Weak in character. Weak in substance. But she wasn’t, was she? I didn’t believe her when she said she could play…” She trailed off, not watching the scene outside any longer, but watching some play acted out that only she could see. A tableau of events that Mike wasn’t privy to.
“You didn’t know,” Mike said, unsure what she was talking about but eager to be away. He had to find her. He was sure it was Sia walking across the grounds. He had to find Sia and take her away.
“It was ethereal,” said the woman. Hauser was printed on her badge. “It was as if she were playing the songs in my soul.”
“She played music?” he said. “I’m surprised they allowed it.”
“So beautifully,” said Hauser. Tears sprang up in her eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about the song she played. I can’t stop hearing it. I feel it’s embedded here.” She raised a shaky hand to her temple. “It plays over and over again and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to stop it.” She turned to look up at him. “It will be playing until the moment I die, Mr. Novak. And she will be the one to kill me.”
“Sia?” said Mike. “Why do you think Sia will kill you?”
“Because,” Hauser said. “She told me she would. And I felt it when she played. The sins I’ve committed, the horrors I have inflicted. I want her to. She can take it all away.”
“I’m supposed to save her,” said Mike.
“Someone must,” said Hauser. “Even if she kills you?” said Mike.
“I’m not strong enough for this world,” she whispered. “I never knew how weak I was until she showed me what strength was.”
Mike frowned. The woman had clearly gone off the deep end. There was no sanity left in her eyes. She turned back to the window and watched the trees where Sia had gone.
“Will you give me your key?” said Mike, seeing the cord on the back of her neck. “So I can get to her?”
Without even looking at him Hauser lifted a large key from around her neck, and handed it to him.
“They’re going to stop you,” she said. “But you have to try. Just like that other one.”
Mike stopped at the door when he heard the words. He turned and closed his eyes.
“What other one?” he said.
“The other man who was here. Tall. Funny accent.”
Mike looked at the back of her.
“Where is he?”
She raised a hand to the window again, this time to point.
“Right there, Mr. Novak.”
Mike went to the glass and looked out. A man in a Mover jumpsuit and a familiar leather jacket with a wide, loping gait. Dez Paine, heading after Sia into the trees.
“How did he get out there?” said Mike.
“I opened the door,” said Hauser.
“Are there Revs out there?” said Mike.
“Maybe there are no Revenants,” said Hauser, watching Dez’s progress through the snow.
“What are you talking about?” said Mike.
“Maybe we’ve all been dead since the Blackout,” said Hauser, her eyes far away again. “Maybe this is Hell.”
“What does that make Sia Aoki?”
Hauser seemed to mull it over for a moment.
“The angel of death.”
Hauser began to laugh.
Mike hurried through the corridor, unlocking the double doors and stepping into a wing that seemed less like a hospital than a swanky hotel. There were fresh-cut flowers on small tables every few feet and the floor was sparkling clean tile arranged in elegant patterns. Mike walked as quickly as he could, lowering his face whenever he passed someone in the hall.
He kept looking to his left, searching for a door that led to the courtyard. The hall forked off and he took the hall closest to the courtyard. The air grew colder the further he went and when he reached an alcove he understood why. A door was standing wide open, the wind rushing in, carrying with it pure white flakes of snow. Mike took a deep breath and looked out over the courtyard, blowing air out in a swirling cloud of fog. He looked towards the trees. He could see two sets of footprints in the snow.
“Here goes nothing,” he said. And stepped outside, closing the door behind him. No going back.
The trees looked odd as he approached and he could see something dark littering the ground. As he reached the edge of the wood, he reached down and picked up what looked like a petal. It was such a dark and deep red that it looked black. It was soft as velvet and browning around the edges. Mike looked around at the trees, at the twisted, gnarled trunks, and he could see misshapen faces within the wood in various stages of anguish. He caught his breath in his throat and removed his hand from the nearest trunk as though he’d been burned.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, touching the root that was still stuck in his belt. “Jesus, oh Jesus.”
He looked around him, backing into the copse of trees, turning in a circle to take in the hundreds of trees now trapping those who had once been monsters, Revs, vampires. He couldn’t breathe as he looked at them all. There had to be hundreds here.
“Flynn,” he said. “Jesus Christ, Flynn, how can there be so many?”
They must have noticed that someone was turning them all into living statements of their own demise, right under their noses. They had to have looked out, just once, to see their brethren being murdered. How could they just let this happen? How could they not catch him?
But Mike understood. They’re weak, they’re so weak, he thought. All of them, they’re sick and helpless. Like insects without an exoskeleton.
That gave him strength and he walked into the horrifying forest, trying to ignore the petals raining down to land in his hair and on his shoulders. He could see the back of Dez Paine now, crouched behind a tree, watching. Mike crept up behind him and put a hand over the man’s mouth to keep him from shouting. Dez flailed, before calming when he realized who it was. Mike put a finger to his lips and crouched down with Dez.
Sia was standing in the snow, completely still, the snow starting to come down through a gap in the foliage, and she raised her face to the sky to let it melt on her cheeks and lips. This was a private moment and Mike felt as if he was violating it by watching. She closed her eyes and Mike saw that she wasn’t even wearing a sweater or jacket. Her gown was low cut and the woman must have been freezing, though she didn’t show any sign of feeling the cold. Her arms didn’t even have goosebumps. Mike could feel his own lips growing numb.
“Joshua, if you can hear me,” Sia said, opening her eyes and lowering her face. “Joshua, I’m so close. Please, trust me.”
Mike frowned as Sia walked to a nearby tree and stroked the thing’s face with an index finger.
“I know you’re watching out for me, Joshua. But I have to find her.”
She turned then, peering deeper into the wood. She brushed snow off a nearby pile and Mike saw that it was a park bench, layered with snow. Sia laughed, as though she had just heard a great joke, then kept walking with a swish of skirts. Mike could hear her humming as she walked. Dez looked at him, seeming as flummoxed as he was.
“She’ll scream if she sees us,” said Dez. “Then they’ll have us.”
Mike raised an eyebrow, watching Sia’s silhouette move behind a tree.
“My friend,” said Mike, “I really don’t think that woman will ever be the one screaming.”
“What?” said Dez. “You could have fooled me the last time I was here. I nearly got caught.”
“I think Miss Sia is far more than she appears to be,” said Mike. “Flynn said she was just like him. Anyone who would willingly live in this place and laugh in the midst of all this.” Mike motioned to the trees surrounding them. Dez looked up and seemed to notice the trunks for the first time. He opened his mouth to shout in alarm, but Mike put a hand over his mouth for the second time.
“Quiet,” said Mike. “All we have to do is get Sia out. Flynn said to help her, whatever that means. You go over there, Dez.” Mike pointed to a spot in the shadows deeper into the trees. “Now. Go.”
Dez went, crouching low, and disappeared in the thickness of the horrific trunks.
“Well,” said a cool voice behind him, “I suppose this means that Joshua doesn’t know how to leave me alone.”
He turned to see Sia, who had circled around to end up behind him. She smiled and her small square teeth seemed somehow sharp to Mike. Her eyes watched him, untouched by the smile.
“And yet,” she said, “this is what he sends me. My savior.” She sighed then and shook her head.
“He is no savior,” said a second female voice nearby. Mike looked and saw a ghost. Black lace covered every part of the woman, making her stand out glaringly in the snow. Sia shrugged.
“I was taking a walk and came upon this man,” she said, her eyes suddenly innocent. She looked almost girl-like, a far cry from the coldness Mike had seen a moment ago. Mike remembered how raw and sweet she had seemed when he first met her. He had been so wrong. This wasn’t someone to be saved. This was someone who ended you. The old nurse had been right to feel fear, and Mike knew at last that she was perfectly capable of saving herself.
The veiled woman made a waving motion with her hand and Mike heard footsteps.
“There’s no point in running,” she said, an accent heavy in her voice. French.
Mike looked across at the shadows. He couldn’t see Dez. Mike hoped he didn’t do anything stupid. Stay hidden, Dez, he thought. Ignore a stupid old man and survive. At least ten guards were headed his way, guns drawn. Mike sighed a weary sigh.
“I surrender.” Mike raised his hands into the air.
“Some help you were,” said Sia in Mike’s ear. “You barely found me before you got caught.”
“Sia! Come away from him!” yelled the veiled woman.
“The blood,” Mike said in a low voice. “At the party. It’s going to be tainted. They’re all going to get sick.”
Sia laughed, delighted. “Well done, Mike Novak.”
“You remember me?”
“I remember everything,” she said. And then she joined the veiled woman as the guards shoved Mike down into the snow. Mike raised his face from the ground to look at them.
“What were you thinking?” mocked the veiled woman. “Did you think you’d do the right thing and save the innocent girl?” She made a scoffing noise behind the lace. “Did you really think it would make a difference?”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mike. “There is no right thing, not anymore.” He looked at Sia who was watching him with interest, her tongue playing on her small white teeth. “Every which way is horror.”
And in the end, Mike knew he was right. In the end, they were all monsters of their own making. In the end, they all created their own horrors.
Twenty-Four
Viv walked through the door that led to her wing and her hopes fell. Instantly she knew that she wouldn’t be alone today. She could hear the voices from the hallway, dozens of them. Here to report to work on their first day, no doubt. They sounded happy and she wondered what that must be like. She walked into the plant, remembering to put on a smile as she entered and every face turned toward her.
“Well, hello,” she said cheerfully, pushing down her disappointment, her desperation, and smiling wider than ever. “My name is Viv White. Let me put my things away and we’ll get started.”
They even clapped. Applause to start purifying human blood for Revs. Viv closed her eyes as she shut herself in her office.
“Something wrong?” said a tremulous voice.
Viv’s eyes popped open and she almost dropped her purse.
“You,” she said.
The old nurse from her first day was sitting at her desk. The woman who had caught her talking to Sia.
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” said Viv.
“I said the same to you once,” she said, her voice tired. She leaned forward and Viv saw that she looked a little like a malnourished skeleton. Deep circles made her eyes look zombielike, and her skin looked jaundiced. She scratched thoughtfully at a livid rash on her arm.
“Evelyn, right?” said Viv. “I’m sorry, Evelyn, this is a very busy day for me.”
“You don’t look like you’re sleeping, Dr. White.”
“Evelyn, really, I—“
“I heard them talking about you, back when you started, you know,” said Evelyn Hauser. She slumped in the chair, as though she were too weak to move. “They said you lost your family in the Blackout.”
“We’re supposed to call them the Dark Days,” said Viv.
“Darker than now?” said Evelyn. “There was a child, wasn’t there?”
“I’m not going to talk about him with you,” said Viv, growing angry. This woman was clearly having some sort of breakdown.
“I knew him,” she said.
“You knew my child?” said Viv, fighting the urge to reach out and slap this woman. This poor wretch. Viv felt ashamed. She looked back at the new employees through the blinds. They were chatting happily with each other, at least a dozen people truly overjoyed to be h
ere.
“Not your child,” said Evelyn. “I knew Dr. White. The other Dr. White. He was handsome, even way back then. Are you planning something?”
“Are you sure you knew the right one?” said Viv. “White is a very common name.”
“I was his assistant,” said Evelyn, straightening. “Before all this happened. He was good. Very good. When he found out you were pregnant, he passed out cigars. I still have mine.”
Viv was across the desk, holding the woman by her scrawny turkey neck before she knew what she was doing. But Evelyn Hauser only looked at her sadly.
“Tragedy makes us so desperate, don’t you think, Dr. White? It shapes us, whether we allow it to or not.”
“What do you want?” said Viv.
“I didn’t recognize you at first,” said Evelyn, pulling Viv’s hand from her throat. “It took me a long time before I realized who you were. I had to break into the records office to be sure. And then I found where you live.”
Viv froze.
“It’s really very shabby compared to your old house,” said Evelyn. “How do you cope? Lots of booze, I suppose.”
“What do you want?” Viv repeated.
“He saw it coming, you know. He knew something was about to happen. He wanted to poison them all with disease. He did test after test, but back then, they didn’t get sick, did they? Only us. He should have saved all those diseases. I bet they’d work wonders now. But it’s too late for him. Too late for dear Griff.”
“Stop it,” Viv said, her voice tight.
“He always did follow the rules, didn’t he? And that’s what I did, too. I made myself forget. Everything. I followed the rules, I did what they said. Everything they told me to do, I did it. I even believed it for a time.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I wish she would kill me now. I can’t take the anticipation.”
“Who?” said Viv.
“Never mind,” said the old woman. “He’s going to be here, you know. Conrad. For the grand soiree.”