The boy just wasn’t strong enough and the lock was too light and too oddly shaped.
With a strange look of shock on its grey face, the zombie turned. It was a slow, stately turn and gave Billy the time needed to run, only he didn’t. He thought about it; he even shot a look back at the squat building—My mom’s in there. She’s dying in there. And there was nothing he could do for her, but he could save the Lady. With his lips pressed tight, he swung the chain again, hitting harder this time and very nearly in the same spot. This time the zombie teetered and fell.
Billy was just wrangling in the lock for a third strike when Maddy barked at him. “Get out of here! I got this.”
You don’t, thought Billy. She was still clinging to the cage like a cat stuck on a screen door, and now that she was up in the air, up out of the darker shadows, other zombies were beginning to crowd the maze to get at her.
She knew about the mounting danger, she felt it as a growing darkness in her mind. There was little fear in her, because she also saw that she could escape easily once the zombie saw Billy. She’d be able to stroll away while he screamed in agony as he was torn to pieces. Survival of the fittest, the voice said inside her head.
“Fuck that,” she muttered and then leapt from the cage. The jump was a surprise to the zombies, who watched her sail right over their heads to land behind them. Before it could turn, she knocked the legs out from the male. For the moment, she was face to face with but one: the long-armed female.
It grabbed Maddy with its remaining functioning arm and pulled her in close fully intending to bite her face off. Maddy allowed this and now that she was in close, she reached up and took hold of the handle of the axe. She yanked it towards her so that the spike made a scooping motion through the things brain before it tore free.
The zombie gave a tremendous, horrid twitch, moaned, “Uh-rew,” and collapsed.
Even before its head knocked against the cement like a coconut being dropped, Maddy had spun the axe in her hand and hammered the male into the ground. She went to help Billy; however, he was grinning as he stood over a dead zombie. He had finally battered through its skull.
“Nice,” Maddy told him. “Now, come on.” She ran without looking back. There was no need, his thumping boots were loud in her ears. The sound went unnoticed by the zombies. They smelled blood and had become loud themselves. A few were chasing the two of them through the maze. The dead were slow and ungainly, tripping frequently and taking down others behind them. At last, there was only one; a petite little blonde with a bloody mouth and frightening black eyes.
The blonde was fast and Maddy could tell by the way she moved, by the way she avoided the cage walls that she was far more aware.
Was it a demon? Maddy wasn’t sure. The thing was more advanced that was without question, and it gave off a peculiar odor, a strangely masculine odor that reminded her of Bryce. But where was the cloud of fear surrounding the thing? Where were the alarms going off in Maddy’s mind? These were fine questions and if she had more time, Maddy might have been able to come up with logical answers. The blonde was on her too quickly.
Again, seconds spun out, longer than possible. Maddy saw the lunging blonde, her outstretched hands, her wet mouth stretched wide. Maddy even saw her own actions: she stepped quickly to the right at the last moment, while at the same time guiding the zombie past her with her left hand. The blonde would go face first into a cage and die a millisecond later as Maddy dropped her with the ice axe.
Only none of that happened.
Impossibly, the blonde juked in the same direction as Maddy and instead of being guided into the wall of the cage, the blonde smashed squarely into Maddy. She was lifted completely off her feet and when she slammed into the cement, she had the blonde’s extra hundred and ten pounds on her.
Maddy saw all this as well, only this time her vision came completely true. The air burst from her lungs as she hit the ground and her back flared in fiery pain. It could’ve been a lot worse; however, she kept her chin tucked to keep her head from cracking against the cement. As well, she used their combined momentum to roll back and kick the fiend off her. She saw the blonde go flying over the top of her and fetch up hard against another cage—except that didn’t happen either.
Instead of trying to rip out Maddy’s throat or gouge her eyes, the blonde grabbed two fistfuls of Maddy’s rags and held tight so that the two rolled together like a pair of first graders in an all-out kiddie brawl.
She knows, Maddy thought as a shiver of fear raced up her spine. Somehow, the blonde had known exactly what Maddy would do before she had done it and that meant—she can see the future, too. Maddy pulled herself away and the two stood staring at each other. Maddy had to do something. Time was ticking away but she couldn’t move, frozen in sudden indecision, uncertain what to do. How did you fight someone who saw the blows coming? She raised a fist and the blonde smirked.
“Fuck,” Maddy muttered, feeling a stab of defeat and despair.
Then the blonde attacked, raking with her claws, trying to get in close so she could use her teeth. Maddy saw all the attacks coming and countered as well as she could, and the two fought to a draw going back and forth, and then down to the ground again in rolling mayhem. A draw meant a win for the blonde. The other zombies were picking themselves up and would be on them in seconds.
In their mad fight, the two had forgotten about Billy, but both heard the rattle of his chain as he brought it back, looking as if he were about to whip the blonde with it. The she-beast was on top of Maddy, who saw that she would take the lock square in the teeth—except the blonde saw it too and ducked—except Maddy saw both actions and shoved her hands upwards under the blonde’s throat.
Just as the lock struck, the blonde zombie twisted away so that it kicked off the side of her head, knocking her back.
Maddy used the moment to leap to her feet, and there she and the blonde appraised each other. It was a demon, no doubt in Maddy’s mind about that now. It was intelligent, powerful and terribly evil. It exuded evil like a black cloud in Maddy’s mind and even as Maddy watched, the blonde licked her bloody fingers. It wasn’t zombie blood she was licking, but Maddy’s blood.
As if there was some sort of connection, Maddy felt a sudden stinging along both arms and looking down, saw she bore long scratches that went deep. The demon grinned showing red teeth.
“Let’s go,” Maddy said to Billy as she picked up her axe. Now that she was armed she had a distinct advantage over the demon and Maddy knew it would not follow, at least not right away.
She took Billy by the arm and began to jog down the lane that ran to the front gate. It was wide open, devoid of any of the creatures and Maddy didn’t trust it one bit. A strange darkness was settling over her mind. It was a forewarning of danger, of impending doom. She assumed it had to do with the demon, but she wasn’t sure.
There was also Griff she had to worry about; what was happening with him? And nuclear Armageddon; she couldn’t forget about that. They were hanging their hopes and their lives on politicians, something that rarely worked out for the best. Then again, they could be racing into some unknown calamity and her subconscious was doing all it could to warn her.
Of course, it could all be in her head. After all, she was bone-tired and aching. She had yet to recover fully from her battle with the first she-demon and the little skirmish with the blonde had only added to her many hurts.
“Hey, Lady,” Billy squeaked, half turned around. He’d been looking back with tears in his eyes. They were practically at the gate which held a certain significance for the boy. Once through the gate, his mother would be forever lost to him. Logically, he knew there could be no other way, but his crumbling heart knew nothing about logic. “They’re coming after us.”
She wasn’t surprised. “Try to keep up,” she said, and shot forward. Three strides later, she was through the gates and leaping onto the hood of a car; it had four doors and was silver. She had no idea what its make or model
was. In New York, cars had become obsolete overnight. They were now obstacles that made maneuvering through the streets similar to a steeplechase.
They were more of an obstacle to the dead and the pair began to put some distance between them.
Billy did more than keep up. Within a minute, he had taken the lead leaving Maddy struggling behind.
“Hey…not…that…way,” she wheezed when they had sprinted a block and a half. A side alley beckoned. It was dark but empty. The same could not be said for the street, which was filling front and back with the dead.
“You said to go south. That isn’t south, Lady.”
“It’s Maddy,” she answered between ragged breaths. “I need to find a hospital for a friend.” She really didn’t know where one was, she was simply following her gut instincts.
His face screwed up as he tried to recall the closest hospital. He had been born and bred in the Village and as his mom had been a great proponent of walking for exercise, he knew most of Manhattan south of 34th Street.
“Okay. The big ones are north, but there is like this clinic about four blocks away. They stitched up my hand once. But it won’t be open.”
“I just need supplies.”
Billy wanted to lead the way and he almost used his “I’m a boy argument,” because although Maddy had looked impressive at times, she was still a girl and an old one at that. Maddy placed a firm hand on his shoulder whenever he tried to stray ahead. She wanted to tell him that she could see the future—sometimes—but it felt too much like bragging and fate kept putting her in her place. She was beginning to realize that for someone special, she wasn’t all that special.
Finding the building that housed the clinic was easy. “This is it?” she asked of the towering steel and glass building. She had expected something less techy. She couldn’t imagine anything inside except computers and little cubicles.
“Yeah. It’s up on thirty-three.”
Her eyes bugged. “The thirty-third floor?” Craning her head far back, she began to second-guess how much she really liked Griff. “A lot apparently,” she muttered before ducking through a hole in the glass. The climb to what felt like the top of a mountain, further crumbled the idea of her superiority. Billy was exhausted by the time they made the climb, while she was practically on her deathbed. Lathered in sweat and unable to speak, she laid on the floor outside the locked door of the clinic for a full ten minutes before she could stand on her wobbling legs.
After using her ice axe to bash away the doorknob, something that left her gasping, she and Billy pushed inside. He went for the lollipops at the counter while she went through the supply closet where she found every thing she would need to transfuse blood, as well as a ton more. Lidocaine, antibiotics, IV bags, tubing, suture kits; it was all there for the taking.
As she filled up a cloth bag, something akin to a satchel, the strange darkness grew inside her until her hands were shaking and her innards felt twisted. Whatever she was feeling could no longer be ignored.
Dropping the satchel, she stood perfectly still, until the new part of her, the part that knew things seemed to swell. It grew so much that it outgrew her skin and shivered the air around her. It had a potency that could eventually…
“Whatcha doing?” Billy asked. He had a lollipop clamped between his teeth and twenty more in his pockets.
She couldn’t describe what she was doing, especially as she didn’t know herself. “Something’s happening.” And it was happening soon. She opened one of the exam room doors and looked out over the city. It was still dark, but wouldn’t be for much longer. As if the thought had summoned it, a sudden flash of light had her blinking. But the light had not been external at all. She had envisioned it. The light, intense and burning had lit the dark skyline…
“It’s about to happen,” she whispered, picturing the light and how it silhouetted the city. “Shit, shit, shit.” Her body began shivering and not from the cold. Get a hold of yourself! She sucked in her breath and balled her hands into fists. It helped a little, a very little.
“What’s about to happen?” Before she could say anything, he went on, “And s-h-i-t is a bad word. You aren’t supposed to say it.”
She glared, almost cursed again, then stormed from the room, growling, “Come on.” She strode through the clinic, her steps gathering speed until she was almost running. They found an exam room that faced east. Why east? She had no idea. She opened the door and went to the window.
From her vantage, she could see over the smaller buildings to a wide strip of black, almost like an immense asphalt paved highway. It was a river, but which one she didn’t know. Past it was Queens, looking squat and shabby compared to Manhattan. Save for the glow of fires, it was just as dark as the rest of the city. “This is the view. This…” She sucked in her breath because it was about to happen.
On its own, her hand reached out and grabbed Billy’s shoulder. She pulled him close just as the flash of light erupted. It was a mountain of fire that dwarfed the greatest city on earth. It was impossible to look into it without going blind and they both flinched away.
Get down.
The light had struck them with soundless fury, but fast behind it was something far worse. Maddy felt it as a grey haze, racing in their direction at a thousand miles an hour. A fraction of a second before it hit, she threw Billy down and dropped onto him.
Chapter 7
What started as a spat between lovers turned into a running battle that lasted for three hours. Xena Landry couldn’t even remember exactly what had started the fight with her boyfriend; though what had been the final straw she remembered with particular clarity: his complete lack of courage.
“They’re just zombies,” she remembered saying when he wouldn’t go down to the Indian restaurant at the corner and fetch her some coconut curry chicken. She regretted saying that now. The creatures were nothing like in the movies. Some were fast, some were sly and all of them were so strong! Doors like the kind found in the slummy parts of Queens were no match for the zombies. Give them a minute and they tore right through them.
Xena and her now ex-boyfriend had gotten into a ferocious hissing argument that had turned into a shouting match and a bit of pushing on her side of things. The fight culminated with Xena, chest heaving, her wild mane of black hair wilder that ever, kicking him out of her apartment during the height of the apocalypse.
That had been a mistake, she saw that very quickly once her building was flooded with the dead. Yes, she was full of regret at that point. She never saw her Ex again and that was true of her apartment as well. Some crazy, sniffing zombie had hunted her down—her and everyone else in her building—but they were of little concern in the story of her life.
Her concern involved her door and how easily it dented and then split, despite it being made of metal. Thin metal as it turned out, and without a core of any sort. Cursing her Ex’s name, she was out on the fire escape seconds later, then back inside seconds after that. She had forgotten her coat and it was dreadfully cold out. She made two more abortive trips out onto the fire escape coming back for her heavy pack the first time and her cellphone the second.
There was no cell service in the city, but she knew with utmost conviction that couldn’t possibly last. Her world, which meant “the entire world” revolved around cell phones. Xena had owned a cell phone since she could remember. She had an app that lulled her to sleep and another to wake her up. One catalogued what she ate and when, while still another reminded her to take her meds, and yet another jingled when sales at her favorite stores were imminent. She used her phone to find boyfriends as well as to break up with them. If there was a need in her life, it was a guarantee there was an app that fulfilled that need.
Her phone was everything to her and she would’ve gone into a burning building to save it.
The cell phone went into her coat pocket—not the backpack. The pack was heavy and the moment she was down in the alley and had settled it on her shoulders, she began to co
nsider how she could get someone else to carry it.
Eighteen other people had scampered down into the alley with her; ten were men, seven women and one she wasn’t sure of, though she had met the person a dozen times. It was something of a surprise to Xena that most of them even made the climb down, easy as it was. Xena was young and, although purposely round in the ass and thick in the thighs, she still considered herself in shape. Half the people huddled around in the shadows were overweight and the other half were just old. To her, forty was old, and fifty was just plain disgusting.
Still, some were armed with guns, which made them far more desirable, even if they were disgusting. She stuck close to the biggest man with the biggest gun. He knew her name while she had always referred to him, mentally of course, as Shit, it’s that guy with the funky pits.
“We got to find a way out of the city,” Funky Pits said with something of a lisp.
He has a lisp? Xena wondered, searching her memory and coming up empty. If they’d ever had a conversation, she couldn’t remember it.
“What do you guys think?” he went on, and apparently Funky Pits did have a lisp, which would’ve been a deal breaker for Xena if it wasn’t for the 12-gauge shotgun that sat propped up on his shoulder. With it, he appeared strong and confident. “Should we try for Jersey?”
Strong, confident and stupid. Her lip curled at the idea of New Jersey. More than once she had publicly declared she’d rather be dead than be caught in New Jersey. “New Jersey? Are ya fuckin’ crazy? Or just dumb?” Funky Pits glared, to which she rolled her eyes and asked, “You ever watch the news? They closed the bridges ages ago. How the fuck do ya plan on getting’ across the Hudson? Huh? No answer. Just what I thought.”
“What do you know about anything?” This was from Ms. Wilcox, the building’s resident busybody. She had an opinion about everyone and every thing, and wasn’t shy about sharing it. She carried a very large handgun in her frail hands. The gun was so cartoonishly big that it made her look smaller than she was. It also made her look stupid, especially as she waved it around when talking. “All you know is that damned jungle music you’re always playing.” She spoke in a hiss, jabbing the gun to accent her points.
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