Anarchy

by Peter Meredith

  “Maybe the army’s winning,” Plinkett suggested.

  “Maybe,” Bryce agreed without much enthusiasm. He didn’t think it likely. With attacks going on all over the country and with the communicability of the disease, they’d be lucky to simply hold their own. “So, where does that leave us?”

  Bower was swaying in his seat. “Fucked.” He grunted a laugh.

  Plinkett glared, though it turned into a grimace as he stood. His middle-aged body had been going for too long and he could’ve used a couple of days off to recuperate. “Sir, there are people looking for those who might be infected. Bryce here is immune. Sir?” Bower was searching through his drawers again, this time for another bottle. “The question, Sir is if he can stay here under your protection? Him and a few others?”

  “Nope. He’s the enemy, Plimpet. He’s the enemy within. He’s worser than all them out there. Those teams were my idea.”

  “Teams?” Plinkett asked. He didn’t like the sound of that. “How many teams?”

  Numbers appeared to be too much for Bower and he took three seconds to pull off an exaggerated shrug. Alarm bells began to ring in Bryce’s head, and he grabbed Plinkett by the arm. “We have to go.”

  The two left the drunk agent and ran for the stairs and flew down them. With each flight, Bryce’s tension mounted. He didn’t know what he would do if they were confronted by one of these teams. They weren’t zombies, or even evil, and the precautions being taken, though heavy-handed and not thought out, were still understandable. The best Bryce could come up with was to just not get caught.

  Down they went to the stairwell door where they had left the others. They were gone with the only sign they had ever been there being their slowly diffusing odors and Bryce’s bag of sandwich fixings. The fact that they weren’t there didn’t bother him; the abandoned bag, on the other hand, felt like a betrayal. If Victoria were starving, he wouldn’t leave her food behind.

  But what about her son?

  Bryce had no answer for that. He glared at the bag before snatching it up and opening the door where-upon he caught their strong scent.

  “This way,” he said and took off at a sprint, leaving Plinkett lumbering behind, breathing like a spent horse. The agent was in no danger of being left behind. Within two turns they caught up with the group making their way slowly along. Their pace was as dreadful as it had been, since Maddy was singlehandedly assisting Griff. Neither Nichola nor Victoria wanted to go anywhere near him, and kept ahead by thirty feet. Billy, looking dejected, dragged Bryce’s pipe behind him as he trailed the others.

  “We got him,” Bryce said, taking Griff’s free arm and slinging it over his shoulder. Plinkett came gasping up and did the same on the other side.

  Maddy saw Bryce’s pinched look and Plinkett’s worn one and knew there’d be no rescue. She hung her head which Victoria understood. “No rescue?” When Bryce told them about the Ambassador’s duplicity, her knees gave way and she sank down, tears of fear and misery on her face. “I know what the problem is. I didn’t deserve to be rescued. I’m a terrible mom and I don’t deserve…” She blinked suddenly. “What if it’s a sign? What if it’s a sign saying that I have to find Jordan and my husband, first? Only then I’ll be able to leave.”

  She looked to Maddy for confirmation who answered, sheepishly, “Maybe.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Nichola asked. By that she meant: what about her. “What are we supposed to do now?”

  Beyond keeping out of reach of the people searching, no one knew. Except Victoria, that is. She had her grey eyes hard on Bryce. She was going to hold him to his promise, and he would have to agree. He was honor bound now, and knew that if he reneged it would haunt him. With a tired sigh, he told them, “I’m going with Victoria to search for her son.”

  “And if you don’t find him?” Maddy asked.

  Victoria looked angry enough to spit and at the same time like she was going to puke. Bryce took a long moment to answer. “She’ll release me from my promise after a reasonable amount of time.”

  “Well, I’m not going,” Nichola declared. “It’s too dangerous and that’s that. But…but if you find a way to escape, you have to come get me. Promise me! Promise me like you promised her.”

  “No,” Bryce stated flatly. “I realize now that an open promise was wrong to make. My life and my actions can’t be constrained…”

  Nichola slammed a foot down. “But you’ll promise her? What has she done for any of us? She’s dead weight and we all know it.”

  Victoria’s eyes turned icy and she had a laundry list of retorts ready, but Bryce stopped her, holding up a hand. “I’ve made my decision.” His eyes shifted to Maddy, who hadn’t committed one way or another.

  Maddy had no idea what she was going to do. She couldn’t stay in the building. The teams were going from floor to floor; there were dozens of them, all armed. Judging by the metallic stink of adrenaline suffusing the air, they were on a hair-trigger. No, she couldn’t remain in the building, and yet the idea of heading all the way back up town seemed insane. The trip south had nearly killed them ten times over. And now there would be even more zombies and there was also the demon; picturing its long scarecrow form turned her cold.

  Maddy couldn’t stay and she couldn’t go, but she had to make a choice. She waffled between the two terrible options until Bryce touched her shoulder. He said nothing, he only looked at her steadily and she knew. Nowhere was safe anymore, which made staying with Bryce her best choice. They were better together.

  Her decision didn’t relieve her of her responsibilities, however. Turning to Nichola, she said, “I’ll come back for you, on one condition.” Nichola began to nod, ready to accept almost anything. “You watch over Billy until I return. And I mean watch him like he’s your own son.”

  Billy looked stricken, while Nichola was perfectly happy. “He won’t leave my side. I promise.” She beamed at the boy. “It’ll be you and me, don’t worry.” He was worried, nonetheless.

  And that left Griff and Plinkett. Maddy saw that neither could go much further. “We’ll get you out of the building,” she told them. “And hopefully somewhere close by that’s safe.” She looked to Bryce for his input; however, he was making a sloppy sandwich and could only mumble in agreement with her plan. Wife-like she glared, then switched the glare to a faux-smile as she dropped down to say her goodbyes to Billy. “You’re going to be fine as long as you’re brave. Can you be brave?”

  He nodded, wanting to be brave above all things—for her. Being brave meant not clinging or crying when he hugged her, and he kept his fear over being semi-abandoned from his face when he waved a last goodbye just before Maddy slipped into the nearest stairwell.

  Once there, everyone squinted through the dark at Bryce who was busy cramming his mouth full. He mumbled something and pointed the remains of the sandwich at Maddy. “I think he means for me to go first,” she interpreted. A nod and another mumble, which might’ve been any language. She understood. “Give me a thirty second head start and then follow as quietly as you can.”

  She had the best senses of the group, so she went down the stairs alone, tiptoeing and straining to catch the slightest sound. The teams going through the floors were not quiet. They kicked open doors and threw whatever furniture remained around. It was enough cover that if they wanted to go racing down the stairs no one would’ve heard and yet, Maddy felt danger. Hairs lifted on the back of her neck and her heartbeat kicked up slightly. The further down she went, the worse it got, until she made it to the fourth floor and finally caught the scent of sweat.

  Someone was below her in the dark. Under a heavy parka, they were wrapped in layers, and with that much insulation their odor had remained hidden until she was only twenty feet away. It was a man, young she guessed, who had been left on the stairs to guard the way down. More than likely he was wide-eyed and tight-lipped, a gun in hand.

  A fight in the dark would be fifty-fifty, and one way or another, he would get a
shot off. There’d be a mad flight and people would die. She couldn’t chance that, and ghost-like, she crept back upstairs and hoped to God that she wouldn’t startle the group; Victoria was always a second away from screaming.

  Bryce felt her coming and whispered it to Victoria. He also knew the reason why she was coming back. The idea of someone down in the dark seemed to be radiating up the stairs, not from the young man, but from Maddy.

  “The other stairs will be guarded as well,” he told them when they had scurried from the stairwell and were huddled over a prostrate Agent Griffin Meyers. “We’re going to have to attempt the elevator shaft. They have ladders, right?”

  No one knew for certain. As well they didn’t know if Griff could manage one if they did. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” he asked. With his flesh a pale grey and his eyes bloodshot, he didn’t. Bryce pried open the doors with Maddy’s ice axe and they gazed down into horrid darkness. The shaft looked like it fell away into the infinity of space. Along the wall just to their left was a tiny, narrow little metal ladder that looked like it was meant for children.

  “I-I don’t know,” Victoria whispered.

  “It’s the only way,” Bryce told her. He was about to go first when Griff touched his arm. The agent insisted on going first and the reason was obvious; he was the most likely to fall. And he almost did just getting on the ladder! His dress shoes were tread-less and slick on the bottom, causing his foot to slip right off the first rung. Bryce and Plinkett grabbed him to keep from dropping away.

  “I got it,” he gasped when his foot was in place. They watched him slowly work his way down into the darkness, his grey face sweating, his hands crimped in pain. After a minute, when he didn’t fall and was still gasping his way down, they began to look to one another and especially at Victoria. The precedent had been set: the weakest left should go next.

  She shook her head. “I can’t,” she said in the smallest whisper. “Not right after him. What if he turns? You guys saw him. It won’t take anything to trigger him and I don’t want to be alone with him when we get to the bottom. No way.”

  “Will you shut up?” Plinkett groused. “If he was going to turn, he would have done it already. I’ll go next.” There was no time for discussion as he dropped onto his butt and reached for the ladder. His shoes were just as slippery and he also slipped. As he’d already taken an iron grip on the bars he was in no danger of falling. The ladder was so narrow that he couldn’t rest both feet on the same rung, which made him feel like an untrained bear on his first day at the circus.

  It didn’t take long to get the hang of moving a quarter of his body at a time in separate grunting jerks. It also didn’t take long for his muscles to complain. His feet sang out first. He’d been abusing them for three days and he could feel blisters rupture in little pockets of burning grease. After that, in order, his back screamed out as a jolt ran up his spine, then it was his shoulders that bunched in knots, his hands cramped arthritically, and finally his right calf threatened to give out.

  As slow as he was going, Griff was slower and soon he caught up and was left to dangle on the tiny ladder. Complaining would’ve been asinine, so Plinkett half-hung, half-crouched on the ladder. His view below him was one of utter darkness. When he looked up, he saw dim grey light cut occasionally by the black silhouettes of Veronica and maybe Maddy climbing down.

  “Hold on up there,” he hissed. He was sure that if he had a hand stepped on, that would be it. I’ll try to go head first, he thought. The idea of trying to survive in a zombie world with a broken leg was unthinkable.

  Slowly, painfully, he made his way down, down, down, until at last he heard Griff let out a whimper of relief. A minute later, Plinkett made it down as well. Looking up, the dim grey light appeared to be the size of a postage stamp.

  “We’re down,” he whispered. He didn’t think he could chance anything louder, since he had no idea if the elevator shaft ended at the first floor. If the demon heard them, they’d be trapped. He stood aside as the others made it down, none seeming nearly as affected by the climb as either he or Griff. There was a pause in the dark before Bryce cracked the elevator doors and heaved them open.

  They definitely weren’t on the first floor. The doors opened into impenetrable darkness.

  Chapter 17

  “Buried alive,” Victoria whispered. At least in the elevator they could see themselves as the very vaguest of shadows. Out in what was the sub-basement, the darkness was so thick and heavy that it was easy to imagine they had been buried beneath the city.

  Bryce was about to ask her again to be quiet when she told herself to, “Do it for Jordan.” This shamed him into shutting up. Here was an unarmed, hundred and twenty pound woman, willing to brave a nightmare world for the sake of her son and husband. She had no powers except for her courage, and she had courage, more than most people, in fact. She was the first to step out of the elevator shaft, with her eyes as wide as they could go and her hands out.

  “Let me,” Bryce said, taking one of her hands. This little act was not as simple as it sounded. He had to find her first. Even with his enhanced vision, he could see nothing. He heard her just fine and had her range down to a quarter inch, though he misjudged their height difference and when he went to find her shoulder, he found something else, instead. She jerked under his fumbling hand and fortunately for him, her chest was well covered in a thick coat or he might have received a slap.

  “Perhaps I should go first,” Maddy suggested. Her sight was such that she could see their somewhat blurry outlines and had guessed what had happened. The five walked in a line with one hand holding some part of the person in front and the other stretched out into nothing. They moved slowly guided, not by Maddy’s limited sight, but by her sense of smell. All around them was machinery, metal pipes and reinforced concrete. They were surrounded by this and it led nowhere. One machine ran to the next. The walls went from one to the next in a squared circle. The pipes formed a grid that only led to or from a machine or a wall.

  Within these confusing scents there was just the barest hint of something else, something old and damp. She pictured moss and decay and it brought to mind a hidden cave in an ancient forest. The cave in her mind was one she would never willingly go into.

  She followed the scent with one hand out in front and another on a tremendous pipe, the top of which was sprinkled liberally with rat feces. The pipe ended at a wall, while the scent ran to a strange little door. It barely came to her breast and when she ran her hands over it, paint peeled away and dropped with delicate little sounds. The door was old, far older than Maddy.

  Instead of a knob it had a handle. Next to this was the lock with a quaint, overly large keyhole. Maddy gave the handle a tug and the door waggled a bit and there was a clink of metal. Somehow, she had the idea that it was new metal, and yes, her questing hand found a newer padlock on a hasp.

  “There’s a door. I don’t know where it leads.”

  “It has to lead out,” Bryce said from just behind her. “We’re on the edge of the foundation.” His hand was on the wall and could feel the tension of thousands of tons upon it. “Can you break the hasp with your axe?” He had heard the metal as well and pictured a bright Yale padlock snugged into an old hasp.

  Her hand drew back. “My axe?” The world had changed so much that her axe was now her most prized possession, and that included all her belongings back in her apartment at Cambridge. She didn’t want it to get hurt. “Maybe there’s a key?” She started searching around the door, hoping to find one hung on a nail, perhaps.

  Bryce couldn’t tell what she was doing. To him, it felt as though she was doing some sort of shimmying dance. “The key will be with a custodian or in his office, and that’s not going to be down here.” His fingers traced the hasp and lock. There wasn’t a proper gap, but he figured he could make one by hammering the tooth end of the ice axe into the top of the hasp. “Let’s have the axe.”

  “No.”

  He was sur
e he looked astonished. “What do you mean, no?”

  Something that felt like an odd-shaped rock hit the back of his arm. She had taken a swing at him. “When I say no, I mean no. I’m not going to have you mess up my axe on a lock. Why don’t you use your pipe?”

  “And do what with it?” he cried. “It’s a pipe for God’s sakes.”

  “You can start by shoving it up your ass!” It was shocking how easily they had slipped into their old ways. The two glared daggers into the pervasive dark, until they both realized, at the same time, how completely useless their glares were. Then the two shared the same thought: We’re supposed to be better than this. They also shared the painful awareness that the others were right there. They felt like parents caught screaming at each other in front of their kids.

  “Sorry,” Bryce said, “I shouldn’t have been so presumptive.”

  “And I shouldn’t have been so snippy.” There was a pause, made more awkward by the dark. They both reached for the lock at the same time, felt the other’s hand and jerked back, like a pair of seventh graders on their first date. This brought on another awkward pause, this one far worse since they were both too afraid to repeat what had just happened.

  Bryce said, “I’m going to check the lock now,” with such studied formality that Maddy couldn’t stifle a giggle. It grew and grew until she was kneeling on the cold cement, clutching her stomach, with tears in her eyes.

  “I’m going to check the lock now,” she mocked, trying to sound as foolishly serious as Bryce had sounded. She could feel his glare, which sent her into gales of laughter. Alarmed at how loud she was being, Plinkett and Victoria tried to shush her, but it was no use. The laughter had to run its course. During it, Bryce ate the last of his sandwich fixings and grinned as each time Maddy thought she had it under control only to start giggling again.