Anarchy

by Peter Meredith

  At the same time, she was in dire need of a bra. In keeping with Magnus’ comic book version of how his superior race should appear, Maddy’s breasts had swollen to twice their previous size and where before hers had been somewhat droopy, looking as if a mouse might use them for a ski jump, they were now wonderfully round and apparently had anti-gravitational devices built in.

  They were extremely fine to look upon; however, in battle they were a hindrance, throwing her timing off and thus her aim, by the slightest bit, and when she drove the head of the fifth zombie into a lamp post, she was more than ready to postpone her quest to find Bryce to begin a new one involving a heavy-duty bra, preferably something from a 1970’s Sears catalogue.

  “And a blouse or something,” she said, using the newspaper now as a rag to wipe the pipe clear of black blood.

  As she wiped it down, her silver eyes picked out a retail shop further along the block. Slinking down—out of necessity, not modesty—she made her way through the maze of empty cars and to the locked door of the establishment. Figuring that a blow with her now muscled shoulder would do the trick, she pounded into the thick wood with enough force to bruise her shoulder and little more. It was a door designed for New York City.

  Still, it had to be inviting and the window, although not normal glass like one would find in a home, was still the weak spot and the pipe was able to penetrate it on the first strike. Working the pipe in circles enlarged the hole until she was able to reach inside and unlock the door. Then she was in a shopper’s dream…just not a six-foot tall shopper’s dream.

  Everything was short, riding high up her ankles and sometimes her calves, while at the same time ballooned out at the waist and wouldn’t stay up. The tops were even more ludicrous. She had shoulders that were as broad as a man, the chest of an opera singer and arms that were beginning to feel a little too long, striking fear into her that she was becoming something akin to the Spider Demon.

  Eventually, after much cursing, she settled on a sports bra, a pair of leggings and a white cotton button up shirt, all of which she stole from one of the manikins—the only thing in the city that was close to her size.

  Before she got dressed, she washed in a dark bathroom with shockingly cold water. It was the first time in days that she had really got to wash her hair, which had grown so abundant that when wet it felt like a thatch of seaweed carpeting her head and when she rung it out, the inadvertent braid was as thick as an anchor rope.

  “So much better,” she said to the dim outline of herself in the mirror as she used her long fingers as a comb. Now clean and properly dressed, she felt she could face the world and the monsters in it. The only question was if she could face the coming death that surrounded her future. She felt compelled to try and save Bryce, only he was entwined in the misery of hundreds of others. Their pain and fear cried out into the ether in a growing static hiss that filled her mind and dampened her second sight. How many of them were going to die if she didn’t help?

  All of them, she decided.

  With a long sigh, she stepped out of the shop and into the light. There were more zombies on the street, but this time, she didn’t creep or slink. As was so often the case, time was against her. She ran through the city and it didn’t matter that zombies saw her and gave chase. What were another twenty or thirty when there were already a thousand between her and Bryce. In her mind, she saw the building he was trapped in: a bigger than usual apartment building, on fire of course, a great deal of screaming and people hanging out of windows fighting the zombies as they scaled the fire escapes.

  The scene was mayhem and it was strange that Bryce would allow it. Even injured, she was surprised he had let it happen, especially as he could command people to do his bidding.

  Five city blocks went by without her breaking a sweat and she came loping easily up to a corner; to the right was a nice little park with swing sets and a slide with a pile of raked leaves at the bottom waiting patiently for the next kid blast into them. To the left and three buildings down were fire and smoke, and zombies fighting each other for a chance to kill. Just as she pictured, there was a great deal of chaos, more than what seemed logical or even natural, if zombies could be construed as being a part of nature that is.

  As well, the Spider Demon was near. Its presence was heavy in the air. But where? Maddy knew it would be the height of stupidity to go running up to the building without knowing where it was. The silver in her eyes intensified until there was a glow to them as she played a sickening game of Where’s Waldo, picking one undead beast out of the crazy crowd.

  Finding it didn’t take long. Just like the spider it was, the demon clung to the side of the building across the street where the shadows kept it from the sun. Even as she picked it out, it seemed to become aware that eyes were on it and at first it assumed a crouched position, then its head began to swivel about. Now, it was her turn to crouch. She ducked down behind a yellow cab as it felt like a search light was burning through the day, sweeping back and forth.

  For some reason, closing her eyes helped to send its gaze away from her. When she peeked back up, it was halfway up the building and looking in the wrong direction. This was her one chance to get closer to the building. It would’ve been impossible for her to go through the front door or even the fire escape, so she ran, dodging in and out of the walking corpses, for the next closest building.

  Comparatively, this structure was a stunted little brick cube; a mere four stories in height with a rattletrap fire escape. When she leapt up and grabbed the lowest rung of the ladder, the entire metal structure shook and swayed so badly she thought it was going to tear right off the wall. Up she went with zombies piling up beneath her, higher and higher. She saw that they would eventually reach the fire escape, but by then it would be too late to catch her.

  She went up the four stories like a monkey, then, to further the analogy she slid the pipe down the back of her already tight sports bra and climbed a gutter to the roof. Across the pebble-strewn roof was the side of the building that was being besieged. It was a flat wall of brick that went up nearly forty feet before the first run of windows. Only a demon could climb that wall.

  Maddy ran to the back corner and saw that here as well was almost nothing to cling to except the same narrow little gas pipe that Bryce had used to climb up from the alley—but it was too far away. This left the front of the building where she would be in full view of the Spider Demon.

  Hurrying to it, she saw that only six feet above her head was a decorative run of bricks which jutted out a few inches. If she didn’t mind hanging over a terrifying drop she saw she could use the bricks to climb into the closest window some fifteen feet away. This was her only chance, but it wasn’t going to be easy, especially since she would have to race across them as fast as she could. If the Spider Demon saw her, it would be a race to get inside before it could leap across the street and pull her down.

  Despite the danger, she didn’t hesitate and jumped for the ledge, which was dusty and riddled with pigeon shit, making her grip more precarious than she had expected. She clamped down as hard as she could and began going hand over hand. Not a second later she felt the demon’s greedy black eyes center on her.

  “Shit!” she hissed, going faster, as in her mind’s eye, she saw the creature leap from its perch, fly forty feet through the air and land with a sonorous boooom on the top of an empty garbage truck. It bounded twenty feet at a time across the street and up onto the building not thirty feet below Maddy!

  “I can make it,” she hissed to herself. The race to safety was going to be a close one. She threw all caution to the wind and shuffled her hands with inhuman speed. The demon was even more inhuman, however. The grip of its long fingers and toes was amazing and it crawled up the vertical plane of the building faster than Maddy could scoot across the ledge. Her: I can make it quickly turned into: “I’m not going to make it,” she whispered, seeing the outcome of the race and knowing there wasn’t a thing she could do to chang
e it.

  Chapter 37

  Maddy made it to the window with the thing’s long fingers inches away. There was no time to open it, so she smashed a fist through the glass and grabbed a hold of the sill. Not a second later a terrible iron-like grip clamped down with screech-inducing force on her ankle.

  A scream tore from her throat as broken glass bit into her wrists. Although the demon’s limbs looked like they were built of nothing more than long, long twigs, the creature was shockingly heavy and blood flowed down her arms. It grinned up at her—they both knew that her hold on the sill couldn’t last more than a few seconds.

  “Fuck you!” she snarled, and slid the pole from the back of her sports bra. The grin only broadened. Again, they both knew she only had one chance. If she couldn’t knock the creature away with a single swing of the pole they would fall and even if she survived landing on concrete, she’d be overwhelmed by the hundreds of zombies staring up at her.

  Even as she brought the pole up, she knew what was going to happen: she saw the demon catch the pipe in its free hand. She wanted to scream another curse or beg for her life or toss away the pipe and hold on with both hands just to gain a few more seconds. Running along beside these desires was a current of impotent fury over what was happening to her. She had done nothing to the demon or to Magnus or to anyone! She didn’t deserve to die like this. Anger fueled her strength and she swung the metal tool down with all her force only to see her vision come true.

  With nonchalant ease, the demon’s giant hand caught the pipe and now the pair swung back and forth like a pendulum. Maddy felt like she was being stretched like taffy, and as much as she wanted to let go of the pipe and hold on with both hands, she knew that the demon would only smash her head in with it if she did. The two of them swung lazily back and forth. The demon had all the time in the world and, wearing that hateful grin, it waited patiently for Maddy’s grip to fail. It wouldn’t be long.

  Maddy’s face was screwed up by the effort of holding onto the sill and with each passing second, it loosened. Desperate, she cried out, “Bryce!” She could feel him in the building, moving closer, but he was moving so damn slowly that he would never make it in time. The demon seemed to know this, too. It toyed with her, kicking off the wall so that their swing grew more pronounced and with each pass her grip grew weaker.

  “Hell-oh?”

  Two floors up a wizened face looked down at Maddy. It was A-Yeoung. “Help,” Maddy whispered. Though how a tiny hundred-year-old raisin of a woman could help was beyond imagination. The woman disappeared, then, a second later reappeared grunting and cursing in Korean. The old woman had managed to heft a heavy mixer to the window. It was old and dented, with years of built-up flour acting as some sort of mortar holding it together.

  “You want?” A-Yeoung asked.

  “Yes. Please.” Maddy saw exactly what the old woman had in mind. “Now,” Maddy said on the back swing. A-Yeoung pushed the hunk of metal over the edge and watched as it whistled down and struck the Spider Demon square in its upturned face, crushing bone and shattering teeth. With a jerk that nearly pulled Maddy down with it, the demon fell, and for a brief moment, it looked like it would land headfirst on a bit of open sidewalk among the zombies.

  That was not to be. At the last second, it flicked out a long arm and touched the side of the building. This made it spin and, neater than Maddy could believe, it landed on its feet, going into a deep squat to absorb the impact of the forty-foot fall. Then without pause, it launched itself into the air.

  A second time Maddy, breathed out, “Shit!” She threw the pipe into the window she was dangling from and scrambled up into the apartment, which was dark and cluttered with knickknacks and books and dying plants. The pipe seemed to have disappeared and with her mind taken up with the demon racing up the wall as fast as if it had a ladder, she couldn’t “see” the pipe and had to run around, eventually finding it lying up against a couch.

  Just as she grabbed it, the demon’s shadow fell across her. It was already in the window. Goosebumps raced across her flesh as she turned to face the hideous spider-like creature, a creature that was far more powerful than she. It wasted no time and flew at her, swinging its huge hands which sometimes were bunched into fists that felt like 5-pound sledgehammers when they hit, and at other times it slashed with its three-inch claws, trying to blind her or tear out her throat.

  She was fast; it was faster. She was strong; it was much stronger. She had her second-sight to guide her; it took up half the room when it stretched out its arms. With its amazingly long reach, her pipe was practically useless. She didn’t dare over-extend and thus couldn’t reach its head, and had to settle with hacking at its long bony fingers, hoping to maim it. However, it didn’t really need its fingers to kill her, it could just as easily accomplish that with its fists, broken fingers or no broken fingers.

  As if it wanted revenge for what the falling mixer had done to it, the demon kept aiming for her face and time and again its pulverizing fists roiled the air a fraction of an inch from her nose. This had her ducking and weaving, twisting and rolling, her second-sight keeping her just out of reach.

  After half a minute, the demon changed tactics and tried to corner her. This was far more effective and quickly it backed her to a wall. She didn’t need a vision to know she was in huge trouble, and she decided to risk the pipe on a desperate gamble. After a quick fake to the demon’s left, she whipped the pipe around so quickly that it was a grey blur as it passed just over the creature’s arm.

  Because it was so outrageously tall her arms were at their limit and the tip of the pipe might have just barely cracked its temple, only the demon leaned just far enough back that the pipe tore through the bone at the corner of its eye blinding it on that side.

  Being half-blind was nothing to the creature and if it did feel pain, it didn’t seem to affect it one way or another. Maddy knew she had lost her gamble. Without hope, she tried to drive the pipe in at the thing’s throat, but couldn’t get past its hands, one of which grabbed the pipe and the other, her throat. She gave up the pipe without a fight simply so that she could get both of her hands on the demon’s immense thumb before it could crush her larynx.

  It was like trying to pry the root of a sixty-foot tall oak from the ground, and yet she managed to save her airway for the moment. It would be a tragically fleeting moment, however. With casual indifference, the demon tossed aside the pipe and now with its second hand free, it put out two crazy long fingers, meaning to fork Maddy’s eyeballs from her head.

  Only just then the front door crashed open and there stood a great burly man a wooden bat in hand. He took one look at the Spider Demon, went ghastly white, looked as if he were about to faint and then turned to run from the room.

  “No…wait,” Maddy said, in a rasping, strangled voice. The man did not. He ran back into the hallway.

  A moment later another person strode to the door with slow measured steps. It was A-Yeoung. At the sight of her, Maddy felt her heart drop. But A-Yeoung had more spunk than Maddy gave her credit for. The little wrinkled thing sneered openly at the demon, saying, “Humph,” and then a long string of Korean words the tone of which suggested she thought little of the demon, despite its size.

  Brazenly, she stepped into the room. The demon’s black eyes went to squints at the sight of the woman. It recognized her and so great was its desire to kill her, that its grip on Maddy’s throat lessened. The woman took three steps into the room and stopped, arms folded across her chest. If she had power of any sort, Maddy couldn’t detect it.

  “You leave, Yeomra. You stay you die,” A-Yeoung said in an appalling almost stereotypical accent.

  At this, the demon roared and its hand squeezed so tightly that Maddy saw grey blobs in her vision. The roar had no effect on A-Yeoung. She raised the tiniest, thinnest, merest whisp of a grey eyebrow in existence and then, upon seeing the cast-off pipe, she stooped and picked it up. No matter how brave she was, she stood no chance against
the demon, which meant she was either completely insane or desperately stalling for time.

  A-Yeoung tapped the pipe twice on the floor, then put out a hand towards the door and in walked Bryce, armed with Maddy’s ice axe, and dressed in the most unlikely and outlandish costume imaginable, at least considering the circumstances. He was to fight a demon while wearing deep blue silk with gold cuffs and collars. He was taller than he had been and broader as well, easily filling the doorway. And, Maddy couldn’t help admit, he had become even more handsome. His entire appearance was so striking that Maddy gaped, her eyes roving up and down his body—and almost missed her chance to escape.

  The Spider Demon was also surprised by Bryce’s appearance and for just a fleeting moment its grip on Maddy’s throat lessened by a degree. Maddy had seen, or rather felt this was going to happen, so she tore herself from its grasp and threw herself over a couch.

  Ever since Daniel Magnus had forced Serum-21 on Bryce and Maddy there had been a connection between the two. Their attraction had waned with their parting, but now it reasserted itself, stronger than ever and just as Maddy pulled away from the demon, Bryce lobbed her axe to the corner of the room. It landed in Maddy’s hand without her even having to reach for it.

  She marveled over how light it felt. Compared to the weighty pipe, the ice axe was like a surgeon’s scalpel. Nonetheless, it was deadly. The demon might have been unbelievably tall, but it was also thin and Maddy supposed that the bones of its skull would be just as thin. She just had to get in close.

  Afraid that he would get some fool notion in his head, she informed Bryce that, “We’ll take it together. It doesn’t deserve an honorable battle.”

  “I agree,” Bryce said and then with a stylish, but oddly slow movement, he brought the pipe up, holding it in a fighting stance, ready to lash-out in a blink of an eye. “Time to die, bitch!” he growled at the demon.