Anarchy

by Peter Meredith

  The Spider Demon took all this in, glanced at the crowd of people in the hallway and decided the odds were not in its favor. Glaring around, it slunk to the window and crawled out.

  When it was gone, silence filled the room. Maddy and Bryce locked eyes, each smiling at the other as their connection seemed to grow and intertwine. Warmth began to spread through them but only so far, then reality cut its way in between them and their smiles dipped. He saw in her the fact of Victoria’s death and he was struck by a sharp sadness that was unexpected and a sense of failure that made him sag, leaning heavily on his pipe. Maddy saw that the situation she had just rushed into was worse than she had realized. The people in the hall were timid and older than the average. There were few fighters and worse there was little fighting spirit.

  As bad as the situation felt, Maddy knew that it was better than being alone. A part of her had felt incomplete without Bryce near and she had spent far too much of her energy dwelling on him instead of concentrating on the present or looking to the future. It was a shortcoming on her part that she couldn’t overcome even then. Without thinking about it she launched herself at Bryce, crushing him in an embrace.

  She didn’t know if it was the embrace of lovers or deep friendship. One way or the other, it was an embrace that was wholly on her part. Not only did Bryce not hug her back, he also went stiff as if repulsed by her touch.

  “What the hell?” she snapped. “I missed you is all. It’s not like I…” She stopped seeing that he had gone pale. A groan escaped him as his heroic façade crumbled away. Without the pipe as a crutch, he would’ve collapsed entirely. “What’s wrong?”

  “Hurt back,” he gasped. “It’s getting better. I’ll be fine.”

  “Fine? When? And what would you have done if the demon had decided to fight? God! We could’ve been killed.” She slugged him in the arm, pulling her punch at the last second.

  Maddy was a great deal stronger than she had been and although she had pulled the punch, Bryce’s grin sat lopsided on his face from the pain of having his body torqued around. “Same old Maddy.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Now, she wanted to punch him for real…except he was right. She did sound like her grating old self and instead of hitting him, she mumbled an apology.

  As the pain was already receding, he waved her words away. “I had to go with a bluff. I couldn’t have anything happen to you. If you died, who would remind the world what a nerd I was?”

  “You still are underneath all that silk. And a bluff won’t work a second time,” she warned. “If it comes to it, the demon won’t let us go again. He has us trapped.”

  “We’ve been trapped,” Kathy Pierce said from the doorway. Her green eyes showed tragic envy that wasn’t all about Maddy’s Valkyrie-like looks and stature. She hadn’t liked the hug Maddy had given Bryce, or the looks between them, or how close they were standing to each other. Acting as if something more than a hug could break out between the two at any moment, Kathy pushed between them and stared up at Maddy.

  “You’re like him,” Kathy went on. “That’s great and all, but can you fight off a thousand of them? They’re at the third floor, Bryce,” she said without taking her eyes from Maddy. “On the north and east side. You said you had a plan. If so, it’s time we heard it.”

  Bryce nodded, his eyes at slits, imagining or perhaps seeing the attack as it was happening. “And the front?” he asked.

  “We’re stopping them cold in the stairwell.”

  “And the fires?”

  Her lips pursed, making her look younger than her seventeen years. “Burning like you asked, but they’re not getting through in the back. We’re wasting people there for nothing.”

  Maddy, looking back and forth, asked, “What’s going on?”

  Bryce said nothing, his eyes still far away. Kathy whipped her head around and had Maddy been any shorter she would’ve gotten a mouthful of hair. “Nothing but craziness! He’s letting them come up the fire escapes and all the while he’s got us lighting the building on fire here, there and everywhere. It don’t make sense.”

  “Doesn’t,” Bryce murmured. “And now it’s time to let them in from the front. Pull your peoplein the stairwell up to the second floor.”

  “Are you crazy?” Kathy practically screamed.

  “Am I?” Bryce asked, but not of Kathy.

  “How should I know?” Maddy answered. He shook his head and again closed his eyes. This was his way of telling her that she was trying to grasp the situation with the wrong part of her mind. She too, closed her eyes and immediately his plan revealed itself to her, playing out like a movie running at high speed. It wasn’t a very long movie because he lacked the foresight that she possessed and the ending became murky.

  For her it went on until she saw themselves very clearly trapped on the roof of a burning building. It was an odd view at the end. She found herself looking up at the Spider Demon who seemed greatly elongated as if it were fifteen feet tall. It was a moment before she knew the reason why: it was standing on her throat.

  Chapter 38

  Maddy put a hand to her throat, feeling the ghost of pain yet to come. “You’re not crazy and it might be our best bet. However…” She glanced significantly around at the others.

  “I know,” Bryce said. “It is what it is.”

  “What?” Kathy asked, suddenly nervous. She didn’t like the looks that had passed between the two or how Maddy’s face had gone white. “What is what?”

  “Not everyone will live through this fight,” Bryce told her. “But we all knew this going in, right?” She nodded with the tiniest movement of her head. The others were even less enthusiastic. “Our goal is to save as many of us as possible and to that end, we are going to allow as many of the creatures in through the front and up the fire escapes as possible. They’re go…”

  “That’s your plan?” Mr. Jennings demanded. “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. How’s that going to save anyone?”

  Bryce didn’t answer but only looked at Kathy, who was slowly working it out for herself. “If the monsters are inside, there won’t be as many of them outside, and maybe we can get out the back where all the smoke is?” she said, sounding like the schoolgirl she was.

  “Exactly. The problem is we will need enough people to draw the creatures upward, and these people will not likely be able to escape.” A long, drawn-out silence followed this statement as each of them struggled with the idea of purposely trapping themselves and the certainty of their deaths.

  “I stay,” A-Yeoung said. “I fight.” She raised her downy brow at Mr. Jennings, challenging him to stay as well. He looked away.

  Kathy didn’t need to be guilted into staying. She had her mom to worry about. “I’m staying, too. How many people do we need?”

  “Not many,” Maddy answered. “Three or four for the front stairs and another seven or so to keep the creatures coming up the fire escapes. I will stay, but I think Bryce should leave. You’re basically useless,” she added when he started shaking his head. “You can’t fight. You have to admit it.”

  “Where I go, the demon goes,” he said. “And where the demon goes, the zombies are sure to follow.” A wistful grin. “That sounds like a demented nursery rhyme. I will be bait, just like all the rest who possess the courage to stay.” This very subtle remark, backed by an even more subtle mental “push” was enough to bring Mr. Jennings on board and when he nodded the three others with him nodded as well.

  Only Maddy understood how difficult it was for Bryce to force his will on the others. Even if it was for the greater good, there was an underhanded, seedy quality to it that ran against everything that was honorable in him.

  “Good,” he said, stretching, masking his guilty conscience with the pain in his back. “We don’t have any time to waste. Maddy will be in charge of the uh, vertical retreat. Kathy, I need you to get everyone else ready to go on the second floor near the back. Put someone in charge to keep them quiet and to lead
them…somewhere. I wish I knew a safe place, but I don’t think such a thing exists anymore.”

  After a moment of dead silence, everyone began to shuffle away, all except Maddy, Bryce and A-Yeoung. Maddy offered her a touch of a smile to which she frowned, saying, “Go on. Future dark. Do not wait.” With a sigh and a last look at Bryce, Maddy turned to go only to have A-Yeoung tsk her. “Not what I mean.” She tilted her head Bryce’s way before limping to the door.

  Maddy blushed rose, which brought her out in full bloom, more beautiful than ever. “Is she trying to play matchmaker, now?”

  Bryce caught himself staring at her and couldn’t seem to look away; not that he tried all that hard. “I don’t know what to make of her. She…” She had nothing to do with the moment, other than instigating it. I’m stalling, he said to himself. I should just kiss her. What could be easier?

  Fighting demons, apparently. He was far more nervous at the thought of moving in to kiss chubby, little Maddy Whitmore than he had been fighting the black demon days before. Of course, she was no longer chubby, little Maddy Whitmore. She was far greater in every way, and that included in the breath-taking way. And…and he had no time for this. Zombies were fighting their way through the debris that the tenants had hurtled down the stairwell. Each minute counted, and yet he didn’t know if he’d ever have the chance to kiss her again if he didn’t take it right then.

  With his throat constricting, he swallowed heavily, ignored the twinge in his back and moved in to kiss her and as he did, she leaned away in a manner that was all too familiar.

  “Sorry, I just thought…” He thought he had read her correctly.

  “It’s not you. It’s me.”

  A grunt of cynical laughter escaped him, “Yes. Sure. I get it, and it’s not like I’ve never heard that before.”

  The blush had evaporated from her cheeks. “You’ll probably never hear it again,” she told him.

  His breath left him and he had to struggle for his next. “You’ve seen something.” It wasn’t a question. Ever since he had felt the Spider Demon lurking outside the building, Bryce had figured he wasn’t going to make it out alive and now he had proof. “Remind me never to watch a detective show with you. You’ll give away the ending. Ha-ha.” His laugh was forced.

  “What? No. I just meant that you won’t hear that because you’re so…you know. You’re kinda cute now, I guess. So, no, I haven’t seen you die.” Still, she’d had a vision. Once more she saw herself back on the roof, the Spider Demon’s long bone-white foot crushing down. It was that which had stopped her.

  But she wasn’t going to let it stop her again. This time she moved in, quick and aggressive, determined to kiss him like she should have done days ago. She did not hold back, and the kiss was long and deep. After everything they had been through, they were hungry for this, desperate for love and to be loved. Their kiss was both natural and unnatural at once. The beat of their hearts didn’t just sync up, they also became entwined so that it felt as though one heart joined them. The kiss was wonderfully mesmerizing, and they might have gone on forever if it wasn’t for A-Yeoung who returned, padding up so silently that the average person wouldn’t have heard her.

  To them, A-Yeoung was loud and they leaned back from each other as she poked her head around the door. “Is bad now. Must she hurry.”

  Taking a grip of his pipe, Bryce turned slowly; A-Yeoung sniffed, “No you. She is fight. You is heal. Go!” she ordered Maddy after she hesitated, still somewhat befuddled from the kiss.

  Reality set in for Maddy and the kiss became a memory. People were dying. Time was short. She allowed herself a last, lingering look at Bryce and then Maddy was running from the room with long-legged strides.

  “Time is for heal,” A-Yeoung declared. Bryce ignored her. He was needed. He wasn’t a hundred percent, but he could walk now and maybe swing the pipe without too much pain. Their kiss had been fantastic and at the same time, he had felt Maddy’s fear. She hadn’t seen anything about him, she had seen something terrible concerning her own future and he wasn’t going to let her face her trial alone. He tried to push past A-Yeoung, who planted her size four feet, and stood in his path.

  “Please step out of the way,” he said to her. “I’m healed enough to pick you up if I wish.”

  She shrugged and stepped aside. As he passed her, he felt her coming and tried to move away, but he was too slow to evade her kick which hit him just behind the knee. While it was a pathetic, weak little kick from a weak little person it was perfectly placed to buckle his knee just enough to send pain shooting up his back.

  Cursing, he collapsed like a deck of cards. She sat down on his back, effectively pinning him with her measly eighty-two pounds. “You is heal now.”

  “I don’t have time for…” He broke off, noticing that she carried a stack of long, shiny needles bound in yellow yarn. “What are those for?” But he knew. “No, no, no. Acupuncture is junk medicine. It doesn’t work. It…gha.”

  In mid-sentence, she slid one of the needles into the side of his throat and suddenly he could no longer speak. “Is Korean. Long time in year, Emperor Dangun he create this acoo-punter as you say. Is very powerful. So, no move!” He couldn’t if he tried. She had slid a second needle into the base of his neck and now he couldn’t seem to feel his legs. “Yesss,” she said, accidentally spitting on him. “Is great power in proper technique. Close eye. Send mind away.”

  He did so, seeing Maddy leaping down flights of stairs, taking fifteen at a time without touching a single one.

  Even as the third needle slid in, Maddy had reached the second floor where a very small group of men and women were desperately fighting a grey, thousand-armed squiggling mass of the undead surging up from the dark. The creatures had finally overcome the barrier of mish-mashed furniture and now only seven people were holding them back.

  One of these was Jim Falconer, a slim, bookish man in his fifties, who was panting and sweating from the fight. His weapon was a four-foot length of PVC piping that he had drilled on one end to accept a heavy lock. This version of a medieval mace was an odd but strangely effective weapon—it had good reach and was light enough to swing with speed and with just enough weight on the end to crack a skull open. Light as it was, after a hundred or so swings, Jim’s arms were burning, his grip had become soft and his lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of an infant’s.

  Sweat burned into his eyes just as Maddy dropped down onto the landing a half-dozen steps behind the group. He turned and suddenly everything was a blur. Instead of stepping back out of the fight, he ripped the sleeve of his coat across his face. A bloody sleeve as it turned out and that made everything far worse.

  “Fuck!” he cried, trying the other sleeve, only right then one of the zombies grabbed his weird weapon and yanked on it with such strength that Jim was thrown forward. He had the strange sensation of being completely weightless—but only for a second. Then he landed among the dead. Black-tipped claws tore at him, pulling out fistfuls of hair as well as chunks of his scalp. His right ear was bitten off, as was the tip of his pinky finger of his left hand. The creatures beneath him would have disemboweled him had it not been for his coat. They tried, taking in great mouthfuls of polyester and down.

  His scream as well as Maddy’s sudden appearance froze the others all of whom turned in shock looking back and forth.

  The scream galvanized Maddy into action. Appearing twice her size, she leapt down the remaining stairs with her gleaming ice axe raised. Her strength had increased so much that she saw herself planting the spike end of the axe a full eight inches deep into the closest of the zombies.

  There was no time to pry the weapon loose, so she restricted her swing so that it felt like she barely gave the zombie more than a tap on the head. Blood, black as oil, fountained up. She didn’t give it a second glance as she hacked downward once again. Soon, the axe was little more than a silver blur carving pretty arcs in the air.

  In four seconds, Jim was free and bei
ng pulled up the stairs. Still, Maddy swung her axe. It grew slick with blood, causing her to expend more energy just gripping it. Thirty swings produced twenty-five corpses and although the zombies here were commanded to pull any obstacles down the stairs and keep driving up and up, they could not compete against Maddy. Compared to her dynamism, they moved sluggishly and their attacks were obvious and mechanical. She piled the bodies up faster than they could be pulled away and soon the attack stagnated.

  She glanced back at the others all of whom, including bloody Jim Falconer, were staring at her in amazement. Having what seemed to be some sort of Amazonian drop in out of the blue and kill the zombies with such grace and precision was completely unexpected.

  “Well, it looks like you got this in hand.” This was from a trembling Donny Wood. He took a step back and then squeaked as Maddy launched herself at him.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” she ordered. A quick survey of the seven showed that Jim and a woman of the same age were bleeding and wild-eyed; death had reached out to touch them and now it was only a matter of time. Two others, again a man and a woman were steady and would fight. The rest were twitchy and nervous and might run off at the drop of a hat.

  “The plan is to allow the creatures up…”

  Donny interrupted, “That’s what Kathy said.”

  Maddy had to control the urge to glare. “Then don’t get bogged down. And don’t take risks. Pull back, slow and steady. If you can hold them back for thirty seconds per step that would be good. You two,” she said, addressing Jim and the bleeding woman. “Kathy needs volunteers.” Volunteers for a gruesome death, she didn’t add, telling herself they were going to die regardless. She wasn’t going to try to force them or coerce them to follow her; she simply turned and jogged back up the stairs.

  Wearing stunned expressions, the two followed her. Two stories up Maddy found Kathy in the middle of a desperate fight. The zombies were scaling both fire escapes faster than anyone believed possible. Ignoring the ladders altogether, they were climbing all around the latticed structure. The tenants fighting here were older, greying women for the most part and very few of them were keen to climb through a window and trap themselves in what looked like a corpse-covered cage.