Anarchy

by Peter Meredith

  A ten-year-old boy’s aroma is very distinctive and Maddy honed-in on it right away. There were only a few people in the hallway, sitting with their feet jutting out. They stared just as the guards had. A man in a puffy green coat walked…no strolled past, his eyes growing larger as she approached him. There was no hurry in him, no anxiety about getting to the roof before all the seats on the copter were taken.

  He doesn’t know, Maddy realized. None of them did. This was a good thing. She’d been worried about having to fight through a mass of hysterical people, each battling for one of the few seats on the helicopter.

  To keep from raising suspicion, she didn’t run down the hall, but walked briskly following Billy’s scent to another hallway, which at one time had been home to three dozen private offices. Presently the offices were more akin to one-star motel rooms. Many survivors had taken up residence in these rooms and Maddy found Tomika Morgan and Billy in one.

  Curled up beneath the window, he was reading from a thick, leather-bound book, his mop of curly hair flowing over his bent brow. When he looked up, it took him a moment to realize who she was. “Maddy!”

  Much to her shock, he threw himself on her, squeezing her in a hug that told her he had given up on ever seeing her again. As sweet as the hug was, Maddy took no joy in it. At his touch, her mind was shot through with unwanted images; the cold helicopter ride, an underground tunnel, hard angry faces, Magnus’ smile, and a white-hot flare of blinding light that obliterated everything its beams fell upon.

  There were nukes coming after all.

  Chapter 44

  Billy felt her go stiff. “Sorry,” he muttered, stung by the rejection.

  “No,” she said and grabbed him and swept him up in a hug of her own. “It’s not you. It was something in my head.”

  “Can’t breathe,” he gasped, his face going red. “You’re squeezing too hard.”

  She was now as big as a man and stronger than most. “Sorry,” she said again, setting him on his feet and, unable to resist the motherly urge, she straightened the blue sweater he had on and pushed the curls from his face. “Now everyone can see how cute you are.”

  His cheeks took on a red hue and he mumbled something that even her super-hearing couldn’t decipher.

  “You got bigger,” Tomika said, nervous awe making her voice go higher than normal. “I mean really big.”

  “I’m not that big,” Maddy replied, defensively. Her staring made Maddy uncomfortable, and she added with an edge, “I’m not a circus freak. Not yet at least.” Tomika dropped her gaze with a quick and heart-felt apology. “It’s alright.” A pause, then, “We can’t stay here. There’s a helicopter on the roof and we’re getting on it.” Although she had come for Billy, she couldn’t ignore Tomika. “If there’s room, I’ll try to get you on board, too,” she told the young woman.

  “Yes. Please.” For the last two days, she had swallowed her feelings for Billy’s sake. Deep down she was afraid that her fate was to starve to death, trapped in the building, and if it meant begging on her hands and knees to get out, she would. If it meant spreading her legs, she would do that too.

  Maddy adjusted the pipe riding across her shoulders, saying, “Don’t say a word. If anyone asks, we’re looking for a water cooler.”

  She led the way, heading at a brisk walk to the stairs, ignoring the people staring at her. Heads poked out of doorways to watch her pass. In what sounded like a chorus, fifteen people whispered, “Who is that?” Someone even called out, asking her name, but Maddy ignored them all and it was something of a blessing when they got to the stairs.

  “To the roof,” she said and started up, moving at what felt like a snail’s pace. As she jogged upward, she tried to “see” the copter. Instead of the helicopter she saw only that blinding flash of light and when she made it to the roof, she expected to have a front row seat to a tremendous fireball. There was no fireball, and the late afternoon sky was clear. The roof was not nearly so clear. More than fifty people were crowded around the Black Hawk.

  They would’ve pushed forward and swarmed the big green machine were it not for six men in camo, pointing M4s into the crowd. The soldiers were twitchy, on the verge of shooting. Standing a head taller than everyone else, Bryce was near the front of the crowd, talking to a pair of tall men in matching black suit coats—government men was the simplistic description that came to Maddy’s mind. Bryce had an odd look on his face; an unreadable mixture of happiness, awe, perplexity, and fear. The look was directed at one of the men, and when he turned, Maddy understood.

  It was Griff…no, it was Agent Griffin Meyers, just as he had been the first day of the apocalypse. He stood tall and confident, his face unlined, the worry and pain that had been aging him, erased. When he saw her, he flashed a bright smile at her; however, it was eclipsed by the nuclear explosion that she saw coming and she blinked slowly, her mind reeling.

  Then suddenly he was next to her, speaking into her ear, “I want to properly thank you for saving my life.”

  “How are you like this?” she blurted out, before recollecting herself. “I mean, you’re welcome, of course. But, but, how? You’re so normal.”

  A shadow swept across his handsome face. “It was that demon keeping me the way I was. Once you two killed it, I felt this great burden lift.” His smile lit up his face once again. The smile flickered and the darkness returned when she asked about Agent Plinkett. “It wasn’t long after you two left us. They came over the wall in this wave of bodies. There were so many and Father O’Lyn said to trust in God, but no one did. Some tried to take off out the back, but they didn’t make it ten feet.”

  “How did the main doors come unlocked?” Maddy asked, looking closely at him.

  “Were they?” he asked in perfect innocence. “Me and Plink were trying to find a way out through one of the side windows when we heard the screaming. We ran to the front. Plinkett charged right into the fight even though there was no way he could win. He had this crazed look on his face. And he was red. You know what I mean? His face was beet red.”

  Griff was no longer handsome and bright. His looks were fading to grey. Maddy wondered if this grey look was the real Griff. As keen as her insight had become, she found that with the flash of nukes constantly lighting up her mind, she couldn’t perceive things the way she had become accustomed. Lies no longer stood out—unless he wasn’t lying.

  “And you?” she asked. “How did you get away?”

  In shame, his eyes darted to the side. “They didn’t care about me. They saw me as one of them, and when everyone was dead...” One shoulder twitched in a small shrug.

  “We have to go!” Bryce bellowed over the sound of the helicopter’s engine. “Get the boy and come on.”

  “I need a seat for Tomika!” she yelled back.”

  He bent and conferred with the other government man who shook his head. Glaring, Bryce argued and gestured, and even poked the man in the chest, pushing him back with the one finger. The man still shook his head. Maddy could see Bryce mouth, “Shit.”

  Tomika saw the obvious word, too. As though she were being pressed down by a giant hand, she crumpled slowly to the roof until the pebbles embedded themselves into her knees. This was her one and only chance to get away, to be done with the hell that her life had become. She cried though she wasn’t aware of the tears streaming down her face. She was numb.

  “She can take my spot,” Griff offered, unexpectedly. For some unknown reason she couldn’t wrap her mind around, Maddy frowned at this. The last time she had seen him he had been practically a thrall, barely able to fight the psychic demands of the Spider Demon. Now he looked ready to go door-to-door with a bible in one hand and a heart brimming with God’s love, ready to convert the masses. On one hand, Maddy was ecstatic over the change for the good. On the other, she didn’t know if she trusted it.

  Tomika’s reaction was one of disbelieving, groveling hope. From her knees, she clutched at Griff’s pants with shaking hands. “Really? If yo
u could that would be great. Really great. I don’t know if I can take much more of this.”

  Still so much like an evangelist that it unnerved Maddy, Griff put out both hands and helped Tomika up. “It’s nothing. The creatures don’t scare me, and I can probably hitch a ride on the next bird. Let me go clear it with the SAC.”

  Before Maddy could think of an objection—mainly because there didn’t seem to be anything to object to—he pushed through the crowd with Maddy following. Billy clung to her, while behind him, Tomika crushed in close, afraid that someone would try to cut in between them and take her place. The emotional state of the crowd was borderline frenzy and more than once someone grabbed at Tomika and Billy. No one dared touch Maddy. Not only was there an aura to her, she also carried herself in a way that spelled trouble for anyone foolish enough to test her.

  The Special Agent in Charge, a grizzled old vet who had been around since the Clinton administration, gave Tomika and Billy a sour look. In his mind, they were useless tagalongs and if he had his way, they would be sent packing and their spots given to people who might make an actual difference. In other words, men with guns. Despite his title, he was not actually in charge. His orders had come from someone higher up. Strings had been pulled to get a chopper back into the city with only one goal: to pick up Maddy and Bryce.

  “It’s your funeral,” he told Griff, and waved impatiently for the three to get on the helicopter.

  Maddy gave a Griff a last uncertain look. “It’ll be fine,” he told her. “Just as long as you stop the nukes that is. You’ll stop them?”

  She hesitated because it felt like he was locking her in with a promise and after all the trouble promises had given them, she was reluctant. But only a little and she said that she would do everything she could.

  “I trust you,” he told her, smiled a last time and turned to the seething crowd. They were getting loud and angry. Some begged, some hurled insults, some sulked, but none tested the grim-faced guards. Other than Bryce and the men with guns, the trio was the last to board and she had to push people back to set Billy down on the edge of the bird before she wedged herself in between him and Tomika.

  It was a crammed Black Hawk that lumbered into the air.

  A spluttering cheer went up as they lifted off. The people thought they had been saved. Maddy was not so sure. Where before the nukes had been a dark uncertain cloud in her mind, now they were a blinding certainty, which made no sense as her and Bryce’s entire purpose for getting on the Black Hawk was to stop the bombs. She stared around, noting how the lift off was almost an exact replay of her dream from a few days before, including seeing Nichola Lines trying to hide herself behind a couple of the larger men.

  The only difference between her dream and reality was the presence of Tomika and Billy. Are they the problem? she wondered. Maddy couldn’t see how they were. Then again, she couldn’t see anything other than that blinding flash.

  “What’s wrong?” Bryce squatted down beside her. Even with the helicopter an uncertain platform, subject to the whims of any stray gust, he didn’t cling to the nearest handhold like everyone else.

  “We’re not stopping it,” she said, speaking so low that Billy who was seated practically on top of her and whose grip was that of an eagle’s claws, couldn’t hear her.

  Bryce stared grimly from the helicopter, his brilliant blue eyes unfocused. After what felt like an eternity, he blew out through puffed cheeks. “All I see is a white light. It takes up everything.”

  A motherly instinct rose up and she asked him if he saw Billy before the light came. In her vision she hadn’t and didn’t know if that was good or bad. He hadn’t, which left her feeling even more lost. “So, what do we do?” she asked. “Go back to Magnus with our tail between our legs? It’s either that or we take this bird south to Mexico. I like the idea of Mexico.” She could wear a bikini, something she had never thought she would ever do.

  “Mmm, Mexico. That sounds nice, except you know if we run away, we’ll be haunted continuously by Magnus’ pets. Magnus says do this. Magnus says do that, he squawked like a parrot. He then put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “We can do this. I bet you Magnus has it all set up. We’ll get in to see the President, trust me. Once there we’ll have to be at our most charming.”

  “I’ve never been the charmer,” she admitted. “Once I talked myself into getting a speeding ticket.” The second she said this, she realized her mistake. Bryce’s expression of “go on” was set firmly in place as he waited patiently for her to explain herself. With a sigh, she told him, “He was going to give me a warning, but I had to speak truth to power.”

  Bryce smirked—a look she used to find annoying but now found uncommonly attractive. “Of course, you did.”

  “Kinda. At the time it felt like I was doing my little part to fix the world. And I didn’t think it would hurt anyone, but it turns out that cops don’t like to be called the stooges of the patriarchy.”

  His laugh flowed easily causing heads to turn. His smile was infectious and even those who had gone through a harrowing life and death struggle not long before found themselves grinning though they couldn’t say why. His positive vibe set the mood for the flight. They were beyond the destruction of the city and out past the fighting raging through New Jersey.

  Below them, the land was green and lush, seemingly peaceful. To the west the sun was setting in a brilliant display of gold. The light, piercing as it was, could not compete with the intensity of Maddy’s visions and she held her face to the sun, enjoying the warmth as long as she could. It did not last and it wasn’t long before twilight robbed her of nature’s great fire.

  Billy huddled into her from one side and Bryce from the other and she took comfort in this and nothing else. With every mile they streaked southwest her alarm grew until she was just about dreading their landing, which came far too quickly.

  Somewhere in the woods of southern Pennsylvania, in a little clearing, the helicopter set down with a gentle bump. In a circle just wide enough to fit the Black Hawk were newly cut stumps and further away was a pile of tree trunks and brush. Out beyond that, just at the edge of her vision was another new clearing where a cold dark helicopter sat, looking out of place.

  Maddy was the first off the bird; her anxiety was through the roof. Her gut told her that she and Bryce had been too slow, that their nonchalant attitude was going to result in thousands, if not millions of deaths.

  “We can stop it,” Bryce assured her.

  His calm was infuriating. “You don’t know that,” she whispered as the engines spooled down. His attitude came from the fact that so far, nothing had stopped him. He had been tested nonstop for days and had overcome each obstacle. In his mind this would be no different. She wished she had his level of confidence and if she could’ve gotten just a peek at the future, beyond the white flash, that is, she would’ve been a lot calmer.

  She was twitchy and didn’t like how they were surrounded. The copter had set down somewhere in the middle of a wide perimeter guarded by a battalion of men. By their scents, she could tell they were calm and cocky. The forest fairly reeked of testosterone…and pine, clover, deer, rabbit, and a good number of skunks.

  As she was breathing this all in, a man in a crisply new camouflaged uniform strode forward, unnecessarily ducking away from rotors that still whupped overhead. “Maddy Whitmore? Bryce Carter?”

  This man was afraid. His flesh was a ghastly white and the sheen of sweat on his brow looked like grease. “My name is Doctor Mordel. I’m Assistant Director…”

  “At the CDC Atlanta,” Bryce said, cutting across him. “I read your paper on the Myxoma virus in Australia. Very interesting stuff.”

  Mordel nodded with short jerks of his head. He was in his late forties and since his promotion within the CDC he had taken to wearing the lightest amount of make-up and was known to get quarterly Botox injections to retain his youthful looks. Just then, his face was slack in parts and deeply lined in others; his make-
up looked like cracked plaster.

  “Yes. Thanks. We have to hurry.” He retreated a few steps, walking sideways so that his back wasn’t to them. “They can stay.” He indicated Billy and Tomika by shooing them away with a little flicking motion of his wrist.

  “They’re coming with us,” Maddy stated, taking Billy’s hand. “That is non-negotiable. And what’s going on? And how do you know who we are?” She already knew the answer: Magnus. Bryce had been right. Magnus had set this up, and this should’ve been reason enough for her to feel a slight bit calmer. Magnus was famed for his ability to manipulate events to come out on top. And yet, she was beginning to feel a quiver in her belly.

  Mordel wasn’t used to being told no and his face turned prissy. “They won’t get past the Secret Service agents. And neither will you with those things.” He meant Bryce’s pipe and her ice axe. “They can hold onto them. Okay? Everyone happy?” No one was happy, not even Bryce who very reluctantly gave Tomika his pipe.

  Billy looked lost and Maddy could see that he wanted to cling. He had been picking up on Maddy’s anxiety and his grip on her hand was fierce.

  “I slew the great She-demon with this,” Maddy told Billy, giving him the axe. “I want you to keep it safe for me. Can you do that?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, his voice breaking.

  She faked a smile and put out her arms. Billy hadn’t been much of a hugger since turning ten, claiming he was too old for hugs and kisses good night. All that went out the window and he squeezed her with all his might.

  “Okay,” Mordel muttered impatiently. “Come on.”