by C Bilici
He squat down and placed his fingers to her throat. His touch flared pain across the area, which rippled across her body.
“Sorry.” He pulled his hand away and stood. “Your pulse seems a little high, but that would be due to the adrenalin from the pain.” Crossing his arms, he looked to Paul. “He should be OK, but we’ll need to get him back to the infirmary to make sure, and take care of any infection.”
Stacey was fairly certain Paul would never be OK again, but, like her, he was alive. That was something, wasn’t it? She had to tell herself that it was.
“Can you make it to the Enclave on your own?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Fenton helped her up, then knelt by Paul, scooped an arm under him, and they both vanished.
She glanced up at Godfrey, and her own avatar, who looked down in what seemed to be concern. Her avatar gave her an acknowledging single head nod, which she returned before following after Fenton and Paul.
* * *
Paul was given a once over by the Ward chief medic with Fiona in tow, which was surprisingly quick. He’d been given a sedative shot, a cursory check over his body, a slightly more thorough one of his eye, which was patched over, and a scan with both traditional methods — or what Stacey presumed to be traditional for the Wards — and with the Mhyrr technology to ensure he wasn’t a traitor.
The doctor judged him physically fit, suffering from exhaustion, and said his eye would need to treated at a hospital. Then he’d warned her that the majority of his issues would be psychological, given some experience with others, and she needed to be prepared. There was no doubt of Umbra infection, but they could deal with that. What came after that, however…
After an hour or so, with Fenton’s assistance Stacey carried Paul away on a stretcher, walking to a deserted area far from the temple and market street stalls. By the time she felt they’d walked far enough, she saw they were somewhere close to the Enclaves equator, if that’s what one would still call it in this inside-out world.
The buildings around them were deserted and, most importantly, silent. With the dilapidated nature of the the housing, it looked like a real ghost town, and she had her BYO ghost.
Paul would be out of it for a while after what they’d given him, she was told, so he didn’t need to worry about people.
Stacey, on the other hand, had no such numbing assistance to remove her pain.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
HAVING ASKED FENTON if he could leave, Stacey found he hadn’t gone far when she wandered outside of the shack she’d chosen to find supplies. He was sitting on the step of the opposite house in the shadow of the column of light, a crate at his feet. Without word, feet scraping as they passed over cobblestones, she made her way to him.
Easing down, she lifted a blanket to find water, food, tobacco, and something she sorely needed. The blanket dropped to the rough stones, then she fell atop it. Bottles rattled and she handed one to Fenton, then using the top of the crate, she gave the brown bottle a sharp jab with the heel of her palm.
Fenton sat with his unopened bottle and stared at her.
With a sigh, Stacey handed over her own beer, took Fenton’s, and cracked it on the plastic crate. She tipped it back and took several long gulps. It wasn’t the coldest, but much like the tobacco it was homemade and refreshing.
“So, what’s your fucking deal?” was all she could think to say after a long silence.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, just when I think I have you figured out, you do something to flip the picture of you in my head over and fuck it in the arse.”
Discomfort radiated from him, the lip of the bottle stopping short of his mouth. “Eloquent as ever.”
The bottle dropped with a slosh as it slipped form Fenton’s hand as the ground lurched. Not breaking, it clattered across the stones.
“The fuck was that?” Stacey said as she stood.
Fenton looked around them in confusion. “It… felt like the whole Enclave just moved.”
The bottle began to rattle where it was stopped between cobbles, foamed liquid chugging from it. The rumble became so strong Stacey could feel it through her feet as she stepped over the bottle, and soon she could hear it.
A fierce boom ripped through the Enclave and the roof of her chosen house.
“Paul!”
Debris erupted into the air and drained around them.
Stacey leapt one way to avoid being crushed by boards and beams, Fenton the opposite direction as a time-aged slab of wood fell between them. From the ground where she lay, Stacey looked up as the source of the destruction, following it higher as it rose.
A massive creature rose from the shell of the building, its hide a patchwork of dark, mottled colours. The things face, if one could call it that, was split four ways, a cave of teeth amid four triangular jaws. It appeared alien, but she thought she recognised its origin as earthworm from pictures she had shown her kids some years ago. As ugly as those close-up pictures had been, this leviathan creature had other influences, and appendages, that trumped it’s subterranean origins in repulsiveness.
Creatures, limbs and organs sprouted all along its length. A multitude of faces, whole and part, ringed the trunk of the thing near it’s head. Groupings of eyes by the handful of various creatures surrounded mouths and snouts that mewled, growled and spat.
A great majority of those eyes, that she could see, were turned toward Stacey and Fenton.
The monstrous leviathan moved, faster than she would have though possible. Stacey and Fenton ran in opposite directions, whether through the same idea or sheer fright. A loud rending like and spattering, like soaked canvas being torn, shredded the atmosphere.
Chancing a look over her shoulder, Stacey yelled involuntarily and she threw herself aside, rolling across the ground. The thing had split its head in two.
Not stopping her roll until she heard the booming crash of the beast where she had been laying only moments ago, Stacey righted herself and swayed as she found her bearings through the spin of her vision.
“Why was that so much fucking easier when I was a kid?”
She brought herself to a kneel, then to her feet, and watched in anticipation as the worm head lifted, it’s face splitting as it did to resemble its original form.
The twin of the head beside her followed suit, and as it did she saw Fenton go with it.
A vine-like length the colour of rotting meat was wrapped about one of his legs. He struggled as he swung from the tether that drew him closer to that meat grinder of a maw. With a grim sneer of determination, he lifted a hand from where it dangled below his head and thrust his palm toward the tentacle.
Nothing happened.
Fenton’s look of confusion turned to frustration as his other hand rose, but the results were the same.
“Oi!” Stacey bellowed at the creature, trying to distract the thing long enough so she could blast at it. The worm payed her no attention. At least not the one holding Fenton.
The head above her struck down, and Stacey waited until the last possible moment to leap forward, hoping she knew what she was doing.
Tucking, she tumbled forward, and felt a thrill as she stopped in a kneel facing her target.
Her hand rose. She took aim, and waited for the now familiar rush and crack of energy, even as she felt the creature looming at her back.
A terrifying realisation struck her when nothing came, and her fear was confirmed when she glanced up. The shadow of the worm fell across her, blocking the light of the Nexus column, and she saw a writing meshed dome high above them.
Stacey didn’t waste a moment and charged into a sprint, head down. When she looked up, it seemed Fenton was free floating. Something lashed back to his palm and he fell, hitting the ground hard on his left side. She heard him cry out in pain before rolling away and was certain something was broken.
He scrambled up on all fours, stumbled as his left arm gave way with a grunt through clenched teeth, but m
ade it to his feet, his arm limp by his side.
Darkness surged above Stacey and her head shot skyward, body tensing and freezing. She wasn’t going to be fast enough. She’d frozen. The creature ignored her, though, and she watched in morbid fascination as the two heads entwined to rejoin. And fall down on Fenton.
Twisting and surging through the air as he zig-zagged, the worm suddenly diverted from Fenton just as it closed on him. Its head fell to the ground with a reverberating thud, crushing the side of a house in the process. It careened off several others as it went, smashing walls before doing the same with the approaching wall of human flesh.
Wards streamed toward the thing by the dozens, and it gulped down whole several people whole in its direct path. Others close to its body as it carved a path through the defenders were caught by its many limbs and torn apart alive. As it went, the creature split again, this time into multiple streams. It flowed down streets and alleys, its tail nowhere in sight, flowing endlessly from the wreckage of the house it had emerged from. As it went, balls of flesh erupted from its back into the air and exploded into dust. The dust coalesced and knitted itself into the power blocking shield.
Too stunned to move, Stacey watched until her arm was caught and pulled.
Fenton pulled her away.
“No, wait!” She pulled him back toward the wreckage of the house, and whether by choice or exhaustion, he followed.
They crept to the door, still standing along with the wall despite the destruction. Fenton held up his hand and indicated that he would open it and she would look in.
Stacey nodded.
Fenton grabbed the handle, and off with his fingers, nodding his head with a silent utterance as he did, and eased the pressure off the old latch. On three, he snatched it open.
Stacey’s eyes went wide and she thrust the door violently back into place. She towed Fenton by his arm in a sprint.
The door turned to kindling behind them as the Shadow Man tore through the dry wood.
Corner after corner went by as she turned as sharp and fast as she could to put ground between them and their hunter. It seemed to be working, until Fenton bounced off a wall and howled in pain. He both slowed them down, and gave away their location to the Shadow Man. No sooner than Fenton’s cry had ceased, she heard the slithering rush of Umbra.
Taking a handful of Fenton’s shirt, Stacey swung him around and into an open doorway and kept running. She put on as much speed as she could and didn’t chance looking back to see if Fenton had stayed put or if the Shadow Man had taken her bait. And didn’t need to.
Moments after she rounded the first corner she came to, she was rewarded with the sounds of scraping flesh, and what sounded like grunting laughter.
She cursed as her eyes shot up. The shield was above her. She prayed to whatever might be listening that the Wards had been warned not to use the Nexus while beneath it, and also that they would know how to stop this thing. She couldn’t think about how many might have already perished by making that mistake. Instead, she concentrated on the burning in her muscles. In doing so, though, she realised she couldn’t keep her pace up much longer.
An old brick building came into view in the distance. Her only hope, she made her way for it. The space between the building and her was a wide open thoroughfare, with no obstructions, but also no cover.
Her last stand.
Teeth clenched, Stacey pushed the thought from her mind and sprinted through the pain, her legs afire. “Now is… not the time… for fucking… shin splints!” she growled to herself.
The fire in her bones and muscles built to an unbearable level.
She blinked the welling tears away as fast as they came.
The deep thud and welcoming cool of the thick wooden door didn’t last long as she hit it. Her fingers trembles as they fumbled at the handle. Pushing at it, her fear and frustration grew as she found that it opened outward. To her dread and delight, the door was as heavy as it looked.
She fell through the opening, dragging the door slamming behind her.
A moment of peaceful respite later, she turned to the door. She sprung forward and heaved a steel bar set in the wall by a pin down by a jutting handle. As it slotted into place, barring the heavy door, she fell against it and tried to regain control of her galloping heart.
She leapt away as a heavy force rattled the solid frame, sending showers of dust onto her and all around. She stared at the door, beams of dusty light slicing through gaps in the door and from other unseen places.
The size of that creature meant its entry was assured. The only thing that would stop the Shadow Man was if he still wanted her alive. She wasn’t comforted by the thought. It might afford her the time to find a means of escape, however. If not, she would focus all her power into travelling to the Nexus and would either smash through whatever wall was keeping her from it, or die on her own terms from the rebounding force.
Either option was preferable.
Three heavy, evenly spaced out knocks rocked the door.
Stacey backed away, trying to keep thoughts of death at the worm creature and Shadow Man’s hands out of her mind. But she couldn’t help herself. Images flashed in her mind’s eye. Fenton. Paul. Herself. Everyone in the Enclave being torn apart, flensed into so much minced meat.
If she let herself fall to pieces now it was all over, so she made herself stop. She stopped thinking, stopped moving. Instead, she listened intently.
Silence.
The sounds of slithering were gone. There was no noise. She knew it was a trick and that he and his pet were right at the door, waiting.
“So what’s the next move?” she called out.
“I just want to talk, Stacey. That’s all. I’ve sent the creature on its way. It’s just the two of us. Let me in and we’ll parley. What do you say?”
“What’s there to talk about? You’re just going to kill me.”
“Nooo, Stacey. Not kill. Not you.” He sounded hurt by her suggestion. “I told you, I want you to join us. You’ve seen what we can do. And as we grow, so will those abilities. You could be a part of it all from the start, from the ground up.”
“You sound just like a salesman,” she said, a grim grin cracking her face.
The thing outside chuckled.
“Why don’t you let me sleep on it and I’ll get back to you?”
He let out another laugh. “I’m afraid it’s past that now. This is a last chance offer. If you’d not noticed, we’re making a play. A hostile takeover, as it were. The time to think is over. Join with me, and you’ll see amazing things. I promise.”
“You could at least buy a girl a drink first.”
There was a creaking above her and she froze, craning her head back.
There was a second storey. And something was up there.
“I’d prefer to seal the deal first,” he said, his voice full of mirth and innuendo. “Then you can have as many drinks as you like.”
As she moved into a corner, she glanced from door to ceiling. Her eyes screwed closed and she let out her power to the Nexus, or at least hoped she was. If she couldn’t kill herself, she wanted to at least make it a knockout blow.
“Oh, no. I’m a good girl. I never kiss on a first date.” She tried to keep the panic from her voice with false bravado, but it was a miserable attempt even to her own ears.
“That’s not how I hear it.”
Slim black wires slipped around the door through the cracks, and sought out the steel bar with intent. Finding the handhold, they weaved through one another and, creating a makeshift lever, flexed, pulling the bar up and aside. The door glided open and the Shadow Man walked in, hands in pockets. The tendrils retreated into him.
Stacey eyed him while her lungs and heart argued about what rate they wanted to work at. “Won’t you come in?” she half gasped, half stammered. “Sorry about the mess.”
“Quite alright.” He smiled. “I won’t be staying long.”
“Oh no, I insist. Put your feet
up. I’ll just pop out to the shops for a bottle of red. Won’t be long.”
His face lit up with dark glee. “You’re quite the funny one. I’d almost forgotten that from Paul’s memories.” Stacey’s face tightened in anger. “I’m sure you’ve already worked it out, but I wouldn’t try popping anywhere, if I were you.”
“Come on then, fuck face! Let’s get this over with.”
The Shadow Man tutted at her. “Such language from such pretty lips.” He stared at her mouth almost lustfully.
If she pushed hard enough, Stacey wondered, would the bounce back from the Nexus hurt or kill him along with her? It was worth a try. She just had to get him closer.
“Seeing as you like them so much, why don’t you come in for a snog and a cuddle?”
He stepped forward at the invitation, causing Stacey to step back involuntarily. But he didn’t stop.
As he was neared, Stacey readied to pull the trigger.
The floor above creaked.
The Shadow Man stopped, shooting his eyes up angrily. “Who—”
Wood and dust exploded downward between them. Stacey was barely aware of a bulk that swung down toward her and she closed her eyes waiting for the fatal blow, the pent up energy within her draining out of her in fear like urine, and as equally useless.
A hand took hers and a voice barked, “Move!” in her ear.
Fenton pulled her toward the wall.
“Wait,” she tried to warn him, thinking he must be disoriented from the commotion.
The wall blew out as he lifted his hand. She had a moment to wonder how he had gotten his powers back as they climbed through the gaping hole dripping mortar dust and bricks.
A club ended whip lashed out, connecting with Fenton’s injured arm. He collapsed screaming, dropping Stacey’s hand. The large, rough ball was stuck to his arm and exploded into cords that wrapped around him and reeled him back toward the Shadow Man.
Stacey turned to assist,thinking her own powers might have returned.
A bomb burst of stars went off in her vision as another club smashed the side of her head.
Ears ringing, the feeling to evacuate her stomach overwhelming, darkness overtook her.