"Just get out."
Thin froze and stared at me.
"Get the fuck out of here."
I didn't have time to wonder at my outburst, I had never used a swear word as bad as that and it sounded funny coming out of my own mouth. Thin turned to unlock the door but he didn't have time to do that either.
The door all of a sudden wasn't a door. There was a hole in the wall where the door had been. Most of the door itself was crushing Thin's body to the floor. The glass in the upper part of the door had shattered on impact with him.
There was screaming from outside the room. There was screaming from Thin as the shards of glass lacerated his skin and the weight of the door and the intruders crushed him to the floor. There was an incoherent noise louder than all of these that I realised was coming from me. The only people taking part in the scene who remained silent were the zombies pushing their way into my room.
Once they were over the door and Thin they paid the officer no mind. They never even bothered to look at Thick's body. There were three of them and they crowded into the room with me. I backed to the far wall and the zombies fanned out and stood there. Waiting.
Zombies follow instructions, that's what they do. I made as though to go for Thick's gun and the zombie nearest the weapon reacted like a mirror piece on a chess board moving to cut me off.
"Now, now. They won't attack you unless you do something stupid."
"Or until you tell them to."
Smith, also known as Mr X, smiled as he stepped over thin and into the room. His eyes flicked to Thick's body.
"It seems I have interrupted something."
"We were finished."
Smith nodded and smiled as though he knew what had been going on. He flicked his head at two of the zombies and the pointed at Thin, who was trying to slide out from under the door. "You may feed."
Thin must have heard him because he was screaming again when the pair of dead things fell on him. The screams didn't last long and I was glad for that. I wanted to turn away from the sight of the two human looking monsters kneeling over Thin's body and eating him like they were vultures stripping a body. They tore his body apart to get at the softer meats and I felt bile rise in my throat. I swallowed it back down and borrowed some of Selene's composure. I couldn't turn away because I needed to keep my eyes on Smith. I needed to be ready for whatever he was going to do next.
"You escaped from the chupacabras and then you went and blabbed about me to the authorities. They caused quite the stir charging into the Zone like that. They destroyed many of my zombie servants. Those against and police and military with their automatic weapons and flamethrowers. Have you seen a zombie hit by a flame thrower? It keeps fighting until the fire has destroyed too much of it's body to function. Those zombies cost me a lot of money. With Barbossa dead they are going to be extremely difficult to replace."
"I'm so sorry for you."
Smith glared at me. "I was going to just disappear and start again somewhere else. As you can see I am not restricted to the confines of the Zone myself. But both you and that other bitch have caused me a lot of trouble. She got hers and I thought I had better come along and see that you were taken care of as well. It's not good to leave loose ends lying around they have this tendency of coming together and trying to hang you."
"This takes a lot of effort for me. Keep him talking while I gather what strength I can otherwise we are both dead for good."
How the heck was I supposed to do that?
"Is that why you took care of those gangsters at that club personally? Not wanting to leave lose ends."
Smith's brow furrowed. Perhaps he had expected me to start trying to talk myself out of this, maybe start begging for my life. He obviously hadn't expected that.
"The club? Ah yes, I understand that that was where I first came to the attention of your friend. Well yes, they had hired her to dispose of some demons who were intruding on their patch. The demons they had her kill were associates of mine. It is bad for my business if I let people go around killing my associates."
"Of course it is," I said dryly. "So what type of demon or creature are you?"
Smith gave me an innocent look and spread his arms. "I would appear to be human."
"You would appear to be human, yes."
Smith brought his arms back to his sides. "You are cleverer than you look, then again you look like a blonde bimbo so that isn't saying much. I must say you look very fetching in that little gown."
I gestured with my chin at Thick's body. "He thought so too."
Smith flicked his eyes sideways and then back at me. "So much for changing the subject. You are correct, I am not human. So if I was of a mind to try what he did you would not find me so easy to dissuade. But you are lucky and I am not into that, you are too normal looking for my tastes. I will let your end be swift."
He looked at the zombies who weren't busy making a meal out of Thin.
"You don't want to talk any more? Or arrange some elaborate death-trap for me, maybe take me back to the Zone and see if you have better luck feeding me to some other creatures?"
Smith shook his head. "I don't think so. I can have you eaten well enough right here and now."
He looked at the zombies and gave the command.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
They came at me together. Flesh and blood automatons. These were zombies who had been created to pass among humans. They moved with all of the speed and agility a normal human being could muster. Zombies don't shuffle along like they do in films unless they've been brought back in a decayed state. The more advanced the decay the slower they moved.
I had backed up when I first entered the room and now there was nowhere further to back up to. But I didn't need to back up. There was no longer anything to stop me from going for Thick's gun, Smith had already turned his pet zombies on me.
The weapon was some variety of revolver, Selene would have been able to name the particular type and make but we were both too busy right then for me to ask. I had barely touched the gun Selene had given me, whenever I held it I had felt clumsy and awkward. This time when my hand and fingers closed about the weapon they moulded to it. I felt its weight, its balance, and it felt right.
It felt even better when I came around, levelled the weapon at the nearest zombie's head, and squeezed the trigger.
The gun kicked but with Selene's help I knew to expect it and how much force I had to apply to keep the bucking from throwing my aim off. I squeezed the trigger again.
Both shots took the zombie in the face. The force of the impacts sent it falling backwards. I grabbed hold of Thick's baton in my left hand and sent two similarly placed shots into the face of the second zombie. Smith was barking orders at the two feeding zombies when I tried to bring the gun around on him. Tried to bring the gun around because the first zombie had recovered his balance and continued its advance.
Zombies are single minded things but it isn't their mind that drives them. Even with a more than fist-sized portion of its brain missing the zombie continued to attempt to carry out Smith's instruction. The baton flashed in my hand, striking out at the zombie to beat it back.
By the time I was able to turn the gun back on Smith the other two zombies had spoiled the shot. I kicked to second zombie I had shot to give myself room and fired twice more into it's head. The combined destruction the four shots wreaked was enough to basically remove the zombies head. There was nothing above its lower jaw and it collapsed. A zombie may be able to function with a lot of its brain gone but take out too much and it reverts to being just another corpse.
I tried to fire the gun at another zombie but the hammer just clicked on empty chambers. I dropped the useless weapon and transferred the baton to my stronger hand. I beat at the three remaining zombies but they kept on coming. Zombies don't feel pain and even when I hit them hard enough to break bones they carried on regardless.
"Stop fighting me, let me do this."
"What?" This was no time to b
e worrying what it would look like to be talking to myself.
"You are closing me out. You need to let me have some control. I can fight these things but I can't do it if I have to fight you."
I slammed the baton into one zombies face to give me room to breathe and then I tried to do as Selene asked. It is no simple matter, to give over control of yourself to another. It is even more difficult when a trio of zombies are advancing towards you, intending to tear you apart and eat you like carrion. In the end it all came down to trust. I had to trust my dead friend to get us out of this.
Most mortals won't trust anything that isn't human. Most angels wouldn't trust a demon or anything tainted with demonic blood. But I am not like most anythings and Selene had been, and continued to be, my friend.
As a zombie's cold dead hand reached out and closed around my neck I gave myself over to Selene.
It was almost like when I had entered Selene's body to relive her last moments. Except this time we were both in my body and if I wanted to I could take back control. But if I did we would be dead.
I tried to follow exactly what Selena was doing but she/I was moving too quickly for me to get a good read on it all. She was cart wheeling, kicking, punching and leaping all over the small room. She slammed my bare foot into a nose jumped around onto that foot for balance and followed up with a roundhouse from my other leg.
The zombies weren't much on fighting in any real sense. Their plan of attack seemed to be to grab me and hold me in a grapple while they pulled me apart or bit into me. One of them got a hold on my right arm at the elbow and Selene slammed the base of my left arm up into its nose. I could feel cartilage and even bone shatter and fracture into its brain. It went back and then came in again.
One of them got close to me from behind. Its arms locked around my front and teeth bit into my shoulder. Lucky for me being a zombie isn't something you can catch. My head slammed back in its face but it didn't register the pain the way Thick had and kept its grip secure. A second zombie came up in front. The way the one behind held me my arms and the baton were uselessly against my sides. We didn't have the strength to break the grip.
My feet came up and I sort of ran up the zombie in front of me. The world flipped over and I had difficulty working out exactly what had happened. But then we were behind the zombie who had held me and shoving it into it's companion. That was two of them occupied for the moment. And then the third was back.
There were more martial gymnastics that I had problems following. We went down onto my back and slid between the legs of a zombie. A flip up later and the baton was cracking the vertebrae at the base of its skull. The zombie went down but if you can't eliminate a zombie by blowing chunks out of its brain you can't paralyse one by breaking its neck. But Selene wasn't finished there. My bare foot shot out and popped its skull fully free of the spine. Back to the baton, she dropped down and by sheer brute force got the head fully severed except for some skin. Coming around we kicked one of the two remaining zombies in the legs and tripped it to the floor.
We came up face to face with the zombie I had shot. The remaining fully intact zombie got to its feet too quickly after being tripped.
They were one on either side of me and I was breathing heavily. It might have been Selene in control but it was my body doing these acrobatics. Not to mention the mental effort it took to keep my own will in the background and leave Selene to it.
"Don't worry this will be over in a moment."
Both zombies stepped closer and Selene struck. The zombie with the intact head received the end of the baton inside his head through the socket of his eye. The other zombie got my stiffened fingers delivered through the bullet wound inside its skull. There was some wriggling, pushing and scraping at both ends. I tried not to think about what that jelly-like substance I was feeling squishing between my fingers actually was. I could tell when enough damage had been done to their brains because they dropped like stones.
"You're on your own."
Selene gave a pained gasp and I was back in control. I dropped the bloody baton and started shaking irrationally to get the gunk off my other hand. For a brief moment I forgot there was still somebody potentially more dangerous in the room with me.
"Eew," I said trying to flip the brain matter off my fingers.
"Indeed."
I stopped shaking my hand and slowly turned to regard Smith. I could feel his anger rolling off him even without trying. When I looked at him he didn't look particularly angry. He just looked at me standing there in the midst of all the carnage, and slowly shook his head.
"You think that is impressive?"
I was still breathing heavily and my chest rose and fell under the gown. Somehow it had managed to stay on and intact. It was a little loose but now wasn't the time to be retying it.
"I think I kicked zombie ass."
"That's my girl."
Smith stopped shaking his head and now he nodded it. "And you think that has accomplished something?"
I exaggerated following the motion of his head with my own. "Are you trying to cause me to strain my neck or just confuse me with your pointless questions?"
Smith stood stock still. "You have no idea what you are dealing with."
The fine hairs all over my body stood on end.
"We should get out of here." Selene sounded more exhausted than me.
"No kidding."
The trouble with that plan of action was that Smith still stood between me and the only exit. With all the power he was gathering to him, or pushing out, I wasn't of a mind to try and rush him.
"He was able to make a roomful of people spontaneously combust. We can't fight against something like that."
Selene's words should have terrified me. Maybe I had been through too much just recently. Maybe a mind can only absorb so much fear before it goes numb. Or maybe I recognised a taint to Smith's power that gave me something I could use. Maybe I didn't need to be all that afraid.
"Maybe you couldn't fight against it."
Smith was too occupied with what he was doing to question why I was chatting to myself in the face of death. Or perhaps he just thought my mind had snapped.
Smith definitely wasn't human. Now that he was seeking to gather his full powers he had to drop whatever he was using to maintain the appearance of a mortal. The human shell dropped away and he stood revealed to me.
A sight to make Saints quail. It was a form never intended to be looked upon by mortal eyes, but then my eyes weren't mortal. It was vaguely man-shaped and there wasn't anything about it that could be identified as what made it grotesque. It was shadow and flame. A lesser demon but a pure one, not one mingled with mortal blood like most who managed to cross into the mortal realm. It obviously thought it better to play the mortal here for a while and build up a power base. In the mortal realm he could play at being a big fish, whereas there were things in the realms of hell who would eat this guy for breakfast, pity for me I couldn't call on them for help.
"Only now do you begin to understand," Smith rumbled. "Down there I was never a Lord, never had worshippers or followers. But the strength I could draw from the fear and respect of those creatures in the Zone could ave granted that to me. I could have returned to my own realm as a contender for a Lordship of my own."
There is nothing I can do to describe to you the evil taint that clung to the demon like another skin. It was choking, drowning, cloying. It sought to suffocate life with its very existence.
I knew what had happened to those people at that club and I knew I had to act now or face the same fate. And so I acted. I dropped my arms to my sides and I mirrored what had been Smith. I too dropped my mortal image. The room that had gone dark when the demon revealed itself started to brighten as my skin glowed with a halo of light. My feathery wings sprouted again from my back. They were still damaged from the chupacabra attack that had put me in the hospital. It hurt when they formed at my back and it hurt when I spread them behind me.
When my wi
ngs formed they broke the tie at my back and the gown dropped away. It didn't matter, both Smith and I were past the needs for such mortal trappings. The fact that I was nude didn't bother me and the demon had more long term designs than just ideas of what to do with my flesh.
The hospital room was cast in both light and darkness. On my side of the room my halo cast light like an early summer's morning. A wholesome glow that affirmed life. But on the opposite side of the room the demonic form leeched away the light. The only reason I could see over there was the flame that burned somewhere inside the demon. Flame that reached out to my heart in an attempt to drag my soul to hell. But if your faith is strong enough nobody can be damned against their will.
I stood my ground and the flame splashed away about an arms span away from me. "You have no idea what you are dealing with." I threw the demons words back at it.
For the first time the demon seemed unsure of himself. "But you killed a mortal." It's voice no longer resembled anything human.
I hated the place that the memory of what I had done to Thick took me and my halo dimmed. The demon might have been confused but it was quick to take advantage of any lessening of my defences. It struck out with that damning flame again and this time it almost brushed my skin.
I forced away my doubts and brought my wings around as a shield. The light blossomed and I pushed the flames back.
The demon made an inarticulate noise of rage and then; "It seems we have reached an impasse."
I unfolded my wings to their full span. They almost touched either side of the room. I shook my head and my hair was now a brilliant white that floated when I moved my head. "You can't send me to hell, but I can send you back there."
Heaven can Wait Page 29