Worm

by wildbow

  Marissa had already returned to the living room by the time he brought the tray through, and was working with Cody to disinfect and clean Luke’s wound. Noelle wasn’t moving, and Oliver was still occupied elsewhere. That left Jess on her own, watching Noelle with an eye on what the others were doing.

  Krouse put the drinks down at the end of the couch. “Jess? Water or juice?”

  “Water.”

  He poured a cup and brought it to her. He didn’t let go as she took hold of it.

  “Krouse?” Her brow furrowed.

  He leaned close, kept his voice quiet, “Please tell me I’m losing my mind.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He hissed, “This thing with the Simurgh, the singing, it’s not even half the problem here, is it? We’re far more fucked than that.”

  He noticed the way she averted her eyes.

  “You know, don’t you? You figured it out, too? The way you’ve been acting.”

  “When did you find out?”

  “When I was in the kitchen.”

  “It’s not a priority. We need to get help for those guys and—”

  He gripped the glass harder, jerked it a little to make sure he had her attention. “No. Don’t dodge the question. You’re keeping way too fucking quiet on all of this shit. About this, about the singing in our heads, you’re hiding something else about the Simurgh.”

  “It wouldn’t help to tell,” Jess said. “They’d panic, and we need to focus on taking care of Noelle and Luke.”

  “We damn well need to know what we’re up against,” he hissed, maybe a bit louder than before.

  “Krouse?” Luke asked. “Jess, you okay?”

  “We’re just talking,” Jess said, looking at Krouse.

  He let go of the glass, letting her take it, and straightened.

  “If that Simurgh is going to play up our emotions, we need to stay on the level,” Luke said, eyeing them, “Keep calm, cooperate. No whispering, or you’ll make the rest of us paranoid.”

  “Right,” Jess said, looking at Krouse, “That makes sense. We should watch our words, in case we make others unnecessarily upset.”

  Krouse gave her a long look. “Fine.”

  “What’s going on?” Luke asked. “You two are acting funny.”

  “It’s nothing,” Jess said. “Not important right now. How’s your leg, Luke?”

  “Deeper than we thought,” Marissa said. “We—”

  The crack of gunfire interrupted her explanation. The initial burst was followed by a longer, steadier stream of shots. Something broke just outside, and everyone in the house that was able threw themselves to the ground for cover.

  “They’re shooting at us!” Oliver shouted from the stairwell.

  “Get down!” one of the girls urged him.

  Oliver hurried down the stairs and then lay down in the front hallway of the house, hands on his head.

  The gunfire stopped.

  “What in the blue fuck?” Luke asked. He was still in the chair, hadn’t moved. “Why the hell did they do that?”

  “Not us,” Marissa said, as she gingerly rose from her crouch to stare out the window of the living room. “Trouble.”

  Krouse climbed to his feet. A sheer, translucent curtain showed a figure by the fence. The sheer curtains masked the details, but Krouse could make out a pair of short horns on the thing’s forehead, marking it as one of the monsters.

  “We’re not safe here,” Luke said.

  “We’re not safe anywhere,” Marissa said.

  Krouse hurried across the room to check on Noelle. She’d been periodically rousing to mutter something before drifting back to unconsciousness, but the fact that she hadn’t moved in response to the gunfire was alarming.

  “Hey, Noelle,” he said. He brushed her hair away from her face. She was paler than before, and the bruising around her eyes was worse. Even in the past few minutes, she’d gotten worse, not better. “Give me a response? Anything?”

  There was nothing. I wish I knew something about first aid. Something that could help.

  Two gunshots echoed in the distance. A low, faint rumble marked a series of attacks from Scion or the Simurgh. Buildings falling.

  Without looking away, he said, “Marissa.”

  “What?”

  “I need you to give Noelle a thorough check-up. I… I don’t think she’d want me to do it, or see. She was always sensitive about that stuff.”

  Even hugs, even kissing, or holding hands, they were things that she’d parceled out with reluctance. She wouldn’t want him manhandling her, checking for injuries.

  He stood up to make room for Marissa to get close, stepped back. Marissa began undoing Noelle’s jacket.

  “Do you want me to move Jess closer, so she can help?” he asked.

  “No,” Marissa said. “I can handle this, I think. What am I looking for?”

  “She shouldn’t be this pale, but there’s not a lot of blood, except around her nose and mouth. Check for injuries? I’m worried she’s bleeding into her boot or her jacket or something. I don’t know.”

  “I’ll look.”

  Oliver had headed back upstairs and was making his way down with an armful of sheets. Krouse grabbed one and threw it at Luke, “Cover your head.”

  “You’re being a little extreme,” Luke said.

  “Do it.”

  “I’m not saying I won’t. I’m just saying you’re being a little intense about it.”

  Krouse spread his hands. “I don’t know how to help her. I—all I know is that she cares about that stuff. If nothing else, I want to respect that.”

  “She’s modest,” Oliver suggested.

  Krouse twitched with irritation. He wanted to stab his finger in Oliver’s face, growl, you don’t know her.

  He bit his tongue and kept from reacting, reminded himself that he was under the influence of that incessant screaming in his head, a constant pressure on his psyche. If he let himself slip, he knew how easily he could transition into tearing into Oliver, expressing all the frustration he had over how passive and submissive and fucking whiny he was. The guy wouldn’t even fight back.

  Noelle’s not modest. She’s damaged, Krouse thought. He glanced at Marissa, and he didn’t say anything.

  “Are the rest of you guys going to move to another room, then?” Marissa asked.

  “Yeah,” Krouse said.

  He, Cody and Oliver retreated to the kitchen, while Luke reclined in the armchair with his leg propped up and a folded sheet over his face.

  “She could die,” Cody said, once they’d reached the kitchen.

  Krouse tensed.

  “Just saying. It was bad when we were getting out of the apartment, and it’s getting worse.”

  “We’ll help her.”

  Cody nodded.

  A minute passed, and Oliver turned his attention to searching the cupboards for food. He found a fruity cereal and poured some out into his hand. Krouse took some for himself, chewing on it.

  Cody’s eyes narrowed as he glanced away. “I don’t like you, Krouse.”

  “This isn’t exactly the time to hold onto old grudges.”

  “I know. I know that. I’m just saying, I think you’re an asshole. I think you’ll fuck the rest of us over if it means serving your own ends or helping Noelle. But we can’t afford to fight between us. Whatever I think of you, we can’t afford to be enemies.”

  “That was never a concern,” Krouse shrugged. He heard Marissa, Jess, and Luke exchanging words in low voices. He stepped closer to the door to listen in, keeping his eyes averted. He couldn’t make out the words. He wasn’t really hearing the screaming in his head, but it was almost drowning out the faint, muffled words.

  Cody muttered something under his breath. “Why do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Put me down, act like I’m not worth your attention.”

  “I wasn’t. I was saying I wasn’t stressed about us being enemies.”

 
“You phrased it like you wouldn’t care even if I was your enemy.”

  You are, and I don’t, really.

  Krouse shrugged.

  “You have no problems benefiting off my hard work, but you look down on me, you talk down to me. I’m inconsequential to you.”

  “I thought we weren’t enemies,” Krouse said, turning.

  “We aren’t. I’m just saying you’re making it really hard to be allies.”

  Krouse shook his head. “Okay. Whatever. Change of topic: what kind of stuff was in the basement?”

  “Anything and everything.”

  “I’m going to go look, while we wait for Jess and Marissa to finish.”

  “I’ll come with. We shouldn’t go anywhere alone,” Cody said.

  They headed downstairs, and Oliver followed.

  Piles of magazines, piles of tupperware, pieces of wood lashed together, bags of old clothes… Anything and everything.

  Krouse began digging through the stuff. He tossed all the bags of clothes into one corner to forge a path.

  “I asked her out first,” Cody said.

  “Uh huh.”

  “But when she said she wasn’t interested, I accepted that. I walked away. Stayed her friend. You didn’t. You slithered your way in, pressured her.”

  “I just let her know I was still interested, while respecting the boundaries she set. If you don’t believe me, ask her.”

  “I might not get the chance, if she doesn’t get better.”

  Krouse flinched. “Let’s drop this topic of conversation.”

  “Why? You keep doing that, trying not to talk about stuff. Is it because you know I’m right?”

  “It’s because we know that whatever happens, this screaming in our head is going to push us to the edge. Any argument could turn ugly if we aren’t careful, and I’m not forgetting that you wanted to hit me before. What’s to say you won’t try again, with a weapon in your hand?”

  “Fuck you. I have self control.”

  “If self control was all it took, I don’t think the Simurgh would have Jess as scared as she is, and I don’t think they’d be blowing up the superheroes who spend too long listening to this never-ending motherfucking scream in their heads. We should stick to talking about this shit, the danger we’re in right here, right now.”

  “Mm,” Cody grunted. “What are we looking for?”

  “Weapons.”

  “What?”

  Krouse stepped over a few garbage bags. He found a tool bench, and grabbed a short hatchet from where it hung on the wall. Holding it by the head, he extended the handle towards Cody.

  “Are you insane?” Cody didn’t touch it.

  “If we run into another monster, we’ll need to defend ourselves.”

  “Didn’t you just finish saying we’re in a dangerous mental state? We’re more dangerous to each other than the monsters are. And you want to walk around with weapons, so we can kill each other if someone snaps?”

  “I want to walk around with weapons so we’re safe. If you’re not going to take this, then Oliver…” He extended the handle to Oliver.

  He paused. “Oliver?”

  Oliver looked haunted, his eyes wide, staring at the wall. Krouse had to double check that there was nothing there. “Oliver!”

  Oliver jumped. When he looked at Krouse, his eyes were shiny with tears.

  “You okay?” Cody asked.

  “I’m… no,” Oliver said. He didn’t expand on the thought.

  Krouse extended the hatchet’s handle towards his friend, “If I give you this so you can protect yourself, you’re not going to hurt yourself, are you?”

  Oliver reacted as though he’d been slapped. “No!”

  “Then take it.”

  Oliver did, weighing the weapon in one hand.

  Krouse found a battery operated nailgun, fiddled with it to find the clip and check the number of nails inside. He pulled the safety at the nozzle back and fired an experimental shot into a black plastic bag.

  “This is a mistake,” Cody said. “A ranged weapon? We walk upstairs with this stuff, and in half an hour we’ll have killed and butchered each other.”

  “If we’re going to go crazy enough to kill each other,” Krouse said, “we’ll find ways to hurt each other anyways. I’m more concerned about us living through the next half hour. With Noelle living through the next half hour.”

  Cody frowned.

  “Anyways, the nail gun’s useless. It’s not going to do any real damage to anything like those monsters we ran into,” Krouse said. He put it back on the workbench, grabbed a crowbar with a pickaxe head.

  “Give me that one,” Cody said.

  “Just remember what you said. We’re not enemies. If you have to, tell yourself it’s more satisfying to beat my face in with your fists.”

  “We’re not enemies,” Cody said. “And I have enough self control. I’m more worried about what you’re going to pull.”

  Krouse touched the small chainsaw that hung on the wall, saw Cody and Oliver stiffening in alarm, and decided against it. Instead, he walked over to the corner, where duct piping and curtain rods were stacked against the wall.

  He pulled one curtain rod free. It had fleur-de-lis caps on the ends, and was apparently made out of cast iron. Or stainless steel fashioned to look like cast iron. It was thin enough that it might bend after one good hit, but it would serve as a functional spear.

  Seizing a hammer in his other hand, Krouse said, “Let’s go see how they’re doing.”

  Cody looked at the crowbar and frowned, but he followed without protest.

  “It’s bad,” Jess said, as Krouse knocked and approached the living room.

  “How bad?”

  Marissa had removed Noelle’s jacket, and she hiked up Noelle’s shirt and sweater to show her stomach. It was bruised to the point of being purple-black, and the right side was swelling in an ugly way, nearly twice as thick as the other side of her abdomen.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. But it’s stiff, hard. She might be bleeding inside. Or a hernia? Something could have torn loose and shifted places, inside.”

  Krouse nodded. He felt his blood run cold, but he wasn’t surprised. This was just a confirmation of what he’d already suspected.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I’ll look for a doctor,” Krouse said.

  “What?” Cody asked, “Are you insane?”

  “I know it’s risky—”

  “No shit,” Cody said.

  “But I’m willing to put my life at risk if it means we have a chance at helping Noelle.”

  “If you’re playing the gallant boyfriend because of what I said in the kitchen—”

  He wanted to slap sense into Cody. He settled for raising his voice, “Fucking stop!”

  Cody shut his mouth.

  “We don’t have a lot of time. Noelle doesn’t, I mean. So I’m going. I knew I’d probably have to, even when I asked Marissa to check Noelle over. It’s why I grabbed this,” he lifted the spear. “I’ve got a little something to defend myself with if it comes to that. I’ll go, see if I can track down any groups of people, find a doctor.”

  “Alone?” Jess asked.

  “I’ll take any help we can get. But I’ll go alone if I have to.”

  “I’ll come,” Cody said.

  Krouse suppressed a wince. He almost didn’t want Cody to come, knew that his company would offer as many problems as help, but next to Luke, Cody was the strongest one present.

  “Oliver?” he asked.

  Oliver shook his head.

  Damn you, you little coward. “Okay. Just Cody and I, then.”

  “I’ll come too,” Marissa said.

  Krouse nodded. “You’ll need a weapon. Take Oliver’s.”

  She did, and Krouse handed Oliver the hammer he had in his free hand. Krouse glanced at the others, gave Noelle one long look. Maybe the last glimpse he’d get of her alive.

  “Let’s go,”
he said, swallowing around the lump in his throat. He walked to the closet and found a heavy wool coat that hung down to his knees, a replacement for the meager fall jacket he’d been wearing. “Sooner the better.”

  Cody and Marissa followed him as he ventured outside. He glanced at the creature that had been gunned down by the fence. A man, fat, with rows of horns on its head and shoulders. He glanced at the soldiers, saw the guns that were pointed his way. They weren’t firing, but they wouldn’t show him any more mercy than they’d showed the monster.

  He didn’t know what was up with that. That was one detail Jess hadn’t shared. The soldiers didn’t fit with the scenario she’d described. Maybe the people who’d failed to evacuate would go crazy, become dangerous. But even a good fence would serve to stop that. There could be other measures, like tear gas or tasers. But guns? Or blowing up a superhero?

  No. There was more to that story.

  “Where is everyone?” Marissa asked. “We’ve barely seen anyone on the streets.”

  “They know better,” Cody said.

  “They evacuated,” Krouse corrected. “It’s why the heroes were okay with knocking down buildings like they were. Everyone was already cleared out.”

  “So quickly? Why didn’t we evacuate too?”

  “Took us too long to get out of the apartment,” Krouse said, the lie smooth.

  Marissa shook her head, but she didn’t argue any further.

  With Jess staying behind, at least, he didn’t need to worry so much about Luke, Oliver or Noelle asking similar questions and coming to the same conclusions he and Jess had. Or, just as bad, would be if they got the bright idea of going to look for their families. Jess would dissuade and distract the others, just like he would with Marissa and Cody.

  He wished he was going crazy, that this was paranoia. But he felt an ugly feeling in the pit of his stomach, along with a hard certainty. The pieces fit too well together.

  The reason people had evacuated so quickly was because the fighting had been going on for some time. Jess had said the Simurgh wasn’t a tinker. She was probably right. The Simurgh had merely copied an existing design, copied a device that had already been used once. Making the massive halo-portal was just a question of copying the layout, remembering how the pieces had been put together, and being very, very smart.