During the trade there was a serious talk about the worth of his Supplies, which became an argument, which became a fight, and in the end Vin stabbed one of their group, a young man who got too close. Terence, not wanting any more trouble, told the man to leave the base and never return. Some of the group shouted that Vin deserved more punishment than this but Terence insisted that no one else needed to get the Death over this fight, that they should be happy it was all over.
But it wasn't over.
Three nights later, when some of the group were outside the fence, Vin came back. He was crazed on drink, and by the time they were able to give him the Death he had given it to two of their group; a man named Mister Kim, and another named Derek. Derek was Rachel's husband.
Led by Graham, many of the group blamed Terence for the Deaths that came to them. They said he failed to protect them, to punish Vin the way he should have been punished. They wanted new rules that made the leader responsible, even if it meant giving the Death. Terence didn't want to do this, he told them. He would not be an assassin.
Graham said he would.
Friends became enemies, the group was split, the family gone. Some were killed in the struggle, including Neil's daughter, Abby. When this happened Terence said he would leave, that no one else should get the Death because of him, but in the end fifteen followed him through that door, out that tunnel and away from their home.
Fifteen made new family, and ended up in the hotel at the center of the lake.
**
“Abby was about your age when it happened. It destroyed Neil. He's a good guy but Fear can make even the best people align with the wrong side.”
I put my hand up to stop him from talking. Under the wet foot sounds of the group I hear something moving in the Bastard Water, to the right, something big and slow passing under the surface with the silent moves of a hunter.
Terence asks me what I hear. Before I can warn him to pull his people away from the edge of the Water, it explodes at the feet of one of the older men. The explosion gives birth to a long mouth full of teeth that grab onto the man's leg and make him scream and shake.
“Gator! We got a gator,” someone shouts.
“Someone grab it!”
“Shoot for god's sake!”
“Oh my god oh my god oh-”
“Don't let it pull him under!”
The Beast thrashes, trying to drag the man into the Water. A gun is raised. I tell them not to do it but they can't hear me over the voices of the People panicking and falling through the muck so they Fire the gun, and the explosion sounds against the bottom of the bridge above, echoing loud. Two more explosions as they Fire again and again. Even though two of the bullets hit the Beast, one in the tail and one in the back, it doesn't stop sliding back into the Water with the man's leg trapped between its teeth. The man reaches his hand out to the others, his face full of the Fear, and they try to grab it, hold onto him, but they can't, and they have to watch the man get pulled into the Water until only his face can be seen struggling to stay above. Then that disappears, too.
One of the women cries like a Beast and runs into the Bastard Water but the arms of the group keep her from going in, including the arms of Terence.
“Don't do it,” he says. “He's gone. I'm sorry but he's gone.”
“I can help him.” Her eyes falling with Water.
“Look at them! That's what they want you to do.” He points out into the Water where the tops of more Beasts poke from the surface. She sees this and stops struggling, though the Water keeps falling.
“Come on everyone, keep moving, stay as close to the center as you can. We can mourn him when we're-” He goes quiet when when he hears it. I've been listening to it for the last ten seconds, but expecting it much longer.
Above us, in the fading Night, is the long, drawn-out croak of a Munie pulled out of its sleep.
Then another.
Then two more.
I gather Child and move her through the People. On the bridge above us the Munies crawl from their car-nests and sniff the air, their noses confused by the smell of the murk, but it won't last long. I pass Tommy putting his mask back on, Vanessa telling him he shouldn't have taken it off, both of them sweating that same smell, the smell of their parents, the way I smell of mine and Graham and Terence smell of theirs, because we can't escape these things, the same way the Munies are connected to the outside and there's nothing that can be done about that.
Our feet splash through the Water, slap, slap, slap, slap, with no way to keep them quiet. The Munies hear and hiss over the side, arms reaching down, claws swiping at empty dark, but they won't come down into the Water, not until the hunger is stronger than the fear and they have no choice. But we don't have time to wait for that.
Here's what I do about the Munies hearing me: I make more noise. I keep my foot sounds heavy and my breath loud until they follow, the four of them tracking me with their faces low to the concrete, and I pull them along between the bridge's cars until I reach the place where the ground curves up.
I slap at the Water. “Do this until the Beasts come close,” I say to Child, telling her to be careful of anything that moves. She pushes both hands in and shakes them around, splashing Water and Fear onto her face but still listening to me. I leave her and climb the curved land to where the bridge meets it, then I move out and away, holding the Bushes and small Trees to keep from slipping off and falling down to the Water, where the waves from Child's hands breathe out into the Night.
The Munies appear from behind the wall, sniffing and snarling half-blind. My first feeling is to snarl back, but I fight this because it won't pull them out to me as much as Real People words will. So I put that part of me away. I put it away, but I keep it ready.
“Stay away from me,” I cry, “please don't hurt me.”
The Munies pick up their ears, twisting their heads to hear better. They croak and hiss and push each other closer. They like these kind of words, the fear words, they hear them from Real People who are about to become Supplies.
“Please, don't come closer.”
The Real People below have caught up to Child. “What the hell are you doing out there,” Terence shouts. The Munies come out far enough onto the curved land for the group to see them. I hear them raise their guns and push them to ready.
“Don't,” I say, “you'll wake more.”
“Then what do you need us to do?”
“This.” Child shows him, splashing in the Water. As the Munies crawl out in a line, one after the other with fingers gripping the Bushes, the group below joins Child in making noises in the Water. The Munies hear but keep coming toward me. This is what I want so I back up further, leading them out by staying out of reach.
I want all four out here with me before I start.
“Child, how close?”
She listens to the Water. After some seconds she says, “Here.”
The first Munie is so close I can feel the heat of his pink skin, smell his rotten tongue as he croaks hunger. He would have attacked by now if he didn't have the Fear from the Water below us.
We both have this Fear, but his will come true.
With a scream I slash my nails across his throat, warm blood pushed out into the night. The sound of his croak is stopped short, and for some seconds there's only a surprised look on his face, no sound but the breath escaping through the new mouth in his neck and hot air making smoke in the cool. His gray eyes stare at me as he tries to take the breath back in but finds it won't come.
He takes his hands from the Bushes to wrap them around his throat, but this makes him lose his grip on the curved land. He falls, hitting the ground twice and splashing into the Bastard Water.
The other three Munies watch as teeth appear from the Water and snap into him from both sides, ripping and tearing at his arms. He would shriek if not for his new mouth. Shriek as they pull him down into the filthy murk.
This is why I needed the Water noises- to call the Gator Beasts.
&nbs
p; I meet eyes with the Munie closest to me. She croaks, seeing what I am and understanding the danger she's in. When she turns to leave she finds the others in her way. They all begin shoving and hissing at each other and the one in the middle, smaller than the other two, is pushed so much that the group of weeds he's holding pulls out of the earth, roots ripping from dirt. He tumbles down the curved land to the Bastard Water and the Beasts that wait there.
Two Munies left. They try to get back to the bridge, but I go for them holding the Bushes to keep from falling. I slice the leg of the closest. He screams and kicks at me, a Fear kick that impacts my stomach and stops my Air for some seconds. When I get it back I move again and I catch up to them as the furthest is nearly at the bridge.
Another slice, this time across his back from shoulder to waist. He screams louder and lets go of his Tree. He doesn't fall, though, instead he turns and hisses and jumps for me, a desperate move over the Bastard Water like this, which means I put the Fear of the Death in him.
He lands on me, almost knocking me from the curved land, and bites into the first skin he can reach- my shoulder. I hear Child's scream in the Air instead of mine.
She's watching, as much as she can in the dim light. I refuse to let her see me get the Death. That will happen away from her eyes with her already safe and me giving it to myself. The way it has to be.
The Anger comes up from inside like a black Beast ripped from its cave. Before my eyes can make pictures of my next move I find the Munie's nose between my teeth and I'm biting in. The Munie roars hot, filthy Air into my mouth and my head fills with the crunch sound of his nose, then the sweet, warm taste of his blood. While the panic is still in his body I use my free hand to wrap around his neck and push him away from me.
He falls to the Water screaming, and when he goes under the surface he never comes back up.
One Munie left.
He had time to reach the bridge, so I work toward it quickly Tree to Bush to Tree, my head dizzy from giving three Deaths in such a short time, the taste of blood on my tongue and my lungs going like machines. I let go of the final Tree and jump for the bridge, up to the wall and over it where I find the final Munie crouched by a car. As I fall on him I see his head is covered with scars, most of the hair missing and the mouth hanging from past fights. This is a Beast who has lived through many days, many fights, many touches with Death that could have ended him. But he won't live through this one.
We pull at each other with open mouths, rolling on the concrete until we end up under the tire of a bus.
He gets on top of me. Above his head, all the pieces that make the machine move are rusted and falling apart. He screams, ready to put his teeth into me, but I take his jaw in my hands and push up hard. Again and again his head impacts the pipe above him until the metal cracks and dirt and rust spill out to cover his head and fall down his shoulders and into his eyes. He screams, blind, angry, clawing at them. I use the seconds it gives me to escape his weight and scramble out from under the bus.
The car in front of the bus has found the Death. Back when the Panic came many of the cars became this way: exploded, burnt, broken from impacts. This one is worse than some because it was split in two by the bus, the metal of its body sticking out like the broken bones of a fallen Beast.
The Munie crawls out from under the bus with his face red from rust. He wipes his eyes and hisses when he sees me with my claws aimed at him and my back to the broken car. There's a picture in my eyes, a plan, but it means I have to move faster than the Munie, and I don't know if I can.
The Beast charges, eyes open and teeth screaming. He's fast, too fast, and I hold my feet to the ground as he passes the bus and crouches and jumps at me. But when he jumps, something strange happens- it feels like my father's watch has come back to Life on my wrist, except without it's mind. Time moves so slow I can see dust as it comes off the Munie's body. I can see the rippling of the rags it wears as they flap in the air. I can even see the blood squishing through the vein on the Munie's filthy forehead, like a Wriggle Beast moving through dirt.
My body moves before the Munie can reach it.
His can't stop in Time.
Impacts the bones of the broken car with his soft belly.
Metal comes through the other side and out the back.
Blood hits the concrete, and a cry hits my ears.
Watching the Munie dangle on the sharp metal, I understand it isn't the watch that slowed the Time, it was the Change, letting me see the danger so I could move quicker than it. Doing that saved me from the Death, but the Change is the reason I need to give myself the Death at all, so it doesn't make me feel better.
The Munie struggles to pull himself from the car, dirty fingers feeling for where the metal sticks from his back. I go to him, and with my hands on his shoulder I push him further onto the car bones. A sucking sound comes from the Munies mouth, his arms and legs shaking from the feel. He makes one more, violent move. Then he stops.
When I turn, the group is with me on the bridge. Their faces stare full of horror at what I've done.
Boyd comes closer. “I'm not sure what you did more- give me confidence or make me shit my pants.”
Terence has his hand out, helping people climb the curved land to the bridge. “She looks after her own. We may not like her methods, but we can relate.”
“I relate alright. I'm just glad she's on our side.”
They wait for me to say something, but the words don't come, as if born in the brain but finding the Death before the tongue.
I have to calm myself, so I motion for Child to come over. Her face is serious, eyes lost in the dark. She sways on her small feet. Before I can reach her, she falls to the concrete.
When I pick her up, her arms are loose at her sides.
**
The others tell me to calm down so they can help her, but it isn't easy. Child is the one that calms me, and she won't open her eyes.
She's breathing, but she won't open her eyes.
The man they call Doc puts his hands on Child's face and pulls open her eyes to look into them. Hands hold me back while Terence tells me Doc knows what he's doing and I should let him do it. I understand this, and I want to, but I keep trying to move forward to stop him anyway. He rubs the top of his head where there are mask straps but no hair and he tells Vanessa to get him something from his kit.
“I've never examined a young one before,” he tells Terence.
“But you know what's wrong with her?”
“Possibly.” He puts his tired eyes on me. “How long has it been since she's had some sun?”
“Some minutes yesterday,” I manage to say.
“And besides that?”
“Two days. At sunbirth, three.”
“Under optimal conditions two or three days without sun would weaken her. From the looks of her she's been subjected to one trauma after the other. And the Water?” He shrugs. “The Water alone could do this. Human children have weaker immune systems than adults, it stands to reason she would as well.”
“She's stronger than most.”
“I don't doubt that, but look at her.”
Vanessa appears from the crowd with a leather bag. Doc takes small machines from it, including one that pulls blood from her arm into a glass bottle. He adds colored Water to it from another bottle and puts it to the side. Then he opens a tiny plastic under her nose, and the tingling smell inside it is so strong that her eyes explode open. She sits up from the concrete so fast it almost pushes Doc onto his back.
I calm her before she has a chance to attack him.
“You fell,” I tell her. “It's good to see you get back up.”
She pushes her face into my side.
“It's just like I thought.” Doc holds out the bottle of Child's blood, darker now.
“It should be almost black,” Boyd says. “She barely has any virus in her.”
“For you and I that would be good news, but for someone who's gone completely through the cha
nges...” His words fade before he finishes talking. When I ask him to finish them he just looks at Terence, who calls me over. After I make sure Child won't fall again, I go to the side of the bridge and look over the side with him at the Gator Beasts fighting over the last pieces of meat.
Terence leans close to me so no one can hear. “She can't live like this for much longer, you know. Neither can you.”
“I won't.”
“I'm thankful for your help in this, maybe more than you can ever understand, but when it comes down to it this isn't your fight. If you need to walk away right now I say do it. No one here would blame you.”
“I need to find a safe place for Child.”
“Give me the key and come back in two days time, when all the fighting is done. I promise you she'll have a place waiting for her in the guard's booth.”
“If I leave you for two days there won't be a guard's booth.”
He smiles. “You're that confident we need your help?”
“Your group is made of good people. Too good. I don't think you'll give the Death if you need to.”
“We've been doing this a long time, we're capable of more than you realize. ”
I say nothing.
He says, “Do I have to worry about you?”
“Yes.”
Doc joins us, his face wet with sweat. “She's very weak. I gave her some food but I don't think it will help much. She needs...”
“Munie Supplies.”
“Yes. And soon, before I get my fat fingers too close and she decides to take a bite.”
“Come on now, Doc, show some respect,” Terence says.
“He says the truth,” I say, “I've thought of making Supplies of them.”
They both look at me serious. I return to Child and look at her arm to make sure Doc didn't hurt her. Terence looks around at the group and says, “Okay. Werner, we need you to take a handful of people to the warehouse and get the cars. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” a big man with glasses says.
“Cars,” I ask.
The Mountain and The City: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale Page 15
