The store basement had once been a combination of storeroom and engineering space; shelves lined one long wall, and in one corner of the large concrete chamber a tangle of machines formed a pillar leading upward into the grocery itself. The low ceiling was lit by the yellow-orange bulbs of worklights hanging in the corners. Whatever its original purpose had been, the basement was now a charnel house. The walls were covered with crude drawings of eyes, each one smeared in what looked like the dark red-brown of dried blood. Each one seemed to stare at her, and for a moment she stared back— until she realized what filled the shelves that ran along the wall. Human heads, each one severed from the neck and in various states of decay, crowded the black wire shelves, staring out at the two of them with the myriad expressions of violent death: some were locked in screams of pain and terror, as if they saw the end and feared its coming, but the majority were blank. Gazing upon the ghastly collection, this made complete sense to Bobbi; each one was white-skinned and with white-blond hair, and each one gazed out at the world that they had departed with eyes of silver-gray. Men, women, children, it did not matter. The collection of the dead, pinned under the collective gaze of the scrawled eyes, were all Yathi or Yathi drones.
The freshest example was Diana’s head, staring out at nothing. Unlike the rest, her eyes had been removed.
“Mother of fuck,” Bobbi gasped when the breath finally returned to her. “You people really don’t fuck around, do you?”
Violet let out another gasping sound, which Bobbi now realized was laughter. “No shit,” she said. “Fucking steel-eyes are all over the place. Well, less so now that the Lady’s running the show.”
Bobbi turned toward Violet. “But how? These people…they’re better equipped, better-armed than anyone else I’ve ever heard of – everyone and their mother seems to be wired up in their ranks. So how the hell…” She gestured to the horrible shelves. “How the hell can this happen?”
These words drew only silence from Violet, who now looked upon Bobbi as if she were some new person. “You really do know about these people,” she said after a little while. “So what are you doing out here?”
“You first,” said Bobbi.
“I don’t think so.” Violet lifted her hand, and Bobbi saw her own nerve crusher pointing back at her.
When did Violet get that? It must have been when she was gaping at the heads, Bobbi thought, and cleared her throat. “Fair enough,” she said after a moment. “I’m trying to get to Redeye.”
Violet’s eyes widened. “The Eye,” she said in reverent tones, and made a strange sign over her face— veiling one eye with her spread fingers in a fan-like gesture. “Why are you looking for her? Are you with them?” The feral woman nodded slightly toward the battery of heads. She brought the crusher up level with Bobbi’s chest, too, and dialed the power up.
“No!” Bobbi held her hands up in supplication. “No, not at all! I’m just here to bring her a message.”
Violet stared at her now, and Bobbi almost got the feeling that she was being looked through by those strange blue eyes. “You don’t look like a steeleye,” Violet said, but she in no way sounded convinced. “But your friend was.”
“I…” Bobbi took a deep breath. She tried very hard not to look at Diana’s head. “She wasn’t my friend. Not anymore. I killed her.”
“So I saw.” Violet gestured slightly to the crusher in her hand. “How did you know what she was?”
Bobbi stared back at her. “I…she was going to kill me,” she said after a long moment, her mouth going dry as she recalled the horror of it. “And I called her on what she was. She wasn’t my friend anymore. She wasn’t even…”
“Wasn’t even human,” Violet said with a nod. “How did you get away?”
“I asked her if she remember what her name was.”
Violet’s brows arched a little, and she looked Bobbi over once again. “That was smart,” she said. “They don’t like it when you try and bring up the past. It can fuck with ‘em. All right. What kind of a message are you trying to take to my Lady?”
“Why do you call her that?” said Bobbi, waving her hands. “Is she…I don’t know, some kind of feral royalty?” She realized of course that her smartass mouth was going to get her directly into trouble if she wasn’t careful, but the alternative was to be credulous and that credulity would mean admitting the full weight of reality. She couldn’t handle that right now.
“The message first,” said Violet, and her blue eyes grew hard. “What do you want with the Eye that you would brave these parts? I tell you now, if you think that I’ll let you harm her, you’re out of your fucking mind.” There was a buzz about her now, a palpable devotion that Bobbi had only read about in history books. Violet was a zealot, like the kind that had melted the Middle East, and her madness was suddenly clear. Bobbi knew that if she didn’t tell the truth, she wouldn’t get out alive.
Bobbi took a deep breath, keeping her hands up, and nodded. “All right,” she said. “I come with a message for the Eye from a person called Cagliostro.”
“Never heard of him,” Violet said, her eyes narrowing slightly. “What does he want with the Eye?”
“It’s not what he wants with her,” said Bobbi, “it’s what he wants with Genefex. The steeleyes. He knows what they are. I know what they are.”
Violet’s eyes snapped open. “They are the plague which chokes our minds! They are the ruin that comes to humanity!” The words were fevered, her voice a throttling rasp as it came from her mouth. “The Eye sees them, and she burns them to ash!”
Zealotry was definitely the madness that Violet had, and Bobbi felt as awed as she was disturbed by the energy that came from her. “I know,” she replied. “And that’s why I want to see her. Two years ago, a friend and I burned down a hospital they were using as a base in the Verge. He disappeared, but I’ve been trying to work out who they were, what they were up to. Now that I know…” Bobbi shook her head. “Well, you can count me in. That’s what we’re out here for, to give her what she needs to…” Bobbi paused a moment, then she made the same sign over her eye that Violet did. “Burn them out.”
Violet stared at her, conflict written in her hideous face. Bobbi knew that she was probably presenting herself to the other woman as a kind of prophet, or something along those lines— she knew enough about God-fearing people from her father to be able to try and speak to them from that kind of place. “I want to help the Eye destroy the Yathi, for once and for all. I’m bringing her a message that should let her put an end to the whole operation.”
And that was what broke the stare. Violet flinched as though Bobbi had struck her, putting her hands over her ears and staring at Bobbi in blind terror. “We don’t say their name,” she wailed. “No, no, not the name! They’re in all of us, in our minds, they can hear—”
“Well, they’re not in me,” said Bobbi, and she fixed Violet with her own blazing green eyes. On top of the situation now, finally she had the advantage. She felt power in her that only rage could bring, power and confidence that she was not the same as those horrible things whose heads crowded the shelves. Human, but only on the outside. “I’m human, through and through. And that’s why I’m here.”
Violet winced at Bobbi again, uncertainty and fear coming out of her in waves, but then she took her hands away from her ears and shook her head. “No,” she said, “I…I can see you aren’t. We can see them, the demons. We can see them in the eyes. I can see that you don’t have them.”
Bobbi pursed her lips a bit, but nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “But neither did my…neither did the woman whose head you have over there.”
“That was unusual,” Violet shook her head. “She must have been an infiltrator. We hear about those, sometimes— no implants, no exotic technology, just the body and its co-opted brain.” She eyed Bobbi a bit. “You must have a good sense of people if you were able to sniff her out.”
Bobbi didn’t say anything to that. Instead she said, “So are you goi
ng to take me to see her?”
There was a moment where Bobbi thought that Violet might just shoot her to flee from the possibility of facing her so-called goddess; the feral woman’s blue eyes brimmed with conflict, conflict and— yes— more fear. Bobbi had to wonder what kind of creature she was going to see that commanded such strangeness in others, especially the ones that were already mad to begin with. Was it just that the madness made them easier to cultivate, or was there something that united them, some common factor beyond simple insanity that connected Redeye and her people? Finally, however, Violet lowered the crusher, and she held it out grip-first to Bobbi. “I’ll take you,” she said. “But we have to wait for those outside to leave. They aren’t…safe.”
Bobbi stared at her. “I got that from the fact they’re eating my friend out there,” she said, marveling at how bluntly she now said those words. “But aren’t they your people? I thought you were united.”
“Those who eat the flesh of man are an abomination,” said Violet, again sounding as if she were reading straight out of some holy book. “But they are our brethren, and so must be spared.” She frowned. “That doesn’t mean I’m dumb enough to take you out there, plump as you are, and have them decide that they’d rather have seconds now than worry about the Eye later on.”
She gave Violet a bit of a look. “Yeah,” she said, “that would probably be best. So what do we do? Do we, er…” Bobbi looked back at the wall of head— she’d gotten somewhat used to the smell now, but she had no desire to stay here. “Stick around?”
Violet shook her head. “No,” she said. “We’ll be fine unless they decide to come inside the building, which they don’t normally do. It’s a holy place, they know they aren’t worthy. Just stay away from the entrance and we should be able to wait them out.”
Bobbi nodded. “And the truck?”
“Well,” said Violet, “I’m no mechanic, but it looks like the front wheel motor on the left hand side is gone. You really did a number coming in like that. What the hell was that all about?”
Though her sense of righteous fury had been stoked, it certainly didn’t keep her from feeling very stupid. “It’s like I said. That thing, it tried to kill me.”
“So you tried to kill it right back, only you were better at it.” Violet’s thin brows lifted. “I get it.”
“It’s a long story.” Bobbi shook her head. “My other friends came in here, only they’re gone now. I don’t know where they’ve gone off to, or if…” She didn’t want to say it, not with Diana gone the way she ultimately had. She didn’t want to think that she might be alone out here now.
Violet nodded. “Well,” she said, “if anyone got them, it wasn’t those boys outside. Here, let’s go back upstairs. We’ll talk in the back of the store.”
They left the charnel shrine for the more reassuring darkness of the storerooms, and as the stench left her lungs Bobbi felt new courage filling them in return. Violet hung back a moment behind her. They climbed the stairs and sat down on a few crates sitting nearby – Violet wanted to be close to the door to the shrine, which she’d propped open with a box; a chink of orange light shone up from the stairway and splashed across the grocery’s back wall. Violet kept an eye on the door leading to the main floor.
“That reminds me,” said Violet, and she reached down by her feet to produce Bobbi’s medical bag. “Here you are. I haven’t taken anything.”
Bobbi grinned a bit as she took the bag; she felt much more confident now with its weight in her hands. “Thanks very much,” she said, opening up the bag and rifling through. Everything was there, including the mag-mount antenna off the top of the truck. Bobbi looked up at Violet, holding the little slug up between them. “Why did you take this off?”
“I thought perhaps you might actually be here for a good reason,” Violet said with a smirk. “Looks like I was right. Only, I’m sorry about your friend.”
Bobbi shook her head and sighed. “No, forget it,” she said. “I mean, I’m the one who killed her, not that she was even herself anymore.”
“That must have been hard,” Violet said. Her voice was soft beneath the growl of her ruined throat. “You don’t seem to be the kind who does that easily.”
“I haven’t done it ever,” said Bobbi. Beneath her bravery a current of cold water began climbing up her gut once more. “Ever.”
Violet wrinkled her nose. “Well, there’s a first time for everything, I guess.”
Bobbi nodded wordlessly.
“I guess I can’t blame you,” said Violet. “But I’ve been doing this for a long time. The teeth, you know, they’re not just for show.”
It took a moment for the right circuits to fire; Bobbi sat up a bit, her expression becoming guarded. “I thought you said man-eaters aren’t safe,” she said, tone grave. Her fingers found the grip of the crusher, her eyes going hard.
“Oh, I’m safe enough,” said Violet with a wide, saw-toothed grin. “I don’t eat humans. Well, not real ones. I’ve got a taste for whiter meat.”
Bobbi stared at her a moment before understanding clicked. “You eat the Ya—I mean, you eat them?”
“Oh yes,” said Violet with a wink. “The dead ones, mostly, the ones that walk. They’re preserved, you know, once you bleed them. Takes time, and you have to cook them up for days— but when they’re done…oh,I dunno. Just something about the taste.” She closed her eyes and shivered. “I think there might be something addictive in there. Don’t know what, don’t much care. You’ll never find me going for lesser meat than that, though, I’ll tell you what.”
Bobbi wrinkled her nose, but nodded. It wouldn’t help to show disgust, not right now –
she was discovering all manner of untapped strength within herself, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It was useful, though. That’s what she needed. Useful. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know about how they taste, I just know how they die. That’s what my friend was doing, helping me. He was my muscle.”
Violet nodded. “Well,” she said. “I guess that’s one way to do it. It’s clear that you both work well together. Do you know…” She pursed her lips and grew silent. The hole in her face flexed around the edges, like a second smile.
“Do I know wh—” Bobbi stopped short as Violet lifted her hand, turning toward the door. Her eyes narrowed, and she gestured behind the crates. The two of them slid behind then, crouching low.
“Good ears,” Violet whispered. “I think they’ve come inside.”
Behind her crate, Bobbi froze. She peeked out over the top of it, staring at the door. Seconds ticked by, then minutes; the two of them kept their mouths shut tight, watching in silence for any sign of motion. Eventually they heard a shuffling, like bare feet on concrete. Bobbi and Violet looked at one another as the sound drew closer. Bobbi brought up the nerve crusher, dialing the power back to middle strength; she didn’t want to kill anyone again, and anyway the battery was getting very low. Violet came up with a semi-auto which Bobbi recognized with a jolt as Diana’s.
“Wait,” Bobbi said, looking at Violet in surprise. “If you use that, you’ll bring everybody down on us.”
Violet nodded. “I have to use this,” she said. “It’s because they’ll have found us already. I just want to be prepared.”
Bobbi opened her mouth to speak again, but presently the door to the back area swung open. A figure stood there, thin and pale and very naked. Everybody was so damned pale in this city, Bobbi thought as she covered the door with her crusher. I’m going to start going for a gun every time I see a white person. Was it Yathi? Something else? Bobbi squinted as the figure shuffled in a little further, and in the blue glow of the bioluminescent strips she saw straggly hair and patchy scabs. It wasn’t a drone, but the feral who had been tending the spit a while ago. He stood in the doorway, clutching a blackened forearm in one fist as if it were a stick of candy. Bobbi closed her eyes and gritted her teeth against the sight. If she could have, she would have killed him right there.
>
Violet laid her free hand on Bobbi’s arm and gave her a warning look, holding her gaze for a moment before looking back to the doors. The feral stood there for a moment more, lifting the cooked limb to his mouth and taking a bite from it. Bobbi’s fingers trembled as she fought the urge to shoot, even as he turned toward them, chewing, bits of forbidden meat and juice dribbling from his lips. They crouched lower behind the crates, but in the light thrown from the basement door their shadows could not be hidden. The thin man stared at them, or rather where their shadows loomed, and let out a wail. It was not the sound that should come from a man’s throat— instead it was a keening, falsetto sound, echoing in the mind as much as it echoed off the concrete walls of the basement.
“Fuck this.” Bobbi popped up and shot him where he stood, silencing the horrific call with the sharp snap and electric flash of the crusher. The feral dropped instantly into a tangle of scabby limbs, still clutching the arm in his hand.
Violet got to her feet as well, muttering. “Well, shit,” she hissed, “they’ll have heard that for sure.”
“What do we do?” Bobbi kept the crusher trained on the door.
“We can hide in the shrine,” said Violet, “but if they decide to camp out…”
Bobbi shook her head. “You’re armed, and I’m armed— sort of. Maybe we can shoot our way out of here. Think they had guns?”
“Probably one or two.” Violet craned her head a bit, listening. “I don’t hear anyone. C’mon, let’s go out. If we see them coming we can hide downstairs.”
“Yeah.” By now, Bobbi was feeling a little sick from all the adrenaline her body had been pumping through her system over the past few hours, but she shook it off. She’d die from crazy ferals faster than she’d drop dead from exhaustion. The two of them dashed across the storeroom, letting the blue lights steer them, and stepped past the fallen man.
Redeye (The Wonderland Cycle Book 2) Page 24
