Dead Moon Rising

by Caitlin Sangster

  I shrug it off, hand a quicklight to Peishan from my pocket, and take the girl’s feet anyway. It’s an awkward way to walk, the light bobbing madly, shadows seeming to bite down on us every step. She feels light, hollow-boned, like a bird. But I can’t think about it. Can’t think. The other crew members seem to sink back into the darkness, though I can feel them there behind us.

  When we finally catch up to Aya, she’s lodged behind one of two huge metal doors that seem to have been pried off their hinges, then set cockeyed halfway across the corridor. The room beyond looms large enough that it swallows Peishan’s light. “This is where they were supposed to be?” I whisper.

  As if in answer, something in the room rustles. And then there’s a horrible dry snicker of laughter, like dead leaves swirling in the wind. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, my arms trapped under the unconscious girl’s weight.

  “Ari? Em?” Aya’s voice is a sliver, the sound pricking at my skin. “Huishan?”

  Something unbalances inside the depths of the room, like something heavy crashing to the floor, the broken pieces skittering in all directions. Aya raises her gun, eyes wild because there’s nothing to see. “Light!” she hisses. “I need the City-cursed light.”

  The red glow shakes erratically as Peishan holds up the quicklight toward the black of the Heart. Suddenly, I see her, the only light in this terrible darkness, like a flare for anyone with a weapon—

  “Peishan!” The yell comes out before I can hold it back. “Get rid of it!”

  She winds up, throwing the little bar of light toward the sound. The quicklight hits the floor just as I see an elongated outline of black that seems too large to be human. It’s coming right toward me.

  The wounded girl’s weight pins me to the ground, and the thing is on me before I can take a single step, that schism of time that happens when one moment you’re safe and the next you’re about to die, with no memory of how you got from one place to another. Hands scrabble through my hair, then scratch down my face to the soft skin at my collarbone. My arms are pinned by one of the wounded girl’s legs, my hands straining uselessly to slap the thing away. There’s a sharp prick of teeth against my skin, and my attacker’s hands rove down to press my shoulders hard against the ground, knees digging into my rib cage.

  I don’t want to die in the dark. It’s one bubble of a thought as the prick of teeth sharpens to a bite. Flailing, I get one arm free, my fingernails scraping down a stubbled cheek, desperate to stop the pain. Please, not in the dark.

  There’s a bright flash of light and sound, and the man on top of me goes limp, his head heavy against my neck.

  “Sev!” Hands pull the weight off me, Peishan’s voice in my face. “Sev, are you okay?”

  “I’m—” It chokes out of me, but there doesn’t seem to be any more to say. My hand, shaking, goes up to touch my neck, sticky and cold.

  A light flares in my face. Xuan’s face joins Peishan’s as he bends over me, his hands gentle as he touches my neck. “This is all he got?” he asks quietly. “Does anything else hurt?”

  I can’t breathe, not yet. I sit up, skittering back from the body lying on the ground next to me. Just a man. A very sick man, my blood in his teeth. But I manage to muster a nod.

  Xuan wipes the hand he touched me with on his coat. “We’ll clean it out when we’re in a safer place. But from now on you need to be more responsible. No more letting boys kiss your neck. Especially if they’re so obviously bad at it.”

  Peishan’s nose wrinkles, and she only watches long enough to see my lungs are still working before turning away. “Where are our people? And yours?” She shrinks back from Aya, who stands alone just inside the Heart.

  She points, Peishan raising the light enough to gloss over the shattered remains of telescreens, metal, plastic, and glass piled around something dark in the middle of the room.

  “They’re dead.”

  CHAPTER 54 Sev

  “WE NEED TO GET OUT of here. Now.” Aya holds the gun steady at her side. “Whatever you needed out of here, it’s not worth my life. That guy didn’t kill the rest of my team and yours by himself.”

  Peishan shies back as Aya passes her, barely lit by the fallen quicklight. She doesn’t look at me or the dead or any of us, her eyes tired, as if her body wants to close her eyes so she doesn’t have to see anymore.

  My stomach churns, eyes not wanting to focus on the pile of bodies making a centerpiece in the destruction of the room. I can’t stop myself seeing a curled fist, a braid with half the strands spilling free, though. “It is your life on the line. Mine too. And everyone’s. If we don’t find something on the grid, Chairman Sun’s going to send soldiers in to clean us all out.”

  “Chairman Sun?” the Menghu hisses.

  Xuan kneels next to the girl we carried in, checking her pulse, then bending down to check her breathing, a bleak look in his eyes.

  “What do you need, then? It’s now or never.” Aya’s lack of expression makes my heart pound even harder, her fingers fiddling across the safety of her gun.

  “We need to find something powered by an independent generator on the electrical grid. Sole said we might be able to see it from up here.”

  Aya skips over a river of broken glass, stopping in front of a downed telescreen. She shoves her gun into her waistband, then gestures impatiently toward me. “Help me!”

  I run to her side, helping to lift the shattered screen down to find a cube that’s a little taller than me stashed behind. It’s made from some kind of see-through plastic, the inside riddled with what looks like corridors, rooms, wide spaces, and a circle drilled about a third of the way through from the top. At the bottom of the drilled hole I can see a miniature reproduction of the triangle kitchen opening and the amphitheater where I first ate lunch with Howl, thinking my life was about to change for the better. It’s the Core, only much, much smaller.

  Aya swears, rattling something plugged into the side, a twin to the mini generator the Menghu tried to use to activate Dr. Yang’s door, brought up by the two members of our team lying dead in the middle of the Heart. “I used to work in the Heart. That’s why my crew did so well up here. We knew it backward and forward.” When the cube is properly plugged in, the lights at the very bottom corner of the cube strengthen a hair, but the top goes dark—the only electricity running marking the safe haven in the basement. That leaves only a few isolated spots burning like stars in the night. Aya balances the cube, looking at me. “As you can see, most of the Mountain is out. How much power are you looking for?”

  “I’m not sure.” The dark seems to push in on me, questions about where the man who attacked me came from, where the rest of his friends are, and how long before they get back making my words come out in a stutter. I can feel Peishan cowering behind me, Xuan at my elbow. “Something like… like the City Center, Xuan. My mother in her box.”

  Xuan’s face quirks. “So, a generator big enough to power life support. Um, basic hospital functions. Food, water that’s somehow self-sustaining.”

  “Where? Generally, I mean.” She pulls at the cube, and pieces come away, expanding so we can see inside the Mountain room by room, the little flames of light scattered across the top.

  “Somewhere no one would think to look.”

  A shot fires into the room, and the Menghu shrinks in her spot by the door, hands groping for weapons she was made to leave behind in Dr. Yang’s office. She darts forward, grabbing a long section of hard plastic, hefting it in front of her like a sword. Peishan remains a statue on the other side of the lintel.

  “Hidden. Like down in the storage levels?” Aya concentrates on the plastic cube, hardly looking up as a second shot comes in from the hall.

  I flatten myself against the wall. “Maybe? Would it be easier to hide something upstairs where no one would notice extra power being funneled out?”

  “Maybe. But look at that.” Aya points to a pitch-dark section down at the base of the cube, opposite where Sole�
�s safe haven glows with power. “Who’s down there? That’s records, probably. Or maybe plate metal or wood storage. No outside doors are nearby. No food or water or supplies to glean.”

  Xuan pulls Peishan away from the wall, leading her to hide just inside the doorway. “Faster, please!” he hisses, shouts clouding the air.

  I pull the cubes out to expand, taking note of the designation etched into the plastic. BW12—SECTOR THIRTEEN. It’s down deep, the way Sole’s safe haven is. She’ll know how to get there. Another bullet sings through the opening, lodging in the electrical grid representation, little sparks flaring all around the melting plastic.

  “Is there another way out of here?” I gasp.

  “Nope. Let’s get moving.” Aya darts toward the girl on the floor and hoists her up by the shoulders. I take her feet, then follow as Aya leads me to the open doorway. There’s nothing but darkness outside, but noise enough to fund an entire war. “We’re pinned down here.”

  “You think?” the Menghu snarls back at her, brandishing the plastic strip.

  “Yeah, get into the hallway wiring. Hit it the second you can.” Aya’s voice stays calm.

  “What are you talking about?” My voice rises an octave, fear pinching it tight.

  Which is when the lights in the hall flick on. My eyes scream in protest, barely able to process the blobby dark blurs against the painful white stab of light. One falls to the ground under Aya’s gun as he blinks at the sudden light, the other two taking off down the hall when they see they’re outnumbered. More shots pepper my ears, leaving them with nothing but a high-pitched whine. Aya drags me straight into what sounds like an assault, Peishan running to help me with the girl’s weight, not stopping until three girls come into view ahead, their ears covered with protective gear.

  They signal to Aya to turn the corner. We run, the girl’s dead weight dragging more every second until we get to a hallway where the sound has died down. The three girls who covered our exit herd Xuan and the Menghu behind us, checking over their shoulders as they holster their weapons. “Why are we doing this, Aya?” one mouths, the sound stopped at my eardrums. “We’ve already attracted way too much attention—”

  “Gather your things, ladies.” Aya’s voice thumps against me, muffled as she hands her injured friend over to the Menghu. “We’re headed downstairs.”

  * * *

  The girl we’ve been carrying doesn’t wake up. The next time Xuan forces us to stop so he can check her, he spends a long time listening before finally sagging back. Aya waits for a moment, as if she believes Xuan will tell her it’s going to be all right, but when he’s silent, she just nods and steps back from what’s left of her friend. We leave her in an empty corridor, Aya and her compatriots hiding her body inside a closet and covering her so thoroughly it makes me wonder what they’re hiding her from.

  Then I force myself to stop wondering because it’s too easy to come up with reasons, and it doesn’t make running any easier.

  Because Aya and her friends will have to go through quarantine, we have to go Outside to the main entrance to the safe haven. Only, with all the dodging and hiding it takes to get to one of the Outside doors, by the time we to a door that leads to the outdoors, light has fled the sky, and hungry gores sing from the trees.

  We settle into the corridor near the Outside door and block off the passage that leads upstairs, though after everything today, no matter how many old desks and doors we use to barricade the hallway, I can’t imagine closing my eyes ever again. Gore cries aren’t much comfort either, filtering through the heavy door even after Aya pulls it shut and locks it down. Memories of Howl in a frame of jagged yellow teeth…

  Howl. Kasim said Dr. Yang only kept him alive because of me. The Chairman said the doctor would use him to draw me out. I close my eyes, breathing in deep and letting the air flow out of me until I’m empty inside.

  I’m going to get him out.

  Aya’s eyes remain expressionless as she settles on the ground across from me, crossing her ankles and leaning back against the wall. The three girls left of her crew sit around her in a too-quiet huddle, clumsily cleaning their guns. The Menghu watches them from the end of the hall near the barricade, her eyes narrowed on Aya like a cat watching its prey.

  Peishan stays near the Menghu, cowering in her shadow as if it gives her something to do other than talk to me. She did the same when we first left the City, spreading her arms out to protect the little ones we pulled out of the Sanatorium from me, from June and Tai-ge, from anyone who came close, because it was easier than facing the enormity of the City burning under her.

  She won’t look at me. As if everything is, once again, my fault. I suppose it’s true. I’m the one who got her sent up here. We found the little blip of power where it didn’t belong down in the Mountain’s intestines. With my luck, it will probably be a storage room light some overworked record filer forgot to turn off. All this for nothing.

  I swallow the thoughts down where I can’t see them, my hands clenched as I sit down by Xuan. “How’s your shoulder?” I murmur.

  “Probably gangrenous. That’s catching, you know, so if you won’t carry me the rest of the way, I’ll rub it all over you.”

  “You are the worst medic ever. Gangrene isn’t contagious—even I know that.” I lean back and put a hand to my aching head, my ears still ringing. “And if it were, wouldn’t carrying you get it all over me?”

  “I’m too tired to make sense. I need sleep.” Xuan nods to Aya and the other girls. “And they need watching.”

  “Yeah. I’ll switch off with Peishan and… the Menghu. Do you know her name?”

  “She’s the other one I kind of want to watch all night.” He puts his hand up, stopping me before I can tell him to be quiet. “Not in a creepy way. In an I don’t like getting stabbed while I sleep sort of way.”

  I look over at the Menghu, her legs curled up so her knees brush her chin, her hand pressing her gas mask hard against her face. A buckle broke at the back during one of our altercations today, forcing her to do everything one-handed or risk SS sneaking in.

  “Hey, Sev?”

  I drag my attention back to Xuan.

  “There is a very real possibility I won’t be able to get up in the morning. Adrenaline does a lot for people when their lives are on the line, but it only goes so far. So I just want you to tell me something before I close my eyes. You know, for, like, motivation to get them open again.”

  “I’m not wasting any pity on you, Xuan.”

  “I just want to know that this has an end.”

  I look down, wrinkling my nose. That’s what Sole said too. How do you see this ending, Sev?

  “That story you told me and Sole about the cure being in the City. That’s true, right?” The strain of hope in Xuan’s voice sets my jaw. “This whole…” He tries to gesture to the group, to Peishan huddled alone, the Menghu’s predatory gaze, Aya and her crew… but more than that. To the Mountain. To everything we all gave up to be here. If there is anything left to give up. The whole world has already cracked open and is gobbling us up, one by one. Like the Outsider upstairs. There—stupidly, annoyingly, aggressively there—one second. Now gone. “This was for a reason, right?”

  “Yes. It was for a good reason.” I reach out and squeeze his hand. “Thank you for believing me.”

  He smiles, sinking down to the floor, making a pillow out of one arm, the other leaden on his chest over his bandages. “You’re the only thing left to bet on. What choice do I have?”

  * * *

  I wake to a ghostly buzz in my pocket. The link.

  Peishan looks up when I sit up from the floor. She agreed without arguing when I asked her to take the second watch. Didn’t even ask what she was supposed to watch for. Even now, she prefers silence to wondering why I’m awake.

  Turning my back to her, I squeeze the link to see the message.

  Execution postponed.

  Postponed? I didn’t even know when it was supposed to
be. Postponed until when? Howl’s face burns in my head, the Chairman’s insufficient information stoking the flame.

  It continues: If you know anything about the heli bombing our camps, please share.

  A heli? Howl’s confession about bombers rises in my mind, but it sounds like the Chairman knows that much.

  Yang’s already moving southern garrison forces to the City by heli. Soon the General and I will follow.

  My insides churn. Dr. Yang is headed back to the City? What if he figured out Mother’s message all on his own? Or decided to go through our old house again just to see what he can find?

  The link buzzes again. Yang is using the rogue heli threat as a reason to band everyone together. They bombed the garrison while you were there and have since grounded most of the helis at the airfield at Dazhai. The execution is in four days, under the Arch. After that, I might not have enough sway to get a heli out to you. I’d rather leave everything in ruins than allow my soldiers to die under Yang. Find my son. Four days.

  Four days. Four days. That’s a lot less than two weeks.

  Four days until Dr. Yang kills Howl. Under the Arch, just like my mother. Like my father. My sister didn’t make it that far. Four days until Dr. Yang, General Hong, and the Chairman are all going to be in one spot.

  How do you see this ending, Sev?

  Outside, a lonely howl breaks the night’s silence, escalating into a series of excited yips. Other voices join the first, turning it into a hair-raising chorus, gunshots joining the cacophony. And then a scream.

  I clamp my hands hard over my ears, trying to drown out the hunted creature’s death.

  Something shifts in the hallway behind me, the movement catching at the corner of my eye. It’s Peishan getting to her feet, coming toward me too quickly for it to be just for a chat. “She’s gone,” she rasps through her mask, pointing toward the barrier. “I wasn’t watching, and now she’s not there anymore.”