Dead Set: A Novel

by Richard Kadrey

  When the first wave of snakes swarmed around her, they hit hard enough to knock her down. She had to grab the base of a withered old potted palm to keep from rolling over the side. The next swarm hit her just as she got to her feet. Zoe was ready this time and ducked, so she was able to take the blow and stay standing. She made it up the pile a few more feet before they hit her again. From where she stood, it was a straight line to the mirror. If she leaned forward far enough, she could almost touch it.

  This time when the swarm slammed into her, the snakes didn’t fly away. They dug in with their fangs and beat her with their wings. Zoe covered her face, trying to protect her eyes. She swung her free arm before her, trying to keep the snakes off as much as she could. She couldn’t breathe. It felt like she was drowning, drowning while being eaten alive. It took her a second to realize that the screams she heard were her own.

  Zoe fell to her knees as more snakes landed on her. She closed her eyes and crawled a few feet, using one hand to move and the other to cover her face. Every inch was agony. Covered with snakes, her arms felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each. Then her hand landed on something glassy. Zoe tilted her head up and opened one eye. Through the trembling mass of serpents, she saw the gold frame. With her free hand, she reached out, grabbed the edge of the mirror, and pulled herself up. When she stood, the snakes lifted off her as one.

  Her legs shook but the snakes were gone. Relief flooded through her. She looked down on the wolf men and humans below. I’m too close to the window to stop and they know it. She raised her bloody hands and gave them all the finger. It wasn’t until she lowered her hands that she saw Hecate, and by then, it was too late.

  In the split second before it happened, she remembered the first time she’d seen the queen. Zoe had known instantly that she was more than a simple ruler. She was a warrior. That’s why it was so frightening, though not at all surprising, to see Hecate aiming a longbow up at her.

  There was the slightest of sounds, as if someone had delicately plucked a string on a classical guitar. A second later, something slammed into Zoe’s chest. It didn’t feel like an arrow, what she imagined an arrow would feel like. It was more like being punched with a fist made of fire. When she raised her hands, however, she felt the arrow’s shaft buried deep in her chest. She looked down at Hecate and watched as a satisfied, feral smile split her face. The sight made Zoe’s head swim.

  She stumbled back, grabbing on to the mirror. One of her legs slid from beneath her and slammed into something. Zoe felt the junk mound move ominously. Boxes shifted and settled. Something cracked. She didn’t care. She slid down onto her belly as her vision collapsed into a long dark tunnel. From somewhere a million miles away, she heard Hecate scream “Don’t let her fall! I need her body!”

  Zoe tried to push herself back to her feet, but her bones had turned to rubber. She leaned back onto the boxes and felt them slide away from her. A roaring, crashing sound filled the room. It took her a second to realize that she’d started an avalanche. A whole section of the junk mountain was beginning to move. A fault line opened in a lower section, wobbled from side to side, and slammed into the mirror. She heard a scrape and a screech as it shifted and began to slide.

  Boxes cascaded around her and over her. The hand she’d been resting on the mirror was suddenly empty as the enormous slab of silvered glass toppled forward.

  “No!” shrieked Hecate in a new voice, one more fearful than angry. “What have you done, child?”

  Zoe didn’t answer. She lay on her side, one hand on the arrow buried in her chest. Her arms and legs didn’t work anymore. She couldn’t see much more than gray outlines below. Each breath she took was harder than the last. Something wet sloshed around inside her, filling her lungs. Each breath hurt more than the one before. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Zoe knew that she was dying and she was so tired, she was happy to just let it happen.

  At least I’ll be with Valentine and Dad, she thought.

  When the mirror hit the floor, it shattered with a sound like the earth bursting open, of the sky cracking. Everything shook, like all of creation was trying to rip itself apart from the inside.

  Light burst from beneath the shattered glass and wood. Even at the edge of death, the light was so bright that Zoe had to raise a hand to shield her eyes from it.

  Her body began to fill with a strange warmth and she found that she could breathe again. The dull pain in the center of her chest began to fade. When she touched the arrow, it crumbled in her hand. Through her closed lids, the light that filled the room faded, drawing in on itself until it was a floating ball of burning gold. Zoe opened her eyes.

  Rising slowly from the floor of the auditorium, from the middle of the broken mirror, was the stolen sun. It moved slowly, elegantly, rumbling and sizzling, filling the room with a brilliant healing light. Zoe pushed herself into a sitting position and touched the skin between her breasts. Though the front of her shirt was damp with her blood, the arrow wound was gone.

  “No! I beat you! You’re mine!”

  Zoe looked down and saw Hecate shrieking at the burning star floating just a few feet over her head. Around the queen, her wolf men ran from the light, bursting into flames as they went. The floor was already covered with them. Hecate’s snakes sizzled like sparklers, floating in the air like thousands of fireflies, before falling to the ground at the queen’s feet.

  “You’re mine!” Hecate screamed. She had been looking at the sun, but now turned her gaze on Zoe. “You’re all mine.” Hecate’s face went soft and the bones seemed to shift under her flesh. Her hair and dress were already beginning to smolder. She paid no attention to any of this as the human part of her melted away like candle wax, leaving only the snarling she-wolf behind. Hecate’s dress was burning now and the flames spread quickly over the fabric and onto her coarse black fur. Burning, she leaped from the floor onto the boxes and desks and began to climb.

  Zoe fell back against a card catalog. Looking around, she saw that there were enough boxes to reach the window. Still weak, she began to climb. She’d only gone a few feet when she felt a blistering heat rising behind her.

  Hecate stepped onto the platform just below Zoe. The queen was a pillar of pure flame now, and the furniture that was nearest to her immediately began to smoke and smolder. Hecate reached up, but Zoe pressed herself into the wall. It was so hot that she was afraid of her own clothes bursting into flame. The queen braced herself to climb onto Zoe’s level, but as she moved to rise up, her leg collapsed. She lunged at Zoe with both arms and froze in place. Her ashen body wouldn’t move. Not much more now than a statue of orange-blue flame, she raised her burning snout in the air and let out one last long and ferocious howl. Then her body caved in on itself, crumbing and drifting away to the floor in a cloud of burning ash. Zoe lay still, unable to think or move.

  Silently the sun rose, swelling as it went. When it reached the ceiling, it was as big as the glass dome. It burst through without slowing, gliding away, growing larger and more dazzling by the second. Zoe looked up at the window. Outside, the moonlit sky gave way to a deep blue.

  She climbed up to the window and pushed it open. Swinging her feet over the sill, she dropped onto a fire escape. Leaning against the railing, she looked down on Iphigene, seeing it lit up like it had been on that one perfect day she had spent with her father. The air felt lighter, the atmosphere clearer. She could feel it. Some powerful spell had definitely been broken. Souls poured from the restaurants and bars, out of the alleys and backstreets. They ran past the boardwalk and onto the beach to watch the sun rise over the city.

  Zoe rested on the metal steps and watched the city come to life. She stayed there a long time, just breathing. When she was ready, she got up and went down the fire escape to the street below.

  Whatever the sun had done to her back in the auditorium, she sensed that it was still doing it. She felt stronger with each step she took, not at all tired. The dozens of little bat bites were healing, though t
he marks were still visible. She was glad of that and secretly hoped that some would scar over. She didn’t want to have gone through all this without something to keep so that when she was back in the world, no one, not even she, could tell her that it had all been a dream.

  People streamed out of City Hall. Papers, uniforms, and broken glass were scattered among piles of ashes where more of Hecate’s guards had met the sunlight. Just inside the front doors, she spotted a belt that held some old prison keys. She retraced her steps to the staircase by the auditorium. Downstairs, she released Valentine and the other prisoners. The ones who could run took off for the stairs. Zoe and Valentine were the last to leave. She held on to her brother’s shoulder as he hobbled up the stairs on his bent leg.

  It was slow going, but they made their way down the boardwalk, neither of them talking because there was nothing to say right then. Things were changing quickly in the city, as if its residents had been poised to move for a thousand years.

  Buses were already lining up to take souls to . . . well, Zoe thought, wherever it was souls went to from here. She looked at Valentine and a smile spread across both of their faces. She knew what he was thinking, that wherever the buses were going, it was somewhere else, somewhere new. An adventure. And it was no one’s choice but his own whether to get on or not. Valentine asked her what had happened back at City Hall and Zoe told him. He nodded as she talked. When she was done, he just laughed, leaned over, and kissed the top of her head.

  It took them an hour of wandering through the crush of excited souls to find their father. He grinned happily when he saw Zoe and took her in his arms. “I take it back,” he said. “The last time I said I didn’t want to see you for fifty years, it was just practice. But I’ll mean it the next time.” He let go of her and looked at the sun, shielding his eyes with one hand. “I don’t know what just happened or how, but I have a feeling you had something to do with it,” he said fondly.

  “Hecate’s dead,” she said.

  Her father’s eyes widened.

  “You did that?”

  “No. The sun did. All I did was find the sun.”

  “That’s my girl,” he said, and pulled her to him.

  She took Valentine’s hand and pulled him forward. “This is the friend I told you about. The one who helped me.”

  Zoe’s father smiled at the boy and took him into a big bear hug, saying, “Thank you for taking care of my little girl.” Zoe saw Valentine stiffen the same way he had when she’d first touched him. Then she saw him relax just a little and tentatively put a hand on his father’s back.

  “There’s something you should know, Dad. A secret,” she said. Valentine’s body grew rigid again and he took an awkward step back from them, but she grabbed his hand and held him there.

  “You said you wouldn’t tell,” Valentine said through clenched teeth.

  “The secret is stupid. Look,” she said, pointing at the buses, “everyone is moving on. You have to, too.”

  “I can’t,” said Valentine. “Look at me.” He pulled her hand, but Zoe held him tight.

  “What is this, Zoe? What’s going on?” asked their father.

  “Dad, you two don’t know each other, but this is Valentine, your son.”

  Zoe’s father stared at her with a blank, uncomprehending look. He turned to the boy as if hoping for some kind of explanation, but Valentine kept his head low in his torn coat collar. “Trust me, Dad. I’ve known him all my life, but I didn’t know who he was until I came here.” She looked at Valentine. “You can be mad at me for telling.” She turned to her father. “You can be mad at me for not telling, but there’s no way I was leaving here without you two meeting.” She let go of her brother’s hand. To her relief, he didn’t try to run away. “Valentine, say hello to Dad. Dad, say hello to Valentine.”

  Their father stared at the boy. “Valentine?” He turned to Zoe. “How is this possible?”

  She nodded at Valentine. “He can tell you. He’s smart.”

  Their father put his hands on both their shoulders. “I’m lost here,” he said. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I can explain it, if you like,” said Valentine quietly. He stared down at the ground. “Will you be getting on one of the buses?”

  “Yeah,” said their father. “I suppose I will.”

  Valentine nodded. “Maybe we could ride together,” he said. “If you want, I can tell you as we go.”

  “I’d like that.”

  From out of the crowd, Caroline appeared. Like the others, she looked a little dazed by the sunlight, but she was smiling. “There you all are,” she said merrily. “Isn’t it a lovely day?” She looked up at the sun, squinted, and looked away. “I need to practice what one does and doesn’t do on sunny days, I think.” She touched Zoe’s shoulder. “I’ve been sent to fetch you, dear.”

  “Fetch me for what?” asked Zoe.

  Caroline cocked her head slightly. “There’s a bus waiting for you,” she said. “It’s time for all little living girls to go home.”

  Zoe looked at Valentine and her father. “She’s right, Zoe,” her father said. While keeping one arm out so that Valentine could lean on him, he took Zoe’s hand and they followed Caroline to the last bus in the row. The door hissed open as they approached. Gently, but firmly, Caroline urged Zoe up to the bottom step of the bus.

  “I guess I’m really going this time,” said Zoe, feeling a little overwhelmed and lost; so much was happening so fast.

  “Yeah, kiddo,” said her father. “And this time I really mean the fifty-year thing.”

  “It’s a deal,” she said.

  Valentine limped to the platform and hugged her. “I’m glad we really, finally met,” he said.

  “Me, too,” said Zoe. “Will I see you again, in the tree fort?”

  Valentine shrugged. “I don’t know. Where we’re going, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there.” He brightened a little. “Anyway, you don’t need me there anymore. You can take care of yourself.”

  She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll always need you.”

  Zoe’s father took a coin from his pocket and dropped it into Zoe’s hand. “You know how I told you that some spirits cling to things from life? I liked to pretend that I was above all that, but the truth is, I wasn’t,” he said. “The club where your mother and I met had these drink tokens they sometimes gave to regulars. I had this one with me when I died. Give it to her for me, will you?”

  Zoe turned the coin over in her hand. It was penny brown, but as large as a quarter. On one side was a ragged anarchy A in a circle. On the other side were a skull with crossed beer bottles and the words Fuck You Very Much. Zoe grinned, remembering the same words on her mother’s jacket years ago.

  “I’ll give it to her first thing when I get back,” she said, slipping the coin into her pocket.

  “Time to go, dear,” said Mrs. Somerville.

  “But wait,” said Zoe. “What happens to all those people who helped Hecate?”

  Valentine, Caroline, and her father all looked at one another. “I have no idea,” her father said. “Some of them probably didn’t want to help her. We all did things we didn’t want to do here. The ones who did side with her, maybe they’ll have to answer for it somewhere, sometime. I don’t know. My guess is they’ll stay right here hiding in the city forever, afraid to move on.” He looked around at the growing crowd. “But it’s not my job to worry about it and it’s not yours . . . so fuck them all.”

  Caroline gave Zoe a small wave. “You have a good trip home, and a long and lovely life when you get there.”

  “Thank you,” Zoe said. She called to her father, “When I come back old and wrinkled, you’ll recognize me because I’ll be the old lady in the Germs T-shirt.”

  The bus doors hissed closed and the engine ground to life. Zoe sat up front and slid across the seat to the window. She waved to Valentine and her father as the bus pulled away. It moved slowly through the dense crow
d of smiling faces. She turned for a last look at the beach just as they were passing the abandoned amusement park. It looked kind of cool in the sun, she thought. Absynthe would love the place, she thought. Maybe Julie and Laura, too. What was she going to tell them about all this? If she told the truth, they’d think she really was crazy or, worse, showing off by pretending to be crazy. It was a strange kind of problem, she thought. Then the light faded from the windows and the interior lights on the bus dimmed. Suddenly everything was very soft and dark and quiet. For a second it felt like falling, but she wasn’t scared at all.

  Twelve

  She awoke just as the bus was pulling up outside the liquor store down the street from her apartment house. It was dark out and she saw the night clerk step outside to stare at the bus that had pulled up where there was no bus stop.

  “Last stop. Everybody out,” called the driver. The back door opened and Zoe stepped down onto the street. The door closed and bus rumbled away in a cloud of smoke, turned the corner, and disappeared.

  Zoe headed for her building halfway up the block. Everything felt weird here. The air . . . the acrid street smells and lights assaulted her. Buildings stood straight up and cars hissed by, honking and belching music. Everything was more real, but less so at the same time. She thought of Caroline having to get used to the sun again. She felt like coming home was going to be something like that.

  The elevator wasn’t working, so she had to walk up the four flights to the apartment. Standing by her door, she realized she’d lost her keys. And her father’s razor. Except for the clothes she had on, she’d lost pretty much everything she had. There was nothing else to do. She knocked on the door.

  It opened halfway on its chain and part of her mother’s face appeared in the crack. Her mother’s eye, the one she could see, was red and rimmed with dark circles, like she hadn’t slept in days. “Zoe?” her mother said. The door closed for a second, then burst open again. Her mother stood there for a moment. Zoe didn’t move, not sure what to expect. Then her mother flung her arms around her, hugging her so hard she couldn’t breathe.