by Conner, Jack
“No shock your people want you dead, sweetcheeks,” Hildra said. “After what you did. But tell ‘im to get in line.”
“My question,” Avery began, but before he could finish there was a knock on the door and two members of the island police entered. One was a woman, infected, with protruding, fishy eyes bulging from an otherwise disturbingly pretty face. Her uninfected male partner remained quiet as she said, “I’m Detective Isi. We’re investigating the attack. Now that you’re feeling better, ma’am, we’d like to ask a few questions.”
“Of course,” Layanna said, quite composed.
“In private, if you please.”
“You can speak freely in front of my friends.”
The woman looked reluctant, but she said, “Did you know the assailant?”
“No.”
“Had you ever encountered him before?”
“No. I’ve never even been to these islands before. They are quite lovely, by the way.”
“Thank you. Do you have any knowledge about why he might have attacked you?”
“None. I’m afraid I can be of no help to you, detectives. The attack came out of nowhere, and for no purpose that I can fathom.”
The detectives glanced at each other, seeming discomfited by Layanna’s coolness. They must know she was hiding something, and Avery realized it was entirely possible they might decide to hold her, and him, too. After all, he had caused the deaths of several men, however hostile, not to mention the destruction of public property and endangerment of lives.
Detective Isi started to ask another question, but Avery interrupted. “Perhaps I can question him,” he said. “The man who attacked Layanna.”
“Are you an attorney?” When he replied in the negative, she said, “Then why should we let you speak with him?”
“It’s just possible that I might be able to get more out of him than you can.”
“How—if you, or her, truly have no relationship with him?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. You’ll have to trust me.”
“We don’t trust you. We don’t know you. Still …”
The officers consulted with each other, then Detective Isi said, “You can ride back with us to the station if you agree to share anything you get from the assailant. First, ma’am, a few more questions ...”
Chapter 2
Twenty minutes later Avery, Hildra and Janx rode in the back of the small, cramped police car as it meandered through the streets of Ethali, capital of The Azadi Republic, also known as Azad or Azad’nis but usually just called the Azads. The police station was located not far from the coast on the northwest side of the island, and from the high points of the city Avery could see a pleasant beach in that direction with many bathers and swimmers in evidence.
“I do believe that’s a topless beach,” Janx said, and, after squinting, Avery agreed. In fact, it looked as if the beach-goers wore as little clothing as they could, some going entirely nude. All were infected, of course, as non-infected wouldn’t risk the waters, but many showed only rudimentary mutations, not the full-body alterations Layanna’s attackers had, and were tanned and copper-skinned and handsome, splashing in the crackling surf as the sun sank in a glory of brass on the horizon. For a moment Avery longed to join them. It occurred to him that now, as a mutant, he could enjoy a frolic on an ocean beach for the first time in his life, despite living most of it near the sea. Of course, there was always the chance of further infection, but if he popped a pollution pill or two that would be minor.
Not all the islanders looked relaxed, though. More than one family could be seen carrying bags and hoisting backpacks, waiting for buses that went to the docks or simply walking. Few owned automobiles in the Azads, but there were many bicycles, more than Avery had ever seen before. Detective Isi constantly honked and swerved around them.
She drew to a halt at the crowded, busy, garishly-colored station, and after checking Avery, Hildra and Janx in at the front desk the two detectives led them back through the busy station to the cells in the rear. In one dark chamber, a lone shape huddled against the blue-painted concrete wall, and Avery noted the bandages that wrapped arm and jaw.
“I’ll serve as translator,” Detective Isi said.
“I speak some Azadi,” Janx said. “We’ll make do.”
“I’m not leaving you here alone with him.”
“Then there’s no point to us having come,” Avery said. “He won’t speak with you around. You can just take us back.”
She paused. “If you get any useful information ...”
“We’ll share, of course.”
The detectives vanished, and Avery returned his attention to the shape in the cell. “I’m a friend of the woman you attacked today,” he said, and Janx translated.
The prisoner had been sulkily staring at a lizard (mutated and finned) tracking its way across the blue wall, but now he looked up. He said nothing, but Avery could tell that he was listening.
“I just have a few questions,” Avery said, and waited for Janx to translate. “First, did a priest tell you to kill the woman—the goddess—Layanna?”
The man remained mute.
“Are you a member of an order devoted to the R’loth—you might think of them as the gods of the sea?”
Janx translated, seeming to stumble over a few words, but the prisoner appeared to understand the gist of it, as he lifted his chin and gave a short reply.
“Yeah, he says they serve the ‘Great Ones’,” Janx said.
Avery nodded. “And they told you to kill Layanna?”
The man spoke, and Janx, looking wryly amused, translated: “`She is evil and must die for the good of all’.”
“Finally, some sense,” Hildra said.
“Will your people strike again?” Avery asked.
“‘If there is time. Even now we should be hastening away, but we remain, sacrificing ourselves, to do what must be done if we can.’” The prisoner said this in a breathless, fervid rush, and Janx related it grimly.
“I guess that’s a yes,” Hildra added.
The response brought Avery to what he really wanted to know, the reason he had come here.
Slowly, he said, “Why would there be no time?”
“‘The wrath of the Great Ones is upon us.’”
With a look to Janx and Hildra, Avery framed his next words carefully: “By that do you mean the force of destruction that leveled the other islands? Is it coming here?”
The prisoner stared at him with fervor, eyes shining. “‘This island will be next. The Judgment could arrive at any time. I’m surprised it’s not already here.’”
Avery blinked.
“I think—” he started, speaking almost at the same time as Janx, who was saying, “We should tell Captain Greggory to ready the ship.”
“He have what supplies he needs?” Hildra said.
“Aye, he’s got enough.”
“Then let’s fuck on out of here.”
At the front desk they asked for the detectives who had brought them to the station, and after some impatient minutes the male officer emerged.
“What did you get out of him?”
“He says to flee the island,” Avery said. “It is coming.”
The detective’s mouth twisted. “Many are already fleeing. It’s our job to keep order among those that stay.”
Like the cultists, Avery thought. Sacrificing your lives for the greater good.
“Is that it?” the detective asked, and when Avery confirmed that it was, the detective said, “You’ll have to call a taxi if you want to return to the hospital any time soon. We’re busy. With people afraid the Thing is coming, chaos is beginning to break out.”
The receptionist allowed Avery to use the phone, and they waited half an hour in the lobby for a taxi to show up. It never did, but Avery, Hildra and Janx were bemused by a parade of local criminals and lawmen coming and going from the establishment.
“We should call the taxi again,” Avery said.
The ground rocked beneath his feet.
“Shit,” said Janx, and there was doom in his voice. Hildebrand shrieked in fear and scampered into Hildra’s lap.
Policemen and criminals glanced at each other in fear, eyes wide and faces taut. The ground trembled again, and dust drifted down from the ceiling.
Crrrk.
All eyes swiveled to one of the concrete walls as a crack spread down it. Then another.
A section of the ceiling collapsed, scattering police and criminals alike.
“Out!” someone shouted. “Everybody get outside!”
Along with a tide of cops and miscreants, Avery, Hildra and Janx, coughing on the dust that now filled the interior, poured out through the main doors into the new-fallen night. There was still enough light to see that several rows of buildings stood between the station and the beach. Dust and sea mist billowed up from beyond the structures, obscuring the sky. The screaming of many people was partly drowned out by a great rending of stone and concrete shattering, of rock and earth splitting, of the sea roaring and of something distinctly ... other. It sounded like a great scraping or slithering sound, a terrible rasp that the shook the ground, rattling the windows of the station and other buildings all around. Many shattered.
“It’s a godsdamned quake,” Janx said.
"No," Avery said. "I don't ..."
The ground rocked beneath his feet again. The movement nearly knocked him to the ground. He only barely managed to clutch Janx in time, steadying himself. The big man maintained his feet admirably, but then he was a sailor. Hildra wasn’t so lucky. She fell, and Hildebrand leapt screaming to the ground. His cries were barely noticed in the general tumult.
“What—?” Avery started.
The world shook. Dust rose up from the ground. Cracks spread in the walls of buildings all around.
“Shit,” Hildra said. Then, as her face grew tight and her voice filled with terror, she looked at them and said, “It’s here. The island-killer is here.”
“Gods damn it all,” said Janx, helping her to her feet.
She swore violently as she collected Hildebrand, but her voice had become choked, her eyes wide. For his part, Avery felt dizzy and weak. Around them, people started or cried out, many picking themselves up off the ground.
“But it was a thousand miles away,” Avery heard himself say.
One building on the border of the beach leaned forward with a great creak and then, to Avery's shock ... broke.
He had been moving backward, not fast, in truth half paralyzed, but he was brought to an utter halt as the edifice actually leaned so much that it toppled into the building next to it, and glass and concrete and metal exploded. A chunk of twisted iron fell on a family of four, crushing them. Many more were being killed all around. None of the buildings in the area were more than ten stories high, and most less than that, but they were high enough; what could possibly knock one over?
Then Avery saw It.
Something moved beyond the buildings, dark and huge, blending in with the night, the thing that rasped the ground with such an awful weight that quakes spread out from it ...
People streamed between buildings and down alleys, spattered with blood and sand and dust, fleeing in fear from whatever the being was. Another building toppled—another. A whole line of them smashed into the buildings beyond. Past them Avery could now more clearly see a dark shape, huge and strange and dripping.
Sirens screamed. People that could get to cars jumped in them, some hijacking them, and tore away from the beach. Though there were relatively few automobiles in the Azads, there were enough for vehicles to choke the lanes quickly, many slamming into each other. Twisted steel and flesh clogged the intersections. Buildings, whole lines of them now, collapsed into each other, falling towards Avery and the others. The spires toppled, one slamming into the next like dominoes. Soot and vaporized debris shot down the streets, and Avery choked, tears burning his eyes. He began backpedaling, Janx tugging him along. Hildra needed no prompting.
Too late. The building beyond the one Avery stood closest to was knocked into by the dark moving mass and propelled into the building ahead.
The building above Avery wavered ... began to list ...
—dear gods dear gods—
The building held, but shrapnel from the atomized building flew out in every direction. Janx flung both Avery and Hildra to the ground just as shards of glass and stone and concrete flew through the air where they had just been standing.
The Shape loomed above them. Dark and wet from the sea—it had risen from the ocean, was still rising from the ocean—it plowed toward them, higher than the highest buildings in the area, broader than city blocks. A great triangular projection, a massive wedge that seemed to be connected to something in the sea, part of something much larger, the wedge drove at them, sheets of water cascading from it, lightning crackling off its enormous mass. Vapor shot from various orifices, filling the air around it, and where the gas enveloped people they screamed and collapsed, writhing in agony. Lightning speared others. Most were ground beneath the Shape or died in the collapsing buildings it mowed down.
“What is it?” Hildra said, her voice raw.
The Shape reached the building ahead, which began to tilt ...
A small car, threading through the carnage choking the street, darted out of the fog of vaporized debris and barreled up the street toward the three, tires squealing.
Janx leapt to his feet, drew his gun and took aim at the driver. The car increased speed for a moment, as if prepared to run Janx down, but as it neared and the driver got a better look at the size of him, and of the gun, the vehicle slowed. Janx wrenched open the rear door and flung Avery inside the back, then squeezed into the front passenger seat, pulling Hildra into his lap; her top half stuck out the window when the door closed.
“Go go go!” Janx thundered, then repeated in Azadi.
The terrified islander hit the gas.
Avery realized he was sharing the back with a pregnant woman, her eyes wide. In her webbed hand she held a knife, pointed at his belly. He drew back, slowly, keeping his own hands visible. Janx said something to her, calmly, and she snapped angrily at him. The big man nodded and put the gun away. She lowered the knife.
Janx spoke to the driver, and they headed downtown, veering around stopped cars, driving on sidewalks when they needed to, but successfully putting distance between themselves and the sea. Between themselves and the monstrosity. Finally wrecks jammed the streets completely, and they had to abandon the vehicle. Janx stole a bicycle with a side-car and presented it to the driver and his wife, who took off, and then he, Avery and Hildra found three regular bicycles near a scattering of bullet-riddled bodies—not killed by the creature, obviously, but by the anarchy associated with its coming. Avery thought Janx’s weight would crush his vehicle, but somehow it bore up, and the three pedaled fast as the great Shape drove toward them, growing larger as it emerged from the sea—larger and broader. Longer waves of buildings up and down the coast fell before it, were ground beneath it. Avery’s heart beat so fast he thought it would burst, and sweat drenched him from head to foot.
“Think they’ll still be at the hospital?” Janx called, panting. “They might’ve gone to the docks.”
“No,” Avery gasped. “Layanna will have insisted on remaining at the last place we knew she was, at least until she was forced to leave, and the hospital’s on high ground, difficult for the Thing to reach. If the hospital’s still there, she will be.”
It took them over an hour to reach the hospital, which still stood, located as it was on a rocky thrust of land, and the facility was in chaos, doctors trying to evacuate all the patients they could. Some were in such bad shape that they couldn’t be moved and had to be abandoned, others were attempting to remove their IV needles themselves and limp out into the greater chaos of the city, blood leaking down their arms. Avery saw one nurse carrying a handful of medical supplies rush out the door and wanted to stop
her, but there was no time, and little point. For all he knew, she could be helping transfer them to a temporary facility.
They found Layanna and the others picking their way down a stairway; the elevator had stopped working when the city power grid had been smashed, and evidently the backup generator didn’t move the elevator. Two whalers flanked Layanna, hurrying her on. Ani perched on one whaler’s shoulders—Captain Greggory himself.
“She was shaking so bad she couldn’t walk,” Greggory said as he lowered her to the floor, whereupon she flung herself at Avery.
“Papa! Papa!” The rest of her words were muffled where she’d shoved her head into his chest. He hugged her tightly.
Layanna embraced him, too.
“I was worried I’d never see you two again,” Avery told them, as Ani wept and he felt his own eyes sting.
“Let’s get to the docks,” Janx said.
“No,” Layanna said. “Wait for the bedlam to die down. I think the thing will veer aside the highland. Fighting our way through the city amidst this chaos is too risky.”
“We should head to the roof, then,” Avery said. “Where we can see the creature, or whatever it is. That way if the thing does veer toward us, we’ll have warning.”
They mounted the stairs and came out on the roof, where a cool wind blew, and with heavy hearts they watched the obliteration of Ethali as fires limned the horizon. The Azadi military had been roused, and bombers from nearby air bases filled the air, smoke from their payloads’ explosions rising up past where the planes lumbered in formation.
Then Avery couldn’t see anything but ... It.
It filled the world, the mind.
For a start, it was massive, a great being stretching miles wide and hundreds of feet tall, perhaps over a thousand. In aspect, it looked, absurdly, like a great starfish, seven-sided, an orange-beige in color. What Avery had seen coming out of the sea near the tattoo parlor had been one of its arms. Vast, a living glacier encased in rough-textured exoskeleton, the starfish—the Starfish, Avery amended; it deserved the honorific if anything did—rolled out of the Atomic Sea, one of its limbs still trailing in the water, sheets of crackling fluid gushing off it as it plowed, seemingly very slowly, into the city, knocking over tower and dome, spire and steeple. Building after building toppled, bursting into showers of metal and glass and cement and stone, killing countless people that had been trapped by disorder in the structures or on the streets still fighting to get out. Avery was witnessing the deaths of thousands, tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds.
