by S. M. Welles
A group of nereids tearing down a street lantern stopped at their approach. They slid off the pole and bounded towards them. Mido held up his sword as Jessie held out her hands and spoke in a commanding voice, “Stop!”
The four slowed to a crawl. One said, “Avatar pet!” They faced Mido and charged him.
Jessie lunged between Mido and the nereids. She imagined herself screaming at all of them. All of you stop! The last one she made eye contact with listened. The other three shoved her aside and assaulted Mido. Jessie staggered but caught her balance, then told the one that stopped to go back home. It slinked off, bringing some relief. Mido let out a cry of pain.
He was swinging his fist at two of them while the third bit his sword arm. The nereids cackled and swiped at his legs as if they were toying with him, and made him fall. Jessie telepathically commanded the biter to leave. It removed its teeth and joined its departing comrade. Mido fought off the other two with fist and sword. Jessie charged in and threw off one, then executed a five-punch combo to the other. It flopped lifelessly on top of Mido. He pushed it off and sat upright, wincing. His forearm was bleeding from a semi-circle of bite marks, as was his shoulder.
Jessie commanded the last one to leave, then helped Mido to his feet. His face was all scratched up. Her heart wrenched at the accumulation of injuries. “I’m so sorry, Mido.”
He took one of her hands and kissed it. “What went wrong? Only one of them stopped.”
The sight of one stopping and the others pushing her aside replayed in her head. “I’m not sure. Only one seemed to hear me, but they all should’ve. This has never been a problem before.”
“Amphitrite must be damping your powers or something. I think we need a new plan.” He inspected the bites on his arm.
“Run and hide?”
“Maybe. Let’s not give up too quick.” He wiped blood on his pants, then tugged her into motion and they headed inland, passing one flattened building after another. The bulk of the monsters had already worked deeper inland.
Very few bodies littered the ground, which gave Jessie hope. At the same time, it felt like she was walking through Paphos all over again, but with fires still burning, fewer corpses lying around, and the attackers still present and causing destruction. Among the attackers were water serpents. What if…? “Mido, I have a terrible idea.”
“Might be better than no idea at this rate.”
“I need you to protect me again.”
“I will.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
They wended their way into a loosely packed neighborhood. Jessie pulled up by a pile of concrete with gurneys and other medical equipment sticking out. They must be looking at a hospital. Jessie’s heart wrenched at the thought of so many innocent patients and doctors who must’ve died. Tears welled in her eyes. She blocked out the sight and the cries of pain reaching out from the debris. Other stable people were already digging them out.
“We should help them,” Mido said.
“Not yet.” They took cover next to a building with its first floor still standing. No sooner had she braced a hand against the wall, they heard a deep, throaty hiss overhead.
A water serpent.
The monster opened its mouth and lunged towards them, and next thing Jessie knew she was lying facedown in the dirt with Mido on top of her, a hand holding her head down. She winced as Mido grunted and his body jolted as debris fell on top of and around them. The jolts passed onto her through him, making her body ache. The serpent’s nose speared the ground right in front of their heads, dousing them with foul breath, and then the sky brightened as the monster lifted its head back in the air.
Jessie held still in case the thing might attack at the slightest movement. The seconds ticked by, and then the sound of something huge slithering around grew fainter. She struggled to get up but Mido and whatever had fallen on top of them was pinning her down. She patted his arm. “Mido, get up. We need to move.” He let out a groan. Jessie froze and her heart jumped into her throat and lodged itself there. “Mido?”
“I’m alive,” he whispered. “Can’t move.”
Jessie struggled and squirmed, and clawed at the dirt. She was pinned from the chest down by Mido and—she looked over his shoulder—half a wall. She dug her fingers into the churned-up dirt and pulled as hard as she could. After a few seconds of straining, she finally budged. She readjusted her handhold and pulled again, bringing her waist even with Mido’s chest. He groaned, making her heart race with mounting panic. She heaved her body one more time, freeing her legs, and turned around. She took in a sharp breath.
Mido remained lying facedown, a metal rod sticking out of his right shoulder with a chunk of cement still attached to it. She automatically reached for it, then remembered the wound would start gushing if she pulled it out. Instead, she moved to the cracked slabs pinning his legs, and tried to bodily lift them. She managed to heave one off, but had to use a two-by-four to lever off the other. Mido remained inert the whole time. “Stay with me, Mido.”
“I am,” he whispered. “I think both my legs are broken.”
Jessie wanted to roll him onto his back but feared causing more injuries. She lay with the side of her face in the dirt in front of his, then held Mido’s face and gently lifted it. His eyes were glazed over. “Stay with me,” she said in a thick voice. He put a hand over hers, tried to raise his head a little more, then passed out. “Mido?” He didn’t stir, so she patted his cheek. Her voice rose an octave as she called his name again. He still didn’t stir. “Mido!” Her eyes blurred with tears and she began to hyperventilate. This couldn’t have just happened. He’d been more or less fine a moment ago, but now he was—
Jessie wiped her eyes and checked for a pulse. She couldn’t afford to jump to such morbid conclusions so fast. She wanted to scream and give in to hysteria, but she couldn’t help him if she lost it. She felt a pulse in his wrist, then slipped a hand under his chest. His heart pounded out a steady rhythm. The beating brought her breathing under control, yet tears still kept coming. She held his hand and pushed away dirt so he’d have plenty of air to breathe, then fought to bring her emotions under control. If more monsters returned, she had to be collected enough to protect the both of them. She… the sight of his glazed-over eyes… her heart wrenched again. She squeezed his limp hand and forced herself to take deep breaths.
Rumbling in the distance snapped her to out of being able to worry. She flinched at the sound, then wiped her eyes and looked up. Another water serpent loomed over a pile of rubble a block away. Jessie flung her mind out to it without hesitation. Stop what you’re doing and listen to me!
The serpent paused in its attack on a building, then turned around. No words came from it but Jessie knew she had its full attention. It slithered down the road towards her, head low and bobbing side to side. The sight was frightening but she knew she wasn’t about to be attacked. She could feel curiosity coming from it. It wanted to know what her bidding was. It sent her a picture of the destruction it just caused and sent her an emotion of questioning. It stopped with its massive head mere feet above her, head bowed, black watery eyes on her.
Go find others attacking the town and stop them from killing more people and destroying Newport. She pictured the destruction and sent waves of sadness, then pictures of corpses coupled with anger, and finally envisioned the serpent killing the other monsters and a sense of gratification. Now go!
The serpent turned around and slithered down the road. A dozen nereids bounded out of a ruined building. The serpent dived on them, jaws wide, and killed them with strike after strike. Blood dripped from its mouth. A second water serpent slithered into the fray and the commanded serpent attacked the newcomer. The two began biting and coiling around each other, entering death rolls and flattening the town further. Jessie’s heart sank lower.
Kill the others but stop destroying the town. She resent pictures of the rubble coupled with sadness. She felt indifference in response. Her eyes stung with tears a
nd she turned back to Mido for solace she wouldn’t find.
He was unconscious, still breathing, heart still beating. One of his knees was bent at an odd angle. What could she do now? All her attempts to thwart the monsters attacking Newport hand’t made a difference, and she didn’t know anything about medicine. “Cancer!” She doubted he was anywhere within earshot but she wouldn’t know, unless he showed up or not. People were searching the pile that used to be a hospital. They pulled out crying children, injured adults, and inert bodies. Two of the helpers looked up when she cried out, then broke from their search and ran to her.
Once they hit the dirt road, one said, “It is Jessie!” They sprinted over and knelt beside her and Mido. Ed and Ted, both of them bleeding all over and covered in dirt.
“Are you two gonna be alright?” Jessie said, soaking in their injuries. She couldn’t bring herself to ask them for help if they were in dire need of it as well.
“Better than Mido,” Ed said, looking at the cook’s broken legs and bite marks. He gingerly tugged at the cement block and looked at the metal rod buried in Mido’s back, then sucked in air through his teeth. “That looks bad, but I’ve seen worse. Lemme see if I can salvage a gurney.” He leaned over and kissed Jessie on the forehead. “Hang in there, hun.” He ran off.
“Where’s everyone else?” Jessie said.
“I wish I knew,” Ted said. He wrapped an arm around her and placed a hand on top of theirs. “Don’t worry about everyone else right now. Just stay strong for Mido.”
More tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. “I’m trying. I’m scared. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”
“No amount of worrying is going to change the outcome.”
“I know, but I tried to get the monsters to stop attacking while he protected me, but there were too many. This is all unfolding so horribly. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“Just stay alive and stay strong. That’s all we can do right now.”
* * *
It felt like we’d been fighting for ages. The milieu of injuries didn’t help. I was as in bad shape as the day I’d escaped, and so was Tethys. Our attacks were slowing, and time between bursts stretched out. I sent my thoughts out to Jessie after our latest stalemate of an outburst, both of us standing in the crashing surf.
How’s everyone and the town holding up? I’m trying to get back to all of you but I’m still stuck fighting Tethys.
Not good at all. Mido’s unconscious and badly hurt. Ed and Ted are beat up and we have no idea where the rest of the crew is, and Newport looks like a bomb went off. I don’t know what to do.
Just stay alive. Please.
We’re trying.
I needed to end this and salvage what I could of Newport and crew. I pulled my mind back to the fight at hand. Tethys still managed to look smug, even with one eye, and despite how much he was bleeding all over. “Tell me one thing,” I said, “how did you get cursed like me?”
His smirk broadened into a grin. “I’m not cursed; just reanimated. Pretty crazy stuff, but she came to the right person for the job. I’m here to bend you so you’ll break when she delivers the final blow.”
I began circling him so I could take in Newport’s destruction. We stood offshore of the southwestern tip of town, on the beach from my nightmare. Fires rose from various neighbor-hoods. The tallest things were rubble piles and trees for miles, my house somewhere in there. I badly wanted to run in and slaughter the monsters destroying everything. Tethys knew I wanted that, had to know. It had to be obvious, even with my draconic face. “What, you don’t get honors of the final blow?”
“To be brought back from death with power like this and a purpose so sweet and simple… she can have the final blow. You’re gonna have to try harder to get under my skin.”
“Was worth a shot, dickless.” The story pertaining to what Jessie did to Tethys’s male member had reached me shortly after my recovery from getting shot in the head. I circled back to shore, not wanting to watch my hometown burn.
Tethys’s smile waned. “That’s more like it,” he said humorlessly, lunging with pure ferocity. He was coming in for the kill. He wanted to send me back to that place where cursed souls go to get tortured between deaths.
I ducked out of his swipe and shifted to my aquatic form, then feinted darting behind him and let him spin in place for me. I clamped my arms around his torso, barely able to grab my own wrists. If I’d been as barrel-chested as him, this maneuver would’ve backfired. He tried to wrench free but I buried my teeth in the meat of his shoulder. He roared and reached for my face. I coiled my tail around his waist and twisted with all my demon might. Flesh ripped and bone snapped. The sensation of severing his spine sent a shiver up my own.
I reformed my legs as he began toppling over. His lower body bounced off mine, then fell over and began gushing blood all over the sand. I chucked his upper body farther down the beach, then grabbed his thighs in each hand and tore them apart like pulling a leg off a cooked chicken. The gore sickened me but I didn’t want to take chances. I blocked out what I just did, then chucked the separate legs onto the beach.
Tethys used his arms to flop his torso onto his back, then lay there with his arms splayed out, chest heaving, and spine and guts hanging out as he stained the shore with a stream of blood. He looked skyward and let out a weak laugh.
“So much for bending me,” I said emotionlessly. I didn’t care that I’d finally beat him. It hadn’t undone the devastation to Newport.
He laughed again, a little louder. “Oh, I have.” He gestured northward. “Just look at what happened to your home while I kept you busy.” His hand flopped back onto the reddening beach as a wave clawed at his pooling blood.
I tensed with rage. The reason I’d come here… I wanted to scream, cry, and have Tethys get up so I could beat him some more. I started towards the destruction, deciding to let the bastard bleed to death while I salvaged what I could.
“I wouldn’t bother. The final blow comes.” He pointed behind me, at the ocean, but like I was going to fall for that.
I stomped over and gripped his thick neck with both hands. He didn’t even try to fight; just smiled as my claws dug into his throat. I avoided making eye contact as I twisted and snapped his neck. His corpse ceased rasping for breath. I flipped him over and pushed him facedown in the sand, then turned around, curious but not quite sure I wanted to know what final blow was.
Far out in the water, barreling towards Newport, was…
Oh, god. A tsunami.
Chapter 32
The Final Blow
Jessie, find the rest of the crew and get everyone to higher ground! There’s a tsunami coming. I ran out into the water up to my waist.
She gasped. How long do we have?
I don’t know. Maybe minutes. Go!
Dyne, we have Mido on a gurney. It’s just him, me, Ed, and Ted. We have no clue where the others went.
Then start shouting for everyone to head to higher ground. I have to try to stop it from making landfall.
You can do that?
I held out my arms like I was bracing to catch the wall of water barreling towards me. I don’t know. I have to try. This is my home. I have to save it. It’s all I have left.
I understand. I don’t want you to experience what I felt when I saw Paphos. But, if you can’t stop it, please come for the others and bring them to safety. There’s so much debris to search.
I will. I promise. Stay alive.
I pulled my mind away from hers, the last thing I felt from her a fearful yearning for everything to turn out okay. The tsunami was barely visible on the horizon but it was moving with purpose. With my powers I felt out the size and shape of the thing. It was wide enough to take out Newport. Just Newport. It was maybe a three-foot swell stretching for miles, but it was steadily growing as the seabed sloped upwards. However, it didn’t need to be a tall wave to cause destruction; just a lot of momentum, which it had. One huge mass of water sent wit
h the sole purpose of wiping my home off the map. I was so furious and desperate that I could barely focus on using my command over water.
I lowered into a fighting stance to better keep my balance, then threw everything I had at the tsunami. If I couldn’t stop it, the wave would collect all the rubble and pull it out to sea, just swallow up all of Newport and leave behind nothing but foundations full of water. My home was probably leveled already. I wanted to at least pick through the pieces for salvageable parts of my past once this was all over.
I threw every last ounce of will at the tsunami. I forced myself to tune out my desperation and instead focus on intent. Desperation made me tense up and want to beg the wave to stop. In a battle of wills, that kind of approach would guarantee my loss. I focused on the task at hand, the size of the wave, its mass, its velocity, and how to neutralize all that. A little voice in my head told me it couldn’t be done, a little voice right from my gut. Only a god could conjure a tsunami at will. Only a god could stop it.
A piece of the argumentative conversation with Amphitrite in the cave popped into my mind, the part where she’d explained that actions weren’t simply undone. There was only forward action, growth from choices made. She’d made the decision to create the tsunami. Now the consequences would be endured. I could try all I wanted to stop the wave, but it would be a vain effort.
I just couldn’t accept that. Not with my home on the line.
