Edie Spence [04] Deadshifted

by Cassie Alexander

  “I’m so sorry,” I repeated.

  “Thanks. I’m Jorge.” He lifted and wagged the body we held. “This is Stefano. Was Stefano.”

  “I’m Edie.” The stupid part of my brain latched on to the only Cher song I knew. “If I could turn back time—”

  Jorge shot me a dark look. “Don’t even.”

  I bit my tongue too late. “Sorry. Very, very sorry.”

  He snorted, defused. “Stefano always liked bad puns.”

  The farther down the hall we went, the more it smelled like flowers. Then we started passing them in the halls, piles upon piles of flowers, like a parade float had beached here to die, and I realized they must have repurposed the floral freezer for the morgue.

  Jorge said. “You planned it like this, didn’t you?” It took me a second to realize he was talking to Stefano. “You knew I’d be too cheap to buy you all these flowers otherwise.”

  Treading upon bruised petals, we walked through the freezer door.

  It was less horrific than the restaurant in here by a factor of ten, but twenty times more sad. When I saw the bodies spread evenly on the floor, I felt a huge temptation to just drop his friend and run away. I’d been around carnage before, but I’d never seen so many bodies all at once—and I still had to see if any of them were Asher.

  I concentrated on helping Jorge at the moment; I didn’t want to drop my end of Stefano. Jorge looked over his shoulder and shuffled backward to Tetris in Stefano’s body at the end of the fourth row. When he was done, he folded the end of the sheet over Stefano’s feet.

  I did some quick math. There were ten rows of ten bodies here, minus an incomplete row here or there, but at least ninety corpses. Some were clearly women and children, but others were men in suits. I shivered and tried to tell myself I was just cold.

  Jorge straightened out Stefano’s limbs and stood quietly, looking down at his friend. Maybe lover. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know. “Did you want to say something?” I asked him. “Or I could, if you wanted.” It wouldn’t be the first time a family member had pressed me into oration.

  Jorge shook his head. “This might be the first time I’ve ever been speechless. Stefano would like that. He always said I talked too much.” He knelt down and touched his friend’s forehead. I waited quietly for my turn. I didn’t want Jorge to see me rifling through the other bodies. After a moment more, he stood, resolved, and covered Stefano’s head with the other end of the sheet. Then he headed for the door and held it open for me.

  I gave him a sad smile. “Sorry. I’m still looking for my friend.”

  “Oh.” He gave me a compassionate look. “If you don’t mind, I’ll wait outside.”

  “Sure.” Then the door swung shut, and ninety or so bodies and I were alone.

  * * *

  The freezers overhead were running at full blast, dialed down from chilling orchids to frozen dinners. Standing and looking at the contents of the room, I realized Raluca would have to use another freezer soon, or we’d have to start stacking bodies two-deep.

  I didn’t know what person had started covering the corpses with the corners of their sheets; I’m sure they thought at the time it was kind, so that people coming in with new ones wouldn’t have to stare at so many dead sets of eyes. But now it meant I had to go around to every man wearing a blue suit, just in case.

  I made my way to the first one in the farthest back corner, determined to make a scientific effort of it and go row by row. I had to pick out visible floor to step on in between the bodies, bouncing from patch of cement to patch of cement like a CrossFitter doing a monster-truck-tire-run. Eventually I found myself at the first contender and stood awkwardly on either side of his head. The older bodies had a layer of frost on them, like frozen dinners left in the freezer too long, and the sheet was stuck to the corpse’s face. Holding my breath, I yanked on it until I pried enough off to know that it wasn’t Asher. Just some other poor person. For all I knew, it was Rory’s dad.

  The corpse’s chin waggled. “How’s it going, Edie?”

  I gasped and fell backward onto my ass on the corpse’s cold chest, my hand unfortunately planting into the man’s crotch.

  “Down here. And get your hand off my cock.”

  “What the fuck—” I teetered to standing, wiping frozen-body-Popsicle off my hand.

  I only knew of one entity that would think of joking at me from inside a corpse. I punched the body in the chest. “That’s not funny, Shadows.”

  The voices coming from the mouth of the dead man laughed.

  The Shadows were awful creatures located underneath my old hospital back home, where they lived off the pain and sorrow dripping down from above. I hadn’t seen them since July, when Asher’d been saved. After that, they’d offered me my old job back, and I’d refused them.

  “What the fuck is going on here? Where’s Asher?”

  “Shhhhh,” they warned me, from the darkness inside a dead man’s mouth. “Keep your voice down.”

  I don’t know why I listened to them, but I did. “Where. Is. Asher?” I asked, my voice low.

  “We don’t know. He’s not hiding in here with us.”

  In with the dead bodies, in the dark. Where there’d be a continual stream of sad people to feed on. Of course.

  “Then what good are you—” I said, standing.

  “Don’t you want to know why you’re on board?”

  I slowly sank back down, still straddling the corpse.

  “That’s more like it. Listen close—we don’t have much power here, unless you’d like to cry for us.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “We sent you here.”

  “What?” I’d never been so tempted to strangle a dead man.

  “We’d heard rumors, so we decided to send you in. You’ve got a nose for trouble and a knack for staying alive—not to mention a shapeshifter bodyguard.”

  “But Asher picked out this cruise—”

  “Oh, it was nothing to convince him,” they said, interrupting my protest. “So easy for us to plant a few ideas inside his overstuffed head. Plus, this mess is partially his fault—it was the least he could do to help us clean it up. He owed us, and the Consortium.”

  “So why aren’t you out there fixing things?”

  “We’re not omnipotent, and we have to stay in the dark. Plus”—the voice receded, as if it was speaking from deeper inside the dead man’s throat—“we’re in hiding.”

  “From?”

  “You’ll see.”

  I pounded another fist against the man’s frozen chest, and hoped to hell no one else would come in the morgue just then to see me. “Is there anything useful you can tell me?”

  “Yes. Try to stay alive. You’ll see. Oh, Edie, you’ll wish you’d come back to us by the end of this. Working for us will seem like a distant dream—” they said, and then their voices abruptly stopped.

  “Dammit, Shadows!” I yelled. All I got in return was silence.

  “You’re all insane.” I stood and nudged the corpse with my foot. It felt just like kicking a cement block would.

  There was a knock at the freezer door, and this time I managed to whirl around without falling. Jorge was at the door, a bouquet of flowers from outside in his hands. “Everything okay?” he asked. I nodded, and he came in to set the flowers down on Stefano. “Don’t get me wrong, but you sounded a little crazy there. Talking to yourself in other voices. It’s not like I haven’t done the same thing, but usually when I do I’m getting paid.”

  “I’m fine.” I hugged myself and realized how cold I was getting. All this excitement probably wasn’t good for the baby, either.

  “Was he here?” Jorge asked.

  I looked down. I hadn’t made it past this first man in a suit, because of the Shadows. I surveyed the rest of the room. I wanted to believe what they’d told me—not that things would end badly, but that Asher wasn’t here. If Asher was in here dead, wouldn’t they show me his body so I would grieve and they
could feed? I had to believe they would have.

  “No. He’s not,” I answered Jorge with a head shake.

  But if Asher wasn’t in the restaurant-sickroom or in the floral-storage-morgue, where else could he be?

  What had Nathaniel done to him?

  And—as I knelt to replace the sheet over the man the Shadows had violated—what was there in the world that the Shadows could possibly be scared of?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  My head was swimming with too many questions and not enough answers as we walked back to the restaurant. I asked the simplest one of Jorge. “How did you know it was a he?”

  Jorge shrugged. “Trouble is almost always a man.”

  We entered the sick floor just as Raluca was mounting a chair with a megaphone for an announcement.

  “Remaining volunteers—I have good news. The doctor has just informed me that the medical ship is on its way.”

  Maybe twelve hours ago that would have been good news. But right now all the enthusiasm those standing could muster was a sarcastic “Hooray” from Jorge. I heard Rory’s matching snort from across the room.

  Undeterred, Raluca continued. “I’ve put out rations for anyone who wants them. You have to take care of yourself, so you can take care of your loved ones. Remember to wash your hands. That is all.”

  She clicked off the megaphone and stepped down.

  The volunteers who were mobile staggered up and queued to go outside, and I followed them. I needed to break free from here and look for Asher—or find Nathaniel and get him to tell me more. I scanned the room for him and didn’t see his sneer.

  Outside, we walked past the food table en masse. Grilled cheeses all around. My stomach turned green. Without thinking, I sagged forward, bile rising, and Jorge caught me.

  “Hey—hey.” He set me upright as I looked for something nearby that I could puke into. “You’re sure you’re not sick?”

  I waved away his concern. “Not like that, no. The ocean. It gets me.”

  “Raluca’s giving out Dramamine like candy. You should take some,” he advised.

  “Thanks, but—” I began.

  It was too late; he’d already started to wave for her. “Raluca, she needs Dramamine—”

  There was nowhere to hide. What was the worst that could happen—she’d take me into the next room over and tie me to a table?

  Raluca came over to give me the nursing once-over—I recognized it, nurse-to-nurse, in her eye. I tried to pretend that everything was okay, for the currently low values of okay we all shared, as she touched my forehead with the back of her hand. I thought I still felt like an icicle from my time in the morgue, and I could tell from her face relaxing that she did too.

  “Where did these come from?” I gestured to the table.

  “There’s still healthy people crewing the last kitchen, as best they can. We can’t let everyone starve.”

  Which begged the most obvious question I hadn’t asked yet. “How many people are left on board?”

  She inhaled to answer me, then paused, and I saw my opportunity.

  “You don’t know, do you?” I asked. It was hard not to sound excited.

  Raluca shook her head. “We haven’t gone room to room yet—”

  “So there could be sick people up there.” I pointed above us, to indicate the rest of the rooms. “Too sick to call.”

  “We’re overwhelmed as it is—”

  “But what if the medical ships come, and they don’t take everyone? There could be hundreds of people, feverish in their beds, trapped.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she gave me another look, nurse-to-nurse. “Just how big do you think the medical ship will be?”

  Not big enough. “But shouldn’t we know?” I pressed. “Maybe we could move them down, or put X’s on the doors—something.” Anything that would get me permission to do a room-to-room search. I would pull the entire ship apart to find Asher if I had to.

  “If you don’t authorize it, I’ll go do it anyhow. You can’t stop me.” My voice rose as Raluca frowned.

  “I’ll go with her,” Jorge volunteered.

  Dr. Haddad emerged from behind his desk at the commotion and eyed us all with equal displeasure. I had Asher’s word he was competent, but I doubted the man had ever had a decent bedside manner. Raluca leaned over to whisper something in his ear, and he sighed. “Five people can go.” He held up two fingers and pointed at Jorge and me. “The troublemakers. Then—” He began to look around. “Her.” He pointed at the woman whose son was Rory’s age—I assumed he’d passed by virtue of being away from him—“and him, and you.” He jabbed his finger at a man with a startlingly bad self-tan, and at Nathaniel, who’d been standing in the back. I felt a silent thrill at his being included in our number. Maybe I’d get a chance to talk to him alone.

  “I want to go too,” Rory volunteered.

  “No.” Raluca shook her head immediately. “We need you here.”

  And I realized what the doctor was doing: giving us people he, or Raluca, wanted gone.

  “Don’t I get a choice?” the tan-man asked.

  The doctor narrowed his eyes. “I caught you trying to steal Valium.” He looked around and spotted someone. “Marius—you’re in charge of this mess. Take a master key and a radio. And this.” He disappeared back into to the curtained room, returning with a paper list that he handed to Marius. “Check the manifest as you go. Putting X’s on the doors is not a bad idea,” he said, glancing at me with a grunt, then turning to our small group as a whole. “The medical rescue ship will be here in three hours. That’s all the time you’ve got. Wash your hands before you go.”

  Then the doctor darted back into his room like a moray eel. Raluca gave our group a pained look. “The medical team’s on radio station five. Good luck,” she said, and walked after the doctor.

  * * *

  I gave Marius a sympathetic glance as the rest of the volunteers followed Raluca back inside, grilled cheeses largely uneaten. He shrugged. “The doctor’s always disliked me. Where is your man, my countryman?”

  I shrugged back at him and tried to look competent, but with a side of damsel in distress, just in case it helped my cause. “I’m not sure.”

  “Ah. So that’s why you want to do this,” he said, and then turned to address all of us. “We’ll go up and search room-to-room, breaking up into groups of three and doing both sides of the floor simultaneously.” He started making hand gestures to indicate what our plan of attack would be, which sealed my assumption that he was ex-military, and began directing us down the hall. “Head out.”

  Marius opened up a door that said STAFF ONLY and loaded us into the freight elevator behind it.

  “I can’t believe we have to do this,” said the tan-man who’d been roped in. The woman was still sobbing quietly beside me as Marius pressed number 9.

  “No one’s holding a gun to your head,” Nathaniel said, then after a dramatic pause, “yet.”

  Tan-man leaned forward, pressing the crying woman back, until she stepped on my shoe.

  “If we have to do this, we’ll be doing it in an orderly fashion,” Marius said before a fight could start. “We’ll use X’s for rooms that we’ve cleared, O’s for rooms that are empty, and S’s for ones with people who are sick.” He paused to look around and make sure we weren’t all idiots. “Knock first—give the guests a chance to answer. Some of the fancy rooms are big, and some of the guests are slow or deaf. Then, if no one answers, go in and look around. Clear from room to room, including bathrooms, closets, and balconies. Okay?”

  “There’s only one master key?” Jorge asked.

  Marius nodded. “And it’s mine. I’m in charge of this expedition.”

  The elevator doors opened and we spilled out onto the ninth floor’s very nice carpeting. “Outside rooms—you, you, and you.” He pointed to me, the other woman, and Jorge. “Inside rooms, us three.” He pointed to himself, Nathaniel, and Tan-man.

  “Boys versus girls,” Nath
aniel said with a shark-like grin.

  “Quite,” Jorge said, aligning himself on our “ladies” side.

  Marius looked at the sheet the doctor had given him. “You all have the Averys. We’ve got the Steinmetzes. Start knocking,” Marius commanded, leaning in to unlock our door and rap loudly on it while doing so by way of example.

  Jorge clicked his heels and saluted him ironically.

  * * *

  Our door didn’t open all the way; there was still a latch closed at the top. That was good, I guessed—it meant someone was still inside.

  “Hello?” I called through the gap as Marius’s group disappeared into the room behind us.

  “What’s your name?” Jorge asked the crying woman.

  She sniffled some. “Kate.”

  “Okay. I’m not getting fresh or anything, but if you need to, you can hold my hand,” Jorge said, offering it out. Kate shook her head and gave him a sad smile.

  At that moment, I would have gladly held Jorge’s hand. It would be nice to find some human comfort in all this mess. But there was an entire ship to search and only three hours to do it in. “Hello?” I asked the gap between the door and doorjamb again. “Mr. and Mrs. Avery?”

  “Who are you?” A woman’s startled face appeared on the other side.

  I wasn’t entirely prepared for someone standing and well. “I’m—I’m Edie Spence. I’m with the medical team. We’re here to check in on our guests. Is there anyone here needing medical attention?” I tried to sound official. I think Marius would have approved.

  The woman’s eye searched me up and down, and then the door closed and reopened fully, latch undone. When she saw Jorge and Kate standing outside she frowned and clutched at her chest. That would be just great, if she were fine up until the point where seeing our trio gave her a surprise heart attack.

  “Mrs. Avery?” I said, holding up my list, trying to seem official. “Are you and your husband okay?”

  She got over the shock of seeing us, and composed herself quickly. “Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be?”

  “Can we see your husband too?” Visual confirmation was best.