Blue

by Brandy Wehinger

  I finished what I needed to do, which was easy — finding bolt cutters and then releasing the City’s interior from its chains, cutting away what held it back from being cleansed of its darkness. Then, satisfied with my results, I went to the Leader’s home. I only hoped I’d be quick enough for it to be me, not one of my brothers, who would teach him this lesson and make sure his last moments on Earth were terrifying.

  I wasn’t disappointed.

  The Leader and his guards came across the bridges, soaked from the rain and steaming from the adrenaline that burnt through them. He was still alive. Excellent.

  I was patient, and waited for them to go into the house. I heard a loud, ‘What do you mean you don’t know where Rose is?’ followed by the wail of a crying woman.

  Now was my moment. I ran across the bridge towards the men watching the entrance to the house’s rooftop, and called out to them, ‘Help! Can you help me?’

  It was too dark for them to see my skin, and I had draped a jacket over my shoulder to hide my missing arm. To them I was just another poor, frightened citizen looking for refuge. They let me pass, and I stepped onto the roof of the only building in the City I hadn’t been able to open up from below.

  ‘Thank you,’ I called over my shoulder, then, feigning exhaustion, I stumbled towards a lean-to and slumped against its wall. As soon as it was clear the guards had forgotten I was there, I stood up and simply walked into the Leader’s house. I smiled to myself as I went down a couple of floors to where the doors were heavily chained. I used my foot to brace the handle of a bolt cutter, and used my hand to squeeze down the other handle, and the chains dropped away. Opening the doors wide, I called out, ‘Come, my brothers and sisters, come now and eat.’

  Still unnoticed, I made my way along the corridor, listening for the whereabouts of the occupants. They were in the kitchen.

  I stood quietly behind a door that was partially ajar, and waited for Elliot’s mother. He and his sister had described her as a tall, uptight red-head, so I knew how to recognise her. I didn’t have to wait long. The moment she walked out of the kitchen, I sprang. She shrieked and tried to put up a fight, but her City ways, heavy jewellery and tight dress made it impossible for her to get away. I pulled her to me and whispered in her ear, ‘You’re a terrible person.’

  Guards burst through the doors and ran towards us, weapons up and ready to fight. I knew I had to be careful now, patient. I needed a little time for all of this to go the way I wanted. The guards needed to focus on me and my hostage, and not notice the army of Dead that were coming up from within the building.

  Then the Leader himself came bustling into the corridor. His expression was amazing: horrified, shocked, outraged. Exactly what I wanted.

  ‘Release her, Blue!’ he growled at me.

  I pulled the red-head to me, almost intimately, and pressed her old freckled skin against my cheek. Then I smiled sweetly at the Leader.

  ‘No,’ I said.

  A guard made as if to come at me, lifting his club and taking two steps in our direction. I opened my mouth and pressed my teeth against the woman’s skin, hard enough to make her tremble, but gently enough that I didn’t break the skin.

  The Leader saw my threat and called the guard off. ‘What do you want?’ he said, his eyes flashing with menace.

  He was interesting to me, this Leader. He held himself like an alpha, used to getting his own way, imposing his strength and position to bully his way through life. I hated him.

  ‘I want you to understand something before you die,’ I said gently.

  ‘I’m not dying today, Blue!’

  Was he trying to taunt me? Did he not recognise that I was in control, that he should be begging me for their lives?

  I laughed. ‘You’re a lot stupider than I thought you’d be. Maybe you’ve just done all the terrible things you’ve done because you’re simple.’

  The Leader’s face went red, and his hands clenched and unclenched. My wounding his ego seemed to upset him more than my threatening his wife.

  ‘Stop!’ a strong-sounding female’s voice broke in. A tall woman with an athletic physique and closely clipped hair stood with her hands out, pleading, unthreatening. ‘Please don’t,’ she said.

  ‘Who are you?’ I asked. ‘And why shouldn’t I kill this disgusting woman or make her one of the Infected?’

  The tall woman stepped forward carefully. ‘I’m Fee. Look, there’s been enough bloodshed. Let her go, please. She’s harmless.’

  I was intrigued. She obviously didn’t know these people but had put herself in danger to help them. Was she one of the pure hearts, but just misdirected?

  ‘Oh, but she isn’t harmless, Fee. This hag would put her own son on the executioner’s block, and is guilty of persecuting the innocent.’

  Fee looked back at the Leader and asked, ‘Is that what this is all about?’ and then said to me, ‘If so, hasn’t there been enough destruction already?’

  It was too late, even if I did have any feelings for her words. The kindred spirits of my Infection were close, just a room away.

  ‘Leader, I want you to know Loss,’ I said, and with that sank my teeth into the side of his wife’s face, ripping down the flesh from her cheekbone, exposing the muscles below. She let out a scream that filled the room and the guards rushed towards us, but they stopped their pursuit when the doors behind them banged open, and in moved the lean, muscled bodies of four Variants.

  They sprang, their animal-like movements graceful and fluid. If the Infection was evil, how could such beauty come from it? These Variants, once soft, helpless humans, were now the most streamlined hunters on land, the top of the food chain.

  I asked them to leave the Leader and the tall woman for me. They obliged and turned their focus to the guards, ripping them into nothing more than hunks of meat in minutes.

  The Leader and Fee stood before me. The Leader was deathly pale, and his eyes were fixed on the body of his wife. He asked me in a flat voice, ‘Is she dead? Or will she become like you?’

  I didn’t bother to answer him. Instead I walked closer and said, ‘Do you want to live? Where are you keeping your son prisoner?’

  The Leader’s face filled with hope and he stammered, ‘Just over there.’ He pointed to a nearby building. ‘Four storeys down. I can call off the guard and—’

  But I had what I needed. It was time to finish.

  I looked into his wide, hopeful eyes and said, ‘Leader of this City, I sentence you to death for the hateful way you treat the innocent and for the ruthless way you have behaved towards your son. Come to me and receive your punishment.’

  He turned and ran for the door. I ordered the Variants to take him. The first one hit him at full speed and ripped off his arm below the shoulder. The Leader screamed and looked at the shreds of his stump. His eyes bulged and he shook with shock. The second Variant came in, grabbed him up and threw him across the room. He rolled and hit the ground with a thump. Dazed and in pain, he nevertheless pulled himself up to his knees. We looked each other in the eyes and I knew he had learned his lesson. Through his loss and pain, he had gained understanding.

  Okay, finish him, I told my brothers.

  And they did. Soon the Leader was nothing more than a tangle of red pulp and grease on the floor.

  Fee had remained motionless, standing against a wall throughout the entire event. Her eyes, when they looked at me, were scared and questioning.

  I slowly walked towards her until my face was just inches away from hers. I paused there, examining her, waiting for her reaction. Fee pressed herself further against the wall and held her breath. As I stood over her, she remained passive, made no motion to confront me. Then she exhaled slowly and closed her eyes. It was a gesture that showed me her acceptance — either to die or to follow me. She understood, this lady. I could see now she was pure and righteous and worthy.

  ‘I suggest you follow me out,’ I said, and turned to leave.

  KATIE, Tuesday night, autu
mn, 62 A. Z.

  THINGS WERE GOING badly. I had hoped that my immunity against the Dead would allow me to run undisturbed through the City, but instead it took me nearly an hour to push my way through the mobs of Zombies roaming throughout the buildings and clogging the stairwells. And even when I got to the prison, there was no sign of Elliot. There was nothing there but a few people convulsing on the ground, shaking and twitching as the Infection transformed them.

  Think, Katie, I ordered myself. But it was hard to concentrate, partly because of the chaos around me, and partly because the strange voice in my head kept urging me, Eat, sister. On top of that, I couldn’t think of where Elliot might be held if not in the prison.

  Out of any other ideas, I decided to head to the Leader’s house to do some snooping. That’s when I saw the most extraordinary sight: the one-armed Blue and a tall woman carrying a backpack marked with a cross were walking out of the Leader’s house, stepping over the mutilated bodies of the guards. They seemed to walk calmly, almost leisurely, despite the screaming and mayhem of the night. They passed a couple of Zombies as they crossed the rope bridge, and I was surprised to see that the tall woman, a living human, was left completely alone.

  I heard the voice in my head again: Finish them all, tonight. Tonight.

  And then I knew that the voice was coming from the one-armed Blue. How could that be? Was he a psychic? Could he really have called all the Zombies in the area to come into the City and eat the people? I didn’t know how he had done it, or why, but it had worked. The City was gone; its people had joined the thousands of shuffling, moaning Corpses that would drag themselves about until the end of days.

  The powers of the one-armed Blue and the fall of the City were terrible, but at least I wasn’t going crazy. I knew he had done all this.

  I snuck behind the pair, leaving enough distance between us for them not to notice me. They entered a nearby building and I waited outside, hidden behind a group of potted fruit trees that looked incongruous against the ruins of the City. Was the Blue a threat to me? Probably not, but who could know? Perhaps I should confront him, try to explain to him that I had helped free him once? Would he believe it? I had no idea of the extent of his mind powers — could he possibly control me?

  I had just made up my mind to enter the building to find out more when I saw the Blue and the woman coming out again. And there was a third person with them. Elliot.

  Without thinking, I rushed from my hiding place and ran towards them. I didn’t care if the Blue was dangerous. Elliot was right in front of me and I couldn’t control myself. Nor, it seemed, could he. His eyes widened with joy. He opened his arms and caught me in a hug.

  The night was both burning with fire and being flooded with rain, but it didn’t matter. We held each other. I felt the warmth of his skin and the rhythm of his chest moving with each breath, and I closed my eyes. We stood wrapped in each other’s arms and nothing else mattered. Then we were interrupted.

  ‘Sister, I am happy to see you,’ the Blue said.

  Still holding Elliot, I turned my face to look at the Blue. The rain dripped from his hair, his tee-shirt, wet and stained with blood, clung to him, and his handsome face was pulled back in a creepy grin.

  ‘Hi,’ I said, offhand. ‘How’s it going?’

  The Blue laughed and said, ‘Katie, finally we meet.’

  I didn’t know how to respond. Should I be obliging and say something like, ‘Great to meet you too. I like what you’ve done with the City?’ This Blue was unpredictable, had some freaky mind powers and was definitely dangerous. I held my tongue, and instead, tucked my face back into Elliot’s chest.

  The Blue laughed again and said, ‘Come on, you two lovers, let’s go somewhere dry.’

  The tall woman who had been standing back from us, with her head lowered, looked at me when we turned to follow the Blue. She met my eyes and lifted her eyebrows, questioning. The expression was so subtle that I almost missed it. I answered her with a slight shake of my head. She then looked quickly at Lukas and back at me again, her eyes wide to show danger. I nodded back to show her I understood.

  We followed the Blue across a network of bridges. None of the moaning, jerking Corpses we passed came near or even touched us. I had no idea where he was taking us, and Fee had given me a warning of some kind, but at that moment I didn’t really care. I had Elliot again, his warm hand clutching my cold one. Everything else that was coming could be dealt with later. Right now it was enough to see the flash of Elliot’s blue eyes when he looked at me, and to know that I was loved.

  ROSE, Tuesday night, autumn, 62 A. Z.

  SHE SAT IN the window and watched the fires burn in the distance. Despite the glow of their flames, this night was the darkest she had ever seen. The cloud and rain had obliterated the moon and stars, and the candlelight from the City’s homes had been extinguished. Rose felt hollow when she realised that, in fact, the candles and lamps had probably never been lit.

  What light there was came from torches held by the town’s citizens as they ran towards the bridges to try and escape the marauding Corpses. It was hopeless. Even now a group had banged into each other in fright, nearly setting one another on fire.

  Rose spotted the thin figure and long wavy hair of someone familiar. She leaned forward, trying to see if it really was who she thought it was: Tash. Possibly the worst bully Rose had ever met and the reason school could be terrifying. Even so, Tash didn’t deserve to die like this.

  Three Corpses surrounded the skinny teenager and closed in. Rose waited to hear her scream, but she must have had her throat ripped out. When the Corpses moved away, Tash lay on the rooftop, her long limbs crumpled against her. She looked for all the world like a dead spider.

  Rose could still hear Deads moving and groaning in the hallway outside the hang-out. She had no idea what she’d do if they managed to get past the barricade. She could try to save herself by waiting out on the rope ladder, but her arms were sore from too much climbing, and she knew she wouldn’t last long if she had to do that. She would just have to wait and have faith that Lukas had been right to tell her to stay.

  She had wrapped herself in an old dirty blanket, hoping to sleep, when she heard the thumping of feet against the wall outside the window — the sound of someone using the rope ladder. Her heart lurched and she closed her eyes, terrified.

  ‘Rose?’

  She opened her eyes. First Lukas, then a woman emerged through the window.

  ‘Rose?’ Lukas asked again.

  ‘Y-yes?’

  Then Rose’s eyes grew wide as Elliot’s lanky frame dropped into the room. She rushed to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and squealing with happiness. The waiting and worrying was over. Her brother was back and safe. Rose cried again, this time with relief.

  She looked back at Lukas. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  He’d come back, as he’d said he would. And he’d brought her brother with him. At last she was going to be safe.

  LUKAS, Tuesday night, autumn, 62 A. Z.

  THE CITY HAD fallen and was washed clean of the evil that was humanity. All those who were left now sat around me, the pure hearts, the few who deserved to live. Fee had been spared because she was both a noble warrior and would make a good follower. Elliot had been reunited with his sister and Katie, and I was happy to have repaid the debt I owed them for trying to save me from the Gunslingers.

  We had dried ourselves and eaten all of Rose’s food supply: fancy, stinking cheeses, dehydrated bits of over-salted meat and bland, rooftop-grown dried fruit. And Fee contributed to our meal by making us a beverage of water perfumed with flowers and small bits of bark from her kit. I told my small flock not to worry about conserving their provisions; tomorrow we would leave the City and find more for them to eat. So eat well tonight, I told them, because we wouldn’t be here long. This answer seemed to satisfy the humans, but the Blue, Katie, looked at me carefully, questioning.

  I asked her what was troubling her.
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  ‘That. How can you talk to me without words? I don’t understand.’

  Now I understood her reserve, her reluctance to meet my eyes. She was afraid of the telepathy I used. It made sense. Katie, my fellow Blue, had been distant with me. She had looked at me with cold eyes and it had begun to anger me. Was she judging me? She should understand why I’d done what I’d done! Had she not lived in solitude because of humanity’s wrath towards the Infected?

  But now it made sense. She was afraid of the unknown, the invasion of my mind into her mind.

  ‘I’m sorry to be so intrusive. I apologise,’ I said, smiling.

  But she was still frowning. ‘But Lukas, what do you plan to do with us?’

  Rose, the sweet girl, her eyes half-closed from exhaustion, interrupted her. ‘He’s saving us, Katie. He’s going to take us to a place where nothing bad can happen to us and we can live as we want to live.’

  I nodded to Rose. Good girl. She understood.

  ‘Okay, that’s nice,’ Katie said, ‘but I don’t understand how that’s going to work. It’s naïve to think that we’re all going to go live happily ever after. What’s the plan, Lukas?’

  Now she was beginning to irritate me. She was asking silly questions and burdening the humans with worry. ‘I’ll explain everything in the morning, Katie. It’s been a long day and we all need to sleep.’ Then I sent a thought to her: Stop scaring the humans.

  Fee spoke then. ‘Katie, why don’t we let it rest now?’

  Katie opened her mouth to speak but then closed it and looked at the floor. Good. She was beginning to understand.

  ELLIOT, Tuesday night, autumn, 62 A. Z.

  WHEN ELLIOT FIRST saw Katie waiting for him, she seemed to him more beautiful than he remembered: large eyes set in a perfect, heart-shaped face. The rain had made her hair wild, and it stuck to her face and looked like ribbons of black ink, but Elliot thought she was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen.