Chapter Ten: Silver River
Hooked spines on the thing’s arms shredded her shirt and pierced her skin. Those skinny but powerful limbs closed around her and held her like a giant crab’s pinchers. Struggling only tightened its hold. Its chest opened, similar to an offspring’s, but instead of powerful shark-like jaws, pale gray tubes with pointed blue tips snaked out. It lifted her off her feet, while the tendrils stabbed into her neck and shoulders.
She was surprised by how little it hurt. Hot blood flowed down her chest and back. Whether she felt it or not, that had to be bad. She slipped from the thing’s arms and somehow landed on her feet.
She heard nothing but its sinister whispers, but they were growing weaker.
“Huuuurt.”
The thunking of spider legs into plywood, like knives on a cutting board, had faded into nothing. Blood flowed over her; much more than her small body could have held. It didn’t stick to her, though. It fell away like beach sand. She opened her eyes and saw what was left of the Skinny Man disintegrating into blue nanite powder.
Shocked to be alive, she touched her neck and examined the slashes on her stomach and shoulders. None of them were more than shallow scratches. The last of the nanite sludge sloughed away, leaving her dry and relatively intact. A handful of nanites winked out of existence on her skin, and the room fell quiet.
She saw no signs of the spiders, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hiding. Assuming the worst, she climbed down with a wary eye on the room and made her way to the pyramid of bones.
The odd assortment of items mingling amid the debris became more gruesome as she approached the pyramid. Human bodies in various stages of decay were buried in the trash. Spiders—real ones—crawled over everything, sending shivers up her back. The nasty little vampire bugs must be infesting the place in tens of thousands. Given a choice, she’d face offspring over a normal spider any time.
Nanite activity increased near the pile of bones. Interestingly, the tiny jolts they left on her all came from the outer parts of the room. They seemed to be flowing towards the pyramid.
With a plank from a broken pallet, she knocked the vile pyramid down. When the soft clatter of bones subsided, another body was visible beneath its ruins. Clothed in the tattered remains of what might have been a janitor’s uniform, it had the look of an unwrapped mummy. Stubborn, withered flesh clung to his bones.
Lanni knelt beside the corpse, wondering who would have done this, and more importantly, if they were still around. Spiders infested the bone pile, including several crawling across the janitor’s body. One of the little spinners crawled off of his dusty sleeve onto the janitor’s hand, and instantly shriveled into a desiccated, colorless shell.
Another dropped from his shirt collar onto his throat and perished in the same fashion. In both spots, the flesh where the spiders died looked less like wrinkled parchment and more like living skin. Was he regenerating? Why not? Offspring did. Why couldn’t he?
Another spider died on his hand, and his finger twitched, startling her. The movement drew her attention to something in his hand. In the poor light, or more accurately the lack of light, she could make out a foreign shape protruding from his clenched fingers, but purely visual details like color were indiscernible.
She put her hand next to his to test an idea, and was rewarded with more nanite impacts from all directions. They were drawn to the thing like a magnet. She wanted a better look, but as more spiders died on his bare skin, she decided touching him could be a bad idea.
She pried his fingers apart with a piece of splintered pallet wood, and the item tumbled loose. It was an irregular shaped disk with a wavy edge that looked like twisted rope. The janitor’s hand twitched again, a single finger reaching for its lost treasure. His dusty eyes peeled open with obvious effort, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to look around. Their familiar silvery shine identified him at once. This janitor was the Skinny Man.
Lanni felt her own energy surge as she reached for the talisman. It flashed a tiny spark of light at her touch, and felt ice cold in her palm. After a quick burst of nanites, it behaved like any other hunk of metal. The janitor’s shiny eyes stared into hers as they went dim. His skin crumbled to pale blue dust, and his bones collapsed in a dry, rattling heap.
Even though he tried to kill her, she couldn’t help pitying this unfortunate man. Had he been trapped in a cycle of death and revival as the Skinny Man after absorbing enough life energy from spiders? If so, his aggression might be better attributed to madness than evil.
On her way out, she spotted a huge blue recycling bin on wheels. It would take her a while to clear a path to the door, but she wanted to wait until the fighting was over to leave, anyway. She recovered her backpack, cleaned it off as well as she could, and filled it with cans of sweet potatoes and chunky beef and barley soup. It almost made her want to eat.
#
About an hour later, Lanni spent some time sneaking around, searching for signs of the young men. Some spent ammunition, discarded baseball bats, and smeared blood on the walls and floor were more signs than she wanted to see. A toppled wheelchair and drag-marks through the blood and ooze completed the picture.
Had one of them really been in a wheelchair? Crossing a single city block on foot was challenging enough, even without being hunted by monsters. Managing a journey of any length in this city without the use of legs seemed impossible.
She left the warehouse with her wheelie bin full of water, beer, and canned food. Barely able to see over the top, she alternated between pushing and pulling as the terrain required. By the time she reached the footpath on the Brooklyn Bridge, she had a new respect for the chair-bound adventurer. Ultimately, she supposed he didn’t make it where he set out to go, but he had earned her respect for trying.
Even with all of the evening’s delays, she might still get home in time to balance Alex and Tina, and maybe even Diane before dawn. For Alex, it could make the difference in whether he lived or died. Tina might be alright without Lanni’s intervention for another day, and Diane was in no danger of crossing the nanite line, but the earlier she reached them, the more effective her touch would be. She might even get an hour or two of rest.
Looking out at the river from the Brooklyn Bridge, she dropped a bottle of Red Stripe over the side. It tasted every bit as awful as the Heineken. If all beer tasted like that, she didn’t understand why anyone would ever take a second sip. These must have spoiled.
She’d bring them back for the colonists and let them decide what was worth drinking. They’d never know how these supplies reached their pantry, but that wasn’t the point. Beer was portable calories. If some of the colonists happened to enjoy it, too, then it was even better.
The moon peered through a gap in the thin clouds, painting the river in rippled white. She couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful finish to a not-so-beautiful day.
In the ghostly glow, a dark shape moved beneath the surface through the concentric rings around her beer bottle’s grave. It was huge, like a whale, and appeared to have limbs instead of fins and a tail. She hoped it never found its way into the city.
“Alright, John. Let’s talk logistics,” she said. “How many days will this add to the colonists’ supplies if they’re careful?”
“I already said they have enough to last, even without this haul. All we have to do is keep everyone together inside Sector Zero, make sure your brother doesn’t turn, and keep Tina balanced until she has her baby. After that, we’ll introduce ourselves and help them evacuate to the mountains. Simple.”
“Yeah,” Lanni said. “Simple.”
“Don’t get distracted, kid,” John said. “It’s as simple as you make it.”
She imagined him sitting beside her; leaning against him with her head on his shoulder. She knew he was just a collection of data Alex had harvested from the Con. John and Rumiko were the first implants her brother had done. Instead of just taking their martial knowledge and skills, he embedded their entire personalities in her head. She had gotten over the fact that her best friends only existed in her head.
They dangled their feet over the edge and watched the moon and clouds dance on the river. Moments like these were much more than a rarity, they were practically extinct. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the breeze and the imaginary company.
For a brief, precious moment she was just Lanni; just a fourteen year old girl from Goose Creek, South Carolina, sitting on a bridge in the greatest city in the world. She even let herself indulge in the dangerous luxury of doubt.
“John? What if something goes wrong with Tina’s baby?” They both knew what she meant by ‘goes wrong.’ As far as the colonists knew, they were the last humans on Earth. Trapped in a ruined city, surrounded by monsters, with dwindling supplies, their race’s only hope for a future rested with Tina. If her baby could be born normal, then others could, too. If not, the MPC was mankind’s death rattle.
“You’ve done everything you can do,” John said. “Tina’s baby will be fine. Or it won’t. Either way, those strong enough to go on will need you. They’re tired. But we humans are versatile. We can do amazing things, even when we don’t think we have any more to give. Keep doing your thing, and be ready for whatever comes.”
Lanni wasn’t given to depression. For that matter, she had been pretty flat, emotionally, since waking up in the princess room. The people she fought to protect, however, were suffering. She heard their fears and their hopes every time she walked unseen among them. Even though they didn’t know her, she felt like one of them.
“Just do what you have to do. There will time enough for worrying about pointless things later.”
He was right. Probably. As long as she kept Alex well enough to maintain the safe zone, and as long as she kept Tina’s nanites from spiking, they had a chance.