Probability Angels: Part X

Probability Angels: Part 10

Probability Angels

Part 10: One Final Push

By

Joseph Devon

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(Please note: This story is the final part of a series of stories beginning with, “Probability Angels: Part 1,” and while it is designed to stand alone it does draw heavily on the foundation of characters and events that were created in “Probability Angels: Part 1,” and continued through Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Basically, I have to highly recommend that you start at “Probability Angels: Part 1” and continue on in order.

Or you can go here and buy the book or go here and view the book in its entirety.)

Mary opened her eyes. She reached a hand up and felt her forehead and touched something sticky. When she drew it away there was a matte layer of red blood on her fingertips.

She sat up and looked around, ungrounded fears sprouting up inside of her like weeds, and even though she saw the friendly surroundings of the Himalayan Mountains the fear inside of her kept growing and dividing and worming its way through her body.

Then her fear found a home and she began to remember the last few minutes before she was knocked unconscious, the screams in the night and the sound of things feasting in the dark prairie grass.

“Well good morning,” a voice next to her said, and she turned to see a tester looking at her with worry. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” Mary said, but her words came out weak. “That was stupid,” she said, cursing herself as she started remembering again. “That was so stupid…how many others followed me out to the train?”

“Five,” the tester next to her said. “And then Kyo went after you too of course.”

“And how many made it back?” Mary asked, looking up at the face next to her framed by the startling blue of the afternoon sky. The tester didn’t answer, not immediately anyway, and Mary cursed herself again and looked down. “They shouldn’t have followed me,” she said, her face wincing up into a brief flare of displaced anger at the testers who had followed her before passing over into more anger at herself. “They weren’t supposed to follow me out there.” She pressed the heel of one palm against her eye, squashing down the few tears that had started rolling. “That was just stupid. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Kyo only barely managed to get you out, Mary. And even that…”

“Well I obviously owe him some thanks for that.” She smeared away a few more tears then got control of herself with a deep breath through a sniffling nose and with a brave face she looked over the scattered testers on the mountaintop in search of Kyo’s hideous orange jacket. It was mostly empty; a majority of the forms were those testers who were sleeping off pushes from years, decades or even centuries ago. The only awake testers who were on the mountaintop were either those who desperately needed a rest from the fight, those who were needed up top to try and keep some base of communications going, or those who were deemed, by themselves or others, as incapable of surviving down below. “Or is Kyo back at Zach’s house?” Mary asked, her eyes going over an energetic conversation between three testers taking place a few yards away. “And what is going on down there?” she asked, more questions starting to appear on her face.

But the tester standing next to her was giving her a strange look.

“Mary, what is it that you think happened?” he asked.

Mary stood up, dusting snow off of her dress. “I know what happened,” she said with the wooden integrity of someone discussing a topic that they’re quickly realizing they don’t want to discuss. “I’ll be able to deal with the ones who didn’t make it in time, but for now-”

“Not them, Mary. You don’t understand what Kyo did?”

“I’m sure he sliced his way through any number of those things to get me out. I told you, I need to thank him.”

“No. No not at all,” the other tester said, running headlong into the awkward task of telling bad news to someone. “Mary, Kyo was having a difficult time getting you out…”

Mary half tuned the man out as she stared at the back of one of the other testers standing on the mountaintop.

“…you were surrounded and unconscious and they were closing in…”

And Mary’s skin prickled all over as the tester across the way with his back to her began to look familiar and unfamiliar at the same time as he constantly adjusted his crisp white shirt uncomfortably.

“…he couldn’t think of anything else to do to get you to safety…”

And she looked down to see that the tester was wearing a rather boring pair of nice jeans, a plain pair of nondescript sneakers, and then he turned, running a finger under the collar of his well tailored shirt and the Japanese features of his face came into focus.

“…so he pushed, Mary. There was a human next to you both with a broken leg and Kyo pushed him and then invited you up here himself.”

And Kyo fidgeted with the waistline of his jeans.

“…and he hasn’t been back down since, and of course nobody knows exactly what it means, but because things got so garbled when he came into being Kyo never had to push to get energy, he always existed outside of all of that and sort of coasted along on the sidelines, which is why the things were never able to touch him…”

And now the tester talking to Mary stopped and looked Kyo up and down himself.

“…but we’re guessing that that’s all over now.”

Kyo ran a thumb over his chin before reaching up and, for the third time since Mary had been watching him, adjusting the tag in the back of his shirt so it would stop itching him.

“We think he’s just like the rest of us now,” the tester finished.

Kyo noticed Mary staring at him and his eyes caught hers across the mountain and then he smiled. “Good. You’re up. How are you feeling?”

Mary didn’t respond.

—–

The marble floors of the museum glistened out through doorways in all directions, creating a space that both echoed and swallowed sound. A tour passing through could seem shockingly loud, while a couple laughing together one gallery over seemed distant and cold.

Bartleby led Epp along, past paintings and statues, through schools of art and eras of painters until they entered a side wing with a distinctly different flair from the rest of the museum.

“What’s this?” Epp asked, limping his way up to the first painting hanging inside the doorway.

“It’s a private collection. At first it was on loan to the museum, then it became so popular that a permanent agreement was reached.”

“And, why exactly are we here?” Epp asked, limping to the next picture, his face turned up, his eyes taking it in as he walked slowly along.

“You tell me,” Bartleby said.

Epp continued on, his cane tapping across the marble floor as he took in one picture after the other. “I have no idea. But I like this collection. It’s…” and he turned and looked at the other paintings all around, taking a more overarching view of things. “It’s varied. I see early Japanese works, some great Dutch masters, that one is a Di Cavalcanti if I’m not mistaken.” Epp stopped and turned to look back at Bartleby. “But I don’t quite get why we’re here.”

“Keep looking,” Bartleby said. He watched Epp, with good nature, obey. “What was the first man-made object to break the sound barrier?” Bartleby asked.

“I…have no idea, Bartleby. Some sort of rocket I guess? Or the plane that Yeager flew. That would have to be it, right? The Mach 5?”

Bartleby was managing to maintain an earnest face despite the inherent silliness he felt asking his questions, not to mention the awkwardness of Epp’s answers. “I don’t think that’s quite right,” he responded.

—–

“You have to want something,” Mary was saying as she took a misstep on the mountaintop and had to stumble forward after Kyo to get her feet under her. She was following him around as he chatted and asked questions of the few testers who were still up top.

“And Zach’s house is still secure?” Kyo was asking a tester seated at a card table with a number of phones scattered across it.

The tester sat back and threw a hand tiredly up onto the table, using it to shift his weight uncomfortably in his chair. “The house is fine, Gus is fine, they stopped trying to break in not too long after you came up here. There’s only been a few attempts and they were weak efforts.”

“They didn’t stop,” Kyo said, to himself at first, then repeating himself louder when he noticed people looking at him. “They didn’t stop. Hector has them back at the train regrouping. They’re organizing. They’re going to come back and when they do it’s going to be for real this time.”

He stood still for a moment, thinking, then was about to turn and say something when he drew up short, almost colliding with Mary, who was following him too closely. “Can I help you?” Kyo asked.

Mary, caught off guard, couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Never mind,” Kyo said. “Look,” he turned back to the tester. “Everyone is still playing around down there, right? They’re figuring out new ways to…” his face drew up as he tried to think of smart sounding things from areas that he knew little about, “…conflagulate atoms and hyperdrive probability waves and crap like that?”

“Some are getting good at creating electron shields through constant electromagnetic-”

“I don’t care,” Kyo said. “Does it stop them?”

“Yes,” the tester said. “It does a good enough job of keeping them out, but there are only a few who have the hang of it and they get tired after awhile. Everyone gets tired after awhile. The quantum tunnelers are getting sloppy with their probabilities, the weather freaks are trying their hardest to get that thunderstorm back but they’re having problems, the pulse friction guys are finding it harder and harder to keep up the molecular activity they need. Everyone is getting tired. And now that they’ve stopped coming it might be worse because everyone is still on their toes only nothing is happening. Everyone is getting weary and everyone is getting tired. Except, of course, for them.”

“They’re getting tired too,” Kyo said.

“How do you know that? We don’t seem to be making a dent, Kyo. We’ve lost a number of testers, but nobody has spotted a single one of them that went down and stayed down. We’re hitting them as hard as we can and it’s barely making them think twice.”

“You’re just all good news, aren’t you?”

“Not to mention that a number of our more creative types are useless. The thermodynamics people, for instance, need to be way too close to do their thing; close doesn’t work because if they manage to touch us it’s only a matter of seconds before they’re doing real bodily harm.”

“Keeps coming, doesn’t it?”

“There was of course, one clear advantage we had,” the tester said, looking Kyo up and down. “But he’s become one of us now.”

Kyo gave the tester a big toothy grin.

“Can I please talk to you?” Mary said.

“I’m right here,” Kyo said. “Talk.”

“Can I please talk to you alone?”

“I’m not going to enjoy this, am I?”

“Can we just please talk?”

“Walk and talk, Mary. Walk and talk,” Kyo said, moving off towards a different ledge.

“Why did you do it, Kyo?”

“I didn’t really think about it, Mary. I just did it.”

“But you…did you know what it would do to you?”

“I guess. Again, I wasn’t really thinking about anything. There was a lot of screaming. I needed to get you out of there. I got you out of there. End of story.”

“End of story?” Mary was appalled at Kyo’s flippancy. “Kyo, I owe you my life!”

“I thought you owed your life to your little Jesus friend.”

“Jesus isn’t the…stop changing the subject,” Mary said, realizing she was being baited. “I want to know why you saved me.”

“I’m really not enjoying this,” Kyo said. “I saved you. That’s all there is to it. Can we please move on? We have far more important things to deal with.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t possibly ever repay you for this.”

“It wasn’t a business transaction, Mary. And you really need to stop having this conversation with me.”

“I’m not comfortable with this level of obligation.”

“You’re an idiot,” Kyo said. “Drop it. You do me a favor one day. We’re even.”

“My choices,” Mary began with a waver in her voice, and Kyo squeezed his eyes shut tight and let out a painful groan, dreading where she was headed, “both of them wound up spiraling downward, one into liquor, the other into petty squabbles that kept her well shielded from ever having to actually do anything with her existence. I watched those two people squander their lives; those two people who I loved enough to give my life for. I watched them become an alcoholic laughing stock and an embarrassing zealot and I was appalled at what I had sacrificed myself for. And I always thought that if they had known, if they had been allowed to see what I gave up so that they would have the chance to exist, if they only could-”

“Point. Please for all the stars in the heavens reach a point!”

“I don’t want to become them. I don’t want to throw away my own second chance. I owe you my life; I want to know how to repay you.”

Kyo ran a hand down his face, tugging at his lower lip. “Just come on, we need to get to Zach’s house. Katie Packer is turning twenty-one tonight.”

“What?” Mary asked, but when she looked at Kyo he wasn’t paying attention. Instead a smile was spread across his face, boyish and happy as the wind sent little ripples over his pristine white dress shirt.

“What are you smiling at?”

Kyo held up a wad of yen.

“Kyo, newbies are the only ones who ever bother to actually express their energy in terms of cash. After awhile it gets a little old.”

“This is all new to me,” Kyo said, looking over the edge of the ridge to the lower platform of snow and sloping rock below.

“You’ve traveled before, though?”

“Not like this. Before I was just bumming along through other people’s trails. That was like hopping boxcars. This…” and his smile spread, a warmth covering his face that Mary had never seen before. “This is just something else entirely.” And he held up his hand, the yen in between his fingers fluttering then disappearing as Kyo vanished as well, the sound of his laughter floating away on the wind.

—–

Gus was standing in Zach’s bedroom. The rope at his hip led off into a bathroom. The sound of a shower running could be heard through the door.

The house resembled a construction site at this point more than a residence. There were testers in all parts putting up all manner of devices, some for communication, some for protection, some for surveillance, some for reassurance. In the yard outside was a string of testers standing in a loose circle at the edge of the lawn, their heads constantly scanning the brush and weeds all around them. Inside the safety of that circle were hundreds of testers running about.

“Can’t you talk him out of it?” Matthew was asking Gus.

“No,” Gus said. “That’s not what I do.”

“I know it’s not what you do but just this once I think maybe we can-”

“No.”

“What’s the problem, Matthew?” a new voice said, and both Gus and Matthew looked over to see Kyo standing by the window with Mary popping into existence a few seconds later.

“Hey,” Matthew said. The intercom had been buzzing for awhile now with the news that Mary and Kyo were on their way back, and he had heard them visiting with other parts of the house. “You two finally made it up here, huh?”

“Yes we did. Now what were you complaining about?” Kyo asked.

“But are you…are you still stronger than they are?”

“No idea. I think not, though. What are you complaining about?”

“But you can still jump around and stuff, right?”

“What am I, Batman? I’m just like you now. Only different.”

“You always say that.”

“He’s not sure what he’s capable of yet, Matthew, but we’re pretty sure he’s just a normal tester now,” Mary said.

“Thank you ever so much for clearing that up. Now what were you complaining to Gus about?”

“There’s a birthday party tonight,” Matthew said.

“So I heard. Katie Packer is turning twenty-one.”

“She’s having a party. A big deck party over at her house.”

“Wonderful. Keg beer in big plastic Dixie cups and teenagers barfing into the bushes. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Everyone was looking at Kyo, most of them were glaring.

“Well,” he said, “what’s the problem?”

“It’s going to be appallingly difficult for us to keep Gus protected. Moving with him and Zach when Zach goes to work is hard enough,” Matthew said. “But a crowded scene in the dark with tons of humans around?”

“Did we send anyone over there?”

“No,” Matthew answered. “Not yet.”

“You should have sent them over as soon as you knew about this party,” Mary said stepping into the conversation.

“We didn’t really know what Zach was going to do until a few moments ago,” Gus said. “Technically he’s not allowed to go the party as punishment for dipping into his parents’ liquor cabinet the other night, but,” and Gus plucked two thin lines up out of the ground, one leaping up much higher than the other, “it’s looking probable that he’s going to lie to them and sneak out. Pretend he’s going to a movie or something like that.”

“A couple of testers are getting ready to go over to the Packers’ house to start setting up.”

“Hector is bound to know what Zach’s social calendar looks like,” Kyo said. “Even if there was a slim chance that Zach was going to this party he’ll have people there watching the house.”

“Kyo’s right,” Mary said. “We need more than a couple of testers to go over there. For that matter, I want to go over as well. And I’d like to see all the new tricks we have.”

“Gladly,” Matthew said. “They’re getting ready in the front yard, we’d better get moving if we want to catch them.” He started to lead Mary out of the room, then stopped at the doorway. “Be sure and tell Kyo the rest,” he said. “I’ll fill Mary in.” Then Mary and Matthew disappeared.

Kyo walked over to stand next to Gus, who was looking out the window.

“What else is there?”

“Zach is in love,” Gus said. “Or at least he thinks he is. Or, to put as fine a point as possible on it, he could find himself in love tonight if I interfere.”

“Gus?” Kyo said.

“Yes.”

“Tonight you might need to start your push?”

“Look,” Gus said, and he grabbed a clipboard from a nail on the wall and handed it to Kyo.

Kyo began flipping through charts and photographs.

“The girl he’s becoming a little crazy over doesn’t really like him. At this point it’s nothing, really, but if he sees her tonight, at a big warm summer evening party and nothing happens for the umpteenth time…I could make it the last straw.”

Kyo continued flipping, his eyes running over the clipboard.

“If I don’t do anything it’s almost a given that he’ll just forget about her. Zach’s family is taking a trip up to see family in the city in a day or so. According to my numbers that trip alone, as things currently stand, would be enough to ease things up and lessen the girl’s memory for him. But-”

“But you break his heart tonight and it stays broken.”

Gus nodded. “Until he fights his way back, yes.”

“You really are a purist.”

“And look,” Gus said, getting excited, coming over to Kyo and flipping to a few well-thumbed probability photos. “The break that I could make here would send him off into near limitless possibility. If I don’t make the break he seems to just coast along on roads that were laid down by his parents years ago.” Gus had turned to a photo of a much older Zach working in his father’s paint store. “But here,” and he flipped through some of the, currently, less-probable photos. “I mean, look at this one! He could actually go into space.”

“It’s overrated.”

“Plus,” Gus said, plowing over Kyo’s words, “his best friend kisses a girl tonight who he winds up marrying in a few years. The combination of his friend finding his wife at this party while he loses his perceived love forever…it could be monumental.”

“Gus,” Kyo said, his tone somehow different from the current melody of conversation as he came in from a different angle. “Protecting you and Zach has been hard enough so far, the paint store alone was challenging, but we were able to set up there for a whole day before Zach went to work. We have mere hours to get ready for this party, it’s out in the open, and I’m near certain that, with Hector in charge, they’ll be far more organized and working in concert, instead of the rather ragged attempts to get at us that they’ve been employing. To top all of that off, you’re going to revisit your death tonight by pushing.”

Gus nodded, as if he needed to explain nothing.

“If Zach is strong enough, he could kill you.”

Gus still didn’t answer.

Kyo smiled. “I like it.”

“You seem awfully chipper,” Gus said, confused, expecting more questions or a lecture of some kind.

“It’s been a weird few days,” Kyo said, looking back down at the clipboard.

Gus looked Kyo up and down. “It’s going to take awhile to get used to seeing you in normal clothes.” Gus shook his head and looked over Kyo’s plain white dress shirt. “You must be nervous.”

“Not really.”

“Kyo, those things can tear you apart now.”

“We’ll see.”

“I think you’re being overconfident. Your difference from us was a huge part of who you are.”

“Who I am?” Kyo’s eyebrows drew down into angry slashes on his head. “I am Kyokutei, samurai of the Tsuwano Domain, avenger of my master’s death and terror of the Mitsukuni clan.” He turned to look at Gus and the dark emotion in his face made Gus stare down at the floor. “If you think I am ever going to stop fighting,” Kyo said, “you had better think again.”

Kyo’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and glanced at it. “Huh,” he said.

“What?”

“Third time this guy’s tried to get a hold of me.”

“Who is he?”

“I’ll go find out, then I’ll let you know.” Kyo stepped back from the window and drew a few crumbled yen notes from his pocket. “Man, do I love this,” he said. Then the notes fluttered and his body disappeared, his laughter the only part of him remaining in the room.

—–

“Italian,” Epp said, looking up at one of the larger paintings on the wall, a huge work depicting an ancient Roman festival. “Caravaggio.”

“Good.” Bartleby replied.

“Do I get an A?” Epp asked.

“Not quite.”

“Why are we here, Bartleby?”

“We’re looking for the rest of you.”

“And how long do I have to stay here?”

Epp had only half of his attention on Bartleby, the other half was poking about as his eyes flickered around at the doorway and the vents and the other end of the gallery, at all the possible exits.

The floor beneath Bartleby’s feet began to glow and two thin lines of bright radiant red crept out from where he was standing to draw a circle on the marble around Epp’s feet.

Epp looked down. The lines were hissing and throwing off an occasional colorful burst of sparks. He looked back at Bartleby. “Your show,” he said, and went back to looking at the art.

Bartleby studied him for a few moments, then the lines of hot glowing red receded back into his feet.

“What is the human body’s largest organ?” Bartleby asked.

“No idea,” Epp said without thinking as he moved on to another painting. “The liver?”

Bartleby sighed and shook his head.

—–

The water of the harbor was a multifaceted jewel of wavering orange as the lights from Sydney reflected off of the dark chop. Kyo moved along the brick walkway near the Opera House, the bridge across the water looming silent and large in the wee hours.

“You know you could have at least called me back,” a familiar voice said. “It wasn’t very proper of you to make me call you so many times.”

Kyo walked over to where Jonathan was sitting, looking ever the part of some historic explorer, khaki shorts over tanned calves over thick hiking boots.

“All of your friends are trying to eat all of my friends,” Kyo said, approaching slowly, his ears pricked up. “I think social etiquette allows for me to make you do some chasing.”

“You look different,” Jonathan said from where he was sitting on his bench, squinting at Kyo through the chilly Australian night.

“I got a haircut,” Kyo said, brushing aside the statement.

Jonathan squinted some more at Kyo, then gave up and sat back. “Well, about that whole, ‘My friends are eating your friends’ thing.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to do that anymore.”

“Oh?”

“Look, you have to understand, I was a rotted out shell. I had given up and clambered after my son and just wanted all of this to go away, I wasn’t really thinking too much and, well then I began to rot. And then Hector comes along and brings me back to health. I barely knew what was happening and then the next thing I know, here I am, in, what, my third round of existence, and this time the rules are that I have to eat other people? So, no. I just wanted you to know that there are a number of us who aren’t really thrilled with this, and that all of us aren’t at the farmhouse. And I’ll most likely relapse when I get hungry enough, but for now I’ve had enough of this, thank you very much.”

“Where are the others?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like we held a meeting. But I definitely got the feeling that not everyone was thrilled with all this.”

“And what are you planning on doing? How long can you last without feeding?”

“No idea.”

“You going to try and work out a different arrangement? Are you trying to get in touch with others like you? You should be figuring out where you stand. How you fit into all of this.”

“Oh, come off it. Nobody is going to listen to me and I don’t fit into all of this at all. I’m only one person.”

“You lost me with that last part,” Kyo said.

—–

“They’re here,” Mary said. “They’re definitely here.”

The back deck of Katie Packer’s house was a large wooden structure, nice thick cedar overhanging a large backyard that fell away into brambles and a brook. The same basic incursion of wildlife that was trying to creep up on Zach’s house was here, only Katie’s mother had created an outdoor seating area of nicely raked gravel and benches which was where the line between lawn and the outdoors existed.

Mary, Matthew and a few other testers were standing in the overgrown bramble of forsythias and low trees just on the other side of Mrs. Packer’s lovely little rock garden.

“Yup,” Matthew agreed as the trees rustled, the late afternoon sunlight danced, and the smell of rotting leaves filled the air.

There was a crashing sound, branches snapping and whipping and Matthew looked up to see a rotted thing dropping through the trees at them.

Teeth bared and decayed sleeves rolled up it toppled down in a somewhat controlled fall through the branches before its body jarred to a stop, its knees buckling as it toppled face first onto some invisible platform a few feet above their heads.

“I got him,” one of the other testers said.

The thing drew up, confused, and seeing them all standing, their heads craned up to look at him just a few feet away, it raised an arm and thrust it forward. Matthew heard two fingers break as its hand slammed into the invisible barrier and then the thing was rolled over onto its side, wailing in pain.

“Ow,” the tester holding it up said.

“You all right?” Mary asked.

“Yeah,” the tester said. “I just forgot for a second how strong they are.”

“Can you hold him?” Mary asked, still looking up.

“As long as electrons have magnetic fields.”

“Yes or no will do.”

“Yes, then. But holding back two of them would be a bit much.” Moving his hand slowly through the air the tester maneuvered the thing until it was no longer above them but was standing in the underbrush next to them. It reached its good hand up and slapped a palm up against the invisible barrier that it now knew was there. It looked like it was pushing against glass, but the thick slap of its rotted hand sounded more like it was banging against concrete. It slapped its palm once, then again, and Matthew realized that it was trying to get their attention. It slapped a third time and with one runny eye staring right at them it opened its mouth and let out a horrible shrieking scream.

“Shit,” Matthew said, turning around to look up at the Packers’ deck. He heard a screen door open and a girl, Katie herself he guessed, stepped outside, a phone to her ear as she talked to a friend, her voice boisterous, her tone happy, her footsteps taking her back and forth in front of four rotted corpses that were standing on the deck with her.

“Just stay calm and remember our roles,” Mary said, although Matthew noticed that her breath was slightly hitched as she drew it in and stared down the things on the deck.

There was a racket from the other side of the house and two of the things turned to listen.

“That’d be team two,” Mary said.

Some noise in the brush on the opposite side indicated the arrival of the third group of testers.

The things on the deck were sniffing at the air, slowly turning to look in all different directions.

“It’s getting late,” Matthew said, looking around.

“I know,” Mary said. “Hit them with some sound.”

One of the testers stepped forward and everyone in their group moved to stand behind her. She placed two fingers into her mouth, a perky teenager attempting to hail a cab in the big city, then she drew a deep breath and blew. Matthew watched as the thing trapped next to them screamed and fell to the ground, covering its ears, kicking wildly at the invisible barrier, the broken sole of its shoe slapping against it again and again and when Matthew looked up at the house he could see the sound waves piling the air up in front of them into a thick band of force that seemed innocuous until it connected with one of the things and it began bleeding from its ears. With a scream barely audible over the whistle, the thing rippled and disappeared.

The tester took her fingers out of her mouth before the sound waves reached the house. She caught her breath heavily, taking deep gasps through her mouth. “That’s one,” she said.

“That’s one,” Mary agreed. The thing on the ground next to them stopped kicking, gave them all the finger, then wavered and disappeared as well. “And that’s two,” Mary said. There was a squawk and Mary paused to listen to something coming over her earpiece.

“Okay,” she said. “We sit tight for a bit. One of the other groups is going to try some static.”

They watched as one of the three remaining things slowly lifted off the ground, then there was a loud crackle and a spark arced between the metal border of the screen door and the thing’s hand. As it screamed out in pain it dropped to the ground. By the time it was on its feet the other two things were thinking better of sticking around and all three of them vanished at roughly the same time.

“Okay,” Mary said. “Now we need to get this place ready for tonight.”

—–

“This is getting old,” Epp said.

“Don’t care,” Bartleby answered, taking a nervous nibble at a hangnail on his thumb.

Epp limped along, looking over a wall of paintings that he had looked at any number of times before. He wasn’t concentrating on the pictures, though, and was only staring off blankly as he reached down and squeezed his leg as he moved, wincing in pain.

“It hurt that badly?” Bartleby asked.

“So much worse now,” Epp answered. Then he looked over at Bartleby and his face was sharp in the museum lighting. “But it’s nothing compared to the hunger.”

“Go back to the paintings,” Bartleby tried.

“How long do you think you can keep me here?” Epp asked.

Bartleby didn’t answer, and although Epp was watching him carefully he couldn’t tell whether Bartleby was scared or ignoring him.

“I’m not one of you anymore,” Epp said. “You have to accept that.”

“I’m not one of you either,” Bartleby said. “And you have to answer for that.”

“Me?”

“You threw me to the farthest reaches of thought. You sent me as far away as you possibly could because I asked you to teach me something. What possessed you to do that?”

“You pissed me off,” Epp said. Then he turned back to the wall.

Bartleby stared at the back of his head, disappointment leaking out onto his face. “That doesn’t sound like Epp.”

“Epp has died twice now,” Epp answered. “And he really doesn’t care anymore. All he wants is to eat.”

“We seem to be getting further from Epp.”

“We’re going to be here a while, then.”

“What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs at evening?” Bartleby asked.

Epp didn’t turn back to look at him, he remained staring ahead at the large painting on the wall, but Bartleby thought he saw some sort of reaction in Epp’s shoulders.

“That one actually sounds sort of familiar,” Epp said.

“I guess that’s a start.”

—–

“You said this would be easy,” one of the things said to Hector.

“It hasn’t been?” Hector answered while maneuvering his large torso through a thin crowd. The train wreck was behind him in the distance, emergency and law enforcement crews still picking their way through it. Nyx was prancing along with Hector, sometimes beside him, sometimes in his wake when the crowd became too thick.

The hundreds of half and partly rotted things that had formed nothing but chaos around Zach’s house only a day before were now gathered and organized, most of them currently situated at this camp, waiting to be told by Hector what to do next.

“You never said anything about going hungry for this long,” the thing walking alongside Hector said.

“You had a snack,” Hector answered, the aluminum wreck of the train still visible in the evening light.

“Eating a human is like eating a tic-tac. That wasn’t exactly a five course meal.”

Hector didn’t answer for a few moments, he only walked along, and as the thing walked with him it kept glancing sideways at his unmoving face, at his mirrored sunglasses, and the thing got the impression that it was irritating Hector.

“So what happened at the girl’s house?” Hector asked, and the thing was glad the conversation had changed.

“They showed up. And they hit us damned hard. That was something else you never said anything about. Nobody told us they could fight back.”

“What did you think? They’d all just lie down and die for you?”

“Well nobody told me how hard they’d hit. One of them whistled at us, whistled, and Murphy’s ears still haven’t stopped bleeding. And another one of my guys broke two fingers trying to punch through some sort of thick layer of air.”

“They’re just using the same tricks we all know.”

“Well they’re using them well and they’re doing them better than I ever could.”

“That’s because they’ve studied more and you’re a useless waste of space. They are soft, if you get one hand on them your fingers will actually dig,” and Hector stopped talking, reached out and grabbed the thing’s arm and squeezed, “right into their skin.” The thing began to wriggle under Hector’s grip as it felt Hector’s fingers working their way into its bicep. “They are overripe tomatoes compared to you, and all you can do is sit here and whine.” Hector let go and the thing spun away from him. “What’s the matter with you? Are you too lazy to work for your dinner?”

The thing rubbed its bicep and stared at Hector.

“Besides,” Hector said, his tone moving towards pleasant, “now we know that they have to move Gus tonight. Zach’s going to this girl’s party, obviously. That means they have to split up. Which means they’ll be weaker somewhere. Which means that we can break through.” He turned to walk away, barking orders at Nyx as he went.

—–

A few hours later, Mary stood on the deck of Katie Packer’s house. “We ready?” she asked.

Their kind was everywhere, crowding the lawn, standing in the stream in the backyard. The house was filled with testers, the front yard had masses of them, and the driveway was row upon row.

“I think so,” another tester answered her.

“I agree,” Mary said. Then she heard the doorbell ring. There was some loud talking coming from the front of the house and some excited yells as Katie greeted friends loudly.

“I guess the party is about to start, anyway.”

“Has Gus left yet?” Mary asked.

—–

Nyx stood next to Hector, her cell phone clipped to her ear, the dark woods all around her were barely being kept at bay by the light stands set up around Hector’s table. She and three others were doing their best to field all calls and information, relay it to Hector, then sort out his directions and get them to the proper people.

“He’s moving,” Nyx said, shouting over one or two of the other operators.

Hector heard her, glanced down at the table where a map of the neighborhood was laid out. “I want the caravan hit hard and fast.” He looked up at Nyx. “But they’ve shored up the family’s car well enough so if nobody sees any weakness early on then I want everyone pulling back until he gets to the party. That’s where they’ve had the least amount of time, that’s where they’ll be weakest.”

—–

Zachary drove down the narrow tree lined road in his dad’s embarrassingly boxy car. He had picked up a few of his friends on the way, offering to drive for the night. The night was clear and the windows were open, but his passengers were fighting over control of his i-pod, constantly changing songs so that nothing got listened to for more than a few seconds.

Zach’s other passengers were fighting as well. Kyo dropped through the roof, falling onto his back between the driver and passenger seat as a fist punched through from above, stretching out to reach his chest, which he was doing his best to lower further into the space between the bucket seats. There was a piercing shriek, a painful scream, and the fist was yanked backwards, out of the interior of the car.

“Kyo?” Kyo heard someone yell. “That was the only one to get through the barriers. You all right?” Kyo pulled himself awkwardly up to a sitting position, embarrassed at how he had to struggle.

“I’m fine,” he shouted, getting his footing and climbing back onto the top of the car. He stood with two other testers on the roof as the car wove through the winding blacktop.

“You really should just stay inside from now on,” a tester standing on the hood of the car said.

Kyo didn’t answer, he only stared at the road receding into the night behind them.

“There it is,” someone up front said, looking ahead at Katie Packer’s house.

—–

“The car went nowhere,” someone shouted to Hector.

He turned, his face an angry frame around his mirrored sunglasses. “Speak clearly when you speak to me or don’t speak at all.”

The thing faltered and then ground to a halt, scared to open its mouth again.

Hector stared.

“What he means,” Nyx said faithfully, “is did the car itself go nowhere, or did our attack on the car go nowhere?”

“We attacked,” the thing said, “they beat our attack off. And now the car is at the party.” It glanced at Nyx, worried, hoping for some sign that it was back in Hector’s good graces.

Nyx ignored it and looked at Hector herself.

“Well?” she asked.

“All hands on deck,” Hector said. His voice was calm now and soft, as if in acknowledgment that at this moment volume meant nothing. As if this moment were out of his hands. “Cry havoc. Damn the torpedoes. Open fire.” He looked at Nyx, then at the rest of the things all around him. “Charge. And things of that nature. I want everyone we’ve got throwing everything they’ve got at that house.”

—–

A batch of teenage girls was talking next to the railing. A line was forming at the keg. Tiki torches were planted in the lawn along the gravel seating area.

Kyo looked around with appreciation. “See?” he said. “Keg beer in plastic Dixie cups. Do I know my humans or do I-”

There was a hollow booming sound that shook the windows on the house. The noise lingered in the air. The teenage girls kept chatting, the line by the keg kept moving, the tiki torches still flickered, but the hundreds of testers scattered throughout the scene were silent, looking around, trying to place the source of the noise.

Then it sounded again and word began to filter back from the front yard that they were under attack.

There was a harsh crackle, like an immense bug zapper going off, and the woods flickered with blue-white sparks.

“Back yard, back yard!” Kyo heard someone screaming over his earpiece.

He heard Mary whispering to herself and when he looked over she was staring up at the sky. A light breeze blew across the deck. Kyo looked up and saw that in the sky, higher up, the breeze was a gale force wind as numerous shadowy forms tried to drop in from above only to be buffeted away, their dark silhouettes blowing across a sea of stars.

Then there was another loud booming noise and the woods burst into a wall of sparks and Mary began to call for help. Nearby testers gathered with her on the deck and began to manipulate the air.

Kyo looked around with nothing to do.

—–

Epp was standing in the middle of the gallery, the main lights of the museum were off as it had closed for the day and only the dim glow of the emergency lights still existed to illuminate the room.

Epp wasn’t happy. “What do you want?” he asked.

Bartleby thought this over. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Why did you throw me so far out into the wild? Why did you send me to Mercury?”

“You irritated me,” Epp said.

“No. I don’t believe that. I mean, maybe I was irritating you, but you’ve been around for two-thousand years. I refuse to believe that me having a bit of a whine was enough to make you do that.”

“What answer are you looking for?”

“I want to know why you did it; you had to have a reason. You had to. You must have seen something; you must have known that I would make it back. There must have been a glimmer, or maybe I did well on one of your earlier assignments for me or maybe-”

“I saw nothing. I never see anything.” He was hobbling forward, his cane making angry thumps against the floor as he began to yell. “You were nothing special. For god’s sake I am so sick of that mentality. That you have to be special to be special. The biggest anchor on the progress of all humanity is the notion that good comes with clear signs, that greatness can’t possibly exist within the confines of an ordinary existence. I saw nothing special in you, Bartleby. I only saw that you existed, and so you had a right to be better than you are. That is it, and that is why I did what I did. The only thing holding you back was you and I was sick of it!” Epp screamed the last few words, his face drawn down into a livid mask.

Bartleby studied him, the anger not having had any effect. “That sounded a bit more like the Epp I know.”

But Epp was looking elsewhere now, first at one painting, then another, then at nothing as his eyes ducked to some far off corner to give him time to think. “That was the riddle of the sphinx,” Epp said. “What walks on four legs, then two legs, then three legs? That’s the riddle of sphinx and the answer is man. Four legs in the morning at the beginning of his life when he’s a crawling baby, then two legs when he’s an adult, then three legs when he needs a cane to get about.” Epp was moving again, limping down the rows of paintings.

Bartleby watched.

“And the answer to your second question is skin. The largest organ on the human body is the skin.” He made his way back to the center of the room and was spinning now, looking at canvas after canvas, noticing a glimmer here, a hint there, something lurking in the background.

“And the first manmade object to break the speed of sound was the tip of the first whip ever cracked.” And it slowly came together, Epp saw it easily now, moving from painting to painting, a face off to the side of a Renaissance world, a bowing head in a Dutch masterpiece, a centuries old Japanese print with a familiar smile sitting amongst the crowd in the background.

“And,” he finished his review, finding the common thread that tied all of the works in the collection together, “I am in every single one of these paintings.”

“I knew you’d see it eventually,” Bartleby said. “And,” he asked, taking a tentative step forward, “how do you feel?”

“I’m remembering a lot more now. A lot more.” Epp nodded, looking over each painting again in turn, smiling as he took in the scenes of his past. “And I feel a lot more powerful.”

“Yeah?” Bartleby asked.

“Yes.” Epp said. Then he turned away from the paintings. He put a hand on his thigh and began gathering up his pant leg, tugging it up over his knee. He smiled at Bartleby who was looking down at Epp’s still-rotted limb. “But I’m still one of them, Bartleby. Nice try, though,” Epp said, beginning to limp his way forward.

Bartleby unknowingly took a step backward as Epp came to stand in front of him.

“But you’re whole again,” Bartleby said.

“No,” Epp answered. “I just remembered how powerful I am again. I’m still one of them and I’m still hungry.” He placed a hand on Bartleby’s shoulder. The significance of this went unnoticed by Bartleby at first.

“And I remembered something else,” Epp said.

Bartleby looked at the hand on his shoulder, then at Epp, then back at his shoulder where he concentrated as hard as he could, smoke starting to waft up from his shirt. Epp’s hand started to smoke as well as a ring of red started to creep up his wrist. Then the ring receded back into Bartleby’s shoulder and Epp’s hand stopped smoking as Bartleby gasped in pain.

“In the grand scheme of things, Bartleby, it’s not that hot on Mercury.”

Bartleby’s knees gave way and he fell to the ground. Epp stood over him, then stepped over him, and then walked out the door.

Bartleby got himself into a sitting position on the floor as he rubbed his shoulder. “Damn it,” he whispered.

—–

“I think it’s time,” Gus said. He was calm, his attention focused entirely on Zach, who in turn was focused entirely on a girl across the room who was flirting with some random guy. “This is going to just kill him.”

Kyo was only half listening, his phone was out and he was typing away at it. The sound of the fight outside, crackles and booms, the feel of the house shaking under his feet, the smell of warm ozone in the air, all went on without him.

Kyo finished his message, then closed his phone and looked around, irritated. “I hate this,” he said through gritted teeth. “I haven’t stood still for this long since I don’t even know when.”

His phone buzzed and he opened it, read a message, then went back to texting.

“Who are you talking to?” Gus asked.

“Nobody,” Kyo said absently as he typed. “Some math enthusiasts.” He finished his message again and again flipped the phone shut with irritation. “I just don’t like being useless.”

“You’re fragile,” Gus said, taking a few last measurements on Zach.

Kyo stared at Gus, his eyes answering for him.

“It’s time,” Gus said again.

“You be careful,” Kyo said. “We can protect you from them, but if you go too far on your push, this kid’ll be the end of you.”

Gus nodded. “It is a far, far better rest,” he said with little emotion, as if the words had been running through his head all day. Then he raised a hand and reached out slowly towards Zach’s body. Zach was taking a drink, staring at the girl over his cup.

Kyo thought he was able to actually see the boy’s eyes deepen as he heard Gus start to choke. Kyo turned to look at Gus now and saw him fall to his knees, his hands at his throat, struggling to draw in breath as he revisited his own death. There was a whining sound, like a hand being rubbed too fast over corduroy, and, as Kyo watched, a thick band of red rope burn raced across Gus’s neck.

Kyo was about to step forward when there was an unfamiliar noise outside, then a strange bout of silence, then everything in the house went strange in a familiar wavy way. Kyo’s eyes closed, his head lowered and he shook his head. “Hello, Epp,” he said. Then he turned to walk outside.

Out on the deck things seemed to have frozen. The party was still going but most of the testers and things on this side of the house were standing still, individuals instinctively creeping towards larger groups. And the silence was spreading around to the other side of the house.

Kyo walked along the deck and looked out over the battlefield, over the wounded and the dead.

There was another strange sound, and then a wave came rushing out of the woods, rippling the ground and rushing across everyone present, silencing most lingering conversations.

“I recognize that,” Matthew said with relief. “I recognize that,” he said louder and walked to the edge of the deck to get a better look. More testers caught on and more people began crowding to the edge, more happy yells were heard across the lawn and some of the things took a hasty step back, then disappeared.

“That’s Epp,” Mary said.

“Sort of,” Bartleby said, and most of the testers on the deck turned to look at him. He waved off a number of questions and ducked around Mary, who was looking at him angrily.

“Where have you been?” she said.

“With him,” Bartleby said, looking out into the woods.

“He’s too far gone, isn’t he?” Kyo asked.

Bartleby nodded.

“What?” Matthew said. “What does that mean? It’s Epp, right?”

“It’s Epp,” Kyo said, “but he’s one of them.”

Epp emerged from the woods and into the gravel garden. He looked around at everyone staring at him. He gave the ground an abrupt tap with his cane and another ripple billowed out from all around him. “If you’re wondering,” he said, “I can make those a lot more powerful, so why doesn’t everyone just settle down and pay attention.”

Some of the things around him, picking up on what was going on, began to whisper to each other, and some fell into step behind Epp as he limped his way forward.

“I’m hungry,” he said, and now the crowd began to really react as emotions began turning the other way, “and I don’t feel like dealing with any-”

There was a piercing whistle and Matthew watched as compounded sound waves rippled their way towards Epp, who reached a tired hand up and brushed them out of the air. “And I don’t,” he said louder, “feel like dealing with any nonsense. I know everything all of you know, not to mention about a billion other things. So we’re just going to cut all of this nonsense now.” He reached a hand up and began to pat at a layer of thick air that was currently walling off a section of the lawn. He put his palm up against it and pushed, and the invisible wall fell over. “Now here’s how this is going to go…”

Epp went on.

Matthew stared down at the deck. “I can’t do this,” he said. He shook his head. “I really can’t do this. I’m done.” And he walked through the crowd and down the steps onto the lawn.

Epp was still talking, slowly limping his way forward, dismantling the various barriers in his way as he walked onto the lawn. And Matthew thought he heard some people on the deck shouting after him, and he thought he saw some of the things that he passed turning to come after him, but then there was a warm glow all around him and he was standing with Epp inside a knee-high burning circle of fire.

“Matthew,” Epp said, looking down at him, “what do you think you’re doing?”

Up on the deck Bartleby elbowed people out of the way, then jumped over the railing and down onto the lawn to get closer to the fire he had created where he’d have more control. He brushed past a thing, which burst into flames, causing all the other things to keep their distance.

“What the hell is that idiot doing?” Bartleby asked, struggling to keep Matthew safe, having protected him purely through instinct at first.

“Matthew,” Epp said inside the flames. “Get out of the way.”

“No,” Matthew said. His face looked sick and he wore a stubborn frown. “No, I’m done with this. Just fucking eat me or whatever the hell it is your kind does. I give up.”

A crease spread across Epp’s forehead and for a moment he looked like his old self. “Where is your backbone, Matthew?”

“Where’s yours?”

“Matthew, you have no idea what this hunger is like.”

“No. I don’t. And I don’t give a fuck either. I have no idea what is going on. I mean none. And I don’t care anymore. I give up.” He took another step forward and stood in front of Epp. “Kill me.”

“What was it I ever saw in you?” Epp asked, disgusted. “How can you let yourself quit like this? You are nothing but a disappointment.”

“And you are nothing but a disappointment to me,” Matthew said. “I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to be doing. I’m not a weather guru, I’m not a math genius, and I’m not a god or a freaking ninja. I’m a nobody from Brooklyn. I loved my wife and I love my daughter and I like this place enough to stick around without either of them to try and do some good. But in the end I would never have made that choice if I hadn’t thought that you’d be there to help me. But that’s not about to happen, so I’m done. Because of you, I give up.”

“Matthew, you don’t get to blame your actions on me,” Epp said, indignant. “I have nothing to do with how you live your life.”

“You have everything to do with how I live my life. You are the entire reason I’m here. The entire reason half of these people behind me are here. What the hell did you think you were agreeing to by bringing us along? Where do you get off thinking that you can back out of our agreement?”

“We never had an agreement.”

“You were my teacher. And I’m still your student. But I guess not really, so fuck it. If you give up, I give up.”

“Matthew I can’t possibly be anything but one of them now. I need to eat. I’m not one of you anymore.”

“You can be both.”

“I can’t-”

“If anyone can be both, you can. If you can’t, no one can. If you give up, I give up.”

“Matthew I-”

“If you give up,” Matthew screamed, his finger jabbing at his own chest over and over again, his voice completely out of control, “I give up!”

Epp stared at Matthew.

Outside Kyo was standing next to Bartleby, studying him as he held control over the ring of searing hot earth protecting Epp and Matthew. Bartleby grunted and Kyo’s head snapped up, looking at him with alarm, mistaking the sound for Bartleby losing control. “What?” Kyo asked when nothing drastic changed in the situation.

“That’s probably a better part of Epp to go looking for,” Bartleby said. “The part I brought back needed a little tempering.”

“What part did you bring back?” Kyo asked.

“The part of him that was an unbelievably arrogant asshole.”

Kyo nodded. “In your defense, that was probably the easiest part to find.” Kyo looked over at Bartleby again. “They can’t hurt you, can they?”

“Not really.”

Kyo nodded. “I need to borrow you when this is all over.”

“What?” Bartleby asked.

Epp shifted his weight slightly, maneuvering his cane to take the load off of his bad leg.

Matthew, coming out of an irrational angry haze, took a deep breath and repeated himself. “If you give up, I give up.”

Epp looked at his former student with unguarded eyes. “The hunger is so strong it hurts, Matthew. I don’t know if I can keep myself under control.”

Matthew shifted uncomfortably, part of him recognizing that, for a few seconds, their roles were reversed. “If anyone is going to figure this out, it’s you. You’re not one of them. Maybe you’re not one of us, either, but you’re not one of them.”

Standing deep in the woods, Hector saw the change clearly. He listened for a few seconds more as Epp shouted something to the pudgy kid dressed in black standing outside the fire. Then, deep inside Hector’s massive frame, a hollow note of fear was perfectly struck. “We’re not strong enough,” he said quietly to Nyx, standing next to him. “Come on. Follow me.”

They both disappeared.

Kyo was the next to see it. Staring over the flames he watched Epp’s face. Then he took his phone out and held it up. There was an electronic sound mimicking a camera’s shutter. Kyo looked down at the screen. “This thing takes the worst pictures,” he said. His thumbs clacked over the keypad as he typed a message, then he shut his phone and turned towards Bartleby. “Okay,” he said to Bartleby. “You can let them go.”

“Are you serious?” Bartleby said.

“Very. Let them go then you come with me.”

“Where are you-”

“Epp’s back. That means a lot. They’ll be fine, and we have more important things to do.”

“I’m not going to leave them here.”

“Follow,” Kyo ordered, then he blinked out of existence. The order was so strong that Bartleby let his fires go out and disappeared after him.

As the heat and the sparking red lines in the lawn receded, Epp remained standing, staring at Matthew. There was some motion behind him as one of the things crept forward through the path Epp had created. After a few hesitant steps, it began to move faster, then it ran past Epp and jumped towards Matthew.

Epp waved his hand in the air and the thing slammed into the earth, looking exactly as if a giant hand had swatted it out of the air. Epp turned to see more things starting to creep through. He held both his hands up and the things stopped, another invisible wall appearing in front of them, but a large number of them had gathered in Epp’s path and they all began to push now, throwing themselves against Epp’s wall hard enough to make his dress shoes slip back a few yards on the damp grass.

“Help!” Epp screamed, and the small cease fire his arrival had caused disintegrated.

Testers went flocking to Epp as the fight became more and more centered on plugging up where Epp had broken through.

Mary was standing on the deck, shouting orders and walking through Katie Packer’s friends as they brought her birthday cake out. Mary’s face was flickering in the candlelight as she glared down at the lawn. “Where did Bartleby and Kyo go? Whatever Bartleby was doing it sure would come in handy right about…” her hand went up to her earpiece and she clamped her other hand over her ear, trying to listen. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

A few other testers were shouting, then more, then Mary was standing at the side of the deck as a few testers pointed over her shoulder. There were bright lights just past the southern barriers and she saw a large group of things headed their way. Only, instead of joining in and trying to break through, the new group of things was sweeping across the rear and digging into their own kind.

“Whose side are those guys on?” someone shouted.

“Ours I think,” Mary said as she watched a man dressed in khaki shorts over thick jungle boots close with a couple of the more ratty looking zombies.

—–

Hector and Nyx reappeared at an old factory on the outskirts of town. A massive brick smokestack loomed over an abandoned storage lot. They made their way through the weeds and debris and entered the huge building that sat vacant on one side.

Hector was nervous, his eyes darting everywhere as he walked, constantly looking behind them at the night.

“Where are we going?” Nyx asked, stumbling over something as she walked across the first floor of the building.

“We’re not strong enough,” Hector said.

“You keep saying that,” Nyx answered, a bit of panic in her voice. She flicked a lighter and a little flame appeared spreading a small circle of light around her. Looking down she identified the object she had tripped on as an old dusty filing cabinet.

“We need to be stronger. Epp is back.”

“Well, yeah.”

“So if there was another way to get stronger, we’d have to try it.”

“Yes. But all the testers are back at the deck party and dining on humans is barely worth the energy it takes to chew them up.”

“So if there was a third option, we’d be obligated to take it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’m glad we agree.”

Nyx flicked her lighter again, trying to make her way through the room. The small orange glow in her hand created a soft wavering circle of light, illuminating Hector looming over her from behind, hunger in his eyes.

—–

“Where are we going?” Bartleby asked. “They need me back there.”

“They can mop up just fine,” Kyo said. “You and me have more important things to do.”

“Like what?”

Kyo didn’t answer.

“Like what?”

“Just be quiet for a minute.”

“So you brought me out to the middle of nowhere so I could be quiet? Because you were bored? Because you don’t like not being the baddest-”

“Shut. Up.”

Bartleby was quiet, which seemed even more distracting to Kyo. “I can still track them. And you can kill them.”

“So what are we doing?

“We’re looking for Hector. He never showed up at the fight.”

Bartleby was quiet again. “You can really see where they go?”

“Not as well as I used to, but hundreds of years of riding boxcars doesn’t just disappear overnight. There,” he pointed off into the distance. “I think that’s his trail.” Kyo squinted into the night. “That’s odd, though. There are a few single tracks from all over the place headed in the same direction.”

“So he fled and took his most important people with him.”

“No…no they all go one by one, like they were called separately. Come on, they go over this way.”

They reappeared at the abandoned factory and made their way into the looming structure at the south end.

Walking through the dark, Kyo drew a flashlight out of the air. “Now,” he was turning to say something to Bartleby when Bartleby tripped and stumbled to his knees.

Kyo stopped walking and played the beam of his flashlight over the floor. The light stopped and Kyo grunted.

“What is it?” Bartleby asked, getting to his feet.

“We found Nyx,” Kyo said, shining the flashlight over more rubble and debris. “And there are others.”

“Who did this?”

“Hector. He’s feeding.”

“How much strength can he get from his own kind?”

“I’d imagine it’s somewhat more than from a human, somewhat less than from one of us.”

Bartleby’s eyes followed Kyo’s flashlight as it moved around the room, picking out one bloody mess after another. “Kyo,” he asked, “Hector was the first one that Gregor brought back, right?”

“Most likely.”

“And we don’t know how long Gregor was bringing him along. It could have been decades. It could have been centuries. I mean, has anyone ever actually gone up against Hector?”

“Not that I know of.”

“But, even without the addition of these things…how much had Hector fed?”

Kyo was thoughtfully moving the flashlight across the bodies strewn through the great messy floor. “We need to get out of here.”

“Yes, we do,” Bartleby agreed.

“No, you don’t,” Hector said.

“Oh fu-”

There was a small flare of light as Hector pinned a hand to Bartleby’s shoulder and attempted to rip his arm off, a tiny spate of light that burst and then receded as Bartleby and Hector exploded apart from each other and Bartleby went skidding across the floor.

“Let’s go,” Kyo said, grabbing a dazed Bartleby while Hector roared behind them. And, for lack of a better idea, Kyo threw both himself and Bartleby into the elevator shaft.

It was pitch black as they fell, and Kyo felt at least one errant wooden beam in their path that they broke through as they plummeted. And he had just enough time to realize that he wasn’t entirely sure how to steer himself in such a situation anymore when he felt himself slowing down, then stopping, and then his feet touched down on solid ground and he was standing at the bottom of the shaft.

“Hot air rises,” Bartleby said, somewhere next to him.

“Come on,” Kyo said.

“Come on where?” Bartleby asked as Kyo took out his flashlight.

“I don’t know,” and they both heard the elevator, somewhere far above them, start to move. “I completely lost my bearings and we’re at least three floors below ground. But we’re a little trapped down here so we’d better figure something out.”

He played his flashlight around the walls, not seeing anything of particular interest. “So, now you’ve grappled with Hector,” Kyo said. “How powerful did he seem to you?”

“That was worse than Epp,” Bartleby said. “Kyo, if he goes back to the fight he’s going to be the most powerful thing going.”

“Then I have good news,” Kyo said, listening to the elevator cranking. “He’s coming down here to kill us instead.” Kyo played the beam of his flashlight over a pile of old stainless steel sinks, a bunch of rotted cardboard boxes and a number of other things leftover from when this place had served a purpose.

“What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know. Anything. Something. I just wish I could see better.”

Kyo stopped moving his flashlight as a soft glow filled the room. He looked back and saw that Bartleby’s body was emitting light. “That’s a new one,” Kyo said.

Bartleby shrugged.

Kyo went back to looking through the debris. “Can you make it brighter?”

Bartleby obliged.

Kyo stared thoughtfully down at the stainless steel sinks. “Brighter?” he asked.

The sound of the elevator grew louder.

—–

Mary watched from the deck as the situation turned. It was like watching birds reel in flight or a school of fish break apart, a huge number of things suddenly no longer working as a unit, shattering apart into individuals. The testers were giving chase and the things were being set upon by all sides. Some were retreating, most weren’t making it. Matthew was standing next to her, pointing and talking to the other testers who had been relaying orders.

Epp appeared alongside Mary, out of breath, his suit rumpled but a smile on his face. “I need a break.”

Mary, suddenly too tired to react with any real emotion, only nodded.

There was a thumping sound as a pair of heavy boots tromped up the wooden stairs of the deck. “Right then,” a resonant voice said. “My name is Jonathan and ah,” he broke off in a happy yell when he spotted Epp. Some partly rotted but not very threatening things were coming up onto the deck. “And there he is, I told you he was here, lads,” Jonathan said, turning back to those following him. “When word got out that you were back and were going to figure all this out, I had a hundred of us or more on the phone in no time. Now, what is it you have planned?” Jonathan said.

“Can we try going back to testing?” a voice behind him said.

“How do you handle the hunger?” someone else asked.

“If anyone else needs protecting, I’d sign up for escort duty,” a third chimed in.

“I’m sorry,” Epp said, “we’re obviously grateful for what you did out there, but who are you exactly?”

Jonathan looked perplexed. “Kyo said we should find you. He was very clear on that.” Jonathan flipped open his phone and scrolled through it. “Come find Epp,” he read, “he’s looking for new students.”

“I-”

“Damn it!” Someone inside swore loudly. The words ripped through all conversation. Even Katie and her friends seemed to react to it on some level.

A good portion of the group began to crowd nervously inside. Matthew, shoulders jostling with Epp, Mary and a few people who smelled like dead leaves, made it through the door, then stepped to the side for more room. He walked slowly as the crowd formed a circle in the living room. Picking his way through towards the front Matthew knew what he would find.

Zach walked, literally, through the crowd, his face despondent, and Matthew turned to stare at him as he stormed outside, his hand swatting a cup of beer off the railing of the deck and Matthew found himself growing furious at the boy because the whispers coming from the testers around him made it clear what they were looking at. Matthew made his way to the front of the group and looked down. Gus’s dead body was stretched out on the living room rug where he had strangled, his pale face haggard in death. A few whispers lingered in the air while outside the party went on.

—–

Kyo flew through the air and crashed into the pile of sinks, scattering them with a crash as he slid across the floor. He pushed himself onto his knees and breathed in, then snuffled and cupped his hands under his face as he felt his nose give way with an embarrassing flow of blood. He wiped a forearm across his face and stood up onto two wobbly legs.

Kyo squared his feet and faced the elevator, another wipe across his face leaving a dark red smear on his crisp white shirt.

Hector walked forward slowly, his flashlight trained on Kyo as he ducked into a fighting stance. Hector closed the distance and Kyo tried a punch but Hector caught a hold of his arm and lifted him up so Kyo’s feet were dangling inches above the floor, at which point Kyo tried a kick, but Hector was hefting him in his hands, not noticing any of this, a puzzled look on his face.

Kyo began pawing at his face. Hector laughed and grabbed one of Kyo’s arms. He snapped it in two. Kyo collapsed to the ground, gritting his teeth in pain and Hector threw a kick into his stomach that sent Kyo backwards into the wall where he slid slowly to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. Kyo’s mouth opened as he collapsed into a sitting position and tried to breathe through a mouthful of blood.

“You’re one of them now, aren’t you?” Hector asked, taking his time as he walked over towards Kyo.

Kyo’s head was rolling on his neck, sliding to one side, then the other, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he started to gray out. His fingers were closed around an object. He ran the tip of his index finger over it as the room came back into focus. Reaching his working arm up behind him to brace himself, Kyo struggled to stand up. He managed to get his feet under him again, and, one arm hanging uselessly at his side, he once again got into his usual fighting stance.

“You’re nothing,” Hector said, smiling. “You’re less than nothing. You’re like a day old one of them.” He was laughing now. “And you really think getting into your little fighter’s stance is going to help?”

Kyo’s fingers squeezed around the object in his hands and he felt himself graying out again.

“You are nothing!” Hector roared. “You have no power!”

Kyo bounced Hector’s sunglasses a few times on the palm of his hand before tossing them aside. “And you have no eyelids,” he said thickly, “so I think we can call it even.”

Kyo shut his eyes and turned away as the room burst into a light so bright everything became colors and even with his eyes shut, his face turned and his good arm up over his head Kyo could see red splotches as he listened to Hector screaming.

Then everything went dark.

“Was that bright enough?” Bartleby asked from the other side of the room.

“I don’t know,” Kyo mumbled, “is he blind?”

“He’s blind.”

“Then it was bright enough,” Kyo said, his eyes still a mess of red swirls. As he blinked over and over he heard Hector tumble into the pile of sinks.

“Kyo,” Bartleby said. “Kyo, come on.”

Kyo heard Hector stumbling around somewhere near the elevator.

“Kyo, he’s in the elevator. Kyo, come on.”

Kyo mumbled something.

“What?”

Kyo could feel the various parts of his body trying to pull themselves together, and then he felt his palm slipping down the wall.

“We have bigger problems right now,” Kyo said before blacking out.

—–

The car drove down the four lane highway in the early morning of summer. Concrete barriers flew past on either side and an onramp floated in from the right to merge with the pavement. There was a rise ahead and as the car breasted it the river came into view, then the bridge, then the city.

Kyo stood on the roof, his head tilted back, a wadded up tissue shoved up under his upper lip. “This is just too perfect,” he said to Epp who was standing next to him. “You get beat up by a zombie, you get a limp. You get to wander about with that bad-ass cane. You get a signature. I get beat up by a zombie and I get recurring nose bleeds.”

Epp smiled as he watched Kyo gingerly take the tissue out and test to see if his nose was still leaking blood. Kyo sneered at the red mess on his hands and shook his head.

“So does that make you hungry?” he asked Epp, holding out the tissue.

Epp nodded. “A little bit, yes.”

“That’s foul,” Kyo said, tossing the tissue out into the wind.

There was a rumble as a tractor-trailer passed the car on the right.

Kyo’s phone rang. He took it out and gave it much the same look he had given the tissue. “Honestly,” he said, mostly to himself. “I really never signed up for this at all.” He flipped open the phone and nodded as he read the incoming name. “Bartleby, of course.”

Kyo punched back a reply as the car merged yet again and the steel span of the bridge appeared directly ahead of them.

“The guy believes every single person who tells him they’ve seen Hector. This is never going to end.”

“He can be a challenging student. But don’t blame him; you shouldn’t have given him a white whale.”

“I fucking loathe Melville,” Kyo said, putting his phone away. “Plus I’ve got Mary calling me every ten seconds. I’m not sure how she got it into her head that I’m in charge of her.”

“You love it.”

“Shut up. They’re supposed to ask you for advice. They’re supposed to go to you with their problems.”

“I think I have my hands full for now, which is entirely your fault, so I’d really stop with the complaining.”

“Yeah, how’s all that going?”

“Jonathan thinks he might try a small push later this week. We’re all eager to see what happens.”

Kyo’s phone rang again and he glowered out at the passing river, his face flickering in shadow as the car passed under the steel crosshatch supports of the bridge. “I should go take care of this in person.”

Epp nodded.

“See you around,” Kyo said. He turned and shouted towards the rear of the car. “I’m taking off, Matthew.”

“Okay,” Matthew’s voice called up over the hum of the tires on the bridge.

Kyo flickered, then disappeared.

Epp watched the river moving past for a few seconds, then walked towards the rear of the car himself. “You almost done?” he asked, looking down at where Matthew was sitting on top of the trunk of the car, his chin resting on a fist as he looked into the rear window.

“Yeah,” he said, standing up, his body sore from sitting too long he stretched his back out. “He’ll be okay.”

Then he stared off into nothingness for a few seconds, his face going blank.

“What are you doing?” Epp asked.

“Nothing,” Matthew said innocently.

“You just can’t resist leaving a note, can you?”

Matthew didn’t answer; he only slipped his hands into his pockets and looked up at Epp.

“Well, now what?”

Epp stared off at the gray-blue river passing underneath him. “Come on,” he said finally. “We’ve got work to do.” Then his form wavered and he disappeared.

A few seconds later, Matthew followed.

Inside the car Zach was listening to his parents arguing over how best to punish him for lying to them and going to Katie’s party against their explicit instructions.

His father had the upper hand and Zach was sure that this was going to spill over into his visit with his cousins. But he didn’t really care.

He tuned out his mom and his dad and sat back in his seat and watched as the car left the bridge behind.

There were a few large lit signs strung along the side of the highway to warn about inclement weather or upcoming traffic or construction. While his parents argued Zach stared out through the window and read about what radio station they were supposed to tune to in case of emergencies.

Then the sign flashed and a different message appeared detailing upcoming construction.

Then the sign flashed and it was a message written to him. Zach jumped and stared out the window with his mouth open.

“Zachery Tyler,” the top of the sign said, and not quite sure what he was seeing, Zach continued reading as the next sign, and then the next as well continued the message. It was just a few simple sentences but for the first time since leaving Katie’s party there was something other than sourness inside of him.

Then the last sign went past.

“Did anyone see that?” Zach asked.

“See what?” his dad barked angrily.

Zach thought for a second, then waved it off. “Nothing,” he said, sitting back into his seat. He hadn’t been sleeping well the past few nights and he wasn’t inclined to bring up the fact that he was now seeing things with his parents who were already overreacting to everything else in his life. He wriggled his hips trying to get comfortable, then tilted his head until it was pressed up against the window and as he watched the city coming up in front of them an unexplained sense of dread filled him and the notion of an infinite chasm stretching out in front of him came into his head, like there was nothing but obstacles in his path, and he grew scared. Then, like an undercurrent of warmth in a deep lake, something further inside of him stirred, something more nebulous and distant, something impossible to lock down, but for the briefest of instants while he felt it near him he was able to believe that everything would be all right.

There was a repetitive clicking noise as the car’s blinker turned on and while the highway traffic roared on past the car moved over to the far right lane, eased onto the next off-ramp and disappeared into the city.

—–

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