Or more monstrous, maybe.
She’d decided on the plan immediately after watching Benji inhale the spores. Abbie knew the timeframe, or at least guessed at most of it. Three days or so before he’d be overtaken by whatever was already growing inside him. Spores would explode from his eyes and nose and mouth, and he would be dead but moving. He would be violent and strong. No longer her son.
Watching him choke on the faint black cloud that surrounded his face, Abbie knew there was no other solution. But she’d been weak. When he’d turned his face to her, mouth damp and lax, eyes cloudy, all she could do was open her arms to him and hold him close.
“What was that stuff?” Benji had asked, but Abbie had not been able to bear telling him that soon he’d end up like his father and brother.
Instead, she’d shushed him. “We have to get out of here.”
But there’d been no time for that, because while she comforted Benji, Jordan staggered upright behind her. She’d seen Benji’s eyes go wide seconds before the pain in her head sent everything else away and the world went dark. When she’d woken on her front porch, she’d been so stiff and sore that at first she’d been unable to move at all. She didn’t know how long she’d been out, but long enough for spiders to have woven their webs in the crooks of her elbows and knees. Long enough for the blood under her head to have formed a stain on the concrete, no longer even sticky.
Long enough for Benji to have turned.
Abbie couldn’t recall when she’d decided on setting the traps. Only that the idea that had formed the instant she watched her son inhaling the spores, that she would take him and end his life as lovingly as she’d begun it, could no longer be possible. That she would have to be clever and ruthless and hard. That she would not be able to give up until it had been done.
She hadn’t counted on how hard it would be to catch them. She’d assumed they would be clumsy and stupid in addition to being angry and murderous. She’d thought, too, that even though they’d become something else, she was still their mother. Still bigger and stronger. Still faster. Even though Jordan had taken her by surprise that first time, she wouldn’t be so careless again.
She hadn’t counted on them being able to hide, or run. She hadn’t imagined the haunting, taunting sound of their laughter as they ran from her through the woods, leaping or climbing trees to get away from her. It had taken her a full week to accept that she wasn’t going to be able to simply find them and take their lives, then her own. It was going to take more effort than that.
Coughing so hard her vision blurred and she had to bend over, hands on her knees, until she could see, Abbie forced herself to wake up. All the way. She shook her head when the coughing eased. The backyard had grown wild and out of control, but she heard the shuffle-shush of bare feet in the bushes.
There was no point in calling out to either of them. They didn’t respond to their names. Whatever part of them remained was not enough for that. Also, it had become impossible to tell them apart. Both filthy and naked, whatever had made them different from each other had become lost.
Abbie looked up to the sky. Gray clouds scudded. Winter was coming, and what would she do, then? She’d been managing to survive on what she’d found in the pantry here, and the house had a well, so there was still water. She could probably find a way to get into town for supplies, if she wanted to settle in to weather the snows.
But she didn’t. She was tired. So tired.
She looked again into the woods, thinking of the times they’d all been out here on the deck for barbecues. Laughing. Back in the days before, when she and Ryan had been happy. Before she’d lost herself in the drink and given up everything she’d ever loved. Before, before, before.
Determined, Abbie went to the shed and got herself a shovel. She took it into the woods, a softish spot just below where they’d buried all their pets. On the slope of the hill in view of the back of the house, where she could easily watch it while hiding, herself. She dug into the earth and hit rock, the clang of it sending a tremor up her arm and shoulder. So hard it clicked her teeth together, and she bit her tongue.
From the woods around her, she heard the soft, muttered sound of laughter that had no humor in it. She ignored it and bent back to her task. This time, she would not fail. This time, she would make this work.
This time, Abbie vowed, she would take care of her children.
68
Hot water. Hot, unlimited water and real soap and real shampoo and oh, God, soft, fluffy towels. It was enough to send Kelsey into paroxysms of ecstasy. The food, she thought as she stood in line to pick up a tray, was something rather less than heaven. But it was hot, too. Steaming noodles, salty broth. The bread was hard and the green beans soggy, but she hadn’t had to cook any of it over an open flame, so there was that. Nor would she have to clean it up, after, at least not unless they assigned her to KP duty at some point, as she figured would happen.
Dennis had already been assigned to some kind of guard duty, which was why he wasn’t with her, now. He was off patrolling the corridors of this enormous place. They hadn’t asked Kelsey to do that. It was pretty sexist, though that wasn’t surprising. She looked around now at the rest of the people here, feeling a little out of place. Everyone had been surprisingly friendly, considering two strangers had shown up with very little to offer other than a couple carts of canned goods. Kelsey had expected a lot more resistance. Dennis had been surprised, too.
Two days they’d been here, that was all, but already things had fallen into a routine. Being here was much like being in boarding school. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. There were classes in Tai Chi and book club discussions, to which she’d been invited. Meetings about the running of the place, to which she was not, and that was fine.
Safe or not, warm or not, unlimited hot water or not…Kelsey didn’t think she wanted to stay here. Maybe through the winter. Take advantage of the safety and supplies, but after that, how could she spend the rest of her life in here? Underground, this same group of people. Nothing new. Nothing much changing. And, call her pessimistic, but Kelsey was pretty sure that eventually, sooner rather than later, someone was going to get on someone else’s nerves so much that there’d be trouble.
“Hi.” This was Maddy, her hair in twin pigtails. She had a broad smile and wore roller skates.
She kind of gave Kelsey the creeps, though she wasn’t sure why. Something in the kid’s eyes didn’t match the grin. Something in the way she had the run of the place didn’t seem right.
Something, Kelsey thought suddenly, about this whole place didn’t seem right.
The people were all too quiet. Too complacent. They all shuffled their feet and didn’t really look anyone else in the eyes.
“Hi,” Maddy said again when Kelsey didn’t answer. “I’m talking to you.”
Kelsey dragged a spoon through her soup and brought it to her mouth, blowing on it to cool it. “Hi.”
“You don’t like me.”
Kelsey gave the little girl a slow, steady stare. “I don’t even know you.”
Maddy rolled back and forth a little on her skates and put a hand on her hip. “Everyone knows me. Because I’m Maddy. I’m the boss.”
“Uh huh.” Kelsey had never been overly fond of children. She’d never planned on having any of her own, even if in that other lifetime she and Tyler had discussed parenting a brood. She sat back in her chair.
“You know, my dad says that when people join a group, they’re supposed to try to fit in.”
Kelsey kept her expression neutral. “Your dad’s right, I guess.”
“So you should try to fit in.” Maddy gave Kelsey another of those broad grins that didn’t seem to be real. “Everyone else here does what I say. So you should do that, too.”
“Here’s the thing.” Kelsey sat back in her chair with a broad, empty grin of her own. “I’m not much of a joiner…what was your name again?”
She knew the kid’s name all right. Names had power, and nobo
dy knew that better than a woman who’d chosen her own name to represent a new beginning. It worked. Maddy’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth pursed. She was pissed off.
Good.
“Madison! Maddy.”
“Well, Maddy. Why don’t you go on and roller skate somewhere else. I’m trying to eat.” Kelsey bent back to her tray, but before she could do more than lift the spoon to her mouth, Maddy had smacked it from her hand.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do!”
Kelsey turned slowly, slowly to face her. Nobody else in the cafeteria seemed to be paying much attention, and don’t think Kelsey didn’t notice that. How nobody even looked at them. How they all stared at the plates in front of them, slack jaws. Dull eyes. If she hadn’t seen the difference in people who’d been infected by those flowers, she’d have been convinced they were all dead.
“Next time you touch me, kid, you’d better get ready.”
Maddy set her jaw. There might be some strange shit going on around here, but she was still just a kid. “Like what?”
“Like you ending up being very, very sorry.” Kelsey said this in a soft voice, not whispering or trying to hide her words.
It was stupid to agitate the kid, who belonged here, when it meant possibly getting tossed out. But she didn’t care. Shelter and supplies, who cared, she and Dennis would be able to survive the winter someplace else. There were more important things than safety, she thought, watching Maddy’s lip curl back from straight teeth that looked like the kid hadn’t brushed them in weeks. This place was fucking weird, the kid weirder.
Something moved inside Maddy’s mouth. Something dark and wiggling peeked from her gums, disappearing before Kelsey had time to see it. When the kid opened her mouth to laugh, more things wriggled in the dark cavern of her mouth. Kelsey recoiled.
“What the fuck?”
“Language!” Maddy screamed, and punched Kelsey in the face.
Kelsey ducked as the blow came, so that Maddy’s fist skidded off her cheek instead of getting her full in the nose. It hurt, a lot, because of the still aching bruises and scrapes from being attacked by that freak who’d come after her on the road a few days ago. But the pain was far from the worst she’d ever had, and Kelsey grinned, spitting a little blood from the corner of her lip as she turned back to face Maddy.
“Go on,” she said. “Hit me again.”
Maddy swung again, but this time her fist connected with Kelsey’s palm. All around them, not a single person turned or stirred. Kelsey’s fingers gripped hard on Maddy’s, twisting, but damn, if the kid didn’t have a poker face. She didn’t give an inch. Even on roller skates, she held her ground.
The heat of anger was not an emotion Kelsey wasn’t used to, but now it rose within her so fast and hard it took her breath away. She’d been mildly annoyed before. A little concerned. But now, now, she was in a rage, molten with fury. Suddenly, she was so angry that her vision blurred, a red haze creeping around the edges as though she was going to pass out.
She was not going to pass out.
“Let go of me,” Maddy muttered.
“Fuck you, kid.”
Maddy’s eyes widened. Then narrowed. Her lip curled back, and even in through the haze of her anger, Kelsey knew enough to be horrified by the sight of black threads swarming in Maddy’s gums. Blood dripped, coating her teeth. She gave a low, guttering growl as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, showing the whites and also more of those black, wriggling things.
Kelsey jumped out of her chair, away from the girl, but now Maddy’s fingers were clutching her. Not letting her go. Kelsey’s feet skidded on the tile floor, but then she was standing tall and straight, ready to fight. She twisted her arm, getting under Maddy’s until she had the kid’s arm bending the wrong direction. She’d break the fucking thing, if she had to.
With another of those growling cries, Maddy launched herself toward Kelsey. The skates slipped, pitching her forward. Her fist connected with Kelsey’s temple, opening the wound that hadn’t yet healed. Blood gushed. Turning, Kelsey swept a foot to knock Maddy to the ground. The kid hit hard, knocking her head and rattling her teeth.
Blood squirted from her mouth. She’d bitten her tongue. Black things wriggled in the crimson, and the smell…oh, god that smell. That fucking rotten meat perfume combination. Kelsey gagged on it, not letting go of Maddy’s arm. Maddy kicked upward and out, the skate hitting Kelsey in the gut and knocking her back. Chairs scattered. Kelsey went down.
Maddy was on her a moment after that, hands around her throat. Mouth open, dripping that disgusting blood. She aimed for Kelsey’s mouth, but no matter how badly Kelsey wanted to scream, she kept her mouth shut. Lips sealed tight. She brought up a knee, getting the kid right between the legs and sending her back with a howl.
Then, they really went at it.
Teeth and hands and feet.Ripping, tearing, biting. Kelsey didn’t hold back, not even though the kid was half her size. They knocked over a table, and the clatterbang of it didn’t even turn a single head.
This was wrong.
Something was wrong.
This anger wasn’t right, it wasn’t natural, and though Kelsey tried to stop herself, there was no ceasing the hatred and loathing pouring out of her with every blow she struck. With Maddy on top of her, hands squeezing into Kelsey’s throat, all Kelsey could do was whistle in and out of breath for a moment or so while her brain tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Kelsey rolled until Maddy was beneath her, using a swift motion to get the girl’s hands away from her throat.
It wasn’t the first time she’d been choked, but there was never a good way to recover from it. Head whirling, she batted away Maddy’s hands and sat on her to keep her still. “Stop it. Stop!”
If anything, Maddy squirmed harder. Spitting and biting, she lunged toward Kelsey, who did the only thing she could think of to put the kid down. She punched her in the face.
“Stay down!”
Maddy’s head rocked back. Her mouth opened. Another of those awful, low groans sputtered out of her, but this time, something worse happened. Some kind of weird humming. Kelsey got off the kid and stood, backing away.
Every single person in the room had stood up. Heads tipped back. Jaws agape. That humming issued from every open mouth, and all the people swayed in unison.
Maddy got to her feet, strangely steady though the skates threatened to send her spinning. Her grin was hot and wide and full of blood. She spit out a solid hunk of something black that squirmed and writhed at Kelsey’s feet.
“We are becoming other,” the girl said. “We are becoming other we are becoming other we are becoming other…”
Kelsey didn’t want to get any of that shit on her hands, but she slapped the girl away from her anyway. “Other what? What the hell are you talking about?”
Maddy’s eyes had become blank, black pits overflowing with black and crimson ooze. That smell was back, the rotten meat stench of it making Kelsey gag. The girl went very, very still. Her mouth opened, as though she meant to speak, but before she could the door to the cafeteria opened and a woman burst through. Kelsey had met her once, just briefly, during a tour of the place when she and Dennis had first been welcomed inside. Her name was Candace, and she was also new to the shelter.
“Oh God, it’s happening again,” she screamed. “Anthony and Lira became those things!”
Kelsey knew the people she was talking about, had met them just as briefly. She grabbed the woman by the upper arms, trying not to shake her too hard but desperate to get some sense into her. “What’s going on?”
Candace gave Kelsey a wild-eyed look. “Before we got here, all the resurrected that were being pushed by the army out of the city —”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about --”
“They exploded into vines and flowers,” Candace cut in without giving an explanation. “They became those flowers!”
So that was why they’d found that bridge covered in dead vines
and flowers. “The resurrected did that?”
“Yes, and just before they did, they all started doing this same thing…Oh, God, oh God, I don’t want to die!”
Kelsey offered her no comfort. There was none to be giving. All around them, the room throbbed and pulsed with that sickening noise. Something was definitely happening, and she wanted to get out of there before it did.
“Becoming other,” Maddy said from behind them.
The humming stopped.
A high pitched whine came next, higher than any human voice should have been able to go. Kelsey clapped her hands over her ears. She took a stumbling step back, the anger and fear that had prompted her to go to battle with Maddy rising again. Something surged inside her, deep in her lungs, making her cough.
Blood hit her palm when she tried to hold back the gasps. It spattered the floor, bright red, untinged with the black wiggling things that had come out of Maddy. That didn’t mean anything, Kelsey thought. She’d breathed in those things before. They might’ve grown inside her, taken root, just remained hidden for longer than they did in everyone else. Swatting at her face, she shook her head like a dog trying to rid itself of a snout full of porcupine quills.
“All of us is other.” Maddy put out her hands, tipping her head back the way the rest of them did.
Kelsey broke and ran for the door. Just as she reached it, everyone in the room around her exploded into a mass of red tendrils, blue and purple flowers. The stink of made her want to puke, but she held it back. She covered her mouth and nose, remembering the other times she’d been around infected people. The flowers sprouted out of ears, noses, mouths, they burst through shredded skin and ran along the ground, taking root even in concrete and metal.
From behind her, Maddy let out one last long, garbled cry. “I thought I’d be the boss!” And then fell silent.