Dead Set (14 page)

Zoe lay there and watched as her father joined a long line of people walking into the dark heart of the city, following the wail that filled the sky.

 

Nine

Z
oe couldn't stop her father. He was in a trance or under a spell or something, out of both her control and his. But she had to do something.

She sprinted down the beach away from the amusement park, zigzagging between the lost newcomers, moving in a wide circle to get a look at as many faces as she could. Then she saw Valentine, standing on the steps that led down to the beach, waving to her.

When she reached him, she tripped on the steps, but he grabbed her before she fell. “There's something wrong with Dad. He's hypnotized or something.”

“Where is he?” asked Valentine.

Zoe pointed to the mob of souls trudging into the city. “He's with them. He changed when the sound started.”

Valentine grabbed her and they ran after their father. “We can't let him get too far!” he shouted.

Zoe went as fast as she could, ignoring the pain in her ankle. Valentine, on his unsteady metal legs, couldn't keep up. Anger and frustration surged up in her. Didn't anything work here? Wasn't there anything she could rely on? She grabbed Valentine, putting his arm around her shoulders while she slid her arm around his waist. Together they ran as fast as they could, but when they turned into the street where the mob had wandered, no one was there. The wailing sound wound down, quickly dropping in pitch until it was gone. After all that noise, the silence that followed was deep and frightening.

“I think I know where they're headed,” Valentine said. “This way.” He loped away on his long legs and Zoe followed.

“Where are they going?” She was feeling tinges of panic now, more than she had since coming to Iphigene. “What's happening?”

Valentine pointed down a side street and they turned. “It's complicated.” Zoe had the feeling that he didn't want to answer the question, but it wasn't like yesterday when she'd badgered him with a thousand queries all at once. She got the feeling that something had frightened him, something that he didn't want to talk about, ever.

“Tell me,” Zoe said, her voice rising.

“Quiet. There are dogs at the corner.” They slowed their pace as they passed the black beasts. Having to walk so slowly killed Zoe. She wanted to sprint away, but Valentine kept a firm grip on her until the dogs were well behind them.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

“It's Hecate.” Valentine looked away from her and his voice dropped so low she could barely hear him. “Her children are hungry.”

Zoe took a quick step in front of Valentine. “What does that mean?” but Valentine wouldn't meet her eyes and stepped around her.

“You should go back to my house,” he said. “If it's what I think, there's nothing you can do.”

Zoe grabbed his coat and held him. “Valentine! Tell me!” she shouted. When he didn't answer, she grabbed her brother and shook him.

When he looked at her, his eyes were both sad and bright with anger. “Don't you know by now? You've seen how we are here. Ripped apart and thrown away like the garbage in the streets. Hecate's children need food and there's nothing to eat in Iphigene but us.”

From far away, Zoe could just hear the sound of the buses pulling away after dropping off their last load of new souls. A light breeze blew drops of cold water down from the damp roofs onto her face. Finally, Valentine's eyes shifted to meet hers. “I lied to you earlier when I said I didn't know what Iphigene meant. It means ‘sacrifice.' ”

Zoe stared at him, her mind racing. “Is that what happened to you?”

Valentine looked around before answering. “It happens to everyone. You're here long enough, you end up with debts. Some mistake you made. A favor someone did you. But it's never just a payment the city wants from you. It's a sacrifice.” He smiled, but it was cold. “And you're it.”

Zoe shook her head as if movement might force what she was hearing into a shape that made sense. “I've seen Father's room. He doesn't have anything. He sleeps on the beach. What could he possibly owe anyone?”

Valentine's expression went dark. “We need to keep moving,” he said, and started walking.

“What aren't you telling me, Valentine?” Zoe called. “Does it have something to do with me?”

He spun around, his hands balled into fists. “Shut up right now. This won't help anyone.”

He started away again, but Zoe grabbed him. He kept walking, pulling her off balance. Zoe ran up behind him and punched his shoulder. He turned on her and grabbed both of her hands in a powerful grip. “You fucking need to be quiet.”

“Valentine, please tell me what's happening. What debt . . . ?” she pleaded, her voice trailing off.

He took a breath and released her. Taking a step back, he pulled his coat tight around his body. “I think you know.”

“For me,” said Zoe flatly.

Valentine looked down and nodded.

“It was that day we spent together, when the city seemed so beautiful. Hecate made that for him.”

Valentine shrugged. “What's important is that he did what he thought was right. Trust me, he doesn't regret it.”

“I do,” she said. “I was only trying to help, but I made things worse.”

Valentine came to Zoe and put his stiff arms around her. “Father did what he did to save you from this.” Zoe's head spun. “We should go back to my house. There's nothing we can do here.”

“No,” said Zoe firmly. “Take me to him. If he's sacrificing himself for me, I want to be there with him.”

“We're almost there,” said Valentine, pointing. “He'll be in one of the buildings around that corner.”

“Let's go.”

“I can't,” he said. Zoe heard fear in his voice. When she looked, there were tears in his eyes. “I thought I could go there, but I can't. I'm afraid.” He stepped back, holding out his corroded metal arms. “There's so little of me left.”

She went to him and took his hand. “It's all right. I can go on my own from here.”

“You should come back with me, where it's safe.”

“I can't.” She kissed his cheek. It was wet with tears and sweat.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

“I love you,” said Zoe. Turning, she sprinted down the street and around the corner.

Zoe didn't know what she'd expected to find, but it sure wasn't this. Where the rest of the city was alive with crawling, growing buildings, this neighborhood looked like nothing had changed in a long time. The buildings were as twisted as the others, but they didn't move. They were grimy and stationary. On a street where sacrifices had taken place for a thousand years or more, she expected bonfires, a church, maybe some kind of mysterious icons. All she found was a street of dusty, dead storefronts, like a small town on an old black-and-white TV show.

Zoe walked along the white line in the middle of the deserted street, peering into the empty stores without getting too close. She threw her hand up in front of her eyes, going blind for a second as all the lights along the street blinked on at once. When she could see again she ran from shop to shop, searching for her father in every window.

At the end of the street in a place with
THE HALF MOON CAFÉ
painted in cursive across the window, Zoe saw her father. He was sitting by himself at a table near the door. He'd taken his coat off and tossed it in a heap on the chair next to him. As she watched, he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, too, tossing it onto the chair with his coat. Zoe saw other people in the café, men, women, and children, doing the same thing. All had the same glassy, resigned look in their eyes, and moved in slow motion, like sleepwalkers.

Zoe pushed on the café's door. It squeaked an inch forward and stuck. She pushed again, and when it didn't move, she slammed her shoulder into it. A few people inside looked sleepily in her direction. The light changed suddenly, grew dark for a second as if a hand had passed over the moon. When the lights came on again they were different, full of darting, jittery shadows that crawled on the walls like insects dancing before a flame. Zoe looked up and saw a dark, swirling mass descend from the ceiling. She stared in wonder as the mass broke apart. She realized then that it wasn't one giant thing she was looking at, but thousands of smaller things. They had the snarling pig faces and black membranous wings of vampire bats, but their bodies slithered through the air like snakes. Zoe slammed her shoulder into the café door and it burst open.

“Dad!” she screamed.

Her father's eyes met hers and went wide with fear. “Get out!” he shouted as a swarm of flying snakes settled on him like a boiling coat of writhing black tar.

The snake creatures chittered and squeaked in excitement, their voices high and painful in Zoe's ears. In a few seconds, everyone in the café was lost beneath seething piles of the hungry creatures. Snakes broke away from the pack and flew at her, tearing at her face and arms with needle-sharp teeth.

Zoe stumbled outside and ran back along the street. She stopped once at the corner to puke, but there was nothing in her stomach, so she just dry-heaved painfully. When she could get up, she started running again, heading back the way she'd come with Valentine. She ran back to the living, twisting buildings, over walkways that changed under her feet and through underpasses where the windows in sideways buildings showed her the inside of ghost kitchens and bedrooms. She ran until the pain in her leg forced her to stop. She looked around for landmarks. She was by a small park with broken benches and a jungle gym covered in cobwebs. Zoe didn't recognize any of it. She was lost.

She followed the empty streets back along a path that felt right, but that she knew in her heart wasn't taking her anywhere she knew. The streets grew narrower, the buildings older and more weather-beaten as she walked. The abandoned cars that dotted the other streets now became old single-speed bikes so choked with rust they were practically fossilized. Soon the asphalt gave way to wet cobblestones and the yellow light of gas lamps. This was an old part of town she'd seen earlier with Valentine, she was sure of it. If she could find her way through and back to her father's building, she knew she could get to the boardwalk and work her way to Valentine's home.

Along the way, she passed empty bakeries and a closed Laundromat full of rotting clothes. Occasionally, she'd catch a glimpse of someone ahead in the street, but they were always just stepping out of sight, turning down a side street or hurrying inside a building. The city was full of dead souls, but she hardly saw anyone. They're all hiding inside, she thought, afraid of their queen and her dogs. And worse. The image of her father covered in snakes flashed into her head and she had to push it out or she knew she'd scream.
Just get back to Valentine's. Get back where it's safe. Then I can think about it. But not now or I'll come apart right here and die.

Jewels were scattered in the gutter. Diamonds. Rubies. Sapphires. She stopped to pick up some pearls, and when she stood again she saw three black dogs staring at her from the corner. As she started to cross the street away from them, one of the dogs raised its head and snarled. The others turned in her direction, showing their teeth and letting out deep, rumbling growls. Zoe was sure that the way to the beach was down the street where the dogs sat, so she walked a few yards past them, giving them a wide berth, hoping she could circle back and around them. One dog rolled to its feet and loped toward her. The others followed.

Zoe remembered a mean Doberman that one of the neighbors owned when she was a little girl. The first lesson her father had taught her was to never run from a dog. Zoe turned to her right and walked steadily away from the hounds, forcing herself to keep an even, unhurried pace, even as she heard the pack's snarls getting closer. Her heart felt like it was trying to punch its way out of her chest. She tried to stay calm and breathe through her nose, but she couldn't get air, so she gulped in lungfuls through her mouth. Could the dogs feel her fear?

Something tugged at the hem of her coat. As it pulled, it growled. Zoe tried to keep walking, but the growling grew louder and the pulling became more insistent. She couldn't pull back because she was afraid of her ankle giving way and of falling. She knew if she did, the pack would never let her get up again. Zoe did the only thing she could think of. She stopped. To her relief, when she did, the dogs stopped, too. She felt the tension on her coat ease as the one pulling her let go. Then the snarling started again, deep-throated and deadly. The pack was spreading out behind her and moving forward, starting to encircle her.

Zoe stood her ground. She could hardly breathe and her hands shook. As the dogs moved closer they looked bigger than ever, the size of bulls or lions, but she knew that this was just fear playing tricks on her mind. She forced herself to stay still and not run. The dogs growl and let out small choked barks.
Almost like they're talking to each other,
Zoe thought.
And they're not going to wait forever
.