Peter Clines - Ex-Communication

Well , Zzzap said, that sucked. Thanks for not being too mean to the kid .

“I am never deliberately cruel, Zzzap.” She tipped her head and her cloak slid off her shoulders to wrap around her. “I saw him enter on my monitors. His mother is an active member of the After Death movement, and has used her children to gain sympathy in the past. It was simple to deduce she had arranged for him to make such a request.” She gestured at the doorway. “I will arrange for a guard detail on this building so you are not disturbed again. By children or adults.”

I can deal with grown-ups. It’s kids that are rough . Zzzap pressed his imaginary hands against his imaginary head. I feel like I just kicked a bunch of puppies and kittens in front of him .

“It is better he realizes the truth before his false hope grows too powerful.”

But it’s going to keep happening. Even if they don’t get in, people are all going to be thinking this and expecting it. And it’s all my fault .

“Some of it is, yes,” said Stealth, “but not all of it. It is a natural psychological reaction for people to turn to religion in times of crisis. As this is a never-before-seen type of crisis, it is only natural it should produce a unique response.”

Outside a trio of guards had joined the crowd. Zzzap could see the radios sparkling on their waists and the dim magnetic pattern of their weapons. The guards waved people away from the building’s door and they grudgingly moved on. He saw Todd walk away alongside a thin woman.

You guys thought I was crazy, didn’t you?

“Yes.”

He waited for her to say more. Another few dozen megawatts of power washed off his form while he did. The electric chair popped and buzzed in the huge room.

Well, thanks for being honest .

“Of course.”

I’m not, you know. Crazy .

“That much is clear now. I apologize for questioning your mental state, as justified as those questions seemed at the time.”

I’d think with all the stuff we’ve seen and been through, you would’ve given me the benefit of the doubt .

“One would think,” she said, “with all we have been through, you would trust us with a matter of such obvious importance.”

A few more threads of energy crackled off his arms and legs to snap against the copper rings.

I’m sorry , said Zzzap. I wanted to help him, and I thought he’d be able to help us. And I didn’t think you guys would’ve believed me until I could prove it. Especially you .

“In that, you are correct,” she said.

Another few megawatts arced from his body to the electric chair.

So , said Zzzap, what do I call you now?

She looked at him. “I beg your pardon?”

Are you Stealth while you’re wearing the mask and Karen when it’s off? Y’know like Batman and Bruce Wayne? Or can we call you Karen when it’s just us?

She glared at him.

The gleaming wraith put his hands up. I just want you to feel comfortable .

“Then you will continue to address me as you always have.”

He nodded slowly. Stealth it is, then .

Zzzap hung in the electric chair and she stared past him to the door. After a few wordless seconds she turned and walked away. Unlike the walk she had done for Todd, her boots were silent now.

So you actually know how he’s doing in school? he called after her. That’s not creepy at all .

She stopped and looked back at him. Her face shifted beneath the mask. “Before society collapsed, several studies showed boys between the ages of nine and twelve scored an average of fourteen percent lower than girls in English and reading classes,” she told him. “Double that percentage claimed English as their most difficult class. With a mathematically viable population of children, I saw no reason to assume those numbers had changed.”

And the bit about taking his sister’s doll?

Stealth held his gaze for another moment, then turned and walked back into the shadows.

CERBERUS PATROLLED THECorner on a regular basis. The guards liked seeing her. The rowdier folks were kept in line by the sight of the armored titan. It was a small enough area that she didn’t burn through too much battery life patrolling it. And it was far enough away from everything else that Danielle didn’t have to listen to people nagging at her about how much time she spent in the battlesuit.

The northeast corner had been a trouble spot when the survivors of Los Angeles started building the Big Wall. The Hollywood Freeway, often just called the 101, cut right across that part of the city. It was a paved canyon filled with dead cars that never moved and dead bodies that moved too much. There’d been some debate about whether the Big Wall should just avoid it. Some people had pushed for a zigzag path through residential streets. Others suggested running the Wall along Santa Monica Boulevard instead of Sunset, cutting the area inside by a third.

Stealth had brought the discussion to an end. She insisted on running the Big Wall along the exact lines they’d planned. “We shall not reclaim the city by avoiding challenges,” she’d said, “only by meeting them.”

She’d been right, of course. Making the Corner safe had brought together hundreds of workers. It was where the assorted peoples of the Mount, the South Seventeens, and Project Krypton had started to bond as a community.

The freeway ramps had been blocked by concrete traffic barriers set up years ago by the National Guard. The survivors added sections of chain-link fence that extended out along the sloping ground on either side of the ramps and also the overpasses that stretched above the freeway. Cars stacked two and three high pinned the chain-link in place. It wasn’t as solid as the Big Wall, but at the time it had been assumed the uneven ground would add to the barrier. The mindless exes didn’t deal well with hills, and more than a few of them tipped over before they reached the top of the ramps.

That was before the people of Los Angeles knew about Legion. In the months since, barbed wire had been strung along the top of the chain-link. Guard platforms were built at each ramp. Extra cars had been stacked to limit the possible ways through. Cerberus had stacked most of them herself.

It all left a small area of four blocks isolated on the other side of the man-made canyon. Not surprisingly, “the Corner” was where the rougher individuals among the survivors had ended up. A lot of the loners and former gangers lived there, and some of the soldiers, too. There were rumors of a black market, although what anyone could have a black market with nobody seemed sure. The one thing everyone knew was that the Corner was the one place inside the Big Wall where it was impossible to block out the sound of teeth.

Cerberus had seen the almost-pixie woman a few times before. Her dark hair wasn’t quite short enough to be a pixie cut, but Danielle didn’t know what else to call it. She was in her late thirties. Maybe younger—people had aged a lot over the past three years. She was skinny by build, not just in the way most people were skinny these days, and her clothes fit well enough to show off her figure, even with the stylish overcoat she was wearing.

Most days the woman stood on the overpasses and stared down at the exes staggering between the dusty cars and trucks. Every now and then she’d be muttering a prayer or talking to herself. It wasn’t unusual to see. At a distance, the undead were a good device for soul-searching.

This evening, though, the woman was on top of one of the stacked cars a half block or so from one of the guard platforms. It was a minivan with a broad roof, and she was cross-legged on the luggage rack, a heavy blanket under her. She looked down through the coils of barbed wire at the exes on the weed-covered slope. Her expression was peaceful.