Cat Adams - The Isis Collar

There are laws about what you can bring into a hospital, so all I had were charm disks. I came on such short notice to comfort Molly that I didn’t even think about bringing my knives. Well, I wasn’t totally unarmed. I had a level-nine mage by my side.

And who needed more than that?

We rounded the corner and got our first look at the future of the city, and possibly the world, if we didn’t stop this disease. The man was big, tall, and bulky like a construction worker or pro boxer. He filled the hallway, standing still but sensing around him, searching for something to attack. His skin was black—and I don’t mean like an African-American’s, but black like something from the back of the refrigerator, where you would rather throw away the bowl rather than risk taking off the plastic wrap. What remained of his clothing was stuck to the goo oozing out of the lesions that covered his skin. Doctors and nurses surrounded him, completely baffled about what to do.

Bruno skidded to a stop beside me. I wondered what our options were. “Jesus. Is that the endgame of M. Necrose? I’ve never seen it.”

“Yeah. But he’s way worse than Principal Sanchez was. This guy’s eyeballs are missing. That is, except for what’s left dangling on his cheek. And for the record, eww. But he’s tracking the people around him.” One arm made a grab for a nearby nurse and managed to catch the fabric of her scrub top. She was quick, I’d give her that. She stripped out of that thing so fast you’d think it was burning. Her bra was snow-white, matching her widened eyes.

I could smell the death on him, but he sure was active for a corpse.

Bruno said, “I might not be able to pack the body-binding spell into a charm like Creede, but I sure can cast it directly.” I felt the hairs all over my body rise in unison as he raised power without half-trying. He whispered the words and I felt the energy leave his outstretched hands and fly toward the zombie in the hallway. “Corpus bidim.”

The spell should have frozen the man’s muscles, causing him to fall straight over and hit his nose on the linoleum.

Note I say, should. Because that’s not what happened. The power struck him all right, but, like a movie said when a nuclear bomb exploded uselessly against an alien ship, the target remains. Bruno got a shocked look on his face. One of the doctors looked at him and said, “Whatever spell you tried to cast … do it again. He’s still moving.”

Bruno cast a second time and the power he used not only raised my hair but also brought on a sudden bout of my hypervision. I really should have had a nutrition shake before leaving home. While I enjoyed drinking fruit or vegetable juice, they didn’t satisfy my hunger. I had to have either broth or a shake to keep the vampire down.

But the second spell likewise had no effect. I tapped his arm and he noticed my glowing skin and reddened eyes. Nobody else did because everyone was too busy watching the zombie, who was baring sharp-looking teeth and clawlike fingernails, all the better to spread the infection with.

“What the hell?” Bruno’s voice held equal parts disbelief and anger. He’d probably never failed at casting before, but I knew why as I stared at the zombie with different sight.

I tapped Bruno’s arm a second time. “I know what’s wrong—why the spell isn’t working.”

A doctor looked at me and his eyes widened. He reached for the cross around his neck as Bruno said, “Why? What can you see that I can’t?”

I pointed toward the zombie. “You’re casting one spell, against a single individual. But that is a million billion individuals, working together. He’s glowing with tiny dots of energy.” It was bizarre, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Each dot seemed to have the same bands of energy I’d see in a living person. “What else can you try?”

“Freeze, cut him apart … a thousand things. What do you think will work?”

I had an idea. It was on the theory of divide and conquer. “Crowd control during a riot. What works best?”

He shrugged. “Scatter, disorient the group. Make them…” A smile lit his face. “Make them disperse.” He walked forward, toward the doctors and nurses. “Folks, I’m an A and C cardholder and I’m declaring this an emergency. You need to find somewhere else to be. My lady friend and I can take care of this, but you need to be out of our way.”

Most of those present were happy to obey. Only two doctors remained behind. One of them, a middle-aged man with silvered temples, shook his head. “We can’t leave this man if he’s still treatable. Can you guarantee he’s deceased?”

I nodded. “There’s no blood flowing through his veins. His heart isn’t pumping and I can’t see any brain activity. There’s no fear center reacting to me. Is that enough for you?” I let the doctor see my fangs and red eyes. “Trust me. If he was alive, I’d know it. Frankly, just the scent of his skin is making me nauseous.”

Bruno raised his brows. “I’d believe the nice Abomination if I were you.”

The doctors looked at each other and without a word, turned and walked away, leaving us with the colony of disease that wanted to make us just like it/them. The empty sockets turned our way. “Okay, then. Crowd control. We’ll start with distraction.” I pulled several charm disks from my pocket and threw them hard at the floor in front of the zombie. Light and sound exploded and I went abruptly deaf. I knew the sound probably wouldn’t have any effect, but intense light is sometimes processed oddly by microbes. It could be good, or bad.

The zombie lurched away from the light and froze briefly, as though trying to figure out how to proceed. Bruno began a series of complex, targeted castings that I knew were intended to threaten each bacterium individually. The goal was to hopefully cause a threat response to our two attacks and force them to huddle together at the core of the body. I can’t really explain how I knew what we were planning, but I knew.

Bruno threw a spell that looked like a starburst firework. A thousand tiny points of light raced through the hall to hit the body, killing small groups of microbes. If Bruno hadn’t had a nearly unlimited amount of magic to work with, this wouldn’t work at all. But our plan was working, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I was running out of charm disks. If this guy had been my size and weight we’d already be done. But his sheer mass was making it take longer.

“I still have one of John’s binding disks. Do you think it’s weak enough yet for that to work?”

“I … don’t think it matters anymore.” I’d been watching Bruno, but now my attention snapped back to the zombie, which was apparently starting to feel desperate. He lumbered toward us, wildly flailing, with claws and teeth bared, making odd noises that weren’t words. We backed away. The guy’s arms opened wide enough to nearly touch each side of the hall. There wasn’t much room to move in the narrow space.

“Bruno, when I count to three, dive into the nearest room. Let’s see whether the little guys have pain centers.” I didn’t give him time to do anything more than open his mouth when I said, “One, two, three!”

He trusted me and reacted without question. He dived into an examination room and I bunched my leg muscles and pushed off from the floor. I sailed high, over the head of the creature, just barely missing smacking my head into the ceiling tiles. Arms reached up to grab my legs, but I tucked them under me and somersaulted over him to land behind his back. I kicked out and hit him hard in the back with every ounce of energy I had. There was a disturbing squish as my heel hit dissolving flesh. I heard a snap as his spine broke. He flew forward down the hall, skidding part of the way on one arm and his face. Bruno peeked his head out of the room and pursed his lips in appreciation. “Nice. Good hit.”