The corpse sister’s hands reach for her bloated face and begin scratching.
“That’s right sweetheart, give yourself a good grooming.”
The poor dead woman emits something that sounds like a heartfelt sob.
My fear and anger build and I feel the same way I did when I created the flash that pushed Thresh away. I leave Thresh and enter something very strange. The world seems incredibly large and chaotic. My vision’s sharp but impossible to comprehend, the space around me divided into tiny slivers of vivid, colorful light. I realize that I’ve entered the damned fly. I dart around the room intoxicated by the ripe smell of Thresh’s sister. I want to revel in it.
My time in the fly’s mercifully short as I’m tugged back to the lodge. Bets is shaking me awake. My shift’s begun. “Amy, you look like shit. I take it you’ve been traveling again?”
I grab her wrist with my sweat-slicked hand. “Bets, we have about a day and then hell will be unleashed on us.”
Chapter 57 – Rebirth
Thresh will be here soon and we’re all exhausted and tense. We’ve taken to practicing our aim on the circus of dead animals circling the lodge. Gorian seems to enjoy the game the most, with a fondness for exploding raccoons. Theo aims for the possum’s tails. Like the human corpses, most of the animals are nearly frozen and rip apart easily. None of us talk about it, but the thought of the grub’s immunity to our weapons fire makes us wonder whether we’re wasting our time. Gorian assures us that the modern weapons at our disposal are far more lethal than the antiques we lifted from Troll. I wonder then, why our companions at the Fuerst had to flee Thresh so quickly and end up submerged in the brine.
Sam announces that a large number of cold, human-shaped targets are approaching the east side of the building. I peer out the window at the bodies. Most are naked but in remarkably good condition. We fire rapidly, covering the snow in a thick brown mist of body parts and inanimate fog. The bodies keep coming like a stream of ants. As the day wears on, the corpses begin spreading out, as if they are testing our defenses for weaknesses. At dusk in the lodge’s artificial light, the onslaught ends.
We stand in our windows waiting for the inevitable. A human shape appears beyond the lodge lights. Bets takes aim. Theo says, “No, wait.”
To my dismay and disgust, I recognize the figure as Thresh’s half-dead sister as it ambles toward the front stoop of the lodge. It croaks, “Amy Marksman.”
Looks of concern and confusion focus on me. I even sense it on the alien Iggy’s face. “She’s a messenger,” I say quietly.
I crack open the door and peek out. “What are your terms?”
“Join us.”
“What happens to my companions?”
“They live.”
“What guarantees do I have?”
“My sister does not lie.”
That’s not much of a guarantee coming from a living corpse. I look at the grey, shriveled creature before me with scratches torn across its face, searching for any sign of life in its eyes. The orbs stare through me, white marbles with no depth. I raise my rifle and finally send the poor thing to its grave. I yell back into the lodge, “I guess we’re fighting.”
The grubs appear almost instantly in the tree line. Gorian mutters, “Here we go.” She pushes a button and a blinding pink light flashes, billowing smoke next to a group of them. When the grey haze clears, we see that they’re gone. Theo whoops. Bets is less optimistic. “Theo, we only have a limited number of those. After one more charge, that part of the perimeter will be open. We need to concentrate our fire there.”
As she expected, the grubs begin to move toward the apparent gap. Gorian fires the second charge, immolating them. Bets commands, “Now that’s open space for them to advance. Keep shooting there. Hopefully, these things will look for another gap and we can blow some more charges.”
We use our rifles at the highest settings. The grubs seem to be irritated by the shots and don’t advance. A few look for other passageways through our perimeter. Additional charges explode as Gorian maintains our defense. To our dismay, Thresh’s live soldiers appear at the periphery. There are about a hundred souls and they look terrified. A pink charge ignites near them and about half are incinerated. The survivors run back into the forest.
“Regroup and advance,” a voice I recognize as Jonah’s bellows. Thresh and Jonah appear on horseback. More soldiers advance on the line. Thresh sends the grubs back toward the opening in our perimeter. They resist our fire and begin to spread out inside of the lodge grounds.
“Oh shit,” Gorian exclaims. “This is a circus.” She begins igniting a series of secondary mines, which the grubs ignore. We fire the few rockets we have at the creatures with no apparent effect. The living soldiers file in behind them, occasionally shooting flaming arrows at the lodge, with no effect. More mines ignite, blowing bits and pieces of Thresh’s human army across the bloody snow. The screams of the injured are appalling.
We pick off the live soldiers the best we can but they’re advancing quickly. The grubs head for the doors and windows. A pod of corpses overwhelm our fire and scratch at the outside walls. Theo exclaims, “There’re too damn many of them. What should we do?”
Gorian curses and says, “Sam, shutter us in.”
The doors and windows transform to metal with a satisfying thud, reverberating through the building. “How long do you think they’ll hold?” Bets asks.
Gorian shrugs. “The building’s built like a bunker with those stone and concrete walls. There’s a reason it’s lasted over a thousand years. Without explosives, they’ll have trouble getting to us. It all depends on how strong the grubs are.”
The sound of the siege outside is muffled. Sam streams images of the attackers on Gorian’s tablet computer. Thresh and Jonah tower over the soldiers on their horses. They’re clearly frustrated, shouting orders. The grubs have surrounded the lodge and scratch at the sealed openings, with no success. A few of the live soldiers climb onto the roof, discovering the surface is solid metal. They stuff a couple of corpses into the chimney, thinking that they might smoke us out. They don’t realize that we have an alternative heat and cooking source thanks to Sam. We close the flue to stop the stench from wafting inside.
Iggy sprays himself from a bottle. “We seemed to have bought ourselves some time.”
“But for how long?” Bets takes a long draught of water. “They’ll eventually figure out a way to get in here.”
I gaze at Thresh and her lover on Gorian’s screen. The horses that she and Jonah are using are Phineus and Silius. What else will this woman take from me?
After a few hours, Thresh and most of her troops recede into the forest. A few grubs and soldiers remain. The injured have long frozen to death, their bodies awaiting Thresh to revive them. The animated dead animals and humans wander aimlessly, to the disgust of their living companions.
“Where’d they all go I wonder?” Theo asks.
I pause for a moment. I can feel Thresh nearby. “They’re not far away. I gather they’re regrouping, looking for ways to break into the building.”
We hear a large tree crashing in the forest. Iggy nods. “There’s your answer. They are going to use a tree as a battering ram. An ancient, yet effective technique.”
Gorian perks up. “Sam, given the thickness of the security shutters, how will the entrance stand up to a two ton tree?”
“It is difficult for me to calculate accurately. Given the tensile strength of the shutter material and the concentrated force of the log, assuming it is a pine, the front door can withstand twenty to thirty impacts before buckling.”