Mido remained lying facedown, a metal rod sticking out of his right shoulder with a chunk of cement still attached to it. She automatically reached for it, then remembered the wound would start gushing if she pulled it out. Instead, she moved to the cracked slabs pinning his legs, and tried to bodily lift them. She managed to heave one off, but had to use a two-by-four to lever off the other. Mido remained inert the whole time. “Stay with me, Mido.”
“I am,” he whispered. “I think both my legs are broken.”
Jessie wanted to roll him onto his back but feared causing more injuries. She lay with the side of her face in the dirt in front of his, then held Mido’s face and gently lifted it. His eyes were glazed over. “Stay with me,” she said in a thick voice. He put a hand over hers, tried to raise his head a little more, then passed out. “Mido?” He didn’t stir, so she patted his cheek. Her voice rose an octave as she called his name again. He still didn’t stir. “Mido!” Her eyes blurred with tears and she began to hyperventilate. This couldn’t have just happened. He’d been more or less fine a moment ago, but now he was—
Jessie wiped her eyes and checked for a pulse. She couldn’t afford to jump to such morbid conclusions so fast. She wanted to scream and give in to hysteria, but she couldn’t help him if she lost it. She felt a pulse in his wrist, then slipped a hand under his chest. His heart pounded out a steady rhythm. The beating brought her breathing under control, yet tears still kept coming. She held his hand and pushed away dirt so he’d have plenty of air to breathe, then fought to bring her emotions under control. If more monsters returned, she had to be collected enough to protect the both of them. She… the sight of his glazed-over eyes… her heart wrenched again. She squeezed his limp hand and forced herself to take deep breaths.
Rumbling in the distance snapped her to out of being able to worry. She flinched at the sound, then wiped her eyes and looked up. Another water serpent loomed over a pile of rubble a block away. Jessie flung her mind out to it without hesitation. Stop what you’re doing and listen to me!
The serpent paused in its attack on a building, then turned around. No words came from it but Jessie knew she had its full attention. It slithered down the road towards her, head low and bobbing side to side. The sight was frightening but she knew she wasn’t about to be attacked. She could feel curiosity coming from it. It wanted to know what her bidding was. It sent her a picture of the destruction it just caused and sent her an emotion of questioning. It stopped with its massive head mere feet above her, head bowed, black watery eyes on her.
Go find others attacking the town and stop them from killing more people and destroying Newport. She pictured the destruction and sent waves of sadness, then pictures of corpses coupled with anger, and finally envisioned the serpent killing the other monsters and a sense of gratification. Now go!
The serpent turned around and slithered down the road. A dozen nereids bounded out of a ruined building. The serpent dived on them, jaws wide, and killed them with strike after strike. Blood dripped from its mouth. A second water serpent slithered into the fray and the commanded serpent attacked the newcomer. The two began biting and coiling around each other, entering death rolls and flattening the town further. Jessie’s heart sank lower.
Kill the others but stop destroying the town. She resent pictures of the rubble coupled with sadness. She felt indifference in response. Her eyes stung with tears and she turned back to Mido for solace she wouldn’t find.
He was unconscious, still breathing, heart still beating. One of his knees was bent at an odd angle. What could she do now? All her attempts to thwart the monsters attacking Newport hand’t made a difference, and she didn’t know anything about medicine. “Cancer!” She doubted he was anywhere within earshot but she wouldn’t know, unless he showed up or not. People were searching the pile that used to be a hospital. They pulled out crying children, injured adults, and inert bodies. Two of the helpers looked up when she cried out, then broke from their search and ran to her.
Once they hit the dirt road, one said, “It is Jessie!” They sprinted over and knelt beside her and Mido. Ed and Ted, both of them bleeding all over and covered in dirt.
“Are you two gonna be alright?” Jessie said, soaking in their injuries. She couldn’t bring herself to ask them for help if they were in dire need of it as well.
“Better than Mido,” Ed said, looking at the cook’s broken legs and bite marks. He gingerly tugged at the cement block and looked at the metal rod buried in Mido’s back, then sucked in air through his teeth. “That looks bad, but I’ve seen worse. Lemme see if I can salvage a gurney.” He leaned over and kissed Jessie on the forehead. “Hang in there, hun.” He ran off.
“Where’s everyone else?” Jessie said.
“I wish I knew,” Ted said. He wrapped an arm around her and placed a hand on top of theirs. “Don’t worry about everyone else right now. Just stay strong for Mido.”
More tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. “I’m trying. I’m scared. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”
“No amount of worrying is going to change the outcome.”
“I know, but I tried to get the monsters to stop attacking while he protected me, but there were too many. This is all unfolding so horribly. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“Just stay alive and stay strong. That’s all we can do right now.”
It felt like we’d been fighting for ages. The milieu of injuries didn’t help. I was as in bad shape as the day I’d escaped, and so was Tethys. Our attacks were slowing, and time between bursts stretched out. I sent my thoughts out to Jessie after our latest stalemate of an outburst, both of us standing in the crashing surf.
How’s everyone and the town holding up? I’m trying to get back to all of you but I’m still stuck fighting Tethys.
Not good at all. Mido’s unconscious and badly hurt. Ed and Ted are beat up and we have no idea where the rest of the crew is, and Newport looks like a bomb went off. I don’t know what to do.
Just stay alive. Please.
We’re trying.
I needed to end this and salvage what I could of Newport and crew. I pulled my mind back to the fight at hand. Tethys still managed to look smug, even with one eye, and despite how much he was bleeding all over. “Tell me one thing,” I said, “how did you get cursed like me?”
His smirk broadened into a grin. “I’m not cursed; just reanimated. Pretty crazy stuff, but she came to the right person for the job. I’m here to bend you so you’ll break when she delivers the final blow.”
I began circling him so I could take in Newport’s destruction. We stood offshore of the southwestern tip of town, on the beach from my nightmare. Fires rose from various neighbor-hoods. The tallest things were rubble piles and trees for miles, my house somewhere in there. I badly wanted to run in and slaughter the monsters destroying everything. Tethys knew I wanted that, had to know. It had to be obvious, even with my draconic face. “What, you don’t get honors of the final blow?”
“To be brought back from death with power like this and a purpose so sweet and simple… she can have the final blow. You’re gonna have to try harder to get under my skin.”