Monster Planet(113)

Ayaan wasn't sure what to do. She had turned on Sarah and all of her past. She had found a new cause to believe in. Yet if the Tsarevich was dead, who would rebuild the world? What was she giving her allegiance to? If Enni could remake the world and save the human race, if she truly believed he had it in him, then she had no choice but to obey and kill Sarah.

She grabbed Sarah's bound hands and helped her stand up. There were ghouls everywhere, their eyes dead, their lipless mouths open wide. 'He's not a good man,' she shouted into Sarah's face. 'But I saw him show compassion once, for some people who were barely even human. I don't like betraying him, but that's what it's come to.' She tore at the knots that held Sarah's hands. Her fingers were too dead and clumsy. She gasped in frustration'then realized that the rope was made of organic fibers. Careful not to damage Sarah in the process she fed a little of her energy into the rope and it withered in place until it was so thin and insubstantial Sarah could just pull her hands apart.

Sarah rubbed at her wrists for a moment'they had chafed so much she had bled a little'then threw her arms around Ayaan and held her tight.

'I didn't expect a hug from the girl who crossed half a continent just to put a bullet in my head,' Ayaan said, laughing a little.

'When I do it, when I sanitize you, it will be an act of love,' Sarah muttered. 'Can we not talk about it now? There's a mini-apocalypse to worry about.'

It was true. There were hundreds of ghouls in the valley and perhaps half as many living cultists. The ratio was getting steeper with every second. Enni was cutting swaths of destruction through the undead forces but he was just one lich. The cultists were fighting back and their firearms filled the air with noise but they were disorganized and as much danger to one another as they were to the ghouls'especially since the latter were all wearing bulletproof helmets.

“I don't understand,” Ayaan said.

“What's not to understand? The dead eat the living. Did you forget?”

Ayaan waved Sarah's sarcasm away. “This close to the Source they should at least be distracted. At least some of them should be moving toward it, not toward the food.” She shook her head. “It's as if some power is compelling them to attack.”

It had all happened so quickly'the instant the Tsarevich had perished the ghouls had become their own creatures again. They had reverted to their violent, mindless selves and once again succumbed to their terrible hunger. They acted as if the Source weren't there at all, as if this were any other place in the world.

Whatever forces were moving them didn't matter. If someone didn't get the situation under control it was going to be a massacre. Ayaan lead Sarah over to the flatbed and crawled up on top of it. 'This way,' she shouted, and at least a few of those still alive in the valley heard her and looked up. 'Come on, retreat, out the way we came. Come on!' she shouted it again and again, as loud as her undead lungs would make it.

A teenage boy broke from the crowd and ran toward the flatbed. Ghouls chased after him but they were slow and clumsy without Enni's power behind them. The boy ran right past the flatbed and into the pass beyond, back the way they'd come. The road was down there. If he could find it maybe he would survive long enough to find some shelter.

It was the best solution Ayaan had. 'Come on,' she shouted again. 'Fall back!'

One by one the living broke away from the dead, their legs pumping, their eyes wet with horror and shock. They had been promised so much. Now they had to start over again, from scratch, in a country few of them had ever seen before. 'This way,' Ayaan screamed.

A band of ghouls came at the flatbed but Sarah was ready. She brought the heavy machine gun around and cut them to pieces before they could climb aboard.

Ayaan kept shouting even when the flow of living cultists had all but stopped. When she realized she was just wasting her breath she looked and saw that the valley was full of nothing but ghouls. They faced her like a ragged army, their helmets shading their eyes, their wicked arms held at their sides. She had stolen their prey. And yet it wasn't her they wanted. Enni stood in the midst of them. He had lost his staff somewhere. His hands lifted and swung at the air as he tried to dampen the ghouls' energy but he was clearly exhausted. He had used up everything he had, and while the Source was radiating life energy from no more than a thousand yards away he was about to collapse.

One of the ghouls came up behind him and swiped at his back. The sharpened bone of its arm tore off a strip of green cloth. Two more ghouls flanked him, coming at him from the sides. He couldn't seem to resist them in even the most basic way. They tore his robe from him in rags.