Monster Planet(23)

Monster Planet





Chapter Twelve


Sarah tied the dead thing's hands with a length of electrical cord. Ptolemy kept the lich in a sleeper hold as she lead the two of them carefully out of the shack and through the streets and passages of the refinery. 'It's alright, come out! You've been liberated,' she shouted as bleary faces looked down at her from the catwalks. The Russians looked confused and bewildered, mostly.

A rifle shot rang out and Sarah rolled under a massive pipe. Ptolemy pulled their captive into the partial cover. Sarah was the only one breathing, the only heart beating in that little space but she made up for the other two. 'I guess they didn't want to be liberated,' she said.

'Oh, you're doing them such a favor, little filthy. Oh, ho ho,' the lich chortled. 'The Tsarevich gave these little crumbs of humanity a real life. He gave them something to believe in, and now you're going to take it away. He fed them, clothed them''

Sarah stared at the lich. It had already told her what she needed to know and far too much besides. 'Ptolemy,' she said, 'keep that thing quiet so it doesn't give away our position.'

The mummy got her drift. It tightened its hold on the lich until the evil thing's neck crackled and popped. Its glinting eyes stood out a little further from their encrusted sockets and some of the boils on its cheeks popped open and spilled out a little pinkish fluid. Hopefully Ptolemy had crushed its larynx.

'Alright, I'm going to try again,' Sarah told the mummy. She slipped off the safety of her pistol and ducked back under the pipe. In the shadowy street she would be nearly invisible with the hood of her sweatshirt up.

The lich had explained to her, under certain prodding, that she had arrived too late. The Tsarevich'and Ayaan as his prisoner'had left the refinery behind. He had taken all of his undead minions with him, leaving only the rotting sexless lich as a protector for the living people he had abandoned. There wasn't a ghoul in kilometers. Which should have made her job easier.

'Listen, you've all been duped,' she called out, and sidled toward the dubious cover of an enclosed control stand. 'He's been using you'using your bodies, using your souls! You don't have to believe his lies any more!'

A grenade rolled out of the darkness and Sarah barely had time to get her head down and covered before it exploded, throwing vicious shrapnel all over the street. The pipes and towers rang with a million tiny impacts.

Sarah ducked back under the pipes where Ptolemy waited patiently for her. 'It's not working,' she told him. He touched his painted mouth.

She frowned in confusion, then nodded as realization dawned. She reached into the pocket of her sweatshirt and touched the soapstone.

perhaps speak they english don't perhaps speak english

He had an excellent point.

Once she'd gotten her composure back she shoved the lich out into the street and ducked out behind him, moving it quickly into a well-lit alley. She shoved her pistol into its back and nearly retched. Where her Makarov had touched its hospital gown yellow fluid welled up and stained the cloth.

'Move,' she told it. The lich raised its hands and shuffled forward. Sarah kept close. The people living in the refinery wouldn't dare shoot her if they might accidentally hit their overlord. She pushed it forward like an inhuman shield until she'd reached the refinery gates, only to find that someone had preceded her'they were locked tight.

Sarah nearly wet herself. She had no idea what to do next. The Russians, she had no doubt, were far less bewildered. They were probably gathering in the shadows even as she turned in slow circles, looking for them, they were probably setting up some kind of ambush. Her eyes darted back and forth as she looked for cover'she had no chance, she knew, if it came down to a protracted firefight but maybe she could'

Ptolemy came up out of the darkness and grabbed the chain link gates in his big hands. With a sound like linen tearing he strained and heaved until the fencing tore away from its uprights with a wild metallic squeal.

'Mumiyah,'someone said in the darkness. 'Mumiyah!' Sarah could hear many feet scurrying away as the Russians nearly stampeded each other trying to escape.

Sarah turned to look at her undead partner as if he'd sprouted horns. What on earth had scared the refinery's living so badly? She reached into her pocket.

we return should go before go they should return

'Yeah. I guess we should.' She held her gaze on him for a while, then turned and bent to pass under the gap he'd made in the fence.