Beneath the Flesh: They kept all the demons out … except one Read online

  “Does what help?”

  “Knowing that the parasite has started peeping out. Does it help at all? Do you know what it's going to do now?”

  Patel looked at her sadly, then shook her head. “No,” she said softly.

  Of course not – no one had ever seen the parasite before. Jess wondered sometimes if Patel just went through all this rigamarole to give herself the illusion of power, the idea that this might be solvable.

  They had determined precisely one thing from all these examination: That the extent of the holes were spreading more quickly, and at this rate they'd cover her whole body in four weeks. What would happen then? Jess had no idea. She suspected death – or worse.

  “Do you want me tell Luke about the … spider legs?” said Patel.

  “No. He's got enough to worry about.”

  Jess finished buttoning up her shirt and inspected herself in the mirror. At least the holes hadn't extended past her neck. For now, between her office-bound assignments and her thick shirts, she'd been able to keep them a secret from everyone but Patel and Luke. But if the rest of the compound found out, that would be it. Paranoia about infections was high – and in fairness that was partly justified. What if she turned into a runner? Never mind that this infection had gone on for months without that happening, while every other transformation happened within hours at the most.

  No, she had no doubt that if it got out, she'd be run out of town at best and incinerated at worst. And for Luke and Patel, as her conspirators, the chances were hardly better. Patel might get some leniency because killing your only qualified doctor was a poor survival choice, but that's about it.

  She shrugged the thought off. “So, what's this new plan you've that'll actually fix things?”

  “I can't guarantee it'll fix anything,” Patel said, heading towards the door. She opened it and spoke through it to Luke: “You can come in now.”

  With the three of them settled, Patel began to explain the plan:

  “I've come to the conclusion that we can't progress any further without surgery. Now, you may have noticed …” She gave them a small, sad smile. “… that we're really not set up for any sort of complex surgery here.”

  “Not anything I'd survive, anyway,” said Jess.

  “Uh, no. But I think in these conditions, we might just be able to pull off a laparoscopy, a keyhole surgery. It's still a risk, you understand, but with proper management, I think it might have a very good outcome. I want to go in investigate some of the larger holes in your body, and investigate the abdominal cavity through a small incision. With any luck, we might learn more about this. We might even be able to find a way to extract the parasite.”

  “With you so far.”

  “But we'd still need some specialised equipment to do that. A laparoscope and general anaesthetics, at the very least, which we don't have here.”

  “And, of course, we can't rely on getting them through trade,” Jess said.

  Luke sat forward: “But I have a way of getting them.”

  Patel pursed her lips. “I should say, so we're clear, I'm opposed to this plan. But since I can't stop Luke …”

  “What?” said Jess.

  “I'm going to go and scavenge all the stuff Dr Patel needs. And maybe some extra in the process. You remember the big hospital in the centre of the city?”

  Jess stared at him. “Please don't tell me you're going to try and scavenge from Bridgham.”

  “Yep,” said Luke.

  Even Foxglove Compound didn't like to scavenge from the centre of Bridgham. It was as close to suicidal as you could get without jumping on a runner and trying to hug it. For two reasons: The first was that it with its old and crumbling architecture, it was full of hiding places for beasts and runners.

  The second was rather more important: It was host to some new structure charitably called the temple. The temple resembled less a temple than a termite hive – if such a hive was five hundred metres tall, covered in thorns and spikes, made of some wet, fleshly-looking black and grey material, and could get inside the mind of everyone who got too close.

  As the compounds around the country began to form, and exchange mail, it slowly became clear that there were dozens of temples scattered across the country, usually near what had once been the biggest population centres. It was difficult to disentangle the myths from the truths – the only common theme was that they seemed to be hotspots of demon activity, and that if you came too close to one, you'd suffer hallucinations – visions, whisperings in your ear, getting worse the closer you came.

  And while Paradise Compound did run it's trade route through Bridgham, it stuck to the south, far from the temple. The hospital meanwhile, was further north, closer to the temple, maybe close enough to be affected by it.

  In short, just popping down to the hospital was idiotic.

  Jess said as much to Luke.

  “Yes, I know it's dangerous,” he said. “But without it, you might die.”

  “And with it, we both might die,” Jess said. “All of this just so you can get a look inside me? It's not worth the risk.”

  “You're worth the risk.”

  Jess looked away from him. “I'm not,” she said. Then, so he didn't have a chance to respond to that, went on: “How are you going to do this anyway? We've got duty rosters. You can't just sneak out the compound and then turn up a couple days later with some medical equipment.”

  “I've got that covered too,” said Luke. “We're going to get permission. There's all sorts of medical equipment there, and everyone knows Paradise is running low. We can just call it a general run – no one needs to know about your condition. We just need a few volunteers and an armoured jeep to take us out there, and it'll be fine.”

  “And what about the volunteers?”

  “Look, just accept that I'll get it sorted, okay? You just need to wait for a couple more weeks, and I'll get everything you need.”

  Jess sighed. She glanced back at Dr Patel, who was clearly keeping out of it. Eventually she said, “You promise you're going to bring back the other equipment, and not just the stuff I need?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then I volunteer,” she said softly.

  There was silence for a moment. Patel spoke first: “I'm not sure that's wise.”

  “No,” said Luke. “You can't. You're ill, Jess. You can't do this. Just wait here and I'll do it. I'll look after you.”

  “Yeah, I'm ill. I'm not fucking incapable. I'm not going to sit here like some … some charity case while you run off to try and serve me.” Yelling like that caught her by surprise as much as it did Luke and Dr Patel. She settled herself and continued. “If you insist on doing this, then I'm going too. And we're doing this to get supplies for the whole compound, not just me.”

  “Jessica –” began Luke.

  “If you think of doing this without me, I'll go out there myself to try and find you, you fucking hear me? You're not the only one who can be pig-headed.”

  Luke looked away from her, to Dr Patel, then back again. “Okay,” he conceded at last. “I can't stop you.”

  Chapter 4

  The evening was a busy one: First, as dusk fell, came the double funeral for Tom and the headless J. Doe who had been put to rest by the town's brave guards. The standard respects were read out. Some people prayed; others held their heads low in silence.

  After, to celebrate the van's arrival, came the standard feast, with its drivers flanking Mayor Alice Mason at the head of the table. Driving in the wilderness was one of the most dangerous and essential jobs, and nearly everyone agreed drivers deserved a great deal of respect when they finished their shift. For the night, an entire three chickens were serves up, along with more than enough servings of crickets and mice.

  It wasn't until after the feast, as things began to wind down, that Luke was able to talk to the mayor. He shifted over to a seat beside her and asked her of he could make a pitch even though it was supposed to be off-time.

  Fo
r Alice Mason, there was no off-time. “Of course,” she said.

  She was a short woman, but after a few minutes talking to her you could be forgiven for feeling like you were the short one. She was entirely sympathetic to whatever problems weren't your fault – but also left you in no doubt that she wouldn't take any shit. She had a vision for the compound, and strong beliefs about how civilisation should go: he apocalypse should be no excuse for giving up civilised values. And she fought for that position with ceaseless energy.

  When the compound began to come together, she had been of several people pushing the idea that they needed to elect their leaders. In the first election, she'd won with 72% of the vote. Under her guidance, the compound had been separated into its inner and outer sections, and had begun to give construction and farming bigger roles. A year later, she won again, with 55%.

  She let Luke finish hit pitch about how Paradise Compound was lacking medical equipment, and how much medical equipment could be worth if they had enough of it. Then, when he mentioned the hospital, she held up a hand to stop him.

  “Are you suggesting we go to the hospital to scavenge what we need?”

  Cutting to the point like this caught Luke off guard. After a moment to compose himself he answered, “Well, uh, yeah.”

  “No.” The mayor gave him a hard look with just a hint of kindness, and continued, “We all know how dangerous that area is. I can't justify such a risk – at least not unless the medical situation becomes urgent.”

  “But –” Luke began. He stopped when he saw the look in the mayor's eyes.

  “Go on,” she said at last, with a tone that implied and be respectful.

  “I have two points. First – what if you asked Dr Patel about the state of the medical supplies? About the operations we can't do and when we'll run out of medicines?”

  She nodded slowly. “Has Dr Patel asked you to do this?”

  “No.” He decided it would be best to be as honest as he could. “I've talked about this mission with her. She doesn't want me to go, but she is lacking equipment.”

  “Okay. And what's the second point?”

  “You always said we had to maintain civilised values. Like freedom. If I want to go out there, I think it should be my choice.”

  She held his gaze for a moment, then sighed. “Yes. I won't stop you.”

  “And if anyone chooses to come with me?”

  “That too,” she said. “But if you do this, it won't be official. I won't order it. I won't even ask for volunteers. And I'm not willing to let you have a van or a jeep either – our livelihood depends on those vehicles.”

  Walking all the way to Bridgham, and then through it to the hospital, with demons hiding every step of the way? That really was suicidal. But what else could he do? “Okay,” he said. “You'll talk to the doctor though, right?”

  “I have some time tomorrow. I'll ask her about the state of the surgery, but apart from that, I'm making no promises.”

  Chapter 5

  “I talked to Dr Patel like he asked.”

  “Mhm?” Richard Carter settled back on the frayed but comfortable chair cushion, put his feet up, and lit a cigarette.

  Cigarettes! They lived in a world of necessities – luxuries were often impossible to make, too hard to scavenge, and often too rare when they were scavenged. And yet cigarettes kept going. Just like in prisons and, so he had heard, war-zones. In fact, he suspected more people smoked now than before the collapse. Keeping plenty of cigarettes on you, and handing them out to those who needed them, was a great way to get people to trust you – he'd learned that quickly.

  “She told me how bad things could get,” Alice Mason continued. “We're missing antibiotics, running low on others. And since we don't have vaccinations even a normal disease, an easily-fixed one before the collapse, could get us. The demons won't even have to bother.”

  “Sounds bad.”

  “I just wonder how I could have missed this. How could things get this bad without my noticing?”

  Oh, thought Richard. That was it. She needed comfort again. That was the thing about cosying up to these be-strong-for-my-community types. They always needed someone to be weak in front of. He didn't really mind, but it was a pain to have to deal with.

  “What have you been working on lately?” he asked

  They both knew the answers: Trying to set up some system of justice that walked the line between the hardline authoritarian survivalists who thought hoarding deserved a death sentence, and the civil-rights lot who wanted all the freedom of pre-collapse society. Trying to give the compound a proper sewer system and a proper irrigation system when they were already short of labour. Trying to deal with the newest arrivals, all of whom had their own set of ideas on how to run the compound.

  When she was halfway through the list, Richard stopped her. “You're doing plenty already. You can't be expected to keep up to date with everything essential to survival. Just be glad you know now while you can still fix it.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “Who asked, again? About the medical supplies?”

  “Luke Bishop.”

  Richard considered this for a moment. “The guy on the guard shift yesterday morning, who helped stop the demon?”

  “That's right.”

  “Does he have a special interest in medicine?”

  “I don't think so. Never asked for a shift in triage. Mostly does guard and maintenance duty.”

  “Ah. How odd,” Richard said nonchalantly. Meanwhile, though he didn't show it to Alice, something in him perked up. Someone like that suddenly displaying knowledge about the lack of medical supplies – so he could justify going on a trip into Bridgham? Sure, it might be nothing. But another thing Richard had picked up was that when you saw behaviours like that, it meant someone had something to hide. Something, perhaps, to exploit. It was worth investigating, at least.

  Things around here were getting boring anyway. He was getting restless.

  That was the trouble living in compounds – it was hard to get away with misbehaving too much, because the social structure was so close. If you were often around things going wrong, you started to get a reputation.

  He'd had to leave his last compound nine months back, after he'd (purely accidentally, of course) let a scavenging team go out into the wilderness without working weapons. One of them had insulted him. He was careful enough in arranging it so that there were only suspicions, rumours – but in this world, suspicions and rumours could grow easily, and quickly become lethal. So he'd set out travelling in trade vans until he came across Paradise Compound.

  “I still hate to risk it,” Alice said. “The chance of success is low, and we can't spare the vehicles or the people.”

  After a few moments of silent thinking, Richard stubbed out his cigarette and stood. “I have an idea,” he said, walking across the room. From the desk in the corner, he pulled out an old map of Bridgham and brought it back. He unfolded it on the table and studied it for a few seconds, as much to build up the anticipation as let himself think.

  “Our vans go down this route,” he said, running his finger across one road. “Nice and safe away from the demon temple.” Glancing up, he checked to see if Alice was paying attention. Then he went on: “But last month, remember they had to detour because a strider demon was blocking the path. They managed a safe passage by going north. They said they took this route, down Bachmann Street. The drivers didn't feel any affect from the temple on that route.”

  Alice looked up at him. “And the hospital …”

  “Is only a little further north. If we send the next van by this northern route instead, and if Luke goes along and gets dropped off here.” Richard indicated a point of Bachmann Street with his pen. “He'll only have to walk a a kilometre or so to get to the hospital.”

  “That's a long way in a demon-infested city.”

  “Maybe, but we already know it's a long shot. Now, to get back, the van can pick him up on its return journey. He'll h
ave to spend the night in Bridgham, though.”

  No reply.

  Richard continued: “And if he does fail, as you said, he only contributes to guard and maintenance duty. He's expendable.”

  Alice stared at him. He saw on her expression that he'd overstepped.

  “I mean, purely from the point of view of the compound. If you want to think about this from a rights perspective, it's his choice whether he wants to go or not.”

  Alice sighed, mollified if not at ease. “All right,” she said at last. “I'll tell him about your plan tomorrow, and see who his volunteers are.”