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After a fitful night of little sleep, I set out into the city to search for my sister. Bloom said I was always too eager to rush into action without thinking about what I’d do when I got there. I forced myself to slow down long enough to put together a pack with food: a few crackers, a couple of dried strips of squirrel jerky (just as bad as it sounds), M.R.’s lighter, an extra pair of socks, a canteen of water, and most importantly, extra ammunition. I’d have to forage for more food along the way.
The sun had crested the tallest rooftop by the time I stepped off the fire escape ladder’s last rung. Giving it a shove, I sent the ladder up out of reach. Really gotta find Bloom now. Gonna have a hell of a time getting to the fire escape without her.
My footsteps echoed, each step like a gunshot, and I imagined a hungry mob falling in to pursue me at any moment. When the rest of the morning passed without a sign of anyone dead or alive, some of my paranoia subsided. Couldn’t say the same about my worry for Bloom though.
A little past noon, I paused for lunch near the perimeter of Mini City. If you’d asked when I left the Savings and Loan, I would’ve said I had no idea where to start looking for my sister, but my feet must’ve had a plan. It made sense that Bloom’s disappearance had something to do with Moll Grimes. Realizing that didn’t ease my concern, though. In fact, it made me sicker. I could fight a street full of Flesh Eaters, but I had no idea how to fight Moll Grimes or her Forces.
After first checking for Rotter infestation, I hunkered in the doorway of an abandoned clockworks repair shop. From that position, I could watch Moll’s guards stroll inside the perimeter of a high, wrought iron fence topped with barbed wire, a fence that bordered all five square blocks of Mini City and Moll’s impromptu farm. The resources required to make such a barrier were mind-boggling and further proof of Moll’s resourcefulness. It was also proof of how she was a Goliath and I was a mere little David. A lucky slingshot strike won’t be enough to take her down.
I was too far away to discern the guards’ features. If Corporal Baumgartner marched among their ranks, I’d never know without creeping closer. But making the guards aware of my presence meant risking that they might mistake me for a lone, Shambling Corpse. Or, if they didn’t kill me first, they might capture me and force me into Moll’s service. Neither of those outcomes appealed, so I stayed quiet in my hidey-hole, snacked on jerky, and watched.
Jeez, Bloom, what have you gotten yourself into? And how am I supposed to get you out of it?
Of course, it was possible my sister was nowhere near Mini City. She could’ve disappeared for a hundred different reasons in a thousand different directions. If I had to guess, though, I suspected Moll’s interest in finding a great engineering mind had caught up to Bloom. But if so, then how had Moll taken Bloom away from the Savings and Loan without waking me? My mind raced with possibilities, few of them good.
I freed a cracker from my pack and nibbled it while I watched the guards and waited for inspiration to strike. It finally did when I remembered my conversation with Timber from the night he, John Brown, and Honey had come to visit. Timber had said he was working on Moll’s electricity machine down by the river. Maybe Moll had taken Bloom there, and if not, perhaps I could find Timber. If he knew anything about Bloom, he’d tell me... or so I hoped.
I glanced at the sun, still high in the sky. Could I make it to the river from here before nightfall? And if so, then what? I’d never get back home alone before dark.
One problem at a time, Blite. Get to the river and find Timber. Worry about getting back home later.
***
THE CONSTRUCTION SITE on the bank of the Madsen River was a mostly empty mud pit when I arrived. A sparse crew of men in dungarees hauled building materials, bricks, and bags of mortar from one stack to another. One worker paused to measure a board while another used a long wooden paddle to mix something gray and gelatinous in a wheelbarrow. I had stopped to evaluate the site before I approached, but none of the workers looked anything like Timber, or Bloom for that matter.
While no one from the construction site should’ve been able to see me from my hiding place in the empty doorway of a nearby warehouse, I had failed to account for anyone approaching from my rear. Bloom was right—I was more executioner than planner. A footstep scraped behind me, and someone with a low, rumbling voice said, “Is that you, Sera Blite?”
Squealing, I recoiled and reached for the weapon in my apron pocket but stopped cold after realizing who had found me. My stomach sank to my feet. “Hey, John,” I said in the friendliest voice I could fake. “Long time no see.”
“What are you doing here, so far from home?” John Brown wore a curious smile that made him look like a cat who had found an unexpected puddle of cream. “Looking for a job?”
“No, I’m looking for my sister.” Why hide it? Maybe John knew something about Bloom’s disappearance.
His furry red eyebrows furrowed beneath the brim of his bowler hat. “What’s she doing here? Did she finally take my suggestion to join up with Grimes?”
“I actually don’t know where Bloom is. Woke up to find her missing this morning.”
“Missing?” His eyes went wide and round.
“Rumor says Moll’s interested in my sister. Thought Moll might have something to do with Bloom’s disappearance.”
John raised a shoulder and dropped it. “Bloom ain’t here. Nobody’s here today except a handful of workers, a few security guards... and me.”
I stepped back, repositioning for a getaway should I need it. “Are you a security guard?”
Funny. I’d known John a long time without ever knowing exactly how Moll Grimes kept him employed. He might’ve mistaken it as a sign of my interest if I’d asked him too many personal questions.
He shoved his thumb against the breast pocket of his plaid waistcoat. “Head of security. Chief, in fact.”
“So...” I eased back another step. “Do you know where Bloom is or not?”
He shook his head. “Ain’t seen her, but that don’t mean she’s not back at Mini City. I’ll take you in if you like. Escort you around. Help you look for her.”
John’s offer raised my suspicions. I stepped back again. “You’ll take me inside Moll’s place?”
He scraped his dull brown eyes over the construction site as he answered. “Sure. You can ask Grimes yourself if she knows anything.”
“She doesn’t strike me as the type who likes answering other people’s questions.”
He grinned, flashing a set of unfortunate teeth—stained, broken, and missing in several places. “Don’t worry, Sera. I’ll vouch for you.”
His capacity to inspire my confidence was like a shark trying to convince a fisherman to come down for a swim. “Maybe you could just ask Moll on my behalf and let me know what she says.”
His expression darkened as he considered my suggestion. Then his face cleared, and he shook his head. “Nope. Can’t do that. You’re just gonna have to come with me.”
I stepped back again, and it put nearly a yard between us, but I still didn’t feel safe. “I don’t see why.”
“Because I’m in charge of security.” He tapped his chest and stepped forward. “And what I say goes.”
“But you’re not in charge of me.” I bit my tongue. Not a good time for making inflammatory comments.
“But you’re in Grimes’s territory, ain’tcha? That gives me jur-is-dic-shun.” His face screwed up as he pronounced the last word.
“Then how about I leave, and you can pretend you never saw me?”
His square head swiveled on his beefy neck. “No, Sera. You’re coming with me.”
John lunged, but I dodged his grasp. He might have been quick in the boxing ring once upon a time, but his middle had gone soft in a way that said he’d taken to lying about more than training.
“Grimes is going to be very interested in you, and that works out good for me.”
When reasoning failed, it was time to run. It clearly had, and so I did, as fast as my feet would carry me.
“Oy, Blite!” John shouted behind me. “Get back here!” A single shrill note pierced the air—a police whistle. He must’ve kept one in his pocket, being Head of Security and all. “Aye, boys!” he shouted. “Fall in!”
Men from the construction site responded, whooping and hollering until they sounded like baying wolves.
“You ain’t getting away, Sera Blite. You ain’t got nowhere to go!” John might’ve been about as smart as a box of rocks, but for once, he was right. He knew where I lived, and going back there was as good as inviting him through the front door.
Over and over, John yelled and blew his whistle. Either his brain had taken one too many punches in his boxing days, or he hadn’t realized how far from Grimes’s territory we’d run. He should’ve known better than to make such a racket. To the Undearly Undeparted, John must have sounded like a ringing dinner bell.
And speaking of the devils...
Just ahead, in the heavy shadow of a wharf warehouse, a few of the Eagerly Soulless shambled into my path. I had stuffed my heavy Colt into my pack, but there was no time to stop and dig it out. Instead, I pulled a lighter-weight, single-shot Bloomington Rider from my apron pocket and fired into the crowd. Rotters scattered like cockroaches in sunlight, and I plowed through them, holding my breath to avoid inhaling their rancid fumes.
Another pair of undead lookie-loos lumbered into view. One minute, they were shambling toward me, groping fingers extended, mouths gaping like the gates of Hell, but in the next, they were falling, one after another, like dominoes. What the hell? How did that—
Then I saw him, standing a few yards beyond the bodies, holding a smoking gun, black coat swirling around his ankles.
“M.R.!” I shouted, not caring that it wasn’t really his name. “Boy, am I glad to see you.”
Before I could make out the details of his face, he spun on his heel and dashed through the dark doorway of a nearby warehouse. “Follow me,” he said, echoing a familiar refrain from our previous encounters.
He and I had danced this dance before, and I didn’t hesitate to obey him. It seemed an easy thing, following M.R. He had cleared a path for me, hadn’t he? But never take such things for granted. It always ends badly when you do.
M.R. had already disappeared into the warehouse, so he never saw the grotesque demon rising from a hiding place behind several abandoned crates near the doorway. The thing stepping out before me might have been a circus giant in a previous life, and something about him seemed terribly familiar. He moved with surprising agility, leaping at me before I could change my trajectory. Momentum slammed me, full-bodied, into his surprisingly solid chest. The odor of mechanical grease permeated his death stench, and a dreadful realization struck me.
“Aw, jeez,” I said, shuffling backward as fast as possible. “Oh, God, Timber, is that you?”
Of course, he didn’t answer. He simply cracked open his horrible maw and leaned down, eager to sink his teeth into my fresh, pink flesh. His purpling fingers dug into my upper arms. His unnatural life had robbed him of his sense, but not his peculiar strength.
“Timber, no,” I said as if he were a dog who’d piddled on the rug.
Something in my tone must have gotten through. The thing that once was Timber paused, a split second only, and his grip relaxed. His hesitation allowed me to pull free, but my sudden movement snapped him back into action. His massive paw shot around my neck, closed tight, and squeeeezed.
Blackness swirled around the periphery of my vision, and my last coherent thought was, I should have returned his coat.