Ex-Heroes

Twenty-Two NOW

Cerberus stomped across the streets of the Mount and keyed her microphone. “Sun’s going down. People are panicking.”

“And this surprises you?” Zzzap’s voice was crystal clear over her helmet speakers.

“Just the level of it. We’ve kept them safe for over a year—”

“And now they think they’re not safe. What have you done for me lately, eh?”

“Nothing, apparently.”

“I could come out and brighten things up.”

“No,” cut in Gorgon’s voice. “The last thing we need right now is for the power to go out and everyone see you flying off into the air.”

“Fair point.”

“I’m trying to get generator crews out, but until they’re up and running you stay put. Got it?”

Cerberus keyed her mic. “Who put you in charge, anyway?”

“I did. One of you guys want it instead?”

A long silence filled the airwaves.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

She tried to come up with something clever and the motion sensors went mad. “Hang on a minute. Got a big crowd.”

A crowd of a dozen families, couples, and individuals was jostling its way up through the long shadows of 3rd Street. Their bodies were wrapped in backpacks and duffel bags. Their arms were filled with bundles and suitcases. One little boy clutched a cat carrier that shifted and yowled.

In public address mode, the voice of Cerberus echoed down the street. “Everyone stay calm,” she thundered. “There is no need to panic, no need to rush. Calm down.”

She switched back to standard volume and singled out one man, fortysomething with a dark ring of hair. A special effects expert who’d become a repairman inside the Mount. “Where do you think you’re going, Henry?”

The nearby crowd stopped to see who she was talking to, and he glared up at her. “Are we prisoners here? Do I have to answer to you?”

She shook her armored head. “Of course not. You’re free to go where you want.”

“Damn right I am.” He pulled his wife and son in tight. “And we want out of here. We all do.”

The crowd murmured and barked in agreement.

“I understand,” Cerberus said. “I just think you need to step back and think for a minute.”

“Don’t tell us what to do!”

“I’m just telling you to stop and think, that’s all,” the titan said. A few blinks raised the suit’s volume by three decibels. “Everyone calm down, stop for a minute, and think. Yeah, what happened a little while ago was scary as hell. I don’t understand it either and I’m scared too. The Seventeens are coming and there’s going to be a fight. A big one.”

“All the more reason not to be here,” the repairman snapped. He tried to shove past her and she blocked him with a hand twice the size of a hubcap.

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “How can you be safer outside the Mount, Henry? In here you’ve got guards, lights, and walls. Out there the sun’s going down and there are five million exes waiting to eat you.”

A few people near her flinched. Half the crowd had stopped to listen.

“That’s right. They’re going to eat you,” she repeated. She kept the suit’s unblinking gaze on Henry and ignored the dozens of families around them. “The second you’re through that gate they will tear the flesh from your bones with their teeth and fingers. They will rip you, your wife, and your son apart in a matter of minutes.”

The crowd shuddered as a whole. Henry turned away and met his wife’s eyes.

“That’s if you’re lucky,” she continued. “If not, you might survive and get to watch them change one by one. And then you’ll have to smash their skulls or put a bullet in their brains or just let them kill—”

“Shut up!!” a woman screamed. “Just shut up.” Nervous talk rippled back and forth across the crowd.

Another few decibels. “I don’t like it either, but we all know it’s true. It’s easy to forget because we’ve got a life in here, but out there it’s still hell.” The battlesuit took a few steps back, thudding on the cobblestones. She upped the volume again, almost back to PA levels. “If anyone wants to leave, I’ll walk with you to Melrose right now. I’ll try to protect who I can when you go through the gate, but my priority has to be the people inside the walls. You all know this.”

Some of them glanced at the gate. They could all see it from here. None of them moved.

Henry figured out he was the example, and she felt a wave of sympathy for him. He hated her and he knew she was right. It would take him months to live this down. If he was alive months from now. “What should we do, then?” he growled.

“Get home,” Cerberus said. “Seal the stages, just like we’ve always planned. Anyone who can fight, I’m pretty sure we’ll need it and we can use you, but it’s more important to stay and protect your families.”

She stomped back a few steps and the last rays of sunlight gleamed on her armor. “And for God’s sake, everyone try to stay calm,” she added. “Tonight’s going to be bad enough without a riot inside the walls, okay?”

* * * *

Stealth had covered half a mile. She raced across rooftops, hurled herself over alleys, and dispatched any ex in her way with a savage blow. When St. George caught up, she was charging down Doheny Drive, her hood draped back over her shoulders. He dropped down, grabbed her by the shoulders, and bounded back up to the rooftops.

“You okay?”

“I am fine,” she panted. She took three deep breaths, stilled the gasping, and pulled her hood back into place. “You are bruised.”

He looked at himself. Red and purple spots blossomed across his skin. And most of his pants had crumbled away. “You notice I’m bruised before you notice I’m almost naked?”

“I have seen naked men before. I have never seen you bruised.”

“Yeah, well, it takes a hell of a lot. For the bruising.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He looked at her, hidden in the shadows of the hood. “Since when do you actually care?”

“Of course I care,” she said. “You are a valuable asset.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.”

She glanced at the sky. “We have less than half an hour until darkness.”

St. George shook his head and gestured for her to rest. “Don’t worry. We’ve got a good lead. Even if they were ready to march, they can’t make it across the city that fast.”

She glared at him. “If he was controlling the ex in our cells from Century City, what kind of range does that indicate?”

A map of Los Angeles blossomed in his mind, covered by a wide red circle. “Hell.”

She pointed at the street below them. The milling exes were all still shuffling and stumbling, but there was a rhythm to their movements. They were wandering north. “His army is already at the Mount,” she said. “You should go on ahead of me.”

“No way. We go together.”

“I can manage without you.”

“Maybe. But the Mount can’t afford to lose you, either.” He held out his hand. “You’re a pretty valuable asset, too.”

She looked at him for just a moment with the faint tilt of her head that meant she was thinking. Then she grabbed his hand with both of hers.

St. George leaped into the air, dragging her up behind him. He swung his arm and Stealth flew through the air to land on the rooftops across the street. She took off running and he soared after her.

* * * *

Gorgon stood between Christian Nguyen and the trucks. Christian stood between him and the crowd. Harry the driver stood near her left shoulder, Diamint by her right, and almost two hundred people behind her.

“You can’t tell us what to do,” she snapped. “No one elected you. No one voted for you. If we want to leave, you have no authority to stop us.”

“I don’t,” he agreed, “but I’ve got a responsibility to keep you safe. Even when you don’t want me to.”

She laughed. “We’ve all seen your idea of safe,” she sneered. “We’re surrounded by monsters and someone dies every week.”

“And you think there’s somewhere better out there? You think Burbank is fine and we’re just keeping it secret?”

“That’s for us to find out,” said Diamint. “None of us came here to die.”

“No one is going to die!”

“The Seventeens are all exes now!”

“We’re supposed to be safe,” yelled a woman. “St. George said it would be safe here.”

“You are safe,” Gorgon shouted.

“The Mount’s already surrounded!”

“You’re not fooling anyone,” yelled Christian. “We’re just cannon fodder to you. You’re going to use us to cover your own escape! You’re going to leave us here to die!”

The crowd tilted and became a mob.

“We’re taking the trucks. That’s that.” The heavyset driver stepped forward with his fists clenched.

Gorgon lifted a warning finger. “Don’t try it, Harry.”

Harry tried it and ended up on his back with a bleeding nose. A blond man made a run for the trucks and Gorgon backhanded him into the mob. Someone deeper in raised a pistol.

“You can’t stop us all,” Christian shrieked, and her face dropped as the words left her mouth.

His goggles irised open and he left them open. He felt dozens and dozens of eyes lock onto his. The strength crashed over him like a wave, every muscle in his body spasmed, and his nerves buzzed with pins and needles like they’d been asleep for days.

Tier six, he thought. A solid tier six.

Over seventy people dropped. Their legs folded, their necks lolled, and they fell with their eyes still locked on his. He was pleased to see Christian was one of them. She was going to have a great bruise on the side of her head.

“There’s too much going on to deal with this right now,” he bellowed. The lenses snapped shut. “You all need to go back to your homes and make sure the buildings are secure. Those of you who can still walk need to help those who can’t.”

Their eyes went skyward and a murmur passed through the crowd.

St. George dropped down to the pavement. Except for a pair of shredded jeans he was mostly naked, and it was obvious he was hoping no one would notice. His exposed skin was covered with bruises and welts.

The hero looked at Gorgon but spoke to the crowd. “What’s going on?”

“Just explaining to these folks you were coming back from your mission as soon as possible.”

“There was doubt?”

“There was.” Under his breath Gorgon added, “You look like you got the shit beat out of you.”

St. George bounced his eyebrows in agreement and turned to the crowd. His eyes flitted between the people slumped on the ground and the ones still standing. “Gorgon’s right. Everybody needs to calm down,” he said. “I’m sure things have been scary here, but it’s going to get worse if everyone starts panicking and doing crazy things.”

A voice shouted from the back of the crowd. “The exes spoke!” It launched a wave of cries and questions.

“But the Seventeens—”

“How are they—”

“The exes said—”

“What if they—”

St. George held up his hands until they quieted down. “I know there’s a bunch of creepy stuff going on,” he said, “but you have to believe me. There is nowhere in this city safer than right here, right now.”

Stealth stepped out of the shadows behind some civilians and they shrieked. “St. George is telling you the truth,” she said. “Return to your homes, protect your loved ones, and we shall protect all of you.”

The mob was just a crowd now, and the crowd broke apart. People helped Gorgon’s victims to their feet and carried the ones that couldn’t walk.

“Make sure all the stage entrances are locked,” called St. George. He helped Christian up and ignored the unsteady glare she shot at him. “Tonight you’re in or you’re out, people.”

As they scattered Stealth pulled the camera from her belt and summoned an image. St. George caught a glimpse of the monstrous ex, tight enough to make out the cross tattoo on its head. “This being seems to have some sort of history with you,” she told Gorgon, handing him the camera. “He mentioned you by name several times.”

Gorgon pondered the distorted face for a moment and a grim smile formed under his goggles. “Well, fuck me,” he said. “I guess he found his gamma rays after all.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah.” He handed the camera back. “That, my friends, is Rodney Casares, top enforcer for the SS. We’ve got grudges that go way back.”

St. George glanced at the picture again before the camera went dark. “That’s what you wanted to get back here for?”

“No,” she said. “That was a confirmation. Gorgon, summon every guard, scavenger, and volunteer you can. Issue extra ammunition and prepare the walls for a full assault. Then meet us in the lobby of Roddenberry in fifteen minutes.”

She gestured at St. George to follow her.

* * * *

Josh Garcetti checked on his latest patient, an appendicitis case. She’d come in on her own, he’d pulled out the offending organ, and now she was asleep. Her stitches were clean and tight, no seepage at all. He tried not to dwell on the fact that at one time he could’ve repaired her without a single incision.

He made a few quick marks on her chart, stepped out to the nurses’ station, and made another set of notes on the night log. Then he turned to the cabinets and found himself inches from Stealth.

He stumbled back and the move yanked his withered hand out of its pocket. “Jesus,” he snapped. “Do you have to pop out of nowhere like that?”

The cloaked woman said nothing.

Footsteps made him turn and St. George stepped in from the hallway. He was bare-chested and covered with bruises.

“George,” Josh said with a nod. “What happened to you? What the hell’s going on?”

“When we were discussing the recon mission,” said Stealth, “you said you have had the virus hanging over you for two years. You were bitten less than fifteen months ago.”

He blinked twice, then a third time. “That all? Feels like a hell of a lot longer. Sorry I don’t have a computerlike mind like you.” He shrugged and repocketed his dead hand. “Is that everything? Mr. Willis would love to get a few Vicodin so he can sleep.”

Her feet shifted and she was between Josh and the cabinet.

He sighed and pointed at a row of bottles. “Do you mind?”

“The first definite sighting of an ex-human,” she continued, “was twenty-two months ago. An unidentified woman assaulted a group of Seventeens in a parking lot. The attack which infected Rodney Casares.”

Josh shrugged again, but his angry eyes flitted between the two heroes. St. George realized his hands had rolled themselves into fists.

Stealth still hadn’t moved. She was tense but fluid. She was confident.

“Your wife died two years ago, didn’t she, Regenerator?”

The doctor’s glare settled on her even as his shoulders slumped, and St. George felt something twist in his stomach.