The Big Wall, The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles, Tuesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

At almost two weeks in, Kathy was starting to recognize some of the other people living in the Mount now. There was a woman she passed every day; they were staying in the same building, though Kathy had no idea which apartment she lived in. Most days, the woman stood on her balcony and stared down at the exes beyond the Wall, staggering between the dusty cars and trucks. Every now and then she'd be muttering something, a prayer maybe, or talking to herself.

It wasn't that uncommon. From a distance, the undead were a good device for soul-searching. Kathy did the same more often than she wanted to admit to, though from her window. The door to her balcony remained shut, locked, and the blinds drawn.

This evening, though, the woman was on top of one of the stacked cars a half block or so from one of the guard platforms. It was a minivan with a broad roof and she was cross-legged on the luggage rack, a heavy blanket under her. She looked down through the coils of barbed wire at the exes on the weed-covered slope with a peaceful expression. Seeing Kathy, though, she grew a little more animated and waved her over.

Kathy hesitated, but eventually veered right towards the other woman. She'd been pleasant the few times they'd spoken, never tried to pry into Kathy's identity or proselytize or act awed to be in her presence, which put her in the rare minority of people. So she could spare a few moments of chitchat, she supposed. Besides, all Kathy was going to do was go up to her room and stare at the closet ceiling for a few hours before trying to get some sleep. Might as well pretend to be social for a bit.

Neighbor	"Hi," the woman said as Kathy approached. "Is it okay for me to be up here, you think?" There was an odd pitch to her voice. It was somewhere between a high-pitched squeak and a creak you might hear in an old woman's voice. A cute voice that had been shattered by lots of screaming. "Am I in the way of anything?"
Kathy	"I don't think so?" Kathy said, looking around. "I wouldn't really know."
Tori	"Oh," she said. "I just see you with the heroes a lot, so I kinda figured you knew what was going on." She shrugged, giving Kathy a friendly smile. "Hi. I'm Tori. Wanna come up and sit?"
Kathy	"Kathy," she replied. And, no, she most emphatically did not want to go up there, so close to the edge of the Wall. But Tori looked so lonely up on the minivan that she felt...sort of obliged. So she started to climb up, taking the slow way. Tori offered a hand once Kathy's head popped up to the minivan's level. "Just for a little bit," Kathy warned, grabbing onto the hand and pulling herself up. "I'm not real comfortable this close to...all of them."
Tori	"Yeah, it's so sad to see them like this," Tori agreed with a faint smile. Her eyes drifted back down to the undead on the freeway. "For you most of all, I'm guessing."
Kathy	'Sad' hadn't exactly been the emotion Kathy was thinking of, no. She watched Tori's eyes flit from one ex-human to the next. "It's more of a reminder than I'd like," she allowed, her knuckles white on the luggage rack. Why the hell had this seemed like a good idea exactly? "Are you looking for someone?"
Tori	"A friend of mine," Tori explained. "Richard. Well, Rich."
Kathy	"Ahh," Tori went quiet again, still looking, but Kathy felt an awkward requirement to carry the conversation a little further, at least until she could jump back down and get back into her house without being rude. "Friend or boyfriend?" That, at least, she could understand. She missed her friends something fierce. Her boyfriends. She missed her dad.
Tori	"Just a friend," said Tori. Her lips curved again, but the smile faded from her eyes. "Almost-boyfriend, I guess, but the moment never happened, y'know." She sighed as Kathy nodded. "We got close a couple of times. Really close that last Christmas Eve after we'd had a few drinks at a party. I stopped us before it went too far. I wanted to be sure. Kinda wish I hadn't now."
Kathy	Tori bit her bottom lip and Kathy noticed the pattern of old scars there, white on pink. She'd bitten her lip a lot, it seemed, hard enough to bleed. Easy enough to imagine when. "In the moment, it's hard to say what we'll regret later," Kathy said, shifting a little bit. "You can't know what's going to happen in the future, so the best you can do is do what you think is right in the now." God, she felt like a hypocrite for saying that. How many regrets did she have, hmm?
Tori	Tori nodded in that way people did when they were acknowledging that you'd spoken but hadn't been paying attention. A moment later she perked up and pointed down at the freeway. "There he is!"
Kathy	Kathy didn't wanna look. Kathy really didn't wanna look. But she was already up here, so how much worse could it be? Kathy looked. Immediately, her gorge rose and she broke out in a cold sweat. Below them were hundreds of exes, like someone had kicked over an anthill and the inhabitants had boiled out, searching for the perpetrator. But Kathy had never been an ant. She'd been an ex, though. There but for the grace of Fandom, she might still have been down there, aimlessly staggering in search of the next hot meal.
Tori	"You okay?" Tori asked, much closer to Kathy than she'd been a moment ago, though Kathy hadn't even realized the girl had moved. "You're looking a little pale. Maybe you should get down."
Kathy	Kathy swallowed convulsively, mouth filling with sour saliva, and shook her head. "I--I'm all right," she lied. "I can do this." She would do this. Everyone in this place had a horror story or two under their belts. Tori's cracked voice and scarred lips hinted at several. But they managed to go through their days without having a panic attack just because they looked over a fucking wall. And Kathy could, too. "I think I will get down in a second," she said, voice calm as her stomach still roiled. "But first I wanna see this Rich guy."
Tori	"Aww, that's so sweet!" Tori said, moving back to her spot with absolutely no visible concern that they were sitting on a stack of cars twelve feet in the air with just a few inches of barbed wire separating them from the other side. "Okay, see the woman at the bottom of the ramp? The one in the green tee with the missing arm?"
Kathy	That description was not helping Kathy's nausea any, but she dutifully looked. After a few seconds, she found the dead woman with a tangle of brown hair and a green t-shirt. Her right arm looked like it had been twisted off at the elbow. Kathy had a very clear idea of how that could have happened. "Yeah, I see her," she said, smile growing slightly more desperate. As soon as she spotted this guy, she was gone. Hand to god.
Ex-Rich	Go past her to the left. There's a tall guy in a striped coat and a wild tie." The man in the pinstriped coat was on the shorter side, but then, so was Tori. He'd been good-looking in an average sort of way, someone you'd pass by on the street without really taking notice of anything beyond the tie. One of his ears was missing, which kind of ruined the effect some, and there were bloodstains on his shirt when his lurching gain swung his coat open. His tie was a garish floral print.
Tori	"Terrible combination, right?" Tori asked, laughing. "He had to wear a tie to work, y'know, before everything. So making them clash was his little act of rebellion." Kathy made a noncommittal noise and Tori took that as an invitation to keep going. "Rich's boss was a real bitch. When the outbreaks were happening, most places were closing down or letting people work from home. She insisted they all had to go into the office or they'd get fired."
Kathy	"Sounds like my dad," Kathy said, leveraging herself off the edge off the car, foot searching for the open window to step on. "I'm pretty sure he went into the office until the day he got turned."
Tori	"Yeah. I don't get it," Tori said, shaking her head. She pointed to one of the taller buildings over on Sunset. "They got trapped in there. Three dozen people. I talked to him on the phone for a couple of days. They were living off the vending machines and stuff in the breakrooms. The National Guard found them and gave them some food. They said they'd be back with a truck so they could get everybody out."
Kathy	That made Kathy pause. "They never came back?" How many squads had she seen get overrun? Enough that she'd lost count. She, Mystique, and Gorgon had saved a number of soldiers from situations like that, but that had been early days. Even before she'd gotten bitten, their heroics had netted fewer and fewer survivors with every day.
Tori	Tori shook her head again. "I don't think so. After a week, he called to say they were going to make a break for it. He figured if he could make it down to the freeway he could go along on top of cars and avoid the exes."
Kathy	It wasn't the dumbest survival plan Kathy had ever heard, but it wasn't the brightest, either. She didn't say anything, jumping down from the roof of the minivan and bouncing a few times on the ground. People needed to unload on someone, sometimes. That had been another one of her duties, back when she was helping Regenerator run the clinic: to listen to people, to help them get the words out, the stories of loss and horror and sacrifice off their chests. It was easy for people to spill their guts to the heroes. Their eyes had looked no further than the rainbows, hadn't bothered to look at the girl who wore them. Now Kathy was just Kathy, but it seemed that some things held over. From the ground, she called up, "I'm sorry."
Tori	Tori looked surprised, as if she'd missed the other woman's descent. "It's okay," she said, and took a long, slow breath. "It was a long time ago." She smiled a bit. "Anyway, he told me to stay put and he'd get to me. So I stayed put. And I never heard from him again. Eventually, I ended up here." There were a lot of horros elided over in that 'eventually.'
Ex-Rich	Down on the street, the ex in the pinstripe coat had caught itself on the side mirror of a car. The dead thing kept turning in small circles and bumping into the side of the car or other exes. After a few revolutions, its coat slipped free and it staggered on, heading in the general direction of the Big Wall.
Tori	Tori straightened up. "After the Big Wall was done, I kept coming out here to look for him. That's why I've got an apartment in our building, you know? The balcony's make it easier to see." She waved back towards the building she shared with Kathy but her attention drifted back down to her dead friend. "About two weeks ago I found him down there on the freeway. He's been staying put, just like he told me to. Just after you showed up again."
Kathy	"He was still pretty clean," Kathy said, unsure of what else to say. She took another step back towards their building. She wanted this conversation to be over. That was more than enough random socialization for one night. Or ever, really. "That must make him a little easier to...to see like this." She wasn't touching that comment about timing with a ten foot pole, nope nope.
Tori	"He hates being messy," Tori said. "He's one of those people who're always washing their hands and brushing themselves off. He's almost OCD about it."
Kathy	The shift in tenses hinted the conversation was about to go off into a direction Kathy really didn't want to be involved in. She'd had a version of it several times now, corned by one of the congregants of that After Dark church. Normally, she didn't much care about someone's religion, but these people always looked at her like they were waiting for her to give them some kind of secret sign. She deliberately didn't think of her conversation with Todd from a few days ago. "Umm, well, okay then," Kathy said, voice sounding a little high even to her own ears. "I think I'm gonna go back to my place for a shower now. If you're good?"
Tori	"Oh sure," Tori said, giving her a friendly wave goodbye. "I'm great now that Rich is here. Thanks for talking."
Kathy	"Glad to," Kathy said, deliberately not adding a cheery 'Anytime!' to it the way she would in nearly every other circumstance. She was halfway between the Wall and their building when she heard the hollow sound of bending metal. She was already turning around when her brain placed it: the sound of someone moving on a car roof. Then she heard rustling, saw a glimpse of movement above her, and the two guards stationed on the nearest platform stood up and started yelling. Kathy broke into a run back towards the Wall and this time took the fast way up to the top of the minivan, a single bounce that had her landing on the windshield. But she was already too late.
Tori	Tori's blanket hung across the chain-link fence, covering and flattening the coils of barbed wire that topped it. The fence was still trembling from her vault over. She finished climbing down the other side of the cars just as Kathy landed, and walked down the onramp of the highway, into the late-day shadows, towards the exes. Her posture was relaxed and happy and Kathy could see the smile still on her face.
Kathy	"Tori!" Kathy called. "Get back here now!"
Tori	Tori turned around and shook her head. "Don't worry!" she called back. "He recognizes me! It'll be fine!"
Exes	Ex-Rich swung its head around to look at Tori. Its teeth banged together as it staggered towards her. The one-armed dead woman moved in her direction, too. So did an ex with a broken lower jaw, one with fingers worn down to bone claws, and a half-dozen others.
Kathy	Kathy took a step up to the roof of the minivan, right to where Tori's blanket lay. The only weapon she had was a bat she'd grabbed from the armory and that wouldn't do anything at this distance. Her gun, her materia, all of the weapons Barry had built for her were at home, tucked away in little caches and safes around the house, doing her absolutely jack and shit here. She could leap over the fence, make it to Tori before the exes did, and try to bodily haul her back over the Wall but-- But she couldn't will her feet to move. Couldn't force herself to take that jump away from the safety of the Mount. "Tori!" she screamed.
Tori	Tori ignored her, now almost halfway down the ramp and less than twenty feet away from the one-armed ex. The dead woman raised its arm and its stump towards her. A shot rang out and the ex's head cricked hard to the side before the creature collapsed. The guards on the platform were lining up shots with their rifles. Tori looked up at them and shrieked as another ex shambled towards her.
Kathy	Kathy turned towards the platform and yelled, "Keep her covered! And somebody radio for St. George! Tell him that I--I'm--" She swallowed hard. "Tell him I'm going to try to get down there."
Guards	None of them tried to dissuade her. Maybe they knew that she'd been a hero once and just kind of expected her to do something like this. Maybe they just figured they couldn't stop her. "Make it quick, ma'am," one of the guards called back. "There's at least a dozen more on the move, heading her way."
Tori	Tori broke into a run, heading down the ramp. One of the guards pegged the claw-fingered ex and Tori screamed again. Kathy thought maybe the other woman had just gone hysterical and was running to get away from the gunfire. Then Tori got to the bottom of the ramp and threw herself between the rifles and Ex-Rich. She spread her arms wide and looked up at them. "Don't hurt him!"
Kathy	The guards looked over to Kathy. So did Tori. Kathy wanted to scream, Why are you looking at me for orders! I'm not a hero! Instead, she quickly twisted her braid into a flat crown on her head and called, "Get away from it, Tori! I'm coming to get you! Just get away from it!" She took a step onto the blanket-covered barbed wire, her balance automatically reasserting itself over the thin metal, and prepared to leap.
Tori	"He knows me!" Tori yelled back. "He's just like you! He remembers--" Her eyes went wide as Ex-Rich sank its teeth into the side of her neck. She shrieked. Blood gushed out across her shoulder and soaked her clothing. The dead man clawed at her and she twisted away. Ex-Rich staggered back with a mouthful of flesh between its chomping teeth and lurched forward again, hungry for more.
Kathy	From her stance on the wall, Kathy dispassionately noted that while Tori was bleeding a lot, but it wasn't pulsing. The ex had missed any major arteries. If she got back to the fence, there was still a chance she could be saved. A good chance, especially if St. George flew her to the hospital and they got her hooked up to an antibiotic drip in time. She took in a deep breath and the muscles in her legs bunched in anticipation. But again, she couldn't make herself jump. Her legs remained locked in place. She stood, useless, only able to watch. "C'mon," she gasped, punching her locked thighs. "C'mon!"
Tori	If Tori had run, she might have lived. But Tori was in shock. She'd shoved Rich off of her, but then just stood there. Her hand went up to touch her neck and came back soaked in red. She looked over her shoulder at the ex who had been her friend. Another shot echoed across the freeway and an ex jerked, but didn't drop. It had been a dark-haired man in an L. A. Kings jersey. It took another few steps and a second round put it down. That snapped Tori from 'shock' into 'hysteria.' She finally turned to run, only to slam right into a car. She sprawled across the hood and left a splash of blood on the silver paint. She pushed herself up and made it a few yards back up the ramp before she stumbled. She tried to twist herself back up and grabbed at her ruined shoulder. It threw her off-balance and she tumbled to the ground.
Kathy	Kathy knew that feeling. For a heartbeat she teetered on the top of the fence, thrown back into a memory so clear it could be happening right then. Arms wrapped around her from behind and grabbed her. Her gi, no longer held closed by her sash, gaped open, showing vulnerable skin. The curve of her neck. The slope of her shoulders. The curve of her breast, covered by a graying, mottled hand. The ex held onto her and wouldn't move. And then it bit her shoulder. The teeth ground down, breaking the skin, tearing at the muscle. Blood gushed down her arm. For a moment, it didn't hurt--felt more like Dante, when he got a little rough. More surprise than pain. Banzai twisted free--and then the pain hit. Ignoring it, she did what Eliot and Gorgon and the Dragon all said: she spun and used her momentum to drive the heel of her hand at the ex. It was an Indian woman. She was beautiful. Banzai shattered her nose and drove the bone into her brain. She staggered back and dropped. Her balance was shot. Too much pain to bounce. Sweeping the three nearest exes and using their bodies for extra height, she threw herself at the fire escape ladder again. She swung her legs up, wrapped her knees over the rungs, and pulled herself away from their clawing hands. Every movement was agony, but she didn't let herself stop, didn't let herself falter... It was the sickening lurch of falling that brought Kathy back to the present. She flung herself backwards, back onto the minivan roof, landing hard on the luggage rack. With her weight gone, the wire snapped back into place and flung the blanket over the wall.
Tori	That trip down memory lane had felt like forever but had barely taken seconds. Tori was still on the ground, struggling to rise, still keening in pain. Ex-Rich fell on her, pinning her face down against the pavement. She twisted around onto her side and tried to push him away, and his teeth closed on her fingers. Its jaws opened again and her hand slipped in to the next knuckle. She howled. The broken-jawed ex flapped its mouth at her and tried to chew through the sleeve of her shirt. She thrashed her legs and her other arm was pinned under her, grasping at the air.
Exes	The guards took out two more exes heading for the woman, but a third slipped past them and then a fourth. Tori's screams were already growing weaker when the two new exes fell on her. Her cries gurgled as if she had a mouthful of water and one of the exes stumbled back with pink meat between its teeth.
Kathy	Kathy's fingers curled around the chain-link and she hollered at the exes as they ripped the woman--Tori--her neighbor--apart. She let go only when Tori's cries ended in a wet moan and the thrashing in the middle of the exes ceased. She flung herself off the minivan, landed poorly on a hip that was bruised from the luggage rack, and stumbled back to the building. St. George was in the air, likely on his way to the platform for a report, but she ignored him and pushed her way inside. She'd be useless trying to make sense of what happened tonight, her head too full of everything to be coherent. She'd been right about one thing today. She was no fucking hero.

[Warning for typical zombie violence and NPC death. Adapted from Chapter 17 of Ex-Communication, by Peter Clines. NFI, NFB, OOC is shiny. Previous Post]