The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

I rose from the platform and shot through the nearest window—it was the quickest way out of the building and into the streets. It was strange to see the veil of darkness drawn around this portion of the city—strange and scary. Central’s wide streets were packed with people running toward the southern end, and though many held torches or other kinds of portable lights, they seemed a puny defense against the gathering weight of night. There were buildings dotted randomly throughout the dark streets where lights did twinkle—places that obviously had emergency generators or battery storage in situ that hadn’t been affected by the general shutdown. But there was no such light coming from the streets closest to the walls—for the people there it was a daily struggle just to survive. Emergency lighting was not something they could ever have afforded, and it was those sections of the city that would be hit first.

I glanced over my shoulder as I moved forward. The demarcation line between light and dark seemed to be close to Sixth Street, where it intersected with Victory. Every light, every tower, on every building—even the towers lining the curtain wall—beyond that point were ablaze, which at least meant there was a place of safety for Central’s residents. There would be no such refuge for those in Chaos. The upper levels might have some access to UV lighting, but for the most part, the ramshackle nature of the place offered little in the way of protection. But then, those who lived there were well aware of the dangers. The most recent attack might have been the most devastating, but it certainly hadn’t been the first.

But perhaps they would escape the initial onslaught. Perhaps Dream’s rallying call would draw the vampires directly here, to the one place they’d been unable to access since the city’s rise from the aftermath of the war.

I followed the straight line of Victory Street, arrowing as fast as I could for the gates. The curtain wall loomed, the tarnished silver of her metal seeming to glow against the gathering shadows. Though the UV towers were no longer ablaze, they still shed a bloody light. It didn’t reach down to the wall and wouldn’t stop the vampires, but it would at least restrict the air space in which they could move.

Not that that would make much difference when half the city lay in darkness.

We drew closer; the drawbridge was up, meaning the soldiers who’d guarded it had hand-cranked it into place before obeying orders and leaving. There was also a ribbon of white following the gentle inner curve of the wall and, after a moment, I realized what it was—light tubing. Obviously, it had its own backup power source, and as such had escaped the destruction of the main grid. It was a shame Central’s leaders hadn’t similarly separated the wall’s UV towers from the main grid and backup gens—but then, who would ever have thought that such treachery could come from one of Central’s own?

I swooped up the wall’s steep metal side and then came to a halt on top of the wall. Once we were two again, Nuri strode to the edge and looked down. “They come,” she said softly. “I can feel the vibration of them through the steel.”

I didn’t ask how that was possible because it didn’t really matter. I flexed my fingers and said, “What’s the plan?”

She glanced at me. “Gather your ghosts. I will endeavor to raise a firewall.”

I didn’t bother asking what that was, either—I’d find out soon enough. I leaped off the wall, became shadow, and raced across the darkening rail yards and its silent pods to the now destroyed southern exit that had led into my bunker. I might not be able to use it, even in matter form, thanks to the explosion and the compact nature of the rubble that now filled the tunnel, but the déchet soldiers who haunted the lower levels of the bunker wouldn’t be similarly restricted.

I followed the sunken line of the trench to the point where it would have entered the old nursery that had become something of an antechamber for the South Siding exit, and then regained form. With little time to waste, I knelt and placed a hand on the ground. I had no idea if it would actually help summon the ghosts, but it couldn’t hurt. This was the first time I was contacting them directly—the last time I’d rallied them, I’d done so through Cat. But if I could communicate directly and easily with Carleen’s ghosts—who were human—I saw no reason why I could not do so with the déchet soldiers.

I closed my eyes and silently said, with as much force as I could muster, Déchet soldiers, I need your help again.

For several seconds there was no response, and then a thick wave of energy began to rise from the earth all around me. A heartbeat later, a sharp voice said, What is it you ask of us now?

“Central City has fallen into darkness. I need your help to help protect it from the vampires.”

Rising to rescue children is one thing, but why should we now help those who did nothing to save us?

“You cannot hold those who live today accountable for the atrocities of the past—”

Perhaps not. The speaker stepped into view. Death had caught him midchange and he was now forever locked into a form that was a mix of human and bear. He also didn’t appear to have his thought and emotional centers medically neutered, which meant he was one of the luckier ones who’d been chemically restrained, the effectiveness of which would have disappeared on his death. But they never saw it as an atrocity, never believed there was anything wrong with erasing our entire population. Has that opinion changed in the time since?

“No, but allowing them to be erased only repeats the mistakes of the past, and makes you no better than them.”

A ghost of a smile touched his lips. And what if we are not?

“You would not have answered when I called if that were so.” I hesitated, and glanced toward the city. A rippling, shimmering curtain of green, browns, pink, and blue was forming above the wall. It wasn’t like any sort of light shield I’d ever seen before, but it was nevertheless beautiful. Whether it would be enough to stop the vampires, I had no idea.

And they were so close the stink of them was beginning to stain the air.

“I need an answer, and quickly,” I said. “Will you once again follow me into battle?”

A murmur rose all around us; there was so many of them here that the air shimmered and sparked with a force every bit as powerful as the one over the curtain wall. The bear-man smiled. Is it not in the end what we were designed for?

“Then let’s go.”

I claimed shadow form again and led the charge back to Central. The shimmering multihued curtain grew stronger as I neared the top of the wall, and as I went through, it tore the shadows from me and forced me back to human form.

I stumbled for several steps, then caught my balance and turned around. And saw that it wasn’t one shimmering wall, but rather two.

Nuri stood at the rear of the gatehouse. Her face was pale, but her eyes were filled with a light as bright as the rainbow of color that now surrounded us.

“The first barrier of earth fire will force them from shadow, just as it did you.” She unslung the pack and handed it to me. “The second forms a thick cap over the darkened parts of the city, and will stop them from entering.”

I quickly opened the pack; in it were four long and very deadly looking wooden knives. I drew them out, slung two across my back, and gripped the others. They felt well-made and well-balanced in my hands.

“I know from personal experience just how painful wood embedded into flesh can be,” I said, “But will a mere cut be enough to incapacitate them?”