Chapter 4
There was really only one paved road on the island. It circled from the small airport to the various venues like the sports complex, the convention center, and the hotel-casino before ending up back at the airport. The airport shuttles, security and fire vehicles, and small scooter-like taxis were the only powered vehicles allowed on the island, and they were all electric. Most people got around on bicycles or on foot. While this was normally one of the things Yami enjoyed about his island home, today he would have preferred something with a bit more bulk than the electric cart - something like a tank. The road was littered with storm debris and slick from the accumulated rain. When they reached a section of road blocked by several downed trees, it was faster to abandon the cart and proceed on foot than it would've been to clear the obstruction.
As they ran, Yami spotted more of the slow-moving shapes through breaks in the foliage at the sides of the road, confirming his fear that the single Soulless One they had encountered at the hotel had not been the only one on the island. In fact, he thought he was seeing more of them as they got closer to the convention center. Even his sharp eye-sight had trouble piercing the nearly solid wall of rain, but the cloying press of the things' warped magic against his senses was unmistakable - and getting worse.
He was reminded unwillingly of the first time, so long ago, that he had first encountered that feeling. The cloying stench of death, of rotting flesh and blood, of decay… and of heka bin, evil magic. The wrongness of the thing had clawed at his senses, both physical and otherwise. It was an abomination, an offense against Ma'at. And now more of the creatures were walking the earth, creating more like themselves with every heart they tainted.
A scream startled Yami out of his dark reverie.
He froze, fighting to see through the nearly solid veil of the rain that had turned everything around him into a gray blur. The noise of wind and rain meant he couldn't listen for a human heartbeat; he could barely hear the sound of Mahaad's voice when he leaned closer to make himself heard through the storm.
"What is it?" Mahaad asked.
"You didn't hear that?" Yami shook his head; he knew his senses were stronger than his friend's. "Never mind. I heard a scream."
"Which way?"
Knowing that they were probably already too late to help, Yami still chose a direction, hoping it was the one from which the scream had originated, and ran. Ever loyal, Mahaad followed.
o0o
They found the woman clinging to the top of a fountain. Somehow, she had managed to get just high enough that the Soulless surrounding her couldn't quite get their reaching hands on her. That hadn't stopped them from trying; the three surrounding the fountain were straining toward her, grasping hands clawing at the stone of the uppermost tier that made up her precarious perch. She screamed again as one of them almost managed to snag her dangling foot. Her shoe came off and plopped into the water as she yanked her leg away from the reaching claws. As if galvanized by the near-miss, she made a surprisingly vicious effort at clubbing the one responsible for the loss of her shoe with the length of metal pipe clutched in the hand not wrapped white-knuckle tight around head of the mermaid sculpture seated atop the fountain. Unfortunately for her, her attack had little effect on the Soulless other than to spur it into a greater frenzy.
Without needing to say a word, Yami and Mahaad split up. While Mahaad circled around to the right, Yami leaped at the nearest Soulless One. Since it was distracted by the woman, it didn't notice him until he'd grabbed its head and snapped its neck. It collapsed at his feet; he stepped over it and dodged the second's attack. This time, he kicked the back of the thing's knee so that it stumbled, the leg snapping beneath it. He smashed its head into the stone of the fountain's basin, splattering gore and brain matter in a wide arc. By that time, the first one was struggling back to its feet, its head hanging at a weird angle from its broken neck. That didn't stop it from snapping its bloody fangs at him. Dropping the corpse whose skull he'd smashed, Yami rose in time to meet the first one's lunge with his fist, punching through its ribcage and closing his had around its cold, unbeating heart. He yanked the dead organ out and crushed it in his hand. He didn't bother watching the thing collapse, for good this time, just turned and slammed his hand into the second corpse's chest to do the same to its heart before it could rise and go after him again.
Finished, he plunged his hand into the fountain to clean the disgusting gunk off and looked around to see that Mahaad had also finished off his own monster and was now attempting to coax the woman down from the top of the fountain. The water in the lower basin, already muddied with debris from the storm, now churned red and black under the pounding rain.
"Hurry!" Yami shouted over the howl of the storm. "We have to get to Seto and the others!"
Mahaad gave him a look from beneath sodden brown hair, but graciously refrained from pointing out that it had been Yami's idea to divert from their goal in order to attempt a rescue in the first place. Shoving his own hair back from his face, Yami picked his way over the now-motionless corpses to Mahaad's side and peered up at the woman. She met his gaze with wide, terrified eyes.
"It's all right," Yami called up to her, trying to sound as if he weren't blatantly lying. "These creatures can't hurt you now. But you need to come down from there so that my friend can get you to shelter."
Now Mahaad shot him a glower. "I'm not leaving you on your own!"
"I'll be fine," Yami said, and ignored the way his reassurance only intensified Mahaad's glare.
To his relief, the woman had begun to climb down on her own. He and Mahaad both reached up to help steady her when her remaining high heeled shoe slipped on the wet marble. Once they had her on solid ground, she made a futile attempt at straightening her clothing and her tangled mass of blonde hair. Despite the fact that she was soaked to the skin and still shaking from her ordeal, she stood tall as she faced them.
"Thanks for your help." Her voice was throaty and a bit raw, probably from yelling. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard, staring down at the things that had tried to kill her. "I can't believe... Where did those monsters come from?"
"No time to explain." Yami turned and fished her lost shoe out of the water. He shook off the worst of the muck before handing it to her. "Mahaad will help you get to-"
"I said I'm not leaving you, Yami, and I damn well meant it!" Mahaad interrupted. "We'll all go together."
"No, I'll run ahead and-" Yami argued, even as he stripped off his suit jacket and offered it to the woman. She pulled it on over her lavender sundress, now spattered with gore.
"I swear if you try it, I will break both of your legs, even if it means I have to carry you to safety." Mahaad's expression left no doubt in Yami's mind that the threat was a real one. "We are not getting separated!"
"He's right, y'know." The woman smirked. "Rule one in horror movie situations: never split up."
Barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Yami skewered her with a look. "This isn't a movie."
"Maybe not, but you have to admit it is pretty horrifying." She glanced at the fallen Soulless. "Never thought I'd see real live zombies."
"They are quite real, but they are not alive..." Mahaad sounded faintly puzzled by the turn of phrase.
"Figure of speech, hun." She shuddered and pulled Yami's jacket more closely around her shoulders. "I'm Mai, by the way. Mai Valentine."
"I am Mahaad Ishtar." Mahaad inclined his head in a polite bow. "And this is Yami King."
While they had been exchanging introductions, Yami had been scanning for signs of movement. What he saw wasn't encouraging. "I hate to break this up, but we need to get moving before more of the zombies-" He stumbled a bit over the modern term. "- find us. Especially as I don't believe we will all fit atop Ms. Valentine's fountain."
"Good point." Mai immediately looped an arm around one of his, then reached out and snagged one of Mahaad's as well. She set off marching through the rain, a startled man on each side of her. "Where are we headed, boys?"
"The convention center."
Mai's confident stride faltered. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Won't there be a lot of people there?"
Yami figured he'd followed her thought processes - more people equals more potential zombies - and couldn't fault her logic. However, "The center also has more in the way of emergency facilities than elsewhere on the island." And at least one of his absent priests, though he wasn't going to tell her that. He might be forced to reveal the truth of their identities later, but now was hardly the time for lengthy explanations.
"What about the storm?" Mahaad asked, voicing a worry that Yami had been trying to avoid thinking about.
"We'll just have to hope for the best." Perhaps they could find some way to utilize their magic to shield whatever shelter they found. "With these abominations on the loose, we cannot continue the evacuations."
They were all silent, imagining the chaos that would be unleashed if even one of the creatures made it off the island.
"Are..." Mai stopped and swallowed audibly before continuing. "How sure are you that none of them were on the earlier flights?"
Yami met her wide-eyed gaze and saw his own fears reflected there. Grimly, he said, "Not sure enough."
o0o
When they reached the convention center, the courtyard - visible from the road - was swarming with the Soulless. The creatures were shambling aimlessly back and forth, their fickle attention drawn constantly from one thing to another as the storm winds blew debris across the island.
Yami and his two companions quickly ducked down behind a large hibiscus shrub. The wind-driven rain felt like pellets striking his skin, but Yami ignored it as best as he could, his mind on the gauntlet they'd have to run to get to the atrium entrance.
"I don't think I can get through that," Mai whispered. Human ears might not have heard her over the noise of the storm, but Yami caught the words easily and agreed with her assessment.
"Mahaad-" he began.
"Don't say it."
"You know it makes sense."
Mai glanced between them. "What are you talking about?"
"Splitting up," Yami said, doing his best not to acknowledge the glare Mahaad was aiming his way. "My friend doesn't like the idea."
"It's not splitting up, per se," Mahaad informed him, barely suppressed anger in his voice. "It's that I know you are going to insist on being the one to go alone through that." He gestured to the crowd of Soulless milling about the courtyard.
Yami frowned at him. "I'm faster than you, and you know it. It only makes sense for you to go with Ms. Valentine."
"Go with Ms. Valentine, where?" Mai asked. "Look, just tell me where to go and I'll be fine on my own. Then the two of you don't have to split up."
Mahaad looked as if he might second this plan, until Yami quashed it. He pointed to the balconies far over head, where the more expensive hotel suites started on the upper floors of the center. "I don't doubt your resourcefulness, Ms. Valentine, but I don't think you can get up there by yourself."
"How do you expect me to get up there, even with help?" she asked, staring in consternation up at the slick sides of the building towering over them. "I'm not Wonder Woman!"
Glaring at Yami, Mahaad said, "I don't see why you cannot help her-"
"Because I'm faster than you," Yami repeated, and suited action to words. He was up and running before Mahaad could make a grab for him. If either of his companions called after him, their voices were lost to the wind.
o0o