Chapter Four: Penny Thoughts

Lanni moved her finger from the trigger, but continued watching Alex through the white dot on the pistol's sights. She resisted the urge to run over and hug him. He was different. He radiated menace. She silently prayed that he hadn't turned into one of the crazy, zombie people Pete told her about.

His eyes locked on hers, but he seemed to be staring through her. His thin, parted lips simulated a clumsy smile. "How is your head, Lisa Ann?" he asked, somewhat automatically.

Her fingers drifted to the side of her head, grazing the tender, but miraculously well-healed wounds above her ear. "It's fine," she said, resuming her two-handed grip on the pistol. "What did you do to Pete?" Goosebumps rose all over her body, stimulated by the increasingly familiar electric tingling.

Alex blinked at the limp police officer and let go of his wrist, snapping out of his trance. The spidery sensation crawling over her skin intensified and then stopped.

"You can't be too cautious," he said, glancing at the gun, "even with me."

"What happened? What did you do to him?" Lanni asked again.

"Only what I had to do. Three hosts have come for me in the last hour, Lanni. Five of their puppets, too. Pete, here, could have been under their control. He might have been one of them." He dropped a long, black duffel bag on the floor. "Clothes for you. Weapons, too. Kit up. We have to get away from here."

Alex flinched as Lanni fired two rapid shots. A brain-faced monster like the one that almost ate her head, clacked into view through the open door. Blue ichor spattered the door frame.

The monster leapt out of sight with remarkable agility for a creature with two bullet wounds. It didn't scream or make any sounds other than the clack of its claws on the tile. A stench like a flaming skunk saturated the air.

"Wait!" Alex said, stepping in front of her. "Leave it alone. It's with me."

"It's with..." she began. "It's with you? No, Alex. That's just not going to work for me. I don't ever want to see that thing again, and I sure don't want to smell it! No way."

"I'm not sure how to tell you this," Alex began, obviously struggling to find the right words. "It's just, neither of us would be here right now if it weren't for that thing."

"Exactly," Lanni said. "So why is it still alive?"

"That's not what I mean. We'd have both been killed at least twice on the way here if it hadn't saved us. I know it hurt you, but it didn't know what it was doing. It was less than a minute old. It followed us all the way here. I think it knows we're its family."

"Family? You and I are all that's left of our family. That thing killed the rest. It killed our mother! I watched it eat our father."

"Yes, you're right. All we have left is each other. No one will ever come before you in my eyes. But what's done can't be changed. The world we knew has become a dangerous place, and that thing can help us survive in it."

Pete's head twitched as he inhaled a convulsive breath. It reminded Lanni that they had bigger things to worry about. No more sounds came in from the hallway. If the thing was still out there, it wasn't moving.

"How long have I been out? That thing has tripled in size."

"Almost five hours."

Lanni lowered the pistol. A lot had happened in such a short time. She needed to know more about what was going on outside, and she was worried about Pete.

"You shouldn't have hurt him. Is he going to be okay?" she asked. Judging by Alex's expression, her anger must have been obvious. He stepped closer and touched her shoulder, careful to avoid any bare skin.

"He'll be fine. And so will we. I'm sorry I had to leave you, but I'm back now. I won't leave you again."

"We'll see." She knelt and pulled the double zipper on the duffel bag. "What's a host, and why is one coming for you?"

"Alright," he said. "I don't know if I can say this without sounding crazy, but here is what I've learned. It all comes back to the plague. It changes people in very specific ways. The thing that came out of mom started off human, but the plague took over and changed it."

"I know that much. I was there," Lanni said. She didn't need constant reminders of what happened to her mother. "Hosts?"

"Hosts look like normal people, mostly, but the plague controls them. It's almost like they are possessed. They can hear what you think. They get in your head and take everything out. Vampires! That's what they are like. But instead of blood, they drain your mind. They take your thoughts, memories, experiences, everything."

Lanni looked up from the duffel bag. "You're right. That's nuts. How did you learn all of this in just a few hours?" She suspected she knew the answer, but she had to ask.

"I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn't listen. I can hear what people think. I've been hearing it for a few weeks."

In light of everything she'd been through that day, his claim was no more absurd than her mutant newborn sibling trying to kill her, the strange power humming inside her, or an even stranger aura that encased her. She couldn't logically explain the mostly healed wounds on her head, either. They should have been fatal.

"Even if that's true," she began, "how would anyone know it? Who could you possibly have learned this from?"

"There's more to this plague than anyone knows. Whatever it is, Lanni, it's aware. There is a communal intelligence that lives in it. This intelligence, called the Con, can inhabit certain types of people once they have been properly altered by the plague. They become hosts. They are physical bodies for the Con. They know what it, and each other knows, and they want to drain every ounce of knowledge from every sentient creature on Earth. The drained husks they leave behind are its eyes and ears. And fists."

It was a lot to take in. If he was right, and he was like these hosts, how long would he last before becoming one of them?

"What's going to happen?" she asked. "Are you going to go crazy and try to kill me? Drain my mind? What are we going to do, Alex?" she asked.

"I can't get into your head. I can't even touch you. Something in your touch blocks the plague, neutralizes it. I must have something similar, too, because all of the other hosts want to find me pretty badly. I learned all of this by doing to them what they want to do to me."

Her mind raced to process everything he said and come up with a course of action. "The cruise ship! Did you mention a cruise ship at the Naval Weapons Station? They couldn't come for us out in the ocean, could they?"

He held up an index finger, alert to something she couldn't hear. "There's another one," he whispered. "It's found me. You're too important, Lanni. I won't let them have you. I'll wake up Peter, and the two of you can sneak out. Get as far from the city as you can. Once you're far enough away, I'll finish them off and catch up with you."

"I don't think so," Lanni said. "You said you wouldn't leave me again. Whatever happens, we're staying together." She listened for signs of anything approaching, but all she heard was Peter. His rapid breathing sounded like a coon-dog sniffing out a trail.

"Take Pete's Remington," she continued. "If he can walk, bring him. I won't be completely useless, especially with all the goodies you brought. The plague, Con thingy must have big plans for me, because I think I could kick Jackie Chan's butt after the changes I've been through. And if you keep calling me Lisa Ann, I'll give you a demonstration."

He didn't smile, but his demeanor lightened. "That was for calling me 'little brother,' twerp. Last I checked we were the same age." It was funny, but Lanni knew their bickering comforted him as much as it did her. It lent a familiar touch of normalcy to the ongoing nightmare the world had become.

He turned serious again, apparently aware of the host coming closer. "It will be here in a minute or two, maybe less."

"If you know where it is, let's go get it. We could ambush it. Why wait for it to come to us?" Lanni asked.

"I'll handle the host. I am curious to know what, if anything, you remember after our... after that thing bit you in mom's room.

She hadn't thought about that yet. It wasn't something she wanted to remember. "Mostly the smell. I'll never forget that reek. I smell it all the time." Ozone and rancid meat stung her nostrils, obviously because of the monster she shot, but she suspected she would be able to smell it even if it hadn't been there.

"The rest is just random moments. I remember your hands. They smoked and sizzled like cooking bacon. I remember hearing voices in the Scout. What happened to Sensei Rumiko and her husband John? I thought I heard them. I don't see how they would have ended up with us, though. They live way out in Summerville."

Alex shook his head. "That'll have to wait. I'm going to try to wake Pete. If he can walk, leave, like I said. Take the Scout. Otherwise, he's on his own. Things are bad outside. Anyone you see out there is going to be a plague-crazy husk. Assume they all want to eat you. Even the ones that look normal aren't people anymore."

"Zombies," she muttered. "Pete said there were zombies. We're in a Todd Brown novel, aren't we?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Zombies, Lanni? Really? If we were in one of your zombie books, you wouldn't be such a dork. You'd cuss like a normal teenager, wear slutty clothes, and you'd kick ass with a battle ax in one hand and a plasma cannon in the other."

The image made her grin. "That does sound cool. Is there a plasma cannon in this bag?"

"Everything but," he said. "Seriously, though, don't underestimate them. They aren't slow, stupid undead. They are alive. They're strong as horses, and vicious as a pack of starving wolves. They're quick, too. Treat them like dangerous wild animals, and you'll be pretty close."

The offspring's clacking claws moved down the hall at a casual pace. It must have been sitting out of sight, waiting. Alex's frail body, wispy hair, and sunken eyes were worse than ever, but he still seemed like himself, only more confident. She hoped her trust wasn't misplaced. He was her brother. What else could she do?

He saved my life. He came back for me.

"How can I be sure some host isn't in your head, controlling you?"

This time he smiled. "No matter what I tell you, that could always be true. But it isn't. A host could give you false thoughts and memories to make you think you are really here with me, when in fact you are really stabbing me to death with a soup spoon. They can wreak havoc in your mind from a short distance, but they have to touch you to harvest you." He looked down at Peter, and gave her an apologetic shrug.

"You really are one of them, aren't you?" Lanni asked. She didn't realize she had raised her pistol again, but it was pointed right at him.

"Only a little. I don't think you or I fit any of the molds. We have the virus, if that's what it is. It changed us, but you are still Lanni, and even though I have all of Pete's knowledge and memories, I am still Alex. I risked everything to save you. I'm still your brother, and there is nothing I won't do to protect you."

Tingling spider webs crawled over Lanni's skin again. Alex lowered his gaze and tilted his head like he was listening once more.

"It's here. It's not alone. Save your bullets for the host," he said with a pointed glance at the pistol. "Not me. The bad one."

"If you aren't the bad one, then fix Pete. Put him back in his body."

"It's not that easy. I'll try after we deal with the brain sucking monster, okay? You should know he felt really bad for shooting at you. He came in here to save you. He hoped to take you to his niece at Columbia University in New York. She's working with a group that has isolated plague particles they're calling nanites. They are trying to find a way to neutralize them."

"Is that true?" Lanni asked. "The part about the scientists, I mean." There were so many questions she wanted to ask. He had given her so much to consider, but there simply wasn't enough time to ask.

Alex shrugged. "I guess we'll find out. Pete isn't the only one who thinks so."

"Hello?" a tremulous female voice called. "Please, is anyone here? Can someone please help me?" She sounded like she was crying.

"Oh no. The host will find her," Lanni said. "I'll go get her. You take care of Pete."

Alex grabbed her arm to stop her, and quickly let go. An angry red welt sprung up on his palm where he touched her bare skin. Wisps of smoke curled up from his hand and vanished in the air.

"So far, the hosts only know about me. Go hide in the bathroom. If you get a clean shot, take it. Don't hesitate."

Pete looked up at Alex and smiled. "There you are," he said. He sprang to his feet, his shotgun floating up from the floor to his waiting hands. He aimed at Alex's chest from a few inches away, and an ear-splitting pop shot through the room.

The side of Pete's head exploded, pierced by Lanni's bullet. He dropped to the floor again, this time lifeless.

"He was going to do it. He was about to shoot you," Lanni said. She was stunned by what she had just done. She had killed a man. No, she killed Pete.

"It wasn't him. The host was in his head. Now she knows exactly where we are."

The section of wall beside the door crumbled as two thick claws tore through. Their offspring companion easily ripped a waist-high hole into the room and hopped through. Lanni's skin went cold and tingly as her aura deflected the offspring's mental assault.

Alex stood his ground, clawing the air with his hands. Each swipe stripped away bands of the offspring's flesh. It leaped at him, with its bright yellow claws extended and jaws open wide. Lanni fired two rounds into its quivering, brainy face with little effect.

Alex dropped to one knee with both hands over his head. He flung his arms out to the either side, and the offspring ripped in half at its jaws. Much of its body disintegrated, but teeth, chunks of bone, and gelatinous globs of blue ichor rained down over him and half of the room.

He pointed at the bathroom, on the verge of speaking, but he froze in place, still pointing with his eyes closed.

Lanni scooped up the bag on her way through the door. She pulled out the black clothes she'd been absently digging through. Beneath them she found an array of martial arts weapons: A katana and wakizashi, tanto, nunchaku, surikens and throwing knives, and a three-part spear that screwed together.

She had seen and lusted after these weapons for years in a local shop called the Iron Dragon. It catered to comic book nerds, role-playing geeks, new-age wierdos, and martial artists. In other words, people just like her.

The spear called to her, but in these tight quarters it would only slow her down. The katana would do, but with a blade half as long, the wakizashi would be ideal for up-close combat. Still wearing nothing but Pete's shirt, she drew the blade, holding the sturdy sheath in her left hand.

She flattened herself against the wall as the steady click click click of heels on tile approached. The broken section of wall quietly fell to dust, making an opening for a tall-ish teenage girl to walk through.

Her long, platinum blond hair hung in a tight ponytail to the middle of her back. She wore a long, white lab coat over a black collared shirt, black knee-length skirt and tights, and black high heels. Lanni knew her at once.

Alex hadn't moved an inch. What was he doing?

"Save me! Someone please save me," the girl said in a mocking tone. "I'm just a dumb girl. Somebody help." She reached her manicured hand towards Alex's outstretch arm, but slowed down as she reached closer. She was struggling. "Don't fight me, Alex. You'll only hurt that queer little autistic brain of yours."

"Penny?" Lanni said. "You should be nicer to my brother. He always had the biggest crush on you, you know?"

The girl spun around to face her, surprise etched on her face. Sure enough, her Dillard's name badge confirmed it. She was Penny DuFrain, the beautiful high school dropout turned department store make-up counter Bitch.

Alex winked at Lanni and put his hands up near Penny's head. He seemed to be enjoying the moment.

"You're the freaky little sister! Lambie, right? How did I not notice you back there? Just habit, I guess. No matter. Could you at least have the decency to be scared? Maybe I'll make you stab yourself with that thing."

Lanni felt the now-familiar tickle of nanites dying on her aura as Penny's smug smile became a grimace of effort, and finally an open mouthed caricature of fear.

"You dirty little trailer-trash hick!" Penny growled. "How are you doing that?"

That seemed to be the moment Alex had been waiting for. He grabbed the sides of her head, and her body went rigid, just like Pete's had. Her face contorted in something worse than physical agony. She understood what Alex was doing, and it must have terrified her. As difficult as her suffering was to watch, Lanni preferred it to the ecstatic glow on her brother's face.

Draining someone's entire life from their mind sounded pretty awful, and Penny's face confirmed it. It felt utterly wrong that someone could take such pleasure from another person's terror.

I can't judge him. I just shot a good man in the head. I'm just as much a monster as he is.

Penny's eyes dulled and Alex lowered her to the floor. He took several deep breaths before standing up. "She'll sleep for a while," he said. "There's no one else in this building, but once we're outside, we'll have to move fast. I tricked Penny into thinking she had me. If I hadn't tricked her, though, I'd be dead now. From now on, you can't hesitate, okay? It really is us or them. If you have any doubts, let's err on the 'us' side. Are you with me?"

She nodded. What had happened to the world while she was unconscious? There had been talk of a pandemic for weeks. Some even said it was a new plague. But this? Monsters that wanted to eat them or steal their humanity? Mind control and magic? She almost wished she hadn't woken up.

But I did wake up. And this is the world, now. At least I still have Alex, and he still has me.

"Sorry, bro. I won't let you down again."

"Get dressed, then. I always wanted to see New York."