“Jonah! Behind you!” Olivia. Again.
He just caught the flash of motion out of the corner of his eye in time. He flung himself forward as a razor-sharp blade hissed past his head, all but giving him a haircut. Then flipped backward as the ax blade came down again.
The shade pivoted and threw the ax straight at the children. There was no time for a pretty save. Jonah spun, swinging his staff, and batted the flying ax out of the air.
Well. Maybe it was a pretty save. And now he had an edged weapon.
In the time it took to realize that, three shades were nearly on top of him. He reacted, spinning, cutting them in half with one swing of his blade. The torsos and legs continued to twist and kick and try to get to him.
The ax was a blur of steel, and Jonah a blur of motion. But sooner or later, he was going to mess up. Sooner or later, a child was going to fall over the edge and end up in the river. “Hey! What’s this?” someone shouted from the base of the bridge. “Did Halloween come early or what?”
Looking down through the framework of the bridge, he saw that it was Alison, with her sword, Bloodfetcher, strapped on over the dress she’d worn to the club.
“Alison! A little help, here?” Jonah pivoted, ax in one hand, staff in the other. He slammed into three corpses at knee level. They toppled backward and disappeared over the edge.
A commotion erupted on the ground below as Alison drew Bloodfetcher and went to work. Jonah heard the crunch of bones and smelled the stench of burning flesh punctuated by occasional heartrending screams of free shades as she shivved them. Those were harder to bear than ever.
Finally, blessedly, the shades stopped coming and Jonah was able to free those already on the bridge, including Brendan. He didn’t have the energy or the heart to chase the free shades down. He picked his way through heaps of bones to the edge of the road deck and looked down.
Alison was charring the last of the creatures on the ground, jetting flame at them with two-handed sweeps of her sword. Burning corpses toppled into the river, hissing as they hit the water. The surface reflected back flame in a lurid orange. And everywhere, fleeing shades, swarming like fireflies along the riverbank.
Taking a wider view, Jonah saw that the police activity on the bluff had slopped over the hill and down into the Flats. The cops would have heard the bridge alarm and then seen the platform rising on the closed bridge. We need to get out of here.
“Good work!” Jonah called down. “Thanks!”
Alison looked up at him, sword in hand, her hair a bright spot in the darkness. “Sorry!” she said. “I wasn’t able to shiv very many of them. They were coming too fast. So now we’ll have a mess of free shades to deal with.”
“Can’t be helped,” Jonah said. “Better split. Company’s coming.” He pointed at the oncoming slurry of uniforms.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be down in a minute. I need to clear the rest of the bridge.”
Alison trotted back toward Superior as Jonah knelt on the bridge deck, looking for the bottle that Brendan had dropped. But there was something else, scattered over the ground. Plant material—shredded leaves, small purple and yellow flowers, red berries.
Nightshade.
He didn’t have time to sweep up. So Jonah stuffed some of the wilted plant into his pocket, then scooped up the bottle, tucking it into the waist of his jeans.
He turned back toward the children, who huddled together, shaking and crying. All except for Olivia, who had not budged from her assigned spot. He knew he should do something, calm them down somehow. But he wasn’t good with children. He always felt like he might contaminate them if he got too close.
“Is anybody hurt?” he asked.
They all started talking at once.
“Listen, I want each one of you to look at your neighbor. If your neighbor is bleeding, raise your hand.”
The crying dwindled into sniffles as they checked one another out. No hands went up.
“Great,” Jonah said, weak with relief.
“I want to go home,” a little boy wailed. “Soon,” Jonah said. “I need to go make sure there’s no monsters left on the bridge. While I’m gone, could you . . . could you all sit down and hold hands?” He pushed his hands down, and eight bottoms hit the deck with a thump. Eight pairs of eyes stared solemnly back at him.
“Let’s sing a song,” Olivia said, coming up beside him. “Great,” Jonah said. By now, he was ready to adopt Olivia and name her his heir. He dropped his staff, stowed his ax, and began to climb. The children’s voices rose from the platform below, Olivia’s louder than anyone else’s.
One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight. Back-to-back they faced each other, Drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise and ran to save the two dead boys. And if you don’t believe it’s true, go ask the blind man, he saw it, too.
Late last night or the night before,
Twenty-four ZOMBIES knocked on the door.
I asked what they wanted, and this is what they said:
“I want to chew on your toes and bite off your HEAD!”
Not exactly soothing, Jonah thought, but . . . appropriate.
Chapter Fifteen
Escape from the Flats
Jonah searched the entire infrastructure of the bridge, but found no more shades lurking up there. He’d hoped that Lilith might still be in the area, maybe watching from some unseen vantage point. But there was no sign of her.
Even now, an army of free shades would be spreading throughout the city, looking for new hosts.
He looked out over the canal basin and saw that, while he’d been occupied, the police had surrounded the base of the bridge, trying not to step on scattered body parts.
Mechanics grappled with the bridge machinery, and a searchlight mounted at the top of Superior swept over the metal framework.
On the bridge deck below, the children were still chanting, playing a clapping game.
My boyfriend’s name is Roger, He plays for the Brooklyn Dodgers. With a cherry on his nose and nine black toes, And this is how my story goes.
Jonah climbed down from the tower, landing lightly on the bridge deck. The children’s voices faded. They watched him, wide-eyed and silent.
“You’re safe now,” he said. “The . . . ah . . . the zombies are gone. Now stay put until the police officers come.”
The searchlight found him, nearly blinding him, and helicopter blades whirred overhead. Jonah pulled his hood forward to shelter his face and hugged the side of the bridge tender’s cabin to avoid drawing fire. He looked down to the foot of the tower, where black-clad SWAT officers were beginning to climb.
A voice blared down from one of the choppers overhead. “Drop your weapons, raise your hands, and step away from the children.”
And as soon as I’m in the clear, you’ll shoot me, Jonah thought. I’m not planning on dying tonight.
The bridge alarm clanged again, and with a screech of metal on metal, the bridge platform began to descend in fits and starts.
Jonah slid his body through the metal infrastructure of the lift bridge and leaped across and onto the adjacent abandoned railroad bridge. Working his way to the other side, he descended to the railbed in a series of controlled zigzag falls.
Landing on the tracks, he sprinted across the trestle and vaulted over the chain-link fence at the end. It would not do to be caught. It would not do at all.
Jonah trotted north, passing under the RTA bridge. He needed to get far enough away so that when he surfaced, the officers swarming the bridge wouldn’t spot him. He couldn’t keep racing through the Flats, though. That would draw unwanted attention.
Up ahead loomed the graceful arches of the DetroitSuperior Bridge. He ran up one of its buttresses, pulling himself hand over hand, and slid over the wall onto the trolley level.
He looked back at the lift bridge and saw that more and more police cars had been arriving at the bottom of the structure’s towers, including a SWAT armored vehicle that resembled a tank. The police were still concentrated around the road bridge, guns drawn, awaiting the descent of the bridge deck.
He had to move fast. Once they realized he’d escaped, they would have the area cordoned off in no time. He sprinted back through the trolley subway to the east end of the bridge, leaping over barricades and gaps in the concrete floor. He surfaced just before the trolley line disappeared underground for the last time. As he climbed over the railing onto the bridge, he saw that one of the police officers stationed at the intersection of Superior and West Ninth was striding toward him.
Jonah pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of the asssortment of emergency vehicles. “What’s going on?” he asked, when the officer was close enough.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” The policeman planted a hand on Jonah’s shoulder. “Where did you come from?”
“Well, the street was blocked, so I snuck over on the lower level,” Jonah said, taking three more quick photos. “Would you mind answering a few questions? I’m a freelancer, and I just need to get a little more info before I—”
“Why are you carrying an ax?” Damn! He’d forgotten all about the ax he’d jammed into the waistband of his jeans. Not only that; he was splattered with blood and gore.
“It’s cosplay,” Jonah replied, scraping up a bit of charm, touching the ax. “A costume. You’ve heard of the annual zombie walk, right? I do the slayer podcast. If I could just get your name and a quote from you, Officer—”
“The street was blocked for a reason,” the officer roared, spinning Jonah around so he faced West Ninth. A small crowd huddled behind yellow police-line tape. “Now get back behind that line before I arrest you for disorderly conduct!”
“Of course, Officer. Right away.” Jonah crossed the intersection, ducked under the police tape, and walked up West Ninth, losing himself in the crowds on the sidewalk. He ditched the ax in a Dumpster.
By now, the emergency lights and helicopters were far behind him. It was unlikely anyone had followed him on that route, but still—he didn’t go directly back to school. It was just too risky. Too close to home.