Our group had used this method some time ago, using Grue’s power to slip away from the bank robbery.  But how were they doing it?  It wasn’t just the wind carrying the gas down misleading alleys.  Were there living creatures carrying vials of the stuff?

Mechanical spiders, Taylor.

Though I suppose living creatures isn’t out of the question.

Mechanical spiders.  They’d found their maker, and Bonesaw was using them to distribute the vapor and cut off my swarm sense.

After the last two chapters, it feels nice to figure out something before Taylor does.

They’d escaped.

Bye bye!

Three trails.  I stopped in mid-air.

Fuck.

Siberian?

Three?

I gave chase to the nearest one, abandoning Atlas to pursue the subject into an alley, through a hole in the wall and into a derelict building, past a pile of rubble… this wasn’t right.

Yeah, this sounds like Siberian.

So what about the other two, is one of the trails Siberian’s real body instead of Jack or Bonesaw?

It was too nimble, moving through spaces too small for even Bonesaw.

Oh, I guess it might just be one of the spiders.

And before I even returned to Atlas, there were a half-dozen trails in total that were branching out around us.  In another few minutes, there were a dozen.

Good move, Bonesaw. Good move.

Glory Girl was hovering over the school, searching for Bonesaw.  The ‘cocoon’, as Amy had called it, was damaged much as the school gate had been, but Glory Girl was still intact inside.

Huh.

The fact that she was looking made it very possible that we were facing the worst case scenario.

She’s lost track of them…

And now they’re probably headed out of town.

The bug-killing smoke extended outside of the school gates.  It was hard to verify if they’d gone that way and corked the flow of the smoke or if it was traces from before.  My only resource and means of detecting it was my bugs, but testing it meant killing them by the dozens, if not hundreds.

Which is not very helpful, yeah.

If they stayed on the grounds and I left, it could mean something ugly for Amy and Glory girl.  Conversely, if they’d left and I stayed, it could mean disaster for everyone else.

Hey, look, another trolley!

I left, flying Atlas in an ever-expanding circle, reaching out with my bugs to scan the surroundings.

With a mixture of relief and fear, I realized that Bonesaw’s extermination smoke was stronger a half mile away.

A half mile that’s suspiciously in the direction of the closest city limit?

I’d been lucky enough to guess right.

They’d split up.  Two trails, extending down different streets.

Ahh… which means you need to figure out which one belongs to Jack.

My bugs felt around to see where the death-zone was, a few dropping dead each time, their numbers whittling down.  It was like a game of battleship, with constantly moving ships and limited ammunition.

You can feel the cannonballs dying whenever they hit a ship.

My leg bounced on the spot with anxiety and anticipation.  Jack was up to something and I was sitting there.

Hey, be patient. Because you are a patient. Patient zero for the city’s cure.

I tried to distract myself with a change of subject, “Where did you get the material for what you did for Glory Girl?  That sarcophagus thing.  You have to use living material, so…”

Yeah, damn good question.

“They weren’t human.”

“That’s not that reassuring.”

“I used pheromones to lure stray cats, dogs and rats to us, then I knit them together.  Victoria didn’t have enough body fat to stay warm, and she was wearing out faster than I could get her nutrition.”

…I see.

“She’s going to return to normal, though?”

“Just a little more time.  I have to ensure she’s totally together inside the cocoon, then disconnect her from it, and make sure she reaches a physical equilibrium afterward.  Once I know she’ll recover…” she trailed off.

“Amy-”

Right, there’s that whole thing about leaving to consider.

If you really want to leave your family, Amy, I’m sure there’s one that will have you. They’re called the Undersiders.

“Go.  You’re done.  Go after Jack.”

I hesitated.  There was a look in her eyes, dark.  She wasn’t meeting my gaze.

She doesn’t want to talk about that part.

I turned and ran.  Atlas was waiting on the rooftop as I ascended the stairs.

Too much time lost.  My body was a counter-agent for Bonesaw’s prion generators, but I had to find Jack and Bonesaw.  I could scout the area with my bugs, vaguely sense the areas they’d traveled by seeing what spots murdered my bugs on contact, but I still had to track their movements.

Time for a chase to the city limits?

“The parasites will replace existing parasites over time, and they’ll die if it gets cold, now.  Or if you raise your blood alcohol content.  Get drunk after a week or two to clear them from your system, and don’t drink tainted water.

Drunk Taylor sounds like an interesting experience. Powers/magic mixed with alcohol lead to fun results sometimes.

If everyone clears them from their systems, the miasma’s effects will be gone by the end of winter.”

That long, huh. Well, still. Better than dying in hours.

“They’re probably what she seeded all over the area, before using the catalyst.”

“I’d believe it.”

“And the damage, can you reverse it?”

“The minor damage, yeah.  But I can’t do anything for the people with more serious brain lesions unless I attend to them directly.  There’s other healers out there, I know they’re not as good, but maybe they can do something to fix that.”

Othala might actually be able to help, especially since she can heal multiple people at once. (Brian wasn’t able to while borrowing her power because the power reduction made it only last a few seconds per touch.)

I nodded.

Precious seconds passed.

“Let me know the second I can go,” I said.  “Jack’s going to attack, or pull something.”

“If we’re lucky it’ll be a muscle.”

“Trying to engineer a large-scale solution to help as many people as soon as possible.  The parasites will leave your body through your sweat, spit and urine, and enter the local water supply to override the others, and anyone you cure will cure others in a sort of reverse-epidemic.

That’s.

Weird but effective.

I have to make sure this is engineered right, or nobody’s going to get cured.  If I screw it up, it could be worse than what Bonesaw did.”

It’s a sensitive business.

“This is bad.  Every second is time you’re suffering more permanent damage.”

“That’s not a huge priority.  I’m more worried about Jack, and all the others who got hit harder by this stuff than I did.”

Quite a lot of those out there.

“It’s a parasite that’s producing the improperly folded proteins.  I can stop it, and I think I can make them create a counter-agent that counteracts the proteins and promotes healing in the brain.  Can’t make them fix the lesions, but I can promote plasticity in the brain and new connections to old information.”

Sounds much better than nothing.

Still sounds like Taylor will have permanently lost some of the memories, though. Maybe other functions of the brain too.

What if she regains most of it but still doesn’t remember her mother?

Her voice was so quiet I barely heard it.

But I could remember the others; I remembered Tattletale and Brian.  Rachel.  I could remember Alec and Aisha.  The dogs.  Our enemies.  My dad.  My mom’s face popped into my mind’s eye and I could feel a relief as I let go of an anxiety that I hadn’t been consciously aware of.

Phew. 🙂

“They’re just rules.”  Where was Jack?

“They’re the only thing holding me together.”

He’s getting away.  This stupid girl.

Please don’t snap at her, Taylor. Though she really does need to take a moment to consider the consequences here.

“You were willing to die if he took you hostage.  I’m asking you to sacrifice yourself in a lesser way.  Fall apart if you have to.  But undo what Bonesaw’s started.”

I…

Yeah. This is a fairly good way to sell this. Not entirely healthy, maybe, but hopefully effective.

“This is worse than dying,” she said, her voice quiet.

Jeez, how Lawful can you get.

“Ask yourself if it’s worse than the slow, degenerative death of thousands and the potential end of the world.”

She stared at me.

Kinda pales in comparison if you ask me.

But yeah, Amy, if you refuse this completely, that’ll be the most selfish thing you’ve done throughout the story. More so than what you did to Victoria, even.

Even as she looked at me, aghast, I felt something awaken in my mind, barriers crumbling.

Good on you, Amy. 🙂

“Fix me,” I gasped.  I couldn’t tell where Jack was, and I was hurting enough that I couldn’t think to strategize.  He hadn’t followed.  “Fast!”

She touched my forehead, and I could feel the cuts knitting together.

Thank you. Now if you can fix the miasma damage, that’d be nice, but convincing you might take longer than we’ve got.

But there was another injury that wasn’t mending.

“The red miasma took away my ability to recognize people.  I don’t know anything about the people I’m fighting.  Fix my brain.”

“I don’t- I can’t.”

You really don’t have much choice at this point, Amy.

There are people who need you to do this.

“If you don’t fix me, Jack could win, and billions could die.  If you don’t cure whatever it is that Bonesaw’s done with this miasma, I and tens of thousands of others could die of a degenerative brain disease.”

Seriously, Amy, I totally get your reluctance, but it really matters now.

“You don’t understand.  I can’t cure brain damage.”

Still going with that lie?

I do suppose she doesn’t have any experience with it.

My heart fell.

“I- my- the last time I did it, the last time I broke my rules, everything fell apart.  You’re asking me to do the exact same thing Jack was.  To break my rules again.”

The difference is Taylor’s asking you to do it for good.

I tried to get my feet under me, but it was slow and awkward as I was unable to use my hands.  I had to wrap my arms around my head to shield my face against the continued flurry of slashes. Jack had a knife in each hand now, and he wasn’t giving me a half second between cuts, if that.

Wow.

Watch out for Jack sticking his hand out to cut you from the side.

My forearms and hands didn’t cover enough of my head.  I could feel the cuts nicking my ears, slashing through my hair by my temple.  A few slashes made their way through gaps between my arms and fingers.

Oww. This is clearly unsustainable.

Blindly, I rushed for the classroom.  Needed a second to breathe, to think, before I was whittled down to a bleeding ruin.  I could hear footsteps behind me.  I felt a hand seize my shoulder.

Jack? Or Amy?

I whirled and knocked it away, felt another knife slash crossing the back of my head.

But if the knife slash is coming from the back after she whirled around to knock the hand away…

I had blood in my eyes, my ears were a bloody ruin, and cuts burned like fire around my scalp and neck.

A shout.  Not Jack’s.  I heard it again, the same words, but I couldn’t make them out.  There was blood in my ears.

Amy, we need you over here. Badly.

I stumbled into the classroom, and Panacea was at my side in a moment.

There you are. 🙂