Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [146]
I decided to be a problem, too. I’m an actress. I’ve trained in stage fighting and I do my own stunts. I can run in spiked heels if I absolutely have to. I face casting directors as part of my regular work week. I deal with theatrical agents! So it was well past time to show this murderous academic bitch that it would take a lot more than a few zombies and a little hair pulling to turn me into a human sacrifice.
I made two fists and swung my bound hands into her nasty, arrogant face as hard as I possibly could. She shrieked and let go of me. I started hopping away from her as fast as my bound legs would carry me. When I felt her hand on my hair again, I dropped to the platform’s floor—ignoring the pain of the hair that tore out of my scalp—and rolled over, kicking at her with both legs.
Below me, I heard Biko shouting, “Darius! Darius, it’s me, Biko! Darius!”
“Oh, no,” Catherine said. “That’s how it got away last time.”
“If a zombie’s name is called by someone who knew it in life,” I panted, remembering what Max had told our group in Puma’s shop. So that’s how Darius had wound up wandering the streets the night I had first encountered his zombie. This cold bitch had forgotten for one moment that the lover she had murdered was now an it, and she had used his name.
I felt strong hands hauling me upright. I was scared for a moment, until I realized Biko was the one manhandling me. He used his weapon to slice open the bonds around my hands and my feet. Then he lunged in Catherine’s direction.
“No!” Max’s voice cried behind me.
I whirled to face him. He was staring up at the roiling black clouds and the dancing, menacing shapes overhead. His face was a horrified mask of alarm.
“Biko! No!” he shouted. “No!”
Biko halted and turned to look at him.
Max was panting hard, sweating, and red- faced. I realized the climb to this platform would have been a little demanding for him even if he hadn’t had to fight through baka and zombies to get here.
“We must go! Now! Now!”
Biko met my gaze and then, trusting in Max, we ran toward the steps and started down them. Darius’ zombie was just standing there, looking confused. It made no protest as Biko shoved it out of the way and then helped me and Max run past it. Three more docile, dazed zombies were in our way, and they each simply moved aside, too, when Biko pushed them.
I noticed foamy white stuff bubbling out of their mouths. “What is that?”
“Salt!” Biko shouted.
I remembered learning at Puma’s shop that salt was one of the theoretical ways to awaken a zombie. Thank the heavens it had actually worked!
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I tripped over a baka corpse. Biko caught my arm and pulled me upright before I could fall flat on my face.
“Keep running!” Max shouted, clambering down the steps behind us. “We may yet be too near!”
We headed for the crumbling stone steps and began descending them.
“No, no! Slow down!” I shouted. “I can’t see!” We were going down those treacherous stairs at reckless speed in nearly total darkness, our way illuminated only by the violent flashes of lightning overhead.
“Keep going!” Max cried. “Run!”
“Max!” I protested.
“Faster!”
I took his fear quite seriously, even though I didn’t know what caused it. But my fear of dying in a fatal tumble down those lethal stairs was real, too. Biko solved my dilemma by grabbing my arm and dragging me with him at top speed, so that our descent was little more than a scrambling, controlled fall to the very bottom of the steps.
Max was wheezing with exhaustion by the time we reached street level. Biko and I paused,