It gets quiet in the hall.
Amanda is shaking her head.
– Mr. Pitt. As if.
She looks at the gun in her hand, shakes her head.
– You got her good, Joe. I mean. I mean. She’d been on rations for. I don’t know. I kept telling her to feed. There was enough for her. But she kept reducing her own so she could spread it around with the membership. As if. I mean, this was way past when we knew where things were going. I’d shown her the math. She couldn’t argue with it. You know. And she just. She wouldn’t accept that most of them were going to starve. Period. She handled the discipline. The euthanizing when someone went over. But she wouldn’t let go and let what was going to happen just, I mean, just let it happen. I gave her everything I could. I would have given her more. But she wouldn’t take it.
She lifts her arms from her sides, lets them drop.
– And then you, I mean, speared her.
Another pound on the door.
Lydia this time.
– I don’t believe you about the girl, Joe. You wouldn’t.
– So come on in guns blazing. Already told you I don’t like the girl, Lyd. Do your worst.
Low conversation in the hall.
Amanda stands over Sela’s body, rocking gently on her own tide.
– She lost a lot of blood. We have nothing left in the reserves. I tried to get her to take a little more from me, but it was just a few hours ago. She just. Hunkered in the corner, growled at me when I came over. At me.
She laughs.
– Like she could scare me. Not.
She wipes at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
– But then she just. I mean. It had to happen right? She just lost it.
She looks at Delilah.
– All that blood. Just across the room. She just.
Delilah points at Sela’s covered body.
– The lioness maddened.
Amanda rubs her face.
– Sela.
She looks at the gun in her hand.
– I just.
She looks at me.
– You knew her, Joe. I mean. Joe. Right?
I nod.
– Baby, you did right. She’d never have been able to live with herself.
Amanda looks at Delilah.
– I mean.
She drops the gun in her pocket and turns away.
– Gah.
A door-rattling knock.
– Miss Horde?
I turn in my chair.
– Hurley?
– It’s Miss Horde I’ll be wantin’ ta talk to, Joe, not yer backstab-bin’ self.
– It wasn’t a backstab. Predo and his guys, they were just there.
– Indeed. Most like.
I close my eye.
Terry, Lydia and Hurley. Only the survivors survive. Way of the world. That it should come to this. And is it any wonder?
I open my eye and see Amanda slipping a key into the top lock on the door.
I rise.
– Hey! Hey!
Delilah steps forward.
– Yes, it is time we departed.
Amanda twists the second lock open.
I try to walk to her and cramp up all over.
– Don’t.
She turns the third lock and steps back and the door swings open.
Terry stands on the threshold, worse for wear, but, heavy feeder that he is, the burns covering the right side of his body are healing fast.
– OK, yeah, Ms. Horde, finally we get to meet in person. We can, you know, we can make some progress here now.
Lydia behind him, aiming her carbine down the stairs.
– Shut up and get in there, Terry, something’s coming out of the basement.
He steps into the room.
– Yeah, if we could claim a little sanctuary maybe while we. Some complicated issues have arisen and a real opportunity. I don’t know. Hurley.
Hurley steps into the doorway, dragging Predo by the scruff of his neck.
– Yeah, an I guess ya might call it opportunity. Still I don’t know why ya just won’t let me kill da bastard.
He sees me.
– An Joe in da bargain, if I may.
Lydia squeezes off a few rounds down the stairwell and backs into the room, kicking the door shut.
– Damn, damn, damn. Where’s the? Keys for this? It’s. What the fuck are? I can’t.
She’s leaning her forehead against the door, eyes closed.
– I had this nightmare when I was little. This. My mom was always talking about the inherent threat of patriarchy. But she never explained what it. And I saw, when I was about five, my dad took me to see some horror movie. Something I was way too young for. And. My mom, all I understood about patriarchy was that it was something to do with men. And the horror movie, my dad took me and it was all guys in the audience. And I was so scared by the movie. And these nightmares I had after, this creature I would dream about. It wasn’t, it’s not Freudian, it wasn’t like it was covered in penises or anything. It was just all fangs and scales and gross and just a movie monster. And I thought, I told my mom I had nightmares about the patriarchy and it almost ate me, and she told me, she said, Yes, that’s what it will try to do.
She starts to laugh, keeps talking through it.
– And down there that’s all, when they came out and were, I saw them and all I could think was, the patriarchy is going to eat me!
She stops laughing.
– What the hell? What the hell?
– And now we are assembled, can we not leave this tower of horrors?
Lydia looks at Delilah.
– Chubby’s daughter.
I take a drink.
– Told you.
Lydia steps toward her.
– How’s the baby?
– The child is well. But I feel it is not safe here. We must be away. Is there no one here who can escort us to safety?
– Excuse me, if I may.
Predo manages to give the impression that he just happens to be wearing his coat after asking Hurley to hold it by the collar for him.
– Several of my people are still outside. I believe it is safe to assume that no one will be leaving without my complicity.
Terry raises a hand high over his head, as if he knows the right answer and wants to be called first.
– Don’t listen to, I don’t know, to that propaganda. Even if, even if he still has troops outside, which I think there is room for doubt on that one, it doesn’t change the fact that we have him. So, you know, a man like, a man who I’ve known a lot of years, a man who has a powerful desire for self-preservation, he won’t be ordering his storm troopers to open fire when he’s going to be the first one out the door.
Predo coughs into his gloved hand.
– Do you think, Bird, do you think it is a matter of what I tell them at this point? The orders regarding hostage situations are long-standing and come directly from the Secretariat. There will be no negotiating. Any arrangements will be made in this room. And I will be dictating terms.
Hurley gives him a shake.
– Terry boy, must we listen ta dis shite?
Terry slings his AK over his shoulder and raises a finger.
– Well, he’s full of shit, Hurl, but there is room to maybe settle a few things before we lose, I don’t know, all perspective.
– This is full of a, um, Vyrally activated bacillus.
We all look at Amanda, at her desk, a small vial made of spun aluminum in her hand, tiny hand-lettered label on its side.
– I mean, like a microscopic version of the stuff in the basement. And it’s a sanguivore. Which means it likes to eat blood, like the Vyrus. But because it can live without a host it doesn’t care about keeping you alive. It just wants to eat and replicate. And really fast. And it can survive in any environment I’ve stuck it in. And. Oh, and um, I just had to shoot my lover. So. Yeah. I am totally in a fucking mood right now and everyone should put their guns down and maybe you, Lydia, because I know you sort of, you can put them outside the door and use these keys to lock it. OK. So. And, I mean, I totally don’t expect everyone to leave this room alive. Because, come on, how could we? I, for one, I think, I mean. I think I’m going to kill myself. But I’m gonna talk a little first, and if anyone interrupts me I’m going to open this can and I don’t know if anything can kill this stuff before it kills everything everywhere. So OK?