Cell. Part 5

17.

Clay had his reasons for wanting to go back to the Atlantic Avenue Inn before they set off. One was to retrieve his portfolio, which he'd left sitting in the lobby. Another was to see if they couldn't find some sort of makeshift scabbard for Alice's knife-he reckoned even a shaving kit would do, if it was long enough. A third was to give Mr. Ricardi another chance to join them. He was surprised to find he wanted this even more than he wanted the forgotten portfolio of drawings. He had taken an odd, reluctant liking to the man.

When he confessed this to Tom, Tom surprised him by nodding. 'It's the way I feel about anchovies on pizza,' he said. 'I tell myself there's something disgusting about a combination of cheese, tomato sauce, and dead fish* but sometimes that shameful urge comes over me and I can't stand against it.'

A blizzard of black ash and soot was blowing up the street and between the buildings. Car alarms warbled, burglar alarms brayed, and fire alarms clanged. There seemed to be no heat in the air, but Clay could hear the crackle of fire to the south and east of them. The smell of burning was stronger, too. They heard voices shouting, but these were back toward the Common, where Boylston Street widened.

When they got next door to the Atlantic Avenue Inn, Tom helped Clay push one of the Queen Anne chairs away from one of the broken gla.s.s door-panels. The lobby beyond was now a pool of gloom in which Mr. Ricardi's desk and the sofa were only darker shadows; if Clay hadn't already been in there, he would have had no idea what those shadows represented. Above the elevators a single emergency light guttered, the boxed battery beneath it buzzing like a horsefly.

'Mr. Ricardi?' Tom called. 'Mr. Ricardi, we came back to see if you changed your mind.'

There was no reply. After a moment, Alice began carefully to knock out the gla.s.s teeth that still jutted from the windowframe.

'Mr. Ricardi!' Tom called again, and when there was still no answer, he turned to Clay. 'You're going in there, are you?' Tom called again, and when there was still no answer, he turned to Clay. 'You're going in there, are you?'

'Yes. To get my portfolio. It's got my drawings in it.'

'You don't have copies?'

'Those are the originals,' Clay said, as if this explained everything. To him it did. And besides, there was Mr. Ricardi. He'd said, I'll be listening. I'll be listening.

'What if Thumper from upstairs got him?' Tom asked.

'If that had happened, I think we'd have heard him thumping around down here,' Clay said. 'For that matter, he would have come running at the sound of our voices, babbling like the guy who tried to carve us up back by the Common.'

'You don't know that,' Alice said. She was gnawing at her lower lip. 'It's way too early for you to think you know all the rules.'

Of course she was right, but they couldn't stand around out here discussing it, that was no good, either.

'I'll be careful,' he said, and put a leg over the bottom of the window. It was narrow, but plenty wide enough for him to climb through. 'I'll just poke my head into his office. If he's not there, I won't go hunting around for him like a chick in a horror movie. I'll just grab my portfolio and we'll boogie.'

'Keep yelling,' Alice said. 'Just say Okay, I'm okay,' something like that. The whole time.'

'All right, but if I stop yelling, just go. Don't come in after me.'

'Don't worry,' she said, unsmiling. 'I saw all those movies, too. We've got Cinemax.'

18.

'Im okay,' Clay shouted, picking up his portfolio and then putting it down on the reception desk. Good to go, Good to go, he thought. But not quite yet. he thought. But not quite yet.

He looked over his shoulder as he went around the desk and saw the one unblocked window glimmering, seeming to float in the thickening gloom, with two silhouettes cut into the day's last light. 'I'm okay, still okay, just going in to check his office now, still okay, still o-'

'Clay?' Tom's voice was alarmed, but for a moment Clay couldn't respond and set Tom's mind at rest. There was an overhead light fixture in the middle of the inner office's high ceiling. Mr. Ricardi was hanging from it by what looked like a drape-cord. There was a white bag pulled down over his head. Clay thought it was the kind of plastic bag the hotel gave you to put your dirty laundry and dry cleaning in. 'Clay, are you all right?'

'Clay?' Alice sounded shrill, ready to be hysterical. Alice sounded shrill, ready to be hysterical.

'Okay,' he heard himself say. His mouth seemed to be operating itself, with no help from his brain. 'Still right here.' He was thinking of how Mr. Ricardi had looked when he said I shall stay at my post. I shall stay at my post. The words had been lofty, but the eyes had been scared and somehow humble, the eyes of a small racc.o.o.n driven into a corner of the garage by a large and angry dog. 'I'm coming out now.' The words had been lofty, but the eyes had been scared and somehow humble, the eyes of a small racc.o.o.n driven into a corner of the garage by a large and angry dog. 'I'm coming out now.'

He backed away, as if Mr. Ricardi might slip his homemade drape-cord noose and come after him the second he turned his back. He was suddenly more than afraid for Sharon and Johnny; he was homesick for them with a depth of feeling that made him think of his first day at school, his mother leaving him at the playground gate. The other parents had walked their kids inside. But his mother said, You just go in there, Clayton, it's the first room, you'll be fine, boys should do this part alone. You just go in there, Clayton, it's the first room, you'll be fine, boys should do this part alone. Before he did what she told him he had watched her going away, back up Cedar Street. Her blue coat. Now, standing here in the dark, he was renewing acquaintance with the knowledge that the second part of homesick was Before he did what she told him he had watched her going away, back up Cedar Street. Her blue coat. Now, standing here in the dark, he was renewing acquaintance with the knowledge that the second part of homesick was sick sick for a reason. for a reason.

Tom and Alice were fine, but he wanted the people he loved.

Once he was around the reception desk, he faced the street and crossed the lobby. He got close enough to the long broken window to see the frightened faces of his new friends, then remembered he had forgotten his f.u.c.king portfolio again and had to go back. Reaching for it, he felt certain that Mr. Ricardi's hand would steal out of the gathering darkness behind the desk and close over his. That didn't happen, but from overhead came another of those thumps. Something still up there, something still blundering around in the dark. Something that had been human until three o'clock this afternoon.

This time when he was halfway to the door, the lobby's single battery-powered emergency light stuttered briefly, then went out. That's a Fire Code violation, That's a Fire Code violation, Clay thought. Clay thought. I ought to report that. I ought to report that.

He handed out his portfolio. Tom took it.

'Where is he?' Alice asked. 'Wasn't he there?'

'Dead,' Clay said. It had crossed his mind to lie, but he didn't think he was capable. He was too shocked by what he had seen. How did a man hang himself? He didn't see how it was even possible. 'Suicide.'

Alice began to cry, and it occurred to Clay that she didn't know that if it had been up to Mr. Ricardi, she'd probably be dead herself now. The thing was, he felt a little like crying himself. Because Mr. Ricardi had come around. Maybe most people did, if they got a chance.

From west of them on the darkening street, back toward the Common, came a scream that seemed too great to have issued from human lungs. It sounded to Clay almost like the trumpeting of an elephant. There was no pain in it, and no joy. There was only madness. Alice cringed against him, and he put an arm around her. The feel of her body was like the feel of an electrical wire with a strong current pa.s.sing through it.

'If we're going to get out of here, let's do it,' Tom said. 'If we don't run into too much trouble, we should be able to get as far north as Maiden, and spend the night at my place.'

'That's a h.e.l.l of a good idea,' Clay said.

Tom smiled cautiously. 'You really think so?'

'I really do. Who knows, maybe Officer Ashland's already there.'

'Who's Officer Ashland?' Alice asked.

'A policeman we met back by the Common,' Tom said. 'He* you know, helped us out.' The three of them were now walking east toward Atlantic Avenue, through the falling ash and the sound of alarms. 'We won't see him, though. Clay's just trying to be funny.'

'Oh,' she said. 'I'm glad somebody's trying to be.' Lying on the pavement by a litter barrel was a blue cell phone with a cracked casing. Alice kicked it into the gutter without breaking stride.

'Good one,' Clay said.

Alice shrugged. 'Five years of soccer,' she said, and at that moment the streetlights came on, like a promise that all was not yet lost.

MALDEN.

1.

Thousands of people stood on the Mystic River Bridge and watched as everything between Comm Ave and Boston Harbor took fire and burned. The wind from the west remained brisk and warm even after the sun was down and the flames roared like a furnace, blotting out the stars. The rising moon was full and ultimately hideous. Sometimes the smoke masked it, but all too often that bulging dragon's eye swam free and peered down, casting a bleary orange light. Clay thought it a horror-comic moon, but didn't say so.

No one had much to say. The people on the bridge only looked at the city they had so lately left, watching as the flames reached the pricey harborfront condos and began engulfing them. From across the water came an interwoven tapestry of alarms-fire alarms and car alarms, mostly, with several whooping sirens added for spice. For a while an amplified voice had told citizens to GET OFF THE STREETS, and then another had begun advising them to LEAVE THE CITY ON FOOT BY MAJOR ARTERIES WEST AND NORTH. These two contradictory pieces of advice had competed with each other for several minutes, and then GET OFF THE STREETS had ceased. About five minutes later, LEAVE THE CITY ON FOOT had also quit. Now there was only the hungry roar of the wind-driven fire, the alarms, and a steady low crumping sound that Clay thought must be windows imploding in the enormous heat.

He wondered how many people had been trapped over there. Trapped between the fire and the water.

'Remember wondering if a modern city could burn?' Tom McCourt said. In the light of the fire, his small, intelligent face looked tired and sick. There was a smudge of ash on one of his cheeks. 'Remember that?'

'Shut up, come on,' Alice said. She was clearly distraught, but like Tom, she spoke in a low voice. It's like we're in a library, It's like we're in a library, Clay thought. And then he thought, No- Clay thought. And then he thought, No-a funeral home. 'Can't we please go? Because this is kicking my a.s.s.' 'Can't we please go? Because this is kicking my a.s.s.'

'Sure,' Clay said. 'You bet. How far to your place, Tom?'

'From here, less than two miles,' he said. 'But it's not all behind us, I'm sorry to say.' They had turned north now, and he pointed ahead and to the right. The glow blooming there could almost have been orange-tinted arc-sodium streetlights on a cloudy night, except the night was clear and the streetlights were now out. In any case, streetlights did not give off rising columns of smoke.

Alice moaned, then covered her mouth as if she expected someone among the silent mult.i.tude watching Boston burn might reprimand her for making too much noise.

'Don't worry,' Tom said with eerie calm. 'We're going to Maiden and that looks like Revere. The way the wind's blowing, Maiden should still be all right.'

Stop right there, Clay urged him silently, but Tom did not. Clay urged him silently, but Tom did not.

'For now,' he added.

2.

There were several dozen abandoned cars on the lower deck of the span, and a fire truck with EAST BOSTON lettered on its avocado-green side that had been sideswiped by a cement truck (both were abandoned), but mostly this level of the bridge belonged to the pedestrians. Except now you probably have to call them refugees, Except now you probably have to call them refugees, Clay thought, and then realized there was no Clay thought, and then realized there was no them them about it. Us. about it. Us. Call us refugees. Call us refugees.

There was still very little talk. Most people just stood and watched the city burn in silence. Those who were were moving went slowly, looking back frequently over their shoulders. Then, as they neared the far end of the bridge (he could see moving went slowly, looking back frequently over their shoulders. Then, as they neared the far end of the bridge (he could see Old Ironsides Old Ironsides-at least he thought it was Old Ironsides Old Ironsides-riding at anchor in the Harbor, still safe from the flames), he noticed an odd thing. Many of them were also looking at Alice. At first he had the paranoid idea that people must think he and Tom had abducted the girl and were spiriting her away for G.o.d knew what immoral purposes. Then he had to remind himself that these wraiths on the Mystic Bridge were in shock, even more uprooted from their normal lives than the Hurricane Katrina refugees had been-those unfortunates had at least had some warning-and were unlikely to be capable of considering such fine ideas. Most were too deep in their own heads for moralizing. Then the moon rose a little higher and came out a little more strongly, and he got it: she was the only adolescent in sight. Even Clay himself was young compared to most of their fellow refugees. The majority of people gawking at the torch that had been Boston or plodding slowly toward Maiden and Danvers were over forty, and many looked eligible for the Golden Ager discount at Denny's. He saw a few people with little kids, and a couple of babies in strollers, but that was pretty much it for the younger set.

A little farther on, he noticed something else. There were cell phones lying discarded in the roadway. Every few feet they pa.s.sed another one, and none were whole. They had either been run over or stomped down to nothing but wire and splinters of plastic, like dangerous snakes that had been destroyed before they could bite again.

3.

'What's your name, dear?' asked a plump woman who came angling across to their side of the highway. This was about five minutes after they had left the bridge. Tom said another fifteen would bring them to the Salem Street exit, and from there it was only four blocks to his house. He said his cat would be awfully glad to see him, and that had brought a wan smile to Alice's face. Clay thought wan was better than nothing.

Now Alice looked with reflexive mistrust at the plump woman who had detached herself from the mostly silent groups and little lines of men and women-hardly more than shadows, really, some with suitcases, some carrying shopping bags or wearing backpacks-that had crossed the Mystic and were walking north on Route One, away from the great fire to the south and all too aware of the new one taking hold in Revere, off to the northeast.

The plump woman looked back at her with sweet interest. Her graying hair was done in neat beauty-shop curls. She wore cat's-eye gla.s.ses and what Clay's mother would have called a 'car coat.' She carried a shopping bag in one hand and a book in the other. There seemed to be no harm in her. She certainly wasn't one of the phone-crazies-they hadn't seen a single one of those since leaving the Atlantic Avenue Inn with their sacks of grub-but Clay felt himself go on point, just the same. To be approached as if they were at a get-acquainted tea instead of fleeing a burning city didn't seem normal. But under these circ.u.mstances, just what was? He was probably losing it, but if so, Tom was, too. He was also watching the plump, motherly woman with go-away eyes.

'Alice?' Alice said at last, just when Clay had decided the girl wasn't going to reply at all. She sounded like a kid trying to answer what she fears may be a trick question in a cla.s.s that's really too tough for her. 'My name is Alice Maxwell?'

'Alice,' the plump woman said, and her lips curved in a maternal smile as sweet as her look of interest. There was no reason that smile should have set Clay on edge more than he already was, but it did. 'That's a lovely name. It means blessed of G.o.d.' '

'Actually, ma'am, it means of the royalty' or regally born,' ' Tom said. 'Now could you excuse us? The girl has just lost her mother today, and-'

'We've all all lost someone today, haven't we, Alice?' the plump woman said without looking at Tom. She kept pace with Alice, her beauty-shop curls bouncing with every step. Alice was eyeing her with a mixture of unease and fascination. Around them others paced and sometimes hurried and often plodded with their heads down, little more than wraiths in this unaccustomed darkness, and Clay still saw n.o.body young except for a few babies, a few toddlers, and Alice. No adolescents because most adolescents had cell phones, like Pixie Light back at the Mister Softee truck. Or like his own son, who had a red Nextel with a ring-tone from lost someone today, haven't we, Alice?' the plump woman said without looking at Tom. She kept pace with Alice, her beauty-shop curls bouncing with every step. Alice was eyeing her with a mixture of unease and fascination. Around them others paced and sometimes hurried and often plodded with their heads down, little more than wraiths in this unaccustomed darkness, and Clay still saw n.o.body young except for a few babies, a few toddlers, and Alice. No adolescents because most adolescents had cell phones, like Pixie Light back at the Mister Softee truck. Or like his own son, who had a red Nextel with a ring-tone from The Monster Club The Monster Club and a teacher workamommy who might be with him or might be just about anyw- and a teacher workamommy who might be with him or might be just about anyw- Stop it. Don't you let that rat out. That rat can do nothing but run, bite, and chase its own tail.

The plump woman, meanwhile, kept nodding. Her curls bounced along. 'Yes, we've all lost someone, because this is the time of the great Tribulation. It's all in here, in Revelation.' She held up the book she was carrying, and of course it was a Bible, and now Clay thought he was getting a better look at the sparkle in the eyes behind the plump woman cat's-eye gla.s.ses. That wasn't kindly interest; that was lunacy.

'Oh, that's it, everybody out of the pool,' Tom said. In his voice Clay heard a mixture of disgust (at himself, for letting the plump woman bore in and get close to begin with, quite likely) and dismay.

The plump woman took no notice, of course; she had fixed Alice with her stare, and who was there to pull her away? The police were otherwise occupied, if there were any left. Here there were only the shocked and shuffling refugees, and they could care less about one elderly crazy lady with a Bible and a beauty-shop perm.

'The Vial of Insanity has been poured into the brains of the wicked, and the City of Sin has been set afire by the cleansing torch of Yee-ho-vah!' the plump lady cried. She was wearing red lipstick. Her teeth were too even to be anything but old-fashioned dentures. 'Now you see the unrepentant flee, yea, verily, even as maggots flee the burst belly of-'

Alice put her hands over her ears. 'Make her stop!' she cried, and still the ghost-shapes of the city's recent residents filed past, only a few sparing a dull, incurious glance before looking once more into the darkness where somewhere ahead New Hampshire lay.

The plump woman was starting to work up a sweat, Bible raised, eyes blazing, beauty-shop curls nodding and swaying. 'Take your hands down, girl, and hear the Word of G.o.d before you let these men lead you away and fornicate with you in the open doorway of h.e.l.l itself! For I saw a star blaze in the sky, and it was called Wormwood, and those that followed it followed upon Lucifer, and those that followed upon Lucifer walked downward into the furnace of-' '

Clay hit her. He pulled the punch at the last second, but it was still a solid clip to the jaw, and he felt the impact travel all the way up to his shoulder. The plump woman's gla.s.ses rose off her pug nose and then settled back. Behind them, her eyes lost their glare and rolled up in their sockets. Her knees came unhinged and she buckled, her Bible tumbling from her clenched fist. Alice, still looking stunned and horrified, nevertheless dropped her hands from her ears fast enough to catch the Bible. And Tom McCourt caught the woman under her arms. The punch and the two subsequent catches were so neatly done they could have been ch.o.r.eographed.

Clay was suddenly closer to undone than at any time since things had started going wrong. Why this should have been worse than the throat-biting teenage girl or the knife-wielding businessman, worse than finding Mr. Ricardi hanging from a light fixture with a bag over his head, he didn't know, but it was. He had kicked the knife-wielding businessman, Tom had, too, but the knife-wielding businessman had been a different kind of crazy. The old lady with the beauty-shop curls had just been a*