Monsters of Men (46 page)

Or maybe accepting her defeat.

Which makes me surprisingly sad.

“Have you decided if you’ll take the cure yet, Viola?” she asks, just to me, keeping her voice low.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ll talk to Todd about it. But it won’t be because I’m trying to spite
you
. It doesn’t have to change anything–”

“But it will, my girl.” She turns to me. “Don’t misunderstand me. I’ve made my peace with it. Part of being a leader is knowing when to hand over the reins.”

I try and sit up. “I don’t want to take anyone’s
reins–
”

“You’ve got the people’s goodwill, Viola. With a little skill, you could easily turn that into strength.”

I cough. “I’m not really feeling up to–”

“This world needs you, my girl,” she says. “If you’re the face of opposition, then that’s fine with me. As long as the opposition
has
a face.”

“I’m just trying to make the best world we can.”

“Well, you keep on doing that,” she says, “and everything will be fine.”

She doesn’t say anything more, and we land shortly after, the ramp dropping down into the square, the
ROAR
of the crowd rising up to greet us.

“The Spackle are expecting us at midday,” Simone says as we walk out, Bradley helping me along. “The President’s promised horses for us all and good time this morning to talk through the agenda.”

“Todd says the Mayor’s agreed to keep the speeches to the crowd short,” I say, turning to Mistress Coyle. “And to make sure you’ve got a chance to say something this time.”

“Thank you very much, my girl,” she says. “Though you might also want to think of what
you’re
planning on saying.”

“Me?” I say. “But I don’t–”

“And there he is,” she says, looking down the ramp.

Todd is coming towards us through the crowd.

And he’s carrying a roll of bandages under his arm.

Under her breath, I hear Mistress Coyle say, “So be it.”

[T
ODD
]

“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” I say, unrolling the bandages the Mayor gave me.

“You just wrap them round like a cloth,” Viola says. “Tight, but not too tight.”

We’re in my tent, sitting on my cot and the world outside is going on with its loud,
ROAR
ing business. The Mayor and Mistress Coyle and Bradley and Simone and Wilf and Lee, who’s sorta invited himself on the council, too, are all arguing about who’s gonna talk first to the Spackle and what they’re gonna say and blah blah blah.

“What are you thinking?” Viola asks, staring at me hard.

I smile a little. “I’m thinking,
I don’t really know what I’m doing
.”

She smiles a little back. “If this is you now, I guess I’ll just have to get used to it.”

“You don’t hate it no more?”

“Yeah, but that’s my problem, not yours.”

“I’m still me,” I say. “I’m still Todd.”

She looks away, letting her eyes fall to the bandages. “Are you sure about this?” she asks. “You’re sure none of this is a lie?”

“He knows I’d kill him if he hurt you,” I say. “And the way he’s been acting-”

She looks up. “But it probably
is
just acting–”

“I think
I’m
the one changing
him,
Viola,” I say. “Enough for him to want to save you for me, anyway.”

She keeps looking, keeps trying to read me.

I don’t know what she sees.

And after a minute, she holds out her arm.

“Okay,” I say. “Here we go.”

I start unwinding the old bandages still on the wound. I take off one, then another, and then there’s the band, 1391, exposed to the air. It looks bad, worse than I even expected, the skin around it red and raw and pulled tight in an ugly-looking way and the skin beyond is darkened in wrong shades of purple and yellow and there’s a smell, too, a smell of sickness and badness.

“Jesus, Viola,” I whisper.

She don’t say nothing but I see her swallow so I just take the first new bandage and wrap it right over the top of the band. She gives out a little gasp as the first jolt of medicine enters her system.

“Does it hurt?” I say.

She bites her lip and nods quickly, then gestures for me to do more. I unroll the second bandage and the third, wrapping them round the edges of the first like the Mayor told me, and she gasps again.

“Look, Todd,” she says, her breathing fast and shallow. The bruises and darkness on her arm are already fading and you can actually see the medicine moving thru her, doing battle with the infeckshun right there under her skin.

“How does it feel?” I ask.

“Like burning knives,” she says, a tear dropping from each eye–

And I reach out–

And I touch my thumb to her cheek–

Just gentle-like–

Brushing one of the tears away–

Feeling her skin under my hand–

Feeling the warmth of it, the softness–

Feeling like I wanna just go on touching her for ever–

And I’m embarrassed to think this–

And then I realize she can’t hear it–

And I start to think how awful that must be for her–

And then I feel her press her cheek more strongly into my fingers–

Turning her head, so the palm of my hand is holding her–

Holding her there–

And another tear falls down–

And she turns more–

Turns so her lips are pressing against my palm–

“Viola,” I say–

“We’re ready to go,” Simone says, sticking her head in the tent.

I pull my hand away quick, tho I know we ain’t doing nothing wrong.

And after a long awkward second, Viola says, “I feel better already.”

{VIOLA}

“Shall we?” the Mayor says, a wide smile across his face, his uniform with the gold stripes down the sleeves looking somehow brand new.

“If we must,” Mistress Coyle says.

Wilf has joined us and we’re gathered in front of the ruins of the cathedral, back from a cart with a microphone on top for Mistress Coyle to be heard. Projections of it are being sent back to the hilltop, shown on the two building-sides again and hovering above the rubble behind us.

The crowds are already cheering.

“Viola?” the Mayor asks, reaching out to take my hand to lead me to the stage. Todd gets up to follow me.

“If no one else minds,” Mistress Coyle says, “I wonder if this might just be very short addresses by President Prentiss and myself this morning?”

The Mayor looks surprised, but I speak first. “That’s a good idea,” I say. “It’ll make it go a lot quicker.”

“Viola–” the Mayor says.

“And I’d like to sit for a minute and let the cure work some more, too.”

“Thank you,” Mistress Coyle says, weight in her voice. “You’ll make a very good leader, Viola Eade.” And then, as if to herself. “Yes, you will.”

The Mayor’s still looking for a way to get what he wants but Simone and Bradley aren’t moving and he finally agrees. “All right, then,” he says, holding his elbow out to Mistress Coyle. “Shall we address the populace?”

Mistress Coyle ignores the elbow and starts walking towards the stage. The Mayor follows quickly so he can get in front of her and have the crowds see him let her go up first.

“What was that all about?” Todd says, watching them go.

“Yeah,” Bradley says, his Noise quizzical. “When did you start letting her get her way?”

“A little nicer to Mistress Coyle, please,” Simone says. “I think I see what Viola’s doing.”

“And what’s that?” Todd says.

“Good people of New World,”
we hear Mistress Coyle’s voice start to boom over the speakers.
“How far we’ve all come.”

“Mistress Coyle thinks her days as leader are coming to an end,” Simone says. “This is her way of saying goodbye.”

Wilf gets a funny look on his face. “Goodbye?”

“How far President Prentiss has taken us,”
Mistress Coyle is saying.
“To places we never even knew existed.”

“But she’s still leader,” Lee says, sitting behind us. “There are a lot of people, a lot of
women–
”

“The world’s changing, though,” I say. “And she wasn’t the one who changed it.”

“And so she’s going out on her own terms,” Simone says, some emotion in her voice. “I admire her for it. Knowing when to leave the stage.”

“Taken us from the edge of one abyss,”
Mistress Coyle says,
“and right to the edge of another.”

“Goodbye?”
Wilf says again, more strongly.

I turn to him, hearing the concern in his Noise. “What is it, Wilf?”

But now Todd’s figuring it out, too, his eyes opening wider.

“Who has killed to protect us,”
Mistress Coyle says.
“Killed and killed and killed.”

And there’s uncomfortable murmuring from the crowd, rising higher.

“She thinks this is the end, Viola,” Todd says, alarm entering his voice. “She thinks this is the
end
.”

And I turn back to the stage.

And I understand, too late, what Mistress Coyle has done.

[T
ODD
]

I’m running before I even know exactly why, just knowing that I gotta get to the stage, gotta get there before–

“Todd!” I hear Viola call out behind me and I turn as I’m running to see Bradley grabbing her shoulder to hold her back and Simone and Wilf are running after me, running towards the stage–

Running to where Mistress Coyle’s speech ain’t going down too well with the crowd–

“A peace bathed in blood,”
she’s saying into the microphone.
“A peace paved with the corpses of women–”

The crowd’s booing now and I reach the back edge of the platform–

The Mayor’s smiling at Mistress Coyle and it’s a dangerous smile, a smile I know all too well, a smile that’s gonna let her go ahead and make things worse and worse for herself–

But that ain’t the idea that’s dawning in me–

And I’m leaping onto the back of the platform, Mistress Coyle on my right, the Mayor on my left–

And Simone’s jumping up after me on my right, Wilf behind her–

“A peace,”
Mistress Coyle says,
“that he’s seized with two bloody fists–”

And the Mayor looks to see what I’m doing–

Just as Mistress Coyle is turning towards him–

Saying,
“But there are still those of us who care too much for this world to let that happen–”

And she’s opening the buttons of her coat–

Exposing the bomb she’s got strapped round her waist–

{VIOLA}

“Let me go!” I yell, still trying to twist away from Bradley as Todd leaps onto the platform, Simone and Wilf right behind him.

Because I’m getting it, too–

You’d be surprised at how powerful a martyr can be,
Mistress Coyle once told me–

How strongly people will fight in the name of the dead–

And I hear the gasp of the crowd as they see the projection–

As Bradley and I see it, too–

Mistress Coyle, large as life, face as calm as a saucer of milk, opening her coat to show the bomb she’s wearing, draped around her torso like a corset, enough explosives to kill her, kill the Mayor–

Kill Todd–

“TODD!” I scream–

[T
ODD
]

“TODD!” I hear Viola scream from behind us–

But we’re too far from Mistress Coyle–

There’s too many steps across the platform to stop her–

As her hand moves to a button on the bomb–

“JUMP!” I scream. “GET OFF THE CART!”

And I’m jumping as I scream it–

Jumping outta the way–

Over the side–

Grabbing Simone’s jacket to take her with me–

“
For a New World,
” Mistress Coyle says, the microphone still booming. “
For a better future.
”

And she presses the button–

{VIOLA}

Flames explode out from Mistress Coyle in all directions, so fast the heat blows me right back into Bradley who hisses in pain as my skull hits his chin but I’m keeping to my feet and pressing forward into the blast wave, seeing the fire cascading out and I’m screaming, “
TODD!”
because I saw him jumping off the cart, dragging someone with him, and oh please oh please oh please and the initial blast’s billowing up into the air in smoke and fire and the cart’s burning and people are screaming and the
Noise
of it all and I’m breaking free from Bradley and I’m running–