Chapter 4 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 4 — Old Havana

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 3 — The Scavenger's Daughter · Next: Chapter 5 — Sister Ines · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

The “flag” was a little bigger than my hand, like one of those flags you give to kids to w

Summary

Monsters Collected, 0 of 6. The flag is a pair of heart boxers on a clothesline, 'The Royal Court of Princess Donut' in motorcycle-patch stitching, a bomb over the crotch — Elle's is adult diapers, Imani's a butterfly. The spike sticks anything under five per cent health, ghosts included. Bomo, lonely without the Sledge, is set to map the second stairwell (six miles east, Miramar) and promised a GameCube controller; Samantha is made recon and sent south to build a monster map, rolling instead of flying, shouting 'Are you a mage?' at ghosts. Carl traps the exit stairwell for non-guild crawlers. Then the doors: warm December, eight in the morning, Old Havana — Fairlanes and Bel-Air taxis, colonial stucco, flower and ocean smells — 'This is what we lost […] This is our world.' The river stirs; 'Not until I need you.' A tourist's kick strips his clothes onto Donut, who rolls down the steps in his trousers; his working iPhone and wallet say Bingwen Zou; a floating pantsless torso walks on. The rules in practice: clothes fly, a wedding ring plinks into the gutter, a man on a scooter floats past in only sunglasses, and crashes begin to echo across the city — chain reactions everywhere, Imani's I-5 blocked, Katia's Icelandic saferoom already walled in by cars after a pink Nykur was splattered, Elle's sasquatch in Bermuda shorts. Donut's plan, a roadblock, becomes the guild's. A red dot on a park hill: The Experience, level 55, a Taino guardian of the dead rendered as a knee-less wolf with a giant bearded Che Guevara head in a magic beret, barking through a megaphone. A new voice: 'Combat Started.' Donut alone — Magic Missile, Fireball, Mute, and Why Are You Hitting Yourself? — makes it chew its own leg to death; 'Combat Complete. Deck has been reset.' The mythology, Carl reasons, comes from the same incomplete internet as Earth Beautiful. A T'Ghee Combo card drops, Very Rare, only the squad leader may hold cards. Donut takes the beret. A sea serpent and seals in the water. Three crawlers approach — two men and a cat girl. 'It's like we used that utility card on you and Katia.'

Characters

• Carl — 'This is our world'; the river told to stay down; loots a ghost's iPhone.
• Princess Donut — Kills the first mob solo; dibs on the beret; hisses at a cat girl.
• Samantha — Recon that rolls and heckles ghosts; a rat in a hat.
• Bomo — Lonely; mapping Havana on paper.
• Katia Grim — Iceland: a pink Nykur and a wall of crashed cars.
• Elle McGibbons — A bigfoot in Bermuda shorts.
• Imani — I-5 blocked south toward Portland.

Locations

• Havana — El Capitolio's steps, the northern-coast highway, a park with a trench over the sea.

Motifs

• The ghosts of Earth — Clothes and phones and rings are real; a city already crashing.
• T'Ghee totems — The boxers flag; a Combo card; 'Deck has been reset.'
• Earth mythology — Legends from an incomplete internet: a Che-headed guardian of the dead.
• The river in Carl's head — 'Stay back. Not until I need you.'
• This is what we lost — Havana at eight in the morning.