Nightside 06 - Sharper Than a Serpents Tooth

bar. Shotgun Suzie, Razor Eddie, Tommy Oblivion, and Dead Boy. I eased open the door, slowly, silently, and one by one we crept out into the narrow cobble-stoned back alley. It smelled really bad. The piled-up bodies I'd expected from Suzie's defence were gone, and it was best not to wonder where, but the blood and gore remained, splashed up the alley walls and soaking the cobbled ground. The air was hot and heavy, thick with old smoke, and an overbearing sense of a world running down, of things coming to an end. There were screams and roars and howls, all the sounds of death and destruction, horror and fury. The Nightside might be going down for the last time, but it sure as hell wasn't going down quietly. I set off down the alley at a steady pace, ignoring the blood splashing under my shoes, trying hard to radiate confidence and a strong sense of purpose.
    Suzie was right there at my side, shotgun at the ready, happy and smiling like a woman on her way to a really good party. Tommy and Eddie and Dead Boy moved along with us, and together we made our way to the end of the alley and looked cautiously out into the main street.
    Fires blazed everywhere. Dead vehicles sprawled the length of the road, overturned and abandoned. A hearse had been broken apart from the inside out, and a taxi lay on its side with a wooden stake hammered through its engine block. Maddened crowds swept back and forth under a flickering twilight of burning buildings and half-smashed neon signs, attacking everything in sight. The noises they made didn't sound human any more. Reason had been blasted from their minds, by loss and horror and Lilith's will, leaving them only the most basic instincts and emotions. Men and women killed and ate each other, while monsters roamed freely, killing where they would and exhausting their various appetites on the fallen. Lilith was softening the Nightside up, before she went in for the kill. And because she enjoyed it.
    "How the hell are we supposed to get to Cheyne Walk through that?" said Tommy.
    "I'd suggest running," said Suzie.
    "I'd also strongly suggest killing anything that isn't us," said Dead Boy.
    "Works for me," said Razor Eddie. "But… loath as I am to be the voice of reason in this group, I really don't like the odds out there. Too many of them, too few of us. Enough hyenas will bring down even the strongest lions. If we have to fight for every step of the way, they'll drag us down long before we get anywhere near Cheyne Walk."
    "We can't hit them head-on," I said. "In fact, we can't afford to be noticed at all. Lilith is bound to have people out there looking for me. Once she knows I've left Strangefellows and Merlin's protections, she'll come straight for me. So, Tommy, you're up."
    "What?" said Tommy. "What?"
    "Use your gift to hide us. Or at least hide our identities. Such a small use of your gift should slide past Lilith unnoticed."
    "Yes," said Tommy, after a moment. "I think I could do that…"
    He frowned, concentrating. It took him a while, to force his mind to deal with only one thing and ignore the madness and horror around him, but finally I could sense his gift firing up, as he imposed his existential will upon the world. Slowly and carefully, moment by moment, we became as uncertain as he thought we were, until the world couldn't decide whether we really were there or not, and even if we were, it couldn't make up its mind about who we were. I could feel Tommy's gift all around us, like a fog of possibilities. Everywhere I looked, it was like seeing through a heat haze, as though we were out of synch with our surroundings. I took that as a good sign and made myself concentrate on the only thing that really mattered—getting to Cheyne Walk Station.
    I took a deep breath and led the way out onto the main street, walking openly, taking my time, doing nothing to attract attention. The others came with me, sticking close but not crowding. No-one even looked at us. Crazed mobs rioted up and down the street, and swept right past us without even slowing. I led the way down the street, through chaos and murder and foulness of all kinds, and no-one touched us. Sometimes they'd step out of our way, without even realising they were doing it. Suzie stayed at my side, the others spread out behind us. I tried to keep track of where they were without looking at them directly, but Tommy's gift made that difficult. It was hard to be sure of anything under the concentrated field of uncertainty he was