I choked. “You took a sword from the Ancient Rome exhibit? That’s... Well, somehow that fits.”
“It’s an international exhibition.” She shrugged one shoulder. “So a Chinese girl with a Roman sword in an American city. It’s perfect, yeah? A little old, but I sharpened it up some, and now it works fine. Don’t need a clean cut to stop the Hungry.” She popped her knuckles. “As long as you’re the closest life around, the corpse’ll follow you. When it’s more than one chasing you—that’s when it gets tricky, yeah?”
I blinked. “Wait.” Something about those last words triggered an idea in my mind. I fidgeted with the ribbon around my waist while the logic worked itself out.
“So,” I said at last, “if the Hungry follow the nearest living person, then... well, if all the Dead turn Hungry, then all the Dead will chase you.”
“Yep.” Daniel scratched his jaw. “That’s why Philadelphia stands no chance if the fence falls. The Dead will head straight for the city.”
“How many pulse bombs are left?” I asked.
“Ten.” He cocked his head. “It ain’t enough to blow up the whole cemetery. The Dead don’t stand in one place—your brother’s got ’em shuffling around everywhere.”
“Do they go to the river?”
“Some,” Jie answered. She wiped her sword with a cloth. “But they don’t go all the way to the water because of the steep hill, yeah?”
“And the Hungry?” I looked between the three Spirit-Hunters. “Do they ever go to the shore?”
Joseph cleared his throat and shook his head. “There are no people on the river to attract them. When they breach the fence, they head straight to us.”
I cocked my head. “But the water—you could use the water to magnify your power, couldn’t you?”
“Wi. That much water would enhance my range and power significantly. But without the influence machine to produce a strong electric spark, I would not be able to shock the Dead.”
Daniel frowned. “And the influence machine can’t go in the water, Empress.”
I flashed my eyebrows and bared a wicked grin. “I have a plan. We need a boat.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
With barely a splash, the oar slid from the Schuylkill’s water. Each of Daniel’s sure strokes in the stolen rowboat brought the Spirit-Hunters and me through the morning fog and closer to the cemetery’s steep, rocky hillside.s
Jie and Daniel had commandeered the boat downstream—south near the Girard Avenue Bridge—where simple boats such as this were rented out for pleasure-fishing. We needed the water to magnify Joseph’s powers, and we needed the boat to carry the influence machine. If all went according to my plan, we’d end this war today, in this river.
None of us spoke. I sat at the front and imagined the plan over and over. The influence machine was behind me at the boat’s center. Its hulking form was as high as my knees, and it was covered with Daniel’s coat to protect it from the water. Next to it was a bag of the remaining pulse bombs.
Jie held her sword, and her head swiveled all about. Joseph held his head in hands. His lips moved, and I thought he might be praying.
Behind him were two sturdy tree branches, stripped of leaves and bark—one for Joseph, one for Daniel. Weak defense against savage corpses, yet the best we could do.
When we reached the riverbank, Daniel hopped out and dragged us onto the narrow strip of silty shore. I clambered out and glanced around. My palms were slick with nervous sweat, and I wiped them over and over again on my trousers.
The orange glow of morning hung low on the horizon, and the new light made new shadows. I was scared of those shadows.
“I cannot sense the Dead,” Joseph whispered. “But soon the Hungry will sense us.”
These were the only words spoken before we toiled up the hill. It wasn’t a long slope—fifty feet at most—but it was steep and treacherous, with jagged boulders and loose pebbles.
We crested the ridge and reached the forest edge that marked the beginning of the cemetery grounds. A corpse burst from the trees. Its clothes and skin had rotted away long ago, and all that remained was bone and gristle. In moments it was on me—not even giving me time to panic—with its teeth chomping at me faster than I could flee. I staggered back, lifting my hands instinctively to cover my face.
With a crack, the chomping stopped. I lowered my hands to find the skull snapped to the side and detached from the spine. Another crack, and the skeleton’s knees crunched, and the monster toppled to the ground. Daniel stood behind it, the branch in his hand and his chest heaving.
I stared in sick fascination. The headless skeleton dug its fingers into the earth and dragged its crippled frame toward me. How could it still move? Truly, the only way to stop these corpses was by stopping the energy that animated them or by annihilating the bodies.
Two more Dead crashed from the brush. Jie and Joseph tackled them head on.