my foot into the back of his right knee and grabbed his face, spinning him backward. Again his scream was somewhat muffled, but he was so close to the others that they were warned.
Everyone turned on me.
I shoved the groaning man into the next nearest defender, toppling both. Ahead of me a huge guy readied a punch, but someone else tagged me from behind, shoving me into him. I grabbed his shoulders and hurled him aside, making a small gap appear, just enough for me to squeeze through.
“Here I go,” I said, pushing through, despite ripping threads of my T-shirt as someone else tried to restrain me.
I shoved against the last two goons, pushing both aside and standing right behind Zundergrub. I could see FTL below, looking up and ready for my move. All I had to do was grab the old man and throw him down there.
It was all ready, the plan had worked, we were going to win. With the doctor in the pit, FTL would have enough to make most villains surrender, and with my distraction, they could turn a leaderless flock of villains into a routed horde.
Racing closer to the doctor, I felt time slow, like the reverse of a Cool Hand bubble, and felt the heavy pounding of my heart resounding against my ribcage. Behind me was mass of humanity grasping and clawing at me. I had no time to waste; in moments I’d be restrained and the plan would be shot to hell.
I made it to the doctor and was looking at the back of his bald head, close enough that I discern the spattering of liver spots, a sprinkle of dandruff flecks. Close enough to feel an onslaught of memories flood forth from the back of my mind. I saw fleeting images of Cool Hand’s last moments, Apogee blood-soaked, near death, Dr. Walsh’s chest exploding outward and her father’s madness almost ending the world. As the flashback washed over me, I felt a broiling conflagration well inside me. I clenched my teeth, straining against their roots and brought my arms around his neck, putting him in a headlock. Zundergrub gasped, unable to breathe, and his fingers clawed at my arms. Without another word, I did what I had to do.
I broke his neck.
Chapter Forty
He twitched twice, and was limp.
I turned him around, hoping that he would see me in his last fading moments, that he would know who had killed him. I wanted to see an expression of shock and disgust, hoping he would see the satisfaction on my face, but his eyes were already losing their sheen, his mouth was agape and drooling.
He was gone.
It didn’t matter if he knew. Zundergrub would go to the afterlife ignorant that I was his killer, that I had travelled across the whole world, from the pits of hell itself, to find and kill him. It didn’t matter anymore. He was dead, once and for all, and nothing else mattered.
“Zundergrub is dead!” I yelled, lifting his body in the air and hurling him at FTL below. Someone grabbed me from behind, but a rearward elbow sent the person reeling. I expected more resistance, a wave of bodies to wash over me, as his guard exacted their revenge, but other than the one guy, no one attacked me. Instead, an ill silence spread across the place.
“He’s dead!” I yelled, a teary ebullience overtaking me, forcing my voice an octave too high. “Zundergrub is dead!”
I shot a glance behind me, at the guard, and saw a few of them rushing at me, fighting to get through most of the others, who just stared at me in confusion. Most others just glared at me, stupefied and glassy-eyed from as far as the other edge of the pit, wondering where they were and what they were doing.
Then it hit me: some of these villains were Zundergrub’s thralls, victims of his mind-control powers. In my estimation, half the villains were under his control. The rest were genuine followers, too crazy or stupid to know that Zundergrub meant to end the world, or too foolish to care.
The willing participants were bereft of a leader, and had a target for their growing anger and frustration.
Me.
Before I could take my next breath, they swarmed me. Hands clutched and tore at my clothing, fingers stabbed at my face. In the fraction of a second I had, I scanned the edge of the pit and saw the shocked faces of everyone who wasn’t too high or