Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (13 page)

After Doc was done stitching him, I wrapped up his hand. Miller was a nice guy, a few years older than me, but very accident prone and kind of simple. His father was the mechanic for the entire block so he was well respected.

As soon as Doc let me go I grabbed my shoulder bag and quickly walked out into the town. I looked up at the sky and tried to tell what time it was by its position. I gathered I had two hours or so worth of day light, more than enough time to get the money from the house and come back.

I walked as fast as I could, my canvas bag bumping up against my hip as I tried not to break into a full run. I was tempted, I was that excited.
When I finally got to my house, I threw the bag onto the floor and ran up the stairs, climbing up the closet and getting a twenty dollar bill out, I still had the five from Jepson. The remaining three dollars I put back into the envelope.

I put my jacket on and as soon as I had came I was back out again, walking towards the square.
I had been on my feet all day, but I didn’t feel tired yet, though I knew it was only a matter of time before I crashed. I would be home by the time that happened, then I could make some good food and try out my newest friend. I already had plans on what I wanted to try to play first. Maybe Reaver would be around to listen, I don’t think I had seen him all day. I guess I didn’t matter much when Reno was around.
I was starting not to care for him.

After what seemed like forever, I turned the corner and started walking into the square.
I looked around confused.

The caravans were gone.
My good mood got sucked out of me like heat on a cold day. I walked towards the area where they were. I looked around before spotting Miller, he was drawing on his bandaged hand with a blue marker.
“Where are the caravans? Where is Menkin?” I asked, trying not to sound as devastated as I felt.
“Had to leave early, Reno and Reaver were out and they saw the legionnaires opening up a new toll to catch the caravan on its way to Anvil. Decided to sneak out and go around.”
I felt a lump form in my throat, travelling to the backs of my eyes and making them burn. Not only did I lose the classic guitar, I had sold the one I made. I didn’t have anything to play now, it would take me a year to find the right parts to make a new one. Not to mention the guitar strings, I would never find those.
“How long ago?” I croaked through a broken voice, my eyes started to well.
“An hour,” Miller replied, not even looking up from his sketching.
My heart gave a cautious jolt, I looked towards the north gate. Without another word I started to run. If I ran, I would be able to catch up to them.
I clenched the twenty five dollars and shoved it into my jeans pocket. I ran as fast as I could towards the north gate. I couldn’t let this happen, I had to get one of my guitars back. That damn thing was the only thing I had that made me happy, that let me escape for awhile. I wouldn’t be out long… the bosen weren’t that fast. Dammit why was I so stupid? I shouldn’t have sold my home made guitar while I didn’t have the other one.
I stopped at the gate, I looked up to see Matt munching on a cooked piece of meat.
“Let me out,” I said hurriedly.
“Do you have a gun?” Matt asked cautiously, he looked around, probably to see if Reaver was following me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. I hoped he was, he was a much faster runner than me.

“Yes, I do,” I lied, I didn’t have anything on me but a hunting knife.

Matt narrowed his eyes at me, his mouth moving up and down with his chewing. I could see the debate going on in his head, but eventually he got up and started turning the wheel. The gate let out a loud creak and started grinding open.
“Be back before dark, I’ll leave her open for you,” Matt said. “I’ll be right here anyways.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks Matt,” I said before running off. I looked down and was relieved to see fresh tracks in the rocky dirt and ash. They were heading northwest in the greys of the wasteland. You could always tell which direction a traveller was coming from depending on what colour dust they were covered in. Either red, grey or none at all.

I ran into the greywastes. Large dingy rocks covered the right side of the road to make steep shelves, and to the left of me the black trees that spotted the land like flecks of black mold. Rising above the rocky crags as the greywastes rolled on out of view.

I ran as fast as I could, pausing every once in awhile I catch my breath. I knew from my travels with Mom and Dad that the road was rather flat for the first several miles, before it started to break up nearer to the Typhus river. Past that the area got more difficult to navigate and more dangerous. Lots of broken interchanges and abandoned buildings.
I took a small break and leaned up against the broken up rocks beside the road. My legs were burning by now, along with my chest. It was tight and uncomfortable to breathe.

As I banged on my chest, trying to catch my breath I noticed my upper arm starting to vibrate a bit. I knew immediately what it was.
All of the geiger chips came with their very own radiation counter inside, it vibrated when radiation was found in unsafe amounts. I got up and started to jog again, and after a few minutes the pulsing vibration dulled down. That was probably the reason my chest was burning more than it would from normal exhaustion. Probably radiated barrels around. Radiation wouldn’t bother my lungs, but the barrels full of chemicals would. King Silas and his chimera goons were to blame for them.

As I jogged on I debated taking an iodine pill when I got home but I decided against it, a few seconds of exposure was nothing. I had gotten constantly bombarded for it while we were roaming the wastes. It would take more than that to make me take one of those gross and expensive pills. The chip would work it out of my system.

After running for a few more minutes I noticed the pavement starting to break down further, the cracks, usually only a few inches across started to split the road like a scar. I leaned against an abandoned car for a few moments before starting my decent down the road as it started to slope. I was surprised to see how congested the road was, I couldn’t see how the caravan could make it through all this tangle of vehicles, tipped over medians and snares of twisted metal and wire.

The road followed down to the river bank, before winding off underneath a large deteriorating exit ramp. The river below me was running gently, still the same dull shade of brown I had seen a few years ago when we had crossed it.
I pressed on, concentrating on keeping my balance as I navigated the difficult slope. The merchants couldn’t be far now. No way they made it over this part easy, not with those giant bosen and the wagons.

I decided it would be easier for me to climb over the vehicles and concrete than weave around them. I jumped on top of the cab of a truck and climbed into a large slab of concrete lying against it. I jumped off onto the pavement, but as my sneakers slammed down I stepped on something soft and lost my balance. I fell backwards.

I swore a bit, landing right on my ass and looked down to face what I had jumped on.
My body became a block of ice, my mouth dropped open as my brain tried to process the shock.
It was a fucking severed hand.

I gaped at it, my mouth wide open, my heart frozen in my chest. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
A cold rush of fear washed over my senses. I suddenly felt extremely stupid.

I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t fucking be here.
Then I made the mistake of looking around. All around me on the old cars, and bits of crumbled up concrete were smears of blood, bloody clothing and (I swallowed hard) more severed body parts. Each body part was stacked together on top of the old vehicles, bound together by bloody rags. They had been put there deliberately, and not long ago either. They had all been severed neatly, by a weapon.

This wasn’t the work of ravers, ravers ate people alive... these, these guys had been harvested.
I felt my head turn to the left, towards a large stack of severed arms. I saw something resting beside it. My old guitar.
Jesus fuck… these were the merchants… Jepson, Menkin...
I looked closer at my guitar, I could see something hairy beside it. I didn’t have to look closer, I knew what it was. The hair had bits of red dust still in it, dirty blond hair. It was Jepson.
Unable to push off the bubbling fear my body snapped to attention. I got up and scrambled back up the truck to get over the large slab of concrete.

Even if it near killed me I knew I had to get back to Aras and fast, something bad had just happened here. Fuck I shouldn’t be here.
“Hello little boy,” a male voice suddenly sneered. My body went cold, I climbed to the top of the truck and looked around wildly. It didn’t take me long to see them.
On top of the broken exit ramp that was stretched over the river, were six legionnaires, all of them holding blood stained machetes. Behind them I could see the merchants carts and the bosen, it looked like they were building a shoddy bridge on the broken exit ramp to cover a gap that prevented any cart from going across.
I didn’t even freeze this time, I turned around and jumped off of the truck, I fell hard onto the ground and bolted.
I felt another rush of fear went through me as I heard them laugh and start to taunt me. I tuned them out and ran as fast as I could towards the level ground. I tried not to cry out as I desperately tried to gather my strength. I had been running for over an hour now, I was exhausted.

Fuck, why didn’t hadn’t I taken better care of my body. My energy was gone.
My ears pounded inside my brain, I felt such heat in my head I thought for sure I was going to pass out. My terrified brain just kept telling me to run, run and run fast. Reaver will come, Reaver never let you leave the block alone. He will come, he will kill them. He’ll protect you.
I screamed as I felt one of them grab my arm, I yanked it away and brought out my small hunting knife. I whirled around and brandished it at them. They were all there, all surrounding me.
The legionnaires laughed, the formed a half circle like predators encircling prey. Jeering and laughing as they fed off of each others energy. Pack mentality was taking hold, I was fucked.

I held my knife firmly, and tried to look as intimidating as I could, but I know I looked like a fool.

I backed up until my back hit the side of a large shelf rock.
“What you doing all alone, little boy?” One of them taunted, he walked forward and laughed as I tried to slash him.
“Stay away from me.” I was trying to sound tough but my voice came out several octaves higher than normal. “Just let me go.”
The mob erupted into laughter. All of them but the leader were younger men, not too much older than Reaver, new recruits, punk kids. They were dressed head to toe in Silas’s leather legionnaire uniforms. With Silas’s lion scorpion snarling on the red bands that were wrapped around their upper arms.
“I think I want to see what that ass tastes like first,” the leader said with a laugh, he licked his bloody machete and looked at me in a way that made me sick.
“Nah, I’m going to fuck him, season him a bit first.” Another one stepped forward. I tried to slash him but I was too slow. He grabbed my arm and slammed it up against the rock.
I clenched my teeth trying to stop the scream that broke my lips. My hand snapping open in reflex, and my knife dropping onto the ground with a clang.

I held my hand and gritted my teeth through the pain, it knew it was probably broken.

Before I could properly react I felt strong arms wrap themselves around me. They constricted my own arms and held me firmly so I couldn’t move. I kicked and thrashed as the other one removed my jeans. My body flooded with sickening cold, I kicked as hard as I could knowing there was nothing else I could do.
“NO!” I screamed, panic started to rise in me. A different kind of panic this time. I started to thrash hard as my pants got ripped off over my sneakers. As much as I tried to keep it together, my mind deteriorated to broken shards. I started to scream and cry in desperation.
One of the men pulled my underwear down, I closed my eyes tight, trying to suppress the sobs as the men whooped and hollered at me.

“Look at that arian cock!” One of them hollered. I closed my eyes tighter, wishing for them to just kill me, instead of making me endure this first. The next thing I knew one of them as fondling it.
“Let’s fuck em, and eat em at the same time,” he sneered, pulling hard on my dick. I could tell he was right next to my face I could smell his rotten breath.

I tried to kick him away, a few seconds later I felt a hard blow to my mouth. The man holding my arms kept me from falling, I doubled over and started coughing blood. The legionnaire glared at me, his fist balled.
“I’m gonna fuck him, cut off the parts we want, keep him alive,” he said, his voice still taunting.
I tried to jerk my hands away from the man holding me, I sniffed and tried to raise my head.
“I’m from Aras, they’ll come for me and fucking kill all of you,” I choked, my mouth filling up with blood. Probably not the right thing to say, but I didn’t care. I would rather they kill me than rape me.

Surprisingly the legionnaire narrowed his eyes, I could see a bit of unease in him and the others. This was my chance, it was a long shot… but it was all I had.
“My boyfriend is the Raven, the sniper,” I continued. I could feel blood dripping down my chin.

The legionnaire kept staring at me, everyone was now quiet behind him. The atmosphere quickly shifting.

“You tell me this, why? I’m going to tell my superior and have your boyfriend arrested for grand murder, Kessler with crucify him as a warning,” he hissed. “And he will find your raped and eaten corpse being picked at by scavers.”
I looked him dead in the eye. “Because you will not survive long enough to tell him if you keep hurting me.”
The legionnaire smirked, though I could tell he was listening to every word I said. Judging what to do next.

I decided to help him.

“Let me go, and I won’t say a thing. We’ll continue on our way, you keep the caravans, I keep my life.”
The legionnaire stared at me. He took a step towards me and punched me right in the face. I groaned and fell backwards, the person restraining me had to hold me up.
My mind started to get hazy, I tried to get my footing but the world was spinning.
“No time to play with him. Get the factory on the radio, if he is indeed Raven’s partner we can’t have any trace that he was here, or we’re all dead. They’ll process him quickly.”
I whimpered, feeling my face get wetter and wetter. I tried to call out to Reaver but I could no longer talk. The last image I had in my mind was the blood spots falling against the grey of the wasteland rocks.