Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (19 page)

Leo whirled around, his face was cold.
“He’s still an nineteen year old boy, Greyson.” The ice in his voice seemed to chill the humid air around them. “He needs some god damn support and guidance.”
Greyson guffawed, filling Leo with even more rage. “He’s Reaver, Lycos. R-E-A-V-E-R stop treating him like he’s normal. He’ll laugh in your face if he doesn’t eat it first. I love the kid too but we have to respect that he is who he is. What we need to do-”

“Shut the fuck up, Greyson,” Leo suddenly snarled. Greyson clamped his mouth shut, Leo didn’t use that vicious tone often; and when he did, he knew to be quiet. Nineteen years together had taught him that. Even calm and placid Leo had his switch and when he did things got very bad very quick.

Cursing his partner under his breath, he followed him down the exit ramp. The deacon dog sprinted ahead of them, holding the legionnaire’s heart proudly in his jaws.

Chapter 12

Reaver

I scanned the overpass above me, trying to detect any movement but thankfully everything was clear. I hadn’t seen anyone during my run here, I had kept my eyes trained on the hill and the few abandoned structures I had passed. I thought I might have to dodge some ravers since they liked infesting the buildings but then I realized that was a stupid thought. The Dek’ko harvesters and legionnaires would have turned them into meat long ago.

As the shadow of the overpass passed over me, I stuck to the concrete. The road cut directly through the hill, the dirt on either side of me walled off with grey concrete blocks. It was good temporary shelter, though I still kept my senses sharp.
I tried to control my breathing, I knew I had to calm down and keep calm if I wanted to do this right. The first thing I had to do, is see if Killian was alive. I didn’t want to work myself up into a blind rage until I knew for sure it was hopeless. I had to remain calm, focused and on my guard. I was in enemy territory now, unlike my greywaste sniping where I had the home advantage. They knew the factory better than I did.
As the hill started to slope down, I grabbed my M16 and held it close to me. I did a quick check of all my weapons before leaving the protection of the hill.
And then I saw it. The factory was large, larger than any structure I had ever seen outside of the abandoned cities. It was wider more than it was tall, I only counted five stories on it.
The factory was red brick, and though dusty and crumbling still remained red, even bolder than the dusty dirt of the canyons. It had rows and rows of unbroken windows, a lot of them illuminated by the cold LED glow of the lights. With a chain link fence tipped with razor wire that covered the entire lot.

There was only a single road going into the south entrance, the one I was standing on.

I tuned my hearing towards the building. I could hear the generators off in the distance, surprisingly it looked like the old electrical poles were working. Of course King Silas could restore power for his factories but couldn’t be bothered to give the technology to bigger blocks like Anvil or Gaushall.

On the far north side I could see smoke stacks and large cylinder structures which had several blue stripes painted on top of them. The smokestacks were streaked with sooty black grease, and it didn’t take me long to realize why. Those stacks must have led directly to where they incinerated their waste.
The factory its self looked isolated. Though there were a few structures around the area, it seemed to be the only occupied building in the vicinity.

I studied the concrete covering the grounds of the factory, I think it used to be a parking lot but it was now cracked and badly warped. I could see bushes and stringy rows of grass growing freely out of most of the pavement.

From what I could tell, it seemed that where the road was leading me was their loading and unloading area. I could see two large garage type doors on the south side of the building, a ramp leading down to them. Above the ramp was a metal grate catwalk, with stairs leading up to several doors on the second level.

I leaned up against a tree and spent a few moments analysing every damn corner of the building I could see. By the time I was done I had already spotted a security camera and a sentry station on top of one of the cylinders. I could even see the movement of their sniper. The Dek’ko company was not stupid, they knew the greywastes were dangerous. They knew starving people could get desperate but I was smarter than them. I could already spot several blind spots and several vents.
I wanted to shoot the sniper, badly, but even though my M16 had a silencer it was still going to make noise. My best bet was to get the fuck across the parking lot, hug the brick wall as tightly as I could and get the hell into an air vent. I was no stranger to air vents, I had crawled through the vents in the abandoned school dozens of times. One thing I always learned they had to lead somewhere... eventually.

My heart skipped as I brought out I pair of wire cutters out of the sack. Killian was in there.
My mind tried to go on lockdown as his face popped up into my mind, but the excitement was too strong. The thought that he could still be alive was what was keeping me going. Keeping me from just running through the front door with my M16 in one hand and a stick of C4 in the other.
Sure enough, my heartbeat rose and my speed did as well. I crouched down and lizard crawled towards the chain link fence. The wire cutters clenched in my jaw.

Before the sun set tonight, I would either be watching it with him... or not watching it at all.
As I started to cut the fence, I exhaled, a puff of grey dirt and ash rose with my breath. Though I knew what my end game in this mission might be, I knew it hadn’t sunk in. I had never feared death, never thought of it. Mortality was in my face everyday. But I knew the finality on it was lost on me, and I did nothing to enlighten myself. All my brain wanted was for the pain to end, and I hated not having control over when I felt pain. This was the only way for me to control those devastating emotions, either kill myself and end the pain... or save Killian and end the pain.

I pressed the wire chain link apart and tried to make the hole as wide as I could. Listening for any noises at all, but there weren’t any. I couldn’t hear any mechanical whines of electronics either, there weren’t any cameras here.

I started to squeeze myself through, contorting and moving myself around almost like a snake.

I hated emotions, if I hadn’t fallen for Killian I wouldn’t have to deal with these fucking feelings. Another way that kid was driving me crazy. I was an emotionless monster before, I didn’t feel these soft emotions at all before him. It was an easy existence, I didn’t get hurt.
I partially closed the hole in the fence and took one last look around. I got up and broke into a silent run, my black army boots barely even hitting the ground as I crossed the abandoned parking lot.

I pressed myself up against the rough brick and tried to shorten my breathing as I listened for the noise of a camera I might have missed. As I listened though, I heard another noise. I got out my M16 and crouched down. I knew that noise, it sounded like Reno’s quad.
I peeked over the corner of the building, just in time to see a soldier speeding towards the gate leading up to the overpass I was just at.
I brought the M16 scope up to my eyes and tried to weigh my options. The last thing I wanted to do was make noise. I knew the silencer wasn’t going to be as silent as I wanted it to, but I also needed to find a way to get me and Killian home. I hadn’t even let my thoughts get that far, I had been too busy trying to just rescue the damn kid.
I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.
I watched him on the scope. He had a delivery satchel strapped to his side. I think he was a courier, he opened the gate and drove through it. Not even bothering to close it, quality workers here in Dek’ko apparently.
I tracked him with my scope until he was right by the overpass on level ground, and before he could disappear, I locked on him.

Only one chance at this.

I braced myself up against the wall of the building and fired.
The kid jolted, and fell off to the side. I suppressed a excited yell, clenching my teeth instead and hitched my M16 back to my back. I could hear the quad sputter for a few moments before it stalled. Perfect, the courier was dead and the quad was mine.
I ran into a recessed area of the factory, feeling good about myself. The small, closed in area had several rusted out dumpsters leaning up against the east wall, and was littered with trash, mostly paper and plastic bottles.
I swore, I was wasting time. If Killian was alive I didn’t know how long it would be until they slaughtered him. I had heard from the representatives ramblings that Dek’ko did blood tests on all their arians up for processing, to make sure they were allowed to slaughter them, but I had a feeling the scum suckers who bought and sold Killian weren’t into following the rules.

I dug into my bag and took out a stick of C4. I turned it on, peeled off the adhesive and stuck it to the wall behind the dumpsters. I walked to the corner of the building and looked to my right.
No one yet.
I climbed up quietly onto one of the dumpsters and tried a vent I had spotted from the fence. I took out the wire cutters and started twisting the bolts that were securing it. After a few annoying moments I got the grate partially off. It was going to be too small for me, but not too small for some explosives.
I turned on the switch for the C4 and listened for the buzzing noise. These bricks, sold by Dek’ko of course, were attached to a detonator I had in my cargo pants pocket. They were sold in groups of five, and would only detonate with the switch if they were turned on and synced with the detonator. I still had three more bricks in my bag. Hopefully enough to do some damage.

I slid the brick through the vent and heard it lightly clang as it reached the end of the shaft. I reached into my pocket and pressed the sync switch and felt the vibration through my pocket as it registered it.
I couldn’t help but feel a sick sadistic joy as I queued up the C4, so many people were going to die today, and so many families were going to be in devastated ruins tomorrow. They would feel what they made me feel.

I hated myself for the quivering giddiness in my gut. I think Killian being so close and knowing he might be alive was getting me a bit high. I knew it was a pipe dream but it was all I had, and it was giving me the high I needed to keep on with my plan and not just blatantly murder.
I was about to jump off of the dumpsters when I heard foot steps crunching against the dirt on the concrete.
I hopped onto a ledge just above the vent, it seemed to wrap around the entire building, not unlike the Red House back home; except it was jutting out by about a foot. I jumped up and grabbed the ledge with my fingers, and pulled myself up. I stood on the ledge and flattened myself up against the wall and quickly made my way to the far side, hopefully out of view unless the asshole looked up. My M16 was back on my back, and I wouldn’t be able to reach it without risking unbalancing myself, so I grabbed my pistol and hovered my other hand over my combat knife.

Then I waited.

Moments later a factory worker, dressed in a white coat with a blue collar walked into the building recess. He was whistling and holding a white trash bag.
He walked over to the dumpster and raised it, the dumpster let out a loud rusted creak. He wasn’t even paying attention and he didn’t even hear me. He threw the bag in, and turned around to walk away. I jumped down on the dumpsters behind him.

He jumped and turned around and stared at me wide eyed. I pointed the gun at him.
“You scream, I’ll blow your head off,” I said, I noticed he had an ID tag on too. “Then I’ll track down your fucking family and kill them too.”

The man, probably in his thirties put his hands up. He looked like a fucking coward, one of the spoiled little shits from planet Skyfall. This wouldn’t be hard.
“Don’t hurt me!” he said, his voice full of fear. “I have two kids at home, my wife is sick.”
I smiled, it always amused me when they tried to get me to feel sorry for them.
“Great, I always liked the taste of fried up kidlet. What does your company call it? Good Boy? The picture on it is a smiling little child. Do your kids look like that?”
The worker looked horrified, he dropped down to his knees. “What do you want!”
I raised my smile and jumped down onto the concrete floor with a muffled thunk. I spun my pistol around on my finger.
“Well my friend, the company you work for, took something very dear to me, and you’re about to help me get it back,” I said happily, it always disturbed me how I acted when I was intimidating someone. The fear and anxiety dripped away and I turned into a psychopath. “They brought in a blond boy last night, where is he?”
“We... we just got a crate of rats yesterday, their hair is so dirty but I didn’t see any blond ones,” he stammered quickly. His words fell easily and without thought or manipulation, I could tell he was telling the truth.

I narrowed my eyes. “He was brought there by legionnaires.”
I tried not to show any signs of relief when I saw his face change. Though inside a firework went off in my stomach.
“He had a bag over his head, they... they brought him into the sub levels,” his voice went several octaves higher as he went on. Like he could sense the change in atmosphere. “I work in the cannery on the main floor he’s in the east wing.”
“Is he still alive?” I put a vice on my tone, stuffing down the emotions rising to the surface.
My fucking heart almost exploded when he nodded, though his face was grim. “He passed quality control, they liked him enough to put him in the east wing. For fois ras.”
Jesus... fois ras? The process of making that shit was stomach churning, Killian... fuck I didn’t even want to think about what they were doing to him.
“Take off your coat.” No time to bullshit, I waved my gun and held out my hand to him. Every second was precious now, I couldn’t fuck around. I had to get him. “And while you’re at it, tell me where I can find him.”
The man hurriedly took off his coat, doing anything to get rid of me. “East wing, by the two factory doors. Go down the ramp, there is a door in an alcove off to the left.” He threw the coat at me. “Just... you never saw me. They’ll kill me for fuck sakes.”
I grabbed the jacket and quickly put it on, not taking my eyes off of him.
The look he was giving me was pathetically pleading, I was surprised he hadn’t pissed himself yet. What a fucking coward, I would have just told me to shoot me before I would give up any information. I backed up, and when I reached the edge of the recess I looked off to the east. I knew what had to be done.
“Stay here, count to a hundred and when you get to one hundred you can run,” I said. “If you run before that, I’ll fucking kill everyone you love. Got it?”
The whimper the man made sounded like air slowly being let out of a balloon, he managed to nod. I turned and started walking along the east wall.