Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (26 page)

I watched as his face changed, once again he had no idea he had said something a bit offensive. I was learning to remind myself of his well... bluntness. I wasn’t used to being with someone so, well, unfiltered. I suppose it was nice though, at least I knew he was being honest.
“Well... I mean, what happened to you was well... you weren’t injured physically just... you had to deal with more traumatizing stuff.”
I understood and I wasn’t cross, I just wished he had worded it a bit better. I had had a few things happen to me which made me think I might be crazy. Night terrors mostly. I think all wasters had something wrong with them though. I mean if mental shit didn’t do it, what radiation the chips didn’t pick up probably did.

“Yeah, I did,” I said quietly. I shuddered, and not from the cold either. Being busy had been helping me, not think about it. Every time I did though, I felt a great deal of anxiety. I hoped I didn’t just... crack at one point.

I jumped a little bit when Reaver’s handheld came to life, it sounded like Greyson.
“
Shadow Cat, Shadow Cat
,” he called, using Reaver’s code name. Reaver brought the radio up to his mouth.
“Yessum,” Reaver said into it. He turned the radio down and held it up to his ear.

“Come to our house, we want to go over a few things with you and the boy
,” Greyson said.
“Roger, we’re on the road right now. We’ll swing by.” Reaver clipped the radio back onto his belt.
“What do you think they’re going to say?” I asked, I hoped no one had been by yet looking for me. I didn’t know if they would know where to look, it depended on if the legionnaires were alive and learned I escaped. It could be anything.

Chapter 15

Reaver

I shrugged. “Probably work stuff, make sure you’re okay.”
I led Killian through a row of boarded up houses, taking him down a trail I had been using for years. Though I don’t know if it would qualify as a trail, it was just a series of alleyways, parking lots and backyards that I skirted through. The quickest way to Greyson and Leo’s house from my area of west Aras.

“Well, well... don’t you two look handsome today.” Leo’s smile greeted us on the porch, he motioned us into their two story home, my childhood home. “How long did it take you two to scrub that crap off?”
“I heated up the loader tub, the water was pretty dark when it was time to drain it,” I replied, I held the rust streaked metal door open for Killian and closed it behind us.
Leo and Greyson had an impressive home, full of lots of pre-Fallocaust artifacts. I had spent a lot of my youth living here and had added to their large collection. Their house was wired for electricity like mine, had three bedrooms in it and nice wooden furniture. Their area rugs, and couches were all clean, barely any stains at all. Mine were well, let’s just say my purple rug wasn’t that purple anymore.
“What’s that?” Killian nudged me, he pointed towards a large machine with a glass top.
“That’s a pinball machine,” I explained. I had actually scavenged and repaired that for them years back. It had taken Reno’s quad and a wagon to get that fucker here and another three months to learn how to repair the memory board. I would have kept it myself but I had already walled off my den and it wouldn’t fit through my tunnel.
“Good, you’re still standing. How’s your head?” Greyson appeared, he was holding a few bottles of Tulley beer. He handed me and Killian one each and motioned us over to their living room.
“It’s just fine,” I said, twisting the top off of my beer. I grabbed Killian’s and twisted his off for him too. I didn’t want him to try with his wrist still buggered.
“He almost passed out last night.” I heard Killian say as I handed him the bottle back. I gave him a bit of  a look. He looked at me and immediately his eyes shifted down; I even saw him cower just slightly.
“It might mean something,” he said in a small defensive voice, he took the beer gently from my grasp as if trying to show me how submissive he was. I wondered if that was his personality or just something he was doing because of me.
“But you’re feeling better today?” Greyson asked, the four of us sat down on their couches, both facing each other with a coffee table in the middle. Greyson must have been worried about us, the whole house was clean. Greyson was a strong, muscular guy that no one fucked with but one of his dirty little secrets was that he hated messes. His husband Leo, the smaller of the two and from first glance the submissive one was the one that made most of those messes.
I gave him a dismissive shrug. “Head hurts a bit, but nothing squirrely.”
“Good,” Greyson said, then he glanced towards their sliding glass door which led to the back yard. “Come with me, I need to talk to you about work and Leo wants to talk to Killian.”
“Why?” I said, not very impressed. I didn’t know what Leo wanted with Killian, I would have rather him stay with me. I also didn’t like the idea of him talking to Killian alone, he was probably warning him to run the other way when it came to me. Wouldn’t blame him, he probably should.

“I need to talk to you about work, come on.” Greyson motioned for me to come, I looked at Killian and gave him a shrug to show him that I too had no idea what was going on; and I went along with Greyson.

We walked off into their backyard. It was a small bit of flat space completely enclosed by concrete slabs and wooden pallets leaned up against the remains of their neighbour’s houses. Reaching almost twenty feet high in some places it left the backyard and subsequently the house fully enclosed and protected. To a normal person it might seem overwhelming and almost claustrophobic, but I always felt safe out here. I was actually the reason they had walled it off like this. I was a rather wild kid and they needed some place to stick me where I wouldn’t get myself killed.

The dark haired leader sat down on the bench and I took a seat beside him. He took a drink from his beer and tapped the neck up against his battle scared knuckles.
“I need you on the wall tonight,” Greyson started. “East wall, but you’re doing it from the east watch building.”
I groaned. I hated doing my sentry work from the watch buildings, they smelled like mold and piss and I hated being inside anything where something had a lot of places to hide. I would rather be on the wall, out in the open.

We had four watch buildings on all sides of Aras, all just tall structures with the best view point and range. When we were in danger of being sniped we took watch in there, it was much safer. Probably why Greyson was sending me there.

“Are we expecting legionnaires? Any backlash?” I asked.

I felt cautious relief when Greyson shook his head no. “Nothing over the broadcasts, but any news of terrorism isn’t going to be broadcasted over the radio,” he said, the amber liquid bubbled in the bottle as he took another drink. “I want to be safer than sorry, I want your eyes out tonight. I would rather you be in the den with the boy, but you’re our best man.”
I nodded, I
was
the best sentry in the unit. I would rather he have let me take the north or south wall, our gates, but I guess if there was going to be an attack or spies or something it would be from an abandoned part of town not as guarded.

“Sounds good,” I said, I started to get up but Greyson grabbed my arm and pushed me to sit back down.
“One more thing,” he began. I groaned and grudgingly sat back down, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this.
“What?” I said in the most disinterested tone I could muster.

Suddenly Greyson smacked me over the head, right on one of my rubber bullet wounds.

“Don’t you EVER EVER knock me out like that again, you little shit head!” Greyson said loudly, he hit me again and a third time. I put my hands up, before falling onto the ground under the blows.
“You nearly gave Leo a heart attack! You smart ass little fuck head,” Greyson continued, I started to laugh and I could see he was smiling.
“You went down like a fucking pile of bricks! I could have tapped that egg shell head of yours and you would have fallen in a heap,” I taunted. I got up and sprinted away from him. I glanced behind my shoulder just as he was winging a beer bottle at my head.

I ducked as it whizzed past my head and it broke against the concrete wall, spraying the wall and the surrounding pallets in beer and shards of glass.
Greyson was roaring with laughter, it made me happy to see that asshole enjoying himself, I almost felt bad for knocking him out. He helped me to my feet and picked up my beer that had fallen.
“So, are you not being stupid with Killian this time around, are you?” Greyson asked handing it back to me after stealing a drink. We slowly started walking across the yard.
I felt my ears go hot, I hated it when he pried into my personal life. “Well, we talk now.”

This is why he wanted me alone. He wanted to drill me about Killian.
I rolled my eyes as I watched the gleam appear on his face. “And...? Do you like him?”
“Yes,” I said simply. I looked around for an escape from this conversation, I probably could climb up the concrete wall if I needed to. My hands twitched.
“Are you two dating yet?”
I didn’t even bother hiding my derisive snort. “Dating? What sort of bullshit is that? No one dates anymore.”
Greyson rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you this boy, that kid is extremely fragile and insecure. I would suggest you make it official or you’re going to drive him insane over thinking your stupid idiosyncrasies.”
“Leo told you to say that didn’t he?”
Greyson sighed, he had that caught look. “Of course he did, I don’t care about that bullshit. No one dates anymore. I never dated Leo. Fuck I was married only several months after I met him.”

I chuckled, then started to walk back to the house but once again Greyson grabbed my arm. “One more thing, and I’m serious this time.”
I stopped when I heard his tone, he did sound serious.
Greyson sighed and shifted around uncomfortably. I widened my eyes a bit, he was indeed serious.
The mayor dropped his voice. “He left, before Doc could check him. You’re going to have to approach what happened to him on Highway 11. If he’s hurt down there, he’s going to need Neosporin and antiseptic. He’s also going to need you.”
I froze, I had completely forgot about that. Damn, how could I have forgotten about that? I let out a breath, wishing I could make Greyson, Leo or Doc talk to him about it; but I knew it was my duty to do that now. As uncomfortable and horrible as it would be for him... and me. I had already had to do something similar once with Reno, though this would be a lot different. Reno was made out of strong stuff, Killian was a bit well... I don’t know the word for it. He was just Killian.

“Okay.” Was all I said back, Greyson nodded, clapped me on the shoulder and we walked in the house.

Leo and Killian looked at me wide eyed as I walked into the living room.

“I said don’t draw blood!” Leo said angrily.
“I didn’t draw blood, I just loosened up a scab, sit down Mother Goose.” Greyson waved him off annoyed, using a nickname he called him every time he tried to mother me.
I noticed Killian looking at me, a worried expression creasing his face. I sat down beside him and took a drink of my beer. He would eventually learn this is just how I interacted with my pseudo dads. “I deserved it, don’t worry. I hit him over the head with my combat knife yesterday.”
The blond boy’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Why?” he exclaimed quietly, he went to touch my head but I flinched. I didn’t know how I felt about him showing me affection in public yet. This was a new thing to me.
“Nothing, he just wanted to come with me to get you, and I wanted to go alone.” I shrugged.
Killian took the hint and withdrew his hand. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he folded his hands on his lap, as if making sure he didn’t try to touch me again.
“I’m working tonight, you can stay in my den and play Mario if you want,” I said. I knew he probably wanted to go home by now, but I felt better having him locked up and quiet. He liked quiet anyways, he would probably be more than happy to-

“Can I come?” Killian said in a sad voice, I looked at him and was surprised to see how worried and nervous he was starting to look. I felt that empathy thing again, poor kid didn’t want to be alone at all. I couldn’t blame him, I didn’t want to be apart from him but I had to make sure no one was getting into Aras.
“No, it’s not safe, I would rather you stay locked up in the den,” I said. Killian gave a forlorn nod and looked down at his beer.
“Take him.” Greyson shook his head. “I want him to start learning how to handle a gun anyways. You’ll be in the building, no one will be able to see him.”

Killian’s face lit up, he smiled thankfully at Greyson. I had Reno, Greyson and Leo visit me occasionally as I worked, but not that often. It was usually just me watching the dark vast greywastes. It might be nice having Killian there I guess, as long as he didn’t feel the need to talk all the time and he wasn’t in the sights of anyone from outside the walls.
“I’ll... I’ll bring books, I won’t be in your way,” Killian said, his voice was small. I guess he noticed I looked a bit skeptical.“I won’t talk unless you want me to.”
I heard Greyson and Leo both scoff at Killian, they exchanged glances and shared a unison groan. “Boy, don’t show the beast your belly,” Leo said exasperated.
“What other type of boy would tolerate him? We should be happy he found
someone
,” Greyson smirked, not even trying to hide the derisive tones in his voice. Killian looked at him confused. He would get their humor eventually.
But as for now, I had had enough of this. I got up and started walking out the door.
“Killian,” I called. A few moments later I could hear Killian walking behind me, inside I could hear Greyson and Leo laughing about it. Why they decided to tease me mercilessly today was beyond me, maybe they were just happy me and Killian were safe, and we were talking now.

“Thank you,” Killian said shyly, I saw his hands wring around the beer bottle. “I won’t bother you, I promise.”
He was such a timid little thing, I decided to make him happy and gave him a smile. “What makes you think you’ll bother me?”
Killian’s deep blue eyes flicked up to mine for a second before he gave me a shy shrug. “I just don’t want to take the chance.”
“So, you promise to just sit in a corner, and watch me do my thing for hours, and not say anything or move at all?”
Killian nodded.