Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (27 page)

I don’t think he saw the irony in that.

We had a good time hanging out at my place for the rest of the day. I asked him if he wanted to make a trip to his house to get some junk but he didn’t seem like he wanted to. I don’t know I thought he would be eager to get some of his cooking shit and stuff in here but whatever. I didn’t care either way.
He cooked some interesting food for us, he fried an onion up, with some Good Boy and then put in some cut up corn. It was pretty good though if you added lots of salt. I had grown the corn myself, it looked like shit but it didn’t taste half bad, A lot better than the canned Dek’ko crap. That shit just tasted like chemicals.
After eating we played some more Mario. He didn’t hold back at all this time and fucking beat me to hell. I won a few times though, but that was mostly through flukes. I was used to being able to whoop Reno’s ass so this was a challenge. I didn’t like him being better at this than me, and what was even more frustrating was the fact that he wasn’t competitive at all. He just didn’t care. That made it worse.
After he packed his little satchel thing full of books, papers, pens, food and god knows what else, we headed towards east Aras. I was holding a bluelamp (more for him than me, I could see fine) and a foamy mattress thing I had kicking around the main floor. It would be a long night and I knew eventually the kid would get tired. He was probably sore as fuck as it was.

I also made sure to bring my M16 and my pistol. I had brought Killian’s magnum with me, the one I had bought for him. I was thinking of showing him how to use it if the opportunity presented its self. Or maybe I would let him fire my M16, it might be funny seeing him fall on his ass from the kickback.
I got out my M16 as we walked inside the east watch building, I had never had a problem with anything in here besides croaches and the odd scaver, but I didn’t want to take any chances, especially with Killian glued to my hip.
The building used to be an old office building I think, there were lots of big areas split up into smaller compartments. Where we were heading was the roof, I know Greyson wanted me in the building but this was close enough, I knew the angle to position myself in that the shadows of the air vents and electrical boxes would hide me. I knew where Killian could sit as well, and if anything happened it was only a ten second run down the stairs into the sentry room.
“Shadow Cat, checking in. E-W-T,” I said into my handheld. A few moments later Greyson radioed back.
“Roger, Shadow Cat, have a good night.”
I put the radio back onto my belt and sat on top of one of the air circulators. The roof was patched up, but relatively safe. There were a few areas of it that had been boarded up, mostly where the roof had caved in. We tried to water proof the inside as much as we could so we could keep it preserved. It didn’t rain here often, but rain would eventually wreck everything. That was one thing that was apparent in this world. So many pre-Fallocaust things had been ruined by rain and if not rain, by fire. The best way to compare that was the vehicles. The ones out in the elements were nothing but rusted out skeletons. Once the rust came, it enveloped the entire vehicles like cancer. Then you look at the trucks we used in Aras, apparently Greyson’s great grandfather had found them covered up and concealed and we’ve been using them for a great number of years now.
Besides the boarded up areas of the tar and gravel roof, there were a few chairs we had thrown up here to sit on, and just random garbage from the messier sentries. Miller had tried to make things a bit more interesting by spray painting some ‘art’ on the air vents and circulation systems, but I thought it looked stupid. He liked drawing shit everywhere for some reason, his half ass attempt at being artistic. I thought it made the roof look like a raver’s den. He always got so offended when I said that.

I focused my eyes and scanned the greywastes before me. The office building was five stories high, I had a great vantage point. We usually stuck to the wall though, because it was suppose to be easier to shoot our targets. I never had a problem with that, my eyes trumped theirs a hundred fold.

I took off my M16 and rested it beside me. I took a deep breath of the night air and lit myself a quil. I looked behind me to see Killian looking out over the east side of Aras, he was standing beside an air vent that had been painted to look like a snake.

“Come, sit.” I motioned beside me. His face lit up and he walked over and sat beside me.

I decided to force myself to take a step forward. I put my arm around him, making sure I was in the middle of inhaling the quil just to distract my brain from what I was doing. I didn’t want my body to cringe at the touch, it had a way of doing that without me even realizing it.

I could feel his chest give a bit of a flutter and I knew I had made him happy. I smiled at my triumph and offered him the quil.
He took it and took a long inhale. As he handed it back he blew a puff of smoke out of the corner of his mouth.
“Well at least you know how to do that,” I said with a overtone of amusement in my voice.
Killian gave me another one of his shy smiles. “My dad smoked, he has been getting me to light his cigarettes for him since I was two.”
I’ve been smoking since I was two.
I took a drag, and handed it back to him. This time I watched every one of his movements. How his brow furrowed when he inhaled, up to him blowing the smoke out of the corner of his mouth to avoid it going into my face. I liked it, I liked watching him.

Soon his face became relaxed, I finally could sense him becoming un-tensed and relaxed.

“Do you know what’s in these?” I asked, he must know by now it wasn’t just tobacco or weed.
Killian shook his head. “I can taste the opiate powder though, same taste as the stuff we had last night, right?”
I nodded and rolled the thin cigarette between my thumb and pointer. “It’s a grass we can cultivate here like weed but weaker, seeds were damn expensive though. It gives you a bit of a buzz, and the opiates give you that good feeling.”
Killian took the cigarette back from me, holding it between his pointer and middle finger. “I can feel it. It reminds me of the opium cigarettes we have in Skyfall. I like it.”
“Good,” I said simply, making a mental note to ask the next caravan if they sold those cigs. I watched him put his pink lips against the quil and inhale the blue grey smoke. I hated what I was going to have to do next, but I wanted to get it out of the way.

My cheeks puffed as I let out a breath, I settled down and prepared myself for some crying. “There is something we need to talk about though.”

I could feel Killian tense, and his pulse started to rise. “About what?” Immediately his voice dropped back to the shy submissive tones I had been hearing since I rescued him.
I deliberately took a long drag and held it in until my lungs burned. I decided to just spit it out. “Did they rape you, the legionnaires?”
Poor kid froze up on the spot, I did too. I couldn’t believe I had to do this to him, I wish it wasn’t so important. I’d put down men and women from infection after having shit like that happen to them. If you get torn up down there and didn’t get medical care, it could poison their insides and they’d die from septic shock.
“No,” he said in a thin whisper that even I could barely hear.

I nodded, I purposely had steeled myself to whatever answer I would get from him. I didn’t want to sigh from relief if he hadn’t, I didn’t want to look upset if he had. I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me though. This meant more to me then I had thought. I couldn’t stomach the thought of them doing that to him. It literally had driven me crazy when I had found his bloody clothes by the crossing.
“They wanted to,” he went on.

The relief died down a bit when I heard his voice turn from apprehension to fear. “But they didn’t have time, they wanted to move the product quickly. Didn’t stop them from looking and touching though.”
My mouth twitched, I could feel my grip on Killian’s side strengthen. “I killed them. I made them suffer,” I said firmly, my voice a low growl.
Killian nodded, I couldn’t help but feel a ripple of rage rush through me. I went back to the exit ramp, where I killed all of them. Specifically the leader and his son. The look on his face when I stuck the machete up his son’s ass. It had been wonderful, I loved watching him break in front of my eyes. Even if he didn’t rape Killian, he had touched him, he had hurt him. He had scared him, and taunted me. Fuck I wish I could kill him all over again, I wish that one guy hadn’t killed himself. Too short... same with the one I decapitated. I should have made them suffer, I should have saved them for Killian to kill. Well, there were still a few out there I think. The legionnaires who left in the truck. I would find them... Killian and I would.
“Reaver,” Killian whispered. I jerked a bit, coming back down to this world. My own racing thoughts had taken me far away from this rooftop.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t think bad things,” he said in a soft, almost calming voice. “I’m okay.”
“Hmm,” I said, I raised one eye brow in a skeptical manner. “How do you know what I’m thinking?”
Killian leaned his head on my shoulder, I could smell the scent of his hair. I found myself leaning my head up against his just so I could be closer to it.
“Your facial expressions change, you have dark thoughts a lot, don’t you?” Killian asked.
I thought for a second. I never realized my facial expressions could be read by him. I might have to be a bit more careful, he seemed more observant for his own good. Perhaps he should be a sentry instead of a doctor.
“I have a lot of thoughts, most dark,” I said back. “The less you talk out loud, the more you talk in your head.”
I heard the smallest of sighs escape from his lips. “You say the most amazing things sometimes, and I bet you don’t even realize it.”
I scoffed, but didn’t say anything back. We sat there for awhile and just watched the greywastes. He felt warm, relaxed, and he smelled perfect. I guess I probably smelled the same now, I hope he wasn’t expecting that to become a trend. I liked my wash cloth, bar of soap and the river method for becoming clean.

I felt Killian’s hand on my hip, I tensed up for a second, but made myself relax. I liked the feeling, it wasn’t bad, or as bad as I always imagined it being. I kind of enjoyed it.

It made my heart race though, all these overwhelming feelings I had never experienced before. Or thought I would experience. I wasn’t used to feeling protective over someone. I suppose I was when it came to Reno, but he could defend himself.

Killian though... he was like a little lost kitten who wandered into a deacon den. For some reason the deacon was crazy and decided to take care of him instead of eat him.

I hid the smile on my face, wondering why my mind would make such a crazy comparison. Well, either way, kitten or not, he was mine to protect now. I could never let anything happen to him, it had caused me too much pain when I thought I had lost him.

Why him? I didn’t know, I just knew that every time I was near him my gut felt queasy. And that even if he was a Skyfall boy, and a bit of a naive cream puff, he was mine. I’d teach him.

And I was looking forward to teaching him, I actually liked having him around me.

I guess this is what a partner was, literally a partner. I felt stupid coming to that realization but putting the two meanings together baffled me a bit.
I took another inhale of the smoke, and slowly blew it out of my mouth. I looked over the quiet greywastes stretched before us, the wall only a few yards from the building. The moon was shining down on us still, coating the black rocks in blankets of silver light.

The road got rougher to the east, lots of rocky terrain, black trees and broken roads. It was almost as bad as the canyons, with all the places people or creatures could hide. There were a lot of hidden paths in those rock mounds, one of which even lead to the bunker Greyson and Leo had for emergencies.

I really needed to teach Killian more wasteland sense. If something went wrong, I had to trust he wouldn’t be completely useless. Well, this was a better time then ever to get him started.
“Hey, I got something for you,” I said after we had been sitting quietly for awhile.

Killian perked up, I looked at him to see him smiling. “You did?”
I nodded, I reached down into my bag, I saw him looking at me, his eyes alight.
“Close your eyes.” I laughed when I saw Killian’s facial expression. The boy was grinning from ear to ear in excitement. Even bouncing a bit in place over the anticipation. It was well... okay it was adorable. I smiled big, mostly because his eyes were closed and he couldn’t see me.

I dug into my bag and pulled out his handgun. It was a good gun, made well before the Fallocaust and it was in pretty nice condition too. Under any other circumstances I would have kept it myself. I wanted him to have it though, anyways... he would look pretty nice with a gun in his hands. The silver matched well with his blue eyes.
“Okay, open your eyes,” I said, I tried to tone down my smile a bit but it was hard.

The boy opened his eyes and gasped.
“Oh my god! It’s beautiful, this is for me?” Killian squealed, he carefully took the gun from my hand. He handled it like it was made out of glass.
“It was a Colt .357 Magnum and it had a good kick to it, so you’ll have to be careful,” I said, I watched as he held the gun in his hand. I made a mental note that the safety was on, I didn’t trust him not to be smart enough to pull it just to see what happened.
“It’s beautiful,” he said again, I saw his eyes brimming. “Thank you, thank you, Reaver.” He put his arms around me and gave me a big hug. I hugged him back.

“I got it for you, before all this crap,” I said, trying to down play my own happiness with a shrug. “I had no idea how I was going to give it to you though.”
Killian looked a bit shy, he pointed the gun at the greywastes and closed one of his eyes, I’m assuming he was practicing pointing. He... was doing it completely wrong but I let it slide, for now.
“Will you teach me how to use it?” Killian said, he started to examine every inch of it. It was silver with a worn black rubber grips. It had some scuffs and dings on it, but for its age it had been well preserved. It had cost a lot, but I was doing good scavenging right now. Especially considering I would be getting first dibs on the merchants’ crap. I guess in a way I could have gotten the gun for free. Damn it.