Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (69 page)

“Say... say something nice, please?” Killian’s voice was starting to wobble.

I won, you pathetic waste of life.

“You probably started out nice,” I said instead.

Killian sniffed, he nodded his acceptance of my eulogy and wiped his nose. I knew from the expression on his face that he was saying what he had to say to Perish in his head. A smart attempt on his part to dissuade any fighting or hurt feelings. Indeed I would have something to say if he decided to be too sympathetic to our capture.

“Your suffering is over, Perry,” he whispered out loud. “I’m sorry.”

I’m not.

He steadied the shovel up against the gravestone and reached into his satchel. He pulled out a vhs tape and placed it on top of Perish.

“Burying him with his porn?” Why did I say these things.

Yep, I got a look that could start an ice age. “It’s Jurassic Park, it was his favourite movie.”

I would probably swipe that when I came back for Perish’s skull, give it to Reno so the kid could never find it. I always wanted to watch that movie but had never found a vhs of it. No reason for a good working movie to go to waste. I hoped the dirt didn’t bugger up the tape, but even if it did Reno was good at fixing them. He could lie and say he traded for it or something.

“Too bad you forgot his stuffed dinosaur,” I said that in a rather mean spirited sense but Killian either ignored it, or didn’t realize my tone.

“I know...” he picked up the shovel and started shovelling grey dirt on top of the corpse. “I sent a list with Leo, I asked him to bring it back. You wouldn’t mind would you?”

“As long as I never have to see it,”  I grumbled. “What else was on that list?

“Leo is bringing back most of Perish’s personal items to make it seem like he took off, I asked for a couple other things, the dry goods, some books.” The shovel scraped through the dirt and rock as he plunged it in, he threw another load of dirt onto the body. The corpse was fully covered now. “We’re splitting the fruit and vegetables, I thought we could can some of it before it spoils. I have some pre-Fallocaust recipe books too. I wanted to cook you some things.”

“Why didn’t you ask for something cool like his computer or the TV?” Now that was something I’d blow up the side of my house for. I’d make it fit into my living room some how.

“They need to make it look like Perish just took off. They’re cleaning up his blood and erasing the videos, we have to keep those things in place for when Nero comes back.”

My own little clean up crew, or Killian’s rather. I hadn’t made a mess, though if I had gotten a hold of him I would have.

Still the change in food would be nice, as long as the rest of the block didn’t know. No fucking way I was sharing any of my shit with those greedy bastards. Let them risk their own lives for fresh fruit, that shit was all mine.

When Killian was finished burying Perish he got out the black marker and kneeled down to write his name. It was on the tip of my tongue to perhaps not write his real name on the gravestone but who the hell besides us would ever find this place; and even if they did the odds of them knowing who he was was even minimal. So I let it go. Chances are it would wear off during the rainy season anyways, it looked like his parents stones had been redone recently.

When he backed away it read Perry. Nothing else, no date of birth, no epitaph, just Perry. It looked oddly sad and empty.

I took the pen from him and bent down in front of it, Killian made a small nervous noise as I did.

“Saw Killion and lost his head?” Killian read it when I finished. I stood up and handed him back the pen. The look he gave me was confusing, like he was either going to laugh or cry. He started to laugh but a fraction of a second later he had tears rolling down his face. I cracked up and gave him a hug. He was so fun to torment.

“You didn’t even spell my name right, you illiterate dick,” Killian sniffed, hugging me back. “It’s K-I-L-L-I-
A
-N. Can you even spell your name? Didn’t you go to school?”

“I spent my time learning to shoot and defend myself,” I smiled. “Next time a raver wants to chew your face off, just tell them how to spell their name, while I snipe them right between the eyes.”

“You’re almost as funny as you are smelly.” Killian pulled back and shuddered. “Let’s get some clean clothes, that smell isn’t going to come out easy.”

“It might make the local jokes leave me alone.” I smelled my shirt and gagged before I started to walk back to the house. “Kill Ian? Did Ian try to be your friend too?”

“So funny, so so funny.” Killian pinched my side hard, making me retract. He had done it the last time I joked about his recent murder. I think it was to keep him from beating me with a cinder block.

We made it back to the road unscathed. I kept lightly teasing Killian just to distract him from the maggots baking on the rubble. It worked, he was too busy trying to match wits with me than to notice the lot of them.

After going home and getting the rot smell off of my body, we gathered some of the more important items and made our way to Greyson and Leo’s. We would still be sleeping back in the basement, but the bosses wanted us to hang out where the locals could find us easy. It would help off set the extra fuel I had been using as well.

No one else besides Reno, Greyson, Leo and I guess now Doc knew where I lived. I wanted to keep it that way. The last thing the mayors wanted was for half the town to get murdered and me not know it because no one could reach me. I wouldn’t mind, we could use a cleansing but they would get pissed off.

I had to also have the radio turned on at all times too during the night in case of emergency. It was a lot of hassle, over something I didn’t really care about. Well it was only for a couple days.

At least Redmond was taking care of most of the tedious paper work and record keeping that kept Aras running. I wasn’t going to be in charge of shit like inventory or distribution. They were wise not to trust my math skills.

I groaned in my head. That’s probably why they were happy to have me with Killian. He was a record keeping book reading nerd, if they got their way that would be Killian’s job.

When we got to Leo and Greyson’s house Redmond was waiting for us. He was in his fifties and had been around when the previous mayor Greyson’s father Stoen Merrik was running things. Apparently he had died a year before my parents and I had sought Aras. Greyson had been running things here since he was twenty.

Redmond was a very serious no bullshit man. His grey hair was thinning and the lines around his mouth were a testament that he rarely smiled. If there was anything to be said about Redmond it was that he was serious about his job as councillor of Aras. If there was anyone to prevent me from lighting the refinery plant on fire it was him. We have never had a problem with one another, he kept to his business and I kept to mine. We rarely spoke outside of work.

“Reaver, I need to speak to you about the Kerry family.” Redmond was holding a clipboard in a dirt incrusted hand. “Greyson,” he gave out a sigh, “he decided to spend the morning outside of Aras and I never got a chance to speak to him about them... which is regrettable.” He handed me the piece of paper and I started to read it.

“Gina Kerry has come down with a fever, and the baby Madison, they’re at home right now with Mr. Kerry and the two boys. This is what Doc was able to make of it before he left.”

Fever, 102 degrees, vomiting, diarrhea, no shaking, no seizures. I gave the paper to Killian,  he looked at it and paled slightly. Recommendations: Quarantine.

Doc’s recommendations seemed good enough, I would just give them each a bullet but not every fever and evac meant death. Sometimes it was just food poisoning, the flu or a bug. Heck I’ve gotten sick like this over food just a few years ago.

“Keep the two locked up in the shack, put a guard in front of Mr. Kerry and the kids’ house,” I took the paper from Killian and handed it back.

“On the family? Is that necessary?” Redmond asked. “They family has never given us problems. If we ask them to stay inside they will.”

I shook my head. “I’m sure Greyson would rather have hurt feelings then the town infected with disease. I just put a new kid through training, stick him in front of it. Give him a game boy and a bit of jerky and he’ll be fine.”

Redmond nodded, he thumbed through the clipboard before handing the entire thing to me. “You’ll need to read all of these and sign your name on what ones you approve, X off the ones not approved. I’ll be by in the morning to collect.”

Killian’s new job.

“And... we also got intel back from Anvil. The activity around the bombing of Typhus Canyon is dying down. The patrols are thinning, and the merchants are talking of making one last trip before the rains flood the river. In your papers is a proposal from Sparrow of the Coldstone Caravans, he’ll make the trip but he wants us to send guards.

I gave a snort. That would be a deny, we weren’t sending men over just so he could sell all his shit here for a profit. Those merchants could be selfish fucks sometimes. Menkin would have rather died than ask for help to cross the greywastes, though in a way he did.

“Anything else?” I asked, pretending to flip through the clipboard papers.

“That’s it for today, at least for me.” Redmond looked behind me and nodded towards the wall. “But this job is twenty four hours a day, but you’ll be fine.”

With a nod and a short good bye he walked down the street, I gave the clipboard to Killian and walked inside. “You’re mayor, do the paper work.”

“Mayor Massey! I like it!” Killian sounded a bit too excited to be in charge of Aras. To prevent him getting any ideas I took the clipboard back. “Nooo!” He reached for it but I put it above my head.

“We’re not leading Aras once the dads kick off, so get that out of your head right now,” I said, Killian started jumping up to try and snatch it.

“I know, being mayor for twenty years would be horrible, but being mayor for two days might be fun, right?” Killian smiled. “We get the best meat from the Slaught House, and just think how much you can abuse your power. You can even book Matt for double shifts and cut off Reno’s rations.”
Hmm... true.

“We can even collect on Greyson and Leo’s liquor tax from the Tulley family. We can get drunk off our asses on their token.”

“Alright, alright,” I gave him the clipboard and locked the door behind us. “Though your version of a fun time differs from mine. I’d rather build a make shift coliseum in the square and make everyone fight each other for water.”

The mental image was amusing. Why not shake up their lives a bit? They were living just a bit too comfortably.

“There is something I wanted to ask though,” Killian said, his voice adopted a very submissive sweet tone. Sure enough he gave me the begging eyes. Oh boy I wasn’t going to like this.

“I want to open up a little kiosk in the square, we have so much extra stuff from scavenging. I wanted to try and sell it for us.”

I shrugged, I grabbed a piece of liquorish from a bunch Leo had left on the coffee table. “Knock yourself out.”
“Can you help me run it?”

“Nope.”
“But Reaverrr”
“But Reaavvehhh,” I mocked, chewing the sugary plastic. “I’m no shop keep, do it yourself.”

“You’re not sentrying during the day, you’re only taking half shifts at night... but I’ll be working all day at Doc’s. So what are you going to do? Stay at Leo and Greyson’s staring at a wall? This way you can occupy yourself, make lots of money and... and...” I was tapping at their fish tank, watching the fish swim away. I guess he could tell he was losing me. “If we give it to Carson on consignment he’s going to take twenty percent, you don’t want to give him our money do you?”

Bah, right where it hurt. Letting people profit or thrive off of me.

“I’ll think about it,” I grumbled.

He gave a happy squeal. “Thank you!”

“That doesn’t mean yes,” I said exasperated, I would though, it made him happy and we could use the money for fuel. Winter was cold, dark and long. If we could stockpile the fuel and the food we would live like kings during the winter months. Most people froze their asses off because they would burn through their fuel subsidies quickly. A majority of the residents hung out in the community hall which Greyson kept heated with wood from the black trees or houses marked to be cleared. That was free, and then even the poorest families could get warm for awhile.

I didn’t mind the cold, but something told me Killian would wilt under it. Skyfall had a more tepid climate than where we were inland. I think I remember there was always smoke coming from their chimney during the Massey’s first winter here.

“It means yes,” Killian beamed. “I’m going to look for some paints and make us a sign. Where does Leo keep the good paint? He just touched up the door on the Red House yesterday, I think I saw him put it into the closet. Can I look?”

“Go ahead,” I said, I might as well start getting through the paper work. “Just put for sale, don’t put anything stupid on it.”

Killian skittered off towards the hallway closet and I started leafing through crap. Sparrow’s mercenary request would get denied. Or else he would expect it next time, or make up a bullshit excuse. I proposed he could hire the mercs but that was about it. We were stocking up on ravers right now anyways since we didn’t expect anymore caravans until spring.

I went to the next paper which was coincidentally a request from Fieldy to organize another raver raid. That was approved, I might go with them too, get out some pent up energy. Having sex with Killian was good for that, but it wasn’t a long term replacement for torture and murder. I approved that.

Request to take ownership of an abandoned house on Jiprock street, sure why the fuck not. Tintown wants to trade geigerchip for ammo, sounds like a fair trade.

I took some more drugs to make this more bearable and got comfortable. I was almost through the stack of papers when Killian let out a gasp.

“Reaver, look!”

Killian came walking towards me from the hallway, he was holding a few items in his hands. A red ball, a bundle of clothing and a shut up thing you put into babies mouths when they wouldn’t stop bitching.