Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (7 page)

I was always one to love heights, and like the canyons I scour now, this ledge was no different. The drop would kill me, or at least fatally injure me, but that wasn’t on my mind now. I knew where I had to go, and if I concentrated on the present, and not the possible outcomes, my body and mind would bring me there.
Turning the corner on the building was the trickiest part, but with a deep breath and a few swear words I found myself on the other side, out of sight and facing the side of the building next to it; so all that was around me now was a dark alleyway.

I crouched down to my knees, and with one fluid motion, I hopped off of the ridge and as I did, I turned my body as I fell, I grabbed the ridge with my hands. I dangled there for a few seconds before allowing myself to drop down to the third story overhang. It was more difficult maintaining my balance with my face against the building instead of my back, so before I could fall backwards, I crouched down again and repeated the action. I scaled down the building in under a minute and before I knew it my feet found solid ground.

I stood there in the alleyway and leaned my back up against the wall, I wiped my face with my hands and took in a deep breath, not realizing that my hearing had shut its self off until my mind started to catch up with my body. It seemed my body had blocked out every other sensory organ I had as I focused on getting from the fourth floor to the ground.
My hearing came back with an assaulting rush: the crying of the mother, the bellowing of the hessian, all noises I could do without.

As my hearing fucked my senses, I looked around to make sure I hadn’t been seen, and kept close to the side of the building. I walked to the end of the alleyway, and was relieved to see that every soldier seemed to be in the Red House, including Carter.
I glanced around scanning the crowd.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” a voice hissed, I looked to my left to see Leo. Leo didn’t look pleased to see me, he didn’t even wait for me to answer him back, or explain myself. He took a look around and grabbed the back of my bullet proof vest and started dragging me towards one of the tents.
“What the hell are you doing?” I said, but he didn’t answer, he threw me in front of the tent and ran into it himself, emerging a few seconds later with a blue wrist band. He wrapped it around my hand and as he fastened it together he quickly glanced towards the Red House, making sure he hadn’t been seen.

He took a deep breath and wiped his forehead.
“You’re a lucky son of a bitch, Reaver,” Leo growled, he squeezed my shoulder so hard I could almost feel the pent up fear he had inside of him.
“Go home, stay there until we come get you, don’t be seen,” he ordered, with a tone that suggested he wanted to hug me and rip my face off with his bare hands at the same time. He turned away from me and quickly made his way towards the Red House, shouldering people out of the way as he stalked towards it.

I didn’t need to be told twice, my adrenaline was still pumping and I knew that Leo knew more about what was going on than I did. I took one last look at the Red House and ducked into the alleyway behind the tent Leo had just emerged from. As soon as I knew I was out of sight, I broke into a run.

I didn’t realize how relieved I was to leave all of the noise until I got to my street. The deacons had shut up, and I could no longer hear the yelps of the hessian, meaning he probably found the kid. What trouble that woman would be in for not bringing her kid to the square was beyond me, and not my problem. I was just relieved I was able to leave her as bait. I’m sure the little brat was fine.
As I approached the house, my run slowed down to a fast walk. I felt safer now that I was alone, and closer to my den, though I still felt my hands twitch towards my M16. My house was half way down one of our more vacant areas of Aras. It was a small brick house with two bedrooms I used mostly for storage of food and guns, and a concrete basement I spent most of my time in.

The street it was on was in almost as bad condition as the one me and Greyson had walked down earlier that day. Mountains of debris were piled up against many of the buildings on my street, everything and anything, from rusted out cars, to building material, all the way to slabs of concrete as big as my roof. Some of the piles were tall enough that you could reach the third story of the building they were leaning against.
There used to be rows and rows of houses and buildings on this side of town, but now every other house or building was either collapsed, or cleared out all together for farming and firewood. I had laid claim to a few of these spots for farm land, and though I was still learning, had succeeded in growing potatoes, corn and a few other pre Fallocaust food.

I had gotten a lot better at it as the years passed, though with the sun the way it is, everything grown was half the size its suppose to be, easily spoiled and hard as heck to grow even in small batches. I preferred to eat meat myself, it was much less of a hassle to grow. I had better success growing the weeder grass I harvested to make my quil cigarettes, now that was something worth growing.

I walked down my street, my little piece of territory and as I passed the tipped over cars, mail boxes, and slabs of broken pavement I was used to strolling past everyday, I put a quil into my mouth. The adrenaline was starting to leave my body now, my heartbeat was slowing, and my mind was starting to flood with questions. A bit of opiate laced grass would take care of that, I needed something to keep my mind distracted before the questions I needed to be answered, were answered.

I turned up my driveway, and walked past the few plants I had planted in my yard. I didn’t have any of my farm stuff planted around my house, because I didn’t want it to be obvious as to where I was living. There were a lot of abandoned houses in this town, a thousand maybe, and the more mine blended in the better. I had only allowed myself two weeder plants in the front and a few in the back; the rest of them I had cultivated down by the river a few blocks away to the east.
I walked right past what would be seen as the front door, and towards the back of my house. I wasn’t stupid, unlike a lot of the people in this town, I couldn’t sleep at night knowing all that separated me from the gnashing teeth of the greywastes was a flimsy wooden door. I had stole some bags of concrete from the workers when I first claimed this house as my own, and had built a concrete barrier in front of the door, it was now one of the strongest parts of my house. The entrance to my house was a guarded secret.
I looked around to make sure no one following me, which I pretty much knew no one was, they were all dealing with the mercer and the soldiers; and walked towards a sheet metal shed that was right up against my house.

I got out my set of keys from one of my pockets and unlocked the door. I stepped inside the musty shed and closed the door behind me. It was dark in there, but I knew where everything was, an old couch, a work bench full of tools, and an old metal shelf I had stuffed with old appliances I kept telling myself I would eventually fix.

In the center of the shed was a metal cover I had originally harvested from the hatch of an old army tank. I had been able to jerry rig it enough that it was the perfect entrance point for my tunnel.

It was drilled into the floor of the unassuming shed and was lockable from the outside and the inside. I pulled open the tunnel cover with loud creek (purposely like that, the shed was sound proof but I would be able to hear anyone coming in from inside the house) and slid myself inside. I had successfully tunnelled from inside the shed, to my basement. It had taken a good month, and was a total bitch to chip away all the concrete in the basement but it had been worth it. I was able to sleep a bit better at night, and for someone with intense insomnia, every comfort you could get, you took.
I closed the tunnel door behind me and locked it, and dusted myself off. I immediately felt a wave of security as I heard the tunnel door lock. I was in my space now, and if anyone wanted to fuck with me, they would have to do it in my territory.

I reached behind my back and grabbed my M16 and as I did I unbuckled the buckle that strapped the gun holder to my back. The gun holder I always had on me was made out of black leather with small metal prongs on the back that clicked the M16 into place, it was strapped to my back with a single silver buckle.
I flexed my arms and flopped down on my favourite couch, and realized that I had forgotten to light the quil I still had hanging out of my mouth.
I lit it, and took the deepest inhale that I could, and blew the smoke out of my mouth. I leaned back into the soft fibre of my brown couch and waited for Leo and Greyson.
My mind did flirt with the idea that they could very well be dead now, that perhaps the mercer had killed one or both of them after finding the brat, but my mind was used to going to dark places. I knew that those two would take care of business, or at least that’s what I kept telling myself.
In reality, I knew that if they did die, that it would be my fault. I had decided in that split second not to kill the mercer, upon the revelation that it had been me they had been hiding. I couldn’t fuck over my town and possibly slaughter them all because I had dodged the census. I hated the assholes in this town, a bunch of idiotic fucks, selfish, and stupid, but they were my job to protect.
Funny, thinking back on it now, I had a bit more loyalty to my town then I do now. Now I think I’ve become a bit more jaded when it comes to the town’s residents, I guess it’s just being young and naive. I don’t know if I would have done things differently if it had happened now, I would have definitely thought about it a bit longer.
I didn’t know if I did the right thing, not killing the mercer, so many different scenarios played through my head as I waited for the creaking noise of the tunnel’s opening to be heard. I hoped my plan had worked, but knew there were many things that could go wrong. King Silas’s military wasn’t known for being lenient, they weren’t known for sparing people. People were disposable in the soldier’s eyes, and King Silas’s eyes.
At that time in my life I was just starting to learn who the hell King Silas even was, which I guess was the fucking point of this story to begin with before I started replaying the whole thing in my head. Before today all I knew of King Silas was that he was the man that ruled the greywastes and that he had a family of helpers to carry out his orders. How he got to be king, I didn’t know, who had succeeded him... didn’t know.

I was about to learn though.

Chapter 5

Reaver

Two Years Previous

I jumped as the tunnels opening let out the all too familiar
creak
I grabbed my M16 just to err on the side of caution but I knew who it was. A good hour and a half had gone by since I had entered my house, and I had already gone through three quils and even a few lines of opiate powder. I had nodded off from the opiates without even realizing it.
When I saw Leo and Greyson emerge from my tunnel into my basement, I was so relieved I could feel the weight lift off of my shoulders, though I tried hard not show it on my face.

Greyson and Leo however, didn’t bother hiding their emotions.

Greyson stalked right up to me and smacked me hard upside the head, I jumped back and yelled in surprise, dropping my gun onto the floor. I was about to clock him back, as a reflex more then anything when he roughly hugged me.
I was confused.
Leo must have registered my confused face and found it amusing because his glare turned into a smirk pretty quickly.
“Ah, let him be, hun, he’s confused enough as it is,” Leo chuckled. Greyson was still hugging me tightly, he gave me one last squeeze, and promptly started hitting me again.
“Fuck sakes! Stop it!” I protested angrily. I recoiled, not just from being hit, I hated being touched by anyone. “You were the fucking one that put me in that position asshole, don’t take your shitty plan out on me.”

“Simple instructions!” he hollered. “SIMPLE! Shoot him! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you realize how close you were to being killed? Or WORSE!?”

“Back off!” I yelled back, I started to get annoyed.“Tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Greyson threw his hands up into the air and let out an exasperated breath. “Everything got settled, that’s all that matters.” He sounded like he was saying that to himself as much as he was to me.

Not good enough,
I said to myself. I narrowed my eyes and watched as Greyson started to pace the room.
“Why were you hiding me?” I demanded.
Greyson and Leo both froze, I was surprised by this reaction, but I didn’t show it on my face. I stood there with my arms crossed, standing my ground. They were in my territory now, leaders or not, I was going to get answers from them.
Greyson took a few seconds to compose himself, and I knew in those vital seconds he was trying to think of what he was going to say to me next; perhaps trying to decide whether he was going to tell me the truth or not.

The leader of Aras, a man with dark brown hair, fading at the temples and grey eyes, scratched his prickly stubble to buy him a few more seconds before turning to me, and looking me right in the eye.

“You know nothing of King Silas,” he said very soberly, his eyes hard, “or how much of a threat him and his legionnaires are."
“No, I don’t,” I said back, “enlighten me.” My tone held a probably inappropriate amount of sarcasm, but his strange attitude had made me feel uneasy.
“Watch the attitude,
sentry
,” Greyson said lowly. I let out a growl in the back of my throat, it was quiet enough that they couldn’t hear it. I didn’t want them to see how much that had offended me. I hated it when they pulled rank on me.
Leo gave out a loud grunt and pushed Greyson off to the side. “Calm down,” he said to him, then turned to me. “Reaver, you disobeyed orders, and it almost got you killed.”
I scoff loudly and pointed an accusing finger at Greyson. “He almost got the whole fucking block killed, and you two seem to be dancing around the reason why.”
That was when Greyson lost it.
“Because Carter would have fucking taken you, that’s why!” Greyson exploded, his steely grey eyes aflame. I saw his chest heave up and down before he took a second to compose himself. “He’s always drafting soldiers,” Leo spoke for him. “He took five of our men before he left, and I didn’t want him to take you.”