Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (9 page)

Doc’s eyes were watching my face, I wiped it of emotion and became a statue.

The doctor continued. “Well, he seemed disappointed, sensitive little creature. I don’t know how he survived the trip from Tamerlan to Aras. Well, have a good night, Reaver.”

I narrowed my eyes at his smile, obviously accomplishing what he wanted; which was probably to poke passive aggressive fun at my following Killian. I grunted and waved him off before I picked up my pace and kept walking towards the west wall.

I pushed my thoughts out of my head and focused on the world around me. The sky was beautiful tonight. It was one of the rare nights that the overcast grey had burnt into the night and you could see the stars. Everyone of those little fucking things were shining tonight. It weirded me out just thinking of all the other people in the history of the world had looked up at those same stars. They even had names for them at one point but I never found a book of any of them. I think Greyson said one was called saturdarius but I wasn’t sure.

I blew the smoke out of the quil I had between my lips and reached behind me, clicking my M16 off of its holder. I might as well clean it tonight, it was starting to get dusty from all those canyon visits while I watched over the boy.

I hope one of the merchants had some arms for me to buy, I had been hoping to find a new scope or maybe some schematics. I had also been thinking of buying Killian a gun, I mean it was about time he learned to use one. And it would be some extra protection for when he was in that big house of his. I had enough trade to afford a nice one, and I had just found a small stash of penicillin a month back. I had given most of it to Greyson for the block, but I had kept a few bottles myself. Shit was even more rare in the greywastes. We had it lucky here, because of me. Most wasters wanted food, I wanted drugs. So I turned it into a benefit for the whole community and also brought back medicine. This whole town would have been wiped out by disease long ago if it wasn’t for me.

I sat down on my perch, in front of the concrete wall and stared out into the greywastes. Unlike Sadii, I didn’t need night vision goggles. My vision had always been unnaturally sharp, the goggles always made it worse, and the green annoyed me. My vision wasn’t perfect in the night, but at least everything was shades of grey and blue, not bright and distorted.
The greywastes were quiet too, if there were any deacons nearby they weren’t in ear shot. My hearing had always been sharp as well, I could hear the deacons breathing from half a block away. Heck, I could hear people’s heartbeats when they’re beside me talking. Though only if I paid attention, most of the time I was trying to tune people out not the opposite.

It was annoying that none of the dogs were nearby, it was their job to guard the wall after all. But I knew even the slightest odd noise or smell would alert them. They were always good at picking up strange noises. They also just seemed to know when something was out of place, like the air to them was different or something. I knew I had to trust the stupid things, even if they weren’t around at the moment. I didn’t trust many people but the deacons were different, unlike people dogs don’t purposely screw you over.

I let out a sigh as I felt the quil start to hit me. The warm, glowing feeling that the opiates gave you. I never got tired of it, it was worth repeatedly getting chased by radanimals and legionary to obtain them. I had Reno just as hooked on them, though I think we got each other hooked, he and I made it our thing to scavenge the abandoned greywaste towns.
I wonder if Killian would ever do drugs? I know he didn’t now, and if he did he was damn good at hiding it. Nah, he was too innocent, he probably didn’t even drink. Though Tulley’s greywine was so disgusting everyone wished they didn’t drink. At least Greyson and Leo had their whiskey cache they let me snipe sometimes. I knew of a few places I could find liquor in the Gosslin ruins, but I never bothered. Drugs made me faster, liquor made me slow and stupid, if I was ever to drink, I only did it around people I knew like Greyson, Leo or Reno.

I continued to watch the greywastes in front of me. I started thinking about what kind of gun I would buy for Killian. Definitely not an automatic like my M16, he would have to work up to it. Anyways that kid seemed a tad weird, he might shoot up the block one day. If he did that with a hand gun I at least would have time to get the fuck out of there before he got too many rounds off.

Maybe that’s why he wanted to know where I lived.
It was a half an hour later that I heard soft foot steps start to sound down the wall. I knew from the silent steps that it was another sentry, and there was only one sentry it could be.

“Hey Reaver, did Greyson change the schedule?” Matt’s voice called. I couldn’t help but cringe, it had been so quiet and peaceful. I could even hear a few hoppers out. Now that bug eyed idiot was ruining my perfect mood.

“Nope,” I said quietly, I lit my quil and took another inhale of it. I had some pills in my pocket but I didn’t want to take them until later. “You can go home.”
Matt made a disgusted noise. “Nah, the kids are sick, the whole place smells like shit and vomit. Shelly is pissy about it. This is my only quiet time, sorry bugger. I’m staying.”
I grunted in annoyance. This was a sure fire way to ruin my evening.

I got up and grabbed my gun and clicked it back into its holder.
“I’ll do some patrols then,” I said, I turned around and started walking west, the same area where my house was, though this area was abandoned and mostly covered in debris and collapsed houses. My house was several blocks in far from the wall.

I climbed down the first ladder I could find and started walking through an alleyway. On either side of me were tall two story houses, most with the roofs collapsed and broken, but some still stood. Their paint almost all peeled, with what was remaining stained with green slime. The wood behind the paint was grey and dry as bone, still holding strong after over two hundred years of neglect. Greyson said it was the lack of rain that stopped these houses from falling to ruin like some of the others. Though I always thought King Silas’s sestic radiation helped preserve the wood too like it did the canned food, but I didn’t know science crap. That was more Leo’s thing.

It took the better part of an hour to weave my way through the crap piled in West Aras. Finally I spotted the small path I had made for my own personal West Aras patrols. It led me to a semi-cleared off road, one of the main ones in my area.

This was Stone Road, I was a few blocks from the road where I lived. I had always liked this road, it was more uniform then the others. The houses were almost all the same. They all had an extra story to them so they were good for doing lookouts on. I had boarded up all the windows years ago to keep them from being ambush spots of predators.
The trees were also the same as well. Whoever designed this place had wanted everything to be uniform and perfect, almost like a painting or something. Each house was the same, the yard was the same, and the trees, black and leafless now, were planted exactly twelve feet from one another. Those assholes before the Fallocaust must have had it easy, being able to worry about shit like this. What a life.

I cut across bare rocky yard, and started weaving my way between bits of twisted metal, and broken pieces of concrete. I then jumped onto the porch and cut my way across the backyard to the next street. Everything had fallen back to tranquility around me, save a few bugs I could hear. It was a comfortable quiet, everything seemed peaceful tonight. Perhaps I might be able to sleep then, though that was always easier said then done.

It wasn’t until I was in the cul-de-sack that I realized exactly where I had been leading myself. I had been walking this entire time mindlessly, not even paying attention to where I was going.

I sighed, very disappointed in my brain. Killian’s house was right in front of me.

I looked up at his two story house. I could see the light on the second floor was on, it looked like he finally bought one of the bluelamps Dek’ko sold. I remember him saying to Greyson he wanted one.
I took another drag from my quil and started to walk around the property a bit, though I stuck close to the exterior wall. It was dark enough that I didn’t think he would be able to see me, but as Greyson always said, I was so pale I seemed to glow in the cold LED light.
I couldn’t help but pause at one of his windows, before I could stop myself I glanced inside. It looked like his kitchen.

I could see lots of bottles filled with various things, spices mostly I think. There were lots of old cabinets, and metal shelves filled with food and junk. I could also make out dishes and pots hanging neatly on top of a large grate that hung over the stove . Everything was put away nicely. I could even see fucking dish towels hanging off of the stove, dish towels? That kid was crazy.
I craned my neck and tried to glance into the room next to it, everything was freakishly clean. No wonder the kid smelled like soap, he was probably cleaning all of the time.

I tried the window, it opened with a small creak. How stupid was this kid? Anyone could sneak in here and slash his throat, he must have a death wish.
With gentle noiseless fingers I closed the window and kept walking. I didn’t like how my feet sounded against the rocky soil but I knew his ears wouldn’t be able to pick it up.

As I turned a corner, I realized I was back underneath the lit window. I walked around the square of light, and looked up at the window. Half expecting to see his dark silhouette watching me, but it was empty.

I started back towards the road, hoping my lurking would appease my curiosity. Though as I walked in between several old gnarled trees I found myself stopping once again. I glanced up, at the twisted leafless masses and in spite of my self, I started to climb.

I silently scaled the tree until I was eye level with the second story window. I sat down and leaned against the trunk and looked inside.

With the light on in the room, I knew he wouldn’t be able to see me even if he was looking, the light would blind him to everything outside that wasn’t half a foot from the window.
I scanned the room with morbid curiosity and was a bit shocked to see it was his bedroom. I felt my face flush a bit, realizing what a weirdo I must seem right now, but I still couldn’t bring myself to leave.

I just wanted to make sure he was safe, he was stupid enough to leave the windows unlocked after all. So I should stay and just make sure he got to sleep okay.
Or that’s what I told myself.

I looked around his room. It was clean and tidy of course. I could see dirty pre-Fallocaust pictures hung up on the cracked and warped paneling. I couldn’t recognise most of them but I think a few of them were tropical pictures. The blue of the ocean reminded me of his eyes.

Tucked in on the far left side was a mattress on a metal frame, covered with a thick wool blanket that I could see had mold spots on it. Beside the bed was a metal table stacked with books and from what I could see, drinking glasses. In the far right before the window cut my vision off I spotted clothing hung up by coat hangers, below a rusty metal bucket. Probably more cleaning shit.

I shifted my weight against the tree trunk so my gun sat a bit more comfortably, and crossed my arms over my chest. My mind threatened me with images of me one day being inside that bedroom but I pushed them away. I was getting tired of my brain tormenting me. It would never happen.

About a half an hour later, with my heart giving a nervous jolt I saw him enter the room. His nose still in a book. I chastised my body and forced my heartbeat to calm down. Feeling embarrassed at my own reaction even though no one would ever see.
Nose in a book, how typical,
I said to myself with a smirk.

Killian grabbed the bluelamps and sat it down on the metal side table. He got under the wool blanket on his bed and continued to read. One hand holding the book, the other bent over behind his head.
I could see his brow furrow as he concentrated on the book, sure enough it had Psychology written on the back of it. Must be an old textbook, I had seen a few of them at the old school here. No one was really interested in books but Leo and a few other sciencey types. I actually wouldn’t have been surprised if Aras’s blond mayor had lend him these texts.
There was the smallest shuffling of paper as he turned the page, before grabbing something that I guess he had had in his boxer pants pockets. He took out a green marker and started writing in the book. I wondered what he was writing, maybe I would check later.
I let out a sharp intake of breath, annoyed at myself. I didn’t know what was happening to me, first following him, now watching him before he sleeps? Contemplating breaking into his house? I didn’t know what I was feeling, whatever it was I hadn’t ever felt it before.
As the blue light clicked off, I could see Killian set the book down. He stretched and curled up on his side, I watched as he closed his eyes, his body now bathed in the blue of my night vision.
I still didn’t move.

I watched him, I watched him throughout the night. I watched his breathing start to slow, I watched him start to snore lightly. I watched him toss and turn a few times. The moon passed over us, it glowed against his face. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, I couldn’t go home even though I knew I should. I just wanted to be close to him, make sure he was doing okay. I never realized how much I just wanted him to stop being sad. I missed seeing those teeth when he smiled.

As I watched I found myself imagining myself beside him. I wondered what he would feel like, what his hair would feel like between my fingers. I wondered what his heartbeat sounded like.
I let out a sigh and leaned my head back against the tree trunk, I exhaled hard. What was happening to me?
I looked up at the moon in the sky and closed my eyes. I tried to focus my mind again, and push the kid out of it. I tried to imagine torturing legionnaires instead. I wanted to try cutting ones heart out and eat some of it before it stopped beating. I had never tried it before. I bet it would be more tender than it would be after it had been sitting for awhile. Maybe there would be blood inside that would spurt out when I bit into it; like some greywaste Gusher.