Skin on My Skin (20 page)

“You’re not taking me back to Fortress?” she finally said after sipping on the beer for a long while.
 

“No.” I wish I could think of something else to say besides no. I sounded like a broken record.
 

“Then you decided steady pussy was better than no pussy, right?”

“It’s not that, Jenna. I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I’m so sorry for putting you through this.”

“So I can leave then? You’ll help me down to the ground floor and let me go?”

“Yes,” I answered unequivocally. I wouldn’t like it, but if that’s what she wanted I would live with it.
 

“But… there’s always a ‘but’, right? What is it?”

“Fortress sent two escorts with me to get you. I killed them at Big Woody’s place. The drones are still out and they are going to be looking for me. They know you are alive, now, and will be looking for you even more. I’m happy to let you go and that’s the very least you deserve, but I wish that you’d let me help you get out of the city.”

I could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t believe me. I wasn’t surprised.

“Why would they send guards out with you?”

“They’ve been looking for me, for some reason,” I admitted. I then showed her the crumpled up wanted poster with the ten-year-old picture of me on it.
 

“This is you? I mean… sure, I can see a resemblance, but the most wanted person in Fortress is you?” Something shaded her face… a look of apprehension. Maybe guilt. I didn’t know but her making the connection had changed something in her demeanor.
 

I shrugged. “Do you know why they wanted me?”

“I’m just a Toucher. They don’t tell me anything. But this poster is all over Fortress. They’ve been looking for you for years.” I’m sure it was a lie. But who was I to call her on her lie after all I’d done to her?
 

She was quiet for a few moments, taking in the implications.
 

“You saw the others? At the Hotel?” Change of subject time.
 

“Yes,” I said sadly. I didn’t want to tell her about my evening with Jane. It didn’t seem the right thing to do, at the moment and I was embarrassed about the experience anyway.

“And? How are they?”

“They were fine when I left. Frank gave me a gun, though, to help me get away. He thought that might get him in trouble.” I didn’t tell her about the look in the man’s eyes. I didn’t tell her I thought he was probably dead by now.
 

“Jane? What about Jane?”

 
I cringed. “She’s fine. She’s one of the ones who told me to get you out of the city. You don’t have to believe me, and I understand why you wouldn’t, but I’d already decided that on my own. The minute I talked to the guy in the red suit.”

“The Preacher,” she said, interrupting. “You actually talked to the Preacher?”

“The Preacher is dead. I know that guy is evil, but he isn’t the Preacher.”

“How would you know that?”

“I used to listen to him on the radio,” I told her. “He hasn’t broadcast in years.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s dead, does it? You didn’t see him die. You don’t even know who he was. It could be the man in the red suit, couldn’t it? Just like he says he is. Just like he always told me he was?”

“Yeah, I guess…” I agreed. She was right. I didn’t know he was dead. I didn’t even know if the man who I used to listen to on the radio actually was the Preacher. “But it doesn’t matter who he is. The moment I talked to him, I knew I couldn’t go through with what I was planning. I’m sorry. I was scared of life without a working bio-suit. You’re a Toucher. You’ll never know the fear the rest of us live with.”

“Not my fault,” she said defensively. The pain medication had obviously taken hold. She was much more like the Jenna I’d met as opposed to the wounded one. There was a fire building in her voice.
 

“I’m not saying it is. I’m saying I didn’t know what I was doing. I acted out of fear. I don’t expect you to forgive me for that,” I said, pointing to her wrapped hand. “I just want to make it right. I’ll get you anywhere in the world you want to go. And then you can be rid of me. At the very least, let me get you out of this city.”

“He took you to see the Nursery, didn’t he?”
 

I shivered, recalling the monsters there. I tried to ignore the fact that a lot of them were probably her children. “Yes.”

She nodded, knowingly. No human in their right mind could see that place and then still, somehow, support the man she called the Preacher.
 

“At least ten of them are mine. I… I’ve lost track of how many they’ve made me have. I know that sounds insane. How can a mother forget her children? But I lived in a haze. I was always pregnant. Lots of them didn’t make it. They are immune, but you’ve seen what happens to them. They’re monsters. My babies are monsters. That’s the Preacher’s vision of the future. He wants a world filled with monsters.”

“I’m sorry they did that to you. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you. Let me help you get out of here and then, when you tell me, I’ll leave you alone.”

“I still don’t believe you,” she said softly.
 

“It would have been easier for me to get you back to Fortress, if I was, with you being out like a light, right? I could have already done it.”

“Yes,” she said, agreeing after some contemplation. “You’re right. But that doesn’t mean I have to trust you. I don’t. I can’t afford that luxury right now. But if you want me to trust you, then we’re going to do something first. You’re going to help me. I think you owe me that much.”

I wanted more than anything for her to trust me.
 

She’d never love me if she didn’t.
 

“What do you want me to do?”

She told me and I balked. I wanted that love, but she was asking so much.

“It’s that or nothing,” she said after she presented her plan. “You want me to go with you, out of the city, then you help me do this thing. You have to.”

I didn’t tell her that I’d do anything for her. I was well past that point. I would absolutely do anything she wanted me to. Her plan was sheer madness, but it had a certain style to it. It had a flair that appealed to that ten-year-old kid in me who was still a smart ass to his father. It didn’t matter if it was suicide, though. If I was going to die, I was going to die with her.
 

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll help you spring the other Touchers, but we’re going to have to do it smart and we’re going to have to do it my way.”

I was pretty sure, at that point, that I’d made another horrible decision, one of many in recent days. This idea was as bad as it got, but at least this one would give me half a chance to put a bullet in the head of the guy claiming to be the Preacher.
 

Some people in the world just needed to die.
 

“This is never going to work,” I told her. “Not in a million years.”

“No one has ever attacked Fortress,” she replied, working at setting up the box of grenades with cases of ammunition inside. “It’s going to work. It’s the one thing they won’t expect.”

I was still shocked with the fire by which Jenna worked. Less than forty-eight hours before she’d mangled her hand and now here she was, planning the most ridiculous assault I’ve ever heard of. This was movie quality stuff, if there was still such a thing. Jenna popped pain pills like they were going out of style and kept working. If the butchered hand bothered her, she wasn’t showing it.
 

We’d spent another day in my penthouse, letting her rest while I listened for any sound of encroaching forces from Fortress. While there was much more activity in the ruins than I’d ever remembered, none were close to my place. The drones were flying constant reconnaissance around the city and we’d had to lug all this stuff out in the dead of night. We’d set similar boxes like the one Jenna worked on throughout the ruins around Fortress. They were tied together by two radios I’d painstakingly tested the day before. The idea was to create enough commotion outside that, once we were inside Fortress, they would be worried about who was attacking and not us. I still didn’t like the whole part about us being inside the walled community of psychopaths. It ran against not only what I wanted to do, but what the other Touchers, Jenna’s people, wanted her to do.
 

“We don’t have to do this,” I tried again. “We could be out of the city by dawn.”

“We will be out of the city by dawn,” Jenna retorted. “We’ll just have more company.”

I don’t know if she was delusional from the loss of blood, the drugs, or some combination of both. I didn’t see any of this ending well, but I’d promised her. If this is what it took… I’d worry about running later.
 

“Okay. That’s all of them. Are you sure your radio will do the trick?”

I shrugged. I couldn’t be sure. “Yeah, they’ll work.”

“Then you’re ready?”

I shrugged again. I’d cleaned out the captured bio-suit the best as I could. I didn’t think there’d be much of Loco Two left in it, but the idea of putting on someone else’s suit gave me the willies. We’d cleaned my helmet up as best as we could, in order to match the new condition of Loco Two’s suit, but I still thought the mismatch would be too obvious. It didn’t matter. It was her plan. I donned the suit and, once sealed, sighed. Nothing was burning. I didn’t feel any new blisters boiling. It was clean.
 

“Let’s go,” she said almost cheerfully and I took her by the hand, guiding her out of the ruined building and down the street that took us to the gates of Club Flesh and, behind that, Fortress.
 

There was only one guard on duty, which was odd. The last time I’d been here there’d been dozens.
 

“Stop right there,” the man ordered, leveling his rifle at us. “What the hell do you want?”

“It’s me, man. I’ve got her. Let me in,” I said, hoping the suit’s speakers would diffuse my voice enough so that the man wouldn’t recognize it.
 

“Eddie? Shit man, where’s Rick? Why the hell didn’t you radio in when you got close? We’d have sent a team.”

“He bought it out there, man. With the kid. We got ambushed.” I didn’t want to say much. “I got the girl, though.”

“The fuck you did, man. Fuck yes. I missed that little bitch. How the fuck are you, Jenna?”

“Piss off, asshole.”

The guard laughed as the door raised. “Yup. Same old smart-ass. Don’t worry none, hon. I’ve got something to fill that mouth with just as soon as it’s my turn. Come on in, Eddie. It’s time to party.”

The gate slid all the way open and I led Jenna through it. There were no guards inside Club Flesh, which was also strange. The last time I’d been here there were half a dozen. The Banker nodded approvingly at me as I entered.
 

“Good work, Eddie. Damn fine work.”

“Where is everybody?” I asked inadvertently, wishing I hadn’t said anything at all. Every time I spoke was another chance for them to realize who I wasn’t.

“Out looking for you two and his kid,” the Banker said. “We’re on a skeleton crew right now. You know the kid was a priority. The drone footage was spotty, but we knew something happened to one of you. Then we saw the boy working on the suits. We weren’t sure what happened, but he was pissed. We’ll call them back as soon as we can, when they are in radio range. ”

I’m glad I had the suit on, at that point. Otherwise he may have seen my excitement. A short-handed Fortress only increased the odds in me and Jenna’s favor.

“And Eddie?”

I froze, my excitement suddenly written over in fear. Had he made me?

“Good job on the girl, but the boss is going to be all sorts up pissed about his kid. Try to break that to him easy, okay? Tell him the kid got the drop on you. Maybe he’ll go easy on you. And hell, maybe you’ll catch him after all this.”

There it was. That was the second time someone had implied that the man in the red suit, was my father. It was ridiculous. Where had that even started? My father was dead. I’d killed him.
 

“Couldn’t be helped,” I muttered, leading Jenna to the back gate.
 

“He isn’t going to think that,” the Banker replied, activating the back gate. “His isn’t going to think that at all.”

I was relieved to see that the vast majority of Central Park was empty during the night. The people of Fortress worked during daylight hours. I imagined them huddling in their hovels, praying it would all go away. There wasn’t anything I could do for these people, but with the ease we’d made our way through Club Flesh, I was starting to think we might could actually pull off the rest of the crazy plan.

“The banker will have told him we’re here,” Jenna whispered as we made our way down the tunnel. “He’s going to be expecting us. Once we detour to get to them, we won’t have much time.”

“I know,” I said, picking up the pace.
 

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to the Hotel, but Jenna knew the way by heart. She skipped along the plastic-tube path, almost happy. We passed by the boss’ trailer and, as much as I wanted to go in there and just kill the guy they thought was my father, we kept on going. Jenna slowed for a bit as we passed the Nursery and I could feel the hate and sadness immolating off her like heat waves. We finally made it to the Hotel and, just as he had before, Frank opened the door.
 

He did not look happy. He looked as far from happy as one could possibly get.
 

“Jenna.”

“Hey Frank,” the girl said, stepping up as he swept her into his arms. “It is so good to see you. I’m glad you’re… still alive.”

“It was close. But they couldn’t prove I’d done anything,” he said, eyeing me suspiciously. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill me anyway. He was that mad.”

“I’m glad to see you,” Jenna said.

“I have to admit, I hoped I wouldn’t see you. Not like this. I thought the boy would…”

I interrupted him, removing my helmet. The realization that I wasn’t one of the troopers did nothing to improve his demeanor.