Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (39 page)

“Sweety...” I said quietly, as submissively as I could manage.

Reaver paused, he made a face. “This better be good if you’re calling me sweety now.”

I smiled and put my hand over the hatchet and pushed it down. “Why don’t we just unscrew the screws instead of... bashing our way in. It’s quieter and less obvious anyone was here when we leave.” I reached into my bag and pulled out my multi-tool. It had been my father’s.

Reaver didn’t look like he wanted to take the multi-tool, probably from pride more than not wanting to use it. But he relented after a moments contemplation and took it with a grumble under his breath.

When he unscrewed the sheet metal, I helped him slide it off to the side. Then I put Reno’s night vision goggles on. I turned them on and followed Reaver inside.

It was like stepping into a different world. A world sealed up when the Fallocaust sent the pulse of radiation that killed off the last of organized society. A world that could only be seen covered in a thick layer of dust and an invisible dose of radiation.

The old store stretched before us like a musty cave. Dark and forgotten, with a grey veil covering the rows and rows of shelves warped and bowed from age. Their white paint long gone, reduced to nothing but curls and chips mixed in with plaster laying on the dirty floor.

Debris was everywhere, what might have been recognisable had been either encased in ash and dirt, or covered in the partially collapsed ceiling. Through my night vision goggles I could see wires, ceiling beams and puffs of insulation trying to escape from between the breaking jip rock and the attic.

A couple more rainy seasons and the roof might collapse, though we got such little rain for all I knew it might last another hundred years. The climate had an uncanny way of preserving things now. Killing the rain and the plants seemed to do that.

Reaver stepped in first and I followed behind. Our boots crunched against the chunks of drywall and brick. We both froze at the same time and listened, but still there was only silence.

I walked down one of the isles, shelves of various objects on either side of me. It didn’t look like this place had been scavenged in a long time, definitely not picked clean.

I saw a few dusted cans that looked like they might contain food. I had brought a couple packages of Dek’ko foodsafe drops and I wanted to save them for something good. Even if the radiation for this side of the greywastes had been declared safe fifty or so years ago, it was still smart to mix it in with the canned food you found. Better safe then radiation poisoning. Our geiger chips could only do so much.

I picked up one of the cans and tried to wipe the dust away, but the label was bleached and unreadable, falling off with even the gentlest of touches.

I sighed. Mystery food again. We had eaten a lot of that on the way to Aras. I tucked two cans into my bag for later.

I walked down the isles and turned a corner. A row of metal shelving that took up an entire back wall was filled with what looked like pre-Fallocaust electronics and machinery. One looked like a fan, the other might be a motor. I was about to get a closer look when Reaver made a clicking noise to grab my attention.

“Stay close to me,” he said. I looked longingly at the shelves but obeyed and followed his footsteps as he walked around the blind spots of the old store. He was pushing aside debris with the tip of his silenced M16, and kicking the insulation and plaster away with his foot.

When he heard me beside him, he handed me a cylinder object.

“We need to save the batteries on the goggles, you’ll see better with the flashlight,” Reaver said, he picked up an object and dusted it off. It looked like a video cassette. He of course needed no help seeing in the dark. I envied him.

I looked at the box where he had picked up the video and saw several others tucked inside. I started to thumb through them but the tape looked like it had wrinkled on most of them. Still I picked out a few to give to Reno as a present. I didn’t know what ones I was picking out, the labels had worn like the ones on the cans but well... any new video would probably be a treat for him.

I coughed into my sleeve as the dust flew up into the air and closed the box of videos so the next person could look through them. I followed Reaver through the isles.

As we got to the back end of the store, we saw what obviously had been someone’s shelter at one time, though not for many years. There was a radrat eaten mattress, a thread sparse blanket and some empty cans and spoons. As I poked around though I found a few books, but they had also been radrat eaten, I could barely read the writing.

I turned around to continue following Reaver, I shone the flashlight towards where I thought he was and yelped in surprise.

There was a pile of bones in what used to be the bathroom, with a skull sitting in the sink with shreds of brittle hair still clinging to his scalp.

Reaver turned around and was by me in three steps. He looked to where I was staring and gave a chuckle.

“Well, there he is,” Reaver said amused, he walked into the bathroom probably looking for a medicine cabinet. “Radiation must have gotten him.”

“He was murdered,” I said nervously, I started shining the flash light in every corner of the store. Seeing the skeleton had made me nervous, this place had gotten a lot more scarier in a short period of time.

“What makes you say that?” Reaver said, he gave the dry bones a nudge before stepping out of the bathroom. He started walking back to the area he had just come from.

“How else did his skull get into the sink?” I said, running up so I could be close to him, still shining my flashlight everywhere. It reflected off of an old coke cooler and blinded me for a second. I lowered the light and stuck close to my raven haired partner.

“Good point,” he admitted, “but those bones are years and years old, the murderer is long gone.”

“I guess,” I mumbled, I still kept an ear out though. I looked down and noticed my flashlight was shining on a blue plastic milk crate. I knelt down and pulled it out.

Reaver disappeared into a door way in the back, leaving me with the box. I picked it up and slammed it onto the wooden shelf. A shower of white paint chips falling onto the dirty floor.

I let out a little squeak as I looked inside of the box. Right on top of it was several bars of ivory soap!

“What is it, squeaky?” Reaver called from the other room.

“Soap!” I exclaimed happily, Reaver gave a mock groan. I know he enjoyed pretending he hated the things I liked. Heaven forbid he actually shows he cares. He was such a dink at times.

I quickly stuffed the soap into my satchel and started digging into it more. Empty pop bottles which had their uses but I wasn’t going to be carrying them around for the next two days, magazines too far gone to read, something I think might have been clothing... nope nothing more. Well the soap was a good enough.

Suddenly there was a thunk from where Reaver was. I shone my flashlight over to where he was and felt my whole body freeze in shock.

Reaver was down on his knees, his hands gripping the side of one of the shelves. His head was bowed.

“Reaver?” I cried, I ran over and kneeled beside him. His eyes were open but a bit dazed, he was breathing heavy. I put my hand on his shoulder and put the flash light onto the ground.

“I’m fine just give me a second,” Reaver’s voice was thin and his breathing laboured. I felt my own string of panic go through myself. Then I remembered...

“Your concussion! But you’ve been okay for days.” I reached over and put my hand gently on the side of his head. To my surprise he let me turn his face to me. I picked up the flash light and shone it in his eyes.

Reaver squinted. “You don’t need to blind me.”

“I’m sorry, your pupils are the same colour as your eyes unless they’re lit up,” I said, I could see the flecks of dark brown perfectly against his pupils now. Thankfully they were the same size, if they were different sizes we might be in trouble.

Reaver let me hover over him for about ten more seconds before he batted me away and rose to his feet. He was shaky for a moment, but was able to turn himself around and lean against the shelves. “I’m fine.” His tone that dared me to say otherwise.

I couldn’t understand it, he had been fine for days then all of a sudden...

“This has been happening since you got back, but you didn’t tell me.” I looked at him accusingly.

Reaver waved a hand at me dismissively and walked out of the backroom. I glowered at him but I didn’t know what else to say. So I sighed and followed him around with the flash light. I knew I would have to tell Doc.

“It happened once three days ago and once two days before that,” Reaver said, he was looking around on the other shelves. “It’s less frequent, I’m just fine, thank you.”

Well I wasn’t convinced. I made a note to follow him around even more closely... if that were possible.

I hovered over him, but continued to look around. I didn’t find anything that interested me besides a couple more cans of mystery food. I didn’t bring them though but I did hide them in some of the more concealed cubbyholes. Who knows when we might be back and in need of them. Hopefully any other scavenger that comes looking wont find them.

“I’m going to come back for that one day,” Reaver said, I looked to see what he was referring to. It was a Pepsi sign that was hanging above the old coolers. It had rusted drips running down it and the top left hand corner was broken off, but he looked up at it in amazement. “That would look great in my house.”

His house was covered in knickknacks from pre-Fallocaust times. He had signs advertising Chevron gas, cigarettes and Coca Cola already in his house. Most of them looked like he had tried to restore them, but admittedly he wasn’t much of an restoration artist. I think he had used blood to paint his Marbolo cigarette sign. He would probably try and do the same for this sign once he did get it.

“That’s a pretty colour of red,” I observed, “and the blue too, did you know in warmer climates down south the water used to be blue?” I had a few tropical pictures I had gotten out of magazines on my walls back home. I couldn’t believe that colour existed in such a big quantity.

“Probably toxic grey now,” Reaver muttered, shining the flash light into the cooler now but the glass case was covered in a gross black slime. Probably once had milk in it. His flash light fell onto the Pepsi sign again and he gave a longing sigh.

“We can hide it if you want,” I asked. Reaver gave me an amused look at the suggestion. He still looked a little green from passing out.

“No one cares about this shit anymore, they want food and water. I think I’m the only one in the wasteland that likes collecting this pre-radiation shit.” Reaver gave it once last glance before turning around to head down another isle, but he didn’t get far before he swayed again. He caught himself on the back of a chair, and he would have stayed up right, but the chair was on wheels and it tipped under his weight. He fell back down to his knees with a violent curse.

“This shit needs to stop with my fucking head,” Reaver snapped. This time I took a step back, he sounded rather angry. I didn’t know him when he was angry enough to feel it safe to approach him, I just knew that he had broken Matt’s fingers once when he tried to console him.

I stood there a bit awkwardly, before I had a good idea. “Want me to get you some drugs? Would they help?”

I saw Reaver bring a hand to his head, and to my surprise he nodded. “Reno always packs us cocaine, get the bag he gave me.”

I turned and quickly walked towards the open window. I had never done cocaine before, but I had seen people in my old town do it. It sounded like a good idea, it usually made them all wired and hyper. That’s what he needed.

I stepped over a fallen beam in the roof and pushed a lump of insulation out of the way. That stuff was everywhere, and it looked comfortable to sleep on but damn... you only make that mistake once.

I stepped over the window and onto the concrete sidewalk, I shielded my eyes as the sunlight temporarily blinded me and walked towards the quad.

Just as the greywaste was starting to come back into view, I heard a noise coming from the other side of the parking lot. My eyes shot towards the quad and I saw what looked like an old lady.

She was dressed in a ragged jacket and a dingy blue dress with jeans underneath. Her hair was a rats nest of tangled grey, dirty and unwashed for god knows how long. Her face was weather worn and heavily lined. I could smell her from here even though she was across the parking lot.

She was rooting through our bag, she had my riding goggles in one hand and a bottle of my water in another. It didn’t look like she had  weapon on her, but I drew my assault rifle anyways.

“Put it down and step away,” I said cautiously.

She jumped up and looked at me, her rheumy eyes were wide and she honestly looked like she didn’t expect anyone to be around. She dropped the water bottle and the goggles but as soon as she saw me she put her hand out.

“You got any food?” she said, her voice was small and cracked.

“Do you have weapons on you?” I said, that was more important than food.

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a rusted kitchen knife. I held the gun up as she put it on the greywaste floor. “Food? Any food, boy I haven’t eaten in three days. Water? Even radiated?”

“Shoot her,” Reaver’s voice said calmly behind me. I didn’t turn.

“She’s an old lady!” I whispered, taking a step forward, before saying loudly. “Any more weapons?”
“I just showed you my weapons, child. Food? I’ll be on my way... just a can, one? I have a camp near here, but we ate the last scaver. Water?”
“Killian...
shoot
her.”

“You were going to steal from us, why should we give you food?” I asked, I took another step towards her, even though Reaver practically growled my name when I did.

The old lady put her hands up higher. “I didn’t mean nothing by it, I’m hungry. I don’t eat flesh.” Well that’s new, every one I had ever met ate either fresh human or canned. No one really had an option, but maybe it was different for scavengers.