Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (5 page)

Stop the polite bullshit and get to the point
, I thought to myself, but that was Greyson for you, our polite and considerate leader. Though we all knew that that wasn’t all he was, the polite bit was just a perk he had that made dealing with the masses a bit easier. Greyson was a leader in everyway about him, tough and menacing with a stern no bullshit face, and a strong muscular build. He was Aras’s leader before I came here, and before him was his father and then his grand father who helped settle us down here. He was literally a born leader, and everyone followed him without question.
A lot of leaders you come across here, seem to have some sense of entitlement, and they usually end up being murderous tyrants, no better then our bullshit king, but not Greyson. He he had a good heart and was always treating the residence with respect, though no one ever mistook that for weakness. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill one of our own if they became diseased, and he had more then one occasion shot a lawbreaker, or even turned the decons on unwelcome visitors. He and his husband Leo had a good sense of justice and law.

I couldn’t relate though, I thought the people I lived with were a bunch of fucking morons and given the chance I would address them as such. I guess that’s why Greyson never let me near the microphone that connected to the outdoor speakers.

“We’re about to have a visit by another mercer,” Greyson said in a loud and booming voice. Immediately there was angry murmurs throughout the crowd, Greyson held up his hand for silence.

The crowd immediately quieted.
“I see no reason why this visit will be any different from the other ones,” he continued. “To the newcomers here, who may not have experienced this before, this is nothing but a routine visit by one of King Silas’s Chancellors. He will take our blood, take our numbers, take our live births and deaths and general information of the sort.”
“Why the fuck does King Shithead care about any of this?” A middle aged man whose name I never cared to remember remarked loudly.
“First off, if you call him that while the mercer is around, you’re going to get shot in the fucking head,” Leo spoke up, he always got pissed off when someone even suggested ticking off the Legion or one of King Silas’s goons. “And if they don’t shoot you, I will personally shoot you, because pissing off a mercer is going to affect the whole block.”

The man let out an annoying grunt, everyone else glared angrily at him. Greyson continued.
“I could care less what King Silas is doing with this information, what I do care about is not bringing any attention to us, or our block,” he said with a sharp edge to his voice. “We have been able to remain secluded because of our location, and because of our seclusion, we have a good existence. Compared to the rest of the greywastes, we live in luxury. The last thing we need is to piss off the person who controls this wasteland, because with so much of a wave of his finger, he can and
will
eliminate us.” I could see Greyson’s body stiffen and his fists clench as he said those last words. He took a deep breath and continued.

“So while he is here, there will be no bad mouthing the king, no snide remarks. Everyone will cooperate and get this shit over with so we can get on with our lives. We all have our personal opinions of the king, but for the safety of everyone... shut the fuck up about it.”
I scoffed quietly, enough for Leo and Greyson to hear but not anyone else. This would be my first experience with a mercer, though I have shot my fair share of soldiers. All the other times I had been out in the greywastes, and thankfully had missed all of this crap. I wish I was out there now.
Greyson and Leo continued on with their speech, though it sounded much more like a threat to me. I continued to lean back against the crates and rested my arms around the back of my head and yawned obnoxiously. After a few more minutes of threats, the two of them were done, I opened my eyes to see them both crouching down on the roof to jump down onto the square.
“Reaver, walk with me,” Greyson called after the two of them had jumped onto the cracked cobblestone.

I grunted and got up off of the crates, without even looking I walked the few steps to the edge of the roof and jumped off. I landed onto the ground and strolled casually towards Greyson.
Greyson glanced behind him to make sure I was following him, then he motioned for me to walk beside him. The two of us made our way down the crumbling stone road, the crowd dispersing in all directions, filing down the alleys and streets like worker ants.

I didn’t know where he was taking me which I never liked, but I had a feeling that the destination wasn’t what was important.

“I’m going to put this simple, son,” Greyson began, we turned a corner. The street we were now walking on was one of the mostly abandoned parts of town. Well a large percentage of the block was abandoned, but this place more so. Even today, two years later and with a slight population increase, this side of town was mostly vacant. The buildings here had been built longer ago than the ones on the other side of town, and hadn’t stood the test of time like the stronger structures. Time had gotten the best of the east side of town, and the surviving plants of the wasteland, and the dust had taken the buildings back to nature. A few of them had crumbled under their own weight, but for the most part they stood in ruins.
I suddenly realized that while my thoughts had been wandering to the ruined buildings, Greyson had just finished telling me something.
“What was that? I wasn’t listening,” I said aloofly, taking my gaze away from an abandoned corner store that had long ago been looted and cleaned out.
Greyson let out an exasperated grunt and shook his head. “Reaver this is important, I need your help when the mercer gets here.”
“With what?” I asked, my interest now piqued.
Greyson paused, as if trying to think of what he was going to say next. I don’t know why he bothered, he was always blunt and honest with me, he knew I didn’t give a shit about wording things nicely. Waste of time, I thought, just spit it out and if someone’s feelings are hurt they can deal with it later.
Greyson seemed to sense this from me, he took a deep breath. “If anything goes wrong with the mercer, I want you to shoot him,” he said dryly.
I was taken aback, I looked at the leader of Aras and blinked in confusion, wondering if I had just had a stroke without knowing. “Ten minutes ago you were telling the block to shut up and suck up, and you’re telling me I can kill him?”
“Snipe him,” Greyson corrected, “if you need too, snipe him.”

“Why?” I cocked an eyebrow. Though the image of blowing the brains out of a mercer was filling me with grisly intrigue.
Greyson’s mouth twitched, he wiped the sweat off of his head. I was very amused with his body language during this particular conversation, rightfully so he seemed to be struggling with his decision to ask me to snipe the mercer. He was usually very good at maintaining a calm and gathered demeanour around others, but now it was obvious to tell he was uncomfortable with his decision.

I suppose, thinking back, it was because he comfortable around me and that’s why he didn’t feel like he needed to put on a show that he was confident with this order. I was his right hand man, he and Leo had taken me in when my parents died only days after coming to Aras. I was not only his pseudo kid, but as I had gotten older, I had become his solider too.
Greyson could count on me, even if he wasn’t sure of his orders. I was the only asshole he could trust with a sensitive order such as this. He knew that I wasn’t going to gossip or spread it around to my friends, I didn’t have any fucking friends to spread it to besides Reno, and I was his only friend anyways.
“If anything goes wrong, and lots of things can go wrong during these visits-” Greyson paused then continued, “I want the mercer dead before he can take any incriminating information back to Silas. We can take care of the soldiers, it will take a long time in the greywastes for King Silas to find out the mercer is dead and by that time we can prepare for the backlash.”
“You’re talking to me like this has happened before,” I said slowly, I noticed how quiet this street was. The speakers which usually hummed pre-recorded radio music were not set up this far east, so all that could be heard was our foot steps and our breath. I was used to quiet, I liked quiet, but this was an unsettling silence, the eerie silence before something happened that seemed to electrify the air. The silence before the Legion stepped foot on my land. This above everything else made me uneasy, and I started feeling more and more relieved that Greyson had trusted me with this duty.
“We have never shot one, but we have had problems with them in the past,” he replied. “I don’t agree with a lot of King Silas’s policies, especially when they encroach on the laws we have set down in Aras, all I’m saying is if it looks bad... shoot to kill.”
“You’re being very vague,” I said dryly, we turned another corner, this time heading back down to the square.
Greyson didn’t answer, and I didn’t expect him to. Greyson was the leader of Aras, and I respected that. I knew better than to pry for information and I knew with even more certainty that he would never tell me something he didn’t want to reveal. I didn’t press anymore, I focused my vision forward and we continued to walk down the street towards the main part of Aras.
“I would rather you be in ear shot, but I’ll give-” Greyson began but I cut him off.
“I can hear better than anyone I know, I won’t need a signal,” I said, I reached behind me to grab my M16 which I had strapped across my back and opened it up to make sure all my rounds were loaded.

“Needless to say, if I pull my left ear... aim for the head,” Greyson said, he started to walk ahead of me, towards the house that Leo and himself shared. “And if the legionnaires start firing, get the ones closest to Leo.”

Always lookin’ out for the husband.
“How long until he gets here?” I called after him, clicking the magazine back into the loader and dug into my pocket for its sniper scope.
“Get in place now,” he called back. A few of our residence looked on at the two of us with curiosity, but I paid them no mind. Even though I was still young, probably sixteen or seventeen at the time, they had already known to stay well away from me; especially when I was holding my favourite gun.
Almost on cue, a vicious snarl erupted from the north side of Aras. The low and menacing growl reverberated in my chest like a deep bass. A few moments later it was met with several other equally angry growls; shaking my ribcage like a bomb going off. It was the decons, they had spotted King Silas’s entourage and had acted like they were trained to. Like pack animals tended to, they riled each other up and soon the whole town was full of excited yelps, deep growls and even the occasional electrical snap as one of them tested the electrical fence that separated the decons from the greywastes outside.

I always found it amusing watching the decons reactions to strangers approaching Aras, as the sadistic bastard I was I found it funny when they threw themselves against the electric fence. Too stupid to remember the consequences, or too excited to give a damn in the moment perhaps. Either way it gave me a chuckle to watch the dog go ridged, crying out in shock, then fall over, pissing its self. Though that didn’t compare at all to how funny it was when a desperate rat tried it, though they never got up after trying to escape. Which might have been smart on their part, it was a quicker less brutal death then what the decons would be doing to it.

I started walking towards the tallest building overlooking the square, screwing the sniper scope onto my gun as I walked. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, and casually strolled into the building.

The building was one of the main ones used in the city, and it housed a lot of Aras’s residence. At one point it probably had a proper name but around here it was known as the Red House. A large red bricked apartment building with ten units per floor and five floors. I was headed for the fourth floor, high up enough that I wouldn’t be easily spotted, but low enough I would have a clear shot of the mercer if I needed it.
The Red House was in good shape and had been well maintained over the years. The stairs had been replaced and the walls had been cleaned of mold, even a few of the apartment units had been renovated to look half decent. We had an entire work force in Aras whose jobs were to renovate and maintain the buildings here, and a few of them did a decent job, though they always saved the best material for their own homes.
I passed a few people on the stairs, but didn’t make eye contact with them, because of my job people were used to seeing me head for rooftops or higher ground and didn’t give me a second glance. That and the fact that they were all too scared to even acknowledge my presence because of my budding reputation. They learn quickly when it has to do with saving their own asses.
I quickly jogged up the stairs, two at a time, and when I saw the spray painted 4 on the stairwell, I opened the door leading to the long stretch of hallway. Before me, several doors on either side of the hallway, all with their room numbers spray painted on in black paint. I stood here for a second, and in the silence I could still hear the deacons howling. I mentally gauged which apartment would give me the best view of the square, and promptly kicked that apartment door open.

A loud and assaulting noise filled my ears. I looked around annoyed and found the source right away. A toddler baby had been woken up by me charging in, and was wailing its displeasure for all the world to hear.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I told it. I grunted in annoyance and slung my M16 over my back and clicked it into its holder. Its bright red face was scrunched up and it’s mouth was gaping open like it was retarded or something. It wailed louder and looked at me like I was the most horrible person in the world.
“Shut up,” I told it. It was female, and I had some what remembered seeing her around the block with her mother. The live birth of females were rarer than males, something about the radiation, so she stood out more than the other brats in Aras. I would tell you how many other female babies we had here, if I had given a big enough shit to notice. Though the parents did their best to make them well known by sticking bows and shit in their hair. For obvious reasons females didn’t interest me. They talked too much and their laugh made my teeth grind. The only two I could tolerate were the two female sentries Sadii and Jess.
I looked around the apartment, it was messy and I could see black spots of mold creeping up the corners of the wallpaper. It was empty of people, but full of scavenged crap. The mother wasn’t around, which was stupid because the mercer required every residence to attend, especially new births. But that wasn’t a concern of mine right now, I needed to concentrate and I needed silence, or else I would miss the shot if I needed to take it. I cringed as the idiot started to scream harder, fucking thing was almost as loud as a dying rat. She was standing up now, in her prison pen or whatever they called those things and was shaking the bars like some sort of beast.
I walked into the dining room, and thankfully found what I needed in a pile of crap on one of their several tables. As much as I wanted to fling the kid from the fourth story apartment, I knew that would make a mess, and a scene, and I assumed that the mercers probably frowned upon baby tossing.
I picked up the roll of duct tape and unrolled a foot of it, as I approached the kid I held on tight to the end of the tape and pressed the sticky side against the brats mouth. She started to struggle of course, but it was too late, I grabbed the roll of tape and wrapped it twice around her face, and yes, I made sure the nose was clear.