Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (60 page)

“Jesus fuck, Reaver,” Greyson whispered. “Is there anyone left alive?”

I shook my head, or I tried to, it weighed a hundred pounds. “We’re fucking alone, all alone.”

“What happened?”

I laughed, my head flopped to Greyson and I smiled at him, he looked bewildered back. “Killian happened!” I went to get up but I only made it half way before I fell over onto the pavement.

“What the fuck is he on?” Leo’s hands pulled me to my feet, he steadied me against himself.

“He... he hasn’t slept for eight days.”

Leo gave an impressed whistle, Greyson just swore some more. The dark haired leader of Aras walked over to me and put a hand on my head. “Bet you’re seeing some interesting colours, aren’t you, son?”

“I’m not even fucking sure, you’re really here,” I said with a open mouth grin.

Greyson’s mouth gave a twitch, he looked at me for a second before the bastard hugged me. Then invading from my left, Leo pulled Killian in and they hugged me too.

“What happened, Reaver?” Greyson said silently.

“I don’t want to get into it now, I want to go home,” I said. I felt my teeth clenched, everyone was pawing all over my bruised and raw body. Greyson pulled away from me. He didn’t look like he wanted to let it go but he nodded.

“Everything is okay now.” I heard Killian whisper. “He’s dead. They’re all dead. Donnely is empty.”

“We managed the truck here, come on boys, let’s go home,” Greyson said pulling back.

“But... Reno’s quad, I... I left his bag...” Killian stumbled, it looked like he could walk on his own. He gravitated towards me, Perish’s bag and his satchel in arms, he put his hand in mine.

“We found Reno’s bag, lots of blood, your assault rifle and some loose pills,” Leo said. “The blood led us to a closet, fuck we thought you were in there.”

“The quad... I can drive...”

“It’s not going anywhere, love,” I said to him. “Let’s just go home.”

The boy nodded and stuck by me, Greyson on my other side holding me steady. I knew I probably could walk, but I didn’t trust not to walk into a rusted car or a street light.

“How long did they have you for?” Greyson asked, his eyes followed my skinned and pus filled wrists as I wiped my nose. Fuck I wanted drugs and sleep.

“It wasn’t they-” Killian started but I cut him off.

“Sleep first.”

“But Reaver...”

“It was just that knuckle head?” Greyson looked into Killian’s bag. He tried to pull out the head, as he did Killian jerked it away. He managed to get the blue bag, but his satchel spilled some of its contents onto the pavement.

A peach rolled towards Leo.

Leo stared at it like it was a grenade, his eyes widened. He picked it up and looked at it, he looked over at Greyson, and then Killian and to the bag.

“Perish?” he whispered.

“In all his glory,” I replied bitterly.

Leo’s face drained of colour. They had both always been paranoid freaks when it came to King Silas and his chimeras. “Nero wont be back for three months, we have tons of time to...”
“Nero? NERO?” Leo suddenly shrieked, he grabbed me and shoved my face into his. “Did he take your blood? Does he know who you are?” He was hysterical again. I stared back a bit bewildered.

“He never saw me, Perish didn’t seem interested in my blood.” I was too tired to deal with this shit. I could hear Killian making choking noises beside me. I put my arm around his waist.

Greyson had the head out, he looked at it grimly. “We need to get this back to the lab before...”
“No, no... no we’re getting his body.” Leo dropped me, he took two steps towards where we had come from, then spun around like he wanted to say something, then turned back around.

“Why the hell do you need his fucking body?” I said angrily, Killian was tense beside me. This was stressing him out, I just wanted to go home.

“Because... because... no one can know he’s dead.” Leo spun around again, he put his hands on the back of his head. His face was green. “We need to... I need to make sure no one knows you were here... oh fuck... oh fuck.”
“Leo...” Killian said meekly, he reached into his lab coat with a trembling hand and handed him Perish’s key card. “I... I... I... he had video cameras everywhere. Including the city.”
Leo took the card, he looked at Greyson.

“Not... now,” Greyson said slowly. “We don’t need...” he let that hang and said instead. “Let’s get the boys home and we can both come back.”

Leo went over to Greyson and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be home tomorrow.”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Greyson said angrily, but Leo was gone, he started sprinting towards the the entrance. Greyson let out a frustrated growl and he let go of me for a second. “Keep walking, straight line until Gibson Street then turn left. I’ll be right back.”

“Stop right now!” Greyson yelled after Leo and disappeared behind us.

“That’s going to be us in nineteen years,” Killian whispered as we watching Greyson sprint after his husband.

“That’s us now.” I was surprised to feel my lips tighten, I was smiling. We kept walking, me ignoring the fact that the pavement was waving and bubbling in front of me. One foot in front of the other, it was my walk of glory. Me with my boy in my arms, well... technically he was holding me up.

I tried to give out a whoop when I first saw the truck, but I was too tired. The old rusted pickup was parked several blocks from the outskirts of the city. I could see the buildings give way to the grey hills and broken houses beyond Donnely. It was surreal to me, I kept watching the cities edge expecting to see legionnaires on the horizon or more shadows. Something to tell me it was a hallucination, but it wasn’t. I was so close to being home I could taste it.

We both sat on the truck together, Killian leaned into me. He was still silent, still dealing with everything on his own. All I could do to help right now was keep my arm around him for support. I was too numb to have the weight of what had happened today effect me. One god damn thing at a time.

I don’t know if I nodded out or just tuned out, but Killian’s gasp brought me back to reality. I shot up and looked around to see what it was about.

Greyson was walking towards us quickly, sweat beading down his forehead, he had a sheet wrapped body slung over his shoulder.

Killian started hyperventilating, I took him off of the back of the truck and buried his face into my chest so he didn’t need to see the decapitated body of Perish.

Greyson slammed the body down in the back of the truck. “Get in.”

Leo was behind him, looking grim and rattled. He noticed me shielding Killian from the grisly scene.

“Was he your friend, Killian?”

Killian sniffed but didn’t say anything. I answered for him. “It’s complicated and you’re not getting a word out of him or me until we have a day to sleep.”

Leo let out a breath and nodded, he looked to tired to argue. I walked Killian to the backseats of the pick up and we both got in.

“Why?” Killian croaked.

“I don’t know, so they think he just up and disappeared maybe? With what Nero was saying to him, maybe that’s a possibility,” I whispered. “I don’t want to ask, not now.”

He nodded and curled up next to me. Two truck doors slammed, and after that the loud rumbling of a two hundred year old engine. Relief flooded me as the truck lurched forward, slowly at first as he weaved throughout the cars but eventually we were off road. Making our way back home.

The mayors were talking amongst themselves as I faded in and out of consciousness. Though the engine was too loud for me to listen, Killian kept looking behind him at the sheet draped corpse. It was flapping in the wind now, but for his sake it had been tucked pretty close to his body so it hadn’t flown off. The blue bag containing Perish Dekker’s head was beside him. I didn’t even realize he left it behind in the back.

I jumped like someone had just shocked me. In my head the corpse flashed from being dead in the bed of the truck to looking through the back window at me. I squinted my eyes hard.

“He’s definitely hallucinating,” Killian said, I think Greyson had said something to him. I felt a hand pet my head. “He was really bad down there.”

Greyson said something to him, to which Killian replied. “Yeah, and worse.” I wasn’t sure what he had asked. I felt my mind go hazy and my head started to nod. I tried to pick it up again but it weighed too much.

Killian shook me awake. When I came to, I realized the truck was turned off.

Uhg, everyone was hovering around me. I gave them an annoyed noise

“He’s coming to,” Leo said, then one of those jackasses poured cold water on my face.

“I never left! What the fuck!” I shot up, everyone gave me a wide birth, I was on the greywaste floor now. Killian was a heap of panic beside me.

“Baby you lost consciousness, your eyes rolled into the back of your head,” Killian whimpered, wiping the water from my face. “You started seizing.”

“He needs rest, get back in the truck, son.” Greyson hoisted me up and lifted me. “How often has this been happening, Killian?”
Of course he asks him... he knew I would lie.

“Lots, but he’s never had a seizure after though, that might be not sleeping,” Killian’s voice was unstable, like a small bomb of anxiety about to explode. “We’ll get Doc to check him out when he sleeps.” More slamming, more engines. I rested my head against the back of the truck seat. My body was breaking its self down, the urge to survive and to murder were two instincts that were keeping me awake this whole time; and my need to know what was happening with Killian. That was all leaving my body and quickly, I was crashing fast.

Finally I heard the truck slow down, and as it did I could hear what the dads were talking about. “I’ll tell him to get back... Oh, Sadii just saw Reaver, she’s running to the others. We should have put his head down until we were far away from the wall.”

I heard the squeal of rusted metal as the door beside me opened. Leo grabbed my under arm and helped me out of he truck. All around me I could hear the buzzing of people talking, low murmurs, curious stares and speculations. Everyone was too close.

“Is he okay? Is Tink with him? Reaver!” I felt big arms wrap around me, it was Reno. He squeezed me tight and I heard his chest rattle like he was holding back his own tears. “You bitch, what did you get out of? Shit, bro. Fuck me I thought you were dead.” Reno smelled like my basement, like my home. Home was close.
“Doc!” Greyson called. “We’re over here.”

“No, not that asshole I want to go home.” We were walking forward now. I wasn’t sure where but I had everyone hovering around me. With every comment and with every touch my fuse got shorter and shorter.

“Fuckin’ christ, one of them is about to die, which one is it?” Doc suddenly appeared.

“It’s not their blood. Reaver was shackled, he has bad rub marks-”

“Reaver’s alive!” Fuck, now Miller... “HEY EVE-”

I ripped away from Greyson and gave an angry bellow. The whole world spun but I managed to regain my balance. I found my hands reach for my M16 and I pulled it out before anyone could stop me.

I pointed it at them, they were blurs at first, fast swirling blurs of nausea and confusion. I pointed at each of them, taking several steps back.

“No one... comes near me.” My voice barely sounded like my own. “No one follows me... no one follows me...”
“Reaver...” Killian whispered beside me, I felt his hand.

The blurs came into view, distorted, moving. I saw Greyson, Leo, Reno, Miller, Sadii and Doc, all frozen in place. Greyson had his hands up, his lips were moving but I couldn’t hear him. All of the other ones were wide eyed and rigid.

Killian whispered in my ear, and put his hand on the base of my gun. He was talking softly to me, but all I could hear was his tone. The words were muffled, like he was trying to talk under water. It was his voice though, it broke through and I felt myself start to calm.

A moment later Killian pressed down on the silencer of my gun and it lowered. Then I felt him gently take it from me. I felt every heartbeat around me lower as he did.

“Come home, baby,” he said, he took my hand and led me away. No one followed us, so it worked whatever I did.

We quietly walked back to my house, it looked like we had pulled in a few blocks from it. The familiar boarded up houses of Aras calmed down my burnt out mind. I was home.

The shed raddled, and I heard Killian undo my lock, and then rustle in the bag for the tank key. I looked at my shed of electronics I would one day fix, and made a point to fix the waffle maker. They had made waffles, I remember loving the taste. It was worth making the stupid thing work, I might try the microwave too. I hated fixing microwaves, too much fire.

Killian tugged on my pant leg and I automatically slid down the tank door, closing the hatch behind me. It was temporarily dark, until I pulled on the handle and opened my basement up.

Home sweet home.

It smelled wonderful, it smelled like me, it smelled like safety. I just stood there as Killian turned the generator on and started taking off my clothes.

“Oh... we left your underclothes behind,” Killian said, he pushed some clean ones into my hands. “Put these on hun.” Well I was in no mood to argue. I took Perish’s pants off and put on my under clothes. It was warm in my basement, Reno must have left in a hurry.

I made my way to my bedroom. I turned on the light, the cat was on my bed, he looked at me and squinted his eyes. I squinted back and meowed at him.

Killian came in with a glass of water and some tylenol. “Drink, the whole thing.” Killian took the cat off of the bed and straightened it out for me. I took the water from him and downed it.

“There, now go to sleep,” Killian whispered, leading me to my bed. I laid down. Oh did I ever miss my bed.

“What about you?” I murmured, everything went dizzy around me.

“I will soon, hun.”

That was the last thing I heard.

Killian

I hadn’t even taken his second boot off before I heard him snoring. I walked up to him and rubbed his arm, leaned down and kissed his cheek. I watched as Biff jumped back onto his bed, and started kneading his thigh, before settling down with a orchestra of purrs. Biff would be in heaven for the next day, I knew my boyfriend wouldn’t be moving much.