Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (77 page)

She started to choke and gag, the blood flowing rapidly from her mouth and onto the already bloodied floor, She tried to get up but the shock had taken her motor skills away, she fell back onto her knees, her hands covering her mouth as the red ribbons spilled from her fingers.

I patted her head. “I just cut off the heads of the Kerry family with that bloody knife, rest assure you now have trideath. Don’t tell anyone though, okay?” I wiped my knife on her tank top and left the room. Now if that wasn’t karmic justice I don’t know what was.

Redmond met me, he was tying up the fat dude, I could hear a struggle in the back yard.

“You got the third one?” I asked.

Redmond nodded, he looked like he needed another cigarette.

“That’s a woman in there? Did you gag her?” Redmond asked wiping his hands on his button down.

“No, I cut her tongue out,” I said glancing behind me. I heard Redmond suck in a breath and brought out a pair of handcuffs.

“Throw her in with the others in the holding cell, that’s an order.” I let Redmond pass me in the doorway.

“That’s... seven people now, they’ll barely fit...” Redmond shook his head, I watched Hollis walk towards us. Also looking tired and very pissed off.

“Serves them right, let them suffocate in there,” Hollis growled. “Redmond we can’t wait for Greyson, they’re not seeing justice and it’s just egging them on.”

I glanced at the dark hole that was the door way, the woman’s sobbing and the groaning of the other criminals on my ears. I turned to the both of them.

“I’ll take care of it,” I said.

Hollis nodded with relief but Redmond was smarter than that. “We can’t hold the trials until Greyson, Leo and Don come back. I’m afraid our hands our tied.”

“I’m great at undoing knots,” I said handing Redmond and Hollis both cigarettes. “Throw them into their cells, station a sentry and an officer in front of the holding cells and order that clean up crew for me tomorrow, Redmond.”

The councillor nodded, I stepped over the fat dude who had given up on pleading and crying. I lit myself a quil and popped a few pills. I carried on home undisturbed.

When I got home Killian was awake or he was trying to be awake. He was on the couch with a blanket half reading a book, his golden hair tussed up and his eyes heavy with fatigue.

“Everything go okay?” he asked with a tired smile, but when he saw my blood his eyes widened. He looked at me like I had just brought plague into the house.

“It’s not the Kerry’s blood, some assholes were breaking into their home and I had to-” How do I say this without having to tell him the whole story. “-make sure they didn’t escape.”

“But you’re okay? They didn’t hurt you?”

I snorted. “Of course not.” I stretched and grabbed the bluelamp he had been reading with. “I’m tired as fuck and so are you, sleep and I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

Killian yawned and nodded. He got up and gave me a kiss and headed towards the bedroom.

I changed and got under the blankets, Killian wiggled himself over but not near enough to touch me. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, but I felt a bit uneasy. I opened my eyes and saw Killian staring at me. His blue eyes pale and ghostly in my night vision.

“What?” I said.

He was quiet, I watched him chew on the side of his cheek. “What’s your earliest memory?”

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head but Killian yanked them down. “Please?”

“My father throwing the red ball for me, now go to sleep.”

“Was he nice to you?”
I shrugged. “I remember he held me a lot.”
“You... don’t remember your mom at all?”

I shook my head. “Just my dad.”

He was quiet, I think I was home free.

“What’s your first-” I let out an exasperated breath but he continued, “- memory of Leo and Greyson?”

I leaned over and kissed him and started running my hands down his lower back. He pushed me away. “No! You can’t use sex to get out of this, shame on you!”
“Bah!” I rolled back onto my back, he was getting smarter. “Fine... let’s see, my first memory of Leo and Greyson... I remember they made me a canvas tent in the back yard during the summer because I liked watching the moon. Sometimes they camped with me.”

I heard an
aww
, and soon his arms were over me. “So they were nice to you?”
“They were always nice to me, they just didn’t know what to do with a kid that’s all. I would have done the same thing,” I shrugged. “Better than eating me. Now go to sleep, I’m tired.”

This satisfied him, but his arms were still all over me. I’d push him away when he fell asleep.

I slept my four hours and got up at around eight in the morning. It seemed like my mind hadn’t stopped thinking even during my brief rest.

The idea that had been forming in my head was getting more and more appealing. I did my morning routine and gave myself a quick wash in the bathtub. Filled my nose with drugs and ate a breakfast of canned bosen mixed with canned corn. Killian would be out for another three hours at least since he had stayed up waiting for me.

I buckled up my cargo pants and glanced at the sleeping little blond boy. Every once in awhile I just had to stop and shake my head in disbelief that he was mine and fast asleep in my bed. Even with all the ordeals we had had to face, I had brought him back safely.

I had to make the block safer for him.

In the end, all of this was for him. We had had enough chaos outside of the walls of Aras I wasn’t going to deal with that in my town. If Killian was going to need an escort just to walk from Doc’s to my basement it was time to do something.

If Greyson wont... I will.

I walked past Matt and Mickey who had been stationed in front of the holding cells. Both were standing guard, still as statues in front of the locked metal door. Their uniforms were grey with ash and their faces too, it was a cold day but I could still see discolouration where their sweat had wiped the dirt away from their faces.

“Status?” I asked.

“Dude... they ate her.” Matt wiped the sweat from his head. “Redmond threw the blond one into a cell with three other dudes and they fucked her, killed her and ate her.”
I stifled a laugh, but eh, it was Matt he knew my humor. I couldn’t help it, it was too perfect. “I suppose we should have fed them.” I couldn’t hide the grin.

Matt shuddered, Mickey laughed with me but it was a nervous laugh, his heartbeat was rising with his anxiety. He liked me, but he was still unsure of me. I knew his type.
I smiled and motioned for Mickey to unlock the door. As he did I nodded towards Greyson’s office near the square. “Matt, I want a town meeting called in the square at two. After I want you to call Redmond and tell him to meet me in the square as soon as possible for our own meeting.”
Matt gave me a wary look. “What are you planning, bro? I know that look, it means shit is about to go down.”

I gave him a wink. “Make it quick, Matt.” His cheeks puffed as he took in a deep breath and sighed, he made the motion to leave but I stopped him.

“Come here for a moment...”
He stopped and turned around. I pulled him to the side and dropped my voice, telling him exactly what I wanted to do after.

When he was gone I walked through the unlocked door and into the holding pens.

My nose curled as the stench of blood, piss, shit and sweat assaulted my nostrils. It was hot as fuck in there as well.

I walked over to the cells. Each was a room much like the quarantines but a lot messier and disgusting. There was also Plexiglas windows on each metal door reinforced with iron bars.

As soon as the door opened there was shouting, and a lot of it.

“Get us the fuck out of here you fucking faggot!” A man screamed. Oh what language, that word alone was punishable by death in Skyfall. Someone was extremely upset, how unfortunate.

I walked to the first door, my boots stepping on something liquid, I looked down and saw I was stepping in a slurry of blood, urine and vomit. My poor boots.

I looked up and smiled at the prisoners.

The three men were huddled in a corner, they were covered in what I had stepped in and they smelled and looked like rats. Only the whites of their eyes could discern their faces from the stained metal behind them.

In front of them was the blond woman, naked and partially devoured. Her breasts had been chewed off and her left thigh had been ripped apart in a fashion that rivalled ravers. This was perfect, they had infected themselves with her raw flesh.

“Fuck you, fuck you, you fucking brown nosing faggot!” One of them yelled, he was the one who had robbed Killian. Cam was it? “I don’t deserve this! Let me out!” The other two were silent and submissive, they barely raised their heads but were silent. The smart ones.

“We will be holding trials in a few hours.” I kept my voice calm and steady, not a single flinch or waver. “So I suggest you come quietly when you are being collective, am I understood?”
“Fuck you!” Another voice from a different cell called. There would be another three in that cell, and the other woman in the last assuming she was still alive.

I walked over to the last cell. I was surprised to see the woman who had been arrested was sitting politely by herself, very calm. She didn’t look like the others. She was dressed in cleaner clothing, and held herself like one of a higher class. She definitely wasn’t a Red House whore that was for sure.

“Why did you knock that other bitches teeth out?” I asked her.

Her eyes found mine. “She fucked my husband.”

Well, honesty, that was rare. “Sounds like she deserved it,” I said back.

“She did.” The lady sighed and brushed her hair from her eyes. “She can have him, he’s no good anyways.”

I took out the keys and unlocked the cell, I opened it. She looked at me surprised and didn’t move. The others started shouting at me again when they realized what I was doing. Calling the woman every name in the books. I hope she strutted past those assholes.

Women didn’t survive pre-Fallocaust as much as the men did, and with the radiation skewing female live births the odds were against them. As the blond tongue less one proved they were easily taken over when out numbered. She obviously had balls if she knocked someone’s teeth out, so she was a better value to Aras alive. That would make Greyson happy.

“Get out of here.” I stepped back to let her pass. “You’re paying double taxes at collection. If I talk to Greyson and you haven’t, I’ll personally throw you to the deacons.”
The lady looked at me in shock, and  nodded. She got up and walked past me quickly I followed her outside.

She squinted at the brightness and took a breath of air before dropping her head and walking quickly towards the south. I locked the door and as I turned to make my way towards the square I heard the loud speakers around Aras crackle to life.

“Mandatory town meeting by order of the Mayor. Mandatory town meeting by order of the mayor. Please gather yourselves in the square by two.”

I waited until the loud speaker stopped before I turned to Mickey. A kid the same age as Killian but he looked much older, he had short cut brown hair and brown eyes. “Mickey, these prisoners have trideath, all of them. I want you to get Hollis and tell him to bring the prisoners into the square tied not shackled, and also gagged. Understood?”

Mickey nodded, his heart jumped at the chance to do something for the new mayor. I took advantage of it. “You’re a sentry now,
my
personal sentry. When we’re in the square I’m expecting you to keep the locals under control, can I count on you?”
His heart sped up, he nodded vigorously. If there was one way to make these new kids follow you to the ends of the earth it was singling them out and making them feel special.

“Yes, sir! I’ll get Warden Hollis,” the boy said with an eager nod. He ran off towards Hollis’s office.

Well, wasn’t this just coming together nicely? I walked back towards my house. I wanted my gun for this, and I wanted Killian in a safe place. He would probably still be asleep.

If my plan worked out... everything in Aras would be fixed, or at least our crime and obedience problem. Greyson should pin a god damn medal on me for this. I did in three days what he couldn’t do at all. This mayor shit was easy, the town would be eating out of the palm of my hand by tonight.

Killian wasn’t home when I grabbed the things I would need, he must be at Leo and Greyson’s. So I quickly grabbed my M16 and belted it onto my back. I always felt bare without it, even if I had several knives, a pistol, a grenade and a stick of C4.

I put the grenade and the C4 back, that I didn’t want around our town meeting.

When I was on my way to Greyson and Leo’s I started to see people forming in the square, some of them looked rather angry.

A faction of the mob approached me. All of them shouting at me in different levels of anger. I was used to them ignoring me as I had taught them all to, this was aggravating and annoying.

“I demand to see my sister! She was set up in this!” An older man also with blond hair shouted at me. He was dressed in sewn together pants and a t-shirt stained yellow, his breath smelled like a dog’s ass. “Karl fucking put her up to this, I demand to see her! I want a her tried first, I have something to say to all of them!”

Sorry buddy, your sister was nothing but a rotting corpse and some dude’s shit now.

“My fucking storage shed got broken into last night, and that was Irvine, I saw that fat bastard run!” A woman shouted. “He had three others with them and they’re still out there. You need to get off your ass and do something about this fucking crime.”

I kept walking as they followed me, everyone in the square was staring at the commotion. I felt someone grab my shoulder. I whirled around and yanked it back. I drew my pistol.

“Next one of you fucks to touch me is going to get a mouthful of lead,” I said darkly. “You wanna know why you can’t see your sister? Trideath, she got it while robbing the house. They all have it.” I felt my adrenaline rise, I looked around and noticed there were quite a few people in the square. “Here that? The fucks who tried to rob the Kerry’s got trideath, they all have trideath. They are all diseased and contagious. So while we wait for the meeting to start, mull that over.” I put my pistol away, I could hear a truck rumbling in the distance, I hoped that was Matt fulfilling my orders.