by Quil Carter
Reaver coughed and tried to wave the dust away. He gave the mattress several good kicks, filling the room with more dust. “We have one blanket. I suggest you drape it over the mattress until you get cold enough.”
“You’re not going to sleep tonight?” I asked. “I can take watch too.”
He shook his head. “No, I can go without sleep until we’re back in Aras.” I frowned, it was my job to take care of him too. Especially since my doctor duties were over now since he was healed, but I wasn’t going to argue. There wasn’t much of a point in that.
I walked over to the broken bedroom window and looked out. In front of me were the hazy silhouettes of the other houses, and in the distance, the buildings of Donnely. The window was facing out from the back of the house. What used to be a backyard was now littered with tire rims, scrap metal, and what looked like the remains of a barbed-wire fence.
Reaver appeared behind me, holding a large arm chair. He set it down in front of the window and sat down. He reclined himself in it, put his foot up against the side of a bookshelf and tested out his new perch.
“Comfy?” I asked. He pushed himself back and put his hands behind his head.
“It’ll do,” he said. “Why don’t you make us some food, Mr. Chef?”
Now there was something I could do. I brought out the blanket and laid it in the middle of the bedroom and started rummaging through the pack Reno had given to us. There wasn’t much. Two more full bottles of water, the meat that Leo had given Reaver before we had left, several pieces of dried rat meat and a can of Good Boy.
“At least he didn’t pack fois ras,” Reaver said from his window perch.
My heart leapt into my throat. I had been content not remembering that. Reaver saw my reaction of course. “Sorry,” he said. He was great but damn did he say horrible, horrible things at times.
Like when he said he would pay double for me…
I had tasted fois ras before and I now couldn’t believe that’s what I would have tasted like. There was something humbling about being reminded that the flesh you ate every day tasted the same as the flesh that rested underneath your skin.
As I got out a knife and started cutting up pieces of the raw rat meat, my mind started to wander a bit. I tried to stop it, but the memories were trickling back.
When the hood was ripped off of my head and I realized where I was, I remember I just cried. I sobbed like a baby; I had never been so scared in my life. In Skyfall, though the thiens weren't good per se, they never bothered you unless you bothered them or broke the rules, and same with the Dek’ko workers. Heck, my father was a part of Dek’ko.
Two workers took the rest of my clothes off and examined me. They pinched me, commented on my muscles (or lack of), my body size, my age. They told me I was premium grade for fois ras, because I was young and my liver would be able to withstand the stress of the force-feeding.
After I was pushed into a holding room with several others. All of them were arians but they couldn’t talk. Their tongues had been cut out to make way for the tubes, and they’d had their eyes removed. I tried not to look at them but I could see their eyelids had been stitched shut; all of them with dried blood clinging to their faces, running down to their mouths. They just wandered around the room, bumping into each other. Making horrible wailing noises and reaching out to feel the walls. I kept dodging them, when they would run into me they would touch me and wail. Grabbing at me and shaking me as they cried. It was like they knew I still had my eyes and they were turning to me to help them.
Then they took us into the room with all the capsules. A female worker got angry at another because I still had my tongue and my eyes. I begged her to scan my blood but she didn’t even look at me. She didn’t even acknowledge I was talking, that I was an arian. I kept saying over and over, I had been kidnapped… I was arian. I was Killian Massey from Aras. They would pay to get me back.
Reaver would pay to get me back.
It was noisy in there, mechanical noises, beeping, the water running under the grates. A worker grabbed me and injected me with something and I was paralyzed. Then the tubes came.
I gagged and wanted to throw up when they shoved the first one down, but my gag reflex was gone. The other wouldn’t fit down my throat so they pushed and pushed. I could feel my lips split apart to make room for the tubes, the taste of my blood in my mouth, in my throat.
Then the greasy thick of the sludge that they pumped into my stomach. I couldn’t move… I couldn’t move.
They taped my eyes shut and then everything went dark, my ears pounded and ached from the sounds of the machines around me. Inside I kept screaming, I kept trying to move. I was condemned to a slow death. To my stomach expanding, to my liver swelling until I was butchered and canned.
“Killi?”
I looked down at the rat meat, my fingers bloody from the pink, fat-rippled flesh. I felt sick. “Yeah?” I asked, wiping my fingers on the blanket.
“Why don’t you read me some Cat Wings?”
He must’ve seen that my mind was somewhere else, he always seemed to notice when my mind was drifting, like I had been able to notice when his was.
“After I make us some food…”
“Food can wait, it’s better raw anyway, come sit.” Reaver shifted back on the chair, so there was room for me in the middle. I picked out the book from my satchel and put some of the meat back onto the paper wrapping. He took the book from me and popped a couple pieces into his mouth.
I sat down and cracked the worn musty book open. “Mrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings,” I began to read.
“She was fucking around with the neighbour bird,” Reaver said behind me. To my surprise and delight he put his arms around me and pulled me closer. I leaned back, propping my feet against the back of the bookshelf. I gave him a playful hush.
“‘I suppose their father was a fly-by-night,’ a neighbour said laughing unpleasantly, sneaking around a dumpster.”
“What a bitch,” Reaver remarked. I shushed him again and kept reading.
“Maybe they have wings because I dreamed, before they were born, that I could fly away from this neighbourhood,’ said Mrs. Jane Tabby.” I read. “Well, that’s sad.”
“If they lived here, they could fly wherever they wanted but it would still be a shit hole,” Reaver said bitterly. “Imagine if every stray cat in Aras had wings. Oh, let us fly! Where to? The factory so they can make us into cat steaks! Or perhaps a ravers’ den where we’ll get eaten alive, or maybe–” Reaver paused and suddenly he started laughing very, very hard.
“What!” I turned around, I was surprised to see he was laughing so hard his eyes were welling. Surely cats getting eaten alive wasn’t that funny.
“Biff…” he managed to croak.
The image of my fat, white and spotted cat came to mind, flying on miniature bird wings, around the square. I started laughing too. After we had laughed so hard the still healing corners of my mouth hurt, I tried to keep reading. When I was a couple of chapters in, Reaver took over and I tried to finish cutting us up some pieces of meat to eat.
Admittedly Reaver wasn’t a good reader; I had to help him with some words, but I didn’t mind, that was just another thing I could help him with once we were back in Aras.
With the sky darkening we sat together and ate. I really didn’t care for the taste of raw flesh, but Reaver ate it up like it was candy. He certainly did have a thing for well… the more grisly side of food. I let him eat most of the meat and started to open one of the mystery cans of food I had snagged from the gas station.
A rotting smell hit my nostrils; I gagged and so did Reaver. “Put it outside the door, don’t throw it outside.” He choked waving it away. “Must be fish.” Though the sestic radiation pulse had preserved a lot of pre-Fallocaust food, fish wasn’t one of them. It rotted in the can.
I got up and put the can in a drawer in one of the other bedrooms and closed the door. “Gross, well
I’m glad I didn’t carry that around for long.”
I rubbed some of the soap I had scavenged onto my hands with some spit for lather and wiped it off onto my pant leg.
“I’ll bury it later, I don’t want that crap attracting any radanimals,” Reaver said, taking some of the soap too.
My face fell as something occurred to me. I sighed and sat down on the mattress.
“What is it?” Reaver asked curiously. He was putting some of his pill powder onto a small teaspoon.
I knew he was going to be mad at me for this… but I said it anyway. “The food I gave the little old lady, it was the same type of can. I gave her rotten food.”
I expected him to laugh at me but he didn’t. The light had dimmed around us and the only thing illuminating the room was my flashlight. He had made me put it underneath the blanket to dim the light since it would be so noticeable from the greywastes. From what I could see of his face though, he was scowling.
“Forget about her, she’s lucky to be alive,” Reaver said slowly. It sounded like he wanted to say something else. “You don’t owe her anything.”
“Do you understand why I feel bad for her?” I asked. I braced myself to be chastised.
“You’re soft and sheltered.”
I busied myself with cleaning up our meal. “Don’t you wish someone had helped me when I was being led to the factory? Or that someone had helped me… when they sold me illegally?”
“I helped you.”
I picked up the used toothbrush I had and a bottle of water and started brushing the food from my teeth. “She doesn’t have anyone to help her, she doesn’t have a Reaver. I know it’s all cut throat and everything out there… but before the Fallocaust, people helped each other. Like Reno helps you. Like Greyson helps wasters who want to settle down in Aras. People are kind to each other. She’ll survive because someone was kind to her.”
Reaver was silent. His eyes were nothing but black pits in his pale face, hidden from the darkness but just as powerful and strong. I could see every bit of what King Silas had made humanity in those slabs of coal.
I sighed and gave up talking to him. Reaver would be Reaver, that I could always depend on.
I closed my eyes, and felt my body relax under his embrace. I fell asleep to his breathing, feeling more safe in this abandoned ruin of a house than I ever had in my house in Aras.
When Reaver shook me awake it was daylight outside. I sat up and stretched, hearing my bones pop and snap as I did. Reaver was packing all of our stuff back into the bags. He gave me a short look as I started folding up the blanket.
“Let’s get out of here. I let you sleep for too long,” he said. “Your hair is sticking up like you just got electrocuted.”
I tried to flatten it down, looking around for a mirror, but, of course, there wasn’t one in the bedroom. “Why did you let me sleep for so long?”
“I was enjoying the silence.”
I scowled at him. He looked behind his shoulder and grinned before we started walking down the stairs. He had such a twisted sense of humour, who would have thought my cold, cruel sentry would have a funny side to him. I thanked Reno for that, I think he’d had a good influence on Reaver growing up.
I yawned and rested my forehead against his back as he drove the quad towards Donnely. I didn’t know how he managed on such little sleep. I closed my eyes and tried to stifle a second yawn.
“Take some of that white powder in Reno’s bag, that’ll wake you up,” Reaver said after half an hour of travel. We were slowly making our way up a rocky hill, dodging the ruins of several trucks and medians. The closer we got to the town the more congested the traffic seemed to be. All of it was heading away from the city, I wondered what they were fleeing from.
“Is it the cocaine?” I asked nervously. I dug into the bag as Reaver pulled off to the side. I found a Ziploc bag full of white powder. As he stopped I opened it.
“Yeah, leave the bag out, you’ll be needing more before we get to Donnely or you’ll crash. Put some on a spoon for me too when you’re done,” he instructed.
“You’re such a bad influence. My mom would’ve been horrified at all the things you’re making me do.” I shook my head and dipped the spoon in. And she would have been too. Now I did drugs, go out scavenging miles and miles from Aras. I never leave Reaver’s side, I let him kiss me. Oh, she would have been so disappointed in me.
That made me feel a bit sad, but it disappeared quickly when I inhaled a bit of powder in each of my nostrils.
“Oh god, that burns worse than the pills!” I exclaimed, my eyes watering. The whole back of my throat started to go numb.
I handed Reaver a spoon of some, and heard him snort it before passing it back. He shook his head and arms before pushing down on the throttle of the quad.
And then I woke up.
I was bouncing up and down on the back of the quad. A wave of energy rushed through me. Ahead of us I could see the tall buildings of Donnely come closer and closer into view. I could probably run to them faster if I wanted to, and I kind of wanted to. I felt like getting off but that wouldn’t be a good idea. Instead I talked.
“Do you think we’ll find many pharmacies? I hope so, where is the list Leo gave to Reno? I should check the list, I can mark off what stores we should be able to find them in. I learned about the stores in the teaching textbook. Did you know King Silas issues one to every child in and around Skyfall? It’s called the King’s Tome. He teaches the history of Skyfall and the greywastes, I wonder how much of it is true though. Dad always said even if it wasn’t true then, under King Silas it is true because he said it’s true but I would be–”
Reaver groaned, bowing his head. “What have I done?”
I busied myself checking the list out, chatting happily at Reaver as I did. Or whatever chatting was called when only one person is talking.
Polysporin, bandages of any kind, antiseptic, sutures, pills any kind. That was on our list. Oh, and maybe some more videos for Reno. Oh, and I would just love some more kitchen items, or food items and maybe I could find toys for Biff! But he might be too fat to play with toys but then if he played with the toys he might get skinnier, but if he got skinnier would Reaver kick him out? No, I don’t think so…
I looked around in all directions as we entered the town, fumbling with the bag of cocaine so I could get another hit before we stopped. On either side of me were tall office-type buildings, patchy from missing paint, and streaked with black mildew and mould. Donnely was a complete ghost town. Garbage and debris were everywhere like Aras, but unlike Aras it hadn’t been cleaned up at all. The cars had been left to rot where they had been abandoned. Some even crushed into each other.
As soon as Reaver turned the quad around and shut it off I jumped onto the pavement which was in surprisingly good condition. The second wave of radiation from the labs must’ve killed off any plant life that might’ve tried to grow after the sestic radiation. The pavement had stains of browny-grey from the rust of the cars but it remained intact, not chopped up, raised and cracked like the greywastes’ roads.
“Look, Reaver, no spray paint, no Dek’ko garbage… no one's been here I think!” I said excitedly. I wandered towards one of the office buildings. The door was streaked with rust and it was still closed. Nothing seemed boarded up.
“Not in this area, at least,” I heard Reaver mumble. I could hear him checking his M16 to make sure it was loaded.
I tried the door handle of the building but it was locked. There was a door on the side though, and I ran over to try it. I had so much energy I didn’t know what to do with it. So I just ran.
“Hey! Get back here, you nutcase!” Reaver hissed. In a flash he was right beside me. He grabbed my arm and led me back to the street. Damn, I wanted to see if it was open.
“Stay close to me, you coked-up fool,” Reaver said. He sounded amused but there was a sharp edge to his voice that told me he was very close to getting annoyed. I stayed behind him but he was walkin
g so god damn slow. I busied myself checking the list, before grabbing the bag of coke.
“No, you’ve had enough, give me the bag.”
I whined and held the bag. Reaver gave me a flat look but rolled his eyes. He did however give me one last warning. “If you go more than ten feet from me, I’m going to cut your legs off and beat you with them.”
“Yes, sir!” I said happily. When his back was turned I snuck some more drugs. I shuddered as my mouth went numb again. Man, my mom would’ve been in tears if she had seen me. Reaver was a horrible influence.
We stuck to the main street, Reaver still going way too slow for me. I busied myself trying to recognize shop signs. A lot of them were in fair condition; a little weather-streaked from our short rainy seasons but still visible. I tried to make a game out of recognizing the logos. I found several chain restaurants and a coffee shop. By the time we were a few blocks into the city, there were boarded up windows and doors, but the wood was greying with age and brittle from the looks of it. They had been boarded up before the labs and possibly during the Fallocaust.
Suddenly Reaver turned to me. He stared me down with such an unimpressed look I stopped dead in my tracks. Well, my eyes and my hands were twitching a bit.
“TUNK TUNK TUNK TUNKTUNKTUNK!” Reaver said. I looked at him bewildered.
“Your fucking heart, it’s about to explode. I can’t hear anything with that drumming in my ear… put – down – the – drugs.”
I gave him a goofy grin and handed him the bag, which he stuffed inside of the bag Reno had given him. He zipped it up and continued walking, shaking his head. It was his fault for letting me have my first taste. I was enjoying this stuff, it was –
“What was that!” I turned around wildly. I was sure I had heard a noise coming from one of the buildings. Rusted hinges squeaking, a door closing perhaps.
“And now comes the paranoia,” Reaver mumbled, stopping to let me catch up. He then took my hand. I thought he was doing it to be loving but he grasped it rather hard. I realized it was more of a means for me not to wander off. “We’re looking in that building.” I looked to where he was pointing. The sign had fallen off the front, and was lying in broken ruins underneath the door. But on the inside I could see rows of metal shelves and dusty merchandise.
