Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series Book 1)

by Quil Carter

  I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t been the one to find the legionaries for Killian. One radio from Perish and his slime suckers hand-delivered the goods to him. It would be nice to have that sort of power, but obviously it came with a few downsides too. Like getting brutally raped by your ‘brother’. Still, I was Killian’s boyfriend, and I was supposed to kill them. It was my job.

  The sun was still burning in the sky as we walked down Quil Street towards the mayors’ house, the heat making distorted waves hover above the hot metal. The flies were out too, buzzing around looking for rotten scraps to eat. The only other movements were the stray cats taking shelter under the cars or piles of debris. They were stretched out like they were dead. Killian even threw a rock near them because he was afraid the heat had killed them. They were fine though; a pissed off-looking ginger one gave us the stink eye when he saw Killian had been the one to wake him up. They went back to sleep, paying us no mind. All this ended with Killian commenting on wanting to get them all a bowl of water but I carried on walking. The stupid cats knew were the river was, no need to make life easier for them or we would have a whole town full of Biffs.

  As I always did, I looked towards Killian’s cul-de-sac as we carried on. The two-storey house was as dark and abandoned as it had been before the Masseys moved in. Still full of all of Killian’s things, and his parents’ things.

  Killian kept walking, obviously making an effort to avoid looking at it.

  “We should go in there sometime and get the rest of your crap,” I remarked. I saw the tree right in front of his bedroom window. It seemed like a million years ago that I perched on that tree to watch him sleep. Now I lay next to him. If that wasn’t progress I don’t know what was.

  “No thank you.” Ugh, this polite bullshit again. I shrugged it off and didn’t press the issue. I wouldn’t mind a quiet walk to Greyson and Leo’s house anyway.

  And it was rather quiet; no one was really out and about though we took a few shortcuts and avoided the square and downtown entirely. I was happy not to see anyone who might try to talk to me. I could tell them to fuck off easy enough, but undoubtedly Killian would feel obligated. I hadn’t taught him to be rude yet.

  But everyone seemed to either be inside eating food, or still at their jobs. It was the hottest time of the day right now, it was probably best to keep cool and sheltered. Even the ravers and rats in the greywastes knew enough to lie low during the worst of the heat, and they were all insane from radiation poisoning and kuru.

  I cut through the alley of the old Cinema 5 movie theatre and helped Killian over a fence I had been meaning to tear down. Killian marvelled at the theatre and I had to convince him I’d explore it with him one day in order for him to stop ogling it. I had been in there hundreds of times when I was trying to hide my drug use from Greyson. I had a makeshift living space in one of the film rooms. The wall was partially blown off so it had a nice view too. It was in an area of town that no one lived in, where there were more closed-up shops and stores than houses. Most of the people of Aras lived in the residential area or the apartment buildings.

  Besides the square and a few other shops downtown we didn’t have any use for large buildings. Too big to fix, and too easy to break into if we used it for storage. The mayors kept the block supplies and loot in Aras’s pre-Fallocaust bank vault. It kept the more shady residents out, though it was enjoyable when they did try and break in. Because I got to toss them to the deacons once they were convicted.

  We approached the rancher, seeing a billow of smoke coming up from the backyard. I opened the door and walked inside. I saw the pseudo dads through the sliding glass door, cooking steaks on the fire pit. I had been eating like a king recently. I hoped this helped the kid put some weight on; seeing him naked had only increased my desire to put some meat on those thin bones. He was a twig.

  They heard us and beckoned us in.

  “Grab some beer and come out back, unless you’ve put too much powder up your nose already,” Leo said.

  “One won’t kill us.” I walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Half of the fridge was full of ice to keep it cool, the other half was stuffed with the only two things Leo and Greyson needed: beer and meat.

  I grabbed a beer and handed it to Killian, and got one for myself. Tulley and his family made a good profit making the wine and beer for the block. They had arrived about six years back with half a distillery in tow plus his wife and kids. Paid his taxes in booze and had a small liquor store in Melpin’s bar. Before that everyone had been on their own with the booze making, using bathtubs mostly or plastic totes. We had a few people go blind because of that. There are few things more funny than a drunk blind person.

  “How long have you been sane for? Hallucinations go away?” Greyson asked. He was wearing his aviator sunglasses and had a black kerchief over his head, a muscle tee, and tan cargo pants over black boots. Leo was dressed similarly but without the sunglasses and he was in sandals. They were both minding the barbecue pit, a circle of charred bricks and a metal grate over white-hot coals. On top was meat, sausages, potatoes, and even some corn. The smell made me forget the rat roast Killian had made for me earlier that day.

  “Well, aren’t we pre-Fallocausting it up tonight,” I said. “We should put on a Disney movie and play Monopoly in the living room.”

  Greyson popped a piece of meat into his mouth. “Yes, that would be enjoyable as we devour human flesh and drink beer so irradiated it glows in the dark.”

  “Does it!” Killian gasped. He looked at the bottle before holding it up to his shoulder. I suspected he wanted to see if it would make his Geigerchip go off.

  “No,” Greyson chuckled, “it’s not that bad. Only your piss will glow… speaking of which. Doc wants to know if you’re still pissing blood?”

  “A bit, I’ve had worse,” I said. I reached out to grab myself a piece of meat from the barbecue. I took a bite and gave Killian the rest.

  “And your chafe wounds? Killian, have you been doctoring him?”

  “I haven’t given him the chance. Doc fixed me up and I changed them this morning,” I answered for him.

  Greyson reached over and tried to lift my shirt up. I dodged him but not before he was able to look. “Your bandage has pus coming through already. I’m sending Doc over in the morning with harsher antibiotics. I bet those still stink, don’t they?”

  I growled under my breath. They really needed to start minding their own business.

  “You need to be healthy for me right now. You’re going to be in charge of Aras for the next few days,” Greyson said.

  “What?” My mouth dropped open. “Me in charge? What the hell. What about Redmond?” Redmond always looked after the mayor shit if Greyson and Leo needed to dick off for a few days.

  “He’ll be around if you get into trouble; it’s about time you started learning the ropes.”

  “I am not leading Aras.” Great, this fight again.

  Greyson sighed. He started putting the meat and other food onto a long cutting board he had resting on a metal table. “You need to learn to lead, Reaver.”

  “No, I don’t,” I said flatly

  “So you’re going to be a sentry forever?”

  “Yep.”

  “And that’s all you want out of life?”

  “Yep.”

  I saw Leo give Greyson a withering look. Good ol’ Leo was always on my side. I hoped Greyson got shit for this later. Or Leo shut him up the way he insinuated: with a gasp and a squeal.

  “That’s wasting your potential and you know it. You can become a lot more than just a sentry. Killian, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Greyson asked him as he walked by with the plate of food. We all followed him inside the house.

  “I… I want to be a scientist and grow food for people,” Killian said.

  Well, I didn’t know that… just a few weeks ago he wanted to be a sentry.

  “Perish would’ve been so proud,” I said acidly.

&nbs
p; Killian’s face dropped. I don’t think he realized what he had said. And they said I had horrible people skills.

  “See, Killian wants to help people. You are unique, Reaver, you should use that to help people as well.” There was a clatter as Greyson brought out the dinner plates. He set them down on a stained and chipped counter. I grabbed one and took a step back to let the three sort themselves out. Though once he noticed Killian stepped back too.

  “I don’t enjoy people,” I said, flaking a piece of porcelain off the plate with my fingernail. “The moment you leave me with this shit hole is the moment I set the gas plant on fire.”

  Well, that seemed to annoy Greyson. “Maybe I should kick your ass out so you can see how good you have it?”

  “The moment you put me in charge of these retarded fucks I’ll walk out myself.”

  “Both of you shut the fuck up.” Leo’s voice cut through our nips like a razor. “Today is a good day, and if you two chuckleheads ruin it with your petty bickering I swear to god I’ll push your faces into the coals. Reaver, we’re leaving tomorrow. Can you look after shit while we’re gone? Please?”

  “Sure,” I grumbled, even though it was the last thing I wanted.

  “Thank you.” Leo walked past us and I started dishing out food. I heard him say something to Greyson along the lines of was that so fucking hard?

  “Where are you going?” Killian asked, when we were sitting down with our plates. I knew which steak was mine because it was half raw. Leo was good at making them how I liked.

  “We’re going back to Donnely tomorrow,” Greyson said.

  Killian choked. I was about to hit him on the back but he managed to swallow it. “Donnely? Why?”

  “Lots of reasons, none of which will make you happy,” Greyson said. “We’ll be gone for two days at least, possibly three.”

  “That’s why you need our reports…” Killian’s face was looking a bit green.

  “I need a map from you as well.” Leo nodded. “Or as best as you can remember. Reaver, I need you to tell me where all the video cameras were.”

  I could do that. I gave him a nod, feeling my mind switch back to soldier mode. “I’d take some good guns with you; he had some fucked up creatures still kickin’ around there.”

  “He killed them,” Killian said, staring into his food with a strange expression. “All of them.”

  “Even the whipwolf?”

  “I… I don’t know… it’s possible he could still be alive. He had… enough people.”

  “What do you mean?” Greyson asked curiously.

  “Perish was capturing scavengers and using them as food,” I explained. “He also caught the legionaries I was looking for.”

  “There were ones alive there? Shit… they could still be–”

  “No.” Killian shook his head, cutting him off before he could finish. “He put the whipwolf in the room, and opened their prison cages.”

  Greyson and Leo both cringed and exchanged grim glances.

  “He really snapped after Nero… left.”

  “After Nero raped him as he squealed and screamed?” I smiled at the memory, but my smile disappeared under the horrid look Killian gave me. I pretended not to have noticed and busied myself eating.

  “Rape isn’t funny, Reaver, no matter who it happens to,” Greyson said, using his teacher voice at me.

  “This was funny, I laughed and laughed,” I said, then my tone darkened. “It was hard to laugh considering he had almost broke my jaw and molested my boyfriend throughout the week, but I fucking did my best.”

  “You said he didn’t…?” Greyson looked at Killian.

  Killian didn’t return his stare. “He made me do other things.”

  “Jesus, kid…” Greyson mumbled.

  “Just wait, Mr. Merrik. I’m going to write out, with every fucking detail, what Perish did to Killian and me. Then you can see it in real time when you watch the fucking surveillance tape.”

  “You – you’re going to look at the surveillance tapes?” Killian suddenly stammered. “Why?”

  “I want to hear what Nero says to him. That and other things.” Leo’s voice was calm, I had to give him that. He knew this conversation was a trigger for Killian. I appreciated him putting my boyfriend’s mental state first. Sometimes I had trouble with that myself, but my pseudo dad seemed to always remember.

  “Why?” I asked grimly. There were things on there I didn’t want either of them to see. “Why do you give a fuck what Nero said or what Perish was researching. It’s no concern to us or the block.”

  “That’s classified.” To my surprise Leo’s tone was unusually stern. This brought a large amount of awkward tension into the room.

  “I don’t want you watching what happened between the three of us,” I said in a dark tone.

  Greyson brushed off the acid lining my words. He stacked his now empty plate on top of Leo’s. “We’ll be looking out for other things. Things you wouldn’t have noticed but we would. Legion things, research things… things that can make the block safer in the future. Especially when Nero returns and discovers Perish gone.”

  “Please… please be careful,” Killian said. He got up and took my plate from me. His wrist buckled under the weight. It was slightly swollen. I had forgotten to wrap it for him. “The whipwolf might still be alive… he’s – he was supposed to be really dangerous.” He shifted the plate to his other hand and walked into the kitchen.

  “Stop.” Greyson held out a hand while Killian passed him. “What did you do to your wrist?”

  Killian stared at him for a fraction of a second. “I fell on it. It’s just sprained.”

  “Do you have anything else wrong with you?”

  Killian shook his head. “Just my arms, the marks on my face and that. Reaver was hurt more than I.”

  Greyson let him go with a nod. A moment later Leo got up and started shuffling through papers. I guess it was report time soon, though to my surprise he handed the paper and pen to Greyson and put a couple of voice recorders on the coffee table.

  “Really?” I said flatly. Leo nodded.

  “You can barely write your name. I need details, not chicken scratch. We already wrote out some points we want to go over. These will be individual interviews.”

  I gave him an amused laugh. “You’re not talking to Killian without me there.”

  “There are things he might not feel comfortable saying with you there. I need him to answer honestly, not only say what won’t piss you off.”

  “It’s okay, Reaver,” Killian said gently. “We’ll get through this easier if we don’t have to worry about upsetting each other, right?”

  I grunted, feeling my mood sour.

  When Greyson and Leo saw I wasn’t going to protest this further they looked at Killian in amazement.

  “You’re having a great effect on him.” Leo smiled at him approvingly. Killian, of course, drank that up. “You’re really rubbing off on him.”

  I gave off an amused snort. Leo raised an eyebrow at me. “You would have been out of here half an hour ago as soon as Greyson ticked you off. Admit it, Killian’s having a good influence on you.”

  “That’s why you’re making me lead tomorrow, eh? Because eventually Killian is going to make me love helping people. He’ll slowly turn me into the born leader you’ve always wanted me to become?”

  Greyson shrugged. “He’s influencing you more than you’re influencing him, thank god.”

  I decided to ignore that. I attributed it to having had sex earlier. I followed Greyson out for our interview.

  I took a long drink and told him the story from the beginning. Greyson peppered me with questions as I explained everything in as much detail as I could. I left out any personal things that went on between me, Killian, and Perish. Like I had said, it was none of their business.

  “And you left Killian with Perish?” Greyson asked.

  I nodded. By this time my beer bottle had been long empty and we were both surrounded
by cigarette butts. The overcast sky had started to darken and the mosquitoes were coming out.

  “He mouthed to me to bring the quad around, or in my head he did. I was seeing a lot of things at that point.”

  “And he killed Perish while you were out?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “I was gone for a while though I think. I wasn’t really aware of much.”

  I glanced at the voice recorder; we had been out here for over an hour now.

  “Now… at what point during all of this did you put your hands on Killian?”

  Click went the stop button on the recorder.

  “I’m not discussing the personal matters between the three of us.” My tone changed just as quickly as my hands had shut off the recorder.

  Greyson crossed his arms. I bristled as I realized he was in my path to the door inside. He was blocking my way, I was trapped.

  “His arm lacerations, the hand-shaped bruises, and the fingernail marks I can look past, but you sprained his wrist, didn’t you?” Greyson said, his voice low.

  “We’re done here…” I went to take a step towards the door but he stopped me.

  “He didn’t fall on it, there were no scratches on his palms. He would’ve told me if Perish had done it.” I stepped past him again but he grabbed my shoulder. I whirled around and stared him down. I didn’t appreciate him stopping me from leaving.

  “Reaver, settle down and shut up. I don’t bullshit you like Leo does, do I?” Greyson said.

  “You don’t know what it was like down there,” I said, glancing behind Greyson to plan out my escape. “So don’t give me shit for hurting him.”

  “Reaver,” Greyson said. “Do you feel bad about it?”

  “Of course I fucking feel bad!” I snapped.

  I turned to walk away but stopped as I heard Greyson give out a sigh of relief.

  Now that pissed me off. “What? What?” I turned around, raising my arms. “Reaver feels badly for hurting his boyfriend? That’s what you’re worried about? I almost got him raped and murdered. I got him imprisoned, I let him get molested, but no it’s all okay because Reaver can feel empathy?”