by Quil Carter
I turned the heat up on the space heater and sat down on the couch and started icing some Dilaudid powder. The sour taste in the back of my throat from the drip was as addictive as the drugs themselves.
I felt Reno’s eyes on me. Sure enough, he was looking at me with intense curiosity. When we locked eyes he crossed his arms. “You’re scared of Leo. Why?”
“It’s nothing, we just… had a disagreement.” I sniffed the powder up my nose.
“When could that have happened? You’ve been here all this –” Reno stopped mid-sentence then snapped his fingers. “When you walked him out of Reaver Town a few days ago. What happened? You seemed pretty cush with him when you left.”
The corner of my mouth twitched. I bit it to make it stop. I handed him the tray and drew my legs up to my chest, trying to figure out what I was going to say next.
“Wow, you gotta tell me, dude. He’s staying overnight with me some nights. I gotta know if he’s hurting you… is he?”
Not yet. I swallowed and looked at him. I didn’t want to keep this to myself anymore. I knew I could trust Reno to keep a secret. Especially one like this. “Promise you won’t tell anyone? Not even Reaver…”
My friend’s usually cheerful eyes looked right into me, his expression serious. I had rarely seen Reno look so serious, it didn’t suit his face at all.
He nodded soberly. “I promise, I just want to help. We’re buds.”
And we were. I really liked Reno. I liked him enough to knock the shit out of him for Asher hinting that they had slept together. I wonder if Reno liked him? Besides as a fuck buddy. Maybe he shared my feelings regarding the raticater.
I found myself spilling everything to Reno over the next hour. The drugs taking effect and making me talkative helped me get through some of the tougher parts. They made me feel brave, or just not as shy.
I told Reno everything. What I had found, who Leo was, and who Leo had confirmed that Reaver was. The confrontation and Leo’s threat towards me. By the time I was done Reno had done just as much drugs as me.
Reno swore and dropped his head backwards so it was resting on the top of the couch. “It makes more sense than it should. I can’t say I know what a chimera is, but if Leo is one, it fits. He was always a bit different. Smarter than the rest of us. ” He shook his head. “Reaver’s one of them? Seriously?”
I nodded and he swore under his breath. I knew Reno didn’t know what went on in Skyfall, no one in Aras did. Which in hindsight would’ve made this home perfect for keeping Reaver hidden. A chimera to a greywaster in Aras was just a type of person far, far away that bossed people around. He didn’t know what it meant to be one.
“My earliest memory is Reaver twisting my arm because he wanted my red Hot Wheels truck, he was probably two. I was four. Fucking still beat me up,” Reno said. He leaned forward, his brow furrowed in thought. “Shit, I wish I could add some information but… when they let Reaver out of the bunker they played it up that he was an orphan… no one asked questions. Just one day he was there.” He leaned back, I could see the white powder on his nose. “I’m just a stupid waster with barely any knowledge of Skyfall. I wish I could be more help, but you know more about how they work than I do. Reaver’s just always been Reaver to me. I don’t know what a chimera is supposed to do.”
Suddenly my friend snorted, he let out a chuckle. “He really is a motherless bastard.”
I rolled my eyes, but appreciated him lightening the mood.
Reno stood up. He clapped and pointed at me. “That is why Leo and Greyson never wanted Reaver to give his blood to the Legion! Those chimeras probably have special super blood, it would show up on the results, right? I bet Leo’s been botching his own blood every census too!”
“Shit.” I had completely forgotten about it. “You’re right… it wasn’t that they were afraid he would get recruited. They would know he was alive, or at least that two chimeras were in Aras, far away from Skyfall.”
A boulder shifted in my stomach. “And we can never tell Reaver… ever. Leo will kill me if I do.” Reno still looked shocked. Suddenly I felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. “Reno, please, please, you promised. Don’t tell Reaver,” I begged. “Leo said he was safe now, with Greyson laying off him. He kept saying he wouldn’t be safe if he knew. That he would try and find out.”
“I know, I know.” Reno put up his hand; it hovered for a second before it landed on my knee. “I won’t say anything, I’m not stupid. I might act like it ninety percent of the time… but I’m not. Reaver’s as happy as I’ve ever seen him and I don’t want to fuck it up.” His large eyes became troubled. “It’s just… shit, it’s just mind fucking. Reaver’s all… special and shit. He was always just Reaver to me.” Reno clicked the remote and handed me a game controller. “You know, at least he doesn’t care about this kind of stuff. He’s always been okay being a motherless bastard. If there was anyone not to care about where he was from it would be him.”
“Yeah, I care more than he does,” I said. Another reason why I just had to let it be.
We settled into some gaming and as was the tradition we stuffed ourselves with candy and chocolate. The chocolate tasted pretty good for its age, but you had to really work up the saliva to keep it from drying your mouth out. The candy was tastier, it just kind of hardened after the radiation, though nothing beat when the older women made candy to sell in the store. It was delicious, but you had to get there early or else the other residents would buy it all.
After a lot of gaming and a couple of movies, we decided to go for a walk and check on the plants in the townhome. We were both feeling pretty good from all the pain killers we had done. The cooler air outside also made me feel more energetic; the heat just zapped all of my energy.
As I walked past Asher’s street, though, I slowed down. The short glance turned into a long stare, and soon I was looking behind me as the two of us carried on.
“Reno… what do you think of Asher?” I tore my gaze away and took a few quick steps to catch up to him.
“Really nice cock, rough in bed, pillow biter,” Reno began. “Gives fucking amazing head.”
I didn’t try to hide my unimpressed face. “Did you really have sex with him?”
Reno put up his hands in his own defence. “Hey, he’s hot as fuck and I’m only human. If you and Reaver weren’t banging you would’ve done the same thing.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” I said. “I still don’t like him.”
We both carefully stepped over a fallen chain-link fence; I noticed Reno was a bit quiet.
“You don’t like him either do you?” I narrowed my eyes when I sensed the atmosphere had changed around us.
“I never said I liked him, I only said he had a wicked body and endless stamina. In the liking Reaver department… I’ll honestly say you’re on to something.” Reno shrugged his shoulders and raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ll tell you this much, I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of me when I was banging him those nights.”
“What do you mean,” I asked slowly.
Reno let out a breath, making a few strands of his black hair fly up. “Well, I guess you were real with me earlier. When we fucked while he was wasted… he might have been calling me someone else.”
I felt the back of my neck go hot.
“Reaver?”
“Yep.”
I gripped my hands, a hissing noise escaping through my clenched teeth. “I fucking knew he wanted Reaver, I fucking knew it!” I raged. I couldn’t believe it, I was right! If that fucking dumb ass of a sentry didn’t believe me now I was going to beat him with a hammer.
“Did he do anything else?” I demanded. “You said those nights? How long has this being going on?”
Reno took a cautious step away from me. “Alright but… you gotta stand there, and I’m going to stand here while I tell you this.” I glared at him, my lip twitching. “The first time we fucked was after Reaver got drunk and went home. Asher radioed me and called me down. I was there for about t
hree minutes before he was taking my clothes off. In five his mouth was between my legs. He was hot and heavy, full salute.”
“Are you fucking kidding me!” I shrieked. Reno jumped back further. I balled my fists so hard my fingernails dug into my palms. “I knew he was fucking doing something! Reaver came home all fucking horny. Begging to fuck me. When I was on top of him, he asked me if I could fuck him one day! Reaver said that! REAVER!”
Reno’s mouth dropped open. “Oh… fuck.”
I felt nauseas, like I wanted to throw up. I leaned up against a traffic light pole, and as I started to feel dizzy I sank to my knees.
“He’ll never believe me.” I felt my breathing get laboured. “Even if I tell him Asher called you after… he’ll never believe Asher was trying to fool around with him.”
“Trying, the key word is trying, Killian,” Reno pointed out. “If they had fucked, they wouldn’t have been so horny after and Reaver would’ve spent the night.”
I buried my face into my hands and shook my head. He was right, but that did little to quell the churning slough of fear and doubt growing inside of me.
“Reaver would’ve never done anything.”
I looked up at Reno. “I know, which means Asher did something to him.”
My friend’s face blanked, but then slowly he nodded as if he himself had finally put the pieces together. “I think you’re right, bro. You want the two of us to sit his ass down and talk to him?”
I had already talked to him many times already. The topic fell on deaf ears at the mere mention of my suspicions of Asher. “That’s the last thing that will get through to him. I need proof, or he’ll just think it’s me convincing you of my paranoid conspiracies… no, I need proof. I need evidence.”
I raised my head and felt my anxious brain start to piece together a plan. I turned and looked to Asher’s house, then past that towards Aras.
“Let’s check on the plants…” I said finally, still staring in the direction of the square. “We’re going to go to Greyson’s after. He has two devices I’m going to need to borrow.”
Reno nodded, his defined eyebrows knitted over his blue eyes. “If you’re looking for the voice recorders, they sold them back to Uncle Carson. I’ll be able to get them for you in a cinch. Let’s go.”
Chapter 40
Reaver
“I wasn’t prepared for this development.” Asher’s voice was so bitter I could taste it on my own lips.
The raticater, dressed in my bulletproof vest under a leather jacket, was to my left, lying down on the red-stained rocks. We were shoulder to shoulder as we pressed ourselves down on the edge of the canyon face, making our bodies as invisible as possible. Below us was the Fallon cache town.
And living in it was a group of wasters… not ravers… arian wasters.
The town wasn’t really a town at all. It was a plaza and a few outbuildings, dropped in the middle of the wasteland like an afterthought. No useable structures or houses for miles, just scraped together ravers’ dens or the remains of wasters’ camps, bordered by the edges of the red canyons that touched the outskirts of the plaza like water lapping the shore. Half a mile and you would officially be in raver country.
I scanned the people below us, and tried to map out every escape plan I could see in my head. The terrain would be an asset to us. The black trees were closer together here than where we had come from; we would be able to use them for cover. I knew by experience bullets wouldn’t cut through them. The canyon shelf we were lying against would also do well, but once we jumped down there would be no getting back up. We would have to follow the broken road and go around.
I shifted and looked behind me at the quad. We had hidden it behind a crescent shaped rock. It was out of view and the mechanic had made it quick to start.
“They’re all weak, I can tell,” I heard Asher say under his breath. I turned back to the cache town.
“There are only four of them,” I mumbled. My eyes were better than his, since they were better than anyone's. I could see a grey-haired man sitting on a lawn chair, tending to a small smokeless fire, two men who might be his sons and a single female who appeared to be missing half her leg. The way she stuck around the older-looking man I assumed it was her husband or son. They seemed like some thrown together family, or a group that had decided to stick together for survival. It was common to start clustering up when most of the greywastes were trying to kill you.
I could hear a scraping sound as Asher’s jacket scuffed against the chalky rocks. “They must have killed the ravers, or driven them off.” We had passed our third ravers’ den a few miles back, steering well clear of it. That might have been where they settled.
“I don’t recognize any of my things. My box is in the gas station in a utility closet, or the hollowed out hot water tank of one rather. It’s locked well with a combination. I just hope they didn’t blow it open.”
I wanted to light a cigarette. “I suppose we should walk down and introduce ourselves then.”
I was amused to hear Asher’s heartbeat quicken. I cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t like that idea?”
Asher looked at me and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What gave you that notion?”
I shrugged playfully. “I have my ways.” I rose and stretched, making a grunting noise. Then I kicked a large rock off the ridge.
The old man looked up in shock as the rock tumbled down, hitting a fallen electricity pole. He took one look at us and ran into one of the houses.
“Cover me,” I said cheerfully. I jumped down off of the canyon ridge, leaping from one jutted out slab of rock to the next.
Not surprisingly as my feet hit level ground I could hear the scraping of loosening gravel. There was a thud beside me. Asher dusted himself off and gave me a dirty look.
“Cover you? Come now, you can’t have all the fun.” The corners of Asher’s lips hooked just slightly to make a smile. His smile wasn’t what caught my interest though. I could see a faint spark of bloodlust in those dark green eyes. Or maybe I was just seeing my own reflection.
As we strolled casually towards the plaza we were greeted by the entire clan.
The typical putrid, disgusting arian waster. Greasy hair, black teeth, and ratty patchwork clothes. Corpses with Geigerchips it seemed. At this point they wouldn’t have even been accepted into Aras. We didn’t take in the sick or the starving unless you had a fuckload of money. No wasted supplies on charity cases.
“We have no water here to spare…” The old man stepped ahead of the other three. He had a grey beard and a wrinkled leathery face that had seen too many summers. He smelled like piss and stale beer.
“I left a cache here. I would like to retrieve it,” Asher said, his voice was polite but authorative. “It’s in the gas station. We will only be a moment and then we’ll be on our way.”
The old man looked at him before his eyes fell to my face. I think he was trying to analyze us, but what good that would do I didn’t know. I was good at hiding my emotions physically, I had been doing it since I was younger. And Asher was a raticater, no doubt during all of his trading with the blocks and towns he had learned the same.
I glanced over to get a feel for Asher’s state. He was stone-faced and in control, though he had made sure to soften his eyes. Appear as honest as possible, but don’t appear weak.
In my head I felt a swell of approval. My trust in him was growing.
Asher knew the game. I’d had to train my sentries to hone these skills when talking to merchants or wasters, but Asher’s talents rivalled mine. It was intriguing to have a companion as skilled as me. We could create a lot of havoc together.
I studied the old man’s face as he reacted to Asher’s words. His shoulders relaxed and his movements became less robotic. I knew we had his compliance.
Sure enough, he gave us a nod. “Margie is living there right now. She’ll show you in…” The old man glanced behind him and nodded to his younger companions. “Keep your hands in fro
nt of you; we’re all armed. We don’t want any funny business.”
“Neither do we. We want the crate and we’ll be gone.” Asher nodded me in front of him. I didn’t like taking the lead; I was more comfortable watching our backs but I wasn’t going to correct him in front of the wasters. We would appear as a unit and any problems we would talk out after the job was done. Greyson had taught me that – you don’t appear disorganized in front of the enemy.
We got close to the gas station, and as we did the old man started shouting for whoever Margie was. My hands itched to hold my M16 just to be cautious, but these arians didn’t look like they wanted a fight. I was happy getting Asher’s shit and heading home.
I stepped onto the waning boards of the gas station deck and quickly glanced over my shoulder. Asher was walking behind the three arians. I praised him for that in my head. Another one of Greyson’s rules, never turn your back, even when they’re leading you somewhere.
I kept my eyes forward, feeling safe with Asher covering us, and stood by the door as the old man stepped into the worn door frame of the gas station.
One day it would be Killian covering me like this, or I hoped it would. It was fun doing these things with Reno and Asher, but there was something about me and Killian going on these trips that I found alluring. I mean our trip to Donnely had been going well before I got kinda –
Oh shit.
Margie’s face fell as soon as she saw me, and my mouth almost dropped open in surprise. I regained myself though, pushing away the feelings of bewilderment and gave her a smirk.
“Did you count all the way to one hundred already?” I made my voice as cheerful as possible, mostly because I found it hilarious she was looking at me like I was a three-headed monster.
The old lady from the gas station outside of Donnely, many miles from where we were now, gasped and held a hand over her mouth. She stumbled backwards and looked around for something to defend herself with.
