Adrian's voice trembled with fear. "So, prove it!"
Oh, yes, Adrian was so brave to challenge Mendoza—an empty-hearted jailbird. Mendoza unclenched his fists. He wasn't a coward. He wanted to do what he had to do just to save Adrian, that meant even Mendoza's father wasn't a coward. Perhaps, he only wanted to save his son from the disaster of a man he thought he was. And if he, Mendoza, had had Adrian's same courage—insisting, daring, and challenging—perhaps his father would be still alive.
It took someone like Adrian to make Mendoza understand. The thought filled him with wonder.
His father hadn't been a quitter who had killed himself for weakness. But, on the contrary, a brave man who had made the sacrifice to save his son.
Mendoza had a lump on his throat.
"I'm sorry, Adrian. I'm not going to hit you."
Adrian took his arms away from his head, looking at him with suspicion.
"Yes, you're right. I'm an idiot," Mendoza admitted. He shook his head in wonder. Adrian had won. "I don't know what to do, so I'm going to rely on you. I'll do what you want. I can't promise I'll make you happy, or that I'll be perfect, but if you can put up with what I did, then I'll stay with you."
Adrian gaped. "Are you really saying…" he began, but then words failed him. Adrian sat on the bed and swallowed. "Are you saying you'll come with the children and me?"
"Yes, I surrender. I'll do what you want. Maybe a day will come when you don't want an asshole like me at your side anymore and I'll go away, but as long as you want me…"
Mendoza couldn't finish, because Adrian jumped on him and hugged him tight.
"Thank you," Adrian whispered, placing soft kisses along Mendoza's neck. His eyes were wet. "You're a stubborn ass, but thank you, Paul."
Mendoza's heart filled with peace.
Finally he was no longer the one to decide.
Adrian would know what to do. He would keep Mendoza on the right track.
Slowly, cautiously, Mendoza smiled.
* * * *
They dressed and packed in silence, then left Mendoza's room.
In the hallway, Mendoza stopped to knock at Black Rose's door. Black Rose opened the door slightly. He wore nothing but a leather necklace with a silver pendant in the shape of a claw. He had a fantastic body, slender, muscular, and tattooed, his dick resting in a nest of dark hair. Behind him, on his bed, someone turned under the sheets.
"Your rifle," Mendoza said.
Black Rose blinked, still sleepy. "What?"
"Give me your rifle," Mendoza repeated.
"Why the hell?"
"I need it for Adrian."
Black Rose narrowed his eyes. "You're leaving, aren't you?
"Do you want to come with us?" Adrian asked, taking a step ahead.
The person on the bed sat up. As Adrian guessed, it was Serpent. The guy moved his hair from his face and looked at them.
"Why don't you both come?" Adrian insisted.
Black Rose shook his head. "You're crazy, Captain." He disappeared for a moment, and reappeared holding a gun in his hand. "Take it," he said, pushing the gun against Adrian's chest. "Go and hurry."
Adrian took the gun. "You have to come with us," he insisted.
Black Rose glanced at Mendoza. The flash of sorrow Adrian saw in the guy's eyes surprised him a little. It couldn't be. A little worm of jealousy writhed in Adrian's stomach. There had been something between them?
"He's right," Mendoza said. "You two have to leave this place."
"I can't," Serpent said, holding his knees on his chest. "Ghost will be terribly angry when he finds out you are gone. If I go away too, he'll be furious."
"I can't leave Serpent alone," Black Rose said.
He sulked a little. Adrian turned to look at Mendoza's face, unperturbed as usual, and decided that Black Rose had a kind of crush on him. Maybe it was just that. He hoped so.
"Be careful," Mendoza said. "Ghost knows about the two of you."
"Away," Black Rose said. "I didn't see you."
Black Rose closed the door abruptly.
* * * *
They left on a battered off-road vehicle. Mendoza drove on a street, the color leached away by acid rain, the asphalt lightened to a pale, ash gray. Dead trees flanked the road, with dreary, yellowish filaments hanging from the dark branches. A sort of mud dried on the ground. The world looked like an old photo left in the sun, which had only preserved a faint greenish hue.
Adrian checked the sky for signs of atmospheric changes but found nothing new. Indeed, the gases in the atmosphere had ceased to be as bulbous as thunderstorm clouds and lay in a more uniform long-lasting coating. Not very encouraging.
But Mendoza would remain with him.
Adrian rejoiced. He'd won. One small step at a time and he had convinced Mendoza to leave his nest of loneliness and despair. There were wounds inside him that would never disappear entirely, but Adrian could work on them, if only Mendoza let him.
Adrian put his hand on Mendoza's arm. "I think that—"
Suddenly, a big SUV jumped out from behind the warehouse they skirted. The truck hit them on the backside.
Their off-road vehicle skidded, then a gunshot shattered the windshield. Adrian shouted and Mendoza hit the guard rail. The car went into a spin. They stopped and the SUV screeched its brakes in front of them, cutting off their escape.
"The gun, get the gun!" Mendoza yelled.
Adrian leaned back to grab the rifle in the back seat, ignoring the sharp pain in his injured leg, but the door opened on his side and two pairs of dirty hands dragged him out.
Adrian fell in the sour mud covering the asphalt. He fought against his attackers, but one pinned him to the ground, planting the barrel of a gun across his throat. From his vantage point, he had a clear view under the car, and watched other men beat Mendoza with kicks, punches, and rifle butts.
"No! Let him go!" Adrian shouted, although the barrel almost chocked him.
He struggled to get free, but someone obstructed his view of the greenish sky.
Ghost.
The killer smiled at him in an almost friendly way. His hair was combed back, his face freshly shaved and he wore a three-piece gray silk suit, an outfit Adrian didn't expect to see again after the end of the world.
Ghost crouched over Adrian. The usual cold current that enveloped him stroked Adrian's sweaty forehead.
"The two of you thought you'd fuck me over, right?" Ghost said, staring at him with disturbingly crooked eyes.
Mendoza had disappeared, maybe loaded into the SUV. Probably the men had beaten him to unconsciousness. Adrian's eyes filled with tears.
"Please," Adrian said. "Please, don't hurt him. It's my fault."
Ghost smiled. "The problem is, Mendoza isn't really fond of me and if I don't kill him now, he'll do everything to come and rescue you."
"No," Adrian pleaded. "Please. I'll leave him alone. I'll leave him just for you, but don't kill him."
"Captain," Ghost said, stroking Adrian's cheek. "I don't give a shit about Mendoza. You're the dangerous one. Serpent goes on about how magnificent and shiny your aura is, so I can't let you live. I'm sorry. I'd like to weed out your race and create a future in which the darkness reigns." Ghost brushed Adrian's hair from his forehead.
Adrian clenched his teeth to bear the touch of Ghost's cold fingers.
"I want to be the king of an empire full of wickedness and injustice, just to prove there are no rules, and there isn't a god who can stop me. I am the King and I am the God. The world will rise from the mud of acid rain but it'll rise without love. You're so bright and positive you ensured an arid one like Mendoza would flourish again. Unfortunately, you're a threat to me. So if I were you, Captain, I'd be worried for my situation, and not for that of Mendoza."
Ghost's smile widened. "I'm sorry to inform you, but this will be your last day on earth, Captain."
Chapter 11
As Ghost's men pulled him up, Adrian saw Mendoza lying on the back seat o
f the SUV. Had they killed him?
"He's anesthetized," Ghost explained, arranging Adrian's clothes while two of his men held him. "Tomorrow, when he wakes up, he'll come here and find your corpse."
Adrian groped for a way out. "I'll do anything you want, Ghost. I'll help you build your empire."
Ghost shook his head, pretending to be sorry. "I don't believe you, Captain. You'll die, but it won't be quick."
Ghost nodded, and the men dragged Adrian away. He kicked and struggled, but one of them hit him in the face hard enough to stun him. They dragged Adrian up a hill and handcuffed to a large iron bar. He looked up and discovered they had tied him to a high voltage pylon, his arms stretched above his head. The black pylon, now useless, silhouetted against the green sky. His feet were on the concrete plinth of one of the four feet of the tower.
Adrian shook his head to remove the hair from his face. The SUV with Mendoza inside still sat on the street at the bottom of the hill.
Ghost appeared in front of Adrian.
"You'll stay here all day," Ghost said. "Then, night will fall, and the creatures will find you. Tomorrow morning I'll come to see what's left of you and your shining aura."
"Please," Adrian said, knowing with someone like Ghost, prayers were of no use. "Don't kill him."
"Very moving," Ghost said. "You may also be able to free yourself. For example, mutilating your hands, or letting one of your friends who are hiding in my den help you. But if that happens, I'll kill him instantly."
Adrian's eyes filled with tears of rage. It couldn't be. Not now that Mendoza had agreed to stay with him! Adrian shook his hands in the cuffs, but he could only entertain Ghost. "Here ends your story, Captain. You have many hours to think and consider your situation, then the creatures of the night will eat you alive. Remember what I said. Goodbye."
Ghost took Adrian's chin and kissed his mouth. His lips were hard and unpleasant, and something cold slid around them. Adrian's eyes widened and he thought he saw some white silhouettes surrounding Ghost as sentinels—and one of them, small, trembling, touched Adrian's face with fingers of frost—but then Adrian's eyes filled and everything became misty.
Ghost walked away. He and his men climbed into the SUV and left, taking Mendoza with them.
* * * *
Adrian shouted and cried, but no one heard him.
In the effort to break free, the handcuffs began to penetrate the flesh of his wrists. The wound on his leg throbbed.
For a while he cried, thinking about Samantha's and Thomas's fate. The children would wait in vain. Eventually they'd hate him, coming to the conclusion he had abandoned them.
Adrian leaned his head against the pylon and wished it were already night, he wished it for every minute, and his thoughts went back to the previous evening, the one he and Mendoza had spent together.
The thought of Mendoza led him to open his eyes to study the manner in which the handcuffs bound him.
Adrian had no hope of escape. The restraints slipped across one of the iron bars of the pylon, its circumference thicker than his arm. The two ends of the bar were welded and bolted to other similar bars. No, he couldn't do anything.
Adrian stopped crying. Tears and mucus dried up on his face. His lips cracked.
Suddenly, someone came towards him from the street. He didn't know if he imagined it, as perhaps he fallen into a hallucinatory state, either from shock or dehydration. It could also be a mirage. It was a dark figure. Someone dressed in black. Adrian closed his eyes in terror. A cold hand touched his face and then someone poured water on his cracked lips.
"I'm so sorry, Adrian."
Adrian opened his eyes and wiped his face on his shoulder. "Serpent!"
Serpent's eyes filled. "I'm sorry. I talked to Ghost about your aura. It's my fault. I searched for the handcuff keys, but I think he threw them away."
"Serpent," Adrian said, trembling in asking the question. "Is Mendoza alive?"
"I don't know." Serpent shook his head. "I don't know where he is."
Adrian laid the back of his head on the iron bar, crying.
"Don't cry, please. I'll search for the keys again. Black Rose says that maybe, before nightfall, we can cut your handcuffs with a saw, or something."
"Serpent," Adrian said, wiping his face again. "Forget the keys and forget my handcuffs. If someone tries to free me, Ghost will kill Mendoza. Please, try to find him. Ghost drugged him, and he has to be alive, somewhere."
Serpent frowned. "Shit."
"Please, do it," Adrian insisted. "And ask Black Rose to help. I know he's fond of Mendoza."
"Okay, calm down, I will," Serpent nodded.
"Thanks," Adrian said. "Thanks, Serpent."
"It's my fault you're here," Serpent said. "I didn't mean to, I swear."
Adrian locked eyes with Serpent. "Go and find Mendoza. Do it, please."
"Okay. Okay. Try to resist. I'll come back."
Serpent ran away.
Adrian cried again, alone, but this time with a hint of hope.
* * * *
Hope.
Adrian wanted his heart to lose all hope and leave him alone, but it wouldn't happen.
He dozed, hanging by the handcuffs. The pain in his leg was excruciating, but when he woke up abruptly, the soreness in his arms and wrists overcame it.
Someone dressed in black sat next to him, on the ground, facing the road down the hill.
Adrian winced. "Serpent? Serpent, have you found Mendoza? How is he?"
Serpent didn't answer.
Adrian shook his head to move his hair away and wiped his face on his shoulder. He focused on a young man sitting on the escarpment. It wasn't Serpent. It was a boy of fifteen, sixteen. He had a backpack on his shoulder and a great mass of curly hair tied in a ponytail. He smiled.
Something in the smile chilled Adrian. He blinked, not sure if he was awake or not. If not for the pain, he would have believed he dreamed. "Who are you?"
"My name is Walter. You don't know me. We've never met."
Adrian wiped his face again, unsure whether the boy was a mirage or not.
"It seems to me that your situation right now isn't too good," the boy said. He shook his head. "The world has become a strange place since the apocalypse. A few simple rules have changed. Energies have shifted. The equilibrium has been broken. The bad ones are springing up stronger."
"Who are you?" Adrian repeated.
"A survivor, like you," the boy said. "Unfortunately I can't do anything for you."
"Please," Adrian said. "Go a little south of here and you'll find a factory."
The boy turned to face him. "Don't you think I'll be killed by the brutes? They're quite uncivilized."
"I know that. Please. Look for someone called Serpent," Adrian insisted.
"You would send me to death in order to save Mendoza, right?"
"Who are you?" Adrian repeated for the third time. "Are you with Ghost? Are you with him?"
"No. I have nothing in common with that child murderer." The boy sighed. "Look," he said, propping his arms on the ground and stretching his legs. "Look at the world. Everyone does nothing but hope that the sky lightens, or they fear that it may rain again. But the world froze at the time of the event. This stalemate will last centuries. What do you think it happened, Adrian Mesler?"
"Who the hell are you?" Adrian shouted.
"Disasters in parallel realities, realities that are mixed and affect other surrounding realities, like the rot that spreads to all the layers of an onion. Every action we take has an endless impact. Have you ever heard about the butterfly effect? Would you have thought you'd end up feeding the creatures of the night in a world of savages? I don't think so."
"Fuck you!" Adrian yelled.
The boy stood up.
He smiled, arranging his backpack on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Captain. But I have bad news for you."
At once, Adrian knew the dark kid was here to hurt him. He wished he could cover his ears with his hands. "
No!"
No mercy in the boy's eyes. "Your lover is dead."
"NO!"
"Even the children are dead." A smirk sneaked on Walter's face. "There's nothing more to hope for, Captain."
Adrian gave up. He simply ceased to fight. He went limp, allowing the handcuffs to penetrate deep into his flesh.
The blood flowed down his arms.
* * * *
Adrian didn't lose consciousness. Eyes shut, he relived every moment he spent with Mendoza, rethought every word they said, reviewed and appreciated anew every caress. Only the memory of Mendoza would help him face such a horrible death.
He considered the effect Mendoza would have made on his former life. He thought about introducing Mendoza to his mother, to his friends, and laughed. In his former world, Mendoza would have been in prison, and they would never have met. But there were so many possibilities to ponder, so many alternatives. In one, Mendoza had never killed the man and they met on a flight. But Adrian had been rejected by the airline, and if he hadn't been rejected, he might still be with Luke and then… shit, too complicated.
Adrian could no longer take his previous life seriously. He could now see himself as a small, clumsy meaningless being. His goals and lifestyle choices were ridiculous. If he had known he would die, eaten alive, his every action would have had a different meaning. If he had known his one night with Mendoza would be the only one, all would have been different. Maybe he would have told Mendoza that he loved him.
Because he did.
Yes, he loved Mendoza. His Prince Charming.
They'd been together for such a short time, but Adrian tried not to think about the lack of duration. Albeit briefly, he had managed to have his Prince Charming. Indeed, something worse could have happened—like dying, attached to a pylon and devoured, but without ever having known true love.
Chapter 12
Mendoza had always known it wouldn't work out. Assassins couldn't become Prince Charming.
His heart stopped.
The substance Ghost's men had injected into him was too much for his body. Mendoza had reached his last stop. He was happy about that, but he felt sorry for Adrian.
The Landing (Apocalypse) Page 9
