He wished Adrian was safe with the children. That he could make his way north and the sky would clear, that Adrian could start a new life with someone who would have loved him and would have respected him a lot more than Mendoza did. He'd only put Adrian in danger. Dying with the knowledge Ghost was probably killing Adrian was like dying twice.
Mendoza inhaled, the last breath at his disposal, the last twitch of his lungs, and he would use it to pronounce his beloved's name.
But his chest got hit hard. A strong blow, then another. His heart hiccupped. A mouth pressed against Mendoza's and air was blown into his lungs.
"Breathe, you can do it!" someone shouted in his ear.
Mendoza just wanted to be left alone. He wanted to die in peace with the thought of Adrian in his mind and his name on his lips. If he could, he would have rejected the assailant who kept pressing his chest and blowing air into his lungs.
But Adrian had taught him one thing—that was to hope.
Hope there was a reason for bringing Mendoza back. And the reason couldn't be anything but Adrian.
Mendoza made an effort and breathed.
"Yes! Good, keep it up! Keep it up!"
Mendoza coughed. His irregular heartbeat stabilized to a strong and sustained pace. "Adrian," he said, his eyes still closed. "Where's Adrian…?"
"I don't know, Mendoza. What the hell have they done to you?"
Mendoza opened his eyes a little. Above him, a man cleaned Mendoza's face with a piece of wet fabric. He knew the guy. He had forgotten his name, but he knew him. The doctor.
"I thought you were gone," the doctor said, his hands stained with blood. "But you did it. You're strong."
"What…"
"Don't talk. I don't know what's happened. They opened the door and slammed you in here. I don't think they even knew I was here. They injected you with some drug I should think. Do you know what it was?"
"No," Mendoza muttered.
He wanted to add he had felt only the sting of the needle, and that he had to go back to Adrian, but his tongue thickened and he could barely talk.
"Shit," the doctor said. "Drink this water. We must make sure to rid your body of whatever they injected you with. You've taken a bad beating. You've got a broken nose and it looks as though your cheekbone's broken, too.
Mendoza felt no pain.
The doctor held his head while he drank.
Mendoza coughed. "Adrian," he said again.
"I don't know who this Adrian is, but you can help him if you keep breathing. Keep breathing for him, Mendoza."
They were the right words to say He would hold on for Adrian. Mendoza slipped out of consciousness.
* * * *
Mendoza came to again and immediately, the doctor poured water in his mouth. Mendoza drank and coughed.
The doctor spoke to someone. "We must give him time," he said. "Hopefully he'll manage to get through before the night. He's strong."
Who else was in the room? What about Adrian?
"Listen to me, Mendoza," the doctor said. "Adrian is still alive, and he's waiting for you. He needs you to save him."
Relief washed over Mendoza. Yes, he wanted to hear Adrian still lived. He was Adrian's Prince Charming and he had to go and save him. That was exactly his charge.
"Adrian," Mendoza managed to say, then all faded into the black again.
* * * *
He awoke with a start after what seemed like five minutes. Someone had splashed water over his face again. He lay on a blanket smeared with his own blood and vomit.
The doctor leaned over him. "Finally," he said.
"We have to go," another person said.
Black Rose. He was in the room, too. He and the doctor helped Mendoza up to his feet.
Nausea grabbed him, but Mendoza had only one thought on his mind. "Where's Adrian?"
"Ghost handcuffed him to a pylon," Black Rose said. "We couldn't free him; otherwise Ghost would have killed you. But we had an unexpected stroke of luck. A newcomer distracted Ghost. A boy. But now the sun is setting. You have to go."
"Handcuffed?" Mendoza said, or at least he tried. What came out of his mouth was a painful grunt.
"Are you listening, Mendoza?" Black Rose took Mendoza's face, forcing him to meet his gaze. "I'm going to take you to Adrian, but then I have to go back because I'm seriously worried about Serpent. He's trying to distract Ghost, but that boy scared him, and then…"
Mendoza ceased to listen or try to understand what had happened. He understood Black Rose would take him to Adrian, and that was enough.
The doctor and Black Rose helped him up the stairs. They went outdoors to Black Rose's motorcycle, hidden behind some garbage cans. Black Rose pushed the barrel of a gun against his chest.
"It's mine. The others recovered it from your car, but I took it back, saying you had stolen it."
Mendoza barely understood. He simply took the gun.
"Try to stay alive," the doctor said. "And good luck."
Mendoza got on the motorcycle behind Black Rose. He needed luck, and he needed hope, but all he really wanted was being worthy of Adrian.
Chapter 13
The real night no longer existed, nor did a real day either. When the light dropped, weak, widespread phosphorescence hovered below the gaseous layer of clouds.
Adrian scanned the sky above the factory roofs of the dead industrial park, in an unknown place in the middle of a forgotten world. He spotted a swarm of creatures, then a second flight. Both turned around lazily in the sky, perhaps in search of organic matter. Soon they would find him.
So his time had finally arrived.
Adrian heard a kind of rustling and turned his head. Although he stayed calm and strong in the memory of his true love, he couldn't help but wince at the sight of the entity that approached him on the hillside. Much bigger than the phages that attacked them on the plane, maybe as large as the kind of jellyfish he had seen crashing into the Boeing windscreen. It was whitish, featureless, neither mouth nor eyes, but frayed in some way as if made of old fabric. At a guess, the entity would guarantee him a quick death, and for that he should be grateful, but in reality he drowned in terror.
Adrian couldn't tell if the thing tumbled or crawled or walked, but it didn't matter. It didn't make a noise, just a weird swish sound. It was close now, less than ten feet away.
Adrian caught his breath. He told himself to close his eyes, but he couldn't. A groan escaped from his mouth, but he wanted to avoid screaming, so he bit his bloody lips. His eyes fixed on the entity he began to think, Paul, Paul, Paul.
The shot caught him totally off guard. Adrian yelled. In front of him, the creature exploded into frayed pieces that scattered on the ground.
Someone abruptly lifted Adrian. He recognized the smell, the feel, the touch, the warmth.
"Paul!"
Adrian thought he dreamt, but Mendoza was damn real. And battered. His face was disfigured, swollen and covered in blood, one eye completely closed.
"I'm sorry it took me so long," he groaned.
Adrian didn't know whether to laugh or to cry out. The emotion threatened to choke him.
Mendoza held a rifle. He put the barrel against the middle section of Adrian's handcuffs, and fired a shot destroying the chain. The bullet hit the pylon, snaking and hissing inside the structure.
Adrian's arms fell inert and useless. "Paul, you're alive!"
"Yes. Some friends helped me. And I'm an idiot. If you still want me, I promise to try and redeem myself and to follow you and respect you. Forever."
Mendoza held him tight. Adrian laughed and cried, clinging to Paul's neck. He had come. He had come to save him. His Prince Charming.
"Paul, watch your back!"
Mendoza turned and in rapid succession fired at two bigger fragments of the entity he had previously shot at. The pieces exploded into smaller lumps that still tried to crawl towards them.
Adrian scanned the sky. Attracted by the sound, a swarm of moths headed in thei
r direction. "Paul!"
The nearest building was a warehouse on the other side of the road. Adrian grabbed Mendoza's shirt. Mendoza seemed dazed, despite the adrenaline, or rather the will to save Adrian, kept him still standing. Leaning on each other they ran down the street and inside the structure.
Entering the edifice through a broken door, Adrian realized all the windows were shattered too. Dozens of moths flew in the holes.
Adrian spotted a door at the end of a corridor, the only one still intact. He ran towards it, dragging Mendoza with him. The creatures began sticking to the walls around them in a blind attempt of grasping them. If they found the door locked…
It wasn't. When Adrian pulled the handle, the door swung open, and they rushed inside. Mendoza barred the door. A moth began to creep under the crack at their feet, and Mendoza crushed it under his sole.
"Find something," Mendoza said.
Adrian looked around. Two desks and two turned off, mute computers, useless forever and ever. Nothing that would seal the crack under the door. Mendoza crushed other creatures under his boots, cursing.
Adrian saw a roll of packing tape over one of the desks. It probably wouldn't be strong enough to keep the things out, but he had nothing else. He grabbed the tape and tore a strip with numb and clumsy hands. Adrian struck the strip under the crack of the door.
It worked.
"Put more tape on," Mendoza said.
Adrian added more. They stayed looking at the door, Mendoza standing and Adrian on his knees, leaning against the jamb. They heard some moths slapping the outer surface of the door. After a while, silence.
"We did it," Mendoza said.
He dropped to his knees, grabbed Adrian and held him tight.
"I saved you," Mendoza said in Adrian's ear.
"Yes, Paul," Adrian said, sliding his fingertips through the cropped hair on the back of Mendoza's neck. "You did it."
All of Mendoza's weight fell on Adrian and both ended up lying on the floor. Mendoza lost consciousness, still holding Adrian tight, the unhurt side of his face resting on Adrian's chest and his arms wrapped tightly around him. Adrian made sure Mendoza was breathing regularly, then held him and began to cry in relief.
* * * *
Adrian awoke with a start, hearing voices.
A dim, gray light flowed in through a tiny window. It was daytime. Adrian sat up, not remembering where he was and why he felt so, so bad.
He lay on the floor of a little office, next to an overturned wastepaper basket, his legs tucked under a desk. Mendoza curled around him, unconscious. Adrian touched Paul's neck, searching for his pulse. He found Mendoza's heartbeat, although it was weak.
The voices approached. Adrian scanned the room, saw the rifle on the floor beside him, and picked it up.
The door opened suddenly. The tape that sealed the lower crack ripped off. Adrian sat on the floor and pointed his rifle, shielding Mendoza with his body.
Black Rose stood on the threshold.
Adrian lowered his weapon.
Without a word, Black Rose turned around and said, "Don't bother going in there; there's nobody here."
The guy closed the door without looking inside.
"Thank you, Black Rose," Adrian whispered a moment before the door closed.
He was sure Black Rose heard him.
* * * *
Not long after, Adrian heard footsteps outside the door and picked up the rifle again.
He had cried for a while, cuddled against Mendoza's limp body, because he didn't know what to do and his lover's condition scared him; it seemed as if he was in a coma. He sat up, wiped his face, and pointed the gun at the door.
Someone knocked gently.
Adrian raised his eyebrows. "Who is it?"
"My name is Ian. Don't shoot me. Black Rose sent me here. I'm a doctor."
"A doctor?"
The man opened the door. And the most absurd thing in the world? Adrian knew him.
"My god," the doctor said, widening his eyes in amazement. "You're Adrian Mesler, the jet pilot."
Adrian remained speechless.
The doctor came in, closing the door quietly behind him. "My name is Ian Livermore. You remember me, right? We met at the hospital Christmas party. I thought Luke had an out of the ordinary companion."
The last few hours had been one shocking event after another and Adrian began to cry. A forlorn cry of longing for his old life with no problems, or at least not horrifically scary challenges like the ones he now faced. The Christmas party had been nice, and he had had a good time. Damn, Adrian still felt the taste of the shrimp canapés. His stomach awoke. He was as hungry as a wolf.
"Don't cry. The worst is over." Ian, his ex-boyfriend's colleague, came forward and gently took Adrian's arm and examined the wounds on his wrists under the handcuffs. He remembered Ian was one of those guys who made one joke after the other, and at that Christmas party he'd been accompanied by a pouting girl, very beautiful, but she didn't seem quite right for him.
"I'll take care of you, but we have to think about this big guy."
Ian opened up a leather medical bag. Luke had an identical one, but less battered. Adrian cried again for the nostalgia of his former world.
Ian pulled out a stethoscope and listened to Mendoza's heart, then he gave him a couple of injections and attached an IV drip. Mendoza muttered. The doctor lifted the eyelid of his healthy eye and Mendoza's pupil reacted to light.
"Well, I'd say he's just sleeping off the effects of the drugs they injected into him. He'll be okay. Luckily, he's a fighter. He kept repeating your name."
"I don't know what to say to thank you…"
"Hush," Ian said. "Now let's take a look at your wrists. I have good news. Tonight, Serpent managed to find the keys to the handcuffs in Ghost's room."
The doctor pulled out a pair of tiny keys and used them to open the restraints Adrian still had around his wrists. When the bracelets detached from his flesh, Adrian hissed in pain.
The doctor cleaned and disinfected the wounds, then bandaged his wrists tightly. "It's nothing serious. Serpent told me to take a look at your leg, too."
"How is Serpent? Is he in danger?"
Ian angrily tidied things in his bag. "He wants to cover our escape, but I want to help him."
Ian's determination startled Adrian.
"He doesn't deserve to stay there and sacrifice himself. I know him little, but…" Ian shook his head, without concluding. "Maybe once I would've given up. But Mendoza's behavior got me thinking. Now more than ever, we need to fight for the things we care about. The world isn't slipping into darkness if we still believe in feelings, right?"
Adrian raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Do you have feelings for Serpent?"
Ian smiled. "Maybe. But he's fond of Black Rose."
He changed the subject, maybe intentionally. "Listen. I know you need to know this and I'm sorry to tell you, but I was in the hospital when this all began, and Luke wasn't among the survivors."
Adrian wiped his wet and dirty face with his sleeve. "Okay. Thank you."
Ian peered at his face. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I expected it, more or less." Adrian swallowed back the tears.
Useless to regret the past. And then, he had someone else to care about now. Someone who had become more important to him than Luke had ever been. "Do you think we can carry Mendoza? I must absolutely return to the Boeing, but I don't want leave him here."
Ian glanced at Mendoza's limp body. "I honestly doubt we can lift him. The guy is pretty damn big. First, however, let's look at your leg."
Adrian rolled down his jeans so the doctor could treat the wound on his leg.
"A monster of the night also caught my arm. It's painful," the doctor said, beginning to unravel the dressing on Adrian's thigh.
Adrian wept again when Ian pulled the bandage glued to the wound. He had suffered much more tied to the damn pylon, but he'd reached his limit of physical suffering and even the smallest thing ma
de him cry like a fountain. He yelled when Ian touched the burn.
At Adrian's shout, Mendoza awoke with a start and sprang forward, pulling off the dripping tube, grasping the doctor's arm threateningly.
"Calm down, big guy, and don't hurt me. I'm just helping Adrian," the doctor said.
Mendoza let go of Ian, although he still seemed dazed.
"Paul!" Adrian exclaimed. "You scared me. I thought you were in a coma!"
"I'm here," Mendoza mumbled.
Adrian held him. He didn't even pay attention when Ian cleaned his wound and then bandaged it again. He almost didn't notice Ian injecting his ass cheek with an antibiotic.
"Now we can try to have our happy ending," Mendoza said.
Adrian jumped in surprise. "I can't believe I'm hearing you say that!"
"Then hear this—I can't live without you. I just can't. I suppose this means that, yes, it means that I love you."
Adrian's heart raced and he forgot to breathe. Ever since he'd laid eyes on Mendoza, he hoped to hear those words, but he'd never really believed it. Having hope was fine, but hope alone never changed things. There was always a need to sacrifice a certain amount.
After almost dying, and after all he'd been through in the last few hours, Adrian supposed he deserved a happy ending. And even Mendoza.
Adrian took a breath, "I love you, too, Paul Mendoza," he said.
"You're the witness, doctor," Mendoza said, looking Adrian in the eye. "I take this man for better or for worse, till death do us part."
Adrian's eyes widened in surprise.
Mendoza stared at the doctor.
"Well," the doctor said. "I'm not a judge or a priest, but…"
"I don't give a damn, just say the words."
"Okay," the doctor nodded. "With the power vested me by the end of the world, I now pronounce you husband and husband."
Adrian felt dizzy. The world had ended. He wasn't a jet pilot anymore. Everything he had believed in, everything he had sweated and fought for, had vanished into thin air. And now, with his pants down, a doctor had united him in marriage with a jailbird.
The Landing (Apocalypse) Page 10
