Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (75 page)

There was no sound but my own breathing, no other light but the cold glow giving shape to the dust motes flying through the air, disturbed from their many years of slumber. I was all alone here, only my thoughts, my disappearing guilt and my ever growing curiosity.

I took the lid off of the first tote.

Photo albums, video cassettes, papers, more toys and some electronics I didn’t recognise. Oh boy lots of things to look through.

I picked up a photo album and opened it. It had a few pages of Polaroid’s, the only way you could take photos nowadays. King Silas had banned all other cameras and put a five dollar bounty on any ones recovered. Polaroid’s were allowed but they were expensive as hell. Usually families only got pictures done when a new baby came along or someone was dying. I had some pictures of my family and I. Even a few baby pictures.

I smiled as I saw a man that looked a lot like Greyson, I’m assuming it was his father and the former mayor. Beside him was a smiling lady with black hair and a little baby on her lap which I assumed was Greyson. The couple was smiling with two bottles of beer in front of them, each looking in their early twenties. These were very very old. I gingerly put the album aside, treating it like it was breakable. I wanted to be careful.

The next two albums were also little Greyson so I also put those aside. This whole box seemed to be Greyson’s stuff so I put it all carefully away. In case I had to escape quickly I put the first tote back where I found it.

Now the second one... I rubbed my hands together and opened it. I smiled as I saw a blue baby blanket with little brown bunnies on it with bows. I ran my hands over the soft fabric and gently took it out. I placed it on top of the tote lid and looked down.

More baby clothes, a folded sheet, and toys from the looks of it. I picked up a little t-shirt, complete with baby food stain and held it up. It was so tiny! How could my Reaver ever be that small.

I pulled out a few more pieces of clothing, but one of them puzzled me. It was a onesie stuffed inside a blanket but it was scorched and burned, the blanket was singed too. If baby Reaver was in this onesie he would have gotten badly burned. I wonder if that’s the reason they had to escape with him. Maybe their house caught on fire, or maybe someone was after them.

I put it aside and dug in deeper. My spark of curiosity fast becoming an inferno. It was like finding little puzzle pieces.

I reached the bottom of the tote but I only found a few more baby toys, I let out a sigh and looked around more any more boxes I could look through. I decided I might try and find the death records Greyson took, that might have their names on them, but the more I thought about it the more I dismissed the idea. Those records would be almost impossible to find with my time constraint.

I started to gently put everything back, my hands once again falling to the burnt blanket and onesie. I looked at it again and shook my head. They had been trying to escape something. Maybe Reaver’s parents had died from their injuries when they came to Aras.

I was about to put the tote lid back on when something drew my attention. A small corner of something sticking up from a blanket I had just put back in. I pinched the end of it and pulled it out.

It was a Polaroid, I brought it over to the bluelamps and kneeled down in front of it to get a good look.

My heart hit the floor.

A little baby was being held by a young man with short black hair in a lab coat. The baby had dark hair too, and piercing black eyes. His face didn’t have the usual baby chubbiness, it was thin, serious and pale. There was no mistaking it, it was Reaver.

My eyes fell to his father, a dark haired man. As I looked closer I noticed he had burn injuries on him, his hairline looked like had been scorched and the side of his neck was pink with fresh scars.

But despite his ordeal he looked happy. He had a smile on his face  and eyes full of life. The smile looked familiar... actually he looked familiar.

I stared at him. His black hair was long in some places but the flames had burnt off patches in areas too, showing off his scalp.

No... not his scalp, the paleness wasn’t skin.

I looked closer and realized he had blond roots, his hair had been dyed.

When the realization hit me, I gasped and felt the blood in my veins turn to ice. I stared at the picture as a wave of light headedness come over me.

I thought I was going to throw up.

But I didn’t I just stared.

I stared at Leo, as he held the baby, my guess not even six months old.

Reaver... baby Reaver. With Leo... almost the exact same age as me.

It was too much to handle. I quickly put the tote back. My breathing was sporadic and rapid, my heart just pounding and pounding. I started to feel horrified and disgusted with myself for being up here, looking through these personal things. I had to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was too much... fuck this was too much.

They had lied to him... they had lied to him his whole life. Leo was his father.

Shit... Leo was his father.

Leo was Reaver’s father.

The memories Reaver had, the dark haired man with the ball... it had been Leo the whole time.

That lab coat he had been wearing though I had seen it before...

A cold and disturbing thought came over me. I looked down into the tote and pulled out what I though had been a folded up sheet.

It was a lab coat, crisp, white and pressed. I unfolded it and felt a boulder in my windpipe as I saw a name stitched on the breast, in the same cursive writing Perish’s had had.

Lycos.

This was a Skytech lab coat... this was a fucking Skytech lab coat...

I ran my hands along the name, before looking back at the photo. Exact same lab coat.

Was Leo a chimera? Was Leo a fugitive from King Silas on the run?

Oh god what have I just gotten myself into.

I quickly covered my tracks and closed the pull down stairs that had led to the attic. Wordlessly I went back into the living room.

I realized to my anger I had tears streaming down my face. I quickly wiped them up and went to the couch.

I looked down, I still had the picture in my hand. I put it beside the table of drugs and inhaled the remaining two lines. My hands were a shaking mess, my body was as well. I just kept repeating
‘oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck’
in my head over and over again. I didn’t know what else to do, there was nothing else I could do.

What had I stumbled upon? Fuck, you really did it this time Killian. This is what you get for snooping, this is what you get for being nosey. Reaver told you to stay away from all this shit you nosey fucking moron.

I slammed my hand against the coffee table and saying a slew of curse words, most of them aimed at myself. I glanced down at the picture and clenched my head with an angry yell.

In the background was painted metal, a bunker, just like Reaver had remembered. Fuck, fuck, FUCK! They had been lying to him his whole time. Leo was a chimera, Leo was his father. Did he just knock on some woman and flee with the child? Why would a scientist from Skyfall run with a baby? It didn’t make sense.

I had to tell Reaver... no, fuck was I suicidal? Reaver would kill me, and he had enough worries right now. No, I couldn’t tell Reaver.

Leo’s hair was dyed because he was a fugitive, and in a sense Reaver was too. A chimera scientist from Skyfall who defected and ran with a newborn. Why did he come to Aras? How did he know Greyson?

I felt angry at myself, if I had only paid more attention to the going ons in Skyfall I might have more questions answered, but at 14 years old that hadn’t been a priority. What I would give to know just what Skytech scientists did.

What I knew for sure, was that Leo had acquired Reaver and had spent the first two years in the bunker a mile away from Aras. He had to hide him, then pass him off as an orphan.

Was he really a chimera? Was Reaver his son? That I didn’t know, they looked like us. He could have been an apprentice who got himself into trouble.

I felt so much guilt and shame inside of me. I shouldn’t have snooped through this stuff. Now I would have to keep this from Reaver, and have all these unanswered questions. I had pulled back one layer of Reaver’s past only to find a million other layers mixed in with the billion layers of Leo’s past.

Oh gosh in a way this made so much sense, but in so many more it made none.

I rooted through my bag and took one and a half of the xanax pills, hoping that would be enough. If I didn’t I’d drive myself insane with questions. So many more were flowing through my head.

As the xanax hit though I started to feel an overwhelming sense of pity towards Reaver. His past was shrouded in mystery. He didn’t know who he was, or where he came from.

He would hate it if he knew he was from Skyfall, he took pride in the fact he was a waster orphan. If he knew he had been stolen, or smuggled out. How would that affect him?
I wish Leo and Greyson had told him this from the beginning. They could’ve raised him to keep him quiet. Instead they just made him into a ward of Aras, then got pissed at him when he didn’t want to fit into the mold they had created for him.

What a bunch of fucking assholes.

I put the picture in my bag and got my jacket. I looked back at the dimly lit living room and felt the burning anger inside of me. Reaver deserved better than them, they were horrible parents to him. They tied him up in the back yard, and they put a dog collar on him... wild child or not he was still a person. I guess if Leo was a chimera prick it wouldn’t be surprising that he was deep down a heartless asshole.

I didn’t want to be in this house anymore, I didn’t want to be anywhere near the evidence I found, or Greyson and Leo’s things. Hell, I never wanted Reaver to find out about this. This would only upset him, this would screw him up... I had to protect my baby. Even if he was a murderous, sociopathic baby.

I walked out the door and took a breathe of fresh air, still holding back tears.

“Oh, ready to-”

I screamed from surprise, it was Matt. He was walking down Greyson and Leo’s stone pathway.

“Sorry...” I gasped holding my chest but the tears were already falling.

“What’s wrong? Want me to call Reaver?” Matt asked, he was about my height with curly dark hair and broad shoulders. He had always been kind to me.

“No, no, no, god no.” I shook my head and zipped up my satchel. “Let’s... let’s just get me home. I’m pretty tired.”

“You’re trembling, bro,” Matt said, he looked behind me to the house.

I waved him off very politely. “No, please I’m okay. I took some xanax, just a bad dream.”

Matt accepted this response. I think all of Reaver’s coworkers knew I had anxiety issues. “Alrighty, well I’ll watch you to the street. God knows Reaver would blow a blood vessel if I knew where he lived. I swear he just lives under a bridge.”

I laughed, though the xanax was still making me feel a bit woozy. I said some things back to lighten the mood and we carried on towards Quil Street.

I bid him farewell when I was a block away from Reaver’s and he carried on towards the north gate where he was stationed. I wiped my nose and my eyes as the tears started to flow and walked to the house. I gave the west wall a wave, I knew if I didn’t he would think something was wrong.

At least it was too far away for him to see me crying, even with his night vision.

I didn’t sleep well that night, I ended up having to take more xanax to calm my nerves. The picture of Leo and baby Reaver burned into my head. I knew I would never get that image out of my mind. I had the proof... in my satchel, only a few feet away from me. The proof that proved Reaver’s origins, and to an even bigger extent: the chimera scientist that had been pretending to be a block mayor this whole time.

What had I gotten myself into.

Chapter 32

Reaver

It felt like I had just barely put my head onto the pillow when my radio crackled to life.

“Shadow Cat, Shadow Cat.”

Killian jumped a mile high, I probably should have turned it down.

“Go back to sleep, it’s just Redmond.” I yawned and got out of bed. Killian mumbled something about Greyson not coming back soon enough, then a shifting as he rolled over.

I walked out into the living room. “Shadow Cat here.”

“Turn to channel five please.”
I glanced at the radio and noticed all the other sentries were tuned into the channel. I switched to five and made sure that we were alone on that channel. This was the super special mayor channel, even I wasn’t allowed on it usually.

“Reaver, Justin Kerry has a fever. The other two are fine, but we have them all in quarantine right now.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I said. I quickly got dressed and grabbed my pistol and my combat knife. My M16 wouldn’t be needed.

It was cold tonight, the coldest night we had had. The residents would be lighting their stoves soon, and the rains would come. I was looking forward to a bit of rain, we had planted the peach stones, the apple cores, some blackberry seeds and other random crap last week. Hopefully the rains wouldn’t be too irritated. It would be nice to have some real fruit for once.

I took in a deep breath of the sharp night air and held it for a second. I always felt more alive at night, I think I was born to be a night owl. My senses always seemed so much sharper, not just my improved night vision, but my hearing and my reflexes as well.

I hoped I would get this over with soon, I had a warm bed and a warm boyfriend to get back to.

What I would have to do would be quick, but dealing with everyone’s emotions over it would probably take awhile.

It was a two hours before I could escape back to Greyson and Leo’s when I had to shoot Mrs. Kerry and smother the baby. I had to tell Mr. Kerry and the two boys what had to be done and of course they cried, screamed and tried to take a blow at me. Upset I didn’t at least let them say good bye. They were fucking seeping infection, they wouldn’t have been allowed in quarantine anyways. That’s why it was called quarantine. No good byes allowed, say good bye when you’re making baby Madison into a pot roast.