The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (85 page)

I started to walk down towards the resort hotel to get a better look but Perish grabbed my arm.

“No we aren’t going near there. It’s too dangerous, we’re sleeping in the lobby.”

I frowned and looked at the resort. Reaver would have loved to explore it, maybe not with me but he would at least tell me what was inside. I bet there was a lot of neat stuff in there; we were so high up in the mountains that I bet it had barely been scavenged.

As everyone else around us started to check out the lobby I gazed longingly at the hotel. I really didn’t like that Perish was telling me what I could and couldn’t do. I was almost eighteen years old now, I could go wherever I wanted. No matter what it seemed someone was always more than willing to boss me around.

But because I knew Reaver would never want me to go into that hotel alone, I didn’t press the issue. Even though I was tempted just to make a point to Perish that he wasn’t me keeper.

That night half of us would be on guard. Jade volunteered to spend most of the night outside, perched in the tall, thick trees that surrounded the resort. The cicaro had a stealth to him that made him extremely agile and he could scale up and down those tree tops faster than I bet even Reaver could. From Hopper’s experience with ravers they couldn’t climb well, so Jade would be safe up high.

I was going to be taking the 3 a.m shift with Churro for four hours then I could sleep in the cart as we made our way back to the road. My shift wasn’t nearly as long as the others but I didn’t argue. The more I slept the less I time I had to worry myself about Reaver. I’d take it, I hated being idle with my own thoughts.

We fed the slaves and put them all into an old conference room, we chaining them to large pieces of furniture and shut the door with a fire poker that Perish had found. This lobby was full of big pieces of furniture: chewed on couches, many conference chairs and large, heavy wooden desks that still held treasures inside.

That evening after I spent a lot of time scavenging around the lobby, filling up my satchel with forgotten office supplies, I slept in my bedroll waiting for my wakeup call so I could take my shift. Jade left with his assault rifle and his Game Boy Advance and found a snarled tree hanging off of a cliff face that gave him a good view of the valley around us.

The hand on my shoulder came too early. I yawned but remembered I was trying to prove to these slavers that I was a man so I got up looking as alert as I could.

It was Churro who I was taking shift with. I lit a cigarette and belted Reaver’s M16 to my back. Then with my pockets full of opiate powder I followed Churro off into the night.

I was surprised to see snowflakes starting to fall. They swirled like disturbed ash, matching the bright moon that peeked through the towering trees around us. I found it almost magical in my mind. I had never been in a real forest and in the dead of night I almost couldn’t tell we were living in the Fallocaust. To me it just looked like snow falling in a forest.

I stood to admire it, the faint hints of a smile on my face. Tranquility and peace were two things hard to come by in this world, and even with my heart full of worry and my surroundings full of danger... I took a moment to appreciate it.

Churro though didn’t care. I jogged to close the distance between us and we quietly walked to our location: a thick concrete fence that edged the strip of road that led to the hotel. We were taking the hotel watch in case anything came out of it or the area surrounding it.

The hotel looked all the more ominous in the night, the moon’s glow highlighting and coaxing out every detail and texture. If I didn’t know better I would say it was haunted. Though in this world ghosts would be a welcome sight. Ghosts couldn’t kill you but a dozen ravers or a hungry carracat could. People before the Fallocaust lived so comfortably they made up shit to scare themselves.

Idiots.

“I wonder if this snow will get worse.” Churro sucked on a cigarette and looked up at the sky. He blew out the smoke and shook his head. “I bet you it will. Snow clouds all around us... I told Hop we should be thankful we have this area to hide out in if it ends up dumping on us. Better here than the rest stop I guess.”

I rubbed my gloved hands together and hugged the blanket I had wrapped around me. “Why do you do this trip so late in the year?”

Churro dashed the cigarette and sat down beside me. He had his own green blanket over him to try and keep warm. It was freezing up here.

“Melchai sacrifices the slaves during the spring. Crops and shit. Also they want some extras for the Man on the Hill,” he replied.

Man on the Hill? Churro shook his head slowly when I asked him who that was.

“Some freaky dude who lives in a black house a half-mile up from the town. Do not even get me started on that shit. The town is a bit fucked up, lots of superstition.” Churro shrugged. “They pay us great, that’s all we care about. Mostly because no other slaver is stupid enough to make the journey, especially not this time of the year.”

Well, I guess the money was worth the danger. Even though we had lost the old man and Chally they still had a decent amount of slaves to sell.

And Hopper hadn’t complained that we had never replaced Chally like Reaver had promised. I was planning on telling him we would pay the slavers for Chally, the same rate this Melchai town would. Elish literally had all the money in Skyfall and I am sure he wouldn’t mind if I asked nicely.

I liked Hopper more for that. For a slaver he was a good guy, he had been patient with us –
very
patient with us. I think he understood that what had happened in Mariano had caught us all off-guard. He wasn’t like the slavers Reaver had warned me about.

As the night went on the snow started to fall harder and by the time our shift was over it was starting to stick to the ground.

Hopper and Perish relieved us for the evening, both of them didn’t look happy.

“I ain’t going to bother...” Hopper said in a low voice. He looked up over the rim of his hat. “I ain’t bothering, Churro. It’s sticking now... unless it slows down; we’re camping here until it stops.”

Churro sighed and brushed off some snow that had stuck to his blanket. “We’re in the mountains; we have to keep trudging down. At least it’s downhill now. We might break a couple bosen bones but we can get the slaves to pull the caravans if the bosen die. If this snow comes it’s staying. I say we break for it.”

Hopper’s mouth pursed then moved to the side as he mulled over Churro’s suggestion. “Nah, we had the same thing happen a few years ago and the rains came. I mean this whole damn area usually has its week or two of rain or snow then it disappears until next year. The raver we killed will feed all of us for a few days and if we run out of food we can shoot another one. I want to wait for at least a bit o’ rain, this snow won’t last.”

I could tell Churro wasn’t liking his boyfriend’s idea but he nodded anyways and patted my back. “Well, that’s Cappy’s orders I guess. We’ll get some sleep then.”

I gave Perish a smile and started walking towards the lobby, my eyes started to sweep the trees to see if I could spot Jade. I couldn’t see him though, even with the moonlight highlighting the trees. I ended up just waving in a guessed direction. He was probably watching me and I wanted to say good night.

I doped myself up on not only some Dilaudid pills but the medication for my night terrors that Elish had given me; the same stuff he used on Jade. Then, feeling as okay as I could given the circumstances, I fell asleep.

Though I no longer screamed and thrashed in my sleep, the nightmares were still there. Though this was a nightmare of a different sort.

Reaver and I were lying in bed together, naked. We had just made love and we were facing each other, talking and laughing. The heaters were on in his bedroom and the lights from the living room illuminating every beautiful curve of his body.

So perfect. My engineered beauty. I reached out a hand and ran it up his side, up his chest and I cradled his face. By now I knew every detail of that face. His eyes, his little nose, and his little ears. I knew where each of his scars came from. I knew their stories. I knew him.

Reaver smiled at me, a smile that made the edges of his eyes crease. His real smile, the one only reserved for me; the relaxed tranquility on his face that came from hours of sex and endless stupid pillow talk.

I jerked awake suddenly, gasping and exhaling a plume of frozen breath. Then before my mind could wake up I felt someone take me into his arms.

“Reaver?” I sobbed.

“No, no... it’s Perish. You’re crying, poor thing. It’s okay. You were whimpering in your sleep.” Perish? What was he doing here? He was supposed to be patrolling why was he in here, near enough to hear me?

I let him hold me, because I was more upset by my dream than I was that he was close to me. Perish was understanding and he was my friend. He seemed to have accepted that Reaver and I were a couple, and he hadn’t tried anything inappropriate with me since the incident in the greyrifts apartment and that was months ago now.

I whimpered into his jacket and he made soothing noises, petting my hair back.

“What’s Silas going to do to him? Please tell me Elish will save Reaver... I... I can’t stand not knowing. It’s been so long since Nero took him,” I said through sobs. I grabbed onto Perish’s jacket, it was all I could do to relieve my own agony.

Perish shushed me and kissed my forehead. “Oh sweety... it might take a long time. Silas will try and get information out of Reaver and since Reaver won’t say anything...” Perish stopped as I let out another wail and squeezed me tight. “I’ll protect you... from Jade... from everyone.”

I was really lucky to have him. In all of this danger around us, I could count on Perish to keep me safe. He might be a bit on the crazy side but I knew him, I knew his quirks and I understood him. Perish would keep us all safe, and soon... soon...

“... Elish will rescue Reaver soon, right?” I whimpered.

Perish sighed. “I hope so, but until he does and until he takes Jade back... we’ll make due; just the two of us.”

I lifted my head up. “Jade isn’t dangerous. He’s a chimera and I can handle chimeras. Please don’t talk like he’s a threat or not a part of our group. He’s my friend, Perry.”

Perish looked down at me and for a moment I saw a flicker of something in his eyes, like he didn’t want to believe me, but in the end he nodded. “I’m more careful because I’m worried about you. That’s all. Now... why don’t you go to sleep more. I’ll be here.”

He wanted to keep holding me while I slept... but I wasn’t comfortable with that. Perish had been really good with me and the boundaries we had to have, I didn’t want to entice him or anything. So I shook my head and started to get up. He didn’t look too pleased with that but well... we weren’t in Donnely anymore and he wasn’t my boyfriend or captor. I had started to stake my claim of dominance, at least a little bit, and this would be a good time to enforce it.

I was older now. I wasn’t a baby anymore and I wasn’t useless. I was a man and the boyfriend of the most important chimera in existence. When Reaver came back to me... I wanted him to see that I was growing up, that I wasn’t scared anymore.

I bundled myself up in my clothes and brushed my teeth before making my way towards the front of the lobby.

Perish, Jade, and I had taken up a room away from the slavers, a den-like area in the back of the lobby. A good size room covered in a film of dust so thick it coated the room in a monotone blanket. There were boxes, couches, and chairs pushed into corners here but I couldn’t even guess their state or colour. Some of them looked so fragile I wondered if they would hold my touch at all, maybe they were just casts of the furniture it once laid on, with the real furniture now disintegrated underneath.

I went out the door and started walking down the hall, putting my gloves on finger by finger.

But I paused when I saw the unnaturally brilliant daylight coming through the windows. Immediately my eyes shot up to the front of the lobby.

Everything had become white overnight.

“Yeah, and? You fucking jinxed it by mentioning snow!” Tabbit sounded pissed off. Snow flew off of his beard as he shook his head.

Hopper let out an annoyed noise. “There ain’t no such thing as superstition. You’re just nervous because we’re getting near Melchai.”

“Yeah, well, the town is overgrown with crops and they use superstition... so who’s to know. I just know you mentioned it hadn’t snowed and here we be. Good one, Hop!” Tabbit kicked the snow, sending it up into the air then back down to join the foot of snow underneath their feet.

I rubbed my nose; it started to run under the fresh, cold air. I decided to play to my skills and act as a mediator. “We can’t help the weather. Even if you had listened to Churro... that would only mean we would be on the main highway in the snow, right where the ravers are.”

It seemed to have helped. Hopper gave me a thankful but slightly smug smile; Tabbit still didn’t look happy.

“Thank you, Killian,” Hopper said before shooting a dangerous look at Tabbit. “I don’t want to hear nothing about fucking jinxing shit. It’ll rain soon just like it had before a few years back. We can just hunker down, rip some paneling off the walls and off the hotel walls too. Make a big ol’ fire if the chimney works and we can all be warm and happy as pigs in shit. You should be fuckin’ thanking me for the break. Now go get some warm clothes and a fire on those damn slaves before our investments freeze to death.”