Outcast: A Corporation Novel (The Corporation) (29 page)

I listen, but I don't hear anything. Which is good, because as his name passes through my lips, the fear that someone might actually be here hits me. And what if it isn't Bak?

I listen for any creaks giving away footsteps, but nothing comes. The doorway that leads to the kitchen is on my right. There's another doorway after that, closed; another is on my left with its door slightly ajar and hanging off the top most hinge. I have no idea where they lead, and no desire to investigate. Stairs sit at the end of the hallway and disappear after a few steps into inky blackness.

“Through here.” I lead the way through the first doorway on the right. The room is in complete darkness except for a solitary candle sitting on the only table in the space. It's a small nub of wax, an inch from burning out. The flame dances on the wick across the thin bed of liquid wax. The air is still and I swear a chill crept in when we aren’t looking. The stillness is intense and I can feel the electricity and warmth coming from Adami's body next to mine. So close.

“Um…” He doesn't say anything else.

“We need to leave,” I say in a low voice. It was a bad idea to come here. “Bak's not here.”

“But someone is. Don't you want to—?”

“No, I don't. And neither do you. Let's just go.” I turn to leave when a sound like a chair scraping across the floor echoes off the walls. “Adami, go!”

He reaches out and grabs my hand in his like a vice, with more strength than I thought he had. He starts to pull me back to the hallway when a scratchy voice makes its way to my ears and fills the air around us.

“Ye won' fin' 'im 'ere.”

Ethan

The town is dark and somewhat eerie. It sits there, silent and forgotten, abandoned and resentful. It stretches about a mile down the road, only a few hundred yards from the edge. Buildings pock the vastness on our right, but the majority of it is on our left. The sun hangs low in the sky; there won’t be much daylight left.

I look at Dhevan. We lock eyes and have a silent conversation. There’s no other option. We have to go into the town and try to find supplies. Water at the very minimum. Chances are pretty much nonexistent that there’s anything left for us, with nomad Untouchables and everything else, but we have to try.

Without speaking we turn ninety degrees to our left and walk down the small decline and off of the road. “Hey!” Raj cries out when he sees us change direction. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“We have to find food and water, Raj,” I say without stopping. “This is the best shot we have right now.” My body is so hot and my mouth is stuffed with cotton. This bite is making an already bad situation worse.

“I’m not going into that town,” he says, a tinge of alarm at the fringe of his words.

“So stay here,” Dhevan says. “But whatever we find, we won’t be sharing it with you. Everyone pulls his own weight, remember?”

I hear some sputtering and air being pushed through his nose as Raj thinks about his choices. I hear his footfalls as he hurries to catch up with us. “Abandoned towns in the Further are dangerous.”

“It’s either die in there or die out here,” I say. “And I’d rather at least try to delay my dying out there as long as possible.”

“There won’t be any food or water here. These towns have been too long abandoned. Anything left would have been scavenged by Untouchables or wild animals.”

“Or my father’s men,” I say.

“And any of those scavengers mentioned might still be here,” Raj says.

“Exactly.” Dhevan casts an irritated look over his shoulder. “So why don’t you just be quiet so you don’t attract any of them to us. Besides, there’s a good chance there are wells around here. Check near the older homes,” he says, “and any lots with significant amount of property or potential for crops. Those are our best chances.”

Raj snaps his mouth shut with a click of his teeth and we travel the rest of the way in silence. The sun is almost set by the time we reach the outskirts of the town. Dhevan looks at the horizon.

“We got another, maybe, twenty minutes of weak light. I’d like to get out of here before it’s too dark to see things coming for us.”

I nod. “Split up?”

“Probably best.”

“No way!” Raj snaps. “There’s no way I’m going through those dilapidated buildings by myself. I’m staying with one of you.”

Dhevan shrugs. “Fine with me.” And he starts to walk off.

“Hey! I shout. “Why do you assume I’m going to take him?”

“He’s your parasite; you get to tote him around.”

I growl a little in the back of my throat. “Fine. Come on.” I stalk straight ahead as much as I can, given my weakened state. “But you’d better not slow me down or get in my way.”

“In your current state, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Shut up and get moving.” I follow Dhevan across the patch of barren land that acts as a clear barrier between the Further and the town.

Small houses are the first line of defense. They’re modest and run down; barely standing, actually. Shambles of what were once fences guarding their plots lean at different angles.

The town isn’t big to begin with. Yeah, it stretches about a mile down the road, but depth wise, I can already see where it starts to thin out again. The town gets denser with buildings a few hundred yards in with stores and buildings that tower up about four or five stories, covered in windows. Dhevan turns right and explores down that way while Raj and I continue forward.

“Try to stay within shouting range,” Dhevan says as he walks away.

There are stations of some sort with tanks standing on end with hoses attached to them. “Let’s go in here and check it out,” I say. The entire structure is built on a square of asphalt. The tanks are giant steel drums. I rap my knuckles on their faded red and white painted surface and the sound rings back hollow. “Empty,” I say.

“What was in these things?” Raj asks.

“I dunno.” I look around and see the sign. “
Petrol?
”

“What’s that?”

I shrug. “Let’s go inside.”

The front of the small store is nothing but metal frames and what used to be glass windows and doors. Except for the few rare shards still clinging to the frames, there’s nothing to attest to that. I lead the way, Raj close behind. There are counters and metal shelves that span the length of the small store, five or six rows wide. The only thing left on the shelves is garbage — empty containers, bags. I see a carcass of some small animal in the corner of the store. Cases with glass doors line the perimeter wall.

“There’s nothing here,” Raj says, picking up a box and turning it over.

“Let’s go.” We turn and leave.

Houses are at the other edge, and beyond that, more of the Further with spots of sagebrush and low hills. All the way through the town the windows are busted out, doors absent from their hinges, roofs fallen in. The houses on the far end are more put together than the others. I’m not foolish enough to think that there are stores of food and water here, undiscovered by other scavengers, but I’m a little more hopeful that some small scrap may be left.

I catch Dhevan moving a ways to my left, heading into a house of his own. “Let’s make this quick,” I say to Raj. “It’s getting dark and I’d rather be out on the road.” I pick the house right in front of us.

The front door is missing. Raj and I stand outside and peer into the empty space. The inside is completely barren. There are holes in the walls and piles of debris and rubble throughout. I walk through and into the front room, Raj following reluctantly behind me. I kick at some of the trash, halfheartedly looking for something edible or drinkable, but see nothing.

Raj walks past me into the kitchen, putting forth the same amount of effort as I am. “Come look at this,” he says to me.

I turn around and see him standing in front of an open door, pitch blackness beyond its mouth. “What is it?”

He remains rigid. “Dunno. A cellar, probably.”

“So, are you going to go down and explore it?” I walk towards him.

“You first.”

I knew he would say that so I stride past and head down the stairs, swallowing my nerves. I can’t show Raj I’m just as afraid of what lies at the bottom of these steps as he is. The railing is rough and splinters catch in the skin of my palm. I count the number of stairs. Twelve.

The ground of the cellar is dirt and the air around me is blessedly cool against my burning and sweating skin. I hear Raj coming down after me, slow and scared. “Are you going to come and help me look?”

“I think I’ll stay here, thanks.” He clears his throat. “Besides, there’s still enough light coming in through those small windows that you can see your way around.”

“Not really, but stay there anyway. You’ll just get in my way.” This guy is a coward beyond belief.

I walk carefully. There is a little bit of light, but it’s thin and weak and I can’t see that well. I can make out some shelves to my left and I head for those. Dusty jars are lined in rows three deep. I pick one up and look at it. It’s covered in thick grime. I wipe it with my sleeve, trying to clean it off well enough so I can see what’s inside. It doesn’t do any good. I shake the jar gently and something liquid sloshes back and forth. My mouth immediately starts to water. I hurry and shove as many jars into my bag as I can.

“What is it? What’d you find?” Raj says.

“You’d know if you had helped me find it.”

“Wait a minute! I came with you to this house, we found that together. Half of that’s mine.”

“You followed me to this house, refused to go down here on your own, and then hid on the last step while I did all the hard work. This is
my
find.” My pack’s almost full.

“Half of that is mine!” Raj comes barreling in my direction, and when he reaches my side, starts wedging his fat arms into the shelves and grabbing jars. He pushes me aside while he fills his bag.

“Wait a minute!” It’s not that I want all the jars for myself, my pack is full. It’s that the dirt yank pushed me for his selfish gluttony. I push him back. “Have some manners. Or has the Inner City taught you they’re no longer needed?” He stumbles against another row of shelves, rattling its contents and sending the structure swaying.

“I’ll show you manners!” Raj lowers his shoulders and starts to come at me.

“Stop!” I say. I grab his shoulders when he gets to me and turn him around, holding him still with a hand over his mouth. “Do you hear that?” I say in a low voice. We’re both still, not even breathing, listening for it again.

A growl.

“Raj, run!” I let him go and he pushes me to the ground to get past me, heading for the stairs. I fall to the floor, my feet tangled in something I can’t see. My pack flies from my shoulder and crashes into the wall. I can hear all the jars break. But I don’t care. What I care about is the steady, deep growl coming from the far corner of the basement and the tapping of sharp claws on broken glass.

In the last of the light, a large dog-like creature steps out to size me up. Its fur is dark gray and matted, its eyes darker and bloodshot. Pink and black lips curl up to show off sharp, yellow fangs, saliva dripping from its jaw and tongue. It looks at me with a hunger I know, because I have it too. The only difference is, the animal is going to get his meal.

I grab whatever items are at my level and throw them at the creature while I scramble to my feet. I hear a sharp whine as something hits it. I lunge for the stairs and sharp pain laced in fire pierces my ankle. I twisted it badly when Raj pushed me over. But I have to ignore it, now. I push past the tearing and haul myself up the stairs. I shut the door to the cellar stairs as I hear the animal race up the steps. The door no longer latches, but it’s better than nothing.

Raj is nowhere in sight and I can’t worry about where he is. I need to get out of here. I sprint through the kitchen and front room and out the door, jumping off the porch and into the street. Searing pain shoots up my leg and I stumble. “Damn it!” I grit out, but can’t dwell on the pain.

I launch into the street and race in the direction of where I last saw Dhevan. I look over my shoulder to see how close the beast is to me, but it isn’t out of the house, yet.

“Dhevan!” I shout. “Dhevan, where are you?”

My feet pound over the broken asphalt. “Dhevan—!”

The farmer shoots out of a nearby house. “What is it?” he says through heavy breaths.

“Run!” I shoot past him and he looks towards the direction I came from.

“What the—?” Then I hear his heavy footfalls catching up to mine. “What the hell did you do?”

“It was Raj. Just run!”

We are nothing but pounding feet and heavy breaths as we run down the street and turn around corners. The growling and snarling is getting closer. I venture a look over my shoulder and see the wolf is almost on top of us. Dhevan has fallen behind, his face is red and his breathing labored. I can’t let anything happen to him.

I slow my steps and take the knife from my waistband that D’mitri gave me. When I’m right next to Dhevan, I shove him aside, hard, and into a dirt patch. I run towards the wolf and jerk right, catching the animal by surprise. He has to all but stop to turn in my direction. I use that moment of disorientation to lunge at him.

He’s a big wolf, and as I launch onto his back, my arms are barely able to encircle his neck. The fur is thick and smells awful. He’s angry that I’m here.

His head whips back and forth, jaws gnashing and chomping, trying to get to me. Spit and hair get in my eyes but I hang on with everything I have. The hilt of the knife is in my right hand, is pressed against its throat.

He bucks and jumps, trying to get me off of him, but I hold tight. I turn the knife around and plunge the blade into its throat. There’s a gurgling howl and hot liquid spills over my hands, making my grip slippery. It doesn’t take long for the beast to go down.

I lay on top of it for a few breaths after it’s died, trying to digest the adrenaline in my bloodstream.  I sit up and stand, my legs and arms shaking. I wipe the blade off on my pants and have to try three times to put it back in its sheath before my hands are steady enough to listen.

I look up. Dhevan stands there, eyes wide. He looks at me and then to the wolf. “Thank you.”

I nod, a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, sure. No—no problem.”

“You saved my life.”

“I guess I did.” I look up at him and try to blow it off. “Maybe now you’ll be a little nicer to me.”

He waits a minute. “Not likely.”

“Glad to see our relationship is stable and predictable.”

He nods. “Where’s Raj?”

“Hell if I know,” I say, anger flooding my body. “The coward ran as soon as this guy showed up.”