The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (33 page)

The talking half-raver bared his teeth at me as I approached him, and in an instant he had his gun drawn.

“Kah!” he said. He raised the gun and pointed it at me; his green eyes narrowed and his broken teeth clenched.

“I don’t give a fuck about that. Is Jade here? Jade? Take me to your fucking leader. Jade,” I demanded. In the back of my mind I was fascinated as all hell that I was only a few feet from these crazed ravers and they weren’t killing us. They were standing still, the half-raver’s words being obeyed to the letter. These weren’t your typical retarded subhumans, this one was smart.

The green-eyed raver’s eyes stared at me. “Jade?”

Elish’s heartbeat jumped. I knew the clock was winding down on him. He might be letting me handle the ravers now, they were my forte after all, but soon he was going to start shooting everyone if I didn’t start leading him to the cicaro. Hell, I was going to start fucking shooting all of them. But it would be quicker for all of us to just resolve this semi-peacefully. Getting Jade and fucking off would be quicker than murdering ravers and possibly getting our throats ripped out.

I nodded at the half-raver. “Jade is our friend. Bring us to him. We won’t shoot.”

He understood me… he actually understood me. To show I was serious I holstered my gun and heard Elish do the same.

The half-raver looked at us, then to his side where Deek was sitting, staring at the both of us with admirable eyes. The ravers all seemed used to him and comfortable around the dog.

Half-raver nodded, and started making weird noises to the others who were still skulking around us. They dispersed, walking back to do whatever half-sane ravers did.

It was the oddest fucking thing I’d ever seen. Ravers chased you, snarling and snapping. They ate you alive and devoured your children in front of you – this was just fucking eerie.

Elish and I walked together side by side through the alleyway, passing a big pile of rotting bones buzzing with flies. We emerged to an area which held a couple stores and a parking lot, ravers milling around giving us cold glares.

Several times as we walked the half-raver spoke to them, and once he even put his hands in the air to shoo them. Another very human act from a creature who usually just screamed and snarled. It made me admire the technology of the Geigerchip a bit more but still left me with the question of how Jade managed all of this. It gave me an all new respect for him for pulling this off. The kid was annoying and a bit of a shithead at times but the proof of his chimera status was all around us. Like I had commanded and manipulated the townspeople to burn their own this little fucker had organized his own raver army.

Not too shabby from a kid barely eighteen.

I smirked and glanced over at Elish, with every step his heartbeat sped up.

“Nervous?” I mused.

“Never.” His eyes didn’t waver. They were fixed ahead, glaring at the back of the half-raver’s head. I realized as we walked he was talking us towards an old Starbucks.

The half-raver stopped in front of the door and opened it. He looked inside and glanced back at us. “Stay.”

Stay? I’m not a fucking dog. Elish had the same sentiment. He walked ahead of me and pushed past the half-raver. I kept pace with him and we both made our way into the old coffee shop.

Then I saw him. I saw the King of the Ravers.

King Jade was sitting on an old wing chair, or half laying on it, one foot up on the foot rest, the other on the floor.

The cicaro was wearing a crown on his head, which looked like a mess of small bones and twine. He was sickly and pale, with prominent black circles around his golden eyes. He was dressed in an old, stained jacket and the jeans he had been left with, but on his belt were a myriad of rotting hands and other severed body parts. It even looked like he was wearing a necklace of ears, though they were baked brown and dried out.

The cicaro was a raver now, which was obvious from just looking at him.

“Jade?” Elish’s voice caught in his throat. He started walking towards Jade but to my shock Jade’s eyes narrowed. He rose to his feet and raised a hand.

“How do you know my name?” Jade spat.

Oh shit.

Elish stopped in his tracks. I saw his body stiffen. Jade’s face was cold and menacing. It was obvious just from one glance that he didn’t know who the fuck we were.

“He lost his memory?” I stated the obvious. I looked back at Jade. “I guess Perish gave you a good smack in the back of the head. Eh, pet?”

Jade’s amber eyes shot to me. I didn’t think they could get any hostile but when we made eye contact they did.

“Pet? I’m no pet, greywaster. I’m the king of this town and you’re trespassing. If you wish to discuss trade negotiations stay at least ten feet from me. My people are uncomfortable with you being so close.”

Elish chuckled and crossed his arms. “You know, Cicaro, when I asked if you were going to become a raver when I dropped you off, I meant it in jest. You really have been busy. Did you know your master has been looking for you for well over a month?”

King Jade stared at him. He took a step towards Elish and attempted to glare him down. “I have no master.”

I could feel the tension from the ravers around us grow. They were getting uneasy with this interaction. There had to be at least ten of them looking on from around the coffee shop, most of them clustered around the glass double doors.

“Really? So you were just dropped from the sky like some prophet to guide the raver race to dominance over the arians? What do you think happened then, Jade? What was the first thing you remember? Does it happen to be the resort? Or perhaps when that carracat attacked you and Deek?” Elish mused.

Jade froze for a moment. His eyes widened just slightly as he looked at Elish, seemingly taking him a bit more seriously than before.

“You… you don’t look like him,” Jade whispered. “His hair was long; he didn’t have a beard.”

Jade took a step back and he looked past us to the gathering of ravers. “Are you hunting me? To make me into a slave again? I was a slave?”

“I’ve been in the wasteland for a long time now seeking you, Cicaro. Naturally my appearance has changed in that time,” Elish replied flatly. “We were not hunting you; we are here to bring you home.”

“Am I an escaped slave?” Jade asked again.

“You’re not a slave, you’re my…” Elish’s voice trailed.

I elbowed him in the side, and at this gesture he sighed.

“You… are my husband.”

The cicaro stared at him, caught off-guard. Then to my surprise he smirked and gave Elish a dismissive wave. “I have no husband, and I am no slave. Even if what you are saying is true, why would I go back with you? I am a king now and this is my own town, the first of many. You have five minutes to leave my town or I’m sending my army out to crucify you with the others.”

And that spelled the end of Nice Elish.

I saw his hands clench, but before he could strangle his pet I put an arm out to stop him.

“What are you doing, Elish,” I said to him calmly. “You fucking know they’re going to eat us if you hurt him.”

An odd noise reached my ears and I realized Elish was grinding his teeth, but with a growl he stopped.

“Come, Jade, let’s go for a walk,” Elish said, his voice struggling to keep level. “We need to talk alone.”

Jade recoiled from his suggestion and took a step back. “You need to… to leave now.”

The cicaro was losing his nerve. I wasn’t sure what was going on inside of that brain but I could tell he was starting to realize he did indeed know us. It was making him uncomfortable.

“Come on, Cicaro. One walk with me and if you do not wish for us to take you, I will leave you be.”

Internally I scoffed. Sure that would happen.

“No.”

“Come on, Cicaro, just us.”

“No.”

“You would disappoint your husband so?”

“You’re not my husband!” Jade snapped.

Elish took a step towards him, and to my shock and inner surprise, he put a hand to Jade’s face and touched it. Then to further my surprise – Jade actually didn’t recoil.

Elish stroked his cheek; his voice suddenly turned as sweet as honey. I knew he was switching gears, trying a different approach. “You don’t remember the last time I saw you, maritus? I did this same thing. You were so upset, and I held you. You didn’t want me to leave you because you were scared of the greywastes. I suppose you are not scared now are you? My parvulus maritus, my little husband.”

Jade’s features softened. He stared back at Elish, his face uncomfortable and confused.

Elish pressed on, seeing the first signs of weakness he took another step towards Jade until they were standing next to each other. He stroked the leather collar Jade was still wearing.

“I did miss you, Cicaro.”

And with that, Elish leaned in and kissed Jade on the lips, gently and lovingly. When Jade didn’t pull back he raised his hands and framed the cicaro’s face. Taking him in in the oddest display of love I had ever seen.

Well, at least we could resolve this peacefully.
I crossed my arms and waited for it to be over, because I had to find my own little cicaro now.

Then a sharp gasp and a flash of movement.

My head snapped back towards Elish and Jade, and as my mouth opened to swear loudly, I saw Jade rip his face away from Elish’s with an animal-like snarl.

A large piece of Elish’s lower lip was clamped in his teeth.

Jade held it like a prize. Elish swore and raised his hand to strike Jade but the cicaro was quick. Though it wasn’t just dodging the blow the cicaro had in mind, in an instant he spat out the lip and, before I could pull Elish out of the way, the King of the Ravers jumped on him and went for Elish’s throat. The cicaro hit his mark and sunk his teeth into the nape of Elish’s neck.

Shit!
I grabbed Jade and tried to wrench him away from Elish, the cicaro growling like a pissed off tom cat. But as I pulled, the other ravers around us let out a harmony of high-pitched shrieks and I knew then we were both fucked.

Elish’s hands were on Jade’s face, trying to push the cicaro off of him. I was trying to pull Jade off of Elish, blood gushing over Jade’s mouth like a dam had just broken. I could see his mouth flexing as he chewed the throat out of his master; red quickly covering the pale skin and pooling onto the dirty floor.

Then it was my turn. A blow knocked me off of my feet, sending me and the raver who had attacked me tumbling to the floor. I tried to grab my gun but I was fucking laying on it.

My chimera instincts kicked in. I bit the raver in the neck like my brother beside me and pulled out a chunk of his rancid tasting meat. But as I pushed him off of me I felt a dull sting followed by the feeling of cold air on exposed skin.

Then another one, this one I could see out of the corner of my eye. It was the half-raver, and his nature had come back to him. With me trying to kill the first two ravers who were trying to eat me alive, he didn’t have any trouble taking a chunk out of my stomach.

I screamed, not from pain but from rage. I raised my leg and kicked the half-raver, sending him flying backwards and into a metal booth.

I looked to my side and saw the image of Jade with his jaws clamped against Elish’s throat. The pool of red around Elish’s head was growing and, to my anger, he wasn’t even fighting Jade off. He was half-heartedly pushing Jade’s head away from his neck; his eyes shut tight and his mouth twisted in a grimace.

Though as I watched him die I realized that there wasn’t anything Elish could do. He wouldn’t hurt Jade, even if it meant we were both dying meat.

Well, I wasn’t giving up. I punched a raver trying to eat my shoulder and tried to rise to my feet. I looked ahead and felt my heart plummet as I saw over twenty of them now inside of the Starbucks, with another dozen looking in, waiting for their turn.

So this is what it’s like to be eaten alive. It’s weird knowing death was coming. Though I had gotten used to it with Nero.

Something hit the back of my body and knocked me to the ground. I shot to my feet again and grabbed the raver as two more clawed at my back. A bellow of rage fell from my lips as I grabbed his neck and twisted it, hearing the snap as I turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees. I let him drop to the ground and grabbed another one.

I fell back to my knees, my head going light.

The raver I tried to grab hissed and shrieked at me, their death noises filling my head with anger. There was no fear. I had nothing to fear.

No, I did.

Because I knew it was going to be even longer before I found –

A mouth snapped against my neck, and another. I could smell fresh blood all around us, blood and rot. I tried to inhale a breath but all that filled my throat was a gurgling sound and the pounding of the blood rushing through my ears. Or was it my heartbeat?

Automatically my body gasped for air, and like a fish out of water I opened my mouth to try and inhale. I could feel the darkness creep the sides of my vision, and in that darkness I felt an anger inside of me, like I was about to burst from just sheer frustration.