The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (43 page)

And the idea Elish had come up with had worked. We had been making good time since we put Jade on top of the dog, but the pet was still deteriorating as the days went on. There was something wrong with his head, something extremely wrong.

Just then Jade gave out a strangled cry, in a flash Elish grabbed him as the boy slumped over.

I ground my teeth.
Not again…

I walked over and helped Elish lower Jade onto the ground.

The pet screamed and twisted around like a dying insect, thrashing and clenching his fists like he was having a seizure. Then at once he started bashing his fists against his left eye, hammering it hard like he was trying to bust his own eye socket.

There was no alarmed cry from Elish or myself, or even Big Shot, who watched beside the dog. We had been having to deal with this three times a day since we had gotten the kid back. The pain, Jade had told us, was focused behind his left eye, and in his pain-filled, delirious state he said pressing and hitting it distraction from the migraine itself.

Like a trained team I grabbed Jade’s hands and held them back. Elish put his hand over Jade’s left eye and made his touch cold. His remaining hand was resting beside the boy’s ear which he made so hot I could smell Jade’s hair burn.

This was our routine; this is what we had to do until it subsided. It only took ten minutes out of our walking time so I tolerated it, but it still made my teeth grit in frustration.

Jade shrieked, and in my core I felt bad for him and I worried for him too. I took that as a win. Leo and Greyson would’ve been proud that I was feeling a bit of empathy for someone that wasn’t Killian. I think it was because he had been protecting Killian from Perish while I was gone. I had learned he had known something was off with Perish and had been protecting Killian in any way he could before Perish tried to kill him.

After another minute the screaming died down and soon it was replaced by rapid breathing bordering on hyperventilating. I held the cicaro down for a few seconds longer before I slowly let go of his arms.

I looked at Elish and saw his face was tense, his purple eyes still fixed on his pet. He was worried, and I knew he was worried. We were a long ways away from medical attention for this kid. Even if we had a town close-by no one would know what the fuck was going on inside of his brain.

Cluster headaches were what Elish called them. He had told me Jade’s brain was weakening, that he couldn’t handle his abilities growing as quickly as they were. That and the stress of being in the greywastes, plus not having the medication Elish usually gave him – it was taking a devastating toll on the little yellow-eyed brat.

“Elish?” Jade murmured, and, as always, at his cue Elish took the boy into his arms and cradled him. The cicaro, an eighteen-year-old adult, curled into him, his long spindly legs and arms tucked up into himself like he was a toddler who had just found his parent.

I couldn’t hold that against him. I was going to break Killian’s legs when I found him just so I could carry him around like that without complaint. I was never letting him out of my sight.

And I would find him soon… since Jade had the dog to ride we had been making better time. Elish wasn’t forcing us to rest for more than four hours a day. It was hard on Deek and Big Shot but they were managing.

Elish let out a breath and looked forward. “I’ll carry him until we make camp. Let’s go. The houses you spotted are not far away.”

I nodded and started sprinting ahead. We had veered off of the highway several days ago and now we were walking deeper into the greyrifts towards the plaguelands. According to Elish’s knowledge of this area it was north east. Elish and I had found Jade north west so thankfully we hadn’t been going in the complete opposite direction.

We would be completely bypassing Falkvalley and Melchai. Elish was sure Perish wouldn’t be stopping in any of those towns. No, he was on a straight course to the plaguelands.

Where my boyfriend could die from radiation poisoning. We were now relying on this prolonged concentrated exposure, or whatever, that Elish had told me about.

But why? Why was he was taking Killian out of the greywastes? The plaguelands were not mapped and any old pre-Fallocaust map would be outdated and almost useless. We had no idea what we would find there besides the usual abandoned destruction. All I knew was there had to be a reason.

But what reason? If this theory of making a greywaster immune to radiation didn’t work would Perish love Killian enough to abandon his plan?

My heart gave a poisonous lurch. I felt the bitter liquid rise to my throat which I swallowed down with nothing but self-control. I buried my fears inside of my body and picked up the pace.

Big Shot appeared to my left, standing in the middle of two fallen black trees, both fallen on top of each other. He put out his arms and climbed up one of the trunks and looked ahead. He scanned the terrain for a moment before jumping down and sprinted towards me.

The half-raver looked entirely different than when I had first seen him. Though I was unhappy with it, I had let him dress in some of Killian’s old clothes that Jade had in his pack. It was either that or he kept wearing the rank and disgusting, rot smelling clothing he had come with. He was wearing a pair of jeans now, a faded black shirt with a cartoon spaceship on it and a member’s only jacket he had been wearing before. It didn’t smell as bad as everything else.

Physically he was still changing as well. His hair was dark and covered all of his head now, and his once milky eyes held no clouded film, just dark green with black pupils. He was probably Reno’s age if not a bit older and fair looking though he was still scarred and his once unhealed wounds held hard grey calluses over them instead of exposed meat and bone.

“No ravers,” Big Shot commented. He pointed to where he had jumped from and nodded. “All clear, none at all going north west. All clear.”

“Good,” I said. I was used to him sprinting beside me; he was my second watch since Deekoi had become a pack horse. I had gotten used to the half-raver helping me scout and he was used to me.

“Did you ever go this way? Towards the plaguelands?” I asked him.

Big Shot shook his head and I saw his eyes widen, the raver had a lot of weird facial expressions. I guess it had to do with how they communicated.

“In plaguelands, cable worms, big ravers, big beasts. Big, all bigger there,” Big Shot said with a sober shake of his head. “Your boy… can fight them? Bang. Bang?”

My mouth twitched; he had never met Killian obviously. No one would ask that question if they had met Killian. “No, he’s… he’s small. I protected him from all of that.”

“I protect, Jade,” Big Shot nodded. “Small, sick, bad head.”

Small, sick, bad head.
Yeah, that was how it ended up for a lot of people who got mixed up with chimeras.

I left Elish and Jade behind and found an old single-lane road which led to the houses I had spotted. I slowed my pace down and started scanning the area, looking for anything that could be out of place, anything to show me someone had been here.

I didn’t know their exact trail, for all I knew their trail was only a quarter mile from where I was walking, I didn’t know. My best bet for finding any sign of my boyfriend was to keep checking these clusters of houses; something had to be here, some sign.

For fuck sakes, just give me a sign that Killian was here.

Only my boots crunching against the dirt could be heard, and as I approached a string of fallen down and half-burned houses, the sounds echoed off of their structures. I walked to the porch of the first one and tried the door, but there were no traces of footsteps, no disturbed dirt. I didn’t bother opening the door I turned around and tried the next one.

Big Shot, Elish, and Jade were now at least half an hour behind me and in truth I preferred that. I wanted to be the first to check out this small abandoned cluster of houses, it was my boyfriend out there not theirs.

I walked down the road, houses on either side of me and the occasional fallen down telephone pole or lamp post. I even spotted a mailbox still standing, I walked to it and opened it – just because that was what Killian used to do. Even though the rusted hinges put my teeth on edge and made me question why I was making such a racket.

Come on, Killian – tell me where you are.
Every house, every building with its wood stained a faded grey looked the same but for all I knew one of them held the jackpot inside, the surefire sign that my boyfriend had been here.

Even if he’s long gone, just knowing… just fucking knowing…
I sighed and closed my eyes, and because my own inner masochisms would eat me alive if I let it, I shut that area of my brain off and slipped into the dark chimera I knew I was. I could be the boyfriend later when he was safe in my arms but until then…

I couldn’t be that man.

Methodically I looked through every open window frame, and when there was an open door I looked inside and scanned the area for any signs of life. There was nothing though, just ripped up carpets, rain-warped wood, and the endless piles of crumbled gyprock and faded pink insulation.

By the time I was down to the last two dozen houses, the ones at the end, the rest of my travelling companions had arrived.

“Not a sign then?” Elish asked. Jade was walking again, giving Deek a break. The deacdog had made a beeline to a porch so he could lay on it; he was shit out of luck though.

I shook my head, not feeling like voicing it out loud, and decided it was time to pull out my wild card. “Deekoi. Killian. Is Killian here?”

The dog scrambled to his feet and started to smell the air. Inside of me my heart started to implode on itself as I watched the dog do his work not knowing what was going to happen next.

Suddenly the dog looked at me and barked. My throat tightened and my limbs locked in place as he turned and started running towards the last string of houses, the ones I hadn’t checked yet.

Elish whirled around, his eyes shooting from the dog to me.

I… I still hadn’t moved. I couldn’t move. Why couldn’t I fucking move?

I only stared as the grey deacon dog with black legs sprinted down the road, before turning and giving the door frame a hard sniff. He started quickly smelling around it before his paws started to dig and scratch at the bottom of the floor.

“Killian?” I whispered.
He had been here? He had really…
I looked around the mess of houses and tried to push down the overwhelming emotions this realization brought to me. In a second I had control of my body again, and without wasting another second I ran towards the dog. Elish, Jade, and Big Shot trailing behind me.

Deek jumped back as I threw my weight against the door. The half-rotten door frame came off and splintering as the door itself flew forward, landing beside a cabinet overflowing with boxes.

I ran inside of the house and looked around. I was in a kitchen with shredded floor tile and wallpaper that had come down in curls like an unraveled scroll.

“Killian?” I knew he wasn’t there, I knew he wasn’t but fuck… I couldn’t… I didn’t know what I was doing. “Killian?”

I looked around the kitchen and started opening up cabinet doors, my chest a frozen block of ice as I saw the dust-less circles that outlined the bottom of the cabinet like cookie cutter shapes.

There had been cans here and they’d gotten them… Killian had gotten them.

“Killi?” I yelled. I ran into the living room, the old carpet frayed and covered with dirt, the light from the outside seeping through the curtains to make the entire living room bright.

“Killian?” I hollered, wishing in the throes of my own panic-stricken insanity that I could just hear his weak voice calling my name.

But there was only silence, silence and the sounds of boots stepping onto the front deck.

I looked down, and saw outlines of boot prints.

“These are Perish’s….” I called, knowing the others were here now. I traced them to the far end of the living room, nodding to myself. “These are Killian’s… there are… the ones without the tread marks are the slaves. They must have brought slaves with them. Elish do you –”

I paused, the words on my lips lying forgotten as my eyes fell on something I didn’t want to see. Something that I had tried to accept might be a reality, but once I had that confirmation in my mind – something I don’t think I knew how to handle.

Blood… blood and semen. I could see it, and as every ounce of heat inside of my body drained out of me, I realized I could smell the semen too.

Before I could stop myself I leaned down and brushed my hand over the dried blood. My face tightened and my jaw locked as I saw the shining reflection of a single blond hair.

Killian’s hair, my Killian’s hair.

“Reaver?” Elish’s voice sounded behind me. “Is that…”

“He raped him.” My own voice was a rasp in my throat, barely able to sound over the tight vice that was holding my breath hostage. “There is fucking… semen on the carpet, Elish.”

I felt his presence behind me, my shoulders started to tremble as Killian’s single blond hair slipped from my hand. It fell to the floor right beside a long string of dried cum, contrasting against the dirty carpet like it had been deliberately left there for me to find.