She made a face at me when she realized I was staring a little too intently. “I said no skinny dipping!”
“I wasn’t thinking that at all!”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I don’t know… because you’re kind of… beautiful.”
She paused for a moment, and my heart stopped for the millionth time this week. The smile that stretched across her face was worth all my nerves.
“Dork!” she said, splashing water in my direction.
I meant to jump out of the way but misjudged my step and slipped off the mossy rocks, stumbling headfirst into the lake with a big splash. Of course the sound of splashing water was dwarfed by Gia’s laughter. I looked at her from my newfound seat and couldn’t help but break into laughter myself; I wasted no time splashing her in return. She tried to raise her arms in defense, which was the opportunity I needed to grab her hands and pull her in. She fell at my side, and we continued to splash each other like two pre-fall children on a summer day.
After we were thoroughly soaked, we crawled out and lay near Dodger. He was still out cold, but breathing comfortably. “Does he normally fall asleep at the first sign of danger?” Gia asked, looking at him closely.
“No, danger is when he’s usually most excited. I don’t know, after he rescued me he just kind of gave up, like years of exhaustion just took over.”
“Has to be whatever they injected him with.”
“Yeah, that and he killed Adam. He didn’t handle it well.”
“What do you mean?”
I explained everything that had happened from the moment since we left Red’s camp. I made sure to leave out the bits where I almost slept with Eve. She listened with a look of fascination. More than once I expected her to say something snarky. Instead, she took on a more pensive role, listening to every word with great patience.
“Killing someone can really mess you up.” She looked at Dodger with remorse. “It’s not as easy as they make it seem. You can’t just end someone’s life and go about your business like nothing happened. Well, not all of us, at least.”
From the way she avoided my eyes, I could tell there was something more behind her statement. It made me wonder about her past, something which she kept well-guarded. What could have possibly put her in a situation where she would have had to kill? It didn’t take much for me to place blame on her father. I didn’t know him, yet hated him for the things he put her through. Then I realized I had put Dodger in that very same situation.
“I know, but he had to do it. It was my fault.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t regret saving you. He’ll probably just have a hard time dealing with it. Regardless, this is probably more of a result from the virus. He’s also pretty banged up. Any idea what happened to him?”
“We didn’t have time to catch up,” I replied, wondering what else he’d gone through after I left him.
“We should just let him rest for a bit. We’ll skip the Runts and head straight for Red. The faster we find Smith, the faster we can help Dodger.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I looked her straight in the eyes, tilting my mouth up in a half-smile, thankful for her help. She smiled back, and we held each other’s gaze for a while.
“So, wait, let me get this straight,” she said. “You both left me because you thought it’d be dangerous for me, and then you left him because you thought it’d be dangerous for him. He ended up saving you, and I saved both of you! That is absolutely classic!”
“This wasn’t one of our better raids, I’ll admit, but it all worked out accordingly.”
“You two are such losers.”
“Ahh, you love us!” I said with a smile.
“Twist, do me a favor.”
“Yes?”
“I’m all wet, and now the air is making me a bit chilly,” She trailed off, looking at me expectantly.
“I’m sorry,” I said, looking around in dismay. “I wish I had a jacket or something.”
“No,” she said, moving closer to me. “You’ll do.”
“Huh? I’m soaked too.”
“God, sometimes I swear you are either the sweetest guy left in the world, or the dumbest. Would you just put your arms around me and hold me?” She glared at me.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, crawling closer to her.
She turned around on her side and backed the rest of the way into me. I put one arm under her head and the other around her waist. She snuggled back more, her body pressing into mine. Her hair smelled sweet under my nose. I could already feel our bodies warming up. Perfect. Until there was a stirring in my pants, not now, not now! I awkwardly tried to pull my thigh back, keeping my erection as far away from her back as possible.
She shook her head and laughed. “You’re such a loser.”
I was still half asleep when I was nudged awake. I couldn’t have been out that long. The moon was at its highest, and my body was still exhausted. Dodger stood over me, with a pitiful expression.
“So I fell from the top of a cathedral and I murdered a man saving your life. And here you are cuddling with the talent.” Dodger glared at Gia. He shook his head and walked away in a fit of coughs.
I gently and reluctantly dragged my arm out from under Gia’s head and walked after him. He sat down by the lake edge, hugging himself, rubbing at his shivering arms. He looked over at me as I approached.
“I’m so cold, think you can keep me warm?”
“Come on, man.” I wasn’t sure if he was seriously mad or just messing with me. I sat next to him, both of us looking out over the lake. “Are you okay? You were totally out of it.”
“I feel like crap. My body aches in so many places… I’m pretty sure I was going on pure adrenaline.
“What happened? How’d you find me?” I asked.
He threw skipped a rock over the lake water. “When I woke up you were gone. Everything went to hell after that. I had the biggest hangover. At least that was the most sensible explanation. I looked all over for you and found this.” He fished his notebook out of his back pocket, licked his finger and turned to the page I had written on, in a mocking voice he proceeded to read. “Dodge, you aren’t doing well and I’m worried. You need to stay off your feet. I’m going on ahead to get the meds. I want you to go back to Red’s. I dunno, she’ll probably sleep with you if you do, yeah? Let me do this, I have to do this. I want to show you that you can depend on me. Twist.” He stuck a finger down his throat and pretended to puke.
“What? I was being honest!” I said.
“Yeah, well, after that, I gathered my things and went after you. After running aimlessly through the tunnels, because, you know, you had the directions. Luckily that old nut case slowed you down. While you were shooting the breeze with him I caught up. But decided to give you what you needed. You wanted to prove yourself, I get that. So I stayed hidden, so I could make sure you were safe on your little vision quest. Because that’s what I do,” he looked hard at me, “you may not like it. But we are brothers, and I will always watch over you. I almost came out in the open when those two morons, Michael and David found you… asleep. But you were able to talk yourself out of that. I was actually surprised you got them to take you to the cathedral.
“Problem was, once they took you in, I couldn’t follow. So I cased the place. I found some rope in one of the abandoned buildings. It gave me the perfect plan. I decided to do what Gutter Punks do best; I was going to run a raid on the cathedral. There was a service ladder in the back, made my way to the roof. Found the skylights waiting for me right there where I knew they would be. See I thought about raiding the cathedral in the past. Back when I was young and dumb. So I did my research. I know you think you’re the only one who does that sort of thing. But I did, I knew what I was doing. I had a plan. Had you stuck around, you would have known that.” He wasn’t angry with me, but the way he spoke shook me. I worried that something changed between us. Did he blame me?
“I didn’t know.” My weak att
empt to defend myself was met with no sympathy.
“Of course not. Whatever. My plan was simple; I was going to lower myself down from the skylight to the second level balcony. Hop the railing and keep it quiet until I found you. Unfortunately as I made my way down, the damn rope got tangled up in the chandelier. I couldn’t reach the balcony. But I kept trying until I finally got my fingers on the railing. I had to keep pulling at the chandelier to get more give on the rope. I thought I was going to make it, for a moment, until the railing broke and we both went tumbling down. The rope held though, so when the railing landed in the main hall and alerted the two Angels I thought I would be a sitting duck. Easy target practice, just flapping in the wind. Guess my knot wasn’t that good because next thing I know I’m free falling and I can hear the rope winding around the chandelier.
Right before I went splat, the knotting must have got caught or something cause I came to a hard stop. The Angels were still in shock from the fallen railing that had landed only feet away. Unfortunately, the rest of the rope came loose, dropping me right at their feet. I was laid out, looking up, thinking of something clever to say, but there wasn’t any time for pleasantries because the chandelier was somehow coming straight for me. I rolled over onto my feet and half-ran, half-crawled out the way, with the Angels on my tail. They would have caught me, too, if it wasn’t for the chandelier crashing onto their heads in an explosion of glass and metal.”
“I heard it even at the other end of the cathedral,” I said.
“The Angels were toast. One of the bodies landed right next to me. I didn’t want to, but I didn’t see much choice. I pulled the robe of his dead body, feeling a pang of guilt while I stripped him of his possessions, and wore it as my own. Voices came running into the grand hall. So, thinking on my toes, I yelled for help. Three Angels came in, two with their hoods up and the third with a fancy robe of gold symbols and his hair pulled back in a ponytail. He asked what happened, eyeing up the Angel whose robe I stole. I took a chance and said ‘We were keeping guard down here, Michael and I, good and proper. Then, all of a sudden, the railing comes tumbling down, and, before we had time to inspect the situation’―I pointed at the downed Angel wearing only his underwear and T-shirt―’this guy comes falling out the sky, he does. A second later the chandelier comes crashing down behind him. Took out Michael, shame… in’it?’
“Ponytail looks at me for a second, then up at the roof I asked if he thought someone was trying to break in. He told me to mind my business and get the mess cleaned up while he investigated. He told the other two to help; luckily they weren’t much for talking. They pulled the bodies out from under the wreckage and placed them aside. I felt bad. They died because of me, you know?”
“It wasn’t your fault. It was just dumb luck,” I said.
“Sure. Anyway, we were cleaning up for a while. It wasn’t the most annoying thing I endured that day. But it was annoying enough for me to curse you and the rest of your bloodline. My body was sore, I felt like crap, and now I was sweeping up glass and wiping blood. But right before I lost my mind, another set of marching feet came into the hall. I looked up to see this dude, braided hair and a bullet-proof vest. The way the other two Angels dropped to their knees told me it had to be Adam, so I dropped down too. Adam looked at the scene for a second before yelling at us to come with him. He didn’t even slow his steps, just kept walking, expecting us to follow. He led us through a side door, which went into a maze of corridors.
“We went on, until we reached an open garden. You pretty much know the rest; Adam had a hissy fit and went after you. I was trying to come up with a plan while you fought with them, but then something happened, you just gave up. You stopped struggling, like you were ready for death. Before I could realize it, I had the gun from the bar in my hands, its muzzle trained on Adam’s head. I don’t remember pulling it, or even thinking to pull it. A cold sensation ran through my hands, as if the gun itself was taking over my body, compelling me to use it. My mind felt numb. The muscles in Adam’s arm tensed. The blade was coming for you. The sound of the gun firing seemed so loud; I thought the world was crumbling.”
I told him everything that happened to me after we split up. He seemed to particularly enjoy the parts where I almost hooked up with Eve. “Here I am getting thrown out of windows, while you’re getting some. I can’t be mad at you; I’d do the same in your shoes.” He gave me a proud pat on the back.
I was shocked to find out all he went through. I thought I was doing the right thing leaving him behind, and yet I seemed to have put him in more danger.
“I’m sorry, is all I can say. I didn’t know it would turn into a crap show,” I said.
“Please, it’s all in a day’s work.” His smirk returned.
Throughout his whole story, he had a light-hearted attitude about him. When he brought up shooting Adam, he was no longer himself, becoming stiff and distant. All our years living the life we have, and neither of us had ever killed anyone. He refused to carry guns and knives for that reason. Dodger was by no means innocent, but it was like killing Adam destroyed what little he had. He stared out over the lake, lazily skipping pebbles; each stone created ripples across the surface that subsided as they reached us.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked, too scared to hear his reply.
He just looked at me with empty eyes and shrugged.
“My head is killing me,” he said, getting up and walking away. “I’m going to get some sleep. We should head to Red’s first thing in the morning. I need to get whatever this is out of me.”
“Okay,” I didn’t know how else to help.
“Oh, and Twist, watch yourself around her.” He pointed at Gia. “Girls are only good for one thing, and that one isn’t even worth the hassle.”
“Dude, she saved us both!”
“Yeah, and I suppose I’m grateful for that. But she’s not worth the way you look at her. She might be cool but I’ll be damned if I let someone… break you.” He walked to some benches off further in the park. It didn’t escape me that they were far away from Gia and me. He stiffly lay back and went to sleep.
pon returning to Red’s tribe, we were met with a welcoming applause. Dodger still had trouble walking; his arms were draped around Gia’s and my shoulders as we marched into the circus of misfits. Some cheered, and others patted us on the back. We were each offered mugs of frothy beer within steps of entering. It helped to lift our spirits; even Gia’s uneasy caution was replaced with joy. Had they just assumed we succeeded in our mission? As if to answer my thoughts, we were met by Red’s inviting arms, Peter standing proud at her side.
“You guys finally made it!” he said, running over to shove Gia away and help support Dodger. “The Runts started showing up late last night. When you guys didn’t come back, I came here looking for you.”
“We had a long night,” I said, glancing over at Dodger.
“Jeez, Dodger.” This time Red came up to us and placed a hand on Dodger’s cheek. “You look like utter crap!”
“I feel ten times worse,” Dodger said.
“They said you were in bad shape. Let’s get you into bed.” Red motioned for a couple of guys to help and directed us toward the infirmary tent.
“Sorry, Red,” Dodger began as they led him away. “Not sure if I’ll be able to sleep with you, after all.”
“Oh, really?” Red shook her head with a smile.
“Well, actually, probably, I could. You’d have to do all the work though,” he said before disappearing into the tent.
Red came over to me with a look of anticipation, but, before she could speak, I nodded. Her face lit up with excitement. She threw her arms around me and held me in the tightest embrace. Man, she smelled good. I looked over at Gia in time to notice her roll her eyes. That was a good sign, right? I pulled away from Red and gave her the antibiotics; she thanked me numerous times while we made our way into the tent. One of the nurses was trying to force Dodger to lie down while he commented on
the size of her breasts. Even with the crimson flush coloring her burning cheeks, she managed to remain professional and slam his head down on the pillow with a frightening amount of force. Red walked over to her sleeping daughter’s bed, kneeling by her side and running her hand through her hair. She whispered something in her ear as another nurse came over.
I thought it best to give her privacy. Gia and I walked over to Dodger’s bed. He looked agitated and uncomfortable; he didn’t like being around the sick longer than he had to. Worse still, he didn’t like being in a hospital, tent or otherwise.
“Some reward, huh?” he said as the nurse lifted up his shirt, revealing welts and bruises all up and down his ribs and back.
“Jeez.” Gia came over and ran her hand along his side. “What happened to you?”
“Did a lot of running. Fell from the top of the cathedral. Chandelier almost fell on me…take your pick―ouch!” He yelled as the nurse pressed on his side, a little harder than she had to.
“You have some broken ribs,” the nurse said, checking his back and arm. “Your wrist might be sprained, too.”
“That’s okay, the only part of my body you’ll need to worry about is still a hundred percent―ouch!” She bent his wrist a little further than a healthy wrist should go.
Red came over, smiles from ear to ear. “I don’t know how to thank you guys; this means so much to me. And, jeez, Dodger, it looks like you went to hell and back for me. I’ll never be able to repay you.”
“Oh, give it a rest, sister.” We were all taken aback when Gia jumped in. “You damn sure better repay us. The deal was you tell us where Smith is so we can get Dodger his cure!”
The Artful (Shadows of the City) Page 14