“No, you’re the asshole!”
I snapped my arms out of his grip when a revving noise of an incoming car caught up behind us. I looked back and felt my heart clench at the familiar grey truck kicking up dust behind it.
“Oh, shit.”
Diesel glanced back as well just as the truck pulled up alongside us. I expected Mary and Father Patrick to kick back the doors, but instead, Justin, Joel and Phil climbed out. I faced the trio as they rounded the car and pulled out large planks of wood from the back tray.
“Skipping town?” Justin tipped his cap back as he spat his toothpick to the ground. “What about our goodbye?”
“Who the hell are these guys?” Diesel barked. “A hillbilly boy band?”
Phil grabbed Diesel by the collar to shove him aside, but Diesel was fast to throw his fist outwards. He caught Phil in the jaw, throwing his chin back, but stopped himself as Justin pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. “One more move and I’ll blow your brains out.”
Diesel lowered his fists as Justin turned the pistol back to me. “Now, what am I to do with you?”
“What are you doing, Justin?” I growled.
Justin stepped close enough that I could smell the sweat through the part in his shirt. “How about you hand over that back pack of yours for starters?”
“You’re robbing me now?”
“No, I’m going to beat the shit out of you and your little mutt. Then I’m gonna take all your things as a payment for the meds.”
Joel pulled Diesel by the back of his shirt and slammed his face against the driver’s side door. I glanced at them as Joel held a long, hunting knife to Diesel’s throat while Phil wiped his wrist over his busted lip.
“How do you know these guys?” Diesel asked without turning to face me.
I took a steady breath in to calm my nerves. “They’re Tristan’s friends.”
“Yeah?” Diesel laughed. “Well, they’re about to join him if they don’t get the fuck off me.”
“Shut up!” Joel shoved Diesel’s face back against the roof of the car. “There’s three of us and only two of you. Now put your hands up where I can see them.” Diesel placed his hands fingers spread on the car’s roof.
My attention snapped back to Justin as he snatched the backpack from my shoulder. “I told you to hand it over.”
“Listen here,” Diesel called up again. “I don’t know what your deal is, but you better fuck off before I really get pissed.”
Joel shoved Diesel’s face down again. “I said, shut it!”
From where I stood, I heard the slow, deep breaths Diesel took to steady his rage. “If you touch me again, I’m going to break your fucking hand.”
I swallowed uneasily, “Justin, you don’t have to do this. I’m sorry about Tristan but this isn’t-”
Justin hit me with the side of the gun. The fast and heavy smack knocked me backward. I did everything in my power to top the tears from escaping their ducts, momentarily caught off guard by the sudden sharp sting. “I don’t want your shitty apology, you feral bitch.”
I quickly caught my balance and turned back to him. “You’re making a mistake.”
“Get on the ground,” Justin barked. “And keep your hands on your head. I did consider selling you back to the Elite, but what fun would that be? Maybe they’ll still be interested in your scraps after I’m done?” Slowly, I eased myself onto my knees, ensuring I didn’t break eye contact.
Diesel’s voice rose up in a hoarse bark, “Oi, you better not have just touched her!”
Phil and Joel laughed. “Oh, we’re going do a lot more than just touch. What are you going do about it?” Joel reached forward to grab Diesel’s throat. “If you’re lucky, we’ll let you watch.”
Joel leant in, giving Diesel just enough range to swing his head back and smash into Joel’s nose. The impact was fast and brutal. A string of blood spurted out as Joel’s nose popped out of place. Diesel then pulled Joel’s wrist against his chest and snapped it so it cracked out of alignment with the rest of his arm. Joel hit the ground in a yowling mess, clutching his hand to his chest. Phil struck Diesel twice across the shoulder with the plank of wood as Diesel protected his face with his arms. He then caught Phil’s downwards swing and wrestled him against the car. Quickly pinned, Diesel delivered three sharp uppercuts to Phil’s ribs. During the commotion, Justin’s attention dropped as I grabbed his wrist and directed the gun away from me.
Startled, Justin pulled the trigger and fired into the dirt. The bang pierced the chilled silence of the forest and the heat from its wake skimmed past my collarbone. I quickly threw my elbow back into his face, finally breaking his hold and taking the gun for myself. Spinning on my heel, I stood and aimed the barrel to Justin’s forehead. His eyes scrunched, both surprised and displeased with how fast the situation turned.
“What?” I smirked. “Surprised this feral bitch can handle her own?” Justin’s eyes strained and his jawline jumped as he bit down. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you saying something about selling my scraps to the Elite?”
“Let’s just kill ‘em and go,” Diesel growled. He had managed to punch Phil into unconsciousness while Joel scurried out of reach.
“No. They’re not worth the energy. We will be taking the car, if that’s okay with you?”
I took the keys from Justin’s pocket as he barred his teeth at me. “You worthless, piece of filth. What makes you think you’re so special? Why do you get to live and Tristan doesn’t? It’s you who should’ve died. It’s because of you he’s gone!”
Eyes of bloodshot red looked up at me. I honestly didn’t have an answer. I didn’t think I was special. I didn’t think it was a fair trade. Tristan gave his life to save mine. The obvious counter argument was that Tristan wasn’t really dead, that he would return as we all do, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. By the time Tristan became aware of the world, he would’ve had six years’ worth of XCELL drug pumped into him. He’d be nothing more than a zombie.
“I’ll find you and I will make you pay for this.”
A deep frown pulled my lips down. “Don’t waste your time.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT:
It was so quiet. It was the closest I felt to being peaceful in a long time, knowing I didn’t have Sweepers, rebels or religious fanatics chasing me. But at the same time, I was so consumed with anxiety that I felt paralysed by it. There were things I hadn’t told Diesel; things I couldn’t tell him. For instance, the prophecy about the Soulless was too unbelievable for even me to understand. But Diesel was more open-minded and desperate enough to try anything. The second thing was my encounter with the cloaked woman back at the market place. I reached around and gently touched my neck where she had injected me. At first, I thought she had forced a tracking chip under my skin, but it turned out she had pumped an antibiotic into my system that fought back the radiation exposures. If she hadn’t reached me when she did, I would have withered beneath the poison. That woman saved my life and I wanted to know why.
The car sped across the freeway and toward the closest town. I had Vance’s tablet with me, but it had been water damaged from the rain and the battery had died. We had both agreed to head into the nearest town to see if we could charge it somehow. Aside from that, Diesel and I hadn’t spoken a word to each other. The silence was uncomfortable only because I knew why we weren’t speaking. He was mad at me and I was just as mad at him, but we were both too stubborn to make amends.
I rested my chin on my palm and looked out the window. The sight of the smoothed hills stretched on forever. I glanced back at Diesel; his attention remained strictly on the road with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the windowsill.
“Fuel is running low,” I muttered.
Diesel’s eyes flicked downwards to check the fuel gage.
“Hmm.”
Silence continued as thick and as uncomfortable as the stuffy heat inside the car. I rolled the window down to let in some fresh air and continued min
dlessly staring out.
“Listen,” he suddenly spoke, jerking me out of my daydreaming. Diesel didn’t look away from the long road but I felt his attention shift to me. “About before… I can be such an idiot sometimes. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” I blinked at him, unsure what to say. He sighed as his grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I shouldn’t have said those things. I haven’t been in my right mind since last night, and then in the morning, you started talking about some other guy like he was all you can think about. It just made me really mad. Same with that asshole, whatever his name is. What he said isn’t true. It’s not your fault.”
Silence continued. Wait… he was jealous? The simple words of ‘thank you’ or ‘I’m sorry too’ refused to leave my mouth. Even so, I was incredibly happy to hear him say something positive to me. Guess I’m the only immature one here. It was then I noticed a long, red rash running up the patch on his arm. It was partially concealed behind the sleeve on his jacket.
“What’s that on your arm?”
“Hmm?” Diesel glanced down and pulled back his sleeves, revealing the long stripe of burnt red skin. “Oh, I accidently burnt myself.”
“How?”
“With fire.”
I quickly looked back at him. “Fire? When were you in contact with fire?”
“Sometime between leaving your room last night and in the morning.”
“You mean it was you that started the fire back in Sanctuary? But, why?” Diesel shrugged and I inwardly growled. “Don’t just shrug at me. Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I can only vaguely remember leaving the hospital after I visited you.” He looked back at me, his brown eyes searching to grab mine. “I remember bits and pieces of our time together, but it’s more like a foggy dream. Believe me, it’s not something I want to forget but he is keeping it locked away. All I remember afterwards was rage. Guess I made him pretty angry.”
“Made who angry?”
Diesel glanced back at the road, smiling. “I’m not the only one in here.” He tapped his head. As realization sunk in, I felt my eyes widen.
“Is that why you tipped out the tea serum?” I asked as Diesel merely smirked. The possibility of multiple personalities made sense and partly explained his strange behaviour, but at the same time, I felt uncomfortable not knowing who this ‘new’ Diesel was next to me. “If you’re not Diesel, then who are you?”
“Don’t get confused. We’re not different people sharing the one body. Think of it like your mind is a room filled with windows, but most of the windows are covered up. You can only look out one frame at a time, which is Diesel’s view. As the D400 leaves me, more windows are opening up and I can look at the world through different views. Different perspective, different attitude. Get it?”
I sat up a little higher in my seat. “Kind of. Okay, so which window are looking through now?”
Diesel’s eyes softened as he glazed over the memory. “This is a time I used to call myself Rohan. But I haven’t been called that in a very long time. It’ll be… weird.”
I slowly nodded. Usually when people stopped taking the D400, it always turned out to be a nightmare. Their memories would overspill, completely flooding their consciousness so they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between now and then. Paranoia, depression, schizophrenia, delusions and other mental struggles were common symptoms. It was our new natural state and it was thanks to the D400 that we all weren’t destroyed beneath ourselves. But Diesel, or this Rohan character, seemed completely in control. He even seemed happier, making me question why the current version Diesel would take the D400 at all. Why repress this happier side of you? Unless…
“There’s a window you don’t want to look through.” I whispered.
“Huh?”
“Sorry, nothing, thinking aloud.” I quickly away. If there was a darker side to Diesel, how long until those memories were unearthed? What would that even be like? There must be a memory that triggered the current Diesel, a bad one, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be around when he began to relive it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE:
I had dozed off about four hours into our trip and awoke to the sound of a closing car door. It was reaching sunset, and as I glanced out the window, I was confronted by a barricade of tall trees. The car had been parked on the side of the road as I watched Diesel sneak down the driveway between the trees. I kicked my door opened and quickly jumped out. Aside from this one house and driveway there was nothing around us for miles; whichever way I turned. The road was incomplete and littered with fresh foliage. I watched him disappear down the driveway toward a house hidden behind high fences. He checked the windows first then the door, unsurprising finding it locked. Undeterred, he turned and waved me down.
“Down here, we will stay here for the night!”
“Are you sure no one would catch us?” I closed the car door and met up with him outside the house. The estate was deceivingly huge. Diesel used the blunt end of his gun to smash the window above our heads before clearing the frame of glass. I looked up at him then back to the house, trying to judge if he was joking.
“I don’t think this place is abandoned. We’re going to get caught.”
“No we won’t.” Diesel said with more confidence than he should have as he climbed through the frame and slid into the manor. I stayed back, waiting for the moment the house alarm kicked in, but it remained silent. Suddenly, Diesel was at the front door gesturing me in. He bowed at the waist and dropped his head while swinging his arm outwards. “Welcome, Madame.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow, what a gentleman.” I hiked my backpack higher and slipped in through the front door. The house was amazing. I even stumbled in awe at the high ceilings, the display of expensive artwork and other unnecessary rich folk stuff they liked to show off. Their main foyer was larger than our entire apartment.
“Not bad,” I cooed. “Wonder if they accept I.O.U’s?”
“Actually, they’re having a special promotion.” Diesel stepped past me and further into the lounge. He walked around as though familiar with the layout. “Ex-cons stay free.”
“Wow, must be our lucky day.” I dumped my backpack on the white couch and wandered further in. The glass windows stretched from floor to ceiling, inviting the blush of red in from the dropping sun. I went up the display cabinet against the wall and picked up a couple of the picture frames they had set up.
“I don’t believe it…” I turned to Diesel and waved him over. “Diesel, you gotta look at this.”
Diesel peered over my shoulder and scoffed in disbelief, “Of course. Only a special type of asshole would frame pictures of his other mansions.”
Sure enough, along the prestige cabinet lined photo frames of three different mansions in different parts of the world. In front of each was a man with a thick black beard and his beautiful wife waving. I shook my head in disbelief just how much these people had, and how little I had. I would say it was unfair, but I wasn’t that naïve to think the world was a fair place.
Diesel took the frames, weighed them in his palms for a second before pitching them across the room, smashing the pictures against the walls. They shattered with a satisfying crackle, splintering into pieces.
“If you ask me, I think the house now looks better.” I joked.
Diesel looked at me, his eyes still sharp in his disapproval before cracking smile.
“You like it huh? We could live here you know.” He offered with a cruel smirk. “Is this what you want? A big house with pretty, expensive things? Bet this is what you’ve always dreamed of, huh?” I had to do a double take, unsure if I had misheard him.
“I rather have food on the table.” I answered, unsure if he was joking.
Diesel walked ahead, scoping the area, “You’re such a liar. This is what everyone wants. Money and pretty things. I would buy this place just to burn it.” His playful banter hardened with urgency. He then walked right up to me so I was pressed up
against the wall.
My breath caught as he ran a finger beneath my chin, titling my head up. “Would you like that? Or would that make you mad at me?”
He slid his hand down and curved his fingers gently around my throat but in a manner that if he decided, he could easily clench and crush my windpipe. His thumb stroked over the hickey he had left on my neck, perhaps imagining his chance to make it bigger. I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to lick my lips. His smile widened as he dropped his hand. “I’m just teasing you.”
“I don’t like being teased.”
“Neither do I.” He stood back, allowing me room to wiggle past him.
I turned away, not looking at his expression, “I’ll check out the rest of the house.” I announced as I dashed down the long corridor. Diesel’s eyes followed me and my back stiffened at the heat of his attention. I ducked around the corner, stepping out sight. When I knew I was clear of him, I slumped against the wall, panting lightly. Standing next to an open flame suddenly felt safer than standing next to him. If there was ever a need for a reality check, that was it.
I went around the rest of the house and into the main kitchen. There was a dampness in the air accompanied by a stench of rotting wood. I opened fridge to find spoiled food. Even though there wasn’t a lot of food, there were perishables suggesting the owners were frequent visitors. Where they were now was unknown, but it became clear that this house had been vacant for some time. The cold embrace had me rubbing my hands up and down my arms. I walked into the adjoining lounge and pulled the curtains back from the sliding doors, welcoming in the orange bath of light from outside. The house sat on a hillside where across the horizon stretch an endless bed of blue water.
“Oh, my God.” My eyes grew wider at the layer of colours smudged across the sky, and how the setting sun bled into the chilled water, turning the ocean into a sheet of orange, blue and pink. For the first time the world felt massive as it stretched wider and further than I could see. I had never seen anything so incredible before. It took my breath away, suddenly making me feel small in own body.
Soulless (The Immortal Gene Trilogy Book 1) Page 26