Barricade

by Lindsey Black

  ‘They know I’m here,’ Jett reasoned, startling them both. Sasha looked down at him questioningly and Jett turned to place a gentle palm on his cheek. ‘They assigned me here, and the next thing someone’s attacking the Barricade? They were protecting an asset.’

  It was cold and calculating, and probably completely correct. Sasha grunted and did his coat back up, missing Jett’s heat immediately but not wanting to linger. He needed to get back to their tower and make sure Matti and Enzo were alright.

  ‘Mind if I still come and visit? I’d like to speak with Raikkinen about this vaccine, and help with the clean-up.’

  ‘You’re always welcome,’ Sasha assured Dyogtin.

  The storm was chaotic, the heat from the fires warming the temperature enough that the snow became rain and hail before it could hit the ground. Through it came a dark figure, rifle slung over one shoulder and Sasha held up a hand in greeting.

  ‘Paraklov!’ He called out and heard a dry chuckle in return.

  ‘How did you know it was me?’

  ‘Uh … Moscow just bombed the town, everything is on fire or drowning and you’re just out for a stroll. Who else would it be?’

  ‘Nieminen sent me to get you,’ Paraklov grumbled at Sasha’s assessment of the situation. ‘Said to tell you he has the kettle on.’

  Sasha didn’t know why he was surprised anymore. Dyogtin cackled the whole way to the tower, talking to Paraklov about some gun he’d ordered and hoped would arrive in the spring that he was certain Paraklov was going to love. Tuning them out, Sasha took Jett’s hand and threaded their fingers together, content just to touch him.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Jett looked so concerned, Sasha had to wonder about his own expression.

  ‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that?’ Sasha hadn’t lost anything, except maybe some innocence and really no-one should get to his age and be so blind. Why he’d chosen to believe Russia was good, he couldn’t say, but he knew the truth now and while it hurt to realise you weren’t the good guys, he still believed he wasn’t a bad person and for now that was going to have to be enough.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Jett assured him. ‘I mean this whole thing is horrible, yeah? But me, personally, I’m okay.’ He wrapped a hand around the back of Sasha’s neck to pull him down and leaned up on his toes to kiss him. The effort made Sasha smile and warmed him through.

  True to his word, Nieminen had steaming mugs of coffee on hand as soon as they walked into the tower. They didn’t bother taking their coats off or going downstairs, talking in hushed tones in the war room while the rain hammered the roof.

  ‘Can’t believe they actually sent bombers,’ Nowak was shaking his head and looked shell shocked. It seemed to be the consensus. No-one had believed Moscow would send help.

  ‘It has to be the first time in forty years that Dyogtin’s asked for anything,’ Sasha reasoned. ‘It’s not that surprising. Probably gave them a heart attack. They must have thought the Barricade was about to fall over.’

  They were all staring at him. Jett snickered and it was as if they’d been given permission to laugh. It felt good and everyone went about checking the Barricade and tower walls for damage. They would need to give Moscow a report soon if they needed repair supplies. Getting anything so far south after the snow started was always difficult.

  When his mug was empty Sasha put it on the table for someone else to deal with later and headed for the door, pleased when Jett immediately followed. The last six kilometres were a hard slog. The rain grew heavier, flooding the top of the Barricade when the water couldn’t drain fast enough, the snow that had built up melting in the heat from the flames that sputtered and died in the wet onslaught. He almost rolled his ankle a dozen times and caught Dyogtin just as many. Jett seemed fine, but that wasn’t overly surprising.

  The empty lighthouse was the first sign something was amiss. Sasha frowned as they hurried through it, making sure the doors were sealed against the rain. As soon as he got to the tower he tossed his coat on the racks, left his pack on the floor to deal with later and rushed downstairs.

  ‘Step!’ Dyogtin’s voice echoed down the stairwell but Sasha didn’t stop. Something was wrong and he needed to find the others.

  The living area was empty but he was charging through the hallway between the bedrooms on level eight when he heard a grunt of pain and stalled, checking the doors and then knocking on Enzo’s.

  ‘It’s me,’ he called out before touching the handle and pushing it open. He came face to face with the barrel of Matti’s gun.

  ‘A year off my life,’ Matti grumbled, putting the weapon down on the desk and moving back to where Enzo was sitting on the chair, bleeding a small lake on the floor from a savage looking wound in his shoulder.

  ‘Only a year?’ He stepped closer to get a better look. He guessed something metal had staked Enzo, judging by the burnt skin around the wound and the lack of splinters. Hot metal. It looked incredibly painful, but Enzo was just glaring at them.

  ‘I don’t piss myself that easy,’ Matti quipped. ‘Just a year and I’m good.’

  ‘Right. What the hell happened?’ Sasha handed over the bandages Matti was waving at and watched him pack the wound.

  ‘The northern gate shattered,’ Enzo grumbled. ‘They used nitrogen or something to freeze the metal and then blew the fucking thing up.’

  ‘What?’ Dyogtin bellowed from the doorway, stepping back into the hall and lifting his rifle. Sasha realised that was probably what he’d been bellowing about upstairs. Sasha had forgotten to take a weapon, too focused on finding Matti and Enzo.

  ‘That’s why you’re in here, not the infirmary?’

  ‘Yeah, only the bedroom doors lock. That’s a bit of a design flaw, don’t you think?’ Enzo was trying to distract himself from the pain, focusing on Sasha so he didn’t know what Matti was doing.

  ‘The radio room locks,’ Sasha reminded him.

  ‘Yeah, but only you have a key. Which is also stupid, because what if you die and we can’t call Moscow for help?’

  ‘You run next door and they call for help,’ Dyogtin pointed out like Enzo was stupid.

  ‘What if all the Sergeants are dead?’ Enzo was really trying hard, it had to hurt a lot.

  ‘Then steal the key off a corpse,’ Dyogtin growled at him.

  ‘Why not just steal the key off Sasha’s corpse then?’

  ‘Can we stop talking about my corpse?’ Sasha grumbled.

  Matti tied off the bandage and put his gun in Enzo’s reach.

  ‘No way, I’m coming with you guys,’ Enzo went to stand up and the colour drained from his face. He sat down heavily and glanced at the gun before huffing loudly.

  ‘Stay put, don’t do anything stupid,’ Sasha demanded. ‘Lock the door behind us.’

  They gathered in the hallway and Sasha waited until he heard the lock on Enzo’s door turn.

  ‘Matti, go upstairs and do a sweep, grab more weapons.’ He hadn’t finished speaking when Matti started moving, disappearing into the upper levels. Jett suddenly turned and went into his bedroom, the sound of him rummaging in his closet echoing through the stairwell and then he emerged with his sword in hand and a knife on his hip.

  ‘Hey, he’s a ninja!’ Dyogtin grinned.

  ‘Seriously?’ Sasha and Jett glared at him but the older man was unrepentant and patted Jett on the head and ruffled his hair, deliberately being further antagonising.

  They moved through the tower slowly, checking each room thoroughly for signs of intruders. It was strange, knowing the gate was down. They stopped outside his room so he could go in and grab his handgun from his desk drawer.

  He found himself expecting a crazed horde to round the corner at any moment, or for someone to start shooting before he realised they were there. The sense of unease only grew the further down the stairs they crept without being attacked. Sasha had never been one for over-imagination. He drew still life because making things up wasn’t his style, but while his hands were steady he fou
nd himself fancying the shadows were moving, or that he could hear something tapping. The shadows weren’t moving.

  The first floor lights were off and the shelves of boxes looked sinister in the dark. Matti caught up to them and Dyogtin took him with him down to the ground floor to work on the gate, leaving Sasha and Jett to check the stores.

  Something wasn’t right about the room, but Sasha couldn’t place what it was. Things had been moved, but that could have been Matti or Enzo looking for things. The lights weren’t on, but why would they be if no-one had needed anything? He reached out and hit the switch, grunting when he realised he’d been holding his breath but the lights illuminated nothing. Jett went right so Sasha went left, slowly moving around a large shelf of stacked rice supplies.

  The rice moved and when he turned to check it a bag was launched at his face. He turned to dodge it and a hulking mass collided with his stomach, tackling him to the ground. Something slapped him hard in the face and he realised the familiar bulk was Sione.

  Cold dread washed through Sasha, because he didn’t want to kill Jett’s father. Worse, he didn’t want to kill him in front of Jett. But there was also no way he was letting Jett do it. He rolled them over, rocking them hard to dislodge Sione far enough that he could slip his arm under him and grip him in a choke hold. Just as swiftly he jerked in the opposite direction and locked Sione’s shirt in his other first, pulling it tight to get a firm grip before struggling onto one knee and pinning Sione to the ground with a knee to his back.

  The man fought, bucking and trying to roll out of it, scratching at Sasha’s hands but Sasha remained perfectly calm, waiting patiently as the air drained from his captive and he fell unconscious.

  When he looked up, Jett was standing in front of him looking completely disgruntled.

  ‘He’s not dead,’ Sasha assured him, searching the room for some rope. Jett grabbed it off a shelf and tossed it angrily at him.

  ‘I know he’s not dead, I have eyes. I can see he’s breathing.’

  ‘Then why are you pissed?’

  ‘I’m not!’ Jett protested, sounding pissed. ‘I just get why they call you the devil!’

  ‘Jett!’ He hated that nickname and still couldn’t believe everyone was calling him that behind his back.

  ‘What? You just put down an elephant and you looked like you were making breakfast or something.’

  ‘You just called your dad an elephant.’ Sasha hog tied the man in the most uncomfortable position he could manage.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Jett crouched down beside him where he was tying off the knot around Sione’s elbows. ‘It was very hot.’

  ‘You’re not supposed to think it’s hot when I choke out your dad!’ Sasha grumbled, fixated on Jett’s hands as they ran up the inside of his thighs and pressed into his groin. Sasha groaned at the pressure and finished his task. He’d never tied a knot so fast.

  ‘I’ll watch him,’ Jett assured him. ‘You go help them with the gate.’

  Sasha didn’t want to leave him, especially not alone with his father, but he also had a duty to make sure the Barricade was secure. The giant hole in the north side of the wall didn’t meet the safety standard, as far as he knew. So Sasha leaned over Sione’s awkwardly prone body and kissed Jett’s cheek before leaving them alone in the stores and going down to the ground floor.

  It was freezing, the rain bucketing through the gaping hole, the floor littered with metal splinters. The floor was flooding, water draining down into the cellar. Sasha had to hope their supplies were mostly upstairs and that nothing important was ruined down below.

  They had only managed to shatter one of the heavy doors, the other was bent out of shape but would function well enough for the time being. Dyogtin was holding a large metal beam across the middle of the empty space while Matti welded it into place. They’d torn apart one of the storage units and had the shelving plates stacked, ready to weld over the holes to seal the opening until replacement doors could be brought in.

  Since there was only one welder, Sasha went and held the other end of the beam to help Dyogtin with the weight.

  ‘Where’s Pavlova?’ Matti called over the sound of the welder, not looking up from his job.

  ‘He’s watching his father in the storeroom.’

  ‘He’s alive?’ Matti sounded surprised, but you wouldn’t have known it from the lack of attention he paid anything other than the line he was melting.

  ‘Unfortunately,’ Sasha grumbled. He wasn’t really upset about it, the whole thing was more annoying than anything. It irritated him in ways he hadn’t known he could be irritated, that people could make such disastrously bad decisions because they let their fears overpower their hopes. That when they were offered everything they needed, people had risked everything for something more and lost instead.

  They worked long into the night, not stopping until the tower was secure. Sasha’s arms ached from holding up the metal pieces and as the hours ticked by the last of the adrenaline and caffeine fled his system, leaving him shaky and worn. For the first time Dyogtin didn’t look strong, just old. Matti looked paper thin and exhausted and was still covered in blood.

  ‘You go shower, help Enzo,’ Sasha pushed Matti ahead of him to the stairs. ‘Dyogtin and I will put Sione in the cage.’

  It was a sign of his weariness that Matti didn’t protest, just took the stairs one at a time and disappeared up the winding tunnel.

  Sasha led Dyogtin back to the store room where Jett was crouched in front of his father’s face, his sword across his knees. Sione was glaring at him but was strangely quiet and Sasha noticed Jett had shoved a cloth in the man’s mouth to silence him.

  ‘Was that entirely necessary?’ He ran his fingertips down Jett’s spine when Jett stood up beside him, thrilled by the way Jett instinctively stepped in closer against his side.

  ‘It was.’ And if Jett said so then Sasha believed him, though he had to wonder what Sione had said to his son to make Jett’s spine so stiff, his words clipped and brittle.

  It was hard work, dragging Sione downstairs and Sasha was startled to realise Jett was the strongest of them, hauling his strangely tied father across the stones much as he had the deer. He didn’t look satisfied when they closed the cage door.

  ‘He can’t go anywhere,’ Sasha pointed out.

  ‘I don’t want him in here,’ Jett grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring through the mesh.

  ‘So toss him out,’ Dyogtin shrugged, opening the cage door again and walking to the metal beam that was locking the gates, using his shoulder to knock it free of the brackets and putting it aside.

  Sasha went in to help while Jett closed the cage behind them. They didn’t bother with Q-hab suits, just shoved the gates open and rolled Sione out into the mud and smouldering ruins and then closed the door behind them. The bracket slammed back into place and Sasha turned around to see Jett staring at the closed door, face unreadable before he turned sharply on his heel and went upstairs.

  A heavy hand fell on his shoulder and Sasha was grateful for Dyogtin’s presence.

  ‘You know, if I knew it would be this exciting, I would have tried to hook you up with someone years ago.’

  ‘This did not happen because I had sex with Jett!’ Sasha protested, appalled. It was like having his father joke about his sex life.

  ‘Didn’t it?’ Dyogtin looked like it was Christmas.

  ‘Piss off,’ Sasha grumbled and stomped his way upstairs.

  He took Dyogtin to his room and grabbed a fresh change of clothes and a spare towel.

  ‘You can stay in here, it’s better than the couch.’

  ‘But your couch usually has a very snuggly dog. Where’s Anna?’

  ‘Over at Six-Six-Five, I think,’ Sasha grumbled. He’d have to go get her tomorrow and just the idea of more walking or running was exhausting.

  ‘Well, in that case I’ll use your bed so you can sleep with your … did Matti call him Pavlova?’ Dyogtin stalled, just r
ealising what Matti had said, his smile all crooked teeth as he grinned. ‘Like the ballerina or the dessert?’

  ‘Both?’ Sasha didn’t care which, they both seemed to fit.

  ‘Well then, go get your show and dessert,’ Dyogtin howled at him, shoving him out the door and slamming it shut. Sasha stood in the hallway with his clothes and towel clutched to his chest and wondered if it wasn’t the worst day of his life.

  Jett stuck his head around the stairwell wall, looking amused and Sasha relaxed. Not the worst, at least. He hurried up to the bathroom and put his change of clothes beside Jett’s and then added to the massive pile of sloppy filthy cloth beside the washing machine. With each piece of clothing Sasha peeled off his body he felt lighter. When he stepped in under the water and the black sludge sloughed from his skin he felt relief wash through him. The cleaner he got the more it sunk in that there was nothing left to worry about. The tunnel was gone. Hell, the whole town was gone. He had to put in an order for a new door and then it would be as though nothing happened.

  They would make a vaccine and distribute it across the wall and there would be nothing left to be afraid of. Despite the ugliness of the day there was peace at its end and for that he was grateful.

  Jett slid his hands around his waist and pressed his face between Sasha’s shoulder blades, clinging tight, quiet as the water cleansed them both. After a minute, Sasha turned and hurriedly washed Jett’s hair, amused by how docile the man was, closing his eyes and letting Sasha do as he pleased. He obediently knelt in front of Jett so he could return the favour, letting him massage his scalp as he ran shampoo over his head and rinsed it away. It was a strangely intimate process and Sasha was grateful the others stayed away, not because he cared if they saw him naked or vulnerable, but because it was private and he needed something of his own.

  ‘Thank you, for not killing him,’ Jett mumbled, barely audible over the running water. It didn’t require a response, so Sasha just held him, solid and warm and hoped that it was enough.