Barricade

by Lindsey Black

  ‘But?’ Enzo cut in, frustrated. ‘Stop pulling your punches. What the fuck’s wrong with Pavlova?’

  ‘He’s deteriorating,’ Matti announced.

  Stunned silence. Confusion. Fear.

  ‘What, like he’s going to turn into ash and float away on a stiff breeze?’ Enzo snapped.

  ‘That’s desiccating,’ Matti snapped. ‘He’s not going to die! You’re not going to die,’ he reassured Jett. It wasn’t reassuring, but Jett nodded anyway, wide eyed and stunned. He’d somehow thought himself untouchable. It was difficult to comprehend a sudden mortality he hadn’t considered.

  ‘Deteriorating how? Why send me here?’

  ‘Your enhancements have broken down a lot of your natural genetic structure. You’re not dying but … your immune system is.’

  ‘My immune system?’ And it dawned on Jett what Matti was saying. ‘I’m not immune.’

  ‘Not completely. And in a month or two? Not at all.’

  The irony. Mind-boggling. Jett sat heavily on a nearby chair and tried to wrap his mind around what he was being told but he couldn’t. His immunity had been a fact of his existence he never questioned. He didn’t know what to do with the knowledge that was gone. That he’d gifted it to others and now it was lost to him.

  ‘Can’t we vaccinate him?’ Enzo asked.

  ‘The vaccine we’ve made is synthetic. And without an immune system to illicit a response, it’s as likely to kill him as the virus,’ Matti explained. He looked like he was being forced to be an executioner and it was that which finally broke the spell Jett felt suffocated under.

  ‘It’s okay.’ And it was. They looked at him like he had three heads but he just shrugged. ‘Really, it’s fine. You said I’m not going to die?’ Matti nodded. ‘Then it’s okay.’

  ‘How can you …’ Sasha glared down at him, but Jett knew his anger wasn’t directed at him.

  ‘You’ve been here all this time, and none of you were immune. You’re fine. I’ll be fine. You’ll make sure I’m fine.’ Of that he was certain.

  They were silent, watching him, waiting for him to change his mind. Explode. Have a meltdown. Something, but nothing because he really was okay. He would deal with what happened as it came.

  After all, the death of his immunity had been his escape ticket. Had his genes not deteriorated he never would have been sent to the Barricade. That would have been death.

  ‘We’ll talk about this later.’ Sasha leaned down to press a hard kiss to Jett’s lips before taking his hand and leading him upstairs, back to the living room where they’d had an explosive argument about the vaccine and all the reasons Jett didn’t want them to take it. A laughable fear in retrospect.

  Sasha sprawled in the corner of the couch and pulled Jett down on top of him and when he came up the stairs behind them Enzo dumped a blanket over them and annoyingly ruffled Jett’s hair on his way to put the kettle on.

  The normalcy was needed and they seemed to know that. That he had a normal was still novel, and Jett clung to it, knowing it was a fair trade. He almost wished he could write a letter to Blanter to say thank you, but he supposed Iosif being vaccinated was thanks enough.

  Matti came upstairs when he finished cleaning up in the infirmary and handed Sasha a book before settling on one of the other couches. Enzo brought them each a mug of coffee before sitting on the third couch and Anna immediately jumped up from where she was lazing on the cool stones to sprawl in his lap for a belly rub.

  Jett shifted so Sasha’s hands could reach around him, opening the book. Jett caught the bookmark that fell out and tucked it in against his side for later.

  He smiled while Sasha read to them, alternating between Russian and English because Jett was still learning. He closed his eyes and let the words wash over him and through him and not once did they carry him away. Jett did not need to escape into the life of a fictional character, completely satisfied where he was.

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘That’s not in the book,’ Enzo snapped. ‘You two are so gross.’

  ‘So?’ Sasha turned the page and obediently went back to reading. ‘I’m improvising.’

  ‘I love you, too.’

  ‘Pavlova!’ Matti snapped but Jett could only smile, listening to the rumble of Sasha’s laughter under his ear.

  About the Author

  Lindsey lives in Darwin, Australia, where the weather report permanently reads ‘humidity at 100%, only going to get worse’ for ten months of the year and ‘monsoon at 4pm, for exactly fifteen minutes’ for the remaining two. She escapes this oppressive environment to bushwalk for weeks on end wherever the mobile phone reception has zero bars for as long as possible and the weather report reads something along the lines of ‘blizzard likely’, between teaching and studying full time. She enjoys martial arts, music and mayhem, which explains the untidy state of her home where she attempts to write between splitting minimal amounts of spare time between her incredulous husband, lazy Chinchilla cat and crazed Siberian husky. If you expect her to sit and have a chat it’s best to have a matcha green tea latte with almond milk on hand, and your hiking boots within reach. Oh, and be sure to bring a guitar for impromptu jam sessions.

  www.lindseyblack.net

  Also by Lindsey Black

  Fishy Riot: Book 1 in Saturday Barbies, available from Dreamspinner Press.

  Most people think riot squad officer Taylor Jameson is an asshole. Little do they know his apparent indifference stems from having a meddlesome family always butting into his business. And little does Taylor know he’s about to stumble into a situation that’ll make indifference impossible.

  When everything goes horribly wrong at a political rally on a harbour ferry, Taylor encounters Sietta Salisbury. The son of a wealthy politician, Sietta is a revered—but presumed dead—musician, and an enigma who is so strange, Taylor is compelled to look into his background. What he discovers draws him into a bizarre mess of prisoners, politics, and attempted murder that makes him realise what he’s been missing.

  Falling in love isn’t hard. Trying to convince someone else you’re worth loving despite your crazy family and the people trying to kill you? That’s a whole other can of worms.

  Rhino Ash: Book 2 in Saturday Barbies, available from Amazon.

  Ashley Jameson always tries to do the right thing, but that’s hard when your nephew keeps eating crayons, your niece is dressed as a pudding and your obnoxious older brothers crash the church’s Sunday brunch with the guy you’ve been crushing on for five years. Going to work to fight fires is a welcome relief from family obligations, until the Riot Squad arrives to investigate and Ashley once again finds himself dealing with his siblings. Oh ... and Finn Hale.

  But Finn’s dark past continues to haunt him. As work gets increasingly busy with a string of arson attacks on illegal immigrants, Finn steps in to be the shoulder Ashley needs to lean on, but Ashley struggles to do the same for the man he loves. Juggling family and work can be difficult, but Ashley soon discovers that the real challenge is when it's not a struggle at all ... because you'll do anything for the ones you love.