by AJ Rose
What if I get stuck here when the power doesn’t come back?
What if I go with him? Worst case, I’m covered, and if he’s wrong, I’ve missed a few classes. Like they’ll have class anyway with no power.
Remembering the way Ash had looked him over, like he wanted to lick every inch of skin, Elliot’s face heated and his dick throbbed against the placket of his jeans.
Shut up, he scolded his treacherous body, even as his feet carried him after his lab partner. His mind reeled with possibilities, none of which he could dispute or shoot down. It sounded like a bad sci-fi novel, taking something proven harmless and giving it a sinister twist. But in a way, it was beautiful in its simplicity.
Human dependence on networks, computers, phones, the Internet, and indeed, the currents living in the walls of every building had exploded in the last few decades. Everything relied on electricity, from access to currency to distribution of food, sanitation of water, and the basic structure of society.
God, if Ash is right, we’re royally screwed, even if it’s just New York City. Elliot rounded the corner where he’d seen Ash disappear.
“I want to go with you!” he called to the retreating figure, scampering after him.
Ash made an impatient noise, but he waited.
“I know you think I’m clueless here, but I can help you,” he said as he reached Ash. “I need to get somewhere I can call my parents. You’re not the only one with family, ya know. They’ll be worried about me.” If they even knew, from their cruise in the Mediterranean.
“Okay, you can help me. Can you hunt?”
Elliot shook his head. “I can learn,” he promised.
“So I guess you don’t know how to field-dress a deer or gut a fish?” Ash asked, sounding mildly disappointed. Elliot again shook his head, feeling inadequate. “Ever shot a gun?” Again, a no. “Can you cook or start a fire? What about hot-wire a car?”
“I can learn all of that,” he promised. “Except hotwiring a car. I already have one.”
Ash stopped abruptly. “You have a car? What kind?”
“Audi A5. Are you going to object if it’s a clunker?” It was a sore spot for him, one of the myriad ways his parents shoved their agenda down his throat. But he didn’t go into any of that. If Ash wanted the car, he wasn’t above practically giving the damn thing away.
Ash ignored his jibe. “How much gas have you got?”
“Full tank. Why?” Since I never drive it.
Ash stalked him like a panther, grace and danger personified. A thrill tap-danced up Elliot’s spine, making his dick want to wave hello again.
“Trying to figure out how long we have before we have to stop to steal more. It’ll be dangerous.”
Elliot rolled his eyes. “If you’re right, it’s more dangerous to stay here. Where does your sister live?”
“Upstate. About four hours away. Keys,” Ash demanded, holding out his hand.
“Who says you get to drive?” It was an idiot thing to say, considering Elliot was in no position to fulfill the bluff. But it made him seem normal, so he went with it. He’d already made himself look stupid to Ash twice that evening, something he strove never to do in the hopes Ash would see him as more than a friend with benefits.
Ash shrugged. “I’m driving. Your car with you in it or someone else’s alone makes no difference to me. Make up your mind. You’re wasting time.”
“Okay, okay,” Elliot grumbled, fishing his keys from his pocket but keeping them close to his body when Ash reached for them. “You can drive, but it’s parked in my building’s garage, so we need a cab anyway. If we’re going to my building, I want to grab a few things.”
Ash was silent for a beat before dipping his head in acquiescence. “Well, we can’t take the subway. Lead the way.”
Elliot honestly thought he’d say no, they didn’t have time. As they backtracked to the engineering institute for a better chance to catch a cab, he took in their surroundings. His heart galloped and he was a little giddy. My father will have my head for this. The few people on the street paid them no mind, too wrapped up in their own situations. Many of them were looking at their cellphones in confusion, either waving them around, hoping a signal would light up the screens, or simply cursing their lack of usefulness.
He shivered, wishing he had his things from their lab class instead of darting after Ash, abandoning his jacket and backpack. Thankfully, he had his keys and wallet with him.
They flagged a cab in silence, and Elliot directed the driver to his street. “So, uh…,” Elliot tried, wanting to break the awkward quiet between them. “What happens when we get to your sister’s?”
Ash stared out the passenger window, his elbow propped on the door, the back of his hand pressed to his lips as they crawled in bumper to bumper traffic toward Greenwich Village. Elliot was beginning to think Ash was ignoring him when he finally spoke in a gravelly voice.
“I try to convince her to go to our Uncle Marvin’s house.”
“Where’s that?”
“Hoodsport, Washington.”
Elliot looked over sharply. “As in Washington State?”
Ash grunted an affirmative.
“How are you getting there?” Elliot asked, pretty sure he knew the answer.
“However I can.” Ash finally looked at him, his expression stoic in the flash of passing headlights. “I don’t suppose you’d let me take your car.”
Elliot pursed his lips. He wanted to say no. It was one thing, going upstate, but a ride coast to coast? Even as he felt the pull to give in to please Ash, he didn’t want to be that easy.
“It depends on what happens when I reach my parents.”
The corner of Ash’s mouth tipped up. “Okay. Are you calling from your apartment?”
“Duh, power’s out. I can’t.”
“Duh, landlines might work. Phone companies have generators and a phone on a landline doesn’t need power as long as it’s not a cordless. Basic survival for a hurricane or earthquake.”
“Oh,” Elliot said, feeling stupid. “I didn’t know that.” Well, that answered one question. With his cell dead—which made him twitchy, since he was without his music until they reached his apartment and his iPod—he figured he’d just borrow a phone when they got in an area where coverage resumed. Now, all he needed was a payphone. Not that he knew where one was, and it wasn’t like he could google.
Ash shook his head and clucked his tongue. “So you can call from your house, right?”
“No,” he said as the cab turned, finally, onto his street. “I only have my cell. Which is dead.”
“Rookie move,” Ash teased, tempering it with a smile.
Elliot wondered if he’d ever stop feeling like an idiot with a schoolboy crush around Ash.
They pulled up to his building on Mercer. He lived at the edge of the NYU campus in an area few students could afford. He and Ash studied almost exclusively at his place—more than studied, actually—so the jitters he would have felt bringing anyone else to his apartment weren’t there, for which he was grateful. Most people seeing his apartment would think his family’s wealth, not his merit, had gotten him where he was. He was of those Davenports. If Ash knew, he never acted like it mattered.
The cab pulled to a stop at the building entrance, and Ash shouldered open his door to exit while Elliot paid the cabbie. Julian, the paunchy, middle-aged doorman, held the door for them and lit the way with a flashlight.
“Good evening, gentlemen. Have any trouble?”
“No, Julian. Have you any idea where I might find an operating payphone?”
Julian considered. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m not sure, and without power, I can’t have Tabitha run a search.” Tabitha was the front desk girl on overnights. “I know there’s one at the New York Public Library.”
Ash snorted. “Yeah, we’ve seen The Day After Tomorrow, too. So have the rest of the people scrambling to make phone calls in this city.” Ash strode to the door marked Stairs. Elliot gave Jul
ian an apologetic shrug and followed.
“Here,” Julian said, holding up his flashlight. “Take this.” Elliot started to refuse, but Julian wouldn’t hear of it. “We’ve got one for all the tenants until power comes back. Wouldn’t want anyone injured using the stairs in the dark.”
“Thank you, Julian,” Elliot said, surprised by how much the gesture warmed him.
“Yes, thank you, Jeeves,” Ash teased with a hint of mean.
“You gentlemen be careful,” Julian replied, ignoring the dig. “Please let me know if there’s anything you need.”
They started up the steps, the flashlight beam bouncing off the white walls, their footfalls echoing eerily in the near silence.
“Why do you do that?” Elliot demanded. “Julian has never been anything but nice to you.”
“I noticed you have valet service for your parking garage, and a doorman who’s more like a butler, but your building doesn’t have a generator?” Ash ribbed, ignoring the question. Elliot wasn’t in the mood. He was too busy thinking Julian had no idea what was coming. The man had three daughters in high school and a librarian wife who loved to talk books with Elliot. They were nice people, and they could end up hurt. That’s not going to happen. Ash isn’t necessarily right. That thought was followed by, Then why are you going with him? But he knew why.
“The generator at Rogers Hall failed. How do you know the one here didn’t as well?” Elliot asked, running his hand over his forehead as sweat beaded due to the tight quarters of the stairwell. His legs ached from the climb.
“Jeeves was way too calm. He’d have been assuring you someone was working on it if there was one.”
“Building maintenance would be looking into it, not Julian.”
Ash let it drop. Elliot led them out of the stairwell and to his door, unlocking it and entering his sanctuary. He breathed in relief as familiarity washed over him, passing the flashlight to Ash since he could move blindly.
Ash shone the light over the long, narrow living room with white leather furniture across from a squat, black entertainment cabinet bearing a flat screen TV, an Xbox, and several games and DVDs. Elliot dug into a kitchen drawer for a long-stem lighter and lit a few of the candles scattered around the living space. When he had enough of a soft glow to see by, he moved to the bedroom and lit two more on his dresser.
“I appreciate you trying to set the mood,” Ash said, following him. “But we don’t have time to get off. We’ve got to hurry.”
“I’m aware,” Elliot snapped, hastily pulling a duffel bag from beneath his bed, yanking when the strap caught. He was still irritated at how Ash could be such an asshole to the doorman, someone Elliot considered a friend. Hell, Julian and his wife were two of only four people Elliot had confided in about his sexuality. He wanted to establish himself as someone to be respected, a force to be reckoned with, before he opened himself up to those criticisms. He certainly wasn’t going to come out while bullies were still slamming him into the sides of cars and calling him—
Gay. Kinda stupid hiding it if people are going to call me that anyway.
Ash was silent, playing the flashlight into the bathroom across the hall from Elliot’s bedroom. Elliot grabbed jeans from his dresser, t-shirts, and other necessities for a few days’ travel, and shoved them in the bag. He hesitated at his nightstand, thinking about the condoms and lube inside, and glancing at his partner. Ash was busy looking around Elliot’s room at a bookshelf in the corner bearing more DVDs, a couple Lego airplanes, and a framed photo of him and his parents on vacation in Paris. While he was distracted, Elliot fumbled with the iPod on his nightstand as a cover for getting in the drawer and shoved the supplies into his bag and his iPod in his pocket, never looking away from Ash. On Elliot’s bookshelf beside the planes was a Rubik’s Cube and Ash picked it up, giving it a few absent turns.
“Aw, c’mon,” Elliot complained, flopping an annoyed hand at his lab partner. “You have to mess up my stuff?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Ash asked, giving the cube a few more pointed turns. “I guarantee you this is the least of our problems.” He tossed the cube to Elliot, who awkwardly flinched and fumbled it as it hit his hands. He finally got it under control and tossed it into his bag. At least he’d have something to concentrate on while he was gone.
He ducked quickly into the bathroom for his toiletries. “Hey, Ash. Bring the light.” He couldn’t see shit.
“Oh, grab that bottle of peroxide.” Ash pointed. “What else do you have that we can use?”
“Make yourself at home,” Elliot said incredulously as Ash began to pull everything from beneath the sink, grumbling when all he found were shower and toilet cleaners, a package of toilet paper, and a bucket. When Ash moved to the mirrored medicine cabinet above the sink, Elliot stayed his hand. “Do you mind?”
“Um, maybe if you have some ibuprofen or gauze pads? Some Band-Aids?”
“That cabinet.” He pointed to the doors mounted to the wall above the toilet. The last thing he wanted was for Ash to go rummaging in his pill bottles. Elliot loaded up his shave kit while Ash grabbed a roll of gauze and an ace bandage, a bottle of Advil, and some antibiotic cream. The room was too narrow for him to step around Elliot, so he waited until Elliot returned to his room. Elliot’s movements were jerky as he shoved the peroxide in the side pocket of the duffel bag so if it leaked, it wouldn’t get on his clothes.
Ash came in behind him, wordlessly placing his armload beside the bag.
“Do you have any bottled water?” He seemed to have gotten that he’d crossed a line. Good.
“Yeah, in the fridge. Take what you want. There’s a bunch of plastic grocery bags under the sink. Might as well clean out the food before it all goes bad.”
“Now you’re thinking,” Ash said, lightly punching him on the shoulder, suddenly accommodating and complimentary.
When Elliot was sure Ash was busy in the kitchen, he slipped across the hall again, opened the medicine cabinet, and palmed a couple of pill bottles off the shelves. A few extra razors, some cotton swabs, and he was done in the bathroom. After a brief hesitation, he snatched a couple rolls of toilet paper. Overkill, but better safe than sorry.
All packed, Elliot returned to the living room as Ash emerged from the kitchen.
“Have room for this?” He held forth Elliot’s handheld can opener.
Elliot snorted but took it and stuffed it in the bag. “Did you actually get canned food?”
Ash turned to the door. “I grabbed what you had, but it wasn’t much. Couple cans of peaches and some peeled tomatoes. We’ll stop at a store anyway.”
Elliot followed him to the stairs and down, the bobbing flashlight heaving shadows around.
“What if they’re not open?”
Ash didn’t answer. When they reached the lobby, he twirled the light in his palm like a drummer twiddling drumsticks, then held it out to Julian, grip first.
“Thank you, kind sir,” he drawled. Elliot couldn’t tell if he was making fun again, but the doorman smiled, not bothered.
“Anything else I can do for you boys?” So helpful. Realizing he may never see the man again, ice crystalized in Elliot’s belly.
“Yeah.” Julian perked up as Elliot awkwardly patted his shoulder. “If you need to, take your family and be safe. Don’t put the job above everything.” Julian stared at Elliot as though he were about to start singing… or collapse to the floor. Elliot hated that look. He jerked his hand back. “Just, you know. Don’t go down with a sinking ship.”
Silence stretched between them as they approached the door to the parking garage. Julian broke it with a coldly professional nod, and Elliot cringed. So much for one of the few friends who’d never judged him.
“You be careful, Mr. Davenport. Dark traffic lights make people drive recklessly.”
Ash looped the bag of bottled water over his wrist and held out his hand, palm up. “I’m driving, and I’m always careful. Keys, please, Davenport.”
Elli
ot reluctantly handed them over and led him to the garage.
“Don’t do that anymore,” Ash grumbled.
“Do what?”
“Warn people.”
Elliot actually startled in his incredulity. “Are you kidding? If you’re right, people are going to need as much of a head start as they can get.”
“Which only narrows our head start. All you’re doing is making the panic hit sooner.”
Anger welled in Elliot’s chest. “You warned a whole classroom full of people!”
“People smart enough to be logical about what’s going on.”
The chirp of the vehicle unlocking interrupted Elliot’s sputtering, and Ash stopped and stared at the car-shaped tarp in its spot at the end of the row, the lights blinking through the canvas.
“You ever drive it?”
“No,” Elliot said tersely, setting his bag down to fold back the cloth, revealing a gleaming black Audi sedan. Ash helped, then hit the button to pop the trunk when Elliot stood with the cover bunched in his arms.
“You probably don’t need that anymore, and it’ll take up space.”
“What, just leave it here? That’s stupid.”
“No more so than taking it with us and not using it.”
“Whatever,” he said, realizing it wasn’t worth the argument. He dumped the cover into the corner as Ash put the bags from the kitchen into the trunk, then swung his duffel bag in, slamming the lid decisively.
“Time’s wastin’. Get in.”
“I am smart,” Elliot gritted out once they were moving, picking up the thread of conversation about warning Julian. “I’m just having a hard time believing the Unabomber.”
“No one’s forcing you to be here,” Ash reminded him.
“Let’s get something clear. We’re in my car. You aren’t letting me come along. I am letting you borrow it. Letting you drive. We’re a package deal. You ditch me, you ditch the wheels, too. Let’s not forget who is doing the favor here.” Fucking or not, he wasn’t about to get walked on. He really hoped, however, Ash wouldn’t decide that was a deal breaker and just park and walk. Even a short drive back to the garage wasn’t wise.