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“Last thing.” Qui
“Juicy death,” he said. He slapped my bare back. It stung, and I wanted so bad to punch the kid. “Ha-ha-ha! These babies took the longest time to gather up and then get them to work right. Take a look, Odd. Here’s how I turn them on, in case you ever have to do it.”
Inside the trunk was a small brass-colored telegraph switch and eight automotive batteries—the big kind, like you’d see in a truck or an ambulance. They were all wired together, and then the wires fed into some kind of transformer box and more wires leading out from the bottom of the chest. It was an electric fence, Qui
“Why are you doing all this?” I said.
“Because I want to live,” Qui
“I mean, why did you bother with me? You didn’t have to save my life. You didn’t have to bring me here.”
For a second, Qui
“I trust you, Billy. Don’t you trust me?”
I hated being cornered like that. I’ve had that question aimed at me enough times in my life, and every time it had been someone trying to fuck with me.
Fuck you, Qui
So I said, “I really need to take a piss.”
“Ha-ha!” Qui
And he slapped my shoulder again when I walked past him, saying, “I’ll tell you what. You can take a shower if you want, so you can wash that Hunter shit off you and clean yourself up. You smell like death, Odd. Ha-ha! And I’ll go find you some clothes and cook us some grub. Let’s eat, Odd. I think we should have a special di
Finding me.
I couldn’t help but wonder if he really had been following me, like he said.
* * *
But the clean water felt so good, and as I stood under the cooling flow, examining the small round marks those black things had left on my legs, I couldn’t help but smell the food Qui
“We have to hurry up, Odd,” Qui
I shut off the valve to the nozzle and stood there, dripping, leaning against the brick divider wall.
The kid even had towels. Qui
“Thanks.”
“That’s the first time you said that all day, Billy.”
He was right, but it still pissed me off that he had to point it out to me.
“Is that all you’re looking for? Okay, then. Thanks, Qui
The kid shrugged.
I felt bad for what I said.
“Sorry.” I looked down, pretended to dry my feet. “I’m an asshole. Sorry, kid.”
I put the towel over my head, wiped my face.
“Don’t sweat it, Billy. We all have bad days. More than not, I guess. But this is going to be our good night together. Right?”
My pants and socks were lying crumpled on the floor. Qui
I wrapped the towel around my waist and stepped around the wall. “It’s all I got.”
“You know. I used to have a knife exactly like this one here,” Qui
I looked at him. “What happened to it?”
“I don’t know,” Qui
Sure you don’t, Qui
The kid bent over and picked up my pants, the belt with the knife I’d found attached to it. And I remembered the broken lens was still in the pocket. I didn’t want Qui
“What’s this you got?” Qui
“Don’t. Please.”
I snatched my pants from Qui
The kid looked at me. He was too smart, and I hated that. Because he didn’t need to say one word for me to know that he was already thinking up a way that he’d find out what I was hiding in my pocket.
Qui
He turned my palm over, lightly touched the cut that gapped my flesh open from the base of my thumb to the arc of Jack’s lifeline.
“I cut myself.”
“Come here. Sit down.” And Qui
Qui
He didn’t say a word, got up from the seat beside me, and returned with some bandages and antibiotic.
“Does it hurt?” Qui
I thought about the messages that had been painted on the wall in that house.
“Yes,” I said.
Then he wrapped my hand up with clean white gauze and medical tape.
“You gotta watch that, Billy. Things can get in you here. Don’t you know that?” Qui
“I was too busy watching all the other stuff.”
“Ha-ha-ha!” Qui
I felt embarrassed. Qui
“Hang on, Odd. I’ll get you something to wear.”
So I rolled my pants tightly and wrapped my belt around them, making sure the lens was wadded up deep in the center.
Qui
And I thought, This is bullshit. The kid has to be fucking with me.
This whole place is fucking with me.
“These are good for sleeping in,” Qui
That’s what was bothering me about Qui
When I slipped them on, the shorts hung down past my knees, and I had to hold on to them with one hand just to keep them from sliding off my hips. At least they’d never actually been mine or Co
Then he gave me a rust-colored T-shirt that was about two sizes too big.
“I guess the size doesn’t matter,” I said.
Because the kid himself looked like he’d been dressed in stuff that could be used as fumigation tents.
“You know,” he said. “When the bug hit real bad, at the start of the war, there was just young people who didn’t get it—us Odds and what was left of the Rangers. All the clothes is gone, Billy. Unless you want girl stuff. Heck, I don’t even recall if I ever saw a girl since I was a kid.”
Qui
The kid pulled his shirttails out from his pants and began unbuttoning.
“There’s really no girls?”
“Shit, Odd. What’s wrong with you? The only ones that’s left is with the Rangers. Ha-ha-ha! Or they’re Hunters. You ever seen a girl, Odd?”