Page 16 of Savagely Yours
“A show everyone knows, but I can’t seem to find a single person who watched it.”
He smiled.
I held my breath and decided there was no better time than the present to go in for a kiss. I’d waited in the event the kiss wasn’t reciprocated, and then I’d have no way to escape the awkwardness. If I did end up having to leave, at least it wouldbe after braving my desires, regardless of whether he turned me down after.
I leaned in.
Frowning, he released me and walked to a window, which he often did, but there was never much to see without widespread electricity. Then, I looked down and noticed that when he pulled me up, my shirt slid, and an entire breast was out.
An entire titty, and he didn’t notice.
Yeah, this man didn’t want me.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure I could hear after figuratively face-planting on the solid floors. I’d read this man all wrong. End of the world Larke was both desperate and pathetic.
A droning hum passed overhead.
Dez backed away from the window. “Tapley, get your bug-out bag. José said we had three more days, but that’s a Reaper.”
I’d heard the term used before.
The MQ-9 Reaper was a stealth aircraft drone primarily used for surveillance, but I knew it could also carry various weapons.
After adjusting my shirt, I went into motion.
We’d practiced an exit strategy several times since that first night, although we’d practiced with the idea of running from mobs and armed citizens in mind.
As I stepped into a pair of leggings, another rumble tore through the sky, more profound than the first, and I wondered how effective our escape route would be against trained military personnel.
“That’s a C-130,” Dez said, reaching under my bed, fully dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of tactical pants. “My source said we had three more days until extreme quarantine measures. That’s why I wanted us to move in the morning.”
He retrieved a case with a handle, one of the necessities he’d brought from his place. I grabbed non-perishables and waterand stepped into the hiking sneakers I’d bought earlier that year. Seeing as I wasn’t a fan of the gym or counting reps, I’d planned to go hiking and take dance classes to help drop some of my “sit behind a desk for hours and subsist on food delivery apps” weight. Had I known food scarcity was in my future, I would have simply waited.
I went to the front door.
Another aircraft passed overhead.
“Dez, we gotta go, my friend,” I called.
“I’m coming. I’d never leave without my girl.”
I beamed.
The joy melted when he appeared in the bedroom doorway, holding a rifle, the scope hovering near his eye.
“When I told you I didn’t have someone waiting for me back at home, I lied. Larke Tapley, meet the love of my life. I call her Bethany.”
He’d named his gunBethany.
If that wasn’t the kick in the temple I needed, I didn’t know what else would be.
“We need to go,” I reiterated.
We left and headed for the stairs.
A few residents peeked at us in the corridor from their units but then dipped back inside like gophers. Staying sheltered might have seemed appropriate, but Dez had emphasized that we would eventually need to treat our circumstances like an active war zone.
