Page 43 of Savagely Yours
I switched radio channels. “Go for Harding.”
“I need you for a meeting with some of the other generals,” Cerner said. “It’s nothing big, just a debriefing about the breach. You don’t have to mention anything you found today, if you did end up finding something, but we like to get feedback from our best guys. After that…”
I breathed through my irritation.
There was no “after that.”
I had shit to do.
“…but you won’t have to do any combat training directly,” Cerner continued. “Just observe the combat drill for some QA. Then, I’ll need you to fill in for a couple of hours on Tower 3. Honestly, I might pull you off patroling indefinitely so you don’t lose your skills. But I’m getting off-topic. Come straight to my office. Over.”
I nearly crushed the radio.
I didn’t know how much longer I could do this shit.
Realistically, I knew I had to play the game. I would be no good to Larke dead, and I wanted to be alive as long as she was living. I wanted to do everything I’d withheld myself from doing—holding her, breathing her in, telling her the real reason I keep building higher and higher walls between us. I’d failed before, and it cost me the life of someone I cared about.
Grief was the hardest battle I ever fought.
But losing someone I loved?
It would end me.
So, grinding my teeth so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised to swallow enamel dust, I headed for Cerner’s office.
By the timeI was done being shuffled from a meeting to supervising a training and then to tower duty, it was nearly midnight.
I went straight to the laundry, only to be equally relieved and disappointed that the building was empty. On the one hand, I was disappointed because I wanted to see my girl, but I was relieved because had she still been there, I would have set LaSalle on fire while alive.
I returned to my apartment unit only to find it empty, and I swept it three times as if Larke would suddenly crawl out of oneof the kitchen sink drains. Once satisfied I hadn’t overlooked her presence, I left and headed down to LaSalle’s floor.
When he saw me coming down the hallway, his face paled. It pissed me off how normal he looked, standing with a spoon in his mouth and carrying a small carton of ice cream, wearing shorts and a United States Navy T-shirt. None of what Larke had endured was explicitly his fault, but I was out for blood.
“I won’t ask you,” I said. “You know why I’m looking for you.”
He sighed, lowering the spoon. “Look, I just…I couldn’t bring her to Woodhaven, man. It’s too risky for meandher.”
“And how was she feeling when you left her?”
He sighed again. “Worse. Right before we split up, she said she was feeling worse. She told me she would stop by the medical office in Sanitation to see if there was anything they could do for the pain.”
“Pain?She’s in pain?”
“Look, man, I know what you’re thinking.” He looked around before dropping his voice to a whisper. “But I don’t see how she would have gotten infected. Sheissick, though. It’s not unusual for sickness to move through Sanitation.”
It was grueling, dirty work.
Then, they didn’t have access to adequate healthcare.
The generals wanteda survival of the fittest situation, but I planned to kill every last one of them the second I got the chance. If Larke didn’t pull through, it would be sooner rather than later.
“I have some information that might be useful,” LaSalle added. “Some guys on the tower got sick today, so they’re short-staffed on three and six. They’re also doing shift changes an hour later than usual. I heard about the breach, and foot patrol’s going to be next to nonexistent tonight. They’re moving extra men toward the fence.”
“Which is in the opposite direction of where I need to go,” I said. “You know this place well?”
“Well, enough. Not as well as you, probably.”
“I need your help with something then. Follow me.”
