Chapter 42 - Riot

Keep the lights on.

T he knock on my front door came frantic and loud. I stood in my kitchen, drinking the coffee Cherry had prepared before she left with the gang this morning. I tilted my head and listened again. The knocks repeated and with a sigh, I put my cup down and went to the door.

I pulled it open and froze.

He came.

"I had nowhere to go." Callahan stood in front of me, drenched from the acid rain that had poured down all night, with Eleanor in his arms. She was clinging to him, her eyes closed and arms around his neck.

"Come in," I opened the door wider for them. "Set her on the couch. Is she breathing?"

"She's alive. Just tired. We got a little lost in the dark, with the rain. She's cold." He set her down gently and her teeth rattled.

"She's wet. You both are. You're not going to warm up until you're in dry clothes." I stared down at her. She was in a white dress. What happened to the Young Lady uniform? I looked Callahan up and down. "We're a similar size. I'll go grab you something to wear."

I went to my room, grabbed some clothes for Callahan, then I went over to Cherry's side of the house. She had to have something for Eleanor to wear. I dug through the pile near her bed and was hit with the smell of body odor and dirt. I couldn't let her wear that. I returned to my room and grabbed an extra shirt.

"This will have to work for now," I said, tossing them to Callahan. He went to Eleanor, sitting her up.

"Eleanor, wake up baby. We need to get you out of this dress." He eyed me, and it hit me that this was the first time up close I was seeing his face. Hers too. No wonder she'd fallen for him. Callahan was incredibly good-looking, his jaw chiseled, his five o' clock shadow dark. He was tall, and toned, and I wondered for a moment what he'd look like without his clothes. He cleared his throat and I blinked. "Can we have some privacy?"

Mild embarrassment washed over me and I nodded, returning to my coffee in the kitchen. I heard rustling and mumbling from Cal, but none from Eleanor. She was in worse shape than he wanted to admit. He came into the kitchen once he was dressed in my clothes.

"Do you have a bed she can sleep in? I figured we could talk while she rests."

"Yeah of course." I considered the options and we went back to the couch. "She can sleep in my room."

She looked sexy as hell in just my shirt. Her legs were beautifully tan, long, and smooth. Smooth? That was... unusual. Cal lifted her up again and I took them up to my room. He placed her on my mattress and turned around. "Let's get to it then."

We left her to rest and went to the living room. I sat down in my arm chair and stretched my arms above my head and put my legs up on the wooden coffee table.

"Tell me everything."

"You were right. Eleanor is Myrtle's daughter," he started. I sat up, pulling my legs back and putting them on the floor. I ran my thumb over my tattoo of her name. Callahan raised his shoulders. "Although I'm not sure how, if she was as young as you say when you met."

"She absolutely was. They could be sisters." I shook my head. Holy fuck. "They must have really been playing with stuff down there."

Callahan reached for his backpack. He unzipped it and pulled out papers. "More than any of us realized. Eleanor is going to stop aging in two years. That's why Myrtle appeared young to you. She wasn't, but her body was."

He ruffled through them and handed me a stack. My heart stung as right on top was a photo of Myrtle. She was smiling, as if nothing were wrong. It must have been taken long before she ran away. I went to the next page and began to read. I got to the second page before looking up.

"Is this real?"

Callahan nodded grimly. "It appears so. You were right. The missions were all fake. They already have a cure. They've been giving it to the Young Ladies for generations. That's why when she ran away they had to..." he leaned forward and flipped the page in my hands. In bright red writing across the middle of the smaller writing was stamped:

Duties Ended

I read the last page. It detailed her run away, and that she'd been found and killed with one shot to the chest. They couldn't risk her telling the world what she knew. When I was finished, I sighed deeply and handed the papers back to him. "Well I'm glad you got out when you did. Sounds like your fate would have been similar."

"This isn't the worst of it." He shook his head. I wasn't sure if I could read on. "I found files on the real tests they were running. It's sick."

I sat there and listened as Callahan explained the pills being fed to the Young Ladies, ensuring that some parts of them developed, like breasts, hips, and their heights, but other things didn't, like pubic hair. Their uniforms were made to look like little girl dresses intentionally, so the grown men would be tempted.

"They instill in us not to touch the Young Ladies - our own or others. But that's not what they really want. They put us together, making us share quarters, so the temptation will be too much. They are testing how long it takes for us to rape them and then once they're found to have no hymen, the Young Ladies are killed."

"What if they remain virgins?"

"Then they impregnate them. Like Myrtle."

I stood up, disgusted. I couldn't take it anymore. "Please, stop. I-- can't hear this."

Rape, murder, forced pregnancy? I was going to be sick.

Callahan followed me into the kitchen, where I'd gone to drink water. I spun around, pissed. "And you fucking fell for it. Do you like thinking of little kids when you're shoving your dick inside her hairless pussy?"

"What? No. Not at all. I grew up with Eleanor. I don't see her as a child. You're sick if you think I'd do something so heinous."

"Well," I threw my hands up. "You tell me that's what they intended. What else am I supposed to think?"

"That I love her!" He screamed.The room fell silent. "I love her and we left so we could be together. Now, are you going to help us or not?"

I stared at the man in my clothes. He loved her. It wasn'tjustsex.

"Help you what?" I inhaleddeeply. "Escape across the wasteland? I can give you directions, but the rest is up to you. It'd be a shame if you got two days out and were shot dead by some bandits."

Callahan considered my words. "Then what do you propose we do? We just killed a dozen high-ranking soldiers. They'll be looking for us."

I nodded. "They will. But we can hide you. We hid Milton for a full week. No one steps onto Heathen Heights property without my permission. Stay here and I'll teach you guys how to survive on the surface. It's not as easy as just having food and shelter. People will know you ain't from here." I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my cigarette case, removing a cigarette. I lit my smoke quickly and inhaled. "And that is going to be what gets you wasted."

"Wasted?" He shook his head. I rolled my eyes and kicked off the cabinets I'd been leaning on.

"Dead! Killed! Throat slit, liver stabbed, head shot, dead!" I walked over to him and slapped his shoulder. I gripped him tightly, admiring the muscle underneath the shirt. I stood toe to toe with the man. Desire pooled hot in my belly as I stared at his lips. God, I bet he tasted nice. "Stick with me, and I'll make sure you live to tell the tale of the horrors of 237. What do you say?"

"Okay."