Chapter 55 - Callahan

Never trust a wastelander's measure of distance.

" I hate to tell you bud, but we're not making it back in three weeks." Boone slapped me on the back and I shot him a look. We'd hit week three and were still walking Mercury Mile, the underground subway systems from before the bombs. Of course we weren't getting back like we'd originally estimated.

In the time since we started on our journey, we'd been attacked twice already by crawlies. They loved the darkness, and an underground tunnel only half lit was the perfect place to dwell. I was tired and barely hanging on.

The current tunnel we were in had mining lights strung up about every 20 feet or so, so we had light, but in the tunnels that were dark, we relied on head lamps and the metal tracks to get us to the next place.

"Do you regret this?" Boone asked. We took the lead, with Cherry, Soda, and Bonnie falling back. They seemed to only have come because they were looking for fun, something to shake up their dull lives. Boone was the only one who seemed to understand why I wanted to do this.

I gritted my teeth and kept walking.

"No, I just…"

With each day that passed, the deeper my regret and guilt grew over how I left things with Eleanor.

"You did the right thing." Boone seemed to read my mind. I didn't feel like I'd done the right thing. How could breaking her heart be the right thing?

Because if I didn't come back, she'd hate me, not mourn for me.

"Riot will take care of your girl!" Cherry shouted from the back. I bit back something sharp. She'd been baiting me since the day we left. Everyone knew what had happened between Riot and I, and Cherry was convinced that it would happen to Eleanor as well. I didn't want to think about that.

Could she jump into someone else's bed so fast? Was it hypocritical to hold her to different standards than myself? Would I blame her for wanting Riot? I fell for him. That was an entirely other issue I was struggling with during the journey.

I couldn't get Riot off my mind. He was right. The blowjob he gave me was the best I'd ever had. I came so hard, and whenever I thought about it, my cock grew hard and I had to find somewhere to relieve myself. I wasn't as open as the couples in my party. They had no issues riding each other mere feet away from someone else. I needed privacy.

"How will we know when we're close?" I asked, and suddenly a sharp whistle rang out through the cave, followed by a bang and a scream from myself as I dropped to the ground, holding my thigh. I'd been shot.

"Cal!" Boone yelled and the rest of the party pulled their weapons as more shots and whistles rang out. Howls came, followed by the shrieks of Crawlies.

Fuck. Third times a charm.

I bit back the pain from my bullet wound. It hadn't been a big gun; it was just large enough to stick in my muscle and stun me.

I crawled to the wall to take a breath and steady myself. Everyone else already had their guns out and were running toward the screams. It was easier to take them on before they got to you. Bonnie started shooting first. She was the best shot in our group, and a beat after she started shooting, you could hear the rotting bodies dropping from the ceiling.

I pulled a bandage from my bag and quickly wrapped up my leg. I wasn't going to lose the limb but if I didn't stop the bleeding, I'd die from stupidity. Once I was sure I could, I got up and joined the fight.

This was the smallest Crawlie den we'd encountered thus far, and I only had to shoot four zombies before the herd was eradicated. I fell to the floor amongst the bodies, leaning against my backpack.

Cherry came running toward me, her PHUCK kit in hand.

"Cal, how are you doing?" She pulled out her knife and cut my pants, tearing them just enough to see the wound. She opened the metal pail and pulled out a bottle. She dumped the contents on me and I winced.

"I'm okay, it's like a bug bite." I tried to play off the pain, and when she shot me a look I conceded. "A big bug bite."

"Eleanor and Riot aren't here, you don't have to pretend you're not hurt," she teased. She pulled out a large pair of tweezers and I flinched as she dove in, searching through my wound for the bullet. In a flash she had it out and dropped it into my hand.

"Why would I care if Riot were here?" I gulped as she brought out a needle and medical twine. I frowned, realizing my thigh was mostly numb. I'd been bracing myself for a sting. Cherry saw me staring and poked me with the needle, eliciting nothing from me.

"The liquid numbs the area." She thread the needle and I watched in mild fascination as she began to sew me up. "And I say Riot because I think you don't want to admit it, but you've caught feelings."

"Caught feelings?" I raised an eyebrow. I was still learning wasteland slang.

"You like him, and it's not just the sex." She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't stress about it too much. Lots of people catch feelings for Riot. I think it's his curse."

"I don't have feelings for him," I lied. I wasn't sure how I felt about him. It felt wrong, almost. In the bunker, no one was with someone of the same sex. Or if they were, it was so secret no one knew. Maybe in Gen Pop it was a thing, but in the Young Lady program, being gay was non-existent.

But, I felt something. Cherry was right. It wasn't just sex. When I'd been approached by Riot the first time near the bunkers, I'd been hooked by his casual charm. Anyone else I would have shot dead right then and there, but I couldn't with him. I had to hear what he had to say. I wanted to sit with him during each mission and get to know him and learn about his world.

I didn't think twice about where I was going to go when Eleanor and I escaped the bunker. Riot was the only thing on my mind. Back then, I'd thought it was because he would be the safest place for Eleanor, but now I wondered if it was because he was a source of comfort for me as well.

If I did have feelings for him, what did that mean? For all of us?

"You think he's going to touch Eleanor?" I asked Cherry.

"Yes," she said flatly. "But I don't think that's a deal breaker."

"What do you mean? I think him stealing my girl is kind of a deal breaker."

"For who? You, him, or her?" She paused to look up at me.

Good question.

I blinked, not sure what the answer was. She resumed stitching me up.

"Look, I'm just saying, it doesn't have to be black and white. There are tons of different relationships here in the wastelands. The only thing that's really off limits are children and animals. Other than that, be who with whoever you want. You can be with both."

Both?

She rinsed the wound with more of the numbing fluid and then finished patching me up. She helped me stand and offered me an aspirin from the PHUCK tin.

She grinned. "You've officially been PHUCKED. Now, let's keep moving."

We weaved through the creepy bodies, avoiding the gross liquids bleeding from them, and making it to the other side of the tunnel which, unfortunately, plunged us into darkness.

We paused to switch on our headlamps when suddenly, we heard a sharp call from the dark.

"Who goes there?" A man yelled.

Boone stepped forward. "We're travelers, just passing through!"

Our heads moved around, looking for the source of the voice. Slowly, a man crept forward. He looked entirely normal, dressed just like us, only… his eyes. They were unnaturally silver. He didn't have a head lamp, I noted. What had he been doing in the complete dark?

"The only people that come down this way are looking for something very specific. Unless you're lost?" he asked.

We didn't speak, which only made him smile wider, turning from friendly to unsettling.

"From the looks of you, I'd say you're not lost."