Chapter 61 - Eleanor

Remember your training.

T he last 24 hours were a whirlwind. One moment I was sitting on Riot's face, the next I was stumbling in the dark, with a large backpack, while Riot walked in front of me holding a gun and singing loudly. He was luring the monsters out.

"Do you have to?" I asked, begging for him to stop singing ‘We Built This City'.

"I do," he laughed. "It's tradition and the best way to determine safety. Either someone sings back, it echoes, or you draw the fuckers out."

"In my training—" I started, but he cut me off.

"Your training was fake. You saw the papers. None of it was real."

"That's not true. The other Young Ladies, sure. Their missions were, but not mine." I protested.

Even before Cal was my Daddy, me and my other Daddy took on missions that were way more complicated than the others. There were definitely times where we weren't sure if we'd return to the bunker.

"You were brainwashed. For 10 years, Eleanor. The missions were all safe, contained scenarios. Those missions were nothing like being out in the real world."

I shook my head and focused my headlamp on my feet. I hated all of this, but I reminded myself why I was doing this. For Callahan. I'd do anything for him. At least he believed in my abilities.

I wasn't entirely helpless, despite what Riot thought.

We'd left just in time. As I climbed onto Riot's bike with my backpack packed full of rations, clothes, and my bear in my hand, we could see the soldiers coming our way on large 4-wheelers. There were a dozen of them, at least.

We sped off toward the entrance to Mercury Mile, the underground subway systems of the past, and then proceeded on foot.

"What are you planning on doing if you disturb a whole family?" I asked him as he finished his song and quickly moved on to another. He stopped his rendition of ‘Eye Of The Tiger' to look back.

"I plan on killing them, Eleanor."

"You think you can take on 20 crawlies?" I asked, skeptical.

"You think I can't?" Riot paused, coming back to me.

With the hand that had my name written on it, he grabbed my neck and pushed me into the cave wall. My body pulsed with longing. His eyes darkened, sending me spiraling.

"Oh you brat, you, I don't think you realize all that I can do."

He leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. I melted against him, my body singing with his kiss. I matched his enthusiasm with my own, my tongue reaching for his. We kissed for a long time, our mouths acting out what our bodies wanted to do. He had just brought his hands down between my thighs when we heard a howl, halting us.

Riot pulled away.

"Who goes there?" It was matched with another howl. "Fuck," he muttered.

"What?" I straightened my clothes. "What is it?" I looked out into the darkness.

"Beats me." He lifted his gun and started toward the sound. "Let's see."

I was frozen to the spot, but he kept walking, and the fear of being left alone drove me forward. I ran after him.

"Riot!"

"I've got this Elean—" His words were cut off by something ripping him forward into the darkness.

"Riot!" A scream burst from my lungs and I lunged forward. I sprinted after him. "Riot!"

But there was nothing. No screams, no cries, no howls. He was just gone.

I kept running, desperately trying to calm myself.

Riot underestimated me. I could save him. I had to save him. It was that, or be on my own, navigating the darkness that was Mercury Mile.

I stopped running and took a deep breath.

What had I been trained to do?

I pulled my backpack off and dug through it, finding the gun he'd given me. He insisted I pack it, instead of carry it, because he thought I'd never use it. I loaded the clip and zipped my bag back up. Hoisting it back on my shoulders, I started my trek again.

I racked my brain, trying to think of songs I'd learned since being up here. My jaw shook as I opened it, but slowly, I began to sing ‘All the Small things'.

With each word and each step forward, I grew braver. My voice grew stronger, and I belted out the song, and then another. Riot had been right. Every once in a while, a human voice would sing a lyric back. I felt safer moving forward.

I walked for an hour, maybe more, before finally hearing Riot's weak voice.

I'd been singing ‘Too Hot For Teacher', and he sang it back.

"Riot!" My heart stopped and then started pumping hard and fast. I ran toward his voice. Tears streamed down my face as I sang one line, and listened for him to sing the next. I sang for half a mile, until I found him.

He was collapsed against the wall and had large gashes on both his sides. His shirt had been torn off. I ran to him, falling to my knees.

"Oh, Riot. What happened?" I reached out, looking at the wounds. Not only did he still have the large scratches from the etgar on his torso leading up his face, now he had four large slashes on both sides of his middle.

"A bitter got me."

"A bitter?" I shook my head.

All these new beasts. I'd never heard of any of them. Did the bunkers know about them? Or had they purposely hide the true horrors of the wastelands from us.

"A spider/bat hybrid." He wheezed. "They're black. They're large. They fly, and they have eight claws that are razor sharp." He pointed to each gash.

A spider bat?

I shuddered.

"Is it still here?"

He shook his head, beads of sweat dripping onto his shoulders.. "No, I managed to get it to drop me. But it'll probably be back."

"Okay, well let me clean you up and then I'll go find it."

His hazel-green eyes popped open. "Eleanor, no."

"Stop me."

I slid my backpack off and pulled out a PHUCK box, quickly working to clean and dress his wounds. They were deep, but thin. I wasn't entirely sure what I was working with, but Riot was able to direct me on what medicines and tools to use. Once I was done, he sighed deeply.

"I'll heal in a day or two. I just need to lay here. Stay with me." He reached for my hand, but I pulled away and stood.

"No, I'm going after the bitter. You said it was coming back."

"Eleanor," Riot was pale. "Please don't do this."

"I have to."

I turned and started away, singing ‘Starman' by David Bowie.

Soon enough, the howl of the bitter came through the tunnel. I raised my gun and sang louder.

I saw it.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

This beast was hairy, and four times my size, but it was definitely a spider bat.

I shrunk down as it dropped to the ground and glared its glowing red eyes at me. My arms shook as I tried to keep the gun still. I had eight bullets, I had to make them count.

It had the head of a bat with the eyes of a spider. Its body was furry and the legs winged, but there were eight of them. How could such a beast even come to be created?

I knew the answer.

A bunker.

A bunker had created this monstrosity and launched it into the world. I backed away, slowly leading it back to the tunnel where Riot lay. It wasn't my intention, but my legs refused to move toward the beast.

"Eleanor, Atlas fucking Adam, what have you done?" Riot groaned.

And as if his voice was my cue, I pulled the trigger. The bitter squealed and fell against the wall, causing a mini earthquake.

It rolled onto its back and I rushed forward. Tackling my biggest fears head on, I climbed onto the beast and pointed my gun directly at his chest. The bullets compared to the beast were so small, I needed to make sure I hit my mark.

I shot into its chest and was instantly bucked off. It rolled on top of me and I shot again, shocked to find that I'd hit it.

"Eleanor, get up!" Riot screamed. I rolled and crawled out from under it just in time. The bitter collapsed to the ground. If I'd been a second later, I would have been crushed. I shot again and watched the glowing red of its eyes dim and then go out altogether. I waited until it stopped breathing and turned to Riot.

He was staring with his mouth open, in shock. I grinned, triumphant. I'd saved him.

"Care to tell me I can't survive in the wastelands again?"