Someone wiser would say that we should stay here forever. Live by the river, hidden from men and gods alike. But neither he nor I are wise. We’re hateful bastards, and we want payback.
We wash up, fill the bottles with water, and take the trail out of the canyon. Before turning a bend, I offer one last glance at the ramshackle hut on the beach, committing it to memory.
Jude was right; the area around the Hoover Dam is crawling with Maeve’s minions. They travel back and forth from the neighboring states, bringing stolen goods and materials to their new master.
At nightfall, we attack a group of six. I kill four of them with my electricity, and Jude, the last two, with a gun he looted from the corpses. It was too easy.
“They don’t even watch their backs,” I say while I inspect one of their vehicles.
“We’re deep intoHighwaymenterritory,” Jude says. “They usually don’t have to watch their backs here. They’ve grown complacent. Lucky for us.” He pulls out two guns from the back of a desert buggy and grins.
Some part of me still expects him to shoot me on sight as soon as he gets his hands on a gun. But, miraculously, he doesn’t. I marvel at the fact that he doesn’t want me dead anymore.
We borrow the red flag of theHighwaymen. Jude puts on a leather jacket with the red rectangle sewn in the back and front. I carry a holster over my Hawaiian shirt with a smaller one on it. If more than half of Jude’s parents’ army joined Maeve, then they can be counted among the hundreds scattered over a few states. Nobody will find us conspicuous.
We keep the biggest car for ourselves, a nice four-wheel-drive monster of a car. We spend the rest of the night driving the other two down a canyon with the bodies, just as we did with Malcolm and his friends. They might be complacent, but they would still be on alert for killers among them if they found the corpses.
The sun rises over the wastelands, and we drive to a ruin on a hilltop. It used to be a hotel with a view of Las Vegas on the horizon. We raise the red flag over the ruins, like any goodHighwaymen, and find shelter from the smoldering heat in the shade. There is enough food and water in the car to last us a week.
As soon as we’re settled inside, Jude pulls me into a wet kiss. With no care that we’re in enemy territory, he lets me fuck him against a wall. In a matter of minutes, we both turn into a sweaty mess. Jude moans loud enough to wake the hotel’s ghosts. He comes once on the wall, then in my mouth, before I orgasm on his back.
I can’t get enough of him, but the heat puts a stop to our lustful madness. We need to save our energy for later. We lie in the shade, naked, until our bodies have cooled down enough to rest. He falls asleep at my side, with his arm thrown carelessly over my chest. No matter how hot it gets, I don’t push him away.
Later in the day, we sit on the roof of our four-wheel drive to watch the sun set over the ruins of Las Vegas. Most of the buildings have been trampled by old gods, but the giant Ferris wheel is still standing. It must have been so strange to let a wheel take you to such heights.
“Can you imagine,” Jude says, “walking down the streets full of lights and music? Getting drunk in bars, wasting your money on hookers and casinos.”
“No,” I say.
I still can’t fathom how they used digital money for everything. Something that couldn’t even be touched ruled their world.
“I would have been one of the hookers,” he jokes. “Or a stripper.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Have you seen me? I’m too pretty to have worked common jobs.”
I chuckle. “A dominatrix, perhaps.”
“What’s that?”
“Someone wearing leather who is paid to torture their clients sexually and psychologically. More or less.”
Helios and I found a cache of porn when we were teenagers. We watched them on a TV in a villa that was still solar powered at the time. I remember thinking that one must be losing their mind to let themselves be treated that way and enjoy it. Now that I’ve spent time with Jude, I’m starting to understand. Earlier, right before I fucked him against the wall, he slapped me hard enough to make me see red and fuck him harder. Leather would suit him.
“That sounds like fun,” he says. “And you? What would you have been?”
I sigh, watching the sun disappear behind a tall tower broken at the top. “I wouldn’t exist. I was created in a lab for the sole purpose of being a soldier to fight the old gods. I’m a product of this new world. There is no place for me in the old one.”
Jude drops his head on my shoulder. The simple gesture is loaded with intimacy, and my heart skips a beat.
“You might be right,” he says. “But we’re both products of this world. I wouldn’t be me if I had grown up in theirs.”
I keep my mouth shut to avoid saying something that would leave me raw and exposed.
The radio comes to life below us in the car, making us both jump.
“The Bug has been located. I want everyone at the following coordinates tomorrow at noon.” Followed by a series of numbers. “The first ones who help me catch the Bug get a promotion! Come on, ladies and gentlemen! Let the chase begin!”
