I was shot so far into the air I fell on my back, miraculously not hitting anything. I scurried to my feet and looked for the bat. It was a short distance away, seemingly floating. The hair on my arms stood up as the second set of eyes opened directly above the bat.
It was in its teeth.
Fuck.
I looked around for something, anything, that I could defend myself with, but nothing stood out. I could shield myself, but that was no good when the monster’s spit ate through metal.
“Here, kitty kitty.” Eleanor’s sweet voice came from somewhere in the yard. “Here, kitty kitty.” She clicked her tongue.
Eleanor! What were you doing?
I wanted to scream for her to stop, but I had nothing to defend myself if it came for me. I needed to get the bat from it first.
“Where are you? You look hungry. I have kitty food!” She called to it. The beast cocked its head and turned abruptly, trotting toward her voice.
No!
I hurried after them. The animal didn’t seem to be paying me any mind. Eleanor continued to call to it. I tried to head it off by running around it, but I kept running into dead ends. The beast weaved through tunnels I was too large to go through, but finally I caught up with it just as it made it to a clearing in the junkyard, where Eleanor stood in the center.
“Here, kitty kitty,” she cooed. She held out her closed fist, with her other hand behind her back. The beast dropped the bat and bound excitedly for her.
“Eleanor, no!” I screamed, lunging for the bat.
Eleanor swung her other hand from behind her back and aimed a pistol at the beast, shooting once. It dropped instantly, a thick green ooze spilling out from the hole between its eyes.
What a shot.
I stood, the bat bouncing limply off my leg.
“Eleanor, wha—” I stopped when she raised the gun to my chest.
“And now to deal with the dog.”
Chapter 48 - Callahan
Live in the moment.
Iraised my arms up slowly.
“Eleanor, let me explain.”
“Explain what?” she snapped. Tears ran down her puffy face. “That you made me believe you loved me. That you cared about me, but in reality you— you—” Her hands shook violently, as did the gun in her hand. If she wasn’t careful, she’d shoot me purely by accident.
“I do love you. I care about you. I—” The run-in with the green-eyed beasts sobered me up some, but not enough. “I don’t know exactly.”
“Do you love him? You knew exactly where to go when we left the bunker. You took us right here. You seem to know Riot like an old friend. You have conversations without me. You—” Her face crumpled completely and she dropped the gun. I jumped, expecting it to go off and hit me in the knee. Thankfully it didn’t, and I hurried to her, taking her by her shoulders.
“Eleanor, calm down. You’re going to make yourself sick. It’s not what you think.”
“What is it then? Because I think you like him more than you like me.”
Words got caught in my throat. Did I? No. That was absurd. I loved Eleanor. I’d not-so-secretly pined for her for years while in the program. I bought her presents every year, imagined her when I was intimate with any woman in Gen Pop. Id never once considered having feelings for another person, but then I met Riot, and things changed.
“I met Riot a few weeks ago. He saw us at the theme park, and grew interested. Every time we went up for a mission, I let you go ahead so we could?—”
“Kiss? Do more?” she accused.
I shook my head. “No, never. Nothing happened until this afternoon. I didn’t even know he was into men!” I tried to reassure her, but in doing so, I exposed the truth even further.
