Saints of Evil | Trepidation Trilogy | The Empty World Sequence

Ten

His arm was on fire.  Tris was there, lifting him to his feet.  A moment later his father's voice was at his ear, "Don't run, just keep making yourself walk away from here.  Even if you hear the gunfire, don't run.  I'll cover you, son."

     It was horrible.  It was like being back in Gaul and having his mother cover him with blankets when the Rowan broke through into their camp.  Trepidation let Tris lead him.  Then he panicked.  "What if my arm heals up with the fragments inside?"

     Tris held him still then gently he kicked at Trip's feet to make him walk.  Trip had never been shot before.  It really hurt.  How did the VC pull bullets from their own flesh then get right up and go on fighting?    "We're almost out of the square," Tris said. 

     Trepidation heard the gunfire overhead. 

     "That was no where near us, it's echoing off the buildings." 

     Trepidation opened his eyes.  They were turning onto a less crowded street.  People were running past in a panic.  "I don't get it, I don't get it."

     "They're wearing night vision goggles," Tris said calmly.

     "Goddamn kamakazi cracker liberationists.  Are they trying to start another war?"  Father, he really did hate the wars.

     "America hasn't been as safe for us at all since President Jewel finished her second term.  We don't even have a Democrat in the white house anymore."

     Father touched Trepidation's cheek and made him turn.  "Lean against the wall."  Trepidation let his father pass to the front and then lay back against the nearest brick wall.  When he looked down he saw he'd been trailing blood.  It made his head reel, half with hunger, half with sickness.  That was his blood spilled, just wasted on the ground.  Spilled on foreign land. 

     "I think I can do this," Sweet said.  He rolled the short sleeve of Trepidations shirt up over his shoulder and then pressed at the tender torn flesh of his arm.  Trepidation gasped, then bit his lip.  "David did this to me once, in the first Paris riots.  Hurts like Hell."

     "Shot you?" Trip asked through clenched teeth.

     "Pulled bullet fragments out of my arm," Father said.

     Trepidation could feel his father's fingers digging into his arm.  Everything ached.  He wanted to punch his father in the jaw.  But then it stopped.  Father tore the sleeve from his own shirt and used it to bind Trepidation's wound.  Father looked down at each of his shoulders then, and tore the other sleeve off.  Trepidation smiled.  Father was a bit vain. 

     "C'mon, we have to get to the club now."

     "Do you think everyone will have gone there?"

     "I don't know, Trip.  We've got to go somewhere."

†  †  †

This big person named Theo was very nice.  He knew how to make Gatito feel nice and safe.  He'd pick him up himself and carry him through pretty rooms and up the stairs to a hidden bedroom behind a heavy case of weird looking little statues.  He gave him warm milk to drink, and tucked him into bed.  He even let Valerie come into the room and sit with him. 

     Gatito felt nice and sleepy, nice and warm.  Theo kissed his face.  "Did Thierry tell you who you were?" Theo asked.

     "Thierry says he made me, like he made my cat Three-eyes, and he made Two-tail.  He even..." Gatito stopped.  "I'm not supposed to tell anyone," he cried.  He'd done what Mara told him not to.