Katie And The Reaper (A Post-Apocalyptic Romance)

Chapter 7 - Katie and the Fall Out Shelter

I think I've bit off more than I can chew with this story.  Oh my. The thing is, do I go back and make some major cuts or do I go forward and see what happens?  That is the big question...This chapter is a little short.  I did have 6 + 7 as just one chapter, but decided to break them up.  Thought it was a good idea.  Not so sure now when I see how short they are.  Thanks for your patience.  (Edits in process, mistakes abound, corrections that don't interrupt style, welcome. )

"Shay," a voice said, "I recognize two extra heartbeats in main elevator 3." A woman's voice said.

They were in an elevator. A working elevator. Katie's eyes went directly to a stylish mural of a red eyed, blue horse, rearing up on it's back legs, with a ruined city scape beneath its forelegs on the wall opposite her and Reghar. The horse was familiar:       the logo for N.W. Co, seen stamped on the sides of buildings and chemical products across the world. The Mustang Apartments, a step above slums, where Katie had lived with Marie until she was six, had a red eyed, blue horse created from a puzzle of tiny tiles in its entryway.

It was freaky to see it now, in a state-of-the-art elevator in the middle of the desert.

"Enid, start a temporary visa file for..." Shawnna answered the invisible voice, stopped and looked at her guests. Her eyes went over Katie from head to toe and back again, making comparisons, sizing her up. The appraisal and accompanying blast of thoughts were familiar. She was a mini of her mother Marie, looking like a dirty, lost waif, her braided red hair had a crazy halo of wisps around her head from the trip in dragon claws, her clothing, and all the crap hidden on her body and in her pockets, disguising her shape. "For?" Shawnna did not try to conceal her irritated impatience.

"I'm Katie. This is Reghar. Thanks for letting us stay. We will just rest up, if you could get us some food? I don't think we will be here long enough for a visa."
"You will help us with the mages." Shawnna told her. "Hopefully that won't take as long as it did last time. Enid, start a temporary visa file for a female, Katie, and a little boy, Regar."

Feeling a scan, a warm band of heat in the air conditioned box, more than seeing it, Katie tensed at what the computer voice was going to say. "Female, approximate age nine-teen and Male, approximate age four, Reghar, temporary visa file opened. Collecting data. Data recorded.  Female, Katie. No bullet dependent weapons. Steel detected, plastic, resin compounds. Subject is armed. Male Reghar. No bullet dependent weapons. No communicable disease or virus present. Dehydration and malnutrition noted for file and recommending diet." The voice spoke. Any minute Katie thought it would out Reghar as a shifter and her as a crazy weirdo with mommy issues. She remembered computers. She remembered videos with computers. But she hadn't seen any working ones for a very long time. Or an elevator.

An elevator so well made that she hadn't felt it move, but when the doors opened, it was not to the dessert. A beautifully clean hall, reminiscent of a modern hotel lobby, greeted them. 

'Welcome to Enid 6."Shawnna said. "My Grandfater started building this fall-out shelter in the 1980's, my father worked on it until his death."

Katie's face, again, betrayed everything she was thinking. She knew it. Because Shawnna frowned at her, and Agis, watching her from above that of the almost six foot tall woman's head, gave her a smile that made her certain he was laughing at her. What did they expect?  Fall out shelters were in basements and dug outs, filled with rickety shelves of canned beans, a few jugs of water, an army cot from world war two and enough guns and ammunition to rob a bank. Or something like that.  Fall out shelters did not have modulated computer voices with an A.I. that ran full body scans. They did not have elevators that moved soundlessly to floors lit by perfectly balanced artificial sunlight.  They never had artistic sculptures, surrounded by freakin' indoor water fountains, of another majestic and terrifying, red eyed, blue horse, this time surrounded by three men controlling it with leads.  

"Agis, honey, get some clothes, please? I will give our guests a room." Shawnna's voice, when talking to him, was all sweet syrup. As if a human woman could coax an ancient fae with baby talk.

As soon as he was gone from their sight, the woman turned on Katie, eyes flashing. "Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?" She didn't wait for a response. "You both smell. I'll take you to a room where you can wash and have food brought to you. Don't try to wander. Enid has this place ran tighter than you can imagine. Her eyes, my eyes, are everywhere. Best you stay in your room, I don't want you bothering my people."

Katie didn't bother to speak. When Shawnna opened the door to their room it was the cleanest, most well-furnished place she had ever been. It looked like a room from a science fiction movie, crossed with a New York hotel.  She just knew the water would be hot and the beds soft. Bring them food and she was more than pleased to not leave until the other woman got around to her full interrogation.

***

Katie made a habit of not looking in mirrors. The scar from the collar, the one from the spike, the body that looked like it belonged in a porn magazine, all reminded her of Marie. Which brought up the helpless, chained-dog feeling she hated.

Now and then she missed her. Missed the way it had been, the way she had imagined their relationship could be. A young single mother, Marie and vacillated between treating Katie like a possession and her bestest friend. As the best friend, they'd stay up late with popcorn parties, watching and reciting old movies together until midnight were the good memories. Marie didn't know enough to realize that two year olds shouldn't know all the dialogue of eighties movies like Sixteen Candles and Pretty Woman. "These old movies are the best," she'd say, hugging Katie close.

And then she'd tuck Katie into her make-shift corner bed, Katie would wake screaming, or with a wet bed, or Marie would notice some other change, and become impatient and angry. "I don't understand why you do this to me? Don't you like me?" She'd say then.

"Why do you do this to me?" Katie said, looking at the ceiling to floor mirror. The air in the bathroom had automatic circulation settings. There was no fog on the thing. She saw everything.

The last time she'd taken a shower, she was sure she'd not been covered with red inked, highly detailed tattoos. Manticore on her left arm, face fierce and angry but more appealing than she had ever seen it. The pretty djinn, her eyes kind, her mouth vicious, on her left thigh, her fingers reaching up as if to touch Katie's pussy. What. The. Heck. Two twin centaurs, muscular and with handsome, romantic greek faces, on her torso, rising up on their back legs, hands reaching around as if to lift her breasts. The Montour on her right thigh, hands doing the same thing as the djinn. And though she couldn't see it, though she tried, she was sure something, at least one, was hiding on her back.

They were inanimate. Imprinted on her body. But they were out- out of the Dream lands.

Fuck.