Chương 80

The sun was higher when they came outside. They got into the van. Gladice started the engine, pulled out of the lot without looking back, and merged into traffic. For the first ten minutes, the roads remained open. Then the road curved west toward a checkpoint at the base of a flyover. Three lanes narrowed to one between concrete barriers and stacked sandbags. County militia stood beside a Humvee under a canvas awning, rifles slung across their chests. Gladice spotted it before Louis said anything.

She eased off the accelerator and prepared to turn before they reached the queue.

"Shit," Louis said.

"I see it." Gladice turned onto a frontage road. Farther west, stores gave way to warehouses and empty office buildings. Several gates had broken chains hanging beside newer locks. There were fewer cars and almost no pedestrians.

"Keep going," Louis said.

"What are we looking for?" Gladice asked.

"A place to make this thing disappear." Gladice nodded once and drove on. Three blocks later, they found an old multi-story parking garage. The entrance barrier was gone, and the replacement chain hung open against the wall. Two cars near the entrance had all four tires missing. Gladice drove to the sixth level. Abandoned sedans stood along the open side of the garage. She backed the van behind a support column, out of sight from the ramp, and turned off the engine.

"That should do it." She nodded at the van.

"We can walk out and no one will know it's here for days."

"Great." Louis took the cane and got out. Gladice picked up the shopping bag of cash from the passenger footwell. She closed the door and walked to the open side of the garage. He joined her.

"Would you look at that." She pointed down into the crater. Ruined parking structures and the remains of office towers lined the upper rim. Below them, an improvised settlement descended toward the center of the crater. Sheet-metal and tarp roofs filled the terraces, linked by scaffolds and makeshift footbridges. Around the rim, Louis saw the official entry points: floodlit ramps, armored vehicles, and coils of wire. Between the checkpoints, Louis saw people with carts and bags moving along the roads below.

A runner crossed a makeshift bridge between two exposed levels of another parking garage.

"Old Downtown," Louis said.

"Damn." Gladice shook her head.

"They really built a whole city inside the hole."

"When the Dixies are too poor to rebuild properly, they improvise." Louis shifted his weight on the cane.

"Still." Gladice looked at him.

"It's impressive."

"It is. And we are about to walk into it. Now I am sure it's full of the kind of people who will rob you for the shoes on your feet." He gave her a half smile.

"But it's also our best chance to get what we need."

"Right." She sighed.

"So how do we get inside? We're not going in through one of the gates."

"No, but we don't have many choices," he said.

"Let's get closer." They took the pedestrian stairwell down. It smelled of urine. Gladice moved to Louis's injured side and slipped one arm around his waist. Louis rested his free arm across her shoulders, keeping the cane in his other hand. They started down together.

"This place reminds me of the ship," Louis said. Gladice wrinkled her nose.

"Because it smells like piss?"

"Yeah." She made a face.

"At least this time we don't have to piss and shit in front of each other." He laughed.

"You're one to talk. You had me wipe you after you took a piss at dinner." She gave him a quick squeeze through his pants and grinned.

"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it." He nearly missed the next step.

"Gladie!" She tightened her arm around his waist and caught him before he fell, laughing. Once he had his balance again, Louis slid the hand resting across her shoulders down and squeezed her breast through her clothes. She slapped lightly at his hand.

"Bad boy." He gave her another quick squeeze.

"Louis." She laughed and bumped her hip against his.

"You started it." They reached the next landing. Louis tried to grab her again, but Gladice twisted away and hit him with the bag. He caught her around the shoulders and pulled her back against him. She laughed, shoved at his chest, then pinched his side hard enough to make him flinch. His cane scraped across the concrete, and she immediately tightened her arm around his waist to steady him. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. He laughed with her.

"It's funny. I've known you for less than two weeks, but it already feels like a lifetime." Her smile softened.

"Yeah. Feels like you've been part of my life forever." Louis let more of his weight rest against her as they continued down. Her hair brushed his cheek, and he caught the clean scent of her shampoo.

"I love you," he said. Gladice stopped on the landing and looked at him. Her arm tightened around his waist. She dropped the bag at the corner. Then she caught the front of his shirt and kissed him. She tasted like coke. Her arm stayed tight around his waist as she pressed him back against the wall. When Louis opened his mouth, her tongue met his, and the kiss deepened. He hardened against her almost at once. She pressed against him and smiled against his mouth before leaning close to his ear.

"Now you're making me wet." Louis drew back just enough to look at her.

"We still have things to do." Gladice pulled him closer.

"It can wait a few minutes." She pulled him beneath the landing and backed him against the wall, then loosened his pants.

"Are you sure—""Shut up." She yanked his pants and underwear down together. His hard cock sprang free, and she closed her hand tightly around it. Louis hesitated for a second, then he stopped thinking. She had already unfastened her jeans. He pulled her jeans and panties down to her knees and saw the damp patch at the center. She bit her lower lip and reluctantly let go of his cock.

"Fuck me, Louis." She turned around and pushed her ass back toward him. Louis let the cane fall. It struck the concrete with a sharp clatter. He caught her by the waist with both hands and held on to steady himself as he stepped in behind her. She reached back and guided him inside her. She was warm and tight around him. He closed his eyes as the first rush of sensation hit him, then began to move, slowly at first before settling into a steady rhythm. The slick sound of each movement echoed beneath the landing.

Gladice twisted at the waist and reached back for him. He leaned forward, and she pulled him into another kiss. Her tongue met his as he kept thrusting. The kiss reminded him of the last time the three of them had been together. Angelique came to mind, and his rhythm faltered.

"We probably... shouldn't—" He drove into her harder.

"Ah—fuck." She pushed back to meet each thrust, her breath breaking into short gasps. She looked over her shoulder.

"Behind her back?"

"Yeah." She braced herself against the railing and pushed back against him again.

"Then... we'll tell her." The image came to Louis without warning: Angelique standing beside them, watching, one hand between her thighs as she touched herself. His thrusts turned faster.

"Gladie—" He came inside her a few seconds later, his hips jerking against her. Gladice cried out and pushed back hard, clenching around him as she came too. They stayed like that for a few seconds, both breathing hard. Louis rested against her until his legs steadied, then slowly pulled out. His cock was coated with her milky fluids, and more began to drip from her. Gladice reached into her pocket, took out a few napkins, and handed one to him before cleaning herself. Louis wiped himself and glanced around.

"I never thought I'd fuck in a parking garage in Dixie." She pulled up her panties and jeans.

"Now you can boast about it to your friends when you get back." She picked up the cane and handed it to him.

"I'll tell them it was romantic. I'll leave out the piss smell." He grinned as he pulled up his pants, then took the cane from her.

"Trust me, the piss smell doesn't even make the top ten in Dixie." She grabbed the shopping bag from the ground and carried it over her shoulder. They left the parking garage through a service exit and followed a quiet street behind an abandoned shopping plaza. For the next few blocks, they passed shuttered storefronts and fenced utility lots. After several blocks, the street began to fill. Most of the people ahead were refugees carrying backpacks, plastic suitcases, or children too tired to keep walking.

Small vendors had set up folding tables and shade canopies along the street. They sold bottled water, hot food in foam containers, painkillers, antibiotics, sanitary products, and secondhand clothing sorted into cardboard boxes or hung from portable racks. Men called prices to the passing refugees, while others held up shoes, children's clothes, and sealed packets of medicine. Louis doubted any of it had been this expensive before the crowds arrived. He and Gladice kept an even pace.

She stayed half a step behind and to his left, her gaze moving between the side streets, the armed men, and anyone who looked at them for too long. Louis watched for the same things.

"The Lord is with us, my brothers and sisters." A preacher's voice came through the megaphone.

"The Lord provides. The Lord protects. Do not turn away from His grace. Do not despair in the hour of trial."

"Psst." A man passing in the opposite direction murmured near Louis without turning his head. He lifted one hand just enough to show a packet of pills in his palm.

"Something for the head? Something for the spirit?" Louis did not respond. The man moved on. A second vendor offered them blankets marked with cigarette burns. Someone else asked if they needed a place to stay the night. Louis kept his face blank. Then he spotted several used backpacks hanging from a folding rack beside the curb. He looked at Gladice. She glanced at the rack, then back at him and nodded. Louis stepped over to the stall and pointed to a plain black backpack.

"How much?" The vendor looked Louis over before answering.

"Two hundred dollars." Louis took four fifty-euro notes from his pocket and held them out. The man's eyes fixed on the euro notes. He took them at once. Gladice stepped up beside Louis and reached for another backpack.

"That's for two." The vendor opened his mouth.

"I said—" Gladice stared at him. He paused, then gave a silent nod. They stepped away from the stall. Gladice stuffed the shopping bag into one backpack and zipped it shut. She handed the other to Louis, and they put them on. She glanced at him as they started walking again.

"You've never haggled in your life, have you?" Louis adjusted one of the straps and looked away.

"No. Not once." Gladice snorted.

"Yeah. I could tell." Louis noticed a black boy half a block later. He had been standing near the backpack stall when Louis paid, wearing an oversized reflective vest over a faded T-shirt. Now he moved through the crowd a few steps ahead of them. As Louis and Gladice approached a storefront with a security camera above the door, the boy slowed without turning around.

"Mr. Collins shouldn't be standing under cameras if he wanna stay lucky." Louis stopped. Gladice took one more step before turning and moving half a step in front of him. The boy lifted one shoulder.

"Ain't charging for the warning." Louis kept his voice low.

"Who told you who I am?"

"Boss see things. Told me to tell you hello." Louis looked past him toward the lower streets of the crater.

"Who's your boss?" The boy looked at Louis's cane, then at his face.

"Boss got word. Said if Mr. Collins came looking for toys, I'm supposed to walk him in before somebody official take an interest." Louis said nothing. The boy looked bored. Louis could not tell whether it was real. Gladice said, "Where's your boss?"

"Inside." The boy turned away.

"Come on." He started walking without checking whether they followed. Louis met Gladice's eyes. Then they followed him. The boy led them away from the market, past the last row of stalls, under a cracked pedestrian bridge, and through a loading bay with half its shutter missing. Beyond it, a narrow passage sloped down between a retaining wall and the exposed side of a damaged parking structure. The air was cooler and damp. The noise from the street faded behind them. The boy did not look back.

"Y'all stay close. Folks down here get nervous about new faces." They followed him down.