Page 8 of King of Lies (Mayhem Manuscripts Season One: 1nf3ction #6)

Keaton

After what had been quite the exhilarating experience, Tobias brought the bike to a stop outside a large brick building.

I stared at it, the red—non-brick—wall, made up almost entirely of tiny blank rectangles making little sense.

I assumed that once upon a time, those squares had contained glass, but time and neglect had done their job and not a single pane remained.

Like most buildings these days outside of a community, the outside resembled a jungle, plants thriving where humanity could not.

Letting go of Tobias somewhat reluctantly now we’d stopped, I swiveled around on the bike seat to face the building. “What is this place?”

“I would assume,” Tobias said, as he turned off the engine and pocketed the key, “that it used to be a fire station.”

“A what?”

He turned to give me a quizzical look. “Don’t they teach you any history in the army?”

“They mostly teach us inventive ways to kill the biters, and how not to get infected. Which, I failed at,” I added quickly, before Tobias could point it out. “What’s a fire station?”

“What’s it sound like?”

“A place where they kept fire.”

The look Tobias gave me was nothing short of scathing. “Why would you need to keep fire anywhere?”

“I don’t know. You asked me to guess, and I guessed.” Tobias muttered something under his breath, whatever it was too quiet to hear. I assumed it wasn’t complimentary. “Are you going to educate me?”

He swung off the bike in one easy move, forcing me to get off before it tipped and I found myself sprawled on the cracked concrete. “I don’t have several millennia available.”

“Ouch.” Truth be told, I was more amused than offended.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d met someone as interesting as Tobias Breeze, his pretty face—and it was pretty, all long lashes and cheekbones—at odds with how proficient he was at survival.

So far, anyway. Perhaps appearances were deceiving, and he’d fall to pieces at the first sign of trouble.

Tobias reached up to perform a neck stretch, his shirt rising with the motion to reveal a couple of inches of pale abdomen. I noticed, but I didn’t look. Honest. He repeated the gesture with the other side, and I kept my gaze resolutely fastened on his face.

Neck crick apparently dealt with, he waved a hand at the building. “In the olden days, people would call for help when they had a fire, and these guys would come to their rescue in their big red fire engine and put it out.”

“How do you know this stuff?”

Something flickered across his face. Something that said he regretted saying anything and wished he’d pretended ignorance. “I just do.”

I turned my attention to the building. Up close, there were more signs of neglect: the red metal shutter had more rust than metal in places and showed signs of corrosion.

The shutter didn’t reach all the way to the ground, a half-meter gap remaining at the bottom. “I assume you’ve been here before?”

“I have not,” Tobias said breezily. “But it looks like an interesting place to check out, right?”

I eyed the gap with fresh eyes, assuming it was the point at which he intended to access the building. “It could be full of biters.”

“It could be.” Tobias smirked. “Scared?”

“No!” Despite my denial, my heart rate picked up. Once upon a time, I’d been braver, but there was nothing quite like having a biter sink its teeth into your shoulder and refuse to let go to make you reassess whether your bravery had actually been stupidity.

My attacker had been a woman. Shorter than me.

A lot thinner. Far quicker and stronger, and with a jaw strength that had made me fear losing my entire arm before others had come to my rescue.

Even thinking about it, had the scar on my arm throbbing like the biter’s teeth were still embedded in my flesh.

“Because you can stay here if you want?” Tobias offered with a glint in his eye. “And I’ll come back and let you know when it’s safe.”

“Fuck you!”

He seemed surprised at the vehemence of my response. “Did I hit a nerve?”

I refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

Luckily, he didn’t push for one. He wheeled his bike over to where it couldn’t be seen from the road, the overgrown foliage at least affording that advantage, and then strolled over to the shutter, gaze fixed on the gap.

Following, I crouched down and tried to see underneath, nothing but darkness and dust behind it.

“Can you see anything?” Tobias asked.

“Nothing.”

“Guess we’re going in then.” He squinted up at the sky, the light already beginning to fail. “If it’s clear, we can stay here tonight.”

“And then tomorrow, you’ll take me to where you keep the suppressants.?”

“At first light,” Tobias agreed. “We should reach them before midday.”

Satisfied with his answer, I nodded. He crouched next to me. “Do you want me to go in first?” When I threw him a filthy look, he held his hands up in mock defense. “Hey! You just don’t seem that keen, that’s all.”

I dropped to my stomach before I thought better of it, inching my way under the gap that suddenly felt far smaller than it had looked.

For a horrifying moment, I thought I might get wedged—unable to move in or out—but with one last effort and a grit of my teeth, I made it through.

I clambered quickly to my feet, crossbow at the ready.

There was no sign of Tobias. What if he lowered the shutter and this was a trap?

I dismissed the thought. Unless he was a twisted bastard who liked to feed the biters, he had nothing to gain from it. A scuffling sound preceded Tobias working his own way under the barrier, his entrance quicker and easier on account of his leaner frame.

We both turned in a slow circle, taking in our surroundings. The room was enormous, its ceiling high. Near the roof, broken panes let in just enough light to give the space dim visibility.

“Fire engine,” Tobias said, pointing at a silent vehicle parked in the middle of the space. “I guess the rest of them were out when all hell broke loose and they never made it back.”

“I guess,” I agreed, my understanding of the picture he painted limited. Tobias rolled his eyes. “I thought you were taking the piss before. You never came across a fire station in the army?” I shook my head. “Weird,” he said. “I would have thought you’d be more well-traveled than I am.”

“We operated in a fairly small area,” I offered. “In Scotland. Different units had different areas to cover.”

“Uh-huh.”

We stood, neither of us moving a muscle. After a minute of nothing but silence, Tobias offered another one of those smiles, his teeth glinting in the dull light. “No biters in here.”

“That doesn’t mean there are none in the rest of the building.”

“Very true. Which is why we’re going to check it over first.” Tobias pulled his axe from his jacket, the blade devilishly sharp. He jerked his head toward a closed door at the far side of the room. “That way.”

I followed him over to it, crossbow lifted to eye-level in case anything jumped out of the shadows.

“Don’t shoot me in the head,” Tobias said.

“I’ll try not to. Maybe don’t say anything you shouldn’t.”

“Like what?”

“Like challenging my masculinity again.”

“Again?” There was disbelief in the way he’d said it. “When did I do it the first time?”

“When you offered to let me wait outside until you’d decided it was safe.”

“It was simply a generous offer. I brought you here. Do you think I could live with myself if I got you killed?”

I turned my head and studied him. He was calm. Almost too calm. Like ice ran through his veins instead of blood. No sign of the thudding orchestra that existed in my chest. “Yeah, I think you could,” I answered honestly.

The look he gave me was almost as sharp as the axe blade. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I gestured at the door we’d just reached, inviting him to be the one to open it. “Maybe we should save the chat until later. If there are biters behind this door, it might be best not to announce ourselves.”

Tobias inclined his head in agreement as he tried the door handle.

It didn’t open. Unlike the rest of the glass we’d seen so far, the pane in the door had survived the decades with nothing more to show for the passage of time than a single crack down its middle and dirt.

If you ignored the grime, it left an unobstructed view of the corridor beyond.

I cringed at the noise as Tobias brought the handle of his axe down on the lock mechanism without warning.

Well, if that didn’t bring the biters running, nothing would.

Tobias’ delay in reaching for the handle said he thought the same, his inaction long enough for someone to make it from any part of the building, no matter how extensive it might be.

When no snarling face appeared on the other side of the glass, Tobias tried the handle again, the door swinging open. Stepping through it revealed several open doors leading off the corridor. Open was good. Open meant no biters lurking behind them, silent only because they couldn’t get to us.

The first room contained rows of metal lockers, Tobias immediately heading straight for them. “Keep watch.”

I obediently took up point in the doorway, crossbow moving in a slow arc over the corridor. “I think we’re okay,” I whispered.

“So do I,” Tobias said at a normal volume as he opened up a locker. Either it was empty or its contents were disappointing, Tobias quickly moving onto the next one. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Safe would be using a building you already know, surely?”

Tobias’ silence spoke volumes as he pocketed something from the next locker.

“What was that?” I asked.

“A watch.”

My gaze traveled to Tobias’ wrist, a watch with a black leather strap wrapped around it. I’d noticed it before, but assumed it was just for decoration, an affectation some people persisted with. “Does the one you’re wearing actually work?”

“It does.” He pocketed a couple more things. I didn’t ask what they were.