Page 20 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)

Mateo Rodriguez, my heart aches as I write this.

When I think that I will never see that cheeky grin of yours again.

The way you always tried to lighten the mood, even in our darkest hours.

Your pranks on Riley always made me smile.

Your love for peanut butter always had me looking out for some.

Every tub I found was a way of thanks for having the patience when training me how to shoot.

For encouraging me, even when I doubted myself.

You were one of the best of us.

We will all miss you, my friend.

F eeling Riley take my hand now felt different than all those times he had before. As friends we had always been close. Add to that the flirting that naturally happened between us, it meant that touching each other had always happened in one form or another.

But after that kiss…

It meant that just holding his hand now had my heart hammering in my chest. Of course, as for timing this could not have been worse, as it was time to have my head in the game. Which meant trying my damnedest to put these emotions aside and concentrate on what I did best.

Fighting Myths.

We ran toward the gates, both of us needing to see for ourselves exactly what we were up against. Because even if the council had decided to evacuate, we were out of time.

Which meant that getting us all out of here was no longer an option.

However, we could at least get some of the civilians to safety, but only if we acted now.

I’d half expected there to be chaos all over the base but, surprisingly, there was no one trying to run for their lives.

Instead, everyone was putting their training to good use and focusing their attention on doing what was needed.

Going through the motions of the attack protocol as orders were called out by senior officers, directing the others.

Riley and I made it up to the lookout tower, Tiffany was already there with her trusty binoculars in hand.

“What we got?” Riley asked after taking my hand back in his and giving it a squeeze. Something Tiffany didn’t miss as she grinned at me, despite what was currently happening.

In turn, I shot her a look as if to say, ‘not now’ which she wisely heeded. She handed Riley the binoculars and pointed to the darkness that could be seen far in the distance. A darkness that was moving.

I had to say, the sound of Riley’s gasp wasn’t confidence inspiring, nor was the haunted look he had on his face as he handed me the binoculars silently. And I was soon to find out why, as I raised them up to see the biggest horde of Myths we had ever seen.

Of course, we had been attacked before and by more than one creature at a time. What we hadn’t been was attacked by a fucking army of them in numbers that looked too big to count!

“Christ.” This curse came out on a breath that felt stolen from me.

“Yeah, we are pretty much fucked,” Tiffany agreed.

“How long do you estimate we have?” I asked.

“At the rate they are moving, twenty, thirty minutes tops.”

“Fuck!” Riley said, storming from the lookout and making me quick to follow.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to speak with the council and make them see fucking sense, or I am taking those kids myself!” Riley snapped, angry at the time they had wasted already.

“I will come with you.”

“No, you need to make sure everyone is ready. No one knows these Myths better than you. You are needed here.”

I nodded but he stopped, walked straight back to me and in front of everyone, wrapped an arm around my waist. Then he pulled me tight against him and despite the killer army headed our way, I still couldn’t help but swoon slightly as I melted into him.

“I am not leaving without you, so when the time comes, be ready,” he promised intensely.

“But everyone here?” I asked, surprised.

“If they don’t give the order to evacuate, then people will run, regardless, especially when they see there is no hope to save the base. I have had others spreading the word to rendezvous at the train yard should it all go to shit.”

“You have?” I asked in shock.

“Yeah, I knew that when it came to it, Taylor would do a shit job at making the right decisions. So, I made a plan to spread the word.”

I gave him my hurt expression but before I could say another word, he grinned and said,

“Babe… I made this plan on the way back from the supply run, since then, you and I have been a little busy.” The grin he gave me was infectious.

“You mean kissing me?”

“You mean spending my time wisely, yes, Alex, I did… speaking of which…” He kissed me again, and we both ignored the cat calls and wolf whistles coming from his squad because I couldn’t think of anything else when Riley had his lips on me.

The soft way his kiss claimed me, it was tender and spoke of so many things. The main one being… hope.

Hope that we’d make it out of this alive.

Hope that this meant the freedom to explore this new relationship of ours.

Hope for a future together. And despite knowing that hope could be a dangerous thing in this new apocalyptic life we had been forced into, we still couldn't help the dream.

The dream that, one day, we would finally make it to that other side and the wall that contained us would be open after the last Myth had fallen.

“Be safe and look for my signal,” he said, making me nod.

“I will.”

He gave me one last kiss, this time on the cheek, before running toward the building where the council meetings were held, in what had one time been the sheriff's office.

After this, I got to work because if we were going down fighting, then we were doing so by taking out as many of those fuckers as we could!

I made my way to where we kept most of our ammo and inside held more than just guns and bullets.

Because most of these fuckers needed something more original.

But this was where I had come in to play when I first got here as what the trained military guys came to realize was that most of the Myths were immune to conventional firepower.

Oh, they could kill a low class five or even a four, like the Harpies.

But class threes and twos needed something more.

Of course, we didn’t know exactly what was coming, so I wanted to plan for it all. I shouted to others to help carry supplies to the wall, where we knew most of the fighting would take place.

“What are these for?” a newcomer asked, surprising me as he stepped inside behind me.

He lifted the various glass bottles that were all shapes and sizes, as we had used anything we could find to fill them. Each was a mixture of perfumes and aftershaves that, when combined, made an overwhelming smell that had all our eyes watering.

It had to be mixed outside, wearing masks and safety glasses and we always put our names in a hat that we got one of the kids to pick out.

They thought it was hilarious the way the loser they picked would whine about doing it, and we always went overboard with our complaints just to make them laugh.

“The Spiked Uglies don’t like overpowering scents, it disorientates them so they can’t focus on ramming shit with their spiked heads. Y…you’ve never seen them?”

He frowned before shaking his head. At first it looked like he had wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.

“You’re new here, right?” I asked, already knowing the answer, because I had seen him around the last few days. And let’s just say he was hard to miss. But this was the first time I’d had a chance to speak with him.

The females on the base had certainly noticed him, as like I said, yeah, he was hard to miss what with those almond shaped, chocolate brown eyes that held unusual flecks of forest green that crinkled at the sides when he flashed that cheeky, bad boy smile.

All that flawless olive skin gave him a Mediterranean look, and then there was those prominent cheek bones and that square jaw with its prickle of a groomed moustache framing the softness of his full lips.

What gave him an edge was the ring piercing in one nostril, and the thin silver bull ring that went through his septum.

It was also the size of the guy. I thought Riley was big, but this guy was a behemoth.

Standing at least six foot six, he made me feel like a child.

My inner mind took me back to the General and I wondered if they weren’t far off being the same height.

Most would have been scared when this guy showed up if he wasn’t so handsome.

A happy face that instantly put a person at ease if he offered that easy smile of his.

The base had been gossiping about him for days, but Riley hadn’t been here, so I hadn’t taken in half of it.

I was always distracted when he was away.

But now, I couldn’t help but notice him, as I felt like one punch from this guy, and you would be dead. Yet he seemed friendly enough and, well, being built like a freight train would certainly help in the fight.

“I sure am, name’s Aster,” he said, holding out his big meaty paw for me to put my much smaller one in it to shake.

“I’m Alex.”

“Oh, I know.”

I raised a questioning brow, prompting him to offer, “I’ve heard a lot about you. Most say you’re the brains of the operation here. Something about a kill bible?”

I grinned and after turning back to the shelves, I told him,

“My dad always said knowledge is power.”

“Yes, I know someone else who says the same thing. I think you two would get on well.” He replied.

“I take it this person you’re talking about didn’t get caught behind the wall and made it out?”

“What makes you say that?” he inquired.

“You’re not talking about them in the past tense… trust me, around here, that happens a lot.”

Understanding crossed his handsome face before he replied, “We got split up, but knowing him, he is around here somewhere surviving just fine.”

I nodded, as I loaded up the crates with what was needed.

“That’s good then, and if you can vouch for him, then perhaps he will make it to our gates one day… that is, if they are still here for much longer,” I said looking to the door, as if expecting the Myths to be there waiting.

“Here, let me get those for you,” he said helpfully, holding out his beefy arms, and nodding for me to add more creates, telling me the guy was strong.

I could only just lift the one, but he had three, like I had piled on pillows.

I picked up my one, and walked out of the storeroom toward the wall, where he followed.

“I take it you can fight?” I asked, making him chuckle before telling me,

“I have lasted this long, honey.”

And the way he said honey had a nice drawl to it, which meant I wasn’t offended by the endearment; it didn’t sound patronizing coming from him.

When I first arrived, I’d had to deal with my fair share of sexism, something Riley had even gotten in a few fights over. But then I proved myself in their eyes and soon the banter we shared was born from mutual respect and I soon became one of the lads.

“Yeah, you look hard to kill,” I said, making him chuckle again and, this time, it was a deeper rumble.

“Hey, can you get someone to hand these out and make sure everyone has one?” I said to Tiffany, who had been making her way past us and back towards the lookout.

And holy hell, from the look Aster sent her, I was surprised her panties didn’t melt. A look she didn’t miss as I swear that was the first time I’d ever seen the girl blush. Little Miss Hottie Cool as a Cucumber had finally met her match… interesting.

“Darlin’,” he said, giving her a salute with two fingers from his forehead, making her fumble for words,

“Haeyllo,” she said, mixing up her greeting and when I sniggered, she shot me a dark look that I wagged my eyebrows at.

“Damn, what a woman,” Aster whistled under his breath as we made our way back to the storeroom. I couldn’t help but grin.

“So, what’s next?” he asked as we entered.

“The Goat Bombs and spray guns.”

“Do I want to know?” he said, chuckling and lifting one of the water guns that looked like kids’ toys out of the box.

“It’s filled with various flammable liquids as we find quite a few of the Myths don’t particularly like fire. One person squirts this and another throws the torches. We also have Molotov cocktails for the same reason, but these work best with the Cerastes.”

“The horned snakes,” he guessed, making me grin.

“Someone did his homework, I see. We don’t have all the correct names for the Myths yet, but I have been trying to do my research whenever we come across a book that’s helpful.

Most of them seem to be connected to Greek Mythology in one way or another,” I told him as I grabbed the poison tipped arrows, which would mostly go to Frankie as he seemed to be the better shot.

To be honest, I had always wanted to learn, but Riley had always tried to sway me off the idea. Perhaps it was because Frankie was one of the biggest flirts on the base. Which would make sense if Riley had been harboring feelings for me all this time.

But as for archery, it just seemed like such an elegant weapon. But then, I had always been a big Lord of the Rings fan, with Legolas being my favorite.

“And these? Why do they say Goat on the side?”

“Ah, now these are filled with Ajax cleaning powder. As soon as the goat inhales one of these, they fall asleep and make the Chimera vulnerable. Then we spray its mouth with a fire extinguisher, but it has to be the chemical foam kind.”

He nodded before saying, “So that’s how… ahem, you do it,” he said, clearing his throat halfway through, making me question whether he had faced one of these before.

We carried the crates out and one nervous glance at the gate told me the army were getting closer.

“So, you discovered all this out by yourself?” he asked sounding impressed, making me shrug as soon as my hands were free of boxes.

“Yeah, and most by first-hand experience, unfortunately.”

“But you survived,” he pointed out, making me rub a hand to the back of my neck as I thought back to how inexperienced I was back then.

“Through dumb luck mostly,” I admitted.

“You seem anything but dumb to me, the opposite, in fact,” he complimented, making me blush a little.

But then as I looked around at all the people getting ready, I was quick to say, “Yeah, well let’s hope it’s enough.”

I then paused to look at what was coming our way and added…

“As even dumb luck runs out eventually.”