Page 26 of Trigger Discipline
Darkness fell just as a thin drizzle of rain began. Blake looked up at the sky, squinting against the slick droplets. It wasn’t a proper downpour. It was almost like the rain was hovering—striking the atmosphere and getting hit with the pause button. Eyelashes clinging to the wet, Blake tried not to shiver.
Gabriel had been silent for the last thirty minutes. Blake figured he didn’t like being out in the open. Which made sense. They hadn’t seen an alien in over an hour, but the tension was palpable. It hovered between them like another person.
Blake wasn’t ashamed to admit that he stood closer to the soldier as darkness fell. The hissing of rain on fires wasn’t even enough to make him relax. He thought he would be happy to see the embers glowing dark, but he realized that with the rain came the darkness. And cold.
It wouldn’t be a trifecta without cold, dark,andscared.
Just as he opened his mouth to suggest finding someplace dry, Gabriel stiffened. In the distance he could hear the signature clicking that came with the drone aliens. At least, Gabriel had called it a drone. Blake thought it was better than callingit the ‘Sphere of Impending Fucking Doom’, so he went with it.
Through the wet he spotted a potential shelter. Grabbing Gabriel’s elbow, he pointed to a pile of rubble at the edge of an abandoned construction site. Gabriel took his hand and dragged him over loose rebar and piles of sand until they got to a huge dump truck. Falling to his knees, Gabriel slipped under with Blake not far behind.
They wriggled until their backs were pressed against the large dual tires. Rain pattered on the metal above their heads. Blake couldn’t sit up straight, having to squish down in a way that would no doubt have his back screaming. He couldn’t imagine how the taller Gabriel was handling it.
“How far?” Gabriel asked, his voice a little terser than it had been before.
“Um,” Blake tried to get his bearings. “A couple of miles as the crow flies.”
But there were demolished buildings and craters in the road. He thought that went without saying.
Gabriel nodded, his shoulders high enough to touch his ears. He was uncomfortable with waiting. And probably even more so alone. Blake wasn’t very familiar with soldiers, but he was almost positive they were usually pack animals.
To be fair, he’d seen Phin’s biceps. He would feel more comfortable with him here, too.
His legs ached. Nerves buzzing as blood flow began recirculating around his tired limbs. He didn’t think he was unfit, but he was definitely not hitting the gym with any regularity. Sighing, he leaned back against the tire and tried to relax.
It was quiet under the truck. He knew it was stupid, but being under the big piece of equipment gave him a chance to breathe. Akin to a little kid hiding under a blanket to keep the monsters away, he finally took stock of himself.
His clothes were disgusting. He barely recognized his darkblue uniform. Wet and filthy, it clung to his skin in a way that guaranteed he would be cold all night. He knew he should be grateful they weren’t in the dead of winter, but he couldn’t feel much of anything beyond the exhaustion. It went further than the physical. He wastired.Not just of walking but of thinking. Of being afraid. Of processing horrors he thought only existed in the pixels of a video game, or the flashing scenes of a movie screen.
“If you could be anywhere else, where would you be?” Gabriel’s voice was hushed, but it sounded too loud. Like the first thunderclap of a storm. It made the hairs on the back of Blake’s neck stand on end.
When he finally looked over, he could see the soldier watching him out of the corner of his eye. His gun was resting across his lap. Even inert, it looked scary. All hard edges and connotations now lay only a few inches from Blake, yet in the span of a few hours, he’d grown comfortable with the weapon. Even fond.
Head rolling on the tire, he looked away from the gun and up at Gabriel. “Somewhere warm,” he finally answered. “With tacos.”
Gabriel chuckled, low and deep. His shoulders started to relax a little. Blake took that as permission to ask, “What about you?”
“Tacos sound good,” Gabriel agreed. “But I don’t mind the cold. I’d spend all my time in the north. Maybe a nice cabin on a mountain. Something with a view.”
“And tacos.”
Gabriel smiled. “And tacos.”
Blake couldn’t disagree. Someplace isolated would be nice. A place he could rest his head and his mind. Maybe read a book on the front porch without worrying about your neighbor shouting about the garbage cans left on the curb. He crossed his arms, tucking his hands in his armpits.
“What about queso?” Gabriel prodded.
“We’d have to have queso,” Blake scoffed. “What kind of place has tacos but no queso?”
“What kind of cheese?” he asked, his voice still low and gruff. It sounded like what Blake imagined a chunk of granite slipping off a mountain ledge would, rumbly and echoing across the space between two mountain peaks.
God, he was tired.
Before he could answer, Gabriel reached over and snagged him by his belt. With little effort, he tugged Blake so close the entire line of his body was plastered against Gabriel’s. He wassowarm and firm. Alive. Blake didn’t realize how much he needed that touch out here in the dark and wet.
He pulled something out of his pocket and began fiddling with it. Blake thought it was the crochet hook again.
“The cheese?” Gabriel prodded, sounding a little too smug for Blake’s liking.