Page 39 of Trigger Discipline
For a moment, there was only the sound of the water dripping off Blake’s rag between his fingers as he rested it against the side of the tank.
“Why would it bother me?” he asked, bewildered.
Gabriel steeled himself. It had been so long since he’d had to come out to anyone. “I’m gay.”
After a moment, Blake rolled his eyes, squeezing out the rage and scrubbing at his face with a little more force than his delicate skin needed.
“Congratulations. Hurry up or I’ll use all the water.”
Gabriel stepped forward and dunked his own rag in the cool water, letting it expand in his fingers. Growing heavier, he swirled it around the chain before looking up to meet Blake’s eyes. Unflinching in the face of more of his honesty.
“I’m gay,” he said with a soft laugh, squeezing on the rag so the water ran down his forearm. “And you’re my type.”
Blake paused with his own towel pressed to his ribs. He didn’t look away from Gabriel, but more heat filled his cheeks. He swallowed once and scowled, clearing his throat before finishing the swipe.
“Then you have shitty taste in men.”
That evening, Judd whipped out his deck of cards the moment the atmosphere grew heavy. He explained that he always kept them on him. Apparently, in the military, there was a lot ofhurry up and wait, so he needed something portable to entertain himself with. He had lured Phin into a rousing game ofGo Fish, but it quickly escalated to the two wrestling on the floor, Judd’s thick thighs wrapped around Phin’s waist as the shorter man tried to choke him out.
Gabriel had let it continue until Judd kicked a hole in the drywall, then he kicked them both in the kidneys and told them to knock it off. Cards were henceforth labeled a non-contact sport.
Phin was relegated across the room to the couch. He flopped onto the furniture, legs and arms spreading out like he owned the thing. He looked relaxed, despite having just been in a wrestling match. Blake figured the guy had to be close to six and a half feet tall of solid muscle. How he managed to walk as quietly as he did was a mystery.
Judd started in on how country music was the superior genre. No one was really listening, but they appreciated his attempts at levity. On the surface, Judd was a simple loudmouth. But the more Blake got to know him, the more he thought Judd might be someone who saw almost as much as he did.
Food was dwindling, and short of transmitting the Morse code, there wasn’t anything else they could do. What was that saying about idle hands? It was difficult to keep their spirits up when all they could do was think about their situation.
Periodically, the soldiers went out on patrol. They never went far, but they liked to keep an eye on things. Blake wasn’t really sure what they were looking for, but he did see them coming back and counting their ammo, their faces growing darker every time.
“All right,” Judd did a complicated shuffle, the cards bowing until they looked like they were about to flit right off his hand before sliding back into the deck. “Truth or dare.”
Phin snorted. “Are you a fifteen-year-old girl?”
Judd leveled a look at him. “Have you evermeta fifteen-year-old girl? I had three older sisters. Scariest fuckers I’ve ever seen, man. I’d go toe to toe with a FUD before a teenage girl.”
“Why are you hypothetically fighting a teenage girl?”
Judd made a face. “What the hell else are you supposed to do with them?”
Closing his eyes, Blake let Judd’s drawl accompany him to a restless sleep. He wasn’t actually sure if he slept or not. It was all hazy half dreams, woven with reality so closely he wasn’t sure if they were reveries or memories.
He jerked awake when he realized how uncomfortable he was. Easing his legs out, he noticed the room was dark save for a single candle. It snapped and crackled, thick globs of wax melting onto the cabinet. They were burning through the stash of birthday candles much faster than he thought.
Standing stiffly, he took a look around the room. Everyone was asleep except Phin, who was on watch. Tommy had his head resting on the soldier’s shoulder, looking comically small beside him. Phin looked frightened. He glanced up at Blake like he would save him, but Blake just flashed him athumbs up and stepped out of the room, toward the front of the station.
Venturing to the front of the station, he climbed up a small bookshelf to sit cross-legged. Leaning his head against the wall, he could look out the crack in the curtains to see the front street. Dawn was beginning to stir. The harbingers of sunlight crawling across the darkened earth. Warning for the night dwellers to seek shelter before the real rays of the sun crept over the horizon.
Blake silently watched the moon battle the sun, one last fight for dominance before she lost. It was inevitable, but he found himself rooting for her anyway.
It looked so normal. Like it had a thousand other nights he’d sat up unable to sleep, watching the world slowly wake up. Things had been relatively quiet. He didn’t know if the aliens slept at night or what they did, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. Knowing where they were was terrifying, but not knowing was worse.
Glancing down at his watch, he tried to read the face in the low light. It had stopped sometime in the last few days. How many days had they been cooped up in this station? He didn’t know. Sometimes it felt like forever, and others not any time at all. But what else were they going to do? Judd and Gabriel were taking turns on the telegraph machine, but should that even be their priority? Or should they be focusing on leaving?
Blake knew the answer. He knew he should grab Tommy by the scruff and drag his skinny ass as far away from DC. as possible. They didn’t need to be here. Short of saving people—and Blake wasn’t even sure there were people left to save—his priority should be Tommy. Keeping him safe. Blake was the paramedic. He was in charge, and as long as Tommy was his EMT, it was his job to protect him.
But the thought of leaving had him frozen. He couldn’t. And why? Because he’d found a semblance of safety in thestation? Like a deer in the headlights, unable to move or think.
Or was it the people?