Chapter 41: Cue in the Bellview pt 1

Hope is like sand in one’s hand. No matter how hard you hold it, it spills from your fingers in the slightest of winds.

Beyond the oasis, which Cue now realized it was, was nothing but sand and wind. Just like her dome, it seemed that here was cursed with a death so permanent that nothing could survive.

Cue walked with a scarf over her head and her arm shielding her eyes. She faced into the wind, dragging herself against it, desperate to make any headway at all. Beside her, even Gunner struggled to keep his footing as the sand seemed to shift underneath him.

Only Trigger did not struggle. She was strapped to Gunner’s back in a sling, her knees tucked to her face, and her whole body covered in Gunner’s Shemaug. “What the fuck is this?” she cried out, her voice barely audible over the ravaging winds and corrosive sand against metal skyscrapers.

“A sand storm!” Cue yelled back.

“We need shelter,” Gunner said calmly. The storm didn’t hurt him, but the strong Trigger used to sew up his face was beginning to fray and split. He touched it slightly and then wrapped is face with a bandana to protect it before putting his helmet on.

“We need to get above it!” Cue cried, running over to the nearest skyscraper. “Follow me!” She vaulted, catching the edge of a broken windowsill and clawing her way up to the next level.

Gunner had only to reach up and grab the edge to haul himself up.

Cue’s lips twisted as she watched how easy it was for him, jealousy turning her a little green around the edges, but she kept on. She parkoured off of a beam to leap up through the broken floor of the level above her.

“How far up is far enough?”  Trigger asked, making gagging noises as if she might be sick.

“Can’t know until we know!” Cue shouted back, hanging from a pole three levels above.

Gunner looked up at her through the shattered floor. He stood in front of a giant rock that was responsible for the holes going through the building. Underneath and hanging out were the skeletons of a group of people, as if they had been running from the battle between Angels and Demons and got caught in the crossfire.

He deftly climbed the rock and vaulted himself into the air, grabbing onto a large pipe two levels above.

“You make this look too easy!” Cue shot at him with a dry laugh, sweat dripping down her sand-stained face.

“Speak for yourself!” Trigger choked, and then she did puke. “If I get jostled anymore, the baby is coming out the other end!”

Cue couldn’t help but laugh. If there was one thing she knew, it was that babies didn’t come out that way ever. “We can go interior instead? She offered, looking at the center of the building and the series of walls that could shield them.

“I heard once that early humans used to have things called bathrooms that were reinforced and waterproof to relieve themselves in,” Cue started, headed inward. “Why would they need a safe room instead of a bush to relieve themselves behind is beyond me.”

“I’ll thank the ancestors for the rest of my life if it’s still standing!” Trigger declared, pulling herself to hang off the back of Gunner’s shoulders so she could look over.

They walked through the twisting labyrinth of the ruins of legend for several minutes before finding a door that was still standing. It was solid metal and heavy, but it was no match for Gunner. He got the door open and hurried the ladies inside.

Gunner took off his helmet, and through the light of Gunner’s glowing eyes, they could see that the room was covered, floor to ceiling, with squares that may once have been white but were now bloodstained. There was an old fire pit in the center, and along the wall were stalls with a glass throne of some kind in each; on the floor, a mattress for sleeping in each.

“Someone lived here,” Trigger said, pulling herself out of the sling and wobbling on her own two feet.

“Long ago, the fire is covered with too much dust to be recent.” He bent and used his lasers on the fire, igniting the very dry wood easily. With more light, they saw a stack of wood in the corner, and a small smoke hole gauged out of the roof.

Cue walked to Trigger and took her hand, leading her to one of the mattresses. As they sat, Trigger unbuttoned her shirt so Cue could quench her dry throat with her breast milk. IT all seemed so natural now, after weeks of travel, for Cue to drink from Trigger without it being immediately sexual. She drained both sides to keep up the balance and size of her breasts.

“We can rest until the storm is over,” Cue said, wiping milk off her face with the back of her hand. “When the sand settles, maybe we will be able to see the hospital from here.”

Gunner nodded, adding wood to the fire with a solemn look on his face. “Should we maybe just kill someone to show that we are the danger?” he asked. “I would like to open fire on them immediately, so they know not to push us. I tire of hiding my identity and my women being threatened.”

Trigger went stiff at the sound of his voice. He sounded actually angry, but there was hurt in his glowing eyes. “We will be fine, Gunner, we always are, but I agree. It’s time to stop being the ones needing rescued and become the raiders they are afraid of. We take what we want from here on out.”

Cue nodded, nestling up to Trigger’s side and pulling her down on the dusty old mattress. They fell asleep easily, cuddled together in the warmth of the secure room with the fire keeping them warm.

Cue was the first to wake hours later, and with a brief nod to Gunner, she began her usual exploration. With the winds dying down, she could see the surrounding buildings, but nothing much else.

She combed the floor for any supplies she could find, even finding a closet full of what looked like rolls of paper, but they were too soft to do any writing on. As well as a stick with the remnants of bristles on it. She couldn’t figure out what either of these things was, but it was the shittiest supply closet she’d ever seen. No guns, no food, no clothes. Just wooden sticks, plastic buckets, and soft paper.

She climbed higher until something caught her eye in the dust storm. Something bright, light the sun. It flickered red, off and on. Cue walked closer to the edge of the building and grabbed the windowsill, hanging out hundreds of feet above the ground.

The light was a red cross, and next to it, the words Bellview Hospital.