The Coalition: Part 1 The State of Extinction by Robert Mathis Kurtz

Author:Robert Mathis Kurtz [Kurtz, Robert Mathis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Lang:en
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2012-03-22T18:48:03+00:00

“I’m not, you know.”

“What?”

“A homosexual.”

Cutter turned and gave the man a hard look. “Like it makes any difference these days, or did even toward the end.”

“Well, I figured I should say something. The boy—Oliver—hinted that you think he should be careful around me.” He waited for Cutter to deny he had intimated such, or to defend himself. “He needn’t worry, you know. About me. I’m a perfect gentleman.”

“I’m sure you are.” Cutter turned to check the street, looking for movement. Off in the distance, three blocks distant, a deader did come into view, but it slowly ambled off down a side alley and vanished again as quickly as it had appeared.

“But the boy, Oliver. I think we should do something for him. About him. His situation is…well, untenable. It’s only a matter of time before he comes to a bad end. He’s just a child, you know.” For his part, Dale sat up and peered to his own right, checking to see if anything was headed in their direction. He spotted a movement, but quickly recognized it for another scavenger like themselves. The person—he figured it to be a heavily cloaked woman—scampered across the street two blocks down and ran into what had been an office building. “We really should do something about him.”

“I’ve tried,” Cutter told the older man. “I’ve asked him to move with me to one of my safe houses.” He felt no need to hide the fact that he had more than one lair, but he still didn’t trust the maybe-Colonel with the locations of his homes. “And I suggested the Lunds when he brought them up. That was mighty smart of you. I do think they’d take him in. They’re a good, solid nuclear family. It would be good for him. Better than living with a bachelor like me. Or you,” he added.

“And what has been his reaction?” Dale produced an aluminum bottle and slowly unscrewed the cap, taking a long slug of the fresh water.

“Same as he reacted to your suggestions, I reckon. Nothing doing. The only way I could get him to leave that damned tree house of his would be to tie him up and drag him kicking and screaming. He’s really attached to that place for some reason.” Cutter sighed, thinking of it.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“His parents built that place.” The expression on the Brit’s face was one of amazement. “How could you not know that? He won’t leave it because his parents put him there to protect him.”

“He told you that?”

“Damned if you Americans can’t be the most incurious lot.” He leaned forward to sketch in the dirt on the tile floor. “See? This is Oliver’s tree house. And here is the great garden…I mean back yard…and here is the big townhome attached to that yard. I went in there some time back, when Oliver was out and about scavenging. I knew I could look about in the area without him seeing or taking offense.

“I went in there and you don’t have to look very far to find photos of Oliver.

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