Page 57 of Afflicted

“Just wanted to give you a chance to calm down.”

He stalks towards me, glaring when I don’t move out of his way. “So can I go?”

“I thought you and me could take a little walk, have a chat.” I smile at him amicably.

“Why the fuck would I want to talk to you?” He says with a snort.

I look around me, then lean closer conspiratorially. “I know about what happened with Braun.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“It’s OK.” I give him a wink. “I found the footage, I know what happened. Braun was less than careful, but I covered for you.”

His face crinkles, considering what I’m saying for a moment before he relaxes. “So you know everything?”

“I’ve got a pretty good idea.” I step aside from the door, waving him out. “Come on, stretch your legs, you must be feeling like shit after being in here all day.”

He ambles out of the room into the evening light and takes a deep breath. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem, mate.” I start towards the gardens. “Come on, fewer prying ears down here.”

He eyes me with distrust, so I give him my most dazzling wanker smile, pull out a cigarette case and offer him one.

“Go on, mate. You deserve it. Dealing with crazy women.” I wink, holding the case closer to him. “Just don’t tell anyone, ey?”

That does the trick, and with a snort he takes a cigarette and lets me light it for him.

“Crazy women is right,” he says, watching me light my own cigarette. He falls into step beside me as we walk down the hill, the sky above us turning orange and purple.

Matt puffs out a cloud of smoke heavily. “You gotta know, I never meant for her to get hurt.” He’s looking at me, I can see it out of the corner of my eye. “But that feeder, he caught me.”

“You were disconnecting the alarms, right?” I turn my head to look at him. “Your file says you have an engineering degree.”

He dips his head. “Yeah, I know it’s extreme, but the shit that Boston is hiding from you all, you know, it’s bad.”

“I believe that.” I nod, taking a deep drag of my cigarette. “Boston don’t give a shit about us.”

“Look, I know some of you are on the up-and-up, alright?” He stops, and I do too, turning to face him. “I know not all of you are bad guys, but this.” He gestures vaguely around the compound. “This needs to be stopped. There has to be a better way for us to co-exist than us being captives.”

“You’re right, there has to be.” I slide my hands into my pockets, continuing to walk in the direction of one of the garden sheds. “Juliet’s really not willing to listen to you on all this, is she?”

Matt sighs heavily. “No. I mean, I get it, she got hurt. It wasn’t meant to be that way.”

“How was it meant to be?” I kick a stone along the path. “I mean, maybe if you explain it to me, I can talk to her. Put in a good word, you know?”

“Yeah, she seems to like you a lot.” His voice takes on a cynical edge, and I smile over at him.

“Girls with trauma always just want a big man to protect them.” I hold his gaze, smirking, and after a moment he laughs.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He shrugs. “So that feeder-”

“Braun?”

“Yeah, Braun, right. He catches me. And I was convinced I was done for, like game over, you know? But he tells me, you know, your girlfriend, she’s hot. That’s all he wanted, I couldn’t believe it.”

I blow out a puff of smoke and shake my head. “That’s seriously all he wanted?”

Matt holds out a spread hand towards me. “Right? Like, he’s willing to give up his whole compound for some ass? It was fucking crazy.”

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