Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 39

When Zane woke up, all was dark.

He had a flashback to the tunnel underneath New Vancouver, after he'd been shot and passed out. He expected to sit up and see Marcus in front of him, propped against the curved wall, his ridiculous, necessary cowboy costume seeming out of place. Zane searched for pain in his leg, but found none. He breathed heavily.

He opened his eyes, and Joseph's worried gaze met his eyes. The boy's bright blue eyes gazed fondly at him, light dancing off his irises. Joseph had his hand on Zane's forehead, and Zane realized there was a cold cloth on his head. He grunted and tried to sit up.

"Woah there," Joseph said calmly. "You exerted yourself far too much. It'll take a couple minutes to gain your bearings."

When Zane spoke, his voice was barely more than a croak. "I had to save you," he said. "I couldn't let you die."

Joseph's thumb traced a line down the side of Zane's face. "I know," he told him. "Thank you." Zane shivered.

Zane looked around. "What happened? Where are we?"

The room around him was dim, the lights downplayed. A dusty window in the corner cast small shadows about the room. Zane was reminded of Jonas's shelter in New Vancouver, the small, dark room beneath the old musty book store. The smell was inherently similar; moldy and dusty. Zane was glad that the bitter tang of steel was not wafting through the air.

Joseph laid his hands on Zane's shoulders. "We're safe," he responded. "After FEPE was destroyed, an EMP blast destroyed all of London's electronics. It shut off the microchip in Jonas's brain. He's going crazy not knowing if it's fried or if it'll turn on once we're out of range of the EMP."

"EMP?"

"Electro-magnetic pulse," Joseph said. "It's designed to wipe out all technology or anything with a chip. The cars don't run, the computers don't work, they have no traffic lights, no news, no phones."

"Wawrzynski?"

"That's our best guess," the boy said. "We think he's targeted communication. So nobody outside of London can hear about FEPE until somebody manages to get out of the blast radius, which is apparently very large." The boy ran a hand through his hair, sweeping it to the opposite side. "They're evacuating. They think another attack is coming."

"Which it probably is," Zane said. He struggled up to his elbows, propping his body up, his arms shaking from his weight and exhaustion. "How long was I out?"

"Only a couple hours," Joseph responded. "And if it's any consolation, that time I didn't want to die."

Zane gave him a hard look. He couldn't decide if it was actually meant as consolation, or a joke. "I hope not," he said hesitantly. "I can't have you dying."

Joseph smirked. "Why not?" he asked. He placed a palm on Zane's chest and easily pushed him back down. Zane grunted from the effort of trying to oppose it. The other boy leaned in close, his face inches away from Zane's. "I expect an answer."

Zane almost kicked him in the shins.

"Oh, get off me," he said, turning his head away. "You know why." He rolled sideways, escaping from Joseph. "You just want me to admit it."

Zane hissed in frustration as Joseph rolled him back.

"You can be a pain in the ass," Zane told him, and kissed him.

In the dark room, exhausted and exerted, his lips planted on Joseph's, he'd never felt more alive. As they always did when he kissed Joseph, his worries flew away like leaves on the wind. He forgot everything; the FEPE disaster, the assassins, Marlene's death. It was like Joseph blocked the trauma from invading his brain whenever he touched him. It was a magnificent feeling.