Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

Jay finally finished what he was doing and stood up, then glanced over at Keo. “Can you carry her downstairs?”

“I can do it,” Dave said.

“No,” Keo said. “I’ll do it. She’s my friend.”

*

He carried Jordan down to the first floor, then followed Jay to the back hallway connected to the garage. They stopped at the laundry room, where Gillian was already waiting inside.

Like most homes before the end of the world, Gillian’s used to get its heated water from a tank. The tall, smooth, stainless forty-gallon container rested on top of a three-foot-high shelf in the back of the laundry room inside its own closet. Gillian had discovered a few weeks after she moved in that the previous owner had holed out the shelf and had been using it to store old parts for the heating unit. She had removed everything, leaving an empty three-by-four-feet extra area.

Dave peered into the tight space before sighing. “Are you sure she’ll be fine in there?”

“I gave her plenty of morphine,” Jay said. “She won’t feel a thing no matter how cramped it is.”

“You claustrophobic?” Keo asked.

“Hell yeah,” Dave said. “But I guess it’s better than nothing.”

Dave went back-first into the enclosed space, basically folding over into a ball to squeeze inside. He didn’t stop scooting until he bumped into the back wall. Keo laid down a duvet, then lowered Jordan’s unconscious body on top of it. Dave took hold of one end of the blanket and pulled it inside with him, but it took both of them to curl up Jordan’s legs and head to fit. She looked so peaceful that Keo found himself staring at her for a few seconds.

“What happens if they don’t buy it?” Dave asked.

“They’ll buy it,” Keo said. Then to Jay, “Right?”

Jay nodded. “They should. Definitely.”

Keo smiled. Jay really was a terrible liar, but it looked as if Dave believed him anyway.

“Man, this is going to be a tight squeeze,” Dave said. “How long do we have to stay in here?”

“As long as it takes,” Keo said. “Just pretend you’re a pretzel.”

“Oh, great. That helps a lot, thanks.”

Keo handed Dave his P22. “Just in case.”

“Just in case. Right.”

“Where’d you get that little beauty, anyway?”

“One of the soldiers gave it to me in return for some off-the-books rations. The guy told me it was the same gun that James Bond used in the movies.”

“Bond carries a Walther PPK. This is a Walther P22.”

“What, not the same?”

“Not the same.”

“Shit,” Dave said. Then, “I thought you don’t watch a lot of movies.”

“I don’t, but I do read,” Keo said, closing the shelf up. He straightened and wiped his hands on his wet pant legs. He was still dripping a little water from his clothes, but not nearly as much as before. “Sorry about the mess, Doc.”

Jay gave him a forced smile. “It’s okay. Tomorrow’s cleaning day anyway.”

“Cleaning day?”

“That’s when Gillian and I spend an hour just cleaning the house. We do it every week. This place was a mess when we first moved in.”

“Huh,” Keo said. It was the only thing he could think of to say.

“Do you, uh, need something for the pain?” Jay asked.

“Pain?”

Jay was staring at the still-red gash on his forehead.

“No, thanks,” Keo said. “I still get some headaches, but I’ve been taking these.”

He took out the bottle of painkillers and Jay took a look at them.

Then the doctor nodded. “I can give you something better. Stronger.”

“I’d appreciate that. They let you carry meds home?”

“I guess they trust me.”

Gillian appeared at the open laundry door and looked in at Keo, then at Jay, as if sensing that something had happened between them while she wasn’t there.

“Okay?” she asked.

“Good to go,” Keo said.

“Fine,” Jay smiled. Or tried to.

“Let’s get everything ready before they show up,” Gillian said. She gave the two of them another glance before leaving again.

He and Jay followed her out.

“I’ll go clean the mess you guys left on the first floor,” Jay said, and disappeared into the living room.

Keo looked after him, then at Gillian.

She sighed. “This has been an all-around tough day for him. First you, then Jordan…and now you again.”

“He seems to be holding up fine.”

“He’s tougher than he looks.”

“Hunh.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you’re thinking it.”

He shrugged.

“He is, though,” Gillian said. “You’d be surprised at what he’ll do if he believes in the cause. Like helping me hide Jordan and Dave. He didn’t have to do that, but he did.”

Keo nodded. She had a point there. Maybe he was letting pettiness get in the way of appreciating the sacrifice Jay was making. Then again, maybe he didn’t care to give Jay the benefit of the doubt.

Screw you, Jay.

He followed her back up to the second floor. He wanted to say something during the walk up the flight of stairs, like last time, but couldn’t think of anything that hadn’t already been said or would change the outcome of the last six months.

Gillian couldn’t, either, so they walked in silence instead.

They went to another room, where Grant was snoring on the bed. His boots were on the floor and the sheets around him were still wet. Jay had injected Grant with something called synthetic opioid etorphine that had put him to sleep. According to Jay, some of the soldiers had found the opiate at an animal clinic. It took Grant a few minutes to lose consciousness, but once he did, Keo wasn’t sure he could have woken the man up with a grenade.

“Jay says he should be asleep until morning,” Gillian said. “So you have that long to decide what to do with him. That is, if we actually get away with tonight.”

Keo chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Just like old times.”

She gave him a wry smile. “The old times weren’t that great, Keo. As I recall, we were running for our lives most of the time.”

“Not always. The six months at the cabin was nice.”

“Except for that. Those were okay.”

“Just okay?”

“Maybe good.”

“They were more than that.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

“You still miss it, don’t you? You still miss me.”

“I told you. I’ll always miss you. That’s never going to change. The rest…the rest isn’t possible anymore.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Believe whatever you want-”

He kissed her.

She let out some muffled sounds at first, and he expected her to push him away again, but instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down harder against her mouth. Keo slid his hands along her side, skirted around her protruding belly, and squeezed her breasts. They were a lot bigger than he remembered.

Thunder crackled outside and lightning flashing across the back window, and he swore the room shook for a brief second.

“The earth moved,” he grinned.

“You’re so corny,” she smiled.

“Hmm,” he said, and kissed her again.

Harder this time, pulling her against him. He didn’t even care about the baby bump anymore.

“Keo,” she whispered in between the brief moments that he allowed her to breathe. “Keo. Stop it.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“Jay’s downstairs.”

“Fuck Jay.”

“Stop it. Please.”

“No.”

“God, I hate you.”

“Liar.”

She tried to say something else, but he wouldn’t let her. She moaned incoherently against him, and he had reached one hand into her shirt to see just how big her breasts really had gotten-