Bentley Little - Dominion

Only there was no traffic on the street. Not a single car drove past, not a single pedestrian walked by.

In the center of the parking lot she saw empty, broken wine bottles.

Dion, she thought.

She felt a sickening twinge of nausea as she recalled Mother Janine bending over in front of Dion, baring her sex to him. What had happened to her mother after that? Had she been ruptured by his enormous organ?

Had she died from hemmorhaging or internal bleeding?

Penelope hoped so.

No, she didn't.

Maybe she did.

She took a deep breath. She wasn't sure. The truth was, she didn't really know what she felt Her thoughts and emotions were still in a state of shock. She peered through the blinds, at the hillside above their winery on the opposite side of the city. She thought of the orgy in; the meadow last night, and though the remembrance hot-j rifled and frightened her, it was at the same time ... enticing.

She moved away from the window. The pull was strong. There was no denying that. It was only strength and willpower that had kept her from succumbing, that| had allowed her to overcome the base desires of herl blood.

Blood.

That was the most frightening thing about it all. The fact that she wanted to be part of it, that she knew she should be part of it.

But how long could her mind hold out against her body \ and her emotions?

She moved away from the window. There was a telephone mounted on the wall to the side of the blackboard. She hadn't noticed it last night, but she saw it now, and she walked across the room and picked it up.

No dial tone.

The phone was dead, but that didn't really mean any| thing. The line just went to the switchboard in the office. If she could get to a phone on one of the outside lines, she might be able to call for help.

She walked over to the door, started pulling on the < of the teacher's desk to move it away. There was a loud screech as one of the desk legs scraped across the floor.'!

Kevin awoke with a start, practically leaping to his feera from the position on the floor in which he'd fallen asleep.| He was instantly awake and on the alert, glancing quickly! from the door to the windows and back again, before fn! nally letting his gaze settle on Penelope.

"What are y doing?" he demanded.

"I was going to look for a phone, see if we could c; for help."

"You were going to sneak out on your own?"

She looked away, embarrassed. "I didn't want to w you up."

"Shit." He shook his head. "I guess you can't trust an one."

"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I thought we were in this together. It means that since we seem to be the only two normal people left in the whole fucking valley, I thought we were going to stick with each other and not sneak around behind each other's backs."

She looked at him apologetically. "Sorry."

He was silent for a moment. "So where were you going to call from?"

"A phone in the office. Or the pay phone by the gym if that didn't work."

"Who were you going to call?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "The police in Vallejo, maybe. Or Oakland.

Or San Francisco."

He nodded. "Sounds like a plan. But I'm coming with you."

"Okay."

Together they moved aside the desk and chairs they'd used to block the door. Kevin put his ear to the door for a moment, listening to make sure no one was out there, before opening it.

The hallway was deserted. And dark. It was morning, but no windows opened onto the hallway, and, save for theirs, the doors to all of the classrooms were closed. The lights were off.

Penelope had never seen the school like this, and somehow it seemed creepier than it had last night. Buildings were supposed to be dark at nighttime, but this daytime gloom was unnerving.

They walked slowly down the hallway toward the stairs, not speaking, treading softly. There were no sounds other than their own, but instead of reassuring her, the silence made her feel uneasy, on edge. Someone could be lying in wait for them right now, hearing their every move, listening to their progress, preparing to leap out from behind one of these closed doors ... They made it safely to the stairway, started quietly down.

It was not as dark downstairs. A row of thin windows high above the lockers let in a dusty version of daylight. There was no noise, no indication that anyone else was Present, but Penelope still felt tense.

They should have brought weapons, she thought. They were stupid. If some*| one attacked them, they had nothing with which to fighls back.

They walked toward the office. It was weird being ia| here like this.

Usually, the corridor was crammed with! students rushing to and from classes, sorting through theirl lockers, talking and laughing with one another. Butjl empty, the hallway seemed not only sad and lonely but, Jf under the circumstances, ominous.

The office door was locked, but the door to the staff lounge next to it was open, and Kevin walked in, Penelope following. There was a phone on a battered table in front of an old sofa, and they hurried over to it.

Kevin picked it up, put it to his ear. His expression said everything.

It was dead.

He jiggled the dial tone button, then dropped the receiver disgustedly into the cradle.

"Shit," he said.

Were all the phones in the city dead, or only the ones in the school?

Penelope didn't know, but she did know that she had to go outside and find out for herself. If telephone service had been cut off, then they'd have to try to find someone to help them, or get a car themselves and drive out of the valley.

Kevin had obviously been thinking along the same lines. "The phones are down," he said. "But maybe it's only the school. I'll go out and see if I can find a phone that works."

"No, you won't."

He blinked. "What?"

"You can't go out there. They'll kill you. I'D go."

He glared at her. "The fuck you will."

"The fuck I won't."

"Oh, you're going to go traipsing around the city to save us? What do you expect me to do? Sit in here all day?"

"Yes."

"Shit!" He kicked the table, and it flew onto its side with a loud crash. He hurried to pick it up, instantly realizing his mistake, hoping no one had heard the sound.

"Look," she said, "just calm down. You're going to have to lay low for a while. I'll go out there and try to find a phone or someone who can help us--"

"You won't go out there and do anything."

"They won't hurt me."

"Who?"

"My mothers."

"What about Dion?"

"I'll deal with him if I see him."

"You'll be easier to spot in the daytime."

"They want me to join them. They won't harm me. You're nobody. They don't care what happens to you. They'd toss you to the wolves in a second."

Kevin was silent for a moment. He nodded. "You're right," he said. "I

may be an asshole, but I'm not a moron." He looked toward the blurred glass window at the far end of the staff lounge. "So where are you going to go? You can't go to the police station. We already know the cops won't help."

"Fire stations, churches ... I don't know. I'll find somebody. If not, I'll steal a car."

Kevin nodded excitedly. "Yeah. A car. That's what we need to do. Get a car and get the hell out of here." He thought for a moment. "You need a weapon, though. Something you can use if you get attacked."

"If I get attacked, there probably won't be a whole lot I can--"

"You're not going out alone without something."

She heard the seriousness in his voice, understood me sense of what he was saying, and nodded. "We'll both get weapons."

"That's the idea."

She followed him down the hallway. If this had been a movie, she thought, he would have taken her hand. It would have been the first hint that xomance would eventually bloom between them. But they had not touched, had not come anywhere close to touching, and for that she was grateful. All those fictional depictions of two people thrown together by circumstance in the midst of a great disaster and finding accelerated love had always seemed like a load of bull to her, and she was glad to I cover that she had been right.