This Broken City Sky

Johnny watched with harsh, yet tired eyes as Captain Dean, Lieutenants Dewitt and Tremayne, and Chief Tyler stood in the wide door of the barracks as they talked quietly amongst themselves. His brow was furrowed heavily as he unlaced his beat up, dirty grey Converse and placed them just beside him on the bed. Something about those four didn’t sit right with him, and he knew that his sister, at least, felt the same way. Not only did he feel like they were unnecessarily violent and trigger happy, he most certainly disagreed with the way they kept looking at the women of the group.

“Alright,” Dean said as he stepped into the room, the three following behind him. He took his time to stare at the seven that were awake, “it’s lights out in ten minutes. When the lights are out, there’s no more talking. You go straight to your bed and you remain there until we get you up in the morning. You are not permitted to leave this room and both Lieutenant Dewitt and Chief Tyler are going to be on night watch to ensure you don‘t leave.” Captain Dean turned and glanced over his shoulder at the men behind him before returning his stolid, light blue stare to the seven. “We don’t quite trust you enough to leave you with just one for now.”

The icy leader cut his eyes suddenly and managed as much of a smile that his face would allow, which didn‘t look like much of a smile at all. “Sleep well,” he said before turning and leaving the room, Lieutenant Tremayne following behind him without a second glance behind him. Lieutenant Dewitt merely turned to Chief Tyler with a wily grin before pulling the strap of his rifle over his arm.

“If you would all please pull your partitions forward, that way you have a little bit of privacy while you’re sleeping,” he said in a stern, yet charming voice. “And if someone could pull his to,” Dewitt added, nodding toward the bed that Ray slept in. The seven slowly pulled the partitions forward, blocking the cots in on three sides. Frank took it upon himself to pull Ray the green fabric structures around Ray’s bed, since he was just a bed over from his. “When you’re done, stand at the foot of the bed so we can make sure all of you are accounted for.”

Dylan was the first to be done and took her place at the foot of the cot, staring ahead into the area where Gerard’s cot lay. Kat was pulling the partition between their cots forward, sending him a worried look before filing in at the foot of her own cot. Dylan looked to her left and right, unsettled by the fact that the partitions stretched far enough past the cot that she couldn’t see Lily or Frank. She heard the boots of the men slowly walking in the middle of the cots, then the metallic clink of metal against metal.

“These are just for extra privacy,” Chief Tyler called through out the room, “so you don’t feel like we’re watching your every move.”

Kat bit her tongue hard against the comment she had toward them as Lieutenant Dewitt passed in front of her cot, lifting a long chain from one of the partition and hooking it onto the opposite, another olive green piece of fabric providing a bit more privacy. The fabric, however, didn’t stretch fully across the partitions, leaving about a foot and a half of open space so that a person could easily slip in and out.

“Goodnight, spitfire,” Lieutenant Dewitt cooed from the makeshift doorway with a greasy smile that had Kat sending a snarl in his direction. He merely chuckled before continuing on his way.

Chief Tyler, who had been making work of pulling the curtains up on the other side of the room, stopped in front of Dylan and bit his bottom lip as he looked over her slowly. She merely gave him a hard look, crossing her arms over her chest in an attempt to at least hide something from him.

“Damn,” he murmured as he met her eyes, wearing an animalistic grin, “fucking shrimp is one lucky son of a bitch.” With that, he pulled the chain and clicked it onto the opposite side, pulling the curtain as far as it would go. “Don’t think I didn’t recognize you,” he said in a low voice, arching an eyebrow at her as he stood in the makeshift “doorway” before quickly walking to Lily’s cot. Dylan heard Chief Tyler murmuring something to her cousin and she felt her blood start to boil. The men watching them were complete pigs, she was sure of it.

“Lights out!” A gruff voice called outside and it sounded only slightly muffled from within the barracks. Within a matter of seconds, the sound of the grinding generators stopped abruptly, the florescent lights died and stopped buzzing, and outside a few stadium lights clicked on, illuminating the Yard with the white, blinding light. The lights reflected a bit within the room, just barely highlighting the contours of shapes.

“Everyone in your cots!” Lieutenant Dewitt called and the ruffling of the sheets and blankets being pulled back then the metallic strum of the mattresses pressing into the wires as bodies lay down onto the thin mattresses. The room then went completely still and silent as the sound of leather boots and rubber soles faded to the other side of the room, where Lieutenant Dewitt and Chief Tyler took seats in front of the recently closed door of the barracks. They talked quietly to each other, their deep murmurs indiscernible to the eight that lay in the beds. The only positive thing about them crowded around the door was that they didn’t have a clear shot into any of the small sanctioned off areas around the cots.

Kat lay in bed for what seemed like hours, staring up at the barely lit ceiling of the room she found herself in. She could feel the wires holding the mattress up cutting into her back and legs uncomfortably. The pillow she had was much too thin on it’s own, so she folded it in half and rested her head on it. The thin blankets they were provided were much too thin to keep out the bitter, damp cold that lingered in the room and she found her toes and fingertips going partially numb. The near silence of the room scared her slightly and she found herself wishing that they had just stayed at the hotel and made do there.

After a few moments of deciding she trusted the two men watching them enough to not bother her while she slept, she closed her eyes and snuggled into the thin, uncomfortable mattress and cocooned herself within the sparse blankets to try and warm herself up. However, sleep evaded her and she ended up just lying there, breathing in and out slowly. She trained her ears onto the sounds of those sleeping around her and the deep murmuring that continued on by the door. Suddenly, she heard the noise of what sounded like bare feet padding gently across the ground. That particular sound grew closer until she heard the noise just by her bed. Her eyes flew open as she gasped lightly at the shadowy figure that had just sat itself at the foot of her bed.

Kat sat up quickly, getting ready to tell off whoever it was, until she heard a soft, welcome whisper from the person.

“Kat, it’s just me.” The woman immediately breathed a sigh of relief, placing a hand against her chest as if it would calm her quickly beating heart.

“You scared the shit out of me, Gerard,” she whispered in such soft a voice she knew that only he would hear. Now that her eyes had adjusted in the dim light, she could see the small, mischievous smile he wore on his thin, pink lips. “If they find you out of bed, there’s no telling what they’ll do to you,” she breathed, watching him with a worried expression.

“I don’t care,” he continued to whisper, shaking his head a bit.

“Gerard,” Kat reprimanded him in a soft voice, staring hard at him in the thick darkness of the room that was only alleviated by a scarce bit of blue-white light. “The Captain fucking put a gun on the dinner table. These people mean business.” Gerard noticed the frown etched onto her features even in the dark. He sighed lightly and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I don’t want you reacting like Frank.”

“What?” He asked and Kat bit her bottom lip hard as she stared hard into his eyes.

“These men…they’re a bit…forward with women. I don‘t doubt they‘ll make more nasty comments about me, Dylan, or Lily than you‘ve heard in your lifetime,” she barely whispered, placing a hand on Gerard’s arm. “I don’t want you letting them know by your actions or expressions that they’re getting to you. It only seems to egg them on. Please,” Kat pleaded in the most desperate voice Gerard had ever heard from her, “don‘t let them hurt you because of me.” The raven-haired man let out a heavy sigh, looking forward and biting his bottom lip hard as he thought over what Kat was saying.

“I’ll try,” he whispered finally, bringing his eyes back to hers. “I’m not going to make any promises though.” Kat stared at him for a moment before leaning forward and resting her chin on his shoulder.

“We can’t let them win,” she breathed as her eyes slowly traced his profile. “We can’t let them break down what the end of the world made us.” Gerard slowly brought his eyes back to hers and stared at her for what seemed the longest amount of time, before twisting his body to face her more. He licked his lips as he watched her watching him in the near darkness of the room.

“I may regret missing the chance to do this…if I don’t do this now,” he breathed, the words just barely understandable. Slowly, with as much tentativeness as he regarded their first kiss, he tilted his head ever-so slightly and leaned in, pressing his lips softly against hers. Kat returned the kiss, the hand on his arm gently squeezing his bicep and her free hand slowly tangling into his messy black hair. She unconsciously moved closer to him as she pulled away from the kiss only to reattach their lips hungrily. Gerard’s hands immediately went to her ribcage as he instinctively pulled him closer to her.

They sat there, kissing, in the dark quiet of the room, the rest of the inhabitants completely oblivious as to the two who were on a bunk made for one person. It was only when Kat leaned back onto the bed, taking Gerard with her, that they broke the kiss for more than air. They tried to regulate their heavy breathing as Gerard leaned over Kat, bracing himself on his arms as he looked over her face slowly. He went to say something but Kat quickly pressed her fingertips against his lips with a slight smirk.

“Don’t bother asking,” she whispered as she let hands slide to either side of his neck, “ I want this as much as you do.” Not another word was exchanged between the couple as she slowly ran her hands down his back, to the hem of his shirt, and began to pull it up and over his head. Whether their relationship took the leap because of fear of losing each other or because of the watching eyes of other men was unclear, but neither of them thought twice if their actions were rushed or inappropriate.

“Rise and shine!” The chirpy voice of Chief Tyler brought a few of them from whatever light sleep they had managed to fall into. “Everyone up before Captain Dean gets here, because trust me, you will not like it if he finds you still in bed!” Kat slowly blinked open her eyes against the harsh sunlight that flooded into the room. Her half-groggy mind told her that she was just back at the hotel, and that someone had managed to get TV to a movie channel and were currently watching some sort of military movie. There were noises all around her, of people moving in their sheets, the cots creaking underneath them, and groggy mumbles from every direction. “Well…hello!” Kat was suddenly aware that the last three days had not been a dream, as she hoped they had been.

Gerard was still fast asleep, his arms wrapped loosely around her naked torso as he slept with his head in the crook of her neck. The yelling alone had been enough to stir him slightly and realized that he hadn’t gotten back to his own cot before sunrise like he had intended to.

“Hey Bentley! We’ve had some action go down in this room last night!” He called in a taunting voice as both Gerard and Kat quickly sobered up from their rest and looked to him. They watched as Lieutenant Dewitt pulled back the curtain a bit and looked down on the couple with a sickening smirk.

“Well, I guess he didn‘t get back to his bunk…you two have got some explaining to do to Captain Dean. We’ll let you two get dressed and figure out how you’re going to excuse this one,” he said, his eyes swooping over Kat as she frantically pulled the sheet up around her neck. The two glanced between the couple with wolfish grins before sliding the curtain back to it’s almost closed position. Kat and Gerard exchanged a quick look with each other before scrambling to get their clothes on. Suddenly, they realized that the partitions were being pushed back; leaving Kat only in a pair of underwear and the long-sleeved white shirt she was issued and Gerard in his pair of Army fatigues.

The two paused for a moment and glanced around at all the faces watching them with peaked interest. Captain Dean, who was followed closely by Lieutenant Dewitt and Chief Tyler, stopped in front of two.

“So…you are the two who fucked in a roomful of people?” Captain Dean asked as he paced in front on Kat’s cot, his hands clasped behind his back. “Classy…very classy,” he mused sarcastically, causing the two who had obviously informed their Captain about what they had done to chortle a bit. “To ensure that it doesn’t happen again between the two of you, Lieutenant Dewitt…would you care to describe what you saw to the rest of them?” Lieutenant Dewitt gave a smile to Captain Dean, one that the Captain returned.

“Well…last night, as some of you can infer, last night, I was treated to a little show, while I was patrolling between your cots,” Dewitt started, keeping his eyes focused between Kat and Gerard, who were both staring at him with a murderous gleam in their eyes. “Well…it started with a noise, a very interesting womanly kind of sigh; a sigh that I’ve heard many times. So, I stopped and peeked into where I had heard the noise come from and to my utter surprise, there they were…completely naked and oblivious to my watching. Too enveloped in the ‘throws of love’, I’d say.” Tyler gave short snort of laughter that went unpunished by Captain Dean.

Kat glanced over to her brother to find him watching Dewitt with a cool stare. He was already really good about keeping his emotions under control, but she wondered how resilient his self-control was in such situations. She then glanced over to Gerard, who brought his eyes to hers apologetically for a moment before turning his eyes to the concrete floor beneath their feet.

“Well…I can’t say that it’s the best porn I’ve had the privilege of watching, that’s for sure,” Dewitt continued as Kat looked down at the ground, for fear of lunging at the man and ripping his trachea out with her bare hands. “He knew how to please a woman,” he said with a wide, leering grin to Gerard before glancing over his shoulder at Chief Tyler and Captain Dean, “surprising, I know, since we were betting he was gay.” Gerard didn’t even flinch at the accusation, all he felt was his stomach twisting into knots at the thought of someone watching him and Kat. Lieutenant Tremayne wore sort of stolid expression, standing further away from the three who were watching Kat and Gerard with a sick sort of look of satisfaction on their faces. He glanced over his shoulder, at the others in the room, and knew that the humiliation of two of them, would hurt all of them.

“But when she took control…man, I felt the earth shake,” he said in a low voice, biting his bottom lip as he looked at Kat, cutting his eyes as they roamed her bare legs. “She’s a fucking animal.” Kat slowly brought her eyes up to his, channeling her newly found hate for the man into that one look. “I honestly believe I fell in love watching her.” Captain Dean gave a him a hard clasp on the shoulder as he let out a few chuckles; causing Dewitt and Tyler to join in with him.

“I think that’s enough, Bentley,” he said, his face slowly returning to it’s normal, harsh expression. “We don’t want to humiliate them too badly.” Gerard slowly looked up and over to the Captain with a hard expression. “Now…we’re going to serve you breakfast, but before that we’re going to take you all to the showers in separate groups: ladies first.” Kat grabbed her pants and hastily pulled them on, putting a hand on the small of Gerard’s back, before filing in behind Dylan and Lily, who were both sending Kat and Gerard sympathetic looks. They left the room with Captain Dean, Lieutenant Dewitt, and Chief Tyler; something which upset all the men in the room.

The room went awfully quiet as Gerard finally tugged on his shirt, a very nauseating feeling settling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of those bastards watching the three women he had been with for four months shower, let alone Kat. He felt embarrassed by Dewitt’s words, like what Kat and him had done was wrong.

“I’m sorry for the way they are,” Lieutenant Tremayne spoke quietly, as if he feared someone listening in. Gerard slowly brought his eyes to the man, a frown forming between his brows. “They’ve let what little power they used to have go to their heads. It would be very unwise to upset them.” The man then sunk into a metal chair at the doorway, staring blankly ahead. Silence settled uneasily into the room as the sound of footsteps led away from the room. Gerard glanced over to Mikey, who was watching him with sympathetic eyes. He then looked to Ray, who was glancing down to the bandages over his wound that had almost bled through. Finally, his eyes landed on Frank, who was staring ahead with a look in his eyes that was rife with anxiety.

“You’re a lot more patient that I am, Gee,” Frank murmured as he sat down on his bed, “I think I would have decked the lot of them.” Gerard didn’t say a word to this and merely sat down on his cot, fisting his hair in his hands, and letting out a heavy sigh.