Built 4 It Read online

  Shielding his eyes, Kee winced at the over-bright sun. This place… Kee stepped through the door and spun in a slow circle. The size and breadth of this world was huge, immense. Like nothing he’d ever imagined. The ceiling above was a wide, blue sky. In the distance he saw trees, mountains, even some gray birds flying past. A rumble started deep within him, a growl mixed with a laugh. Kee threw his head back to feel the sun on his face, but then he rushed across the concrete to where Ben stood in his bare feet and scrubs. Kee snatched him up, spinning his lover. He pressed his lips to Ben’s throat.

  In his arms, Ben stilled. His body grew stiff, more rigid even than he’d become in the showers. “Kee…”

  Kee hadn’t known Ben could growl. Nor that Ben could narrow his eyes so far his gaze shot daggers. He’d never heard Ben raise his voice like he did when he shouted,

  “Did you shut the fucking door?”

  Ben strode across the blacktop to the lab’s entrance and yanked at the handle. The door stayed resolutely closed. Ben dropped his head, his shoulders rising and falling in deep breaths.

  Without Ben even saying, Kee could tell he was furious. “Ben?” He approached slowly, though he wanted to run away. “Should I help you?”

  “Help me?” Ben swiveled around. “What the fuck do you think you can do to help me? You kidnapped me.” Ben took a step forward and poked Kee in the chest. “Then you practically rape me.”

  Kee wasn’t sure what this rape thing was, but he did feel sorry for forcing Ben to

  stay.

  Ben pointed to the door, as if he were making a final argument. “And then you locked us out of the motherfucking lab.”

  His eyes fixed on Ben’s bare feet, Kee nodded. He pinched his lips to stop the bottom one from shaking. The world was so bright, so big, and so scary. And the only person he knew in it hated him. “I… I’m sorry Ben.” He would have turned away if he had any idea where to go.

  “Whatever.” Ben stepped around him. “We may as well start walking. The closest town’s over five miles away.” He crossed to the edge of the lot where concrete met leaves and branches. When Kee didn’t follow, Ben turned back. “Are you coming?”

  Kee shrugged. He didn’t have a choice but to follow Ben. Kee would go with him anywhere. No matter where Ben led.

  *

  Ben wasn’t sure why he was so angry. The feeling burned in his stomach and his throat as he led the way through the system of trails that led to the nearest phone. For some reason, Kee’s sweetness made it even worse. Ben wanted Kee to be smarter, to really be the kind of guy who could take charge and take care of him. He wished Kee was the same man outside the labs as he was inside. And Ben hated Kee just a little for his helplessness. “You know I did it, right?”

  Kee didn’t answer. He just followed behind like a loyal dog. A dog Ben wanted to kick, because he needed Kee to stand up to him—hell, maybe even to hit him. Ben didn’t think he could handle Kee’s meek kindness any longer.

  “What did you do, Ben?” Kee’s voice was patient and calm. It only fueled Ben’s annoyance.

  “I took Lo.” Still walking, Ben waited for Kee to respond. When he didn’t, Ben tried to shove the knife deeper. “While you were sleeping, I opened the door and sedated you both. Then I carted him out and…” Shit. Ben wasn’t sure if he could continue.

  Frith hadn’t been in the lab at the time, had left Ben to ship out Lo and three others in the dead of night. Ben hated thinking about what he’d done, much less say it out loud. Through ragged breaths, he forced out more confession. “I didn’t kill him. But I…” His eyes burned. “I didn’t kill any of them, but I sent them away.”

  His feet stung from the crunch of twigs and dead leaves. Ben wished the sticks would jab harder. He listened to Kee’s quiet huffs, waiting for the explosion, or for a fist to swing through the air and connect with his face.

  “I know,” was all Kee said.

  Ben stopped, feet freezing on the slightly damp ground. He swallowed the bile and panic in his throat. “What do you mean, ‘you know’?”

  Kee stepped up close behind him, not touching but warm at his back. “I know. You took others, so I knew you also took Lo.” The softness in that voice was too much, it ripped through Ben worse than a hit.

  “Fucking hurt me then.” Ben swung around and shoved Kee’s chest. “What are you waiting for?” He pushed at Kee again, not even shifting the giant stein. When Ben tried to lunge for him again, Kee snatched him into his arms.

  “Shh…” Kee rubbed his nose in Ben’s hair with such tenderness Ben wanted to kill him.

  “Don’t you dare say you forgive me.” Ben’s words felt brittle on his lips, like broken glass.

  But Kee didn’t let him go. Kee just rubbed his back until Ben had no choice but to let the breath go out of him, let the fight drain from his muscles. Kee murmured, “I know you did not want to take them.”

  Ben both loved and hated him at that moment. “You don’t get to forgive me.” He sighed into Kee’s hairy chest.

  Kee kissed the top of Ben’s head. “Then who can?” He gave Ben one more squeeze before setting him on the ground.

  “No one.” Ben took off walking. He didn’t want to feel better. Ben didn’t deserve to feel the weight of guilt lift. Still, the knot in his chest loosened, and he suspected someday it would lighten even more.

  *

  An hour later, Ben crouched in the roadside brush. “No one’s come by in a while. It should be safe now.”

  Kee peeked out at the country road from their hiding spot in a bank of bushes.

  Scrapes from blackberry bushes covered Ben arms and had ripped his pants, but Kee had fared much worse—knowing nothing about his surroundings, he’d stepped on

  pinecones and prickly branches. More than once Ben heard him bite back a yelp or a

  shout before plucking something sharp out of the sole of his foot.

  Ben surveyed him, noticing Kee looked tired and confused. His jaw twitched and

  his gaze darted from side to side. “Now. We should go now.” Kee began to stand from their hiding spot. It was getting dark and the road was clear.

  “Where exactly do you think you’re going?” Ben grabbed his arm. If they

  encountered a human at this moment, Ben had no idea what Kee might do. Plus, Kee was probably just as hungry as Ben. And he didn’t necessarily know humans weren’t viable food options.

  “Kee?” Ben stroked a line along Kee’s bare arm. “We have to come up with a real plan. Remember the girl who took the rest of the steins yesterday?” Ben lifted his head to look up and down the road. A quarter mile away, a few houses and a combination gas station and mini-mart dotted the street.

  Kee followed Ben’s line of sight and moved to stand.

  “No.” Ben gripped Kee’s hand, pulling him back down. He exhaled, hoping Kee was sane enough to understand. “You can’t come, but they do have an old-fashioned

  pay phone.” Ben scrubbed his face, and then his hair. He was filthy, and surprisingly unconcerned about it.

  Shuffling from one foot to the other, Kee winced when he hit a sore spot. He seemed smaller in the woods—like a sexy buff guy, not a King Kong-esque stein. “You won’t leave?” Kee’s gaze darted to his feet in a heart-wrenching flash of fear and vulnerability.

  Ben rubbed his arm. “No. I swear I won’t leave you here.” He peered around the woods, realizing this whole experience for Kee must be beyond terrifying. Despite Ben’s anger earlier, he found that at that moment, he didn’t mind being the one in charge. “I’ll just call that Shani girl and come right back.” Ben wove his fingers through Kee’s.

  “What if they take you away?” Kee clutched Ben’s hand, hope draining from his eyes. “I don’t want to go without you.”

  With a sigh, Ben pulled Kee into a hug. Kee wouldn’t always be this helpless and lost, but he needed Ben. And surprisingly, Ben didn’t mind being needed. He sort of liked it. “I know, big guy.” Up close, Kee smelled good. Manly and r
ich with a hint of industrial lab soap. “I’ll see what I can do… All I know is our chances are better with this Underground thing than if we hang around here.” He set Kee back a fraction.

  The stein huffed his assent. “Okay.” He tried to smile, but his lips fell back into a worried line.

  Ben stepped out from behind the brush and into the road. “I’ll be right back.” He jogged down the street. Ben resisted sprinting, knowing it would look suspicious. Rips crisscrossed his clothes. Twigs filled his hair. Plus, the lack of shoes screamed “fugitive”.

  He arrived at the convenience store parking lot before any cars had a chance to pass. Motion-sensor lights activated and spot lit Ben as he limped to the payphone.

  Luckily, he’d memorized his credit card number ages ago and could dial in payment for the call. The phone rang once and a voice picked up.

  “Yeah?” Whoever was on the other side sounded male and young, and not much like the girl Shani from the day before. “Who’s this?”

  “Um, I’m calling for the Zombie Underground? Somebody named Shani came by my lab yesterday.” Ben struggled to keep his voice down while still talking loud enough to be heard.

  The clerk at the convenience store peered out the window. His beady eyes blinked and his hand drifted toward a phone.

  “I think you have the wrong number.” The voice on the other end quivered, as if the speaker was nervous. “There’s no one by that name here.”

  “We need help!” Ben hurried to convince the person on the other end before they

  hung up. “There’s another stein left, and he’s… He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  The voice on the line said, “Are you human?”

  Ben rushed to answer, hoping he was getting through. “Yeah. But Kee’s not and—”

  “You there. There’s no loitering,” the clerk shouted from the door.

  “We’re on state route , by the th mile marker.”

  The line went dead. Across the parking lot, the clerk lifted a cell phone to his ear.

  Fear rocketed through Ben and he raised his hands to the clerk. “Sorry, sir.” He

  started jogging before he could hear what the clerk called out next. The pavement scored his tender feet and hunger gnawed a pit in his belly. But that was the least of Ben’s problems.

  *

  Shani pulled into the Built parking lot, but a police car was parked next to the entrance. The officer stood at the door to the labs. He swung it open.

  She dragged the car into a three-point turn, hoping the cop would just think she was using the lot to turn around. “Fuck,” Shani mumbled under her breath. She hooked her headset over her ear and hit the autodial for the ZU. Q-ter picked it up on the first ring.

  “We’re humped, Q. The cops got here first.” She rubbed her face, stewing in guilt for not having gotten them out the day before. Of course someone would have called

  the police when all the steins’ bodies failed to get “disposed of” properly. The Department of Health wasn’t in the habit of letting corpses fester all over the damn place.

  “They got out. I just got a call from the human. I’ll text you the address.”

  Shani exhaled like a weight lifted off her back. “Awesome. I’ll go grab the last stein.” She transferred the incoming text from Q-ter to the hybrid’s GPS. The pick-up spot was only a few miles away.

  “You’ve got to bring them both in, Shan. The police have a warrant out for the human’s arrest. He was the last one in the labs, and now that all those steins are missing…”

  “Aw, shit.” Shani connected the dots. The human was associated with a stein escape, and there would be no possible way to cover it up. She should have forced the pair of them out of the building the day before. At least then the human could have run for it, or come up with a cover story. Hell, he could have claimed Shani had held a gun to his head. Now the kid was on the run with a stolen stein. The ZU had no choice but

  to protect him. “So what the hell are we going to do with a lifer? Keep him as a mascot?”

  Q-ter chuckled over the phone. “I dunno, might be fun.” Shani heard her boss Frank’s voice, faint in the background. Then Q-ter got back on the line. “And Frank says he could be useful. You gotta admit. It would be nice having a lifer on staff.” Q cleared his throat. “I mean, a human. What was his name again?” There was some clicking of keys as Q-ter looked up the file for the guy’s name. “Ben. You should call him Ben when you pick him up. Build a rapport.”

  Shani rolled her eyes. “Anything else I should do? Serve him cheese and crackers?”

  She tried to be more positive about the idea of having a human in her car, much less her life.

  “Be nice,” Q scolded.

  “Fine.” Shani hung up. Then she muttered to herself, “I’ll try.”

  *

  Kee sucked the innards out of the small animal he found. It was juicy and delicious and many times more satisfying than the dried bits of food he’d eaten at the lab.

  Unfortunately, the tiny creature was small and Kee’s belly still growled.

  A rustling in the woods signaled Ben had returned. Kee turned around, feeling sorry he didn’t have a snack to offer, but Ben’s expression stopped Kee’s words in his throat.

  “Oh my fucking God.” Ben covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh shit, is that a squirrel?” Kee thought he would run away. But after a breath, Ben smiled behind his fingers. “Well… I guess I don’t have to worry about you eating.”

  “But I don’t have food for you.” Kee dropped the remains of the carcass to the

  ground and scanned the underbrush for another animal. “I’ll find one though.”

  Ben stepped up behind him and put a hand on his back. Kee wanted to growl in joy

  at the feel of it. Ben touched him now, without being asked or forced. Kee still didn’t understand what had made Ben sad before, but he thought maybe it was the sexing.

  Perhaps Ben didn’t like doing those things. And though that saddened Kee, he would rather be touching friends with Ben than nothing at all.

  “You really don’t have to catch me anything to eat.”

  Kee stopped his search. “Why?” He didn’t want to offend his…friend, but Ben didn’t seem fast enough to catch his own food. So far, Ben had only gathered those small, tart berries to eat.

  “Uh, I should probably explain some things to you.” Ben folded onto his knees on the ground. He patted the soil next to him. “Would you sit?”

  With a quick grin, Kee dropped down next to Ben. Their knees touched. With the chill in the air, Kee hoped Ben would lean closer for warmth.

  “Listen. You should probably know some things about yourself. I mean, I’m sure the Underground people will tell you this too, but just in case…” Ben crossed his arms around his knees. “You know you’re a stein, right?”

  Kee nodded. He shifted closer and thought about putting an arm around Ben’s back.

  “And I’m a human?” Ben leaned into Kee’s side.

  “Yes. I know many things, Ben.” He let his arm curl around Ben’s shoulders, felt the warm flex of man under his palm.

  Ben cocked his head around. “Was that sarcasm? Were you being sarcastic?”

  A little grin twisted up the corner of Kee’s mouth. He wasn’t sure what this sarcasm was, but Ben had understood Kee’s joke and had been impressed. Kee was proud.

  “Shit, you really are smart. In another couple weeks, you could probably learn trigonometry.”

  A swell of emotion rose in Kee’s throat. He felt so close to Ben. Wanted to know everything, to understand everything that mattered. To understand trigonometry. “Ben, why were you angry?” Kee worried Ben would lie and say he had not been upset. He’d seen that so often when Ben worked for Frith. Some days Kee could tell half of Ben’s words had been untrue.

  “Well,” Ben began in a small voice. He shrugged his shoulders to loosen Kee’s hold.

  “When you…” For some reason, Ben used a hand gestu
re instead of words. He curved his hand into a tube shape and mimicked a jerking motion.

  Kee tried not to laugh. The gesture was so perfect, and yet funny at the same time.

  “Yes. I did it. You don’t like it?” He mulled over everything that had happened with Ben—from the furtive looks, to when he’d pleasured himself in the cage. Ben had seemed to like that part.

  “Sure I do. I…I do it myself too. And it’s not like I mind that you do it.” He wrapped his arms around his body. Hugging himself again.

  “You want me to watch you instead?” Kee had never considered what that might be like. In his interactions with Lo, he’d always been the one doing the touching. But Kee should have learned by now that Ben was not Lo, and it was wrong to treat him as if he was.

  “That’s not what I mean.” Ben shifted, annoyance stiffening his movements. “I could have been anyone. It was like I wasn’t even there.” He inched away to sit with his arms crossed. Ben’s face turned into a grumpy pout. It was the same face he’d worn walking through the woods, and Kee was starting to find it cute.

  “But, you are my…human.” Kee wasn’t sure how to make Ben’s frown go away.

  “Only you.”

  Ben’s lips twitched, like one side was trying to break free from the scowl, but got

  thwarted by Ben’s thunderous eyes. “Then why didn’t you, like, get me involved?” His chin jutted out.

  “Involved?” Kee wasn’t familiar with the word. “What’s involved?”

  “I dunno. Like this…” Ben formed an O with his lips and mimed suckling a cock.

  “Or, y’know, I could have…” He nodded toward the crotch of Kee’s pants while repeating the self-pleasuring gesture.

  Kee’s groin tightened at Ben’s suggestions. Still, he looked at Ben in confusion.

  “You don’t have words for these things?”

  The edge of Ben’s mouth broke free into a reluctant smile. “Of course there are words.” He shifted around to look Kee dead in the eye. “But really.” His gaze softened.