Contender: The Chosen: Book 1

by Taran Matharu

  Eric charged towards the pursuing monsters, roaring a challenge, and now the flood changed direction, abandoning their pursuit of the injured defenders for the approaching foe. Cade tried to follow, but was blocked as the survivors stumbled through the doorway, saved by the distraction.

  He could only watch as the boy was surrounded, vipers swarming him. Eric’s blade rose and fell, ignoring the swiping claws and snapping teeth that latched on to his limbs. Despite his great strength, he collapsed to his knees and disappeared beneath the swarm.

  ‘Eric!’ Cade screamed, watching as the creatures piled on top of him. Then his view was blocked, the others shoving the heavy projector across the entrance.

  The windows had been barricaded with benches, beds and tables, but the doorway had been left clear for their retreat. Now the survivors shored up the makeshift barrier of the projector with benches and tables, until the way was piled high with wood.

  It was not a moment too soon. On the other side, the beasts scratched and clawed, but Cade sated his fury by plunging his sword between the gaps in the barricade. He relished the satisfying resistance of flesh with each jab, until the creatures backed away, screeching their hatred. Soon Cade was stabbing at empty air, cursing bitterly in the gloom.

  The survivors stood in silence, adjusting to the darkness. The interior was ill-lit, the only source of light four crackling torches ensconced in the walls of the atrium. Only then did Cade see the two boys lying next to each other beside the entrance. And the blood, pooling between them.

  Spex and Jim.

  He rushed over, ripping at their clothing to staunch the wounds. But already he could see it was too late. There were deep claw-punctures in Jim’s chest. Too deep. Still, he smiled at Cade, even as his eyes began to glaze over.

  ‘I saved him,’ Jim spluttered, blood staining his teeth.

  Spex pulled himself up and turned to the injured boy, desparately trying to stem the flow of blood. Cade didn’t have the heart to tell Spex it was too late. Instead, he knelt beside them, barely cognisant of the others gathered behind him.

  ‘Yes, you did, Jim,’ Spex said softly. ‘You saved me.’

  Jim’s eyelashes fluttered, his breath rattling in his throat. Cade went to take his hand, but before he could, he saw Spex’s bloodied fingers close over Jim’s. Jim stared blindly above, clutching Spex’s hand like a lifeline.

  Spex held onto Jim, even after the boy’s arm fell limp. Moments later, Jim passed, a peaceful smile on his face. Cade choked, and closed Jim’s eyes with a trembling hand. Then, almost as if by some unheard signal, the creatures outside began to howl.

  Cade wiped away bitter tears, turning his mind to the task at hand. It wasn’t over yet – not by a long shot.

  ‘Whoever’s not wounded, go check the other barricades,’ Cade said, unable to take his eyes from Jim’s face.

  He heard the patter of feet, the others rushing at his order. When he finally pulled himself away, leaving Spex beside the body, he saw only Bea was there, tightening a bandage around her injured shoulder.

  ‘Is it bad?’ Cade asked, shrugging his arm free of his uniform to bare his wounded back.

  Bea kneeled beside him and peered at his wound, then inspected both his wrists where the claws had raked them earlier.

  ‘Not too deep,’ the girl said, ‘but they got you good. Here, let me wash them.’

  Cade gritted his teeth as the girl poured water over his wounds, then again as a swathe of cloth was pressed over them and tied in place around his back and wrists.

  ‘You’re pretty good at that,’ Cade said.

  ‘I did a first aid course, back at school,’ Bea said. ‘Never thought I’d have to use it so soon.’

  ‘Lucky us,’ Cade said.

  In dribs and drabs, the others returned, the barricades secure – for now.

  To Cade’s surprise, everyone was wounded, just not so badly that they’d felt they needed to stay behind. Spex’s back had been raked pretty badly, and Yoshi had sustained a bite to his thigh – a red ring of uneven punctures that Bea dabbed at with a cloth. Others had lacerations on their wrists and arms. None had escaped entirely unscathed, and Bea had taken on the role of medic, bandaging them, and leaving Cade to stare at the moving shadows through the gaps of their makeshift stockade.

  He shrugged the uniform back on and stood, swaying a little. It hurt, but he was still in the fight.

  The crash of vipers attacking the window barricades in the barracks sounded, and Trix and Grace rushed to repulse them. Soon the noise of battered wood was replaced with yowls of pain. A little later, the sounds stopped.

  For a moment the world was quiet, and Cade could hear only the patter of claws on the cobbles outside.

  He took a deep breath, waiting for the next attack. Then the baying of the monsters outside began once more, rising louder and louder. It seemed they were keeping their distance for now.

  The survivors looked at each other, but none dared to say a word.

  They were trapped.

  FORTY-NINE

  They must have killed thirty vipers in all, and injured many more. But as the hisses from outside continued, Cade felt little triumph. There was no telling how long the monsters would remain there, and they were in a far worse position than before. Still, he used the time to recover his faculties and plan their next move.

  He drank long and deep, and scarfed down the fruit they had gathered earlier from the mountaintop. They had planned for this retreat, preparing the bandages, water and food earlier. But there was only enough for a few days. If it came to a prolonged siege, they would starve eventually.

  It seemed obvious now. But there just hadn’t been time to predict what might happen; the retreat to the Keep had seemed a last resort. How could he have known?

  Now he sat in silence with the remaining defenders, hoping the creatures would give up. It was hot inside, made worse by the crackling torches. With the barricades blocking the windows and doors, their only other light source was the moonlight that filtered through the gaps.

  They had dragged Jim further into the atrium, and covered him with the sack-cloths from the barracks. It was a poor resting place for the courageous boy, but far better than what was transpiring outside. In the minutes that followed, they could hear the beasts feasting on Eric’s remains, and see their heads jerking over the prone body through the barricade’s cracks.

  It was going to be a long night … if they lasted that long. Only Scott, Amber and Quintus were with him. Grace and Yoshi protected the barracks and storeroom barricades respectively, with the twins Bea and Trix on the second floor, and Spex and Gobbler manning the windows up top.

  It was the second and third floors where the barricades were weakest, with the wooden bed and table in each room laid across their openings. Despite this, Cade hoped the creatures would have a harder time breaking in while clinging to the sides of the building.

  Earlier they had heard the scrabbling of claws along the walls and the screeches of anger as the defenders above stabbed at the vipers trying to get in. Ten minutes later and the beasts had quietened, their vocalisations reduced to a low murmur. It was almost as if they were talking, but Cade thought it was more an expression of emotion than anything else. It certainly sounded angry.

  ‘You think they’ll leave?’ Scott whispered, breaking the quiet. ‘Maybe they’ll head for the jungle. Let the dinosaurs have ’em.’

  ‘There’s something drawing them to this place,’ Cade said, shaking his head. ‘And we’re an obvious food source. They won’t give up so easy.’

  ‘Do we have to kill all of them?’ Amber asked.

  He turned to the Codex and looked at it expectantly.

  ‘Victory conditions are determined by the Strategos,’ it intoned. ‘The Strategos’s judgement is final.’

  ‘There’s that damn word again,’ Scott muttered.

  ‘If they run away, we win,’ Cade said, speaking with far more confidence than he felt. ‘So let’s give them
such a hard time, they do.’

  Amber sighed. ‘I think—’

  But Cade didn’t get to hear what Amber thought. There was a crash from above, followed by a garbled shout from Gobbler. More yells followed, and Cade made out a single word.

  Help.

  Cade ran, his back flaring with pain as he jumped up the stairs. Footsteps smacked behind him, but he didn’t look back. Already he could hear screams.

  ‘Hold on!’ he yelled, charging past the second floor, where the twins stayed in place, defending the windows from vipers that were suddenly on the attack.

  He burst into the main chamber above and took in the scene in one frantic glance.

  The monsters had come in through the roof. Shattered tiles lay across the floor, while viper after viper poured in from a jagged hole above. Spex stood on the table beneath, swinging his sword and bleeding from a dozen wounds.

  More vipers poured in from the two chambers on either side, the barricades broken. Gobbler’s body lay in one of the doorways, a bloody, ragged parody of its former self. Vipers surrounded him, clogging up the entryway. They looked up at Cade with bloodied faces before turning back to gorge once more.

  ‘My God,’ Cade breathed.

  Vipers circled the table, ignoring Cade. They could smell Spex’s blood, snorting through their thin nostrils. Even as Cade watched, one leaped onto Spex’s back. Yelling, Spex pulled it off and stabbed down, twisting his blade through its skull. Another leaped again, skittering along the table as it slashed his leg.

  He fell to one knee, groaning like a wounded bull. The vipers edged closer, sensing victory.

  Cade raised his sword, but Spex held up a hand. He gave Cade a grim smile.

  ‘Go below, Cade,’ he said, staggering to his feet. ‘Win this.’

  Cade forced down the hot rage inside him and gave him a single nod.

  ‘Get some,’ Spex roared, charging.

  He barrelled through the vipers and leaped from the table, landing among the creatures massed on Gobbler’s body. He swung his blade like a baseball bat, cleaving left and right.

  Vipers fell beneath his sword, distracted by the flesh at their feet. But it was not long before they swarmed. Claws tore his body, and teeth closed around his neck, yet still he fought on, screaming with anger.

  Then Cade was dragged away, down the stairs.

  ‘Trix, Bea, follow us,’ Amber yelled, helping Quintus pull him to the second floor.

  ‘Let me go!’ Cade shouted.

  ‘Don’t let him die for nothing,’ Amber hissed, manhandling him to the next set of stairs.

  Above, Spex’s cries grew weaker, and Cade could hardly think of what to do. The barracks had a stone ceiling, but it was no more than a thin barrier between the viper-filled chambers on the upper floors. The vipers would break through that eventually, attack from above. It was the same for the storage room.

  That left them one option.

  ‘On me,’ Cade cried, running down the stairs. ‘Everyone on me!’

  Spex went silent, and the screeches of triumph above told him they had seconds to spare.

  ‘Hurry,’ Cade yelled, as Grace and Yoshi sprinted into the atrium. Already the entrance’s barricade was shaking, and a clawed fist erupted through splintering wood. The entire horde would be pouring in any second. Three score or more of murderous, savage creatures.

  ‘Follow me,’ he snarled, snatching a torch from the wall. He had never felt such rage.

  He hastened for the broad staircase at the very end of the chamber, the others following at a run. Howls echoed behind him as he sprinted down the stairs, almost falling in his hurry, but catching himself at the bottom, his heart thundering in his chest, breath coming thick and fast.

  Thinking quickly, he lit the torches on either side of the stairway, giving them two pools of light to see in. The panting survivors arranged themselves in a row on either side of him, listening to the sounds above. The top of the stairs was dark, but Cade could hear the vipers there, gathering their courage to charge.

  ‘We take as many of them as we can,’ Cade said. ‘Don’t take a step back. If they surround us, we’re finished.’

  The defenders pressed in, standing a foot apart in a ring around the stairwell.

  Just eight of us. Have we really lost so many?

  Behind them, Cade could hear the rush of water of the underground river. He turned, looking to the dark, flowing water, the bathing pool and the latrines behind it. Too open. The stairwell was where they would fight.

  Cade took a deep breath, and the Codex floated beside him, its implacable, silent gaze fixed on all of them.

  ‘I hope your goddamned Strategos is watching,’ he growled.

  He hurled his torch up the steps, revealing the massed creatures above. Their bodies were covered in burns, many of them milky-eyed from the quicklime, others breathing hoarsely. Some even skittered back from the flames, fearful.

  But behind, more creatures pressed in, shoving the front runners down. A larger, scarred specimen leaped forward, stamping at the spluttering torch with its claw. The flame sputtered and died, leaving the viper crouched in the shadows. It threw back its head and caterwauled in triumph.

  At that, they came in a howling, screeching wave.

  Too fast.

  The horde tumbled down the stairs in a frantic scramble, tripping over each other and crashing at the bottom in a tangle of limbs. Cade swung once, twice, barely seeing what he was hitting as he chopped over and over into the massed bodies.

  Corpses choked the stairwell as the other defenders closed in, casting red ribbons of blood as the swords rose and fell. The injured vipers clambered back, and were trampled in turn by those behind them. On the vipers came, crawling over their own dead, and Cade screamed his hatred, stabbing, kicking and spitting with wild abandon.

  He never saw it coming. One leaped from the stairs above, grappling him to the floor. Its face split open, mouth gaping wide as it went for his head. Cade craned back even as the needle points lunged for him.

  Amber’s axehead darted between them, teeth clashing on steel. The stench of carrion made him gag, the viper’s saliva dripping as its fangs scraped across his nose. Then a boot kicked the viper’s head aside, and Amber lifted Cade to his feet. Quintus finished the stunned creature with a stab through the chest.

  Dazed, Cade staggered forward and rejoined the battle. Still the monsters came, choking the stairwell in a mass of red-brown bodies. But these were the injured and the blind, those that had been too slow to join the first wave. They were more hesitant, reluctant to get in range of the jabbing, slicing blades.

  With fewer coming over the veritable wall of corpses, the defenders finished off the wounded, stabbing down before they could crawl back to their brethren. Cade stared at the creatures above. There were as many as thirty there, but none looked so confident as they had before.

  They were on the brink. He could sense it.

  ‘We take the fight to them,’ Cade called hoarsely. ‘With me. Now!’

  They charged, leaping over the bodies, clambering one-handed towards the monsters above. Cade was the first up, and he stabbed his sword like a spear, sending the creatures scrabbling away. He staggered to his feet only to be slammed down to his knees as a viper leaped on to his shoulders. He threw it off, but not before a claw sliced him across forehead. Half-blinded by blood, Cade fought on, cutting the beast from shoulder to sternum and pushing it off his blade with a bellow of anger.

  Then Amber and Quintus were beside him, their swinging blades punching through flesh and bone. The vipers scrambled back, and now even those at the top of the stairwell backed away. Cade staggered towards them, and the second torch arced over his head, landing among them.

  ‘How do you like that?’ Grace yelled.

  The monsters hissed with fear, backing away from the light.

  ‘Come on!’ Cade shouted.

  He staggered onwards, slipping in the pooling blood. Scott and Yoshi overtook him, yellin
g wordlessly. The world was a haze of pain and exhaustion, but Cade forced himself to keep going. Amber lifted him by the collar, keeping him on his feet. Leaning against each other like drunk sailors, they limped up the final steps.

  But when they reached the top, there were no vipers to greet them. Only bloodied claw prints on the ground, and the sound of receding screeches outside.

  Cade fell to his knees, letting his sword clatter to the floor.

  ‘Congratulations,’ the Codex said. ‘You have won.’

  FIFTY

  Cade stared at the ceiling, lying on the makeshift bed. It was the only one that had survived the battle, and now he was sprawled on the musty, straw-filled mattress, waiting for the feeling of relief to come. Only it never did.

  It was hours later now, with the early sun blushing the horizon. The room was cast in darkness, and both Gobbler’s and Spex’s blood still stained the floor in the doorway. The dead vipers had been hurled out the window. Their corpses would be burned later.

  He grieved for his companions. He had felt guilt before – when he’d accidentally offended someone, or had lied to his parents. This was different. People had died because of him.

  Because he’d chosen to believe the Codex. Because he’d convinced them to fight. Convinced them to die for a cause they didn’t even know was real or not. Of the six who had fought alongside him, now only two remained. Four dead, and it was all his fault. Some small comfort was that the girls had escaped unscathed … though that was a loose definition of the word. He was glad of that.

  The others were outside, burying their friends. They’d chosen to do it on the mountaintop, but Cade hadn’t had the strength for the climb, blood loss and exhaustion having taken their toll. So they’d left him to rest, and Quintus on the wall, watching in case the retreating vipers returned.

  Cade doubted they’d be back. He and the others had won. The Codex had said so.