18 Walls

by Teo Xue Shen

  “We found our families in a military base outside the walls,” Sean adds. “So let’s finish this up real quick.”

  Our ranks have been bolstered. The people of Pangaea can only watch helplessly as their so-called enemies—the people they hated for years, the people they denounced as Savages—protect them from the Heires and sacrifice their lives. I have no idea how Resh did it. To convince so many people to assist him with such a task is no easy feat. He sees us and nods gravely. Then, he notices Idphor. In a flash, he’s beside us, slapping Idphor on the cheek. The latter blinks, recognises Resh and gives him the finger.

  “You’re alive?” Resh asks, prodding Idphor in the stomach.

  “Oh, for the love of…how little faith do you have in…me…” Idphor grimaces. “And don’t sound so…disappointed…will you? You short lump…of shit.”

  “He needs a hospital. Quick,” Ivy says. “Is there anything we can…?”

  “Yeah, field hospitals are being set up outside the walls as we speak. Not by my men.” Resh gives her a weird look. “The person who made it possible was a nurse. Approached me after she spent hours pulling together a team of medical staff willing to help out. She asked me to look for a red-haired girl. That’s you, isn’t it?”

  For the first time, Ivy turns as red as the unruly mop of hair on her head. Resh doesn’t seem to notice while Raine shoots her a knowing grin.

  “How did you get so many people to…” Ivy begins quickly, attempting to shift the attention away from herself.

  “Broadcasted it live like your friend over here did. Then, I gathered those who were willing to help and we drove straight out of camp.”

  There’s a dangerous glint in his usually dull eyes, as if a spark has lighted him from the inside.

  “All right, less talk, more killing.” He stretches, slings Idphor over his shoulder like a bag of rice and prepares to leave. “I’ll get this idiot out of…”

  A roaring sound in the distance silences him. The Heires turn their heads towards the noise, temporarily giving Resh’s warriors the upper hand as they slash and hack at briefly distracted Heires.

  “What’s that?” I ask. “More people?”

  “Beats me,” Resh shrugs, frowning at the horizon. “I didn’t plan this.”

  “Wait, if you didn’t, then who else is there…?”

  Another nonchalant shrug. Seems he really doesn’t know. It’s an entire convoy of vehicles, loaded with all sorts of equipment from rations to weapons to floodlights. They’re here to help, but who the hell sent them? Then, I see the person riding shotgun in the foremost vehicle and everything becomes clear. It’s that girl. The one who had been bitten by a snake-like Extension, whose life we plucked out of the grasp of the Grim Reaper. Kyrie, was it? And in the vehicle behind her sits another familiar face. I don’t know his name, but I’ve wrestled his pistol out of his hands not too long ago. Even they have come. To assist the country which nearly drove them both to death’s door.

  “You see?” Idphor murmurs. “That’s you…what you…did…they are…here…following behind you…”

  “He’s delirious.” Resh presses his palm against Idphor’s forehead. “I should take him out now. Let’s hope we meet again.”

  And with that, he’s gone, leaping over groups of combatants locked in a vicious struggle. Kyrie’s team sets up the floodlights, illuminating the battlefield in place of the sun, which now peeks shyly over the horizon, emitting a weak, orange glow. Some of them join in the fight while the rest distributes rations to the evacuees. We don’t have time to eat. Frankly, I’m exhausted. I’ve probably lost enough blood to supplement a couple of transfusions. The rest of them aren’t doing so well either, but hey, at least we’re all alive, although I can’t help wondering if we’ll survive through the night.

  Resh returns towards midnight. The steady rush of evacuees has been reduced to a trickle. We’re almost done. Our forces have also dwindled to about three hundred. Raine, Ivy, April and I are running purely on borrowed steam, forcing ourselves on through willpower alone. Our Extensions barely function; our eyes barely open; our bodies are coated in grime, dust and blood. My knife is dull and crusty, the barrel of my rifle burning hot. At the end of my rope, I begin to wonder if this was such a good idea after all. Everything starts to go hazy, the smoke from the fires, the screaming from the injured, the clashing of the Extensions, all melting into a kaleidoscope of colours.

  Raine smashes open the abdomen of a Heire and it returns the favour, screaming like a pissed-off banshee. Her Extension absorbs most of the impact but she’s sent flying into me. I catch her, or rather, try to catch her. We both stagger and almost fall. She coughs. A dark red wetness comes spewing onto my shoulder. Before I can react, another Heire comes slouching in. It has an Extension similar to April’s, which it sends our way. I don’t have time to dodge. So I give Raine a good, hard shove. She lands hard on the pavement, yelping indignantly. That’s when the Heire’s Extension goes through my right shoulder. Immediately, a fiery, burning sensation rockets through my body. Raine’s eyes widen in shock. Her lips are moving, but with my body racked in pain, I can neither hear nor focus on what she’s saying. The Extension jerks, lifting me up like a ragdoll. The pain is excruciating. It’s so jarring that I don’t have the appropriate words to describe it. Even getting stabbed in the leg felt way better.

  A flash of green. Then, I’m falling. Raine darts forward and catches me, accomplishing the perfect princess cradle—I’d seriously have preferred it the other way round. Resh looms over me, his Extension at the ready. It was he who sliced through the Heire’s Extension, thereby saving my life. I’m grateful, but I’m probably about to waste his efforts by dying in a couple of minutes. The pain is just so…bad.

  “Don’t you dare die on me,” a finger digs into my side, causing me to gasp for breath.

  That’s got to be Raine. I open my mouth to reply and she kisses me full on the lips. This time, it’s direct, strong and demanding. A promise. She moves away, breathing heavily, eyes filled with tears. Resh comes forward, looking a tad uncomfortable, and pushes a device into my hand.

  “The other areas have been fully evacuated. Ours is the last one left,” he reports. “The situation outside the walls is stable at the moment. Your orders?”

  I don’t know why he’s asking me for orders. In my current state I’m probably not in the best condition to make any important decisions.

  “Retreat,” I croak. “Get behind the eighteen walls. They’ll be the cage for the Heires. Then, form groups comprising the stealthiest soldiers. They’ll go back to comb the area for stragglers, the injured and whoever else who might be left behind by accident. Avoid contact with the Heires.”

  I’m surprised I manage to say that much without coughing my lungs out. I can feel the blood pooling along my throat. But what surprises me even more is the fact that my voice is stentorian and firm, ringing out all over the ravaged ruins of Pangaea. April must’ve done something once again. I regret thinking she was weak when we first started out. She’s by and far the strongest, most useful person on our team. She takes the device from me, fiddles with it, then passes it back to Resh, who begins communicating with someone else, presumably from the makeshift refugee camps outside the 18 walls.

  “All right,” he finishes up and turns to us. “Time to get the hell out of here.”

  No one argues. Our troops are steadily backing away from the Heires, which start to smash each other with their Extensions as they fight to reach their retreating morsels of flesh. Raine supports me as I limp towards the 18 walls, the rest of Squad 72 following behind. My shirt is balled up in her fist, pressed tightly against the gaping, ragged hole in my shoulder. I can neither feel nor move my right arm. All that is left is the pain. With every gruelling step I take, agony shoots through my body, making me gasp like a dying fish. It feels as though someone has taken a chainsaw to my shoulder.

  “You…okay?” I whisper in Raine’s ear.

  She’s c
lutching her side with one arm, the other arm wrapped securely around my waist.

  “Probably cracked a rib,” she mutters. “And you shouldn’t be the one asking me this when you’re the one with a bloody hole in your shoulder.”

  The arduous journey takes us two hours. Several times, in the pitch darkness of the night, we stumble and fall. Each time, it gets harder and harder to get up and push on. My legs are numb, turning every step into a chore. Somewhere between the ninth and the 11th walls, the soldiers at the rear manage to throw the Heires off our tails, locking the gates securely behind them. I don’t know if the gates are sufficient to stop them, but at the very least, if they don’t see us, they’ll stay within the confines of the walls. Eventually, we arrive outside the 18 walls. It’s a new world out there. Hundreds of tents and shelters have been set up, brilliantly illuminated by dozens of spotlights. People hurry from place to place, delivering food, water and clothes to the evacuees. We’re guided to the medical post, where I’m whisked away in a chorus of urgent yelling. Needles are stabbed into my body while the doctors prepare for surgery with brusque, business-like efficiency. Raine, Ivy and April are attended to in a similar manner.

  “Wait,” I gasp, grabbing a nurse by the sleeve. “Give me a moment. Please.”

  Lying on the stretcher beside me, April catches my eye and nods. A radio is brought over. I gather my breath, summon my remaining strength and speak.

  “To all present,” I begin. “I…”

  Silence befalls the area. They don’t know who I am. But they know my voice. I continue.

  “I do not know if I will live to see another day. But what I do know is that I wouldn’t have made it out here without everyone’s help. You have taken a close look at your enemies. And you will have realised that they are no different from yourselves. With or without Extensions, we are human. We need to come together as one humanity, not kill each other over something as pointless as hatred. All of us bear scars from these years of conflict. I understand that forgiveness doesn’t come easily, but if we cling on desperately to our pasts, we will never move forward in the present. We should recognise our similarities rather than harp on our differences. It might seem impossible, but that, for anyone who is listening, is my hope for the future of humanity.”

  I want to go on, except that I don’t have the energy. My hand goes limp, falling onto the ground beside the stretcher. Silence. Then, Raine begins clapping slowly. It spreads. Whooping, cheering, thunderous applause. At long last, it feels as though the entire world is on the same side. My head falls back against the stretcher. I’m satisfied. This is as far as I can manage.

  The anaesthetic kicks in. My world fades to black.

  24

  The door to the hospital ward creaks open. I sit up on my bed, glancing at it expectantly. Brown hair, tanned skin, stunning blue eyes. She takes a seat on the edge of the bed, eyeing the crinkled sheets with disdain.

  “Feeling fine?” Raine’s gaze travels towards my face.

  “Yeah. Glad they’re letting me out tomorrow. It’s been too long.”

  “That’s because you’re slow in recovery. You suck,” she sniffs. “They even had to transfer you to a proper hospital for treatment.”

  A couple of months have passed since the Hekatonkheire incident. Yeah, that’s what everyone calls it now. Base 1, Pangaea is gone. It doesn’t exist any more. Both governments have been engaged in negotiations in the past months. I don’t know exactly how it happened, probably something to do with the support from the people. They don’t know my name, nor do they recognise my face. But they’ve heard my voice and I guess, in the end, that was sufficient. And in a way, I’m grateful for it. It’s the reason I’m able to spend these peaceful moments with the people I treasure, especially the girl sitting on my bed.

  “The Heires?” I ask.

  “Last I checked, they’re still in the process of rotting away.” She shakes her head. “It’ll take a couple more months for them to truly return to the earth.”

  “And the refugees?”

  “Most of them have been relocated. Although their housing is still temporary and they’ll be shifted again when their actual living quarters are completed. The contractors are probably rushing to get them built even as we speak.”

  There’s a knock on the door. Ivy enters, a nurse at her side. They’re holding hands.

  “Whoops, did I interrupt something interesting…”

  “No,” Raine growls.

  Ivy bursts out laughing.

  “Anyway, I came to tell you that the military wants the both of you back. As trainers like us. They’re looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

  “Us” being Sean, Hyung, Resh and herself. April’s working at a communications firm.

  “I’ll go when he goes,” Raine says. “I’ve been saying this for months.”

  “Guess we’ll be busy, then,” I smile. “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”

  Idphor’s retired. Said something about a backache and gave us the finger before hopping in a car and driving off. Oh well, I guess we’ll probably meet again someday. We speak for about an hour before Ivy and her girlfriend leave for their duties.

  “That’s a happy couple,” Raine remarks when they’ve left. “We could be like that.”

  I steal a glance at her. She looks away firmly, her cheeks turning rosy.

  “Yeah,” I nod. “We could.”

  A comfortable stillness envelops the room. Raine slides backwards and topples onto the bed, her head resting against my chest. Again, I’m reminded of the reason I fought, the reason I fight. It’s infinite, timeless moments like these which bring me peace of mind. No doubt, a new threat might appear in the near future. There are other walled communities of Pangaea and they might not take kindly to us. But for now, I wish things would stay like this for a little while longer.

  “By the way,” I begin.

  “Yeah?”

  “Lunch tomorrow. My treat.”

  “It’s a promise,” she smiles.

  Just a little while longer. Yep, it’s fine like this.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to offer my greatest thanks firstly to Epigram Books for being the most supportive publisher of Singaporean literature I have known; and to Kenneth Wee, Chang Wai Mun and Christopher Toh, who guided me through the intricacies of contract signing, interviews and more; Joanne Goh, who couldn’t have designed a more fitting cover for such a novel; and my editor, Eldes Tran, for her invaluable comments and inordinate patience while working to improve the novel.

  Secondly, I would like to applaud Daryl Chionh, Ng Jun Ming, Shaun Pek, Ooi Ren Yi, Pei Keyi and Maxx Chan for entertaining my strange, often illogical questions at unearthly hours of the night and reading through my unrefined works. Without your support, I’d still be gathering up my courage to submit my manuscript for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

  Lastly, my gratitude goes to Dr Gregory Cai, who started me off on this writing journey, the one who asked “why not” instead of “why” when I still had my doubts about writing.

  About the Author

  At 19, Teo Xue Shen is currently the youngest author longlisted for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize since its inception in 2015. He is a sergeant in the Singapore Armed Forces after graduating from Hwa Chong Junior College. He is also a fishing and trekking enthusiast, scoutmaster and avid reader. Xue Shen started writing 18 Walls before he enlisted, and his experience in the Armed Forces has informed and shaped his debut novel.

  The annual Epigram Books Fiction Prize promotes contemporary creative writing and rewards excellence in Singaporean literature. The richest literary prize in Singapore is awarded to the Singaporean, permanent resident or Singapore-born author for the best manuscript of a full-length, original and unpublished novel written in the English language.

  For more information, please visit ebfp.epigrambooks.sg