by Gavin Zanker
‘Oh but you are a beacon of moral superiority, aren’t you?’ Blanc said, cutting off her protests. ‘What sort of person would I be if I didn’t try to follow your example and adhere to the rules with no regard for people’s lives?’ The older woman gasped as Adam pulled her out from behind the counter. ‘Oh, be gentle, Adam. We don’t want to hurt this nice lady, do we?’
Adam shook his head, loosening his grasp slightly. He tapped the woman on the back to get her attention and then pointed towards the door.
‘My husband,’ the woman pleaded, trying to struggle out of Adam’s iron grip. ‘I need to tell my husband. He’ll worry about me.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure someone will notify him.’ Blanc stepped towards Mrs. Harrington, her voice now coming in an emotionally charged hiss. ‘How does it feel? Being ripped away from your family? I hope you remember this moment, you vile old woman. Maybe then you’ll understand what it was you took from me.’
The woman covered her face and burst in to tears, her shoulders shaking violently. She tried to say something, but it was lost in the sobbing.
‘Come on Adam, let’s get Mrs. Harrington back to the compound. She’s clearly distressed and will be much more comfortable in the readjustment villas.’
Blanc turned on her heel and headed back along the shop aisle, humming a tune to herself as she went. She stopped and held the door as Adam pulled the older woman out of her shop, then stepped out after them into the bright morning sun wearing a broad smile.
CHAPTER 18
AIDEN LEANED AGAINST the outside wall of the barracks smoking a cigarette. With the nights growing colder, it was clear that Winter was drawing closer. He blew smoke up into the chill air as he stared at the blanket of stars above. With the Dawnist compound situated near the top of the Rim, there was a clear view of the sky above. Not like the prison below where it was difficult to see much of anything through the city.
In the stillness of the night, a security light flicked on and Aiden caught sight of the barracks door slowly opening. Intrigued, he remained silent. The blonde-haired youth Cameron stepped out, a bulging pack slung over his shoulder. He clicked the door shut behind him with great care. As he turned and noticed Aiden watching, he leapt back in surprise, falling to the ground.
‘Aiden, bloody hell,’ he said, in a raised whisper. ‘You scared the life out of me.’
‘Where are you off to in the middle of the night?’ Aiden asked.
Cameron’s mouth moved, but he struggled to find any words as he picked himself up and scooped up his fallen pack. He lapsed in to silence and looked down at his feet.
‘You’re leaving then,’ Aiden said.
‘What? Why would I-’
‘It’s okay, I won’t turn you in.’ Aiden blew the ash from the end of his cigarette and took another drag, the ember flaring red.
Cameron made no effort to hide the relief on his face. ‘You won’t? Thanks, Aiden. I always thought you were one of the decent ones.’
‘I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice. I don’t think a lot of the others would either.’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Running though? You do know what’ll happen when people realise you’re gone? I assume you did read the contract you signed.’
Cameron followed Aiden’s gaze towards the stars above. He stuck his chin out and swallowed hard. ‘With Dill gone I’d rather take my chances out there on my own than stay in this place.’
‘You think it’s really so bad here? There’s enough to eat, a place to sleep. You can’t take those things for granted these days.’
Cameron looked sideways at Aiden. ‘Strange things go on around here. You haven’t noticed?’
‘Noticed what?’
‘People go through that guarded door to the inner compound all the time. But when was the last time you saw anyone come back out? It puts me on edge. I don’t want to disappear, Aiden. This place… it’s wrong.’
Aiden looked around the silent compound. Most of the lights were off now, leaving the buildings awash in weak moonlight. There was something eerie about this place. Something hidden he could not define. He turned back to the young man.
‘Kane will send us after you. You know the penalty for desertion?’
Cameron nodded solemnly.
‘All right,’ Aiden said, dropping his cigarette and stepping on the filter. ‘Good luck, kid.’
Cameron gave him a quick nod then turned and loped away. Aiden watched him disappear into the darkness, unsure if it was sympathy or envy he felt. Probably both. He turned and headed back into the barracks to get some rest, knowing tomorrow would bring its share of drama when people realised the kid had run.
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Aiden was drinking tea in the common room when Kane strode through the doors, a thunderous look on his face. He bellowed for everyone’s attention, ordering someone to run through the barracks and collect the team.
He paced back and forth as he waited for everyone to assemble in the common room. As people began trickling in, Emily appeared in the doorway and approached Kane. Leaning against the kitchen counter nearby, Aiden overheard some of their hushed conversation.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘But you can’t be thinking of following through with that, surely?’
‘I have no choice,’ Kane replied, folding his arms across his chest.
‘There’s always a choice.’ Emily said, concern showing on her face as she looked up at Kane. ‘You can choose to be the man you want to be.’ She reached for his arm, but stopped herself. ‘Look, I’m heading into the city for the day to check up on some church members so I’ll see you when I get back. Be safe, okay?’
Kane nodded, and as Emily left he turned to address the assembled group. ‘It has come to my attention that last night, a member of the team deserted.’ The room lapsed in to a tense silence. ‘Cameron Kent. He escaped over the wall last night.’
Everyone looked around, expecting to see the quiet boy sitting in a corner somewhere. Murmuring began as people realised he was nowhere to be seen. Aiden gauged people’s reactions to the news. It seemed his absence had gone unnoticed until now.
Kane continued. ‘He was not present at his assigned post on the wall earlier this morning, and his locker has been emptied. Looks like he fled in the night. Does anyone know anything about this?’
Aiden kept quiet. He had no intention of breaking his word to Cameron.
‘Fine,’ Kane said when no one spoke. ‘You all signed the contract. You all know the penalty for desertion. Jordy, where are you?’ Jordy rose from a sofa and stepped forward. ‘I want you to assemble a team of five. Your orders are to track down and deal with the deserter. I already checked with the police on guard at the city gates, and they tell me there was someone matching his description who left the city during the night. I would start there.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Kane fixed his cold eyes on Jordy. ‘I’m told he headed east.’ Jordy rubbed the nape of his neck and frowned. ‘Keep it together, I’m trusting you to lead the team.’ Kane handed Jordy a slip of paper. ‘Here’s a surface pass, you won’t get any questions if you show this. Get it done, and I’ll see you when you return.’
Kane turned and strode from the room, his jaw clenched tightly. Jordy took a second to compose himself before he turned to the silent room.
‘You heard him. I need volunteers.’ No one spoke, their gazes looking anywhere except Jordy. ‘Fine. Looks like I’m picking then. Faye. Adam. Blanc.’ Jordy’s gaze drifted across the room. ‘And Aiden. Gear up. We’re heading out within the hour.’
The atmosphere in the room remained tense as Jordy headed through to the barracks. As much as Aiden was not relishing tracking down a scared kid, he was looking forward to getting up to the surface again. He had been stuck inside this canyon city for so long he no longer noticed the pervasive metallic taste of rust on his tongue any more. He drained his mug, then headed for his bunk to sort out his kit for the journey.
CHAPTE
R 19
JORDY LED THE way up out of the city with Blanc and Adam following, and Aiden bringing up the rear with Faye. The five of them climbed the worn stone steps, emerging up on to the surface. The large open area here, known locally as the redoubt, was surrounded by a high wall with the city gates serving as the only entrance. The redoubt wall was built with heaps of assorted metal junk and rubble, and Aiden wondered how much of its purpose was just to grant the residents in the city an illusion of safety.
They passed by the Grand Arena as they headed towards the city gates. While more exposed up here on the surface, there would never have been room to build a structure so large inside the city. Aiden stared up at the rough concrete exterior of the arena, now strangely quiet without the roar of the crowds, or the clash of weapons. Faye caught him looking and flashed him a sympathetic half smile. She knew he had fought in there from Kane, but she had not pressed him with questions about his past.
The group headed towards the main gate that led out of the redoubt, a checkpoint guarded at all times by uniformed police. A row of tall barred cages extended across the inside of the wall. One held a hunched, grey-haired woman whose gaze followed Aiden, making him uncomfortable. He glanced at her as he passed, the wrinkles in her sullen face making her look older than the rusted wall behind her.
As they neared the checkpoint, Jordy showed the surface pass and they were waved through the gates by a stony faced officer without comment.
Outside the walls they found hundreds of people loitering, seemingly all refugees who were refused entry into the city. Most were slumped under makeshift shelters set up against the wall with tarpaulins and blankets, held up by whatever scrap was at hand.
‘Terrible,’ Faye muttered, as they passed by. ‘These poor people.’
‘Someone needs to keep the bloody leeches out,’ Jordy said. ‘At least the police can do that well enough.’
Faye glared at the back of Jordy’s head, but said nothing in response. There was no conversation as they travelled, each lost in their own thoughts. Nobody wanted to carry out the mission Kane had given them, but at the same time no one wanted to defy orders either.
‘What’s up with Jordy?’ Blanc asked Faye, finally breaking the silence after an hour of walking.
‘We’re heading east,’ Faye replied simply.
Blanc frowned, looking to the horizon then back to Faye. ‘What’s wrong with the east?’
‘What rock have you been living under, girl? Once you’re past the river, you’re in the Barren Expanse. Ravager territory.’
Blanc swallowed hard, glancing back at Adam. ‘I read Antousa was in the Barren Expanse. After the event, people flocked there, banding together to survive. It was supposed to be the largest centre of civilisation. I always wondered what it would look like.’
‘No one is stupid enough to go there to find out,’ Faye said, pulling out a canteen and taking a sip of water. ‘Not since the Ravagers wiped the place out.’
‘My parents told me it was a wonderful place,’ Blanc said, gazing at the horizon. ‘No one wanted for anything. They lived there, before they fled to the Rim.’
‘My parents would have probably said the same if they’d made it out of the city,’ Faye said, replacing the canteen in her pack. ‘I would bet the streets are a ghost town. No point getting your head stuck in what might have been. The Rim is all we’ve got now, so we’d better make the best of it.’
Aiden listened to the conversation as he walked behind the two women. He had never seen a Ravager, but he had heard the stories like everyone else. They murdered, raped, and consumed entire villages before burning everything to the ground. Cannibalistic scavengers who mutilated and marked their own flesh, they survived only by destroying and taking from others.
The team trekked east, through the quiet farmland that surrounded the Rim. Fields of sickly-looking vegetables grew behind chain-link fences. The soil here was the most fertile place for miles, but plants still struggled to take root in the dusty earth. Seeing the state of things here, Aiden realised it was no wonder people in the Rim were rioting and starving.
They neared a farmhouse, and Jordy sent Blanc ahead to question the residents. She soon returned with information from the married couple living there. A young man, matching the description of Cameron, had tried to steal some corn from their fields earlier that day. The husband had scared him away with his shotgun, and the scavenger had fled east.
So the group continued east in pursuit, Jordy still taking point. Aiden saw the man grow noticeably more nervous, his head twitching at unfamiliar noises. They came across a few buildings as they travelled. Old farmhouses and barns, all empty and unused. It was hard to persuade people to eke out a living in the dirt here with the constant threat of bandits and Ravager attacks.
Eventually, as the sun hung worryingly low in the sky, Jordy called a halt to the group. A swathe of dust had appeared on the horizon, and it grew larger with each passing second.
‘I don’t like the look of that,’ Jordy said. ‘Faye, what do you think?’
Faye came alongside him, shading her eyes with her hand as she looked at the horizon. ‘Has to be a dust storm. A big one too.’ She pointed at a half-collapsed tower in the distance. ‘That old cooling tower could serve as shelter.’
‘Agreed,’ Jordy said. He turned to the others. ‘Right, everyone listen up. We can’t risk travelling any further today. It looks like that dust storm is heading our way. I know a few of you are rookies and might not have seen one up close before.’ He glanced at Blanc as he spoke. ‘But you don’t need to be told that we don’t want to get caught in it. These things will scour the flesh from your bones. And if they suck up any radioactive crap, they’ll leave you an irradiated skeleton to boot. The plan is to head for that tower to take shelter and bed down for the night. So let’s pick up the pace.’
No one needed encouragement to move faster as the daylight faded and the wind picked up. Everyone pulled a bandana or piece of cloth up over their face to protect against the dust whipping around them. They made it to the cooling tower just before the sun dipped below the horizon. Probably the site of an old power station, half of the large tower had collapsed, leaving a jagged open-roofed cylinder rising out of the cracked concrete. It was intact enough to shelter them from the worst of the storm though.
Once they were all inside, Adam and Aiden quickly worked to plug the doorway with debris to seal themselves in for the night. Aiden was amazed at Adam’s strength as the hulking man hauled rocks which Aiden could not even hope to lift.
With the opening closed, Aiden examined the interior. There were scorch marks on the concrete, signs of old fires lit by previous occupants. He unshouldered his pack and pulled out his bedroll. He found a flat patch of ground, kicked aside the loose pebbles, and laid the bedroll down to insulate himself from the ground. Dropping his pack to use as a pillow, he lay down on the makeshift bed, watching the darkening sky through the open top of the tower.
Faye moved away from the others and slumped down next to him, pulling some bread out of her pack. She ripped it in half and passed him a piece. He accepted the bread, and they ate in amiable silence as they watched the clouds skim across the sky above, riding on the howling winds that blew around the tower.
‘Do you think you could do it?’ Aiden asked, his thoughts turning to Cameron.
‘I don’t know,’ Faye said, understanding what he meant immediately. ‘I mean, he knew what would happen, right? You could argue that it’s his own fault. But it won’t make it any easier when the time comes.’
Jordy overheard them talking and spoke up from nearby. ‘Who didn’t see this coming? Skipping initiation like a little bitch just because his family has some friends in the Church should’ve told you everything you need to know. Now he’s on the chopping block and someone has to swing the axe. If no one else has the balls then I’ll step up because we have a job to do and I intend to get it done. But if anyone here has the opportunity and hesitates, Kane wi
ll be hearing about it, believe me.’
‘Go to sleep, Jordy,’ Faye said. ‘We’re only talking, that’s all.’
Jordy grunted, then lay down on his own bedroll on the other side of a pile of rubble. Aiden figured no one here had the heart for murdering Cameron. Except maybe Jordy. Though his confidence was probably just an act.
Glancing over at the others, Aiden saw Adam sitting with Blanc. The two seemed inseparable these days, never far apart. Blanc seemed much more confident, already unrecognisable from the meek girl he had met a month or so ago. She held her chin higher now, no longer hiding behind her lank, black hair. And Adam seemed to understand directions more easily when she explained them to him. The two seemed to be a good influence on each other.
Faye shuffled closer to Aiden and rested her head on his shoulder. He flinched at the touch but did not move away. The human contact was foreign, but comforting. He had developed a growing respect for Faye. She was pragmatic, refusing to be pushed around. Spending time with her felt natural, like they had known each other for years already. He guarded his feelings though, careful not to let them develop in to something deeper. It would be unfair on both of them when he knew he could never truly let go of Kate.
Thinking of his wife still pained him, even after her being gone for so long. In the nights after she disappeared, he would wake in cold sweats, his dreams full of shadows and her fading image. Now though, there was no darkness in his dreams. Only the scarred face of Trent Reid and the white heat of burning rage it caused within him.
Aiden closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of the storm. Wind and dust lashed noisily against the outside of the tower, but despite the storm he soon fell asleep with Faye’s warm cheek nuzzled against his shoulder.
CHAPTER 20
AIDEN FOLLOWED THE others as they headed towards the silent farmhouse. The brick walls stood mostly intact, though holes showed through the masonry in places, and the wooden door swung on only one remaining hinge.