“Here is what you are going to do: Trial everyone at hand to hand combat. Those that excel and show promise, get coached in that. Then the same for archery. Then knife throwing. Train groups to become masters in a particular area.”
The instructors nodded enthusiastically, “What about the others, sir? The one’s who aren’t particularly good at anything?”
Brian smiled wickedly, “Give them all knives and let them fight. Maybe that will motivate them sufficiently.” He looked around, daring anyone to challenge him. No one did. “I will be back in one week. If I don’t see an improvement I will be most displeased. Do you understand?”
All the instructors nodded, once more not looking up to meet his eyes.
Brian nodded, certain that his instructions would be carried out. He spun on his heel and made his way back to the town hall. Hopefully the doctor was making better progress than that group of idiots.
~
Luca kept his head down and trudged silently behind the man with the sharpened baseball bat. Occasionally he glanced over at Sammie. She stared resolutely ahead, eyes fixed on the stranger leading the way. With the rest of the group following closely behind, they were led down a warren of alleyways until they arrived at a house and stopped.
The mid-terraced house looked like all the others they had passed. A rusted car parked on the road outside, smashed windows, battered front door. Nondescript, ordinary. The man with the baseball bat gestured for Luca and Sammie to follow him into the house.
The inside of the house looked much the same as the outside. Old, unloved and derelict. The front door led straight into what was once the living room. Now a thick layer of dust coated the furniture, Luca noticed, as Sammie stared around the room, her forehead furrowed as though deep in thought. No doubt with the same question in her head as was in his. Why here? The house looked like no one had been inside in years. But instead of stopping, the man carried on through a door into a kitchen and then out to the back yard through the open patio door.
The paving slabs in the yard were filthy and broken. Weeds sprouted through the cracks. Luca spun around, looking for a gate or a way out. The six-foot fence panels were intact, battered by years of neglect, but standing nonetheless. A shed covered in ivy stood at the back of the garden. It leant precariously to one side as though a single gust of wind would knock it over.
“What…” Luca began.
“Quiet,” the man growled as he walked to the back of the garden. He opened the door of the shed and Luca noticed the ivy did not pull apart from the sides. Instead, it came away with the door, remaining perfectly intact. The man ducked through the shed door and beckoned for Luca and Sammie to follow him. As he stepped through, Luca touched the ivy; it was fake. Plastic. But it looked so real. Weird. Ivy grew freely outside. Why would someone decorate their garden with fake ivy?
Understanding came as Luca’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the shed and saw the door on the rear wall of the shed. The man opened it and led them directly into another garden, which looked remarkably similar to the previous one.
This time, instead of entering the shed, the man pushed gently on a fence panel, which swung open and led them into another garden.
Their journey continued in this manner, through a series of concealed entrance ways leading to adjoining gardens and houses. Had he not been worried about their fate when they finally got to their destination, Luca would have been impressed by the ingenuity of these people. Wherever they were going, it would be impossible to find without someone who knew the way.
Eventually they entered a house through an old coal chute, into a dank cellar. The man led them up the rickety steps into the kitchen and then up again onto the landing. Using the tip of his baseball bat, he pushed the loft hatch open. Then he balanced precariously on the bannister and hoisted himself inside. With no other options available, Luca helped Sammie up and then followed her into the darkness.
“Step where I step,” baseball bat man instructed and proceeded to walk cautiously along the narrow beams. The roof space was dark but in the distance, it appeared to grow lighter. They navigated through adjoining terraced houses until they reached the source of the light. In that house, the loft space had been converted into a bedroom. The sun shone through a skylight, casting a soft glow in the room.
A narrow wooden staircase led out of the room onto a landing. But the stairs leading to the ground floor of the house were blocked with old furniture, making them impassable.
The man ignored the stairs and walked across the small landing and opened a door into a bedroom. Or rather a room that used to be a bedroom. Except the outside wall was completely missing.
In its place was a structure made of scaffolding stretching like a walkway over a thick chain metal fence into a compound. A few metres in from the outer fence another barrier stood. This one was made from solid sheets of metal. Impossible to see through at street level but from this vantage point, it was easy to see the hustle and bustle of a small community going about their daily lives.
Luca looked around at the other houses surrounding the compound and saw a number with scaffolding structures similar to the one he was standing on, all leading into the compound. He let out a low whistle.
Baseball bat man turned to Luca and smiled proudly, “Impressive, isn’t it?”
Forgetting that they were being held captive by this man, Luca smiled back, “You built this?”
“Not personally,” the man laughed, “But yes, most of the houses in town lead to one of these access points. You just have to know the way.”
“And you live in there?” Luca pointed to the compound.
“Yep, perfectly safe from the zebs.”
“What about the zoners, surely they can see the scaffolding leading into the compound?” Luca asked.
The man frowned, “Only if they can get close enough. But we’ve blocked the downstairs of all the surrounding houses and the alleyways. We’ve had no problems yet.”
“This is all lovely,” Sammie said, her tone implying it was anything but, “Now would you mind telling me what the fuck we are doing here?”
The man shrugged with a wry smile, “Sorry, my job was just to get you here. Connie will explain the rest,” the man said, stepping out onto the makeshift wooden bridge before Sammie could protest.
Sammie and Luca dutifully followed him into the compound. He led them through wooden structures that appeared to serve as sleeping quarters and into a large open space. Picnic tables and chairs were dotted around a massive fire pit.
“Dad,” Luca shouted, as he broke into a sprint towards the table where his father, Red, Sidney and Johanna sat eating, “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“We’re fine,” Robert replied, swallowing down another spoonful of stew, “Food’s great,” he smiled.
Luca looked around at the others, shovelling the stew into their mouths, and his stomach let out a loud growl at the herby scent.
“What’s going on?” Sammie asked Robert, “Why are we here?”
“I was waiting for you all before I explained, but rest assured, you’re perfectly safe,” a female voice from behind Luca said. Luca turned towards the voice. The owner was a woman who Luca guessed to be in her mid-sixties. Her grey hair was cut short and she had deep wrinkles around her blue eyes. “Jasper, can you get our two guests some food, please?” Baseball bat man nodded and walked towards a large tented structure.
“I’m Connie,” she said and offered a hand out to Luca, “you must be Luca.”
“Yes,” Luca replied shaking her hand.
Connie turned to Sammie and held out her hand, but Sammie kept her arms folded in defiance.
“What are we doing here?”
“I’m sorry if we’ve scared you, but we needed to get you away from those two men as quickly as possible,” the older woman spoke with a pleasant and reassuring tone, "before you did anything you may have come to regret,"
Sammie blushed and released the tension in her body,
"So we are not prisoners?"
Connie chuckled softly, "No dear, you may leave whenever you wish, but preferably not to find out where they are taking those zebs."
Sammie opened her mouth to respond, but Luca put a gentle hand on her arm. She glared at him for a second, then with an exasperated sigh she sat down on the bench next to Johanna.
Luca took the seat opposite her as Jasper arrived with two bowls of steaming hot stew and placed them down on the table.
Connie took a seat at the head of the table. “Please eat,” she gestured at the bowls. Sensing their hesitation, she chuckled, “It’s perfectly safe, I can assure you.”
Luca smiled sheepishly as his stomach let out a loud groan. He picked up his spoon and began to eat. Sammie watched him warily, but she too was soon overcome with the desire for a hot meal. She huffed again and picked up her spoon.
“I have a story to tell you,” Connie started, “A few months ago, my granddaughter, Ellie, went into labour. She was a little over eight months pregnant …”
“Congratulations,” Sammie interrupted rudely, “but what has that got to do with us?”
Connie smiled at the younger girl, “Patience, dear girl, I will get to that, but first, you need to understand the background,” she paused and shook her head, “why we did what we did.”
Sammie shrugged, “Go on then.”
“Over the years we’ve had many pregnancies, but we’ve been lucky, we have a midwife, so she has been around to help with any er …” she paused, as though searching for the right word, “complications,” she finally added.
“But we were ignorant; there’s always so much to do, training someone else has always been at the bottom of our priorities. Renata, our midwife, was ill with a fever when Ellie went into labour. In normal circumstances that wouldn’t have been a problem, but the baby was in breech, and we needed help. So, I went with Ellie, her husband, Christopher and some of our men to Zone G. But when we got there, a man called Brian came out and refused to let us in.”
“Brian? That’s the guy in charge of G,” Luca said.
“We found that out a few weeks after,” Connie said, “As you can imagine, Christopher was scared and desperate, because if they didn’t get help, both Ellie and the baby would die. I'm afraid he became a little aggressive and punched Brian.
He was wrong to do so, but Brian’s reaction was much worse. He had one of the guards hold him down while another executed him. Ellie was distraught and in incredible amounts of pain… she wasn’t thinking straight. She went for Brian too…” Connie's voice waivered, then trailed off. She stared into the distance as though replaying the scene in her mind. No one spoke, letting the old woman find the strength to continue.
“He killed her…” Connie continued, “slit her throat just like her husband’s. Brian allowed us to take their bodies. We tried to save the baby, but it was too late. I lost my granddaughter and great granddaughter that day.”
Luca felt the blood drain from his face, “I remember that day, but Brian made it sound as if they were under attack.”
Connie nodded, “I know,” she carried on, “A few weeks later we met Marc. He had been ousted from Zone G for theft. But in reality, he had been speaking up against Brian and we think Brian might have framed him.”
“Yeah,” Luca said, “I remember that. Marc had been gathering opposition against Brian, because even without knowing the circumstances, he thought the murder of a nozo was wrong.”
Connie smiled wearily, “Yes, he did, he was angry at his treatment. I was upset from the loss of my family, we all were, and we vowed we would get revenge. We needed to make him pay for what he did,” she paused and looked around the table. She took a deep breath before continuing, “Marc helped us carry out a series of raids, little things, like stealing some pigs, letting a fox into the hen house, leaving a stable door open so the horses could get out and cause some damage. But it wasn’t making a difference, so we destroyed the water farms.”
Luca looked over at Red and watched as a single tear formed in his eye, rolled down his cheek and landed in the empty soup bowl. Robert put a hand on his shoulder in a fatherly gesture; Red didn’t seem to notice.
“Connie, I can’t say I blame you for what you did, but your actions had consequences. Severe consequences,” Luca said.
Sammie glared at him and threw her spoon back into the bowl. Soup splashed on to her top but she ignored it, “It was more than bloody consequences,” she turned to Connie, her eyes wild and cheeks flushed, “Your actions started a series of events that have already killed two people." Sammie pointed at Red, "including his brother, did you know that?”
Connie paled, her face aghast, “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“But you did,” Johanna spoke quietly, without looking up “He blamed us. He held us prisoner and tortured us. He ra …” her voice trailed off.
Luca watched as Connie visibly crumpled in front of him, her shoulders sagged and her face dropped. He felt no pity towards her, but no anger either. This situation was shit. He understood the actions of the nozos. Brian had killed two of their own, one of them a pregnant woman. But every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The six around the table were living proof of that.
“Now he has turned the zone against us. These three no longer have homes and God knows what he is planning to do to Zone E,” Sammie’s tone was softer, but still held an edge of anger.
Connie lifted her head sharply, “Wait, what has Zone E got to do with this?”
“It’s where we are from,” Sammie pointed at herself, Johanna and Sidney, “Brian blamed us, made Zone G think we were his enemies. Killed my friend. Now he’s training the zone in combat, and creating an army.”
Connie sighed heavily, “I’m afraid it’s worse than that. That cart you saw was not the first time that he has had his men gathering zebs. He has thousands of them. We didn’t know why. But now I think he’s going to use them to attack your zone.”
As though a fog had lifted, Luca finally understood, “He wants what you have,” he said, to Sammie, Sidney and Johanna, “He has turned Zone G against you, manipulated the truth to his own gain. When the time is right, he’ll march, and he’ll take your zone and everything in it. Everything.” He gave Sammie a meaningful look and she let out a little gasp as she understood his underlying message.
“We can’t let him. We just can’t,” Sammie said. She groaned and put her hands to her head in despair, “The power that would give him. We can’t let it happen.”
Luca watched Connie as she stared at Sammie. Her head tilted to one side, she appeared deep in thought. Luca guessed she was trying to work out why overpowering another zone would grant Brian the power. He guessed she wouldn’t ask outright; she was too shrewd for that. He was right.
Connie, looked around the table, her eyes coming to rest on Red. I’m so sorry,” she said, “I can’t change the past, Lord knows, I wish I could. But we need to stop this man and the only way to do that is to work together.”
Silence fell like a shroud over the table. Luca looked around at the others, willing someone to speak. Instead, Red jumped up and stalked around the table to reach Connie. Luca held his breath, unsure of his intent, but with no intention of stopping him. The actions of the nozos had affected him more than many. If he wanted to slap, punch, or even stab the old woman, Luca was not going to intervene.
Red stopped and to Luca’s surprise he held out his hand. Connie looked at him with apprehension, then she took the proffered hand and shook it.
“Brian started this by killing your family. I don’t blame you for what you did. I blame him,” Red’s eyes flared as he spoke, then a look of sheer determination fell over him, “He needs to pay for what he has done.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Robbie’s glossy black mane flies back in the wind as we gallop through the countryside. The landscape passes in a blur as our speed increases, but I can feel him beginning to tire. Luca, struggling to
keep up, shouts out for me to slow down.
I curse my stupidity, because I should have kept going at a sustainable trot rather than encouraging the gallop. But I want to go home. Desperately. The revelation from Connie has scared me more than I care to admit. Zone E are so unprepared for what is coming, but tiring the horses out won’t get us there any quicker. I gently pull on the reins and Robbie slows to a stop. Dismounting, I turn to see Luca in the distance. It’s evident from the tension in his body that he’s not as comfortable riding as I am.
I lead Robbie over to a large oak tree and loosely secure the reins around the thick, gnarly trunk. After giving him some water from my bag, I leave him to graze on the long grass, then I find a spot to prepare our lunch.
After Red shook Connie’s hand last night, the atmosphere around the table relaxed. If a fifteen-year-old boy who had lost his little brother could forgive, then so could we.
When we had eaten our fill, Connie arranged for someone to take Johanna and Sidney to clean up and get their various injuries seen to. She gave the rest of us a tour of the compound. I had always assumed that nozos were dirty, desperate and disorganised. Living in small groups and killing each other to survive. But this was different, and not what I expected at all.
Children ran around laughing and playing. Adults sat together in groups eating and talking. As we walked, people smiled warmly at us, and Connie greeted everyone we passed by name. It was a community, a happy community. Even more so than the zone, where the only time we get together is for town meetings, and even then, we sit in our own social groups. Here everyone seems to know and respect each other.
I’d always looked down on the nozos’ way of life, confused as to why they would choose to live outside the sanctuary provided by the zones. But last night I started to understand. They are happy, and they are free. Connie explained that everyone can come and go as they please and that their compound isn’t unique. She told us that generally the nozos live in peace with each other and have similar trade deals that we have in the zones.
Safe Zone (Book 2): The Descent Page 20