“I think so." My hands wouldn't stop trembling so I curled them into fists by my sides. "Laurie warned me to keep away from Grey, but I didn't think he’d come looking for me."
"How did he get out of solitary? Why weren't the Wardens watching him more closely?" Evander's cheeks flushed and turned the same colour as his hair as anger swelled within him. "I bet if we tried to go wandering the corridors at night we'd be stopped before we even left the dorm."
“Maybe he killed the Warden on watch?" I suggested.
“Maybe." He didn't seem convinced but my brain was too foggy to think about it anymore.
“Evander, right?" I asked, offering him my hand. He paused and then took it, his grip stronger than I’d expected.
"People call me Evan," he replied.
"I'm Maya-" I started but a smile pulled at his lips.
"I know," he said, still holding onto my hand. He dropped it suddenly as Taylor's eyelids fluttered open.
Taylor groaned, lifting a hand to his head where a swelling had appeared on his temple.
"I'm here, it's over." I squeezed his other hand reassuringly.
"What happened?" he mumbled.
"Evan saved us," I said. Taylor turned to look at Evan who dropped his gaze to the floor.
"Thanks," Taylor said, pushing himself up and scooting along the bed to make room so that we could all sit down. He raised a hand to his face where Grey had punched him, wincing slightly as he touched the bruise that was starting to appear.
"No problem." Evan perched on the edge of the bed next to me.
We sat in silence for several minutes. I could feel the blood still trickling through my hair and I was fairly sure I had a black eye coming on.
As my heart stopped racing, a hundred little hurts presented themselves to me. I looked down at my fingernails. They were shredded and crusted with blood.
My knees were visible through tears in my sweatpants. They were red and burnt from being dragged across the hard floor as were my elbows and at some point I must have bitten my tongue. On top of all that, my head had been smacked so many times I had trouble distinguishing the lumps from the unharmed patches.
I really needed some kind of medical attention but I wasn't about to let those walls down any time soon.
"Warden entrance imminent," the smooth voice broke the tension.
The walls slid down and Laurie stood outside with Unibrow, Hook-nose and another Warden I didn't recognise.
“What the hell happened?" she gasped.
"Grey," I replied grimly.
They didn't let Grey train with us any more after that. Laurie told me he’d be sent out into the trials early. She said that lifers were supposed to be locked up at night but the door to his cell had been found open and none of the Wardens seemed to know how it had happened.
Laurie wouldn't say it, but I could tell she suspected he'd been let out. She confided in me that a few Wardens enjoyed the violence their job exposed them to and things like this had happened before once or twice.
The idea of one of the people who were supposed to be protecting us being involved like that only made me more concerned about our time here. And more determined to learn how to defend myself. If I couldn’t rely on the Wardens to do their jobs then I needed to be ready if anything like that happened again.
Our training progressed well, though I had to work around the various injuries I'd received during my fight with Grey. I managed to throw my opponents on the mat more and more often but I still couldn't land a hit on Laurie. My best attribute by far was my aim. By the end of training, Laurie said I could throw a knife and aim a gun as well as a Warden.
At the end of our final day of training, Laurie gave us a few tips on surviving the trials.
"I'm hoping of course that you won't need any of this training, but I'm happy with the progress you’ve all made nonetheless. Your role as a messenger is fairly easy in theory. Just don't take stupid risks. Your only job is to run back and forth between units of your team’s fighters. Realistically, they should be using walkie-talkies but they do it this way so they have a low level punishment to hand out to people like you." She smiled like that was a good thing.
"How will people know not to shoot at us?" I asked, trying to hide my nerves.
"You’ll have two red stripes running around the front and back of your jackets which mark you as messengers. If someone purposefully attacks a messenger the punishment is fighting their next battle unarmed on the front line so it doesn't happen often. You'll have weapons, so don't be afraid to defend yourselves if you have to."
"Not often isn't the same as never," Taylor pointed out.
“No, but it is really rare. I've never seen it happen," she said, flicking her braid back over her shoulder a little too casually.
“Are we supposed to split up or can we move around together?" I asked.
“Technically you should split up," she said lowering her voice. "But don't bother. You'll be safer together and I don't want you getting hurt." Hook-nose was walking past us as she spoke. He stopped to look at us with a frown on his face and Laurie cleared her throat uncomfortably.
“Thank you Laurie," I said, taking her hand. "I know you had to oversee our training but you didn't have to take such an interest in making sure we were good. And you didn't have to be my friend either."
"That's okay. Just please try not to get yourselves killed." She squeezed my finger then left so that we could have one last night's sleep before our first day in the Lawless Trials.
As she moved away, Hook-nose narrowed his eyes at her and turned to join a group of Wardens who started talking in hushed tones. I bit my lip, wondering if our friendship might get her into trouble and hoping that my obvious display of affection for her wouldn’t cause her any issues.
***
I woke with a feeling of dread in my stomach. As Laurie had said, our black camouflaged jackets now had two bold, horizontal red stripes which ran around our torsos marking us out as messengers. There were also holsters and belts for the weapons we would receive later waiting for us alongside our normal uniform.
We dressed in silence, no one wanting to mention the elephant in the room while we all tried to hide our nerves before we headed down to the practice room.
The huge chamber had been cleared overnight. All of the training equipment was pushed against the walls and the convicts were assembled in a group in the centre of the wide space.
We were the last to arrive and the three of us moved quietly to join the back of the crowd.
“You'll be joining with units that already know what to do, so just take your lead from them. You may see Wardens surrounding the area but you are not to address us or try to engage us in combat. If you attempt it, you will be shot down." Uni-brow addressed the group from the front of the room, gazing around at the convicts like he was hunting for anyone who might not be taking him seriously. Once he was satisfied, he turned and opened a large, shuttered door that had been concealed behind the gun rack at the far end of the training room.
The crowd surged forward and we spilled out into the bright sunlight
Outside, a line of convicts who had completed their sentences were waiting to come back in. They were dishevelled and some were sporting various injuries but they all shared a look of relief clearly written over their faces. They’d survived their time and would be heading back on the train to rejoin the population in Harbour City. I just hoped I'd be in their position in a few months.
Laurie moved along the line of convicts until she was next to me, offering a reassuring smile which I tried to return.
We marched in a fairly well organised unit for about three miles. The immediate area was primarily brown dust and mud, just like the land outside the city, but we were surrounded at a distance on all sides by a huge, all consuming barrier of green. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was hard to make out any details but my heart pounded with a mixture of fear and longing as I gazed towards the distant trees.
�
��Is that the contaminated area?" I asked Laurie in a low tone.
"Yes." She glanced at the green wall with a shudder. "It gives me the creeps, but we do the contamination checks constantly and this cleared area is fine."
I couldn’t agree with her opinion, but I kept my mouth closed on the subject. It looked beautiful to me, like the way the world should be.
It was soon apparent that the arena wasn't just some flat, open area. As we drew closer I realised it was filled with trenches, tunnels, hideaways and general lumps and bumps in the terrain to make it easier to hide and harder to find your opponents once you were out there.
All sorts of things from big sheets of metal to brick walls were strewn about, creating pathways that crisscrossed the combat zone.
Ahead of us the other units in our team were ready for the trial, already lined up and waiting to go. In the distance, far across the arena I could just make out the opposing units lining up too. Their uniforms were dark green to mark them out as opposing soldiers and I shifted uncomfortably as I looked over at them.
"I'm patrolling the east side." Laurie pointed over to our left. "If you can aim to stay over there I can try and keep an eye on you," she whispered.
“Thanks," I whispered as she took off, swinging a rifle over her shoulder. Her hip holsters now held two pistols and the taser was gone. All of the Wardens looked more intimidating than usual and it only served to remind me of the danger waiting for me once the trial began.
The people in front of us were moving forward and being armed with knives and guns which they slid into their belts and holsters.
When it was my turn, I picked my weapons with care, fixing four throwing knifes along my belt, a pistol in a holster on my left hip and a pump action shotgun which I slung over my back. I topped it off with as much spare ammo as I could fit into my pockets and moved aside for Taylor to collect his own weapons.
I spied Grey lined up in the ranks in front of us and ducked my head. My injuries were mainly healed, though my skull still felt bruised and tender in places. I was lucky he hadn't shattered my cheek bone and I had no inclination to repeat the incident.
Taylor and Evan followed me through the crowd to the ranks on the left hand side of the unit as I moved away from Grey. With a bit of luck. He’d get himself killed out here sooner rather than later and rid the world of his presence.
We waited while the last convicts were armed and took their positions within the ranks. I could feel my pulse quickening and my palms growing slick the longer we stood there and I began to feel anxious for this whole thing to start. My mouth was dry and I licked my lips, trying to regain some moisture as we waited.
Taylor placed his hand on my back and I smiled up at him, trying to stop the trembling in my limbs. It was quiet. The air was alive with tension and the seconds dragged by endlessly as we waited for the command to begin.
I tried to slow my breathing but my pulse was thrumming uncontrollably. I didn't want to think about what might happen when we entered those trenches. I wanted to run, to get away from the Lawless Trials arena, the city and everyone in it. What kind of people sent two teenagers out into this for an honest mistake anyway? We could die out here just so that they could make a point.
I glanced at the distant forest again, wondering why no one ever took the chance at running. An image of the contaminated humans entered my thoughts. Overlong arms and mutated claws that could rip a person apart in a moment. Hungry eyes which had haunted my dreams as a child. The staring, gaunt expression of a monster that was all too human. And even if there weren't any of them left out there, it was what I would become if I was exposed to the contaminant. That was why no one ran. Death would be better than that.
"Forward!" a cry went up and the crowd around us roared as they surged towards the arena.
I blinked away my overactive imagination as Taylor grabbed me and dragged me along with him, his fingers digging into my arm as he fought not to lose me in the crowd. The crush of bodies was claustrophobic, which was definitely made worse by how damn short I was. People shoved and jostled as they made their way onto the arena and we had no choice but to go with them like we were being tugged along in a current.
The crowd finally began to thin as everyone split off in different directions and Taylor tugged me aside as we let the rest take the lead. I jumped down into a trench, quickly followed by Taylor and Evan. Everyone was disappearing into the labyrinth ahead of us and we held back as they raced away.
"Maybe it won't be so hard to survive this after all." I shrugged at the two of them as we tucked ourselves into a crevice to let the fighters surge on by.
Once the last of them passed, we cautiously followed. The walls of the trench got higher and higher as we moved along which made it gloomy. We were effectively herded onwards behind the rest as the winding path continued and I fought against the fear which was clawing at my insides.
It was eerily quiet as we slowly made our way further in. I was so focused on the path up ahead that I jumped at the sound of my own footsteps as the ground gave way to a huge puddle and I splashed into it. The rest of the soldiers had disappeared while we were hidden and I started to doubt whether it had been a good idea to get left behind. This place was eerie and the shadows were too thick. I couldn’t help but imagine enemies at every corner and my poor heart was working on overdrive as fear kept my pulse racing.
The trenches were wet, cold and dim. The lack of sound was the opposite of reassuring. I wanted to believe that we were alone, but my skin prickled as if eyes were following my every move.
It didn't take long for us to hear the gunshots start up ahead of us. I peered around a corner to see several of our fighters, dressed in our black camouflage outfits pinned down behind a brick wall by about twenty of the opposition in dark green.
"Send for back-up!" one of our guys shouted desperately as he saw me lurking by the trench entrance and I took the opportunity to flee gladly.
We turned back the way we’d come, looking for anyone else from our unit who we could send for help. We took a left at a fork in the trench and found six of our guys readying themselves to move forward.
"Back down the trench. Our fighters are pinned down by a brick wall. Around twenty opposition," Taylor said as they spotted us.
They nodded their assent, turned our way and surged in the direction I pointed without another word.
I had no intention of heading back towards the fighting, so we took the next left and found ourselves at the entrance to a huge tunnel made of corrugated metal. It opened up before us and revealed a damp passageway that turned left again sharply, cutting off the view of what lay ahead.
I glanced at the other two before heading on down but Taylor caught my arm and stepped ahead of me. I frowned at him as I let him take the lead. But I wouldn’t continue to do it every time we moved into danger. I was no one’s damsel in distress and I was determined to hold my own out here.
Once we turned the corner, it was pitch black inside the tunnel. Every move we made echoed around us, and I shifted to the side to hug the metal wall as we moved on. A few shadowy shapes were just visible around us but I couldn't make out anything properly and the darkness was terrifying.
A loud splash made me yell out and jump backwards into the tunnel wall which echoed dully with a metallic thunk. I scrambled to grab my pistol from its holster as I strained my eyes in the dark, hunting for an enemy
“Sorry! It was me. There's water here, I didn't see it." Taylor's voice came through the darkness and relief washed over me.
"How much water?" I hissed, blinking furiously as I tried to see anything in the blackness.
“Hang on," Evan said and a moment later a light flickered on. He held a small flashlight out in front of him and he swept it around as the tunnel was revealed. Taylor was illuminated in the wide space, his boots submerged in a pool of water which stretched on ahead of him.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"They said I could have one in
place of a knife," he replied as if that was an obvious trade to make. I'd rather a knife any day but I was glad he'd taken the flashlight in that moment.
Taylor took a step and another until the water lapped up over his ankles.
“The floor slopes away, I don't know how deep it will get," he said.
I glanced back the way we’d come. I didn't really fancy getting soaked.
“Maybe we should just go back-” Evan began but he cut off as screams came from the tunnel entrance behind us.
"Go," I urged decisively, running forwards into the water. I didn't want anything to do with whatever was happening out there and getting wet was preferable to getting shot any day.
The floor dropped away quickly and the water was up to my waist within moments. I shivered as it leached the warmth from my skin. We held our guns above our heads to keep them dry and Evan pointed the flashlight ahead to lead the way.
The tunnel turned to the right and kept dropping away. I regretted never having learnt to swim but it wasn't exactly an option in the city unless you lived a lot higher than I did.
It was freezing, my teeth were chattering and I couldn't feel my feet.
The screaming behind us stopped abruptly but that didn't fill me with much confidence as we pushed on. It just meant that whoever had just killed that guy was looking for a new victim.
The tunnel started to rise again and I released a breath of relief. We tried to get a balance between moving fast enough to put distance between ourselves and any pursuers and slowly enough not to make too much noise.
Finally, we stepped out of the water, dripping wet and freezing cold but the tunnel exit loomed bright ahead, making my eyes sting as we approached it. Evan clicked off his flashlight and we holstered our guns.
"Well, this is fun," I growled, trying to stop the shivering as it took root in my limbs.
Taylor emerged from the tunnel first and started down the next trench. He'd barely gone a couple of steps when an opposition fighter jumped over a low wall to his right, a gun levelled at his head.
Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance (Cage of Lies Book 1) Page 12