Death Flag

  “That’s not what I meant. You’ll find that there are a lot of two, three, and four-man teams. In some cases, there are even five-man teams or larger as well.”

  “Part of that defense thing you were talking about?” The idea wasn’t shocking. If there was a possibility you could be killed at any point in time, it made sense that people would band together for protection. That was basic human nature. Safety in numbers.

  “Yeah, that and a bit more. Between the tournaments and everyday life and . . .” Warren trailed off and slowed to a halt again. He cocked his head as if he was listening, and after a moment, he asked, “Do you hear that?”

  “Seriously? The only thing I want to hear right now is the sound of bacon sizzling as it fries in a pan. Are we ever going to get to eat?” Madison’s stomach rumbled on cue. It had been waiting in anticipation of food ever since Warren first brought it up a few hours ago when he found him at that strange fountain, and the thought of breakfast had been nothing but a tease ever since then as one thing after another kept getting in their way.

  Warren shook his head after a moment and started walking again. “Nothing. Never mind. I guess it was just my imagination.” After a moment, Warren turned and started up a flight of stairs. Like many of the buildings, they were constructed from the simple grey, mortar-less brickwork and were clearly functional in their use. Judging by the number of people streaming up and down them and through the set of double doors at the top, this must be the dining hall.

  Madison followed Warren up and inside, and he was greeted by the aroma of freshly-baked breakfast foods. As far as he was concerned, there was no other meal of the day that had such distinct or appetizing aromas: bacon, sausage, syrup, and coffee. They were each distinct and delectable in their own right, immediately recognizable even in a distant land in a faraway world. Whatever line of communication his nose had with his stomach was apparently working overtime because, as soon as he caught a waft of everything, his stomach started rumbling, and his mouth started watering.

  He stepped into the dining hall and realized that it more closely resembled the dining hall from his old university back home than he ever would have expected. The hall itself was one massive room, though he could also spy several adjoining rooms with curtains and doors that he assumed were meant to be smaller and more intimate spaces, and it was filled with tables of varying sizes. Though they were mostly round, they varied in size from that of the common, household-sized dinner table that would seat four to six people comfortably up to a few larger ones that looked like they would accommodate twelve to fifteen people. In some places, where there clearly wasn’t enough space for everyone, several of the smaller tables had been pushed together in order to create seating for additional people. Large tapestries lined the walls, depicting various scenes of combat, triumph, armies marching at war, and various scenes from nature.

  He also spied a line of people on the far side of the hall that looked almost exactly like the line at a cafeteria, and Warren headed directly for it, skirting around the edges of the room. Overall, the room was warm and open and had an extremely-relaxed feel to it. He hadn’t been sure of what to expect—in fact he hadn’t really even given it much thought—but he somehow had this idea in his head of long, boring unadorned wooden tables with everyone crammed together shoulder to shoulder, eating as quickly as they could before hurrying off to physical training or weapons combat or whatever it was they did all day around here. Yet, in reality, it had turned out to be almost the exact opposite.

  Although he was focused on following Warren, he did notice that a few heads turned in their direction as they walked in. It started with one young woman, who turned and tapped her friend on the shoulder, who turned to look as well, and before they made it even halfway down the length of the first the wall, an entire pocket of people had fallen silent and turned to stare in their direction. He watched them out of the corner of his eye until they were out of her peripheral vision, but then like a wave, the entire room began to fall silent as they made their way around, their passing marking the crest. Heads turned in their direction and were then driven together, several people even going so far as to whisper in hushed tones behind their hands as if they were afraid that someone was going to read their lips or overhear their conversation.

  Wait. Can people around here read lips? Or is there some type of magic that can actually pick up a conversation from over long distances? Warren did mention that those ‘eye’ things were constantly watching us, that we should consider everything we do to be under surveillance at all times. Does that mean they’re listening in as well? That big brother knows everything that someone says and does within the boundaries of these walls? Within this valley?

  Madison focused and brought himself back down to reality. That thread of paranoia wasn’t going to get him anywhere, and it was only going to get worse the more he thought about it. There wasn’t anything he could do to change his circumstances at the moment, and he didn’t exactly plan on committing treason or espionage or whatever it was they were worried about, so he might as well let them watch and enjoy their gossip.

  He cast a wary glance toward the group of people watching their progress and clearly talking about him and Warren. He had never been afraid of public speaking or being in large groups, but he was suddenly self-conscious as it became increasingly apparent that they were the topic of interest and conversation. After what felt like an eternity, however, he and Warren turned and disappeared behind a small stone wall.

  “Feeling much like a bug under a glass?” Madison asked dryly as soon as they were out of sight from all the eyes.

  “Well, you did make a hell of a first impression,” Warren responded, chuckling to himself as he grabbed a plate. “We don’t exactly get a lot of new people around here, and your arrival alone was going to be the talk of the campus for a while. Then, there are the unusual circumstances around your testing—how you were gone for so many days and so quickly—and the fact that it was witnessed by a Guardian and two others as well is pretty significant. Then, you went and pulled that stunt today with Randall and Shayna, so it’s really no wonder.”

  Madison just shook his head. “I feel like I’ve been put into a prison population and someone is about to come at me on my first day.”

  Warren gave him a strange look as the line started moving. There was a long line of people in front of them, but no one had come up behind them yet, so they were fairly free to talk by hanging back a bit from the group ahead of them in line. Not that he would have cared if anyone heard anyway, but given how interested everyone seemed, it might not be the best at the moment. “You’ve been in a prison before,” he finally asked suspiciously. “You can be a bit of ass, but you didn’t exactly strike me as that type . . .”

  It was Madison’s turn to laugh a bit, and he shook his head as he explained, “No, it’s just an expression. Forget it. It just means I’m expecting the biggest person in the schoolyard to step up and try to knock my block off. Since that’s sort of already happened, apparently, I’m expecting some type of group or organization to recruit me. That’s how it always works in the stories, anyway.”

  “You’ll have to tell me some of those sometime,” Warren added with a note of interest in his voice.

  “I was just joking earlier, but you guys really are starved for entertainment around here, aren’t you?” Madison laughed.

  Warren just shrugged apologetically and laughed with him. “I guess you might be right, although people do find ways to keep themselves busy most of the time. I think it’s more that we’re just starved for information about the outside world and what goes on there.”

  Madison nodded in understanding. He could definitely see how spending your entire life in a compound that was sequestered from the rest of the world would have a detrimental effect on picking up on the local news and politics, much less what was going on farther away. Wait, do these guys even have newspapers? Or is it some type of magic clairvoyance device? Or some type of
telepathy? He unconsciously rolled his eyes at the thought.

  “Anyway, there are a few things I should point out while we’re here,” Warren said, once more turning serious and adopting his instructional tone.

  “Of course there is!” Madison exclaimed with mock excitement. “Why would I ever expect anything else other than an innocent and innocuous lunch line?”

  “The first thing you need to know is that seniority takes priority. You can basically drill that into your head around here. The higher your rank, the sooner you can eat.”

  “So, top-down food chain. Literally.”

  “Mmm . . . Yeah, that’s the idea. Guardians eat before anyone else, and the Sworn eat after them. Class comes next, and Novices eat last. It doesn’t matter when they show up or when you show up: if someone of a higher rank than you waltzes in at the last minute, they skip everyone else in line who is a lower rank. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal until you learn that the kitchen really will run out of food. We have an hour to eat each meal, and everyone eats at the same time. Most people show up as quickly as they can so that they have a better shot at eating.”

  “So, you there’s a chance that a Novice will either not have enough time to eat, or there might not be anything left once they make it through the line?”

  “Correct. Although, it’s more likely that they will be eating the basic foods that no one else wanted or whatever happened to be left over. It’s an added incentive to work hard and rank up as quickly as possible, but we train too much for them to let us go hungry. It’s not like we have a line of applicants waiting out the door to get in here, either. Replacing our numbers isn’t as easy as it might seem.”

  Madison raised an eyebrow. “You mean you can’t just go kidnap more babies out of their cradles and raise them up right and proper?” It was a low blow and said jokingly, but he suspected that he was also poking a bit of truth. Warren had mentioned that at least Erin had been there her entire life, and he assumed that almost everyone else had as well.

  Warren shot him a look that amounted to ‘eat shit and die’ before turning and beginning to load his plate up with food. Madison realized that it was finally their turn to eat, and he began piling on heaping amounts of food as well. He had thought that they were going to arrive ahead of everyone else, but no one else showed up the entire time they were in line, so he didn’t have to worry about handing over his spot to someone else with a higher rank like Warren had threatened might happen.

  Before long, he had a plate piled high with scrambled eggs, link sausages, bacon, and a stack of pancakes covered in actual syrup. The pancakes went onto the plate first, and everything else had been piled on top of that, so by the time they found two open seats at one of the smaller, four-person tables and had started eating, almost everything was covered in the sticky, sweet syrup.

  A few heads had turned in their direction as they sat down and started eating, but everyone seemed to tire of it rather quickly when they realized he wasn’t going to grow a second or third head or spout flames from his eyes—or whatever else it was they wanted to happen—so he was free to enjoy his meal in relative peace. And it was good. Damn good. He had thought that their impromptu picnic was tasty, but this was ten times better than that had been. He could understand why missing a meal was going to be problematic. If he was going to dedicate all his time to training and getting stronger, he was going to need as much energy as he could get. That aside, he could get used to eating like this for every meal.

  Best of all, however, he had a steaming hot cup of something that looked and smelled suspiciously like coffee. Warren had poured it for him, insisting that was necessary to start the day with, but Madison was too afraid to take a sip of it. If it wasn’t coffee, if it was just some cheap imitation, he was going to be heartbroken since the smell of it alone was driving him crazy and making him think of home. Finally, after losing the battle against the pancake and thick syrup, and he took a tentative sip. It wasn’t the best he had ever had, but it was definitely close enough to coffee to satiate him. For a brief moment as that first hot sip worked its way down his throat, he actually felt a bit better about his circumstances.

  He was considering pouring himself another cup of coffee when he noticed two people walk in through the double doors. His gaze followed them as they made their way around the room and then picked them up again when they emerged from the breakfast line. It seemed to be getting late into the morning rush, so they didn’t have to wait for long. To his surprise, they made a beeline straight for him and Warren and sat down at the two open chairs.

  He glanced over at Warren, but he didn’t seem to mind that much or think anything of it, so Madison just went along with it. “How’s she doing?” he asked as soon as they were seated.

  The two shared a look, and then the man answered. “She has two broken ribs and probably a punctured a lung. She’s covered in bruises, and she has a deflated ego, but she’ll be alright. They gave her part of a drought and told her to sleep it off. She should be fine by this time tomorrow morning.”

  Madison nodded. “Good. If it works as well for everyone else as it did for me, I have no doubt that she’ll make a fast recovery. Besides, I think she’s too stubborn to stay injured for long. I have a feeling she’d find a way to boss any injuries around until they decided they were better off healed.”

  He cracked a huge smile, his white teeth made more prominent by his dark skin. “I thought you were the new guy?” he asked jokingly. “Did you just get here? Or do you already somehow know her from a past life or something? I’m Cruz, by the way.” He extended a hand across the table and Madison leaned forward to shake it. “And this is Sandra,” he added, tilting his head to the woman beside him.

  “I’m Madison,” he responded.

  “It was . . .” Sandra began. “I don’t know if what you did was right, but I’m glad you did it. Neither of us had the courage to do that. If you hadn’t . . .” She trailed off without finishing her thought and forked a chunk of some green fruit, popping it into her mouth.

  “I wouldn’t call it heroic or anything,” Madison answered modestly. “Warren just hadn’t bothered to explain all the rules to me yet.”

  “Hey!” he cried defensively from beside Madison. “I’m not exactly a trained tour guide. I’m not even sure really how I ended up being the one responsible for teaching you everything and showing you around. I just happened to have been the one to find you laid up and dying out there, that’s all.”

  “And you’re already regretting saving my life,” Madison added teasingly. “Especially after this morning.”

  Warren sighed heavily, buying into the joke. “If only I had known what I was getting myself into . . .”

  “Yeah, what’s up with that?” Cruz asked curiously. “We heard there was some new guy laid up in the infirmary, and then you just randomly disappeared. People were spreading around rumors about you spending a full day in the testing room, but that’s just absurd. You disappeared for another full day, and then you show up in the middle of a fight this morning, break half the unspoken rules of K’yer Utane, and show up a Sworn.”

  “Two days,” Warren corrected.

  Both Cruz and Sandra came close to choking on the pieces of food they were eating. “What?” Cruz asked in surprise, leaning forward, his eyes growing wide.

  “Two days,” Warren repeated. “He spent two days in the testing room—not just one. I was there with Davion and Rae.”

  Cruz dropped his fork onto his plate and leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. “You’re telling me this guy actually spent two full days in there?” he asked excitedly, his hands waving back and forth with every word. “With other people watching? And with a Guardian observing? There’s no way I ever would have believed that from anyone else but coming from you . . .”

  Madison suddenly felt a bit self-conscious. Warren had already explained how unusual all of those things were, but this was another one of those situations where the gravitas
of what was going on was actually lost on him. He had no reference point to base any of his own experiences against, so as far as he was concerned, that was just how things worked around here. It felt normal to him.

  “No way, man,” Cruz exclaimed. “There’s just no way.” He picked up his fork to start eating again but added, “That’s too crazy to believe. But then this with Randall? A Sworn? You realize how insane it is that you caught him off guard and attacked him? Sworn are supposed to be battle-ready at all times! I can’t believe you got a shot in on him like that.”

  “I didn’t really do much,” Madison answered somewhat modestly. “To be fair, I sort of blindsided the guy. All I did was push him out of the way before he realized I was there.”

  “It was slick, man, slick,” Cruz gushed, each word coming faster than the last. “And you have to tell me: How did you take his punch like that? It was fully loaded too, if you know what I mean. You just took it in stride like it didn’t even matter and stared then him down.”

  Madison had to think about that one for a moment. That punch actually had hurt at the time. A lot. His jaw was still tender from where Randall had hit him, and he could remember tasting blood, but that was about it. It hadn’t even done enough damage in the long run to deter him from wolfing down food. He wouldn’t have even thought about it if Cruz hadn’t brought it up, but this was something else he was going to tack onto the list and take the time to investigate. By all means, his jaw should probably have been at least fractured if not outright broken right then.

  “I’m sure it will kick in tomorrow. I think I’m still on an adrenaline high,” he answered at last, skirting around giving a direct answer.

  Sandra finally recovered from her shock and asked, “So, Madison, if you didn’t know her, why did you step in and save Shayna? You’ve made an enemy for life in Randall, you know—and that’s not someone you want gunning for you.”