Ranger threw them both off, Olga cracking into team Yeti’s table and Max falling to the floor.
Ore reached Ranger first. She hit him hard, landing on top of him as they fell. Her movements turned into a blur, and before Spike tracked them, she had the boy’s arm halfway up his back, forcing his cheek against the floor. She leaned close to his ear, spittle spraying from her mouth, her voice echoing through the hall, “We don’t tolerate that kind of bullshit here! It’s bad enough with those things outside the walls.”
The rest of the team leaders caught up to her. Tank and Juggernaut grabbed one of Ranger’s arms each and dragged him to his feet. The boy shook and twisted in an attempt to get free, his cheek cut from where he’d been pushed against the floorboards. As they led him from the hall, past team Minotaur’s table, he spat at Hugh, missing by only a few inches. “This ain’t over yet. No one gets away with mugging off Ranger Hopkins. No one.”
Like most of the cadets there, Spike watched the writhing Ranger as they led him from the hall. His ears continued to ring and his face stung from where the boy had hit him.
Olga moved back to her table with a slight limp and sat down.
“Are you okay?” Max said.
While nodding, Olga said, “I will be by tomorrow. What do you think they’re going to do with him?”
A shake running through him, Hugh rubbed his face. His words were possessed with the same tremble. “Hopefully kick him out. He’s a liability. At the very least, they need to make sure he’s not allowed to be the next apprentice.”
Where Lance had been emboldened by his friend’s aggression, he looked to be equally deflated by his exit. Halfway between his table and Minotaur’s, he moved back to where he’d come from. Spike watched him all the way. “I think if it was anyone else, they’d already be excluded from the apprenticeship. But he’s Magma’s son, so they’ll give him much more rope.”
Hugh used his sleeve to wipe Ranger’s spit from the table. “Hopefully he’ll use it to hang himself.”
Chapter 9
The now familiar sound of chains passing over wood triggered a rush of adrenaline, which Spike did his best to contain. When the gap opened by about a foot, the scream of a diseased entered the complex moments before the creature did. As skinny as any he’d seen, it wore trousers and a ripped shirt. It met Axle’s wrath. She swung her sword in a wide arc and cut the thing in two at the waist. One of her trainees behind her finished it with the tip of his sword.
Since the first day, the queue to leave the gates had grown. Axle led her team of twelve out through the widening gap, every other protector with a similar party behind them. Only Magma—as the general overseer—didn’t have a team to babysit.
A slow yawn from the gate’s hinges, Spike watched the army leave, knowing he’d be in their number soon.
Finally their turn, Spike lifted his wheelbarrow, fighting against the tilt because of the overflowing bricks and rocks. When he felt confident he had it level, he leaned close to Hugh. “Every time I watch one of the protectors take down a diseased, it makes me want to be one even more.”
“It makes me wish national service was over.”
Spike smiled at his friend. “It’ll be over soon enough.”
“Hopefully it’ll be over before I am.”
Before Spike could say anything else, he heard sobbing beside him. Mercy De’ath from team Yeti. Pale skinned, almost white hair, and dressed in a white tracksuit. She looked like a ghost. Her eyes—bloodshot with grief—stood in stark contrast to the rest of her.
In an attempt at subtlety, Spike shifted closer and kept his focus on the exiting army. “Are you okay?”
Mercy fixed her red and swollen stare on Spike. The corners of her mouth dipped, and more tears ran down her cheeks.
“Are you scared?”
While pressing the back of her hand to her nose, she said, “What do you think?”
“Stupid question, right?”
She shrugged.
“Try not to be. Everything will be okay.”
Mercy rolled her eyes.
“Okay, that wasn’t helpful, but we’ve managed to take down over twenty diseased as a group.”
“And lost an entire team on day one.”
“But we’re better at it already. What happened to Phoenix won’t happen again.” The protectors at the front of the group had reached the perimeter of the new wall and were venturing into the long grass, heading to the ruined city for another day of scavenging and killing. How many heads would they bring back with them? “The protectors will clear the way for us. There’s over one hundred of them out there now. Everything will be fine.”
The weight of Mercy’s water bucket made her wobble as she picked it up. She nodded at him, her face locked in a grimace from the battle against the container of shifting liquid.
The last of the protectors entered the long grass. It wouldn’t be long before Spike walked out there with them. What would he find in the city? What did the protectors know that they didn’t tell Edin’s citizens? How many secrets would he have to keep? Whatever orders they gave him, he’d tell Matilda everything. A glance at his love, he saw her fixed on the gates, her hair tied up, her soft eyes narrowed against the wind.
A gasp started with one or two cadets before the slightest rumblings ran through them all. Matilda turned to look behind them before Spike did. When he spun around, he saw Ranger striding towards them. His stomach lurched to look at the boy. The fight with Hugh had happened two days ago, and he hadn’t seen him since. He looked like a different person. Where he’d had black bags beneath his eyes, they were now sacks. He looked like he hadn’t slept since they took him away. He marched with his head dipped against the wind, his face slightly tilted towards the ground. He looked at the gates from beneath his thick brow, his jaw jutting out in a tight clench.
“What’s he doing back?” Hugh said.
Bleach clapped his hands, and many of the cadets jumped. “Right, come on, let’s get on with it. I want a productive day. We need to finish this wall sometime this decade.”
Team Minotaur set off first, led by their team leader. Despite his curiosity telling him to look at Ranger—Hugh doing it several times—Spike couldn’t take his eyes from his finely balanced barrow. Bleach might have allowed him to restrain Ranger in the canteen, but if he spilled a barrow of bricks from looking at the boy, he’d undo all the good favour he’d earned in a heartbeat. Nothing should get in the way of building the wall.
Outside the gates, the wind crashed into Spike, unsettling his fragile balance, his heart leaping as he fought to wrestle back control of the barrow. His attention ahead, he scanned the gaps in the wall. Ranger didn’t matter when diseased could show up at any moment. Despite the army of protectors going out before them, they had to remain vigilant.
The teams fanned out behind Minotaur, and when they were far enough away, Hugh spoke to Bleach. “What happened to Ranger?”
“He spent thirty-six hours in the hole.”
The words quickened Spike’s pulse and he spoke before Hugh could. “Thirty-six hours? Do you think it’s worked?”
“We offered for him to take today off and he declined. He said he’s ready to face the diseased. I suppose only time will tell.”
Max glanced over at Bigfoot. “If looks are anything to go by, he appears ready to fight.”
Olga scoffed. “And as long as he survives, we all know Daddy will get him a free pass into the trials.”
“If he lasts that long,” Heidi said. “He looks like a liability at the moment. Hopefully he doesn’t get anyone else killed if he goes down.”
Spike kept his thoughts about the trials to himself. He didn’t resent Max wanting to get into them, but it felt odd to talk openly about them in front of him.
Chapter 10
More cuts covered Spike’s hands, his knuckles ached, and a deep twinge spasmed at the base of his back. He wiped his sweating brow and drew a lungful of the meadow-scented air. Max currently
mixed the clay, grass, and water for him. Elizabeth dug the grave. Spike said, “If I never build another wall again, it will be too soon.”
Before Max could reply, Bleach—who stood with Hugh, Heidi, and Olga on guard—perked up. “Problem, William?”
After drawing a sigh, Spike winced through another sharp muscle spasm and continued building the wall.
Bleach stepped towards Spike as if to press the issue, but as he opened his mouth, a scream burst from the long grass.
Dropping the brick in his hand, Spike stood up and unsheathed his sword in one fluid motion.
While scanning the meadow between them and the ruined city in the distance, Bleach said, “Calm down, everyone; we don’t know who they’re going to attack. We’ve decided to continue with the new strategy since Phoenix fell. There’s nothing to worry about. Just follow my lead like we’ve done plenty of times already.”
Bleach backed inside the perimeter of the broken wall.
Tightly gripping his sword, Spike followed his leader with the rest of his team. The second they were inside the wide and broken masonry arc, he glanced at Matilda. She looked ready. She’d cope just fine.
Like they’d done on their first day outside the walls, the teams formed a line. No one spoke.
Suddenly two diseased children burst through a gap on Spike’s right. Two girls, they couldn’t have been any older than eight. They paused, scanning the cadets and team leaders as if ascertaining who to attack. They looked like twins, but it could have been the effects of the virus that made them appear similar.
With his own pulse throbbing in his ears, Spike twisted his sore grip tighter. He spoke in a murmur. “Come on, then, you little bastards.”
But they broke to the right instead. Screaming at a pitch higher than many of the others, they ran with their little hands thrust out in front of them. It was as if they smelled Mercy’s fear.
When Spike stepped towards her, Bleach grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Turning on his team leader, Spike tried to shake himself free. “Let me go.”
Bleach gripped Spike’s shirt and pulled a sharp tug on it. “No! They have to look after themselves. You know that. Don’t break ranks. You saw what happened to Phoenix.”
Although Spike pulled against his team leader, he couldn’t remove himself from his grasp. “But you saw her this morning. She’s in no state to fight them.”
“Let the girl fight and let her team protect her. You can’t save everyone, William.”
“No, but I can save her.”
The debate had taken his advantage away. The children were now too close.
Although she’d watched them the entire way, Mercy still hadn’t lifted her sword. Her face buckled with her tears, and her arms hung limp by her sides.
Cupping his mouth, Spike screamed so loud it tore at his throat. “Fight them. Fight them off.”
Mercy didn’t react.
The first of the diseased girls leaped from the ground and flew towards Mercy, her mouth open wide. She hit her hard, knocking them both down. The child bit at her face.
Before the second of the two girls could go for anyone else in team Yeti, Ranger shrieked. A call similar to the sound the diseased made, it lifted the hairs on the back of Spike’s neck and sent a cold chill through his body. The boy had lost his mind.
The diseased girl charged at him.
Spike watched the girl who’d bitten Mercy jump up and join her twin. Where he’d seen Ranger run away just a week ago, he now watched him yell and step forward to meet them. He swung his sword in a wide vertical arc that ended in the top of the first girl’s head. As her legs buckled beneath her, he pulled his weapon from her skull before she fell. A wide swing decapitated the next one. He stamped on her pallid face, turning her off like her sister.
Mercy remained on her back, her face glistening with blood from the fresh wound. Ranger ran over to her, ignoring Juggernaut’s calls to stop him intervening.
A second later, Mercy snarled and Ranger stamped down hard on her like he had with the little girl. The maniacal grimace locking his features looked somewhere between insanity and joy. Spike couldn’t tell which. His teeth bared, his eyes wide, he stamped on Mercy again, his foot slipping from her bleeding face several times before her skull finally cracked.
But the boy kept going, every stomp pulping Mercy’s head until Spike couldn’t tell if the squelch came from her brain or the damp mud it had been mashed into.
Olga shook her head. “My god, he’s lost it.”
As they watched Ranger, many of the cadets around them sobbing from what they saw, Spike said, “Bleach, you have to do something.”
But Bleach didn’t move. Not his cadet to manage, he watched Juggernaut finally go over to Ranger, approaching with caution as he talked him down.
It took for Juggernaut to call the boy’s name several times before he stopped and looked at his team leader, his teeth still bared from his frenzied attack. Spike saw the tears running down his cheeks.
Juggernaut kept his distance, allowing Ranger to step away from the downed Mercy. It looked like he’d forgotten about the other cadets, his expression softening when he took in his audience. Some of the cadets close to him moved back a step. A slow scan of those around him, he stopped when he made eye contact with Spike. If Spike thought he had an easy ride to becoming the next apprentice, he had another think coming.
Spike turned to Bleach. “Mercy didn’t have to die then.”
A slight narrowing of his green eyes, the sides of Bleach’s jaw widened and relaxed as if clenching it helped him hold onto his retort.
Chapter 11
The rain came down so hard it stung. Spike squinted as he watched the guards on either side of the gates turn the wheels, the chains rushing over the wood at high speed.
Despite them being over three weeks into national service, Spike’s pulse quickened as he waited to go outside. Fear and excitement in equal measure. If he survived, he’d be lining up in front of the gates in the near future. Better to be a protector than someone like Bleach: a glorified schoolteacher who put the rules first, even if it meant sacrificing those who didn’t need to die. As a protector, he’d be able to make sure people like Mercy didn’t perish unnecessarily.
Even with his sword strapped to his back, Spike could almost feel the handle in his grip as he waited for the diseased to burst through the gates. If they needed him, he’d join the fight. Not that Magma would want him there. The hero protector still fixed him with a death stare similar to many he’d received from his son.
It took for Hugh to say, “Huh?” for Spike to notice the confused looks on the protectors’ faces. The team leaders mirrored their expressions, many of them shrugging at one another.
“No diseased?” Max said.
After watching the gates for a few more seconds, Spike turned to his teammates. “Has that ever happened before?”
None of them replied. And how would they know? They’d only been going outside for a few weeks too.
It took several seconds of the protectors looking at one another before Magma took the lead, walking out through the widening gap in the gates. He had Jezebel raised, but as he walked farther, he lowered her.
The gates opened wider and Spike saw the long grass beyond the wall. It bent and swayed, submissive to the weather. But there were no diseased outside.
Heidi finally answered him. “I’d guess from the looks on their faces, this is the first time it’s happened.”
Despite the clear confusion of the hundred or so protectors, none of them hesitated in following their leader, or looked back. They never looked back. Instead, they marched towards the long grass in the direction of the ruined city beyond.
“Maybe they’re finally dying out?”
Olga snorted a derisive laugh at Hugh. “What are you on?”
A red flush lit Hugh’s face and he dropped his focus to the ground. “I dunno. We can hope, can’t we?”
“Hopes don’t get you very far in t
his world,” Olga said. “You should work harder on your wits and guile.”
Where the teams would normally set off after the protectors, Bleach looked at the other leaders as if awaiting their approval. It came in the form of Juggernaut leading team Bigfoot out, Tank and team Dragon following behind. Bleach shrugged before leading his team out after them.
The heavy barrow pulled on the aches and pains in Spike’s back, the soft ground sapping his strength as the wheel sank into it. It had been over a fortnight since Mercy’s death. Not much had happened since. Diseased had appeared and been slain. Some more of the wall had been built. They all felt exhausted. But at least there hadn’t been any more deaths. Other than when Mercy fell, their new plan to pull back and hold their line inside the wall had proven effective.
Easier to look at Ranger without the boy looking back, Spike watched him stride out just behind Juggernaut. If he’d said anything since his last trip to the hole, Spike hadn’t witnessed it. The rumour in the camp was that he hadn’t even spoken to Lance. From the way Lance walked—in the wake of his hero, but definitely separate from him—those rumours appeared to be true. Something had changed in him since that last trip. Where he’d been an arsehole before, he now took it to a whole new level. Sheer toxicity emanated from his stocky form. But he’d come back a better fighter. His fear of the diseased had been well and truly vanquished.
The barrow gave Spike more resistance with every step, the soggy ground eating away at his momentum. He clenched his jaw, fighting to maintain his forward progress while keeping the thing stable. If he stopped, he wouldn’t get moving again. Sweating beneath his clothes, he kept a hard squint against the weather’s brutal assault. At least it was May. Rain, he could cope with. Rain in freezing conditions … Thank god he had his birthday when he did. Screw doing this in the middle of winter.
Harder to see because of the harsh weather, Spike looked beyond the line of protectors at the ruined city. It represented freedom. When he visited it for the first time, he’d be a protector. He’d be able to save whoever needed saving. He’d be living in Edin with Matilda. He only needed to keep his head down and appease those above him for another four months. No way could they pick Ranger, even if they let him on the trials. No one would want to go outside the wall with that kind of liability.
Beyond These Walls (Book 2): National Service Page 6