“How’s your back?” Hugh said.
“Better. Sleep and rest have helped. I think I’ll be able to run it off.”
At the door to the gym, Spike opened it and walked into the still-cold room first, breaking through his own clouds of condensation as he expelled them. The same smell of wood he always picked up on when he entered the place hung in the air. Although the others were there, they didn’t appear to have started exercising.
As Spike and Hugh walked over to the large rocks they used as weights, Ranger said, “We’re using them.”
Spike didn’t look at the boy and then saw Hugh didn’t either.
“I said we’re using them.”
Where Spike would have expected Hugh to warm up first, he watched his friend go straight for the largest rock and lift it while glaring at Ranger.
The tension in the room tightened, Hugh’s thick arms bulging with his reps. If Ranger walking over bothered him, he didn’t show it, staring at Magma’s son while he continued to bicep curl the large weight.
“So, first you hold me up in the tunnel, and now you want to get in the way of my training? Do you really feel that threatened by me?”
The only response Hugh gave came in the form of hard breathing from the effort of lifting the rock.
Ranger looked across at Jamie, Fran, and Liz. Bouncing as if he wanted to let loose on Hugh, he shook his head. “I get it. You want to play games with me, yeah? Well, if that’s the case, how about we play a little game? Or, if you’d rather, I can keep kicking your arse?”
Spike snorted a laugh.
“Something funny, boy?”
“Ain’t no way you’re kicking his arse. No way.”
All the while, Hugh stared straight at Ranger and lifted his rock.
“Did he tell you I kicked him to the ground and pissed on him the other night?”
Spike looked at Hugh. Hugh remained fixed on Ranger.
“That he lay there like a wounded animal while I emptied my bladder all over him? I even let him get to his feet. When he did, he still didn’t have the minerals to react.”
Another rep followed by another rep. Hugh still didn’t bite from Ranger’s provocation.
“Come on, Hugh, admit you held me up in the tunnel on the last trial. No way should I have gone out when I did. If you’d have gotten out of my way and not helped your liability of a mate, I would have won the last one.”
In the face of Ranger’s accusation, Spike tensed, but he followed Hugh’s lead and kept his mouth shut. Arguing with Ranger rarely led to anything positive.
“So how about it? A little game to test who’s the best competitor. Without cheating.”
Liz stepped forward, “Do we really need to do this? We’re already competing against one another.”
The room ignored her, and Hugh ignored Ranger, lowering the large rock to the gym’s wooden floor.
“So? You’ve hit me where it hurts. You’ve given your boy the points, so just indulge me in a little game, yeah?”
While throwing his arm in the direction of the others, Ranger said, “They’re up for it. It’s a bit of fun. A way to release the tension.”
“I’m not up for it,” Liz said.
The room ignored her for a second time.
Hugh turned his back on Ranger and looked at Spike. “What do you think?”
It sounded insane, but maybe Ranger needed to be put in his place yet again. His back still sore from his fall in the ring, but not so bad he couldn’t train, Spike shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
Spike joined the line stretching across one end of the gym, Hugh on one side of him, Fran, Jamie, and Liz on the other. Ranger stood in the middle of the room, a wide smile to go with his sadistic glare. “It’s quite a simple game, really. It’s one we used to play as kids. It’s called diseased.”
All his senses on high alert, Spike glanced at the red curtain running down the wall on his right. Did Ranger have something behind there? Did he plan on letting something out on them?
“I’m the diseased.”
If Fran and Jamie were in on Ranger’s plan to play a game, they certainly didn’t give off that impression. Frowns and sideways glances, if Spike opted out, would they join him? Liz would for sure. Although, Hugh looked up for it, staring straight at Ranger.
“I’ll stand in the middle here,” Ranger said, “and you have to get past me. That’s it. Simple.” For the next few seconds, Ranger and Hugh locked eyes. “And don’t worry, Hugh, I’ll go easy on you. Okay. Are you all ready?”
No one replied, and for a second time Spike considered leading a walkout, but something kept him there. What had gone on between Hugh and Ranger when no one else was around? How would this play out?
Ranger’s voice exploded through the large hall. “Go!”
Spike joined Fran, Jamie, and Liz in jogging to the other side. All the while, Ranger stared at Hugh, letting them all past.
“I said go.”
His fists balled, his head dipped so he led with his brow, Hugh broke into a jog towards Ranger. That was when Spike saw it: the glint of a blade down the back of Ranger’s trousers. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, so how did he not realise what was going on sooner? Of course Ranger would stoop that low, but it all happened too quickly for him to do anything other than call out, “Hugh!”
The early morning sunlight shone in through the gym’s windows, lighting up the long blade as Ranger drew it.
If Hugh felt intimidated by the weapon, he didn’t show it, bringing his hand around in one fluid movement and chopping Ranger’s wrist. The long knife spun as it skittered across the gym’s wooden floor. In the moment where Ranger watched it, Hugh could have blindsided him, dropped him with one bang. Instead, he stopped directly in front of him and waited. He wouldn’t give the boy any excuses.
Ranger yelled and punched Hugh in the face. The loud crack sent a wince through Spike, and he nearly went to his friend’s aid. Hugh clearly didn’t need it though; other than his head snapping from the attack, the boy barely moved.
As Ranger swung at him again, Hugh blocked it, parrying his blow with his left forearm. He still said nothing, moving close enough to Ranger so their noses nearly touched. The sound of Ranger’s gasps filled the large hall, and he cowered in the face of Hugh’s might.
Hugh shoved the boy aside with enough force to throw him to the floor. He then joined the other cadets.
Still gasping, Ranger jumped to his feet, and Spike tensed to watch him run for the knife. But when he’d retrieved it, instead of charging Hugh, he bolted from the gym.
Spike broke the silence. “Wow! What happened there?”
Liz snorted. “I dunno, but I can almost taste the testosterone.”
A second later, Fran left the building, a cold rush of air sweeping in before the door fell shut again.
Chapter 28
The shaking bed woke Spike, and he instinctively clung to the side of it to prevent himself from falling out. While fighting against his rapid pulse, he found his bearings in time to make out the silhouette leaving the room. Too dark to be one hundred percent sure, but it looked like Hugh.
The rhythmic sound of deep respiration told Spike that Ranger and Jamie were still asleep. While holding his breath as if it would help him move with more stealth—as if it would stop the bed creaking in response to his shifting weight—he slowly climbed down to the wooden floor.
Spike jumped the final foot and landed with a heavier thud than he’d anticipated. His semi-naked body tensed from the cold, but before finding his clothes, he listened to Ranger and Jamie again. They continued to breathe deeply. Still unable to see much, he had to trust his ears.
After he’d thrown on yesterday’s clothes, Spike walked on tiptoes to his boots by the door. He slipped them on before running out into the cold night in time to see Hugh jogging into the arena. It had been closed earlier that day, so they must have only just reopened it. How soon would they close it again so they could set up for the fourth
trial? Would it remain shut all month for the fifth one? No doubt they had torture of unparalleled horror planned for the cadets for their finale, something to send them off with a bang.
It took a few steps for Spike’s tired legs to find their stride, but he managed to get into a rhythm, the frigid air burning his eyes and lungs simultaneously. He jogged into the arena’s entrance, his heavy steps and hard breaths accentuated by the tighter space.
Hugh jumped from the darkness with his fists raised.
Spike let out a nervous laugh while backing off and holding his hands up as if he’d just been told to freeze. “Why didn’t I see that kind of fight earlier today?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
They continued into the arena, walking the perimeter of the ring. Spike looked at the empty seats. It could have been a different place compared to the one they entered on trial days. “With Ranger. What was that earlier?”
“I’m guessing he feels insecure about me beating him.”
“Duh!”
“Well, why ask me, then?”
“What I mean is, what was going on with you? You could have put Ranger in his place ten times over in the gym earlier. Why didn’t you? And did he really piss on you?”
“It’s not worth it. You know what he’s like. He’s a rat. The second I lay a finger on him, he’ll give Daddy the evidence he needs to get me kicked off the trials. I’m much better keeping my head down and beating him in here. No one can take it away from me then.”
The moon emerged from behind a dark cloud, the frosty ground glistening beneath its glow. When Spike looked at his friend, Hugh refused to look back. The fact that he hadn’t denied being pissed on … “What’s going on with you? Ranger’s been going for you since day one, hasn’t he?”
Hugh stared ahead with a hard frown.
“You’re not the Hugh I used to know. I want to help you, but if you won’t talk to me, I’m not sure there’s anything I can do.”
“Who said I need help?” The end of his sentence echoed through the large arena.
Maybe he had a point. Where did Spike get off telling Hugh he needed to talk?
“You sound like my brother and mum. They always want to talk things out. But my dad has a theory about talking. He says it’s for pussies. That it doesn’t matter how you feel because Edin doesn’t give a shit.”
“And you think that’s the way to be, do you? Besides, I give a shit.”
“We have to suck it up and get on with it. Take all our hurt and pain and stuff it down, because no matter how much we talk, it doesn’t take away the memories. It doesn’t stop the hurt.” His voice faltered when he said, “It won’t resurrect Elizabeth.”
To study Hugh’s face in the newly present moonlight showed Spike the start of tears in his eyes. “But it might ease your pain a little, even if it’s just by the smallest amount. You need to let it in by taking one small step at a time.”
Hugh stopped dead, and Spike expected him to turn his way. Instead, he stared into the centre of the arena and raised a shaking hand while pointing across the space.
When Spike saw why he’d halted, his stomach tightened and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
“What the …? Maybe it fell off in the last task?” The echo of his hopeful words came back at him from the walled ring as if mocking his suggestion.
Hugh ran towards the centre of the arena.
By the time Spike caught up, Hugh had stopped by the wooden hatch covering the pit. He held the muzzle he’d just picked up from the frozen ground.
The light might have been limited, but not so limited Spike didn’t see what Hugh showed him. “It’s been cut.”
“And I can take a good guess at who did it.”
“You really think he’d let out a diseased?” Spike said.
“Absolutely.”
“Shit. Do you think it was intended for you?”
“Definitely. Maybe both of us.”
Spike and Hugh ran for the arena’s exit. Side by side, Spike’s feet twisted and turned over the unyielding frozen ground.
Hugh emerged first and Spike a second later. They both halted and stared back at their dorm. Sarge, Ranger, Fran, and Liz all stood outside. Liz kneeled down, holding her face with both hands. Her sobs carried through the still night. Two inanimate bodies lay in front of her. One of them had a sword protruding from their head from where it had been pinned to the ground.
“Dammit,” Hugh said. “We’re too late.”
Chapter 29
As Spike and Hugh walked closer to the dorm, Liz released a deep braying sound before she fell back into heavy sobs. Every impulse challenged Spike’s forward momentum. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Why didn’t we pass him on the way in?” As much as he didn’t want to look, his eyes rested on the body pinned to the ground: what had once been Jamie. The body next to it must have been the owner of the muzzle.
“I’m guessing Ranger saw us coming and managed to hide. It’s dark enough. I—”
Spike waited for a second for Hugh to continue, and when he didn’t, he turned to see Sarge marching over. Still twenty feet between them, he jabbed an accusatory finger their way. “Where have you two been?”
When Hugh didn’t speak, Spike remained mute too, his attention moving to Ranger by the dorm. The boy stared straight back, not a hint of guilt in his dark eyes.
“Well?”
Sarge’s voice dragged Spike’s attention from Ranger back to their team leader. Spike then took the muzzle from Hugh and held it out in a shaking hand. “We found this in the arena.” He held it up to the light. “It looks like someone cut it from the face of a diseased.”
A look from Spike to Hugh, and Sarge said, “Well, there are two quite obvious culprits standing in front of me.”
“Why would we set a diseased loose on the dorm?”
“You tell me. And then you can explain it to Jamie’s family. It was bad enough having to kill the kid; now I need to go through what happened with those who loved him.”
The way Sarge used past tense hit Spike like a gut punch. The cold combined with his adrenaline sent a furious shake through him. His words warbled and his eyes watered as fire rose through his body. It took all he had to refrain from shouting. “It makes no sense. Hugh and I are in first and second place in the trials. None of the other cadets are a threat to us.”
“Maybe you did it as a prank gone wrong?”
“Not very funny though, is it?”
“Watch your mouth, boy.”
Spike balled his fists as a way to spend some of the energy coursing through him. “With all due respect, Sarge, you’re accusing Hugh and me of murder. I have every right to defend that ludicrous assertion.”
The tension between the two tightened, Spike damn near cramping up because of it. As if challenged by Spike’s rage, Sarge stepped so close Spike felt his body heat.
Another glance at Ranger, the boy stared back with his usual compassionless glare. What did Spike expect? An admission of guilt?
While rubbing his temples and letting out a hard exhale, his hot breath smothering Spike, Sarge said, “I didn’t see who did this.”
“Then you weren’t watching Ranger closely enough,” Spike said.
“You need to know when to keep your mouth shut.”
“Just making an observation, sir. And with my back against the wall like it currently is, I feel like I have to defend myself.”
“You’re walking on the edge, boy. I suggest you wind your neck in, keep your head down, and get on with the trials. We’re already one cadet down; we can’t afford to lose any more without the crowd rioting. Were it not for that, you’d be out already.”
It helped Spike keep quiet, and he bit down on his bottom lip as if to hold on to his reaction.
“Like I said, I didn’t see who did this, but I will find out. Until then, we carry on. You hear me?”
Spike shook with adrenaline and cold. Despite wanting to say so much mo
re, he acknowledged Sarge with a nod before walking towards his dorm to the sound of Liz’s crying.
Chapter 30
It had been close to a month since Jamie’s death, and although no one had spoken about it since, Liz, of all the cadets, hadn’t been the same and was now prone to moments of inconsolable grief. Spike hadn’t realised how much she’d cared for the boy because he and Hugh had distanced themselves as much as they could. Jamie’s passing had divided the group, the cadets picking sides based on their assumptions. Fran and Liz now spent all their time with Ranger, and Spike spent all his with Hugh. Sarge had even agreed to let Ranger sleep in the girls’ room to save any more drama. Other than the assumption from Liz, Sarge, and possibly Fran that Spike and Hugh played some part in releasing the diseased, it suited everyone just fine. They were now two separate camps, competing against one another in the ring, and strangers when they passed in the hallways or trained in the gym.
Despite Spike’s previous experiences, he still hadn’t gotten used to standing in the arena, the attention of the crowd on him and the other cadets. Because his dad and Matilda sat in roughly the same area, it only took him a few seconds to locate them this time around. Hard to tell from the distance between them, but Matilda still looked well. She had her hair tied up and sat with a straight posture. He hoped she’d progressed with her case to free Artan. His dad smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
For the past few minutes, Spike had stood in a line with the other competitors. Hugh on his right, Ranger, Fran, and Liz on his left. Each of them stared down a long corridor. Six tall wooden walls created five long and straight tunnels running almost the entire width of the arena. The walls stretched away from them as long panels at least twenty feet tall and were placed so close to one another the tunnels were no more than three feet wide.
Retribution - Book three of Beyond These Walls: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Page 13