by C. G. Hatton
I stretched out. Dayton wouldn’t dare hurt Latia. And my great-grandmother could give as good as she got. Good luck to them if they thought they’d be able to hold her. She’d be giving them hell.
“How did you get away?” I said.
“How do you think?” Maisie grinned at me. “They let me go,” she admitted. “They sent me off on an errand. I’m sure they thought I’d lead them straight to you.”
There was no chance of that.
She placed her hand on my leg. “Is it broken?”
“Dislocated,” I said. “Maisie, what’s Dayton saying?”
She sucked in a breath. “Luka, I know it’s not true.”
“What’s he saying?”
She leaned down and kissed me. First time it was anything more than a peck on the cheek. And I was half delirious and could hardly move. I tried to respond but I think I ended up whimpering.
I could feel her lips against mine, curving into a smile. She pulled away and put her hand to my forehead. “You’re burning up.”
“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Don’t stop.”
She jostled me with a laugh and snuggled in again. “What are we going to do? You can’t go anywhere near the tunnels. Dayton’s ordered his guys to shoot you on sight.”
Shoot me? I would have felt special or something if I hadn’t been feeling so rubbish.
My eyes were heavy, closing even though I was fighting it. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m not going to leave you alone. They think I’m out scavenging codes. No one can do it like you used to. I don’t understand why they’ve turned against you.”
I didn’t understand it either.
She reached her arm around me and as her hand brushed my stomach, it hurt so much I cried out again.
She lifted my shirt, touched gently at the dressing and cursed. “You need medicine.”
I managed to mumble, “Charlie gave me some but I left it at Latia’s.”
“Don’t go back there, whatever you do. They’ve got people watching it. I’ll get you something.” She placed her hand so gently on my cheek I almost thought I was imagining it. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I almost laughed at the thought of even moving but she kissed me again.
And when I opened my eyes, she was gone. Sunlight was creeping round the corner of the window. I didn’t know how long it had been, a couple of hours or a couple of days. It felt like my whole body was on fire.
One of the other kids was there. She squeezed my hand, said something that sounded like, “We’ve got you, don’t worry,” and I sank back under again.
The next time I came round, it was darker. Dusk. I felt like me again. Sore, tired, soaked in sweat like I’d been running for miles, but normal. The weird thing about being so off your head is that you don’t have any idea how bad it is. And when you get back, you can’t remember how bad it really was.
I leaned up on one elbow. There was a figure standing there in the shadows by the open window, tall, rifle held casually balanced in his hand, and I froze for a second before I recognised him. It was freaky seeing an adult in our domain. Even if it was in a place we’d abandoned.
Charlie turned and looked down at me, shaking his head like he was more unimpressed with me than he’d ever been.
He came over and crouched by my side, resting the rifle across his knee.
“You gotta stop breaking into the garrison,” he said.
“I’m fine, thank you.” I couldn’t help the grin.
“I know you are.” He was trying not to smile. “We just spent two days pumping you full of antibiotics and fluids. Thank Maisie. If that girl hadn’t found you…”
“I know.”
“Seriously, kid, stay away from the garrison.”
I stretched out my leg. I needed to get up and move about but going back to sleep was also tempting. “How did you know?”
“We know everything.”
I didn’t believe that but I started backtracking over every single time I’d been in there, trying to figure out if I’d missed something, left a trace somewhere.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We know. They don’t.”
I didn’t have a clue what that meant.
“How do you do it?” he asked casually as if he was asking how I tied my shoes.
“Do what?”
He took a code book out of his pocket and tossed it open onto my lap.
I stared at it then looked him in the eye. “I didn’t always give them everything.”
“We know. I want to know how you do it.”
There was something about Charlie. There always had been. And it hadn’t just been that thunderstorm and the poker game. I’d met Charlie when I was only five. He was the one who had pulled me from the rubble that had once been my home.
I trusted him and I didn’t even think about why I shouldn’t.
I closed the book, hardly giving it a second’s glance, and handed it back to him, starting to reel off the code from the page it had opened at.
It took him a second to open it again, frowning until he caught up with me and started reading along. Then he shook his head with a smile.
He turned back a few pages. “What about seven thirty four?” he said.
I started but he interrupted.
“Three twenty two.”
I started again.
“Alright, alright, I get it. Have you still got the cards?”
I nodded, desperately hoping he wouldn’t ask for them back.
“You always let me win, didn’t you?” he said.
I nodded again.
He laughed. “Jesus. Don’t ask me to play poker with you again.” He looked serious then. “Stay away from Dayton. You understand?” He stood. “Stay put. I’m gonna get you out of here.”
I really wanted to believe him so I didn’t argue.
He went to the window.
I threw off the blanket as he turned away, struggling to my feet and grabbing the crutches to follow him.
The city was quiet.
“We’re holding,” he said, “but they’re regrouping.”
He said it like I was one of his now. And the way he said ‘holding’ was desperate. Earth didn’t station many troops on Kheris at any time. They’d been wiped out, severely depleted, and the UM forces were still buzzing all around the crashed ship, right on our doorstep. He’d come to help me even though they must have been run off their feet.
Charlie watched for a second then turned to me. “We’ve got reinforcements coming in,” he said. “They’ll be here soon. I need to know where you are. We might have to move out fast. You stay here. You understand?”
And he turned to go.
Maisie was there in the doorway. She let him pass then stared at me. I was guessing she’d heard what he’d said earlier.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” I said.
She didn’t say anything but I could tell from the haunted look in her eye that she didn’t believe me.
I didn’t know what else to say. We stared at each other for a minute then she gave me that look and climbed out onto the window ledge. I managed to get out there to sit next to her and we sat there, watching UM blitz the crash site. Peanut turned up and sat with us, his eyes glued to his field glasses, giving us a running commentary.
They didn’t come anywhere near the city. The alarms had all stopped, no gunfire within the walls. It was as if everyone was watching what was going on out there.
I was sitting with my leg stretched out, leaning against the wall, feeling the heat from the day on my back, the cool breeze of the night on my face. No one had said it yet but they needed to go. They were all risking themselves being there with me.
“You should be getting back,” I said to Maisie finally. I wanted to ask her to stay but that wasn’t fair. I should have done. Maybe if I had, everything would have worked out differently.
“Promise me you’ll be careful.” She didn’t look at me as she said it. “Dayton has
people out looking for you.”
“I’ll be fine. See if you can talk to Latia, will you?”
“I will.” She looked at me then, with that set to her jaw, then she climbed back inside and disappeared. I thought she might have kissed me again if Peanut hadn’t been there. But he was. So she didn’t.
We sat there for a while longer. I was thinking I needed to move, find somewhere new to hole up but I wasn’t sure I could make it down the stairs. I had no idea how I’d even made it up there.
“If you want her,” Peanut said suddenly without lowering the glasses, “you’re going to have to work harder than that.”
“What?”
He turned sharply to look at me, laughed, then turned back to his scrutiny of the conflict going on out there. “Maisie,” he said. “You want her, it’s going to take more effort than lying there looking all hurt and vulnerable.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. I might have blushed. I’m still not sure I totally understand what it was Peanut told me that night.
“You want that girl, Luka,” he said, “you have to earn her. Sure, you can pull off all the daring stunts you want. Be the bad boy, the hero. Smile at them all cute-like all you want and they’ll fall for you. But you want Maisie? You really want a girl that special? Then think about what she needs. And don’t compromise. Don’t even think beyond what she needs, whatever she might tell you. Either that or get her chocolate. And I don’t mean that crap you steal off your Earth buddies. You want Maisie? I’ll get you some real chocolate.”
I stared at him.
“It’s tough getting the older woman,” he said with a laugh. “Trust me. Now take a look at this shit that’s going on out there and tell me what you make of it.”
I took the field glasses and adjusted the field of vision, scanning round until I saw the ship. The UM ground troops were surrounding it but holding off. I almost held my breath, half expecting what had happened to the Earth troops to happen again. It made me feel cold just thinking about it.
“They can’t get in,” Peanut said. “They dump all that ordnance on it and they still can’t get in.”
I sat back. “Dayton’s probably out there, trying to make some kind of deal with them.”
Peanut took back the glasses and yawned. “Dayton doesn’t give a shit about this place,” he said. “I thought you knew that.”
I opened my mouth to reply but Peanut swore softly and swung the glasses down towards the street. We had incoming.
Chapter 16
I followed the direction he was looking and could just about make out four or five figures, a couple of adults with three kids, all with rifles.
“That’s Calum,” Peanut said. He jumped down off the window ledge. “Come on. Can you make it across the rooftops?”
It’s incredible what adrenaline can do for you. We clattered up the stairs, hearing shouts below us, Calum yelling my name in amongst a string of obscenities. There were other voices. More shouting.
“Who else is here?” I managed to say, not realising how out of breath I was until I tried to talk.
“Don’t worry about them,” Peanut said over his shoulder. “Dayton just wants you.”
We made it to the landing, one level off the roof, footsteps thundering up behind us, and he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me aside, backing through a doorway and pushing me into a corner, holding his finger to his lips, eyes piercing into mine.
I got the message and held still, trying to breathe, trying to keep it quiet, and struggling not to slump down in a heap.
He gestured, beckoning, and I handed over one of the crutches, guessing what he was getting at, and I stood there, twirling the other into a two-handed grip as if it was a staff, as if I had any chance of hitting anyone with it balancing on one leg.
We waited there, hiding.
We could hear Calum still swearing as he ran up and past us, going on up to the roof, the others following him.
My heart was thumping so hard it felt like they’d be able to hear it a mile away.
Peanut glanced at me, then the door, then the floor. I could almost hear his brain trying to work out if they’d all gone past. I shook my head. There was still one to go.
We couldn’t hear him.
We watched as the door pushed open, slowly, a gun barrel appearing, the beam from the flashlight taped to it scanning round the room.
Peanut was bracing himself for a fight. I was just trying not to fall over. If this guy took two steps into the room and turned around, he’d see us.
He didn’t. He backed out and moved off up the stairs, almost without a sound, leaving us in total darkness again.
I carefully lowered the crutch to the ground and leaned on it, taking the pressure off my knee. Peanut was shaking his head, cursing silently under his breath. He handed me the other, his finger on his lips again, and headed across the room.
I limped after him to the balcony and stared out at the gaping abyss of darkness between the buildings as if it had stretched by half a mile overnight.
It was an easy jump. Should have been a cinch. And I knew I couldn’t make it. Not as I was.
I looked at Peanut and he knew it.
“Climb down?” he mouthed.
I peered over the edge. I’d done it a hundred times before. It was the first time I can ever remember being wary of doing something and I hated it. I hated that feeling of incapacitating anxiety that clutched at the pit of my stomach. I drew on every reason I’d ever had to never be afraid of anything ever again and shook it off. Sucked it up and fed off it instead.
I shook my head and mouthed back, “Up.”
He looked at me like I was insane as I ditched the crutches and hoisted myself up onto the railings. I could only take my weight on one leg and the weakness in my stomach muscles was pulling me sideways but my arms were fine and there was nothing wrong with my right leg. I climbed up to the next ledge and sat waiting for him. There was an overhang so even if they looked down from the roof, they wouldn’t see us.
We could hear them up there. We sat tight and waited while they searched, watching the thin arcs of light dance over the neighbouring buildings as they cast their searchlights around trying to spot us. They didn’t waste much time before they started to yell to each other to get back down.
We waited until it was all quiet then climbed up. My arms were screaming at me by the time we crawled out onto the roof. Peanut helped me up, we turned and froze.
The figure standing there had his rifle up and pointing at us. He’d turned the flashlight off so it was just us and him, all standing there in the shadows. There was something familiar about him.
We must have stood there like that for an age then he lowered the gun and took a step forward.
“If you really are working for them, Luka,” he said, voice low, “then go, get inside their walls and stay there, because next time, I might not be able to let you go.”
I should have kept my mouth shut but you know what I’m like. I blurted out, “Benjie, why the hell do you even think that?” I was standing there, still wearing the clothes Charlie had given me in the garrison, wearing their colours, their insignia on the sleeve. It was stupid to even try to protest but that’s hindsight for you. Idiots like Calum hated me because I was good at stuff. I think I was hoping that Benjie was different.
He brought the rifle up again. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”
I thought he was going to pull the trigger but he dropped the stance and turned. Walked away without another word.
I felt Peanut shiver.
“Are the kids still with Calum?” I said quietly.
“Shit,” he whispered. “Yes, they are. I took the bolt off that damn cupboard door.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Peanut shook his head. “We need to get the kids away from them.”
I felt sick beyond the tiredness and injuries. “Peanut,” I said. “I’m not… I’ve never…”
He cut me off. “Do
n’t.” He looked me in the eye for a long moment as if he was going to say something profound. He didn’t. “Stay here,” he said instead. “Right here,” and banged his hand against the vent making me jump. “I’ll check they’ve gone.”
I guessed it wasn’t going well when he didn’t reappear. I couldn’t hear anything from the building below. Gunfire and shouts were echoing through the city, sounds of combat drifting in from the desert. I was starting to chill down. My clothes were sticking to me. I should have changed, showered, eaten, tried to rescue Latia, kissed Maisie again… It’s stupid what runs through your head when you’re hurting and trapped on top of a building by people you used to think were on your side.
I slunk further and further back into the dark as I waited. If they ran back up to the roof, there was nowhere to go. Whenever I broke into the garrison, I always had a get out planned, wherever I was. There on the roof? Nada.
I think I jerked awake when I heard the noise at the edge. I wasn’t asleep on my feet but I wasn’t far from it. I had to work to slow my breathing, keep quiet, squeeze deeper into the scant cover I had.
I knew who it was as soon as I saw her climb up and roll into a crouch, and I started to shiver.
She looked around, looked right towards me without seeing me and started to turn away.
“Wait, Maisie, wait,” I hissed and limped out, wary still and looking around but if I couldn’t trust Maisie, I really was screwed.
She ran to me and grabbed me in a hug, dragged me back into cover and pressed a finger to my lips with a shush. “You can’t stay here,” she whispered. “They’re going to search the whole block. Dayton has this whole area back under his control. We need to go across the rooftops.” She stared at me, not wanting to ask if I could make it.
“I’m good,” I whispered back, shivering uncontrollably and giving her a grin to show I meant it. “Where’s Peanut?”
She glared at me with sparks in her eyes. “I don’t know. Dayton’s guys are everywhere. They’re going for the mines. Everyone’s saying UM turning up gives us everything we need. They’re going for it, Luka. This is it. They’re going to take back the colony.”