"Have you thought about what you want to do now?" Coal asked as he drank again.
“What do you mean?"
“Well I doubt you can go back to the city, unless you plan on serving really long sentences in the Lawless Trials." He smiled wolfishly over his glass at me.
"I haven’t really thought about long term,” I said, realising how stupid that must sound but my main focus was on helping Taylor for now. "But everything about it out here just feels right to me."
"Everything?"
I nodded, unable to look away from his dark eyes. I was fairly sure I would answer anything he asked in that moment whether I wanted to or not.
“Even the swarm of psychotic cougars?" he teased.
“That place was like living in a cage, I just didn't realise until I was free." I finished another glass and let him refill it for me.
"You won't miss anyone?"
"Taylor's parents are the nearest thing to family I've had in a long time. I think they'd want me to be out here, living my life instead of stuck in there while it passes me by. But obviously I’ll miss them..."
“We don't live an easy life out here." He traced a finger along a nasty scar that ran the length of his forearm as evidence. My hand moved over to touch it too without me even realising I'd told it to and I traced the jagged line with heat burning along my cheeks.
"I'm not convinced life should be easy. Don't you think there's more to gain from something if it's hard to achieve?" he asked in a rough voice.
I looked up into his eyes as I considered my answer and my heart thumped as I realised just how close I was to him.
"I do actually,” I breathed and he smirked triumphantly, drinking again.
I brushed my fingertips along the length of the scar, wondering if the drink was pushing me to be this bold but liking the feeling of my skin on his too much to stop. "What happened here?"
"Well, I was being an idiot."
“Really?" I asked, surprised that he didn’t mind admitting when he was wrong.
“Yeah, it was a few years ago. I was learning how to fight with knives and, being an arrogant little asshole, I took a stupid risk." He knocked another drink back and topped up our glasses again.
“What happened?" I breathed. My fingers tingled at the point where our skin touched.
"I saw some poachers in the forest near to our town and I thought, seeing as I was so big and tough, I would go and chase them off. After about a minute I realised I'd made a massive mistake. This guy managed to grab my knife and give me this." He indicated the scar. "Luckily, Alicia had seen what I was doing and ran for help. Hunter came and chased them off. I wasn't his favourite person for quite a while after that. I'm glad I did it though, I needed to be knocked down a peg or two." He turned his head so that we were looking at each other again and my heart thumped unevenly.
“That does sound pretty stupid," I joked.
"Thanks. I'm sure you've been up to all kinds of crazy stuff up in your palace," he mocked, nudging me.
“Well no, obviously not." I sighed and turned to look at my drink. "Have you ever been inside a walled city?"
“No. Do you think I'd suit a life in there?"
I tried to picture Coal slowly pacing the corridors of the city, dressed in a somber grey suit and couldn't. I shook my head and laughed. "You're too... wild for a place like that."
"Wild?" He laughed too. I was suddenly very aware that my fingers were still trailing back and forth along the scar on his arm and I pulled my hand away.
"Like everything else out here. You couldn't be controlled like that, it would break you. Or more likely you'd break them." I shrugged.
"Maybe you're right." He shifted his weight and leaned his shoulder against mine, surveying me over his glass.
"It happens pretty often," I said, tipping back another whiskey. I could feel my head spinning and it made me laugh.
"I bet."
"What will I need to do now that I'm out here? I mean I can't just hang around taking handouts." I shook the glass of whiskey at him as an example.
"That's not really up to me. It's up to you, we'll meet with the Elders tomorrow. Or probably just Baba because most of them are up in Franklin. She'll help you decide what your role out here will be."
"What's your roll?"
"A bit of anything I like. Mostly I track down things that people need or want and trade them for the things that I want. I help out on the farms sometimes, or do a bit of labouring from time to time if something needs to be built," Coal said.
"It's just such a big world, now that I've seen it I can't wait to see more and more. In the city there is nothing aside from bricks and mortar. I hadn't even seen a tree before. Not a live one anyway, or a bush or even grass. I hadn't seen animals or a lake or flowers or anything."
Coal didn't reply and I noticed that his breathing had become heavy and slow.
"Coal?"
His head was tipped back and his lips parted slightly. A soft laugh escaped me and I eased the whisky glass out of his hand.
His weight shifted and more of his weight pressed against me, trapping me in my corner unless I wanted to wake him.
He was clearly exhausted after spending days out in the forest and skipping sleep to keep watch in the cave. I didn’t want to risk waking him so I wriggled a little to get more comfortable, finished the last of my drink and dropped my head back on the couch.
My head was still spinning with everything that had happened and I wasn’t sure I could sleep anyway so I just sat there, enjoying the silence.
I’d head back upstairs when he shifted away from me again, but for now, I was pretty comfortable right where I was.
"What have we got here then?" Alicia sounded like she was calling to me from far away and I groaned as her voice made my head pound.
Somehow we’d gone from sitting up to laying down on the sofa during the night. Coal's arms were wrapped tightly around me and my face was pressed against his chest. I couldn’t say it was the worst place a girl could find herself but embarrassment clawed at me as I realised just how tightly we were coiled together.
A light flicked on somewhere above me and I shrank down, burying my face against Coal to block it out. It felt similar to the way I’d been curling up with Taylor at night during the Lawless Trials training but completely different at the same time. My cheeks flushed scarlet and my heart pounded unevenly and I tried not to focus on the way it felt to have his weight pressing down on my body. Another pounding joined my hammering pulse as my head began to throb and I tried harder to recoil from the light.
“Rise and shine," Alicia called again and I flinched away from the sound of her voice.
I tried to sit up but Coal's grip tightened around me and his hand twisted into my hair. I inched away from him again and looked at his face which was peaceful in sleep.
“What time is it?" I asked Alicia who was standing next to the sofa looking strangely smug.
"Nearly midday. I slept in. It looks like you did too." She put a hand on her hip.
I looked back at Coal and found his dark eyes open as he looked at me strangely, like he couldn’t figure out where he was. He had one hand still wrapped around my waist and our legs were tangled together.
“Have you been having fun?" Alicia looked at Coal and raised her eyebrows.
"I'm not entirely sure," he said, running his free hand across the stubble that had thickened on his jaw over night.
"It sure looks like you have," she said, stooping to pick up the empty whiskey bottle and brandishing it at us.
"Did we sleep here all night?" Coal asked me and I nodded my head shyly. The movement made little stars appear at the edge of my vision and I closed my eyes again for a moment until they cleared.
"All night?" Alicia asked, looking surprised.
"We must have been tired," I supplied.
“Coal hasn't slept for longer than four hours a night since-"
"Yeah it must have been all the running and probably
the whiskey." He smiled tightly, cutting Alicia off and sitting up. He released me from his hold but my skin still tingled where his hand had been resting against my hip. "What's for breakfast?"
“You're asking me?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm asking what's in the cupboard, not requesting that you burn me anything,” he teased as he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders back and forth.
“Look for yourself," she said, tossing the empty whiskey bottle into a chair across the room. It bounced back out and thunked loudly against a small wooden table, the noise setting my teeth on edge.
“I will." He stood up and left to go in search of food. Alicia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me expectantly.
"What was that about?" she asked eventually.
“What?" I asked avoiding her gaze, suddenly finding the hem of my tank top very interesting.
“The couch was just so much more comfortable than the bed and you absolutely couldn't resist it?"
“Well, no. We were talking and he sort of fell asleep on me and I remembered him saying that he had trouble sleeping sometimes so I didn't want to wake him. And there was the whiskey and, well then, I just woke up here." I smiled apologetically but Alicia was looking at me thoughtfully.
"Are you okay? You look a little pale," she said eventually.
“I've just got a bit of a headache, I'll be fine." I sat still, awkwardly fiddling with the hem. “Thank you for the clothes," I said after the silence had stretched on for a little too long.
"No problem. I didn't have much that was short enough but feel free to borrow anything you need."
I was finding it easy to like Alicia.
“I should probably go and check on Taylor," I said, standing up. I swayed a little and put an arm out to keep my balance.
“Of course." She moved aside to let me pass and I climbed the stairs carefully, every move making my head pound a little harder.
Taylor was exactly where I'd left him in the big bed, his eyes flickering beneath the lids as he dreamed.
“Are you trying to find your way back to me?" I asked him as I sat on the bed and held his hand. "Because you're missing out on quite a lot you know, and I've never been good at telling stories." The door creaked behind me and I turned to see Laurie standing in the doorway.
"Any change?" she asked, moving closer.
"No. I was just asking him to come around but he isn't listening."
"His body is just healing itself, he'll wake up when he's good and ready." She brushed the hair back out of his eyes and I felt myself stiffen slightly. It had been me and Taylor against the world for a hell of a long time.
"How are you coping?" I asked her, suppressing the desire to knock her hand away from Taylor's face.
"Better. Nearly getting mauled to death changed my perspective on things, and it's not so bad out here really. Things could certainly be a lot worse." She stood back up and jammed her thumbs into her waist band. Alicia's clothes fitted her better than they did me and I kicked at the trailing material around my ankles where my turn ups had unravelled.
“Kinda scary though," I added. It was nice having someone else who knew how alien all of this was.
“I won't disagree with that, but I'm starting to see it as more than just scary."
“There's a whole world out here." I smiled up at her and placed Taylor's hand back down on the bed. "Let's see what's for breakfast and then we can get him that help."
We headed back down to the kitchen where Coal had made an impressive stack of pancakes.
“Dig in," he offered, pushing a sticky tin of golden syrup towards us. We did as instructed and laughed as the syrup stuck to our faces as we shovelled the food down.
“Thanks." I grinned up at Coal from my seat while Laurie washed the dishes. The food had helped my head to stop spinning and I no longer felt the little ache of nausea that had been present since I woke up.
“We can go and meet with Baba now. She's in charge of healing so I'm sure we can get something sorted out for Taylor," he said, leaning forward over the table. "We're lucky that she's still in town, she'll be heading back to Franklin next week."
“Where's that?" I asked.
“It's north of here," Coal replied. "We're in Fairview now, this town is a lot smaller than Franklin but they have the hospital here so it stays busy. Most of our people are in Franklin though."
"Okay. So do I need to know anything about Baba?"
"Not really. She's pretty easy to get along with if she likes you. If not... well it won't really matter as she just won't talk to you." He laughed and grabbed a spare pancake to toss down to Kaloo as he opened the front door.
Birdsong poured in through the opening with a sweet smelling spring breeze. I squinted and clapped my hands over my ears to block it out. I felt like tiny knives were stabbing my brain.
"I think I'm sick," I moaned into the wood of the table.
“That's called a hangover," Alicia said, pulling me to my feet and handing me a glass of water.
"What?"
“It's what you get for letting my brother lead you astray." She slammed her hands down on the table making my head throb even worse than before and laughed. "Drink the water, it helps and I've got something around here somewhere..." She started opening drawers and rummaging around before pulling a pair of glasses out with a flourish.
“What are they for?” Laurie asked, moving towards us and drying her hands on a towel.
“They're like normal glasses, but tinted to help dim the sunlight," Alicia said as she placed them on my face. It helped instantly and I drank the water too.
"Thanks." I looked at her over the rim of the glasses as I adjusted to the different colour and she looked like she was making an effort not to laugh at me.
"Come on, or Coal will have walked the whole way alone," Alicia said as she stepped outside.
The midday sun beat down over the building and I moaned in appreciation as I stood beneath it, bathing in the warmth of its rays on my skin. The trees started about ten feet from the front door and spread out, circling the town but not reaching into it.
It was so strange to see the sudden end of the tree line where the concrete began that I moved across to look at it.
"Do you do something to keep the trees back?" Laurie asked, following me over to the edge.
"No, we have a kind of understanding with them." Alicia pointed to the line where they stopped. "Anywhere that they aren't attacked, burnt, poisoned or whatever they just stop growing before they cause any damage. A lot of the land that used to be covered with towns and cities was lost because people kept trying to fight the plants off. But damaging them just makes them grow like crazy. Leave them alone and they form a natural barrier where the concrete starts."
“Are you saying the plants can think?" Laurie asked.
Alicia burst out laughing.
"They're plants of course they can't think!" Alicia gasped between breaths.
“They just evolved to protect themselves better like everything else out here, so if we don't attack them, they don't have to defend themselves," Coal explained, schooling his amused expression as Laurie scowled at Alicia. "Come on, we should get moving." He headed off down the road without waiting for us and I moved away from the trees to follow him.
Kaloo weaved around his legs excitedly as he walked and we hurried to catch them.
The road was cracked and crumbling in places but was surprisingly intact for the most part. There were buildings spread along its length each with a little green patch of land in front. The houses here looked just the way that they should, ignoring the fact that most of the windows were still shuttered. What Taylor and I had explored outside The Wall was a pathetic shadow of what it should have been.
“There must have been a lot of people out here once if they needed a path this wide," Laurie mused.
“It's a road for vehicles. You know - cars, vans, trucks, bikes," Alicia explained.
Laurie looked at her
blankly, waiting for a further explanation. "Like trains?" she asked after a pause.
"No, like cars. They don't need tracks, are a lot smaller and you can drive them wherever you like."
Laurie looked at me and shrugged behind Alicia's back. I hid my laughter behind my hand.
Alicia muttered something that I was fairly sure contained the words 'city dwellers'.
"Didn't you pay attention in old world class?" I asked Laurie.
"I was on the Warden training scheme, that class wasn't required so I ditched most of them," she shrugged.
We turned a corner and the road widened further as it joined another at a cross-section. They were much bigger here, it seemed to be a place where everyone gathered, like the produce buildings in the city. The whole area was alive with movement as people came and went about their business.
I tried not to stare as I took in the scope of the place. I’d been brought up to believe there was nothing left outside The Wall. But the reality couldn't be further from the truth. There was a thriving community living and working out here. Solar panels and wind turbines were present everywhere to keep everything powered and everything was full of life.
The marketplace was teeming with people selling all kinds of things from food to clothes to homeware. Some of them called out greetings to Coal and Alicia and others took note of Laurie and I. Kaloo weaved between people until she reached a baker's stall. The baker smiled broadly and tossed her a pastry.
"Kaloo saved his son from raiders last year," Coal explained when he saw me looking. "He's treated her like royalty ever since."
I grinned as Kaloo got a second pastry and Coal led me on between the stalls. The people seemed happy, content, if a little rough around the edges. I noticed that almost everyone was armed even though the atmosphere seemed calm.
“Are they worried about the cougars?" I asked.
"A little. Though it's pretty safe around here during the day. Most predators hunt at night. They're more concerned with other people," Alicia said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
"They look like they're getting along well enough to me," Laurie commented.
"Not the people here," Alicia clarified. "Strangers: gangs or nomads who roll into town unexpectedly. You can never be sure what kind of people might show up so it's best to be ready for anything."
Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance (Cage of Lies Book 1) Page 20
