When Spike looked at her again, he saw how she’d pulled back mentally, her eyes distant. He mouthed, Are you okay?
Matilda shook her head, turned around, and walked away, shoving some of the people close to her aside in her haste to get out of there.
Spike followed her, listening to the cheers as more of the protectors entered the cage. More cracks of skulls and screams of celebration lit the place up. Good for Matilda for facing it, but maybe it was too much. Especially after Crush’s pessimistic well wishes.
Chapter 18
When they got to the edge of the square away from the main press of the crowd, Matilda stopped, chewing on the inside of her mouth as she looked back in the direction of the cage. “I’m sorry. I know you wanted to stay longer.”
Spike shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen it hundreds of times already. And it’s a lot to face at the moment.”
“It just seems so unnecessary. A brutal display just to remind us how great the protectors are. How lucky we are to be a citizen of Edin. Sometimes I question that. So much is forbidden, I wonder if these walls keep them out or us in.”
“I think they bring the heads back each day for the same reason they have the main event in the arena. This is the easiest way to reach all the people who want to see it. To show them the protectors are doing something for them.”
“Catharsis.”
“Exactly.”
“I’d worry about you, you know?”
“Huh?”
“If you became a protector.”
“If?”
Matilda didn’t respond. Instead, she turned and headed away from the square.
Jogging a step to catch up with her, Spike walked at her side for a second before he noticed one of the benches and stopped. He reached out and grabbed Matilda’s arm.
When she saw why he’d pulled her up, she stepped towards the bench he’d been looking at. “Mr. P?”
The albino man turned from pink to crimson and he dropped his eyes to the ground. He sat next to a well-dressed chap who looked like he’d come from the tailors’ district. Although clearly from different worlds, they both had the same deep pools of despair in their tired eyes.
Where Mr. P would usually talk to them, he kept his focus on his feet.
Spike moved forward another step and Mr. P raised his hand at him. “Stop!” After a glance around, he said, “Don’t talk to me. Not here.”
The ultimate forbidden love in Edin, Mr. P did it for Spike and Matilda’s protection not his own. There were strong opinions in the city about his type.
“But we don’t care,” Matilda said and moved towards him.
“I do,” Mr. P said. “If you won’t look out for your own well-being, then I’ll have to. Now go.” A wince as if it caused him pain, his voice broke as he growled, “Leave me alone.”
They looked from Mr. P to his forbidden love. “Come on,” Spike said. “We need to respect Mr. P’s wishes. He knows we’re not passing judgement.” As he moved off, he tugged Matilda’s arm to bring her with him. She resisted for a second before letting him lead her away.
Chapter 19
As Spike and Matilda left the square, Spike noticed she had more purpose to her stride. Her jaw set, her shoulders back, her pace quick. Not quite evening yet, but with it closing in, many of the fires in the street had already been lit. A line of metal baskets filled with burning wood, she walked over to the nearest one while untying her scarf.
Before Spike could say anything, she’d tossed it into the flames. While watching it burn, his jaw fell. “What are you doing?”
“I’m fed up with this city and its damn rules.” She rolled the neck of her shirt up to cover the bottom half of her face. The fabric muffled her voice. “I’m fed up with people being told where they can and can’t go, who they can and can’t love, where they can and can’t work.” While bouncing on the spot, she raised her voice, her eyes narrowing. “I’m fed up of kids being sent to slaughter to make this prison we live in bigger and harder to escape from. I can’t change any of that, but I can choose if I wear that damn thing around my neck. I refuse to be a slave to this city. If only for tonight.”
“But if the guards see you—”
“I’ll run. Let’s see if those power-hungry arseholes are quick enough to catch me.”
“You’re not thinking straight, Tilly.”
The fire she’d thrown her scarf in reflected in her eyes. Her nostrils flared. “Oh, I’m thinking straighter than I have all day. I’ve accepted Artan’s ready to be left alone, so this moment’s for me. I want to have some fun; the question is, are you with me or not?”
The intensity of her glare made Spike squirm, but the question didn’t. He’d follow her to hell and back. He removed his scarf too, copying Matilda by covering the bottom half of his face with the collar of his shirt as he tossed the black fabric into the same fire on the side of the street. Adrenaline lifted his pulse and lit up his senses. He half-smiled at her, not that she’d be able to see it. “If we run, you’d best be able to keep up.”
Matilda shot air through her upturned shirt. “It’s about time you stopped worrying about me. I’m fit enough, Spike. I think you’re the one who should concern yourself with catching up.”
Instead of replying, Spike followed Matilda’s lead as she set off, the same quick march as before. They walked in the direction of the ceramics district and the closest set of guards.
As they drew close to them, Matilda spoke quietly. “Watch me and be ready.”
His confidence draining from him, Spike looked at the four guards. He nearly pulled his shirt down to show his face. “What are you going to do?”
But she didn’t reply. Instead, she marched like she owned the streets.
“State your business,” one of the guards said, the other three leaning against the walls on either side. Despite their casual stance, they were all focused on the pair.
Matilda said nothing.
“I said state your business.”
No more than ten feet between them, another one of the guards pushed off from the wall and helped her colleague block the way.
His billy club in his hand, the first guard’s voice dropped in tone. “I said state your business!”
Five feet away, the need to run coursed through Spike. But Matilda had told him to follow her lead. Even if she’d never trusted him, he needed to trust her.
“My business is my own,” Matilda finally said. “You may not enquire about it. Now stand aside, you peasants.”
In any other situation, her faked posh accent would have made Spike laugh.
The other two guards stiffened a little at her words, but only the guard who’d originally spoken continued to talk to her. “I beg your pardon? Now unless you want your skull cracked, I suggest you wind your neck in and answer my question.”
When Matilda released a banshee cry, even Spike jumped. The guards’ eyes spread wide and all four of them flinched when she charged, her arms windmilling like she’d lost her mind.
Spike followed on Matilda’s heels as she ran straight for the guard who’d spoken to them, and knocked him backwards with a hard shove, jumping through the gap she’d made as he fell. One of his colleagues swung for Spike, who ducked the swinging club, stumbled from where he’d dropped so low, and ran several clumsy steps before he regained his balance, keeping Matilda in his sight.
As they ran down the street and into the main square in the ceramics district, the guards gave chase and shouted behind them, “Criminals! Stop them now!”
Maybe the residents of the ceramics district didn’t hear the guards, but they certainly looked. If questioned as to why they didn’t stop the pair, no doubt that was what they’d say.
The thunder of the guards’ steps behind them, Spike looked over his shoulder. All four had given chase. When he turned back around, he saw Matilda duck down a tight alley on her right.
Entering the alley a second later, Spike watched his love move like lightning.
It had been years since he’d seen her run, but he knew she trained. They all did.
No wider than four feet at the most, the alleyway turned a sharp left. As Matilda vanished around it, she’d already pulled farther away from Spike. When he rounded the corner a few seconds later, he saw the dead end. The guards’ footsteps entered the alley behind them. “What the—?” But before he could say anything else, he watched Matilda jump from one wall to the other. Kicking off each one as she ran, she got progressively higher.
The wall on their right stood about ten feet tall. When Matilda caught the top of it, Spike shook his head. But what else could he do? The guards on their heels, he felt the strength leave his legs.
Up on the wall now, Matilda shouted down at him, “You can do it.”
Spike leapt at the wall on his left and kicked off it, hitting the right a second later before going back to the left. Each kick felt like it would be the one where his foot slipped, but he found a protruding piece of rock or brickwork every time, lifting as he ran.
On his final leap, Spike reached for the top, his hands burning from where the rough brickwork tore cuts into his palms. Gassed, he fought against his heaving diaphragm and scrabbled to get to the top before he flopped over the wall, gasping as he looked down on the textiles district on the other side.
It took a few seconds, but when Spike looked at Matilda, her eyes showed him she was smiling. “You’ve done that before, haven’t you?”
Before Matilda responded, the guards charged around the corner. Spike wiped his brow to keep the sweat from his eyes.
The one whom Matilda had shoved over led the team again. While pointing an angry finger up at them, he spoke through gritted teeth. “Get down now.”
“Or what?” Matilda said.
“Or I’ll climb up there and drag you down.”
“Go on, then.”
An already red face turned redder and the guard stamped his foot. “Someone get me a ladder!”
The fourth and final guard had only just rounded the corner. Not as in shape as the others, she looked at the three staring at her, rolled her eyes, and ran back in the direction she’d come from.
“So you want us to wait here while you go and get a ladder?” Matilda said.
The guard didn’t reply to her, pacing back and forth like an angry dog.
“Do you want us to lock ourselves up when you catch us too? Maybe we can chase ourselves for you as well and give ourselves a beating?” She reached down. “Throw your sticks up and I’ll make a start.”
It happened so quickly Spike missed it. Fortunately Matilda didn’t. The guard launched his billy club straight at her, the baton spinning as it flew through the air.
Matilda ducked, the club sailing over her head into the textiles district behind them. “How am I supposed to catch that?” She then threw one of her legs over the side of the wall, turned so she hung down into the textiles district, and dropped to the ground.
The guards looked at Spike, who shrugged before following her over.
When he landed, Spike shook his head at her. “You’re nuts.”
She smiled, but just before she could pull her shirt down to expose her face again, the sound of more guards called through the streets. “It ain’t over yet,” she said while tugging on his sleeve. “Come on.”
As much as Spike needed to rest, when she took off, he ran after her.
Chapter 20
Although they were yet to see them, it sounded like more guards chased them than before. The tighter streets in the textiles district amplified the stampede on their tail. Matilda opened up a lead on Spike again. Like in the ceramics district, his lungs felt like they’d burst just from trying to keep up. It was on her to decide where they were heading.
Not only were the streets tighter, but they zigzagged, making Matilda vanish from his sight and then reappear every few seconds. For now, he could follow her sound, but the guards were getting closer and it wouldn’t be long before they drowned her out.
When Spike ran around the next corner, he saw Matilda waiting for him. Not that he would have ever asked her to, but thank god she had. He didn’t fancy finding his own way out of there. Although nowhere near as breathless as him, she stood panting. The steps continued closing down on them. Then he saw why she’d stopped. Guards blocked the way ahead.
The alley they were in stretched wider than the one they’d escaped from earlier. Too wide to kick off against the walls to get out of there.
Before Spike could react, Matilda leaned her back against one of the walls and linked her hands together to give him a foot up.
“What about you?”
The guards in front of them screamed and charged. The ones behind would be on them soon. “Just do it,” Matilda yelled.
They’d done it before. Spike ran at Matilda, stepped onto her hand and jumped when she lifted. It gave him the extra foot he needed and he stretched up to catch the top of the wall like he’d done to get out of the ceramics district. None of the walls in Edin had smooth tops to them, this one tearing at his palms much like the previous wall had. But Spike moved quickly, pulling himself up and then throwing his legs over the other side before leaning down for Matilda.
While looking from one side to the other, both sets of guards closing in, Spike felt Matilda’s hands in his and slipped off the wall backwards, using his weight to drag her up.
Just before Spike dropped over the other side, he saw Matilda lift her right leg and catch the top of the wall with it. He let go, landing on the other side. She nodded down at him. She’d made it, but they needed to get out of there before the guards found another way around.
When Matilda landed next to him, Spike—still fighting for breath—said, “Which way?”
“The plaza.”
Spike frowned at her. “We’ll be sitting ducks in there.”
Matilda turned her head as if listening for something. It helped him hear it too. The running footsteps of guards came at them from every direction. “It sounds like half the city are chasing us,” he said. “They’re going to beat the crap out of us when they catch us.”
“We’ll need to make sure they don’t catch us, then. We’re going to the plaza. You need to trust me. Come on.”
Not the time to raise the issue of trust, Spike dragged air into his tight lungs as they set off again.
When they got to the plaza, it suddenly made sense. The textiles district made sheets and fabrics for all of Edin. On sunny days like the one drawing to a close, they hung the fabrics out to dry. It turned the plaza into a giant multicoloured maze.
Matilda dodged and batted the fabric away. Spike followed her as she led him into the centre. They stopped again and Matilda said, “I can hear them coming. They’ll know we’re in here. We’re going to have to use the sheets to our advantage.”
“But where shall we go?”
The shout and heavy boots of the approaching guards closed in from every side. It looked like Matilda had most of her attention fixed on that. Surrounded by the shimmering sheets, they had to rely on their ears. “You need to work that out for yourself, Spike.”
“Huh?”
“We’re going to have to split up.”
The first guards entered the plaza. “Where are they?” one of them shouted.
A female voice answered back, “They have to be in here somewhere.”
The sounds of more guards came in from other sides.
“We need to close in on them,” one shouted.
“We’re screwed,” Spike said.
Using her right hand, Matilda silently counted down. Five, four, three, two, one. On one she ran at a light blue sheet close to them, letting out a shrill and undulating scream as she went.
Spike watched the sheet settle, covering her path, and for a moment he remained frozen. But he had to move. He had to get out of there and hope Matilda would do the same. A red sheet next to him, he sprinted through it and headed in what he hoped to be the least guarded section of the square.
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As he ran, Spike listened to Matilda. She continued to scream, drawing the sounds of the guards with her.
The damp fabric felt cold to the touch as it dragged along Spike on his way to the edge. He’d gone through five or six on his way in. After smashing through a fourth one, he saw an exit.
Just before Spike made a break for it, one of the sheets on his right burst to life, wrapped him in a tight grip, lifted him from his feet, and slammed him down against the cobblestone ground.
Chapter 21
Before Spike could scream for Matilda, the damp sheet smothered him, two hard fingers shoving it into his mouth. He fought against his need to heave and bit down, but the fingers were out before he’d clamped onto them.
A balled fist, his teeth still gritted, Spike swung for the guard on top of him. Again he missed, and before he could throw another punch, the sheet smothering him got ripped away, giving him sight of her. “Tilly?”
Matilda reached down and put her hand over his mouth. With her other hand, she pressed a finger to her lips to motion for him to be quiet. She then reached down to help him up.
It took a few seconds for Spike to untangle himself from the damp wrap of the sheet.
After pointing in the direction she intended them to go, Matilda nodded at Spike, looking for his acknowledgement. He nodded back and they set off again.
No sign of the guards, they left their shouting and screaming behind in the square, hopeful they’d be long gone by the time the guards realised it. Matilda moved at an easier pace, Spike able to catch his breath and keep up with her.
Matilda turned right down the next street. Like many in Edin, it had cobblestones and was penned in by the walls of one-storey, canted buildings. No bricks from the kiln here, this street looked as old as Edin itself.
Protectors - Book one of Beyond These Walls: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Page 8
