Spike shifted closer to the fire to get warmer. Closer to the fire also meant farther away from the darkness surrounding them.
“Two older sisters for me,” Olga said. So nonchalant in how she spoke, her next line gave Spike a jolt. “They both died during the same national service. I suppose better that than separate one twin from another.”
Again Bleach spoke, recalling Olga’s sisters. “Nikki and Jacqueline, right?”
Olga stared suspicion at him. She seemed comfortable talking about them, but she clearly didn’t like it when someone else did.
“Strife was their team leader. The entire team fell that day.”
“Like Elizabeth, I have a younger sibling. James. He’s eight.” Hugh lowered his brown eyes, the shadows highlighting the bags beneath them. “I don’t expect I’ll see him again.”
Spike watched Elizabeth comfort Hugh by stroking his back before he looked at the others. They were all watching him as if waiting for him to speak. “I’m an only child, so I’m the first. My parents went before me and they don’t talk about it either.” He spun the skull ring on his finger. “They had good luck charms they thought got them through.” He held his hand up to show off his ring. “My dad gave me this.” To think about Matilda’s hummingbird clip lifted a lump in his throat. His mum had been wrong about her. When they finished national service, he’d never see her or it again.
“It must have been hard for your parents to say goodbye to you,” Max said. “Being an only child and all.”
The thought of his dad made Spike’s eyes itch from where tears spread across them. The lump in his throat swelled, and when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. A tear ran from each eye, which he quickly wiped away. But they didn’t need to hear about that. About how his dad had let him down on his final morning. About how he made up for it by stopping the carriage. About how he came to national service ready to take on the world, and now he didn’t know if he’d even return. About Matilda, his first and maybe only love. They couldn’t reduce their relationship to sterile nights in the square. What if they got evicted like Mr. P and his boyfriend? But he had to say something, the others all staring at him. “So we all have our theories, right?”
The wind shook the flames and the fire popped, making Spike jump. A quickened pulse, he looked around at the shadows before addressing his group again. “About where the diseased come from.”
“I don’t go in for conspiracies,” Bleach said, getting to his feet. “Well done on your efforts this week.” He half turned away from them to show he intended to leave. “Don’t stay up too late, make sure the fire’s fully out, and keep the noise down.”
When Bleach had walked out of earshot, Olga said, “Well, if that didn’t just confirm there’s something weird going on, I don’t know what does.”
Max leaned closer to her, his face illuminated by the fire. “What do you mean?”
“He has to remove himself from a conversation about the diseased. Is that because he knows something? Is he on strict orders not to talk about it?” When no one answered, Olga said, “So what’s your theory, Spike?”
Maybe Spike shouldn’t have mentioned it. Probably not the best conversation to be having in the middle of the dark field, the glow of the fire blinding them to attackers. But at least it had stopped his tears. A look over both shoulders showed him nothing, their surroundings too dark. “I dunno.”
“Of course you do. Just say it.”
He and Matilda had talked about it a lot. All the kids did. “I reckon there’s something in the air. Not where we are. Far away. Like far, far away. I think it’s turned the air poisonous, changing normal people into those things.”
“Why are there still new diseased all the time?”
“How do we know they’re new? What if they’re hundreds of years old? Maybe no one knows where the poisonous air is. Maybe it moves around, attacking different groups of people.”
A derisive snort, Max shook his head. “What, so it’s just a matter of time until it gets to us?”
“Maybe. Why not?”
Before Max could reply, Hugh said, “I reckon it’s an experiment. I think someone has caused it and continues to cause it. I think they’re doing this to their enemy and we’ve been caught up in the crossfire. Maybe they don’t know we’re here. Maybe they think all of this land is abandoned and think there’s no chance anyone could be living here.”
Max shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I think they know we’re here. They must have seen the protectors when they’re out on their travels.”
“Ahem,” Olga said. “Didn’t you just see how Bleach reacted? Maybe no one else knows we’re here, but I’d bet my life the protectors know more about what’s going on than most people.”
“Maybe they’re in on it,” Hugh said. “I wonder what the politicians know.”
Heidi looked around her as if they were being listened to. “But why would they let it happen if they know where it’s coming from?”
“Maybe we’re also the enemy of the people responsible for the virus.”
Like he’d just seen Heidi do, Spike looked into the shadows again. Why had he talked about the diseased in the first place? Even when he shifted closer to the fire, he felt colder than before. The familiar tightening of his lungs, his pulse quickened.
Heidi stood up first. “I’ll be glad when this national service is over and forgotten about. I’m going to bed. Sleep is the only way I can make time pass quicker in this hellhole.”
As they watched her walk off, Spike could have sworn he saw something again. It looked like movement over to his left. He breathed quicker than before and his palms turned slick. No one else got up as they all watched Heidi vanish into the darkness, walking back the same way Bleach had gone. The longer he left it, the more awkward it would be to follow her. He stood up. “I’m going to bed too. It’s been a long week.”
If the others looked at Spike, he didn’t know because he turned away from them and walked off in the same direction Heidi had gone in. Despite his desire to run—to get back to the safety of their dorms—he kept his pace even and stared straight ahead. He didn’t want to catch up with Heidi and he didn’t want the others to see how spooked he was. He should never have brought up the conversation in the first place. But he had to do something to stop himself crying in front of them.
Chapter 41
“You don’t have Bleach to protect you now,” Ranger said as he led team Bigfoot past Spike.
Caught off guard, Spike reacted before he’d had a chance to control himself. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
While most of his team walked on, Ranger held back, Lance by his side. His usual sneer—a grease stain on his smug face—he said, “Juggernaut set this one up, and he isn’t going to leave the diseased out of it to protect you like Bleach did. The rest of us want to get used to them, seeing as they’re going to be everywhere when we go outside the walls.” He then nodded at a dark hole in the ground. “See that tunnel over there?”
Spike looked at it, his pulse already quickening despite him fighting to keep it slow.
“That goes through a pit of diseased. They’re down there waiting for you.” He cupped his ear. “Can you hear them?”
Even if his throat hadn’t tightened—making it hard to get his breaths out let alone his words—Spike probably wouldn’t have replied. Instead, he looked away from Magma’s son, listening to him and Lance cackle while they walked off to join the rest of their team.
When Spike felt a hand on his back, he jumped, turning around to see Hugh’s wonky grin staring back at him. “We’ll be okay,” he said.
Spike shrugged him off by turning his shoulder. “I’m fine.”
Although they’d done the previous two end-of-week tasks in the apprentice’s arena, this time they went past it to a patch of grass on the other side. A small obstacle course had been set up, which included the tunnel Ranger had pointed out. Juggernaut—team Bigfoot’s leader—showed the cadets what they
were facing. “This,” he said, pointing to a wooden wall about eight feet tall, “is the first obstacle. All you need to do is get over it. I don’t care how, just that you get over it.”
None of the cadets spoke as they watched the leanest of all the team leaders walk over to the next obstacle. The man used to be fast, and when he started running, nothing stopped him, hence his name. Cargo netting lay on the ground, pinned down at the edges. He pointed at it. “You then need to crawl under this.”
A high platform, similar to the one they had all climbed with ease in the first task. It stood about twenty feet tall. “You need to climb this rope and then you descend via the netting on the other side.”
All the while Juggernaut spoke, Spike couldn’t help but look at the dark entrance to the tunnel Ranger had talked about. He focused hard to see if he could hear the diseased. Nothing. Maybe there weren’t any in there.
“This is the rat run.” Juggernaut walked from one end of the tunnel all the way to the other side. “Once you’ve crawled through here, you go back to the first obstacle and start again.”
If he needed to, Spike could simply refuse to go in. When he glanced at Ranger, the boy winked and pointed at the tunnel. Sweat lifted beneath Spike’s shirt and he shook to think about what lay in wait for him in the hole. He’d just refuse. That was all he needed to do. There was no shame in it. Many of the cadets had done it already. He could blame it on claustrophobia.
“The idea,” Juggernaut said, positioning himself so he stood in front of the cadets again, “is to keep going until the team behind you catches you. You need to get used to being chased. It’ll happen a lot over the next few months.”
After letting the silence hang, Juggernaut said, “But this is a team event. You’ll go outside the wall as a team, so I want you to work as a team now. You all get through or none of you do. I’ll stagger your starts, fifteen seconds between each team. The way you take out the team ahead of you is for the last person in your team to touch one of the people in theirs. It’s not about being the fastest, it’s about being the most cohesive unit.”
Although Juggernaut went on to explain more of the rules, Spike didn’t hear him, all of his attention on the dark holes at either end of the rat run. The day had a chill in the air, the grey clouds pregnant with the promise of rain. While he watched the holes, the temperature seemed to drop several more degrees.
Spike would fake an injury. Nothing else for it. He could come up with some reason for not being able to do it so he didn’t let his team down by refusing to go into the hole. They could do the task without him. Then he looked at Ranger and his smug face, Lance beside him, also looking over. He’d never hear the end of it. It wasn’t like Juggernaut would allow it either. Injury or not, the diseased would still kill you outside the walls. Maybe they’d fail before they got to the tunnel anyway. No way could Hugh climb the wooden wall or the rope. No way.
The crack of Juggernaut’s hands made Spike jump, which Ranger picked up on. Nudging Lance next to him, they both laughed. “Because it’s my task, my team goes first, followed by team Minotaur, who are the next closest in points.”
Although Spike tried to fill his lungs, he still couldn’t get his breath in. Despite every urge in his body to resist, he followed his team and lined up in front of the wooden wall behind Bigfoot.
Close enough to Ranger for the boy to lean back and say, “Me and Lance tested the tunnel out, didn’t we? My tip to you is to pull your arms in. You’ll still feel them pawing at you, but as long as you don’t give them something to grab onto, you should be fine.”
While laughing, Lance nodded. “That’s a good tip. I would say close your eyes so you don’t have to look at them, but it’s darker than the devil’s arsehole down there, so it doesn’t matter.”
Ranger nodded. “The devil’s arsehole. I like it, Lance.”
Clearly lifted by Ranger’s comment, Lance stood slightly taller than he had a second ago. The boy lived for Ranger’s approval.
“Look,” Hugh said, butting between Spike and the two boys, “why don’t you two leave him alone and focus on what you’ve got to do, yeah?”
Hugh probably thought he was helping, but before any of them could say anything else, Juggernaut shouted, “Go!” While counting down from fifteen, he lined the rest of the teams up one behind the other. So distracted by Ranger, Spike hadn’t yet tried to look at Matilda. As always, when he finally did, she acted like he didn’t exist.
Team Bigfoot—dressed from head to toe in their brown tracksuits—hit the wooden wall first. They must have had a chance to practice it because Ranger and Lance, the tallest two in the team, gave a boost to the shortest and weakest. Once they’d helped them, they jumped up and dragged themselves over the wooden wall too.
Because of the wall, when team Bigfoot had slipped over the other side, Spike couldn’t see them. Now they were gone, he looked at the tunnel again. How would he avoid going through it? Maybe he imagined it, but as a gust of wind hit him, he could have sworn he smelled the vinegar tang of the rotting diseased.
“Go,” Juggernaut shouted.
It took for Hugh to shove Spike in the back to make him move. He ran for the wall to see Max reach it and wait for him. They copied team Bigfoot’s strategy, Spike standing opposite Max while they boosted Olga, Hugh, Heidi, and Elizabeth over. “Come on, man,” Max said to him before they jumped. “Get your head in the game. You can do this.”
Fatigue already dragged on Spike’s strength, his adrenaline robbing him of his athleticism, but he managed to catch the top of the wall and drag himself over.
Landing on the solid ground on the other side, Spike saw the rest of his team were already halfway through the cargo netting, and team Bigfoot were getting to the top of the platform at the end of the long rope. He heard Juggernaut shout, “Go,” at the team behind them.
Even while he scrambled beneath the netting, Spike threw glances in the direction of the tunnel. Hopefully Hugh would hold them up on the climb.
It took for Spike to get to the rope on the next obstacle to see it had knots tied in it. Hugh had already made it halfway up.
“Go,” Juggernaut shouted, and Spike saw Hugh quicken his pace. The knots made it simple for him.
The rest of his team on the rope, Spike turned to see team Yeti behind them as Suzi Swing, the last member of their team, dived under the cargo netting. Maybe he should be the one to slip on the rope. They’d catch him if he stalled just a little.
“Spike!”
Spike looked up to see Olga on the platform above. Max and Heidi were still climbing towards her.
“Hurry it up, yeah?”
He couldn’t throw this task. He had a team relying on him.
Because they had Heidi in front of them, Spike caught up to Max on the rope and the two of them had to move at her pace.
When Spike reached the top and dragged himself up onto the platform, he watched his team climbing down the netting on the other side and then looked at the tunnel again. Just before he started his descent, Ranger waved up at him and smiled. Another kick of adrenaline accelerated his pulse before he backed himself onto the netting, his entire body shaking.
The net twisted and swayed on his way down. Spike could fall. That would be believable.
At the back of his team still, but off the netting, Spike looked up to see the front runners of Yeti were on the platform at the top of the rope. Hugh led Minotaur into the tunnel.
“Remember,” Ranger called at Spike as he emerged from the other side of the rat run, “just get your head down and go quickly. You’re a fast boy; I’m sure they won’t be able to grab you.”
The noises around Spike faded, the deep thud of his pounding pulse taking over. The entrance to the tunnel looked darker than before. He tried to listen for the diseased inside. How many were there? But he couldn’t hear anything. He watched Elizabeth, Heidi, Olga, and Max follow Hugh into the tunnel as if it were nothing. They all vanished from sight, consumed by the darkness
.
When Spike tried to move forwards, he couldn’t. His heart beat at the speed of a hamster’s, and every inhale dragged in less air than the last. His hands went to the skull ring on his finger and he twisted it while staring at the hole.
No matter how hard Spike gasped, he couldn’t catch his breath. If he went in the tunnel, he’d have a heart attack. While shaking his head, he muttered, “No.” His panic reached up and wrapped two strong hands around his throat.
Another look at Ranger showed Spike the red face of the boy as he laughed at him. Then he looked at Matilda. She looked sad. Deeply sad and disappointed. She’d gambled on him and she’d lost.
Spike fell to his knees and shook his head. “No, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” Unable to catch his breath, stars flashed in his vision. He looked around for someone to help. Anyone. All the cadets stared at him like he was contagious.
Bleach ran over and dragged Spike to his feet. He put a protective arm around him and led him out of there.
Just before they rounded the corner out of sight, Spike looked back at the others one last time. He saw Ranger and Lance, both puce with laughter. Just before he vanished, Magma’s son took one final shot at him when he said, “There wasn’t any diseased in there, you fool. It’s all in your head!”
Spike looked up at Bleach. “Is that true?”
Although Bleach didn’t reply, he didn’t need to. Instead, he released a hard sigh and focused on where they were heading.
Chapter 42
A bowl of vegetables in watery gravy in front of him, Spike lifted another spoonful of it into his mouth. He had no appetite, but if he didn’t eat, one of the team leaders would say something. He’d also grown sick of the flavour. It had tasted novel on day one, but now they were three weeks into training with no change in their diet, he didn’t know how much more of it he could eat. The once appetising smell now reminded him of feet, and the broth tasted like salt water. It didn’t help that he had a nauseating rock in his stomach. Having panicked in front of everyone had ruined him. How could he be taken seriously as a contender to be the next apprentice? When he looked up, he saw at least half the room watching him like they’d done since he’d sat down.
Protectors - Book one of Beyond These Walls: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Page 19
