“I love you, Tilly.”
Matilda leaned forward, kissed, and then hugged Spike again. They held on for a few seconds.
When they separated, Matilda said, “I need to get back now. I hope the rest of your shift goes okay and you get some good sleep for tomorrow.”
“I’ll be thinking of you when I’m out building a wall and you’re in bed all day.” He winked at her. “Next time they inspect you for bites, I might see if they need a volunteer.”
Even in the moonlight, Spike saw Matilda’s reddening cheeks. “When this is all over, you can check me for bites as much as you like.”
Spike watched her vanish into the darkness, her sweet taste still on his lips. He filled his lungs and let the air out in a cloud of condensation before setting off and walking back across the front of the gate, counting his steps as he went.
Maybe ten minutes passed, maybe more, but when Spike saw another silhouette where Matilda had been, he smiled. “Come back to let me check for bites, then?”
Like the first time she’d arrived, Matilda didn’t reply. Like the first time she’d arrived, she stepped forward. Like the first time she’d arrived, Spike tensed in anticipation of a fight. Then he laughed. “Come on, Tilly, stop being a goon.”
When the silhouette stepped close enough for the moonlight to reveal them, Spike’s stomach lurched. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter 16
Instead of replying, Ranger walked closer to Spike, the dark eyes Spike had fantasised about gouging from his fat head fixed on him.
Armed only with a horn, Spike froze and waited for the wide boy to get closer.
Just a few feet separated them before Spike raised a halting hand. “Stay back.”
“Or what?”
Spike lifted the horn to his lips.
“You’re going to tell on me?”
“You could do with another stint in the hole.”
Ranger darted forward, the moonlight catching the knife in his hand just moments before Spike felt it at his throat, forcing him up against the gates.
The whites of Ranger’s eyes ringed his dark irises, and he leaned so close Spike could smell his rancid breath. A spread of bared teeth, he spoke through his clenched jaw. “You’re no stronger than me; you just got lucky. Go in the hole for a second time and you’ll see. You swan around here acting like you’re the shit, but you ain’t. I’m going to prove that to you.”
“By stabbing me? You’re a coward.”
Ranger smiled. His eyes didn’t. “I’m not the one crying.”
“You’re a coward using a knife. And I’m not crying.”
“Your eyes are watering.” Ranger put more pressure on the weapon and Spike gulped against the sting of the tip. “This is to get you to listen. I hate you, Spike. I hate everything about you. I hate how you think you have a chance to become the next protector. I hate how you flaunt your relationship with Matilda. I hate how pally you are with that little mole you hang around with. Natural selection should have taken him out a long time ago.”
The gate swayed with the wind. “Is that all you’ve come to say? I can already see the hatred in your beady little eyes; there’s no need to articulate it.”
Ranger reached into his pocket and produced a small steel bolt. “Recognise this?”
A torrent ran through Spike, but he fought against it. “Natural selection, eh?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sometimes it takes more than brawn to survive. Hugh might not be the most physical of all the cadets, but he’s one of the smartest. One of the most observant. Let’s say you did jeopardise Matilda’s weapon, which I’m not sure I believe anyway, Hugh was the one who noticed. He was the one who scuppered your plan. Another failure on your part.”
“Another one?”
“You want me to list them? On day one you ran away.”
Ranger put more pressure on the knife.
“Then you tried to attack Hugh, but your clumsy hands dropped the weapon before you reached him.”
“You think I have difficulties holding a knife?”
Spike stood on his tiptoes to relieve the pressure of the blade. “Let’s say I believe you messed with Matilda’s sword; what have you shown me so far to prove you’re a threat?”
“I have a knife to your throat right now, Spike.”
“Which you just said you won’t use. I believe that. I don’t think you have the minerals, and we both know you won’t get away with it if you do.”
Ranger’s breathing sped up and he moved his face even closer to Spike’s. He pushed the knife and Spike felt a warm trickle of blood run down the inside of his shirt. “Just know I’m going to make your life hell. You’re like a spider that I’m going to pull the legs off one at a time. Hugh, Matilda, Olga, Elizabeth … You’re going to try to save them, because that’s what you do, right? But you can’t save all of them. And every time you try, you jeopardise your chances of going on the trials. You’re going to wish you never crossed me.”
“I didn’t cross you. You’re the one who’s clearly threatened by me.”
Another tight clench to his jaw, Ranger spat on the gate next to Spike’s face before he pulled back. A slight smile lifted his wicked sneer. “I enjoyed watching Matilda being checked for bite marks.”
A chill snapped through Spike. “How long have you been in the shadows for?”
“Let’s hope they have to do it again.” He flicked the small metal bolt. It hit Spike just below his left eye, a sharp sting making his vision blur.
While letting go of a long exhale, Spike watched Ranger walk away. He wiped his watering eyes and bleeding neck. As much as he didn’t want to believe what Ranger had just said, he believed every word. They had four months ahead of them, and not only did he have to make sure he did everything required of him to be selected for the trials, but he now needed to make sure Ranger didn’t get his friends and loved ones killed in the process.
Chapter 17
At least Spike could go outside the walls without having to worry about Matilda’s safety. Although, after his run-in with Ranger the previous evening, he clearly had to worry about the safety of many of those around him.
Hugh stretched his arms to the sky, releasing a groaning yawn. His brown eyes were glazed and his cheeks red. “That early shift’s a killer.”
Even though Spike heard him, he watched Ranger, looking for some sign as to what he planned next. “I’m glad Tilly’s safe inside the gates today.”
“What about us? We could do with a day off.”
Spike continued to watch Ranger. “We’ll cope.”
“Are you okay?”
If Spike told Hugh about the previous evening, it would only make him worry. “I’m fine. Sorry. Don’t fret about today. We’ll be all right.”
The reassurance clearly did little for Hugh, who unsheathed his sword and inspected it. Once he’d done with his, he held his hand out to take a look at Elizabeth’s weapon, then Spike’s, Olga’s, Max’s, and Heidi’s. “Well, at least our swords won’t fall apart on us.”
Spike rubbed the spot beneath his left eye where Ranger had hit him with the bolt.
At that moment, the protectors appeared, making their way through the crowd as they headed for the gates. Magma, who normally led the line, took up the rear, making a point to look at Spike with the same callous regard he’d grown used to from his progeny. Did he know anything about the night before? Had he encouraged his boy to do it?
“What happened to your neck?” Hugh said.
Like with his cheek, Spike reached up and touched where Ranger had hurt him the previous evening. Although he could feel the nasty boy watching him, he kept his focus on his old man, who joined the other protectors in front of the gates. “I cut it shaving.”
As with Ranger, Spike felt Hugh looking at him as if he wanted a better explanation.
Magma nodded at the guards on the gate, the air coming alive with the barrelling sound of the heavy chains. It
dragged Hugh’s attention from Spike.
All seven protectors stood ready, their teams lined up behind them. They all had their weapons raised, their stances solid as they waited for the morning rush. But the only sound came from the chains running over wood, the gates swaying as they slowly moved inwards. First a split, the gap then grew wider.
The noises from the previous evening returned to Spike. He’d definitely heard diseased out there. Not so unusual, but the steps of something much more coordinated than the diseased certainly were. The thuds and then nothing. What could have made those sounds?
The gap had grown wide enough for an atrophied limb to reach through, but none did. The protectors looked at one another. No diseased for a second time?
Olga said, “What the hell? There’s normally a ton of them on a Monday. I think they’re finally dying out.”
A hard scowl hooded Bleach’s green eyes. “You think like that and you’ll be the one dying out.”
“So what’s happening?”
“I wish I knew.”
The gap in the gates now wide enough for the protectors to exit, Fire led the line, taking his team with him. The remaining protectors followed, one team at a time. They all kept their weapons raised. They all searched from left to right as if they were walking into an ambush.
When the protectors had passed through, Bleach motioned for them to move. Spike lifted the heavy barrow’s handles and followed his team towards their section of the wall.
Paranoia isn’t always a bad thing. Paranoia kept many a rookie alive outside the walls. As Spike studied the long grass between him and the ruined city, Olga on one side, Heidi on the other, he said, “I feel like I’m being watched.”
Olga laughed while Heidi’s already tense frame tightened.
When she’d finished laughing, Olga said, “Watching is the last thing those things will be doing. If they’ve seen you, you can bet your arse they’re running at you. They don’t have it in them to watch.”
Were he talking to Hugh or Matilda, Spike might have taken the conversation further. Instead, he looked at the ruined city and filled his lungs with the fresh meadow’s scent. Breathing felt easier out here despite the threats to their lives. The air had a palpable humidity that made it cool and soothing. But today there seemed to be a tinge on the breeze. Maybe paranoia had the same vinegar reek as the diseased. He watched the swaying grass and twisted his feet to strengthen his stance.
Olga had clearly been waiting for a reply. When it didn’t come, she said, “No, the diseased don’t watch, they—”
The shrieks of several diseased rang out.
“—scream and charge,” Olga said while drawing her broadsword. “Here we go again.”
They’d done it enough times to know the drill, but Bleach gave the orders anyway. “Fall back inside the walls and form a line. Let them come to you.”
Spike fell back with the rest of the cadets.
Enough wall around them to make Bleach’s words echo. “Hold the line.”
Too far away from team Cyclops to do anything about it, Spike—who stood next to Bleach—watched five diseased burst through a gap in the wall and charge them.
Farther forward than the rest of her team by a few feet, the diseased clearly sensed the weakness and zeroed in on Dionne White. While Cyclops moved back a few paces, she froze, singled out more than before.
“She should be moving back with them,” Bleach said.
Like when he’d watched Matilda from the gates, Spike felt powerless to do anything. “Why don’t they help her?”
“They’re trying to.”
“By stepping away?”
“By moving back and regrouping. They’re trying to get into a stronger position to fight.”
Ore’s words cracked through the mostly enclosed space. “Dionne! Fall back!”
If Dionne heard her, she didn’t react.
There were rumours amongst the cadets about certain couples hooking up. Spike and Matilda, Hugh and Elizabeth, Dionne White and Juan Costa from team Yeti. Where Dionne’s team weren’t helping, Juan broke ranks and ran to her aid. Flame—his team leader—called after him. It did nothing to slow him down.
To hear Bleach mutter, “Stupid boy,” lifted bile in Spike’s throat, and he said, “He’s just looking after a friend.”
“Heroes and fools die on this side of the gates. It’s hard to tell the difference between them sometimes, and the diseased don’t discriminate.”
“He’s a hero.”
“From the mouth of a fool.”
Spike clenched his jaw to help him contain his words.
Juan drew his sword and drove it through the chest of the first diseased. When the creature fell, Spike smiled to see him finish it by stabbing the thing in the face. While yelling a battle cry, he hacked an arm from the next one before splitting the head of the third and then fourth.
“He’s good,” Spike said.
“He’s a fool. Cutting an arm off a diseased doesn’t …” Bleach left his words hanging, the armless diseased leaping at Dionne. It bit into her shoulder. Team Cyclops closed in on her at Ore’s command.
The team leader dispatched the one-armed creature while Juan killed the fifth one.
Then Ore stood back, and although Spike couldn’t hear what she said to Juan, he didn’t need to. She pointed at the fallen Dionne, who held the top of her arm and screamed. Blood seeped through the gaps in her fingers.
Once again team Cyclops backed away at Ore’s order.
Spike shook his head. “Why isn’t she going to kill her?”
“Juan’s the hero,” Bleach said. “Now he needs to do the dirty work. That’s what a hero is in this life.”
Nauseated by the thought of having to end Matilda, Spike’s throat dried.
Juan cried freely, his shoulders shaking while he raised his broadsword, tip down as he hung it over his girlfriend’s face.
As Dionne fell silent, Spike held his breath. The wind and Juan’s sobs were the only sounds out there, the gathered rookies all watching the boy.
Maybe she felt sorry for him because Ore stepped forward and said, “Do you need me to—?”
Dionne’s diseased shriek cut her off.
A hero when fighting diseased he didn’t know, but when Dionne jumped to her feet, Juan froze like she had. The former team Cyclops member—dressed in her blue tracksuit—continued forward in one fluid movement, latching onto Juan’s throat as she took them both down.
They’d already hit the ground when Ore caught up to them. She stabbed Dionne through the back of her head and Juan through his face, cutting off his diseased shriek from where he’d turned almost instantly.
The wind filled the silence before Bleach released a long sigh. “That’s what happens to fools out here. Heroes don’t fare much better. You’d do well to learn from that.”
The teams around the dead bodies moved back to their parts of the wall, dragging the corpses with them. Spike watched on without moving, the rest of Minotaur heading back to where they were working.
Hugh waited with him. “I can’t believe Ore didn’t help him with Dionne.”
“I think she was right. Juan wanted to be a hero. He needed to do it.”
“Would you do it for Tilly?”
Spike watched his team move around the other side of the wall out of sight. Most of the teams were back at the parts they were working on. Only a couple of team Cyclops remained: Tom French and Shannon Flung. They looked like they needed a moment, a diseased at their feet, which they’d clearly been tasked with removing.
When Spike saw the diseased twitch, he gasped.
Hugh cupped his mouth, calling across the space at Tom and Shannon, “It’s not dead! It’s not dead!”
Chapter 18
Tom and Shannon jumped away from the creature as it leaped to its feet. It hit Shannon first, Tom shrieking as he tripped and fell backwards. Before he’d hit the ground, it had bitten Shannon and crashed on top of him.
Spike’s
jaw hung open at the speed of the thing. Tom was already infected when it stood up again and scanned its surroundings as if looking for its next target.
Many of the cadets were by their walls, but Ranger headed back inside the perimeter. He stood between Spike and Hugh, and the vile creature. One, and then three diseased ran at him. Sword raised, he looked ready to take the one at the front down. But when it got close and lunged for him, he dodged it, the beast thundering past. And maybe it would have turned back around were Spike and Hugh not next in line.
Instead of waiting for the beast to get to them, Hugh shrieked and ran for the gates. “Someone sound the horn! Someone sound the horn!”
Spike yelled too, trying to get the attention of the diseased. “Come and get me, you freaks.”
But like frenzied bulls, all three creatures zeroed in on the moving target.
Although he only had a second to think, Spike saw Ranger smiling at him. He’d done it on purpose. Of course he had.
Despite Bleach calling, “Don’t follow him,” Spike set off after his small friend. Not the fastest, Hugh stood no chance of getting to the gates before the diseased reached him. And no way would the guards open them for him if he had three of them on his tail.
His sword heavy on his back, Spike chased after Hugh while Bleach’s voice chased after him. “I said don’t follow him.”
The thunder of uneven steps ran after Hugh. The screams from their foetid mouths echoed around him. Spike gritted his teeth and dug deep, quickening his pace, drawing on everything he had.
But he didn’t have enough. The strength damn near left his legs to watch the first diseased jump onto Hugh’s back, taking both of them to the ground.
Chapter 19
Although his body threatened to, Spike didn’t give up. Just feet between him and the diseased on top of Hugh, he drew his sword and beat Tom and Shannon to his friend.
Beyond These Walls (Book 2): National Service Page 8
