by C. G. Hatton
I almost smiled back. “I’ll be fine.”
He looked serious all of a sudden. “Will you be fine?”
I looked at him, not sure what he was asking.
“You need to keep the brace on for at least three weeks,” he said. “The knee was dislocated. You haven’t broken anything but there’s ligament damage. Don’t walk on it. The stab wound…” He paused, looking at me as if he wanted to ask what the hell had happened. He didn’t. “That should heal up okay. Keep it clean.” He took a bag off the table in there. “There’s trauma patches in here in case it opens up again and there are antibiotics and painkillers. Go easy on them. There’s enough in there to last you a while. You run out, you don’t need to steal any more. Just come tell me. Okay?”
I nodded.
“Will you be okay?”
I took the bag and nodded.
“Come on then.” He turned away.
I didn’t move.
He realised I wasn’t following and turned back, looked at the way I was standing and said, “What?”
I bit my lip. I didn’t want to ask but I couldn’t not. “There were other kids up on the roof with me…”
He stared at me then said quietly, “There was a girl…” He shook his head slightly.
I sucked it up and packaged it away, the way I’d learned to eight years before. Life sucks. Losing people sucks. If you were afraid of it, it killed what time you had with the people you did have. I had no idea what Calum and the rest of them thought I’d been doing. I hadn’t betrayed them. Yet there I was, standing in the Imperial base, wearing an Imperial uniform. I might as well have.
Charlie gave me a lift out to a checkpoint, as far downtown as he could go. They had defences set up, coils of wire and barricades blocking the road. He helped me out and waited while I juggled the crutches.
It was hot, the sun right overhead so it was around midday.
I squinted up at him. “Thank you,” I said. Then for some reason, I added, “If he hasn’t already, Dayton’s going to hit the outposts.”
Charlie was standing by the jeep, leaning one elbow on the open door. “We know.”
“They think they can take back the mines.”
He frowned. “We didn’t know that.”
It felt like I was never going to see him again.
I shifted my weight, the knee starting to complain. “If you haven’t already, you need to change your codes.”
I turned to go before he could say anything else. I could feel him staring at my back as I made my way down the street. It was quiet but an ominous quiet, too quiet. Midday, this part of town? There should have been people around, going to the market or home from school, but not a soul.
I headed into the shade. I didn’t even know what day it was or how long I’d been in the garrison.
It must have taken me over an hour to get to Latia’s place. My back was drenched with sweat and my stomach felt like it had a knot stitched into it.
I leaned heavier and heavier on the crutches, hands sore, counting each step and thinking of a soft bed and a cold drink. Lemonade. Latia would never let me have beer.
I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw the door was open.
My great-grandmother never left the door open. If I could have thrown away the crutches and run, I would have sprinted. I could hardly breathe by the time I pushed the door open, yelling for her, desperately wanting her to call me back and ask why such fretting, everything was fine.
Except it wasn’t. I stopped in the doorway and stared. Chairs were overturned, a vase smashed on the floor. She’d never leave it in such a mess. I had a lump in my throat as I hobbled into the living room, pushing past the curtain, half expecting to find her on the floor.
There was no sign of her. I searched the whole house, top to bottom, almost falling on the stairs, shouting her name the whole time. I looked in the back yard and checked the alley, a heavy sick feeling settling over the ache in my stomach.
I limped back inside, awkward with the crutches, and was heading into the living room, no idea what I was going to do, before I realised there was someone else in the house. Heavy footsteps.
I turned as someone grabbed me from behind and flung me round, off my feet. The bag went flying, pill bottles skittering across the floor. I yelled as my knee twisted, off balance, trying to swing the crutch at them, anything to get free. I hit something. The grip loosened and I thought I was going to fall but there was a vicious curse and a fist punched into my stomach. I folded, vision closing in to a grey tunnel.
My right knee hit the floor. They had me by the scruff of my neck but there was no way they were taking me. I twisted free, the shirt tearing. I abandoned the crutches and scrambled away. I knew Latia’s house back to front with my eyes closed. I slid under a table, made a break for the side door, crawling, and slipped through before they could catch me. I kicked the door shut with my right foot, pain firing through my stomach and my left leg screaming at me. It locked. I could hear them shouting to each other.
I thought I was going to be sick.
I dragged myself up, elbowed open the window and fell more than climbed through it.
There was a gate at the far end of the alley. I grabbed one of Latia’s plant pots and threw it. It shattered, nudged the gate just enough for it to swing open, and I crawled behind the broken fridge unit she had out there.
I heard them bang open the back door, yell and thunder down the alley.
I leaned my head back against the hot bricks of the wall. The gate swung shut. And it was quiet.
I waited until it was dark before I made a move. I managed to limp back inside and grab my crutches. I started to scrabble about for the drugs and stuff that had spilled across the floor, but I heard footsteps outside and split, abandoning all but a handful I shoved into my pocket.
I headed to the last place we’d been holed up, hanging out in the shadows each time I heard a voice or the echo of a footstep or engine. Each time I stopped, it got harder and harder to move again. But I made it, climbed the stairs one agonising step at a time, and collapsed in a heap in a corner, one off the top floor, in our old bunkroom where there was still a mattress.
The pain in my knee was unbearable, the grubby tee shirt specked with fresh blood. I think I almost sat there and cried but I squeezed my eyes shut instead and pretty much passed out.
Chapter 15
I came round slowly, vaguely aware of my knee then my stomach, both throbbing in time with my heartbeat. It wasn’t terrible pain, worse than uncomfortable, but not as bad as agonising.
Until I tried to move.
And that’s when I realised there was someone there with me. I hadn’t heard her come in. It was too dark to see but I knew it was her. She was snuggled into me, one leg tangled into mine, one arm thrown over my chest, hugging a blanket she must have pulled over us. I was too hot and my stomach was cramping but I tried not to move so I wouldn’t wake her.
She smelled clean. I wasn’t. I was dusty, sweaty, sore and aching.
I held out as long as I could then I had to shift my butt to ease the pins and needles that were sparking in my leg. She stirred and murmured something. I swear I tried to not wake her but the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I was and the more my leg felt like it was ablaze.
I moved, she jerked awake and we both cried out as she tried to fend me off and I tried to stifle a scream as my knee took her full weight.
She hugged me then and held onto me as if she’d never let go.
“We thought you were really dead this time,” she whispered into my ear.
“They killed Freddie.” It was an effort to form the words coherently.
“I know.”
I pulled away.
It was too dark to see her properly but I could tell she was trying not to cry.
“They took Latia,” I said, heart in my stomach, hardly wanting to ask if Maisie knew anything about her.
“I know,” she said. “Luka, I’m sure she’s fine. Dayt
on’s holding her because he wants you. He’s told everyone to find you. He’s saying…” She touched my cheek.
I batted her hand away. “He’s saying what?” I almost knew what she was going to say.
“I don’t believe any of it. Calum’s just been waiting for something like this.”
We sat there quietly then I had to lie back down because my stomach was cramping again. It didn’t feel good, I didn’t feel good, but I didn’t want to switch on a flashlight to check it.
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 stre
tched 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.”
