Were it Matilda, he would have hugged her. When William stepped closer to Olga, she snarled at him. “Touch me and I’ll cut you down.” While rubbing her nose with the back of her hand, she said, “Come on. Let’s go.”
Their surroundings hid potential attackers in every building and behind every rock. The crater on their left, they climbed another hill, the promise of yet more miles of devastation stretching ahead of them. Hopefully it would give them something more. A chance to do something other than follow the army.
A few feet from the hill, Olga said, “Look, I understand why you made the decisions you made, and I don’t blame you for Hugh. That was his error and I can see how hard it must have been knowing what he’d done and keeping it to yourself. I shouldn’t have been so harsh. These are trying times. The stress is getting to me.”
“Thank you. And—”
“What the hell?” Olga said.
The pair stopped on the brow of the hill. The ruined city stretched away from them. A structure stood in the middle of it. It was at least half a mile from their current position. Large wooden stakes at least ten feet tall made up the perimeter. The tops were carved into spikes. Two huge gates at the front hung open as the army returned to their base. The place stretched three to four hundred feet wide. “It looks like a fortress,” William said. “The protectors must have known about this base before Edin fell.”
“I think they built it,” Olga said.
“But that would have taken years.”
“So much for them being heroes. I bet you all the while they were pretending to be going out and getting supplies, they were hanging out in this place. The ultimate clubhouse. They probably sat around all day while we worked shitty jobs in the city. And then they had the gall to come back and lord it over us.”
“What do we do?” William said.
“We wait for them to close the gates.” Olga clenched her jaw. “We wait until they’ve lowered their guard, and then we find a way in.”
Chapter 9
“They must have had an escape plan all along,” Olga said, William doing his best to match her pace as they jogged through the ruins. “When Edin fell, they could abandon it like proverbial rats. I wonder how many generations of protectors have been working on the place? So much for being Edin’s heroes.” She spat the next word as if to rid her mouth of the taste. “Bastards!”
Olga then darted from cover behind one collapsed building and charged towards another. Exposed for a few seconds as she crossed the main street, she then vanished into yet another shadowy wreck.
William followed her. They were still far from the fortress and exposed themselves as little as they had to. It would take keen eyes to spot them from this distance.
“I mean, what were they playing at? How did they sleep at night knowing they would abandon us in a heartbeat? We celebrated those snakes.”
Again, Olga ran off, denying William the chance to respond once more. She vaulted a collapsed wall into the ruins of the next building, scrambled through what had once been a window—the jagged square now framed with vines—and dropped into a low crouch as she duckwalked from the cover of one large rock to the next.
William sweated, the duckwalk setting his thighs alight with the muscle strain.
“It must have been why Magma chose Ranger to be the next apprentice. They obviously didn’t want the secret to get out. Best to keep it in the family.”
This time, Olga used the vines running up one of the buildings, scaling two floors before climbing through a collapsed window.
By the time William joined her, gassed from the climb, Olga stepped away, but he grabbed her before she escaped his reach. “Wait!” He leaned over his knees and gasped to fill his lungs. “I need you to slow down. We need a plan.”
They were now only about one hundred feet from the tall and seemingly impenetrable perimeter surrounding the fortress. Guards peered over the spiked wall. Sentries looked for a reason to sound the horns around their necks. Smoke rose from somewhere inside.
“It’s quite a cosy little set-up,” Olga said. “You’re right, we do need to think of a plan, because whatever happens, I’m getting in there. And before you say it, I’m not waiting until night-time to bust into the place.”
“You think I’d want to wait that long?”
“You’re too cautious sometimes.”
“Some would say safe.”
“You would say safe.”
“Look, Olga, you need to slow down a little. Making decisions when you’re this tightly wound—”
“Tightly wound?”
“See what I mean?”
Olga folded her arms and sniffed.
“It will only lead to trouble. I need to get to Matilda and Artan as much as you need to get to Max. We’re in this together. We need to be sensible.”
The gates were as tall as the fence on either side. Ten feet, maybe more. They didn’t have the spiked tips of the rest of the perimeter; they didn’t need them with the number of guards on watch. “Any approach to the front of this place and they’ll see us from a mile away. There’s a hill around the back, I wonder if we’re better getting to higher ground. We might be able to see into the place and better assess what lies ahead.”
Although Olga drew breath as if to reply, she held it in and dropped her gaze. “You’re right. Sorry. I get so pissed off, and, I mean, look at what they’ve done. They’ve betrayed an entire city. But I get it. Thinking like that won’t get us anywhere.”
“We still don’t know who built it. You’re only assuming it was the protectors.”
“It makes sense.”
“That doesn’t make it true.”
William led the way this time, hanging down from a rusting metal bar next to them and dropping to the ground. The gentle pad of Olga’s feet touched down beside him as he said, “Let’s get around the back and see what’s happening.”
About fifteen minutes later, they’d ducked and darted from one hiding place to the next as they moved around the back of the complex. Every atom of William’s being urged him to move quicker. What were they doing to Matilda in there? Had they already given her to Ranger? Even if he did get her out alive, what kind of damage had they inflicted on all of them? God knew Artan had already had his fill.
An old tower behind the fortress, it stood taller than most. Four floors remained accessible to them. Although, Matilda would have made it all the way to the sixth. William led Olga to the second floor. High enough, a window in the back wall overlooked the complex. It’s perimeter almost square, the same spiked and solid defence surrounded the place. “Well, it’s a start at least,” William said.
“What is?”
William rubbed his thick hair, dust and small chunks of masonry falling from it. “All the guards are watching the front gates.”
“That’s because it’s the only way in.”
About a quarter of the fortress had been given over as space to grow crops. “They’ve had this place for so long they’ve managed to set up a farm,” William said. “I wonder if it’s a community that’s been here for a while and the protectors have only just come to it?” Slanted roofs jutted away from the other side of the wall closest to them. Huts of some sort. Hard to tell from their current position. It must have been where the residents slept. In the middle of the complex, a large fire burned. It had a boiling cauldron of water over one section, while over another they had a spit with what looked like roasting foxes. “That must be how they clean their water.”
“I think your question about who this place belongs to has just been answered,” Olga said.
Several large men and women approached the fire. The bald head of Crush, her dark skin shining in the sun. The red-headed Viking lookalike, Rayne, behind her. It stirred the bile in William’s stomach. The bastard had recognised Matilda and sold her out in a heartbeat. Warrior, Axle, Hulk, and Fire also approached. They formed a line much like they’d done on national service. Militant. Dominant. They waited for Magma and hi
s pathetic son. “Okay,” William said. “I think you’re right; the bastards have been selling us a lie for decades.”
Even with the distance between them, Magma’s deep voice carried through the ruined city. “This ain’t Edin! You’d do well to remember that. This fortress belongs to the protectors. You do what we say, or you find somewhere else to live. Now, you’re used to national service, so while we do have a wall and we do extend it because we have plans to grow, the work’s voluntary.”
The beginnings of a new section on William’s left, the area had been cleared away and several large wooden fence posts driven into the ground, mapping out the space they intended to claim.
Trent’s tall figure stood out in the crowd. The smaller boy from the national service area stood beside him.
“The work we expect of everyone is that you hunt,” Magma said. “If you offer no value to us, you have no place here. You’re free to leave at any time.”
The crowd consisted of close to one hundred people. No sign of Matilda, Max, or Artan.
Magma walked through them and counted from one to ten, touching the head of a different person with every number. The small kid from the national service area flinched at being number ten. “We have a hunting party due back soon. When they return, you lot need to go out. We keep going while we have daylight. Whatever else happens, we refuse to run out of food or water.” The cauldron continued to bubble beside him.
The screech of diseased behind them, William and Olga spun around. A pack of about ten people on the run. Men, women, boys, and girls. Several of them carried dead animals, and all of them carried spears. As many diseased as there were hunters. Although the hunters had a lead, the foetid creatures were gaining on them. “Look,” William said.
Olga gasped when she followed where he pointed. “Samson!”
As one of the men in the hunting party, Samson ran at the edge of the pack, tearing through the ruins by jumping, dodging, and ducking the obstructions in his path. “Jeez,” William said, “I wouldn’t have expected him to move that fast.”
“Maybe that’s how he ended up here. There has to be something about him that got him out of Edin.”
It made sense. “I’ve got an idea!” William jumped down to the next floor.
Olga landed beside him a second later. “What are you doing?”
“I think I know how we can get in.” He jumped to the ground floor.
“Why don’t I like this plan?”
“Do you trust me?”
“No.”
“You’re going to have to.”
“What the hell?”
“Samson’s going to get us into the community.”
“What? But he’s one of them now. Are you insane?”
Chapter 10
When they got to the ground, William rested a hand on Olga’s shoulder. “I need you to fight the diseased while I talk to Samson.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“You fight the diseased and I’ll persuade him to help us.”
She shook her head. “Why do I get the short straw?”
“Because I’m better at talking to people than you.” The ruins blocked William’s line of sight, so he tracked Samson through the man’s heavy footsteps as he drew closer, and shifted one building to the right. Samson might have glided through the ruins like a cat, but he hit the ground like an elephant.
Hopefully, William had judged it correctly. They didn’t need to be chasing after him to get his attention.
William hopped over another wall to his right into what remained of another abandoned building. No more than a footprint of the structure it used to be. Several strips of metal lay on the floor. When he stood on the end of one, the other end lifted, flipping a handful of rubble, which landed a second later with a crash.
William widened his stance and gripped his sword, his skin tightening with gooseflesh. Samson closed down on them, but behind by just a few feet came the uncoordinated stumbling charge of the diseased.
Bursting into view, Samson’s skin glistened from the exertion of his run. His scowl lifted and his eyes widened.
William pointed in the direction they’d just come from, leaping back over the wall he’d just crossed. “Follow me!”
The diseased wanted the world to know they were close. Their piercing shrieks snapped William’s shoulders into his neck.
Samson followed, five diseased charging into the space they’d occupied only seconds previously.
Olga held back, ducking behind a wall while William passed her. Samson tripped, stumbling as he fell into the shadow cast by the building. William let him past and lunged at his diseased pursuers. Olga closed in behind them.
Of the five, Olga cut down three and William two, their warm blood turning the front of his shirt damp, mixing with the stains from where Olga had whacked him. It wouldn’t be long before another wave found them.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Samson said, forcing his words through his heavy breaths. “It’s dangerous; you should come into the fortress with me.”
“No way!”
Samson stepped back and wiped his sweating brow with his thick forearm. He pulled his long hair from his face.
“We don’t get on with Ranger and Magma,” William said. “They’ve taken Matilda hostage.”
“Why would they do that?”
“We have history from national service. It’s a long story.”
“Did you get Artan out of the political district?”
The next diseased’s shriek pulled William’s attention away from the man. But it wasn’t coming for them. “Yeah, and the district doesn’t belong to the politicians anymore.”
“That’s one good thing to come out of this.”
William nodded in the direction of the fortress. “As well as Matilda, they also have Artan and Max in there.”
His large chest swelling and deflating with his breaths, Samson put his hands on his knees and leaned forwards. It took him a few seconds before he straightened again. “And Hugh, where is that mad bastard?”
The lump in William’s throat choked off his words. He shook his head, his eyes itching with the start of tears. More footsteps closed in. He grabbed the big man’s shoulder, his hand landing next to a dead squirrel he’d flung over it. He pulled Samson deeper into the old tower.
Two hunters shot past with three diseased on their tail.
When they were gone, William said, “We clearly don’t have long. We need your help. We need to get inside the fortress so we can free the others.”
“Are you insane?”
“Whatever it takes, we’re getting our friends out of there, even if it means burning the place to the ground. Although we’d rather not do that. We don’t have many allies inside those walls. Can you help us?”
“It’s a lot to ask.”
“I wouldn’t be asking if we had any other options.”
While shaking his head, Samson said, “Dammit, William. There is one way. The hunters enter the community through the back gate. It’s busy around there when the hunters go out and come back in, but otherwise it’s dead quiet. I can leave it open. But if I do, you have to promise me you won’t let the diseased in. That you’ll close it behind you. I’m risking a lot of innocent lives to make sure you two get in.”
“We promise,” William said.
“Okay, fine.” Samson lifted his head as if to listen to the rest of the hunters. They were getting away from him. “The next lot of hunters will go out soon after we get in. Give it about ten minutes before you try the gate. And we never had this conversation, okay?”
Taking one of Samson’s large hands in both of his, William shook it. “Thank you so much. Thank you.”
“Right, I need to get going. Remember, this has nothing to do with me.” After patting Olga on the shoulder, the strength of the man sending her stumbling to one side, he said, “Good luck.”
Samson jumped a wall close to him, skirted around a large grey rock, and ran across a
popping sheet of metal before vanishing through a crumbling doorway.
Olga stepped next to William and watched the space Samson had disappeared through. “So what do we do now?”
“We wait.”
“And you trust him?”
“Do we have a choice?”
Chapter 11
Closer to the back wall of the fortress, but still a few hundred feet away, Olga and William had climbed to the first floor of another wreck. They might have been nearer, but the spiked wooden perimeter still stood as impenetrable, the sharp tops daring them to break in. No way could they climb over. If nothing else, they’d be seen by the guards near the front gate.
A loud snap of a freeing lock. William and Olga pulled back. A gate opened in the wall. Invisible until that moment, William said, “No wonder they don’t guard it like they do the front. You’d have to know it was there to find it.”
The next hunting party emerged, every one of them burdened with a reluctant hunch. Although, despite his initial reaction to being selected by Magma, the boy from the national service area stood straighter than most. If any of them were going to be coming back with a squirrel or rat, it’d be him.
The gate slammed shut. The hunting party ran straight at where William and Olga hid.
Like William, Olga clung to the cold steel upright running through the once building. They shared a ledge just large enough for both of them. After checking her feet as if the small platform could give way, Olga said, “Do you think we picked the wrong spot?”
Before William could reply, the first of the pack ran into the building below. Soon all ten of them had gathered on the ground floor. If even one of them looked up …
A slight girl with blonde hair threw her arms up and spoke with a whine. “How the hell are we supposed to bring back animals? Even our best hunters are lucky to get a pigeon or squirrel.”
Beyond These Walls (Book 5): After Edin Page 5
