Tales From Beyond These Walls | Book 1 | Fury, page 13
part #1 of Tales From Beyond These Walls Series
“What about all the people who do serve in the military?”
“They know to keep their mouths shut. They know what’s good for them. That’s the other thing I’ve been meaning to tell you. You can’t speak out about this. Much like you can’t talk about what happens outside the walls. What really happens, I mean. The torture. The underhanded nature of warfare. The people of Fury need to think this is a valiant war. That the people fighting it are true heroes rather than sadists and psychopaths.”
“And if I do speak out about it?”
“It won’t end well for you. But you still have a choice, and I wanted to make sure it’s an informed choice. The military might be for you, and no judgement if it is, but if not, you can have a better life than I’ve had. If, after ninety days, it isn’t right, then don’t sign up. Work in the fields. The factories. The butchers.”
The girl’s punctured eye stared at Reuben from his memories. Her severed ear. “Thanks, Malcolm. And I’m sorry for what’s happened to you.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for. It’s not your fault. In fact, you’ve done more for me than anyone in this city. If they had someone like you in charge, I’m sure it would be a very different story.”
“And maybe that’s a reason to stay? Force change from the inside?”
“It’s that or lead a revolution. But it’s hard to revolt when very few people see the need. They’ll keep sending their kids to soldiers to thank them for their service, and they’ll remain grateful every day. As long as the war doesn’t make it into the city, then what do they have to complain about?”
Reuben’s head spun. “Everything I ever knew was a lie.”
“Not everything.” Malcolm hugged him. “But a lot of it is.”
Reuben broke away. “I need to get some sleep. We’re back outside the walls again soon. I’ll get your sandwich to you later, okay?”
“Do me a favour, leave it for today, yeah? Rest and recover.”
“But—”
“Honestly, I don’t need it today.”
“Thanks again, Malcolm.”
“See you soon, son.”
The tall man hunched as he ducked under his bridge and vanished into the shadows. Maybe Malcolm needed a son just as much as Reuben needed a father.
Chapter 24
The start of a new day, the sun delivering an eye-stinging reminder to Reuben of how little time he had left before they were due back outside the city’s walls. How little sleep he’d get when he arrived home. He’d nearly gotten them killed last night. How much of a liability would he be when he went out again with so little rest?
And of course Sarge didn’t think he’d earned a day off, despite coming back much later than the others. Despite being left high and dry by his unit. Or, more likely, by Hicks, who would have persuaded Danko to lead them away from the car park the second they emerged. He could have visited Malcolm another time, but he’d needed to see him. Needed someone to help him rearrange his thoughts. Although, after Malcom’s guided tour of the city and revelation about what happened to those who’d served in the military …
How had the city kept the homeless vets a secret from the rest of the population? They’d convinced the people of Fury that staying in at night had always been a choice. A choice with consequences if they didn’t comply, but a choice all the same. Why go out after dark anyway? Everything shut down for the evening. Unless you were a soldier, what need did you have to move around at night? What were you doing wrong?
What would Reuben do at the end of his ninety days? The military had been his sole focus for years. Without that, what did he have? But could he keep fighting a savage war without end, purpose, or morals? A war neither side could, or were meant to win. Were the batons and knives a choice made by the leaders of the two cities? Arm the soldiers with guns and flamethrowers and things would get resolved fast. After all, they had dogs and drones. Did they come from another society, or did both Fear and Fury make them themselves? A few of each to help maintain balance. To give the dumb soldiers a shot of confidence as they left the safety of their city’s walls. With what he now knew and what he suspected, how could he even consider signing on for life when his three months were up?
Reuben’s home occupied the ground floor of what had once been a small two-bedroom house. It had been converted into two bedsits. The entrance to his place sat around the side of the small building where the old back door used to be. He halted when he rounded the corner. “Groves? What are you doing here?”
“Reuben!” She’d been sat on his doorstep. She jumped to her feet and walked towards him. Her skin pale, she had bags that looked like bruises beneath her eyes.
“Have you slept?”
Groves threw her arms wide and wrapped him in a tight hug. She pulled back and looked from one of his eyes to the other, her own glazed and swelling with tears. “You’re alive! I knew you were. I had a feeling you were all right.” She shook her head and blinked, which ran two damp tracks down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry we left you behind.”
“What were you going to do? Wait for the drones to attack you because I’d led them all from the car park? I nearly got you all killed. I was stupid. If the dogs hadn’t turned up, I would have died and deserved it. How long have you been waiting here?”
“When we got back from our run-in with the drones, I went home to check on Dad and Annabelle before heading over. So what happened to you?”
“It’s a long story, and you need to sleep. We’re going out again in a few hours. As much as I’d love to hang out with you, neither of us will be grateful for this time when we’re on patrol later. I’ve nearly killed you once with those drones. I won’t do it again by contributing to your sleep deprivation.”
Groves held both of Reuben’s hands. Her grip warmed his own.
Wobbling where he stood, Reuben’s head pounded and his throat dried. But he had to say it. What better chance would he get? “Uhh …” Every trip outside the gates could be the one that ended him. Or her. “I’d … I mean … I …” He leaned towards her, fighting against his own self-doubt. What if she rejected him?
But Groves met him halfway, pressing her lips to his.
Reuben’s fatigue vanished, driven away by the sweet contact of her soft kiss.
When they pulled apart, Reuben said, “I’ve wanted that to happen since I met you.”
Groves smiled. “Me too.”
“Will you tell me your name now?”
Groves shook her head. “You need that to ask me out on a date. This isn’t a date!” The slightest smile lifted the rest of her tired face. She leaned in and kissed him again. “I’m so glad you’re okay. See you later, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Reuben nodded.
Groves walked away.
Reuben smiled when she turned around, and then released a hard sigh as she vanished from sight. He opened his front door and fell into his small bedsit. He’d get an hour’s sleep. Not great, but better than nothing. He shed his clothes in a line that led from his door to his bed and fell onto the soft mattress face first. His mind ran laps of his skull. He didn’t have to decide for a few months, but could he really leave the military now? Had Groves just given him the best reason to stay?
Chapter 25
Every step loaded with reluctance and exhaustion, Reuben fell into his clumsy jog on his way to the front gates. Before he’d started national service, he’d been able to run for days, but his lack of sleep had left his body unresponsive and his chest tight. Nausea balled a fist around his stomach, and every time one of his feet slammed down, his throbbing brain rattled in his skull. He would have been better off not sleeping at all. The hour in bed only showed him what he’d missed out on now he had to report for duty.
The units were lined up before the already open gates. The first line of five on the left were exiting the city. Fortunately, his team remained.
Groves stood at the back of the line. She half-turned to him and spoke from the side of her mouth. “I dallied a little to give you time to get here.”
“Thank you.” Reuben leaned forwards, his hands on his knees to help him breathe.
But he had no time for rest, his team setting off a second later. As he passed Sarge, Reuben leaned away, repelled by the heat radiating from the man’s scolding disdain.
A few metres clear of the gates, Reuben called ahead, “Groves, thank you for waiting for me last night. It’s made everything else worthwhile.”
Hicks slowed down, killing any chance of a conversation and forcing Reuben and Groves to catch her. Her green eyes were dead. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you were late.”
The reply left Reuben’s mouth before he caught it. “I don’t give a shit what you noticed. You’re not in charge of this unit.”
Another unit passed them while Hicks ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. She pointed her finger at Reuben. “You need to watch yourself, rookie.”
“Are you telling me I’m wrong? Shall we check?” He cupped his mouth with his hands. “Hey, Danko …”
Their bald leader had halted a few feet ahead with Hernandez. His rounded shoulders were raised, thickening the back of his neck as if his hard scowl started in the middle of his shoulder blades, crawled over the back of his head, and pushed his brow down to his chin.
Reuben pointed at Hicks with the thumb of his right hand. “You need to watch this one. She’s talking like she’s in charge of this unit. I’d keep an eye on that knife she carries in case it ends up in your back.”
Hicks’ thin lips receded. “You’ve crossed the line, rookie. Don’t think I’ll forget about this anytime soon.”
“Fuck off, Hicks.” Groves gasped. But fuck Hicks. Whether he left at the end of his ninety days or not, he wouldn’t take her shit any longer.
Growing redder by the second, Hicks once again jabbed a finger at him. But the words never left her open mouth.
The explosion shook the ground, and Danko took off in its direction.
On her way back to the front of the unit, Hicks called back over her shoulder, “Don’t think I’ll forget your insolence, rookie.”
About twenty of Fury’s soldiers had already reached the explosion site. They’d been planted in a different road to the one Reuben had previously seen. They were much closer to the edge of the city. Eight dogs paced between them. Enough to deter the drones, or at least deal with the threat should it arrive. Many of the soldiers had their batons raised, and they scanned their surroundings. But whatever had triggered the landmine had gone.
“That’s strange.”
Reuben leaned close to Groves. “What is?”
“I’d expect to find the splattered remains of a diseased at the very least. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we find one of Fear’s soldiers painted across a wall.”
“Lucky?”
“You think they’ll have a better end if they’re still alive?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“It’s quick. It’s all you can hope for if you die in this city. But—” Groves pointed at the charred ground and then looked up and down the street “—there’s no evidence of what triggered the mine.”
The loud clang of metal being struck a street or two away. The dogs took off, their clack-clack leading the charge.
Groves shook her head. “This doesn’t feel right.”
But Danko had already joined the other leaders in following the dogs.
“You should say something,” Reuben said.
“To those two?”
“Why not? It might save their lives.”
“I’m not sure they’ve ever been receptive to anything before. What makes you think they will be now?”
And he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to speak up. Life under the rule of Hicks by proxy had little patience for ideas and opinions.
Two streets away, the dogs slowed their pace. Shops on either side of the main road, those along their right side had statues on the roofs. They were the ones they’d previously seen from a different vantage point. Now they loomed over them. Sinister and predatory, they would have made sure the citizens of the old city knew what they had to sell and that they damn well bought it. A large M on one, a smiling face on another, a chicken, a donut.
Like every soldier there, Reuben scanned the roofs for signs of a retreating enemy. Had they gone through the sewers while everyone watched the sky? Adrenaline had driven away his fatigue, but his breathing remained laboured. Before he could catch it, the dogs set off again on something’s trail. The leaders followed them, and he followed the leaders. They ran down an alley toward a tall metal tower. The structure had been one of the few to not fall victim to the virus of gnawing corrosion that had infected every other building he’d come across.
The front runners roared. Reuben and the others quickened their pace. They broke from an alley and found the reason for the charge. They’d found one of Fear’s soldiers and gave chase. A solitary figure dressed in blue. As solitary as Reuben had been the previous evening. If they caught the man, they wouldn’t spare him. With the number of Fury’s soldiers present, they’d probably make him more of an example. The punishment could last for hours. And what could Reuben do about it? Like any of them would listen to the pleas of a rookie.
Fury’s army carried a wall of sound with their charge. The clack, clack of the dogs underpinned the war cry.
Again, the front runners rounded the bend ahead of Reuben. Again, their sound revealed what lay in wait. Or, rather, their lack of sound. A moment of utter silence. Not even a second, but it lasted forever and spoke volumes.
Reuben halted the second he saw it. They were outnumbered at least five to one.
The hum of Fear’s drones. There were twice as many as Fury had dogs.
The blue-uniformed army released a war cry that humiliated the one Fury had led with.
A stampede flooded forwards. A force too great to overcome.
“Shit!” Groves said, tugging on Reuben’s arm, dragging him away and breaking him from his stunned paralysis. “We need to get out of here now.”
Chapter 26
Would Reuben have stayed and fought had Groves not pulled him away? Hard to say for sure, but he’d not yet spent long enough in Fury’s army to lose all his good sense. There were too many of them. Even if he and his comrades fought like angry gods, they had no chance of winning this battle. Thankfully, a few seconds after he and Groves retreated, the rest of Fury’s soldiers came to the same realisation.
The whomp of the dogs’ flaming attack bought them a few more seconds, a wall of searing heat that held Fear’s soldiers back. The stuttered burst of the drones’ Gatling guns responded, the ting of bullets hitting metal bodies. The battle between the machines threw up an impassible screen of conflict, but it would rescind, and when it did, there would only be one winner. Fury’s only hope lay in how much of a distance they could put between them and their enemy.
Where Danko’s unit had been near the back of Fury’s army, they now led the retreat. All of them save Hicks. Almost every other soldier ran for their lives, but she stopped with several others, forming a line between Fury’s retreat and the enemy. Fear were armed with either batons, knives, or poles. If the drones overcame the dogs, they’d get mowed down where they stood.
Reuben glanced back in time to see a hole appear in the dog’s shielding wall of fire. Some of the mechanised canines were already down. Hicks and the others shifted across so they stood before it. She led the cry and threw her knife into the gap. “You shall not pass!”
Before she could yell again, one of Fear’s soldiers burst through the smoke. He silenced her with a baton blow to the head. Tonk! Her knees buckled. As the gap in the flames grew, at least a hundred blue uniforms flooded the main street, burying Hicks and her brave band of fools.
“Look!”
Groves pointed at the rooftops. Two teenagers ran with them. They were either tracking their escape or fleeing Fear’s army. Dressed as civvies, the boy and girl jumped from one building to the next.
Hernandez and Danko caught up to Reuben and Groves. Fear’s army had ripped through Hicks and her band of brave idiots. The front runners were faster than anyone in Danko’s unit and ate away at their lead.
“We’re not going to make it,” Hernandez said.
His face puce, Danko looked back.
“I know you don’t want to hear it,” Reuben said, “but if we stay with the rest of our army, we’ll die.”
“Fuck it!” Danko yelled. He slowed down, allowing two units to pass them. “Follow me.” He peeled away and ducked down the next alley on their right.
A shop on one side, a tall warehouse on their right. One window in the warehouse’s wall, the ledge about five feet from the ground. Danko dived through it into the large building.
Hernandez and then Groves followed him through.
Reuben reached the window last. Too dark to see what waited for them on the other side. But what else could he do? He stretched his hands out in front of him and dived into the unknown.
Danko and Groves caught Reuben on the other side. Hernandez stood back, her hand to her forehead. Blood streamed down her face. The ground crunched with broken glass; it shone like glitter on her wound.
“Come on.” Danko ran to the other side of the warehouse. The window lower and taller, he jumped up onto the ledge and leaped out into the next alley.
Chapter 27
The screams from the main road rang through the city. Fury’s soldiers were falling to Fear’s attack. Danko’s unit might have evaded them for now, but they were by no means safe. They’d bought time, but they weren’t back inside their city’s walls.
Danko had led them left from the old warehouse. They were back out in a wider street. Flanked on either side by shops, Reuben filled in the blanks. In his mind, he replaced the windows. He re-erected the signs. He added the people. No conflict, just a busy, functioning high street. But the wind soon shoved his imagination aside. It played the large empty structures with a deep bass hum. It resonated with abandonment. The road, just like every other asphalt surface in the crumbling city, had cracks along it with streaks of green grass packing the breaks. A promise of this city’s future soundtracked by its wailing requiem.
