Tales From Beyond These Walls | Book 1 | Fury, page 9
part #1 of Tales From Beyond These Walls Series
She raised her eyebrows. “Someone had a good night last night, then?”
Danko leaned around Hernandez. “Something you’re not telling us, new boy?”
Reuben continued to smile. “I had a good night’s sleep last night. That’s all.”
“That’s funny. From the way you’re grinning, you look like someone who’s been up all night. That maybe you’ve been enjoying your new status as a soldier.” Danko left it at that. No snark. No cutting remark. And one noticeable absentee whispering into his ear.
Reuben’s heart rate trebled when Groves arrived a few minutes later. His breaths shortened and his cheeks warmed. His voice came out as a high-pitched squeak. “Afternoon.” He coughed to clear his throat and lowered his voice. “Afternoon, Groves.”
She smiled at him. “Morning, Reuben.”
Hernandez stood on tiptoes to make herself visible over Groves’ shoulder and winked. Thankfully, Danko had gone to talk with Sarge.
Hicks’ arrival shortly after Groves threw a damp blanket over their mood. Her tense frame, her hard scowl. Volatile and ready to erupt given half a chance. Hell, she’d welcome the excuse to lose her shit. She’d actively seek it out. All three of them avoided her eye.
All the units were lined up and ready. Just three dogs going out today. They stood slightly ahead of the teams.
Sarge paced up and down in front of them. Hands behind his back, as always. His measured steps played their familiar metronomic tap against the asphalt. A man of routine. “This afternoon, I want you all to check the traps. We haven’t caught one of Fear’s soldiers in a few days. I’m hoping you’ll tell me something different when you get back.”
“Traps?” Reuben said.
Hicks glared at him.
When she returned her attention to the front, Groves reached back and touched the top of his right arm. “You’ll see.”
After they’d left the city, the rain came down so hard it stung. Storm clouds darkened the sky. Reuben hunched against the frigid assault, his neck sore, his back tight. He’d not yet visited this part of town. The streets were narrow and the old shops packed close together. Or what remained of the old shops. Many of the buildings had partly collapsed. Rubble had spilled into the streets like the entrails of a slit stomach.
Hernandez had to shout over the slamming rain. “This was the poorer side of town. But it’s easier for us to move through here with stealth because all the buildings are closer together.” Her eyes pinched and her shoulders lifted. She smiled and shrugged. “It might not be pleasurable, but this weather helps mask our steps too. Even the diseased will struggle to place us with so much extra noise.”
Around the next corner, they came to a building that stood out for being considerably older than the rest. Made from grey stones of varying sizes and shapes, it came from a time well before many of the decrepit structures that made up its surroundings. It stood in defiance of its derelict environment. The rain bounced off its wonky tiled roof. One of the few buildings that still had a roof. “What’s that place?” Reuben said.
“It used to be a public house.” Hernandez continued to be his tour guide, keeping her voice low enough to avoid Hicks’ involvement. “It was somewhere people would go to get inebriated, back in the day when alcohol was legal.” She snorted a laugh and shook her head.
“What?” Reuben said.
“Just imagine it! Imagine what Fury would be like if they let people drink. I’m so—”
Danko dropped into a hunch. Hicks raised her baton.
At first Reuben had mistaken it for a sinkhole. At least twenty feet long and six to eight feet wide. But the sides were too straight. This pit had been intentionally created. A blonde girl of about fourteen hung over the edge. Her upper body lay on the damp road, her legs hanging into the hole. She wore Fear’s blue uniform. Reuben leaned closer to Hernandez. “How young do they enlist them in Fear?”
“If they think they’re ready, and by ready, I mean able to hold a baton and swing it, then they enlist them.”
“They don’t have a choice?”
Hernandez shook her head.
“She’s just a baby.”
Hicks remained focused on the girl, but stepped back a pace to be closer to Reuben and Hernandez. She spoke from the side of her mouth. “A baby who chose the wrong day to get caught.” The frown she’d brought to their shift had now gone, replaced by a sadistic smile. She approached the girl, flashed her small teeth at the young soldier, and held a hand in her direction. Her sickly-sweet tone played a chill down Reuben’s spine and he shivered. “Let me help you up, sweetie.”
The temperature dropped, and the rain came down harder. Even Mother Nature feared for the young girl.
Hicks helped Fear’s soldier to her feet.
Skinny and wretched in her sodden clothes, the girl stood with her right foot raised on tiptoes and her right arm hanging limp at her side.
“It’s quite a fall, eh?” Hicks said.
The girl’s childish features buckled. Her bottom lip turned down. She quivered as she nodded. Her blonde hair, dark with damp, clung to her face.
“What’s wrong?” Hicks said.
The girl shook her head.
Hicks put an arm around her, pulling her tight, crushing her already broken right side.
The girl whimpered.
“You don’t need to be frightened of us.” Hicks’ tone was so smooth Reuben almost fell for it. He caught himself leaning towards her as if sucked in by an invisible force. “We’re all friends in this city.”
The girl turned away with a sharp twist and broke into a hobbling run.
Hicks laughed, giving the girl a lead of about ten feet before she darted after the wounded creature. One sweep and she cleared the girl’s legs from beneath her, kicking her so hard the girl’s feet lifted to shoulder height before she came down again.
The girl screamed when she landed on her right side. She rolled on the floor in the rain. “Please!” The girl flipped over onto her back, her feet slipping on the road from where she pushed herself away from Hicks. “I was on my first run, and I fell into that trap.”
Reuben walked with Groves and Hernandez, who followed Hicks and the girl. They passed the pit, the drop at least thirty feet to a ground covered in rubble. Sheer walls with no apparent hand- or footholds. “How the hell did she survive that fall?”
“And then climb out of there?” Hernandez said.
“If you let me go,” the girl said, “I won’t go back to Fear. I’ll leave this city and never return. You won’t have to worry about me.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Hicks shook her head, Danko now at her side. “It doesn’t work like that. You see, if one of your lot catches one of our lot, well …” Hicks spread her arms wide, palms to the sky. “Do you know what they’d do to us?”
The girl sobbed.
Reuben scanned their surroundings. Not that he wanted to see them, but if a small horde arrived now, it might give the girl a chance to get away.
“So you understand the situation we’re in? Besides …” Hicks’ cheery demeanour dropped like a rookie falling into a pit. Thunder rolled beneath her words. “I fucking hate rookies.” She cast a glance back.
Reuben balled his fists. He could catch her unawares and throw her into the pit right now.
“But, you know … on second thoughts.”
The girl raised her head.
“Who am I kidding?” Hicks took a two-step run-up and kicked the side of her face. The crack of her boot connecting boomeranged off the walls surrounding them. She pulled Fury’s flag from her back pocket, snapping it open in the strong wind before handing it to Danko.
Groves and Hernandez stepped back, and both of them turned the other way.
“Come on,” Reuben said, “do you really need to be so harsh?”
“She’s the enemy, rookie!”
“I get that, Hicks, and I get that we need to kill her, but there are a million different ways to kill someone.”
“And how I’d like to try every one of them out on you. Besides, new boy, what do you think they’d do to us? Jeez, You’re so fucking naïve.”
“Danko,” Reuben said, “if Fear’s army is going to do to us what Hicks says they will.”
“There’s no if about it,” Hicks said.
“Then it makes no difference what we do now. We could just end her. Make it quick and simple. And you know what, that compassion might inspire them to do the same to one of ours when they catch us. From what Hicks says, it can’t get any worse. Maybe it’s time to try something new?”
“Will you listen to him?” Hicks pointed at Reuben. “He’s so green he’s almost plant life. Although, I wouldn’t mind betting a lot of plant life is more dangerous than him. Are you really going to take anything this sapling says seriously? If you show Fear’s army you’re going soft, they’ll take advantage. They’ll think they’ve won.”
“Come on, Danko,” Reuben said, “you know it makes sense.”
Hicks’ voice grew louder, and her words gathered momentum. “What will Sarge say when he finds out you went easy on the enemy? That you felt any level of empathy for one of Fear’s soldiers?”
“He’ll think he’s human,” Reuben said.
Hicks sneered at him. “You have a lot to learn about Sarge.”
His knife in one hand, Fury’s flag in the other, his shoulders slumped, and his eyes already glazed with remorse, Danko mounted Fear’s flaccid rookie like he had the diseased, sitting on her chest and kneeling on her shoulders, pinning her to the ground beneath his weight.
“Danko,” Reuben said.
The first time Reuben had seen Hicks’ knife. Its tip now hovered an inch from his left eyeball. “Give me one excuse, rookie. Go on, I dare ya.”
Reuben drew a breath to settle his heart and held Hicks’ glare. The hammering rain filled the silence, the occasional drop bursting on the knife and splashing his face.
“Now come on, Danko,” Hicks said, pulling her blade away. “Remember what they did to Smith.”
His knife in his left hand, Danko gathered Fury’s flag in his right fist.
Hicks stepped closer. “And Wellington. And Scout. And Parker. And Wellbelove. And Bond.”
Each name added to Danko’s already violent shake.
“And don’t forget Anita Swan.”
“Yeargh!” Danko threw his entire bodyweight into the blow. His right fist, the flag poking from the sides, slammed into the centre of the fourteen-year-old’s delicate face.
One blow turned the girl’s nose into a bloody pulp. She gasped, her mouth wide.
Danko moved fast. He’d done this a thousand times before. Gagging her with Fury’s flag, he then used two thick fingers to push the red fabric deep into the girl’s throat, pulling them out before she bit him.
Reuben stepped forwards. “What the hell, Danko?” The girl’s face had turned puce, and her eyes bulged.
Danko ripped the flag from the girl’s mouth and turned on Reuben. Tears mixed with the rainwater soaking his face. He pointed his knife at him. “You’re on very fucking thin ice, new boy. Wind your neck in before I tear a ragged gash in it and leave you to bleed out on the road.”
Reuben stepped back to be with Hernandez and Groves. The slightest contact from where she touched the base of his back, Groves said, “You did all you could.”
“You only need one eye to see this.” Danko’s left hand shook as he pressed the tip of the knife into the girl’s right eye.
The girl screamed, kicked, and bucked, but she had no chance against Danko’s weight. Tears of blood ran down the side of her face. She cried like a diseased.
“That’s it,” Hicks said, bouncing on the spot, her face alive. “Make the bitch pay.”
Reuben shook his head and walked away.
“Where are you going, rookie?”
“I can’t watch this.”
“You’re ignoring your duty?” Hicks said.
“I want to fight for this city. I believe in the cause, and I accept I’ll have to kill Fear’s soldiers.” Reuben shook his head. “But not like this. This isn’t who I am, and this isn’t what the people of Fury demand. This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“Maybe you’re no soldier, then.”
“Maybe I’m not the one who’s confused about the role of a soldier.”
Hicks charged Reuben. But before she reached him, Hernandez stepped between them. She shoved her back, Hicks stumbling, her arms flapping to maintain her balance. The two women stared at one another. Bodies wound tight, fists balled. Hernandez might have been a foot shorter, but she had biceps like cannonballs. “You’ve gone too far, Hicks. You need to back off and calm the fuck down.”
Hicks’ green eyes narrowed before she turned around and walked back to Danko’s side. She leaned over his shoulder while he used his knife to remove the young girl’s ear.
Chapter 17
The same pose Sarge always adopted. Hands behind his back and a deep scowl on his weathered face. He marched a few steps out into the city like one of Reuben’s old wind-up toys and waited while Danko led his team back from another shift. “You look like you’ve had another encounter.” His mouth twitched towards a smile. “Another diseased?”
Reuben’s heart beat harder when Danko didn’t reply. No one ignored Sarge.
“He was amazing, Sarge.”
Fixing on Hicks, Sarge looked from Danko to her and back to Danko as if weighing up his options. Did he let Danko get away with such blatant disrespect?
“I think he’s just recovering, sir. Finding his way again after going to town on one of Fear’s soldiers. He sent them a message. It was a good job, but, I must say, it was also a lot for one person to endure. On both sides, Danko and his victim.”
“And …” Sarge’s predatory gaze narrowed on Danko. Did he let it slide? Back to Hicks, a slight loosening of his taut frame. “Did you leave a flag?”
“Yes, sir.” Hicks nodded. “He used mine. Damn near choked the bitch on it and then left it with her mutilated corpse. No room for ambiguity when Fear find her.”
Mirth ironed out the wrinkles on Sarge’s face. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Reuben’s stomach churned. Maybe Sarge only backed up Danko’s actions because he hadn’t witnessed them. Would he have encouraged what had happened had he been there? Could he have stood by? Had he done far worse himself when he went outside the city?
“So what happened?” Sarge said. “Give me the details.”
Like Sarge, Hicks had come alive because of Danko’s actions. “The enemy was trying to get away. She fell into one of our pits. By the time we’d reached her, she’d almost climbed all the way out. So Danko made a proper example of her. We only hope that Fear find her before the scavengers.”
“Did she put up a fight?”
Hicks shook her head. “We didn’t give her a chance.”
“Good.”
“She was just a kid,” Reuben said. Groves gasped and Hicks turned on him, snapping around so fast he barely saw her move. But screw her. He had to say this. “The soldier can’t have been any older than fourteen. At the most. She stood no chance against a fully grown man like Danko. He pinned her down and slowly cut her to shreds. There was no honour in what just happened.”
Sarge knocked Groves aside as he made a beeline for Reuben. “Are you saying we should have gone easy on her? Let her live?
Malcolm’s words rang through his head. Don’t lose track of who he is. Easier said than done when staring down the barrels of Sarge’s fury. A shake of his head, Reuben said, “No. Not at all.” He lowered his gaze and twisted away from their enraged leader. His sodden uniform clung to him. “I’m just questioning the choice to cut her to shreds.” His voice wobbled. “We were always going to kill her. Surely that sends enough of a message? Why then burst her eyeball, cut her ears and nose off, tear her torso wide open, and …” He sighed. “We could have done all that to her corpse if we’d wanted to send a message. How can we walk through the streets of this city with our heads held high if this is what we do to minors? What do you reckon the people of Fury would think of us if they saw that? How many of them would thank us for our service if they found out what really happened outside the walls?”
“The enemy takes many forms,” Sarge said. “A tiger’s fur might be pleasant to stroke, but the animal will still bite your head off when it gets hungry. And Fear are hungry. In fact, they’re ravenous.”
“I didn’t say we shouldn’t kill her.”
Sarge’s features hardened. “I’ve given you a chance to speak. Now shut the fuck up.”
Hicks walked around Sarge and grabbed Reuben by his shirt. “Go home, rookie, before you talk yourself into some serious trouble.” She dragged him away from the group and shoved him towards the city. “And don’t think I’ve let this slide.”
Several stumbling steps, Reuben turned around and faced Sarge again, shivering from the damp press of his uniform.
“Are you deaf or something?” Sarge said. “You’d do well to listen to her. I’ve only got so much patience, and I’ve already reached my limit.”
Hernandez and Groves walked back into the city side by side. Groves shook her head at Reuben. Condemnation? Friendly advice? Either way, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t lose himself while doing this work. If he gave up his morals, then what remained? Why bother? He held his ground.
Sarge closed the gap between them and cuffed Reuben around the side of the head. The crack of his thick hand felt like being hit with a wooden club. Reuben’s ears rang.
Hatred replaced Sarge’s stoicism. He gritted his yellow teeth. Spittle flew from his mouth when he said, “Fuck off, rookie. Learn when it’s your turn to speak, and learn when to shut the fuck up. If you don’t get away from me, I will make an example of you. What just happened to that girl will be a breeze compared to what we’ll do to you.”
“Besides,” Hicks said, “we’re back on shift in a few hours. Go home and get the rest you need. You’re tired, and it’s been a stressful day. I’m sure you don’t know what you’re saying right now. The ice beneath your feet might be wafer thin, but it’s yet to give out. Remember that when you take your next step.”
