Chapter Nine
I woke up with puffy eyes and wet cheeks. I didn't remember crying but the evidence was there.
Taylor was still out. His arm was wrapped tightly around me so I had to wriggle free. I stretched, enjoying the feeling of freedom in my joints after a night spent squashed in a corner. I looked down at Taylor, tucked my legs underneath me and considered what he had said when we were exploring the house outside The Wall.
Maybe he was right, we weren't the same as we used to be. The boy I'd grown up with was gone and there was a man slowly taking his place.
His hair was darker than it had been when we were younger and his face was all straight lines though it hadn't lost any of its appeal, just the boyish roundness that used to be so familiar.
Looking at Taylor was like looking at myself. He was constant and steady and he made me feel like I was home no matter where we were. I suppose he would be considered handsome and I had noticed girls taking an interest in him, but to me he was just Taylor. He stirred in his sleep and I gave him a shove.
"Wake up. I'd rather be ready before the Wardens come looking for us," I said, ducking aside as he threw the pillow my way. He sat up straight and looked at me with a frown. Waking Taylor was always risky.
"Damn. I was hoping it was all a nightmare," he grumbled, rubbing at his eyes.
"Dream on. Can we get out?" I asked the wall which obligingly slid out of place. Laurie was standing on the other side as if she had been about to open it.
"Hi." I smiled up at her as she took in the sight of us clambering out of the single bed.
"I didn't realise you two were together," she said, looking between Taylor and me.
"Oh god no." I laughed. "He's practically my brother."
"We aren't actually related though. So it's not impossible," Taylor said, looking a bit hurt.
I glanced at him but I wasn't sure what to say to that. Laurie looked at the two of us as though trying to decipher our response.
"Well I've come to make sure you're ready for combat training, so suit up," she said. Her eyes lingered on Taylor's bare chest a moment longer than was really necessary before she turned away to wake up Evander in the other closed bed.
We put on our camouflage gear and followed her out of the dorm. She took us down a long corridor past the other dorms, which were considerably bigger than ours, to an open training room. Evander followed us. I still hadn't heard him speak and it didn't look like I was about to anytime soon.
The training room was split into three main sections. The first area had treadmills, exercise bikes and other cardio and fitness equipment. It was very similar to the gym we used back in the city.
The next section was ringed off and empty, save for the floor, which was covered in crash mats. Then there was an area with target dummies in a line along the far wall and a huge rack filled with different guns and knives.
"As there are just three of you, I've been put in charge of your training," Laurie said. I glanced at Taylor nervously and he raised his eyebrows marginally in response, Laurie could only be a year or so older than us. Laurie tutted. "I know I'm still fairly low level but don't look so worried. I'm more than qualified to teach you this stuff." She lead the way over to the cardio equipment.
"I need to push you a bit harder than usual today so that we can get fitness assessments on each of you. I know you all workout in the city so it should be easy enough." She moved to a side table and picked up three little boxes with electrodes attached to them.
"I'll just hook you up to these and then if you could use a treadmill to each run ten miles as fast as you can that would be great." She smiled sweetly as she attached my electrodes then hopped onto a nearby table and crossed her legs while we got onto the treadmills.
"Go." She waved a hand at us and we started running. Laurie pulled out a book and started reading with an annoying smirk on her face.
I had spent two hours in the gym five times a week in the city since I was fourteen which was a little more than the standard requirements and I enjoyed it. So Laurie was right in saying it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. However, knowing we were being judged on everything we did made me push as hard as I could.
I glanced over at the other prisoners who were starting their training too. Dolly, the woman with the scar, acted like nothing I had ever seen before. I watched as she sparred with a time server. The man approached with his fists raised and Dolly didn't react. He got close, almost close enough to reach out and grab her but she stood still, watching him through narrowed eyes.
He lunged forward but she had already ducked aside. She used his momentum to fling him to the ground and started screaming. Dolly leapt onto his back and started clawing at the man's face like she was possessed. He thrashed and tried to throw her off but couldn't.
Wardens started shouting warnings at her but she ignored them. After the third warning they stepped forward and fired their tasers. She shrieked and collapsed as the man crawled aside, clutching his bleeding face.
There was a bitter taste in my mouth as I looked away and concentrated on my feet instead of the other convicts.
Laurie alternated between playing on her tablet, filing her nails, reading her book, checking our readings and getting us water as we ran. I could feel the sweat pouring off of me, but it felt good.
Taylor finished first, I was fifteen minutes behind him. Evander was struggling.
Laurie gave us a ten minute break which I spent huffing in a collapsed heap on the floor, before moving us to work on the punching bags. It was actually really satisfying to smack things, but Laurie kept correcting my technique and was constantly shaking her head at me.
"Keep your thumb out of your fist or you'll break it," she called. I adjusted my hand and swung at the bag again.
"Lead with the knuckle of you're forefinger, it's stronger and you can protect the little ones." I altered my swing again and the bag thunked at the impact. Laurie crossed the floor and stood behind me, she nudged the backs of my knees so that they crumpled a bit.
"Keep your knees bent so that you can keep the movement going, and stay fluid in your motions. If you're too rigid you'll hurt yourself."
She kept offering pointers and I kept adjusting my method in accordance until she had no more to say.
Evander took another hour on the running machine and seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble with it. Laurie didn't comment, but I knew that Taylor and I had done well.
Once we had had the longest workout of my life and I was sure I wouldn't be able to walk, run or move in any way at all by the following day, Laurie announced we were ready to begin.
I groaned audibly and she shot me a wicked look from under her lashes.
We moved onto the crash mats and I dragged my feet the whole way. Evander looked like he was going to collapse as Laurie showed us some basic grappling techniques. She explained ways to use an enemy's weight against them and how to dislodge a hold.
"I know you shouldn't see any combat officially, but we give you the same training as the others so you'll have a decent chance of defending yourselves in an emergency," Laurie told us.
We watched a ferocious looking woman, who was built like a bull, fling herself at a grumpy little man from the time servers group on another mat. He screamed just before she took him out.
"How often is a messenger killed?" I asked.
"Not often." Her response did little to reassure me. "But it's not fair to send people out there without any training, even if they shouldn't have to use it. Come on, if any of you can land a hit on me I'll give you a lie-in tomorrow." She raised a hand and beckoned us forward with an annoying grin on her face.
Taylor went for it first but he swung his arms too wide and gave her plenty of warning before he even got close. After several failed attempts and more than a little laughter from me, he tried charging at her but Laurie just stepped aside at the last moment and tripped him so that he fell on his face.
Tears were running down my che
eks as I tried, and failed, to contain my amusement and I noticed some of the other Wardens around the room frowning over at us.
"I just don't want to hurt you," Taylor protested as he regained his feet.
"Don't worry, you won't." Laurie smiled sweetly. "Oh I meant you can't. I can take you on with my eyes closed." She stood back with her arms spread wide and shut her eyes to prove her point.
Taylor took a deep breath before starting towards her. As he drew near he snapped his fist forward and was mere inches from her stomach when Laurie twisted aside and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, using his momentum to throw him on his ass. She opened her eyes and grinned down at him.
I was gasping for breath and our red haired companion was cracking a smile too.
"I presume you're laughing so hard because you expect to find this easy?" Laurie asked, gesturing me forward.
The smile slid from my face and I shook my head.
"No. Honestly, I'll learn more from watching," I said.
"I don't think so." She raised a hand and beckoned.
"Do you want to go first?" I asked Evander.
"No," he said simply, leaving me without a choice.
"Come on chicken, show me where I was going wrong." Taylor gave me a shove as he moved off of the mat. I stepped forward reluctantly and stood in front of Laurie. It didn't help that she was about five inches taller than me and she still had that gun and taser lashed to her belt.
I thought about the advice she had given me on the punchbags and tried to implement some of it.
I decided the best thing I could do would be to swing a punch at her face as quickly as possible, but she knocked it aside practically before I started. I followed with a left hook but that was no more successful. I threw a succession of punches at her face and chest and even tried to twist around and hit her in the kidney but she knocked me aside with ease every time.
After about ten minutes I was huffing and my hair was sticking to my neck but Laurie had barely broken a sweat.
"You're too hot headed. You get angry and it just gets easier to predict your moves," Laurie said, which only really helped to incite me more. I jabbed my elbow at her but she dodged it, without even looking my way, and laughed as she offered Evander a chance at her.
"She can be kind of a cow," I whispered to Taylor.
"You just can't stand losing," he replied, looking at Laurie with unconcealed admiration.
Evander hit the mat with a thump.
"I'll just have to be satisfied with beating you then." I smiled up at him.
"Good luck with that, shorty."
Evander crashed to the ground again and Laurie beamed.
"Okay, now I'll show you how to use some weapons," Laurie announced with a little too much enthusiasm.
The knives turned out to be plastic replicas, weighted correctly but not sharp enough to cause any real injuries. She showed us how to use them in close combat but also how to throw them at a target dummy which would light up with different colours: red for a skim, yellow for a hit in an outer limb, green for a lethal hit.
I watched as some of the time servers threw knives further along the room. Most of them were getting red or yellow lights which made me feel less worried about failure.
The first time I let the knife fly, I released it too late and it flew to the ground where it bounced. The knife arced upwards and back towards me, smacking the top of my boot with a thump.
"Aren't you glad we don't let you play with the sharp ones?" Laurie smiled and I couldn't help but agree on behalf of my pinky toe which was throbbing even through the tough boot.
I soon learnt the knack of throwing the knife straight at the target and started to get some hits. The other two weren't picking it up nearly as quickly and I felt a twinge of pride as I got my first green light on only my eighth throw.
Taylor pulled me into a hug and I smiled broadly.
I watched as he threw again and the target lit up yellow.
After I hit six green lights in a row, I got a big smile from Laurie which helped to sooth my hurt pride. The others got more hits in before long but could only manage reds and yellows.
"We can come back to this tomorrow, now I wanna show you the fun stuff," Laurie said. She led the way to the guns, which turned out to be replicas which fired lasers.
There were all types of guns from pistols to shotguns, rifles to revolvers. Laurie showed us how to load and fire each one in turn which took us the best part of two hours, as she wasn't satisfied until we could remember how to do everything without prompting.
We lined up before the targets and Laurie passed us each type of gun in turn so that we could get a feel for them.
I liked the power of the bigger guns but found it hard to hold my aim with them as I fired and the recoil got me every time. Taylor found it easier to absorb the impact, probably in part due to his bigger arms and shoulders.
The pump action shotgun was my favourite, it didn't matter if the aim was a little off or if the recoil was a bit much for me as it gave such a wide range of shot when fired. Plus I liked the sound it made.
Laurie, however, insisted that I got used to a pistol too, which she said was a much more practical weapon to rely on.
I grasped the semi-automatic pistol in my right hand, my index finger resting lightly against the trigger guard. I used my left hand to support the weapon and made sure my thumbs were clear of the hammer which would fly backwards as the gun was fired.
I removed the safety catch and took a deep breath as I steadied my aim at the target. I exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The target instantly lit up green. A huge smile split my face as I looked to Laurie for approval.
"Nice!" She moved forwards and slapped me a high five.
I watched as Taylor and Evander took aim, Evander managed a red hit but Taylor missed. He shot me a look as though daring me to laugh. I bit my lip to stop myself.
Each morning it was harder to get out of bed. I had thought I was fit before but we were working out at a whole other level. My muscles locked up overnight which wasn't helped by the fact that Taylor and I were still cramming ourselves into one small bed.
A hot shower each morning helped me to loosen up but it was followed by Laurie setting us increasingly difficult tasks. We worked alongside the lifers and time servers but never interacted with them directly. Laurie tried to keep us as far as possible from Dolly, the lifer who's name sounded like a twisted joke to me, and Grey, though I felt his eyes following me more often than I would have liked.
My aim with both knives and guns continued to improve and I took delight in my new found talents. I could reload and reassemble each of the guns without prompting too and Laurie showed us how to clean and sharpen our knives properly.
I wasn't making much progress with the hand to hand combat though. It seemed simple when Laurie showed me how to move and keep my temper in check but I just couldn't put it into practice. Every time I failed I could feel myself getting angry which made me more predictable, which annoyed me even more, which made me lose focus and fail miserably.
Taylor threw me to the mat every time I took him on and I had no chance of ever landing a hit on Laurie as far as I could see. I did better against Evander. He still wasn't friendly which helped as I didn't feel too bad about punching him.
"Just don't let anyone get near you," Laurie advised. "Take the shot, don't hesitate."
It was harder to avoid the lifers in the canteen. The Wardens kept an eye on us from their table at the far end of the room but they were more concerned with eating their own food, which was considerably nicer than ours.
We arrived late, I'd lost my temper during combat training and Laurie had taken pleasure in making me do a hundred push-ups. Taylor had loyally refused to leave me behind and was rewarded by joining me in my punishment.
My arms and shoulders burned with fatigue and my stomach grumbled hungrily.
The hall was laid out with rows of cafeteria tables and it w
as packed solid. Some of the convicts were loud and brash, shouting challenges and insults across the room to each other which occasionally deteriorated into scuffles. Others sat in silence, refusing conversation with anyone. A few groups had formed alliances, with the idea that they would stick together once the actual fighting began.
No one was interested in us. No one it seemed, except Grey.
He sat in the centre of the canteen. A crowd of men and women swarmed around him, hoping to gain an alliance with the most dangerous man in the room. It was hard to tell if he intended to stick with any of them but he never sent them away.
His eyes followed me as we found a spot at the side of the room and sat down. I ducked my head so that I couldn't see him anymore and inspected my meal.
It was the same everyday. A highly nutritious pile of slop. It tasted of something somewhere between stale bread and cold porridge with a few spoonfuls of salt. I sighed and started eating.
"Imagine being a lifer. This would be the only meal you would ever eat until the day you died," Taylor said, letting a wobbly spoonful slide back onto his tray.
"What's got you so cheery?" I teased.
"You know me, always looking on the bright side." He smiled widely and stuffed a huge spoonful of the mush into his mouth. "Delicious!" He rubbed his belly and sighed appreciatively. I laughed quietly.
The group sitting on our table stopped eating and glared at us. I felt a blush light my face and stared determinedly at my tray until I was sure they had turned their attention from us.
Taylor reached across the table and took my hand. I glanced up at him in surprise.
"Don't let this place change you," he said.
"I think it's a bit late for that."
"No. It's making us stronger but it doesn't have to change who we are inside." I looked at his grey eyes and felt something flutter in my stomach.
"What's this? Love's young dream?" a gravelly voice cooed from somewhere above me. I snatched my hand back as though it had been burnt and spun around.
Grey loomed over me, smelling strongly of sweat. I dropped my spoon with a clatter and shrank away from him. A small crowd of his followers gathered around our end of the table so that the Wardens couldn't see what was going on.
Taylor tried to stand but a burley man appeared between the crush of bodies and gripped his shoulders, pressing him back down into his seat. A cold prickle of fear ran down my spine.
Dolly slinked between the bodies surrounding us and leant forward over Taylor's shoulder, the hair that was remaining on her head trailed down his chest. She reached out and pulled his chin around so that he faced her, her nails digging into his skin.
"What a pretty face," she hissed. Taylor jerked backwards, dislodging her grip but the man moved to stop him from standing again.
"What do you want?" I asked in a voice that sounded braver than I felt.
"That's a good question," Grey purred menacingly. He reached out and ran a lock of my hair through his meaty fingers. I stiffened and felt a surge of adrenalin run through my body but I didn't move.
I glanced at Taylor who seemed at a loss for what to do as much as I was.
"We're just being friendly," Dolly smiled widely. Her facial muscles tugged on the scar that dominated the left side of her face, making her eye bug out. She leaned closer to Taylor's face and his lip curled back in disgust.
The crowd of followers surged closer so that the press of bodies totally concealed us from view. Grey tugged at my hair again and I jerked away from him, managing to get to my feet. My legs were pressed against the table as I leant back, the bench I had vacated the only thing between us.
"Don't touch me," I snarled.
I wished I had some kind of weapon. The crowd started to murmur excitedly, waiting to see what would happen next. I held Grey's eye and waited too.
He regarded me through narrowed eyes for a moment that stretched on agonisingly. He took a step towards me. I leant back against the wooden table but there was nowhere for me to go. He took another step so that he was almost touching me, his legs pressed against the bench which was the only barrier keeping him away.
He leant down so that his face was inches from mine and smiled slowly. Each of his yellow teeth came into focus one after another and a waft of rancid breath washed over my face.
"What are you gunna do to stop me?" he growled.
My heart stumbled mid-beat and there was a pounding in my ears.
"Leave her alone," Taylor said fiercely from behind me.
Grey's eyes lifted in his direction and he started laughing. It was a deep, rumbling chuckle that rattled up his throat and through his teeth. His gang of admirers joined in appreciatively.
"Yeah, what are you gunna do lover boy?" a large man with a long beard catcalled from the crowd to my left.
Grey stopped laughing instantly. He turned and swung his fist through the air so quickly that I flinched in shock. The man with the beard hit the ground with a sickening crunch and blood started streaming from his nose. He yelled and writhed on the floor as his friends backed away from him.
"Break it up!" Unibrow's voice boomed over the noise.
The crowd glanced at Grey as they started to disperse. He stared at me, a gleam in his eyes. Slowly, he raised his fist and wiped the bearded man's blood down the front of my jacket before turning and walking out of the hall.
Dolly sauntered after him and the double doors slowly swung shut.
I sank back into my seat and sat on my trembling hands.