“I know something else that would be an awful shame for everyone to find out about,” Spike said.

  Although Ranger turned back around to hear it, Matilda said, “Don’t, Spike. That’s not your story to tell.”

  A slight frown, Ranger looked from Spike to Matilda. “I must say, you have me quite intrigued.”

  When neither Spike nor Matilda replied, Ranger said, “You do know, Matilda, that when all of this is over, I can come and see you in the ceramics district. I can go wherever I want in the city because I’m the son of a protector. So whether I win the apprenticeship or not, I’ll be available. I just wanted to put that out there. I’m not sure William will make it to the trials with his condition.”

  Spike pushed off from his back foot, propelling himself forward as he slammed a hard punch into Ranger’s nose. His fist sank with a crunch, driving both him and Lance back several paces.

  While Ranger appeared to be trying to find his bearings, Spike threw another punch, Ranger’s head snapping to the side from the impact.

  Ranger rallied and yelled while reaching out and grabbing Spike by the shirt. He slammed his back against the wall, driving the air from Spike’s lungs. Wild-eyed, he sprayed Spike with spittle as he shouted, “I’m Ranger Hopkins.” He smashed his forehead against Spike’s, the collision sending a flash through Spike’s vision and giving him a tinnitus ring.

  Despite the wobble in his legs, Spike remained upright. He shoved Ranger back, driving him through the boys’ bathroom door, knocking it clean off its hinges to the sound of tearing wood. His teeth clenched and fists balled, Spike fell on top of Ranger and rained punches down on the protector’s son. Blow after blow, he’d destroy that cocksure grin. He’d shatter his cheekbones. He’d—

  A strong grip wrapped around the back of Spike’s collar and dragged him off Ranger. He twisted and turned to be free of it, but the person behind him slipped him into a headlock he couldn’t get out of. It took for the man to speak before he recognised Bleach’s voice. “Stop, Spike. Stop now.”

  A few minutes later, Spike and Ranger were standing next to one another on the stage in the dining hall. All of the cadets were still there. The coppery taste of blood in his mouth, Spike looked at Ranger to see his red and swollen face, his shirt sodden from where he’d split his nose. As before, when Spike looked at Matilda, she refused to look back at him. If he hadn’t thrown their relationship away before then, he definitely had now.

  The beat of Sarge’s limp moved across the front of the stage and the two boys while he addressed the room. “I won’t tolerate fighting. It’s hard enough outside those walls without you tearing each other apart inside them. Besides, it’s a fat lot of good being able to fight each other when you can’t fight them, wouldn’t you say, William?”

  Spike didn’t reply.

  “I’m taking the lie-in away from team Bigfoot and giving it to Dragon.”

  “But—”

  Sarge cut Ranger off, and what he said next made Spike’s blood run cold. “That’s not the half of it. As punishment for your behaviour, you’re both going to be spending a night in the hole.”

  Chapter 43

  Maybe the weather turning had affected Spike more than usual, or maybe the sight in front of him made him cold to his bones. Whatever the reason, he shivered, his stomach tight as he was led towards the large fence sectioning off the hole from the rest of the national service area.

  Juggernaut on one side, Ore on the other, they each held one of Spike’s arms in a tight grip as they marched forward. Ranger also due the same fate, Bleach and Fright ushered him towards the fence in front of them. When they’d first mentioned the hole, Spike wondered if it had been an empty threat. A bit like the bogeyman would come to get kids who didn’t behave. There seemed to be nothing empty about his current predicament.

  The clouds were grey and heavy with the threat of rain. They pushed down on Spike, their oppressive weight increasing with every step forward.

  When they stopped in front of the fence, Spike watched Juggernaut—who left him with Ore—walk over to the gate and free the large bolt on it with a sharp crack. As Juggernaut opened it, Spike tried to see inside, but from his current vantage point, he still couldn’t ascertain what his punishment would be.

  Bleach and Fright led Ranger through the doorway first. Following on their heels, Juggernaut and Ore took Spike through after him.

  On the other side, Spike saw four more fenced-off sections. Much smaller than the one at the front, each one had a gate in it. Each gate had a long metal pin hanging from its frame so they could be locked from the outside. From what he could see, none of the smaller sections had roofs. It looked like four open-air prisons. He could cope with that. In fact, he’d take that punishment all day long and laugh in their faces the next time they tried to use it as a deterrent.

  Like they’d done on the way in, Ore kept a hold of Spike while Juggernaut now closed the main gate behind them.

  Bleach and Fright led Ranger off to the right. When Juggernaut had finished with the gate, he and Ore led Spike left.

  The farthest left of the four gates, it opened more easily than the main one had, swinging into the cell beyond when Ore raised one of her heavy boots and kicked it. As they led Spike through, he got a closer look at the large metal pin hanging from the wall. At least a foot long and an inch thick, when it went through the metal hoop on the outside, the door would be nowhere near as compliant in granting someone access or escape.

  The second he stepped through the doorway, Spike’s stomach sank. A sparse ground with patchy tufts of grass, it had a hole in the centre of it. Too dark to tell how far it dropped, but it looked deep. A large beam ran above his head from one side of the cell to the other. It had a rope hanging from it. A thick rope with a chunky knot tied into it every few feet. It looked much like the rope they’d used on Juggernaut’s last challenge. Easy enough to climb up and down. Access to the hole wasn’t the thing they wanted to make hard here.

  Although Spike had kept quiet until that point, he shook his head. “You’re joking, right? The hole isn’t an actual hole, is it?”

  But neither Juggernaut nor Ore replied. Instead, Juggernaut held him while Ore grabbed the rope, which lay gathered on the ground like a large snake. She dropped it into the hole and Spike watched it unravel. It had been tied to the beam to allow it to hang down the centre of the pit like a plumb line.

  Spike jumped when he heard Ranger scream from the cell he’d been taken to. “No! I’m not going in there.”

  Until that moment, Spike had managed to contain himself, but a familiar feeling came over him that he had no control over. Rising up his body, it snapped his stomach tense. His lungs restricted and his throat dried. Although he tugged on his collar with his spare hand, it did nothing to ease the constrictor’s grip tightening around him.

  “Now,” Ore said while peering into the hole, her hands on her hips, “you have two ways down. The first one is you climb by yourself. The second is we throw you down there. Whatever happens, you’re going in the hole. You get to decide how you do it.”

  Despite his body feeling like it was shutting down on him, Spike wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing him protest. They wouldn’t change their minds, so there seemed little point. Besides, he had to learn to hold onto his panic if he was going to feel it so frequently. After shaking Juggernaut’s grip off, he walked to the rope and grabbed it, his hands sore from punching Ranger in the dining hall. So thick, he needed to hold the rope with both hands. He peered into the darkness. Despite the daylight above, he couldn’t see how far down it went.

  “Climb!” Ore said to him.

  Spike glared at the woman, who stuck her chin out and pulled her shoulders back. She looked like she’d be glad of the opportunity to throw him down there. He shook his head at her before climbing onto the rope.

  On the way down, Spike kept his back to the two team leaders.

  By the time his face got level with the ground, Spike heard Ranger again. “No, I’m not going in there. I want my dad. He needs to hear what you’re trying to do to me.”

  Spike’s arms and legs shook, struggling to support his weight as he continued his descent. When his head sank below ground level, the stench hit him. A vinegar reek of rot. He halted his climb and gripped tighter than before.

  Ore shook the rope as she leaned over the hole. It didn’t matter that he clung on, she could shake him free if she wanted to. “Don’t stop now, William. One way or another, you’re going down there. You’d be sensible to do it on your own terms. It’ll hurt much less.”

  A deep and stuttered inhale, Spike nodded to himself to keep moving and continued to drop down into the hole.

  No more than a ten-foot climb to the bottom, the second Spike stepped onto solid ground and let go of the rope, Ore whipped it away, dragging it back up to her. “Have a good time,” she called down, her voice echoing in the pit. “I’ve heard the nights are long in the hole. It should give you plenty of time to think about your attitude.”

  Again, Spike didn’t reply. Now he’d climbed down into the pit, the rotten vinegar tang had given way to the reek of damp earth. If he could see any farther than the beam of light surrounding him, he surely would see the walls alive with bugs. Worms, millipedes, beetles … A slow writhe twisted through his body to imagine them crawling on his skin. But as grim as it was, he’d take a night with insects over seeing any more diseased.

  The gate slammed above Spike, making him jump. He looked up at the grey sky and listened to metal scraping metal as they secured the pin. Too deep in the ground to hear any more of Ranger’s protests, he focused on his breaths. If they were going to keep him there for the night, he had to stand at ease before his body turned into one large spasming cramp.

  Spike heard something. He fought against the shake now running through him and peered into the darkness, the weak glow from above still bright enough to make it impossible to see his much darker surroundings. He stepped forward a pace.

  It sounded like movement.

  As his eyes adjusted, he saw a caged wall no more than four feet from where he stood. He squinted to look at it. Why did they have a cage down there? Maybe it stopped the hole from caving in.

  Then he heard footsteps. The slathering pant of a diseased. The slam of it crashing into the caged wall with a snarling hiss. Its pallid and wrinkled face twisted with fury. Its mouth opened wide and it shrieked at him as it reached through the bars.

  Spike stumbled backwards and fell.

  The cold damp ground soaked into his trousers as Spike sat there and stared at the horrific twist to the thing’s features. It bit at the bars, yellow teeth still in its foetid mouth. It pushed its entire body up against them. The press of the metal against its face looked painful, but it seemed hell-bent on getting any extra reach it could.

  It took for hands to touch Spike’s back before he screamed. Another snarling hiss behind him. He got to his feet and jumped away from the beast. A caged wall on his right. More of the creatures reached through. The swell of rage rose in volume.

  The noises of the diseased swirled around Spike, coming at him from every angle. It scrambled his thoughts as he spun around, every part of the caged wall showing another pair of arms desperate to get to him. His chest tight, stars in his eyes from his lack of breath, the sounds closed in. The air curdled with the stench of vinegar. The squirming hands wriggled on the end of pasty and atrophied limbs.

  Like in their last training session, Spike couldn’t contain himself. As his breaths grew quicker and shallower, his heart ached. He fell to the ground, but the diseased dropped down with him. Their hands reached for him, the long nails on the ends of their fingers clawing at anywhere his skin was exposed, his arms, his face … one even reached up his trouser leg, a deeper violation than any before it.

  Barely able to move, Spike’s lap turned warm with his own piss before he scrambled to the middle of the room into the beam of light cast from the stormy sky. He curled into a ball and hugged his knees to his chest, trembling like the sheep he’d seen in the gym.

  Although utterly alone, if he had to die afraid, better he did it in the hole without an audience. He’d been a coward since he’d started national service. He deserved nothing less than to perish in the darkness. Cold, wet, and covered in his own piss.

  Chapter 44

  The heavy and knotted rope fell next to Spike, dead straight like when he’d climbed down it. Although he saw the light change above him from where someone peered into the hole, he didn’t look up. Instead, he did what he’d done for the past few hours: he stood in the spotlight cast by the moon above, and he stared straight into the face of one of the diseased reaching out to get him. Unrelenting in its desire, the beast snapped, snarled, and hissed with the same ferocity as it had for the whole time he’d been down there.

  Where Spike had seen something to be scared of, he now saw something to pity. A pathetic once-human, the man in front of him looked so decrepit, he wondered how he remained on his weak legs. But having been knocked to the ground by one and felt their strength, he wouldn’t be deceived by their appearance again.

  The cold in the damp hole had found a way into Spike’s bones and he shivered where he stood. The wet patch on his lap remained sodden, turning as chilly as his surroundings as it bit into the front of his thighs. It served as a stinging reminder of his lowest moment. He’d pissed himself in fear of being attacked by something utterly incapable of getting to him.

  “William.” It sounded like Bleach’s voice. “Come on, it’s time to come out.”

  Spike continued to look at the twisted and bitter face in front of him. He continued to stare into its crimson hatred, and he continued to give it back with interest.

  “William! Don’t make me come down there and lift you out. It’ll just cause more drama because I’ll need to call for help.”

  Despite wanting to make it as difficult for his team leader as possible, Spike climbed the rope. The knots were as easy to scale getting out of the hole as they had been going in. When Spike got to the top, Bleach held a hand down towards him to give him assistance.

  Instead of taking it, Spike pulled himself out of the hole, his eyes taking a few seconds to adjust to the bright moonlight above.

  “Are you okay?” Bleach asked.

  Spike stared at the door out of there, his back to Bleach, who dragged the rope from the hole.

  “It was for your own good. We can’t let cadets get away with fighting during national service. It’s life or death outside those walls. The last thing we need is two hotheads trying to knock seven shades out of one another. You understand, right?”

  A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Bleach led the way out from the small cell and then through the main exit.

  The long dewy grass turned the bottom of Spike’s trousers as cold and damp as his lap. The slight breeze hit him as he walked into it. The dorms looked so small now. So constricting. How could he spend another five months there? And he’d have to sleep one room away from the arsehole next to him.

  Maybe Bleach saw the futility of trying to talk to Spike, because on the walk back he didn’t attempt it again. Maybe he knew Spike had half a mind to swing for him. Broadsword or not, he’d get one good punch in before Bleach realised he’d have to fight back.

  “Good night,” Bleach said as they entered the dorm, the rich lavender scent quite a departure from the muddy vinegar reek of the hole. He walked to his bedroom.

  Spike watched him move away before he looked at the entrance to his room, the sounds of Hugh and Max asleep inside.

  The moonlight through the gap in their curtains gave Spike a clear enough view. Despite how small the hole had been, his bedroom felt tiny, like the walls were closing in. Maybe he saw the weeks of monotony ahead. Fighting to win an apprenticeship he had no chance of winning. Fighting for a girl who’d already given up on him. It all seemed like such a waste of time now.

  Peeling the cold bite of his trousers away from his lap offered him some relief. A chilly nip in the air, he leaned down to pick up his pyjamas. They lay next to tomorrow’s training gear. Could he really do another five months of this? Could he go home to the agricultural district knowing he’d ruined his chance to be with Matilda because he didn’t have the stones to face the diseased?

  Instead of going for his pyjamas, Spike picked up tomorrow’s clothes and dressed in them. When done, he looked around the room at his two sleeping teammates. Other than the ring on his finger, he had nothing else he needed to take with him. In the quietest voice so as not to wake them, he spoke in a croaky tone. “Good luck, boys. You’ll be safer without me.”

  Because he’d not lived in the dorm long and, until now, hadn’t had a need to sneak out, Spike didn’t know which floorboards creaked and which ones didn’t. As a result, he walked out of the room on tiptoes, on edge with every step as he waited for a yawning alarm to give him away.

  The door to Bleach’s room hung open. Before looking in, Spike listened and heard the heavy breathing of sleep inside. That hadn’t taken long.

  Tiptoeing like before, Spike snuck across the front of Bleach’s room and out into the night. There had to be a corner of the wall like the one he, Matilda, and Artan should have used to climb out a few weeks previously. How different things would be now if he’d done that. Although, he probably would have panicked on day one and got them all killed.

  When a hard hand clamped on Spike’s shoulder, he yelled out and spun around. Bleach stood behind him. But he didn’t say anything to his team leader. He’d rather do more time in the hole than grovel for the man’s forgiveness.

  “Walk with me,” Bleach said.

  At first, Spike didn’t move, watching the man’s broad back as he strode away from him. When Bleach stopped and turned around, Spike shook his head, but followed this time.

 

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