(eng) Michael Robertson - Beyond These Walls 01 by Protectors

Author:Protectors [Protectors]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

As he stepped through the gates, Spike looked around for the diseased and the person who’d reined it in.

The woman with the dreadlocks snorted a laugh at him. “It’s no good being alert now. When you’re out in the field, you’ll already be dead by this point.”

Spike clenched his jaw and looked at Matilda again. She’d turned pale. As much as he wanted to promise her everything would be okay, he didn’t. Instead, he took in the national service area. A large open patch of grass in front of him, it stretched all the way to another set of gates like the ones they’d just walked through. A crowd had gathered in front of them, and he nearly asked the woman who they were. But he’d already had more than he could take of her.

The stocky woman moved at quite a pace for her short legs. Spike jogged a couple of steps to keep up before looking around again. A large wall on his left cut off a section of the national service area. It had a gate in it that led through to the space beyond. Over his right shoulder and behind him, he saw a wooden fence. It too had a gate in it. They’d surely find out soon enough what lay on the other side of each one.

As fascinating as Spike found his surroundings, he kept glancing at the crowd down by the gates. What were they doing there? Again, the question rose and died in him.

Between them and the gates at the end stood several huts. Many of them were about the size of an average house and must have been where the cadets slept. There were a couple of larger buildings that must have been used for the more communal activities. Made from wood, they looked like they could be taken down and reassembled in the new national service area whenever they were ready to move on.

The short and stocky woman stopped by a pile of bags and pointed down at them. “Leave your things here. You need to go and meet Sarge by the main gates. And you need to be quick about it, the last class of cadets are coming home now. It’s their final day today.”

“You could have told us that sooner.”

“What?” the woman said.

“Well …” Spike threw a hand in the direction of the gathered crowd. “They look like they’re waiting and we’re holding them up.”

“They’re not waiting for you. The other cadets will be coming home whether you’re in the crowd or not. Jeez, you think the world revolves around you, don’t you? Let me guess, you’re an only child?”

Although Spike didn’t say anything else to the woman, Matilda dipped her a nod on her way past and said, “Thank you.” She didn’t look at Spike.

The woman spoke in a loud voice, clearly for Spike’s benefit. “You’ll go far, sweetheart. Good luck.”

Spike watched Matilda break into a jog towards the crowd before he set off after her.

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