National Service by Michael Robertson

Author:Michael Robertson [Robertson, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Infected
Published: 2018-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

The flickering fire threw dancing light across the fronts of their clothes as they stood in a small circle around it. Past eleven in the evening, but none of them could sleep after the day they’d had. Bleach, Hugh, Spike, Heidi, Olga, Max, and Matilda. Hugh had given Matilda permission to join them.

Spike and Matilda stood shoulder to shoulder, Hugh on Spike’s left, but not quite as close. Like everyone else, Spike watched the fire. Both the warmth and the hypnotising sway of the flames gave him a focal point, the orange glow a blur through his tear-filled eyes.

They’d been there a few minutes before Bleach cleared his throat. “Elizabeth, you gave yourself in service to this great city. May your spirit watch over us as we grow and prosper. Know we won’t forget you when Edin is liberated from the oppressive control of trying to live in a world where the diseased exist. Know you are the reason we’ll get there.”

When Spike glanced across at Hugh, he saw the boy locked in a trance. Red rings encircled his tired eyes. He looked like he’d run out of tears.

The lull lasted for just a few seconds before Hugh said, “I knew Elizabeth well. We spent a lot of time together.”

While his friend spoke, Spike reached across and rubbed his back. He thought about what Elizabeth had told him in the dining hall. Hugh didn’t know about the gangs, and what purpose would it serve now? He needed to think of his love at rest, not living with the torment the gangs had forced on her before she left for national service.

An ironic laugh, Hugh shook his head. “Neither of us had plans to be protectors or politicians. Maybe we were foolish, but we had an idea that we could both work in the labs and live on site together. Liz was a wonderful person. She was funny, sharp, cutting when she needed to be. She kept her personality close to her chest, but when you got to know her, she shone like the sun.”

After a pause to get his breaths under control, Hugh said, “She would have been a wonderful mother and life partner. She had plans to be both. No doubt she would have ended up running the labs too. She could have done it all. She could have had freedom in our restricted city.”

Because he stood so close to her, Spike reached out with his fingers and touched the back of Matilda’s right hand.

“She’d still be alive if I was braver,” Hugh said.

Spike looked at his friend.

“If I wasn’t so focused on my fear, I would have seen she’d not made it back and been able to help her. I would have been able to get her away from Ranger and Lance.”

“We don’t know what happened on the other side of the wall,” Bleach said.

“Oh, come on. We know exactly what happened. It’s only that we can’t prove it, and because of that, Ranger gets away with it again.

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