Falling Ashes (23 page)

‘Only the good-looking ones,’ she smiled. The woman had long dark hair that was stuffed messily inside her cap. Everyone wore the same charcoal grey uniform with the Realm’s sigil on the shoulder, with the exception of the Medics, who had a green leaf on their shoulder as well. Jack found the Medic’s logo very ironic considering his surname was Greenwood.

‘I’m Ethel,’ she said. ‘You’re the new Medic, aren’t you?’

He nodded. ‘Jack. Nice to meet you.’

Honestly, Jack did not find it nice at all. He had no interest in being friendly with, or even talking to, those who were supporters of the Realm. Yet as he did not want to give himself away as a ‘human empathiser’ he was forced to socialize with such people.

Now that Jack was a member of the Realm’s army, he was living on the vast grounds. All guards shared a large bunker, which was filled with bunk-beds. Men and women were housed in these bunkers together, at least twenty to a room.

‘So why’d you decide to join?’ asked Ethel.

Jack had been asked this question a few times since joining the Realm’s Guard five days ago. He was ‘the new guy’ and was the butt of many jokes and pranks. But he’d worked out a generic answer to this question. ‘I want to protect our way of life,’ he said for the umpteenth time that day.

‘Yeah,’ said Ethel. ‘I’ve heard that one before.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

She shrugged, walking quickly to keep up with Jack’s long strides. ‘It means you’re lying.’

Jack scoffed and quickened his pace. He wanted to get back to the bunker before any guards put more worms in his bed. He hadn’t enjoyed waking up in the early hours of the morning with things crawling all over him.

‘So why did you join?’ he asked.

‘To fight,’ she said, balling her hands into fists. ‘To help my country.’

Jack rolled his eyes and quickened his pace. Ethel broke into a jog to keep up with Jack. She did not seem to be able to take a hint.

‘So why did you
really
join?’ she asked.

Jack stopped at the mouth of his tent and turned to face Ethel. She looked expectantly at him.

‘I’m a healer,’ said Jack. ‘I don’t like fighting or conflict if it can be helped. So I’m going to do my best to help those stupid enough to fight.’

And with that, he entered the bunker, ignoring the shocked look on Ethel’s face.

~

The next morning, Jack awoke and immediately ran his hand over his shaved head. For a moment he couldn’t remember whether it had been a nightmare or not. But the realization of his own baldness was not what had woken him.

The other men and women in Jack’s tent were being rather unruly for such an early hour. The sun wasn’t even up yet, and they were already fighting amongst themselves. If they didn’t shut up soon the quadrant leader would have them running laps of the camp.

‘Oi, Greenwood,’ one of the men shouted. His name was Barney, and he was a particularly fat man who often complained a lot. ‘What did ya do with your trousers?’

‘What?’ replied Jack, confused, though a moment later he realized that he was not wearing any pants. They’d stripped him whilst he slept and taken his blanket. ‘Son of a-’

Jack tried to jump up to grab some clothes from his bag, but went crashing to the ground, realizing the boys had tied his ankles to the bed. They roared with laughter as Jack struggled to untie himself and regain what little dignity he had left.

‘I get it,’ he said, pulling on a pair of spare trousers. ‘Pick on the new guy.’

‘No, no,’ said Barney, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. ‘We aren’t picking on you because you’re new.’

‘Yeah,’ said a second man named Axle. ‘We do it because you’re a pansy.’

They roared with laughter again. Jack, his ears bright pink, and his face red, gathered up his shoes, socks, and shirt and bustled from the bunker. He could hear the lads laughing as he left.

‘Where ya going, Greenie? Off to have a cry? Aw, we’re only having a laugh!’

Jack decided to go for a run to clear his head. It was dark and sprinkling outside, but he didn’t care. A lap around the grounds would do him good.

‘The things I do for love,’ he muttered.

‘Talking to yourself?’

Ethel appeared on Jack’s right, jogging to keep up with him.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ he said. He didn’t much feel like talking to anyone at the moment, especially the woman who had shaved his head. The cold around his ears was still bothering him. ‘Look, I really wanted to run on my own-’

‘Are you mad at me?’ she asked, panting as she tried to keep up. ‘Did I do something wrong? You know I had to shave our head, right? All the men have to do it-’

‘Why would I be mad at you? I don’t know you,’ said Jack.

‘Well, we can get to know each other,’ she said with a smile. ‘Everyone needs a friend, especially here.’

Jack scoffed and slowed to a jog. It was too difficult to talk and run. ‘Well, the guys here aren’t very friendly.’

‘Why? What did they do?’

‘Never mind,’ said Jack. ‘It was nothing. Just a joke.’

Ethel’s face became stern. ‘It was Axle, wasn’t it? Or Barney, right?’

Jack’s silence answered her question.

Ethel rolled her eyes. ‘Ugh. Those boys are idiots. I can help you get even, if you like.’

‘I don’t want to make things worse,’ said Jack.

‘Trust me,’ said Ethel, with a mischievous grin.

~

Jack completed the remainder of the lap around camp on his own whilst Ethel disappeared into the mist that floated down from the mountains in the early morning. By the time Jack had finished his run, he was hot, sweaty, and out of breath. The idea of a nice, warm soak in a bath was heavenly. Even holding onto Avalon would be enough to warm him to the bones. But he couldn’t have either of those things. The most the Guard had to offer was a bucket of cold water with a few holes poked through the bottom. You could hang the bucket above your head and water yourself like a flower. Though Barney had been quick to liken Jack to a weed because of his lankiness.

Hopefully, at this early hour, Jack would be able to wash without his clothes being stolen. Last time his bunker-mates thought it would be hilarious to burn his clothes. Jack had been forced to hunt down another uniform whilst completely naked, covering himself with his towel.

Grabbing his things, Jack proceeded to the designated wash area, a bucket full of water in his hand. 

He entered a stall, put his things on the bench, and hung the bucket up. He’d just finished undressing when a cry met his ears. 

Spinning around, Jack saw Axle, who was lying on the ground, howling with pain. Jack quickly wrapped a towel around his middle.

‘What’s the matter?’ Jack asked at once. He was highly suspicious that this might be a diversion so Barney could steal his clothes again. He approached Axle and was surprised to see fear in his eyes.

‘Stay away from me!’ said Axle, scrambling to his feet.

‘What did I do?’ asked Jack, rather bewildered.

But Axle did not respond. Instead, he bolted from the shower-rooms cursing.

‘What the-?’

‘Told you I’d take care of it,’ said a sing-song voice.

Jack spun around and saw Ethel looking over the stall wall.

‘What are you doing in here?’ asked Jack at once. ‘This is the men’s wash room. I’m … I’m not wearing anything!’

‘Nothing I haven’t seen before,’ she gave him a wink.

Jack felt his ears burning and knew he was blushing.

‘What do you want?’ he asked, tightening his grip on the towel around his waist.

‘I was helping you,’ said Ethel, her grin widening. ‘Do you like what I did to Axle?’

‘What did you do?’

Ethel held up her right hand, and a shimmering blue light appeared in front of her, like an invisible wall.

‘I put a shield charm around you,’ she said. ‘No one can pass through it without your consent. Well … until it wears off, anyway.’

‘Really?’ asked Jack, surprised. ‘How long does it last?’

‘A few hours, give or take,’ she said. ‘I can only ever generate one shield at a time, so you’d better appreciate it.’

‘I do,’ he said quickly. ‘Thank you.’

‘There’s a radius of three feet,’ said Ethel. ‘So be careful. It hurts when others touch the shield.’

‘This should be interesting,’ said Jack. ‘Is there a way to penetrate it?’

‘A few ways,’ Ethel admitted. ‘But I’ll never tell.’

‘No wonder you joined the Realm’s Guard' said Jack, ‘with a Power like yours.’

‘Yeah.’ Her smile dropped. ‘No wonder.’

Jack sensed a level of discomfort, so he dropped the subject.

‘Uh … so, do you mind?’ said Jack.

‘Huh?’

‘I’m … naked,’ he said lamely.

‘oh … OH! Right!’ Ethel’s brown skin became flushed red as she quickly disappeared behind the stall wall.

~

Jack woke to the sound of sirens wailing across the grounds. In a daze, he sat up and searched for his shirt. The bunker was dark, and people were moving around with panicked voices.

‘What’s the matter?’ he grumbled, swinging his legs out of bed and standing on unsteady feet.

‘Get up, Greenwood, the warning siren is sounding,’ said an urgent voice near Axle’s bed.

‘What? Why?’ Jack was confused. It was dark, and he was still half asleep. ‘Is it a drill?’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Axle. ‘Get dressed, quick!’

A booming voice sounded over the sirens, magnified a hundred times louder than its actual volume.

‘
ALL PERSONEL PLEASE PROCEED DIRECTLY TO THE DESIGNATED MEETING AREA. REPEAT. ALL PERSONEL PLEASE PROCEED DIRECTLY TO YOUR DESIGNATED SHELTER AREA
.’

Alarmed, Jack pulled his shirt over his head and followed Axle and Barney out of the tent, careful not to let anyone cross the three-foot threshold around himself because of Ethel’s shield that was still in place.

Jack had learned the different sirens, and his designated shelter area on the first day in the Realm’s Guard. He knew full well that the wailing of this siren meant something serious was going on. Together, they jogged towards the meeting point where the other men and women were taking their place in line.

Five minutes of commotion passed, but finally, everyone began to settle down. Jack saw Ethel a few rows ahead of him, and she turned and smiled at him as if she’d know he was looking at her. Embarrassed to be caught staring, he turned away and focused his attention to the front. A muscle-bound, dark-skinned man stood before the two hundred men and women.

‘Settle down, settle down,’ he boomed across the audience. Silence fell at once. ‘All right. There’s no need to panic. We’ve just received news from the Realm Headquarters that the Human Rebels and empathisers have planned an attack on the shipment of livestock bound for France. They plan to free the human livestock and turn them against their masters. It’s our job to go in there and defuse the situation. Of course, we want to handle this in a non-violent and professional manner, but as you know, that is not always possible. We’re going to deploy several parties to the ports in the hopes of preventing the loss of the trade with our foreign cousins.’

Jack could hear his own teeth grinding together as he listened to Sergeant Jenson’s deployment speech.
Attack
, Jack thought snidely.
It’s probably a small group of protestors, but they’re making it seem like a full-blown terrorist attack
.

But something was nagging Jack in the back of his mind. He recalled Elise Stalk, a member of H.E.L.E.N.A, mentioning that they would stop the export of live humans. At the time, Jack hadn’t taken her seriously; to pull off something of that magnitude would require a small army.

There was no way it could be H.E.L.E.N.A who planned to take down the human trade. The idea was preposterous.

‘Also,’ Sergeant Jenson continued above the chatter. ‘As you know, the head of the Human Registration, Korra Waterson, was the victim of a vicious attack by a human empathizer a couple of months ago. But thankfully, they were able to cure her.’

Jack gasped audibly, before clapping his hands to his mouth. Several people turned to stare at him, and Ethel giggled. Jack didn’t care if his reaction to this news was out of the ordinary. However, Jack’s heart was pounding. Had he really just heard what he thought; they’d found an antidote to the memory serum?

~

Jack went to run his hand through his hair, but met only scalp. He’d already forgotten that he was bald, just like all the other men who joined the Realm’s Guard. It was the day after the announcement of the cure, and Jack had not been able to get it out of his mind

He was currently stationed in one of the watchtowers on the perimeter. Suddenly, the door opened, and Ethel climbed the stairs, carrying a sandwich in her hand.