The Wall

Listen to this short story here.

Wind whistled, somewhere below me. Or above me. I groaned, trying to open my eyes. Everything stayed dark. There was a pressure on my face. I gasped a little, the fog in my head clearing quicker. I tried to think. The pressure was... me? I groaned again, bringing my hands up to my shoulders. Placing them on the ground below me, I pushed myself up slowly. My arms ached. Every muscle, from my neck down to my toes, shook with the strain. I tried to open my eyes again as I did, and a flash of light had me clenching them shut. Pain shot across my face as I did.

As I straightened my arms, I rolled to the side and sat up. I lifted a hand to my face, prodding delicately with my fingers. One of my eyes was heavily swollen, shut from the bruising, the other only tender to the touch. I opened the tender one, shielding myself again from the bright light. I looked down at my legs. The left was in bad shape, the fabric of my trouser legs torn and shredded. The skin underneath wasn't much better.

The metal of my right leg glinted as I moved, a flash of light from somewhere above me reflecting off the polished surface. I frowned at it for a moment, the action sending another bolt of pain across my face. I groaned to myself, bringing my knees up to my chest to stretch off my lower back. I held onto them, one warm and bloody, one cold and smooth. Something popped in the small of my back. I sighed deeply, letting my open eye shut.

That was when I heard it. To be specific, that was when I didn't hear it. Everything was silent, except for the occasional gust of wind rustling... something. It was somewhere off to my right. I opened my good eye again, turning to look around myself. The muscles in my neck strained as I peered to the right, eye trying to focus on a shape in the darkness surrounding me.

The light that had hit my leg earlier was gone. A low, dark blue glow seemed to be emanating from somewhere above me, but it was only enough to make out indistinct shapes.

Something rustled again, from the direction in which I was peering. A shadow flickered. I gasped, one hand coming to my chest. It wrapped around something hard hanging from my neck. I fumbled with it, keeping my eye trained on the shadowy thing out there. The trinket hanging from my neck was triangular, slightly elongated downward. Two of the corners were softly rounded, a ragged edge between them. The corner pointing down was sharper.

The shadow moved again vanishing into a deeper darkness next to it. I flinched, pricking my finger on the sharp point of the necklace I was wearing.

'Fuck,' I whispered, sucking the tip of my finger quickly. Fucking hurt.

I realised I had looked down as I spoke. Glancing up again, I searched for the shadow that had moved earlier. It was there, the same blurry shape as before. It hadn't moved. I shook my head, instantly regretting the throbbing that came from it. I had imagined it.

I decided I had sucked my finger enough.

With some effort, I slowly got to my feet. Each and every muscle groaned as I did, my joints - organic and mechanical - creaking and popping as I straightened up. I cracked my neck and turned my head side to side - slowly this time. Sighing, I stretched my arms out to the side.

My fingers brushed something to my left. I froze. What the -

My thought was cut short as the something brushed my fingers again. I pulled my hand back, stumbling a couple of steps in the opposite direction. I stared into the darkness, praying wildly that my eye would suddenly adjust to the lack of light.

There was another rustle, coming from the direction I had just moved away from. I squinted, ignoring the pain on my face. If I focussed hard, and maybe imagined a little, I thought I could just about make something out, there in the shadow. I strained to listen, but the only sound in my ears was the thumping of my hearts, taking turns pounding in my chest.

'Turn your lights on lad,' came a voice from over my shoulder.

I screamed, jumping forward and spinning at the same time. I slipped, scrambling to keep my balance as I frantically looked around for the source of the voice. A chuckle came from the darkness ahead of me.

'Watch out, this'll be bright.'

With that, a blinding light flashed into existence in front of me, flooding an oval on the ground before my feet. I looked up, eye mostly closed to block out the torchlight. A figure stood at the other side of the oval, holding a torch in one hand. Standing at about two metres tall, he was a little shorter than me. He smiled as he noticed me taking him in, the glint of metal in his mouth making me cringe.

'Didn't mean to frighten you lad,' the man took a step toward me, the oval of light bobbing along with him. 'Where's your light?' He peered at me, scanning my hips and chest, searching for something.

'I, umm, I don't, I,' I stuttered, unsure how to respond.

'You lost it? What a joke you new recruits are. Here, hold this.'

The man thrust out his hand holding the torch. I took it from him, fingers wrapping around the warmed metal of the handle. I looked down at my hand, the scrapes and cuts marring the alabaster skin. The man crouched, looking at my legs.

'Your knees are really messed up, huh. Let me see what I can do, mate.' He shrugged off a bag he had been carrying on his back, rummaging through it.

I looked up slowly, peering into the darkness again. Inside the oval of light, it seemed to be even darker now. Beckoning to me, drawing me toward it. I lifted the torch slowly, the edge of the oval stretching away from me. The man grunted, reaching up and grabbing my wrist.

'Are you fucking insane?' he hissed at me. 'You cannot shine the light that high. Did you skip your first day of training or something?'

I frowned, confused. I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by the man.

'Anyway, I need the light. Or do you want your joints to seize up?'

He positioned my hand to shine the light on my knees and the ground in front of me. From his bag, the man pulled several bundles of cloth and a pair of scissors. Working quickly, he cut the remains of my trousers away, above the knee, squirrelling the scraps back into his bad. He cleaned up the cuts on my left leg, smearing them with a foul-smelling salve from a rusting tin that burned as he applied it. Then he wiped my right leg with a cloth, bits of blood and dirt coming away from the metal easily. Finally, he squeezed a couple drops of some kind of oil from a plastic bottle into the exposed knee joints.

'Give that a couple flexes, and you'll be right as rain again.' He grinned up at me as he replaced the bundles into his bag, shouldering it and coming back to a stand.

'Thanks, umm,' I said, realising I didn't know his name. I reached out a hand. 'I'm... I'm...'

'No names. That's another basic rule they clearly skipped.' He took my hand anyway. 'Right, Wall's this way, let's get going. We've got a saferoom nearby. Some food and warmth away from those slithering bastards.'

'From what?'

The man dropped my hand.

'From the shadows.' He took a half-step toward me, looking up at me. His nostrils flared. 'Those timeless terrors, those barbaric beasts, those wretched wraiths.' Every syllable was punctuated with acrimony. The man stared into my eyes for a moment. 'Anyway, food and warmth. Let's get going'

Pulling the torch gently from my hand, he stepped back and grinned. At the mention of warmth, I realised I was shivering. No, I was shaking. Fuck.

The man began to move away, walking slowly in the direction he had come from. I started after him, my right knee squeaking quietly for the first couple of steps. I hurried to catch up, wary to keep my steps quiet.

'Hey, so, umm, there was something earlier. Right before you spoke. I touched something. Or maybe something touched me. Anyway, it was -'

The man held up a hand.

'You probably don't want to know what it was. Better not to ask questions.'

He hadn't looked back as he said it. Nor had he slowed. I kept pace, limp shifting from one leg to the other as the oil loosened one knee, and the muscles in the other began seizing from the cold. I heard a rustle behind me. Without looking, I sped up.

~

'Evening all,' the man said as we walked into a bright room.

I went to close the door behind me as I entered, but stopped, realising there wasn't one. The man, who I had resolved to call Derek in my head, was crossing to the centre of the room. He just had the look of a Derek.

An electric furnace buzzed away, with several tins perched on top of it. Three people were huddled around it. The room was about three metres high, with lamps hanging from the ceiling in various spots. They swung slightly in the wind whistling past my ears.

'A newbie,' Derek said, pointing behind him toward me. The other three figures looked up, nodding or jutting chins toward me.

'You look like shit,' one of them said to me.

'Should see the other guy,' I replied, smiling.

'I'd rather not,' came the reply.

I sat down next to them, reaching out my ghostly hands toward the furnace. My fingers bristled from the warmth, pins shooting through my digits. Looking down at my legs, I frowned at my left knee. The cuts seemed smaller than earlier. The skin itched, but the heat from the furnace in front of me soothed it somewhat.

'So, newbie, how long have you been working The Wall?' The woman sat next to me had turned to face me, peering into my eyes.

'Not long, I don't think. Look at the face.' Derek replied for me. I opened my mouth to say something, then frowned again. 'Don't think any of the training took. Doesn't seem to know a thing.'

The woman frowned.

'Do you know where we are?' she asked.

'The Wall?' I asked in response.

She nodded.

'You know what we do here right?'

I looked at her and blinked.

'Okay,' the woman sighed, 'I would guess concussion. We are here.' As she said it, she pointed toward a metal plate on the floor. The electric furnace had been placed on top of it. I squinted.

'It's a maze,' I said.

'No, it's a wall.' The woman waved away my protest before it left my lips. 'They tried to map it years ago, but it shifts all the time. From what we can tell, it's one continuous wall. Hence, the name. Get it?'

I nodded.

'Good. We are here to keep watch. The city is on one side, the wastes on the other. And in here, us and... them.'

'Them?'

'Don't ask. Look, just know this. Most of the time, nothing happens. When we have to fight, we fight. The rest of the time, we just wait until our contract finishes.'

'Fight?'

'I said don't ask.' The woman sighed.

'Oh come on,' said the other woman, sat across from me. 'The shadows are fine most of the time. We leave them alone, they leave us alone. As long as we don't disturb them, everything is fine.'

'What are they?' I asked. The four people around me gasped. The second woman leaned forward after a moment, whispering.

'The shadows? They are called-'

Everything went dark. For a moment, I thought I had gone blind, my one good eye giving up. Then a flash of flight passed in front of me. I heard something large thud to the floor.

'They're here, get your batons out!' Derek shouted, his voice echoing around me. Three lines of light appeared, extending a little over a metre. More flashes of flight began to flit around me, darting to and fro. The people in the room began swinging their batons at the flashes.

I scrambled forward, searching frantically with my hands. My right knee clanged loudly against the metal floor below me. Another loud thud sounded off to my right, echoing in the room. My fingers grasped something warm and soft. A flash of light passing by lit up my hands. I was holding the woman's exposed neck. I gagged, snatching my hands away. From the light of another flash, I snatched up the baton lying by the woman's side. It was nothing more than a handle.

Righting myself, I backed away from the headless corpse on the floor. I grasped the baton handle in my hands, alabaster knuckles somehow becoming even paler in the ghastly light of the flashes around me. Breathing heavily, I tried to calm myself. I fidgeted with the handle, glancing down at it with every flash of light that passed me. They were coming closer now.

Something clicked in my hands and I almost dropped the handle. Fumbling with it, the handle extended, shooting out away from me to it's full length. Another click, and it began glowing a bright blue. I grinned.

Another thud in the darkness, another baton going out.

'Swing that damn thing,' came a shout from behind me. Derek was the last one standing. Other than myself.

Something darted toward me from the shadows, a beam of light streaking across the room. I swung, hitting it squarely as it entered my range. There was no resistance as my baton hit it, but it fizzled out in front of me. I gasped, blood pounding in my ears, my body already stepping into another swing as a second beam of light headed my way. A third, then a fourth. I cut them down with ease. I must have been a natural.

A thud came from behind me. I spun, watching as the light of a baton dimmed out of existence. I froze.

A scaled hand grasped my shoulder, turning me slowly. I tried to fight it, but I had no strength left. I clamped my eye shut, hoping, praying, that maybe this was all just a dream. That happened in shitty stories, right?

'I thought,' said a rasping voice, 'that we told you to stay out of our way. Maybe we didn't teach you your lesson properly last time.'

I opened my eye. A pale light bathed the room around me. Blurry figures surrounded me. Looking into the face in front of me, I opened my mouth and screamed.

~

Wind whistled, somewhere below me. Or above me. I groaned, and tried to open my eyes. Everything was dark, and there was a pressure on my face. I gasped a little, the fog in my head clearing quicker. I tried to think. The pressure was... me? I groaned again, bringing my hands up to my shoulders. Placing my hands on the ground below me, I pushed myself up slowly. My arms ached. Every muscle, from my neck down to my toes, shook with the strain. I tried to open my eyes again as I did, and a flash of light had me clenching them shut. Pain shot across my face as I did.

As I straightened my arms, I rolled to the side and sat up properly. I lifted a hand to my face, prodding delicately. One of my eyes was heavily swollen, the other only tender to the touch. I opened them, shielding myself again from the bright light. I looked down at my legs. The metal of my legs glinted as I moved. I frowned at them for a moment, the action sending another bolt of pain across my face. I groaned to myself, bringing my knees up to my chest to stretch off my lower back. I held onto them, cold and smooth. Something popped in the small of my back. I sighed deeply, letting my open eye shut.

I wondered where Derek was. Who's Derek? I opened my eye again. Who was Derek? I gasped.

'Fuck.'

Author’s Note:

I wrote this overnight for a competition a couple of months ago. Turned out I had the deadline and wordcount wrong, so I wasn’t able to use it in the end. Instead, I can share it with you!

You can read some of my other short fiction here.

If you would like to buy me a coffee, you can do that here.

You can read my serialised fiction here.