Page 102 of Monsters within Men
He shook his head.
“Khyan was training three new puppies. He handed them over to go out of the base on their first run—against his will, I think—he was being pressured by Murphy to make them battle-ready quicker and quicker. Anyway, they were spooked by a cluster of types, and ran off, all three of them. Soldiers tracked the dogs using their chips, but they wouldn’t let them get close to them, just kept running off. The officers called Khyan, who freaked out. I think he was quite attached to the puppies. He did spend all day training with them, after all. Luo was hanging out in the canteen with Khyan at the time. He says he point blank insisted he leave Avantis to help look for them.”
Zeke almost asked her to stop talking. He already knew how this story would end.
“Anyway, Khyan, escorted by a few officers, headed out in the direction they were last seen. He thought his smell and voice would bring them back and he could bring them home. But twenty minutes into the rescue mission, they’re jumped by a shit load of types. Khyan and another of the soldiers were taken down almost immediately.”
“Wow,” he said, fighting back horrific images of the beautiful man in Noah’s photograph.
“Noah was at the border. No idea any of this was happening. They called him back when Khyan’s body came in. I was off that day so met him at the gate.” Vitt swiped at her eyes, blinking rapidly. “He fell to the floor at first, became catatonic. Then he insisted on watching the recording from the helmet cam footage again and again and again, even though we were begging him not to. About twenty times he must have watched Khyan being ripped apart before Habib finally wrestled the screen out of his hands. He went straight to Luo and started screaming at him for ‘letting him go’. That fucked up Luo for a while.” Vitt stared straight out of the windscreen. “Noah apologised to him a few weeks later,” she added. “He was horrified by his behaviour.”
Zeke’s throat constricted.Poor Noah. He’d been through so much. “Sounds like it was tough for you guys.”
“It was. Noah was removed from active duty for several weeks. This was before he was made LT, back when Georgia was leading Squad E. She got moved to another regiment. Anyway, Leo was amazing with him, and eventually he found a way through his grief. He’ll never be the same, obviously. But after a long while, we had our friend back. Especially over these last few months. Well, until whatever’s happened recently. So, what’s up with that?” Vitt looked over at him expectantly, and he squirmed. “Come on, we can’t help him if we don’t know what’s going on.”
“I think it’s some stuff with his uncle. I don’t know anything really though, you’d have to ask him.”
Vitt clicked her tongue. “If he hasn’t said anything to you, then he hasn’t told anyone what’s going on. Oh, Noah…”
After an hour, they reached the end of the roads the military actively kept clear, and were forced to pause continually every ten minutes or so. At these points, everyone filed out of the vans to clear the road. Sometimes it was just a matter of moving light bits of debris, including window panes, metal railings and, at one point, a giant metal horse from a funfair ride—something that triggered Squad E to become oddly quiet.
When in transit, the vans rumbled along the rough roads, their suspension struggling to smooth out the deep potholes and jagged cracks that marred the surface. As they bounced and swayed, loose stones and gravel sprayed out from under the wheels, adding to the already battered state of the road. Despite the poor conditions, the platoon pressed on, navigating around the worst of the damage and trying to maintain a steady speed.
At twelve-thirty, they hit a large fallen oak tree. They’d been expecting it—Command provided them with detailed outlines of the route—but it was one thing hearing about it and another seeing it in real life.
“There’s no way in hell we’re moving that,” said Savannah. Squad E, after unloading from their separate vans, instantly gravitated back together, like magnetic parts of a well-oiled machine. “We’ll have to go back and try another road.”
“We’re sticking to our orders,” stated Lowenna, arms crossed, staring at the tree that came up to her hip.
“Can I suggest that we break for lunch first?” said Tobias.
“I was just about to suggest that myself,” Lowenna replied, flashing him a sugary-sweet smile.
At her signal, the officers relaxed and broke apart to sit in small groups. Most of them looked a little green—the turbulent terrain was causing a serious case of car sickness.
Noah disappeared with Tobias to collect the cool-boxes of food from a van, returning to dump them into the middle of the group.
“Are you sure it’s just these two?” Tobias said.
“Positive. We’ve got strict instructions from the kitchen. It’s one bread roll and one piece of fruit or a carrot each for lunch.”
“Bullshit, Forrest,” he sneered. “That can’t be right.”
A hush of silence swept over the soldiers, who looked between Tobias, Noah and Lowenna with shocked expressions. Zeke had heard from Zaya—and from Noah’s recount of his conversation with his uncle—about how bad the food shortages were getting, but never imagined that it would impact the city’s military force.
“If you were listening when the kitchen staff were trying to talk to us earlier, you’d have heard the information for yourself,” spat Noah, clenching his jaw and shaking his head.
Before Tobias could reply, Lowenna stepped into the middle of them. “Lieutenants.”She raised her eyebrows. “Can we focus on the task at hand, please? We’re already losing precious daylight hours.”
Zeke stared up at the cold sun, which was already beginning its slow descent to the horizon. He shivered.
Tobias stalked off to vape near the tree, leaving some other members of Squad C to sort out their share of the rations.
“It’ll be easy to move,” said Lowenna, looking at the tree. “Ten minutes, tops.”
But it quickly became apparent to Zeke it would not be a ten-minute job. For a start, the three lieutenants spent fifteen minutes surveying the tree—which was buried in a slight dip—calling Command and bickering between themselves while the rest of them stood back, pacing up and down to keep warm in the December chill. Eventually, several chainsaws came out of a van, to be wielded by Luo and Alex.
Once the job was done, a full hour later, Luo collapsed onto the ground, dragging Zeke with him. “Christ, even my right arm aches,” Luo said, waving the shiny metal of his bionic limb in the air.
