Ninth City Burning (8 page)

M
ore or less everyone in Granite Shore is part of the settlement militia. You don't go on active duty until you turn fifteen, but as soon as you start school, you're learning to assemble a rifle and stab things with bayonets, all that stuff. People don't mind the training, though. It's not like shipping our quotas to the Prips, because we all know
why
we need the militia. Everybody here's seen a hellion before, or knows someone who has, and we know without the militia, the hellions would be in here just hacking us to pieces in no time.

With that great big war the Legion's supposed to be fighting for us, you sort of wonder sometimes. What they tell us, like in school and telecasts and whatnot, is there's this big empire out there planning to take over the entire world and fill it up with their own people. Anyone else—meaning all of us here at Settlement 225—just gets the old summary execution. Those empire people have some name in their own language, but as far anyone around here's concerned, they're just “the Enemy.” Sometimes they're also “wanton aggressors” or “implacable foes” for the purpose of official speeches, but in the posters and murals and whatnot, they're usually just big, creepy, shadowy things with long claws and lots of teeth. The Front, where the Legion is out holding off our implacable foes, is supposed to be real far away, but if the Enemy ever gets through, there'll be no stopping them. That's why we have to support the Legion with everything we've got. But I think now and then everyone around here gets the idea something else must be going on. Like, maybe there isn't a war at all. Maybe it's just something the Prips came up with so we'd work ourselves stupid for them. Maybe if we stopped shipping supplies to the Front,
we'd all be just fine because there isn't really any Enemy. No one actually comes out and says it, though, except maybe Spammers when he gets into the aquavee because that's like “criminal sedition” and about the quickest way to land yourself at the Front. But no one ever wonders about the hellions. We all know
they're
real.

Once you hear the muster alarm, you've got fifteen minutes to report to a muster station. That's easy enough for Camareen and me, since the Prefect Building is the muster station for the whole Town Center. We're some of the first outside, so there isn't much of a line at the arsenal lockers beneath the big steps. Most work uniforms are made to double as militia uniforms once you put on your gun vest, but Camareen has to take a jacket for the cold and change into boots. She leaves her shoes in one of the cubbies inside the arsenal, and I leave my satchel. If anyone finds it and sees what's in there, I'll have to just pretend it isn't mine and lose all that milk and bread. It'd be a pain, but better than getting caught.

I've never been around the Square during a muster, and I'm surprised at how many important people there are. I guess it makes sense, since they all work around here, but it's still kind of strange to see all these faces from telecasts and news publications and so forth. There's even Qu, the Prefect, walking around in her muster commander's armband. Right behind her is Ghalo, the Sub-Prefect of Production, Camareen's boss's boss. Both of them are watching us all put on our vests and caps like it's the most exciting thing they've ever seen.

Even though Camareen was still a little mad at me before we heard the muster alarm, I can tell she's forgiven me by the way she squeezes my hand as we wait for everyone to line up. This is only our second muster since we started in the militia for real, and it's scary as anything. Most hellions near Granite Shore have learned to stay away, and even when they try something, the sentries at the outer fences usually take care of them pretty quickly. They don't sound the muster alarm unless they're worried the tower guards won't be able to handle things. Last time they called a muster, a whole bunch of hellions had just charged the fences, trying to break through. They didn't stand a chance, though, those hellions. In the end, only a few militia squads got sent out, and no one I know went with them.

But when the trucks start pulling into the Square, I know we're really
going out this time. Camareen's hand tightens around mine, but then Ghalo comes along counting us all off into squads, and I get put in the first load of trucks while Camareen waits for the second. She raises one hand to wave as my squad drives off, and I just watch her getting smaller and smaller. I think about how this could be the last time I ever see her, and there's this punch in my chest, like someone's really punching me. I tell myself they always send out way more militia than they need. Like last time no one got killed at all, except a whole bunch of hellions. It doesn't make me feel any better, though.

I'm so worried about Camareen, I don't even think to be scared or nervous on the ride out. Everyone else in my squad is some clerk or low-level bureaucrat. They sort of look at me but don't say anything. They can tell I'm a factory worker.

Three trucks have already arrived by the time we unload in the open ground beyond the fences. Probably they're from some of the factories or the fields out at the edge of the settlement. The militia captain waiting for us is some bureaucrat by the looks of her—she's got a tie on beneath her vest. I guess she knows what she's doing, though. Her name is Ubstia, and she tells us guard towers five through thirteen have all reported hellions in the woods outside the settlement. They're guessing there could be two hundred hellions or more out there. “Probably an exaggeration,” Ubstia says, “but the Prefect wants to take this situation seriously.”

Hundreds. I can't stop thinking about it, even when we set off for the woods. Hundreds, boyo. That would be like the biggest attack in years. I'm just glad a few other squads went in ahead of us. There's gunfire off in the woods, and I hope it's us shooting and not them. Hellions are bad enough when they only have bows and arrows and axes and whatnot.

It's sunny out but still cold, and when the wind blows, you can smell smoke. The smell of smoke gets stronger as we go, and pretty soon, it starts to look like we're getting near the fighting. We see one dead hellion only a little way into the trees. He's got on what looks like a suit made out of grass and leaves, and he'd probably be real hard to see out here if he wasn't all covered in blood. A bit farther in we see another dead hellion, then another, until there are dead hellions like everywhere, some looking like they've just gone to sleep, but some looking pretty awful. There's one with about three-fourths of his head gone, and one with her guts fallen out and
tangled all over the place. It's not just people, either. There are animals, mostly horses, all in just as bad shape as the hellions.

Eventually, we come up on one of the other squads. I'm thinking they're the ones who must've killed all these hellions, but their captain tells Ubstia the hellions were all dead or dying when they got here. That seems really weird to me. I mean, hellions fight each other all the time. They're supposedly like savages who'll kill just about anyone for no reason whatsoever. I just don't know why they'd do it so close to our settlement when we'd be sure to come out and find them.

The gunfire isn't as loud now, but I can't tell if it's dying out or just farther away. Our two captains decide to move on, to make sure there are no hellions planning to like wait around until night and attack the fences. We all spread out in a line, everyone pretty much in sight of everyone else. The woods are sort of like a dream, just full of things you'd never expect to see in real life. There's this one fat gray horse, sort of pudgy and cute, except he's dead, with all these bullet holes down his back. And this other huge hellion, just gigantic, leaning against a tree, with a little tiny dog attached to his leg. They're both dead. I'm thinking about how weird a sight it is, the big guy and the little dog, when the dog makes a sound. Or I think it does anyway. Sort of a whimper. I'm about to go and look when I hear something else behind me, like a click. When I turn around, there's a gun right in my face.

Some girl has appeared out of nowhere, and she's pointing a pistol at me. I can just see her over the barrel. She has these huge brown eyes, and freckles.
Freckles.
Sometimes I think about how I might die, but I never thought I'd be killed by someone with freckles. She'll do it, though. Shoot me, I mean. I'm sure of it.

Before I can quite think about what to do, Ubstia is there with her rifle, yelling at the girl to put down her gun. Two guys from my squad have started running our way. The girl doesn't even look at them, just keeps her gun pointed right at me. I'm thinking about whether she could really be some crazy bloodthirsty hellion who'd kill me just for fun, when all of a sudden Ubstia drops her gun. This other hellion has come up behind her, and now he's got a knife to her throat and another pistol aimed at me. He's more how I always imagined hellions looking, with like a leathery face and a tangled beard and whatnot. He looks mean as anything.

The man yells something at me, but I don't understand because he's speaking his crazy hellion language. There are hellions all over the place now. Like they've just come out of the trees and bushes and everything. And they all have guns. This one woman has a rifle under each arm, pointed at the two guys who'd been coming to help Ubstia and me.

We're all in real trouble now, us
and
the hellions. Any minute, another squad is going to come through here, and maybe they'll shoot the guy with the knife or the woman with the rifles, maybe they'll kill every hellion here, but those hellions won't go down easy, and this little girl is going to get me first. I don't know how I know it, but I do.

The dead dog whimpers again, but this time I see it's not actually the dog whimpering. There are two eyes looking at me from behind the huge, dead hellion. It all just comes together then, when I see those little brown eyes. I look back at the girl, and she's still got her gun on me. But now I know what to do.

“Hey, little girl,” I say. Not in hellion. I'm speaking Aux, the language we use in the settlements. “Can you understand me?”

She doesn't say anything, but her eyes sort of widen.

“So listen, little girl, you've got me, I'll admit it. And you got my kiddos here, too. But see, there's a lot more of us around, and some are gonna come through here pretty soon, and when that happens, they're gonna shoot you. You'll probably shoot me first, but they'll get you eventually, is what I'm saying. So how about this. How about you and your friends all come into the settlement with us. I bet you've come a real long way, and you just wanna rest. You won't have to worry about all these hellions out there. I'll need you to give us those guns, though. We can't let you in if you've got all those guns.”

For a while I'm afraid she really doesn't understand me, but then she blinks. It's the first time I've seen her blink. She shouts something in hellion to the others. Old Black Beard with the knife shouts back, and they have a sort of argument, but finally the girl throws down her pistol. “On behalf of my coda, I accept your terms,” she says. Her Aux is real good, though she makes some of the words sound a little funny. The others look kind of unsure, but, eventually, they drop their guns, too. The guy with the knife is the last one to do it.

Ubstia calls in the rest of our squad. A few stand with guns ready while the others gather up all the rifles and knives and pistols and so forth
on the ground. Things get sort of tense for a second when the girl runs to the big dead man, like Ubstia thinks there's another gun hidden there or something, but I tell her she's just getting the little boy. And sure enough, there's this kid with wispy blond hair hiding behind the dead man. He starts crying hysterically, the boy does, but the girl slaps him hard across the face, like real hard, and he stops.

“You want to tell me how you pulled that off?” Ubstia asks as we're walking back to the trucks. “I've never known a hellion to understand Aux.”

“They're not hellions,” I say. “They're bivvies.” Bivvies do a lot of trading in the settlements, so some of them have learned to speak our language. And as soon as I saw the boy hiding beneath that dead body, I knew these people weren't attacking our settlement. They were running from the hellions. That little girl had been trying to fight them off, using the dead gray horse for cover.

“Right. Well, you probably saved us all from getting killed, so nice work.” Ubstia sounds sort of annoyed, though. “I should have figured that out. The old guy probably told me, even.”

“You speak bivvie?” I'm pretty impressed. You can always hear bivvies talking in that language of theirs whenever they come to trade. It kind of makes you think they're laughing at you most of the time.

“They teach you a few phrases in captain training, but I couldn't understand a word that guy was saying. I don't even know which language it was.”