Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (9 page)

As it turns out, Nolan has no intention of letting me near the weaponry on my first go. Instead, I get beaten up.

In fairness, he does take it easy on me. But the Pyros have a different definition of ‘easy’. After yesterday, I figured I must be stronger and faster than regular people. But head-to-head with someone like me, I’m suddenly average again.

I’m supposed to duck and dodge punches, but I’m too slow, and fall for the first feint. Nolan sweeps my legs out from underneath me.

“Whoa! Are you all right?” Nolan looks startled. Even he didn’t expect me to go down that fast.

“Yep.” I stand, wincing slightly. I only grazed my elbow, but I have a feeling that if he’d hit a regular person like that, it’d have been far worse for them.

Pull yourself together,
I tell myself as Nolan, satisfied I’m unhurt, aims a jab at me.
You took a hit from a fiend, for crying out loud.

This time, I manage to block, just.
Hell, he’s fast.
But didn’t I move just as fast when the fiends attacked me? How do I tap into that crazy adrenaline? It was like the whole world slowed down. Only, moving slowly does me no favours right now.

I last a few seconds before another swipe at my legs takes me off my feet.

I stand. My heart drops when I see Cas on the other side of the hall. I duck my head, flushing at what an idiot I must look like.

But I can’t help watching out of the corner of my eye as he heads for the far wall, where the target practise is. I know before he throws the dagger that it’ll strike the target directly in the centre.

Smack
. Again, my back hits the ground.

“Sorry,” says Nolan. “You ought to pay attention, you know.” He holds out a hand to help me up. I don’t take it, jumping to my feet, even though both my elbows feel bruised.

“I’m just not used to getting hit this much.”

He smiles at me. “Bet you’d rather get beaten up by me than by one of those fiends.”

“Yeah…” I trail off. Thinking about it, I really ought to be in more pain than I am. Unless Cas healed every injury I had, even the ordinary bumps and bruises I got on the road.

“Just try to relax. It’s in your blood. Let your body respond. Don’t hold back.”

I nod, thinking of the way I struck back at the fiend when I hadn’t had a clue what I was doing. Then I think of the blood sample in the lab, and what Murray said. It’s in my blood.

“Ready to try again?”

I nod.

Concentrate. I keep my eyes on him, trying to put myself in the same mind-set as when I faced the fiend. Never mind what happened the second time. I
can
do this.

Nolan’s fist flies at me, from the right, and I raise my hand to catch his. I stop his punch inches before it can connect with my face, and he stares at me, surprise etched on his features. It happened so fast, it’s a blur in my mind.

But I did it.

“Great!” His face breaks into a smile. I knew you were a natural. Okay. We’ll move onto striking next.”

Now, it’s all business. He teaches me the best places to hit a fiend and actually do some damage. I’m paying full attention now. This is why I’m here. This is what I need to know.

We break after half an hour. Cas’s left the room by now, leaving a row of dummies with daggers sticking out of them behind. Possibly, he has some pent-up anger issues. That would explain a lot. Nolan says I can practise on the dummies if I want, but I’m not to touch any of the weapons until I’ve passed the first level of training.

“Not that I don’t think you can handle it,” he adds. “It’s Murray’s idea, not mine. He’s overprotective for someone who oversees a bunch of half-indestructible soldiers.”

“Is that what we are?” I ask. “An army?”

“Sorry, bad choice of phrasing,” he says. “You’ve not signed your life away.”

“Good to know.” I step back, looking around. More people have come into the room. The other novices pair off to practise combat skills, same as Nolan and I are doing. My heart sinks when I see Elle knocked down by a guy built like a pillar. She’s not a fighter. What’s she doing in here?

“Oh, no,” says Nolan. “Garry never listens when people tell him to go easy.”

“Is that even allowed?”

“I don’t make the rules. Val’s in charge of combat. Everyone has to take part, even the non-fighters. We never know if the base is going to be attacked.”

Base.
More army talk. But that hardly matters now. My old instinct to stand up for the underdog makes me step forward, just as Elle goes flying, missing the mat and landing hard on the wooden floor. Nolan winces.

The big guy, Garry, shakes his head. “Jesus, where the hell’s the challenge? Get up,” he snaps at Elle.

“Why isn’t anyone stopping him?” I demand.

Nolan holds out an arm to stop me. “Wait,” he says. “Leah…”

Elle sits up, groaning, propping herself up onto her elbows, but Garry knocks her back with a swipe of his hand.

It’s too much. “Hey!” I shout, not caring who hears, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

Garry turns on me. I saw it coming, but it’s too late to stop my legs from moving, my body planting itself in front of Elle before he can hit her again.

His fist catches me full in the face, and I black out.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Images flash through my mind—a room full of strange apparatus, like a laboratory—an outstretched arm, but not mine—and then, an image, a symbol like the outline of a flame.

A second later, I come to, a ringing in my ears. Once again, I’m flat on my back on the floor of the training hall.

“Leah! Leah! Thank goodness.” Elle bends over me.

I stifle a moan of pain as I move my head. “Hey. You okay?”

“You’re the one who—” She hugs me. “Sorry if I’m hurting you.”

“I’m fine.” My gaze focuses. I glare at Garry. “Ever hear about not hitting girls?”

“There are no rules here,” he spits at me, looking disgusted, and he turns to go.

“Wait.” Like I’m going to let him get away with
knocking me out.
I sit up, feeling an egg-sized lump on the back of my head. Great.

I stride over to him, ignoring my throbbing head, and swing my fist. There’s a satisfying
crunch
as it connects with his jaw.

“What the hell?”

Garry turns on me, furious. I dodge another punch, duck down, quick as a flash, and ram my other fist into his cheek.

This time, he staggers back. A rush of satisfaction fills me.

Someone actually
applauds.
Tyler. He’s so busy grinning at me he doesn’t see his partner’s strike coming until it knocks him to the floor.

The whole hall dissolves into chaos as people start turning in my direction, abandoning their own sparring to see where the action is.

“
What
is going on here?” a voice demands.

It’s Val, the woman I met guarding the camp yesterday.

Elle tries to explain. Garry keeps interrupting. I’m tempted to lie down. My head’s really hurting now.

In the end, Garry gets a scolding from Val while Elle and Nolan haul me off to the infirmary again. Despite my insistence, I’m subjected to another examination by Sandra. This time I try to peek into the room at the back. When she opens the door I get a glimpse of a room filled with medical equipment, which might be why I saw that odd vision. But that didn’t look like
here
—and whose arm was that? While I’m pondering, I rub the back of my head and find the lump has… gone. The pain has, too. Like I imagined it.

When Sandra proclaims me fit to leave, I hesitate.

“I wanted to ask you something,” I say. “About—about Cas.”

Her shoulders stiffen. “What about him?”

“He healed me before I came here. That’s why I wasn’t injured. Is that… normal for us?”

A fraction of a pause. “I can’t divulge other patients’ secrets.”

I blink. “Okay. I just wondered. I think Nolan told him to do it, but…”

“Cas isn’t the easiest person to get along with, but he’s one of us.”

Okay.
I leave the room none the wiser, but growing slightly irritated with the lack of answers. But I’m here for a reason. To learn to fight.

The second day is better. My old self-defence lessons come back to me and I’m able to hold off Nolan for longer. Plus, I get to join in with some of the other exercises with the other novices. I’m one step closer to being accepted. Or so I tell myself.

Elle’s beyond grateful for my defending her yesterday. She’s told everyone about it. Garry glares daggers at me when we pass each other, but I’m accustomed to ignoring idiots. One thing I picked up from school, I guess.

But I can’t help noticing some of the younger novices edge away when I come near, as though expecting me to attack them, too. Someone’s been spreading rumours—yet another echo of school. It doesn’t bother me, but my heart sinks when we’re paired off that afternoon for more combat exercises and I catch a couple of people looking at me uneasily.

I’m paired with Poppy. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask me about my hair again, nor does she look at me as though expecting me to hit her like I hit Garry.

“Want me to go easy?” Her tone’s uncertain, as though half-expecting me to snap at her.

I relax my face muscles into a smile. “Nah. Hit me with the best you’ve got.”

She smiles back at me. “You might regret that.”

She’s good. Not as refined as Nolan, but I suppose he’s had years of practise. She’s so delicate-looking, I bet people underestimate her like they did me.

Even I do for a minute until a jab to my ribs takes the breath out of me. At least I manage to stay upright. My back’s well-acquainted with the floor by this time.

“You all right?” she asks.

“Yeah, sure.”

We’re pretty evenly matched. We end up jokily goading each other as we swipe and jab, until I finally manage to sweep her feet out from underneath her.

“Hey!” she yelps, swatting at me. “No fair!”

I find myself laughing. It catches me off-guard for a moment. The first time I’ve really laughed since Lissa died. The first time I’ve joked with someone.

The thought of Lissa makes my chest feel tight. Would she have fit in here? Was she like me? I’ll never know.
Don’t think about what might have been, Leah.

Poppy delivers a jab to my side and unbalances me. I stagger, cursing myself for getting distracted so easily.

“Earth to Leah? You all right?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say, pushing myself up from the floor again. A flush rises as I see Cas pass by, our eyes almost meeting. I didn’t even notice he was in the hall, but a pile of dummies with knives stuck in their vital spots is testimony to his presence.

Idiot. Stop staring at him.

“You know, you’re not what I expected,” says Poppy, as we head back to the dorm to change. “Coming from out there, I mean. I’ve heard awful stories about what life’s like. Enough to drive someone to insanity.”

“Guess I got lucky,” I say.

She lets me take a shower first. I’ve the rest of the day free, while most of the other novices are in lessons, but when I come out of the bathroom, I find Tyler, the guy with dreadlocks, lying on his bed reading a book.

“Hey,” I say, figuring starting a conversation with everyone will be the quickest way to stop them looking at me like I fell out of the sky.

“Hi.” He looks up from his book. I peek at the cover. It’s a classic, Dickens by the look of it. “Elle was looking for you.”

“She was? I thought she was in class.”

“Elle’s like a child genius. She doesn’t go to half her classes. Not that I can talk. I dropped out before I turned sixteen, so…”

“I’m glad I don’t have to go to school anymore,” I say, though if I could have my old life back, I’d even take algebra lessons. “What did Elle want?”

“To take you to the lookout spot.” He puts the book down and stands.

“Lookout spot?”

“Yeah, there’s another way out of here, through a cave. It leads right down into the valley, but you can see for miles.”

“I haven’t anywhere else I need to go, right?” I say. “Murray didn’t see… well, I haven’t seen him.”

“Oh, he’s always in the lab when he’s not on missions.”

“Missions,” I say. “Speaking of…” Now could be my chance to get some answers. “Do you know what Murray and the others were doing when they found me?”

Tyler gives me a puzzled look. “I thought they were looking for you. I mean, they just left, and when they came back with you I assumed… Well, that’s what everyone says, anyway.”

I stare. “Nolan and Cas found me by accident. They were chasing the fiends.”