Inside The Wall by Caleb VanSteenwyk (snow like ashes series .txt) 📖

door opened, and Baron talked to the guards. “Yes?” He asked. Scar started climbing the ladder, and climbed onto the roof. I motioned for Clyde to follow, and I would climb up last.
“We heard screaming, and something about a Rebellion. We need an explanation, and then we will search the building.”
“Oh, I was just arguing with my employee in the back. You see, we’re redoing our system here-“ Baron tried stalling.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s great. We’ll need to come meet this employee and confirm this.”
Baron is going to be in real trouble. I thought, and climbed up the ladder, onto the roof, and we jumped down into an alleyway behind the bar, listening for what happened to Baron.
The door to the kitchen creaked open, and the guard must’ve seen that there was no employee. Baron worked alone. I heard a gun being pulled.
“Who was here?” The guard asked. Baron had no reply. “Who was here?” The guard pushed. I heard the thumping of Baron’s footsteps as he ran for it, and the bang of a gunshot. There was a thump of something hitting the floor.
No! I thought. Baron can’t be gone! I just sat there on the ground, unbelieving.
“Bryce, there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to go before they find us.” Scar urged, and I found myself running from Baron’s final resting place.
Chapter Six

Once we were sure that the guards were too far away, and couldn’t find us, we slowed down to a walk, Scar leading the way to the Rebellion base. It was very silent for a long time, with just the sound of our feet hitting the earth, and the soft murmuring of the peasants around us. I just thought about how Baron was gone. How this war had caused another person I knew to die. It wasn’t fair, and everyone knew it. But at least now, I could try to do something about it.
Scar broke the silence. “My name’s not really Scar, you know.”
“Why do people call you that, then?” Clyde asked. He seemed very at ease talking to Scar. It’s like he completely ignored that he ran an entire army to fight after fight.
Scar didn’t reply with an answer at first. He just pulled up his sleeve to his shoulder, revealing a nasty bulge on top of his shoulder blade. It was white, and had stitch marks across it, like laces on a football. The bulge stretched across his arm in a crescent shape.
“A guard shot me in my shoulder a long time ago in a fight. It hid my shoulder blade and tore the muscle in half around it. I couldn’t move it for a long time. Then, it scared over, and by some miracle my muscle rebounded without the help of a cast. I don’t know how it works exactly, but it healed, leaving behind this scar. People just called me Scar ever since.”
“What’s your real name, then?” Clyde asked.
“Lee. People also thought the name was much to normal to belong to the leader of the Rebellion.”
“Cool.” Clyde said.
Scar then talked to me. I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about talking to him, my parents still on my mind. But I figured that I’d have to get used to it. I would be talking to him for a long time if my thoughts were correct.
“What you did to the guard attacking Clyde was very brave.” He started. I didn’t have a reply to that. “Especially how you pursued him even after he pulled the gun out on you. Baron told me all about it. I’m surprised that the knife was able to kill the guard. One bullet usually doesn’t crack their armor. It’s incredible strong, but you must of hit a weak point. But I am terribly sorry about what happened after you leaped down on the guard.” Scar looked at Clyde compassionately. I wasn’t sure if he was just playing him to get on his good side, or if he really cared about Clyde already. “I think you’ll be fascinated by what we’ve figured out about guards so far, from fighting them. They’re all individually programmed with different strengths. Some are stronger, some have better intelligence. But for some reason, we haven’t run into a guard that was strong in all categories.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked him.
“Because one particular area in our studies could very much interest you. If a guard’s programming is dropped, and they escape the suit, they are no longer under control. Unless they are inside the suit, the programming doesn’t work, and they gain free will. Then they’re simply very strong, very fast people.” Scar explained.
“Don’t try to use my brother as bait for fighting. It’s won’t work to use me like that.” I figured that he knew that I cared for my brother very much. Baron probably told him that as well. He could be trying to get me to fight harder if there was a chance that I could save John.
“I wasn’t trying to use you like that. I was simply telling you that eventually you could have that opportunity.” Scar explained, defending himself.
“I’m not falling for it.”
“Fine, believe what you want. Nevertheless, our studies will interest you.”
“Will we get guns?” Clyde asked. He didn’t seem to like me and Scar fighting like this.
“Bryce probably will. We’ll have to wait and see with you, though.”
“Okay.”
Scar stopped in front of an old, run down abandoned house. It had holes in the front, and was empty throughout.
“Here we are!” Scare said, and walked in the front door.
“You’re kidding. This is it? There’s no cover, guns, or people anywhere.” I said.
“You’ll see. Follow me.” Scar said, smiling. “That’s what makes it so hard to find.”
We followed Scar to a staircase leading upstairs.
“I thought this place was underground.” I said.
“It is.” Scar said, still smiling like he was mad. He reached towards the railing, grabbed hold, and pulled it out of the wall. It locked in place, and stayed part way out of the wall. There were a couple clicks, then the sound of gears rotating and creaking. Slowly, to my amazement, the stairs lowered one by one. Soon, each had lowered far enough so that the stairs now lead down, to a small room and a bolted steel door.
“Going down!” Scar said, and started descending the stairs. I looked at Clyde in awe. He just shrugged and followed Scar. When we reached the bottom, Scar pushed the railing back into the wall, and the stair started rising up to the original position, leaving only bare earth. Turning around, Scar pushed in one section of the metal door, and the door opened with more creaks and groans.
When it opened, we were met with guns being pointed directly at us. Holding them were Rebels with peasant clothes visibly under very light and scarce metal armor. They all had knives strapped to their belts, along with spare long clips that went to their assault rifles.
“Don’t worry. It’s only protocol, incase a guard gets in somehow.” Scar said, with the big smile still implanted on his face.
“It’s okay, Tyson. Just me and the new people I told you Baron wanted us to take in.” Scar started. “This is Bryce,” Scar motioned towards me. “And Clyde.” Scar motioned towards Clyde.
“Hi. I’m Tyson.” The largest guard said. He was very big, over six feet tall, and well built.
“Hello.” I said, and Clyde waved.
The base consisted mainly of one large room, filled with tables that were stacked with papers, guns, ammunition, and various other weapons. The sides of the room were filled with doors, and people were constantly moving to and fro between these. On the far side of where we were, there was one large, enclosed room jutting out from the wall. There were glass windows fogged for privacy. Next to the glass room to the left was one larger door. It was a steel door, and had numerous locks on it.
“What’s that room?” I asked Scar, pointing to the locked steel door.
“Oh, that’s the armory. It’s where we keep all of our guns, knives, ammunition, and all that good stuff. It’s locked so no one can steal any and we can keep track of it all. It was very difficult to get the guns in the first place. As you could imagine, not many people here have any guns the Nobles hadn’t taken away when the rebellion broke out.” Scar explained.
“What about the rest of the rooms?” Clyde asked.
“Well, the middle area here is where we do most of our planning and organization. We try to keep track of guard activity and all that happens between them and us. In fact, recently, guard patrols have lowered. They only come urgently if there is an attack or a violation of some rule. Otherwise, there are very few patrolling the streets. Not nearly as much as they used to be, even though our attacks haven’t ceased in aggressiveness or frequency. We’re assuming something is going on in their district that they need to fight off, as well. Maybe Nobles are committing crimes, although who knows why. They have everything they could ever want, really.”
“That’s weird.” I said. “Since there aren’t as many, are you planning something big?”
“Not at the moment.” Scar replied. “Honestly, the more we attack, the more of us they’ll take off the streets to replace them. And our population is much larger than theirs. Plus, if we have an extremely aggressive attack, you can bet your ass just as many guards will come as always.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. When I tried looking over the wall, they got there fast. Too fast.” I said, choking up a little.
“You tried to look over the wall?” Scar asked, surprised.
“Yeah. That’s what got John taken away.” I said.
“Did you see what was on the other side?” Scar asked, suddenly interested.
“No. I was too focused on John. I didn’t look.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.” Scar said, sounding genuinely disappointed. But I couldn’t decide whether he was disappointed that my brother got taken away, or that I didn’t look over the wall.
“Anyways,” Scar continued “The doors to the sides here lead to dorms. They’re where everyone sleeps, including me. The room with the glass windows over there is the infirmary. We have three medics for anyone who gets hurt. Our supplies are not very good, but they work for the most part.”
“Where are we sleeping?” Clyde asked.
“You will be sleeping in a dorm. I hop you two don’t mind sharing one.”
“Not at all.” I replied.
“Good. I’ll lead you to your room.” Scar said, and walked towards a door somewhere in the far corner. On the way, many Rebels looked at us funny, and I knew that was appropriate. I had taken down a guard, and I’m sure Scar had told everyone about that. They could all even know my name for all