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

they were really up to. It was hard not to hear everyone’s conversations when you live in a one-room house. I was taking care of John for the day, trying to keep him entertained, when I heard the gunshots outside of our house.
Instinctively, I ran out to see what was going on, but I stayed in the doorway so I wouldn’t be in the crossfire. John followed me as well. There was smoke rising, but not as thick as when I got Clyde, and I could see what was going on. It was more like a fog, hanging low over the battlefield.
I saw the fighting going on, and the flares from the guns lit up the fog, and I remember thinking of the fireworks you can sometimes glimpse from the Noble’s District.
Remembering that my parents had just left to go to the Rebellion, I searched the fight that was going on. As usual, it was between the guards, and the Rebellion. It was a small fight, maybe thirty rebels vs. ten guards, but the rebels were obviously outmatched. Searching, I found my parents in the heat of the battle, and John did too. “Why are mommy and daddy fighting?” He asked me.
“I don’t know.” I lied. I knew they were fighting for the rebellion, and they were losing badly. One guard had been taken down, but only eight rebels were left, including my parents. Soon, they were the last two standing against nine guards. All of them had their guns pointed at my parents. I picked up John, and carried him back into the house. I didn’t want to see what happened next.
Then, I sat down on my bed, and cried. John did, too, but I think he only did because I was crying. Later, when he asked when they were getting home, I replied. “They won’t.” This was six years ago, and it still haunted my dreams today.
Seeing my father die for real this time, I was filled with rage. I only faintly remember Scar yelling my name, but mostly, I remember what I did. I ran through the line, filled with a sudden wave of hatred and rage.
As a guard put a bullet in someone’s shoulder, I smashed his visor with the butt of my shotgun, and then fired a shot into his open visor. The guard fell to the floor.
I ran towards another guard. As I raised my gun to shoot, he fired a bullet down the barrel of my shotgun. When I tried to shoot, all I got was the sound of gunfire, but no buckshot. I dodged the second round, and as I hit the floor, I took out my knife and rolled between his legs, ending up behind him. I stood up, and stuck my knife into his neck like I did to the one attacking Clyde. I heard the knife hit his spine, and I twisted it, making a small cracking sound, and the guard flopped to the ground, twitching. I had hit a nerve in his neck somewhere.
There were two guards left standing, and about 15 rebels. The last two guards had teamed up, and they had trapped the last group of rebels. When I looked over, a loud shot sounded behind me, and the back of the guard’s helmet cracked.
I kneeled down and picked up the gun from the now motionless guard’s hands. When I looked up, the guards had split and one of them was running towards the room that Clyde was in.
No! I thought, and fired a shot without thinking. It hit the back of the guard’s helmet, and he smashed through the glass windows and into the room where Clyde was being treated. I followed in through the hole in the glass.
When I stepped inside, the guard was already attacking, smashing and throwing around medical e equipment. I looked down at the table Clyde was laying on, and saw that the bullet had been removed from his leg, and was laying on the table next to the bed, covered in red.
One medic lay on the ground, covered in blood, and I knew he was dead. The guard, who began to raise his weapon, trapped the other medic. If the medic was killed, Clyde might not make it. I tried pulling the trigger, aiming for the crack that my bullet had made in the guard’s helmet, but I got a dry click. The gun was out of ammunition.
I threw the gun down, and the medic tried to run, screaming. Drawing on my last bit of anger, I took out my knife. I had never thrown much of anything in my life, especially not a knife, but I knew it was the only option, and raised my arm behind me. And I threw.
The knife sailed through the air, spinning like a wheel. It came down with a whoosh! And landed point first into the crack on the guard’s helmet. It was an extremely lucky shot. When the knife plunged into the guard’s neck, he fell to his knees, then face first into the floor.
“Are you okay?” I asked the medic, who just nodded, crouched in a corner. She didn’t appear hurt, but she was shivering violently.
I walked out, and as I did, there was another loud bang, and the back of the last guard’s helmet exploded open, and he fell. Suddenly, all was quiet. For the first time, I looked around at the depressing scene. Bodies lay in heaps all around me. Maybe a hundred rebels had died in the last ten minutes. Mixed in was the shining armor of the guards. Seven were left standing. There was me, Scar, Tyson, the medic, hopefully Clyde, and two other rebels, standing where the last guard had died.
No one said a word. No one wanted to. We all just stared at the ground, thinking of all that had just occurred in front of us. At least one hundred people had just died in that room.
Finally, Scar broke the silence. “We have to move.” He explained, gaining our attention. “More guards will be here any moment. They all know where we are now. We need to grab the supplies we need, and get out of here. We don’t have much time.”
“Everyone grab supplies, except for Tyson. You get Ashley and Clyde from the infirmary. Kane, get some medical supplies packed up. We’ll need food, weapons and anything else you find. Got it?”
Everyone nodded. “Good.” Scar said.
I was dying to know how Clyde was doing, but one of the standing rebels got my attention. He was older than the rest of us and had a scratchy voice. “Hey, Bryce!” He yelled. “Come with me, and we’ll get supplies from the armory. We need weapons, and we store other supplies in there as well.”
“Okay.” I replied, and followed him into the room.
He handed me a bag and told me to start packing. “What will we need?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. I know Scar’s got some plan, but I’m still so fucking confused. I just can’t believe all that happened. This whole thing’s just so messed up. We shouldn’t have lost all those people. They were all good.”
“A lot of guards died today, too. They used to be like us.” I replied.
“Screw them. They’re the reason that we have to fight this stupid war.” He started stuffing guns and ammunition into a pack, and threw me another one. “My name’s Rich, by the way. The other guy out there that you haven’t probably met is Kane. I’m guessing you met Tyson, though. He’s always all over the place. Scar’s been talking a lot about you, Bryce.”
I started to grab handfuls of whatever I saw and scooped them into the pack. “What has he been saying?” I asked.
“He says he has a lot of faith in you, and that you’ll turn this war around. I don’t know why he thinks so highly of you already, but he does. It might have something to do with the fact that your parents were both great fighters.” Rich said, still stuffing supplies in the bag. When he finished one, he grabbed another from the same pile and continued on. “He also mentioned the fact that you have a lot of motivation.” I finished one pack, and grabbed another.
“What does he mean by that?” I asked him.
“No clue. He wouldn’t tell us why.”
Scar’s scream split the air. “Let’s go! They’ll be here any second!” He yelled.
“Let’s go.” I said, and zipped up the faded pack. Outside the door, Tyson was carrying Clyde on his back, piggyback style. Clyde was breathing, but he wasn’t moving otherwise. The medic that was with Clyde was sitting down next to Tyson, wit her knees up to here chest, rolled up in a ball. I tossed a pack to Scar, and Rich tossed one to Ashley, the medic.
“Let’s get out of here.” Scar said. None of us disagreed, and we followed him to the broken down door. Faintly, we cold hear the marching of the dead guard’s back up. If they knew the magnitude of what was here, they would bring a lot of back up. And this time, we couldn’t win.
Kane tried pulling out the railing to activate the stairs, but they didn’t move. They hole in the middle where the guards broke through must have disabled it. “How are we supposed to get up now?” Kane asked.
Scar just smiled.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Venus thinks of everything.” Scar replied, and walked over to the other railing to the left of us, and pulled it out. In front of us, by the wall next to the hole in the stairs, a brick ladder slowly crawled out of the wall, one rung at a time. “It’s the same basic technology of the stairs, but it’s only for emergencies. I myself would count this as an emergency.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I replied. Tyson climbed first, using one hand to climb, and the other to make sure Clyde didn’t fall. We all followed after him, one at a time. When we were all at the top, Scar took the lead and exited the run-down building, but stopped after that.
“What’s wrong now?” Rich asked him.
“I’m not sure where to go. I can’t tell where the marching is coming from.”
“Follow me!” I yelled, and ran towards basket that would help us reach the rooftops. Once again, my climbing skills would come in handy for me. No one questioned me, and climbed onto the rooftops. Then, I looked around from my elevated view to see which direction the guards were coming from, and the view killed my hope. It’s no wonder that Scar couldn’t decide where the sound was coming from. They were closing in on every direction.
“They’re everywhere!” Ashley screamed.
“This way!” I yelled, picking one at random and running.
“Why this way?” Scar asked me.
I turned my head, and yelled back at him. “I have absolutely no reason for it!”
“Well, that’s just great.” Rich said, but no one ran off in any other direction. Soon, the guards saw us, and made their pursuit. They were closing in on four directions, and each way had eight guards. That totaled around to 32 guards, much more that we just had in our base.
“This is the most guards I’ve every seen!” Tyson yelled, grunting. Clyde’s weight was slowing him down, but he was still keeping up with the rest of us.
As we kept running in my randomly decided direction, the guards formed one group, merging into an army. They were all to the left of us, as we were sprinting down a single row