“What enemies?” I ask breathlessly, trying to keep him talking while I work out who to strike first. “We haven’t seen anything to suggest that we’re under threat! You’re just letting yourself get spooked! It’s a way of controlling you!”
“We’ll be attacked eventually,” he continues. “Deckard is right, the bigger Steadfall becomes, the more it’ll be seen as a target. Better to take action now, instead of getting caught on the back-foot later.”
Suddenly Alison grabs my head and pulls me back, exposing my neck as Ellis steps closer. I try to get free, but Bean has a hand on my shoulder, pushing me down. These assholes are well-organized and smart, and I doubt they’ve under-estimated me, but I still have a good chance to get out of this mess if I just pick the right moment. In the old days, before I ever came to the island, I was in worse spots once or twice and I made it out just fine. Plus, I survived a full tour of duty in the war, even if I don’t remember exactly what happened out there.
“You’ll be a legend,” Ellis explains, moving the blade closer to my chest. “People might even—”
“Hey!” a voice calls out suddenly. “Do you need help over there?”
Turning, I see to my horror that Harold is headed this way, smiling and waving. Just when I was ready to fight back and drop these assholes, now I have to work out what the hell Harold is up to.
“What does he want?” Joe hisses.
Lunging forward, I grab Ellis’s arm and twist him around, cracking his wrist against my knee so that he drops the knife. At the same time, I take the knife in my left hand and slash it across his face, causing him to let out a cry of pain as he falls back. Turning, I swing my elbow at Alison, crunching her nose and dropping her to the ground, and then I look around just in time to see Joe running away, hurrying toward the ridge that leads further inland. Hearing movement nearby, I turn again and raise the knife until it’s just inches from Harold’s face. I wait, breathlessly, for him to make the slightest move toward me.
“Looks like you don’t need help,” he says with a smile. “I’m impressed. You obviously know how to look after yourself, although I’d kind of picked up on that already.”
Taking a step back, I hear Ellis groaning on the floor. I glance down and slam my boot into the back of his neck, knocking him out, before turning back to face Harold. I still don’t know which side he’s on, but right now I’m ready to fight if he puts so much as a foot wrong. It can’t be a coincidence that he showed up just when these three assholes tried to kill me.
“I was following you,” he explains. “There, I admitted it. I figured someone was going to try something, so I followed you from a distance. I guess I thought I could step in if you needed help but, from the looks of things, you seem to have had it all under control.”
“I was about to knock their heads together,” I say firmly.
“Of course you were.”
“Do you doubt me?” I hiss, stepping closer to him.
He holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Not for a moment,” he says calmly, and I get the feeling he’s being honest. He pauses, eying me with the faintest trace of a smile. “I’ve been watching you since I arrived,” he adds finally. “Maybe I should have been a little more subtle about it, but the truth is, you’re really not the kind of person I pictured being in charge of a small community. That’s not to say you can’t do it, but I can definitely see areas where you’re struggling. You’re stubborn.”
“I get by,” I tell him, feeling a shiver of irritation.
“But for how long?”
I want to tell him to go to hell, but instead I turn and start making my way back over to look down at Ellis’s unconscious body on the forest floor. Nudging the side of his face with my boot, I find that he’s still out cold. Nearby, Alison is groaning as she clutches her broken nose, from which plenty of blood has already spilled out onto her hands.
“You’re out of here,” I tell her firmly, kicking her shoulder hard and sending her stumbling back down to the ground. “If you ever come back to Steadfall, you’ll meet the same fate as Harry Shaw. Is that clear?”
“Please,” she stammers, with tears in her eyes, “I won’t survive out here alone.”
“You won’t be alone,” I reply. “You’ll have Ellis for company. And anyone else who decides they don’t want to stick to the rules I’ve laid down.”
“We won’t make it!” she hisses. “What kind of bitch leaves people out to die?”
“You should’ve thought of that before you tried to jump me,” I tell her. “You’re lucky I’m letting you live at all.”
Turning, I see that Harold is still watching me. I have to admit that if he wasn’t here, I might be a little more lenient, I might even consider letting Alison and Ellis come back to the town, but I feel I need to put on a show of force. I’m sick of letting people think I’m a soft touch.
“Why are you such a bitch?” Alison stammers, struggling to her feet.
I turn back to her. “Playing nice won’t make me change my mind.”
When she lowers her hands from her face, I can’t help wincing at the sight of her mangled nose. I caused way more damage than I’d intended, but that tends to happen when I’m spooked. My training kicks in and people end up hurt or worse.
“What if I tell you who put us up to it?” she asks. “Then will you let us come back? Or if not both of us, then at least me.”
“I already know who put you up to it,” I reply. “I saw you talking to Deckard earlier.”
“Deckard?” She limps toward me. “It wasn’t Deckard, you idiot! It was—”
Before she can finish, Harold aims a well-timed punch at her throat. She staggers back, clutching her neck and gasping hopelessly for air. She turns and tries to run, but she quickly drops to her knees. She’s choking to death, and there’s nothing anyone can do to help her.
“She was about to go for you,” Harold tells me. “She was going to grab your knife.”
“I wouldn’t have let her.”
“Well, I…” He pauses, as Alison gasps for air on the ground. “Sorry,” he adds finally, with a faint smile, “maybe I over-reacted, but I thought you were in danger.”
Glancing down at Alison, I see that her face is turning red now as she continues to suffocate. I know there’s nothing I can do to help her, but I can’t help feeling a little suspicious as I turn back to Harold.
“That move you just used on her,” I say cautiously, “it was—”
“Military,” he replies.
“You said you were a doctor.”
“I was. In the military.” He pauses for a moment, as if he’s amused by my suspicions. “I fought in the war. I think I was a medic of some sort, but my memories of the actual combat period were wiped after my tour of duty ended.” Another pause. “Maybe I’m crazy, Asher, but I get the feeling that you—”
“I was in the army too,” I tell him. “I fought in the war.”
“And you don’t remember it either?”
I shake my head.
“It’s not often I come across a fellow ex-soldier,” he continues, holding his right hand out toward me. “I definitely didn’t expect to meet one on the island.”
I shake his hand, even though I don’t like the way he seems to be constantly analyzing me.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” he asks. “Having that hole in your mind, I mean. We both know we went through hell during the war, but we don’t know exactly what happened to us. They took away our memories, we don’t even remember who we were fighting, but…” He pauses for a moment. “There are still echoes, right? Little moments when you react to something in a strange way, and you realize it’s some buried instinct kicking in?”