The Eighth Guardian
Annum Guard - 1
Meredith McCardle
For Scott, for always
CHAPTER 1
The man in the green tie has been watching me all day. It’s weird. Both the tie and the watching. His tie is green—not the crimson or navy that seems to be the uniform color for these guys, but green. And he has no business watching me like this. I’m tired. Sweaty. My body has been through hell, and it’s not over yet.
I failed the first challenge. The man should have stopped watching me then.
They hung me by my ankles and plunged me headfirst into a swimming pool chilled to a hypothermic forty degrees. The lock on the chain around my ankles had a code. An alphanumeric code that they flashed in Morse code with the pool light. I had fifteen seconds under the water to figure it out before they’d bring me up for a ten-second break, then dunk me right back under.
But the water was cold, too cold, and every vein in my body exploded when I hit it. Water rushed up my nose, and I sputtered and choked. I whipped my head around and couldn’t even find the pool light. They brought me up, and the ten seconds passed before I could process it. They plunged me back down, and water filled my throat. I coughed and choked and breathed in more, feeling the vomit rise.
I tapped out as soon as they brought me up.
The men and women evaluating me shook their heads. Most of them packed up and said they’d seen enough. But the man in the green tie kept watching me as I stood there, soaked to the bone, shivering under a towel, collapsing under the weight of my failure. His eyes only left me once, when he pulled out a small, worn Moleskine notebook and scribbled something.
His eyes should have left me earlier. I failed.
He was the only one who showed up for my second challenge. Two men grabbed me from behind. They were shouting at me in a foreign language. I think it might have been Yoruba, but I’m not sure. They threw me into a metal chair in a windowless detention room and left. The door locked behind them.
I didn’t think, didn’t breathe. I hopped up on the chair, pulled the emergency sprinkler, and ripped down the plastic halogen light fixture. An alarm blared as cold jets of water rained down on me in the dark room. But I didn’t let it faze me. I waited by the door, and the second it opened, I looped the electrical wiring around my captor’s neck. He submitted, and I trotted out of there in under thirty seconds.
Green Tie nodded his head, made a note in his notebook, and walked away.
Now I’m standing on a wooden platform twenty feet in the air. I’m blindfolded.
“Turn around,” a voice commands.
I obey, and the blindfold disappears from my face. I’m looking over the hills of western Massachusetts. The leaves are orange and yellow and red, creating swirling patterns of color that make my eyes dance. I have no idea what time it is. None. It’s light out, but the gray sky is blanketed with clouds, so I can’t make out the sun’s position. It could be seven in the morning. It could be three in the afternoon. I’ve been awake for at least twenty-four hours now.
“Look down.”
I do. There’s a plywood maze below me. It goes in and out of focus, the twists and turns fusing together into one giant mess of veneer. I close my eyes to give them a precious second’s rest. When my eyes open, the maze stands still. It’s probably fifty yards by fifty yards. Massive. I locate the entrance. I locate the exit.
“Five more seconds,” the man standing next to me says.
My eyes scan the maze, darting from entrance to exit, back over all the turns. There are lefts and rights and a series of rectangular spirals inside the maze. It’s easy. Too easy.
“Done,” the man says, and I’ve got it. A left. Three rights. Two lefts, then two rights. Three lefts. One right to the exit.
But there’s a sinking feeling in my stomach. This is way too simple.
I jog down the steps and over to the woman holding a stopwatch at the start of the maze. She looks at the clipboard she’s holding, marks a notch, then looks up at me.
“Ready?” she asks in a flat voice. No compassion. Typical.
“Yes,” I tell her as I tighten my ponytail. Even though that’s not really true. I just want this to be over with; that’s the truth.
I take a breath and notice that a crowd has formed to watch. Looks like everyone who gave up on me after the first challenge is back. They’re so fickle. It almost makes me want to smile, but then I glance over and see that man in the green tie staring at me again with those same intense eyes. I’m being scrutinized, evaluated like a real candidate. My stomach flips over.
“Go,” the woman says, pressing down on the stopwatch. I take a breath and run forward into the maze.
A few steps and I dart left. All the way to the end, then a right. There are two turns I could take before that, but I run past both of them. They’re dead ends. I hit the last right and take it, then keep running.
There’s nothing in my way. No obstacles. This can’t be right. There has to be something. I make the next right and—
I gasp as a man dressed from head to toe in black jumps in front of me. His left hand grabs the collar of my shirt, and his right hand presses the tip of a knife blade up to my chin.
“Gotcha,” he says.
I don’t make eye contact. You never make eye contact. I stare into his sternum and look at his hand position. Then I lean back before he has a chance to react. My left hand grabs his right wrist, and I loop my elbow through his, forcing him to swing the knife down. I step back with my left foot, pivot, and grab the knife out of his hand.
That took all of about two seconds.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” I ask.
The man raises his eyebrows, then lifts his hands in submission and jogs toward the start of the maze. Away from me.
Only then do I breathe. I look down at my own hand. It’s shaking.
I take the knife with me as I make my third right, then a quick left. I need to make another left here somewhere, I think. I repeat the rest of the pattern in my head.
Two lefts, then two rights. Three lefts. One right to the exit.
I need to make a left, but when? There are so many. There’s one right in front of me, but it feels wrong. I think I’m supposed to go to the next left. Or the one after that? I can’t get lost in this thing. I can’t. Focus!
I close my eyes and let the maze appear in my head. I’m supposed to take the second left. I think.
I turn. The path leads me down a long plywood corridor, and this has to be correct. Yes, it has to. One right, then another quick right. I keep the knife held high, protecting my face. I must be more than halfway through the maze. I have to run into someone else soon. I have to—
Click.
I round to the left, and there’s a gun in my face. A woman is holding it. She’s about my height and all muscle. She looks younger than me, but I know she has to be at least eighteen.
“Drop the knife,” she tells me.
“Or what? You’re going to shoot me?”
“Yep,” she says.
I look at the gun. It’s a black assault rifle, standard issue. Just like the ones they make us shoot here, but with a key difference.
“That’s a paintball gun,” I say.
The woman doesn’t blink. “Ever been shot with one of these at close range?”
I have. It stings like a bitch and leaves a purple welt that doesn’t fade for at least two weeks.
“Plus,” the woman says, “I shoot you, you fail. Now drop the knife.”
I grunt in disgust as I toss the knife behind me. It clatters as the handle hits the plywood floor. And then I stand there with my hands at my sides, waiting. Waiting for the cue.