“We don’t always bring the dogs to duty with us. We don’t know how the day will pan out, and they could get stuck at a watchtower by themselves for ages. They typically come on most of the specialized missions though.”
They walked deep into the dark garage to a large white transit van. Habib programmed the auto-pilot from the driver’s seat, and two bored guards ushered them through the main gates, the metal door inching up agonisingly slowly.
Habib poked his head back with his hands outstretched. “Frankie. Zeke. Your tags please.”
Despite being confused, they complied without question, although it took several minutes to drag the tags out from under several layers of clothing and armour. Habib whipped a small army knife from his belt. A disturbing screeching sound echoed through the van as Habib carved something into the back of their tags.
When Habib passed them back, Zeke held his up. One side remained the same, his name and ID number. On the back, however, new lettering was engraved: Squad E - Brothers in Arms, Family for Life. He marvelled at Habib’s handiwork in such a small space.
“Hey, what about sisters?” Frankie said.
“Wedon’t need a reminder around our necks to remember our loyalty,” replied Vitt.
It was a short drive to the border. The road, badly in need of a fresh layer of tarmac, was bumpy; their heads snapped backwards several times a minute. Zeke was almost glad to see the ‘Foxburrow Outpost 1km’ sign when they eventually arrived. The outpost comprised three single-story red-brick buildings clustered near each other. An old decorative water fountain, rusty with disuse, lay dormant in the middle of them.
Behind the buildings was the famous London Wall: the border that kept the monsters out, and the people safely inside. He’d seen photos of it plenty of times, but the scale of it, now that he was seeing it in the flesh, left him awestruck. Thick coils of concertina wire, the sharp barbs promising to shred any climbers into pieces, sat atop the thirty-foot bricked wall.
Three soldiers met them at the fountain, where several large metal boxes lay. Noah headed over to them while the rest of them stretched out their muscles, returning to inform them, “Night shift was super quiet. Should be a calm day. Squad J relieved F on the Stapleford to Theydon stretch half an hour ago.”
Zeke struggled to keep up with what was going on as a flurry of activity erupted. He understood vaguely that Noah was sorting them into pairs and assigning them watch towers. The others, after grabbing weapons from the container, all headed back into the van to be delivered along the line, but Noah grabbed his arm when he made to follow.
“We’re going to that tower,” Noah said, nodding to a tall metal structure along the wall, within walking distance. Frankie gave Zeke’s hand a reassuring squeeze before she waved goodbye as Habib whisked them away to continue up the road. Zeke turned to face Noah, heartbeat spiking as he realised he would be alone again with him. Did Noah want to spend time with him, or was he just babysitting the weakest link?
They followed the wall to reach the tower, and Zeke trailed his fingers across it as they walked. The story was that a team of a thousand workers erected it within seven days, ten long years ago now. Half-memories of seeing footage of the wall being built floated around his mind, but he wasn’t sure if they were truly from when he was twelve, or if he’d seen videos since then.
Noah, who’d quickly charged ahead of him, turned around to see where he was. Zeke expected to be told to hurry up, but to his surprise, he walked back towards him, looking up at the wall with reverent eyes.
“I always forget how remarkable the border is,” he said. “I’ve seen it so many times now. Do you want to see something incredible?”
“What is it?”
“Follow me.” Noah jogged the rest of the way to the tower, but then ran straight past it, carrying on along the barricade until he came to an enormous metal gate, painted black. “Here.” He pointed at the brick wall on the far side of the gate.
Along it, stretching over several metres, was a colossal mural. A breathtakingly beautiful weeping willow tree, its branches swaying to the left, pushed by invisible wind. Zeke stepped closer to examine the plethora of leaves painted an autumnal golden-yellow. He gasped. Every vertical hanging leaf bore a single name.
“It’s everyone that helped build the wall.”
“Everyone here loves carving stuff into shit, huh?” Zeke said, tracing the name of Yoanna Black with his fingertips.
“Seemingly so. But it’s cool, right?” Noah’s excited gaze bore into him expectantly.
“Totally. We’re lucky they built this as quickly as they did. It must have saved countless lives.”
“Speaking of saving lives, we’re now two minutes late for handover.”
He followed Noah over to the square-shaped tower. Five motorbikes, shrouded in thick black covers, stood to attention at the base. They ran up the spiral staircase that encircled the metal columns that held the structure together. At the top of the stairs, a small room, mostly composed of thick glass, awaited them. Sparsely furnished, it contained only a few desks, chairs and a massive control interface which stretched the length of the far wall.
The two soldiers already stationed there looked fatigued. They didn’t waste a second hanging around to talk to them before racing down the stairs.
Zeke sat down in the chair closest to the control panel and stared at the five different monitors that displayed images. Three of them were camera feeds, each of them rotating locations every five seconds. The other two displayed reams of words and numbers.
“This is the data from the motion sensors,” Noah explained. “We have hundreds of cameras out in the field, butthousandsof sensors. If the numbers are high, we usually fly a drone or two over to check it out.”
Noah pulled out a flask from his daysack, unscrewing it to take a small sip of steaming tea. “And now for the fun part. We sit, watch, and wait. It’s why the others hate duty so much. It can end up ten hours of this,” he said, sweeping his arm across the room.
“They would rather be over the wall fighting types?” He raised his eyebrows.
“That’s what they signed up to do.” Noah flashed him a grin. “They’re good at it too.”
