Timesurfers (33 page)

“The dome is blocking all the magic. I could
tell you anything you want to know about your future. Well, the
future you had before the debacle at the bus stop. We haven’t had a
midnight reset in our time since then so who knows how it’s all
going to play out now.”

Cate chewed on her nail. “So you don’t know
who kidnapped Xavier? Whether it was Mortez or Elias?”

Mel shook his head. “I don’t know who
kidnapped Xavier, but that happened before this altered time line
was created. Mortez wouldn’t hurt Xavier.”

So all Cate’s drama with the Timesurfers
wasn’t the reason Xavier was taken. “Look, I know she’s your
mother, but I’m pretty sure she’ll hurt anyone to get want she
wants. You might get a free pass because you’re her sons. Have I
found Xavier in the future?”

“Not yet. But you’ve been looking. We’ve all
been looking. Mortez included.”

“Well I’m going to fix that. Expect to wake
up to a reset that shows I’ve found Xavier and he’s safe with Mum
and I.” The metallic tape on her arm glowed and vanished. The sword
strapped behind Balthazar’s back and Gaspar’s bow and arrow
disappeared. A large, fluorescent orange number one appeared on her
shirt. The numbers two, three, and four respectively appeared on
the boys’ shirts.

“There’re no weapons allowed for this part.
It’s hand-to-hand combat.” Mel shoved Gaspar. “You grabbed a bow
and arrow before you climbed that column before. Only an idiot
grabs a weapon that requires two hands to operate before they climb
something they need to use at least one hand to hold onto at all
times.”

Gaspar shoved Mel back. “Don’t call me an
idiot! You’re the one who shot me in the butt.”

“Shut
up
.” Cate
rubbed the heel of her hand into her eye. She couldn’t give up now.
This wasn’t about whether she wanted to be a Timesurfer or not. It
was about finding Xavier. She’d wanted plenty of things. Finding
Xavier was something she needed to do. “I won’t kill any more
people. We just have to fight now, yeah?”

“It’s not a
we
thing.” Balthazar peered through the railings. “I think the arena
is clear of bodies. We get ten opponents
each
. We spar with them one at a time, for one minute
intervals, and they rotate through three times.”

Cate’s heart sank. Thirty minutes of
continuous, one-on-one sparring was going to hurt.

“Try and break as many bones as possible or
knock them out. That way you get more of a break between attackers.
You’ll get Austin, Cate. Mortez chooses him to fight at every GTs.”
Mel stretched his arms above his head and started limbering up.

“Why will I get him?” Cate asked.

“Family can’t fight against family in the
hand-to-hand combat round, which sucks because I’d love to go a few
rounds with him.” Balthazar and Gaspar nodded their agreement with
Mel.

“How are you related to Austin?”

Mel gave her a puzzled look. “He’s our half
brother.”

“What!” Cate thought that through. “So you
have the same father?” The doors to the holding pen rocketed open.
The boys jumped around for a few seconds to loosen up. The ground
trembled as the crowd roared.

“Let’s do this.” Balthazar marched through
the gate with Mel and Gaspar close behind.

She hurried to catch them.

The arena was bare except for the four
enormous circles marked on the ground. Ropes hung from the top of
the perimeter wall to the dirt floor. Timesurfers dressed in the
same black singlets and jeans as those who fired the arrows earlier
were grouped around the ropes on the roof. Fluorescent yellow
numbers emblazoned on their fronts and backs. The group with the
number one marked on their singlets must be her opponents.

She made her way to the circle marked with
the number one as the Timesurfers climbed down the ropes. Rafe was
at the start of her line and Austin at the end. The tall Asian guy
in front of Austin held her gaze for a moment, openly curious. She
breathed a silent prayer that there was no Rose or Jonah in the
group. They had made her spar for hours every day these last few
weeks. Toward the end, she wasn’t hitting them, but they weren’t
hitting her as much either. If she could handle them, she could
handle anyone.

“Koombi!”
A loud
voice reverberated around the arena. Everyone snapped to attention.
“Shi Jak!”

Rafe approached hesitantly. “This is going to
be like fighting blindfolded.”

Cate blocked his punches easily and was
surprised when he left his entire right side wide open for her to
attack. He was struggling because he was used to reading people’s
minds to anticipate their moves when he fought. The dome had robbed
him of that and his super strength.

The three boys each stood calmly near an
unconscious body.

“I’m sorry, Rafe.” Her jumping sidekick to
the temple knocked him out before he hit the ground. Mel gave her
two thumbs up, and the Timesurfers in her queue clapped and
whooped.

A girl similar in height to Cate approached
quickly. “It’s the legendary Catherine! I see you were showing off
your freak skills this afternoon.”

Three kicks to Cate’s chest in quick
succession made her stagger and gasp for breath. She scrapped her
way through the rest of the minute.

“You’re nothing special.” The girl clipped
Cate’s ear with her hand. “Keep your guard up or next time that’ll
be my foot and it’ll be lights out for you, Catherine.”

After what seemed like much more than eight
minutes of being punched and kicked on every inch of her body, the
tall Asian stood in front of her. He smiled a deadly smile. “So
you’re Austin’s infamous Cate! I’m Godfrey.”

A punch came straight at her head. She
stumbled back as Godfrey came at her again. She blocked two kicks,
but the third made a solid thwack against her ribs. The air left
her lungs with a loud rush. His next punch grazed her temple. Panic
set in. This guy could kill her. She stayed as far out of his reach
as she could for the rest of the allocated minute.

“Keep your guard up or you’ll get
pummelled
,” Austin growled as he
approached.

She struggled to put her arms up. Her fists
were like bricks dangling on string. Austin’s fist slammed into her
side, and his foot smashed into the same spot. She gave an angry
shout and dodged the foot aimed at her head. Austin certainly
wasn’t pulling his punches. She
visualised
all the crosses Rose had painted on Jonah
and went after them one at a time. She didn’t make contact, but
Austin only got through her guard and smacked her a few times.

“You’ve got this!” he called as he backed
away.

With no Rafe to fight, she had a minute’s
reprieve. Doubled over, hands on knees, she sucked in some deep
breaths. If she had to go two more rounds with Austin and Godfrey,
she needed more recovery time.

The girl was quick to attack but slow to get
back and protect herself. After each attack Cate pounced and landed
a kick to the girl’s upper body. She didn’t knock her out, but did
get through the minute unscathed. Her next few opponents were
easier. She tore one’s shoulder, broke another one’s leg with a
monster elbow strike and knocked out four others.

When Godfrey charged in it took all her
efforts just to block the punches and kicks he rained down on her.
“I thought you’d be more impressive,” he said when his minute
ended.

“I don’t care one bit what you think.” She
gave him her best basilisk stare.

Austin floated in. He punched and kicked her
relentlessly. For every attack she managed to block, he made
contact with three others.

She hung back, contemplating her next
move.

“Attack me! Stop cowering. Show some fire,”
Austin yelled.

“I’m trying.” She fended off another head
high kick.

“They’ll fail you if they think someone took
it easy on you.”

She hadn’t known that, and she certainly
wasn’t ever going through this again. Her knife hand strike to
Austin’s shoulder found its target. She punched hard up and under
into his stomach. He twisted away at the last second. He was
slippery like Rose and Jonah, but even faster.

“Far more convincing that time, Beautiful.”
He wasn’t even breathing hard.

Cate sagged at the knees. She had a minute
before that girl came at her again and then six minutes until
Godfrey and Austin got their last shot. Three minutes of sparring
and it would be over. When the girl approached, Cate dodged in,
punched her hard in the ribs, twisted behind her, and whacked her
temple with her heel. “That’s lights out for you, sweetheart!”

She only had to survive two more minutes.
Austin and Godfrey both looked irritatingly carefree about the
situation. She paced and waited. When they both came at her, she
rushed backward.

“It’s all in now!” Godfrey called as he and
Austin fanned out around her. Godfrey ducked in and dealt a fierce
blow to her kidney. Austin smashed her from the other side. Cate’s
internal organs shook from the impact. She fought as hard as her
depleted arms and legs would let her. When it ended, she slowly
crumbled to her knees. Hands reached under her armpits and fingers
dug into her side as someone lifted and hugged her.

“You did it, Beautiful,” Austin breathed.

“I did it.” She couldn’t open her eyes, and
had no energy to raise a smile.

Chapter 27

Consort

A
cold, hard surface pressed
against the nape of her neck. Water pounded nearby, and a citrus
smell invaded her head.

“Arms up.” Rose tugged at the bottom of
Cate’s shirt.

“I can do it.” Cate peeled her shirt off. A
chill rippled across her bare back as it brushed the icy tiles.
Pain sliced through her bicep. She’d been oblivious to the slash
from the razor disk while she sparred, but now it throbbed and
oozed blood.

Rose twiddled the cold-water tap a few times
and checked the water temperature. “The shower’s ready. I’ll be
back to check on you. You did well today.”

The bathroom door shut with the same thunk
the arrows had made when they hit a body. Cate wriggled out of her
jeans and crawled under the shower, gritting her teeth as fiery
needles of pain rained across her shoulders. Her head made a dull
thud against the shower wall. Red tinged water swirled toward the
drain.

Uncontrollable sobs battered her spine as
they wrenched their way along her throat. A plethora of people died
today at the hands of her zombies. There was nothing shiny and
bright in her future. It was full of grimy, vile acts. She
scrunched into a tight ball and cried. The self-loathing within her
grew with every gut-wrenching sob. Her reprehensible actions at the
GTs proved she was despicable to the core. Now on top of that she’d
found out she was a murderer. Well she should have been. The water
stopped and someone heaved her from the floor.

“If you drip on me...I won’t be responsible
for my actions.” Rose wrapped Cate in a gigantic, fluffy yellow
towel and manhandled her to the bed.

Rose wore a strapless floor-length black gown
with a diamond choker around her neck. When she turned, Cate
gasped. Strands and strands of glittering diamonds were draped like
a giant spider web over her bare back. “What are you all dressed up
for?”

“I’m going to the GTs ball. You’re required
at the GTs toga party with all the other under twenty-five-year-old
riffraff.” Rose threw a white sheet at Cate. “Put it on.”

Cate buried her head in the sheet. “I’m a
despicable person.” A cold, sharp sting worked its way along her
arm. The strong smell of antiseptic burned the inside of her
nostrils.

“Hold here and don’t bleed on that sheet.”
Rose pressed Cate’s hand against the cloth on her bicep and then
rummaged through a tray of bandages. She brushed Cate’s hand away
and pressed strips of flesh coloured tape across the cut. “Put your
toga on.”

“No.” Cate’s voice sounded robotic. All her
humanity had seeped out with her tears. She was physically and
emotionally drained. “I want to wallow in self pity and despise
myself for a few hours, possibly with some ice cream. Then I’ll
shake it all off and find Xavier.”

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose between
her thumb and fingers and exhaled slowly. “I understand how you’re
feeling.”

“Is that so?
You
know what it’s like to be so filled with self-loathing that you
want to rip out your heart and watch it beat for the last
time?”

“I know exactly what it’s like to be too
repulsed to look in the mirror and to be desperate to die but too
spineless to do it yourself.” She handed Cate a glass filled with
black sludge. It smelled of
liquorice
and had the consistency of lumpy mud.
“It’s a
vitalising
tonic. It tastes better than it looks.”

Cate took a tentative sip and gagged at the
sickly sweet, slimy texture. “Gross!”

“But not as gross as it looks.” Rose gave her
a wry smile. She smoothed an imaginary crease from her dress and
wiped droplets of sweat from her upper lip. “Drink it all and
you’ll feel better. Let me tell you a little about me.”

A talk
with
Rose,
about
Rose. A poke in the eye with a blunt
stick would be more appealing.

“Drink.”

Cate held her nose and drained the glass. She
flopped on the bed as she struggled to keep the sludge down. Even
her bones were exhausted.

“I was a professional party girl, back in the
day. A consort. You call them hookers, or prostitutes.”

Cate looked directly at Rose. “Are you sure
that’s what you mean?”

Rose nodded.

“So you, umm...”

“I think we’re both clear what a prostitute
does.”

“But you weren’t always...umm...in that line
of work?”