A Hero Rising

by Aubrie Dionne

  “It’s not a hovercraft, Carls, it’s a car,” Skye said, regaining her balance as James pulled her up.

  “What’s a car?”

  Skye looked at James as if it was a tough question to answer. James tried to explain. “A long time ago, there weren’t as many buildings, and people had room to drive on the land instead of riding in the air.”

  “Where did everyone live?”

  Her question impressed him. She was a smart little girl for someone not educated in the high-rise Academies. “There weren’t as many people back then, so we didn’t have as many buildings.”

  “Oh.”

  Skye took Carly’s hand. “Come on. We need to help James find a hovercraft.”

  “It’s okay.” James waved his hand. “I’m still thinking about the quickest way up. Legacy would have parked the hovercrafts on the higher levels, maybe even on the roof.”

  Before he could search for an elevator, Carly screamed, the sound shrill and full of terror. James whipped around and drew out his laser, pointing the barrel at a set of yellow, glassy eyes. The beast stood a whole foot taller than Carly, with white whiskers as long as her arm and a black and orange striped hide.

  “It’s stuffed,” Skye said, putting her hand gently on James’s arm. “The thing’s probably been dead for over a century.”

  James sighed in relief and lowered his laser. “I think I’ve seen too many of those moonshiners. They’ve got me jumpy.”

  “We’re all jumpy,” Skye said with a sympathetic smile. She squeezed his arm before removing her hand. Before he could respond, she jogged over to Carly. “It’s called a tiger—an animal that used to live on Earth. Go ahead, touch its fur.”

  Carly reached out, cringing at the same time. “It’s soft.”

  “See? Nothing to be afraid of.”

  While they petted the stuffed tiger, James searched for a way up. “I think I see an elevator across the room.”

  His hopes rose, and he had to remind himself Thadious Legacy may have shut off the power.

  “Great! Let’s get out of here.” Skye sounded triumphant.

  James kept his own voice flat. “This tower’s three hundred levels. Let’s hope it still works.”

  They scuffled over the marble floor, leaving a trail of sludge from the sewers. James pressed the panel, and the numbers lit up. His mood brightened. Thadious Legacy had never struck him as an environmentalist. Made sense he wouldn’t think to save energy for the rest of the world.

  They stepped in and he pushed the level for the atrium that Mestasis had spoken of. His stomach grumbled, and he couldn’t imagine how Skye and Carly felt. He had promised the little girl food, and he always kept his promises.

  Elegant music played on the intercom system as the elevator rose. Sweet strings swelled in a melancholy melody accompanied by flute trills. The serene ambiance contrasted with the dire situation, making James feel as though Thadious Legacy mocked him from space.

  Skye locked eyes with his, steadying him, helping him to refocus his thoughts. “I hope there’s a hovercraft here.”

  “He has everything else: classical music, antique cars, chandeliers—you’d think he’d have at least one utility vehicle.”

  “If you look hard enough, you just may find another colony ship somewhere on one of these levels. Heck, maybe even another planet.”

  “Yeah, stashed right next to the crystal wine glasses.”

  Skye shrugged. “We might as well just stay here, invite your friends, have a party.”

  James chuckled. “I’ve never heard you use sarcasm.”

  “Just wait. You have a lot to learn about me.” Her eyes teased him.

  “Good stuff, I hope.”

  “Depends on what you’d call good.”

  Carly pulled on Skye’s shirt, interrupting. “I don’t want to stay here. The music is scary.”

  Skye smoothed her hand over the stray wisps of blond in Carly’s hair. “Don’t worry, Carls. We’re not staying long.”

  The elevator beeped, and a smooth voice announced, “Level Two-hundred and forty-three. Enjoy.”

  A wave of humid air hit them in the face like a tropical bath, smelling of sweet blossoms. Vines draped in front of them, and James pulled the greenery back for them to enter. The walls were made of glass. Sparkling stars winked at them in the velvety black sky. Even this floor rose above the city lights.

  “What is this place?” Skye’s eyes widened.

  James averted his eyes from the stars and who they reminded him of. He pulled an apple hanging from the branch of a tree, feeling the smooth peel under his fingers. “Pit stop for lunch.”

  “Smokin’ cyber beans!” Carly took off, jogging down a row of fruit trees. She stopped and grabbed a cherry, probing it with her fingers until the skin broke and juice flowed out. “Is it really real?”

  “Carls, don’t eat that. It might be poisonous.”

  “She’s fine,” James assured her, taking a bite of the apple. The sweet tartness stung his tongue. “This is Thadious Legacy’s private greenhouse, used to grow all his own food.”

  She watched him swallow the bite. He saw her calculating behind her sharp eyes, weighing the risk against her own hunger.

  “I guess if it was good enough for him, then it’s good enough for me.” She knelt down and pulled a tomato off a spindly vine.

  He threw her an apple, shining in the moonlight, bright as a new toy. “Eat as much as you can and fill your pockets. I’m not sure when we’ll have more food.”

  “Like this? Probably never,” Skye said as she bit into the tomato and juices flowed down her chin. She brought her hand up to stop it and looked back at him sheepishly, as if there were table manners in an abandoned greenhouse at the end of the world.

  James smiled. His gaze flitted to where the juice ran down her chin to her neck and he turned away, embarrassed. How could he notice such things when Mestasis was off flying the ship with input holes drilled into her head? He busied himself by picking fruit for the ride.

  “Look what I found, Skye!” Carly dangled a carrot by the roots. Moist soil clung to her little fingers. Cherry juice stained her lips, and she’d stuffed her cheeks to bursting with berries.

  After filling his pockets with apples and oranges, James found Skye digging up potatoes with her fingers. “I’m going hovercraft hunting. You and Carly stay here and rest. I’ll come get you if I find anything.”

  “Sure thing.” Skye flashed a reassuring smile and held his eyes with her own. “Be careful.”

  Her words hung heavily in the air between them. He wondered if her concern ran deeper than the fact she needed him to save her and Carly’s life. The urge to comfort her grew inside him. He had always been a caretaker, and Skye’s vulnerable position drew him in. James ran his finger along her cheek, wiping away a streak of tomato juice. As he touched her, an insistent pain ached inside him.

  Not again.

  Romance couldn’t snare him twice. Losing Mestasis had almost killed him, and he never wanted to reopen that wound. Caretaking was one thing, loving, another.

  He pulled back, his voice cold. “I’ll return soon.”

  Just as he turned to step away, the elevator beeped, a jarring sound invading their private pocket of paradise. He jerked his head up, watching as the doors closed and the platform plunged to the lower levels.

  “Is it returning to Level One automatically?” Skye’s voice cracked. Her fingers trembled, dropping the potato. It bounced once and landed by James’s boot.

  “Not sure.” James slipped out his laser. “One way to find out.”

  They waited as the numbers on the panel decreased. It took ten minutes for the platform to reach the bottom, but neither of them moved. Carly hummed in the background, skipping among the berry bushes. The beeps ceased as the platform reached ground level.

  James held his breath, feeling like he’d sucked a storm inside his chest. A burst of new electricity buzzed, and the elevator rose with a new series of beeps.
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  Skye gasped and whispered as if the intruder could hear her from three hundred levels below, “Someone’s coming.”

  James raised the laser to the door. “Let them come.”

  Chapter Eight

  Promise

  Skye felt like a credit thief caught with their fake card inserted in the Automatic Transfer Module. She knew Thadious Legacy had flown away, never to come back again. So who was in on their little plan?

  “Carly,” she whispered to get her attention. “Hide in the bushes. Someone’s coming.”

  Each beep increased her adrenaline by exponential increments, shaking her limbs down to the tips of her fingers. She picked up the potato from the ground and held it in her fist, ready to aim.

  Level Two-hundred and forty-one.

  Two-hundred and forty-two.

  Her fingernails dug into her palm. Maybe they’d keep going, right on up to the roof. The final beep rocked her very core as the doors parted.

  A man hobbled out like an anticlimactic end to a scene in Beach Party Rules. His shoulders slumped forward and grimy brown hair fell in front of his eyes. One hand jerked in a twitching motion, while the other waved as if he painted circles in the air.

  “Daddy!” Before Skye could react, Carly dashed out from the bushes and scurried toward the elevator.

  Skye stood up in utter shock, hope and disbelief tingling through her like she’d awoken from a beautiful dream. The potato slipped from her fingers.

  “Grease?”

  He didn’t answer her. Carly stopped two feet in front of him and paused, as if she sensed there was something wrong. Her voice still held hope. “I knew you’d come back.”

  “I promised ya, didn’t I?” His voice was scratchy, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time. “Too bad Skye didn’t believe me.”

  He held up her note in his shuddery hand. “I followed you all the way here, tracking your footsteps through the sewers.” His head jerked, and she saw a line of black snaking down his chin. “I can smell a lot of things now: the sweat of fear, the reek of a drop of blood, the tracks of a betrayer.”

  Skye threw her arms up, palms outstretched. “Grease, I can explain. I watched the footage of the attack so many times. I thought you were dead.”

  His shoulders squiggled as if scorpions were running up his back. “So you ran off with another man, a do-gooder leprechaun, the enemy of the Razornecks.” Bitterness dripped from his words.

  Skye crashed inside. It hurt to have him see her like this. He believed she’d abandoned what they’d had. “I waited for you for hours until we had no food left and a crazy old woman ransacked our apartment.”

  “Looks like you hightailed it outta there first chance you got, first man you met.”

  Grease’s twitching increased in speed until he shuffled from foot to foot. Everything about him was wrong; the way he stood with his back bent forward, the hatred in his voice, the strange movement of his hands. All those hours she’d wished for him to come back, and now his presence twisted her stomach. She pitied him, missed him, and feared him all at the same time.

  Maybe some promises are better left unfinished.

  Grease reached out and grabbed Carly in the twitch of a finger. He held her close, like a rag doll he’d reclaimed from a stolen loot pile.

  Carly shrieked, tears running down her cheeks. Jennifer fell to the floor, the doll’s eyes lolling.

  Grease’s hands tightened around her. “I’m not going to let you take my family away from me.”

  James held up his hand, gripping the laser in the other. “Let her go, Grease, and we’ll work this all out.”

  “There’s nothing…” Grease paused as if he’d lost his train of thought and shook his head. “To work out.”

  Grease moved from side to side like a predator deciding how and when to strike. He raised his head and his hair fell back, revealing a charred streak of flesh running down his cheek to his neck. His weasel-like black eyes shifted. As Skye looked into them, the darkness spread to the corners. They looked too big and slanted in a strange, alien way.

  “You’ve got to do something,” Skye whispered through trembling lips. “He’s different than he used to be. He’s changed.”

  James shook his head. “I can’t hurt Carly’s father. No matter what he’s become.”

  Grease retreated toward the elevator. “I’m taking Carly with me. You can stay with your new boyfriend. I don’t need ya.”

  James tightened his grip on the trigger. “I can’t let you do that.”

  He fired and Skye screamed. The white light flashed by Grease and Carly, hitting the elevator panel. The wires short-circuited, and the doors sealed shut.

  James held the laser steady. “Now let’s have a friendly talk—”

  But before he could finish, Grease tossed Carly aside. She sprawled through the air and hit the glass wall with a thunk, sliding down to the ground with her face in the soil. Grease bolted at James. His head crashed into James’s stomach, and the laser careened across the greenhouse, landing in a bush.

  Skye sprinted to Carly, feeling every nightmare she’d ever had springing to life. She turned Carly’s head over and felt her neck for a pulse. A raised welt appeared on her forehead, but her heartbeat was steady. Holding the little girl in her arms, Skye watched James and Grease tumble into the pumpkin patch.

  James was an excellent fighter. She’d witnessed his skills firsthand when he punched the guard in the face, but the moonshine in Grease’s veins gave him extraordinary speed. He punched James in the cheek before James could bring up his arm to defend himself, and then buried his head in James’s shoulder. James screamed in pain.

  Skye placed Carly down and dived in the bushes for the laser. If she didn’t stop Grease, he’d kill James and come after her and Carly next. Thorns cut her arms as she dug through the brambles.

  It’s got to be here somewhere. She’d seen it fly into the bush as she ran after Carly.

  The moonlight trickled down through the weaving branches, illuminating a black sheen that had to be the barrel. Skye thrust her hand into the soil and yanked the laser out of the bush. She’d never held a real one before, and it felt heavy and cold in her hands. The photon stimulator vibrated underneath her fingertips. The gun was charged and ready to go.

  When she turned around, Grease was hovering over James, digging through the pockets of his torn coat with blood dripping from his chin. He pulled out a switchblade and flipped it open, the silver blade catching the moon’s rays.

  “No!” Skye shouted, pointing the laser in his direction. “Grease, stop.”

  Grease turned to face her, the skin on his face dark as night. She wondered if the fire had caused the discoloring, or if the moonshine had traveled all the way up his arm. His eyes were cold and empty as if he struggled to remember his own name. He turned on James and raised the blade.

  Skye pulled the trigger and the barrel exploded into light. The shaft hit Grease in the chest, and he fell back from the force. She ran to James, still holding the laser. Blood covered his arm from his shoulder to his chest. He shouted, his voice filled with pain. “Keep firing!”

  No normal human could have survived that laser wound. Grease rose, the flames produced by the laser licking up the clothes on his chest. His skin burned black where she’d hit him, making Skye’s heart cringe. Could she really fire at him again? He scrambled toward her, barring his teeth. If she didn’t fire, he’d topple her over and bite her next. Carly needed her, and she had to get back to the little girl. Steeling her nerves, Skye fired multiple rounds, each shot like a dagger in her gut, softening her resolve but barely slowing him down.

  Think of Carly. You have to protect her.

  Fingers shaking, she raised the laser and aimed for his head. A thousand memories flew through her mind: Grease’s quirky smile when he first saw her in the alleyway, his protective hand on Carly’s shoulder, the way he slouched on the couch while watching the holoscreen. This shot would end it all. Part of her doubted s
he could pull the trigger, but the orphan-survivor inside her had no hesitations.

  Skye fired, and it was like shooting at her own head. The streak of light seized Grease like a lightning bolt and he fell to the soil, unmoving. Time stopped, her breath ripped out of her chest. The finality of the moment smacked her in the face. Her hands trembled as she brought down the laser and it fell to the ground. Her body turned to grains of sand, and she collapsed on her knees, crawling toward Carly.

  The little girl lay sideways in the soil with one eye covered in sand. Skye turned her on her back, brushed off her face, and felt her breath. Small puffs of air blew on Skye’s hand, and relief turned her whole body into mush. She fell on her back beside Carly and started to cry, watching the stars glitter like diamonds of hope in the sky.

  James. He’d saved them both from Grease and may have lost him own life in return. Skye jolted up and stumbled toward him. James sat, holding a piece of his shirt over his shoulder to stop the bleeding.

  Worry filled his eyes. “Is Carly okay?”

  Skye nodded. “She’s breathing, but she’s knocked out cold.”

  “Thank goodness, she’s okay.” His shoulders slumped in relief. “It might be better this way. I don’t want her seeing her dad like this.”

  Skye knelt beside him and put pressure on the wound. The feel of hot blood under her fingers made her stomach twist with worry. How bad is it? Did she have the courage to even ask?

  James gave her an incredulous look. “Skye, you saved my life.”

  “Grease would have killed us all.”

  “I know. I’m just so impressed.” He touched her cheek with his good arm. “You were really brave.”

  Skye waved his comment off. She felt like a murderer. “Grease bit you, didn’t he?” she said in resignation as she wound the piece of shirt around her arm and tied a knot.

  “Several times.”

  She could barely speak. “Will you be all right?”

  He winced, unable to hide the truth from his face. “I’m not sure.”

  Skye covered her face with her hands. Her world was tumbling down on top of her, and she had no way to hold it up. She’d just lost Grease all over again, James was wounded—possibly infected—and Carly had been knocked unconscious.