A Hero Rising

by Aubrie Dionne

  James put a hand on her arm. “The Morpheus in his blood could have infected me, but I’m not sure it’s enough to have any lasting effect. I’m alive, thanks to you, and that’s what matters now.”

  He sat up and gently pulled her hands off her eyes. “You did the right thing, Skye. Never think any differently.”

  Her stomach sickened with the fresh memory of Grease dying from her own hand. She hadn’t been able to keep him from leaving, but she didn’t think twice about stopping him now. Was she more fit to kill than to love?

  James brought her out of her brooding thoughts. “We have to get Carly and find a hovercraft before the city falls.”

  She helped him up, and they jogged to the soil where Carly lay. The girl looked like a fallen angel, an innocent being brought into a hellish world.

  James lifted Carly in his arms. “Come on, we’ve made enough noise to attract all the moonshiners in the city. Let’s get out of here.”

  Skye nodded, refusing to think he hurried because he may not have much time left.

  Chapter Nine

  Courage of Love

  Holding Carly in his arms, guilt spread through James like an infection. He shouldn’t have allowed the situation to get out of hand. Compassion was his greatest weakness, and he’d paused when Carly called out to her father. He should have relied on his instincts and shot the man dead on the spot. But that’s what separated the Radioactive Hand of Justice from the Razornecks—placing others above your own needs. Besides, Skye seemed to hold out hope from the initial expression on her face.

  His shoulder ached and the skin was rubbed raw underneath his shirt where Grease’s teeth had punctured the flesh. Instead of feeling dizzy from loss of blood, energy flowed through him, making him hyperaware of every smell and every motion. He hoped the rush was adrenaline, but a little voice in his head whispered his newfound sensitivity resulted from something more.

  “How are you feeling?” Skye asked between huffs as they climbed another flight of stairs to the roof.

  “Doing fine.” He didn’t want to upset her, and he had no evidence to say otherwise. People exposed themselves to Morpheus for months before showing any moonshiner symptoms, yet blood-to-blood transfusion may be different altogether. His anxiety rose when he considered it, so he pushed his worries far from his mind. He had to focus on the mission and get them out of the city to Project Exodus.

  They reached another platform, and Skye pushed open the emergency exit door enough to peer in.

  “Looks like offices. Just a lot of desks and leather chairs.”

  James shifted Carly in his arms and stifled his disappointment. “Let’s keep climbing. Doesn’t sound worth the time to look.”

  The higher they climbed, the more he wondered how self-sufficient Thadious Legacy’s Tower was. Maybe he didn’t need hovercrafts at all. If so, James had trapped them in the middle of a fallen city at the end of the world. Chances were he could get them back to the bunker, but what then? Wait in a cement box for the rest of his life?

  James pushed ahead, taking advantage of his new well of energy. With him carrying Carly, Skye could keep up with his pace. They checked every floor, and it took them an hour to reach the roof.

  They stood in front of the emergency exit like souls waiting at the gates of heaven, unsure of their own salvation.

  “This is it.” James glanced at Skye for her permission to reveal what lay beyond the door.

  Skye’s harried nudge of her chin told him she was tired of anticipation. He wondered how long she’d been waiting in her life to do something about her situation before finally hanging off that balcony. Well, she was acting now.

  “Push it open. I’m ready.”

  James leaned his weight against the door, and they stepped out, the night sky twinkling above them. Their feet sunk into white sand trailing down to water.

  “What? A lake? On top of a building?”

  “It’s a swimming pool,” James said in disgust, wondering why someone would waste sun space that could be used for growing food.

  “You mean for fun?” Skye circled the pool, looking down into the placid water.

  “Guess so.”

  “Wait a second. I know this place.” Skye’s eyes widened. “This is where they shot Beach Party Rules.” It wasn’t an actual beach. It was all a lie.

  James shrugged, not caring about Thadious Legacy’s pastime hobbies. In a few hours, the World Coalition was going to reduce the whole city to dust. His eyes scanned the length of the building and rested on two duel twin engines the size of subway tunnels. Above them, a sight panel stretched out in the shape of a visor. The metal glinted in the moonlight like a polished prize.

  It was the largest, and most thoroughly decked out hovercraft he’d ever seen.

  “That what you’re looking for?” Skye glanced back at him with a pleased smirk on her face.

  “I’ll settle for that, yes.” James handed Carly to Skye and hurried around the pool to see if he could make sense of the controls. He pulled his miniscreen from his backpack, and plugged it into the panel in the driver’s side. With a few pats of his finger, the hatch opened, revealing a cockpit full of buttons and blinking lights. An alarm beeped, and James waved to Skye to get on board. The guards were long gone, but such a noise would draw moonshiners like moths to a light stick.

  “Can you fly it?” Skye climbed up beside him, holding Carly close.

  “Yeah, of course.” Such a vehicle was the product of his dreams. In his mind, he’d been flying it all his life. The hatch closed, and he settled into the pilot’s seat. Using his miniscreen, he downloaded the system controls and input the coordinates Dal had given him. While waiting for his processor to analyze the data, he sent a message to Dal.

  HOVERCRAFT ACQUIRED. EN ROUTE TO PROJECT EXODUS.

  He could picture the old man smiling three hundreds levels down.

  The miniscreen beeped and a map appeared along with a bright yellow line leading to the coordinates in the Barrens. James pulled back a lever, and the engines rumbled below them like awakened giants, sending fake beach sand into the air. The ship tilted slightly as it rose up and hovered over the pool, creating ripples in the water below them.

  James took the controls, and they sped off the roof of the building, shooting up into the night sky. The streets below scurried with motion. James shone a honing light down between the buildings. Moonshiners piled on top of one another, reaching to the sky. He shrugged off a shiver and pulled up, glad to leave the city.

  The high-rises grew small underneath them, some buildings lit up like fireflies, and others black as death. He passed over the charred remains of the State Building, thinking of Grease and pitying him.

  Skye came in and slipped into the seat next to him, securing her belt. “Carly woke up, but went right back to sleep, so I belted her in lying down.”

  He turned toward her, taking his eyes off the sky to give her an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, Skye; she’ll be okay.”

  Skye’s shoulders rose and fell as if the weight of all the levels she’d lived under pressed on top of her. “It’s my fault.”

  To have Skye feel even a little bit at fault for anything that had happened made James angry with himself. She was a victim of poor circumstances, nothing more. He was a trained gang member who took an oath to defend the helpless.

  “Nothing is your fault. I should have acted faster. I could have shot him before he got to Carly.”

  “No. You did the right thing.” Skye held his eyes in a firm lock with her own. “I, on the other hand, started this whole mess and dragged Carly into it.”

  “You did what you had to do to keep her safe. Grease made his own choices, none of them wise.”

  “I never loved him, not like I should have.” She blurted it out and James looked away, not knowing how to respond.

  From the corner of his eye, he could see her gazing into the distance, where the city ended and the Barrens began. “He found me scavenging in an alley. I�
��d grown too old for the orphanage, so I took to the streets, scrounging to stay alive. I was starving, and he offered me shelter and a hot meal. I thought I’d stay for a night, nothing more. Then, I met Carly and learned her mother had left before she could remember. I was the only woman she’d ever met. I’d always wanted to be a mother. I couldn’t leave her.”

  Skye shifted uncomfortably. “I grew to care for Grease as well, but I never truly loved him the way I loved Carly. I feel so awful saying it.”

  “You can’t choose who you love,” James said, thinking of his instant connection to Mestasis, his tragic love story. “Your heart chooses for you.”

  “Well, my heart must have been on vacation, because if I loved him enough, I would have found the courage to stop him. I wouldn’t have let him go.”

  “You can’t keep people locked up. You can’t prevent them from fulfilling their own destinies, their own dreams.” He loved Mestasis so much he’d wanted her to go, and she couldn’t have kept him from his own inclinations to save more people in the crumbling world.

  James continued. “People have to make their own choices in life. It doesn’t mean you don’t love him, or he you.”

  She jerked up, looking at James as if she saw him for the first time. Her eyebrows rose. “The Expedition.”

  He could see her thinking, see in her glittering eyes as she connected fragments of who she knew he was. “A woman you loved took off on that colony ship, didn’t she?”

  James focused on the sky ahead, wondering how his heart could be so transparent. Confirming the truth would only reopen the sore, yet he couldn’t deny her. She’d saved his life and helped him find the hovercraft. She had a right to know. “Yes.”

  “What is her name?”

  “Mestasis.”

  It felt so good to say it out loud, as if he could conjure her next to him with only the sound of those syllables he’d uttered in moments of ecstasy and pain.

  “A beautiful name.” Skye sat back against her seat.

  James fell silent, hoping she’d drop the conversation, but apparently she was only gathering her courage to ask the next question.

  “Why didn’t you go with her?”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. How could he put his experience into words she’d understand? “They did extensive DNA testing to ensure healthy future generations on the ship. I didn’t make the cut.”

  “You seem very capable to me.”

  His lips curved up at the compliment, but his smile didn’t last. “I have a heart arrhythmia, and they didn’t think I’d survive the pressures of living in a low-gravity environment. Besides, my genes had latent diseases that were sure to manifest in future generations.”

  “Bad genes, my ass.” Skye sniffed haughtily. “If I loved the person, I wouldn’t care what DNA he had.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s not how Thadious Legacy views the world.”

  Skye’s eyes were fierce, like she could never forgive this woman she hadn’t even met. “Why didn’t she stay?”

  “She’d signed a contract with Thadious Legacy himself. She and her sister were to pilot the ship in exchange for tickets for three hundred of my people.”

  “Wow. And if she didn’t go?”

  “He’d call off the bargain. Three hundred people would go back to the sewers. Her sister would have to drive the ship without her.”

  “How awful.”

  “You’re telling me.” James shifted in his seat. As much as the topic pained him, it helped to get it out in the open, as if sharing his hurt with Skye would share the burden as well.

  “James, I’m so sorry.”

  He appreciated her sympathy, but it wasn’t necessary—she had enough to worry about. He waved it off. “It couldn’t have happened any other way. I realized if I had taken off on that ship, I couldn’t have ever forgiven myself. Yes, I’d be overseeing three hundred of my own people, but what about all the others I’d leave behind? No, I was meant to be here, Skye, to pilot that colony ship and save the people left in the city. I accept my destiny. I embrace it.”

  She spoke softly, as if she was afraid of the question and his answer. “Yes, but will you ever be able to let Mestasis go?”

  James shrugged, looking down at his hands on the controls. Why did it matter so much to her?

  “Only time will tell.”

  Chapter Ten

  False Hero

  “Where are we?” Carly’s voice wafted up from the back of the hovercraft in a soft murmur, barely audible against the roar of the engines.

  Skye whipped around in her seat. “She’s awake.”

  She fumbled with the buckles as James pressed something on the panels controlling the ship and leaned over to help her with her restraints. His hands brushed against hers as he popped the buckle open on the first try. They hustled to the backseat where Carly lay. For Skye, seeing her eyes open was like seeing light after a century of darkness.

  “Carly, are you feeling okay?”

  “My head hurts.” She put her hand up to her forehead and felt the bump. “What happened? Where are we?”

  “We’re on a hovercraft. We made it out of the city, Carls.” Skye tried to keep things positive, wondering if she’d remember anything that had happened. “We’re headed toward a big ship in the Barrens.”

  “Where’s Daddy?”

  Her heart sank to her feet. The ugly truth sat on her tongue like poison. How could she tell her? “What do you remember?”

  Carly rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know.”

  The roar of the engines beneath them heightened the anticipation. Skye didn’t want to say anything right now if she could help it. Her finger brushed the lump on the little girl’s forehead. “You need to rest.”

  Carly’s gaze wandered around the cabin area and focused on something far away. “I had the strangest dream. We were in a greenhouse, and I’d just eaten so many berries, my stomach hurt. Then I saw Daddy. He was sick.”

  Skye’s fingers shook. “What else do you remember?”

  “That’s it. Where’s Daddy?” This time her question came out as a demand.

  Skye looked to James, pleading for some miracle.

  James nodded as if he knew how to handle it. He leaned over. “Your daddy was very brave, but he didn’t make it, honey.”

  “What?” Carly’s chin trembled. She put both hands on her head and scrunched up her hair in her fists.

  James placed a hand on Carly’s shoulder. “He couldn’t come with us.”

  “Why?” Her voice squeaked as her face fell apart.

  Skye watched as James thought over his response.

  His face turned from apologetic to resolute. “Your father loved you very much, and he wanted you to be safe. He tried hard for you but he didn’t make it.”

  Carly wiggled out of James’s touch and looked at him as if he were a demon. “You left him there?”

  Skye interrupted. “No he didn’t, Carls. James helped as well.”

  Shooting upright, Carly stuck a finger at James. “I wish stupid green-hair had stayed behind instead.”

  “Carly, you don’t mean that,” Skye scolded her.

  “Yes, I do.” Tears flowed down her cheeks and she blinked to see through them. “I hate him, and I miss my daddy.”

  “Carls—”

  She pulled away from Skye and ran into the cargo hold. Skye moved to go after her, but James put a gentle hand on her arm, holding her back. “Give her time.”

  Carly’s pain stabbed Skye in the gut, and she held her stomach, wanting to shield Carly from the truth and shield James from Carly’s wrath all at the same time—and failing at both endeavors. “Why didn’t you tell her the whole truth?”

  “I told her what she needed to hear. Her dad did love her, and he wanted to keep her safe. That’s what she needs to know.”

  “But she’ll hate you forever. She’ll think you left him behind.”

  James smiled sadly. “What was I going to do? Tell her that her dad had
turned into a monster? I’d rather her hate me and feel loved than have nightmares of what really happened. No child should see their parent like that.”

  “She’s got to know the truth.”

  “We’ll tell her someday when she’s older. Right now, she’s had enough heartache.”

  Skye looked deeply in his eyes, seeing emotion simmer inside the misty depths. “You care about her, too.”

  James opened his mouth to respond, but an alarm buzzed from the cockpit.

  “I’m sorry.” He darted back to his pilot seat as if fleeing laser fire.

  Torn between helping Carly and finding out what was wrong, Skye followed him. Carly needed time to cool off, and Skye couldn’t help her if she didn’t know what they faced.

  She slipped into the cockpit and leaned over James’s shoulder. He tapped on one of the panels and flicked a few switches.

  “What is it?”

  “Drained energy cell. Looks like our good friend, TL, didn’t mean to fly this ship very far.”

  Skye searched the horizon. Nothing but the husks of abandoned buildings cluttered the ground. Dust blew everywhere. The desert had taken the land. “What are we going to do?”

  “Look for something to power the ship.”

  “And what if we can’t find anything?”

  James quirked an eyebrow. “We’ll walk.”

  “In the middle of a desert?”

  “If we have to. The nuclear fallout will contaminate this area as well. We need to keep moving.”

  “You really think they’ll nuke it?”

  “They blew up Utopia and the State building, didn’t they?”

  His words slapped her in the face, and she looked away, cheeks burning.

  James reached out and squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mention…”

  She sniffed and put her hand to her mouth, waving him off. “It’s not your fault, remember?”

  James gripped the controls with white knuckles. “Someone’s got to take responsibility for all that’s wrong with the world.”