Daugher of Ash

by Matthew S. Cox

  Kate huffed.

  “Yeah, right. Tired and poor are all we have left.”

  She ran a hand over her leg, staring at the light blue rings around where her fingers pierced the hologram. For years, she had done without the bracelet, hiding in the shadows of the places sane people were afraid to go. At first, she didn’t know any better. She had no idea what could happen to a solitary woman out here, much less a teen girl. Aurora had mocked her embarrassment. True, she hadn’t cared about being naked all the time until after she’d arrived in the city and everyone she met made a big deal about it. Though she never bayed at the moon, she had watered a tree or two.

  Kate smiled.

  The punks didn’t know what she was. Memories of gangs running in terror made her laugh while thoughts of kindly people burning themselves trying to take her hand made her angry. She pulled her feet up and lay sideways, using an arm for a pillow. Fingernails scratched the wet, tarnished metal, creating thin lines of dry as well as steam. The bracelet rested inches from her eyes. Cyan numbers on the curved, black screen read: 02:41 a.m.

  Another burst of wind gathered enough strength to push past her aura of heat for an instant, causing a shiver. She curled tighter, anger building. Tyrel was one of them. A scientist. One of the horrible people who cursed her with an existence at arm’s length from the world. She picked at the heat-resistant band around her left wrist. His nice act hadn’t fooled her. No, she refused to feel guilt for murdering a man seeking only a better life. He wasn’t a man―he was a scientist.

  The kind of man who could push a button to kill a little girl in a tank, because she failed. No, she hadn’t failed. They failed in making her right. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t turn it off. But still, they blamed her.

  Anger lapsed to exhaustion, and she shut her eyes.

  Kate lay on her side, curled up like a newborn babe in a concrete vault. At once, she recognized a dream. Her bracelet was gone, her body younger. She remembered the smell in the space she had made home, a sour-sweet mixture of garbage and rotting food from squatters on the upper floors. Her teenaged self had taken over a space under the ground floor of the emptiest building she could find, close to the western edge of East City. She laughed inside her head. Her mind had taken her back to about a year after she had grown lonely in the forest. One day, she decided to keep going east until she found people, and the city.

  Her hands squeezed into her stomach after she sat up, trying to weaken the hunger that haunted her each morning. Rats had not been as filling as wild deer. She crawled to the square hole leading out of her chamber, stood, and stretched. Inches of ash lined the ground floor, the lunar grey disrupted here and there by the remains of furniture that had not burned all the way. All the trash packed into the place had gone up in smoke the first time she walked in.

  Kate stepped with care around metal and glass and went to a hole in the wall where a door had once hung. She remembered her teeth chattering that day out on the street. Pain wracked her muscles; lack of food had caused her to cool. The idea seemed solid to the mind of a sixteen-year-old. If she ate less, her body would run out of excess energy and stop burning. Unfortunately, her metabolism did not like the idea. Rather than cool off, she starved.

  Long, wild hair brushed against her legs as she ran. Voices behind her teased and whistled, but only from a safe distance. Kate never let them know how much she wanted to be touched. When she first entered the city, a few tried to force the issue and learned agonizing lessons. After a year, rumors had spread and the gangs left her alone. A few felt bad for her, some even brought her food.

  The whole sector knew her, and stayed away.

  That night, she hunted for food. No deer existed in the city, but she had found a substitute. When she got close to the edge of the grey zone, she stuck to the shadows. Her lack of clothing always caused problems. She didn’t want to hurt the people who tried to offer help, but she still ran away. If she accepted help, they would find her. The man in the black coat and everyone he worked for wanted to put her back in a tank―a tank with a kill switch.

  She crouched behind a row of garbage pods, under a cloak of hair, watching the street at the end of the alley. The back door to a CyberBurger, one she had raided several times, waited. Acrid smoke stung her eyes from whatever substance sizzled out from under her toes. At the instant pedestrian traffic left the alley unobserved, she bolted from cover and ran to the wall. The metal touched her back, cold for only an instant, slimy for a second more as the grime seared away.

  Against the building, she had shelter from the street, and enough hair hanging over her to look like a dress from a distance. For several minutes, she pressed herself into the plastisteel wall, cringing at every loud hiss whenever she made contact with more grease. A noise at the wrong time would ruin her hunt.

  At long last, the entrance opened. Kate vanished in shadow behind the door as it swung toward her. A dark-haired man in his middle thirties with a coffee complexion carried two massive bags of trash to a dumpster. She darted around the door and slipped inside, shifting sideways with raised arms to duck through a narrow hallway without touching anything. Hanging smocks, shelves of spare parts, and a stock of cleaning chemicals, any of which would ignite if she made contact.

  Once in the production area, she went straight for the industrial food assembler. She kept one eye locked on the reflective surface of a refrigerator-sized OmniSoy reservoir, watching the door. CyberBurger manufactured each meal as ordered; the huge machine sat idle at an hour too late for breakfast, but too early for lunch.

  A few quick taps at the holographic console got the machine producing. She lost herself in the ecstasy of food, grabbing burger after burger as they slid along a conveyor. Kate managed to inhale three before a man shouted at her.

  “Hey! What the hell are you doing in here?”

  She whirled on him, desperate eyes staring over the sandwich while her attempt to speak turned into a series of pleading whimpers.

  “Oh for shit’s sake,” he grumbled. “Why are you naked? You kidnapped or something?”

  Kate shook her head, grabbing another burger.

  “Hey, stop that… Someone’s gotta pay for those. Policy won’t let me comp you. Hell, I can’t even pay for it myself. Corporate thinks it’ll attract more vagrants. You want me to call the police?”

  She shook her head again, harder, packing the burger into her mouth with both hands.

  The manager froze as she took another, noticing the smoke that peeled from her touch. “What the hell are you?”

  “Hungry,” she muttered.

  He yanked a long, metal bar out from between two machines, a flange at the end gleamed as he brandished it. She reached for another burger, but he shouted and advanced. She shied away. He backed her into a corner, pointing the bar at her while yelling for someone named Jennifer Three. Kate licked bits of food out of her teeth, eyeing the door. A rickety teenage doll appeared in an archway leading deeper into the building.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Call the police, now. Report a burglary.”

  “Yes, sir.” The doll took on a vacant stare.

  “Go away,” said Kate.

  She took a step for the door but he slid to his right, blocking her.

  “Don’t move, kid. I don’t know what the hell is going on here―”

  He screamed when her right hand ignited, cradling a blue fireball. Kate cocked her arm back as if to throw it, and advanced. Rather than run as she hoped, he roared and charged. She flung the incendiary missile into his chest and jumped aside as his rush became a fall. The manager hit the ground, howling in agony. She tiptoed to the side, edging along the wall of machinery. He rolled onto his back; his chest, neck, and some of his face had become a glistening red mass devoid of skin.

  Jennifer Three walked around the counter and stopped nearby, tilting her head with an overdone girlish giggle. “Mister Alfonso, should I request an ambulance as well?”

  He wheezed.


  “Yes,” said Kate, reaching for more food.

  “I am sorry, miss. I am not authorized to accept commands from customers.”

  Kate shrugged, knocked another four burgers apart to grab only the ‘meat’ patty, and carried them out the back door while concentrating on not burning them. She skidded to a halt on her heels, staring at a big man in a black suit and violet hat.

  In the real world, sleeping Kate smiled at the memory of her first meeting with Paul.

  “Hey, Kid,” said Paul, raising a hand.

  She stuffed the burgers in her mouth, expecting him to take them.

  “Whoa, slow down. I ain’t here to steal your food.”

  Alfonso wailed in the distance. Paul leaned past her to peek, holding a hand a few inches away from her shoulder. Kate sidestepped. She remembered reading his mind, finding no intent to hurt her.

  “The boss wants to talk to you. We could use someone wit’ your talents…” Paul rubbed his chin. “Course, we gotta do somethin’ bout that naked thing. Lucky for you, El Tío knows people.”

  Cold dragged her out of the dream. Kate gagged at the taste of low tide in the air. The feeling of freezing, experiencing the world as it should be, lasted only seconds. She sat up, clutching herself, wishing it longer. Once her metabolism caught up, the continuous bubble of warmth she lived in resumed.

  She rubbed her face, cursing, and stood. The squeak of a shoe on the metal ground made her spin, hand aflame.

  “Hey,” said a skinny boy of about thirteen, dressed in a Wharf Rat coat and baggy blue pants with side pockets on the thighs. Dirty-blond hair hung in a wild tangle around light brown skin and almond-shaped eyes that seemed too young for this place.

  Kate let her arm drop; the fire went out. “What the hell do you want?”

  he boy’s smile vanished, replaced with a determined grunt that lasted all of a second. He stumbled to the side, caught his fall, and resumed smiling. Kate went to grab him, but thought better of it at the last moment. A spike of anger lit fire to a dumpster a few feet away.

  “Damn, this little bastard’s got a lot of willpower.” He smiled for a few seconds before rolling his eyes. “Oh, same to you, kid.”

  Kate squinted. “Aurora?”

  “Indeed. I was hoping you wouldn’t kill a small one. The boy is kind of cute, even if he’s got a foul mouth.”

  Kate laughed at the diatribe of swear words going by in the combined surface thoughts of a woman and a kid. A few made her cringe. After a moment of it, Aurora seemed to have had enough and growled. The sense of the boy receded.

  “What was that?” asked Kate.

  “I can’t carry on a conversation with you while I’ve got him gnawing on my ear. He’s fine, just tucked away for now. Anyway, Archon wanted me to reach out and see how things were going.”

  “What the hell is an archon?” Kate brushed sand and grit away from her legs. “Come on, I can’t sleep out here.”

  “Who can?” The boy laughed, and fell in step at her side. “Archon’s the one who’s trying to help us.”

  “It’s cold. When I’m unconscious, the heat stops. I wake up freezing, get warm, go back to sleep, wake up again. It’s a pain in the damn ass.”

  “That explains the sex tank.” He scratched his head. “I was wondering about that. Given your background, I’d imagine you’d rather hate them.”

  “Archon, huh? I’m guessing his parents didn’t name him that.” She hung a right turn, swearing under her breath.

  “What’re you cheesed off at now?”

  Kate scowled. “I hate walking everywhere.”

  “Don’t fancy an autocab? Uhh, sorry, you call them PubTran here. I still can’t get used to that.”

  Kate stopped, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If I could ride in one without burning it to fuck, I would.”

  The boy backed away from increasing heat. “Right, sorry. Sore point. I get it. So you walked all the way from the facility to the city?”

  “Obviously.” Kate stomped ahead. “I didn’t go right away, spent a few years living like a wild thing in the woods.”

  “Sounds almost like a storybook.” He looked up at her.

  “Oh, yeah. Maybe a horror. Melting down deer, tearing them apart with my bare hands. Sneaking into Scattered Lands towns and stealing food when I could. I had to run away from anyone who saw me. The nice ones invariably wanted to hug me and wrap me in blankets, which would’ve burned them to shit. The bad ones… well, those I didn’t always run from.”

  “Yes… Anna mentioned you’re easy with killing.”

  Kate shrugged. “So, what did she mean by saying you were right?”

  “Oh, no offense, but I told Archon recruiting you wouldn’t work in his favor.”

  “What makes you say that?” Kate glanced over as they reached a corner crossing.

  The boy blew all the air from his lungs, flapping his arms in a noncommittal gesture of indecision. “Just a hunch. The future’s not always clear and obvious. At best, your tendency to give in to anger over reason could create problems. At worst, you might turn on him.”

  “Is he planning to grab my ass?”

  He laughed. “You’re hardly his type.”

  “What is his type? You? That other… umm, electric one?”

  “He fancies a big…” The kid started to hold his hands over his chest, but touched a finger to the side of his head. “Brain. As well as a woman who can look down on those not of her station, but always regard him as her superior.” He sighed.

  Kate came close to grinning at his expression. “So, the other one?”

  He shrugged, looking down and kicking a spent autoinjector off to the side. It hit the building with a click and fell out of sight into a drift of trash. “Anna’s quite smitten with him. Oh, bother. Why did I do that?”

  Kate turned left, strolling down the centerline of a road packed with dead cars. No functional vehicle had come this way in decades; traffic signals were all dark, many long since used for target practice. She weaved among the wrecks for a few minutes in silence, trailed by the possessed boy. Several faces watched them from shaded alleys and broken windows. At the sound of a blade sliding out of a sheath, Kate flung her arm out in that direction.

  The interior of a derelict car exploded in a flash of bright orange and ash. A horrendous howl escaped the lips of a charred figure that managed to drag himself halfway out of the window before succumbing. A knife that verged on a small sword slipped from his fingers and hit the road with a metallic clatter. Some of the watching faces sank into darkness.

  “Guilt kills,” said Kate. “I’d be dead if I hesitated. I’m still alive because they know what happens if they try anything. So, I’m guessing this Archon guy wants me for the same reason everyone else does?”

  “To a point, yes.” The boy kicked another empty synthbeer can, sending it rolling and bouncing. “To fulfill his vision may require a spot or two of violence. Though, I would like to think that is a preparatory concern more than a plan.”

  “Doesn’t he want to take over the city or something? Kill everyone who gets in his way?”

  “Oh, heavens no.” He stopped, staring down at himself.

  “What?” Kate paused, a step ahead, looking back.

  “I don’t understand this sudden urge to kick trash. I’ve never worn a little boy before, must be a thing.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re fucked up?”

  He beamed. “Thank you. It’s nice to be appreciated. Though, it does feel awkward having a todger.”

  “A what?” Kate held up a hand. “Wait. Never mind. You just used the kid to stop me from killing you on sight… Why not drop him?”

  “I don’t have a fancy bracelet. Clothes don’t follow me through the astral world. Nothing that isn’t part of me goes. A nuisance, really.”

  Kate looked at him, covering her mouth.

  “My lot’s by choice,” said the boy. “Course, as a matter of practicality, perhaps not so much.”

/>   Kate resumed walking. “So now that I won’t kill you, why not leave him behind?”

  “And traipse about starkers in a black zone? Are you completely touched?” He cringed. “Sorry, that means crazy… I know you’re a mess over that whole touchy-feely thing.”

  “I’ve gotten used to it.” Kate tried to stick her hands in pockets that didn’t exist, and snarled. “So, why make contact with me anyway if you think it’s such a bad idea?”

  “Well, sometimes I think things are bad ideas, but Archon never listens to me. Even after that other mess. You know… if you want me to let the kid go, I could always wear you.”

  “Uhh, no thanks. So if you think it’s such a bad idea to have me along, why not ignore him?”

  He grinned with a weasel’s delight in his eyes. “Because I want to watch the show. What’s the fun in setting up a maze of dominoes if you don’t tip them over?”

  “You a precog?”

  “I’ve been called worse.” He kicked another can. “Dammit.”

  “Will it kill me if I join you?”

  He looked her up and down, and rubbed his right shoulder. “Probably a close call, but I doubt you’ll die.”

  “Darn.” Kate looked up at a trio of passing advert-bots. “So when can I meet him?”

  pleasant chime rang out as the glass doors slid aside. Kate waved at Alfonso, sending him scurrying for the back room. She moved to the end of the shortest line, leaving a comfortable gap between her and a short woman about her age. Envy made her glance away from tight faux-leather pants and a jacket, jealousy that deepened when the woman looked back. Kate couldn’t understand what people fancied about pale redheads. The brown-skinned woman gave her the same jealous smirk.