Skye gave James a questioning look and he raised his eyebrows as if to say they had no other choice. They needed his energy supply, so they had to be polite. He holstered his laser and nodded.
“Name’s Charles Grant, MD.” Charles offered his hand and James took it, feeling soft, wrinkly skin.
“You’re a doctor?”
“Used to be.” He shook Skye’s hand next. Carly shook her head, and the old man settled for a wave. He led them up the stairs to a table and chairs underneath the glass dome, talking all the way. “I have to take extra precautions these days. You never know who’s out pillaging. I don’t get many visitors, none seeking medical attention. They’re already way too gone.”
The man’s mouth was flying a mile a minute, and James had a billion questions on the tip of his tongue. “What happened to the outskirts?”
“Moonshine.”
Charles Grant poured four glasses of water and they sat at the table as if he’d invited them over for dinner. He took a sip and cleared his throat. “People here ran out of food. Shipments stopped coming from Utopia. I heard it was blown up by a gang.”
Skye looked down at the table and James put his hand on her shoulder. He looked back to the old man and prompted him on. “So where did everyone go?”
Charles Grant unbuttoned his waistcoat to join them at the table, and James marveled at how old habits died hard. Even at the end of the world, this man didn’t forget his manners. “They fought over what little food we had left. People scavenged for anything they could eat, and my wife, Beatrice, and I fought them off. We have a small arsenal in here, and we used everything we got to hold them back. If it weren’t for that lunar freighter crash, we would have been overrun long ago, but the ship came in and wiped out a lot of the corridors running to our building. The one you came through is about the only working one left.”
“What about people coming up from the lower levels?”
“We cemented it over months ago with the good stuff that repels hypergrenades. Beatrice had a sixth sense for these types of things. She convinced me to do it way before the food shortage hit.”
“Wow. So you’ve been stuck here ever since?”
“Not stuck. I’m here because it’s the safest place to be right now, and I don’t want to leave her.”
He pointed to an oak box set on top of a pedestal at the far end of the atrium. Pity panged in James’s chest. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It was her own choice, I’m afraid.” Charles’s face fell, his eyes watery. “When the food shortage hit, people turned to moonshine to keep their bodies going. They could subsist all day with only one dose and a pint of water. The hellish substance staved off hunger and provided the user with the energy necessary to carry on. That lunar freighter was full of it. Beatrice and I had our greenhouse, and we lived off of that for a month before the plants started to die.”
His voice trailed off and James shot a look at Carly and Skye. Carly sipped her water quietly, her eyes rolling over all of the luxury, and Skye listened intently by his side.
Charles changed the subject. “Are you going to show me your injuries?”
James paused. All this time he’d been on the move, and it hadn’t allowed him the time to dwell on his shoulder. Now the truth faced him like judgment day. Fear for Skye and Carly ricocheted through him. He needed to know for their sakes how much time he had left.
James nodded at Skye and she turned to the doctor, flicking a glance over at Carly. “We need something to distract her.”
Charles dug into a chest and pulled out an antique box with a lens. “Here, hon, play with this.”
Carly shot him a skeptical look. “What does it do?”
“It takes pictures.” He pressed a button on the side and a flash startled Carly backward. A piece of paper came out the bottom and he handed it to her. “Look, here you are.”
Carly stared at the paper as it dried, the image becoming clearer with each second. “Double cyber beans!”
He gave her the camera. “Here. Keep it safe for me. Make sure you take a picture of yourself.”
“Thanks a million!” She darted away to the corner of the room, a flash erupting every few seconds.
Skye shouted after her, “Don’t go far.” She waited until the little girl was out of earshot, than turned back to Charles.
“Please, you have to help him. He’s been bitten.” Her voice wavered, thin as ice and about to crack. James wanted to reassure her, but he was helpless. His life rested in the doctor’s hands.
“Bitten?” Charles furrowed his gray eyebrows and James could sense him calculating, holding back emotion in the trained way a doctor would. “How badly?”
James shifted in his seat. “A few times at least.”
“How deep into the skin?”
James shrugged. “Half an inch?”
Skye stood up, her chair screeching backward. “Will he be okay?”
The doctor spoke in a clinical tone. “Depends on if the saliva of the moonshiner entered his body.”
Skye leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“The mineral from the moon carries a virus with it, and anyone who uses the drug will get infected. The rate of infection increases the more you use the drug. Some people can fight it off better than others. We can tell by looking at the skin around the wound. If the flesh is red and pink, he’ll recover. If it’s turned black, the virus has infected his bloodstream, and there’s nothing I can do.”
James began peeling away the layers of his shirt. He didn’t want to wait to learn his fate a second longer. Skye came over and grabbed both his hands in her own. “Let me.”
Her gesture made him feel like he wasn’t alone. He had a partner, one to share his pain. “Thank you.”
She gently unwound the torn fabric as his heart beat faster and faster until it raced out of control, like one of the moonshiners. Instead of looking down at his wound, James focused on the green flecks in her eyes. Up close, he could see hints of hazel and blue. Pretty enough to outdo the jewels on a higher-up’s neck.
Her eyes widened, and she crumpled into his arms.
“What is it?” James could barely ask.
She spoke into his chest, her breath warming his skin underneath his shirt. “You’re safe.”
He held her close to him and buried his face into her hair, exhaling as relief flowed through him like a satisfying elixir. Never had he felt so vulnerable, so exposed, and yet so safe. “Thank you, Skye.”
Chapter Twelve
Choices
Coiled tension unwound from Skye’s chest as she nuzzled into James’s arms. She’d avoided getting close to him for fear of losing him like she’d lost Grease. Seeing the healthy, pink skin around the puncture wounds knocked down a barrier in her heart, and her emotions flowed out unhindered.
Skye’s caring for James went beyond the fact she needed him to save herself and Carly. She wanted to help him succeed and save his people. She wanted to see him reach the space station and create a safe society. Beyond that, Skye’s thoughts probed into her heart. Did she want to live with him there as friends, or was it more?
As she felt his warmth against her, her emotions morphed into something much deeper, much more profound than anything she’d experienced before.
James smoothed a hand over her head and brought her closer to him, and she ached to be closer still, to feel his rigid chest against her bare skin. She had him, and this time she wouldn’t allow herself to let go like she had with Grease.
“Good news, is it?” Charles asked, breaking the intensity of the moment. Skye remembered where she was and reluctantly pulled away from James. They still had a bargain to seal.
“He’s okay,” Skye said, as if trying to convince herself. Her fingers still shook from unwinding the fabric around his shoulder.
“Excellent. You’ll be on your way, then?” The doctor handed James a fresh swath of cloth. It almost looked as though he was sad to see them go, like he enjoyed their
company.
“Not yet.” James covered his shoulder with the cloth. “We’d like to strike a bargain with you.”
The doctor spread his hands through the air. “Like I said before, you have nothing I could possibly want.”
“Well, we need a full energy cell to power our hovercraft far enough to get to the Barrens, to the transport ship. We’re willing to offer you a ride out of here in return.”
Charles’s face was stoic. “You can have an energy cell, but I’m not going anywhere.”
Skye wanted to shake some sense into him. “What do you mean? This whole place is going up in flames, and the fallout alone will kill you.”
“That’s what I’m betting on.”
She froze, wondering if she’d heard him correctly. James shook his head. “Why?”
“I didn’t finish my story.” Charles pulled out a chair and sat down. “When the plants withered in the greenhouse, my wife and I had a choice: die of hunger or live off moonshine like the rest of the population. Beatrice had strict religious beliefs. She wouldn’t have a drop of it. I, on the other hand, thought I could beat the substance, monitor it so that I could use it without it getting to me in the end.”
Skye stood in shock, her mouth dry and empty of words. She couldn’t imagine such a decision. Would she take the moonshine knowing it would turn her into a monster?
Charles pulled his arm out of his vest and started unbuttoning his shirt. “In the beginning it worked well. I took just enough to keep going and withstood the severe cravings. I could do things I hadn’t been able to do in years: jumping jacks, swinging on vines. My arthritis went away. I felt phenomenal.”
His fingers paused at the last button and his eyes turned cold and steely, like a winter sky without clouds. “But I realized over time I had to increase the dose to get the same effects. The virus began replicating at an exponential rate.”
He pulled the shirt down, exposing a blackened chest. The skin had turned into a bruise, like old, tarnished leather. Tendrils of inky black wove around his arms and up to his neck, like snakes trying to suffocate him.
“There’s no going back for me now.”
Skye’s stomach dropped to the rich carpet. The room felt cold and empty. These walls would be this man’s tomb.
“But we have real food.” She dug in her pockets and pulled out the orange she hadn’t eaten from breakfast. Her voice quivered, squeezing the orange in her palm. “You could start eating again.”
Charles smiled sadly. “Once you’ve been on Morpheus for so long, you can’t go back to regular food. It changes you. Turns you into something…something else. Something that doesn’t eat organic life.”
James stepped forward. “Turns you into what?”
The doctor waved his hand. “I’ve run some DNA tests on my own blood and found foreign strands I’ve never seen before, not in a human or any other life form that’s ever existed on this Earth.”
“What are you saying?” Skye feared his answer, yet the question popped out through her lips, almost demanding it.
“Another life form. Alien, demon, call it what you wish.” He pulled his shirt back on and walked to the back of the atrium. “I don’t want you to stay around to find out.”
Charles returned, bringing an energy cell large enough to power the hovercraft for days. Guilt poured over Skye like sticky ooze. She couldn’t accept it from him, yet she had to if she wanted to keep Carly alive.
The old man handed the energy cell to James. “Good luck. Protect your loved ones. Give them a better life.”
The story she’d told Charles about them being a family wiggled in her chest like a worm. She couldn’t leave this poor old man knowing she’d lied to gain his friendship. When Charles offered his hand, she refused. “I lied to you about James. He’s not my boyfriend. I only said it to make you think we were a family.” Tears ran down her cheeks and she slumped forward, feeling like the biggest failure in the world. “I’m not even Carly’s real mother.”
Charles’s lips curved in an all-knowing smile. He winked, looking like the fairy godmother she never had. “Could have fooled me.”
…
They walked back to the hovercraft with James carrying the energy cell. They’d succeeded in their mission, yet melancholy permeated their triumph like sour grapes in sweet wine.
“He’s got to stay, Skye.” James’s eyes were silver pools of sympathy, yet no words could make her feel good about leaving the old man behind. So many people had died—Skye just wanted to save one more. Maybe she had more of James’s goodwill in her than she initially thought. Maybe he’d rubbed off on her.
Wouldn’t be that bad, now would it?
Skye had read something once about how lovers brought out the best qualities in their partners, how they made each other better people, and how two could make more than the sum of their parts. She studied James’s profile, noticing black stubble on the hard edges of his chin. She wanted to reach out and smooth her fingers over it.
Carly ran ahead of them, clutching her new camera. Skye zapped back into mother mode. “Carls, don’t go too far.”
“I’m not. I just want to take a picture, that’s all.”
Skye looked around at the debris on the roof and the ruined horizon, full of broken buildings. “A picture of what?”
“Of James.”
James froze and almost dropped the energy cell. Skye raced over and put her arms underneath the round bottom to steady it. “Of James?” She couldn’t hide the incredulous tone in her voice.
“Yeah. Before we leave.”
James shrugged and placed the energy cell on the cement. “Okay. Shoot away.”
Carly pointed to the broken window of the shed holding the stairway they’d just come up from. “Stand over there. And smile.”
James gave Skye a questioning glance and she shrugged. When Carly had her mind on something, there was no convincing her otherwise.
Carly held up the camera as James crouched down to her level, placing one shoulder on his knee. At first he gave her an awkward half grin, but then his face turned to Skye, and a real smile formed on his lips.
“One, two, three!” Carly pressed the top button, and the old device clicked and flashed. A piece of glossy paper shot out the front. Carly scooped it up. “Now we can leave.”
Skye waited until James walked out of earshot to retrieve the energy cell before whispering, “Why’d you want to do that?”
“While I was taking pictures in the jungle room, the ferns made me think back to the greenhouse.” She paused, and her eyes held something Skye had never seen in them before: remorse.
Carly breathed in slowly, like before she told Skye she pulled the wires from the air ionizer for her braids. “I remember now. He saved our lives.”
Chapter Thirteen
Trap Door
The buildings in the outskirts grew farther and farther apart until real roads stretched in between them, reminding Skye of pictures from the twenty-first century. The roads widened to patches of dusty desert until there was more land than buildings, and the few structures remaining tapered off into scattered shacks.
Every dwelling looked abandoned. The absence of people prickled the back of her neck, like silence after a life of pattering rain. Skye thought she’d relish the newfound freedom of movement, but instead isolation sucked a void inside her soul.
She leaned over so far her nose touched the glass sight panel. “I thought buildings covered the whole world.”
“Almost.” James smiled. “These were once great lakes. I believe this one was called Lake Ontario. People built around them. When the water dried up, everyone moved east. No one wanted to build in this barren landscape. Too far from any water or food source.”
“Have you been out here before?”
“No. But I’ve heard stories from people who have. They called it no man’s land.”
“Geez. Let’s hope that energy cell from Charles gets us there.”
“It will. The thin
g is bigger than the original energy cells on this ship.”
James’s miniscreen beeped, startling Skye back into her seat. His eyes grew intense. “This is it. We’re close.”
He pressed a panel and the engines died to a distant rumble as the hovercraft slowed. “Look for a shed with markings on top.”
“What kind of markings?”
“Symbols in Hebrew.”
Skye unbelted herself and stood up. The same dusty beige coated everything, like sand had muted the world, covering man’s footprints. “Why Hebrew of all languages?”
“Project Exodus got its name from the book of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible.”
“Oh.” So much history, and Skye knew none of it. Her ignorance made her neck turn red with heat. Growing up in the alleys, living day by day, she couldn’t have cared less about what happened on Earth a thousand years ago. Now she wished she’d paid more attention to the meager education classes in the orphanage before she left. Maybe if people cared about the past they could have fixed the future before Earth’s population got out of control, before dwindling resources forced people to mine on the moon, and before they discovered Morpheus.
James must have caught her face falling because he put a hand on her arm. “Don’t feel bad. I only know because I researched it on my miniscreen last night.”
“It’s not that. I want Carly to grow up knowing the history of the Earth, even if she isn’t on it anymore.”
“I agree.” James flicked a switch and the hovercraft lowered so close to the ground that sand spewed in all directions. “I’ll download everything the Radioactive Hand of Justice has accumulated over the years onto the Destiny: movies, news broadcasts, books, everything. I heard a lot of the colony ships outlawed certain videos from Earth. But I think our people should see it all. Only by knowing our past can we improve the future.”
The force of the engines uncovered a building low to the ground with a barn-shaped roof. Painted on the faded red wood were strokes of a language Skye had never seen.
“There it is. Hold on.”
A Hero Rising Page 9