Ascendancy

by Karri Thompson

  From the dragon’s mouth, Chu extracted an E-Pin. “Besides the bad memories, this is all I have left of Area Four. I wanted to keep this pin just in case.”

  “In case what?” I asked.

  “Just in case,” he said abruptly and handed me the pin.

  “Is Area Four in this sector? This region?” I asked Chu-Lung.

  “That I do not know. I was escorted to Area Four from my previous home in Sector Nine, and during the majority of the trip, I was in a mover with covered windows. But this pin contains a map that will lead you to Area Four, and a map of the compound itself. I was not given the pin, I took it. To this day, I haven’t opened its files. I do not wish to see that evil place again, even on E-Paper.”

  “Do you remember how long it took to get there? Were you in a mover or a flyer?” I asked and bit my lower lip in nervous anticipation.

  “A mover, and it was two full days of travel from early in the morning to late in the evening. Then we switched vehicles, maybe to a flyer. I am not sure. But if it was a flyer, the ride only lasted a few minutes.”

  Michael placed his hand on my shoulder. “That means it’s probably in this region, and if we’re lucky, it’s located in this sector, so a flyer isn’t needed.”

  “Is there anything else you can tell us, Chu-Lung? Anything else you remember once you arrived? Anything that will help us get inside?”

  Chu-Lung nodded. “I’ll tell you what I know. Not because I want to, but because I can’t stop you from going, and your survival is essential.” He scratched the top of his head. “The Area Four compound is surrounded by a high fence screened with a veil of artificial trees. Only those with the proper band can open the gate.”

  “Is there another way inside besides the gate?” I asked, rubbing away the set of goose bumps on my arms.

  “Not that I know of, but deliveries are made to the compound every week. That’s the only time I’ve seen the gate open and close.” He shook his head. “Once inside, every door to every building and every room is keyed to the L-Bands of specific employees. The limited access I had was taken away from me on my last day.”

  Scrunching my shoulders, I gave a silent sigh and shuddered.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way to get inside,” said Michael.

  “Sneaking into Area Four will much more difficult than sneaking out of GenH3,” said Chu-Lung. “The task will be next to impossible, but a bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Maybe your desire alone will be enough for you to accomplish the unachievable.”

  At that moment, I could have mistaken Chu-lung for his brother. His eyes gleamed with kindness, and for the first time since we entered his home, his tone was optimistic, like his body and mind were momentarily at peace. With solid hands, instead of shaking ones, he reached out for his dog.

  “Please,” he said. “I’ve given you all that I can.”

  Michael set Hu-tu in Chu-Lung’s arms. Hu-tu licked the side of his master’s face, and when Chu-Lung gave Hu-tu the dragon toy, the dog put it in his mouth and wagged his tail.

  “Thank you for the information you did give us,” I said as my heart settled in my chest. Knowing Victoria was safe helped to ease my anxiety, and having the location of the twins brought back some of my lost hope.

  “As if I had a choice,” said Chu-Lung.

  “We’re sorry it had to be this way, but think about it from our point of view. We have so many questions and no answers, and no one we can truly trust.”

  “Yes, you do.” Chu-Lung clapped his hand over the badge beneath his sleeve. “Anyone with one of these. Beyond that there is no certainty.”

  And no certainty even with an arm band. I frowned, touching the band under my sleeve. How could I trust the people who could take Victoria away from me against my will and without so much as an explanation? Magnum couldn’t be trusted now, either—at least not completely.

  But we had no choice but to trust them. Finding our daughters would take us one step closer to having Victoria returned to us, and if and when there was a rebellion, we could only hope the new government would allow Michael and me to run the Van Winkle Project under our terms like Chu-Lung said they would.

  Right now, the twins were our first priority. It was time to find them.

  “Good-bye,” said Michael, and he turned toward the door.

  “You are leaving? You should stay here, get some sleep, and leave in the morning,” said Chu-Lung.

  “No, we should go now. It’s better to travel at night,” said Michael.

  “Besides, I think we’ve already overstayed our welcome.”

  Chu-Lung walked us to the door with Hu-tu under one arm.

  “Michael wouldn’t have hurt Hu-tu,” I told him. “Your dog was never in any real danger.”

  “Then I should have called his bluff.” He shook his head.

  “No, you did the right thing. Maybe it went against the rules, but our twins need us, and your brother needs you.”

  “Please be safe. We cannot lose you,” he said, grabbing my hand, and pushing three L-Band inhibitors against my palm. “For the twins and for my brother, if you find them.”

  “Thank you, and I will,” I said and followed Michael to our mover.

  “Why did you tell him that?” he asked, annoyed as we pulled away.

  “Tell him what?”

  “That I wouldn’t have killed his dog.”

  “Because I think it made him feel better to know that. And honestly, if it came down to it, I don’t think you would have.”

  “Why? You saw what I did to Marshall when he snuck up on us.”

  “That was different. You thought Marshall was going to hurt me. The dog was in innocent bystander.”

  “Innocent? He bit you!” He sighed. “But you’re right. I wouldn’t have done it. I would have shot Chu-Lung instead.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Michael lowered the mover to the side of the road, and I unrolled the E-Paper and inserted the pin Chu-Lung gave us. The E-Paper came to life in colorful lines that crisscrossed an outline of the region.

  “Okay, so Magnum removed all of the hoverment restrictions, right?” I asked. “Because I think we’re going to need to break them even more than we already have.”

  “Yeah. No restrictions. Watch.” As Michael worked the controls, the Model Three jerked from the ground. “As long as there aren’t any more mechanical issues we can’t fix, this mover will take us where we need to go.”

  When we reached a hoverment of ten feet, I said, “Okay, okay, end the demonstration. You know how I feel about heights.” I gave his knee a light smack. “The terrain is beginning to change, so there shouldn’t be any more issues concerning the air filter. Let’s just hope this mover can handle high humidity.”

  He laughed as he lowered our mover and it settled upon its four wheels. His ocean blue eyes gleamed in the setting sunlight shooting through the mover window, and just before the mover’s windows adjusted to the changing light by turning gray, another sunray rode across his face.

  Damn, he was gorgeous. His broad shoulders, bulk of muscle, and height alone were enough to send my heart into a rapid succession of beats I couldn’t control, but add his handsome face and the fact that he loved me, and it was hard to keep my hands off him at moments like these.

  “So, um, do you think this thing can fly over water?”

  “For how long?” he asked skeptically.

  “For about a mile, maybe more.”

  “Why? Where’s Area Four?”

  “It’s in this region, but it’s not part of the mainland. Like Chu-Lung suspected, it’s an island located off the northern tip of Australia.”

  “You mean it’s off the coast of Sector Nine.”

  “Yeah.” The E-Paper glowed in shades of green and yellow as it continued to take form. “That’s strange,” I added and traced my finger along the most northern point of the sector. “The splash of islands above the sector aren’t divided into
subdivisions or neighborhoods. They’re labeled with their pre-plague names: York, Eborac, Wurrka, and Possession.”

  “They were never assigned a sector number.”

  “Meaning they were uninhabited before the plague and still are, with the exception of Area Four,” I said, enlarging each island and switching to geographic view.

  “Which island is Area Four?”

  “Possession Island.”

  The irony of the name sent a set of shivers through my body, for Possession Island possessed what we wanted: our girls. Michael gripped the steering wheel tightly like he was bracing for a crash, though the mover was grounded, unmoving, and there wasn’t a hint of traffic up or down the road.

  “Possession Island,” he said slowly.

  “There’s a small island called Wurrka located between the mainland and Possession Island. We can use that as a stepping stone and land there before we continue on to Area Four.”

  Without Magnum’s expertise at planning the most efficient, obscura-free route as possible, the task was left up to me and my twenty-first-century map skills. As I marked the E-Paper, Michael scooted closer to stare at the map and kiss the top of my shoulder.

  “Honestly, you aren’t helping,” I teased and pushed him away.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll stick to driving and taking orders,” he joked back.

  “This is it. I think I have it. I’m predicting twenty hours of drive time.” He slumped in his seat. “We’re going to cut across Queensland, the Outback.” He sank even lower. “There’s just a scattering of neighborhoods along the way, but we’re going to skip the roads and the tolls. That will cut our drive time, especially since we’ll be exceeding the speed limit.”

  “So no assisted driving.”

  “Nope, but I’ll drive half the time.”

  Michael brought the Model Three to its proper hoverment, and we proceeded north, following the two-lane road below us until we approached a fuel port. Craving something cold and sweet to drink, I half started toward the small convenience store to buy the thirty-first-century’s equivalent to a soda, a cherry-cream fizz, but, surely the store was dripping in obscuras. Though my ball cap would conceal the majority of my face, I didn’t want to take the chance.

  “Nice mover,” came a voice just as I sat back down in the car. “A blue Model Three. Don’t see many of these, especially out here.”

  I turned to see a young woman in an orange tunic approach Michael at the fuel dispenser. I recognized the tunic—she worked at the convenience store. Keeping one foot outside the mover and firmly planted, I leaned outside the door while clasping the laser pistol in my pocket.

  “Thanks,” he said, keeping his head lowered.

  “Newlyweds?” she asked.

  What the hell? Why would she assume that, and why was it any of her business? Maybe Harrington found out we were traveling in a blue Model Three. Maybe the public had been told to alert the authorities if they saw a male and female driving together in one.

  Come on, chick. Don’t concern yourself with us. Go back inside. Killing her was the last thing I wanted to do, but I’d do it to stop her from reporting us. Don’t touch your L-Band. Don’t do anything to make me think you’re going to call a SEC.

  “Um, actually…” he said. He looked at me, and then back at the woman.

  “That’s what I thought. You are newlyweds. Congratulations!” She smiled at me, and I licked my dry lips and gripped the pistol tightly within my sweaty palm. “I have the supplies you ordered for your honeymoon. I’ll get them for you,” she said, and as she trotted back into the store, I sprang from the mover and joined Michael.

  “What the hell is this all about?” I whispered.

  “I have no idea. Maybe she has us confused with someone else,” he said as the last fuel pellet dropped into the fuel block and he returned the hose to the dispenser.

  “Maybe, but even so, why would a newly married couple purchase honeymoon supplies from a convenience store? I’m going in there right now to see what she’s doing,” I said, and tugged the bill of my hat, bringing it down to my eyebrows.

  But with my first step forward, she returned, carrying a large, green bag. “Here you go,” she said, presenting it to Michael. “Everything newlyweds would need. Don’t forget that that’s what you are—newlyweds,” she said, emphasizing the last word.

  “Thank you,” he said, taking the bag.

  “Yes, thank you,” I said, bewildered. What else could we say?

  “Wait. Don’t go yet,” I said, as the mover met its hovernment. “That was just way too weird. There has to be a reason why she gave us this bag. I just want to make sure there isn’t some kind of tracker in it.”

  I dug through the bag, expecting to find a bottle of champagne, candles, and maybe a sexy set of lace undies and bra. What other supplies would newlyweds need?

  But instead, one of the bag’s compartments was filled with dried meats and fruits, nuts, bread, and single-serving cartons of juice and bottles of water. The second compartment held socks, pants, shirts, and it did contain bras and underwear, but they weren’t anything fancy, just white and made from cotton. There were a couple pairs of men’s underwear, too—pinstriped boxers. The last section of the bag was full of a myriad of what I’d call survival supplies: rope, a light stick, jack knife, and palm-sized fire-starter.

  “What the hell?” said Michael as I named off each item.

  “She had to be one of them,” I said. “Even though she didn’t reveal the band on her arm. There’s no other explanation.” He nodded. “She was ordered to give these things to a couple in a blue Model Three.”

  “But even if she was, whoever gave the order couldn’t have known we’d stop there. That isn’t the only fuel dispensary on this stretch of the road.”

  He scratched his chin. “Or maybe there is a tracker, but it’s not in the bag. It’s in the car, something Magnum installed.”

  “That’s possible.” I sighed. “But whether there’s a tracker or not, I do know one thing—this society is watching out for us.”

  “Yeah, and so far, they’re on our side, just like Magnum said.”

  Six hours through Queensland and four herds of kangaroos later, and I was ready for a nap. Counting the number of melaleuca trees as they flashed by the window, I imagined Victoria’s sweet baby face, but the picture faded at its edges and the twins replaced it, their faces a product of my imagination, one looking more like Michael and the other more like me.

  Once the girls rippled away, my mom came next, then my grandfather, though what I saw in my mind’s eye was not him sitting on his overstuffed chair like I wanted it to be, but his body lying in his space casket, his skin hard and gray like a bar of wax.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him after his third yawn.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  After another quick pit stop, we traded places. I lowered the window, and as the night air drifted through the mover, the howl of a dingo echoed across the hills in the distance.

  Hours later, the road beneath our mover disappeared, and we were left hovering over one of the last unspoiled wilderness areas on the planet. Off to the right or left, I’d occasionally get a brief glimpse at the remains of a narrow dirt road, twisting out of sight into the woodlands below. Twice when I adjusted our hoverment to take us above the bush tops, the bottom of the mover raked against a cluster of branches, and Michael, nodding off to sleep, awoke just enough to laugh as I clung to the wheel and my body tensed.

  “Michael, quickly, look to your left.”

  A crystal-clear lake wound its way below and at its edge, a crocodile lifted its head toward our mover, whipped its tail, and slithered into the creek. Water from the croc’s descent splashed the mover, and this time he was the one who clutched the seat and tensed his body, especially after a sudden increase in hoverment took us to a forty-five degree angle.

  “Cassie! What are you doing? Be careful. If you unintentionally ground this thing, there’s no guarantee we’ll ge
t it hovering again.

  A pond covered in water lilies came next, but I kept the mover steady and wondered if those who traveled the same route to enter Area Four appreciated the beauty of Northern Queensland the way I did.

  “Just a few more hours and we’ll be just across from first Wurrka and then Possession Island,” I told him, and three hours later as the sun rose, the Northernmost point of the Australian coast coming into view, misted by fog. Scanning the sparse grasslands below, I found an even patch of land large enough to park the mover.

  “Check this out,” I said, shaking Michael from his sleep and opening the car door. “No obscura poles, because no one lives here.”

  Beyond the grasslands a stretch of beach hugged the coast, meeting the sea as the waves lapped upon the shore. In the distance was Wurrka, an island void of structures and jutting from the ocean a mile or so from the coast, coated in greenery too indistinct from our distance to identify.

  “That’s Wurrka Island, our stepping stone, and that ridge of shore showing behind it is Possession Island,” I said, rubbing the chilly morning air from my arms. The thought of our twins so close but so unattainable made my throat tighten.

  Michael slipped his arm around my waist as we stood squinting under the sun. “So far, it doesn’t look evil.”

  “So far,” I said and brought my arm around his back. His warm side against mine was more than welcomed. I swallowed and my throat relaxed.

  As the salty air filled my lungs and sent my hair fluttering above my shoulders, I walked toward the coast, the weave of grass and small, woody plants crunching beneath my feet. When I hit the shore, my shoes sank into the soft sand with each labored step, and I watched a seagull dive and pluck a small fish from the water.

  Sticky from the humidity, I was half tempted to tug off my shoes and take a dive. But I knew better. Crocodiles were not only in the tidal reaches of rivers, it wasn’t uncommon to find them on beaches, too.

  “Hey, look at this,” said Michael.