Heir Ascendant (Faded Skies Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Lisa,” said Maya. “Genna’s my mom.”

  “See.” Arlene gestured at him.

  “I thought her kid, uhh…” Brian scratched at the back of his head.

  “Sam is dead.” Maya looked down. “Genna took me in.”

  A loud buzz from the corner made everyone jump. Smoke puffed up past Zoe’s face. Coughing, she waved to disperse it. “Found the short.”

  “Wow.” Brian leaned closer. “She looks like that Ascendant kid… the one on all the ads. Genna’s gonna have her hands full in a couple years, keepin’ the boys off you.” He chuckled. “Bet she goes through a lot of ammo when you’re sixteen or so.”

  Maya’s heart almost stopped. “I… get that a lot. Guess it’s the shape of my face.”

  “Damn, girl.” Arlene attempted to lean forward, but gave up with a fatigued sigh. “He right. You do.”

  “I wish.” Maya glanced sideways, trying to make Zoe work faster by sheer force of will. “If I was her, I’d have all sorts of nice clothes and money, and food.”

  “I’ll bet.” Arlene clucked her tongue. “My sorry ass can’t even ‘ford no maternity dress. That little woman can prob’ly buy this whole building.”

  Maya shrugged. “It’s not so bad. All that money doesn’t mean she’s happy. Maybe she lives alone in some penthouse and doesn’t have any friends because Ascendant is worried someone might try to kidnap her, so they never let anyone near her and keep her locked up.”

  Everyone got quiet… even Emily.

  Crap. She looked up with a plastic smile. “Or, maybe she’s got like so many friends she’s gotta hire a personal assistant to schedule who can come over on what day. I dunno.” The room seemed more stifling all of a sudden. Maya flapped at her nightdress to get some air moving under it.

  “They had that thing onna TV t’other night.” Arlene pointed at the currently off slab hanging opposite the couch. “Someone started up a rumor ‘bout a ransom. Dat mean Ascendant bitch was all like Brigade this.”

  Maya stifled the urge to cringe. She’d watched the same news broadcast while chained to a bed, listening to Vanessa tell the whole world her daughter hadn’t been kidnapped. In a way, the woman had been right. She never had a daughter.

  A battery powered tool whirred and chirped.

  “It ain’t true. Theys not lookin’ for no one.” Maya folded her arms. “Place would be swarmin’ wit’ drones if they was.”

  Emily shot her a confused look.

  Brian scratched at his chest. “Yeah, kid’s got a point. Doesn’t seem like anything’s going on in the city.” He drifted toward the bedroom. “I gotta get goin’. If I’m late again, I’m screwed.”

  After an awkward silence, Maya edged over to the couch and leaned against the cushions more than sat on it. Emily broke the quiet by asking what they were going to name the baby. When Arlene confessed they hadn’t even thought of a name yet, Emily and Zoe launched a battery of suggestions, which Maya eventually joined in on. Brian, having put on one of those body-engulfing grey long-sleeved ponchos and black sneakers, rushed from the bedroom straight to the door, a filter mask hanging from his fingers.

  “Shit,” he whisper-yelled outside.

  He ran back in, kissed Arlene, and sprinted out.

  Loud mechanical rattling came from the corner ten minutes later. Zoe pounded metal on metal for a while, but the banging soon settled to a tolerable background noise. Within seconds, fresh air―cold by comparison to the room―fell on them from vents in the ceiling. Maya pulled the neck of her nightie away from her chest to let the breeze in and fanned herself.

  “Oh, you’re an angel,” said Arlene, reaching both hands up to Zoe. “That sounds like air. Sure hope they pay you good. Don’t want you leavin’ on us. You do me a solid and help my fat ass to the can?”

  “You ain’t even close to fat.” Zoe stowed her tools back in the bag and stood before pulling Arlene to her feet while making a passable attempt at keeping the blanket around her. “Meh, they pay me by not chargin’ rent, but I like it here so don’t you worry.”

  Once upright, Arlene gathered the cloth at her hip and shambled with assistance into the inner hallway.

  When the adults were out of sight, Emily squinted at Maya, whispering, “Why did you talk funny? Were you making fun of Arlene?”

  “No.” Maya kept fanning herself. “I didn’t want them to think I’m that stupid rich girl.”

  “If you didn’t want them to think you were stupid, why did you talk like you were stupid?”

  Maya sucked in a breath, ready to shout at her, but the question hit her funny and she wound up laughing. Emily giggled along. The girls had settled into a staring contest to see who would laugh again first by the time Zoe guided Arlene back to her spot on the couch and eased her down.

  “I’ll send Mike down later on to check up on you,” said Zoe.

  Arlene cringed as if in pain, but nodded. “Great.”

  Maya stood.

  “Nice meetin’ you, Lisa.” Arlene reached over.

  Maya tolerated a cheek pat. “You too. Good luck with the baby.”

  “Thank ya, darlin’.” She settled back and closed her eyes. “Pardon if I don’ bother walkin’ ya to the door.”

  Zoe chuckled. “Not a thing.”

  Maya exhaled in relief with her tongue hanging out as soon as they reached the hallway. She flapped at her nightie, adoring the coolness of moving air on sweat. Dampness in the silk reawakened the fragrance of taco sauce stains. Four flights of stairs later, she’d dried off. This will need to be washed soon. Do they even wash clothes here? Zoe walked in to Genna’s apartment after a cursory knock.

  “Genna? Mike?” Zoe stopped a few steps in and looked around.

  When no answer emanated from within, Maya ran to the back bedroom. Genna appeared comfortably asleep, but she found no sign of anyone else. She fast-walked to the living room. “Mom’s asleep. Doctor Chang isn’t here.”

  “Oh. I see the problem.” Zoe pointed at a patch of kitchen wall that had been scorched black. Smoke peeled out from under the refrigerator as well as a metal panel on the wall. “Fridge went and took the breaker panel out with it. Damn. There goes the rest of my day.”

  “The fridge was on? It wasn’t even cold.” Maya looked up. “Can you fix it?”

  “Yeah. I can lift a panel from an empty on the second floor. That fridge is going out the window. I’ll bring a new one up from the basement. You got anything in it you need to keep?”

  “No!” screamed Maya. “Do not open that.”

  Zoe laughed.

  “I’m serious.” Maya cringed. “I almost threw up.”

  Marcus or Anton―she couldn’t tell which―walked in. “Hey Lisa. We’re goin’ out to scav. Wanna come?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Come on.” Emily pulled on her. “It’s fun.”

  “I don’t want you kids going too far,” yelled Zoe from the kitchen.

  “We won’t, Mom.” Emily rolled her eyes.

  Against her gut instinct, Maya allowed Emily to drag her down the hall to the fire stairs and to the ground floor. She went right at the bottom and out the double glass doors into the parking lot/backyard. A few feeble bits of grass squeezed up from cracks in the blacktop, wavering in a mild but steady crosswind that carried the fragrance of Chinese food. Brown slats in the chain link fence surrounding it made it feel a little safer. Men’s voices murmured in from the alley running along the side of the building to the street out front. She glanced in that direction, though the sign of people so close didn’t seem to bother Emily or the boy with them.

  Pick stood on the front end of a dead limousine that had seen much, much better days. Considering the amount of weeds and grass growing around and into the wheels, the thing hadn’t moved for years. The other twin perched in the rearmost seat, moving his arms in pantomime of steering an ancient pirate ship.

  As the trio approached, Pick freaked out as if watching them walk on water. Emily got the hint and pr
etended to swim. The twin with them pantomimed paddling a small rowboat, but Maya felt it far too silly a thing to bother with at all and simply walked.

  “Come on, Ant. Scav time,” said the boy who’d fetched them from the seventh floor.

  The navigator yelled, “We’re about to plunder. And stop teasing her, Anton.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” said the nearer twin. “I’m Marcus.”

  “Arrrr,” yelled Pick. “Ship full of gold ahead.”

  A ripple of distant gunshots went off, sounding like firecrackers.

  “Cannon fire,” yelled Pick. “Bring it about.”

  The boy in the back seat windmilled his arms. “Aye aye.”

  Maya stared at them, shaking her head. Emily declared herself a mermaid and ran in circles around the limo. This continued for a few minutes before Sarah emerged from the back door looking paler than usual.

  “‘Kay, Faerie’s here,” yelled the twin not in the car. “Come on you two, time to scav.”

  Pick looked ready to protest, but when his navigator crawled out through the window, he slouched with resignation. Sarah stopped nearby, adjusting the way her hip satchel rested against her leg.

  Maya glanced at her. “What’s wrong? You look scared.”

  “Dad didn’t want me to go out today. Said there’s too much shooting. He’s gettin’ one o’ his bad feelin’s and all.”

  Pick ran to a jagged breach in the fence on the far side of the limo and waited. The twins and Emily followed. Maya looked up at Sarah, hoping she decided not to go. Alas, with a defeated sigh, Sarah started after them.

  Maya grabbed her arm. “We don’t have to go. I’ll stay too.”

  “I gotta.” Sarah frowned. “They’re gonna do something stupid without me.”

  “What’s out there?” Maya clung to Sarah as they approached the hole in the chain link.

  “Couple blocks of Hab, then Dead Space mostly. We don’t go that far away though. Besides, there’s nothing in the DS worth taking.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  Sarah squeezed her hand. “Yeah. There’s stuff that can collapse, sharp things on the ground, and dosers. The gangs won’t bother with kids like us, but the dosers might chase us.”

  “To steal our clothes?” Maya ducked through the hole to a relatively normal looking city street. It seemed bizarre to see sidewalks not packed with an endless throng of grey-clad bodies. She turned in place, gazing with awe up at the skyscrapers and lack of drones. The Hab reminded her of history e-learns, what cities had looked like sixty years ago, before holographic signs and 3D-printed construction took over.

  “It depends on how high they are. Some might be scared of us, some might think we’re monsters and want to hurt us. This one bitch tried to grab Emily ‘cause she wanted a kid.” Sarah guided her up to a jog to catch up to the others. “I can tell you’re scared. Stay close.”

  “Okay.” Maya glanced back at the distancing gate, not wanting to leave the place that already felt like home. The other kids all seemed so excited, and Sarah held her hand, so she kept quiet and followed.

  aya hovered at Sarah’s side as the group walked in the middle of the street. Patches of double yellow line remained in short strips. She thought it stupid to walk in the road until Sarah mentioned anyone in the place who owned a car was already in the Sanc and wouldn’t be back until it started to get dark. That, and far fewer nasty things to step on sat in the middle of the road.

  Pick led the way, flanked by the twins. They discussed where to go and where they’d been in the past, pointing at and reconsidering several old residence towers. Trash and old cans shifted in an alley between two dumpsters as a moaning skeletal-thin man lurched upright. Maya clamped on to her nightdress, pulling it tight around herself.

  A few people walked by in the other direction. Most looked too old to work, and the one man not elderly kept talking to an invisible person next to him, his eyes shifting side to side, never focusing on the same place longer than two seconds. Sarah pulled Maya to the side, against the wall, and held her there until the guy passed. He didn’t make eye contact with any of the kids.

  “Don’t bump him,” whispered Sarah. “He’s got a knife, and I think he’s blind.”

  “He’s not blind. He’s crazy. Probably hallucinating and hearing voices. Neutradine or Serenomil might help.”

  Sarah squinted and whispered, “You can stop trying to sell drugs now.”

  Maya tickled her.

  “Let’s try the bird again.” Pick pointed down the street.

  “Okay.” Anton rubbed his hands together with anticipation gleaming in his eyes. “We still got more than half that place ta check.”

  A few minutes later, repetitious buzzing on the left sounded in time with flashing pink-purple letters spelling out ‘Emporium’ over a door with grimy windows protected by metal bars. Similar bars guarded a storefront to the right, where a handful of small electronic devices sat on display next to a stack of Hydra packets. Maya stared at the octagonal plastic trays, fully understanding the desperate, eager longing in the little white dog’s eyes whenever he saw one.

  “That’s the Emporium,” said Anton.

  Maya smirked. “Obviously. That’s what the sign says.”

  Emily giggled. Anton seemed less amused.

  “We can sell stuff there.” Marcus headed left at the next cross street. “If we find something worth selling.”

  “I want a Hydra.” Maya smiled.

  The boys all whistled.

  “Good luck with that.” Anton shook his head. “Ol’ Foz has one and he wants like a thousand NuCoin for it.”

  “They don’t cost that much.” Maya glared. “A hundred or two dollars for a nice one.”

  Sarah gave her a hand squeeze.

  Maya cringed. “Uhh, yeah. That’s what Genna said. In the Sanctuary Zone.”

  “That’s there; this is here.” Marcus clucked his tongue. “Less’n you got a ride to the big city, you gotta give Foz what he wants.”

  “It probably doesn’t work anyway.” Sarah frowned. “An’ a Hydra’s only good if you got the packets for it.”

  A gust of wind swept down the street, fluttering curtains trailing from smashed high-rise windows and knocking Emily back two steps. Maya closed her eyes and basked in it. The awkwardness of being outside with only a nightdress on had died somewhere between Headcrash and Moth. A hint of fried food got her eagerly sniffing, though a cruel twist of the breeze replaced it with rotting trash. Maya coughed.

  The kids all swerved to the right to give a stumbling older man room. He paused long enough to ramble a greeting with a dopey smile at them, though not a single sound out of his mouth came remotely close to a word. He capped his greeting with a whiskey-laden belch that would’ve uncurled Maya’s hair if it hadn’t already been straight. Maya frowned to herself, thinking of Vanessa’s complaining about her hair. The woman always had treatments done to make her hair straight, and had envied her daughter that one little petty thing.

  I’m not your daughter.

  Four buildings later, Pick sprinted to the left and up a few steps to the main entrance of a crumbling apartment building. He ducked the push bar and slipped in through a panel where glass no longer existed.

  “Be careful in the lobby,” said Sarah. “There’s broken glass.”

  The twins went in next, followed by Emily, who hiked her dress up to her thighs as if wading into a pond. Maya cringed away from the edges of the opening, reacting to a few bits of safety glass like a ring of flaming razor blades. Inside, the red-tiled floor startled a squeak from her for being so cold underfoot. True enough, flecks and glimmers―tiny glass fragments―sparkled in the darkness. Even reckless Pick advanced with his gaze locked on the ground.

  At the center of the lobby, tile gave way to a rounded silvery emblem with a bas-relief likeness of an eagle under some kind of transparent coating that made it smooth to the level of the floor. Light streamed in from a row of small rectangular windows near
the ceiling that encircled the entire lobby. Almost all had been smashed out, the likely source of all the glittering shards on the ground.

  “Think it’s a big quarter?” Pick got down on all fours at the seam between emblem and tile and tried to get his fingernails in it. “Would Foz buy it?”

  “We couldn’t lift it if it was.” Maya squatted at the edge and traced her fingers over the clear material. “It would be hundreds of pounds, but it’s not a coin. Probably silver paint on wood or something.”

  Sarah shook her head. “We don’t have the kind of tools it would take to dig that thing outta there anyway. And who would buy it? It doesn’t do anything.”

  The twins headed for the elevator chamber beyond an information desk covered in black lacquer with three thin gold bands near the top. A handful of rats went zooming away a few seconds later, at which Maya let off a shriek of surprise.

  Sarah grabbed her from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth. “Shh!”

  Maya whimpered.

  All three boys looked at her, the effort to fight off the urge to laugh or tease her clear in their expressions. Emily hid her face in her hands, though her body shook with mute giggles. Maya reached up and grasped Sarah’s arm, trying to pull it down from her mouth. Two years didn’t sound like much of an advantage, but the girl overpowered her with ease.

  “Mmm!” said Maya.

  “Done screaming?” Sarah’s breath puffed into her left ear.

  Maya nodded.

  The redhead let go and spun her around nose to nose, speaking in an agitated whisper. “One. They’re just rats. They won’t hurt you. Two. Do not scream. The less noise we make, the safer we are.”

  Maya gulped and whispered, “Okay.”

  At the entrance to the elevator area, Pick grunted and shoved at a door, though his feet slipped over the faux marble floor. The twins watched for a moment before they snickered. Maya, still feeling sheepish, crept up with Sarah holding her hand. Pick glared at the twins and strained even harder. Anton… or maybe Marcus doubled over laughing into his hand.

  Pick gave up, winded. After a few breaths, he glared. “It’s stuck.”

  One of the twins grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. Pick’s grumbling followed them up a few flights covered in old papers and wrappers. The twins stopped short, staring at a magazine page showing a nude woman ascending the ladder of a swimming pool.