Sanctuary 1 (The Foliage Series Book 3)

by Aline Riva

  “Congratulations, she's lovely! Oh you're so lucky...I was almost a father once...”

  “What happened?” Elise had just woken from her light nap.

  “My fiancée was pregnant. She died in the conflicts. So I lost them both.”

  Sadness shaded her gaze as she looked back at the former illusionist.

  “I'm so sorry,” she said kindly.

  Jekel felt like crying all over again now he had dragged up the past, so instead he changed the subject and pulled the cylinder from his pocket.

  “Mandy One gave me this. She said its a key to Sanctuary and apparently it's for me.”

  Lynch stared at the item that glowed as a charge pulsed within it, but was unable to take it for closer inspection as his daughter was in his arms. Despite her weakness, Elise pulled herself up into a sitting positing as her gaze fixed on the object.

  “It is a key,” she confirmed, “It's a key to break down a doorway in a shield system... find the doorway, the charge will pulse like crazy... set it down in front of it, and it breaks the shield and reveals the passage through the barrier.”

  Lynch looked stunned as he turned his head and glanced at the mother of his child.

  “Thank you, Elise!” he said in surprise, and then he looked to Jekel as his thoughts turned to their quest, “I'll get Elise and Fi settled over at Dixon's place until she's recovered. I want you to find Flynn and tell him we're moving out – we have to find that doorway.”

  “But don't you want to wait a while?”

  “No we can't afford to,” Lynch said as he lowered his voice, glancing over at Elise who had once again slipped into a light sleep, “Dixon said this place has already been attacked once, we don't know what kind of reception is waiting for us beyond the barrier and a journey like this is too dangerous with a child on board. Go and find Flynn. Tell him we're moving out – and make sure Dixon knows, too. I'm going to leave some cybernetic fluid here tell him it's for his men – every single man who can stand and fight should we need assistance, okay? Because I think who ever attacked this settlement came from Sanctuary and I don't understand why.”

  “Neither do I,” Jekel replied, “Blake's not like that – he'd choose peace over war any day.”

  Then Jekel hurried off to deliver the messages, as Lynch looked down at the child in his arms.

  “Oh, its not a great world you've come into, my little one,” he said as he looked at the child who was now sleeping as he cradled her, “But Daddy promises you this – I will try and make it a better one, and I'll do it just for you...”

  Two hours later as the morning sun rose higher in the sky, Elise and Fi were safe with Dixon and guarded by several of his men as Dixon assured Lynch the cybernetic fluid would indeed be used to ensure every man who could fight, if the fight came, would be able to do so. Then Lynch started up the motor home and drove out of the gates of Bullet, heading back for the road that led away from the settlement.

  As they drove along Flynn was at the table checking his gun, Joy was sitting beside Jekel further up the vehicle behind Lynch, and the former General said nothing as he drove on, keeping Elise and his daughter in his heart as the electronic key sat on top of the dashboard continued to pulse slowly, showing no sign of nearing anything to trigger a new reaction.

  “Its got to be close,” he finally said, breaking the silence as they rounded a corner and headed up a long, straight road that turned towards mountains that rose up in the distance.

  “These mountains overlook the sea?”Joy questioned.

  “Well obviously the sea is on the other side of them, yes because we are on top of the coast,” Lynch replied, “Why?”

  Joy frowned.

  “It's just that earlier...back before Bullet...we could see for miles up the coastline and I don't remember seeing any mountains...”

  “Why would you be looking for them,” Lynch replied absently as he pulled the motor home to a halt and unfolded an old, crumpled paper map and studied it.

  Then he started to smile.

  “There are no mountains on this map.”

  He met the gaze of Joy, who also smiled

  “No mountains, you say?” called Flynn, and he laughed, and so did Joy and Jekel looked at the others in utter confusion.

  “I don't get it,” he said.

  Joy traced a finger along the map coordinates.

  “Look,” she said, “this map shows a road that leads through a small town up the hillside – then the area stretches on for several miles flat, leading to a downward turn that leads to a coastal road...there are no mountains. We've just found Professor Riley's shield system.”

  Jekel's eyes widened as he looked out at the vast mountains that towered in the distance.

  “It's an illusion?” he exclaimed and Joy laughed, finding it ironic that a former illusionist had failed to spot the biggest trick of all time...

  Lynch drove onwards, closer to the mountain. The closer they got, the clearer it became that the road seemed to cut off abruptly at the foot of the mountain – as if someone had simply dumped a mountain in the middle of a road...

  “No one found this before?” Joy said in surprise.

  “Why would anyone check out a lonely mountain?” Lynch replied, “Now look at that key...it's going crazy...”

  They all looked at the clear cylinder, the light within was pulsing like an old fashioned disco light as if dancing in excitement as it sensed the power of the shield system close by.

  “What do we do, bust it wide open?” asked Flynn.

  “No,” Lynch replied, and he looked to the field nearby and the place where the trees began and the woods grew dark, “We park up over there out of sight – I'll need someone to stay behind and guard the vehicle. We might need a quick get away, too...”

  And they took the motor home off the road, driving across the field and heading for the woods. As he drove, Jekel was silent, lost in thoughts of many things, including how Joy had refused to forgive him, and how Lynch had teased him back when they took the Howler head. Jekel looked at Joy, she was looking ahead, watching as the woods loomed closer, then Flynn said something about having weapons ready and she agreed, and still Jekel was thinking on Joy and how he regretted losing her over a stupid mistake with Mandy One that never should have happened...

  He thought on all she had said about her great Captain Murdock and then back to the incident when Lynch had told him he hadn't earned his stripes...That was when Jekel made a decision, he was going to earn his stripes, he was going to prove himself to all of them – especially Joy... Maybe she would change her mind about him if he became a hero. He was sure he had it in him to try...He was decided now, he would show them all...

  As the motor home came to a stop, Lynch switched off the engine and turned around in the driver's seat looking to the others.

  “Flynn – guard the vehicle. Me and Joy are going in...”

  “What about me?” said Jekel, “That key was meant for me – Blake left it for me -”

  “And for all we know, Blake Riley could be dead,” Lynch replied, and the thought of his best friend gone made pain reflect in Jekel's eyes.

  “You should stay here with Flynn, you can fire a gun, you'll be useful if there's trouble.”

  Then he reached in his pocket and drew out the phone he had taken from the factory raid when he and Elise had stolen the cybernetic fluid.

  “I've had a tinker about with this thing and I can get it working on a short range messaging system,” he said, “I'm going to try and patch it through to the radio...”

  He turned dials on the control panel, cursing under his breath as he suddenly felt alarmingly lost without Elise to prompt his bad memory.

  Then the phone bleeped.

  He looked down at it, hoping to see the words Signal: Vehicle but instead, what it said surprised him.

  “Ash Jekel?” he exclaimed.

  Jekel blinked.

  “Shit...” he muttered, realising his internal wire, which had hard
ly ever been used, and then only pre war, in a few amusing exchanges with Margot, had just been picked up by the phone.

  Lynch looked at him in surprise.

  “You have an inbuilt communications system? What kind of cyborg are you?”

  Jekel swallowed hard and got up from his seat, looking to Joy and then to the others as he finally revealed the truth.

  “I'm the cyborg designed by Blake Riley,” he admitted, “Blake used the prototype system on me to save my life after an accident. It should have been saved for military personnel but instead he saved me, his best mate. I ended up using it in my act, too. It made me a fortune.”

  Joy was looking on with a stunned expression, knowing his revelation had just sealed his fate, now Lynch would order him into a potentially lethal situation and by the look in his eyes, Jekel was ready to do that, too - was he doing that for her? Joy felt her heart miss a beat as she feared for the gentle man who was no fighter...

  “Ash... don't...” she whispered, but he looked at her and that resolve burned bright in his hazel eyes.

  “Who says I can't be a hero?” he replied, “Maybe I'm meant to do this – I have all this technology inside me, its got to be of use at a time like this...”

  Then he stepped back a little, and looked to Lynch.

  “I have a built in stealth mode,” he told him, “Let me show you...Activate...” and Jekel vanished, then reappeared again as Lynch stared at him in shock.

  “You're coming with us, Mr Jekel,” he said, “We're going to need you.”

  Then Lynch paused for thought as he noticed Vehicle - 1 come up as a second link picked up by the phone.

  “You can stay in contact with Flynn via the radio messaging system,” he said, “And with me through the phone – in case we have to split up or we become separated.”

  Jekel's heart was hammering in his chest beneath the fine fabric of his suit as he nodded. Then he glanced to Joy, who shot him a look knowing it was too late to tell him, Don't do this...

  Joy got up and walked down to the medical area, where she reached under her pillow and drew out an old communications device. The screen was cracked but it was her link to the one person who she knew she might need should this situation turn ugly. Her mind was made up now:

  If things got bad, she was calling Captain Nathan Murdock...

  As she returned to the others, Flynn got up, pausing to pull a photograph out of his pocket. He looked at the image and then turned the picture around, it was a photo of a woman with pale blue eyes and dark brown hair. Her make up was immaculate and she stood there in a white dress, framed by a summer afternoon in the countryside. The picture had clearly been taken before the old world had come to its terrible end.

  “My wife Kait,” said Flynn, “I'm going to find her. Even if it's too late, I'll find her and the bastard who took her.”

  “Maybe its not too late,” Jekel said to him, placing his hand on his shoulder, “You've got to believe there's still hope.”

  And Joy said nothing as she looked to Jekel, her heart aching for all that had been said and all that had not been said, as she wondered if there was still time to find forgiveness, and if Ash would live through what ever ensued next to find out about her change of heart...

  Beyond the barrier where the mountain range illusion hid all that lie beneath, a once picturesque town lie in ruins. Houses that had survived the virus and burning and the bombs, in a place that had remained virtually unscathed thanks to the shield that surrounded it, had been plundered, wrecked and its people reduced to poverty and suffering.

  The coal mines were worked by exhausted cyborgs who lived for the rationed shots of fluid that kept them alive as the coal burned the fires that fuelled the forges that made the weapons that were brandished by the soldiers of Byron Leather's army, that army was growing stronger by the day as his men, all cyborgs built for battle, were an army of thugs put together from the best of the flood of those who had come to Sanctuary in the days before the end, when the man they called King Steel had thrown up his shield around the palatial home over the hill that lie behind heavy gates, guarded by Leather's best men.

  Leather regarded the King as a fool – Professor Blake Riley, the cyborgs saviour had been fool enough to trust him in the beginning, thinking of him as a loyal friend... He had been driving the reinforced vehicle on the day Ash Jekel the stage magician had wept like a child at the roadside as he had bundled two kids in the back of the car and Blake had promised him, there was a place for him at Sanctuary,. Leather had driven off fast, leaving the weeping man at the roadside as in the distance, the world was about to burn...

  Now Leather stood proud in his dark uniform, his facial features decorated with steel flame that wrapped about his jawline as he cast eyes black as the devil across the poverty stricken town. The purpose of these peoples lives were to work to until the end of their short lives to furnish his army with weapons. He had his sights set on killing Riley first, then taking over the settlement to gain more slaves and a few more soldiers for his army and then...his sights were set on the newly rebuilt town of Freedom, where the people hated cyborgs, and now he would give them a reason to do so...He smiled as he looked about the ruined town, then turned to the men who flanked him.

  “I'm going up to HQ,”he said, “A certain lady must me missing my company.”

  The soldier beside him smirked, and so did Leather, then he turned and made his way up the hill side where, just half a mile from the palace where Riley lived in his fool's bubble of ignorance, stood an old, Victorian house. It had perhaps once belonged to lord of the manor, but now it was Leather's. The finest house in Sanctuary aside from the distant, guarded palace where Riley lived in ignorance of his people's suffering.

  Leather entered the house, kicked a cowering serving girl who was scrubbing the floor and set his sights on the stair case. Then as servants scurried about in fearful silence, he climbed the stairway to the top, went down the hallway and opened a door that led to the walkway on the roof. He strolled across it, smiling as he cast his sights about the town below and his plentiful guards who kept the population under control as he lorded it over them all, and then he came to a small, brick built tower. He opened up the old iron door and began to climb the spiral staircase. As he climbed his footfalls echoed, and as he reached he top and unlocked the heavy door that needed no guard, he stepped into the room, smiling at the woman who was chained to the wall surrounded by an arsenal of explosives. Her slender wrists were bloody from a struggle long given up, her dress was torn but so far, in the weeks he had held her captive, he had not taken her by force. He wanted to wait, she had been a real find on the roadside as she travelled with her companions, a real beauty...

  “Missed me?” he asked.

  Hatred burned in Kait Flynn's eyes. She raised her head and glared at him.

  “Why,” she said in a broad cockney accent, “Would I miss a stinking piss bag like you?”

  He stood over her, keeping his tone and gaze measured to remind her who was in control.

  “When I fell into the company of Blake Riley he believed me to be a friend,” he replied, “And his purpose is served and his life will soon be over. And your lovely city of Freedom the former London will be mine because my army is growing! Just think about it, Kait – all that power. All mine. And it could be yours to share...choose wisely, my dear.”

  She studied his black eyes, deep and dark and incapable of showing emotion in their blackness.

  “My husband,” she said, “Will 'ave you for this. I don't think you realise who you're messing with! My Lexie won't abandon me – and when he finds you, he won't show mercy!”

  Leather leant closer, Kait tensed as she felt his breath hot on her face.

  “Your husband,” he replied, “Can't save you and neither can any other man. You're mine, you may as well accept it.”

  Kait turned her head and met his gaze. His black eyes were still impossible to read as he studied her expression, and then she spat in
his face. He stepped back, wiping her spit from his cheek and the gleaming steel that framed it with faux flames in shining metal.

  “Are you flirting with me?” he asked.

  Her rage exploded again.

  “Go fuck yourself you heap of turd!” she yelled, “Fuck you, Leather!”

  And Leather turned away, walking off calmly and closing the door behind him, as Kait's curses and insults rung in his ears all the way down to the bottom of the tower.

  Far off in the city of Freedom, Josh sat alone in the conference room, worrying silently as he wondered why the Vice Premier had called him to an urgent meeting, because on arriving, he had found none of his associates to be present – the room was empty...

  The past few days had seen changes he ought to be looking forward to – giant screens erected about the city, so he could address his people en mass from the comfort of his office. But there had been more protests, from both the pro and anti cyborg movements, protests that had to be brutally broken up and now there was talk of a newspaper emerging to become the first press in the new city, Josh felt apprehensive. The governing circle had no control over this new media – they were free and all members had refused a special seat within the circle, making his throat go tight as he considered what that could mean...

  The only rainbow in this troubled sky of his life was the fact that news had reached him of the shooting of Captain Kaden Silk. Poor Steph had taken the news rather badly, shutting herself away in the bedroom for hours... Josh had poured himself a drink and quietly celebrated the shooting of the Captain, until more details had emerged and it became apparent his pretty face was still intact even if a section of his skull had been blown away by, according to witness accounts, a fellow member of the City Guard...

  And worse still, was the fact that Silk was still alive. Apparently he came from a wealthy and privileged family and been able to secure the best treatment... Josh silently hoped that treatment did not extend to enabling Silk to recall the identity of his attacker, because then, there really would be a problem...