A Hero Rising (A New Dawn, #3)
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: Novella
Release Date: February 2012
ePub ISBN: 978-1-937044-83-1
Blurb:
After watching his love leave on a colony ship, James Wilfred must save those left behind from a planetary apocalypse. Their salvation lies in an unfinished ship tucked away in a secret government base, and only James can break in and pilot him and his people to freedom on a nearby space station.
Skye O’Connor’s boyfriend never returns after his gang attempts an assassination of the Governor, and the State Building is destroyed. Worse, crazed moonshiners addicted to the chemical Morpheus have stormed the city, and she must find a safe place for her and her boyfriend’s daughter. When a heroic man saves her, Skye asks to accompany him on his quest to find the last colony ship left on Earth.
As the city falls around them, James and Skye must work together to build a new future, all the while rediscovering their ability to love, before the apocalypse claims them both.
Chapter One
Left Behind
Clutching his retractable cable, James lowered himself down the glassy
surface of the high-rise as the wind stole the warmth of the sheets he’d just
left behind. He glanced at the fluttering curtain three stories above his,
wondering how Mestasis would feel when she awoke to an empty bed. He detached
his grappling hook and slipped inside the balcony of the building, fast as a
diving raven’s shadow.
If only I could stay
longer. If only things could be different.
His wristband flashed
another message. If you don’t get down here within the hour, I’m coming to look
for you.
The thought of Dal
stumbling through the abandoned subway by himself sent adrenaline rushing
through James’s veins. The lower levels had been dangerous since Dal was a boy,
but with the introduction of Morpheus, the desperate scavengers had grown into
vicious savages.
James typed a message back,
hoping Dal would believe him. I’ll be there. Stay where you are.
Mestasis will have to
understand.
He took an elevator down as
far as it worked, holding onto the slim hope he’d have a chance to give
Mestasis a decent good-bye later. The elevator creaked to a halt and the doors
parted to a corridor lit by one flickering bulb. Crumpled rags and broken vials
dusted with the dried, silvery sheen of Morpheus lined the floor.
The lower levels.
No one decent ventured down
this far, so the government didn’t find it necessary to cover low level
repairs. It would only bring up gangmen, like himself, to the upper levels. But
some of us are good. It’s those Razornecks that give gangs a bad name.
He jogged to the end and
slid down a plastic recycling chute to Level Five. The chute ended with a
rusted metal grating piled high with cracked bottles and compacted cans. He
kicked out the grating and emerged on a stairwell landing. Cracked bottles
rattled around him as he shuffled through the debris to Level One, the place
where only the bravest, or craziest, treaded alone.
The scent of dank air and
old garbage wafted up from the moldy floor. It smelled like home. He’d been
away too long. James ducked through a shattered window to an alley between the
buildings.
Twilight spread through the
sky, stretching the shadows of lumbering heaps of old mattresses, broken
ionizers, and tattered plastic bags. Using the darkness as his cloak, he
climbed through the debris and checked over his shoulder. The alley lay as
silent as a wasteland. Residents had boarded most of the windows to keep out
thieves, but apartments lay empty and dark as deep space.
Three windows down, a small
child with wispy black hair peered out, clicking off a flickering light stick.
The child disappeared as he approached. James reached in his pocket and left an
orange on the sill before ducking away.
A stone stairway loomed at
the end of the alley like a mouth to the underworld. James slipped down a
corroded railing to an old subterranean transportation system once used by his
ancestors in the days before the mega-high-rises and the elite’s reign of the
upper levels.
Pitch-black oozed from
under the brick, and his hair glowed neon green as the darkness enveloped him.
The radiance was just enough to light his path, the permanent dye a trademark
of his gang. James picked up his pace and jogged along the tracks, approaching
a thick cement door with graffiti scribbled in hasty strokes.
He raised his hand to
knock, but he paused with his fist in midair. Shuffling echoed down the track
to his right. No one could see him entering the Radioactive Hand of Justice’s
underground facility—he had to find out who had found him and make sure he or
she wouldn’t talk.
James slipped past the door
and tiptoed closer, his hair casting light a few feet around him in every
direction. No one could sneak up on him.
Was it Dal?
“Hello?” His voice echoed
down the shaft.
The shuffling continued and
James froze, listening for footsteps. The motion sounded more like the
fluttering of bats than any tapping of feet. Bats didn’t scamper on the ground.
Someone snickered and then
sucked in a long breath before cackling lightly like a witch in a fairy tale.
The person smacked his lips together. James narrowed his eyes.
Oh great—some desperate
savage, looking for anything he can sell for Morpheus. Maybe I can knock him
out and leave him on Level One where he came from.
“Stay where you are.”
James’s voice was deep and authoritative.
The shadow moved toward him
in a flurry. The smell of mold and rotten food clogged his throat, and James
resisted the urge to gag. Where had this man been?
“I said, stay where you
are.”
He blinked, and when he
opened his eyes again, the figure had scuttled ten feet closer, arms writhing
like snakes in the air. James stumbled back. He’d only seen them from the
safety of the city walls before.
Oh geez. A moonshiner gone over the edge.
Moonshiners got their
superhuman speed from the drug Morpheus, a chemical mined on the moon. Too bad
the drug also caused an insatiable urge to kill. James had heard about the
moonshiners who lost their minds from stories the city wall guardians told. He
reached for his laser, but the man scurried closer like he was in an old movie
on fast-forward.
James had enough time to
deflect the moonshiner’s jaws with his elbow as the man’s face came into view.
Sunken cheeks held shadows where the chemical spread like ink underneath the
skin. James pushed back against the man’s weight, throwing him off. The
moonshiner lunged at him before James could recover, scratching his chest with
jagged fingernails that had grown so long, some of them were curled. James
kicked him in the gut, but it did no good. The moonshiner was past the point of
reacting to pain.
The man pushed James over
and fell on top of him, jaws clacking an inch from his face. James held him
back with one arm while the other worked his laser out of its holster. The
man’s eyes had turned into black holes, the pupils bleeding over the whites to
give him a fiendish glare. Strands of hair shed from his scalp, trailing down
his arms to tickle James’s face. The moonshiner’s head was disproportionately
larger than his body, as if his skull had begun to grow and change, morphing
into an oval.
Yeah, this moonshiner is
past gone. Must have been using for years. Why didn’t the guard take him out
when he entered the city?
James yanked his arm free
to fire his laser directly into the man’s midsection, and the moonshiner fell
back with the force. Jumping to his feet, James raised his laser again. He shot
the moonshiner three more times in the chest and shoulder, but the man
scrambled up and kept coming.
Panic rose inside James in
a riptide. Would the moonshiner never tire or die? Hissing with a black-toothed
grin, the man crashed into him, pushing James into the wall and knocking the
air out of him. Even the guy’s teeth looked different—inhuman, pointed like a
shark’s incisors. James banged his head against the cement and dropped his
laser. He struggled to focus as the world warped.
Would he die like this?
Torn to pieces by a druggie monster?
No. Too many people needed
him. He had to see Mestasis one last time.
James fought, wrestling the
moonshiner to the ground. He rolled over and stretched his hand out, clawing
for the laser. His index finger curled under the trigger and he brought the gun
up in one swift motion. The man caught his wrist, and James struggled to point
the laser at the moonshiner’s head.
Just a little lower.
The moonshiner opened his
mouth, and a dry, rasping voice whispered, “Aliens. They left something behind
on the moon.”
“What the—” James
hesitated, and the moonshiner lunged for his neck. He fired at the man’s head
and the moonshiner stilled and collapsed.
Pulling himself up, James
tried to calm his racing heart and think straight.
Where did this moonshiner
come from? What brought him into the tunnels? And what aliens?
James didn’t have time to
decode the strange riddle leaking from a moonshiner’s crazy mouth. Worried
about Dal, he rushed to the cement door and banged five times: two quarter
notes followed by three eighth notes. If anything had happened to them while he
was away, he would never forgive himself—even if it meant regretting his last hours
with Mestasis.
The door creaked and three
laser barrels poked through the crevice. James held up his hands. “Whoa, guys.
It’s only me.”
An older man with a tuft of
white hair stared back at him. Relief shone in his bright blue eyes.
“James, we thought they got
you.”
“The Razornecks, the
government, or the moonshiner I just blasted in the tunnel?”
“Any. All three.” Dal
clapped him on the shoulder and led him inside while two guards stayed behind
to close the entrance. Even though the cement locked in place, James had a hard
time letting go of the encounter outside. The hideout didn’t feel safe any
longer.
“What’s happened while I’ve
been on the upper levels?”
“Nothing good.” Dal led him
through a tunnel to the concrete bunker underneath the subway system. He talked
over his shoulder as they hurried down the steep incline.
“As you can see from your
new friend lurking by the door, moonshiners have infiltrated the sewers,
climbing through miles of pipeline to rise to the lower levels.”
“Yeah, the one I met smelled
like death.”
“That’s not all. A crazed
mob of ’em storms the city walls as we speak. Guardians pick them off with
gallium laser blasts, but they don’t have enough firepower to keep them back.”
“Hold it now.” James
stopped midstep and Dal halted beside him. “The walls are five feet thick. No
way the moonshiners can get through, even if they clawed with their fingernails
all day long.”
Dal shook his head slowly.
“They are, and they will. Some of them still have part of their brains left,
and they’ve been tossing hypergrenades at the cement.”
James scratched his head.
“Jeez, where have I been?”
“Making sure three hundred
of our people got the hell out of here.” Dal squeezed his shoulder. His voice
was shaky. “Did it take off?”
James shook his head. “Not yet.
But it’s on schedule. I’d like to see it leave, so if we could hurry…”
“I understand.” Dal clapped
him on the back. “Just checking to make sure my grandkids made it safely.”
“If you’d tell me why I’m
here, I could make sure of it.”
“Yes, yes. Let’s go.
There’s something I have to show you.”
James followed him to a
low-ceilinged room lined with wallscreens displaying input feeds from all over
the world. In the dim light, Dal’s wispy hair glowed like James’s, giving the
old man a halo of green, otherworldly light.
Dal sat in a rolling chair
across from a circular desk and gestured for James to follow. James waved his
offer away. “I prefer to stand.” Every second counted. He knew Mestasis
wouldn’t wait for him—shouldn’t wait for him. She’d probably think he’d left to
avoid such a painful good-bye.
“You may want to sit down
when you hear what I’m about to tell you.” Dal gave him a sad smile.
“I can take it.” James’s
gaze passed from a riot in Mexico to a volcano warning in the Hawaiian Islands
to flames consuming Utopia, the last giant greenhouse that fed all of New
England and the surrounding states. “No place is safe, is it?”
“No.” Dal pressed a button,
zooming in on the ruins of Utopia. “One of our spies got a lowdown on the
Razornecks’ counterattack…”
“A counterattack? Already?
I thought most of the Razornecks died in the blaze?”
Dal shook his head. “They
have cells throughout the city, and they’re all seeking revenge.”
James ran a hand through
his hair. “What is it this time?”
“Assassination attempt. Governor
Ursula Grier. They found out she was the one who ordered the counterstrike on
Utopia after they took it over.”
That’s why Dal had called
him down so quickly. “Should I organize a team to stop them?”
Dal clicked a button and
the screen changed. “No.”
“No? What do you mean no?”
“The Radioactive Hand of
Justice shouldn’t get involved in government affairs. Besides, she’s got enough
guards and artillery to defend herself, and in two days’ time, she’ll be
leaving on the Heritage, along with the other heads of state. The
government in New York will be nonexistent.” The inevitability in Dal’s voice
sent a shiver down James’s back.
“They’re going to abandon
us?” Government officials didn’t just get up and leave their posts. This was
serious.
“It’s their only choice for
survival.” Dal clicked on another screen, bringing up a meeting of world
leaders from at least five countries, all sitting around a circular table.
“More problems?” James
studied the screen, recognizing the faces: most from the World Coalition. “What
are they saying?”
“They want to nuke the
areas with the largest concentration of moonshiners before the mobs grow out of
control. As it is, the force outside these gates could rip through this entire
population within days.”
“They’re targeting us? Citizens?”
“Bingo.” Dal sighed. “We
think this bunker would hold during the attacks, but we’re not sure we could
live here until the fallout dispersed. We have the fluorescent greeneries, and
the stocks are piled high, but it would take years for the radiation to return
to safe levels.”
“Not acceptable.” James
shook his head, refusing to resign to such a fate. “There has to be another
way.”
“There is.” Dal’s fingers
flicked across the keypad and a picture of a gigantic chrome hull loomed over
their heads.
“The Destiny.”
“Wait a second. We were
deemed unfit for the Expedition. Who’s to say whoever built this ship
wouldn’t conclude the same thing? I’m sure they have their own people to
transport.”
“The project was abandoned
three months ago. It’s not finished. The biodome hasn’t been completed, and it
isn’t stocked with enough energy cells. It won’t be able to fly us on a
hundred-year journey, but with a little work it could get us off this doomed
rock.”
James put his hand on his
hip. Every paradise planet he’d heard of was hundreds of years away, which
could only mean one thing. “You’re thinking Outpost Omega, aren’t you?”
“It’s the biggest space
station within a parsec of Earth, fully equipped with biodomes, solar panels,
and energy cells.”
“It’s also the most important
and the most heavily guarded. They’d never let a ragtag army like us live
there. Only government workers are allowed to set foot on it.”
“Then we’ll take it by
force.”
James exhaled a long, slow
breath. “No. It’s too dangerous. Too many deaths.”
Dal leaned back in his seat
and raised his hairy eyebrows like when he had a winning move at chess. “And
staying here isn’t?”
James considered the
impending attack of moonshiners coupled with the plan to nuke them all. Even if
his group survived the mob and stocked their shelves high, did they really want
to huddle underground for the rest of their lives, hoping rations wouldn’t run
out? “You’ve got me there.”
“Exactly.” Dal slumped
forward, clicking off the screens as if in resignation.
James’s mind whirled with
all the possibilities and probable outcomes. “Even if we secure this
quasi-built ship, who’s going to fly it?”
The room had gone black,
and only their haloed heads illuminated their faces. Dal folded his hands on
the table as if further discussion was unnecessary. “You.”
“You’re kidding me. I’ve
never flown anything that large.”
Dal grinned. “Practice
makes perfect.”
James’s wristband beeped.
He glanced down at the time and his stomach sunk. “Dammit, Dal, the Expedition
is leaving in fifteen minutes.”
Dal gave him a knowing
twitch of his eyebrow. “Do you really want to see it take off?”
“I have to.” James shot
toward the door, adjusting his backpack.
“Whatever you do, don’t try
to defend the governor. Leave that to her bodyguards. They view all gangs as
threats, and you’d be killed along with the Razornecks.”
“I won’t.” Although the
governor had always been a thorn in his side, James still worried about her and
her family surviving the attack. Yes, she blew up Utopia and planned to abandon
her own city, but she didn’t deserve to be taken out by the Razornecks.
Besides, James needed some sort of structure until the Expedition took
off and he could get to the Destiny. If the Razornecks gained control of
the city, every street would go to hell. He pressed the panel and the sides
parted, revealing a crowded corridor.
“James, you never agreed to
fly the Destiny.” Dal’s voice was a gripping force, holding him back.
James turned around. “You
know me better than that, Dal. You know it’s a yes.”
Dal’s face softened. “All
the more reason to be careful. We can’t have the most important person in the
Radioactive Hand disappearing on us. Every time you go through those passages,
you risk your life.”
James shot Dal a steady
stare. “I’ll be back. Besides, some things are worth the risk.”
© 2012 Aubrie Dionne
