Chapter 48 – Gates of Heaven
On the athletic complex, down on the forested level, the sword-wielding ballerina and muscle-bound murderer paused out of respect for the explosions happening around them.
They watched the charges set on the bridges and connecting struts of the district explode, pushing the units away from each other. The ground under Ashley and Morgenstern shifted.
Shaped like a five-tier box kite, the athletic complex was massive. It served as the anchor for all the other units of District Thirteen. The complex held its structure. Grey and the other Combat Engineers hadn't set their charges anywhere near the complex's four corner pins, but they had still worried about the unit's main supports.
Each of the five levels was equipped with a set of terillium anti-gravity disks. In theory, as long as the gravity controls were operating correctly, the support structure could have been made of dental floss and it wouldn't have been in danger of snapping.
Across from them, the administration building crashed into the old orphanage and they both dropped from the sight.
Ashley and Morgenstern faced each other.
The pathologist bled from his face, ear, and hand.
Kaz appeared on the path behind them. He paused, seeing that Ashley was holding her sword, her assault rifle abandoned in the grass.
Kazimov raised his rifle at the lunatic killer.
"Aim for his head," Ashley said. "His clothes are all terillium.”
Kaz fired, but the pathologist dashed off to the side.
On the run, Morgenstern produced three throwing knives from beneath his coat and hurled them at Ashley and Kaz.
Ashley ducked, dodged, and pursued.
Morgenstern attacked with several strikes from the ax.
Ash evaded them, but only just.
Kaz couldn't get the serial killer in his sights; Ashley was in his way.
Morgenstern attacked Ashley with the ax, the handle, his elbows, his feet, his knees and his one good fist.
Ashley dodged the sharp ax head, blocked the handle and the elbows. She took a knee to the ribs, dodged one kick, evaded another, and ducked the final haymaker.
Morgenstern stepped back to switch his grip on the ax.
Ashley didn't need the pause. She slashed upward, taking his weapon hand at the wrist, stepping back as the ax and hand fell to the ground.
Morgenstern looked at his disembodied hand.
In the sky behind them, zeros at the controls of the terminal facility set their elevation for sea level. Aware that the descent needed to appear as if it were the result of an explosion, the kids controlling the gravity drive had been instructed to bring it down as fast as it would go.
With howls of glee, the first unit of the newly liberated district began its plunge toward freedom. The orphans in the garages, having strapped themselves into the cars, instinctively clutched at the steering wheels and restraints, as the horizon tipped to the side.
On the trail behind Morgenstern, Mono stepped out. The three-hundred-pound tuxedoed lion looked tired and groggy.
He yawned. He'd been napping.
Kaz hesitated, shocked and confused by the giant cat. He had lived there all his life and never seen anything like it.
"Hey, Mono," Ashley knelt, summoning the massive feline.
Mono padded over, walking right past the lethal pathologist and his severed hand. The cat didn't even notice the hand.
He did however, pause at the bit of ear. Morgenstern watched the cat sniff the piece of meat and pick it up between his teeth.
Morgenstern, minus a hand, reached beneath his coat and pulled a handgun. He aimed and fired into Mono's back.
The cat flinched and whimpered at the sound of the gun. The impact drove him toward the ground. Mono dropped the bit of ear and crawled, whimpering, over to Ashley.
In the distance, the massive juvenile detention facility, the bolt, tilted to the side and lost altitude.
Morgenstern brought his weapon around on Ashley.
Kaz fired at him.
Morgenstern took two bullets to the chest and ran from the trail.
Ashley checked Mono for blood. There wasn't any. She found the bullet trapped in his fur and pulled it out.
He licked her hand.
"Stay here," she told Mono, and with a glance to Kaz, picked up her sword and took off in pursuit of Morgenstern.
Ash saw him ahead, as he dashed toward the elevator.
Kaz, on the hoverboard, opened fire on Morgenstern again. The bullets raced past his shoulder, bouncing off the closed metal doors
Morgenstern ran from the elevator as Ashley and Kazimov pursued. He quickly realized that the limited space of the level produced a ledge in every direction.
Ashley tracked the movement of the buildings around them as the one-handed giant ran directly toward the edge. The bolt was falling past them. Morgenstern reached the edge and fearlessly leapt into air, jumping for the falling rooftops of the bolt, just a few hundred yards below.
Ashley sprinted after him and leapt into open space.
Kaz followed on the hoverboard, firing at the serial killer.
The movement of the buildings, combined with their own velocity, had an otherworldly feel, almost like jumping onto some low-gravity moon. The landing should have killed them, but Ashley watched Morgenstern land softly on the falling prison. She reached it just behind him. Kaz, on the hoverboard, sailed past her.
Back in the campground Sky and Geoff had discovered the giant cat. Geoff sprinted toward Mono and buried his face in his fur. Reunited at last, Mono licked Geoffrey's face and playfully wrestled with the boy.
Sky, having never seen the cat before, stared at Geoff, confused, as if the boy and the whole world were absolutely crazy. The horizon shifted eerily in the distance and the buildings of the city flowed past beneath them as district broke up and drifted out toward the ocean.
On the rooftop of the bolt, Morgenstern fired at Ashley. Her only weapon was the sword.
Kaz fired half-a-dozen rounds at Morgenstern as he fell toward them.
The bolt was moving at a forty-five degree angle to the south, and as Morgenstern fled, the circumstances weirdly accelerated his steps to the north; multiplied by gravity and the structure's horizontal motion, like running down an escalator.
Behind them, the drives on the athletic complex had clearly cut out.
Soon, the two units had come parallel with one another. Due to its weaker drives and the bolt's stronger charge, the athletic complex fell past the prison wing.
Morgenstern leapt through the sky once again, back toward the athletic complex. The simultaneous descent of the units made the jump look as if he were flying.
Ashley and Kaz followed.
Kaz fired, but the shots went wide and were wasted.
Captain Snow hadn't missed a moment of the aeronautical engagement. Invisible, she watched but didn't yet intervene.
When the explosions separated the pieces of the district, King and Sorpresa were ferrying wounded adults and children from the charred and smoking remains of God's Hotel. The other buildings were on the move and the hotel remained stationary, they had decided to stay and help the wounded.
First Sergeant King had briefly stopped in the security wing to requisition Splitter's help. He'd discovered the cell door ajar and the staff sergeant's lifeless body within.
King instantly understood what had happened. Morgenstern and Keller had taken Splitter's phase cam before their attack. It would be hours before the sergeant's corpse could be properly looked after, so he closed the door and turned back to the issue at hand.
Ash followed Morgenstern as he leapt from the bolt. She tucked her arms and accelerated through the air, determined to overtake the monster that had, only moments earlier, murdered scores of innocent teachers and children, and out of spite, tried to kill her beloved cat.
Morgenstern reached the central fields, larger and two levels up from the lowest campground plane. In the weird falling g
ravity, the grass under his feet broke crisply under his boots as he touched down.
Overhead, Ashley shot past him and landed a good distance away.
Morgenstern turned, firing, but missed Ash as she had already passed overhead. He looked for his pursuers, but saw only Kazimov, some distance back. He fired three times, but his aim was poor, the severed wrist curled to his chest.
Kaz, with an open shot, hesitated to fire.
The giant realized why and spun, but a moment too late.
Ashley, behind him, had the wind and gravity at her back. She was already moving; the sword held high.
The giant tried to get his aim around in time, but then the sword bit into him, driving diagonally from collarbone to hanging rib.
Morgenstern's conscious head, attached to the upper torso, watched itself fall away from his waist and legs. The left hand, holding the pistol, was now separated from his head and could not be made to fire.
Ashley stood over him.
Morgenstern felt the recently watered grass soak his neck and the back of his head.
This was the feeling from his nightmare, the repetitive dream, in which a younger Ashley defended a slumbering seaside town from his draconic-self. In his dream, she had held a flaming sword.
He looked up at her.
She glared at him, the bloody red sword held low at her side.
The sun flashed across the silver of the sword, turning it gold and the blood a brilliant orange.
Behind the teen, Morgenstern's enhanced eyes discerned another figure. An invisible female hovered in the air. She was armored, just like the staff sergeant had been, and held a long-barreled rifle.
Ashley saw the monster look up and through her. He was dying. Unaware of her spectral shadow, Ashley stepped away.
Captain Snow attached a large suppressor to her rifle and floated down toward the dying killer. She placed the barrel at the center of Morgenstern's forehead. The cold oiled metal of the silencer caressed his skin. She knew that Morgenstern, with his black faceted eyes and enhanced vision, could see her. She smiled and fired.
Morgenstern felt the ejected gasses blister his skin. He smelled the sizzling of his brains as the round punched through the gray matter behind his eyes. Then all was dark.
Captain Snow kicked off from the field and drifted away.
Kazimov had landed the hoverboard and stood with Ashley. Neither of them heard the suppressed shot over the roar of the wind.
Sky and Geoffrey touched down in the convertible. The pair had managed to get Mono into the back seat.
Geoffrey and Mono jumped from the car and hung in the delayed gravity before landing on the grass. They romped through the air, playing in the suppressed natural forces, as the unit plunged earthward. Too soon, however, the descent flattened out and gravity returned to normal.
The convoy of buildings passed over the Long Beach Harbor and out to sea. The burning wreckage of the administration building and the old orphanage settled at the shore, while the bolt, athletic complex and school terminals drifted over the ocean.
Ash checked Mono again, combing through his fur for any sign of blood or sore spot. He was perfectly fine.
Her father had said that Mono was created in an experiment using domesticated felines in law enforcement. While the big cat's temperament may not have been ideal, apparently bullet-resistant fur had been one of his genetic enhancements. Ashley laughed, astonished yet not surprised at all.
Once they'd crossed into international waters, and an ACPD pursuit force still hadn't materialized, the orphans let down their collective guard.
Hambone and the other members of the fist found Ashley and her crew as they all naturally congregated back down on the campground level.
"What now? Hambone asked.
"I'm taking a nap," Ashley said.
"Screw that. We're going to party," Hambone laughed. He pointed across the water. "We called the bolt and the terminals. We're going to lash them together. We'll be back to normal in no time." He smiled.
The structures were gradually drifting closer together. Soon they'd been crudely lashed together; the blown bridges were shoddily repaired.
Hambone organized a barbecue and by late afternoon, all the orphans had been fed.
Ash and her friends sat in the sand around a fire pit and watched the sunlight fade from the heavens.
In the distance, a school of dolphins investigated the buildings on their journey out to sea.
"A week ago, I never would have believed this was possible," Hambone said.
"Shit, I don't believe it now," Kaz replied.
In the early evening, on the distant horizon, someone pointed out a group of lights moving toward them. The kids scrambled for their weapons, but by the time the ambulances were in range, they had decided not to fire on them.
First Sergeant King had coerced an entire convoy of Red Cross to sail out and help the battered kids. Soon the wounded had been treated. The hostage nurses in the medical wards on the bolt were all released.
Those orphans who were severely wounded were treated and if necessary, evacuated to back to the staging are triage area, now set up on God’s Hotel. They were promised that no charges would be filed.
That night, Ash, Geoffrey and Mono fell asleep before a roaring fire, surrounded by their friends, battle-scarred heroes, one and all.
EPILOGUE – Baby Steps
The media didn't know what to do with the Ashley Fox, Martin Dunkirk and the District 13 story.
Senator Danforth Grey called a press conference and demanded reforms. He even renounced his citizenship, right there on live-stream.
The nation held its collective breath.
Everyone expected federal agents to leap from the shadows and bludgeon him to death with lead pipes, but it didn't happen. In fact, nothing happened. No one arrested the senator or even yelled obscenities.
The newscast continued rolling, so Danforth continued talking.
"I knew my grandfather, Dakota, had written those words, all those years ago. How ashamed am I; that an innocent girl, tortured and nearly murdered, reads them in her own defense?
“Why haven't we done anything? Why haven't I done anything? Why haven’t WE helped them?
“This country is called the U. S. Let US help one another.
"I do believe all men are created equal. The gates of citizenship are wrong. We should know better. How many martyrs, how many saviors, how many reformers and how many wars before we can live in peace?
"None of us are Zeros. We, Us, We will build a better nation, a better world, with liberty and justice for all.”
Even Captain David Grey, the senator's son, had tuned in. He watched his father campaign for change. He supposed it was the silver lining, but he feared that the Zeros of District Thirteen would become little more than yesterday’s headline, bumper-sticker politics. It would happen before their food supplies ran out.
In the morgue, below the lowest mapped levels of the bolt, Cedric checked the security feeds and made a list of where his comrades had fallen. He tucked the list into his pocket and gestured for Bobby to follow with a hover-cart.
First they went to the bolt's command center, where Mr. Dunkirk's conscious head sat in shallow platter of blood and water.
Despite the burns and lack of a body, his father's eyes were open and followed them as they crossed the room. Perhaps he wished to speak, but without lungs or a voice box, there was little he could say.
After it had grown dark in the central stadium, Governor Maime, atop her spike, opened her eyes.
On the post beside her, Mallus was also awake.
Cedric stood before them with Bobby, who came forward and removed their heads from the wet posts.
Cedric had installed the failsafe pulse generators a couple years ago. Anchored to the back of the skull, under the scalp, in the case of decapitation, the wafer-sized module cleaned and circulated nutrients and oxygen to the brain.
Even though they'd lost their bodies, M
r. Dunkirk, Governor Maime and Dr. Mallus had survived. Whether or not they would again know speech and movement was another matter entirely.
The Red Cross didn't get to the stadium until well after midnight. The heads of Governor Maime and Doctor Mallus were gone, as well as their bodies. Almost all of the bodies were gone. Only a few remained on the gruesome stained field. There were standing pools of blood without any sign of a contributing body. The volunteers commented on the situation, but made no serious attempts at an immediate investigation. Under the circumstances, missing bodies, while odd, hardly registered as an emergency.
They had seen the footage, along with everyone else. They would have to ask the orphans where the bodies had gone, if only in hopes of containing any type of viral outbreak.
On the third level, Morgenstern's separated pieces had also been collected and carted off, but no one noticed his abandoned bloodstain, as no one had come looking for him.
Monday Morning, September 26, 2310
Ashley stirred. She sat up, looking around. A week ago she had slept in this same spot, on the campground level, under the stars, surrounded by other orphans.
That morning, she had wakened to a mist shrouded level, haunted by the sounds of armed men creeping toward them. This week the sun rose, illuminating a safe and secure, if battle-ravaged District Thirteen.
Kaz and Sky slept next to her, Geoff in her arms. She kissed him as he slept. They were safe. Everything was just as it had been the night before.
The dawning sun bathed her circle of friends in radiant warmth.
Ashley shifted Geoff onto Mono, yawned and stretched. Mono twisted himself into one of his absurd feline positions, utterly at peace with the boy leaning against him.
Ash realized her worst fears had all come true and she had been ready.
The sun seemed to rise for her alone that morning. For a moment, she felt whole, complete, fulfilled. Then she remembered that her parents were dead and her grief returned like a lead weight, chained to her soul. The smile fell from her face before any of her friends woke to see it.
Her moment of peace vanished and the cold one, the fearful one, the killer inside her, returned. Something was wrong. She could feel it. Ash stepped up onto the log, surveying the area. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, heard no menacing sounds. They had been homeless before. They had slept outside.
She remembered curling up early, under the moon and stars. It had been scary, but fun. She hadn't been ready, but had done her best to care of her brother.
Her father had been proud. "Life is not without risk," he'd said.
This time, things had been different.
Ash had more children she'd needed to look out for, and despite their losses, she had exceeded her own expectations. She doubted her father would return from the dead again, but stranger things had happened. He had already done it once. She hoped he was proud of her, wherever he might be.
Ash realized that the friends surrounding her were her family now. They didn't have anyone else looking out for them, and neither did she, Mono or Geoff. She slowly sunk to a seated place on the log.
As if on cue, Geoffrey woke, sat up and looked around. He discovered Ashley on the nearby log, picked up the blanket and joined her. Mono stretched out and meowed.
Ash wrapped the blanket around Geoff's shoulders and smiled.
Geoff smiled back and reached down to scratch all the big cat's favorite spots. They were soon wrestling, both cubs of the same family.
Soon the other children were awake too.
Kaz sat next to Ash and together they watched at the rising sun paint the ocean with color.
Before long, the water was filled with the sound of laughter and splashing.
The children dared each other in, leaping from the campground level, falling past the parking levels and plunging into the clear blue water forty feet below. They jumped and dove and played for hours.
Luckily, not one child got hurt all day.
The night of that first day came in cool, almost cold, from far out over the sea. Chased inside by the ocean's chill, Ash, Geoff and their friends crashed in one of the green stripe dorms.
Geoffrey woke in the middle of the night. The hall was filled with sleeping kids, but he saw Bobby Dunkirk awake and standing nearby.
He was older, but Geoff easily recognized him. He was dressed in district issue clothes, but pressed and spotless. Around his neck he wore the six bullets, tied into two rows of three, the empty rounds above the unfired ones.
Geoffrey got up out of his bed. He walked toward Bobby, but stopped.
Bobby stood waiting.
Geoff slowly reached into his back pocket and pulled out the prototype, the Micronix. His thumb rested on the button.
Geoff watched as Bobby reached to touch the tethered shells.
Bobby's expression grew angry, aggressive, but he didn't move.
Geoffrey raised his hand, pointing the rectangle at Bobby, who now took a quick step backward. Geoff pressed the button, the blade snapped out with a loud crack of metal on metal.
Bobby flinched and stumbled backward, falling to the ground.
Geoff lowered the blade.
Bobby scrambled from the room.
Geoff turned to find Ashley standing behind him.
She looked at the knife and back to him.
He met her eyes.
"That was Bobby Dunkirk, wasn't it?" she asked.
"I saw him the first time just after they arrested you," Geoff answered.
Ashley stared at the doorway. "He's been here all this time.”
Geoffrey looked at the knife in his hand and back up to Ashley.
"Don't lose that," she said, nodding to the knife.
Geoffrey nodded, retracted the blade and pocketed the knife. He leaned over and picked up an assault rifle. Like a seasoned pro, he pulled back the charging handle, checking the chamber to see if it was loaded.
Ashley smiled and tousled his hair.
Geoffrey laughed and ducked away.
They hadn’t discussed the identical black knives tucked into their pockets. The Micronix hadn’t come up at all. Even after Bobby’s appearance, it wasn’t necessary for them to talk about it.
Ashley was not at all sure if she had the original, or if Geoff did. When she’d taken it from Von Kalt, on the stairwell, the Metachron had ceased to exist. The Micronix had been its source and it had simply returned. She was confident; she could cure Bobby again, if need be.
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About the Author
John Carrick grew up in northern Illinois and spent four years with the Marine Corps. He graduated from The Art Institute of Los Angeles with a degree in Computer Science: Animation and continues his education at The Gnomon School of Visual Effects and The Taoist Institute.
The next volume – Ashley Fox Ninja Pirate – is in the works. Stay tuned to www.AlphaChannelBooks.com and www.AshleyFox.Ninja for more!
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