Daughters of Forgotten Light Read online

  “Come here, Pao,” Lena said. “Look at this.”

  Sarah crawled over and peered into the shaft. “Where’s the lift?”

  “They never put it in,” Lena said.

  “Oubliette never got finished when the UCNA took it,” Dipity said. “There’s lots of shit here that’s incomplete.”

  “The worst being the Sludge River left uncovered.” Lena crinkled her nose at the unsolicited memory of the river’s smell.

  “At least we have showers,” Sarah offered.

  “Yeah, and without toilet paper we have to take one after every shit.” Dipity crossed her arms. “So why did you have us bring that heavy-ass door up here, Horror?”

  “You’ll see when I get some dwellers up here to install it,” Lena said. “You guys are going to see all the surprises I’ve prepared for the ganghouse.”

  “Don’t we need some of this stuff for when we take the baby?” Sarah asked. “Or are we not doing that anymore?”

  Lena folded her arms. Detective Pao sounded like the perfect nickname.

  “Shit,” Dipity said. “You should know by now Lena doesn’t change her mind.”

  Sarah wrinkled her face, looking even more confused.

  “This stuff,” Lena said, “is for when they come to steal her back.”

  Chapter 24

  A knock rapped Dolfuse’s back door. He was early.

  “Senator Dolfuse,” the man said in greeting when she let him inside. He wore glasses and a black leather hat to cover the stubble of a shaved head. A thick gray coat topped his short frame and he carried a large bag over his shoulder, the kind she would have expected Bobby to be lugging around somewhere in the east.

  Martin, as to be expected, couldn’t attend the viewing of the drone’s flight through Oubliette. However, as promised, she’d sent Dolfuse’s current visitor, Eric Lundgate, to make sure the drone worked properly. Spangler had sent a one-word text a few days before saying, “Done.” Everything was set, and Dolfuse was pleased as punch. The vice president could stay away as long as she wanted.

  “You can set up in the den,” Dolfuse said. “It’s just through there.”

  Lundgate tipped his hat and sauntered around the corner Dolfuse had directed. He had a wobble to him and Dolfuse hoped he was better at programming than getting around her house.

  Who’s to say we’ll see anything? It’s probably a wasteland.

  “Want me to connect to the television?” Lundgate poked his head from the den. He’d removed his jacket but left the hat. “It’d give us a bigger picture.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Oh, sure. It’s just plugging in a wire.”

  “OK, then.”

  Coffee. Coffee sounded good right then. It was nearing six o’clock at night, but she’d need something to hold in her hands and maybe even put to her mouth to keep her nerves in check.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Dolfuse shouted from the kitchen.

  Lundgate poked his head back out to say, “No, thanks,” and promptly disappeared again.

  The Oubliette file lay on the kitchen counter. Dolfuse quickly opened a drawer and dropped the envelope inside. She was tired of looking at the damned thing, and she had it all but memorized at that point.

  At first, Oubliette became a penal city around the time Europe froze over and international trade shut down completely. Food was rationed and vouchers for future children had to be purchased at a hefty price. However, the government provided free sterilization for any who wanted it. Those the UCNA deemed spots on society got a one-way ticket to the darkness of space. Then the Supreme Court decision in the now infamous Dow vs. McCain case fit nicely with what finally became the rule of the land.

  With all the criminals gone and the population still on the rise, Dow vs. McCain became a way to keep the population down for the foreseeable future. The resulting law gave mothers full ownership of their children until the age of eighteen, barring termination outside the womb. When a child turned ten, the mother was given the option to transfer rights to the child to the government, by either selling those that met the criteria to the military, or sending the girls who didn’t to Oubliette. The boys who didn’t measure up still went to the military, they were just never seen again. Dolfuse had once caught Bobby joking about using these boys as “target practice”. She didn’t find that funny.

  With her mug filled, Dolfuse took a breath and marched to the other room. The coffee table had become a small command center with a sleek laptop and a separate pad filled with buttons. Lundgate was at the back of the TV and with a small push of his arm the screen went from silent digital blue to a static-splashed image of starry space and the choppy roar of thrusters.

  “The picture is terrible,” Dolfuse said.

  “It’s better than nothing.” Lundgate shrugged and trotted over to his bag on the couch behind the coffee table. “We’re almost ready.” The rustle of plastic met his hands as he dug into his pack. When he brought them back out they clutched an expensive-looking bag of melting jelly beans and an over-sized Scourge soda bottle. “There,” he said. “Now we’re ready.”

  Chapter 25

  Sarah had grown more confident in riding her cyclone, but it didn’t help too much as she rode at the end of the Daughters’ “V” pattern. They were headed into dangerous territory and maybe a fight, a real fight. She hoped Lena knew what she was doing.

  Sterling hadn’t said much before they left. Every time Sarah had tried to catch Sterling’s gaze, she’d walked away. It had to be that Sterling still disagreed with stealing the baby, but loyalty to the gang, and losing the fight with Lena, forced her into doing it. Sarah didn’t want to think it was something she’d done.

  All the Daughters remained quiet, even Hurley Girly. Sarah didn’t know if they kept a ceremonial silence before the coming storm of rang shots, or if they all were as on edge as Sarah. Either way, she decided to conform to the stillness, and besides, she had nothing to say.

  Eventually breaking the silence, Lena called from the front. “We’re about to enter their turf. Keep your mouths closed and don’t attract any attention.”

  The gang turned off a ramp and rode below a new set of buildings Sarah hadn’t seen before, though they weren’t any different. They had the same cookie-cutter glass as the other giants in the Daughters’ neck of Hell. The feeling here, though, was definitely not the same. Sarah couldn’t figure out if it was just nerves, or if the air really did taste a little sour and feel more humid. That didn’t make sense, but the eerie vibe around this part of Oubliette stayed.

  Lena signaled for them to follow her down an alley a block up. When they’d slowed to a halt in the shadow of the buildings, Lena sliced a hand in front of her throat, telling them to kill the cyclones.

  “We walk from here,” Lena whispered. “Keep your eyes peeled and your rangs ready.”

  They all hugged the wall and waited for Lena to crane her head around the corner. After a few seconds Lena nodded and they continued down the street. Sarah adopted the same crouching run as the other girls, excitement mixing with dread.

  Lights distinguished a building at the end of the street. It had sharper angles than its surrounding counterparts, and red light shone from inside.

  A large, garage-type door rose in the front of the building. The Amazons screamed in ghostly harmony as they hovered out of it on their cyclones.

  Lena dropped to her stomach, prompting Sarah and the others to do the same. Farica led the parade, and the rest of the Amazons followed in single file. They turned to their left when they hit the street and picked up speed once all of them had made it outside.

  Sarah made sure to look at each of the Amazons, but none of them carried baby Rory. A dweller peered out of the ganghouse and watched them leave before closing the door with the push of a button. The Amazon cyclone hums grew farther away. Their ganghouse returned to silence.

  “Hell yeah!” Hurley Girly whisper-shouted. “Let’s raid that place.”

&n
bsp; “Shut up,” Lena said. “We’ll give it a minute.”

  Sarah released a tense breath, thinking of the worst possible thing that could happen – the Amazons trapping them in the middle of the street. At any second, the Veil would ripple over Oubliette in welcome of the new shipment.

  This had to be quick.

  “Alright,” Lena said after an eternity. “Sign language only until we’re inside. Let’s go.”

  Sarah pushed herself up and ran behind the others. The garage door had no windows for them to see into, and Lena was already heading for the side of the building.

  “Dipity,” Lena called as she ran, “stay here and keep watch.”

  Although she was visibly disappointed, Dipity nodded.

  Hurley Girly had a tough time containing her bubbling giggles, so Ava punched her in the arm as she raced past her. Shaking her head, Sterling grabbed Sarah by the jacket and pulled her along.

  This is a back way in, Lena signed.

  Sarah looked around but could only see impenetrable glass and the Veil flickering above. The shipment must have just broken through.

  You first. Lena pointed to Sarah.

  Where?

  Something like a manhole cover lay under her feet, but it was shaped like the top of a screw. Hurley Girly walked up, rubbing her punched arm.

  Help me with it, Lena signed to Ava. We have to twist it open.

  The two of them grabbed small handles in the screw’s top and began to walk it counterclockwise multiple times. The manhole cover extended deep.

  Sarah signed to Sterling, Have you seen any of these screw things before?

  Sterling nodded her head.

  The screw danced loosely in Lena and Ava’s hands when they took it out. They breathed heavily as they set it against the wall. Sarah braved a look into the dark pit below.

  Give me your hands, Lena signed and held her own out.

  Her hands were the same size as Sarah’s but rougher. Making sure to keep her head away from Sarah’s rang gun, Lena lowered Sarah into the hole.

  “I’m touching the floor,” Sarah whispered when she felt her feet against a hard surface. Her amplified voice and foggy breath bounced off the darkness, and the small bit of light from the hole above. She quickly covered her mouth.

  “Guess sign language is out.” Lena’s voice bit, even as a whisper.

  “Is now a good time to tell her about the alien rats that live below the city?” Hurley Girly said.

  Sarah trembled and raised her rang, aiming it to and fro. The rang’s glow helped her see a little better. Piping and wires surrounded her. It was less like a sewer and more like what she imagined the guts of a spaceship would look like. She searched every dark cranny for movement or fur… or scales. The Daughters above snickered with hands over their mouths, and Sarah knew there were no monsters down there.

  “Keep moving, Pao,” Ava said. “The only intelligent life out here is everybody but Hurley Girly.”

  They laughed more and Sarah found herself smiling a little as she crawled through the tunnel. Thumps sounded behind and the other Daughters followed by the light of their rangs.

  “Shit,” Hurley Girly said. “It smells like something died down here.”

  “It’d be a fitting place to put what the Amazons don’t finish eating,” Lena said, and it didn’t have the same humor the conversation had been flavored with.

  Sarah smelled it, too. And it reminded her that they were infiltrating the lair of a gang of cannibals. Alien rats would be a better alternative.

  “Since we all might die,” Hurley Girly said, “can you tell us why you got shipped, Lena?”

  “No, goddamn it.”

  They all had to squat to avoid bumping their heads. After several feet into the growing sticky musk of rotten things, they came to a dead end. Sarah looked left, then right, but they had no other way to go.

  “What now?” she asked when the Daughters stopped behind her.

  “It’s above us,” Lena said.

  Sarah lifted her rang and saw the bottom of another of those screw-like manholes. Lena got on the other side of it and Sarah helped walk it around, unscrewing it. The bottom had no benefit of handles, so they had to place their hands flat on the cool of the metal. Two and a quarter turns in, Sarah had to stop and catch her breath.

  “Hurley Girly,” Lena said. “Help me finish.”

  The smell became unbearably worse. If she hadn’t been worrying more about covering her nose, Sarah would have kicked herself for having to let Hurley Girly finish what she couldn’t. But her arms and thighs were still burning from the little she did. The two women finished with the screw quickly, judging by the red light pouring in from a newly made crack around the cover.

  “It’s not budging any more,” Hurley Girly said through grunts.

  Lena pushed at it as well with no change. Both of them released their holds and the screw spun back down. They were back in darkness, and both Lena and Hurley Girly huffed from their effort.

  “There’s something on top,” Lena said.

  All of them got under it then, Sarah squished between Sterling and Ava. Whatever was above them, preventing them from getting into the ganghouse, it would only budge an inch or so and no more.

  How many Daughters of Forgotten Light does it take to open a manhole? Sarah thought.

  “Alright,” Lena said. “Fuck this. All of you, back up. I’m going to blast this sucker open.”

  “So much for stealth,” Ava said.

  “Wouldn’t it just bounce right back?” Sarah asked.

  “It’s metal, not glass,” Lena said. “And we’ll just have to see.”

  Sarah stumbled backwards. The other Daughters huddled around her as Lena took a crouching position and steadied where she would place her shot. There was a good chance the ball would bounce back into Lena’s face. In the gathered blue glow of rang guns, Sterling’s face held what could have been interpreted as worry. It said something to be concerned for the safety of someone who had, not long ago, beaten you to a pulp.

  A flick of the wrist and Lena’s rang fired. It was too quick and too short a distance to see the blue ball. Instead, an explosive thoom rocked the tunnel, and the screw blew upwards in a shower of sparks. In the wake of the shot, red light and a huge pile of debris fell into the hole, covering Lena in gunk and dust. Sarah crawled closer to Lena. The resulting rubble showed shattered bones, some still covered in skin and hair. The screw had been covered with discarded body parts.

  “So that’s what that smell was,” Ava said.

  “Let’s get the hell out of this hole.” Lena hacked and spit. “Pao?” She waited until Sarah nodded. “There can’t be any witnesses. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Sarah flinched. A sick burning feeling had tried to froth up from somewhere deep. Objection? An instinctual guarding of her innocence? She didn’t know what it was. She just wanted to crawl back to the Daughter ganghouse. But she remembered the yin and yang, its black and white blending in curves that made it circular and whole. She breathed and swallowed it down, whatever it was, and again nodded.

  She helped pushed the others out of the hole with a shove to the rear end or by kneeling and letting Sterling use her thigh as a step stool. Hurley Girly and Ava each grabbed one of Sarah’s arms and yanked her into the main room of the Amazon’s ganghouse. With ringing ears, Sarah aimed her rang from one side of the room to the other, ready for an attack.

  The body pile was mostly bones, but the Amazons had certain parts they apparently found no use for. Sarah wanted to puke.

  “Well, that’s just unsanitary,” Hurley Girly said.

  A door slid open with an electric hum. In the same second, a dweller howled bloody murder and ran at them with what looked like a laser cutting-torch.

  “Holy shit!” Ava said.

  Sarah raised her rang, shaking. But Hurley Girly was quicker and blasted a hole through the oncoming dweller’s chest. The blue ball bounced on the wall behind and returned from where
it had come.

  “Circle up,” Lena shouted, and the Daughters put their backs together in a reverse huddle.

  Sarah kept her rang up, eyes darting around the ganghouse. The red light around them had no direct source; it bled from the walls with a rise and fall of hypnotic brightness. The ganghouse had become too quiet after Hurley Girly had put down the screaming dweller.

  “Heh… heh… heh,” came laughter from a greasy voice.

  It was above them. The Daughters raised their heads. A cage hung from the ceiling, made from pieces of manna boxes and glass. A dweller sat inside, both hands around the bars as she pushed her face between a gap.

  “I am the watcher,” she said. “I see everything.”

  “What the hell is that?” Ava said.

  “Strangers,” the caged dweller said. “Strangers in our house. My ladies will know about this. I see all!”

  “Pao,” Lena said.

  Sarah knew what Lena wanted. Why couldn’t it have been someone else, a sheila trying to kill her? That would have been easier. No, it had to be a crazy, feces-covered wretch in a cage.

  No witnesses.

  Sarah raised her rang.

  “I am the watcher. All I do is watch! Watchwatchwatchwatchwatch–”

  The blue rang ball flew and smacked against the glass of the cage. Coarse laughter filled the ganghouse like a siren as the cage spun round and round from the force of the shot. Sarah tried to aim for another hit, but couldn’t see the dweller in the demented centrifuge.

  “You missed me.” The dweller laughed and pointed a crooked finger at Sarah.

  Hurley Girly huffed. “Are we just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses all night?”

  Lena groaned. “We need to shut this bitch up before–”

  A faint cry. And not that of some dweller driven psycho from living under the rule of the Amazons. It was Rory, somewhere down a long hall to Sarah’s right. Then it faded as quickly as it had come, as if someone had run with the baby into another room.