Ascension

Chapter 17

Mick had never quite appreciated just how beautiful Arcadia was. It was a simple and quaint town, never too hot or too cold, with pretty avenues and well-planned squares. The blue suns shone through the days and the lights danced over their heads through the nights. It had been his home and reality for six lifetimes, of which he only knew the one he was presently living. He had discovered it all to be a false plot to store them up like livestock to be harvested and now, he was walking through those same streets that he had known and loved for so many years, waiting for the truth to be stolen from him. The people who controlled Arcadia had killed his baby sister and the girl he had planned to marry. The man pulling all the strings had just shot his friend through the head. And now, they were going to once again steal everything that he loved. They were going to make him forget Donna and Jai and Sam. They were not going to let him watch Tara grow up. They were going to make Gabe forget him.

He dimly supposed that it would feel like dying if they chose to format him. His mind would shift and warp into a new life and he would go on living and dying over and over again until the people above decided that he was necessary to take away and dissect for another person’s needs. And the body he had at present would turn into an empty skin on the steel table in Section C-4 for Dr. Novak to pore over and catalogue.

The old vision of Gabe’s skin on that table flashed vividly in his mind and he pressed his lips together to stop himself from throwing up.

Julian was strolling in the front, head tilted to enjoy the evening breeze as he sidestepped the potholes left behind by the meteor shower. Sheriff Dawson marched next to him, hissing out orders to the Watchers who were perched up on the rooftops around them, watching their retinue with wide, unblinking eyes. Rooster was walking behind them, supporting a limping Trish with her arm around his neck. The Watcher who had struck her was bringing up the rear, carrying Reid’s body in its arms. Mick didn’t dare to look behind him. He doubted he’d be able to keep walking if he did.

Gabe was next to him, the lines of his shoulders and back bent in a defeated position. His eyes were listless and he stared at the road in front of him as he walked, already looking like an empty shell. Mick had sworn that he was not going to lose him, that he had lost enough and he was going to keep Gabe by his side, no matter the cost. It all seemed so meaningless and foolish now, like the empty promises of a stupid boy. It had taken a dead friend for him to realize that they were up against someone who was just too powerful. Their ragtag little team were like little mites biting on the leg of a giant mastiff. They had been just too easy to crush.

He wondered if he should hold Gabe’s hand to reassure him and possibly reassure himself by feeling the cold metal of the ring press against his fingers. Gabe had promised that he would find him when they got topside; Mick wondered if he would find him if they both got formatted and were cycled into a new life. He dismissed the thought: he couldn’t remember anything from five previous lives. There was no reason why he would remember anything from this one. He kept his hands to himself.

When they reached the white steps of City Hall, Margaret Sweets was standing outside with a group of snarling, stone-eyed people dressed in well-cut blue suits. Her own cream-colored dress and jacket were spattered with blood. Her thin red lips parted into a leering grin, displaying a neat line of stained sharp teeth. Mick had never found that fact particularly strange, dismissing it as a general characteristic of people high up on the Arcadian power chain. Now that he knew that she was but a product of someone’s imagination brought to life in a game interface, he found himself quailing at the sight of her.

“Meggie!” Julian smiled genially at the sight of her. “How lovely of you to bring out the whole welcoming committee!”

“Only the best for you, sir,” she replied, shaking his outstretched hand. “I hope your dealings were not too troublesome?”