Ascendancy by Karri Thompson

Author:Karri Thompson [Thompson, Karri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult;romance;YA;Karri Thompson;Mirror X;Van Winkle Project;Entangled;Teen;Ember
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2015-10-27T04:00:00+00:00

I woke up as our mover bobbed to a stop and lowered to the ground. “Where are we?” I asked Michael. The moon had replaced the sun hours ago, and for some reason the blink of stars above me seemed familiar. They’d been there for thousands of years, they were same stars I saw hanging across the desert sky in 2025, but something about them was different now and I wasn’t sure why.

“We’re at a mover port. It might be a while before the next one, so I thought we should fuel up now.”

“Good idea,” I said, opening the door.

Michael paid the “old fashioned” way, waving the pre-loaded card Magnum gave us in front of the fuel dispenser, which also meant our purchase couldn’t be traced back to us.

As the fossil fuel pellets dispensed into the fuel block like a stack of coins and electricity pulsed into the mover’s battery, I scanned the landscape and listened for the calls of dingoes.

“My turn to drive, and your turn to sleep,” I announced, slipping into the driver’s seat. “In less than an hour, we should be on the two-lane road Magnum told us about.”

“You mean warned us about.”

“I’m not worried about it. I prefer driving manually, and if you don’t mind, I’m going to keep our hoverment under five feet, but not low enough to whip up dust.” I winked. “I might even ‘ground it’ for a while. I miss the feel of the road beneath the wheels.”

“I wouldn’t. Those wheels are only designed for landing and parking. They aren’t designed for heavy use,” Michael warned.

“I’m kidding,” I said as I knocked my shoulder into his.

The terrain changed drastically as we headed north into the Outback, our mover’s headlights angled just enough to illuminate the immediate area and the ground below. Dwellings became sparse—a dot of a house here and there set a quarter mile away from the road—and in the distance, the silhouette of a mountain range poked up against the horizon.

With Michael’s soft breathing my only company, I continued as driver, keeping the car two feet from the ground and increasing our hoverment only once when a dingo ran across the road, its eyes red in the glow of the mover’s headlights.

Keeping my eyes open was difficult. I cracked the window just enough for a wash of wind to whip against my face and sang songs from a 2025 rock band, tapping my thumbs against the steering wheel.

Overcome by the nostalgia, I silently mourned during the last stretch of the two-lane road for Victoria, my mother, and my grandfather.

“Were you singing earlier, or was I dreaming?” asked Michael, stretching his arms over his head.

“Um, dreaming,” I lied, totally embarrassed.

“But that’s not a dream,” he said and smeared a leftover tear away from cheek. “What’s wrong?”

“Only everything,” I answered. “I hate it here. I want to go home, to my real home.”

“Even though you have Victoria and me?” he said slowly. “If you could go back in time like none of this ever happened, would you do it?”

Would I? Me being here had nothing to do with the plague.

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