Phoenix Rising by Chris Heinicke & Kate Reedwood

Author:Chris Heinicke & Kate Reedwood [Heinicke, Chris & Reedwood, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chris Heinicke
Published: 2018-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Axel opened his eyes.

As he stared at the dark sky above, he realized two things, both of importance.

The first was that he was no longer on the Eva Mercury.

The second was he was lying on a hard surface and that something sharp was digging into his back.

He rolled sideways and opened his mouth. The breaths came easy, as if the air was fresh and crisp and not stale sludge from being recycled for three weeks.

“What the frell just happened?” he asked out loud.

“Axel, get off the ground. You’ll get your clothes dirty,” a female voice said. “And watch your language.”

“I know that voice, but it doesn’t make sense. You can’t be here…Mum?”

“Why not? I live here. Now get off the ground before you become totally filthy.”

Axel willed himself to look sideways and follow the dark shoes and pair of legs upward. He studied his mother’s familiar face.

“How long have you lived on this desolate planet, or whatever the frell we’re on?”

His mother wore a pale blue shirt with matching pants, just like Axel remembered her doing back at Earth when he was just a child. She had worked at a hospital, not as part of the medical staff, but as a cleaner, normally finishing work by mid-morning. But he would have known that disapproving frown anywhere. “Axel, just because your bigger brothers talk like that doesn’t mean you need to.”

“Mum, I’m not ten, I’m twenty-four years old.” He got to his feet, and dusted his pants off from the dried out, desiccated lawn he’d been lying on.

She shook her head. “Get inside before your father comes out and asks you to come in.”

Axel blinked. The rear of the house he grew up in stood nearly ten meters away. He hadn’t seen it without a dome since he was...ten years old?

But he wasn’t on Earth, he was still in a ship heading for Amasis, with Ellie, and Uncle Henry and all the rest. He looked around at the familiar yard, bright and shining in the sun, like a dream. This wasn’t where he was supposed to be. “Mum, I need to get back to the ship, Uncle Henry is waiting for me.”

His mother giggled. “Listen to you, always wanting to go on crazy trips with your uncle.” She walked towards him. “I knew from the moment you came from my womb that you were different from the rest of my children. Now please, Axel dear, get inside before your father gets angry. You know how he is about your daydreaming.”

He stood on the spot and looked around him. The treehouse was still there in the backyard. He glanced at his mother. “I left something in the treehouse, can I just go and get it?”

She frowned but nodded. “Be quick.”

He turned away and ran to the stairs on the treehouse and climbed. Just like his childhood memory, his new friend Element Cruz sat in there, reading. She smiled as he popped his head inside.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Axel said. “But I think I’m having a dream.

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