The Meta-Rise by J.V. Kade

Author:J.V. Kade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

WE FIND A ladder out of the tunnels an hour later.

I’m the first one up. I pop open the manhole cover with a little bit of grunting and find myself in the middle of a deserted street. There are no lights for miles, so I tap in a command on my Link and open the flashlight function.

I help Tellie aboveground and then replace the manhole cover. We look around, hands on our hips.

Several hovercars are parked at the curbs, their boost systems smashed beneath them. Their windows are either missing, or cracked, or caked with dust. An old RR5 across the street is missing all its doors. The buildings that used to make up whatever small town this was are dark, their brick exteriors pitted. I find myself thinking the broken-down bricks are good for climbing, and then tell myself real quick to stop thinking that way because someone like me used to call this place home and now look at it.

It’s like everyone picked up and left at the exact same time. The place feels haunted, like it’s watching me, but also like it’s lonely and wants its old life back.

I take a few steps down the middle of the street. Something crunches beneath my foot. It’s a plastic toy, a baby rattle, I think, with a holo projector built into the top. It probably displayed an image of the stars, or maybe the baby’s mom.

“This is what I pictured Bot Territory to look like,” Tellie says. “Dead. And abandoned. It’s creepy.”

“There are a lot of places like this, though. Remember the ghost town we learned about in school? What was it . . .”

“Vulture City,” Tellie answers for me.

“Yeah. This is just another ghost town. Someday our grandkids will be learning about this place.”

“Ewww.”

“Why ewwww?”

“I don’t even want to think about having kids, let alone grandkids!” She laughs. “Sometimes you crack me up.”

“Makes you wonder why we were never friends in school, doesn’t it?”

Her laughter fades away. “Yeah, I guess so. But we’re friends now. That’s all that matters.”

We follow the main road out of town. Tellie gives me the exact coordinates to Georgette’s house and I put them into my disposable Link. We only went two miles out of our way when we were in the tunnels, so, when my Link finally connects to the system, I get us back on track and headed in the right direction.

Vee was nice enough to plot us a route around Yazoo. It saves us some time, and now I think it might save our lives if Ratch is already there.

The sun starts to creep upward, turning the sky a dull shade of blue when we reach the dirt road we’re supposed to turn on, where the mysterious Georgette lives.

“Is that it?” Tellie points at a large farmhouse just around the next curve in the road. There are barely any trees, just open fields of overgrown grass, so it’s easy to see the house in the distance.

I check my Link, and the red dot that represents our destination blinks just ahead.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.