Read Cry For Tomorrow Online

Authors: Dianna Hunter

Tags: #Action, #Adventure, #Apocalyptic, #Dragon, #Fantasy, #Futuristic, #Magic, #Romance, #Science Fiction, #Urban Fantasy

Cry For Tomorrow (2 page)

BOOK: Cry For Tomorrow
12.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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“It’s okay,” Kelly slurred. “It don’t hardly hurt any more, Sissy.”

“No, it’s
not
okay, Baby. Oh, why didn’t you come to me? You know I would have helped you.” She was limp in my arms, barely able to stand on her own when I pressed her into a nearby chair.

“You
bitch!
How could you let him do this to her?” I shouted at the pathetic excuse of a mother slouched across the couch. My hand was raised to strike the slack-jawed face when, without warning, the dark of the kitchen alcove exploded with the crash of a chair hitting the floor.

“Hey! What the hell is all the goddamned noise out here?” roared the man stumbling through a doorway that had been concealed from immediate sight by the shadows in the unlit room. Wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, the large, muscular man lunged into the room and glared at us.

If he’d been clean and well-kept, Eric Harding would have been a good-looking man, but he wasn’t. He stank of stale booze and sweat and had a three-day growth of black stubble on his face, and the strong lines of his body were marred by muscles slack from disuse and the tangle of obscene tattoos that covered most of his skin.

I couldn’t help the shiver of rage that was making my blood run cold as ice. I hated this man that my mother had dragged home and inflicted on us five years earlier. At least back then she’d been drug and alcohol-free
some
of the time. Since Eric’s arrival on the scene, there had been few days that our mother even remembered the existence of her two daughters. If we had not learned to scavenge for our own food and clothing we would surely have perished. The worst part was that I wasn’t really sure our mother would have even noticed.

In spite of the testimony of his slovenly appearance, Eric was a computer genius in great demand by every business surviving in the country. He could name his price, but he didn’t care. Eric only
worked
when he felt the need to earn the extra credits necessary to acquire two of the few commodities not available for the taking—alcohol and drugs.

The way Eric and my mother were living was totally disgusting. There was no excuse for anyone to live like this unless they were either mind-warped beyond function or they just didn’t care enough to make an effort. Even fifty years after the disaster, the city still contained thousands of empty apartments and more
stuff
than the small number of survivors could possibly use in two lifetimes, all available for the scavenging.

When Eric had first come onto the scene, he had stayed away from Kelly and me, mostly ignoring us as long as we stayed out of his way, but when I began to mature he had taken notice. At first, it had just been crude remarks and attempts to catch me undressed that I was able to evade without much effort. When he began making direct propositions, I began staying with my friends and coming home less and less.

Now, at nineteen, I’d long since established a solid network of friends and safe places to stay. I hadn’t even seen my mother for several months until she’d found me this time. Without apology, she’d confessed to forcing little Kelly to break her promise of secrecy and tell her how to find me at the free cafeteria where I usually ate my mid-day meal.

And it was
so
hard to say no to her. I guess, in my heart, I always carried the hope that my mother would finally wake up and realize how much she really loved her daughters. She’d even looked pretty straight when she’d strolled into the cafeteria, and she had sounded so very sincere when she promised to stay clean and send Eric away if I would just come home again.

“Get dressed, Kelly. We’re getting out of here.” I pushed my little sister towards the bedroom doorway, but her legs were like rubber. By the time I got her through the door, Eric was looming over us. He blocked my way with his bulk, glaring sullenly at me until the cold hatred in my eyes finally penetrated the dense fog of alcohol clouding his mind.

“Now, Halie-girl, there ain’t no need to look at me like that. What’s a guy to do when all’s he got to screw is that piece of mind-warped crap over there?” He nodded at the half-conscious woman watching us with glazed eyes and reached for me.

“She’s what you made her, you
pig!”
I spat in his face and side-stepped his grasping hands, putting a chair between us.

“Hey, what you doin’ to my girls, Eric,” mumbled Carolynn. She tried to sit up, but only managed to knock an assortment of dirty glasses and ash trays off the table beside her before collapsing back on the couch.

With Eric’s attention on my mother, Kelly dared to dart from the bedroom, dressed in a sweater and jeans and toting a bulging pack and a jacket.

“I’m ready, Sis,” she said in a shaky voice. Whatever the drug was that Eric had given her, it seemed to be wearing off. Kelly’s eyes were big with fear when she reached for a soft, floppy hat with a big red flower adorning it that was lying amongst the clutter on top of the table beside the door—and covertly scooped up a small cell phone lying beside it. Quickly averting her eyes, she dropped the phone into her jeans pocket and jerked the apartment door open.

“Girls, where ya’ going’ now? You know it’s too late for you to be goin’ out,” Carolynn slurred as she dragged herself to a sitting position and tried to focus her eyes on us.

“We’re leaving, Momma. If you had any sense left in your crazy head, you’d get outa here, too.” I watched my mother with sad, hopeless eyes. I’d forcibly taken her away from Eric once before and she’d just run back to him the minute we took our eyes off her.

“You heard your momma, you two ain’t goin’ nowhere,” growled Eric as he dared to move toward us.

I’d seen that mean, nasty look on Eric’s face before and had no intention of sticking around for the beating he planned to give us. Moving behind my sister, I nudged her into the hall doorway, but week-kneed with fear, Kelly staggered and grabbed hold of the door-frame to keep from collapsing.

Eric made the mistaken assumption that I was as afraid of him as my little sister was and lunged for me. Grabbing my arm, he jerked me to him.

I put the full force of my hatred into the words I forced out between my clenched teeth. “Let
go
of me!” I didn’t mean to do it, but the anger raging through my brain was just too much. I didn’t realize until it was too late that I’d released a sharp charge of electrical energy into his hand.

 

* * * *

 

“Aww!
You little bitch! Come back here!” Eric swore as the two girls disappeared through the doorway.

Staggering across the room with his injured hand clasped to his chest, Eric jerked Carolynn to her feet. “When did your little bitch learn to tele-shock, Carrie? Damn, do you know how much the Company is paying for a telekinetic kid like that?” Swearing angrily, Eric threw the hysterically laughing woman back on the couch and began rummaging through the heaps of clothing scattered across the room. “Where’s my god-dammed pants! Why don’t you get off your lazy ass and clean this pig-pen out sometime, you stupid whore!”

 

* * * *

 

I took my sister to my friends, Jack and Rosa Morris. I knew they’d love Kelly and protect her as if she were their own. The Morrises had wanted children of their own so very much, but after that one attempt and the birth of the poor, deformed creature they’d produced, they’d both been sterilized. There were very few of the survivors of the plagues that followed the disaster who were able to produce normal, healthy children.

I could only shake my head at the sad irony of it. What a joke of fate that a woman like my mother had been able to bear two beautiful little girls and never cared, and a couple so full of love and nurturing were left childless.

I’d met Jack and Rosa on one of my scavenging trips into the center of the old city. They’d scared me half to death, Jack with his bushy red beard and wild hair and Rosa looking like a gypsy with her mass of jet-black hair and her colorful skirts and beads. But the kindness in those dark brown eyes and the gentleness of Jack’s voice soon convinced me that these people would never hurt me.

I’d stayed with them so many times when things were bad at home. It was Rosa and Jack who’d introduced me to the underworld of psis and dwellers living in the old city and the other young people like myself. I’d tried to convince Kelly to come with me when I left home, but my little sister had been determined to stick by Momma—until now.

The Morris’s were so pleased to take Kelly in to stay with them and the assortment of orphans and displaced kids already living in the big house on the edge of the old city park. They did try to convince me to stay, at least until morning, but I wanted to get back to my friends and the apartment we shared. Besides, it would put all of them at risk if I stayed there, now that Eric knew my secret.

Now that he knew about my telekinetic powers I had no doubt that Eric would do whatever he could to get his hands on me. The rumors circulating were that both the Company and the Agency were paying out a lot of credits for functional psis like I was. There would be no one to turn to for help if I was taken by the agents. What there was of the existing ‘Vanta City police department was small and under-staffed and on the Company’s payroll to boot. I was well aware that if I wanted to remain free and independent, I had to make sure to keep a low profile and stay out of sight.

A piece of paper slapped into my side, making me jump and look around for a sound I thought I’d heard. Cursing myself for letting my mind wander, I leaned back against the wall, shivering while I listened.
Maybe it’s just another small animal skittering around

or maybe it’s something more dangerou
s. If I was going to use the short-cut to reach my street, then I had to enter this alleyway. Taking the long way around this late in the day was out of the question.

When I’d stopped shaking, I took a deep breath and leaned forward, looking for something to focus on.
Yes! That’ll do.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I concentrated and
pushed
my mind against the rusty trash can standing at the corner of the alley.

The resulting crash of broken glass and empty cans hitting the pavement was surely enough to attract anything that might be lurking in the shadows for at least a block.

I waited, ready to duck back into cover for what seemed an eternity before daring to slide quietly along the side of the building. When I was able to see into the alleyway, I stopped and studied the array of shadows flickering against the walls and over the collage of abandoned vehicles, furniture and rusted trash bins
,
and froze when a flicker of movement caught my eye.

My heart started beating again a moment later when a pair of the monkeys that seemed to be reproducing like wild rabbits appeared. Scampering along the pavement, they were keeping just enough distance between them and a large, transparent phantom that was humping along behind them to avoid the long, toothy alligator jaws snapping at their tails.

Fascinated with this strange version of phantom, I watched as it scooted the forepart of its body along the ground on a pair of short, hob-nailed legs. When the long body was stretched thin, the rear legs would chunk along from behind until the body was humped and the rear toes were touching the heels of the front. In spite of this strange mode of travel, the ghoulie was rapidly gaining on the monkeys until they skittered up a cluster of vines dangling from a low window and disappeared.

With its prey escaped beyond reach, the phantom turned around and disappeared in the direction it had come from.

That’s something new
, I thought with a shake of my head before ducking into the alley and resuming my trek. It seemed like lately there were more varieties than ever of our persistent interlopers appearing.

The wind had finally died down to a soft whisper by the time I reached the end of the alley and the intersection of the street I’d been seeking, but it was still blowing loud enough that I did not hear the soft hiss of the engines until I stuck my head around the corner.

Bikers!
I was shaking when I hit the pavement behind a nearby metal trash bin and I had to wait for my breathing to slow before daring to peek around the side. I had to know how many there were and which way they were headed.

There were only three of them, but as far as I was concerned, that was three too many. Paused in the middle of the street, they each cast their eyes about, searching the street and shadows nervously. They repeatedly revved the engines of the big hover-cycles, like someone whistling in the dark to scare aware the boogey-man. Of course, the repeated bursts of compressed air and the vibration of the big engines had exactly the opposite effect, for it was attracting the phantoms.

Out of the gutters and through the holes and cracks surrounding the man-covers, the ghostly entities rose. Snaking around the bikes and across the wind-shafts, they caressed the hot engines, oblivious to the fidgeting human life-forms.

The sharp hiss and rumble of an engine erupted from the junction of this street and another two buildings away, warning of the approach of a fourth bike only moments before the slick, black machine appeared.

“It’s ‘bout time you got here,” complained one as the new arrival drove his big black hover-cycle between them and came to a stop. “What took ya’ so long, man?”

“Hey, I got here as fast as I could,” the new arrival growled back. With a flick of his wrist, the biker caused legs to sprout at each end of the cycle and dropped his feet to the ground to keep the big machine balanced. “I run into a gang of them freaks two blocks back and had to come around the long way.”

“Damn! I know they’re pretty much harmless, but if we don’t watch it, those crazy-heads will be taking over the whole neighborhood pretty soon,” a woman’s harsh voice grated over the sound of the engines.

“Yeah, I know the poor bastards don’t usually look for trouble, but I still don’t wanna meet up with a bunch of them when we’re outnumbered like this,” agreed the first. “Let’s get goin.’ I wanna catch up to Hogan—he says’ he’s got a gig for us tonight.”

BOOK: Cry For Tomorrow
12.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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