Ascendant- Nation of Nowhere Read online

  Ascendant

  Episode 2: Nation of Nowhere

  Richard Denoncourt

  ASCENDANT

  Episode 2: Nation of Nowhere

  By

  Richard Denoncourt

  Copyright © 2019 Richard Denoncourt

  Self Land Publishing

  www.rdenoncourt.com

  All rights reserved.

  Copy Edit: Cynthia Shepp, cynthiashepp.wordpress.com

  Cover Design: Damonza.com

  Ascendant is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALSO BY RICHARD DENONCOURT

  TRAINLAND

  OUTBREAK

  BOOKS IN THE LUMINETHER SERIES

  SAVANT: BOOK ONE

  FERAL: BOOK TWO

  SEER: BOOK THREE

  Contents

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  To be continued…

  About the Author

  EPISODE II

  NATION OF NOWHERE

  “The mind is its own place,

  and in itself can make a heaven of hell,

  a hell of heaven.”

  Paradise Lost

  John Milton

  Chapter 1

  Michael drifted in and out of sleep throughout the ride. He struggled to drink the water and eat the sugary granola bars Blake kept handing to him. While awake, he mostly kept his head against the windowpane and gazed out at the dark mountainous land.

  They were past the Line, something he’d wanted all his life. Yet, he didn’t care about that anymore. All he wanted now was to be safe at home with his family.

  At some point, they came to a lonely old barn in the middle of a field. Dominic helped Michael out of the car, advising him to stretch his limbs while he had the opportunity. He followed these instructions, grunting as a bunch of his joints popped.

  Louis Blake fiddled with the lock holding the barn doors shut, then pushed them open one after the other, motioning for Michael and Dominic to follow him into the musty darkness. He clicked on a flashlight and passed the beam over the walls, revealing a squat, rusted truck in the center that had an ample backseat.

  “Here we go,” Dominic said, rapping his knuckles against the hood. “Good old Eastland transportation.”

  Dominic took the front seat again while Michael slid into the back. The engine shook as it started, immediately filling the barn with diesel fumes as thick as silk.

  “What is this?” Michael managed to say, coughing from the smell.

  “Camouflage,” Blake said, shifting the truck into drive using an angled stick jutting out of the steering wheel’s column. “Hold on.”

  The truck lurched backward out of the barn.

  “What about the ministry car?” Michael said. “We just left it out there.”

  Blake and Dominic glanced at each other.

  “Spare parts,” Dominic said with a shrug. “Or maybe it’ll scare the crows.”

  They drove through the night. Michael fell asleep, gazing up at a radiant universe of stars. He had never seen such a display. So vast and mysterious. If only he didn’t have such a pounding headache, he would have been enthralled.

  It was mid-morning when he awoke with a sour taste in his mouth. Layers of sweat greased his skin, having gone stale in the heat of the sun. The air stank of cigarette smoke, and he saw why.

  Louis Blake drove bent over the wheel, his eyes wide and sober as he stared at the road before him, a cigarette pinched between two of his fingers. Dominic had planted one of his black boots on the dashboard, and he was staring out the window. Michael caught a glimpse of the man’s brooding expression in the side mirror.

  They drove along a road built into the side of a mountain. To their left was a jagged rock wall. Opposite that was a landscape of rolling hills and trees, all of it drowned in vibrant morning light that made the colors seem to pulse and breathe.

  Soon, they came to a deep valley between two mountains. It was closed at the other end. Blake was driving them into a box canyon, a place from which there appeared to be no exit except by the road they’d been using.

  “What is this place?” Michael said.

  “Oh, good.” Dominic sighed. “He’s awake.”

  Blake gave Dominic an annoyed look, then glanced at Michael in the rearview mirror. “This is Gulch. Your new home.”

  The truck rolled into a small town nestled amid trees and overgrowth. Most houses they passed were boarded up and shabby, obviously abandoned. The blacktop had cracks and potholes that made the truck rumble and creak. There appeared to be no one living here at all.

  The scenery changed dramatically. As the truck rolled along the main road toward the center of town, the buildings became clean, painted, and well kept. Fresh laundry flapped on clotheslines over yards where the grass had been cut, the weeds removed.

  The truck slowed to a crawl. Blake obviously wanted Michael to take in every detail.

  “This place was a silver and gold mining town back when the country was still called the United States of America. After the bombs fell, the place became a ghost town. Not even the raiders knew it existed. It was completely intact when we found it, with a power plant serviced by a waterfall and everything. It was like stumbling across a slice of heaven.” He pointed at a distant cliff. “You can see the plant right up there.”

  Michael peered at it through the pitted glass. It very much resembled a country-style house. It sat on the edge of a craggy cliff with two waterfalls dropping on either side like the long white mustache of a sage.

  As they drove further into town, Michael became more unsettled. He hadn’t seen any people yet.

  “Everyone’s at the town meeting,” Blake said as if he had read Michael’s mind—and maybe he had. He pulled out his pack of cigarettes, then tapped one out. “Every Wednesday at eleven o’clock, right before lunch.”

  “The entire town gets together? How many people live here?”

  “There were 247. Now that you’re here, it’s 248.”

  Blake stopped at an intersection, lit his cigarette, and then hit the gas again. Michael saw a town hall, a church, and a few stores selling fruit and vegetables. One even had defeathered chickens hanging behind the window.

  They drove along a road that followed a swift-moving stream. This part of town lay in the shade of a mountainside. Across the stream, in the darkened tree boughs, young birds flitted from branch to branch, and some kind of ashy pink flower petal blew in the wind. Despite Blake’s cigarette, Michael caught the smell of the water and the subtle fragrance of the flowers. The breeze washing against his face refreshed him in a way that made it seem possible to forget the horrors he’d faced at the restaurant.

  If only Benny could be here to see this. He ached for his older brother.

  Mikey…someday, you’ll make us all proud.

  He felt the skin around his eyes tighten. Dominic watched him in the side mirror.

  “What?” Michael said, wiping his eyes an
d averting his gaze. Dominic said nothing.

  “We’re almost there,” Blake said. “You’ll be able to use the bathroom, take a shower, and eat something. Arielle makes the best veggie stew in the Eastlands, I swear. Actually, I hate vegetables, but that’s the general consensus. We also occasionally have chicken.”

  The truck turned onto a covered bridge that spanned the width of the stream. A sign hung on a post at the end that read Silo Street, and the wheels made rubbery thumping sounds as they drove over the wooden flooring toward a quaint neighborhood of homes.

  Sunlight slanted into this part of town, illuminating the rooftops of beautiful houses like something out of a prewar children’s book. The truck stopped in front of a bungalow, complete with sloping rooftops and dormer windows, that sat nestled against the mountain slope. It stood one-and-a-half stories tall, the outer walls of the first composed of beige and brown stones similar to the ones that made up the pathway leading up to a verandah along one side of the house.

  Fascinated, Michael gaped at it. Along with the desire to become an engineer, he’d always liked the idea of being an architect. He knew enough about buildings to realize this particular one was utterly unique nowadays—a reminder of the way life had once been, before the war, when the construction of buildings was something people did with an eye toward the artistic and not simply to contain as many bodies as humanly possible to meet Party quotas.

  “This is where you’ll be living,” Blake said in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he were merely indicating a one-room log cabin with no windows.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nice, isn’t it? This is where the boys live. If you want to see a real treat, wait ‘til you see the girls’ house down the street. It’s a true work of art.”

  They parked in front of a two-car attached garage. Michael stepped out and stretched, his lungs sucking in cool mountain air. He was so thrilled his headache had mostly cleared.

  “This is where I leave you,” Blake said. “I’ve got some things I need to take care of now that you’ve arrived. Dominic will show you to your room. Sound good?”

  Michael nodded once, then watched the old man get back into the car, lighting a fresh cigarette along the way.

  Chapter 2

  The interior of the house left Michael in a state of breathless wonder. Every piece of furniture was in its proper place to balance out the room, the carpets free of dust and dirt, and the rooms large to the point of extravagance.

  Dominic explained the boys who lived here pooled their resources to employ a maid. There was money in Gulch, though people mostly bartered for goods and services. The boys earned their keep by bringing in wood from the surrounding forest and repairing whatever broken radios, appliances, and weapons the caravans brought it.

  “I can fix things,” Michael assured Dominic as he followed him up a set of stairs into a cramped attic space.

  “Yeah?” He didn’t seem interested.

  “I used to take the recording devices out of Handy Dans, then sell them on the black market.”

  Dominic stopped at the top of the stairs. Turning slowly, he glared at Michael.

  “What? Why the hell would you take such a risk? What’s wrong with you?”

  Michael shrugged. “My family needed the money. It’s not like I ever got caught.”

  Dominic nodded almost imperceptibly, keeping his eyes trained on Michael’s. Then, without warning, the corners of his lips curled into a smile and he began to chuckle.

  “We might have some use for you after all,” he said, facing forward to resume his walk.

  The attic had been prepared for Michael in advance. A simple cot stood in the corner, its gray wool blanket and white sheets tucked beneath the mattress in military fashion. There was a desk, a wardrobe, and a basket, probably for dirty laundry. A shabby bookshelf was filled with old paperbacks and a set of encyclopedias showing gaps where some of the volumes were missing.

  Michael’s shoes clapped over the boards as he jogged over to the books.

  “No way,” he said. “These are all illegal”—he lowered his voice—“illegal books. In the People’s Republic, I mean. This is amazing.” He pulled an encyclopedia off a shelf, opened it, and smelled the pages.

  Dominic shook his head. “You’ll have new clothes sent to you, along with a toothbrush, soap, and anything else you might need. There’s a convenience store in the center of town. Once you start making your own money, you’ll be able to shop there.”

  Michael fell onto the cot, wincing as the springs let out squeals of protest. He held one of the encyclopedias to his chest. Tension drained out of his shoulders like water being squeezed out of a sponge.

  “So what happens now?” he asked.

  Dominic studied him, the swollen spots on his face gleaming in the sunlight slanting through the only window. “You should meet the other boys. You know, get comfortable, try to fit in. Then, we’ll eat.”

  He ducked under the sloping ceiling and righted an analog clock sitting on the desk, then went about setting it to the correct time.

  “You’ll be expected for breakfast at six o’clock every morning. This isn’t a vacation. The other boys won’t accept you as one of their own if you start breaking the rules, so no rebellious shit, okay?”

  Michael sat on the edge of the cot and wrung his hands together. “What if I just don’t fit in? I mean, I’m from the city, you know?”

  Dominic opened his mouth, about to speak, when the roar of motorcycles sounded outside the house.

  “Ian’s back,” he said, motioning for Michael to get off the bed and follow him. “Sounds like he brought his gang. Come on. Try to look tough.”

  The roaring stopped as the boys parked the bikes. Michael could hear them laughing through the open windows as he followed Dominic into the garage, which, aside from a few stacks of boxes and scattered piles of sporting equipment, was empty. He almost bent to pick up a baseball bat, but stopped himself. Did he want to meet these guys with a potential weapon in hand? How would that be for a first impression?

  Dominic flung the door open, then stepped outside. Michael winced in the sudden wash of sunlight. The first thing he noticed was the motorcycles. They appeared as if they’d been worked on extensively, and Michael guessed the machines were over thirty years old.

  A sudden, joyful shout grabbed his attention. One of the boys, a tall chubby one with a messy mop of blond hair, leaped toward Dominic and pulled him into a bear hug. The boy was huge—not as tall as Dominic, but maybe forty pounds heavier. At least half was muscle.

  “Dom, holy shit, it’s good to see you.”

  “Eli, you big teddy bear, how about letting me breathe?” Dominic worked his way out of the boy’s arms, smiling at him. Then he turned his attention to the next boy, who reminded Michael of Benny in a strange way. He was fair-haired and tall whereas Benny had been dark-featured and of average height, but they had that same confident way of swinging their arms as they walked.

  “Dominic,” the kid said, playing with a set of keys in his right hand. “You look like shit. Have a run-in with the FSD again?”

  “And you, Pete,” Dominic said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You look pretty much the same as the last time I saw you. Don’t worry. You’ll hit puberty eventually.”

  Pete pushed him away, smirking as he eyed Dominic’s bruised face. “At least I don’t look like the entire FSD whaled on my ass.”

  “But you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  That left the last of the three boys, who was shorter than everyone present. His narrow eyes were a deep brown, standing out against the paleness of his skin. Like the heads of matches, they seemed quick to flash into rage at the slightest provocation. He wore a denim jacket with dark clothes beneath it, and his hair was shaved to a thin fuzz. A piece of metal in his left earlobe caught the light.

  “He’s back,” the kid said in a voice that sounded artificially toughened. “What’s the matter? Get tired of city dick?”r />
  Dominic gave a light-hearted chuckle. “Ian Meacham, you look as cheerful as ever. Finally got yourself laid with something that walks on two legs instead of four?”

  The other boys chuckled, eyeing Ian to see what he would do. Ian glanced at them, saw Michael, then raised an eyebrow at Dominic.

  “I see you got yourself a little boyfriend. What street corner did you pull him from?”

  Michael’s body tensed. Where he was from, those were fighting words. He had punched other boys for less. Here, though, he was outnumbered, and he had no one to back him up now that Benny was dead. The memory of Benny bleeding all over the floor enraged him suddenly.

  “Go to hell,” Michael said, barely moving his lips.

  Ian reached around to the back of his pants, then pulled out a 9mm pistol. He lashed his arm outward to aim at Michael—

  …and let out a sharp gasp. Dominic, now pressed up behind him with his right hand clenching the pistol and the boy’s fingers in a powerful grip, spoke quietly into his ear.

  “Gotcha.”

  “Get off me,” Ian shouted.

  Dominic had been so fast, his movements a mere flash Michael barely registered. It was as if he had teleported there. Ian struggled, but was obviously no match for the older man.

  “You’re subject to the rules of this town like everybody else,” Dominic told him, though he spoke so everyone could hear. “I don’t care who your father is. So unless you want me to break every single one of your fingers and ruin your solitary sex life for the next few months, put the gun back into your pants where it belongs.”