First World - A Walker Saga Book 1 Read online

It was reckless, but we hung around that alley as much as possible over the next three days. For once the streets were eerily quiet. No gangers or rebels crossed our path. There was probably a rebel mission somewhere, which was a big-time gangers’ distraction. That morning we waited as long as feasible before we had to leave to make it back to the compound in time for fight class.

  Relishing the chance to work off some of my frustration, I stepped onto the blue mat with Chrissie. As one of the few girls near my height, we were often teamed up to fight. That day it was Muay Thai. Which was one of my favorites. It suited the long-limbed and toned litheness of my body. I might lack Lucy’s curves, but I utilized what I had.

  I flexed my fingers. I may have wrapped my wrists a little tightly that day, but they would loosen during the round. We fought no-holds-barred; they prepared us well for the possibility that we would get our butts kicked as soon as we stepped onto the streets.

  Chrissie and I faced off before bowing in the traditional manner. Our instructor nodded, and as soon as Chrissie slammed her knuckles into mine I started to dance. Muay Thai is light on your feet and constantly moving. She came straight at me; her style was direct.

  I dodged the first jab from her left and kicked out. I managed to make contact with her thigh before she darted away. I followed close behind, throwing my own right hook, which she blocked. We continued in this manner, but with my unrelenting direct attacks Chrissie was starting to slow. I had so much extra energy; there was no way she was taking me down.

  After a few minutes of blocking, jabbing, back-and-forth sparring, I managed to pass her guard, throwing out my right elbow and connecting soundly along her cheek. With a squeal she went down and appeared to be staying there. Looking up at me, one hand to her face, she grimaced.

  “I concede. Abigail’s on fire tonight.”

  I laughed, rubbing a painful spot on my arm. “You got quite a few good hits in yourself. I’m just glad that elbow missed your nose.” Reaching down, I pulled her to her feet.

  She shook her head. “Tell me about it, plastic surgeon. I like my nose just the way it is.”

  It’s not the nicest nickname. I’ve rearranged a few noses in my time. I might be a little competitive.

  Bouncing off the fight floor, I dropped down next to Lucy. I proceeded to unwind my straps, before throwing them aside.

  “Well, you enjoyed that a little too much.” She was lying on her stomach, arms tented in front of her with her face resting on her hands. Two other girls had stepped up for their round.

  “I love fighting. I’m just glad my ribs are finally pain free. It was so frustrating sitting out for the last few days.”

  “I wish they would change the blue mats. They smell like sweaty ass.” She screwed up her tiny nose. “Although it is incentive to stay on your feet.”

  Blue mat.

  Cursing loudly, I shot to my feet. Gesturing to Lucy, I ran from the room. She was right behind me. How could I forget something so important? The moment she’d mentioned ‘blue mat’, the memory had been triggered. Reaching our room, I waited for Lucy to step inside and then slammed the door shut.

  “What. The. Hell. Abbs?” She gasped each word out.

  “I’m such an idiot.” I tried to keep the panic at bay. “I forgot until you mentioned ‘blue mat’. The woman in my dream, Luce, she told me to find the blue stone.”

  “What! How could you forget that?” she screeched. “Next time, write your dream down or something.”

  She stopped scolding; her expression was now shrewd. “Because if you had mentioned it before I could have told you that recently I’ve heard reference to a large sapphire rock.” She paused. “During some innocent eavesdropping. What are the odds that this is the very stone you’re looking for?”

  I narrowed my eyes in disbelief. “Innocent? You? Don’t be ridiculous. What were you really doing?”

  “Never you mind, Abigail. More importantly, it was Olden I overheard, on a communication radio. I only caught the last part, but she said the sapphire’s location had been compromised.”

  Well, that was interesting. “Do you think it could be the same stone? Why would Olden have it?”

  “No idea. As far as I know, Olden hasn’t left New York in twenty years. Maybe she’s from dreamland.” She shrugged.

  “Yep, that would be my luck. Knew there had to be a catch.”

  Lucy laughed. “Maybe the stone’s not significant to your dream world, just something we need for our journey there.”

  “Need, as in we need to sell it and make lots of money, or need as if it will lead the way like a giant bat signal?”

  Lucy shrugged. “Either way, we clearly need to find it.”

  “Easier said than done. Olden doesn’t exactly advertise her secret hiding spaces.” A sudden thought gave me some hope. “Possibly, though, if her last hiding spot was compromised, then she may have moved it here for the interim.”

  “Although I’m finding it suspiciously convenient that it was only last week she mentioned it.”

  Very convenient. Wait … I bit my lip as a flare of excitement flooded me.

  “Luce, what day is it?”

  “It’s the twenty-sixth day of the eleventh month.”

  My voice rose in pitch. “And what does Olden do for the last five days of every month cycle?”

  Her face lit up.

  “She leaves the compound to meet with the resistance. Giving us all a much needed break from her delightful presence.” She smiled. “And we’ll have our best chance to find the blue stone.”

  “New plan – blow off all of our classes till we find the stone.”

  Lucy smiled and nodded. “Awesome, I like this plan. First thing we should do is pack a getaway bag.” She was way too excited about a possible mission.

  Rushing around like a crazy person, I managed to gather my meagre possessions and haul them into a bag. Lucy was on her side of the room, surrounded by clothes and shoes, moaning about what to leave behind.

  I couldn’t help my chuckle. “Just wear five sets, one over each other.”

  She glared. “You’re not taking my pain seriously. It’s like leaving my children behind.”

  She held up a pair of faded denim shorts with an intricate white cotton patterning over the pockets.

  “These shorts are from 2015, Abigail. Do you know how difficult it is to get hold of vintage clothes?”

  “Probably less difficult than trying to run through the streets with two tons on your back.” I was still grinning. “Just saying.”

  “You only ‘just say’ that because you have no idea what I do for them.”

  I knew exactly who her contact was, but I let her have this little mystery.

  “Toss a coin, Lucy, and let’s get this show on the road.”

  I left her grumbling about being an orphan, having no coins to toss, best friends who have no idea of fashion, and went to have a quick shower.

  Feeling so much better, I was jumping out just as Lucy appeared.

  “You’ll be relieved to know I’m now packed and have said my goodbyes.”

  I heard a few sniffs as she closed the frosted glass door to the shower.

  “That’s a relief. The stress was almost too much to handle.”

  There was no answer as I dressed in comfortable black sweats and runners. Either she was ignoring me or hadn’t heard above the sound of the water.

  Standing in front of the mirror, I ran a brush through my red hair, although when it was wet it was dark enough to look black. Once again I went for my trademark braid down my back. Lucy was finished now and dressed. She pulled her curls back into a high ponytail.

  I met her gaze in the mirror and she grimaced. “I’m so glad we got clean, only to start searching through God-knows-what to find a hiding spot.”

  I laughed. “If we’re lucky, the stone will just be sitting on her bed.” I held open the bathroom door for us to exit. “So, first obstacle: where do we begin looking? I was always
under the impression that Olden sleeps in the rafters like a bat.”

  Lucy snorted. “Actually, Abbs, her room is on the next floor.”

  “Good to know you’re clued in to where evil rests.”

  “No special evil radars here. I helped her move some junk up there once. And by help I mean she stood to one side and gave orders while I lugged her crap up three stories.”

  I laughed drily. “Sounds like Olden.”

  Dumping her towel down the chute, Lucy nodded. “I cannot wait to be rid of this place.”

  “Word.”

  Leaving our packs on the bed, we shut the door to our room. It was easy to make our way unnoticed through the halls. And not because, as Lucy put it, we were stealthy. Everyone was still in class. Lucy led the way up a narrow staircase, before pausing at a small landing at the top.

  “This is her suite.” She waved both hands in a grand gesture to the doorway.

  “Of course Olden would have a suite,” I muttered. “Is the door locked?”

  While lock-picking is in my repertoire of skills, I didn’t have a kit on hand. Lucy leaned forward and twisted the knob; it rattled but was definitely locked up tight. Reaching up, she brushed her hands along the doorframe. There was a tinkle and a small key fell into her palm. Smiling in triumph, she held it up.

  “Olden’s laziness finally came in handy. She didn’t bother changing her hiding spot.”

  She clicked the lock, pushed open the door and bravely stepped into the unknown.

  “Taking one for the team, Luce?” I followed her in.

  “I got this one but you can have the next.” She smiled. “Which is sure to be much worse,” she finished under her breath.

  Over her head, I was visually exploring Olden’s suite.

  “One thought has immediately sprung to mind.” My voice echoed around the room.

  “Is it ‘What a thieving bitch’?” Lucy snarled.

  It was a big room, huge actually, and it was full of very valuable food ration boxes.

  “What is she doing with these ration boxes?” Lucy’s outrage was clear.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, but if we find donuts or coffee in any of them, Luce, Olden’s a dead woman.”

  At least thirty boxes were scattered haphazardly around a humongous four-poster bed. There was also one other door.

  Threading my way through the boxes, I yanked it open. Dull white tiles reflected back at me from the empty bathroom. There was a sheen of soap scum and dust layering the entire room. I opened the few drawers on the washstand, but they were all empty. Poking my head out, I saw Lucy was checking out the bed.

  “I don’t think Olden stays here much. The bathroom’s empty.”

  “And there aren’t any sheets on this bed. So where does she sleep?” Her voice was strained as she lifted the heavy mattress off the frame.

  “My ‘bat in the rafters’ idea’s not so crazy now, is it?”

  Moving toward the closest rations box, labelled in large black letters as ‘noodles’, I ripped off the tape. I stared at the contents. Shaking my head, I moved back to see the side again and then the contents again. There was something very wrong going on here.

  “Uh, Luce, you better get over here and see this.”

  Finished her inspection, she moved across the room to stand next to me and we both stared down. “There appears to be some labelling mistake here,” she drawled.

  “Yep, I’ve never seen noodles quite like these.”

  The box was full of hundred-dollar bills. Neatly bundled into huge chunks. Money still ran the rebels and gangs, so it was an incredibly valuable commodity.

  She gripped my arm tightly. “Holy shit! We have to get out of here, Abbs. This is bad, very, very bad. People kill for much less money than this.” Panic threaded through her voice.

  I shook my head at her. “We need to check the rest of them. I have to make sure the stone is not here.”

  “Well, only one way to find out.” Lucy let go of me and without pause upended the box onto the floor.

  The bundles tumbled out in an avalanche.

  “Nothing else in this one,” she said. “Let’s move on.”

  Okay, well that was one way to do it.

  We continued throughout the room.

  “Why would she keep all of this money here? Not exactly a safe spot.” I wiped back a strand of hair that had fallen in my eyes.

  Lucy snorted out a harsh laugh. “Where could be safer than in her bedroom that has a spare key sitting above the door frame? Hey!” She gave a shout. “I found something.”

  Looking up from my box, I saw Lucy had a chain dangling from her hand.

  “It’s an engraved pendant. To our darling Lucinda. We will be back for you.”

  “Lucinda, as in the blonde with the smart mouth?” I remembered her from martial arts class but I’d never really spoken to her.

  Lucy lifted her shoulders in a massive shrug. “I would assume so. Didn’t she leave last year?” It sounded like a rhetorical question, so I didn’t bother to answer.

  With a heavy exhalation of breath, I continued to the next box. “Of course Olden would steal from us. The woman has no soul.”

  “So, if you’re lucky she has the stone because she’s a dirty rotten thief. Not because she’s connected to dreamland.” Lucy winked at me. She might just have found the silver lining.

  With renewed determination, we finished checking the boxes. The floor was covered in wads of cash. Slipping along a large pile, I stumbled onto the last box. Ripping off the tape, I opened it.

  For the first time there was no cash. Instead she’d been storing stones: precious and semi-precious.

  “Yo, Luce. Olden’s been stealing stones from more than me.”

  Finished with her boxes, Lucy made her way to me.

  “Do you see any blue ones?”

  I sifted through them, letting the multitude of silky smoothness run through my hands. They looked like a combination of valuable rubies and less precious diamonds. The market had been flooded with simulated diamonds through the years, lowering the value.

  There was a loud thump from behind.

  I swung around, expecting Olden to be standing over us with a baseball bat. Instead, it was … my mouth fell open.

  “Tell me you are seeing that?” I managed to splutter out.

  “If by that you mean the large blue stone which seems to have magically appeared in the center of the room…” Lucy didn’t even sound surprised.

  We were getting good with the strange.

  I stepped closer. “Is this a joke? What are the odds the very stone we’re looking for would just appear?”

  She laughed. “This fits perfectly for the weirdness lately.”

  I reached forward, hesitantly, to pick up the stone. I was waiting for the hitch here. I paused a moment before my hand was about to graze the smooth side. Taking a deep breath, I scooped it up. It was warm, as if humming with its own life-force. Holding it close to my chest, I glanced around waiting for the ambush. The room stayed quiet.

  Lucy laughed and started humming her favorite ‘end of day’s’ theme song.

  The stone was heavy, about the size of a large baseball. A dark, depthless blue. There was an odd indent on one side, but the rest was perfectly round. I jumped as a swirl of color spliced through the deep blue. I sucked in hard, the dusty air tickling my throat. This was so not a stone. This was ... well, not a damn stone. I could feel it to the depths of my being: this was power.

  “That’s freaking gorgeous, Abbs. We should cut it up and make jewelry.”

  I shook off my sudden premonition and threw a light-hearted smile at Lucy. “Of course you would want to take our one chance to escape and turn it into a fashion statement.”

  The girl should have been born when there was still a fashion or design industry.

  Luckily my sweats had some decent pockets – I stored the stone. I didn’t want to waste time dealing with it until we were out of
Olden’s lair.

  Glancing around the room, I flipped the end of my braid over my shoulder.

  “Let’s get out of here. I don’t particularly feel like rumbling with Olden.”

  Lucy snorted. “I think she’s going to know we were here.” Her sarcasm was not needed. The hundred-dollar bills coating the floor painted a clear enough picture.

  “She’s got to be involved with the gangs.” A niggling thought was annoying me. “Head of a compound – millions of dollars – you thinking what I am, Luce?”

  She nodded. “Yes, Abbs, I believe I am.” She looked around the room before turning in my direction again. “Actually, I don’t have a clue.”

  I snorted and continued. “I always knew there was a reason I didn’t trust Olden with directions to the adult compound.” I clenched my hands together tightly. “The bitch sends us to the gangs. It’s the most logical explanation.”

  Comprehension and horror dawned in Lucy’s eyes.

  “Are you saying that when we turn eighteen, she directs us toward the gangs? Why haven’t the resistance discovered this? They pay her to look after us, oversee our training and education, and still they never notice that not one of her girls ends up in the adult compounds.”

  My anger was burning inside of me, threatening to spill over. “It’s not really surprising. The adult compounds are even more secretive than ours. One junior compound is nothing in their great scheme.” It was disgusting. “And on that lovely note, let’s get back to our bedroom and get this stone safe. We’ll have to deal with Olden later.” God I hoped I got to deal with her.

  We left without a backwards glance. The halls were still empty. We were back in our room in no time. I placed the stone into an inner zipper of my pack.

  “Well, Abbs, we have the stone. Now what?” Lucy had shouldered her pack. “I’m standing by for our next instructions.”

  “Very funny, Luce. You’re determined to turn this into a ninja mission.”

  “Hell, yeah, might as well have some fun with it. And I am dressed all in black. What better reason for my lack of color palette?”

  “We need to get out of here now. Sorry, I know this is your worst case, but we’re going to the streets.”

  She shrugged. “The alley can be our home base until we figure out what to do.”

  I nodded. “Good idea, but we can’t wait around there for too long. If Ralph doesn’t show up within, let’s say, two days, we bail on New York. It’s just too dangerous.”

  “Word. But we have to warn the other girls before we leave.”

  “We’ll hit the classroom on our way out.”

  Shouldering my pack, I followed Lucy from the only bedroom I’d ever known. And I couldn’t have been happier. The girls would be in language class, so we headed down the stairs and toward the school hall. Reaching the double doors – there was no need for discretion – Lucy shoved both doors wide open. They smashed into the back walls and every face swung in our direction. Stepping up next to Lucy, I surveyed the other girls. A variety of ages, ethnic backgrounds and cultures stared back at me. The years of turmoil on Earth had lessened many of the things that used to divide people. Now it was more rebel versus gang or militia. That was at least one small positive. Miss Crabbe was furious, hands on her bony old hips at the front of the room.

  “What do you two think you are doing? Either come to class or don’t, but I don’t appreciate the interruption.”

  “We just needed to let the other girls know something and then we’re gone.” I turned to the room. “Don’t trust Olden. If you trust her, you’re as good as dead. And don’t take her instructions after you graduate from here.”

  We had no time to sugar-coat it.

  The girls were silent, their expressions saying ‘What the eff?’

  The teacher’s eyebrows rose slightly, which for her was a huge display of emotions. “What are you saying?”

  “Olden’s room is on the third floor. Lucy and I just came from there and the place is full of money. So much cash she could only have received it from the gangs. We think, instead of giving us directions to the compounds, she sends us off to the gangers.”

  Lucy added, “And on a side note, some of the boxes had jewelry and personal items. You should make sure she doesn’t have anything of yours.”

  Shock, disbelief, and fear flashed across the silent faces. Then chaos erupted. Chairs went flying as the girls shoved past us to head for the stairs. Angry voices raged as they exited the room. Chrissie paused next to me.

  I met her eyes, my lips tilting in a warm grin. “Chrissie, sorry I never had a chance to take you out of the gates.”

  She shook her head. “I’ll figure it out, Abbs. I’ve never trusted Olden. Long story for another time, but I was planning on going my own way.”

  She waved to her friend, Chandra, who was paused in the doorway. “I can’t leave Chandra, and she’s not ready to take the plunge out on to the streets yet. But good luck out there. I think we’ll see you soon.”

  I grasped her hand briefly. She gave it a quick squeeze, before walking out the door.

  “Girls! Girls! Stop right now.” Miss Crabbe’s screaming was largely ignored. She spun to face us. “This is completely ridiculous. There’s no way such an operation could happen. Not under the rebels’ notice.”

  Lucy scoffed. “Really? And when was the last time someone, other than teachers, who couldn’t care less, actually visited this compound?”

  Some of the speech registered with her – probably the part about teachers not caring less. She gave us each a long look before leaving the room.

  I turned to Lucy. “Best case scenario, she reports this to someone higher up the rebel chain, and they may do a little investigating.”

  She shrugged. “Don’t hold your breath. We’re never going to be a priority to them. But we might have created some trouble for Olden.”

  “Hopefully we gave the girls a chance. It’s better than nothing.”

  It was time to leave.

  There were a few nerves. I was just hoping we lived long enough to enjoy our adventure.

  “Do I look like I’m freaking out, Abbs?” Lucy turned her perfectly serene face in my direction.

  “Um, no actually, you look very calm.”

  She smiled. “Awesome. I was wondering if it showed. A ninja never reveals their emotions.”

  “You’re not a ninja.”

  “Go rain on someone else’s parade, Grinchiness.”

  As we left the room, echoes of smashing objects could be heard in the distance. Music to my ears.

  Chapter 4