Jay Posey - Morningside Fall

“Have you seen Wren?”

“Not this morning, no.”

“Where’s Gamble?”

Mouse shook his head and shrugged. “Something wrong?”

“Wren’s gone.” A flood of emotion hit her, as if her words had transformed it from suspicion to certainty.

“What do you mean gone?”

“I mean, gone, Mouse. He left.” Cass crossed the hall and knocked loudly on Painter’s closed door.

“I’m sure he’s around here somewhere…” Mouse said, coming out into the hall.

“Painter, you in there?” Cass said through the door. She didn’t really wait for a response before she threw it open. The room was empty. Even the bed was made.

“Gamble, this is Mouse. You got a sec?”

Cass’s mind started putting little pieces together that confirmed her fears. His comment the night before about how Wren might not see her much because he was going to spend some time with Elan’s son, Ephraim. The long hug he’d given her when he’d woken her this morning. The conversation she’d interrupted between him and Wick, discussing their current location relative to other places. She raced through the scenarios. Knowing Wren, knowing the situation… Cass left Painter’s room and went to Wick’s, swung the door open. He was still lying propped up on a pile of pillows, and his eyes sprang open when Cass came in.

“Did you plot a route to Morningside out for my son?” Cass asked. It sounded angrier coming out than she’d meant for it to, but given the circumstances, she didn’t really care.

Wick blinked back at her. “Do what now?”

“Did you give Wren a route to Morningside?”

He shook his head, confusion clear on his face. “No, of course not. Why? What’s going on?”

Cass couldn’t decide if that should be a relief or not. If he wasn’t headed to Morningside, that was better than she’d feared, but it also meant she had no idea where he might be going.

“She thinks Wren might’ve left,” Mouse said from the doorway.

“He’s with Swoop,” came Gamble’s voice from outside, somewhere down the hall.

“Well, he was asking about where we were…” Wick trailed off as he thought it through. “No, wait.” He looked up at Cass with sudden concern. “I thought he was just making conversation, keeping me company.”

“And what?” Cass asked.

“I did tell him the fastest way. Over the Windspan.”

Cass moved back towards the hall and found Gamble standing there with Sky and Finn. Mouse hovered nearby.

“Where’s Swoop?” Cass asked.

“I just talked to him a little bit ago,” Gamble said. “Wren’s with him and he’s fine. Painter’s with him too.”

“ Where, Gamble?”

Gamble held up her hand as if to calm Cass, and Cass knew then without a doubt that Wren was making his way back to Morningside. It seemed to Cass that Gamble and her team were ringing her in on purpose.

“They left early this morning,” Gamble said. “Wren thinks there’s something he can do to stop Asher. Something with Underdown’s machine.”

That was a twofold blow. Not only was he returning to the city without her, he was going back to the governor’s compound, back to the very heart of all the madness in the city. All to confront his brother, no less.

“And you let him go?” Cass asked.

“We didn’t have a choice, Cass. By the time Swoop called it in, they were already miles out.”

“You should’ve woken me!”

Gamble shook her head. “There was no reason to.”

“No reason? I’m his mother! I would never have let him go!”

“Exactly. But he had to.”

“That’s not your decision to make!”

“It’s not yours either,” Gamble answered, with force. Her voice was becoming harder, more direct, but no louder.

“He’s just a boy!”

“No, Cass, he’s not. He’s the Governor. Like it or not, you don’t get to ignore his authority just because you’re his mother.” The words stung.

“You’re telling me he ordered you to let him go, and you allowed it?”

“He was trying to sneak out on his own. Swoop went with him. He’s thinking about you, Cass. He’s worried for your safety. And so are we.”

Cass started forward into the hall. “I’m going after him.”

“Cass, no, you can’t.”

Gamble put her hand on Cass’s shoulder to stop her. In a flash of rage and reflex, Cass snatched Gamble by her vest — using both hands — and flung her. She didn’t mean to throw her that hard.

As it was, Gamble’s feet left the ground as she catapulted into the wall. Her back impacted flat, her arms spread to catch herself, but she was tilted at an awkward angle and off balance, and crashed down hard on one knee. In a blink Gamble was on her feet and headed straight at Cass — but Mouse caught her, and Finn grabbed Sky, who looked like he was about to take Cass’s head off himself.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mouse said. “Let’s not eat our own here. We’re all on the same side.”

“Are we?” Cass asked. “Your job is to protect my son, our governor. And you’re all here — doing what?”

“Protecting you,” Finn said.

“Well, I don’t need it.”

Gamble controlled herself, and Mouse released her, though he kept himself angled between the two women.

“We’re not going to let you go on your own,” Gamble said.

“You’re not letting me do anything,” Cass answered. “But I am going. I doubt you’d be able to keep up anyway.”

Gamble stared back at Cass for a long span. Cass held herself ready, uncertain about anyone else’s intent at that point. If anyone else grabbed her, though, she wasn’t going to hold back. Gamble’s shoulders finally lowered, and she took a step towards the wall, clearing the way for Cass to pass by. Cass pushed through to her room without another word.

Wren felt a soft touch on his cheek just under his eye that made him flinch and brought his attention back to the world around him. He’d lost himself in the rhythm of their ceaseless steps, for some unknown amount of time. It took him several seconds to figure out what had touched him, but as he glanced around at their surroundings, he finally got a glimpse of something drifting on the meager wind.

A snowflake.

Once he noticed the first, it was easier to see the others, like dust or ash, gently settling around them. The flakes were small and widely spaced at first. Even when he looked directly up into the grey sky, it was several seconds before he felt another flake fall to his face.

Now that his awareness of his surroundings had been reawakened, however, he was startled by the marked change. Wren had traveled enough of the open to understand that most of the sprawling urban wasteland looked like a bad place to be. But somehow the shattered former city around them now made him feel powerfully threatened far beyond the usual.

“Swoop, where are we?” Wren asked, and his voice seemed harsh, though he’d barely spoken louder than a whisper.

Swoop’s head snapped around and he bounced his index finger off his mouth, motioning for Wren to keep quiet. They stopped moving and Swoop swept his eyes across the space around them. Then he bent low and put his face beside Wren’s head, so close Wren could smell the sweat coming from him. “About five klicks from the bridge, if we go straight through,” he whispered. “Gettin’ into the badlands now.”

He glanced up at the sky, watching the snow fall. The flakes were already bigger than they’d been a minute before. Swoop shook his head, and then looked back to Wren. “Eyes sharp, OK?”

Wren nodded. Swoop straightened again with one more look at the sky, and then turned and led them onwards.

Cass had stripped everything out of her pack and was reloading her smaller lighter slingpack. She didn’t know what, if anything, she’d need for this trip, and she wasn’t in much of a planning mood. She grabbed what looked best and tossed it in her go-bag.