Ascension by Daniel Weisbeck (reading tree .txt) 📕

Henry blinked himself awake, unaware he had even fallen asleep. Something of dawn was breaking through a heavy mist. Sunrise was always a slow and dim event under the clouded protection of the Sanctuary’s artificial biosphere. The permanent pall over the city perpetually blocked out the scorching sun, recycling the rarest of Earth’s gifts, freshwater. Henry’s head was soaked and covered in beads of dripping rain. His thick orange hair, reminiscent of a lion’s mane with a heart-shaped hairline when dry, lay flat on his head and darkened to something near a deep reddish-brown. The moist flesh of his cheeks hid his tears, so he was only aware of them once they tickled the edges of his nostrils and top lip. How long have I been asleep?

His dreams were heavy on his heart, but the images had all but faded. Something of his mother, was it…or his sister? Either way, he knew this feeling all too well. It was the scar of grief and abandonment cut into his brain after all of his known family had died. Now Liza was next. How unfair the world was to Henry.

He lifted his left arm and glanced at the time display on his wrist band. It was six in the morning. He pulled himself up to standing by pressing his back against the wall and crawling upward with stiff legs. Cupping a handful of wet hair, he pulled his saggy bangs back away from his forehead and leaned into the digital panel at the entrance of Liza’s building.

“Liza Lee.”

“Hello, Henry,” came the disappointing assistant’s voice. “Liza is not home. But you know that. You have been sitting outside all night.”

“Yes,” he replied despondently. “I thought maybe, while I was asleep or…”

“Liza wants you to know she is safe and will talk to you soon.”

“Does she know I am here?”

“She did not ask me about your location.”

“Where is she?”

“I can’t say. Not without Liza's permission.”

“She is at a clinic.”

There was an artificial silence from the assistant.

“Tell her I will not leave until she comes home.”

“I will send the message. Is there anything else I can help you with? Would you like me to order a coffee or tea from the delivery drones for you?”

“No. Just send her the message, now, please.”

Henry waited against the building. He found it odd nobody had come in or gone out the entire time he had been holding his semi-vigilant watch. Had the whole building been put into lockdown? His mind wandered through the residents he had come across in the halls and the lift since meeting Liza. Many were young and below the new threshold for Ascension. And anyways, he wasn’t aware of the Government locking down an entire building in the past. But he didn’t expect the government to bring the threshold for testing immunity resistance down to forty years of age either. Fuck the Government.

The Sanctuary’s Government, once run by the people, for the people, had become increasingly secret. He didn’t like it. Not one bit. But what could he do? They had their unsanctioned police force called the Keepers. The new department was run by military-trained professionals and armed with the only weapon in the city: a new android regiment also called the Keepers. The terrifying humanoids, with silver-white hair, and metallic skinned bodies, had super-human strength and enough AI wits to adapt in real-time. No person, indeed, not one of ordinary means and usual physical disposition like Henry, was a match for the Keeper’s androids. The new creatures had marched out of the Government’s cryptic Oasis labs, a complete surprise to the public, and patrolled the city, ‘protecting’ citizens by enforcing the ever-changing pandemic rules.

Henry suddenly felt the eye of the city on him. Liza’s assistant could be right. It was dangerous for him to be outside without permission because he knew her. Getting caught now and forced into a penial lockdown would make seeing Liza impossible. Henry’s heartbeat raced. I’ve got to get out of the open! I’ve already been out here too long.

Peeking around the corner of the building’s entrance, he looked cautiously up and down the street. Pale morning sunlight bled through the misty skyline, thinning but never entirely erasing the bright multidimensional holographic billboards that decorated the building fronts. Already, people were spilling out into the city roads. Hovercrafts zipped up, down and back and forth with greater frequency. The streets were busy enough that he could blend in. If quick, he would be home in less than an hour and wait for her there. But it would be much faster and easier if he could somehow get into her apartment.

“Can I help you?” came a female voice from behind Henry, giving him a start.

He turned to find the double glass doors that led into the building slid open and a silhouette of a person, small and slightly round, covered in a long cape and deep hood, standing in the shadows of the entrance lobby.

“Did I stutter?” she said. There was a hint of cruelness and bullying in her tone.

Henry stared at her, bewildered. “Da..da…” He calmed his muscles with a long inhale then continued. “Do we know each other?”

“Let’s say, I know you. You’re Liza’s friend. I’ve seen you coming and going.”

“How can I help you?”

“You can get in here before one of those new Keeper androids comes by,” the voice ordered. There was gravel in her tone hinting at age.

Henry scurried through the door. The woman turned away from him before he could see her face, and she walked to the lift. Raising her right arm, she waved for him to follow her. Inside, she kept her head bent low and spoke, “Floor three hundred.”

Henry stood with his back to the sidewall of the lift, staring wildly at the shiny black cape that hid its inhabitant. His curiosity begged him to talk to her, find out who she was, but a sense of obligation and urgency told him to ditch the stranger and head straight for Liza’s apartment.

“You won’t get in.”

“Excuse me.”

“I know what you’re thinking, and you won’t get into her apartment without getting noticed. She is on the list now. All eyes are monitoring her and about ten thousand others who have been called.”

“Floor three-hundred,” came a voice in the lift announcing their arrival. The elevator gently stopped and the doors slid open.

“My flat is just over here. Best you follow me.”

Henry did as he was told. The woman’s flat was small, like most living quarters in the overcrowded city. The entirety of her home existed in two rooms, one for living, cooking and sleeping, combined with a ceiling to floor glass window facing south, and an adjacent toilet and washroom to the east.

The stranger continued inside, keeping her back to Henry. He stopped after passing through the entrance, unsure about following her any further.

“Hurry in here. My cloaking algorithm only lasts a few minutes before they notice the glitch.”

Henry snapped his head back in confusion. The door slid shut behind him. “Cloaking algorithm?” he asked.

She ignored his question. “Sit over there.”

The woman pointed a hidden finger, draped under an oversized sleeve, at the basic two-seater sofa sat against the west wall, next to the window. Opposite the couch were two wooden chairs with seats covered in a herringbone wool material and decorated with white crocheted doilies lain over the top of their back supports. Henry felt an overwhelming desire to touch the seat of the chairs. Real, organic material was so rare in the Sanctuary. He had heard of a few antiques that still existed from a time before everything was manufactured with 3D pico-printers. A time when objects were made from things grown and collected by hands. Back when animals and trees still existed on the planet. Antiques were a passion of his. But only through study. He rarely came across one in person, much less two in the same room.

“I said sit,” commanded the woman, breaking him from his temporary trance.

Henry sat immediately on the edge of the sofa, his