Chapter 7 – Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down
Ashley and her new friends walked across the fields, laughing about the best plays of the past ninety minutes, until a group of hostile kids intentionally obstructed their progress.
Ash recognized Otai, who'd hurt Shelly, glaring at her with the new band of comrades.
Otai nodded at the biggest kid in the group and gestured to Ashley.
Marco stepped forward and addressed Ashley directly. "Hey, you the bitch what broke Carver's neck?" He looked like he could be twenty years old. He had a full beard and it spread right down onto his neck and chest. At least six feet tall, Ash guessed he weighed well over two hundred pounds. His scarred face and ears attested to his brute persistence, if nothing else.
The crowd of kids swelled into a circle.
Tanaka, the most intimidating of Ashley's new friends, stepped forward in her defense. In a lot of ways he appeared to be Marco's twin, save that he was Japanese, kept his head shaved bald and grew no facial hair. Under a sun visor, several parallel scars ran across his left cheek, over the eye socket and up onto his forehead. The eye itself appeared unharmed, the scarring disappeared over it.
In approaching, Tanaka being a senior member of the Iron Fist, was directly challenging the entire Devils’ gang. If they fought, regardless of whoever won, the Devils and the Fist would go to war.
Marco lifted his hand up. "Back up, Tock, no one's talking at you."
Tanaka didn't move.
"You hear me, bitch? I'm talking at you." Marco pointed at Ashley.
"You back the fuck up, Marco, less you want a lesson in respect.” Tanaka took another step forward. “Can't you see the lady is with me?"
"Is this your bitch?" Marco inquired. "Is you gonna cover what she cost me?" Marco turned to Ash. "You insured, bitch? Tock here got a policy on your ass? Cause I heard you was new."
"Say the word," Tanaka offered.
Ashley paused but then shook her head. She stepped up next to Tanaka, confronting Marco.
He was three times her size.
"I'm nobody's bitch," she said.
Marco slapped Ash across the face with blinding speed and a resounding crack. The impact knocked her from her feet.
"You're my bitch now, bitch!" Marco paced back and forth
Ashley tried to stand. Marco had knocked her silly. Ashley was dizzy; on her hands and knees, she shook her head, her balance was off.
Marco hit hard.
"You fucked up my boy," he ranted. "Spun his shit around backwards. You cost me. Now you pay."
Marco turned to one of his crew. "Start rolling, Swoop."
Swoop, a curly-haired orphan, flipped out a small screen and a pen-camera. Properly introduced, Marco came forward to collect his payment.
Tanaka stepped forward, holding up a hand. "Hey Marco! She owes Me. She broke Paulie's jaw. That was yesterday. Carver was today. So she owes me first!"
"So what are you saying?" Marco asked.
"I'm saying…"
"It's not for you to say." Ashley raised a hand. The fire in her eyes holding back Tanaka as much as Marco.
Hambone grabbed Tanaka's elbow. "She just beat Kaz three in row. Let's see what happens. Kaz ain’t never lost at dodge ball before.”
Tanaka stepped back to watch.
Ashley got to her feet. "Carver tried to rape my friend."
Marco gestured to Sky. "This junkie-whore is your friend? You don't know her! She's into Carv for two bills, you stupid bitch. They was doin’ biz-i-ness, consensual and shit. Now we're gonna do a little business." Marco stepped forward again.
Ash gave a bit of ground, involuntarily stepping back.
Marco paused. "You say he was gonna rape her, over two hunna dollars?" He looked over to Sky and back at Ashley. "That can ain't worth fifty. He'd have to hit her half a dozen times to get his ends."
Some of his thug-comrades laughed.
Marco then looked Ashley up and down. "But you're pretty," he smiled. "You and your titty gonna earn me plenty!" He grabbed his crotch, much as Paulie had the night before. "I'm gonna shift this Big 6 in your ass, sista. Got me? Here I come!"
Kaz stepped forward, past Tanaka, confronting Marco.
Marco stepped aggressively toward Kaz. "Oh, you want some too? I ain't into guys, but if you wanna get fucked, you in the right place!"
Tanaka stepped between them, holding up his hand. "She's mine, Marco. She hit Paulie last night. She owes me first. You can settle up for Carver with me. What do you want for him?"
Marco looked at Tank. "Well all right then. I'm a businessman. Let's talk business."
Ash straightened up and cracked her neck. "I'm nobody's property."
"Bitch, pipe down. The men are speaking," Marco snapped. "You about to have these nuts in yo guts, so be patient now."
Ashley glared at him. "I'm not yours and I'm not his. People aren't possessions."
Tanaka smiled at Marco. “Looks like you got a fighter.”
“All right then.” Marco smiled and turned from Tanaka to Ashley. “Let's have us some fun, little girl."
Marco lunged for Ash, but she sidestepped him easily. He stumbled, off balance and embarrassed.
Ash condescendingly pushed him. He dropped to a knee.
"You bitch!" he roared and lunged after her, swinging.
Ash dodged a couple haymakers but got clobbered with an unexpected left. She crumbled to the ground.
The crowd swelled forward.
Marco hesitated before stomping her face.
Ash slipped away, getting to her feet. She coughed and wiped blood from her lip.
Marco saw the blood and lowered his guard. "Ready to cooperate a little bit?"
Ash caught her breath and nodded.
Marco relaxed out of his threatening posture. "That's more like it. Now, come over here," he ordered.
Ash walked over.
Marco smiled. "Unbutton my pants," he commanded.
Ash looked down at the front of his pants.
Without warning, without even looking up, she elbowed him in the nose. He staggered backward, blood poured from his face; his giant paws swung blindly.
Ash ducked, dodged, stepped to her left and planted a heel in his stomach.
Marco collapsed.
She watched him cautiously.
Faster than she anticipated, he lunged, tackling her to the ground. From on top of her, he unloaded on her face. Ash blocked with her arms and got a knee between herself and Marco, but he continued swinging.
Ash pushed him back with her leg, but he was too strong, too heavy. She huddled down and pondered of her next move.
Marco got tired and leaned back. Still fixated on her body, he started to undo his pants.
Ash sat up violently, her forehead smashing into his face. His nose cracked loudly and blood gushed from the twice-ruined major sense organ. Marco screamed.
Covered in blood, Ash rolled away, scrambling to her feet.
Marco made it up to his knees, he was still almost as tall as her. He held his nose and desperately tried to stop the bleeding, forced to breathe through his mouth.
Ash wiped the blood from her face and circled him warily.
Positioning herself for a ruthless kick to the head, Marco saw her and held up his hands, gesturing for mercy.
Ashley checked her kick and stepped to the side, allowed him a moment to deal with his injury.
Marco exhaled forcefully, blowing blood and snot all over the playground.
Ash took a step back, contempt painting her features.
Marco reached into his pocket and pulled out a shank. He lunged at her, but only caught her shirt.
Furious he slashed again, several times, missing with each.
The surrounding children held their breath.
With his next jab, Ash saw Marco's wrist sail by.
She caught it and turned against it. The bones snapped and cracked against one another.
The makeshift knife fell to the ground.
r />
Ash twisted Marco's arm around behind his body. She continued twisting until it dislocated at the shoulder with loud pop and released him.
He collapsed to the ground, pinned by the excruciating pain radiating from his shoulder.
Ashley circled him.
She picked up the knife.
Originally a spoon, the flat metal handle had been sharpened to a dangerous point, one side ground to a relatively dangerous edge.
Ash walked over to his head.
The crowd remained silent.
She stood near Marco's outstretched left hand.
She took a moment to catch her breath. "That was pretty rude.”
Marco coughed.
"I need you to apologize," Ashley said.
He didn't seem to hear her. She knelt in front of him and lifted his head by the hair. "I said I need you to apologize."
Marco screamed, "What the fuck did you do to my arm, you bitch?"
Ash held the knife by the point and hit Marco on the head with the bowl of the spoon.
"Apologize!" she insisted.
"Fuck you!" he yelled.
Ash spun the spoon in her hand and stabbed it through Marco's outstretched good hand.
He screamed.
"Apologize!" Ash yelled.
"You fucking slut! I'm gonna kill you!"
Ash stomped on the end of the soon, driving it through Marco's hand and into the cracked and broken ground beneath.
"Apologize!" she demanded, pressing down on the spoon.
Marco howled obscenities.
Ash pushed down, folding the spoon against the bones of his hand. "Apologize!"
"Fuck you, you fucking Kunt!"
Ash stomped his hand.
Everyone up front heard the bones crunch as they broke.
Marco's screams rose an entire octave.
Ash stomped the hand over and over and over.
Marco screamed himself hoarse.
The audience watched silently.
Finally she stopped.
Marco continued moaning and crying.
When he stopped crying, Ashley stomped the hand again.
Marco screamed and cried, calling her every curse word he could think of. Eventually he screamed himself out of breath.
Ash stomped the hand again.
Marco gasped for air and finally got enough oxygen into his lungs. "I'm sorry! Please stop. I'm Sorry!! Please!!" he cried.
"Louder," Ash commanded.
"I'm Sorry! I'm Sorry!" he yelled.
"Louder!" she yelled back.
"I'm Sorry. I'm so Sorry. Please." Marco was burnt out.
"You're gonna shift-six me? Huh? Asshole!" Ash mercilessly stomped his ruined hand a dozen more times.
Finally, she was finished.
Almost.
She wound up and kicked him in the face, knocking him out cold.
"Nobody owns me," she said. "Nobody owns Sky. From now on nobody owns anyone here. I don't care who I have to fight.”
Everyone around her stayed silent, the crowd was stunned and speechless. Ashley's new friends looked conflicted. They appeared impressed and horrified, attracted to and repulsed by the stalwart teen.
She understood their conflict. She felt it in herself. She walked past them without a word, without a single personal glance.
No one followed her as she left the field.
Everyone left, going their separate ways, everyone except for Marco.
Later, in digital playback on a flex-screen, Ash silently stalked from the scene and the recording froze.
Swoop held the screen for Otai and three other kids, Dante, Yama and Frost. They were, for all intents and purposes, the head of the Devils' gang. Big Mo and Kid Lethal were unapproachable by zeros like Otai.
Dante was their public negotiator. Mo and Lethal only got involved in serious breaches of etiquette.
Dante also bore the district's insignia of manhood, in the form to a tri-pointed goatee and sideburns. He kept his upper lip shaved but let the hair of his chin climb at the center and edge of each lip.
Frost, a heavily muscled Filipino, kept his head shaved close to the scalp, like a monk of the Far East.
Yama, Japanese, wore a dark blue cap and a t-shirt displaying an image of Mt Fuji, backlit by a rising sun. He was tall and graceful.
They were easily among the top-five most-deadly orphans in the district. Their immediate superiors, being numbers one and two.
The chopped and soul-patched Dante spoke first after watching the vid stream. "That's too bad. Marco was a good hand."
Yama and Frost laughed at his pun.
"Go get her and her crap. She's moving to the stables," Dante ordered.
Dante nodded to Swoop and Otai. "You two come with me, we gotta show this to Mo."
The gang members nodded their understanding and left in their separate directions.
In the girl's shower, Ash stood under the water.
She didn't lather her body with soap; she just stood and cried. Occasionally she hit the wall with her fist. She coughed, caught her breath, relaxed, only to start crying again.
After a while, she just stood silently as the water poured over her.
Yama and Frost walked into the green stripe dorm. Squirm, one of the teens who still hadn't hit his growth spurt, saw them coming and turned around.
Yama chased him down and pinned him up against a locker. "The new girl, where's her locker?"
Squirm lived up to his nickname and struggled against Yama, who promptly kneed him in the stomach.
Frost stepped forward and grabbed Squirm's hand. He bent the index finger back, holding it at the breaking point.
Squirm screamed and pointed with his free hand. "Over there! Over there! Third from the end, right side, right side," he cried.
Yama threw him aside and waited for him to scramble out of his path before moving toward Ashley's locker.
In the girl's shower, Ash toweled off, dried her hair and inspected her swelling bruises in the mirror.
Yama and Frost wasted no time and easily jimmied open Ashley's locker.
Geoffrey jumped down from his bunk and confronted them. "Hey!! What do you think you’re doing?" he yelled. "Get out of my sister's locker, shit-heads!"
Frost and Yama looked at each other.
Frost halfway closed the locker. "This is your sister's locker?"
"Not yours! Get lost, now," Geoff replied.
Frost smiled to Yama and turned back to Geoff. He held up his hands in surrender. "Right, you're right. You're new here, you and your sister?"
Geoff visibly relaxed a bit. "Yeah. We got here yesterday."
"Well, listen, see... Your sister sent us down here to get her stuff. You guys are moving."
Yama nodded and smiled at Geoff.
"Bullshit. You're lying." Geoff didn't bite.
"Serious, little man," Frost argued.
"Where is she, then?" Geoff inquired.
"She's over at the Zoo, with Big Mo." Frost answered.
"The Zoo? Who's Big Mo?" Geoff replied.
"He's a friend of ours. You got any friends here yet, tough guy?"
"Not really," Geoff answered.
"Considering how you act, that's not surprising," Frost smiled. "We got shit to do."
Geoff kicked the locker shut, but Frost had damaged the lock and the door didn’t stick. "Where is my sister?" he asked.
"She sent us down here to get her shit and you. What's your name?"
"Geoff."
"That's right, Geoff. But you're carrying your own crap, cause I ain't coming back down here to do it." Frost turned to leave the dorm.
"There's a zoo here?" Geoff asked stepping after them.
Frost patiently explained, "No, they just call it that. It's more like a swap meet, you know, an old school flea market. It's across the fields, up the escalators." Frost turned to leave. Yama followed him.
After a second Geoff tagged along. "How did you guys meet my sister?" he asked.
&n
bsp; "Oh, man, you wouldn't believe it,” Frost laughed.
“Your sister is something else,” Yama answered. “She kicked this big moron's ass."
Frost, Yama and Geoff walked from the dorm, only moments before Ash entered.
Finding her locker open, she froze and cautiously looked inside.
The lock had been broken and would no longer catch.
The stiletto was still in its place; everything was as she'd left it. She hung up the towel and collapsed into bed, exhausted.
The dorm was dark.
Ash woke and sat bolt upright.
She rubbed her eyes. She heard something, footsteps. The silhouette of a patrolling guard moved past. Ash slipped out of bed and stood.
The top bunk was empty. Where was Geoffrey?
Geoff's bed was empty and cool; it hadn't been slept in.
Ash looked around the darkened dormitory. She pulled herself up onto Geoff's bed to get a better view of the room.
Kids slept across the sea of bunk beds.
Far across the room, two guards talked quietly.
Ash slipped down off the bed, across the dorm and out a door. She silently moved up a stairwell and out into the tree-shrouded night.
The athletic complex was composed of a series of terillium charged plates. On the topmost level, a massive coliseum stretched across the complex. Beneath it, six smaller stadiums surrounded a central unit. Three massive plates make up the first three levels below the stadiums. At five kilometers across, they offered substantial room to run and jump and play. Three smaller levels hung below these, all broken up by tall berms, hedges and artistically arranged tree-lines.
On one of the lower levels, Ash walked through the faux park-like surroundings, letting herself drift with the perfumed breeze. She breathed in the deep tonic, as though it held the cure to her encroaching madness.
In the distance, she heard music coming from one of the gymnasiums and moved toward it. Housed in the central stack, the gymnasiums surrounded the elevator banks that run up and down the spine of the complex.
As she got closer, she heard something in addition to the music. At first she couldn't make it out. It sounded like singing, but wasn't.
She heard the sounds clearly now, girls screaming and crying.
Outside the open gymnasium door she heard the sobbing. The voices sounded tired, hoarse, exhausted. Ash slipped inside and across the atrium.
The girls, stripped to their underwear, danced atop a group of tables, assembled in the center of the gym. Their teenage flesh bore the marks and bruises consistent with a prolonged struggle.
Three guards laughed and cackled while they tortured the girls.
They yelled, "Keep moving."
And "Go with it"
Or "Dance, Bitch!"
And "Move that Ass!" All the while they delivered jabs and strikes with the stun batons.
The trio of guards focused on the center girl, jabbing at her groin with their shock sticks.
Ash crouched in the darkened foyer.
To her left, she noticed a tin trashcan. She picked up the metal lid, gauging the weight and balance. She saw a chain hanging from the handle of the outside doors. The padlock was open and looped through the links.
Inside the gym, with half the lights on, the guards felt relaxed and secure in their persecution of the girls. Then, abruptly, one of them caught movement in his peripheral vision and turned to get a better look.
Robinson watched the metal lid come sailing toward them, spinning like a UFO. His friends noticed his distraction and turned to see what had pulled his attention from three squirming girls.
The lid sailed across the gym on a perfect trajectory, at head level, straight for them.
Robinson could tell it wouldn't hit him, but flinched just the same.
The guard to the right, Donovan, saw it too, but too late to warn Watkins, who turned directly into the lid.
It was difficult to say whether he saw it coming.
With a loud crack, the disk bit deep into his mouth, shattering his front teeth. He fell to the ground with a fluidity that suggested unconsciousness.
Donovan got a good look at his friend's perfectly wrecked grill, a mess of blood and shattered teeth. Better that he sleep it off anyhow. Donovan and Robinson heard female laughter from the alcove, confirmed by the sounds of hasty flight.
Enraged, they flew across the gym.
The guards bolted through the doors and once outside, scanned the surrounding area for some hint of their prey. Behind them, the captive girls retrieved their clothes and escaped the gymnasium through a back door.
In their search for Ashley, Donovan and Robinson split up.
Ahead of Robinson, a tree stood near the top of a hill, set against one of the access points to the downstairs bathrooms, dorms, and parking garages.
Robinson jogged over and crouched under the tree. From here, under the concealing branches, he could watch the surrounding landscape without giving away his position. After a few minutes of silent stillness, he put his back against the tree and pulled out a pack of smokes.
Trapped directly behind the tree, Ash prepared herself. She held the heavy chain in her hands.
Robinson lit his cigarette.
Ash swung the chain around the tree, catching the far side of the metal links as they came around and jerking it tight.
The suddenness of the attack caught Robinson off guard. He dropped his cigarette and struggled with the chain.
Ash planted a foot on the trunk and pulled the chain into his throat. She fished the lock from her belt loop and slipped it through two intersecting links.
Robinson’s cigarette started a small fire in the kindling around his feet. He stomped the fire, which did more to spread it rather than put it out. He struggled to scream for help, but panicked and desperate, chained to the base of a burning tree, he was having trouble catching his breath.
Ash sprinted away, vanishing into the surrounding darkness.
A moment later, Donovan arrived. Together, he and Robinson extinguished the fire.
As soon as he confirmed that Robinson was okay, Donovan lit out after Ash. Of the three original guards, he was easily the most physically capable and ruthless. A gifted athlete, he quickly gained on the young female, fleeing in the distance.
Ashley crossed the bridge to terminal unit and sprinted for the high school. Inside, she reached the stairs and dashed up a floor.
In the upstairs hallway, she heard him enter below her. She slipped into one of the halls and hid under a group of terminals bays.
Ash heard Donovan reach the top of the stairs and methodically move down the hall. He entered each room, paused, and then moved on.
As he approached her room, Ash remained silent under the terminal.
Donovan's silhouette filled the doorway, blocking the light from the hall. He entered, turned and walked down the row.
He walked slowly and steadily, past her and down to the far end of the bay. He stood, just listening.
Ashley waited. He didn’t move, but she knew he couldn't be gone.
She looked over her shoulder.
The older boy grinned, only inches from her face. "Boo!"
Ash jumped and slammed her head into the terminal overhead.
Donovan grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her into the aisle.
Ash struggled, only to have him attack her with his stun baton. She curled into a ball, covering her head with her hands.
Donovan ripped the back of her shirt from her cowering body. Then pulled at her cheap, orphanage-issued pants, the seams audibly popping, but for the moment, remaining whole.
The young girl kicked, squirmed and managed to get into a defendable position. She kicked Donovan in the balls. He went down to his knees, clutching his groin. She kicked him squarely in the chin. She heard and felt his jaw snap and dislocate.
Donovan screamed in pain and fury.
Ashley saw the baton lying nearby, grabbed it and attacked him, blasting at
his head and shoulders.
When Ash thought he'd had enough, she paused.
He lunged at her.
She rammed the baton into his broken mouth and down his throat. Ashley twisted the voltage knob to its highest setting and clicked it on.
Donovan convulsed as the baton electrocuted him from the inside.
Disgusted with herself, Ash backed out of the room.
Outside in the hall, a janitor stood with his mop and its wheeled-bucket. He stared at her. He didn't speak or move, he just looked at her.
He was tall and old, his hair mostly gone gray and white. For a moment, she stared back, but Ashley never stopped moving. She glided to the top of the stairs and then down, letting her momentum pull her into a jog that continued until she reached her bunk.
Geoffrey was still missing.
She crawled into bed, her breathing ragged and chaotic. She curled into a ball between the much-too-thin blanket and the much-too-cold sheets and worried that she might burst into hysterical sobbing.
She forced herself to breath slowly. She lay in the dark, silent for a long time, surrounded by other sleeping kids.
Finally she willed her body into a numb and dreamless sleep.