Renegades Rising: Mouse
This is the second book in the Renegades Rising Series.
A teenage smuggler, a devastating illness, what will she sacrifice to save the survivors?
Being tiny and tough helps Mouse smuggle valuables between a series of caverns constructed beneath Earth’s surface. Cut off from the rest of the caverns, the bottom level relies upon her trading.
When sickness strikes, she must climb to the top, but instead of getting the vitamins they so desperately need, she brings the Company’s wrath down upon her community.
Hunted. Guilty. Devastated.
Her only recourse is to do the unthinkable — sabotage the infrastructure of the caverns.
Mouse must become the villain to be a hero.
Excerpt: Unproofed / Unedited: Chapter 1: Amber
Amber knew this was another big, fat, dirty lie even as Darius spoke. “Don’t worry, baby. Once me and the boys get back, you’ll be safe. We’ll live happily ever after.” Shadows by the cave entrance hid most of his face. He hadn’t even glanced at her.
Which was good because she’d struggled to keep her face expressionless. His words became a spiky ball in her gut, making it feel like she had swallowed a living cave rat. She’d always been able to sense a lie. Something about the tone of voice or the way a person held themselves always gave it away. She was not going to be safe, and they were not going to live happily ever after.
This lie meant Darius or one of his men would make sure she had a fatal accident when he got back. The steep drops and narrow ledges would make her death easy. She’d heard the rumors about what had happened to his previous women, but until now she hadn’t believed them.
Darius left without another word.
The soft click of the door echoed in the tiny cave.
This would be the last time she would see the inside of the home she had tried to build over the last two years.
Where could she go? Her family was long dead so they couldn’t protect her. The Hole was a cylinder carved out of the rock with rope ladders between levels. Caves where families could live lined the outside. All of the good caves were taken, but that didn’t matter. No cave would be safe from Darius. He had too much status and was too ruthless.
The bat caves above the Hole had their own sleeping areas for bat farmer families. She wouldn’t be allowed to stay with them.
Below the Hole were the miners. They lived in long straight tunnels that radiated out from where the Hole met the mine shafts. She had no idea where the miners slept. The mine shaft was where the sparklies were found. The miners would not welcome her either.
A few natural caverns connected to the Hole, but they were dangerous. The damp side caves had hidden groves of algae. She’d been one of the few who had explored, but not too far. The tracks she had found in the caverns were large and clawed. She had no idea what dwelled in the dark. Whatever monster lived there was deadly. She shuddered. The caverns couldn’t be her new home.
She pushed down the faint echo of her mom singing that came when she thought of the caverns. There was no time for childish songs. She needed a practical plan.
Her only option left to consider was DL-6, which was above the Hole. She’d heard that DL-6 was the bottom level of a series of caverns constructed long ago when the Earth’s surface had become unlivable.
The main access to DL-6 was through a door that led to a tunnel between DL-6 and the Hole. Darius’s men guarded the tunnel. The door between DL-6 and the Hole was usually just slightly open. Tales said if the door ever closed, the door could never be opened again.
She knew a secret way through the natural cavern to get there. DL-6 was the one place that Darius would not be able to find her, since the people of the Hole and DL-6 rarely communicated. Even though she didn’t know a soul who lived there, DL-6 offered the best chance for her to survive.
That decided, she gave herself a moment to grieve the loss of her home. Not because she would miss Darius, but because she had worked so hard to make it livable. She tucked the floor file that she had used to round off the sharp stone edges in the main room and sleeping corner into her belt. She took one of the three layers of bat fur blankets that covered the sleeping area. The sheets of bat guano sat in a box next to the little stove that kept the place warm. Behind the stove was a panel that led to a tiny pantry. She’d processed the bat meat and the algae herself. That small stockpile of food had taken years to amass.
Lastly, she lifted the stone top that hid the map and book she had. The map showed the deep-levels (DL) and everything in between. She kept it because the straight lines and intricate details made her want to believe in the other levels.
Her mom had taught her to read in secret. The cover said Aesop’s Fables. The book’s tattered edges and the picture of the turtle with a fox and the ribbon earned at the end of a race warmed her. She’d read it hundreds of times over the years. Whenever she needed to feel connected to her mom, she read it.
Surviving the last few years hadn’t been easy.
Enough. The sooner she left, the better the odds of her not getting caught and thrown off the edge.
She opened the door and walked onto the ledge. The soft, blue-green light of the glowworms gave her enough light to see by. It had been easy enough to encourage them to live here. She reached above the door and into the shadows to grab her hidden go-bag.
The bag had a change of clothing, dried food, knives, and rope. She tucked the book and map in a special pocket in her bag. Darius would miss the eating knife more than her.
Amber turned and stared across the Hole. Pinpoints of light marked the small caves that dotted the vertical walls. Some families had encouraged glowworms to live around the door for extra light. Other caves had small torches that could be lit.
Darius had claimed a cave near the top of the Hole where the fresh air flowed. She needed to get to the natural caverns. The closest entrance was a fissure on the shelf below the level she was on.
Amber climbed down the rope ladder to the next shelf. She followed the shelf until it became too narrow. Then she turned toward the wall and reached up to the handholds she’d made. She sidestepped along the wall. The rough stone brushed across her belly. The darkness loomed around her, which felt like a constant companion with the thought of falling. She skirted along the edge until her legs and arms ached and her fingers stiffened.
She had no choice now. Not if she wanted to live. Survival meant going to a place few people from the Hole went. DL-6 wasn’t exactly forbidden, but it was looked down upon by the Hole residents. There was sickness there and different rules. She’d at least have a chance. Probably.
After what seemed like forever, the ledge widened until she could walk again. Her legs ached, but she kept moving along the wall the way she had been, afraid that walking normally would cause her to pitch over the edge. The ground was a long way down.
After a few more steps, the wall veered into a small, offshoot cave. The cave came into vague detail in the glowworms’ green-blue light. As far as she knew, no one currently living in the Hole other than her had ever been to this cave. She had another cache of food and more equipment hidden here.
Her mom’s silly song entered her mind. She only sang it when she was alone. The words made no sense. She had once tried to sing it to her adopted mom, but Amber’d been shushed.
“The only songs you should sing are about survival and things you need to know,” the woman had scolded.
Amber remembered thinking maybe her family needed to know this. Her mom had been so different than everyone else in the Hole. Her adopted mom hushing her was the beginning of her keeping the song a secret.
Across the gap the lion lazed
Around the bend to the rabbit chosen
Up the tunnel the ball’s edges glazed
Beyond to the bowl of green and frozen.
There had never been a hint of another knowing the song. Every time she sang it, strange old memories surfaced, but she had no idea what they meant. All songs had meaning. The song didn’t seem to be of help fleeing the Hole.
She’d been a fool to trust Darius’ soft words and to ignore his reputation. Darius was like every other male she had been with. At first, his lies had been few. He lied about the normal things guys lied about: Where they went, who they were with, what they thought of her efforts to make them a home.
His lies had increased over time. She’d heard the rumor that he had his sights on another woman. His new girl was the daughter of one of the bat farmers. She came with connections and a guarantee of food. If Amber was out of the picture, he would be able to keep the benefits of Amber’s hard work and have what the new girl offered. She now believed the rumors surrounding the fates of Darius’s previous women. They’d ended up at the bottom of the Hole because of unfortunate accidents.
Amber had nothing to counter that and no one to protect her. Her family was long dead and gone. Only vague recollections remained from the day they left her behind.
She sighed, trying to work up some anger toward Darius. She couldn’t. In this world, most look out for themselves. They wouldn’t help another out of a sense of loyalty or kindness. Everything was about survival. Darius ruled by fear.
Amber added the extra food and supplies to her backpack. The far end of the cavern had another opening. She’d put a bunch of glowworms in a jar there to see if she could make a light. Around the corner, she’d find out if her efforts had worked. The next part of the trek would be harder to navigate in the inky darkness.
She rounded the next corner and could see a concentrated glow at head level. She’d found the jar. The glowworms were still alive.
She lifted the jar and held it in front of her. The glow helped her find the first left turn. After fifteen paces, she took a sharp right, and one hundred paces later she came to the tiny tunnel that led up to DL-6. If she went straight, instead of to the left, she would go toward the lair of the biggest predator in the caverns. She shivered, remembering the blast of hot, odd-smelling air, the strange noises, and the missing people.
She headed to DL-6. The journey had taken her an hour because she was being careful to be quiet. She put the jar in the corner of a dark ledge just in case she needed to go back. Not that going back was really an option, but it felt wrong not to leave an escape plan. She heard the flutter of a moth and snatched it out of the air. The moth would keep the glowworms alive for at least a month. She put it on their sticky strands so that the glowworms would feast.
Amber crawled through the fissure closer to where it exited into DL-6. When she turned the corner, she squinted in the bright light. The light seemed harsh after the glowworms’ soft glow. Her gut twisted in nervous anticipation. What would DL-6 be like?
Strangers walked by, and she felt the ever-present spiky ball of lies. People twisted facts to suit their own needs. Even here in this new community, people were the same.
Once her eyes adjusted, she peered around, trying to make sense of what she saw. The caves where people lived were boxes along the ground. There were doors and some had smaller openings through which she could see people inside the house.
A man opened the door of the home, stepped out, and climbed up the side of the box. He picked up a basket, pulled something green, and placed it in the container. The room wasn’t wet enough to grow algae. Perhaps the green was moss. The people of DL-6 must grow their food on the tops of their houses.
She couldn’t make out what he was doing with the flickering lights above him. The light didn’t fall on the path between houses but mostly on the roof.
Two men stood chatting between two houses. The soft murmur of voices carried the discordant notes of untruths. The fact that people lied was unchanged.
Amber sighed and rubbed her eyes. She hated to start over, but didn’t have any choice. None of the work mattered. She was a survivor. She would watch and wait for an opportunity to reestablish a home. Maybe this time it would last. All she had ever wanted was a place to belong, a place where people would value her and her hard work and determination.
When she heard someone speak and didn’t feel the discordant note, she jerked in shock. She had never heard anyone speak without it. A brown-haired man stood next to the two guys on the corner. The brown-haired man didn’t look like anything special. He wasn’t handsome, or heavily muscled and he was tall but not very tall. He must be someone important because the men stood at attention when talking to him.
She took careful stock of his features. He had blue eyes, with an even face without the pock-marks and scars that marred most of the men in the Hole. He looked nice and like what she had always pictured a good guy looking like. His appearance must be a lie. She’d seen plenty of men that looked honest and good, but as soon as they’d opened their mouths, she’d known. They were liars.
She leaned in to hear what he had to say.
“Would you guys give me a moment? I need to meet someone here, and they won’t come if you are here.” His voice was deep and carried to her. She waited for the discordant note in his words, but she felt nothing. His words were like the single taste of chocolate she’d once scrounged. Smooth and rare. What he said matched what was true.
“Why not?” The other man asked.
“They are shy.” The words held no spike.
Her heart fluttered, and she swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. Could she have met someone who didn’t lie? For the first time in a long while, hope warmed her chest.
The two guys looked at each other and shrugged. They walked away, leaving him on the corner.
“I’m Tully. I know you are there. Why not come out? I won’t hurt you.” His deep voice held a note of kindness she hadn’t heard in forever.
Because there had been no lie in his voice, she eased out of the fissure and went to him.