The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

17. All the children

We made Money wait outside and got ready. I got dressed and put a comb through my hair, and splashed my face with warm water. From the tap. Warm water from the tap was an expression I hadn't heard in over fifteen years.

When we opened the door to the apartment, there was a young man holding Money up. I looked closer — it was Ocean, a member of Money's gang.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I want to come too, please."

"Come where? Jesus Christ — where do you think we're going?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not packing a bunch of kids around with me," I stated firmly. "Why don't you stay here and take care of Money."

"No, no, I'm coming with you," Money protested.

"Me too," Ocean chimed in. "Please."

I rolled my eyes and groaned, "Get out of here!" and slammed the door in their faces. I turned to Michael and Nicole, who were both as surprised as I was. What the heck? I thought. What am I gonna do?

"Do we have to take them?" Michael asked, his face showing his distaste. Money's gang had never treated him well, so I could understand why.

And well, Nicole, that was a whole other thing. She was just standing there, mute as ever, chewing her cuff.

"Look, it's a free world — I can't exactly make them stay away from us. Are you going to hit them with a baseball bat?"

Michael looked down at the bat he was holding, and shrugged. "Naw."

"Neither am I. So I guess they're both coming with us, right?"

Michael nodded.

Nike didn't make a move.

"Come, let's go," I said. "Nike, you hold my hand and we'll go first. Michael, you stay behind Money and Ocean. If they make a move — bash their brains out — got it?"

"I guess so..." he said reluctantly.

"Just pretend you're lieutenant Riggs," I reminded him.

He blushed, but gripped the baseball bat with more confidence. I could see a Riggs-like expression taking over his face.

It actually broke my heart a little bit. I turned around and steeled myself, then I opened the door.

Ocean and Money were standing there with sweet cherubim faces, giving me pretty-please smiles.

We all descended using the elevator, which was still somehow operational. The Cultural Preservation Taskforce had taken everything of value to me, but left behind their strange technology. I still did not understand how the electricity in the building worked when it worked no where else in the city. Except across the water, in the library downtown. How on earth did they get this technology.

My flesh broke out in goosbumps as I remembered that computer, the telepathic computer that Father Mercer had created. Would that computer bring good things into the world, or bad? It gave me a creepy feeling thinking about it, and I pushed the thought away as the elevator doors opened.

We exited the elevator and walked through the lobby, lit up by the sun with high glass windows. It was amazing that all of the pigeons were gone, and the glass was whole again. The re-bots had remade all the windows in the building. The foyer looked better than I had ever seen it.