Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

The bullets kept coming. No one cared that they were innocent bystanders, yet the focus of fire power was on them. Or so it seemed.

Get Camila! Snap out of it, Drew. Push forward!

He reached for her, the blare of guns, cannons, and a child’s scream nearly deafening him.

A child’s scream? He looked down, everything was in slow motion. Mya was in his lap, arms out, tears falling down her cheeks. She screamed for her mama.

A bullet whizzed by, sucking into the wall. Camila gasped for breath.

Drew butted up against the steel column, then placed Mya on the floor. “Stay here, I’m getting your mom. Stay. Here.”

There was no way Mya heard anything over this commotion, but he had to get her mom. He had to.

He crawled forward. Bullets ricocheted off the concrete floor. He glanced between the car and the steel column to the outside. Foreign soldiers rushed around, thin-looking jeeps with a gunner on top were blasting everything in view. In front of him was shattered glass and it was everywhere. US Marines were inside his dealership—no, his friend’s dealership. They returned fire, using anything and everything they could for cover.

Something brushed Drew’s finger. A bullet. His stomach fell and he looked at his hand, sure to see blood and a missing finger or two.

He exhaled. No blood and all five digits were intact. What had touched him? Out of the corner of his eye was Mya.

She had rushed to her mother’s side, more courageous than Drew could ever be. She didn’t care about guns. She cared about Camila, her mom—everything she loved.

Mya bent down, crying and shaking Camila, screaming something Camila couldn’t hear because she was gone, the glossiness in her eyes had turned to stone. “Momma, Momma.”

The gun fire shifted, and moved to another building.

The Marines had checked out, moving like dust in the wind. They were here for a moment and when the winds picked up, it carried them away far enough for Drew to hear a young girl’s sorrow punch him in his gut.

He had brought this young girl to see her mother’s last breath.

Drew stepped over a dead Marine, ignored the gnarly mess that had once been a face, and crossed to Mya.

War. Fighting. Killing. Why? Why any of it? To Drew, it was stupid. Over what? You ask children to be like adults and talk it out, share, and be kind, while adults act like children. No worse. Adults act like adults, killing what they want, who they want, and when they want.

He slid next to Mya who held her mother. “Come on, Mommy. Please. Mommy. Get up.”

Drew couldn’t explain. There were no words. At least Mya hadn’t gone looking for her brother. That would have finished them both. He hadn’t heard the baby cry since the roof had fallen in. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what had happened to him. He picked Mya up and held her tightly. She kicked and punched, yelling for her mother, never taking her eyes off her as Drew rounded the hybrid car with the key in hand.

“Oh, no.” The tires were flat, the doors were littered with holes, and the engine probably had a dozen bullets lodged inside.

Mya kicked him again and again. “Let me go.”

Drew dropped the key and repositioned the eight-year in his arms and ran to the black box. He opened it and surveyed the showroom floor. The SUV and the Jeep were shot to hell. The pickup was on its side. The two-door sedan was a hot mess. Yet, the one in the corner, the one hidden from windows and parked back toward the deeper offices, was a four-door sedan and not shot to shit.

He foraged through the keys. A small hand slapped him hard, then squeezed and scratched his nose.

He wanted to tell Mya to stop, to go to her room, time-out, no snack before dinner. Instead, he raced across the showroom, blocking more little girl slaps, and pressed the unlock button on the key. He plopped her down in the passenger seat and strapped the seat belt around her. He avoided a quick kick to the face.

“Where's Mommy? Let me fix my mommy. Don’t...touch. Help, help.” Mya reached out for her, tears streaking her face, her lips quivering. “Mommy. Mommy.”

Drew slammed the door shut and ran around to the other side. He pulled himself onto the driver’s seat. “I’m so sorry, Mya. Your mom will be back with us soon.” He started the car. “She just wants me to take you to your daddy, right now.” He lied and it didn’t work. Mya wouldn’t calm.

A cannon fired and the building shook. More of the ceiling collapsed in front of them, white drywall and plaster tumbled onto the car’s hood, wood joists plummeted to the ground in front of them, bouncing off the floor. His escape was now blocked.

He looked over his shoulder. More glass doors. Perfect.

He put the car in reverse and placed his foot on the pedal. The car shuddered as it hit a desk. He stepped his foot harder on the gas and drove the car through the glass doors. They shattered into a thousand pieces, the grind of concrete against the bottom of the car caused the vehicle to bob up and down the outside steps, until it leveled onto the street.

Drew shoved it into drive and pushed on the gas, immediately pressing both feet on the brake. The car skidded to a halt. A tank was twenty yards in front of him. He went to back up, but a throng of foreign soldiers ran at him from that direction. He glanced at Mya. Her head was in her knees. She sobbed uncontrollably.

He yanked the wheel, and floored it.

31

J-Quadrant, Solar System - East Rise, Callisto

Bogle read the vid screen in front of her. “Two minutes until impact. We’re entering East Rise, another city on Callisto.”

Rivkah shot her a look. Being given a play-by-play from an anxiety ridden co-pilot wasn’t her