Page 77 of The Only Way Out Is Up

The morning we’re finally ready to go, I come downstairs to find Ky standing mostly naked with sword in hand, while Spike watches from the safety of the stairs. The thin ribbon of blade shivers through the air, then goes completely still, almost invisible edge-on. Ky has shoved the kitchen table against one wall so she can practice forms, snapping from one position to another and then freezing in place. She wears only shorts and a cloth bandage wrapped around her chest.

Spike looks on without daring to blink. I’m not sure if she’s falling in love or getting religion.

“Good morning,” I say.

Ky whips a cut around so fast I can hear the air shiver, then mimes sheathing the blade at her empty side and looks up. Her skin is covered in a fine sheen of sweat. When she spots me, she smiles.

“I take it you’re feeling better?” I say.

“Much.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Sorry if I’ve disrupted your morning, Spike.”

“Can I try?” Spike blurts out.

“Not right now,” Somi says from the doorway. “We’ve got dough to fold.”

Reluctantly, Spike tears herself away. Ky touches a control on her sword hilt, and the blade folds back on itself, sections clicking into place around the oval guard.

“Ready to go?” she asks me.

“Getting there. You may be a little underdressed.”

She looks down at herself. “I didn’t know it was a formal occasion.”

I hold up a section of my scavenging armor. “Trust me on this. The Heap is ninety percent sharp edges.”

“Have you got some that’ll fit me?” she says.

“Bits and pieces. It won’t be comfortable, though.”

“I’ll survive.” Ky cocks her head. “You’re not going to suggest I stay behind for my own safety?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

The Heap shudders with a distant impact, rumbles passing through the junk beneath our feet. I pause a moment, but no junkquake follows.

“You really just hope nothing falls on you?” Ky says as we start moving again, casting one wary eye up at the Asshole far above. “That’s the whole plan?”

“Not much else you can do,” I tell her. “There’s usually some time between drops, actually, so we’re safer now we’ve just had one.”

“Safer. Not safe.”

“Nothing’s safe about the Heap.” I shrug. “But the odds of it hitting you directly are pretty small.”

“Very reassuring.”

“What you really should be worried about are slides and quakes. If a big piece lands nearby, the whole pile can come apart. Imagine this”—I gesture to the surrounding landscape of twisted chunks of concrete, broken shards of metal, and miscellaneous glass fragments—“rolling right over you.”

“Honestly I’d rather not.” She shakes her head in wonderment. “What is all this stuff?”

“I would have thought you would know better than I would. Hod is closer to Above than we are. You even get visitors.”

“Once every five years, and they never talk to anybody. Or at least not to anybody I know. Maybe the heads of the Council families know more.” She tries to rub her eyes, and her gauntlet clunks against her mask. “This thing is hot, you know.”

“Sorry. Yours isn’t well fitted.” Though in truth it’s warm and muggy inside my own mask, too. We’d borrowed Ky’s gear from some old stuff Somi had once used. It’ll keep sharp edges from her skin, but it doesn’t have the extra armor plates I’ve sewn into my own outfit.

[Report: tunnel located. Currently unoccupied.]