by Andrew Gates
She pouted.
“But why? Why not?”
“It’s not my choice. You know I’ve told you that.”
“But da-ad!”
“Misha…”
His daughter shook her head and leaned back down on top of him again, avoiding his eyes, pouting the way only a child could. Grey was sick of giving her the same answer every time she asked about going home, but he could not blame her. This was an uncomfortable place, like nothing she was ever used to. He understood how hard it would be for her to accept that they might be here forever.
Grey heard footsteps coming from ahead. He leaned forward, trying to get a better view of the path. Within no time, he saw Jallah and Ophelia returning.
“We heard voices. Is Misha up?” Jallah asked.
Grey nodded. Misha turned her head to face them.
“Hi,” she said. Her thin arms crossed over her chest, making a display of her annoyance.
“That didn’t take long,” Ophelia said to Grey, deciding, probably wisely, to ignore the girl, lest she explode.
“What is it? Did you guys need help?”
“We wanted to know if we could eat something,” the boy answered, not wasting any time.
“We just found it,” Ophelia added. “It doesn’t look like the other nuts we’ve eaten, but it came off of a tree, so it’s got to be good, right?”
“Not necessarily,” said Grey. “What is it?”
Ophelia reached into her jumpsuit pocket and pulled out a small black ball, about the size of an eye. It looked like a nut, but its shape seemed too perfectly circular to be natural.
Grey held out his hand and Ophelia dropped it in his palm. It did not feel like any nut he had ever felt before. It almost felt artificial, like plastic. He rolled it around in his hand and admired its perfect spherical shape.
“Where did you find this?” he asked.
“You know the big tree? Ophelia stood on my shoulders and we tried to see if we could get up on it. This nut was wedged inside where one of the branches fell off,” Jallah explained.
“You’re saying this was wedged into the side of the tree where a branch used to be?”
Jallah nodded.
Grey was silent for a while as he studied the strange nut. But in the silence, he noticed a faint beeping noise. He moved his head around, trying to locate the source, and by their looks of surprise, Jallah and Ophelia were able to hear it as well.
“What is that?” Jallah eventually asked.
Grey held the nut up closer to his head and the sound grew louder. When he put the little thing next to his ear, it became obvious that it was the source of the noise.
“This thing is beeping!”
Grey stood up and looked around him. Why is a nut beeping?
“It’s the government!” Ophelia said, excitedly. “The government left this here in case anyone from the ocean made it to the sea above!”
“What are you talking about?” Jallah asked, turning to her. “The government is destroyed! The whole city is destroyed!”
“The city is destroyed, yes, but I don’t think the government is gone,” she explained, “Hear me out: I think the government just wanted to keep us down there. And they knew the air was fine up here the whole time. They lied to us, just to keep us there, under their rule. That’s why we can breathe. It was all a lie!”
Grey had trouble believing that. Out of all the theories he had heard so far, that seemed the least likely.
Just like your father, he thought as he looked at her. Though he barely knew the man, Tracey Saljov, may he rest in peace, had a reputation for paranoid delusions, always worried about the government’s secret doings. Clearly some of that had rubbed off on his daughter.
“No, no, I don’t think it’s the government. The Federation had no idea we’d be here. It’s got to be something else, it’s got to be-” Grey froze as the answer to the riddle entered his mind.
The UBEs.
“Quick!” Grey shouted. His sudden change in composure must have startled the kids. They jumped back quickly. “Put it back where you found it, now!” Grey handed the nut to Ophelia and turned around.
“Wake up!” he screamed, rushing into the cave and shouting at the unconscious bodies lying on the floor. Slowly they began to move one by one like groggy dolls gaining consciousness. Iris, with her damaged ear still not recovering, was unsurprisingly the last to wake up.
“What is it?” his brother asked, sensing the urgency. He was already on his feet, pushing hair back from his face with both hands. Just now awake and already as alert as could be.
“The kids found something. It was a nut, but it wasn’t a nut. It was a sensor or something, meant to look like a nut in disguise.”
“What? Where?”
“The big tree. It must be full of those little sensors, just waiting for someone to come along and knock one out of place.”
“You think it’s a trap?” Dan asked, getting right to it. He clearly understood.
“I do,” said Grey, nodding earnestly. “It’s like those surface era stories we used to hear about, the hunters in the woods setting traps for prey. Now that we’ve triggered their sensor, the hunters will be on us.”
Dan took a deep breath. He was just silent for a moment, though his brother knew his mind had to be screaming. Gears were set in motion, planning, scheming, doing whatever they could to find salvation, or so he hoped.
There was heavy breathing on Grey’s shoulder, warm and rapid. He turned to see his wife standing there, holding little Kaitlyn in her arms. Even in the semi darkness of the cave, their faces looked pale and flushed. They looked as terrified as he felt, maybe even more so.
“You heard all that?” Grey asked.
Selena nodded her head. Her body trembled slightly, a fact she tried to hide by bouncing her daughter on her hip.
“Do… do you think… do you think it’s the UBEs?” she stammered.
Grey did not answer right away. He turned toward his brother before turning back to his wife and child. There was no point keeping his thoughts to himself, not when a danger like this could be approaching.
“What else?” he said, after a long pause.
Selena sucked in a deep breath. It was a good thing Kaitlyn was too young to understand what was going on.
“Come on,” Dan said, placing his hand on her shoulder, “we’ve got to go. Don’t freak out. We’ve made it this far. How long has it been, four days?”
Grey did not know the answer either.
“What’s wrong?” Iris asked, jumping in. As always over the past few days, she was late to find out what was happening. She yawned as she walked toward them but recomposed herself when she saw the expressions of those around her.
“The kids may have triggered some sort of UBE trap!” Dan explained, loudly. It seemed like yelling was the only way to guarantee she could hear anything.
“Who did this?” Margery asked, appearing from behind a rock. She gritted her teeth and frowned. “Did Jallah do it?”
“Yes, Jallah found the sensor. And Ophelia,” Grey explained as the two adolescents joined them in the cave, leading Misha by the hand.
“Good, that’s all of us,” Dan said, looking around at the group. “Come on, we’ve got to get the hell out of here. Grey, help me grab the extra food.”
“Where are we going to go?” asked Ophelia, looking surprisingly composed.
“I don’t know, but somewhere. Anywhere but here,” said Dan.
As he said this, a faint humming filled the air. It sounded, somehow, like an engine. Their voices died down as the noise washed them out, though no one felt the need to speak anymore. Grey’s hand found his wife’s. She wrapped her fingers around his, tight like a vice grip. Her palm was cold and clammy, sweaty from illness and fear.
As they stood in anticipation, the sound was soon accompanied by a strong wind, blowing their hair in every direction like they were standing underneath a large fan. It did not last long. The wind faded awa
y almost as fast as it had come and a loud thud echoed through the forest. The nine survivors held their breath for a moment, waiting to see what happened next. Then came stomping, the loudest stomping Grey had ever heard.
A shiver ran up his spine, taking his whole body with it.
He could see the treetops swaying in the distance, moving like they were just leaves in the breeze. Then he heard a snap and watched as the trees started falling down like domino pieces on a table.
“Forget about the food!” Dan shouted. “Run!”
In an instant, Grey let go of the hand, picking up Misha and throwing her onto his shoulders. He was shaking but did not say a word. Her thighs clenched painfully tight around his neck, holding on to her father for dear life.
“Which way?” shouted Margery.
“West! Away from the coast! We have no exit that way!” Dan answered.
All nine of them took off without a second’s hesitation. Selena led the way, still carrying Kaitlyn in her arms, with Grey close at his wife’s heels, too full of adrenaline to feel the weight of Misha on his body. The difficult terrain did not even bother him. He just kept forward, whether over rocks or sticks or mud. As long as he kept his wife and daughters in sight, nothing could stop him.
Yet no matter how fast he ran, it seemed like the stomps grew closer and closer, the sound growing louder with every step he took away from it. It sounded like they were right there, closing in on him, so close that his pursuer needed only to reach out and touch him. Grey turned his head, fearful that the UBEs were right behind. Yet he saw nothing.
“Is it the UBEs?” Jallah shouted, breathless as they ran. “Are we sure?”
“It could be the government!” Ophelia responded. “They’re after us!”
Grey hoped she would stop saying that.
The group started running down a slope now, through shorter but denser plants. It was harder to find a good step, but Grey managed. As they reached the bottom, his foot hit something sticky and resistant: mud. Before them was a small flowing body of water.
“What do we do?” Jallah asked.
“Keep going!” Dan replied.
Grey watched as Selena darted right through the water, not hesitating for a second. He followed right behind her and could hear the others following behind him too. His shoes felt heavy in the water and his pace slowed, but it was not long before they reached the other side.
As Grey stepped back onto land, he turned around again, wondering if the UBEs were closer now. But what he saw was no UBE. It was much larger.
What he saw looked like a machine with two legs. The top, or body, looked like an armored rectangular box. Most of the box was a solid dark green, much like the trees around them, but the center was covered in what appeared to be a dark opaque glass. The box had two smaller wings jutting off of it, almost like arms. Along these arms were cannons like the ones they encountered back in the station.
The father almost tripped when he caught sight of it. He reached up a trembling hand and grabbed his daughter to steady her.
Two UBEs suddenly appeared, running out from behind the machine. They were not armored like the ones Grey had seen in the station, nor did they carry any weaponry. Even three meters tall, the creatures looked a third the height of the towering walker that accompanied them.
“Lord Beyond Both Seas!” Ophelia shouted. Clearly she had made the mistake of turning around.
“Don’t turn around!” Grey screamed, hoping none of the other kids would do the same thing. He could only imagine what was going through Misha’s head right now. She was seeing everything he was.
Grey turned back around again and continued running inland. Misha started kicking and shouting. The worried father ignored her painful strikes, grabbed her tightly by the ankles and pressed on, following his wife as she led the group through the foliage.
“We have to lose them somehow!” Dan shouted.
“How?” Selena asked, continuing forward without losing her speed.
Grey thought about it for a second. They were outpaced, outsized and outgunned. As humans, their bodies were not as powerful. They were small, weak, slow.
Just like the small animals we tried to hunt for food.
“Irregular motions! Use our small size to our advantage!” Grey shouted. “Split up! Run in irregular patterns!”
“He’s right!” Dan agreed. “Great idea! We can scurry and hide. We can outmaneuver them! Do it!”
With those words, everyone broke apart. Selena, still holding Kaitlyn in her arms, made a sudden left turn around a thick tree trunk, almost losing Grey entirely.
Grey decided to dart right, continuing his fast pace, but now running perpendicular to the UBEs and their mechanized walker.
He quickly glanced at his pursuers. The machine stopped in its tracks, as if trying to decide which target to follow. The two UBEs didn’t miss a heartbeat and split up, one continuing forward, another running in Grey’s direction.
Shit, it’s decided to follow me!
Misha started kicking even harder now, squealing in terror. She must have known the creature had set its sights on them. Grey struggled to keep her from falling off.
“Faster dad, faster!”
It was not far until Grey reached the flowing water again. He kept it on his right side, running parallel to it now. It seemed like the water was getting deeper and faster. Suddenly he realized that he was running downhill. The incline only got more extreme as he continued along.
He stopped in his path. A sheer drop stood between him and a deep pool below. The water to his right fell down into it, like a faucet filling up the largest bathtub he’d ever seen.
He turned. The UBE was almost to him now. The thing was faster than he realized.
Misha’s screams were piercing, powerful enough to give him hearing like Iris.
Grey knew what he had to do. Without another second’s hesitation, he took a step forward and pushed off, jumping in the air above the pool below. He pulled Misha off of him as he fell and tossed her forward. The little girl landed first, splashing into the water. Grey fell right behind her.
Impact.
Grey crashed through the surface like hitting a pane of glass. The water was cold, dark and icy, unforgiving. It was so deep he could not even stand. His heart clenched in terror. Before him, he could see his home, flooded with water. His ears rang out with the screams of his friends and family as the UBEs raced through the station, leaving destruction in their path. He couldn’t move, his entire body frozen as the memory replayed in front of his eyes.
But this was not the station and his family was in danger now. In an instant, he shook out of it, his body becoming his once more.
Grey kicked his legs until his head pierced the waterline. He swatted his arms, hoping he could stay up. He heard Misha shouting and swam toward the noise. It did not take long to find her. He grabbed onto his daughter and pulled her to the nearest shoreline.
The father sat down and looked up from the drop where they had just come. The UBE stood above them, glaring down. For a moment, Grey feared that it would jump over the edge and follow them into the pool. But instead, it simply turned and walked away.
We’re not even worth it’s time, he realized.
He took a deep breath and held onto his daughter as tightly as he could. She coughed, expelling the water from her lungs. She was strong. She was a survivor, not just once, but twice over. He kissed her on the head and fell back onto the muddy ground, catching his breath.
He could not believe he was still alive.
Crack!
More trees snapped. Grey could not see them, but he could hear them breaking and tumbling to the ground. The noises were coming from above the ridge.
That mechanized thing is still up there.
Misha was breathing heavily, as if she understood what came with the sound of snapping trees.
“Calm down, Misha,” Grey said as he held her tightly. “Calm down.”
She continued breathin
g heavily, the air coming out in quick pants, but closed her eyes and pressed her body into his. He could tell she was trying. His girl was smart.
The snapping of trees continued, but the sound slowly faded away. It’s moving on by, Grey realized. Part of him was relieved that the walker was moving away from them, but another part of him worried for his companions.
If it’s not after us, then who’s it after?
If he were on his own, he may have gone and helped. But with Misha in his arms, there was too much at risk. He could not leave her.
“Misha, let’s play a game, huh?” he said, brushing wet strands of hair out of her face. “Do you want to help daddy dig a hole? Dig here in the mud? Right here, we don’t even have to get up. We need to hide. Cover yourself so nobody can see us.”
They scrambled, pulling mud up from the ground until there was a hole large enough to sit in. Grey rolled into it and pulled his daughter in, setting her down next to him. They scooped up the mud around them and covered themselves in it, exposing only their heads and parts of their arms.
Insects flew this way and that, landing on their faces and hands. Grey simply ignored them. These small creatures were the least of his worries right now.
“Hey! Is anyone down there?”
Grey lifted his head toward the sound of Iris’s voice. It was coming somewhere off in the distance, way away. It was the first sound he had heard in what seemed like ages other than his own breathing and the breaths of his little girl.
“Hello?” he shouted back, lifting his head from the mud. It made a squelch like a plunger being unstuck. Misha giggled at this, the sound like music to his ears.
“I heard him!” Jallah’s voice responded. “He’s down there!”
It felt like an eternity, but it was probably closer to an hour since Grey and Misha hid away in the mud. The anticipation was terrifying. He planned to sit there until the dead of night if he had to.
Grey lifted his legs until they were uncovered from the ground. He rolled over and stood up, then helped pull Misha out. She played with the mud between her fingers, amazed by the texture of it. Grey wondered how long it would take to get all of it off of her. The heat of the sun had baked so much of it on her skin. He probably wasn’t looking much better himself.
