by Jaymin Eve
I sucked in a few deep breaths. Wafts of cool, fresh air drifted lazily through my lungs. It was intoxicatingly clean, no soot, smoke, or pollution. I wondered how I had missed this the last time I was here.
“Oh, my God, Abbs, are you breathing? Tell me you’re breathing.” Lucy was next to me, eyes closed, face raised. “Un-freaking-believable.”
I shook my head. “I keep waiting to wake up and find I’ve been in a coma for the past week.”
Lucy’s quick grin should have been my indication, but she was too fast, reaching over to punch me – a solid hit to my biceps.
“Ouch! What the hell was that for?” I growled at her, rubbing my arm.
“I was just testing your theory. You don’t feel pain in dreams, or coma-dreams.”
“Oh, right. And you know this how?” I rubbed harder. Where was she hiding those muscles? “You just wanted to punch me.”
She shrugged.
I shook my head before taking a moment to look around. I should have been freaking out. I knew it. But instead I felt this great sense of relief. “There must be elevated oxygen levels here.”
“So, are we going with alternate universe? Another planet?” Lucy’s voice was calm. Deceptively calm.
“I have no fracking idea. I’m still trying to get my head around the fact I’m standing in dreamland.”
She snorted and widened her eyes at me. “Did you just say ‘fracking’?”
I shrugged. “I’m trying to clean up my potty mouth. You know, meet your mother, get mouth washed out with soap.”
“And you think ... fracking ... is the way?” She threw me a look of dismay. “That’s effing terrible. Just stick with swearing.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. “Are you kidding? It’s the best. There are at least three different curses in one.”
She disregarded this with a wave of her hand. I knew how she felt – arguing with a crazy person could get tiring.
“So this is your dreamland, Abbs? It’s very ... green.” She was swinging her head around trying to take it all in.
I laughed louder. Lucy must have been expecting her dream land – shoe stores.
“It’s so wild and ancient looking.” She craned her neck. Her blond ponytail ruffled in the light breeze. “These trees are out-of-control tall. I think the clouds are floating through their branches.” She dragged in large deep breaths. “And this air – ah-ma-zing.”
I nodded. “God, yes, especially compared to the crap we were breathing in New York.”
Dust lived in New York air, like some type of symbiotic relationship. Of course I’d never really noticed until right then just how bad it was.
“Does it feel like home? I can’t believe your mother is here ... somewhere. Think about it, Abbs, you’re not from New York – maybe even Earth.” Her face fell.
I nudged her gently to break the mood. “So I’m an alien from the jungle,” I said, looking around. “Technically, here – you’re the alien.”
Lucy’s expression lifted. She nodded. “Word. Let’s pick a direction and get this show on the road.”
Through the towering treetops, glimpses of the sky shone through. White fluffy clouds dotted around the dark blue-ish purple. Yes, you heard right. Purple. Shaking my head, I tore my eyes from the sky to stare at Lucy.
“Can we take a minute to address a few things?” I held a finger up. “One – it was afternoon and freezing in New York. Here–” I squinted into the sun. “I’m guessing mid-morning and hot, hot, hot.”
I lifted the hem of my shirt, trying to rediscover the cool breeze. The heat was different to any I’d felt: heavy and damp. Drops of moisture already beaded my forehead. I raised a second finger.
“And the sky is freaking purple.”
Lucy shook her head at me. “Purple – seriously, Abby? Have I taught you nothing? It’s indigo.” She sighed. “I might have to get out my color chart again.”
“Purple – indigo – maroon. The important part – the sky should be blue.” I took a deep breath. “And I live in constant fear of having to sit through ‘what color suits Abby?’ again.” I raised my voice in a high-pitched imitation of Lucy.
She proceeded to both flip me off and stick her snooty nose in the air. “One day my skills will serve us well. You just wait and see. And I got nothing with the sky. I’m just going to pretend it’s normal.”
I looked around. We were standing in the center of a jungle that was denser than I remembered from my last visit to crazy town. I couldn’t determine any path through the vegetation. From our compound stash, I’d packed a few energy bars and three bottles of water, but that wouldn’t last long. We needed to find shelter first, followed closely by food.
“Is that a slight pathway through there?” Lucy pointed out a small gap between what could have been two bright green ferns.
That was my guess, anyways. We had no plants back home to compare. And pictures did not give a great representation.
I tilted my head, trying to see around. “There doesn’t seem to be a path anywhere. We’ll have to push our way through and see what’s on the other side.”
I moved first, the foliage hugging close on either side. Once we were past the initial large bushy plant, a type of path did appear, widening enough for us to move more freely.
“How old do you think this forest is?” Lucy swatted away at some small flying bugs as she followed. “These trees are as tall as skyscrapers.”
I looked up again; the trees were massive and intimidating. I felt like a dwarf walking amongst the giants. And the noise – life echoed throughout – a chorus of insects, birds chirping and sporadic rustling throughout the undergrowth. There was nothing stagnant here.
I brushed my hands through the shiny silkiness of some leaves. Sticky sap coated my fingertips when I pulled back. “This entire forest looks ancient. Back home, long ago they’d have demolished this for a housing complex or something equally useless. ”
I wiped my hands on my pants, all the while thinking of how bad Earth’s over-development problem had been in the early twenty-first century, throwing its entire eco-system out of sync. Now New York had thousands of abandoned buildings, but zero food – priorities, people.
I gestured to nearby flowers, gorgeous orange blooms. “Imagine how pretty New York would be if there were still flowers and trees. This is the way a world should look.”
Lucy was also brushing her hands through the leaves as she walked. Before she suddenly started to shriek. “Eeeeeek ... eek ... crap! Get it off.” She was jumping up and down, spider webs trailing along her arm and in her hair.
Laughing, I helped de-web her. Luckily, there was no sign of the web owner, although Lucy made me spend an additional ten minutes double- and triple-checking her hair.
Finally she relented, shuddering as she looked around. “You know, at least when there’re less plants there are less bugs, and that’s fine by me.”
Lifting my face, letting the sunlight bathe me in its glow for a moment, I shook my head. “Not me – I love plants. When I was younger I’d sneak around the compound burying seeds, but the soil was too dry and leached of nutrients. Nothing ever grew.”
Lucy’s eyebrows rose in astonishment. “Are you freaking kidding me? How could I not know that about you?”
I laughed. “Gardens aren’t exactly your thing, Luce, so I just kept that little quirk to myself.”
She nodded. “True, I can appreciate the beauty of nature as much as anyone, but I’m more about the clean sheets and walk-in wardrobe.” She pulled at some missed web and leaves in her hair. “Although it’s growing on me. There’s something recharging and peaceful here. It’s hard to describe.”
After trekking for thirty minutes, I paused to mop up some of the sweat. We had taken our coats off but it was still stifling hot. Retrieving a bottle, I took a huge gulp of water, letting small amounts run down my chin. I handed the half-full container to Lucy and looked about in misery.
“Is this a f
orest or a sauna?”
Lucy peered around me as she stashed the now empty container in her bag. Her hair hung in damp clumps, pale skin slightly pink and flushed.
“Does the undergrowth look like it’s thinning over there?” She pointed to the tree line about fifty feet away.
Shifting my pack higher, I changed direction. As we moved closer, I could see what she meant. The undergrowth was tapering off to reveal a small clearing in the forest. My eyes took a few minutes to adjust. The canopy was thinner, the light extra bright. I noticed a strange reflection near the back.
“Tell me you’re seeing that house?” Lucy whispered, practically climbing my back to see over my shoulder.
I squinted again. Finally the scene came into focus. “Holy moth– shut the door,” I managed to splutter as I stared.
There was a house tucked into the trees, and I’d almost missed it. And no, my sight wasn’t failing – the entire house was camouflaged. It looked just like the forest.
I moved into the small clearing. Four steps in and I was standing at the left side of the house. I glanced around furtively before leaning in closer. The material was unusual, smooth with no visible joins. I reached out to examine the texture, but did a double take as my hand reflected back at me.
“It imitates its surroundings, Abbs.” Lucy leaned her face closer, laughing as her blond-haired, blue-eyed image reflected back perfectly.
“That’s pretty damn clever. It allows the building to blend into the forest.” I was impressed. “This is so ‘not in New York’. The gangs would be all over this to hide their lairs or whatever they call them.”
Lucy nodded. “So this is an extremely advanced part of Earth – right?”
Even I could tell she didn’t believe that, but she’d reverted back to denial, the best kind of ignorance.
I shook my head. “You heard what Quarn said. Do you really think we’re still on Earth?”
Grimacing, she stuck her tongue out at me. Before I could retaliate, a bang shattered the silence.
We both jumped.
My heart galloped in my chest, threatening to burst out like a weird alien baby.
Lucy crouched low. “Ahhh – what the hell was that?”
“I think we might be about to see our first inhabitants,” I whispered back. I was pretty sure the noise had been a door slamming open.
Lucy gripped my arm and gestured toward some large trees framing the back of the house. They weren’t going to offer much cover, but better than being caught in the open.
Moving quickly, we made it just in time. Through the branches I spotted a man standing in the exact spot we’d just vacated. And – wait for it – he was tall. Notice the pattern: Quarn was tall; Brace even taller. Even I was reasonably tall. I looked down at Lucy; she was going to hate it here.
“Guess I know where your ridiculously unfair height advantage comes from,” she whispered indignantly.
I was determined not to laugh at Lucy’s predictability. She was so touchy about her height.
As we watched, he turned on the spot, surveying the forest from all angles. He looked to be around thirty, with blond, shoulder-length hair tied back against the nape of his neck. He was good-looking, but in that boring guy-next-door way, with lightly tanned skin and a few laugh lines framing his eyes.
My attention was suddenly drawn to a large black baton resting over his shoulder. I shuddered, thinking about being smacked around with that. It looked kind of lethal. I was distracted from this by movement close to his feet. Emerging from near-by ferns, an enormous gray animal padded over to sit beside him.
What is that? I turned questioning wide eyes to Lucy. She was mesmerized, her mouth open. I turned back. The only comparison I could think of were pictures of a pack of wolves from my animal textbook. The basics were there: body shape, four legs, pointed ears. But everything else was slightly off, its features more elongated, its eyes extra-large and intelligent.
I’d always wanted a pet – what kid doesn’t? – but animals were rare in the city – practically non-existent. And don’t ask me why. Trust me, it’s better you don’t know.
“Bady, I don’t see anyone, but the alarm did sound. Can you take this side of the zone and I’ll patrol the west end.” The man looked down as he talked to the animal.
Lucy nudged me, not that she needed to. I’d heard – same accent again. There was a smooth quality to this man’s, something Quarn’s lacked, although I preferred the throaty quality of Quarn’s voice. It was more real.
Taking into account how foreign this land was, I wondered again about their ability to speak English. I shook my head. Yet another question to add to the growing list.
Bady took off at the command. Either he was well trained, or animals were far more intelligent than I’d been led to believe. The man disappeared around the front of the house.
“Got a plan yet, Abbs? That animal thing is heading our way,” Lucy asked worriedly.
I peered back through the bushes. Bady was running in diagonal strips, sniffing the ground as he went.
I spoke quickly. “Either we speak with the man, play dumb and see where we’ve ended up ... or we make a run for it and hope to find a town nearby.”
Lucy looked around nervously. “Not really a fan of the stick he was carrying. Let’s make a run for it.”
I nodded. That was my preference too.
Holding hands, we backed through the trees. Ten feet later, we turned away from the house.
“That way.” I pointed to the less foliaged area.
Freeing my hand, I pushed Lucy to move first. She sprang out of the bushes. I was right behind her. We hurtled through the dense growth. I couldn’t see a thing in front of me and winced as the low branches and vines whipped and stung. Glancing over my shoulder, I was relieved to see no pursuers yet. My gaze snapped forward at Lucy’s yell.
I immediately saw the cause of her alarm: a strange gleam suspended in the air.
We were too close. No way to avoid the impact.
Lucy hit first and flew back past me. Closing my eyes, I threw up my hands and cushioned the collision, before a loud thump catapulted me backwards. With no time to panic, darkness claimed me.
Chapter 6
