2017 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide

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2017 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide Page 30

by Maggie Allen


  The slope was littered with debris. Strips of metal were twisted around felled tree trunks. Wires clung to the trampled vines. Hunks of plastic dotted the ground.

  “We should grab what we can,” Sophia said. “You never know what we can use.”

  Maleek bent down and held up a sliver of steel. The top was a jagged point, and the back had been melted into a long, thin glob. “Are you saying you want to save this?”

  “Totally.” Sophia snatched it out of his hand. “What does this look like?”

  He shrugged. “Junk?”

  “No.” She grabbed a long branch—one that wasn’t covered with oily sap—and prayed it wasn’t poisonous. “It looks like a spearhead.”

  “Quick,” she said, positioning the jagged end at the top of the stick. “Give me a shoelace.”

  “You’re kidding,” Maleek said. But when the brush along the clearing thrashed, he had it in her hand faster than she could insist.

  Securing the metal to the shaft was a lot harder than Sophia thought, and it took Maleek’s other lace to get it right. But when she finished, they had a wicked spear.

  “Keep your eyes peeled,” Sophia said as they restarted their march. “If we find another sharp piece, we can make another one.”

  “We can’t,” Maleek said, eyeing the trees suspiciously. “I’m out of shoelaces.”

  They continued gathering as they climbed. They hadn’t gone far when Sophia spotted a wisp of smoke rising from the trees.

  “Maleek.” She pointed her spear. “Tell me you see that.”

  “It’s just smoke.”

  “No, it’s fire.” She let her gathered plunder tumble out of her arms. “And we need it.”

  “You want to go in there and get it?” Maleek scoffed. “Are you crazy?”

  A few of those blue bugs buzzed through the air, but the hillside was pocketed by clouds of other bugs, too.

  Bugs whose stings could carry poison, Sophia knew. And whose bites could pass diseases.

  “We have to.” She rebooted The Traveler’s Companion and clicked on the picture of the campfire. “Fire can deter predators,” she read, “keep bugs away, help purify water,” she looked up, “and a dozen other things.” She took the spear in both hands. “We need it.”

  It was hot and sticky in the open. Inside the trees was a dank, dark oven. There was no memory of a breeze, and the air was so heavy Sophia felt she was wearing a wet blanket.

  “Do you see the smoke?” Sophia whispered.

  They were only steps into the trees, but the sky had already disappeared above them.

  “I don’t see anything,” Maleek grumbled.

  “I think it was coming from over here.” She lifted a vine out of the way with the tip of her spear and ducked beneath it.

  She could smell it. They had to be close.

  We have to be careful, Sophia told herself. If we get disoriented, we might never find our way back.

  She sniffed the air again and was relieved when the smell seemed a little stronger.

  “I think I see it.” Maleek pointed through a cluster of bushes with long yellow thorns. “Or at least I see a light.”

  Sophia saw it, too. Something was flickering in the shadows.

  “That must be it,” she said. “We’ll work our way around these.” She nudged one of the bushes with her spear. “Try not to touch them.”

  “Duh.” Maleek gestured to the oil pooling at the ends of one of the needles. “I wasn’t planning on bathing with that.”

  They crept around and found the source of fire. It looked like a chunk of one of the engines. The cylinder was cracked open, revealing guts of wires and gears, and whatever was leaking from its side fed a tiny river of blue fire.

  “The fire hasn’t caught on any of the plants,” Sophia said. “They’re probably too wet.” She looked around at her feet. “We need to find something dry before it burns out.”

  She grabbed a branch, but it was so soaked and rotted it crumbled in her hands.

  “We’re in a jungle,” Maleek told her. He held a stick over the flames, but it hissed instead of lighting. “There’s nothing dry.”

  She hated to do it, but she tried the hilt of her spear.

  No good, she thought, twisting the wood over the blue flames.

  She accidentally brushed the haft against the ground, and when she pulled it out of the pooling fuel, it came up coated with blue fire.

  “It’s like lantern oil,” she said as it dawned on her. “We can use it to make torches.”

  She ripped a strip of her sleeve off and wrapped it around the spearhead. Then she dunked it into the fuel and let it sop up as much as it would hold. When she lifted it into the flames, it lit up like a candle.

  “We can use the fuel to take the fire with us,” she told Maleek. “It will burn longer anyway, and it’s less likely to go out.”

  He nodded. “And we’ll find some good wood when we’re safely out of this jungle.”

  As he took off one of his socks and wrapped it around a twisted branch, the sound of something scampering through the leaves—the sound of something big—made them both freeze.

  “Put your shoe on,” Sophia said, staring into the shadows. “Light that quick and run.”

  It was on their heels by the time they reached the clearing—a giant horned bear with scales instead of fur.

  “No!” Sophia said when her brother paused to gather the stuff they’d ditched. She grabbed him by the hand and led him up the hill. “Leave it!”

  We’ll never outrun that thing, Sophia realized when she glanced over her shoulder and saw the beast burst out of the tree line.

  She urged her brother to move faster and, right on cue, Maleek screamed and fell.

  “What happened?” Sophia said, yanking him back to his feet.

  “I don’t know.” He grabbed at his ankle. “It feels like something bit me.” He tried to put weight on it and nearly fell over again. “It feels like my leg is on fire.”

  “We have to keep moving,” Sophia told him.

  But his first hobbled steps told her it wouldn’t matter. The beast would be on them before they got halfway up the hill.

  It feels like it’s on fire, she repeated her brother’s words in her head. Fire!

  She glanced at her spear and stopped running. “The book said fire could deter predators,” she said as she turned. “Let’s find out if it’s right.”

  It won’t work, Sophia told herself, watching the beast race toward them in long bounding strides. It’s too big. She glanced at the blue fire dancing at the end of her spear. This is like trying to scare a lion with a toothpick.

  As she retreated backward up the hill, she heard something crunch beneath her feet… something dry and brittle.

  She looked down and, if she wasn’t so terrified that she couldn’t feel her face, she might have smiled. Clumps of thick, brown grass littered the ground around them.

  She dabbed her spear into the thickest patch and prayed.

  It lit like a stack of matches.

  “Burn it,” she told her brother, shoving her spear into another tuft. “Light up as much as you can.”

  By the time the beast was close enough to strike, they had made a wall of fire. It stopped and roared at the flames. But when it tried to pounce through, it howled in pain and yelped away.

  “What are you doing?” Maleek demanded as Sophia stood staring. “Waiting ’til it comes back?”

  “No.” Sophia said, shaking herself back into action. “Let’s get out of here. We need someplace to hide.”

  They wove through the boulders scattered in front of the cliffs.

  “This couldn’t be any creepier,” Maleek said.

  “Seriously,” Sophia agreed.

  The yellow sun had set and the dim red light of the remaining star mixed with their torches’ blue flames, forming pockets of eerie purple light. Shadows twisted around them as they walked, and Sophia peered into each patch of darkness, expecting some new monster to j
ump out at them.

  “Hey,” Maleek said when the base of the cliff was in sight, “I think I see a cave.”

  He limped forward.

  Sophia caught him by the arm just before he reached the jagged mouth. “Don’t go in,” she told him.

  “Don’t go in?” Maleek cocked his head. “Are you nuts?”

  He tried to pull away, but she held him in place. “Just wait a second,” she said. “Let me look this up.”

  She found the page dedicated to natural shelters. “When seeking shelter in caves,” she read aloud, “carefully inspect the area for rodents, insects, and snakes. If fire is available, smoke can be used to flush out inhabitants.”

  “Fine.” Maleek thrust his torch into the opening.

  “That won’t work,” she said. “Not enough smoke. This says to build a fire at the edge of the cave.”

  There were tufts of thick grass sprouting out among the boulders. They made a pile just inside the threshold and lit it, but there wasn’t nearly enough smoke to scare anything out.

  “Great plan,” Maleek mocked.

  Sophia gave him a quick eye roll and scanned through the Companion. “We need green plants,” she said when she was done. “And something to fan the fire.”

  The large-leafed plants they found clinging to the side of the cliff did both. They tossed some onto the fire and used others to waft the smoke into the cave.

  Within seconds, a swarm of scaly, bird-like creatures poured out at them.

  “You didn’t mention this part!” Maleek shrieked, cupping his head as they whizzed by.

  “I didn’t know!” she shrieked back. One of the things landed right on her face, and she nearly bloodied her own nose batting it away. “But it’s better than living with them!”

  The cave was cramped. The ceiling was so low Sophia had to hunch over and there was barely enough floor space for them both.

  “We can’t let this go out,” she said, adding more of the twigs and grass to the fire. Her torch had winked out, and Maleek’s was sputtering. “We’re going to need bigger logs.”

  “Then let’s get some.” Maleek tried to stand, but he slumped back against the wall with a wince.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” She slid around the fire to his feet. “Let me see it.”

  She put his leg in her lap and carefully folded back his pant-leg.

  She tried not to let the worry show. His ankle was swollen, and a gooey mixture of blood and puss oozed out of two rows of small teeth marks.

  “How’s it look?” Maleek asked.

  “Probably like it feels,” she answered.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Yeah,” she said. She tore a chunk off her remaining sleeve and cleaned it the best as she could. “That bad.”

  The next morning Sophia awoke to find the fire, and her brother, still burning.

  The fever that hit him the night before had worsened. His face was pale, his skin was soaked with sweat, and he was shaking like he was locked in a cryo-freezer.

  She sat up and rubbed the small of her back. “How are you feeling?”

  “Never better,” he said through chattering teeth. “Why do you ask?”

  She crawled over and felt his forehead.

  “What’s the diagnosis, doc?”

  “Better,” she lied.

  Her book’s first aid page told her that poisonous bites or stings usually looked like puncture wounds. On Earth, there were usually one or two holes. On other planets, the number varied, but it was usually only a few. Fever and swelling from many shallow teeth marks meant bacteria or virus in the saliva. It was the way Komodo Dragons hunted on Earth. Bite the prey. Wait until it’s sick. Dinner.

  The last words on the screen almost made her weep. Keep the patient warm and calm, it read. Seek medical attention immediately.

  She leaned back and stared at the fire. Medical attention? she thought hopelessly. Right. I’ll just call the doctor and then stop off at the pharmacy.

  The thought of medicine made her straighten.

  It had been there, she knew. But did it survive the crash? She tried to picture the ship. I saw it before we ran. I did. But can I get back to it?

  One glance at her brother told her she had no choice. She spent the next few minutes reading, then stood and grabbed her spear.

  “Where you going?”

  “Gathering,” she said. If she told him where, he’d never let her go.

  “I’d tell you not to,” he said. “But you never listen.”

  “Keep the fire going,” she told him. She unwrapped the burnt cloth from the end of her spear and dropped it into the coals. “I’ll be right back.”

  She found a wet spot in the ground and started digging.

  Natural insecticide, she thought. She rubbed mud on every inch of exposed skin: her arms, her neck, her face. And maybe a little camouflage, too.

  She kept her eyes on the trees as she walked, but she saw nothing but bugs all the way down to where the ship had slipped over the lip of the canyon.

  Maleek had glanced over the edge and said he wouldn’t go down there. And now she knew why.

  The ship was on a shelf a hundred feet below. It had landed nose first and was buried in the dense branches of a lone tree. The battered back thrusters were leaning precariously against the back wall, and it looked like it might slide sideways and roll off the ledge at any second.

  “Am I really doing this?” Sophia whispered.

  The rock beneath her was pocked with holes and lined with cracks. There would be plenty of handholds.

  Take your time, she told herself. She leaned out as far as she dared and tried to eye her route. Think it through. She swallowed, set her spear aside, and swung a leg over the ledge.

  It was hard to make her body move. She had to force herself to let go of every hold, and she was shaking so bad her feet felt like they might jiggle themselves free.

  “I can do this,” she mumbled. “Just keep moving.”

  A hard breeze hit her as she reached the tail of the ship, and the metal let out a threatening groan.

  “Don’t you dare,” she warned as she scrambled past. “You can fall when I’m finished.”

  The climbing got harder when she reached the treetop. She forced her way through the thick branches; finding footholds was like trying to read in the dark.

  When she finally got low enough to see, she found that one of the tree’s thicker limbs was lodged through the open emergency door.

  It might be the only thing holding it in place, she thought as she leaned out from the rock and hooked an arm around the branch.

  As she swung herself over and began working up into the cabin, she risked a glance down.

  “Bad idea,” she mumbled. It was a long way down to the ledge, and the tree was perched on the edge of an abyss. “Very bad idea.”

  She wrapped herself around the branch and squirmed her way into the cabin.

  It’s actually here. She sighed with relief. The white cabinet was battered and hanging crooked from its bolts, but it was there. Now how do I get to it?

  It was bolted to the far wall at the nose of the ship, and it was dangling over a hole in the hull. The way the ship was leaning and the way the ledge curved inward underneath meant that there was nothing but open air beneath it.

  Another gust of wind made the ship give a fresh moan. She thought she felt it wobble.

  The seats look solid enough, she told herself.

  She’d have to drop a few feet to the back of the nearest one and, if the jolt didn’t make the ship tip off the ledge, she should be able to make her way down by climbing from chair to chair.

  She dangled and dropped, crouching down as she landed to ease the impact, but she still felt the ship quiver.

  She waited until it stopped, then crawled toward the center aisle and worked her way down to the front row.

  Here goes, she thought, carefully standing on the back of the chairs.

  The gap between her and the wall
wasn’t big, but with the hole looming beneath her, it looked much wider than it was. She swallowed, braced herself by grabbing onto the armrest above her and reached for the latch.

  She tugged at it a few times and, just as it popped, she heard a hiss above.

  She whipped her head up toward the door. You’ve got to be kidding me.

  It was like a giant millipede—red, easily ten feet long, and too wide to get her arms around. Its legs made a thousand clicking sounds as it skittered across the tree branch and arched its body out over the edges of the seats.

  “Good buggy,” Sophia whimpered as she gaped. Its large eyes looked like they had as many lenses as the thing had legs. “Nice buggy.”

  The pincers on the sides of its mouth split apart and it gave her a fresh hiss in response. Then it came for her.

  She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know what she could do. Her spear might as well have been a mile away and there was nothing else she could use as a weapon.

  In desperation, she flung the cabinet open and frantically scanned inside. The contents were latched to the shelves—a white medical kit, a chemical fire extinguisher, a black backpack… a gun.

  They’d learned how to use the proton guns in school. Everyone had to. Maleek was great at shooting—probably a side effect of playing those stupid battle games all time. Sophia had been the worst in her class.

  Sophia yanked the gun out of its straps, fumbled with the safety, and swung the barrel upward.

  The creature was right on top of her, coiled like a snake, and she instinctively fell onto her back as she tried to take aim.

  It lunged as she pulled the trigger, met with a blast of white light, and fell twitching through the air beside her.

  She forced herself to breathe as she rolled to follow its fall.

  It hadn’t fallen through the hole. It was twitching right beside it.

  Stunned, she told herself, partly relieved, partly terrified. Not dead. I have to hurry.

  She grabbed the backpack from the cabinet, surprised how heavy it was and shoved the medical kit inside. She grabbed everything else, too: the black communicator, the small set of tools, and the pack of flares. By the time she was finished, the bag was so full she could barely zip it and so heavy she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to make the climb.

 

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