Liferaft Page 3

  “Everything good down there?” Yoshi called out.

  “It’s dark in here.”

  Anna couldn’t turn her head to look behind her. All she could see was the darkness below. Slowly, she was lowered again. “Who’s behind Kimberly?” she asked.

  “It’s me!” Molly called, and all of a sudden Anna was plunged deeper into the well. Her heart was beating fast, but she had complete confidence in the group.

  Until the earth rocked again. Anna slammed onto her side at the impact, losing her grip on Kira’s left foot. Kira screamed aloud and Anna scrambled to grab on to Kira’s ankle. Sweat dripped down her forehead. Her hands were already slippery and by now her heart was racing.

  “What was that?” she yelled out.

  “You don’t want to know,” Hank responded from ground level.

  “I literally wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know!” she yelled back, annoyed.

  “The crack in the ice wall!” Molly yelled out. “It’s bigger! So hurry!”

  Anna’s throat constricted in fear. There was no way to rush such a complex process, one involving their very bodies. Slowly, they lowered themselves all the way down, till Kira’s arms were mere inches from the device.

  “We’re so close! Just one more person and—” The earth rumbled once more, splashing the green liquid so that Anna had to pull Kira back from it using the strength of her shoulders.

  “There aren’t any more people!” Crash called out. “Just me. I’m holding all you guys up, so grab that ring, and I can pull you out!” His voice sounded frantic and that panic was contagious.

  Anna gulped down her panic. “Come on, Kira! I know you can do it!”

  Kira reached her arms as far as possible, but Anna could see that it wasn’t enough.

  “Guys, we need a few more inches!” Anna yelled out. “Just, like, a little bit more of a stretch.”

  “This is all the stretch you’re going to get!” Javi called in reply. “Better grab that ring quick, Kira!”

  “Don’t pressure her! Kira … I’m going to let go of one of your feet, okay?”

  Kira made a whimpering sound. Anna knew how she felt: desperate and scared. That’s how she felt most of the time here. Anna proceeded slowly. Her arms were burning, her shoulders screaming from the pain of holding Kira’s body, even with two hands. Blood rushed to her face, but she felt alert, alive.

  Carefully, she let go of Kira’s leg, giving her a couple of inches of leverage. She grabbed tight to Kira’s other ankle.

  Kira descended a couple more inches. She reached for the ring, but it was still too far.

  Anna called up. “Kimberly? Let go of one of my legs.”

  “You’re sure?” Now there was fear in Kimberly’s voice.

  “Positive. Just do it!”

  Kimberly let go of Anna’s left leg, and the world lurched downward. Anna swung a little closer to the bottom of the well. By now, Kira’s palms were on the ring. She carefully pulled it from the liquid. Thankfully, only the very base was touching the green goo.

  “Okay, we’ve got it! Go, go, go!” she yelled, and Crash began to heave them up, one by one. Anna watched as the green liquid dribbled away from the base of the ring. Somehow, they’d managed to procure the one tool they needed to get out of here. A feeling of profound gratitude washed over her.

  Until she heard a screeching sound from the sky.

  “What is that?” they all yelled together. By now, only Javi, Hank, and Crash were out of the well.

  “You really don’t want to know!” Javi said.

  “We wouldn’t have asked if we didn’t want to know!” Molly said.

  “It’s … a bunch of birds.” Yoshi’s voice drifted down. The swarming sound was nearly overwhelming, but Yoshi grounded Anna, gave her comfort.

  “No … not birds,” he muttered. And that was how Anna knew he was out of the well. “They’re maintenance robots! They’re heading to the collapsed wall!”

  They did look like birds in the beginning, but as Yoshi squinted into the sky, he realized that they weren’t birds after all. Of course they weren’t. Nothing in this world was ever what it seemed to be. Silver and boxy but with wings, they were flying toward the wall.

  Yoshi watched as they landed on the crack, forming a silver belt against the jagged rupture. Soon, the belt began to move, and Yoshi realized that the silver birds were silver maintenance bots; they were there to repair the wall.

  “They’re trying to stop the rest of it from coming down,” Molly said. By now, mercifully, they’d made it out of the well, the antigravity device in Kira’s hand. One obstacle down, but they still had many more ahead of them.

  That was the thing about this place: It was one test after another. Yoshi knew he could manage it, but he worried about Cal and Molly. He noticed that the green on Cal’s face and Molly’s shoulder glowed brighter the closer they stood to the well. It had lit up the subterranean darkness as they retrieved the antigravity ring. What was this place doing to them? If it claimed Cal and Molly, could it do the same to the rest of them?

  Yoshi worried about Kira, too, though it was a relief to see her finally smiling with victory as she held tight to the antigravity ring. He was impressed with Anna as well; she was the one who had come up with the idea of making a human chain. He felt a surge of pride in their teamwork.

  “Those maintenance robots look fiercer than the others,” Javi said. His eyes were up on the wall of ice.

  He was right. These robots had sharp beaks and what looked like elaborate tools attached to their talons. Yoshi remembered how the shredder birds were attracted to the ring’s gravity powers. Would these machines attack them, too? Usually, the maintenance bots left them alone, but they also didn’t usually have wings or claws. As he scanned the faces around him, he could sense that the others were having the same thoughts.

  “If we use the device to scale the wall, they may attack us,” Yoshi said, and he could hear the worry in his own voice when he said the words. “We should come up with a plan.”

  “Maybe they won’t, though?” Kimberly chirped, but the others looked dubious.

  “Either way, we have to take our chances.” Molly shrugged. “Besides, we could use their batteries.”

  “We don’t have any tools. What are we supposed to fight them with?” Crash said. Yoshi was getting annoyed with Crash’s defeatist attitude. They were all tired and scared, but right now they had to be quick on their feet.

  Yoshi wished he still had his katana. It would have been helpful at a time like this. Just as he was thinking about it, wondering if he would ever be able to get it back, Kira handed him the antigravity ring. She got down on her knees.

  “What is she up to? Is she praying?” Crash asked.

  “No, you idiot,” Yoshi responded, smiling at Kira’s genius. “She’s pointing to the glass. We can crack it and use it as weapons.” Yoshi smashed the antigravity ring into the ground, cracking the glass into large, thick shards.

  “Hey!” Javi shouted. “Be careful with that!”

  Yoshi ignored him. “There you go.” He reached into the ground and carefully dug out the shards, distributing them among the group. “Glass spears. We’ve got our weapons.”

  Molly frowned down at the length of glass in her hand. “We should use cloth or leaves to make handles. Right now these weapons are as likely to injure us as they are to fight off any attackers. But they could work.”

  “Of course they’ll work.” Yoshi bristled, but he accepted the leaf Kimberly gave him to wrap around his shard’s narrowest point.

  “Now what?” Crash asked.

  “We tie ourselves together and float as a group,” Anna said, reaching for the device. “The ring has a limited radius, so let’s all stick close. Everybody got their things? Their glass swords?”

  Yoshi held tight to the weapon, his makeshift katana. The clear shard could slice a shredder bird in half, he was sure of it. But these robots? Perhaps he would find out.

&nbs
p; Anna gave them all a nod as she turned her attention to the ring. “Okay … one, two, three, go!” she said, and suddenly they were leaping into the air. Yoshi felt a surge of excitement, adrenaline pumping through his veins. It had been so long since he was weightless. Sometimes he still couldn’t get over the fact that despite all the challenges and obstacles this world had thrown at him, it had taught him how to fly.

  Just as he was thinking this, the maintenance bots came after them.

  * * *

  “They’re like maintenance hawks!” Javi said as he clobbered one with his glass sword, catching its talon with his free hand.

  They did look like giant hawks, only made of metal and reflective glass. Their talons housed a panoply of tools—screwdrivers, hammers, knives. And their beaks looked so sharp that just the sight of them made Yoshi shudder. But he knew what he had to do. He caught sight of the maintenance hawk as it spun to the ground, cutting off the talon that held a set of tools.

  “Got it!” Yoshi exclaimed victoriously. Having tools that they could use later on would be a boon. He hoped Anna was watching.

  “Score!” Javi yelled, and Yoshi couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Grab as many tools and batteries as you can!” Anna called out.

  Yoshi speared another one of the maintenance hawks through the head. He lunged forward, straining against the tie that bound him to the others, just in time to catch the battery that fell out. Before the bird went down, he ripped the tools from its talons. Yoshi noticed that the tools were held together with a piece of wispy fabric the color of straw. It was light in his hand, but oddly warm to the touch.

  “This is fun!” he yelled, before the birds began to swarm them. “Anna—”

  “I got it!” she yelled back.

  Anna adjusted the ring, and they all dipped to the ground hard, stumbling as they landed. The birds were still coming in behind them.

  “Going heavy!” Anna shouted, and then she turned the gravity up with a flick of her hand. It hit Yoshi’s shoulders like a heavy load. Several of the others grunted in annoyance, but the trick had worked. Maintenance hawks smashed into pieces as they plunged to the ground, metal and glass and foam and bits of fabric spilling from their insides. Anna readjusted the dial on the ring, and the group was able to plunder more supplies.

  “Okay, this time we’re going for the wall,” Anna said. And before anyone could so much as agree, they were flying up into the air again. The hawks took notice, but the group had their spears out; they were ready.

  Yoshi heard a scream from behind, and he turned to see Kira struggling with a bird—a real shredder bird—that had grabbed the end of her glass sword in its beak. She was in an epic battle, trying to fight back, but Yoshi’s heart plunged into his stomach when the bird wrenched the glass from her hand. As the weapon floated away, the bird struck her arm with its beak.

  Yoshi saw the red line grow on Kira’s arm. He turned, pushing off Crash with his legs, then stabbed the bird with his own sword. He grabbed Kira’s sword before it fell out of the range of the antigravity. But it was already too late. Kira’s arm was gushing blood by now, her face contorting into panic.

  She’s going to faint! he realized.

  Before Anna had a chance to turn the dial, Kira’s head fell to the side. Yoshi grabbed her wrist just as they came back down into a ledge in the middle of the wall.

  Quick, we have to bandage her up!” Molly yelled. Yoshi had caught her just in time, but her arm was gushing blood by now. Javi ripped off a piece of his shirt, quickly bandaging her wrist. A circle of red stained the fabric. Anna checked to see if she was breathing. Kira’s lids flickered for a second before they slowly opened.

  “Kira!” Molly cried. “Are you okay?”

  Kira looked around, confused. She opened her mouth for a moment before she let out a whimper. “Akiko?” she asked. She turned her head, searching frantically. “Akiko?”

  Molly felt tears pricking her eyes as the memory of what had happened to Akiko registered on Kira’s face. The fear fell away, replaced by a coldness that was even harder to watch.

  “She’s fine. She just needs a minute.” Yoshi helped her lean slowly against the wall’s edge. Kimberly offered Kira some water and she drank thirstily. Then she pressed her head to the wall and closed her eyes.

  They were sitting at the midpoint between the valley and the peak of the wall; a shelf had formed that was just wide enough for all of them. Just beyond, they could see the maintenance robots getting to work on repairs. The sun was high in the sky now. Molly was grateful they’d made it this far, but there was still a considerable distance to go.

  “There are too many of them,” she said, inspecting the maintenance hawks. “It’s dangerous to use the ring any further, especially with what just happened to Kira. Where there’s one shredder bird, there are bound to be others. We’re going to have to scale the rest of it.” She looked up at the wall.

  The cracks were jagged, but they formed a series of steps from the ledge to the top. They could climb these steps. It would be a challenge, given the verticality of the wall, but they could do it.

  “We can use our swords as ice picks,” Yoshi said. But he didn’t look at Molly.

  “First, let’s make sure Kira is okay,” Anna said with concern in her voice. Slowly, Kira stood up.

  “It’s going to be a tough climb, even with our picks,” Javi said. He hesitated before he added, “Guys, I’m getting cold.”

  “Then you’re really going to love what I just found,” Kimberly said. She pulled apart one of the tool kits they’d plundered from the maintenance robots. The piece of fabric that held the tool kit together unfurled into a blanket as long as Kimberly was tall. Molly watched her drape it around her shoulders. Kimberly beamed in pride at her discovery. She’d made a lightweight cape for herself!

  Molly wasn’t cold; she no longer felt cold or heat, almost as though her body was perfectly calibrated to whatever weather condition they were in. But still, she reached for a second tool kit and pulled out the fabric, draping it over her shoulders like a cape. It was a shimmery material and fit snugly around her shoulders.

  “It must be some sort of insulation material,” Javi said. “These are incredible. I don’t feel cold at all anymore.”

  “That’s good,” Molly told him, “because that’s a lot of steps to the top.”

  They all looked up at the daunting wall of ice. A series of jagged inclines paved the way, but it was going to be a long, harrowing climb. The twin moons loomed above them, rising high above the wall. Always the same—one red, one green. Molly sharply sucked in her breath. They were headed in the right direction; she could sense it. They knew where to go, what to do. They just didn’t know what lay beyond, on the other side.

  At nightfall, they reached the silver ridge of the wall. The valley of spires and caves was finally behind them.

  Anna was the first to step over, and what she saw startled her. The two moons had disappeared, as had the alien sun. In their place was the real sun—the sun she’d seen every day of her life—shining brightly over them.

  “Where did the moons go?” Hank shrieked as the others joined her.

  “We’re not in the rift anymore,” Molly said. They all looked out into that vast white landscape in confusion.

  “We’re at the North Pole!” Javi cried.

  Slowly, Anna began to piece it together. She was standing firmly between two worlds: their past and their future, the valley of spires and a land consisting of nothing but snow as far as she could see. They were back in the Arctic. On Earth.

  Anna couldn’t help but think of home, hiking in the mountains during her summer vacations with her family. She missed her family. She missed home. The only silver lining to all this was being near Yoshi. Just then, she caught him watching her and she quickly looked away, her face burning in embarrassment. She pulled her cape tightly over her shoulders, shaking off her uncomfortable feelings.

  “So, it really was Earth thi
s whole time,” she said. “But it’s a totally barren landscape.” Anna surveyed the space. There were no birds, nothing alive, only a sea of pure white. A sense of relief struck her: A barren landscape meant no birds—shredder or otherwise—and no birds meant that they were free to fly!

  She turned to Molly, who was carrying the antigravity ring. “I guess we can use that now!”

  “We can leap!” Molly said with excitement in her voice.

  “But the question is … where to?” Yoshi asked. He was standing with his hands on his hips, looking out into the snow. The light reflecting on the ice lit up his face. Anna studied his features carefully. She’d gotten so used to seeing him that his face was more familiar to her than her own. She liked his face.

  Cal pointed in the distance. “Do you see? The life raft awaits us.”

  “Why does he keep talking about a life raft?” Javi whispered to Molly.

  But Anna couldn’t see anything. Molly and Cal were no longer who they had once been; they had strange insights to this place that none of the rest of the group had. Molly was squinting her eyes and nodding and Anna wondered what it was exactly that they saw. Still, Anna trusted them to be the compasses for this group. She was grateful for what they knew.

  “We’re home,” Anna said aloud. The others turned to look at her. “But we’re not. Not really. In order to truly go home, we’ll have to head back into the rift. We can’t survive out here, even with these capes. I vote that we follow Molly and Cal. Whatever the life raft is, it sounds good to me.”

  They all turned their attention back to the white plain. She still didn’t know where they were headed, but Cal and Molly had that strange animal instinct about this place. Anna trusted it. She trusted Molly. “What now?” she said, turning to Molly and Cal.

  “Cal’s right,” Molly said. “There’s something back in the rift that’s calling to us. And I think … I think we should find it.” Her face split into a wide grin. “But I don’t see why we can’t have a little fun first.” Anna squealed as Molly reached for the antigravity device. They tied themselves together again using the edges of their capes, and when all the knots were carefully tied, Molly placed her finger on the dial.