by Gin Hollan
"It's awfully quiet here, right?" Sam said.
"There is a distinct lack of aviary life. One would think every forest would have at least a bird or two." Graham said.
The four of them looked around and Arabeth quickly packed up the fabric. "We’d better get moving. You said there was a cliff he wanted to show me?" She looked at Melanie.
"Yes, right. You're going to love this. An artist did a brilliant job of capturing a detailed likeness of several people in this cliff wall."
"Too bad none of us are historians," Sam added. “I’d love to know how it happened. And why here.”
"Yes. I, for one, don't buy Graham's 'bored to sleep' story,” Melanie said, staring right at him. “It can’t be true that nothing happens here. People move. There's even a town southeast of Blastborn now."
Even in the silence, a nervous anticipation filled the air around them. As one, they all started walking down the trail. A lack of wildlife did seem to explain the absence of paths in the undergrowth that would've been created by deer and other wildlife. That was judging by her experience in their own woods.
Arabeth pulled out her pocket watch and checked the time. It’s early—not even breakfast time back home, she thought.
"I was sure I heard animals yesterday. Last night, as I was trying to sleep. I could hear the sound of branches rustling and little animals, like squirrels,” Arabeth whispered to herself unconsciously.
When the cliff came into view, Arabeth stopped a moment. She thought Melanie had been exaggerating when she said the artwork was lifelike. This was eerie. Colours, shapes, even textures were as though frozen in time. She noticed the others looking at her and started forward again.
How can this be? The nearer she got, the more realistic the people in the artwork seemed. "They seem a little too real, right?"
The tallest depicted was a foot shorter than Sam, but no less detailed than a real person. The images stood as a group would when having their photo taken. Arabeth shuddered but drew closer anyway. She reached a hand out to touch the sleeve on a woman's dress, half certain the stranger would turn to scowl at her. Of course there was no reaction. Arabeth backed up again, looking for more of this peculiar art.
"At least it doesn't look like their eyes are following me," Graham clucked.
"Let's keep moving. We can come back after we have re-provisioned and come up with a plan." Sam lightly gripped one of Arabeth's elbows, trying to guide her away.
It took a moment, but slowly she nodded. "We have to come back. I need to understand what I'm looking at."
"We take the wide road." Melanie stared ahead to where the road divided.
“It’s awfully well maintained for a road no one else seems to use," Arabeth said.
"The cliff could be a memorial and the road is maintained out of respect for those engraved in the cliff." Graham gave a shrug.
"Still, it's eerily quiet. Sam’s right. Let's get moving," Melanie said.
They road ahead lay out in front of them in a precisely straight line, up and down hills, as though it eventually went off the end of the world.
Gazing down the road was different than looking off across fields to the ocean. It felt more final.
They chose an easy pace, not wanting to take a break unless they had to. Arabeth checked her pocket watch, thinking to gauge their distance by time.
Within a half hour, the forest thinned and began to drop away. The air here seemed to crack and pop around them, but it continued to feel temperate and slightly humid as they stepped out of the trees.
Arabeth paused to make a note in her pocket journal, then jogged to catch up. When she reached them, they were standing still, each staring ahead.
"What is it?" Arabeth said as she drew near.
The road narrowed to a simple path. On either side lay acres of stone crystals of varying shapes, sizes, and colours, standing up as though they grew up out of the ground. The stones started out small and well-spaced, but looked to grow in both size and quantity as the path went on.
"Amazing," she said, pulling her journal out again. When she looked up, Sam had taken a few tentative steps down the single-file path.
"The ground seems stable," he called back. "The air is unchanged." He turned to face them.
"It's not like we have a choice." Graham added, "But I need a minute."
Arabeth looked out across the horizon, estimating that the trees resumed about an hour's walk away. Each side of the field measured an equal distance left and right from the center of the road. She hastily sketched a rough image, making distance estimates, noting colours and shapes. The trees stood in a graduated pattern with only a few intermingled. The field went from one end of the colour spectrum to the other, varying by hue but staying within their colour.
Melanie walked in, pushing past Sam.
"Hey, careful! These look sharp," he said.
Melanie continued walking another twenty paces, slowly raising her arms out as she went.
"What are these things? I feel amazing," she said, turning back.
The look of bliss on her face was made stranger still by the slow wash of a coloured mist that wafted toward her from the nearest crystals. Soon Melanie was shrouded in a swirl of sparkle and haze. She knelt down and touched the crystal closest to her. "Such beauty," she sighed as her fingers ran down the side of a foot-tall purple crystal. Slowly her face went blank. When she didn't move again after a few minutes, Arabeth became concerned.
"Melanie, snap out of it. We have places to go," Sam said, tapping her shoulder. A moment later Melanie sat down on her heels and yawned.
"Wow, I'm...." She drooped as she sat the rest of the way, then fell over onto her side, barely missing the crystal with her head.
Arabeth couldn't shake the feeling that the crystal had seen her coming and leaned away, just in time.
// Chapter 3 //
“MEL!" ARABETH SHOUTED and ran forward. Sam reached her first and checked her wrist for a pulse.
"She's alive," he said. "But her pulse is really soft."
"Mel, stay awake!" Arabeth yelled, shaking Melanie's arm.
"Just a little nap," Melanie muttered, then rolled to her other side.
"You'd better get her out of there," Graham called from the edge of the crystal field, still not going in.
"Agreed." Sam stood and inched his way past Arabeth. "You have that polyester on you? The one Lacy wanted you to test."
Arabeth didn't respond at first, then Marble nudged her hand. "The what?"
“Fabric. I want to make a stretcher.”
"We can't carry her for long, even with a stretcher," Graham said. His furrowed brow made it clear he wanted to go back.
"She needs a doctor," Arabeth said, pulling out the of thin fabric they’d used at the impromptu picnic and handing it to Sam. "And help is that way." She pointed down the path past her.
“Drag her out of there to the other end.” Graham clearly wasn’t about to help. “I’ll start walking around.”
“There’s no reason to worry, Graham,” Arabeth said, gesturing to the crystals around her. “Sam and I are fine. Marble is fine.”
Sam moved past Arabeth, walking back out of the field and into the trees.
"Fine, but I want some of that fabric to use as a face mask." Graham still stood at the edge of the sparkling field. "Maybe those crystals only need a bit of time to recharge," he insisted. "We need to get out of here before it … comes for ... for another of us."
"You can’t breathe through polyester. Just stop," Arabeth snapped. "If you don’t want to go this way, then go another way, by yourself."
Sam tore a strip one foot wide down the length of fabric and pushed it into Graham’s hand as he went past. "Rip this into quarters. And get a grip on yourself."
Graham pulled out a short knife and ripped a quarter off, wrapping it like a face veil and tying it behind his head, before tearing the rest into equal strips.
Arabeth understood his worry but it was working against th
em. If the sparkling mist that had affected Melanie was, in fact, a gas. Her recent experience with knock-out gas her great godfather had used to steal her prototype transmitter should have made her cautious, but somehow, a gas she could see worried her less. Sam was here. Maybe that was the difference.
"Mel, can you wake up? Sam will catch up, but we need to get you to a doctor." She pulled Melanie to a sitting position, hoping she'd rouse enough to walk. It was more to comfort herself than to get Melanie moving, she knew. "A few steps…. Can you do a few steps?"
Melanie mumbled but didn't try to stand. Arabeth crouched down and pulled one of Melanie's arms up across her shoulder. Trying to stand them both up, she struggled a moment. This wasn't working.
"Graham, a hand?" she called out.
He stared a moment. "Sorry, what? You're wanting me to go in there?"
"You have a mask now and we can see when the vapours move," she snarled. He was being such a baby.
Arabeth tried another way to get Melanie standing but they both wound up on their bottoms on the ground before Melanie flopped back, lying down.
"Fine, I'll drag you," Arabeth muttered with a sigh. "I hope those are sturdy trousers."
"I’m back," Sam called out, smiling like a Cheshire cat. He held two wrist-thick branches, each taller than himself by about a foot, with the fabric swung between them.
“How did you fasten it?”
“I made a series of cuts near the two edges and wove the branches through. It should hold long enough. This fabric seems to resist tearing.”
Arabeth moved to Melanie’s opposite side as Sam laid the makeshift stretcher down beside Melanie. As Arabeth rolled her to one side, Sam snugged the nearest branch as close as possible to Melanie's back. Together they rolled her back and over to her other side, then pulled the other branch out to flatten the fabric. Once it was flat, Arabeth shifted Melanie onto her back again. "Ready."
"Right," Sam said.
Moments later, they stood with Sam at Melanie's head, and Arabeth at her feet. The catch was going to be Graham. He still hadn't come into the crystal field.
"It's time, Graham," Arabeth called out to him.
"Don't mind him," Sam said softly. "He'll come along."
Graham inhaled deeply, his chest inflating several times as though preparing to hold his breath. He held out the other cloth squares in front as he walked in. "You need these."
"We're fine," Sam said.
As Graham neared, Arabeth thought she saw an extra bit of shine in his eyes, as though he might cry. He was genuinely scared, she realized. She took one square and lay it over Melanie's nose and mouth, but put her own square in a pocket.
With Sam holding the end of the stretcher by Melanie's head, they made good progress. Arabeth didn't check for Graham. Melanie was lighter than Arabeth had expected, but the effort became harder over time. She was tempted to ask to stop, but Graham would have had a meltdown, she was certain.
Finally, the edge of the field neared and the trees started up again, in an oddly precise, almost planned line. The crystals didn't enter the tree line, and the tree seedlings didn't grow among the crystals at the edge. The path widened to a proper road again once they were in the trees.
"A break," Arabeth said. "Let's take a short break. I need fuel."
"Ah, right." Sam stopped and together they lowered Melanie gently to the ground. "We haven't actually eaten."
Arabeth pulled out her pocket watch and checked it. "It's two p.m.," she said. "At least, back home it is."
"Good to know. Are you mapping?” he asked, munching on an apple.
"Yes," she said, sitting on the little cloth square Graham had given her. She pulled out her notebook.
“Good idea," Sam agreed.
Graham crumpled onto the ground near them. "At least I hear birds now."
Arabeth's head shot up. It was true. This forest was actually quite busy, now that she paid attention.
"That's a good sign," she said. "If only I could trap, hunt, or track." She laughed as she quickly sketched an outline of the broken automaton next to the mountain cave, hoping there weren’t more of them ahead.
"We're going to need water soon," Sam said, looking at Graham. "Listen for that."
She finished her notes and pulled out an apple, chewing it slowly to keep the moisture in her mouth longer. Marble used her nose to bump for a treat. Smiling, Arabeth pulled out a medium-sized strip of dried chicken and gave it to her.
"Wait, you have meat, but you're saving it for a pet that can hunt for her own food?" Graham said.
Arabeth ignored him. He could stand to skip a few meals.
"I doubt birds will fall from the sky for her," Sam said.
With a grumble, Graham leaned back against a tree and closed his eyes.
Arabeth gave Marble a scratch between the ears. The fox sat up to nuzzle her hand a moment before laying down with her head on Arabeth's leg. Arabeth smiled, feeling her stress melt away.
Soon they'd be walking again, conveying Melanie to places unknown in hope of finding a solution to this napping problem. She looked at Melanie, still asleep on the ground. There was no sign of discomfort. In fact, Melanie looked peaceful and not quite dead. She reached over and poked Melanie's arm.
"Hey Mel, you ready to wake up yet?" She’d hoped her friend would rouse once she'd cleared the field. Lifting the cloth resting over Melanie’s face, Arabeth checked for a response. Melanie mumbled but didn't wake. A shimmer caught Arabeth's eye—something seemed to move around, just under Melanie's skin. Quickly Arabeth put the cloth back. If Graham saw that, he'd run for the hills. She had to admit, it gave even her pause. All of this business with the strange crystal field was outside the scope of her understanding.
"It looks to be a long road. Let's get walking." Sam stood up and brushed the dirt off his trousers.
Taking up her position near Melanie's feet, Arabeth looked at her friend. She wouldn't be in this mess if Arabeth hadn't come up with the scheme to collapse the cavern. Yes, it had blocked the automatons and stopped the riots and violence the machines had caused, but still the guilt was there.
"Graham, take a post," Sam said.
"What? Oh." He stood and walked over.
Arabeth moved to the side, relieved to have help as Graham took one of the branch ends. He shouldn't notice the shimmer at this distance, but he did have his modified goggles on. Maybe the lenses would reveal something helpful. She'd ask to borrow them the next time they stopped.
// Chapter 4 //
ARABETH'S ARMS and shoulders ached, and still civilization was nowhere in sight. The road had turned twice and forked once, and the afternoon heat was beating down.
"I need a break," she called out. "I need another break."
Whether because of pride or stubbornness, Graham hadn't complained about the steady, working pace they'd set. Nor had Sam. She hadn't expected Sam to, but Graham was soft-handed. He held one pole while Arabeth held the other at Melanie’s head. Should they change sides to even out the blisters, or keep one hand unscathed?
It would be hard to get up again only to resume their walk down a seemingly endless road. Food was in short supply but Arabeth gave Marble another bit of chicken in faith that a town had to be close.
"I have an idea you might not like, but I can’t see a better option...." She paused. "I'm going to walk up the road a bit while you guys take a break. There has to be a town near. I'll bring a horse or cart back."
"And we just wait here?" Graham asked.
"I'm not sure that's wise," Sam said.
"It may be time to move beyond conventional wisdom. We could be walking for days, headed into God knows what. I'd rather we knew what was coming."
"You walk like a city kid," Sam said. “It makes more sense that I go. You rest.”
"I'll be fine." This was the unknown, and no small challenge. She wanted to get out of the wild as fast as possible.
"Why don't we just take every right turn, until we get back to our own
country? This is foreign territory, and they say we're at war with them, technically,” Graham suggested. “We’ll have to watch ourselves every time we meet people. And Tanner couldn’t have been working alone. The resources he was able to bring in prove he at least had a benefactor.”
Arabeth took in a long, slow breath. Someone had finally said it out loud. This was her real reason. Tanner. He was the real reason she wanted to walk ahead. She wouldn't be stopping at the next corner.
"Because that's how people stay lost," Sam said. "We need to take the most trodden path until we get Melanie back on her feet. That means food, water, and a doctor."
Arabeth's nerves calmed a bit. Perspective. They did have immediate needs. She sighed. She could do both, though, right? She’d send help back while she went on forward.
"It’ll be fine." She smiled. "I have good boots and a fox that knows how to 'find Sam' when told. If it looks like I can't make it back soon, I'll send a note with her."
She stood and looked at Melanie. They came from a secluded area that reminded her of the ancient stories of a lost Tibetan paradise, but with technology and without monasteries. It was a fairly peaceful place, although not entirely enlightened. Until the incursion, their criminals had been simple thieves, brawlers, and drunks. Faith was more important than church attendance.
"All right, Marble. Let’s see how long this road is." She pulled out her pocket watch a moment. Had they really spent half an hour here already?
Her friends would be fine without her. They were resourceful. She wanted to see what was so terrible here that no outsiders were allowed into her home region. What was really out here, outside the plateau. She shook her hands out as she turned to walk.
Arabeth took the first few steps to clear her head. The air here was different, somehow. There was more ... clutter. That was the only word she could think of for it. As the group had progressed, the tall evergreens had begun to spread out. The forest had become as noisy as any area in the trees at home, filled with birds and other creatures.