The New World

by Matt Myklusch

  Joey reached a rope ladder at the end of a wood plank in between two branches. He started climbing down, but the misty air was full of moisture and his palms were sweaty, which caused him to lose his grip as he went. His hand slipped from one of the rungs of the ladder and he fell. Joey screamed on the way down, but he quickly saved himself, grabbing hold of a tree branch.

  “Joey!” Leanora called out. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Joey let out a painful cough. Landing on the branch had knocked the wind out of him. “It’s all right!” he croaked, trying to talk. “I slipped, but I’m o—”

  The branch he was holding on to snapped. He cried out for help and flailed around, falling through the air, but this time there was nothing to grab on to. Instead, he broke more branches on the way down. He banged his head on one of the branches, and suddenly his thoughts were as hazy as the air around him, but one thought was clear—he was going to die. Then he hit the ground.

  “Unh!” Joey grunted as his back slammed down on soft, muddy earth. He didn’t bother trying to get up. Everything hurt too much. He looked up at a blur of fog and tree branches as his friends called his name with increasing desperation.

  “Joey!”

  “Where are you?”

  “Answer us!”

  He tried to spot his friends in the trees, but he couldn’t see anyone. Their voices seemed so far away.

  “Mmmokay,” Joey called back in a groggy, wavering voice. “I’m okay. I fell… ’issnot that far. I only fell…” Joey tried to gauge out how far he had fallen, but he couldn’t seem to focus. His head was throbbing, and his whole body ached. Meanwhile, the damp earth felt like a soft bed. He decided to lie there a moment and rest his eyes while his friends finished climbing out of the trees. They’d find him soon enough. All they had to do was go down.

  Joey had no way of knowing how long he was out, but it was clearly longer than he would have liked. When he came to, he had vines growing over his body. He was tied down like a giant, but it was easy enough to break free. He sat up, snapping the vines around his chest and arms. He pulled on the vines that covered his legs, uprooting them all except for one. A thick root had wrapped itself around his ankle, and it didn’t want to let go. The more he struggled with it, the tighter its grip became. The root seemed to be pulling his foot down into the mud.

  “What is this? How long have I been here?”

  Joey scanned the area, trying to get his bearings. The fog was just as thick at the ground level of the forest as it was up in the trees. It had an eerie, spectral shimmer that made him wish he wasn’t alone, but he saw the outlines of his friends nearby. “Over here!” he called out to them. “Am I glad to see you guys. Don’t worry. I’m all right. I just have a major headache. And I need help getting my foot out of this root.”

  “GNNAAAAGHHHGH,” the silhouettes in the mist groaned.

  Joey froze. “What?”

  The figures in the mist lurched toward him. As they came closer, it became very clear they were not his friends. First of all, they were too big. Second, they weren’t human. They were creatures made up of stones, moss, and dirt. Some of them had vines for arms, and some had hands made of soil and clay. None of them had eyes. They just had deep pockets burrowed into the dirt where their eyes should have been. “Okay, you’re definitely not furry and cute,” Joey said as the earth monsters advanced on him. Each of them was at least six feet tall and weighed several hundred pounds. Joey counted three of them, but the roots and rocks bursting up from the earth all around him told him there were more on the way. They weren’t subterranean creatures pulling themselves up from the underground—they were the ground itself. The forest had come to life, and it was coming after him! The creatures stalked toward Joey, shuffling like zombies. He pulled on the root around his ankle, trying to free himself. It wouldn’t budge. Another vine shot out of the ground and coiled around his wrists, binding him to the spot. “No!” Joey tried to pull his hands free, but he had no leverage. He panicked as the eco-zombies closed in.

  “Help! Shazad! Lea! Janelle! HELP!”

  Joey was trapped and alone. No one would have blamed him for using the wand to save himself, but he couldn’t pull it out of his sleeve. He couldn’t even move his hands. The monsters took him by the shoulders and started pushing him down into the earth. “No! Why are you doing this? Please! Stop!” They responded with more wailing and wheezing. There was no reasoning with them, Joey realized. They were sentient creatures, but they were mindless. They were about to bury him alive, when out of nowhere a high-pitched tone filled the air, assaulting his ears.

  Joey winced when he heard it, but then he quickly got used to the sound. For him, it was a minor discomfort. But it was agony for the eco-zombies attacking him. They backed away and stumbled around, writhing in pain. Then they started to break apart. Some of them dissolved into piles of dirt, while others blew up in violent explosions that splattered mud and pebbles everywhere. Once they were all gone and Joey was covered in muck, the vines that were holding him let go and slithered back into the ground. He staggered to his feet and looked around in confusion.

  There was a young boy about his age in the forest with him. He tapped at something on his wrist, and the high-pitched tone stopped ringing.

  “What the heck just happened here?” Joey asked. “Who are you?”

  “My name’s Jack,” the boy said. “Jack Blank. Who are you?”

  12 Drastic Measures

  The boy named Jack was still shrouded in the luminescent haze. He moved in closer, and Joey got a better look at him. He had messy hair and a large birthmark on his face. It circled his right eye and ran diagonally down his cheek. Joey felt himself staring and made a conscious effort not to do so. Jack looked to be about the same age as he was. Maybe a year older. He was dressed the same too, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, but he looked far more at home in this place than Joey felt.

  “What were those things?” Joey asked, wiping mud off himself. “Why were they after me?”

  “You never heard of the Gravens?” Jack asked him.

  “No.” Joey nudged one of the nearby dirt piles with his foot. The earth churned slightly in response, trying to regain its shape. Joey backed away, but the dirt mound fell apart before it re-formed into anything resembling a person.

  “This forest is Gravenmurk Glen,” Jack explained. “It belongs to them. Or, should I say, it is them. Parts of it anyway. The Gravens take every snapped twig as a personal attack. I’m guessing you came through here a little rough?”

  “You could say that,” Joey said, rubbing a sore spot on the back of his head. “I fell out of a tree and broke some branches on the way down. Does that count?”

  “That would do it. These things are touchy. A friend of mine once made the mistake of cutting away some branches to get a better view from the treetops. We had a similar run-in with the Gravens. It wasn’t fun.”

  “What did you do to them?”

  Jack tapped a sleek watch on his wrist. “Sonic disruptor. Don’t worry. I didn’t kill them. I designed this to keep them under control. I’ve got it running at a low volume right now so they won’t come back. We’re good here now.”

  “You made that?” Joey asked.

  “Sure.” Jack shrugged. “No big deal.”

  “You sound like a friend of mine.” Joey offered his hand. “I’m Joey. Thanks for saving my butt.”

  “Anytime.” Jack gave Joey’s hand a hearty shake. “You need help getting out of here? What are you doing in these woods anyway? No one ever comes out here.”

  “Why were you here?” Joey asked, turning the question back around on Jack. “Do you live here?”

  Jack squinted at Joey, clearly finding the question to be an odd one. “Not here in Gravenmurk Glen, no. I came here looking for someone. I was hoping you might be her.”

  Joey looked back up at the trees and thought for a second. “Hypnova?” he guessed.

  Jack’s eyebrows shot up. “You know her?” />
  “Yes, I know her. She sent us here! We just left her.”

  “You’re kidding! That’s amazing. Where is she?” Jack caught himself, realizing he had sped past an important detail. “Wait a minute, who’s we?”

  “Me and my friends.”

  Jack put a finger to his ear, touching a miniature earbud communicator. He paused a second, listening. “I think my friends just found them.”

  Soon after that, a group of people appeared in the mist walking toward Joey and Jack. This time, the silhouettes turned out to be exactly who Joey hoped they were. When Shazad, Leanora, and Janelle arrived on the scene, they were joined by two new faces. One of them was a boy with shoulder-length black hair. He was dressed like he had just come from a renaissance fair and carried two swords on his back. The other person was a girl with shiny silver skin and hair. She looked like she was made of liquid metal. Joey assumed Janelle had already gotten over the initial shock of seeing her and had completely exhausted the subject of malleability and ductility, because she was more interested in him than anything else. Joey’s friends embraced him, relieved that he was all right.

  “I’m fine,” Joey assured them. “Thanks to Jack,” he added, introducing Jack to his friends.

  “Looks like someone had a run-in with the Gravens,” the boy with the swords said, noting Joey’s mud-covered clothes.

  “The what?” Shazad asked.

  “Don’t ask,” Joey said. “Just watch where you step. Don’t break any branches in here if you can help it.”

  “They told us,” Leanora said. “I guess you found out why. Joey, I want you to meet Skerren and Allegra.”

  “Allegra’s an alien,” Janelle whispered in Joey’s ear.

  “What?” Joey whispered back, trying not to stare at the shiny silver girl. “It’s… nice to meet you both.”

  “They know Hypnova,” Jack told Skerren and Allegra.

  “WHAT?” Skerren and Allegra blurted out in unison.

  “Exactly,” Jack said, sharing their amazement. “Joey told me she sent them here.”

  “What are the odds of that?” Skerren wondered, speaking with an English accent.

  “Sent you here to do what?” Allegra asked. “Where did you come from? Who are you?”

  “We’re the Order of the Majestic,” Leanora said.

  Jack, Skerren, and Allegra looked at each other, checking to see if that name meant anything to anyone in their party. It didn’t.

  “I’ve never heard of you,” Skerren said.

  “Are you a superhero team?” Jack asked.

  “A superhero team?” Joey replied. “You mean, like in comic books?” It was an odd thing to be asked. Magic was real, but there was no such thing as superheroes. Then again, there was no such thing as a lot of things in Joey’s life. “I guess it depends on how you look at it. We do have archenemies. And we are trying to save the world.”

  “We’re not superheroes,” Shazad said. “We’re magicians.”

  “And scientists,” Janelle chimed in.

  “We’re here to break the spell over this place so everyone can see it,” Joey said. “We’re bringing magic and imagination back to the world, which means we have to bring the Imagine Nation back to the world.”

  Jack, Skerren, and Allegra were visibly shocked.

  “Are you serious?” Jack said eventually.

  “You can do that?” Allegra asked. “The four of you?”

  “Of course they can’t do that,” Skerren said. “It’s impossible.”

  “Nothing’s impossible,” Leanora replied.

  Jack shook his head, struggling to process what he was hearing. “For you to just come out and tell us that… You obviously don’t know how most people here would react to what you want to do. Is Hypnova part of this?”

  “Of course,” Joey said. “I told you, she’s the one who sent us. We’ve been planning this for a year.”

  “Really. That’s… surprising,” Jack said. He sounded conflicted. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but we just met you guys. I’m happy to help you out of a jam here in the woods, but this is different. I need to talk to Hypnova about this. Where is she?”

  “She’s coming,” Joey said.

  “We hope,” Shazad muttered.

  “She’ll be here,” Joey said, his voice a little firmer.

  Jack looked at Skerren and Allegra. “What do you guys think?”

  Allegra gave a tiny shrug. “I think I’m less surprised than you are. Hypnova did get kicked out of the Order of Secreteers.”

  “That was because of us,” Skerren said. “I didn’t think she was capable of this. The laws of secrecy and intervention are the Imagine Nation’s oldest laws.”

  “What laws?” Joey asked, suddenly wishing he had been less forthcoming about his plans.

  “The law here states that we’re only allowed to get involved in the outside world to try to help it,” Allegra explained. “But everything we do has to be a secret. We can’t leave behind direct proof of the Imagine Nation’s existence.”

  “Why not?” Janelle asked.

  “That’s just the way things are,” Skerren said. “It’s the way they’ve always been.”

  “So?” Janelle said. “That’s not a reason. What if the whole world kept doing things the way ‘they’ve always been done’? We’d never make any progress on anything. We’d still be using horse-drawn carriages to get around. I saw flying cars in that city out there!”

  “Actually, some of us still use horse-drawn carriages,” Skerren said. “They work fine. I prefer them.”

  “I’m serious!” Janelle said, getting worked up. “The second I got here, I could tell this island is full of things that can change the world for the better. How are you going to do that and keep this place a secret?”

  “It’s not that simple,” Jack said.

  “Sure it is,” Leanora argued. “Don’t tell me you never thought of trying this yourselves. Didn’t you ever want to share this place with the world?”

  “We can’t,” Skerren said. “Not only because of the rules. The outside world’s not ready for the kind of things we have here.”

  “How do you know what the world is ready for?” Janelle asked. “Who decides?”

  Jack, Skerren, and Allegra traded sheepish looks. No one seemed to have a good answer for that.

  “I used to think the way you do,” Shazad said. “In fact, my whole family did. I was raised to keep magical items out of the wrong hands. For a long time, I thought that was enough. It’s not. The world needs magic. It needs this place. Didn’t you ever question the system here?”

  “To be perfectly honest, we haven’t had a ton of time to think about things like that,” Jack said. “You would have no way of knowing this, but for the last… I don’t know… year and a half? We’ve been going from crisis to crisis, saving the world over and over.”

  “Saving the world from what?” Joey asked.

  “Ever hear of the Nightlander Horde?” Jack asked. “The Iconoclasts? The King of Pain? The Singularity?” Joey and his friends squinted at Jack Blank as he rattled off names. “Right. From the looks on your faces, I’m guessing you haven’t. We’re the reason why not. You’re welcome.”

  “We saved the world from both singularities,” Skerren added proudly.

  Allegra pinched the bridge of her nose. “Skerren, we talked about this. There was only one Singularity. That’s why it was called the Singularity. You’re thinking of the Multiversal Convergence.”

  “How about the Rüstov invasion?” Skerren went on, refusing to acknowledge his error. “We didn’t just save the world that time. We saved the universe. I had to fight my parents. Jack had to fight a future version of himself. It came back in time and tried to kill him.”

  “That’s messed up,” Joey admitted.

  “It was,” Jack agreed. “It was a lot to deal with, but that’s life in the Imagine Nation. We’ve always got something to deal with. Everybody here does. The world never stays saved f
or long.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, saving the world is cool—and we appreciate it—but what about changing the world?” Janelle asked. “Does that ever enter the equation?”

  “If it had, we wouldn’t be here,” Leanora said. “Ever hear of the Invisible Hand?” she asked Jack, Skerren, and Allegra.

  “The Invisible Who?” Skerren asked.

  Leanora nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

  “They control the world’s supply of magic,” Joey explained. “For the last thousand years, they’ve been hoarding magical objects. They got their start right here in the Imagine Nation. We want to stop them, but they’re not some invading alien fleet you can just blow up or put behind bars. They’re more subtle than that, manipulating people and events from behind the scenes. We have to take away their power.”

  “They’re the ones who benefit from keeping this place a secret,” Shazad said. “You might think you’re protecting ‘normal people’ from forces they don’t understand. The truth is, your laws of intervention and secrecy protect the Invisible Hand’s monopoly on magic more than anything else.”

  “Meanwhile, the world is a house on fire, and no one is bothering to put it out,” Janelle added.

  “I just told you, we put out fires every day,” Jack said.

  “But the temperature is literally rising constantly,” Janelle said. “We’ve got climate change, water shortages, wildfires, school shootings, global pandemics.… The planet is falling apart. We can’t go on this way. We won’t make it. Someone has to open the world up to new possibilities. That’s why we’re here. We can make a difference. You could help us.”