by Michael Ford
“I’m sorry,” he said to the others, then closed his eyes, feeling the inferno engulf him.
11
JUST AS THE SEARING heat from the flames became unbearable, the heat vanished, leaving his face tingling. He opened his eyes to see the fleet of Scorchers banking and flying back on a parallel path. Fire once again gushed over the ground below.
“Why did they stop?” asked Asha, staring at the departing drones in disbelief. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. The air shimmered. Smoke spiraled into the sky.
“I have no idea,” said Kobi.
Asha tilted her head. “Wait.” She crouched on the ground and poked a finger into the ashes. A tiny shrub sprang out from the dust, its delicate leaves reaching into the air.
Fionn waved his hand over the top, and it moved in time with him.
“It’s Waste infected,” rasped Yaeko, still lying on her front from when she had leaped to the ground, her lower back rising and falling as she drew deep breaths.
“Must have spread from the other side of the wall,” said Kobi.
“I don’t understand,” said Yaeko, finally finding her feet. “Aren’t the Scorchers supposed to wipe out plants like this?”
Kobi stared at the small writhing root. “Forest fires rejuvenate the ecosystem. Many plants and seeds survive fires belowground. I’m sure there are seeds everywhere under this desert waiting for the day the drones finally stop.”
“Here,” said Asha. She was bent over another small weed. Then, a few yards farther on, she found a cluster of more. They were camouflaged by a layer of sand. “All of these are Waste mutated.” She pointed back the way they had come. “I can sense the plants going off that way, back toward the city.”
Kobi checked his map and compass. “Yes, you’re right. That direction will end up at the southern end of the mountains overlooking New Seattle. It’s a direct route. We had to skirt east. That’s why we didn’t see any until now.”
“I think you’re right about CLAWS,” said Asha. “They want the Waste to spread, just enough to keep people sick. They’ve programmed the Snatchers to leave a path of plants back to the city, through which Waste can spread.”
“Kinda clever, really,” said Yaeko. “Hey, look at this. The little weeds are growing.”
Kobi looked down. The shoots were twisting up slowly. Cracks spread across the ground. Kobi could feel movement under his soles. He went still.
“What I don’t get,” said Asha, “is why these plants haven’t grown any higher if the drones have stopped burning them.”
“They have grown,” said Kobi. “Just not upward. These are Chokers. Everybody, don’t move.”
The others froze. “What do we do?” whispered Yaeko.
“When I give the word, we run—all together. Ready . . .”
The earth exploded. Chokers like giant serpent bodies writhed muscularly in a blur of green and brown, towering into the sky. Dry earth cascaded down, buffeting Kobi’s head and shoulders. He cowered under the deluge of soil, staring around for the others. He heard shouts and picked out the shapes and charged through the raining soil. He grabbed at the figures and pulled them away. They moved out of range of the falling earth but knew they weren’t safe from the Chokers. He saw Asha and Yaeko next to him.
“Fionn!” said Asha. “Where is he?” She was already running back toward the Chokers, shouting Fionn’s name.
Kobi turned after her. The Chokers reared up into the sky as high as a house, and the vines arched and flickered, almost like they were looking down at Kobi. Why haven’t they grabbed us?
“Up here.” The voice was strange but familiar. It sounded calm. Kobi looked up.
Fionn was silhouetted against the sky, caught in a tangle of Chokers. Not caught, thought Kobi. He’s being carried.
“Fionn, you need to get down from there,” said Asha.
“It’s okay. They are friends,” said Fionn.
Kobi realized it had been months since he’d heard the boy’s voice. It sounded hoarse and cracked, deeper than he remembered. Fionn had recovered the ability to speak while he was with Kobi and Asha in the Wastelands of Old Seattle, but he hadn’t spoken since they’d arrived at the Sol base. It was no wonder, really, Kobi thought. Fionn was still scarred from a CLAWS lab experiment: they’d let loose a Waste-mutated bear in the hope that Fionn could use his powers to control the creature. The bear had killed a cluster of CLAWS scientists, ripping them apart before Fionn’s eyes. Of course he hated being confined, hated being monitored by scientists at the Sol base. Now that he was free, back in the Wastelands, he seemed much more at ease. “We need to get over this wall, right?” said Fionn casually. A Choker wrapped around his waist and lowered him carefully toward the ground.
Kobi’s mind was oddly transported back to something in his past, to sitting with his father in the base at Bill Gates High and watching the animated movie of The Jungle Book. Fionn seemed just like Mowgli being carried in the powerful trunk of the elephant. Kobi used to imagine he was Mowgli, a boy raised in the wild—it made him feel safe. But Kobi realized Fionn’s connection to the Waste life went so much deeper than his own.
Fionn beckoned to Kobi and Asha and Yaeko. “Get behind me.” They did as he asked. One of the Choker stalks crawled up the side of the concrete face like a giant snake, knocking large chunks of cement free as it went. After five minutes or so, the tip of the Choker was out of sight. After a while longer it must have reached the top, and the thick vine froze in place, twisted back and forth at a diagonal angle up the wall.
A smug smile spread across Fionn’s face. “Time to climb.” The Choker had clung to the concrete in the shape of something like a staircase, and Fionn began to clamber up a step at a time, using the spikelike thorns as grips when he needed.
More Jack and the Beanstalk than The Jungle Book, Kobi thought with a grin.
“I’m going up,” said Yaeko. “Looks fun.” She began to climb up after Fionn, making light work of it.
“I don’t know if he can keep control of it,” said Asha to Kobi. “What if it tries to throw us off?”
Kobi shrugged. “You saw Fionn with those rats. His powers are incredible. We have to trust him.”
Asha watched Fionn and Yaeko, climbing up and laughing. “It’s the first time he’s spoken out loud in ages,” she said.
“That has to be a good thing.”
“I suppose,” said Asha. “I sense that anger in him. Like it’s making his powers stronger.”
“He’s not angry at you, Asha. He’s angry at CLAWS, at what they did to him. We can’t treat him like a little kid anymore.”
Fionn waved down at them from twenty yards up, still grinning.
Kobi climbed, shifting his weight between his hands and feet as he reached for the next set of thorns. Kobi tried to block out the slight quivering he felt through his fingers. If the Choker shifted, they’d all be thrown to their deaths. What would Hales think if he could see him?
He climbed up after Fionn and Yaeko, fifty, a hundred yards into the sky. It felt good to be using his muscles again. The knowledge that he was only one missed grip away from falling to his death was invigorating. His mind felt focused, body alive.
It took almost an hour to reach the top. Kobi leaped up over the edge of the wall and onto the parapet. Yaeko and Fionn were sitting with their legs dangling over the far side, staring in silence at the endless Waste forest stretching as far as he could see.
“Wow,” said Asha breathlessly as she rolled over the top of the wall.
There was a faint haze over the canopy; trees over five hundred feet tall. The largest were the cedars, golden auburn trunks with giant leaves like oversize satellite dishes glistening a dark emerald under the rays of sun. In the far distance Kobi could just make out the spindle shape of the Space Needle in the central district, wrapped up in clinging vines, the dark gray shapes of skyscrapers spread around it similarly clothed in green. Kobi felt a shiver as he spotted the drifting silhouettes of Snatcher
s flying out from the Space Needle or returning there to roost: that was where they were based, a CLAWS operating tower.
Kobi was suddenly aware of how exposed they were on top of the wall. “We need to get down into the canopy before we’re spotted.”
He took out his map and compass and fixed a bearing on the Needle to pinpoint their exact position. Once he had it, it was straightforward to plot a course to Mercer Island. As long as they skirted the southern tip of Lake Sammamish, they’d be heading in the right direction.
“Looks like about twelve miles to reach the island,” Kobi said. “We need to get some rest first though. Make camp somewhere.” He tried to sound casual, but inside he was in turmoil. He’d never traveled so far in the Wastelands before. Any section of the journey might contain untold hazards. He looked around at the sweating faces of his companions as they turned to him, watching as he plotted the course. He knew they were relying on him. Their lives were in his hands. And Yaeko had never been out here. But having Fionn with them would surely make things safer. The boy didn’t look worried. He looked eager.
“Follow what I say down there,” Kobi said to Yaeko. “There’s no time for games when everything is trying to kill you. I’ll go through hand gestures and basic animal calls, but you have to do what I say immediately. I don’t need to tell you to worry about Snatchers—but there are dangerous plants and animals too, and they’re even more unpredictable.”
“They’re not dangerous,” said Fionn. “Or unpredictable. Not if you’re with me.”
“Okay, Fionn,” said Asha. “But you can’t expect to be able to control everything out there.”
“Hales used to say that the second you stop respecting the environment it kills you,” Kobi added. “That goes for you too, Fionn. We only ever move one at a time, while the others cover the surroundings. And don’t ever, ever go off on your own.” Kobi paused. “I did that once in the Wastelands, the first time I came out here. It didn’t go well.” Asha caught his eye: she knew he was talking about meeting the mutated orca.
“Right, right, I got it. You’re the boss,” said Yaeko. “Believe me, I’m not going solo out here.”
Asha opened her backpack and took out a syringe of Horizon.
“We need to take these,” she said. “The concentration of Waste here is way higher than we’re used to.”
She handed a syringe to Yaeko, and they each injected it into their forearms. Fionn, though, hesitated. “I don’t need it,” he said. “I feel fine.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Asha. “Remember how sick you got last time we were here? You nearly died. You’re not immune like Kobi.” Reluctantly, Fionn administered the dose. Asha was right, Kobi thought. Fionn’s state of mind didn’t seem entirely healthy. It wasn’t just the anger. It was like he believed in his connection to the Waste so much he was losing touch with his vulnerability to it. He was forgetting reality, and that could put both him, and the others, in danger.
After the medicine was packed away, Kobi approached Fionn, eager to keep him working as part of the team. “How about some more help?” He pointed to the nearest tree. “We need to get into the canopy. I think it could be a good place to make camp.” Kobi patrolled the top of the wall. He found a ponderosa pine whose pinnacle was only a few-yard drop. Its needles were thick as his arm. He remembered collecting them to create pit-traps. They were strong. He leaped onto the branch. He helped the others down, but when it came to Fionn, the boy ignored his outstretched hand and bounded down. “Easy,” he said with a grin.
They climbed carefully down to the lower canopy, slipping between thick branches and taking hold of leaves, which were easily strong enough to take their weight. Kobi looked along the enormous branch that they were now walking on. The forest was so thick here, the trees so colossal, it should be possible to stay off the ground completely. He checked his compass.
“Follow me.”
As he cut a path through the branches, Kobi kept his eyes open. Perhaps it was being back in the Wastelands and the aura of the place dredging memories from Kobi’s past, but Hales’s voice felt louder than ever, guiding him with the old rules. Even when Kobi didn’t want it to. “Look and listen before you move. Watch for birds roosting amid the branches or when you’re moving in open space. Move between points of cover.”
They started off in single file, Kobi up front hacking back any obstructing leaves or branches using a hard oak branch he’d sharpened with his knife into a makeshift machete. But soon Fionn was ranging ahead, swinging and hopping nimbly through the branches, completely at ease. Occasionally he would take a detour, disappearing for a couple of minutes at a time, before reappearing in front of them, seeming almost impatient.
Asha whispered urgently to him. “What did Kobi say about going off on your own?”
“He’s making his own rules.”
Kobi had been right; they didn’t have to venture to the ground at all. The site of the long drop down, glimpsed between the branches, made his stomach swoop. They entered what had been the suburban outskirts of the city. Below, the remains of houses and other buildings were dimly visible though the greenery, completely overwhelmed by plants, with roofs caved in or walls collapsed under the weight of vines. Once they came across the shell of a church spire tipped on its side and carried up in a cradle of branches. The huge boulders scattered below seemed natural at first, but Kobi realized they were cars, left in an old parking lot, their rusted shells covered in moss.
A few shafts of sunlight penetrated the forest, but mostly it was gloomy under the shelter of the treetops and the vast leaves of ferns. Kobi kept them heading straight for the shores of Lake Washington, and as they traveled an anxiety began to gnaw at his gut. They were making okay progress, traveling through the Wastelands with Asha to sense dangers with her telepathy and Fionn to protect them from the Chokers, but the closer they got to the Park site, the more concentrated the Waste would be.
“I’m worried,” said Asha. “Fionn’s been gone ages.”
Kobi rested against a branch, wiping the sweat from his brow. He hadn’t noticed when Fionn last went off.
“He can’t have gone that far,” said Yaeko. As she drew up beside them, her skin rippled in shades of green. “I kind of think he’s showing off.”
Asha chewed her lip. “I can’t sense him. There’s so much Waste here. He’s camouflaged.”
She turned out to the foliage around them and raised her voice. “Fionn? Where are you?”
“Asha, quiet!” Kobi hissed, raising a hand. “We don’t want to draw attention.”
Just then the leaves in the branch above parted. Kobi gripped his stun baton. But it was Fionn’s face that poked through.
“Fionn! You shouldn’t keep running off,” said Asha. “It’s not safe.”
Fionn looked at her curiously. “This is the safest we’ve ever been,” he said. “Can’t you see? We’re free here.”
Asha didn’t appear to know what to say. “Fionn, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but this place is dangerous. I know you can control it, but please, we have to stick together here. What if you injure yourself? You need Horizon.” Fionn rolled his eyes and then held up his hand, drawing an enormous bluebottle from a nearby branch before shooing it away with a flick of his fingers.
The light through the canopy was dimming. Kobi saw that the thickest of the branches where they’d stopped had a deep gouge cut out of the trunk. Kobi inspected it. It was a giant termite hole. Judging from the moss that grew inside, he thought it must be old. It was just the right size for two of them to lie down in, side by side, and there was even a stubby branch to hang their packs on. “This is a good spot to sleep awhile. No predators will get to us in that hole.” He decided not to mention what had made it.
“Sounds good to me,” said Yaeko as Asha continued to glare at Fionn. “Maybe we just need to cool off.”
Asha ignored them. “Just because you can’t see the Waste, Fi, doesn’t mean you’re not breathing it in all th
e time. Every second we’re here, we’re dying.”
Fionn pointed at Kobi. “Not if we have him. Kobi’s blood can keep us alive. We can make more cleansers. We don’t ever have to leave.”
Kobi felt a chill. There was a manic look in Fionn’s eye, like desperation. Kobi did understand how he must feel. This had been Kobi’s home for thirteen years—it had been his whole world. Deep inside, part of him longed to turn things back to how they were. But at some point you had to break free of your past.
“You can’t ignore the truth, Fionn. You can’t just hide from it forever. That’s what Hales tried to do with me.”
Fionn clenched his jaw and shook his head.
“We can’t stay here,” Asha said. “We will never be safe. The Waste will always be trying to kill us. Fi, the Waste isn’t good. It killed millions of people! It’s still killing people.”
Fionn’s features took on a more determined look. “People have killed millions of people,” he said. “People killed Rohan, and Mischik.”
“We can stop CLAWS,” said Asha, “when we find the cure. We can make people better.”
Fionn looked around at the oversize growth in every direction. The voice that came through to Kobi’s mind was sad. “What if I don’t want to be better?” He lifted a hand, and the leaves around him bent inward as if answering his call. “This is who I am.” Fionn looked at Kobi. “You understand. We belong out here.”
Kobi said nothing for a moment. Then he remembered what Johanna had said about rage making Fionn’s powers strong and helping him feel in control. Maybe Kobi could appeal to that rage. “I do know one thing. We’re not going to let Melanie Garcia win. CLAWS is going to pay for what they did to us.”
Fionn’s expression hardened. He clenched his fists and nodded.
Asha continued, pleading, “Why are you being like this, Fionn?” Kobi could tell all the hurt and frustration she’d been bottling up was bursting to the surface. He put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off, stepping toward Fionn. “Your mutations . . . This is what CLAWS made you. It doesn’t define you.” She pointed around at them all. “We’re all we’ve got. People make a home, not a place. Why can’t you see that?”