Horizon

by Scott Westerfeld

  Caleb grabbed on to the thickest branch he could see and gathered himself for an even harder push.

  Yes! This time he had it right. He was sailing just above the trees, straight ahead. To reduce wind resistance, he straightened out and put his hands in front of him. Like a diver going into the water.

  No, like Superman!

  The flare crackled in his hand, spitting back into his face. Caleb imagined the glittering trail of sparks behind him and smiled through gritted teeth.

  Anna was right—flying was the bomb.

  Too bad they only had one of these devices. Anna was going to want it back when he returned to camp, wasn’t she? The most amazing technology he’d ever seen, and Caleb had let a bunch of kids play around with it.

  He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

  His next push carried him too high, and the wind caught him once more.

  Caleb swore. He needed to focus on jumping. He could decide later who got to keep the gravity device.

  A half-dozen jumps later, he noticed something odd. About a hundred yards to his right was a dark space in the jungle. A low spot in the canopy, as if someone had cut off the tops of all the trees. For some reason, the ever-present blue shimmer of glowflies was missing.

  Squinting, Caleb saw that the darkness formed a circle about twenty yards across.

  He let himself drift to a stop, keeping his eyes on the dark area as he descended. The circle was so exact, it seemed unnatural.

  Was it a camp of some kind?

  Caleb felt a wariness come over him. If anyone lived out in this weird jungle, he didn’t necessarily want to meet them in the dark of night. Alone.

  But he was more than halfway back to the bonfire, only a mile from the others. They needed to know about this. He had to take a look.

  He pushed carefully through the treetops, not flying up into the cold wind. In a few soft jumps he reached the edge of the dark circle.

  The trees were different here. Shorter and stumpier, like a whole new species. Maybe this wasn’t a camp at all, just some weird natural formation. Maybe the darkness was only because glowflies didn’t like this kind of tree.

  But why were they growing in an exact circle?

  And hadn’t Molly said something about circular stands of trees farther out in the jungle? But those were taller, not shorter …

  It was only twenty yards across. He could zoom all the way with one push, keeping his eyes open the whole way.

  Caleb steadied himself and shoved off gently.

  As the perfect circle of darkness opened up below him, his stomach lurched a little.

  No, his stomach was lurching a lot.

  From his shoulder, the gravity device let out an annoyed little buzzing sound. Like an alarm clock, insistent and pulsing.

  “Uh-oh,” Caleb said.

  With awesome suddenness, gravity jerked back into existence around him. His full weight came crashing down like a blanket of lead, and a moment later he was falling …

  Hard.

  Did anyone else see that?” Molly asked.

  Anna didn’t answer, just kept her eyes locked where the flare had arced suddenly down, like a shooting star dropping from the sky.

  It didn’t reappear. She saw nothing but dark trees shivering in the wind.

  “Theories?” Molly prompted. “Conjectures?”

  “He could’ve hit something,” Javi said. “He’s never jumped before.”

  Yoshi shook his head. “It went down too fast. He probably just dropped the flare.”

  “Or maybe he ran into whatever creature made that noise,” Anna said.

  Everyone stared at her, but she ignored them, gazing into the blackness. Was there something different about the spot where Caleb had disappeared?

  Maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but the trees seemed a little darker there. The blue glimmer of the glowflies was missing.

  “Maybe the device’s batteries ran out,” Javi said quietly.

  Anna frowned. She was worried about Caleb, but also couldn’t escape the feeling that it was her gravity machine out there, maybe lost now. Why had she handed it over to a noob?

  “No, Yoshi’s right. That was the flare going down, not him.” Molly rubbed at her singed hair. “He must have burned his hand and dropped it.”

  “Then he’ll fly down and pick it up,” Anna said, and shivered. “Since when are jungles freezing?”

  “The water at the falls was cold, too,” Yoshi said.

  Anna looked at him. “We should check that out.”

  Molly sighed. “We’re not going anywhere until Caleb brings us back our gravity device. Do you guys see anything?”

  Silence fell over them, except for the crackle of the bonfire and the low moan of moving air. The mists were clearing a little, parted by the wind. The soft light of the moons began to color the sky, and patches of moonlight swept across the jungle.

  No one said anything as they watched and waited.

  Then Anna saw it—a pale trickle of smoke drifting up from the spot where Caleb had disappeared. The trees there were darker, she was certain now.

  She pointed. “There’s smoke. His flare’s still burning, but it’s on the ground.”

  “He could be hurt,” Molly said. “And if we’re going to find him, it has to be before that flare goes out.”

  “We’re really going to walk through the jungle at night?” Oliver asked. “With whatever made that noise out there?”

  Everyone looked at Molly.

  “We don’t have a choice,” she said.

  Anna shrugged. “Better keep your sword handy, Yoshi, just in case.”

  Marching through the jungle at night was unpleasant. Blue glowflies filled the air, branches scratched and tripped, and every scurrying noise in the undergrowth sounded like tanglevine.

  On top of which, there was a giant, sharp-clawed creature somewhere out here.

  Anna found herself in the lead, using her survival knife to hack a path through the vines. Javi came behind her, holding his water bottle full of glowflies. The cluster of bugs was almost as bright as a flashlight, which saved on batteries. But they also made everyone look like zombies in their pale blue light.

  Anna wondered for the hundredth time what the purpose of the bugs’ glowing was. Earth insects mostly used bioluminescence for attracting mates. Of course, some jellyfish glowed as a warning—You don’t want to eat me, dude. I’m a jellyfish.

  Were the glowflies poisonous?

  Not that Anna was hungry enough to eat bugs. Not yet, anyway.

  At least the storm hadn’t arrived yet. The cold wind had died down, leaving the jungle silent except for the buzz of insects and the slither of who-knew-what underfoot. But Anna still felt a dampness in the air, like rain coming.

  A soft murmur of whispers came from the darkness just ahead. Akiko and Kira had come along, because Molly hadn’t wanted to leave them alone. The two girls were so adept at crawling through vines and branches that they didn’t bother keeping to Anna’s path. She wondered if they’d been secretly exploring the jungle on their own.

  She realized they weren’t speaking Japanese. The whispers sounded more like French. Right—they’d been flying to Japan from a fancy school in Switzerland.

  Were they just practicing their French? Or hiding what they were saying from Yoshi?

  The mournful cry came again in the distance, and everyone froze. The leaves seemed to shiver with the sound, and Anna felt it in her spine. Some deep, ancestral part of her knew that she wasn’t the top of the food chain right now.

  When the cry finally faded, it was a moment before anyone spoke.

  “That thing is far away,” Javi said softly. “Right?”

  “Sure.” Molly sounded like she wasn’t really certain. “Miles from here.”

  It was probably true, but Anna heard the metal slither of Yoshi’s sword coming free. The sound sent a little thrill through her, and in that moment something became obvious.

 
“That was a call,” she said.

  Molly came closer in the darkness. “What do you mean?”

  “When an animal makes a noise, it’s always for a reason.” Anna listened again to the jungle—nothing but the buzz of insects. “A warning, or saying where food is. Or mating.”

  Javi stared at her, his face lit blue. “You mean, it’s talking to another creature like it?”

  “So there’s two of them?” Oliver said.

  Anna shrugged. “Nothing answered. But yeah, maybe it’s trying to find a friend.”

  “Better than it trying to find dinner,” Molly said.

  Anna nodded, and she found herself annoyed again that Caleb had taken the gravity device. They wouldn’t have to worry so much about predators if they could fly.

  But she didn’t say that out loud. Better to say something reassuring.

  “Any creature with a call that loud has to be widely dispersed. In other words, there aren’t too many of them in this jungle.”

  “I’m okay with that,” Oliver said.

  Anna smiled, and didn’t add that the scariest predators were often the loneliest. The more they ate, the more territory they needed to themselves.

  “Hey, did you feel that?” Javi asked.

  Anna had—a familiar flutter in her stomach.

  “Like low gravity starting up,” she said.

  Javi held up his glowing blue bottle. “We must be close. I smell smoke from the flare.”

  “But the low-G feeling isn’t steady. Like the device is fritzing,” Molly said. “Maybe you were right about it running out of batteries, Javi.”

  Anna felt the flutter again, mixed with an awful certainty that the device was broken—she would never fly again.

  “Listen,” Yoshi whispered.

  A silent moment later, Anna heard it. A groan coming from up ahead.

  It was a deep, growly, liquid sound, like a lone shredder bird out there in the dark, complaining. It sent another shiver down her spine.

  “Could that be …” Javi’s voice faded.

  Anna shook her head. It hadn’t sounded human.

  “Let’s check it out,” Molly whispered.

  “Naifu,” came a soft voice from the darkness. Kira emerged from shadow, holding out a hand expectantly.

  Anna handed her the knife.

  The girl plunged ahead, slashing the vines with near silent efficiency, and the rest of them followed. A moment later they stood at a strange, dark border in the trees.

  “Omoshiroi,” Kira said.

  “Yeah,” Anna whispered. “Pretty interesting.”

  It was as if a line had been drawn through the jungle, a gently curving boundary. Beyond it, no glowflies hovered in the air—a deeper night ruled there. Where the soft light from Javi’s bottle touched, the trees seemed gnarled and bent.

  “I saw this dark area from back at the bonfire,” Anna said. “This is where he went down!”

  Another ripple of low gravity went through the air, and the groaning came again.

  This time it sounded almost human.

  “I’ll go first,” Javi said. Holding his bottle of glowflies high, he took a step forward.

  The instant he crossed the boundary of darkness, a grunt came from his lips. He staggered, dropping to one knee and losing hold of the bottle. It seemed to shoot from his hands to the ground.

  “Javi!” Molly followed, reaching out for him. She stumbled as well, but grasped one of the stumpy trees and kept her feet.

  Anna started forward, but something held her back.

  It was Kira, who had grabbed her belt.

  The girl reached her arm out, holding the knife just across the boundary of darkness. Its tip quivered for a moment, until she let it slip from her grasp. It shot from her hand, straight down to thunk in the bare dirt.

  “Abunai,” Kira said softly.

  Anna frowned. “I’m going to go with … dangerous?”

  “Indeed,” Yoshi said, standing well back from the darkness. “You okay in there, Javi?”

  “I think so.” Javi tried to stand but grimaced and sank to his hands and knees. “The gravity in here …”

  “It’s turned up,” Molly panted, still clinging to the branch.

  Anna stared down at the glowflies inside Javi’s bottle. They skittered along the bottom, suddenly too heavy to regain the air. As she watched, they went dark one by one.

  “Caleb,” she murmured. What if he’d changed the settings on device from light to heavy—in midair?

  “Go find him!” Molly said. “We’ll crawl out!”

  “I’ll stay here and help!” Oliver said.

  Kira pointed to the right, indicating they should try to go around. Together, she, Anna, and Yoshi skirted the border of the darkness.

  As they moved, Anna gave the stunted trees a closer look. The fronds were a familiar shape. Of course! This species was everywhere in the jungle, but this area of trees had grown up crushed beneath their own weight. Which meant that whatever was causing this gravity distortion field had been here a long time.

  Was this heavy gravity natural?

  In front of her, Kira came to a stop. The growl came again, close by.

  “Caleb?” Anna called softly.

  Gravity flickered, and words emerged from the darkness.

  “Help me.”

  It was like being covered in lead.

  Javi’s aunt Sofia was a cop, and once he’d tried on her bulletproof vest. The Kevlar had felt this heavy, except that here in the high-G zone the weight seemed to be wrapped around his entire body. Every breath struggled into his lungs, as if the air had turned thick and soupy.

  But Javi could still crawl, and he made his way to the edge of the darkness, where Akiko and Oliver waited to help. Together, they dragged him out of the gravity distortion field.

  Molly came staggering after, collapsing beside him in the undergrowth.

  “What’s your guess?” she panted. “Double?”

  Javi coughed. “At least. How did you keep standing?”

  “Five years of ballet,” she said. “Gotta thank Mom for that.”

  “I’ll remind you to,” Javi said.

  Molly had to be worried about her mother, all alone at home. The crash would be on the news by now, of course. Javi closed his eyes, trying not to think about his own family watching TV and worrying.

  Instead, he let himself appreciate the merciful normal gravity. He felt like he’d spent a week on Jupiter, and now was finally back on Earth.

  But this wasn’t Earth. The laws of physics were broken here.

  As Javi sat up, another dizzying wave of low G rippled through the air.

  “You guys should come,” Oliver said. “I think they found Caleb.”

  Caleb had fallen at the edge of the distortion field.

  Of course it was at the edge, Javi realized. The poor guy wouldn’t have flown very far in double G. The only thing that had kept him from being squashed outright was the gravity device he’d been carrying. Even now it seemed to be fighting against this heaviness, sending out pulses of low G that grew stronger as Oliver led them closer to where Caleb lay.

  As did the awful sound of the guy’s breathing.

  “I saw … something,” Caleb was saying.

  “Drink this first.” Anna was beside him inside the field, bracing her water bottle with both hands. Yoshi was next to her, sitting cross-legged, the strained expression on his face the only sign that he was in double G.

  Javi watched as Caleb swallowed, then coughed. It sounded like his lungs were full of tomato sauce.

  “In the sky,” he managed a moment later.

  “That doesn’t matter!” Molly cried. “We need to figure out how to get you out of there!”

  “We could slide him,” Oliver said. “Time it with the flutters of low gravity.”

  Molly shook her head. “That could hurt him even more.”

  Anna was staring at the device that lay beside him. “Maybe we can find a higher setting. Somethi
ng that counteracts the heaviness.”

  Javi didn’t say anything. The way Caleb lay there, his back twisted against the gnarled root of a tree … it didn’t look good. Maybe if they had a team of paramedics and an ambulance full of medical equipment—double-G Jaws of Life?—something could be done.

  But out here in a jungle, with nothing but a survival knife, a first-aid kit, and some water bottles?

  Javi glanced at Kira. She shook her head and put her arm around Akiko, who had started to cry.

  An awful certainty was creeping into Javi. Caleb wasn’t going to make it.

  “Stupid … kids,” the guy croaked. “Listen.”

  “What is it?” Javi asked softly.

  “The moons. They’re wrong.”

  Molly looked up at Javi pleadingly.

  “We know,” Javi said gently. “We aren’t on Earth anymore. But you need to—”

  “No.” Caleb coughed again, but managed to go on. “The phases are wrong. They’re fake.”

  Javi pictured the moons—two orbs, the red one a little larger. Both of them cratered just like the familiar pale moon back on Earth.

  “And the stars,” Caleb barely managed.

  “You can give us an astronomy report later!” Molly cried.

  At those words, a harsh smile formed on Caleb’s lips. Another ripple of light gravity passed through the fronds around them, and he managed to slurp a quick breath.

  “Urss …” he said.

  Nobody answered, waiting for more.

  But a moment later, Caleb closed his eyes.

  “Caleb?” Anna asked. She leaned closer, her neck muscles straining against the gravity.

  Nothing. Not even the rattle of his breath.

  “Caleb!” Molly cried. When there was no answer, she turned to the others. “We need to get him out of there. Now!”

  “Molly,” Anna said. “He’s not breathing.”

  Molly stared at her. “What do you mean?”

  Anna’s face went blank. “He’s not breathing because he’s dead.”

  Javi turned away. He couldn’t look at Caleb, or at Anna’s expression. And most of all he couldn’t look at Molly. Her mind was still working, still trying to solve this problem.

  But there was nothing to solve.

  He didn’t know where to look, so Javi watched as a glowfly buzzed past. It drifted into the darkness of the high-G zone, was captured instantly, and fell to the ground.