by Laura Martin
“We can talk tomorrow,” Jett said dismissively. “I’ll stop by Todd’s house in the evening.”
“I won’t be here in the evening,” I said firmly. “Shawn and I need to keep moving.”
Jett paused in his preparations with the rope and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Then I will stop by Todd’s house tonight. I believe you are planning to spend the night with young Todd?”
“We are.” I nodded. “Thank you for allowing us to stay.”
“You are welcome,” Jett said, looking over my shoulder at Todd. He shook his head in disapproval. “Todd tends to leap and then look, and not the other way around. He shouldn’t have brought you here. Now that he has, we can only hope that you are who you say you are.”
“We aren’t spies,” I said indignantly, “if that’s what you mean.”
“Until later tonight, then,” Jett said, clearly done with the conversation. I shot Todd and Shawn a triumphant grin. When I turned back to Jett to thank him, he was gone. Craning my head back, I saw him already halfway up one of the long ropes, climbing hand over hand as he headed toward a large tree house sixty feet overhead. I hurried back over to the boys.
“He’s coming to your house tonight,” I told Todd.
Todd shook his head. “I’m impressed.”
“I’m not. Sky is the most stubborn person I know,” Shawn said drily. “Why do you think we’re topside right now instead of sleeping safely in our bug-free beds?” He slapped at another mosquito, smearing a streak of blood and bug guts down his sunburned arm.
“We better head up. It’s getting late, and I’m betting you and Shep are hungry.” Todd winked at me. I tried not to smile at the murderous look that crossed Shawn’s face as Todd led us toward one of the long ropes. I eyed it warily and then looked up at the tree house silhouetted against the darkening sky.
“Nervous?” Todd smirked. “Don’t worry; we haven’t dropped anyone on their head in over a week.” The color drained from my face, and Todd chuckled. “Kidding, it’s been at least a month.”
“Not funny,” Shawn frowned.
Todd just shrugged as he flipped open the lid of a large wooden crate buried in the ground at the base of the tree and pulled out a bundle of straps. “It’s your only option unless you are planning on staying on the ground tonight. And if that’s the case, then I might as well have let Big Ugly get you back in the meadow.”
“These trees are dense enough to prevent large predators,” Shawn objected.
“The big ones aren’t always the ones you need to worry about,” Todd said. I noticed that we were the only ones still on the ground. Everyone else was climbing or being pulled up to the safety of their homes.
“I’ll send you both up in the harness, just to be safe,” Todd continued, tossing us each a bundle of straps. “Untangle those and get yourselves buckled in.” I jerked mine over my head and began tightening the ropes around my legs. I was so engrossed in figuring out which strap went where that I almost didn’t notice that Shawn hadn’t started moving.
I sighed. “What’s the holdup?”
“How are you getting up?” Shawn asked Todd, jerking his chin at the tree. “Where’s your harness?”
Todd cocked his head to the side, a wide grin on his face. “Don’t need one. I’ve been climbing these ropes since I could walk.”
“Then I don’t need one either,” Shawn said, chucking his harness back in the crate. “I’ll climb too.”
“Shawn,” I groaned in exasperation, “don’t be an idiot. You’ve never climbed anything before. What if you’re scared of heights?”
“I’m not,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
“Suit yourself,” Todd said. “But let’s get a move on.” Seeing that I was successfully strapped into my harness, he clipped the back of it to a dangling rope. My stomach churned.
“It’s really not that bad,” Todd assured me.
I looked up and gulped. I didn’t think I was scared of heights, but then again, I’d never had the opportunity to test that theory. Suddenly, Todd stiffened at my side. The dim forest around us had gone eerily silent. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Todd swore, yanking on a small cord as a rumble came from the shadows to our left. “Grab on,” he bellowed at Shawn. A pack of green scales and teeth erupted from the trees. I screamed just as my harness went tight. Todd leaped toward me, curling his hands in the harness straps at my shoulders just as Shawn grabbed on to the straps across my back. We were jerked skyward as below us a pack of man-sized green dinosaurs snapped at the air where our feet had been only moments before.
“What are those?” I choked.
“Nightmares,” Todd said breathlessly, following my gaze. “The buggers are crazy smart and come out at night. They travel in packs. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.” His description made me think they were probably troödon, but I hadn’t realized that Troödon had feathers. These creatures were sleek, with feathers fading into scales along their joints and heads, their oversized eyes set in the front of their heads like humans staring up at us, as though they were trying to figure out the pulley dragging us to safety so they could disable it. I’d read about the troödon’s massive brains, but it was eerie to see that kind of humanlike intelligence at work.
“Shawn? Are you okay?” I craned my head, trying to look over my shoulder.
“Been better,” he grunted. He tried to readjust his grip, and the motion sent us swinging.
“I bet you’re wishing for that harness about now, aren’t you, compound boy?” Todd grinned.
“Not even a little bit,” Shawn said through gritted teeth. Todd barked a laugh. I peered down at the green predators with their arrow-shaped heads and mouths full of teeth, and shivered.
“Just hold on,” Todd said. “We should be up in the house soon.” I realized then that he was right. The creatures were growing increasingly small, and I looked around myself for the first time. I could see out over the tops of the trees and glimpsed the horizon for the first time in my life. The sun was huge and bloodred in the sky, and I gasped as the whole world spread out before me.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “Shawn, are you seeing this?”
“All I can see is the back of your head,” he grumbled.
“Are you sure you guys are okay hanging on like that?” I asked.
Todd smiled. “I could do this all day, don’t worry about me. It’s your buddy I’m worried about.” With a sharp jerk, our ascent stopped, sending us swinging back and forth alarmingly.
“Dang it!” Todd glared up at the tree house still thirty feet above us.
I wasn’t enjoying the view anymore. “What happened?”
“Stupid lifter must have busted again; too much weight. Thought I fixed the thing.”
Shawn groaned. “This just keeps getting better and better.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We climb, or we hang here all night,” Todd said with a strained smile. “And as much fun as this is, I don’t fancy sleeping this way with our hungry friends below. Do you?” I shook my head. The harness was already digging painfully into my shoulders and back.
“I’ll go first. Shawn, follow me, and then Sky,” Todd instructed.
“Now you remember my name,” Shawn grumbled.
“You compound moles don’t have much of a sense of humor, do you?” Todd said.
“I’m actually hilarious.” Shawn grunted. “Just not when I’m hanging thirty feet above angry dinosaurs.”
“Fair enough,” Todd said. He eyed me skeptically. “One piece of advice: don’t look down. Or up, for that matter.”
“She’ll be fine,” Shawn said.
“I wasn’t worried about her.” Todd winked at me, and I forced a smile onto my face. He grabbed the rope attached to my harness and began pulling himself up hand over hand. I watched him go, impressed. In less than two minutes, he had disappeared through a small square hatch in the bottom of the tree house
.
“Well, this is just great,” Shawn grumbled as he muscled his way up the rope, cracking me in the back of the head with his flailing knee in the process.
“Just climb, will you?” I asked. “And don’t fall. I don’t want to watch you break your neck.”
“That makes two of us,” he said, craning his head to look down. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think those green guys would even let me hit the ground before ripping me apart.”
“How would that make me feel better?” I muttered. He started climbing, and I watched until he made it to the tree house, not wanting to swing the rope any more than it already was. I took a deep breath to fortify myself and reached for the rope above my head. It was my turn.
The rope felt rough in my hands and the muscles in my arms were shaking within seconds. Cold sweat trickled down my face that I couldn’t wipe away, and I questioned the sanity of people who lived this high up. As I climbed, my harness kept getting in the way, tangling in the slack of the rope. There was no way I would make it up to the tree house this way. I hesitated, hanging in midair, and made a snap decision. Unclipping the harness, I let the rope swing free. Someone muttered darkly above me, probably Shawn. I began climbing again, unencumbered. If I wasn’t so focused on not falling to my death, I knew I would be terrified. Instead, I felt nothing but a cold, determined focus as I pulled myself up inch by painful inch. Finally, I felt two sets of hands grab my shoulders and haul me upward. I flopped down onto the hard wooden floor of the tree house and lay with my eyes shut, panting.
“You okay?” Shawn asked. Opening one eye, I saw him glaring down at me. I blinked and nodded, still breathing too hard to reply. “I’m not even going to ask why you thought unhooking that harness was a good idea.” He extended his hand to me and heaved me to my feet. “It wasn’t. In case you wanted my opinion.”
“I don’t. And it wasn’t nearly as dumb as not wearing one to start with.” I shrugged out of the harness and scanned the inside of the small house. Todd was talking quietly to a short gray-haired woman. When she turned to look at us, I could see where Todd had gotten his startling green eyes and dimple. She strode over, holding out her hand to me.
“I’m Emily Birch. Mother to this devil,” she said, giving Todd an indulgent smile. “I’m told your name is Sky, and I’ve already met Shawn. Poor lad’s been having fits while you took your sweet time climbing.” Emily Birch leaned in and took my arm in her hand, encircling my bicep with her fingers. “Here’s the problem, child. You have noodles where your arms are supposed to be. You need to toughen up. You’re a pretty one, but pretty won’t keep you from being someone’s lunch.”
“Lovely welcome, Mom,” Todd said drily. “But they learned that the hard way today with a Big Ugly in the meadow.” Emily arched her eyebrow at her son and looked back at us sharply.
“Did you now? Well, you must have some luck.”
“They had Verde. I sent the little rascal out to create a distraction. She earned her dinner tonight.”
“You feed that thing?” Shawn asked.
“Of course we do,” Todd said. “I’m surprised she isn’t here yet.” His face darkened momentarily with worry. “I hope she didn’t get caught by those Nightmares.”
“She’s much too smart for that, dear. I’m sure she is just lying low until the Nightmares move on. I’m sure she’ll turn up by breakfast. Speaking of food, dinner is almost ready, and I can’t remember the last time we had guests.” Emily smiled, turning back to the pot simmering on the small fireplace positioned in the corner of the room.
“She can’t remember because we’ve never actually had any,” Todd whispered conspiratorially. “You just made her day. She’s been hoarding extra plates for years just in case.”
I smiled. I thought that I might like Todd. He had a spark to him, as though he was so full of life that it slipped out of his pores. I wondered if I’d be like that too, if I’d been raised in the sunlight and fresh air.
I looked around the tree house, marveling at the differences between this home and the one I had left just that morning. The walls and floor were made of a warm worn wood, and a cool breeze drifted in through the large windows. A few strategic holes had been placed in the walls and roof of the house to allow the tree’s branches to grow and wind their way through unencumbered. Emily had taken advantage of these, hanging an odd assortment of pots and pans off one and stacking clothing on another. The main frame of the house was made out of something knobby and white, and on closer inspection I realized they were massive dinosaur bones. Todd saw me looking and grinned.
“They’re light,” he explained. “We realized a long time ago that we could construct bigger houses if we used bones as the main supports.”
“They don’t look light,” Shawn said skeptically, standing on his toes to peer at what had to be a femur that ran along the length of the ceiling.
“Didn’t you know that a lot of dinosaur bones are hollow?” Todd asked, surprised. “They have more in common with birds than reptiles.”
“I’d heard that,” I admitted, “but I never really believed it.” I looked around the tree house in amazement. Despite the bones, it was cozy and inviting in a way that I had never felt in the sterile gray of the compound. A threadbare couch and two heavily patched wingback chairs stood around the fireplace. A small, round table perched in the corner. I wandered over to one of the windows and looked out at the neighboring tree houses, their lights twinkling in the fading light.
Todd had begun to set the table. I moved to his side to help, taking the stack of plates from his hands. Each plate and piece of silverware was mismatched and chipped, and some even had delicate faded patterns of flowers around the edge. I held up a pale pink one and studied it. It was so different from the compound plates of identical size and shape. The glasses Todd handed me were equally unique, each one a different size, shape, or color, but when they were all arranged on the worn table, it looked wonderful. Emily carried over a large cast-iron pot and motioned for us to be seated.
“So what happened to the lifter?” Todd asked as he pulled off the lid and began ladling something thick and brown into our bowls.
“You know that thing is hit-or-miss.” Emily shrugged dismissively. “If you hadn’t put triple the weight on it, you probably would have been fine. You’ll just have to fix it tomorrow morning.”
“Can’t wait,” Todd grumbled around a mouthful of stew.
“How many people live here?” I motioned to the surrounding tree houses, thirsty for information about this strange village.
“About thirty of us.” Emily smiled. “I think it might be thirty-one since Maggie had her baby last week.” I looked down at the delicious-smelling brown stew in front of me and took a tentative bite. It was richer and chewier than anything I’d had in the compound.
“This is amazing,” I murmured in appreciation. “What is it?”
“Roasted Duck Face,” Todd mumbled around a mouthful. “Jett brought one down two days ago.”
“Duck Face?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Todd said around a mouthful. “Really funky-looking dinosaur with this long nose that kind of looks like a duck.”
I almost choked in surprise, but forced myself to swallow my mouthful.
Shawn spat his stew back into his bowl. “This is dinosaur? We’re eating dinosaur?”
“They don’t seem to have a problem eating us,” Todd chuckled. “So why not?”
“What do you eat in that compound if you don’t eat dinosaur?” Emily asked curiously.
“Root vegetables, mostly.” Shawn shrugged. “Things that can be grown or processed using grow lights. No live animals.”
“No wonder you’re both so scrawny.” Todd grinned. I bit back a smile at the dumbstruck expression on Shawn’s face. I didn’t think anyone had called him scrawny in his life. People had called him short, but those people had regretted that decision.
Shawn reorganized his expression and swallowed whatever sma
rt-alecky comment he was about to say. “So how does the government not know about you? I can’t believe the Noah would let you live topside like this if he knew.”
Emily and Todd stiffened, shooting each other a look before Todd responded. “You’re right. That’s why he doesn’t know, and we plan on keeping it that way. Jett was nervous about that earlier, but I think the fact that you’re just a couple kids won him over. It’s why you had to be searched. It’s important that we stay off the government’s grid.”
I nodded. It made sense, but I noticed that Shawn looked troubled. I didn’t blame him. The fact that these people even existed made me feel unbalanced. I glanced at the door of the tree house for the fifth time in less than ten minutes and hoped that Jett really would stop by tonight. I hadn’t been lying when I said that Shawn and I needed to keep moving. Maybe he would know what was in the middle of Lake Michigan, or at least be able to tell me the best way to get there.
“Todd,” Emily said, interrupting my thoughts, “I just remembered that tomorrow is gardening day. You are going to need to look at that lifter tonight. I don’t feel like climbing down that rope tomorrow with my shovel and pruning shears.”
Todd groaned, but Shawn sat up straighter.
“Can I help?” he asked. Todd looked at him like he was nuts but shrugged his assent, and they left through a small door at the rear of the house. Emily stood to clear the dishes, and I scrambled to join her.
“You have a garden?” I asked. I wanted to know more about these people who’d cheated extinction.
“Of course,” she said. “The Oaks has a rather large plot of ground just south of here.” When she saw my look of confusion, she smiled warmly. “We cleared out about three acres of trees in the middle of the forest. We used the timber to build the houses here in the Oaks.”