AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  Except they weren't.

  Gran would know if I was coming back. She had to know. Sometimes, she knew when someone else was on their way from another world, so I would be no different. She'd keep hope alive for the others. Besides, my partners wouldn't stop looking for me. Even if they thought I was dead, I'm sure they'd want some sort of proof. Some evidence.

  I sniffed and rubbed my face, catching stray tears which annoyed me to no end. Tears wouldn't help anything.

  What would Dempsey and Walden tell everyone? I couldn't think of anything my team would accept. They'd question them, surely, maybe even keep hold of them until we got back. In the meantime, there had to be other people that could open portals.

  We would be okay. What we had to do right then was stay alive. It was obvious we weren't alone. I wasn’t sure if that was a point in the survival column or a point in the ‘we're screwed’ column. But it was something we hadn't known yesterday.

  What else did we know?

  Chapter 8

  The portal remnants hadn't faded any further, but I wasn’t certain we could count on it to remain that way. Another person living here, much larger than any gremlin, could mean there was more than one intelligent species in this world.

  If others could survive, so could we.

  Still, I wasn't in a hurry to rush to my feet and back to the camp. Boone might be there. It had been a moment of lost hope and now it was gone. No need to let him think I couldn't hold it together. The last thing I wanted was to give him an excuse to start ordering me around.

  Looking out over the forest, I heard the rustling again, but never saw anything. No other noises indicated something alive. It was eerie.

  No birds. That was what was missing. Nothing chirped in the trees or flew around. No squirrels, either, which you'd never see at home, not with a patch of woods this large.

  It wasn’t that I expected all worlds to have little furry creatures, but wouldn't there be something replacing them? Something else that foraged the area? Feeling uneasy once again, I pushed myself to my feet and looked around, this time for any physical indication something was alive.

  I saw nothing.

  What would keep animals out of a place like this?

  The only thing that came to mind was a predator. Could something have claimed this area and scoured it of food?

  Maybe it was the portal. It affected me poorly; maybe it did the same to the creatures here as well. That had to be it.

  I was almost able to convince myself.

  On the way back to the portal and our, for lack of a better word, campsite, I started checking the ground for sticks—something that might hold up if I had to use it to defend myself.

  I found a few options and took the best. Whether or not it would stop a raging monster that might be lurking in the woods was another story.

  Ugh, there are no raging monsters. Come on, Cassie, get a grip on yourself. Stick to the facts. Instead, I needed to think over what we needed, water, food, shelter, and a way home. Back at the camp, I once again surveyed items we had on hand.

  Food and water I couldn't do much about, unless I stumbled onto something.

  Shelter and a way home, that's what was left. I glanced at the portal, but looked away quickly. There was nothing for me to try there. Best not think about it. That left shelter.

  It sucked to think about it, but Boone was going to be the one to come up with a shelter as well. If I got started, he would probably laugh at the results if I didn't beat him to it. Since I had no idea what to do, building would have to wait. Besides, building a shelter would have given Boone an excuse to order me around. That might lighten his mood for a while, but then he'd tick me off and we'd both be in a bad mood.

  I hated being useless. Looking around, nothing jumped out at me as needing to be done.

  What would he make a shelter out of? It wasn’t like there was lumber lying around. In shows about deserted islands, you see fake shelters made out of palm leaves. None of them was there. There were large leaves on the trees. Very large, in fact, but they weren't exactly building materials. That left grass and sticks. I doubted the soft, smooth grass would do anything, so sticks it was.

  Besides, wasn't that always one of the first things the guys did when we camped? Even the times we didn't build a fire, they’d still gather up a pile of wood. There had to be a reason for it.

  So, I set out, walking the edges of the forest, looking for sticks and choosing the longest ones that could double for some sort of lean to, or whatever it was Mr. Survival would come up with. It still felt creepy if I walked more than a few feet into the woods.

  I also looked for food. Not the running kind, since I hadn't seen any signs of real animals, but my growling stomach had me looking for berry bushes, mushrooms, or anything else that seemed like it might be edible.

  This was definitely not a movie. In the movies, you typically don't get someone smelling the bark of sticks while they gathered them, just in case something was edible.

  Scouring the area caused me to break out in a sweat. I'm a terrible judge of time, but it had to have been a few hours of work. By then, I had found all the nearby large sticks, medium, and even small ones, and started making a stack of twigs. I knew I was taking the gathering overboard as an excuse to keep busy.

  I also started to feel pretty gross. Both because of the sweat and dirt that covered me, and my stomach protesting due to the lack of food.

  Sweating? Shoot. I didn't even think of the fact that I was wasting water. And of course, as soon as I thought about it, my throat became unbelievably dry.

  The bag was there, and there were protein bars in it, but I had no idea how much to eat. That was something I should have asked Boone before he left. I sat down at the camp and tried to think of my next move. My eyes strayed repeatedly to the bag, which distracted me.

  Where was Boone? I thought he wasn't planning on staying away long.

  Except we had decided together, hadn’t we? I rubbed my head. Or had he thought of that on his own? Not remembering made me cranky. Or maybe the foul mood was because I caught myself staring at the bag again.

  Shaking my head, I stood and moved closer to the portal. There was a line on the ground under where the portal had stood. It was as though the whirling mass of light had run directly through the ground. I sat down nearby. When I did, I heard a small crunch. Looking around, I saw that the grass was dead immediately around the portal.

  Was it killing the plants? I plucked a few blades and rubbed them between two fingers. The grass crumbled and dropped from my hand. It looked like the area of dead plants started near the portal and had spread out several feet.

  That was something to consider. If the portal was killing the area, did it survive because it stole energy from the surroundings?

  There were too many unknowns. The other side of the portal, the side we should have been on, had plants that still thrived around the portal, although it had cut through the ground the same way this one seemed to.

  "See any changes?"

  Even from a sitting position, I managed to jump. Thankfully, my throat was too dry for the squeak that had been forming to find a way out.

  "Don't scare me like that," I snapped.

  Boone looked amused, but when he saw my face, he hid it pretty well.

  "Here, drink this," Boone said.

  I took it and started drinking, forgetting to ask how much I should consume. It took a few moments for me to notice the taste. When I stopped and took a closer look at the contents, I saw the water wasn't as crystal clear as it had been when he left.

  "You found water," I said, surprised at how happy that made me.

  "Yeah. Have you had anything to eat?"

  "No, but I think it's past time." I took another drink before capping the bottle and standing. "We didn't discuss how we should ration the food. For that matter, I also forgot to ask how the water should be rationed."

  "We have water," he said, walking back to our camp with me trailin
g behind. "As for the food, we don't have much and we have a lot to do."

  That didn't sound promising, but I didn't say anything.

  "At the same time, there has to be food in the area," he continued. "Eat this." He tossed me one of the power bars.

  Once again, I found myself sitting on the ground. "The whole thing?" I asked.

  "Well, you look like hell."

  I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks." Still, I didn't argue and planned to take my time eating, thinking I wouldn't finish the whole thing.

  It disappeared despite my efforts.

  "Now, fill me in what happened here. Anything new with the portal?" Boone asked.

  I told him how I had spent my day, pointing out where he could find the wood, which I had placed a little ways into the tree line and well away from camp. Even I knew that stacks of branches drew animals wanting to use it for shelter.

  He didn't look happy about the lack of activity at the portal.

  "Tell me what you saw that made you think someone was watching us last night," Boone said.

  I had to remind myself Boone knew almost nothing about Readers, or me for that matter, so I patiently explained what I had seen. After which, he wanted to see the evidence for himself. Sadly, my food was gone, so I showed Boone the way.

  When I approached the spot where I had spotted the figure, once again I became uneasy. "It stood in the middle of that stand of trees," I said, not moving forward.

  Boone strode around me, heading for the spot. I threw out my arm and stopped him. He looked at me, eyebrows raised, waiting for an explanation.

  Unfortunately, I didn't have one. Not a real one anyway. "I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling something is wrong here."

  "Is this a feeling or something you read?" Boone asked.

  I shook my head. "It's not as easy as that. The two are tied together."

  "I'm going to need more than that to go on."

  I let out an exasperated sigh. "That's all I've got." My partners would have gotten it straight away. Or at least they'd believe me.

  Boone stared at me, apparently expecting more.

  The only response he got was a return stare from me.

  "I can't see anything from here," he said.

  I shrugged. "Do what you want, but be careful. I'm staying right here until I know more."

  He looked a little uneasy, but he studied the area more carefully before moving forward. He only took a few steps before stopping again.

  "Grab a branch for me," he said.

  "A nice 'please' wouldn't be too hard," I muttered under my breath, but I snatched up a long stick, giving him a dirty look when I handed it to him.

  "Thank you." If he heard me, he didn't let on.

  He dragged the stick across the ground in front of him. There was a snap, like a broken twig, and I moved aside so I could see around Boone.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  Boone squatted down. "Some sort of snare."

  "Some sort? Like what sort? For an animal?"

  "I doubt it was for the trees." He sounded more thoughtful than sarcastic, so I let the comment slide.

  Besides, I doubt I would have treated the question any differently. "I meant, do you think it was for hunting or for something like us."

  "No idea, but it works for both." He picked the contraption up and moved the stick around on the ground more slowly this time before continuing forward.

  "Don't move any further," I said after a minute or so of watching his antics. If I hadn’t been so tense and worried, it might have looked comical. "I think whatever it was stood in front of your stick."

  Boone squatted down again and took a closer look at the ground.

  "What do you see?" I asked impatiently when he said nothing.

  "There's not much to see. There are more fallen leaves in this area, but I can't tell if they fell naturally or were intentionally laid to hide these." Boone waved the contraption through the air. "But there was something out here at some point."

  "Is there anything else you can tell? Like what it might have been?"

  Boone shook his head. "I don't even know what kind of animals or people are here aside from the gremlins. It could have been them, maybe, but I didn't get the idea they were crafty enough to think of traps."

  "It's hard to tell with gremlins," I said. "Is there any metal in the gadget you're holding?"

  Boone took one last look and walked back the way he came. "No metal."

  "Then I doubt it was gremlins," I said.

  "Do they only work with metal?"

  "That's all I've seen them use. And they'll go pretty far to find it, too. Can I see?"

  Boone handed over what he had found and started back for the camp. I studied the thing as best I could, being cautious so I didn't trip over anything, including my own feet.

  The thing was wooden, but the wood was flexible. Smooth, too. There weren't any sharper bits like one might find in bear traps, but I could see where the general idea of the contraption might be the same.

  Back at the camp, Boone looked around, much as I had earlier in the day. He seemed like he was trying to figure out what to do next. With so little at our disposal, I wasn’t sure there were many options.

  "Do you have any idea how this works?" I asked.

  "No," Boone said. A general grumpiness was in his voice that had me inwardly groaning.

  Somehow, I managed not to roll my eyes at him and dropped the trap next to our bag.

  "We need to decide our next steps," Boone said.

  "How long will our food last?"

  Boone looked down the corridor of grassland. "Through tomorrow."

  It wasn't a promising prospect. "Did you see anything resembling food while you searched for water?" I asked.

  "Nothing."

  "We know there are gremlins here. They have to eat something."

  Boone shrugged. "I could explore a bit farther." His eyes strayed back to where the portal should have been. "If they tried to open the portal, would you be able to tell?"

  "When it's opening, yes."

  "I mean before that. If they were working on things from their side, would you see it? You could check before I leave."

  Where could I even start with a question like that? "I have no idea if I'd see anything. I don't even know if anything changes unless it's opening. Right now, though, I don't think I should try. Not without sleep."

  Boone sighed.

  My face heated up as my temper swelled. "If there was something I could do I'd be doing it," I snapped.

  He didn't say anything. It took a great deal of effort for me not to get more agitated.

  Then self-doubt started to peek through. Was I doing everything I could? It had been stupid of me to read the area earlier. My power had run away from me. I could check the portal again, but I was almost tapped out. Looking for a few seconds wasn't going to help, but if I looked and lost control, it would put us in a tight spot.

  However, I was more than a Reader. There had to be something else I could do.

  "I think we should stay here for the rest of the day," I said.

  "Why?" Boone asked.

  "If this was some big mistake, it's likely Agents Dempsey and Wallace will regain their strength before long. If it's not," I continued before Boone could interrupt, "and there's someone else in the area that can open a portal, they'd be able to reach us. Also, it's getting late. We have no idea what we're dealing with in this world, but it'll be easier for us to see what's coming when it's full daylight."

  Boone didn't say anything for a while.

  For something to do, I grabbed the water bottle and found a spot to sit down. I took a quick drink and then examined the water. Maybe there would be fish in the water. When Boone walked away and up the short rise in the meadow, I pointedly ignored him.

  A cool breeze streamed through the grassland, dragging a sweet smell along with it. The sky turned violet as the sun fell lower. To forget my animosity toward Boone, I laid back, stared at the alien s
ky, and fell into the breathing patterns Vincent and I did while meditating.

  Any thoughts of what my partners were doing, I shoved away. That was no more than a guessing game that threatened to twist my stomach. Wondering what they would do if they were in my place wasn’t helping either. What should I be doing? That was the question.

  We didn't know how to communicate with the gremlins, but we knew they would fall over each other for metal. They'd fall over you, as well, if you were holding some. Never in a mean way. They had never attacked anyone to my knowledge. Gremlins were enthusiastic, was all. Without metal, I wasn’t even sure if we’d see them.

  Well, we had a little metal. That might help bridge some sort of relationship.

  Was that a good thing? Would it be useful?

  Although, with no gremlins around, the point was moot.

  The sky grew darker and took on the appearance of dark velvet. Pinpoints of light started to appear. In a way, it was serene.

  "How would you go about finding food?" Boone asked, walking up.

  Serenity tried to flee, but I held on tight. "Ordering takeout always worked best for me."

  "That's helpful," Boone grumbled.

  I sighed and sat up. "It was a joke. Well, sort of. I was thinking about the gremlins."

  "What about them?" Boone asked in a guarded tone.

  "Like I said before, they have to eat something. If we could find a way to communicate, maybe we could find out what they eat. They might be willing to help us find food."

  No moon rose, and with the sun gone, the landscape turned pitch. Even with good night vision, I had a hard time seeing Boone settle on the ground.

  "Any ideas how to do that?" Boone asked.

  "Not really," I lied. The Path might have been useful here, but it would have taken too long to explain to Boone.

  "They haven't been around. We'd have to find them first."

  "Hopefully we can find them the same way they find the portal,” I said. “Through the metal."

  "With the number of gremlins you all had, I'm surprised they aren't nearby."