by Seren Goode
I allowed the first moment of hope to flood me. We were going to make it! The struggle was brutal, but inch by inch, we crawled out of the drain, clutching at each other in case one fell back in, until we finally we lay face down on the pavement in a stream of water.
I flipped over onto my back to avoid breathing in the water as I panted. But I couldn’t move an inch more. The rain beat down on us. We had made it. Shim groaned beside me.
We were alive!
Chapter 32
The Diary
“As soon as I can move, remind me to call Breeze.” Water was flowing around me as it made an escape down the grate, and the hard concrete was cold under my check, but I couldn’t find the energy to move. My clothes were already saturated so there wasn’t a rush.
“Okay…why?” Shim lay face-up next to me.
“She got through to me when the water first started to rise, and I told her where we were. If we never turned up, I wanted them to know where to look for our bodies.”
“That’s a morbid thought.” Shim turned his head toward me. “Wait, they knew we were in the tunnels and the water was rising?”
“Yes.”
“Shit, I better call Jaxon now before he does something stupid,” Shim responded. “Oh no!”
I quickly flipped over and dragged myself into a sitting position. “What?”
“The ring, it’s gone.”
I immediately reached up and reassured myself my mother’s necklace was still around my neck, and then, in a panic, slapped the back of my pants. I breathed a sigh when I felt the bulk of the book and pulled it out. That plastic evidence bag had done its job, and the diary was the only thing on us not soaked.
“It must have slipped off my finger in the water. It was a little loose and so much stuff was hitting me I didn’t notice. Oh, Stars.” His fingers were so bruised and cut up, I was wondering if we should go to the hospital. Shim groaned. “Kindle is going to kill me.”
“I’m sure she’ll be happy you are alive.”
“No, no, she won’t.” He flopped back into the water.
The corner of my mouth crooked down wearily. I didn’t understand that. But there was only one thing I could do to help. I tugged on the stone on my necklace.
“Hello, anyone there?” I said in my head.
“Grace!” It was Jaxon. “Is that you? Are you and Shim alive?”
“Grace! Are you okay?” Breeze’s voice chimed in.
“Yes, both alive, barely. We could really use a ride.”
“Where are you?”
I looked around. We were remarkably close to the strip. It was shocking to think we could have died this close to the heart of Las Vegas. “I see a castle.” Out loud, I said to Shim, “They want to know where we are.”
Shim rolled over closer to me and added his finger to the stone. I could hear him in my head as he gave Jaxon a series of cross streets. We hauled ourselves over to the side of the road and huddled under the streetlamp that had been our beacon of hope in the tunnel. I hugged it and whispered, “Thank you.”
I think I fell asleep or passed out. I woke up shivering as a car pulled up next to us.
∞
It was a long time later when I woke with a start. My mouth felt like I’d filtered all of Las Vegas through it. Yuck. I groaned and tried to get up. Everything hurt.
Eventually, I stumbled out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Sometime later, I finally made it to the living room and collapsed on the couch.
I heard a noise behind me, and Shim grunted in greeting as he passed me. Jaxon promptly razzed his brother. “How you feeling? Feel like heading out on bikes again?”
Shim groaned again. “My head feels like I’ve been through the spin, rinse, and wash cycle. And don’t remind me that my bike is probably under a ten-foot pile of trash at the end of a drain. Not that there was much to salvage after they hit us. Caffeine, I need some caffeine.” He started rummaging through the kitchen cabinets. We all followed. I was interested in the results of his search.
“You got hit?” Jaxon exclaimed.
We had given them the short version last night before we collapsed. Now that we were rested, everyone wanted to hear more details of what had happened.
“We can make you breakfast while you tell us,” Breeze volunteered eagerly. “We bought some food.” That sounded good. Both Shim and I agreed. Breeze and Skylar busied themselves cooking while Shim made coffee, and we filled them in on the details from the day before, the twins and Jaxon adding in bits of info from their point of view. No one knew what to make of the warehouse full of weapons. An invasion? Terrorists? What had we stumbled upon?
“Hand me that.” I pointed to the plastic-wrapped diary I’d left on the kitchen island last night to dry out.
Breeze passed it to me. “You really found a room full of weapons?” Her voice was a mix of awe and confusion.
“Hybrid weapons,” Shim concurred. “At least, they weren’t like anything I’ve seen before.”
The others’ chatter around me faded as I pulled off the despised plastic wrap that had saved the diary from destruction. With a deep breath, I centered myself, bracing to see my mother’s handwriting. I flipped open the small hardbound green book. The binding wiggled, loose with wear.
I looked down at the title page of the book and read my mother’s name. A tear welled up, and I blinked it away with a sniff, not wanting to cry on the diary after all it had been through. I flipped to the next page and my eyes bugged. I stood up. “HOLY SOURCES!”
The first line was gibberish, a series of marks that made no sense, but the translation written underneath it read: It was April 1, 1995, when we arrived on Earth.
Chapter 33
Diary: Stranded
On the back of the front cover was a letter to Lincoln, so I started reading aloud to the others there.
Dear Lincoln,
Years ago, I promised to tell you everything—someday. I had hoped it would be on my way home, but I’ve come to accept that will never happen. My diary is the best way to tell you our story. I originally started writing in my native language, but I have translated those sections so I can share it with you. You always said we saved you, but you will see it was really you that saved us.
Love always, Amé
(Translated) It was Saturday, April 1, 1995, when we arrived on Earth. Back home, it was the 20 > 4th cycle on the day of Earden in the year of 5104.
I want to go home. This place is frightening. Micah suggested I write down my feelings. He thinks it will help me process them. I’m not supposed to write what happened, just how I feel. But how will that help when what I feel is because of what happened?
This is how it started. I was on a one-day field trip to Nadun—and now I’m stranded on Earth. Sources sake, my mata is going to be furious with me! She didn’t want to send me to the program this summer, said at thirteen I was too young, but I wanted to go, and my Uncle L’To talked her into it.
We were on a tour of the deep mines with fifty other students from various programs around the Federation. A scientist told us the mine level we were visiting had been recently reopened by special request from the authorities and would usually be off limits, but because a couple of students in our group had permission to see the restricted area, our whole tour was granted access. The scientist was very excited about the discovery of a rare rock. While showing us the rock, the ground started to shake with one of the moon’s frequent quakes.
But it didn’t stop, and everyone was pushing and screaming. I was hit and I fell, scraping my face. It hurt and was bleeding a lot. Large rocks were falling, and the ceiling was moving like it was going to collapse.
An older boy and a girl helped me up (that was the first time I met Micah and Trystal). When they grabbed my arm, Micah handed me the rock everyone had been looking at and told me to hold onto it. T
hey took me with them down a side tunnel. Several other students were behind us.
I thought we were safe. Micah stopped running. Then a wind surrounded us. It circled faster, and a ball of light appeared in front of us. It started as a pin prick and quickly grew. The light pulled on me; the suction was so strong, my feet slid along the dirt floor into a whirlpool of brightness.
Inside, I was moving, sliding through a bright passage strobing with beams of light. The motion and the flashing lights made me ill. I grabbed at the walls and tried to stop, but they burned and blistered the tips of my fingers. The heat was so intense, it was hard to breathe.
Somehow, I held onto the rock.
Just as I thought I was going to burn to death, it started to cool, and I realized I was slowing. The light changed to a continuous bright yellow, and I hit something hard.
When I could see again, I was lying outside. Micah and Trystal were there. Three others who I didn’t know also came through the passage. One was Arie, who checked to make sure I wasn’t hurt and then went to help a girl named Kindle, who hurt her wrist. Another boy, named M´er, was helping Trystal up. They all have more years than me—I’m the youngest.
As I lay on the ground and looked up at the sky, I felt numb and tingly. Everything felt wrong.
I heard music off in the distance. I remember it playing, then I distinctly heard, “This is Donna and Leila here with the morning show to free your minds on 101.3FM, your freak radio in Santa Cruz.”
And that is how we arrived on Earth.
“Are you shitting me?” Jaxon exclaimed. The others were staring at me. Eyes wide, the twin’s mouths gaped, and even Shim looked thunderstruck as he sat down hard beside me.
“Keep reading,” Breeze encouraged, and I turned back to the diary.
The first few weeks on Earth were a blur of fear and confusion. Some people helped us and became our closest friends, and some people hurt us in ways we will never recover from. There is a kind of loneliness in keeping secrets. And this one chokes us. None of us know how we got here, and none of us have been able to figure out how to return.
We know nothing about this planet or, really, about life. We fear discovery. What if this planet’s government finds us and splits us up? And there are much worse people who hunt us. But by far, what scares us the most is never finding the way home.
We have tried. Oh, we have tried so many, many times and ways, I can’t even relate them all. Micah kept a log of our experiments. Holy Source, I would give up anything to find the way back.
“Wait a minute.” Jaxon yanked the diary out of my hands. “This can’t be right.” He had settled on the other side of me on the couch. “You must be reading it wrong.” I gave him an incredulous look, and Shim reached around me and simultaneously shoved Jaxon and pulled the book from his hands.
“Don’t be an ass, Jax,” Shim said. “Let Grace read…whoa!” The journal had flipped forward several pages, and Shim started to read aloud.
I finally asked Micah to explain to me where we were. Micah says that on Teran, that’s the planet that Micah and Tyrstal come from, there are old, secret stories—legends really—about Earth. He read about them when working with his uncle, who is a political historian. He says our two planets used to be connected by a passage through the sun. Our home in the Federation of Elements is on one side of the sun, exactly opposite on the same orbit is Earth. He says it is a closely guarded secret among the academics in the Federation. Maybe some of the wiser scientists of Earth will remember the Federation and be able to help us get home.
I wish now I had not asked Micah about it. Now I have to admit I really am on another planet. I can’t believe I’m this far away from home without my mother’s permission.
“That is insane,” Breeze exclaimed, reading over Shim’s shoulder. “Oh, Grace, this is about you.” She read aloud.
It is strange that none of the water people here have green streaks in their hair as I do and as most citizens on LaDér do. My hair gets many stares. Fortunately, I have seen a few people on the street with many other colors in their hair, so maybe it is not too odd.
Breeze giggled. “She thought anyone with colored hair had it naturally like you do.” She hunched over laughing. I didn’t find it as humorous as Breeze. Skylar took the opportunity to snatch the book from her and skipped ahead a few pages.
“Oh, this is about the rock.” Skylar read aloud.
We were staying with some religious men called monks when we met Robert. He is a professor. Micah and Trystal talk to him for hours every evening. Arie joins them too. I was really surprised when they showed him the rock. He was very excited and wanted to know where we had found it. They would not tell him anything specific—like the fact that we were from another planet. He suggested we take it to a specialist in San Francisco. He really wants to study it and even suggested postponing his sabbatical in India if he could take it for a while. Micah refused and said we would bring it to him when he got back. I don’t understand what the rock has to do with us coming through the passage, but obviously, Micah thinks it is important.
I’m really glad I’m not here alone and that I have M’er, Arie, Micah, and Trystal with me, and sometimes, I’m even glad for Kindle.
“Wait a minute.” I pulled back the diary and silently read the last line. “Who is this M’er? She mentioned him before too. Have any of you heard of him?” Everyone shook their heads, faces somber. What happened to M’er?
We continued to read the diary, passing it back and forth and stopping over sections to discuss. Most of it was the regular day-to-day observations of any thirteen-year-old. Only, it wasn’t any thirteen-year-old. It was my mother. And everything we read sank me deeper into confusion and concern. Even though these events happened decades ago, I grew more terrified for her and had to pass off the diary frequently for someone else to read.
“Wait,” Shim interrupted Skylar who was reading, “go back.” Skylar reread a section that was from six weeks after they arrived on Earth. Arrived on Earth. It was hard to conceive of.
Chinatown is like bubbles up your suit, an unexpected surprise. I love it. Lots of yummy food of the ocean, and old ladies cackle, cackle with each other. Of course, we have our translators, so they are always surprised when I understand them. Arie found a place that sells herbs, and we…
“Stop, that was it!” Shim exclaimed, looking puzzled. “They had translators. I wonder where they got them from?” Shim was always doing that. Stopping over some detail and clicking the puzzle piece in place.
Skylar continued to read.
We went to a gem and mineral show and met a nice man named Clark. He is a material scientist, and he likes to TALK! We learned a lot and eventually felt comfortable showing him our rock. After all that time of having to listen to him, he didn’t even know what our rock was. But he did offer to take us to a Vegas in his vehicle for recreation to an even larger gem and mineral show. He says all the leading scientists will be there. We don’t have any other leads…so Micah is considering it.
“Anyone else think it’s weird that this Micah guy is in charge all the time?” Jaxon said with a grumble.
“Hum,” Shim grunted, and nodded at Skylar to keep reading.
(Translated) June 2, 1995.
Clark is a religious leader, and he carries a sacred black book everywhere with him. He says his recreation vehicle, an RV, is a vessel of faith, and that is why he painted it green and wrote “Jesus Saves” on the back. I know this Jesus is a lot like the Source ’cause I hear people say his name all the time, especially if they are angry.
I was cleaning the RV today, and I found a map that shows the whole of Earth. It is amazing. All its resources are combined on one planet and shared among its inhabitants fairly and in harmony.
(Lincoln, in the Federation, where we are from, a single element is the major domain of each world: the planet Teran is the scie
ntific center all the moons were colonized from, and has the only farmable landmass. My home, LaDér, is actually a moon, and its surface is completely covered in water and ocean resources. The moon Mirah has no habitable landmass but has an atmosphere that houses a floating civilization and fields of turbines to power the whole system. And the barren moon Nadun provides supercritical heating power and rich mineral resources. Each is key to the system’s survival.)
“Wow, she really didn’t understand Earth,” Jaxon remarked sarcastically. “‘Sharing fairly and in harmony.’ Yeah, right.”
“I don’t think I believed it until she described all the planets. Well, planet and moons. It’s incredible.” Shim shook his head.
(Translated) We are famous! Micah is not happy about it.
On the second day, Clark talked Micah into letting him put our rock on display. Micah insisted it had to be in a locked case, and one of us stayed with it at all times. One man, a scientist from some place in the northwestern land, says he teaches in a program that studies rocks and offered to run tests to learn what it is and what properties it may hold. Micah was very interested in that.
On the last day of the show, someone tried to steal the rock! I saw a strange man staring at our booth and me. Then the stranger seized the whole case with the rock still locked inside. I was so surprised, I screamed. Kindle heard and grabbed the man’s legs (she is really strong). He fell on the box, cutting himself on the broken glass, and when the people in authority came, he ran off.
Micah wanted me to record what the man looked like. I only remember that he had a dark marking on his neck and a circular scar on the back of his hand.