by Steven Webb
Raghaagah. A familiar noise lurked over head. She rolled over to come face to face with a lone tripper. The wings were folded in, and the Tripper dove towards Addison. She reached for a nearby object to defend herself but no such item was within her grasp. The bird struck her body.
Addison found herself lying on a strange blue beach. The plants of the ribbon forest jutted from the clear blue water and sand. The smell of ocean air wafted over her nostrils. Her torn clothes had transformed into a tight bikini.
Daniel came running up along the sand. He carried a sea star in his hand. “Look what I found for you.” It’s pink body still glistened from the water.
Addison took it in her hands and as she did it was no longer a seastar. Now in her hands was a dead tripper. She threw the carcass aside next to the boulder. “Take me to see the boardwalk.”
“Of course. We can ride the ferris wheel while we’re there.”
He took her hand and pulled her along. Something about him seemed off. His skin was dark yet translucent. His hair resembled grass instead of the lovely brown locks of his youth. As they walked his height fluctuated from being taller than Addison to shorter. His feet left no prints behind. They drew closer to the boardwalk. From afar, Zea approached.
“Zea you’re okay. I was so worried you were dead.”
“Sorry do I know you?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Addison, your captain.”
“Sorry, I think you have the wrong person. I’m not military. I haven’t even graduated from medical school yet.”
Addison didn’t understand what was going on. “You don’t remember the mission, Mars, the crash.”
“Nope but you seem like fun. Hey do you guys want to get corn dogs?”
Daniel’s eyes lit up at the mention of food. “Honey I could really go for one of those.”
“Sure, okay.”
They walked off but Addison remained in place. The image of the boardwalk was gone, now replaced by plants. Daniel and Zea walked off into the distance with no idea Addison had fallen behind. The ocean rolled away leaving a barren forest. Her beach morphed back into the forest floor. The boulder Addison had started on was only a few feet away. Beside it a dead Tripper laid bleeding out. Her hands displaying signs of a fight.
The sun was now sinking into the distance. If she didn’t make it back with food soon, Rocco would start to wonder what happened. Addison grabbed a rock and dug a small hole just big enough to hide the trippers body next to the boulder. With that out of the way, she located a boulder fruit to bring back to camp and harvested a few chunks.
Upon her return, everyone was gathered around the fire.
“You’re back.” Trent was sitting in the dirt. “Please tell me you brought me some chinese or mexican food. Ahh I could so go for some tacos right now.”
The headache and nausea were killing Addison. She was having a hard enough time focusing on what they said to know how to respond. Instead she tossed the fruit at the others without a word.
“Hey you okay?” Nova put her arm around Addison.
“Yeah, just dealing with a lot.”
“We hear ya.” Joseph tossed her the canteen. “Take a seat. We just got the fire going. Rocco here was just about to tell us how he got wrangled into riding a bull.”
“Yeah it’s not that great a story.”
All Addison could do was nod in agreement. If she didn’t things would just get harder.
“All right. I grew up with two sisters and a brother. We always use to mess with each other. You know pranks and fighting. Typical sibling stuff. So anyway, there was this girl I had a crush on but was too afraid to talk to.”
“Real shocker there.”
“Shut up Trent.” Nova wasn’t having any of his crap.
“As I was saying, there was a girl I liked, and my brother knew it. He convinced both of my sisters to pretend like they heard the girl talking about how much she loved bull riders. Well I wanted to impress her so I signed up for the competition. I practiced every day for weeks. Finally the day of the competition came around. I was shaking in my boots. The bulls name was ripper, because he was known for goring guys. I was bound and determined to do it but my body was fighting me. My brother helped me get on the bull. The alarm went off and the door opened. The bull started rampaging with me barely holding on for dear life. It seemed like an eternity, but when I fell the clock only read three seconds. Spread out on the ground the bulls front hoof came down on my left leg. Lucky for me it missed the bone. Well after all that I found out the girI liked wasn’t even in town that weekend.”
All the talking was getting to Addison. She just wanted to sleep off the hangover. Not saying a word, she left the fire and went to sleep in the corner. No dreams disturbed her slumber.
By the time she awoke the group was already active, milling about the cave.
“Morning sleepy.” It was Joseph who noticed her first. “Man you were snoring like a wild hog last night.”
Addison gestured for him to go away. He was disturbing her before she even had a chance to finish waking up. She got her self up and shambled over to the fire. The boulder fruit was waiting in a juicy pile. She bit in, uncaring about appearances. The juice soaked her hands and chin. Bits of chewed flesh flew from her open mouth. The piece she held onto vanished quickly. Her clothes made quick cleanup work of the leftover juice.
The day, from that point on, just dragged along. The group played a game of charades, but Addison felt no interest. In fact the only thing she wanted was to go back to that boulder and dig up the Tripper. She needed a reason to get away. After a few rounds she finally came up with the perfect excuse. She headed out of the cave knowing they would question her motives.
“Where you going?” Rocco asked exactly as she expected.
“Oh my period’s starting and I thought getting some of those numbing fruits might help.”
“All you.” Trent said with disgust.
“I’ll join you.” Nova was always so willing to help with anything Addison needed.
“I kind of want to go alone.”
“You sure? I mean it’s kind of dangerous out there.”
“Yeah I’m good. I’ll be right back.” She took off before they could question her any more. She headed towards the fruit vines until she was out of sight in case someone should get the bright idea to watch her. Now was her chance to veer off towards the boulder from yesterday. It took some doing but she made it.
The fresh dirt still covered the hole she buried the tripper in. Addison pushed it away revealing the body inside. She picked it up and scratched the claws along her stomach so as not to draw attention from the others when she got back.
This time Addison was transported to the passenger seat of a car.
Zea manned the helm. Rather than a steering wheel, she gripped what looked like the wheel from a ship as she drove them through the ribbon forest. “You know this is my favorite place in the world. The colors are so pretty here.”
“I don’t know, I think I like the coastal highway better.” She stared out at the Tentacle plants and Ribbon trees. They seemed to be moving yet the scenery didn’t change. Even the lumpy plants remained stuck in place. The radio played a strange melody. It almost seemed familiar yet every time Addison thought she recognized the tune it changed. “How’s Nova doing?”
“Nova? Who’s that?”
You know, you’re girlfriend.” Why didn’t she remember Nova?
“Oh you’re so funny. Just because my Boyfriend’s a little girly sometimes doesn’t mean he is one.” Zea placed her hand in front of Addison. “Actually we’re engaged.”
“Oh my god!” Addison couldn’t help but scream. She was so excited for Zea. Suddenly a boulder appeared in front of the car.
“Zea watch out.” but it was too late. The car slammed into the boulder and disappeared from around Addison, and Zea along with it. The forest was back to normal. The realization that she needed to get the fruit to belay suspicion hit Addison. She felt le
ss sick this time. Her body seemed to be adjusting to the after effects, though the trip didn’t last quite as long this time. It took all her strength to find her way through the forest and to the painkillers. One bite was all it took to lace her breath with the scent. A few in the pocket would help her story later.
Sophie was outside the cave collecting bits of dead branches from the ribbon trees and orange bubble trees. Each stick she picked up had been sharpened to a point. “Oh you’re back.” she picked up one of the spears and struck it into the ground, the dull end pointing into the woods beyond. “The others are inside if you wanna join em. Otherwise pick up a stick and get sharpening.”
Not wanting to seem suspicious, Addison wandered inside. The moment she entered the cave, all their eyes were on her, judging her. They knew what she had been sneaking off to do. Hoping to throw them off she pulled the numbing fruit from her pocket. “I got the fruit. Sorry I was gone so long. I decided to stop and play with the spikers.”
“Really, because they were just here.” Trent knew.
All her efforts went into figuring out how to get herself out of this one. The wheels in her head turned frantically. “Umm. Actually I was playing with the babies. They were just too cute to ignore.”
“They are cute aren’t they?” Nova joined in agreement.
It was working. She tried to keep a straight face to help sell the lie.
“Damn, and here I’ve been working this whole time.” Trent said before resuming his task. He had a large hole dug into the softer portion of the cave entrance. “How much bigger do you want the hole?” He turned to Joseph.
“Not much bigger. I’ll go get the metal sheets tomorrow and see if we need to dig more.”
They bought it. She couldn’t believe how easy this was. The thought of the wounds on her stomach made Addison place her hand over them. Oh god I hope they didn’t see that. She needed to come up with an excuse incase anyone saw the strange gesture. “Man I’m hungry. Anyone got any food?”
“No we finished off everything we collected yesterday and Joseph wants to finnish building an underground storage place for whatever we bring back.” Rocco was busy working on his own project. He had small chunks of ribbon from the trees. A few square shaped chunks laid on the ground in front of him.
Wanting to seem normal, Addison picked up one of the chunks from the ground. It’s center contained the letter A and a diamond. “Are you making playing cards?”
“Yeah I figured it would give me something to do. Plus its something we can all use to keep busy.”
“Good thinking. By the way what is Sophie working on?”
“Who knows. She said something about a defensive border. I figured it was best to let her do her own thing.” Addison sat down and watched Rocco work. Her gaze locked onto his hands but her mind wandered. The image of that rock with the means of escape buried next to it was all she saw. The feeling of absolute peace in a world all her own. Maybe next time would bring her back to her childhood, or let her talk to a long dead family member. These thoughts kept her up well into the night long after the others had given up their tasks for the day and made their way to bed.
The snoring of the group was sporadic, and asynchronous. Addison needed to get out and clear her head, but first she made her way around to each person ensuring they were asleep. Rocco was passed out on his back. As a former military man he could sleep soundly anywhere. Nova was more restless. Small whimpers crept from her mouth as she tossed and turned. Lucky for Addison she remained shut eyed. Trent and Joseph were heavy sleepers and could sleep through anything. She quietly crept to the world outside. One of the crew could be heard rustling behind her. Shit, I forgot about Sophie.
Sophie sat up. “What’s happening?” She rubbed her eyes as if trying to clear them.
Addison froze, there was no good way for her to explain where she was going. She stammered, looking for the words to cover her true purpose in leaving. “I.. Just…well…the air outside.”
“Give me back my bear jerk. Don’t make me kick you.”
“What bear?” Addison had no idea what she was talking about. “No one has your bear.”
“Leave me alone.”
Addison realized Sophie wasn’t actually awake. She was talking in her sleep. “It’s okay. Go back to sleep.”
“You know I never said that about you.” Sophie laid her head back down.
With that out of the way and the assurance that everyone else was fully asleep, Addison stepped into the cold night air. The darkness was all consuming. In her haste she had forgot that there was no moon to light her path. If she was going to get back to the rock she would need light. Carefully she passed through the sleeping bodies and to the fire. One long branch caught her eye. She plucked it from the flames and held the burning end in the air above her head. The light provided just enough illumination for her to reach the source of her craving.
The red light bathed the stone, dancing along its surface. The fresh dirt covering the means of Addison’s freedom remained undisturbed. A quick jerk from her hand planted the torch into the ground. She dug into the dirt until the rancid smell of rotting flesh brought tears to her eyes. She needed to work quick, otherwise the smell would become unbearable. The cold body was hard to miss. It was still intact and hopefully was still powerful enough for one more trip. All it took was the claw scratching her hand and she was off.
The world around her didn’t change but a shadowy figure of her husband appeared, unaffected by the red glowing light. “I packed your bags in the car, we’re all set to go.”
“What are you talking about.”
“What do you mean. Are trying to say you forgot you’re in labor. Man, I figured that would have knocked out your sense of humor.”
“What do you mean pregnant. I’m not…” Addison looked down at her huge belly. It was covered in stretch marks where the scars from the tripper’s claws had been. A strange sensation came from inside, moving and kicking around. A contraction hit her entire body. “Ahhh!”
“It’s okay just breathe. Close your eyes and breath.”
Trying to make the contraction stop, Addison did as she was told. Once the pain stopped, she opened her eyes this time to find herself in a hospital gown. Daniel was a little more visible. His face had a vague outline of cheek bones, and a nose. Black shadows covered his lovely eyes.
“When I say, I need you to push.” Zea’s disembodied head sat between Addison’s legs. The hospital only had one wall, the rest of the room was comprised of the forest. Yet for some reason she knew she was in the hospital.
“I can see the head. Give me one more big push.”
Addison pushed with all her might.
“Congratulations, It’s a baby boy.”
The baby let out a strange crackling noise.
“Can I hold him?” Addison saw the baby float in mid air towards her. She put out her arms to grab ahold. The far wall changed as the baby flew through the air. It now displayed a mountain with strange yellow tendril like paths reaching around it. The baby moved into her arms disappearing little by little the closer it got. The wall dissolved and the IV morphed into a ribbon tree. Zea and Daniel were gone. In the distance she could see the sun rising. The embers on the sticks tip had grown cold. The only thing that remained from the high was the mountain with the yellow arms. For some reason the yellow looked familiar.
The whole way back Addison wracked her brain about the yellow pattern. Once back she noticed the others were still asleep. Maybe in the morning I can give them a reason to follow me to where they can see it for themselves and I’ll act like I didn’t realize it was there. Sold on her new plan, Addison layed down where she started the night and closed her eyes. Where do I remember that stuff from. It’s like I just can’t get it straight. As sleep began to take hold she sat up. “The ship!”
Rocco and Sophie stirred in their sleep.
Crap I said that out loud. Addison checked to make sure no one had woken up. Satisfied, she laid h
er head back down. If that’s the stuff we saw near the ship we’re in trouble. She closed her eyes and waited for the others to awaken.
JOSEPH
The sun shone through the red ribbons over head, casting strange dancing shadows across the ground while large blue tentacles waved in the breeze. It was a perfect day to be out and about, yet the reason behind the outing seemed vague at best. Joseph agreed to go along after some convincing from Nova that it was better for moral if everyone stuck together. The path Addison led them on was a twisted one. Often they found themselves passing the same green blob plant or circling a long dead ribbon tree.
“Sorry guys were almost there.” Addison kept her eyes locked on the ground only looking up to stare off into the distance from time to time.
Trent seemed annoyed from all the aimless wandering. “You sure about that? I mean, you’ve been saying that for the last hour.”
“Just a little further I promise.” The forest seemed to open up around them.
Through the thinning trees Joseph thought he spotted a large creature bounding along. He picked up speed breaking from the group only temporarily. His foot fell out from beneath him. He fell to the ground beside a small hole that had stolen his footing.
Nova ran over and clutched his ankle. “You alright? Does it hurt?”
“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” All Joseph could do was stand up and try to keep his weight off it. He winced as pain shot through his sore ankle, attempting to stabilize on the stretched tendon. “I’m good to go.” He winced.
“Sit down. I’ll hang back here with you.” Her soft hands grabbed ahold of the quickly swelling ankle. She gave it a gentle rub. “Is this helping at all?”