"Hush!" Yoshi said.
Below Javi, the rumbling sound grew louder. It wasn't coming from their radio, as Molly suggested. Javi was sure of that now. But everyone around him was so preoccupied with the news report, nobody else even seemed to notice.
"We are doing all we can to recover the airplane's black box, which we hope will give us more information as to the cause of the crash," the executive said. "But until that time, Aero Horizon will have little more to report. As of now, all four hundred ninety-seven passengers and sixteen cabin crew from Flight 16 are presumed to be dead."
Silence followed that report, over the broadcast and among Team Killbot. Harper eventually started speaking again, but Javi barely heard her.
"They think we're all dead," Anna whispered. "That means they're not looking for us anymore."
"They're still trying to find the black box," Molly said. "Maybe they'll find us at the same time."
"Not unless we're at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean!" Anna said. "That's where they're looking."
"They're not even doing that much," Yoshi said. "Not really. They're only telling people that to make it seem like they care about what happened to us. But they don't."
"Yoshi!" Molly said. "Of course they care."
"It hasn't even been a week yet, and they've already given up on us!" Yoshi shouted. "So let me tell you what's happening now. Their lawyers have written a carefully worded letter that's being sent to our families expressing their deepest sympathies and offering to cover our funeral expenses and maybe, if the families are really lucky, they'll get a free flight on Aero Horizon this year. Imagine the irony of that, huh? But rescuers were never looking in the right place for us. Give up any hopes you had for rescue, because it's not happening! The only way we escape this rift is if we figure it out ourselves!"
"Shh," Javi said.
Yoshi's eyes widened. "I spent that whole news broadcast trying to shut you all up, and now you're telling me to be quiet? They think we're dead--why doesn't that bother you?"
Javi raised a hand. "Just listen!"
Everyone went silent. Sure enough, the rumbling sound was growing louder. The pond water's ripples had become roiling pockets of air bubbles.
Something was rising up from the bottom of the pond.
Instinctively, Yoshi looked for his sword, but he had stupidly left it on the ground before they became weightless. He'd even thought about grabbing it while he was tying himself in to the bungee cord, but he'd been so wet, he hadn't wanted to drip all over and rust it.
"Weapons?" he asked the others. "Who has a weapon up here?"
Javi shook his head. Yoshi figured he'd probably left his knife down below for the same reason. If they got through this, he had to craft a bow and arrows. They needed more weapons.
Yoshi looked down. Akiko's flute was also left behind, which would have made a decent bludgeoning tool if necessary. Grabbing a burning log to fend off any predator wasn't an option from up here. He had his fists, though, and a strong kick, and the willingness to use both if it protected his team.
Anna smacked her palm against her forehead. "The bait Oliver warned us about--this tree mite was the bait!"
Molly turned to her. "Why? To get us out of camp, away from our stuff?"
"That's not what they wanted." Javi pointed down at the pond water, which was bulging up in the center and flowing down on all sides. Something was rising up to the surface. Something very large. "They wanted us to use the antigravity. They wanted the weightlessness. Maybe the tech boost, too."
Yoshi saw it, too. It was some sort of a silvery pod, large enough that half of Team Killbot could fit inside it.
"Change the setting!" he said. "Heavy gravity. Make that thing sink again!"
"If we do, we'll all crash to the earth, too," Molly said.
Akiko grabbed Yoshi's arm. "Tell everyone we need to jump away from here. We need to leave now."
Yoshi passed the message on to Molly, who said, "All our stuff is down there. Our water, and weapons, all the food we have left, fire starters--if we leave all that behind, how do we survive?"
The pod was above the water now. Water dripped off the metal, leaving a bright sheen on the surface. The lower end of it seemed to be damaged, but the electronic lights around its perimeter suggested that whatever it was, it was fully functional. It looked like a tremendously large metal coffin--and yet Yoshi couldn't shake the feeling that something inside it was alive.
"Akumu," Kira whispered. Yoshi knew the word: Nightmare.
"Let's drift back to the ground, slowly," Molly whispered. "Nobody make any sudden movements. Gather up whatever you can in thirty seconds, then we're leaving. We'll jump as far as we can away from this thing."
She adjusted her device and pushed off of her branch. The others followed her down.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Yoshi grabbed his sword. He looked around for his canteen, then realized Molly had left it at the water's edge.
Yoshi drew his sword.
He crept slowly down toward the pond, where the pod now drifted upon its surface.
"Yoshi!" Javi hissed. He'd followed him and now stood half a step behind him. "Let's go!"
Yoshi ignored him. He bent over for the canteen, keeping his eyes fixed on the pod.
So he didn't see what else came from the water until it was nearly too late.
A horrible, wriggling mass of green and yellow emerged from the edge of the pond, swarming over his outstretched hand. Yoshi recoiled, crashing into Javi. It appeared to be a tangled knot of snakes. Within its writhing movements he could see a score of eyes, a dozen wet red mouths. He slashed at it with his sword, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Whether it was a single organism or a whole tangled mess of them, being sliced down the middle didn't slow it down.
"Run toward us!" Molly called to them. "We need to jump!"
But in an instant he and Javi were surrounded by the slithering things, with no clear path to the rest of their team.
"Just go without us!" Javi yelled.
"Seriously?" Yoshi stared over at him. He appreciated Javi's selflessness, really he did. But when those bungee cords lifted into the air, Yoshi intended to be attached to one.
And then a loud hissing sound came from the pod.
It was the sound of air escaping.
The pod was slowly opening.
"Get ready for heavy!" Molly cried.
But Yoshi was still totally unprepared for the crushing weight that dropped him and Javi to the ground.
Molly fell to the ground along with everyone else. Javi had fallen like a rag doll, directly over Yoshi's legs, keeping him pinned down. The slithering snakes all around them went flat. They still writhed in place, but they couldn't lift themselves from the ground. As long as Javi didn't roll over on top of them, they should be harmless.
But the pod hadn't fully sunk back into the pond as she'd hoped. It had drifted too far into the shallows. Now one end was partially submerged, but the other end was at the shoreline. Unless the creature inside it absolutely could not touch water, it was only a few steps from land. Only a few steps away from Yoshi and Javi.
"Everyone crawl to me," Molly cried. "You can do it!"
"My hands feel like hundred-pound weights," Anna said.
Despite the complaint, Anna moved forward. She wasn't quite in a crawl position--it was more like a drag across the dirt position, but she and the others were moving in the right direction. Even Javi and Yoshi had untangled themselves.
Molly stretched out to Kira, gave her the other device, then gestured for Kira to get ready. Kira rotated the dials and put her thumb near the button, waiting for Molly's signal.
Molly turned around and crawled back toward the pond.
Just as she neared Javi and Yoshi, they heard a banging sound from within the pod, like two metal hammers were trying to pound their way out.
"What is that?" Javi's eyes went wide with terror. "Mol, we have to go."
"Get to Ki
ra. We're going to jump out of here," she told him. "But I need to do something first."
Yoshi suddenly cried out and kicked his leg back, as much as he could in the high gravity. Molly raised her head enough to see that the mass of slithering snakes had wrapped itself around one of his legs. They were coiling tighter and tighter, dragging him into the pond. He dug his fingers into the dirt, but that wasn't helping.
"I'm coming to get you!" she shouted at Yoshi. However, the banging from inside the pod was beginning to shift the lid. Whatever was inside, she couldn't let it open. She hesitated. Then, with a cry and a gurgle, Yoshi's head sank under the water. The heavy gravity would pull him to the bottom.
"I'll get him!" Javi hollered, though he was barely able to crawl himself.
"Normalize gravity for the boys," Molly shouted to Kira. When Kira stared blankly back at her, she said, "Yoshi! Javi! Up!"
As Kira began twisting the dials, Molly used a surge of strength from her infected shoulder to push herself to her feet. It was an agonizing walk toward the pod, but necessary.
"Molly!" Kira cried, then continued in Japanese.
Whatever she was saying, Molly had to make sure they were not followed. With excruciatingly slow movements, she lifted the device up and placed it atop the pod.
"How do you like heavy gravity?" she asked. Nothing was going to get that pod open now.
The banging continued as Molly dragged her feet across the sand, shuffling away from the pod. But the sounds were already growing fainter as the creature making them suffered the effects of double gravity.
She cast an eye toward the pond. Anna was on her knees in the water offering a hand to Javi, who was helping an exhausted Yoshi crawl to the shore. Kira must've succeeded in restoring their gravity.
Whatever was in the pod would not get the same favor.
Molly felt almost weightless as she crossed out of the gravity field and was sure the others felt the same way. She saw Javi was carrying something: a huge ball of snakes. Dead.
"I did it!" he exclaimed. "Me!"
Yoshi smiled. "Yep, it was all him." Then he winked at Molly, out of Javi's sight.
"Who wants dinner tonight?" Javi said.
"Anything will taste better than launch scorpions, I suppose," Molly said with a shrug and a smile.
"You're just going to leave our device behind?" Anna said.
"I don't see any other options," Molly said. And, for once, she didn't care to solicit any. "Let's get as far away from here as we can."
Nobody needed to be told twice. Kira reversed the device's gravity function, and they launched into the air, all tied to a single cord this time. They had to stay close to make it work, but they could do it. Anything to leave that pond behind them.
Molly shuddered. She thought back to a few days ago, when the mites had tried to keep them out of the desert. Was it possible they had hoped to keep her team from getting to this point, from finding that pod?
If it had opened, what would the consequences have been?
With the device's help, they floated over the desert floor. From up here, it looked so much more peaceful and quiet than she knew it was. Far behind her, the red sand stretched out like an ocean of blood. She saw giant waves rise and fall in the sand and understood what those were now.
Oliver had been left behind in the desert, yet he was still ahead of them, too ... she hoped. She had to believe that he was, and that by the time they found him, her team would have figured out a way to bring him back. She had to trust that her team was capable of that, just as they had proven themselves capable in every other way. Whatever lay ahead, she knew they could deal with those issues, too.
The desert was slowly fading away as thick clumps of green unfolded along the horizon ahead. Not faded, graying desert green, but true green. Real trees. And with them would come water and food. It didn't have the same look as the jungle treetop, but was more forested. Molly smiled, eager to explore the forest as they drifted closer and closer to it. After the extremes of the desert, a forest sounded perfectly peaceful.
"Set us down at the tree line," she said.
When they drifted back to the ground, nothing horrible was waiting for them. The dirt was soft beneath Molly's feet. Small grasses were growing, and even a few wildflowers. Blue wildflowers that looked friendly and welcoming.
"Those have got to be a good sign, right?" Molly asked. "Maybe there's food and water ahead!"
"I dunno," Anna said. "I'm always more nervous about what we can't see."
Anna could always be relied on to say the worst possible thing. But she was right. The border of the forest was directly ahead of them, with tall, thick trees that provided a lush canopy overhead. Despite how quiet and peaceful it looked, they definitely needed to keep their guard up.
"Let's start a fire," Javi said, lifting the snakes again. "Make it a big one fit for a feast!"
"I think there's already a fire," Molly said, pointing ahead. "What's that?"
Sure enough, smoke was rising through the trees, a thin gray tendril that was carried away by the oncoming yokaze of evening.
"That's unusual," Javi said, obviously reluctant to continue. "What does it mean?"
It was Molly who took the first step forward. But this time, instead of the gloom and dread she had felt when crossing onto the blood sand, this step was filled with hope and even excitement. She turned around and grinned. "Listen carefully, do you know what that is?" Seeing her team's confused expressions, she said, "I hear music on the wind. Music!"
Molly had promised herself that she would save Team Killbot. And for the first time since the plane crash, she truly believed it was possible for them to succeed.
"Let's go," Molly said with a determination fiercer than she had ever felt before. The rest of her team followed, eager to see what lay ahead.
The smoke was gone. It had been there, a plume reaching into the sky, and now there was just endless gray. Javi felt hope drain from his body. They had been low on food rations for so long now--if you could even count sour candy as food--that he wondered if they had hallucinated the smoke.
Had they imagined the music, as well?
That had stopped, too, as soon as they stepped into the forest. A high, piping noise like a flute, mingling with deeper, mournful notes. Then silence.
"Birds," Yoshi had said. Always the first one to squash a hopeful sign, always the last one to get a joke. It was lucky he was incredibly brave and saved people, Javi thought, or else he'd be completely annoying.
There had been a burst of Japanese from Akiko and Kira, but when they all looked to Yoshi to translate, he'd just said, "They agree."
"If they ever offer you a job at the UN as a translator, the world is in trouble," Javi had said.
Yoshi grunted in reply, but Kira had grinned at him. She didn't speak English, but Javi could tell she understood a good burn.
"Ready?" his best friend Molly asked, in the lead as usual.
Not really. Javi shifted his feet. He was supposed to be her deputy. Her second-in-command, her backup. Right now he felt like backing up. All the way back in time to the moment before they all boarded the plane in New York so that he could yell Stop! as soon as their feet hit the Jetway.
Aero Horizon Flight 16 was supposed to have been the start of an amazing adventure. The Robotics Club at Brooklyn Science and Tech were on their way to prizes and glory at the Robot Soccer World Championship in Tokyo, Japan. Go, Team Killbot! Javi had been so excited he could barely eat the big pancake and egg breakfast his mom had made him.
His stomach lurched. He'd forgotten how empty it was. Don't think about food. It just reminds you of home.
Instead of adventure, he'd gotten disaster. The plane had broken apart in midair, the roof peeling back like an anchovy can (don't think about food). Javi still remembered his terror, how even squeezing his eyes closed hadn't shut out the strange bright light that had invaded the cabin. That light seemed to judge him somehow, to choose him, to save him--and doom t
he hundreds of other passengers who were sucked out of the cabin in midair.
Finally, the plane had crash-landed--except it hadn't really crash-landed, as Molly had pointed out. They had seemed to glide down, smashing through treetops and coming to rest in the middle of what should have been the Arctic but was a red-tinged jungle full of aggressive vines and terrible birds with beaks like razors.
In fact, the jungle was so strange they'd had to wonder if they were even still on Earth. It wasn't until some of them saw the stars that they knew they were. The Big Dipper was there. The North Star. If only it could lead them home.
Ahead of them now were soaring trees, not like the ones in the red jungle, twisted and dense, but solid trunks spaced apart with branches that spread wide. The leaves were as big as dinner plates. The air smelled fresh and reminded him of cool water and shade. Far in the distance rose a ridge studded with needle-laden trees, looking like an overturned hairbrush against the gray sky. It was the first place that looked like . . . well, Earth.
He took a deep breath. To get away from the treacherous sucking sand of the desert was a relief he felt in his bones. He had been through the worst day of his life, but now it was a new day, and he was still standing.
He looked over at Akiko and Kira, the Japanese sisters who had been on the plane with them. Like Yoshi, they weren't on the robotics team. They were just traveling home from their school in Switzerland.
He pointed to his nose and gestured at the woods. "It smells good," he said.
They both nodded.
"Strange color," Kira said. He looked at the woods again. Kira was an artist. She saw color more precisely, Javi guessed. She was right. The leaves were dark green, but they had a bluish tinge. More the dark of the ocean right before a storm.
"Ao," he agreed. Blue.
"Oliver would love to see this," Anna said. "It feels like home."
Javi swallowed hard. Out of hundreds of passengers, only eight kids had survived. And now they were down to six. Caleb had died, crushed in a low gravity field. And Oliver--two years younger than they were, scared and determined . . . now he was gone, too.
Oliver had been sucked under the blood sand, but he had returned, more like a robot than the kid they knew. He had come back to encourage them to keep going and then had sunk under the sand again. They didn't know if he was alive or dead.