After Earth (8 page)

 

Looking at the map made me feel like I had some sort of plan for getting to the tail. In the midst of my drawing, I gave in and took some more breathing fluid. I was struggling too hard to breathe, and anyway, I had a feeling that I was close to the tail now. I thought I might actually be able to complete this mission. Maybe leaping off the waterfall helped me make up enough time to make a difference. There was no point in making myself suffer when the breathing fluid might turn out to be enough.

I noticed the hog family leaving the cave, so I gathered my things and followed them again. When I reached the surface, the mother hog looked back at me, and I could swear she gave me a nod, as if to say, “You're welcome.” I nodded back, grateful. As she and her piglets ran off, a huge shadow fell over me.

Looking up, I saw the mama condor circling above. Why was she following me? Did she blame me for the loss of her babies? Didn't she realize I fought as hard as she did to save them? I hoped she wouldn't swoop down on me again as I started walking south.

I was dead tired. I had barely slept since the night before I boarded the Hesper, back home in my own bed. That seemed so long ago. Sure, I'd grabbed a few minutes of sleep here and there, and I'd blacked out a few times, but none of that had been exactly restful. Maybe I should have tried to get a full night of sleep in the cave, but mapping out my path seemed more important, especially since I was out of breathing fluid.

//////// ENTRY 12

I
made pretty good time earlier, but I was still basically just dragging myself along. I almost got trampled by a bunch of animals that looked like horses or gazelles or something, until the mama condor grabbed my back with her talons and pulled me out just in time. I figure that's when I lost my cutlass. That condor was perched in the trees above me now, staring at me. She looked depressed, hanging her head, her wings drooping. I tried to keep my cool as I walked by, but I felt her watching me. And so I started to run, but pretty quickly ran out of juice. Really, I could barely walk. I was so tired. I didn't know how much longer I could go on. I mean, I wouldn't stop, not till I reached the tail or ran out of air. But I had almost nothing left.

 

 

Coming to a stop between two colossal trees, I registered movement in their branches. There she was again. Still watching.

Eventually, I reached the bank of a river. I dropped my gear in exhaustion.

I sat for just a minute, battling the exhaustion that urged me to give up. It would have been so easy to just lie down there and go to sleep.

Noticing a log floating by in the river, I struggled to my feet and started cutting vines from the nearest trees, then gathered pieces of some fallen trees at the river's edge. Although my dad's cutlass was gone, I still had a knife stashed in my backpack, which worked for lashing together a basic raft. When it was finished, I pushed the raft into the river and jumped on board. The river was full of life, and I held my breath as a twelve-meter-long anaconda swam alongside me. But it passed quietly, and I relaxed. The current was strong enough that I didn't need to row, so I decided to lie down for a little while. The motion of the river soothed me and I closed my eyes, unable to fight the fatigue any longer. The chirping of birds and splashing of fish all around me was like a lullaby, urging me to sleep.

As soon as I fell asleep, I dreamed of Senshi. It felt so real that I wondered if I was actually dreaming, or if she really was—somehow—there. “Wake up,” she said, touching my arm. I opened my eyes to see Senshi sitting beside me on the raft, her long hair hanging over her shoulder. She reached out to stroke my face, like she used to when I was little. I smiled up at my big sister, so happy to see her again.

“It's time for you to wake up,” she insisted, but I shook my head. I was so tired and besides, I needed to talk to her. I couldn't go yet.

My throat felt dry, but I had to get the words out. “I was just about to come out that day.”

She smiled. “No, you weren't. But you did the right thing.”

I was glad to hear her say that, but still wasn't convinced.

“Why couldn't you ghost?” I asked her. I had always wondered that.

She just stared at me, then gently touched my face again. “You're close right now.”

“I am?” That seemed impossible. Ghosting was hard, and I was too drained to do anything hard anymore.

“Are you scared?” Her voice was just as soothing and musical as I had remembered it.

“No. I'm tired.” It was good to talk to her, but I wished she hadn't woken me up so soon.

“That's good. You filled your heart with something else. Now you've got to get up.”

I looked up at her and said, “I memorized some of
Moby Dick
.”

“Kitai, get up,” she insisted.

I quoted some of the lines she had underlined, trying to keep her there with me, not ready to let her go.

But she kept interrupting, repeating, “Kitai, wake up.” I wished she would stop pushing me. I just needed a little more time. “It's time for you to wake up.”

I covered my ears and continued quoting the book that she and my dad had loved.

“Kitai, wake up!”

Senshi looked down, resigned, her hair covering her face. When she looked up again, her face was bleeding, just like it had that day.
“Wake up!”
she shouted, and this time, I did.

The river was already half-frozen. Senshi had been right—I had slept too long. My raft was docked against a riverbank. I sprinted madly for the jungle, with no idea where I might find shelter. As I watched the ice creep across the trees, I felt frost forming on my upper lip and the top of my head. My lifesuit turned white and iced over, but I kept moving. Shivering violently, I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping to preserve whatever warmth my body had left.

Hearing branches snap and crash to the ground, I looked up to see the condor above me, tossing the branches down. The jungle floor began to freeze and I collapsed to my knees. My face hit the cold, hard ground. I saw that my skin was turning blue. If only I'd listened to Senshi—who had tried to help me once more in my dream—I wouldn't be trapped there now. Maybe my dad and Velan were right—I didn't listen to anyone. I always thought I knew better. And once again, I'd been wrong. I felt ice forming on my eyelids and could barely see. Then the condor swooped down on me again, and everything went black.

//////// ENTRY 13

I
woke up buried under leaves and feathers. Sunlight flashed across my face but it was too bright, blinding. Shielding my eyes, I struggled to free myself from the ditch, crawling toward the light. Collapsing on the ground, I saw the ice beginning to melt, though it was still very cold. Somehow, I had survived till morning.

I turned to see the condor lying over the ditch where I woke. I saw that she had made a little nest for me, and kept me warm in it through the night.

“Hey,” I said, tapping her, “thanks.” But she didn't move. That's when I realized that she had sacrificed herself for me, allowing herself to freeze so she could keep me warm. I stood staring at the condor for a long moment, overwhelmed. She had given her life for me. Just like Senshi. How many others had tried to help me and I hadn't seen it? Emotions raced through me—guilt, sadness, but most of all, gratitude. Finally, I understood that no matter how isolated I might feel, I had truly never been alone. I turned and walked back into the jungle.

I followed a faint trail and found my way to a watering hole. I caught a glimpse of myself in the still, clear water, and was surprised by how much older I looked. Not just because of the stress I'd endured, but because of the knowledge and acceptance in my eyes. Finally, after the five years of struggle since my sister's death, I was at peace with myself. I felt at peace with this strange new world around me too.

As I scanned the jungle for any sign of where the tail had crashed, my breathing started to grow ragged. When I exited the jungle for a stretch of grassland, I began to cough. My throat felt raw as the coughs racked my body. The breathing fluid was almost completely out of my system. I dropped to my knees and caught a glimpse of something shiny in the tall grasses. I crawled toward it and saw a jagged piece of metal with the word
Hesper
stenciled on it. I ran forward, powered by my excitement, though each movement was a battle as my air ran out.

Spotting a small, spindly tree, I scrambled up to get a better view. I saw the enormous tail of the cargo ship, just up the hill, its reflective surface shimmering in the sun. The tail section's crash had scorched a flat path through the terrain. I leapt out of the tree and struggled up the hill. Wheezing uncontrollably, I fought for every step. Ninety meters from the tail, I stumbled and fell. I clutched my chest, choking on the planet's air. Using my sleeve to cover my mouth, I staggered to my feet and kept moving.

 

 

I dragged myself into the wreckage and rummaged through debris in a desperate search for more breathing fluid. I fought back dizziness, my chest heaving, each breath ripping through my lungs. Light and dark whirled together as my vision began to fade and unconsciousness threatened to overtake me for the last time. But somehow, amid all the chaos, I found a container of breathing fluid still attached to a section of the wall. I fell to my knees beside it, tearing it open. I had never seen anything so beautiful. I managed to open a vial and inhaled the breathing fluid, feeling the oxygen fill my lungs once more. After pausing to catch my breath, I took another vial. I needed it. I fell on my back, gulping the precious oxygen.

Once my breathing steadied, I crawled to the cutlass rack and grabbed one. It felt good to be armed again. Now that I could breathe, I wanted to find out what had happened to the Ursa. As I ran through the cutlass's configurations, I scanned the area, trying to figure out what could have happened. From the damage to the surrounding trees and ground, I could see the path the ship's tail had taken when it crashed. Tracking the debris path, I headed down the slope, figuring that if the Ursa had been flung from the storage hold, the momentum would have carried it this way. My dad had said the Ursa was probably either dead or contained, and I could only hope he was right. I approached the Ursa's pod, my cutlass extended in front of me. As I circled around, I saw that the pod had been shattered. Binding straps lay broken on the ground. I checked the area—no dead Ursa around. It had definitely escaped. Worst-case scenario.

But I had to focus on finding the beacon before I worried about the Ursa. As I searched the wreckage, I found a working naviband and snapped it on. Immediately, it began reading my vitals, and I tried to reach my dad. I'd been so busy trying to survive that I hadn't had much time to worry about him. But now, I could only hope I wasn't too late to save him. “Dad, are you there?”

All I heard was a lot of static. “Dad, I made it to the tail,” I said, hoping he could hear me. I heard little bursts that I wanted to think were his voice, but nothing clear enough to be sure. Still searching the debris, I spotted the beacon and pulled it free. When I turned it on, I held my breath, hoping with everything in me that this one would actually work. It whirred to life, and relief washed over me. Except when I fired it, nothing happened. Fighting to stay calm, I stared at the beacon's screen.
Electrical interference
, it said.

I repeated my message, but still, no answer. Now the worry surged. I knew he was hurt bad. I knew I took longer than I should have to get to the tail. If only I had listened to him from the beginning. I could have followed his plan and gotten here sooner and we would both be safe aboard a rescue ship by now.

Repositioning the beacon, I tried again to fire it. And again, it
failed
. This stupid hunk of metal
failed
. “Dad, please copy,” I said, my voice breaking. “Dad, you're still there, right? Can you hear me?” After every-thing I'd been through, I couldn't lose him too. Not now. “Dad, please—the Ursa is not contained!”

The rage and frustration welled up, uncontrollable—I'd fought so hard to reach the one thing that could save us, and now it wouldn't work. I gave in to my anger, throwing my backpack, screaming as I sliced into the ship with the cutlass. Whirling, shouting my fury to the sky, I threw the beacon to the ground, cutlass raised above it. But I stopped myself. Maybe there was still some way to make the beacon work. I couldn't give up, not after everything I'd been through. And although I couldn't hear my dad, I knew what he would say: “Take a knee.” I could almost hear his voice as I dropped to one knee. For the first time, I wasn't doing it because he ordered me to. I was doing it because I knew it would help. I tried to think, wiping away tears, slowly pulling myself back together.

Looking up, I noticed the heavy cloud layer over me. It occurred to me that that could be the cause of the interference. If I could get above it, the beacon might be able to transmit. Scanning the terrain for a way to get up that high, I saw a black mountain in the distance, its peak above the cloud layer. Grabbing the beacon, I sprinted toward the peak.

In a clearing, I saw dead hyenas dangling from the trees. I hesitated, but there was no choice but to keep going.

Only one thing I knew of would've killed like that: the Ursa. I kept running, but now I was glancing around nervously, wondering where the monster lurked. But I knew that was what it wanted. It was trying to scare me, to make me release more pheromones so I would be easier to track. I wouldn't let it. I am Kitai Raige, son of Cypher Raige, and I was going to save both our lives.

When I reached the base of the mountain, I saw hundreds of bright red lava rivers rushing down its dark slopes. It was an amazing sight, and I was struck again by what a beautiful planet we humans nearly destroyed. Bursting out of the jungle, I ran up the slope, navigating between the slender ribbons of lava. I thought I heard something in the jungle behind me, but I kept moving. Fast and fluid now, revitalized by the infusion of oxygen. Soon I was inside the cloud layer, surrounded by a dense white mist. That's when I noticed that my lifesuit had turned black. I heard the scuttling of something approaching and brandished my cutlass. I couldn't see, though, so it wasn't like I could aim. Backing up, I found myself at the entrance to a cave. “Dad?” I said, hoping he could hear me now that I was near the volcano's peak. But still I got no reply. I knew the thing was close, though. Better stay quiet.

I hurried into the cave and found a tunnel covered in sparkling stones. Stalactites and stalagmites filled it, glittering in the light from my lifesuit. I ran deeper into the cave, not knowing if the Ursa was in front of me or behind me. All that mattered was that I knew it was coming for me. I searched for a way out of the cave, and saw a shaft of light beaming down from the ceiling. Suddenly, the Ursa decamoflaged right in front of me, and then leapt out of sight.

But I had seen an Ursa up close before, so the sight didn't freeze me in my tracks. I moved deeper into the cave. I navigated carefully around the spear-like stalagmites as a scream echoed through the cave—another way for the Ursa to frighten me. Except I had heard an Ursa's scream before, so it didn't startle me now. I ran as fast as I could on the uneven terrain, my cutlass extended. Ducking behind a thick stalagmite, I watched the cave's entrance. But I kept a clear sense of exactly where that shaft of light shot down from the ceiling, because that might be my only way out.

Scrambling low between stalagmites, I noticed a large crystal that had fallen across two rocks, and crawled beneath it. Eyes darting around the cave, I noticed dust dropping from above and I knew that was where the Ursa was. Just in time.

The Ursa leapt onto me, crushing the crystal that sheltered me. I was trapped now, its claws slashing toward my face. But as it moved around the debris, I was able to squirm out from under the crystal. I leapt to my feet, retrieved my cutlass, and whipped it around. The Ursa smacked me away, launching me three meters into the air. I landed on an outcropping of rocks, dazed. As I got back to my feet, I saw the beast use its hooked claws to push itself up and off the stalagmites that skewered it. Grayish blood oozed from its two wounds, dripping onto the floor.

I dove through a crevice that was too small for the Ursa. It screeched in frustration but then crashed through the crystals. I launched myself over another fallen crystal, but the Ursa clipped my leg with its claws, sending me rolling before I regained my footing. I slipped into a crevice and watched the beast. It stood there for a moment, then seemed to determine that it couldn't reach me and backed away. It camouflaged itself again to match the crystals and the rock wall, so I couldn't see it. As I crawled farther back into the crevice, I took my eyes off the space where the Ursa was just for an instant. I felt my terror threatening to overtake me. I knew how dangerous that was, but I didn't know how to stop it.

Then I heard the
drip drip drip
of blood falling to the floor, seemingly out of thin air. I'd found the Ursa. It revealed itself, hanging upside down at the mouth of the crevice. It reached in, but its claws missed me. I warded off its attacks with my cutlass as I shimmied deeper into the crevice. The beast spit black globules at me, and I moved to avoid them. It spit again, and a glob hit my shoulder. It seared through my suit and into my skin like acid. I screamed, stumbling backward from the force of the gunk's impact. I slipped down a slanted slope, but the Ursa stayed with me, forcing its way past the crystals with every movement, but another globule made contact and knocked me over. Suddenly I was falling straight down through a shaft in the cave. I smashed into a rock, rebounding and falling farther, finally splashing down in a pool of underground water.

Underwater, I could only see about a meter in front of me using my lifesuit's light. I saw another shaft of light arcing down through the water. That meant there was another way out. I swam toward it, glancing back between strokes but not seeing any sign of the Ursa. Suddenly I realized that I was surrounded by strange fish that snapped their sharp teeth at me. They started tearing at my lifesuit.

The sound of something large splashing through the water scattered the fish. Out of the darkness, the Ursa's long claws reached for me. I swam away as fast as I could. I felt myself running out of breath, and desperately paddled toward the shaft of light.

In my frenzy to escape, I realized I'd lost track of which way was up. Blowing out what might be my last breath, I saw that the bubbles were going downward. I had somehow ended up upside down. Righting myself, I swam for the light. I emerged into a vertical shaft in the rock, gulping in air. Bracing my feet on either side of the rock shaft, I started climbing up toward the sunlight twenty meters above.

The Ursa erupted from the water, its claws snagging my legs. It couldn't fit into the shaft, so it tried to pull me down. I screamed as its long claws dragged down my leg, but I kept going. I got high enough that the Ursa lost its grip on me, crashing back into the water below. I kept pulling myself up the shaft, screaming in anger, screaming in pain, screaming in fear. It took all my strength to reach the top, but my fury propelled me. My hands grasped the top edge of the passageway, and I pulled myself up onto the side of the volcano. The ionic cloud layer was dissipating up here, but gray ash fell everywhere from an eruption at the top. There was nowhere to go. Peering back down the shaft I had just climbed, I saw rocks collapsing and knew the Ursa was coming. I had no time left. I took out the beacon, activating it, ready to send the rescue signal.