After Earth (9 page)

But just then, one of the Ursa's arms reached out of the hole and grabbed me, pulling my legs out from under me and slamming me into the ground. The beacon flew one way, the cutlass the other. Before I could react, the Ursa smacked me into another rock. I lay on my back, limp. Everything felt broken. I felt my blood seeping into the ground. I heard the Ursa scrabbling frantically to free itself from the shaft so it could finish the kill.

I reached for the cutlass that should have been on my back, but came up empty. I let my arm fall, noticing the falling gray ash making swirling patterns as it stuck to my skin, still wet from the water below. Images flashed through my head—the baboon meeting my gaze, the hog seeming to nod at me outside its hole, my sister's loving eyes as she turned away to face the Ursa, the mama condor fighting to protect her babies, the Ursa leaping for me in the cave, the Ursa leaping at Senshi in our old apartment, the bee jousting with the spider, Senshi in my dream of her on the raft, me crawling out from under the body of the mama condor, the bee ceasing to struggle, then breaking its bonds, my dad's voice saying, “Fear is a choice.”

And then it all clicked, and my eyes snapped open at the revelation. My breathing slowed, the fear gone as I was filled with the warmth of all I had seen and experienced. The things where no one won—my battle with the baboons, the spider and bee killing each other, the lions killing the condor chicks while the mama condor and I killed them, the Ursa blindly attacking—these came from places of anger and fear. The things that were good—my sister saving me, the mother hog helping me, the mama condor protecting me, my father's words guiding me—these were all reminders that I was never really alone. If I was willing to accept it, there was always someone there willing to help. I wasn't alone. I never had been. And my dad wasn't alone either, not really. Not while I was still out here, still trying to save him.

The gray ash covered me, turning me into a different version of myself. Everything seemed to slow down. I felt completely at peace, at one with the mountain and the world around me. I heard the Ursa crash through the surface, but I was not afraid. The ash covered the monster too, keeping it from going invisible. It moved forward, but then it paused, looking lost. It moved around, searching for me, but it could no longer see me. I calmly got back to my feet and walked right past the Ursa to pick up my cutlass, and the beast didn't react. I stood staring at the monster for a long moment. Then I tapped a combination on the cutlass, and it split into two blades. I held them on either side of myself and ran at the Ursa, so fast and smooth that I was almost floating over the black rocks. The thing heard me coming, but it was too late. I leapt onto the alien beast's back and sank my blades into its two open wounds. The monster shrieked, writhing violently, but I held on. I tapped in another pattern, and the creature screamed as the cutlass extended into a spear and then a sickle, slicing the beast from the inside out. The Ursa staggered toward the cliff face, trying to take me over the edge with it. But I held tight until the monster fell. Then I stood atop the beast, swords at the ready, daring it to move. It did not. Lowering my arms, I gazed at the fallen Ursa with calm eyes. Snapping the cutlass back together, I jumped off of the beast and retrieved my backpack for the trek to the volcano's peak.

At this altitude, the freeze was already in full force. I hardly noticed the cold anymore. I felt strong again, my strides rhythmic. When I reached the top of the mountain, I turned the beacon on, holding it up to the sky. A bright white beam sliced through the night sky, up into space and out in all directions. Mission accomplished.

 

The rescue ship came quickly. As the crew prepared for takeoff, I headed to the control room to check on my dad. He lay on a cot with two medics beside him, both of his legs in braces. “Stand me up,” he said.

“General—” the head medic protested, but my dad insisted. And when the Commander General gives an order, it's best to follow it. The medics helped him up, and I winced at the sight of his bandaged feet touching the floor.

My dad straightened up and, looking into my eyes, raised his hand in a salute. I saluted back, feeling the understanding and connection passing between us. I walked over and gently hugged him, whispering in his ear. “Dad . . .”

“Yes?” he whispered back.

Grinning, I said, “I wanna work with Mom.”

He chuckled. I hadn't been sure he still knew how to laugh. I hadn't heard him do it in years. Neither of us wanted to let go, but the medics gently separated us to lower my dad back to his cot. He needed his rest, and time to heal.

Through the ship's window, I watch a heavy rain fall around us. The ship begins to rise, higher and higher into the air, across the sky, out of the rain clouds. As we fly over the ocean, I see the tail of a huge whale-like creature disappear into the water of the deep blue ocean. The whale reminds me of
Moby Dick
. I think I get it now, what that book was really about. Captain Ahab went nuts after the whale took his leg. Senshi was like that to me, a part of me, a part I couldn't or didn't want to live without. When I lost her, I obsessed over becoming a Ranger as if that could fix it. I wanted to kill Ursa because one killed my sister, just like Ahab wanted to kill the whale because it sank his ship. My single-minded focus kept me from listening to anyone—my mom, my dad, Bo, Velan. Obsession blinds you. You zero in on one thing and miss everything that really matters. Like a mother who loves you, friends who care about you, the memory of a sister who wanted you to live, not die. And a father you've always admired, but are just now, finally, getting to know.

Of course, that isn't what the book meant to Senshi when she and our dad read it together. I pored over the passages she'd marked, trying to figure out what it had meant to her, so I'd know what it was supposed to mean to me. I guess I thought there might be some message there that would give me a way back to my dad's heart. But in the end, I had to forge my own path. Senshi lives on in our memories—mine, my mom's and my dad's—not in the crinkly, browned pages of an old book. My dad and I had to find our way together in the real world, not by reading about something that never even happened. And yet, the book taught me more about myself than any of the training manuals I've memorized ever could. I can see why our ancestors saved
Moby Dick
and a few other Forever Books, making room for these relics on the crowded arks that let humanity escape from our dying home planet. And now that I've seen Earth, I can see that it's better off without us. The plants and animals there have thrived, despite all the damage we did. Now it's up to us to take care of our new home, Nova Prime, so we never have to flee again.

I'm ready to go home. I'm returning as a Ghost, the youngest one ever, but that's not what matters to me anymore. What really matters is that, down there, my dad and I found our way back to each other. That's all I ever really wanted.

I press my hand to the glass to bid the whale and its planet good-bye before we're out in space, surrounded by the stars once more.

Copyright

After Earth: Kitai's Journal

TM & © 2013 After Earth Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

 

Library of Congress catalog card number: 2013934065

ISBN 978-0-06-226857-0

EPUB Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN 9780062268587

 

13  14  15  16  17    LP/BR    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

FIRST EDITION