The Search For WondLa (7 page)

CHAPTER 12: SAND- SNIPERS

We need to
go that way.” Eva stood at the forest edge, pointing across the plain. She could no longer see the line of trees on the opposite side, for the crescent moon was now hiding behind thick clouds, soaking the world in blackness. However, the Omnipod softly illuminated her face, and Rovender’s, as it displayed a detailed map of the surrounding area. A blinking dot indicated where her Sanctuary was located.

The Omnipod drew an arrow on the map. “Walking at a leisurely pace,” it said, “you should arrive at your destination in approximately one hour and thirty-seven minutes.”

“If we can get to Muthr, she can help us find the others,” Eva said, tracing the holographic trail on the Omnipod with her finger.

“Us?” Rovender broke his gaze from the device. “I will lead you back to your home. From there I must bid you farewell, Eva Nine.”

“But we escaped together.” She looked up from the Omnipod. “I thought we were friends.”

“Indeed that was a bit of excitement this afternoon,” Rovender said, placing his hand on Eva’s shoulder. “And I am richer for our paths crossing, but my journey continues in a different direction from yours.”

“Is it because of Besteel?”

“No,” Rovender said. “But when we split up, he will no longer be able to track us as easily. Which is good for us all, Otto included.”

Eva studied his face as best she could in the pale glow of the Omnipod; however, like Muthr, he appeared stoic.

“Okay, then. Fine. Let’s go. I’m sure Muthr is waiting for me.” She started across the dark flat field of gravel and stone.

Rovender grabbed her arm. “No, no, no,” he said. “We cannot travel over this ground.” Otto clucked in approval.

Eva scoffed. “Why not? I ‘traveled’ all over it today.”

“This dried riverbed is thick with sand-snipers,” he declared.

Eva stared at Rovender for a beat. She put the Omnipod near his mouth. “Sand-what? Can you repeat that?” she asked.

Rovender pushed the device away. “Sand-snipers are vicious carnivores that live underground in deep tunnels. They mostly hunt at night and use surface vibration to capture their prey.”

“I saw a pit today. I wonder if one lived there?” Eva thought back to the mysterious hole, its entrance surrounded by unusual ivory-colored rocks and branches… . Perhaps they had not been rocks after all.

Tunnel biters. Yes. Look.

Otto’s words drifted into the girl’s head.

“Otto tells me there’s one out there now,” Eva said as she scanned the dark landscape. She saw nothing.

“Really? He
tells
you more things, does he?” Rovender cocked his head at the giant water bear. “Let us see if Otto, and you, are correct.” He threw his empty bottle out onto the dark plain. Eva could hear it ping as it bounced on the bumpy terrain. Suddenly a far-off pattern of wondrous blue lights emerged from the ground. The lights dashed across the open area toward the direction of the unseen bottle.

“Oeeah!” Rovender looked at Otto. “You tell the truth. Perhaps this Otto does speak to you after all.”

“I told you,” Eva said, crossing her arms.

The bioluminescent markings did little to reveal the shape of the sand-sniper, but Eva could see that the monster was big, possibly longer than Otto. Its lights shifted in color from blue to a brilliant green, and it clicked aloud as if speaking in code.

Eva aimed the Omnipod at the sand-sniper, recording its calls.

“Tell me, Eva Nine,” Rovender said with a chuckle, “what is
this
monster saying to you?”

“Ha, ha—very funny.” Eva bristled. “Let’s get a better look at this thing,” she said. With the Omnipod still aimed at the sand-sniper, she said, “Please enter lumen mode.”

The Omnipod’s central eye created a brilliant white beam of light that cut through the blackness straight toward the sand-sniper. Eva sucked in her breath as the light revealed the towering visage before her.

Multiple cordlike antennae crisscrossed in the center of the sand-sniper’s face. Orbiting above, two large bowl eyes scanned the night, moving independent of each other. Below the confluence of antennae an array of hooked claws and bristled graspers flexed in a steady rhythm. Its snapping maw spit out Rovender’s bottle and clicked in cadence.

“Eva!” Rovender scolded her. “Shut that light off!” He pushed the Omnipod down, forcing the beam to the ground.

Visibly shaken, Eva watched the sand-sniper’s glowing lights diminish.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Rovender barked. “Thank the stars they don’t venture into the woods. We’d be done for.”

“I’m … I’m sorry.” Eva said, still in shock. “I had no idea.”

“No idea? How is it that you do not know of these fiends?” Rovender said, aghast. “I have encountered several here on these grounds.
These grounds
that surround where you say your home lies.”

Eva shut the Omnipod off. “I … I have never been up here on these grounds before. Ever.”

“Up?” Rovender cocked his head, studying the girl. “You mean to say you have just hatched?”

“Hatched?” Eva raised an eyebrow at him. “No. I didn’t
just hatch
. I don’t even hatch. I’m twelve. I live in an underground home, a Sanctuary—just like the one you were camping in.”

“Unbelievable,” Rovender replied, rubbing his whiskered beard.

The moon had reappeared through the cloud cover, illuminating the world with an eerie, dim smile. Eva saw no sign of the sand-sniper.

Otto spoke to her.
You. Home. Come.
He stepped out onto the open plain.

But what about the sand monster? The tunnel biter?
Eva thought to him.

Not hurt. Me. Ride.

“He wants us to get on,” Eva said to Rovender. She grabbed on to one of Otto’s massive armored scutes and pulled herself up. Looking down at Rovender, she continued, “He says the sand monsters won’t bother him.”

“Does he?” Rovender examined the giant water bear, still rubbing his beard.

“Yes, he does.” Eva enjoyed knowing something Rovender didn’t.

At last he nodded and climbed up. “Very well. I will trust what he tells you. Ask him to follow the forest edge, so that we may still hide if necessary.”

Otto began shuffling along the edge of the open plain. Rovender pulled out another handful of seeds and dropped them into his mouth. “This may be a good idea, Eva. I am tired, and my foot could use the rest. However, we must still keep a wary eye out for Besteel.”

“Besteel? Will he find us?” Eva scanned the darkness, wondering what else was lurking around out there. Hunting.

“Perhaps.” Rovender spit seed husks out to the ground below. “The Dorceans are very skilled hunters and trackers. Is your home well protected?”

Eva looked down at her hands in the pale moonlight. Her nail polish was mostly chipped off—replaced by dirt and grime. “Our home? No. He broke in and destroyed it last night.”

Rovender studied Eva, chewing. “‘Our’? Are there others who live with you?”

“No. Just Muthr—my caretaker. But she’s just a robot. She’s not real.”

“Like the light images that come from your device?” Rovender pointed to the Omnipod.

“No, not a hologram. I mean, she’s a robot … you know, not alive … like you and me.” Eva felt a little flustered.

“I see,” Rovender said, still watching her.

Eva stared ahead, in the direction of her Sanctuary buried in the dark woods.

I wonder if the Sanctuary is even there anymore,
she thought.

I wonder how Muthr is doing. Is she looking for me?

Why does a robot take care of me? Why not another person?

Eva also wondered why she had not been taught exercises on dealing with bird-eating trees, giant water bears, and burrowing sand monsters. Or evil huntsmen.

She confessed, “You know, I had hoped that there were people like me living in these Sanctuaries. A
lot
of people like me. But I don’t see any. Where are they?”

Rovender leaned in close to her. “Eva Nine, I have traveled to many lands and seen many wondrous things. A creature such as you, I have never seen.”

Eva closed her eyes. She wished for all the world that she had not heard this.

CHAPTER 13: SANCTUARY

We are close,
Rovender said, eyes closed as he stood on top of Otto’s large plated back. Eva watched as he summoned the night air, fanning it around his face. “I can detect a smoldering scent that is neither a burned animal nor a burned plant. We should continue from here by foot.” He grabbed his rucksack and dismounted.

Muthr is neither an animal nor a plant… . I hope she’s okay,
Eva thought as she slid down Otto’s side to join Rovender. She felt some regret on how she had described Muthr to Rovender earlier. She flicked on her Omnipod. “This is Eva Nine. Please check for messages.”

“Greetings, Eva Nine. You have no new messages—voice or otherwise,” the device chirped.

I stay.
Otto spoke.
I wait.

Thanks, Otto.
Eva patted him on the head.

“Come, come, come.” Rovender ushered Eva into the mysterious woods. “We don’t want to risk Besteel seeing us. He will likely be returning to this area.”

“Returning? Why?” Eva clipped her satchel to her jackvest.

“Because he is clever.” Rovender put on his heavy pack. He gazed up, scanning the cloudy midnight sky. “We may be doing the very thing he is expecting us to do—I don’t know. But I would suggest you retrieve your robot mother and depart as soon as possible.”

Eva followed him into the woods, using the soft radiance of the Omnipod to light her way. “She’s not my mother. She just takes care of me.”

Rovender chuckled. “Well, she must have her hands full. You are much to take care of, Eva Nine.”

Eva fumed, saying nothing.

“So tell me, Eva,” Rovender said as he wound his way through the thick trunks of moss-laden trees. “If this robot is not your mother, what became of your mother? Of your family?”

“You tell me first,” Eva said, a hint of insolence in her voice.

Rovender was silent as they trekked deeper into the woods. From unseen forest-dwellers Eva could hear chortles burbling in rhythm over her footsteps.

Finally, Rovender spoke. “My life mate, my partner, became very ill when a sickness crept into our village, infecting many.” Eva heard him clear his throat. “She left this world, taking our unhatched offspring with her.”

Eva said nothing as she followed him through the undergrowth.
I’ve never really been sick before,
she thought.
I didn’t know an illness could be so deadly.

“So what about you?” Rovender paused, looking at Eva over his shoulder. “If the robot is not your mother, what became of her?”

Eva answered, her voice like a lone tinkling bell in an orchestra of nighttime noise, “I never knew my mother or my father. I’ve only known Muthr.” She remembered the robot pushing Eva up the exhaust shaft in the kitchen just the night before.

Rovender studied Eva in the moonlight. “Let’s get back to her, then, okay?”

Eva nodded in agreement.

They continued on in silence for some time, winding their way deeper and deeper into the forest. At last Rovender stopped. “I believe your home lies just ahead, Eva Nine.”

A humming sound drifted down from the night sky. The shadow of a large bird zoomed overhead.

“Sheesa!” Rovender hissed, pushing Eva into the shadows of a wandering tree. “I knew it!”

“What? What is it?” Eva’s eyes went wide as she looked up through the canopy.

“It’s Besteel.” Rovender spit. “I should have sabotaged his glider when I had the chance. Now he is searching for us from above.”

Eva could hear the hum of the glider. It was very low and distant, then it grew louder.

“He is circling,” Rovender said. He craned his neck, catching a glimpse of the glider as it soared over them. “We shall let him go by again. Then we will run for it. Okay?”

“Won’t he see us?” Eva rotated her sore foot, readying it.

“He can sense heat, but it is cool tonight. So if we can get underground in time, he may not detect us,” Rovender answered, keeping his eyes on the dark sky. The thin moon went back to sleep behind the clouds. The sound of the glider diminished, then began to increase. “He’s coming back,” Rovender said, crouching in the shadow of the tree. “Get ready.”

The glider whooshed by.

“Go! Now!” The two hop-dashed across a small clearing toward the entryway of Eva’s Sanctuary. As they neared, Eva tripped over the heavy ply-steel entrance door lying on the ground. Rovender yanked her inside. The two nearly toppled down the staircase that led down to Eva’s home.

While she caught her breath, Eva watched Rovender inspect the sky from the cover of the battered entryway. “Besteel is circling over once more,” he reported. “Ah, good. Now he’s moving on.” Eva could hear the eerie hum of Besteel’s glider fade away.

“We are safe for the moment,” Rovender cautioned. “So we should hurry. Go, go, go.”

Eva descended the staircase. She had never taken these stairs before—stairs that she had known existed, even though she was not supposed to. Below, electric lights flickered inside the control room—another place she had been forbidden to enter. Eva hesitated.

“Perhaps I should go first to make sure it is safe,” Rovender said.

“No, it’s okay,” Eva said as she continued down the stairs. “I know where I am. Besides, you have to leave, right? Now I’m on my own?”

Rovender peered down from the top of the stairwell. “Perhaps I can, at least, help you find your robot mother.”

Eva nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

With his walking stick supporting his weight, Rovender hobbled down past Eva, leading her into her Sanctuary.

The stairs ended at the back wall of an empty white control room, Muthr’s quarters. Of course Eva knew of this room. Muthr had told her all about where she went at the day’s end, and the Omnipod had showed the room in its entirety when Eva had viewed the omniscient floor plan—but still, she’d never been
in
this room. Expecting an arsenal of high-tech equipment, Eva found only a damaged holo-puter projecting images of the many chambers in the Sanctuary. The images flickered in an unsteady rhythm as they floated in the center of the room.

“How do you enter?” Rovender studied the locked door leading to the Sanctuary’s main hub.

“Hold on,” Eva said, scanning the numerous displays. In these she was able to look into each room.

Room 1: The Control Room. Eva could see the overhead view of herself and Rovender looking at the holo-images.

Room 2: The Holography Chamber. Eva could see the main projector lying on the scorched floor. Pieces of it were scattered and submerged in puddles from the extinguishers.

Room 3: The Gymnasium. The exercise equipment was toppled and thrown about. A sizable piece of debris was lying at the bottom of the half-drained wading pool.

Room 4: The Greenhouse. This was black. The camera must not have been working for this room.

Room 5: Eva’s Bedroom. This seemed the most damaged of all. Blackened and distorted clumps of the girl’s possessions were melted into a sprawling heap, while cooling pipes bled water everywhere.

Eva stared at the projection in total shock.
Is everything I own gone?
She pulled her eyes from the appalling sight and continued her search for Muthr.

Room 6: The Kitchen. This was also black. Eva assumed the camera was not working here either.

Room 7: The Supply Room. This was ransacked. All the shelves were toppled, with the goods spilled out onto the floor.

Room 8: The Generator Room. The other “no access” room was also black. Eva could see that the camera was working, but the lights were off in the room.

“That’s where I left Muthr,” Eva said, pointing to the blank kitchen screen. “Let’s try there first.” She tapped the green glowing button next to the door, but the door did not open. Eva tapped it again, harder. Nothing.

“Is it not working? Perhaps there is another way in?” Rovender asked.

“Let me see if it is damaged.” Eva walked over to the holo-screen for the control room. She attempted to interact with the Sanctuary’s menus, but the Sanctuary would not respond. “That’s weird. It’s not letting me access anything,” she said. Eva looked up and announced in a clear voice, “This is Eva Nine. Are you there, Sanctuary?”

The familiar calm voice of the Sanctuary replied. However, static was mixed into it, causing it to sound fuzzy and far away. “Earth in Vitro Alpha Nine, to reenter Sanctuary you must proceed with an authorization code.”

“Code?” Eva looked up at the camera in the ceiling, the Sanctuary’s eyes. “I don’t know any code.”

“Reentry into HRP underground facility five-seven-three is strictly prohibited without proper authorization,” stated the Sanctuary through the static.

“Prohibited? I
live
here. You know that,” Eva said, looking around at the various screens. “Please let me back in. I need to find Muthr.”

“Multi-Utility Task Help Robot zero-six is unresponsive. Therefore, her location is undetermined. The integrity of said Sanctuary has been compromised. Please return to the surface and send distress signal from Omnipod to HRP underground facility fifty-one,” the Sanctuary stated.

“I did that already,” Eva replied, her tone stern. She waved the Omnipod at the camera. “But there are no humans out there. Instead there are monsters—giant sand monsters and trees that eat you. I need Muthr’s help. Please let me in so that I can get her.”

“Multi-Utility Task Help Robot zero-six cannot leave Sanctuary premises, Eva Nine. Please return to the surface and—”

“I told you I did that already!” Eva’s frustration grew. “You have to let me in!”

“Terminating communication. Good-bye,” the Sanctuary said. It shut off the holo-puter, causing all the screens to evaporate. The control room went dark.

“No! No! NO!” Eva yelled. She paced the room, furious.

Rovender leaned on his stick. “I never trust a talking machine,” he said.

Eva flopped down at the foot of the stairs and held her Omnipod in both hands. It shone on her furrowed face.

“It would seem”—Rovender looked around the darkened room—“that you have been presented with a puzzle, Eva Nine.”

“A puzzle?” She looked up.

“Yes.” Rovender inspected the door’s manual keypad. “A riddle that you may solve. Now, you can solve this puzzle in a variety of ways. You can solve it with power, like Besteel did, and force this door to open.” Rovender pointed to the scorch marks that pocked the door. He continued, “You can solve it by asking nicely, which you have already done, and received no results.” He approached Eva. “Or you can solve it by answering the query.”

“The authorization code? But I don’t know that,” Eva whined.

“So who would?” Rovender asked.

“Muthr would, but she would never—” Eva paused, a thought flitting through her mind. She recalled the inscription that had been scrawled into her dresser drawer … the one that had allowed her access to the Sanctuary’s secrets.

“Sanctuary,” Eva said, standing. “This is C-P-zero-one.”

The Sanctuary was silent for a moment.
Won’t it know it’s just me?
Eva wondered.

She picked at the scab on her thumb with her finger.

“C-P-zero-one,” the Sanctuary responded. “Access password, please.”

Eva looked over at Rovender. She then glanced up to the unseen camera mounted in the ceiling. “Omniscient,” she said.

“How may I be of service, Cadmus zero-one?” the Sanctuary asked.

Rovender looked at Eva. “Who is Cadmus?”

Eva shrugged her shoulders. “Open control room door and allow Eva Nine and Rovender Kitt access into main hub, please,” Eva commanded.

With a low grinding sound the door unlocked. It opened only halfway, clearly damaged from Besteel’s siege.

Before she could enter, Rovender put a hand on Eva’s shoulder. He said, “The real question one should ask when presented with a puzzle is, ‘Should I solve it? Do I really need to know the answer?’”

“I do. I need to know the answer,” Eva said, and stepped into the burnt remnants of her home.