“Keep going!” she called, her voice echoing. “I see an exit!”
The air on her face felt like a blessing. She saw a square of gray sky.
Cal hoisted himself up and out of the cave. Molly followed. She stuck her head and shoulders out, then crawled upward, gulping in the warm night air. What greeted her eyes made her wonder if she was dreaming. It was as if the whole world was splitting apart.
“What is this?” Javi asked, joining her.
Below them, the stream boiled in a deep crack in the earth. Chunks of ice slammed against the walls of the fissure. If it grew much larger, it would cut them off from the forest and the compound.
But the ridge that led beyond was straight ahead.
Anna helped Akiko and Kira climb out and they struggled toward Molly and Javi. Anna paused to bend down and reach into the widening crevice.
“Anna, be careful!” Molly called.
Anna quickly lurched back, gripping something in her palm. She hurried toward them, carrying a handful of grassy strands. She held them up, showing them the thin, spiky blades.
“Look!” she said. “They’re symmetrical. It’s some kind of Arctic grass that was growing near the cave exit. Do you know what this means? It’s ours! I mean, it’s not manufactured! It’s from Earth!”
Anna’s eyes were shining. She handed the plant to Molly.
Molly shook her head tiredly. “Well, whatever’s surviving there won’t be for much longer.” She pointed. “Look.”
The split in the earth was getting wider and deeper by the minute. As the stream flowed it cut into the walls, battering them with icy chunks and crumbling them apart. The top of the cave, already split with fractures, was straining and bending. The biome was cracking like an egg.
“Get everyone out!” Molly bellowed. “We’ve got to get to the ridge!”
Javi scrambled toward the hole and pulled out Hank, then Dana. Yoshi emerged and reached back to grab Pammy’s hand.
Molly watched in horror as a crack in the earth raced toward the cave. The ground juddered under their feet.
“HURRY!” Molly screamed, even as the floor buckled. Pammy. Stu. Drew. They all got out. With the sight of each of them, Molly’s heart eased a little bit.
Then with a great roar, the cave cracked in two. They were all thrown into the air with the violence of the split.
Molly landed hard. She wasn’t hurt, just stunned. She’d landed on the other side of the growing chasm.
Across the abyss, Stu, Drew, and Pammy were still on top of the other half of the cave. They’d been thrown down and were just struggling to their feet. Pammy’s eyes were wide as she saw they were separated from the others. She took a faltering step forward, then glanced back, toward the compound.
“Pammy!” Dana shouted. “Come on!”
Pammy shook her head, her eyes wide with tears. “I can’t … ” she sobbed. “I don’t trust their plan!”
Molly’s stomach clenched when she heard the words. The crack was growing larger by the moment.
“Pammy, you have to jump now!” Hank yelled. “Stu, Drew—grab her and come here!”
None of the three budged.
“We’re safe in the compound … ” Drew said.
“… And we could be doomed if we go!” Stu finished.
Pammy’s face was in her hands. “I don’t want to die like Dave!”
The sound of the water was like thunder. Pammy, Stu, and Drew held on to the small bits of vegetation they could grab. Molly realized that their part of the cave was sliding slowly down an incline.
They were sliding into the abyss.
The ground gave another heave, and she barely kept to her feet. She watched as a tree the size of a building crashed down across the ravine.
Pammy, Stu, and Drew used the branches to pull themselves to relative safety on higher ground, but the gulf was wider than any of them could jump.
“They’ll never make it without us,” Dana muttered.
She put her hand on Hank’s shoulder. “Take care of the crew,” she said. “Find help for Cal.”
“What are you going to do? There’s no way across!”
She turned to Cal, who stood with his back to them, facing the ridge. “Cal! Don’t forget me,” she said. “Don’t forget any of us.”
Cal slowly turned. He said nothing. He raised Hank’s oboe. One mournful cry, something that cracked the sky.
Molly felt its meaning beat in her blood, full of sorrow. “ ‘Friend,’ ” she said.
Dana began to run. That’s when Molly saw she was holding the Cub-Tones’ device. The one Hank used to make water cubes.
A device identical to the one the Killbots possessed.
“Dana, wait!” Kimberly cried.
Molly felt the lurch as Dana pressed down on the gravity symbol on her device.
She leaped into the air, soaring several yards forward. But Dana had never practiced with low gravity. Molly could see now that her jump had been too timid.
She landed lightly onto the tree trunk, which had formed a kind of bridge to the other half of the cave. It split and cracked even as she raced across it. The branches whipped around as it jounced, rolling at times.
“Chair step!” Kimberly shouted.
Dana lifted her legs, avoiding the branches as they shivered and twisted, hopping her way across even as the massive trunk fractured.
With a loud crack, the trunk split completely and began to fall. Dana pushed up, arcing high into the air. When she floated over the other side of the cave, she deactivated the device and went spilling hard to the ground. Stu and Drew grabbed her tightly as the tree crashed into the abyss.
Dana struggled to her feet. She looked back at them across the distance. Then she gave a little wave.
“Come back for us!” she yelled. “If you actually do find some help out there!” Then, as the ground heaved, she pressed down again on the gravity symbol. Together, Dana, Pammy, Drew, and Stu jumped to safety. They were lost from sight as they fled into the forest.
Javi and the others climbed the ridge without speaking. Whatever forest creatures had been there had migrated to wherever the mainframe had told them to go. Javi hoped it was far, far away.
He reached the top of the ridge as the light was fading. Just as Anna had said, they saw only more forest. At the very edge, though, there was a line of gray.
“That could be water,” Molly said. She had the best eyesight of the group.
“Anybody got a boat?” Javi asked.
“One step at a time,” Molly said. “Let’s get a fire going. It’s too late to climb down the back of the ridge.”
The fire made a cheerful glow against the gray. The night wind seemed colder up here. They wrapped themselves in blankets.
Yoshi disappeared and came back with nothing. “No animals left, not even birds,” he said. “Maybe we’ll have more luck down there.”
“It’s okay,” Kimberly said. “We have seed cakes.”
But no one could eat. All they could think about was Dana, Pammy, Stu, and Drew heading back to the compound. How would they survive? What would their first night be like?
“Do you think the whole biome was destroyed?” Kimberly asked. Her face was taut, as if she’d been holding in the question.
“No,” Yoshi said. “I think the problem was right at the seam.”
“The ice and frost weren’t on the other side,” Anna said. “The treetops are still there. Look.” She directed Kimberly’s attention to the panoramic view of the forest. Through the mist, they could just make out a white line, like a scar in the earth. Beyond it the trees were blue. Unnatural for Earth, but here that meant they were alive and healthy.
“Look, we have to eat,” Molly said. “The stronger we are, the sooner we’ll get to the end of the valley. And the sooner we can go back for them.”
They chewed on the cakes and drank water and watched as the mist took on a greenish glow. Javi could guess that meant the midori moon was high and brigh
t. Was there anything more to fear tonight?
Javi looked down at the stretch of forest on the other side of the ridge—the path ahead. There could be new creatures there. And then when they got through it, there would be water. Maybe an expanse of it. Until they got to the building, or tower, or whatever it was, and faced something they were afraid to face. A hope that Pammy and the others hadn’t believed in.
Anna stroked the Arctic plant she’d found, as if it were a piece of home. He guessed it was. Hank sat hugging his knees and staring back out toward the compound.
Cal sat cross-legged next to Hank, looking out, not blinking. Javi saw the green rash that snaked up his cheek, then disappeared under his shirt. A hard ridge of something ran down his back, close to his spine.
Javi leaned over to whisper to Molly. “Did you really understand Cal back there? Did he really say ‘friend’ when he made that sound?”
Molly’s gaze was sad. “I don’t know. I think so. It was a feeling more than a word. Maybe I just wanted him to. I want him to be human still.”
“He is,” Javi said. “I know it.”
Molly didn’t answer. He saw one tear leave the corner of her eye and make its way down her cheek. He knew he couldn’t take away her fear.
He would take care of her, though. No matter what. No matter if she became exactly like Cal. If that was the fate that lay ahead, he would face it. He would bring her food, like Dana had for Cal. He would defend her, like Kimberly had for Cal. He would struggle to understand her, figuring out her language, and he would speak it to her. Even if he had to learn how to play the glockenspiel.
“No matter what you are, you’ll always be our leader,” he said. “And you’ll always be my best friend. Through everything. Even the horrible, terrible. Especially the horrible, terrible.”
He saw her take a shuddering breath, but when she turned to him, the tear was gone.
“Enough with the mush, Perez,” she said. “It’s time to get some rest. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Jude Watson is the author of the critically acclaimed, bestselling Loot and its sequel, Sting, along with six 39 Clues books: Beyond the Grave, In Too Deep, Vespers Rising, A King’s Ransom, Nowhere to Run, and Mission Titanic. She is also the author of the bestselling Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi and Jedi Quest series. As Judy Blundell, she wrote What I Saw and How I Lied, the 2008 winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She lives in Long Island, New York, with her husband and daughter.
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Jude Watson, A Warp in Time
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