A Fortunate Accident – Chapter 27

Kalvin comes skidding up next to me, his eyes wide and staring at the gigantic bird.

“What happened?” he asks, grabbing my hand and pulling me back. I stop him from going too far. “Are you hurt?” he yells over the screeching.

I shake my head, but I can’t tear my eyes from the bird. She flaps her wings steadily, longer and longer swoops through the air, gathering up the surrounding wind. My hair whips around my head. Kalvin and I turn into each other, both shielding our faces from the onslaught.

I crack open an eye and hold my breath. The oncoming water horses are still as stone except for their flicking tails. The bird lifts off the ground a few centimeters and lunges forward. The water horses shift back, their tongues snapping out and heads bobbing side to side. Once more, the bird gathers up the air and lurches at them again. They turn and run away this time, crashing through the underbrush and disappearing from view.

The bird doesn’t stop once the water horses are gone. She must identify Kalvin and me as a threat because she turns on us next. I squeak and leap away with Kalvin. The column of wind the bird is creating funnels around her body. The mini tornado picks up leaves and twigs and adds them to the crazy whirlwind.

Movement on the other side catches my eye. Saif, Takemo, Luca, and his other man are all watching the display of power with their mouths wide open. The whirlwind howls and the bird screeches, and the two sounds together send goosebumps down my back.

Kalvin wraps his arms around me. His eyebrows pull together, puzzled.

“I’ve heard this before,” he whispers.

“Yeah, in the desert.”

When Kalvin and I had been marooned in the desert together, we were helped and guided by what I thought was sentient sand. I had stuck my hand in the sand and communicated with it, much like this bird and I just did. An electrical current passed through me, and the sand entity had accessed my memories and learned about me, all in a flash. It helped me, though I’m not sure why.

We move away from the bird, step by step. I have to wonder if this bird and that sand entity are related somehow. They can both create a column of air and communicate with shocks and memories. How is this even possible?

Wait. There was an electric eel in that watering hole too. Didn’t the lab tech at India’s compound say that they had gotten a bunch of plants from a nearby wetland?

“In the desert.” His eyes widen. “What… How?”

My sentiments exactly.

“Let’s get out of here. She’s protecting her nest,” I say, pulling him away. The bird lunges for us again, but we’re quicker on the retreat.

Kalvin and I jump over a log and pick up our pace. The bird screeches, but we’re gone. I have no idea what she’ll do once we’re gone, but I have a feeling that won’t be the last I see of her. She saw the desert too. At least, that’s what I think she was trying to communicate with me. Maybe that’s where she wants to go? Or maybe… Fuck. I don’t know. There are too many loose ends, and I don’t know how to weave them into a cohesive history.

We set a quick pace through the woods. I haven’t seen a military shooter since before the waterhole, so maybe we’ve lost them. The rest of our party is behind us, bringing up the rear, and Luca is not telling us to stop or slow down, so we must be doing the right thing.

And fuck, I just realized I’ve lost my bag. I don’t have it anymore. The GPS tracker is in it! Along with my water. Damn. I’m thirsty.

“I don’t… know where… to go,” I huff out between labored breaths.

“Straight… for now.” Kalvin is at my side, his arms shooting out to clear away tree branches and underbrush as we crash through them.

We run for what feels like ages but may only be five minutes. I don’t know. I’m not a runner, and I despise this kind of high-cardio exercise, so anything longer than a minute feels like an eternity. But if I’m going to be running through the jungle on a regular basis, I should maybe consider working out more.

Maybe.

I must be hallucinating if I’m even thinking this.

With my breathing strained and my legs aching, I can only blame the endorphins and adrenaline pumping through my body at an increased rate for my addled brain.

Sweat pours down my back, and my boots continue to squish with every step I take. Even my feet are sweating in my water-soaked socks, and they slip around, making the running more difficult.

Kalvin and I crash through a bank of bushes, and on the other side, we pull up short. A group of monkeys sits in a grassy space devoid of trees. They shriek and run, galloping off. A scream comes from behind. Uh oh. Bigger monkeys are running straight at us.

“Run,” Kalvin urges, pushing me towards a long stretch of grass.

I watch where I’m going, dodging in and out of pockets of dirt and water. The grass seems to lead to a small hill, so I aim for that.

Kalvin calls out from behind me, and I hear him hit the ground.

Shit. I come to a halt and reverse course to grab him.

“Skylar, careful!” he shouts, rolling over to get his feet under him again.

A monkey comes flying towards me. I lash out with a kick that strikes it in the belly. I immediately hate myself for the mewling noises it makes when it hits the grass. But it rolls over and runs off, screaming as it goes. Other monkeys stare at me, fear replacing their rage. I drop into a ready position. I don’t want to hurt innocent creatures, but I will not let us become their afternoon snack.

I whip out with a kick to the air, and the monkeys back off even more.

“Hey, look what I can do with my boots, you little shits. Go on! Find something better to do!” I lunge at them, and they all take off, the grass swaying in their hurried wake.

“Shit. I can’t believe that worked,” I say, bouncing on my toes.

I help Kalvin up, and he looks at me wide-eyed. “You’re full of surprises.”

I laugh — one big “ha” — before I take his sleeve and tug him to a run.

But after three long strides, the world bottoms out. I’m running one moment, falling the next. My legs and arms whirl around in the open air as I drop, drop, drop. Oof. Something nails me in the back. I bounce down a wall and hit the ground with a crunch.

Am I still moving? I think I’ve stopped. My chest is on fire, and I can barely breathe between the exertion and all the air being knocked out of me.

“Ow!” Oh shit, my chest hurts. I think I broke a rib. I did hear a crunching sound. Was that my rib?

I open my eyes and look up. I fell down some sinkhole? Testing out my limbs, I gently roll my wrists and ankles. Those feel okay. My arms and legs seem to work at the elbows and knees. I sit forward and wince. Yeah, a broken rib for sure. Maybe two. I try to take a deep breath, and the pain is so blinding it knocks me back.

“Skylar!” Kalvin’s voice reaches me. “Are you okay?” he calls.

I blink and try to breathe, but I can only pull in a small gulp of air.

“I’m here,” I say at a normal volume.

“What?” he yells.

“I’m here,” I say a little louder, though the pain makes me nauseous. “I broke a rib. Can’t talk.” I swallow a few times, hoping to not puke, but nope. My stomach turns over, and I roll to my uninjured side to lose what’s in my stomach.

Puking only makes things worse. The pain is intense, and it just gets worse with every heave. I hate throwing up, but it seems to be the way my body deals with any kind of real stress in my life. I threw up a lot as a kid. It’s a wonder that I never developed an eating disorder, but it’s probably because I hate puking. Hate it.

I roll away from the sick and stare up at the top of the hole I fell into. I must be at least five meters down. The walls of this sinkhole are dirt and rocks, slicked wet with the ever-present Rio humidity. I don’t detect any other animals down here, and that’s good. I would have nowhere to run.

For a moment, I close my eyes. How did this day go so wrong? Oh yeah, the fucking military decided I was a prime target.

You know what? After they stole my ship and gutted it, I was ready to burn their entire organization to the ground. But stronger heads prevailed, and they talked me out of it. Now, I want nothing more than to be fucking done with them for good. There has to be something I can do to tear down their little playground. They’re like children running around with guns, and they don’t understand the consequences of their actions. Well, guess what? Skylar Kawabata will bring them those consequences, and it will not be pretty.

I’m contemplating my next move when something brushes my cheek. I jerk back, sure it’s some snake or lizard or other unholy animal, when I catch the fuzzy green plant… staring at me? No. It has no eyes. But I swear it’s watching me.

“Hi,” I say, and the plant shivers.

Okay, that’s weird.

A new plant of the same kind pops up next to it. Like, literally thrusts up through the soil, spreads its leaves, and… waves to me.

I must be losing my damned mind.

“Help?” I say, totally unsure of what’s going on. I’m either hallucinating and on a terrible trip, or this is real.

But this is Rio, and I’ve seen stranger shit here. This has to be real.

More of the fuzzy green plants pop out of the surrounding soil. They wave in a steady rhythm like the wind has blown them, but the air is calm down here. The oscillations are soothing, mesmerizing. My heart rate slows, and my body relaxes watching them.

The nearest plant reaches out and touches my hand, and that instinct to pull away doesn’t surface. They draw me in, my fingers between their leaves and stalks. A sense of calm pleasure pushes aside the pain of my broken rib. Energy returns to my body where there was nothing but fatigue a moment ago.

I smile. “That’s nice. Thank you,” I say, keeping my voice even and low. I take short gulps of air to keep the pain in my ribs at a minimum as I watch the plants sway across the floor.

Wait. Is this my plant?

Rio has plant pairs for many humans. It’s something Vivian figured out when she was on the Amagi with me. Sure, many plants give people superhuman powers, but not all of them. And still, some plants have a human pair, and those powers are enhanced. Ken, Vivian’s second consort, has a plant pair that gives him heightened empathy. They figured out it was his plant when it moved towards him. It interacted with him. The heightened empathy plant is a good match for someone like Ken. His plant never makes him sick, and the symbiotic nature of their relationship is pretty unique.

Out of all the plants I’ve been around on Rio, this is the only one that has interacted with me. It reaches out, and I’m tempted to pluck it from the ground and pop it into my mouth. My hand hovers over them as they extend their fuzzy tendrils up to my fingers. It would be the height of stupidity to ingest one of these right now. I have no idea what they do or how they would affect me, and my life is still in danger from the fucking military. I’m broken and bruised and tired and down a fucking sinkhole.

I’m up there for India Dellis’s Employee of the Month.

I drive my hand farther into the plants, close my eyes, and the weirdest thing happens. Well, weirder than any of the other stuff that’s happened lately.

I see myself move backwards, time rewinding. Ew. I puke backwards and shoot up and out of the hole.

My eyes fly open, and I pull my hand from the plants.

What the hell was that?

“Sky?” Kalvin’s voice comes from almost right over my head. “Are you okay? I think I see you.”

“I’m here,” I say, trying not to raise my voice. “I’m not okay, but I’m not close to death either.”

“I’m looking for a way down,” he says, his voice moving.

“What about the military? Or anyone else?”

“Coast is clear so far. Even the monkeys are gone.”

He moves off, and my plant beckons to me like the wind across a grassy plain. Okay, they want me to move.

I rise to my feet gingerly, just in case I busted something I wasn’t aware of on first inspection. My head swims from the pain and nausea, but I can stand upright. Somewhat. The walls of the sinkhole keep my head bowed.

More of my fuzzy green plants pop out of the ground, leading away from my landing spot. I walk to the side of them, carefully, one squishy foot in front of another. Each step I take is solid. I don’t want to slip, fall, and hurt myself again.

“Where are we going, little ones?”

They shiver, and the motion feels like excitement.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming.”

The sinkhole is a lot bigger than I thought it was. It’s almost a straight path forward, through a three-meter-wide channel cut through the land. Is this natural? The uniformity of the walls makes me think this is manmade somehow.

I push aside a giant root system, duck under, and come out into a wider portion of the sinkhole.

Well, that explains a lot.

“Kalvin?” I call out, wincing at the pain in my chest. “Kalvin, you have to come down here!”

I look up and see his head poke over the edge. “What’s wrong? I found a downed tree up here that I think I can maneuver into the hole, and we can use it to climb.”

“I’m not leaving just yet, and you need to come down here. Now.”

“What? Why?”

I gesture to the dirty metal of the space probe buried in the dirt in front of me. It looks like it’s aged a thousand years, but I recognize the design. This design is current to now. The plants at my feet wave back and forth in front of the probe, practically singing about its existence.

There’s something here I’m supposed to see.

“I have a mystery to solve,” I tell him, “and I could use your help.”