The Tundra Trials Read online

  2

  “THIS WASN’T THE PLAN,” COLE says to my dad, who walked in from work to be greeted by Officer Owens and the news that we’re leaving a day early for our second tour. For reasons Owens either doesn’t know or can’t disclose, our pod is meeting at our pod leaders’ labs beyond the scorch zone and departing for space directly from there.

  “I know, but there’s nothing we can do,” Dad says to Cole. We had just called his parents to let them know of the change, and Cole could barely talk. Dad assured them we had it all under control. “Everything will be fine,” he tells Cole.

  I’ve seen Cole fired up, but never quite like this. I punch him on the shoulder. “We need to get changed.” When he doesn’t move, I haul him by the sleeve back to my bedroom. “I know this wasn’t the plan, but it’s the plan now! You heard Officer Owens. We need to go! The hovercar is waiting.”

  Cole sits on my bed, his back rigid. That’s how he always sits in the pod room, like he has a pole through his spine. I have no idea how he can sit super straight like that.

  “I don’t like it when plans are changed unexpectedly.” Cole’s teeth are clenched, so he sounds kind of like this creepy ventriloquist that performed at our school once. “It makes me very uncomfortable.”

  “Obviously,” I say, “but I don’t get it. You weren’t freaked like this during the Youli attack—plenty of Bounders were, and you weren’t—and that was certainly unexpected!”

  “First, I was, in fact, freaked,” he says, thankfully giving the ventriloquist voice a rest. “Second, that wasn’t entirely unexpected. When you’re on another planet, you have to leave room for a wide range of unknown variables. Here, you don’t. When they say you’ll depart on a certain date from the Americana East Aeroport, that’s the plan.”

  “Wait . . . what? You’re saying an alien attack was in the range of variables you accounted for?” Now that has me freaked.

  “Not really. Just forget it. We need to go, like you said.”

  Despite this proclamation, Cole shows no signs of moving. He sits on my bed and jiggles his knees while clenching and unclenching his fists. I’m not sure what to do, but then the jiggles start to slow and his hands soften. He takes a deep breath and blows it out like he’s trying to extinguish an enormous candle.

  A few deep breaths later, he climbs off my bed and rummages through his Academy duffel bag. “Let’s see. Cross-country travel? That means dress formals, per Earth Force code, section 17.6.”

  “Of course.” Cole’s mind is a deep vault of seemingly useless information that somehow always proves useful.

  Ten minutes later, we emerge from our room fully dressed, duffels in hand. As I stand in our living room in my indigo shirt with its orange Earth Force insignia, everything seems right. I feel more confident, more like the real Jasper, than I have all summer.

  Addy hops off the couch when we walk in.

  She scoots to my side and leans her head against my shoulder. “I’m sorry I was a pain today,” she whispers.

  “Don’t be,” I whisper back. “I really wish you were coming with us.”

  “Me, too.” She steps back and nods at Officer Owens. “I can’t believe you’d go to all this trouble just to avoid pulling off the elevator prank. Or is this so you don’t have to introduce me to your girlfriend?”

  This again? “For the hundredth time, I don’t have a girlfriend!”

  “Does he have a girlfriend?” Addy asks Cole.

  “I don’t know,” Cole says.

  “That means yes!” Addy shouts.

  “It means no,” I say.

  “It means I don’t know,” Cole says. “Don’t either of you understand plain English?”

  Before Addy can further dissect Cole’s literalisms, Dad walks over. “Time to go.” He gives me a sad smile before pulling me in for a hug. “I thought we’d have a bit more time, but sometimes quick good-byes are easier.”

  “See you in six weeks, Dad.”

  He nods and then points at Mom, who leans against the counter in the kitchen.

  “Bye, Mom,” I call.

  She rushes over, straightens my collar, and smooths the cowlick in my sandy hair that I can never wrestle down as well as she can. “I can’t believe how old you look,” she says, blinking back tears.

  “You know what I look like in uniform, Mom. Same as last tour.”

  “It’s not the uniform. It’s your eyes. They look like they’ve seen things I can’t imagine. Things that have made you old and wise.”

  “I guess that’s space travel for you.” In other words, I’m certainly not getting into the whole soldier-in-an-alien-war topic right now. “Love you, Mom.”

  “I love you, too, Jasper.” She places her hands on my shoulders and bows forward so our foreheads touch. “Be safe,” she says, then kisses the top of my head.

  Mom’s words stay with me as we leave the apartment and board the lift that lowers us along the outside of the apartment tower. The buildings of America East grow tall as we shrink to the ground. You’re right, Mom. These eyes have seen things hardly anyone can imagine. And as an officer of Earth Force, I suppose it’s my job to keep it that way.

  The lift opens to our building’s loading dock. Behind a second row of supply vehicles, I spy the official Earth Force hovercar. The vehicle looks more like a tank than a standard hover, and it’s nothing like the open-air cruisers we rode on the Paleo Planet. The craft is boxy and black, with dark-tinted windows that wrap all the way around. The orange Earth Force insignia—the letters EF in the middle of a circle ringed by smaller circles—is stamped on the door. The engine is mounted underneath, so you have to climb a few steps to board. It’s the kind of craft that says someone important is inside.

  “Nice ride,” I whisper to Cole.

  He nods. “A Model 330 EX.”

  The front door opens and another officer gets out. From what I can see when he opens the door, there’s a front compartment with the drive console where the officers sit, and a large rear compartment for passengers. The second officer takes our duffels and tosses them in the trunk.

  “Time to make pace, kids,” Owens continues. “Load up.” He opens the side door and gestures for us to enter.

  I grab the sides of the hover, haul myself up the first step, and . . . stop.

  Another pair of shoes stares back at me from inside the hover—Earth Force cadet standard-issue brown lace-ups connected to indigo-clad legs.

  Is Marco making the ride with us? He told me last year he traveled up from Amazonas the night before the launch and stayed at a portside hotel. Maybe they picked him up first.

  I duck my head inside the hover.

  Mira sits on the bench in front of me.

  I freeze.

  I can’t believe she’s here. The last time I saw her, she was walking off the passenger craft at the end of our last tour. I’m not ready to see her. I haven’t thought of what to say, how to act. Every scene I’ve played in my head was at the launch, at the aeroport, not here, in a hover, in my building’s filthy basement.

  She looks up, and her brown eyes suck me in. I blink to break the trance, but I’m frozen on the hover steps, staring at her tall frame, her thin pink fingers, her long blond braid. She’s tied her hair in indigo ribbons, just like Lucy taught her last tour.

  My brain sends the word Hi! to my mouth, but as the greeting tries to slip past my lips, my tongue twists in my throat. All that comes out is a strange grunting sound.

  Could I be more of an idiot?

  Cole whacks my back. “Get in!”

  Ouch. Apparently, pain can break a trance. I tear my eyes from Mira for the tiniest of seconds and climb the rest of the way into the hover. Good thing my legs cooperate better than my tongue.

  Cole slides in behind me. “Oh,” he says. “Hi, Mira.”

  Mira shifts her gaze to Cole, then locks her eyes on me.

  Act normal. Act normal. Act normal. I open my mouth to try the whole speaking thing again, and out comes, “H
i!Howareyou?Howwasyoursummer?” all in one big word-breath.

  Mira doesn’t reply, but I think a whisper of a smile lifts her lips before she turns to look out the window. I claim the bench across from her, and Cole sits in the rear.

  A glass panel separating the compartments slides down. “You kids okay back there?” Owens asks. When Cole and I say yes, he continues, “Once we clear the city limits, we should make good time. We’ll reach the base by mid-morning, and then you’ll travel to the labs. There’s some food and drinks in the cooler. If you need anything, press the intercom. Now try to get some rest.”

  I get to work surveying the snacks. It gives me something to do other than stare at Mira or dodge my eyes all around the passenger compartment in an effort not to stare at Mira. Meanwhile, the hover lifts off the ground and glides out of the loading dock.

  “Check this out!” Cole rolls down the rear window as the hover slides from the garage and onto the road. The buildings rise up hundreds of stories. Our hover is like a tiny fly skimming through the grass, making its way to the sandbox.

  After we’ve been driving for a while, Owen tells us to close the windows. “We’ve reached the city limits. We don’t want the dust from the scorch zone getting in the car.”

  We settle into our seats. I pass out some carob-coated fruit balls that I found in the cooler. I ate so many of them during our last tour that I steered clear over the summer. But, yeah, they’re still delicious.

  Our hover runs parallel to the tracks as we enter the scorch zone. Trains fly by in a blur. The full cars haul loads of packaged foods and goods to the distribution centers of Americana East. The empty cars travel back for their next load. Aside from the rails, all I can see is vast, empty land. As we travel on, we pass skeletons of building foundations rising from the ground like bony hands pushing up from the grave.

  I don’t know how long we’ve been driving, but it’s late, past midnight. Mira is curled up on the bench with her back to me, probably asleep. Cole messes around on his tablet with his headphones on. I’m sure he’s playing Evolution in 2-D. I could join if I wanted.

  Instead, I watch wisps of Mira’s long braid blow in the current of the hover’s air circulation system until my eyes grow heavy and I fall asleep.

  When I wake, we’ve nearly crossed the farm plots. Green stretches behind us as far as I can see, but the color comes to a full stop directly in front of us at the gates to a city. Behind the city, humongous mountains rise from the Earth.

  “I had no idea there was a city here,” I say.

  “That’s not a city,” Cole says. “It’s a military base.”

  The window separating the front compartment lowers. “Almost there,” Owens says. “You kids will transfer to a helicopter to take you to the labs.”

  The hovercar stops in front of a building with the Earth Force insignia hanging above the entrance and the flag of each continent flying from poles mounted to the facade. Owens ushers us out of the hover and instructs us to grab our duffels. He escorts us through the building and up to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting.

  I pause for a second to look around at the military base, the vibrant farm plots beyond, and then the scorch zones stretching as far as I can see. Behind us, the mountains rise.

  Owen gives my back a gentle nudge. Time to get going.

  “Safe travels, kids,” he says once he’s helped us into the copter. “Thank you for your service to the planet.”

  Mira taps on the window as the helicopter closes in on a small collection of buildings built on a mountain ledge. That must be Waters’s labs. The helicopter banks and starts its descent.

  A two-meter wall surrounds the compound. A lone figure hops along the edge—tall, black hair, copper skin—one wrong step will send him toppling over. There’s no mistaking who it is.

  A smile tugs at my cheeks. “There’s Marco!”

  He must spot us as well, because he leaps off the wall and dashes for the helicopter pad. As soon as we land, I open the door, crouch low to avoid the rotor, and run.

  Marco grabs my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug. “Ace! I thought you’d never show!”

  I nod at the wall where he balanced a moment before. “Your leg must have healed.” The last time we saw Marco, he was in a wheelchair after being injured in the battle on the Paleo Planet.

  “Eh . . . mostly. It’s still shaky at times, but I don’t let it hold me up.”

  “Clearly not,” Cole says, coming up behind me.

  “Wiki!” Marco says. “Don’t be a stranger!” He wraps his arms around Cole, who stays rigid as a board. He’s not a hugger.

  “And Miss Mira!” Marco says. “Come here, Queenie!”

  Surprisingly Mira lets Marco fold her up in a hug. He keeps it gentle and brief.

  Gedney hobbles out from a side door. “Hurry, hurry, everyone inside! Lunch is waiting!”

  “Hi, Gedney!” I can’t believe how good it is to see our assistant pod leader. I race over and give him a hug, careful not to knock him off balance.

  “So good to see you, Bounders!” Gedney pats Cole on the head and Mira on the shoulder before waving us all inside. “Grab those bags! Hurry now!”

  “He’s still all about the rush, huh?” I ask Marco.

  “You know Geds. That’s just how he is.” Marco grabs Mira’s bag and heads for the labs.

  “Is Lucy here yet?” I ask.

  “They had storms in West that delayed her ride,” Marco says. “She’s supposed to be here any minute.”

  “Are you coming in or not?” Waters’s voice booms from the door. “You’re moving so slowly I fear you may give Gedney a heart attack.”

  I know I missed our pod leader, Waters, but it’s not until I hear his voice that I have a sense of how much. My feet rush toward him before my brain even sends the direction to move.

  When I reach him, I stare at my shoes, oddly embarrassed and tongue-tied.

  His hand clamps down on my shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Mr. Adams.”

  I lift my eyes to his. “You, too, Mr. Waters.”

  We carry our bags into the building, and Marco leads us to a small bunk room, where we ditch our stuff. An adjoining door takes us to an identical room, where Marco sets down Mira’s bag. Next, he shows us the bathrooms and the pantry and the library. Along the way, we pass a few lab employees wearing white coats like Gedney. All of them smile and say something like, “Welcome to the lab, Cole,” or “Glad you’re staying with us, Jasper,” which is a little bit creepy but mostly just friendly.

  “I believe your fifth wheel has arrived,” one of the lab workers says to us as we head for the kitchen.

  We spin back toward the door and rush to the helicopter pad. By the time we get there, a small girl with brown skin and intricate braids tied in orange and yellow ribbons is standing there with her bags, hands on her hips.

  “Lucy!” I shout, dashing across the deck.

  I stop short because she’s giving me the evil eye.

  “Take your time coming to say hello, why don’t you?” she says.

  “Huh?” I can’t always figure Lucy out, but apparently, I earn a few points for endearing cluelessness.

  She lifts her hands from her hips. “Oh, come here, you silly boy!”

  I wrap my arms around her. Lucy seems even smaller than before. I must have grown.

  “How was your summer?” she asks.

  “Great.” I stand there grinning until her glare comes back.

  “Oh, my summer, you ask? Well, where do I start?” she says and then manages to hug Marco, Cole, and Mira, distribute her bags for us to carry, and lead us into the labs without pausing her monologue. “As soon as we got back, I heard The New West—you know, that web show—was looking for beach scene extras. So me and the girls hit up the auditions, and we made it! Did you see it? I’m the one in the pink bathing suit with the purple and orange polka dots. You’ll know it’s me because I have matching ribbons in my hair.”

  She pauses for ma
ybe a second, but when we show zero understanding of what she’s talking about, she keeps going.

  “. . . so anyway, I met this new agent who reps Carlita Danton and Letch Bryson. You’ve heard of them, right? They’re all the rage in West, and climbing the charts on the web rankings. So the agent asked me to come in for a meeting, but of course he suggested next week, and I’m here. Or, well, actually, I’ll be in space, I assume, so that was a no-go. But when I told him why I couldn’t meet, he was super intrigued. He doesn’t rep any Bounders, yet. He was thinking maybe he could pitch me to a reality show or possibly the talk circuit. Of course, it would all have to be scheduled around our tours of duty, and—”

  “Sorry to interrupt—actually, I’m not sorry; interrupting is the only way to say something with you—but I’m starving and the kitchen is this way!” Marco scoops Lucy off the ground and carries her in the direction of what I guess must be the kitchen.

  She erupts in giggles. “Put me down, you slimy Youli lover!”

  “Just as soon as I get my tofu dog,” Marco says.

  “Tofu dogs?” I ask. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I am kidding, actually,” Marco says, returning Lucy to her feet. “You never shut up about how much you hated those things last tour.”

  “That’s because they’re disgusting.”

  “I kind of like them,” Cole says as we walk into the kitchen.

  “No tofu dogs today,” Waters says. He sits at the head of the table with Gedney by his side. “Welcome, Lucy. It’s great to have the gang all assembled.”

  He rises and gives Lucy a big hug, then gestures for the rest of us to grab a seat.

  Once we devour a huge tray of tacos and veggie quesadillas and get the So great to see you and How was your summer? talk out of the way, or actually, once Waters tells Lucy we need to move on to other topics, Waters first looks at Gedney, then sets his serious gaze on all of us. Hopefully that means it’s time for answers. Why aren’t we on a passenger craft bound for the space station like all the other Bounders? I suppose my secret wish that we’d be just like everybody else this tour has already gone up in smoke.