The jungle was thick with trees. Branches obstructed every pathway, like strong arms restraining Evie, telling her to stop and go back. Giant leaves slowed her progress. She pushed them aside. The green portals were like doors to another world. And that’s exactly where Evie wanted to go.

Evie had argued with her brother and her parents before, but it felt different this time. There was something final about it, a distressing reality she knew she hadn’t fully grasped. In the aftermath of the fight, her heart was still pounding—a ferocious, adrenaline-fueled beating in her chest—like she was running down a steep hill and couldn’t slow herself down.

I never fit in with them anyway, Evie thought to herself. Her mom was a critical neat freak. Her brother judged everything she did. He was so competitive, and he never said anything nice. All Rick ever did was point out all the things Evie did wrong.

The accident kept playing over in her mind. She grasped at the memory, trying to find a way to make it so that it wasn’t her fault. Rick had grabbed at the controller. She wanted to blame him, but if she had just landed the Roost like she was supposed to, everything would have been fine. Instead, all her family’s treasures were smashed, lost in the wreckage of her old home.

Truthfully, that was what hurt most of all—Evie wanted to mourn the loss of Lane Mansion as much as the rest of her family did, but somehow she felt like she couldn’t.

Pebbles and roots pricked her bare feet with each step. She really should have put on shoes before storming off. But what kind of message would that have sent? “I hate you! I’m out of here! Wait, first let me go find my hiking boots.”

She hadn’t seen any wildlife in the jungle today, but that didn’t surprise her too much. As soon as Professor Doran’s plants had taken root on the surface of the continent, a number of conservation agencies had sent endangered species to live in peace on the huge island. Birds nested. All sorts of creatures had new homes safe from pollution and deforestation. Of course, as soon as Rick needed to widen the perimeter of the Lane settlement, he had started chopping down the trees Professor Doran had planted. No wonder animals had fled the area, seeking refuge in the center of the continent.

Rick’s actions made Evie feel like a flock of screeching parakeets had nested in her brain. One of the main reasons they created the eighth continent in the first place was so animals could be safe from the “progress” that had devastated their old habitats. Now all Rick cared about was bringing more scientists and high-tech equipment to his utopia. Evie wanted to build an awesome amusement park inside the world’s largest petting zoo, where people and animals could hang out and play together. Parkgoers could ride roller coasters with giraffes and sit with hippos on a waterslide. But no one gave a hoot what Evie wanted. She had pleaded with her family to put it to a vote. Surely there were some people in the settlement who would prefer going on epic adventures to conducting boring research. But her family said no, and the science committee—led by Rick and their father, of course—decided Evie’s ideas would not be the objectives of the settlement.

Still brooding and out of breath, Evie reached the base of a steep hill. This was an unpleasant development. Climbing barefoot was not going to be fun.

“At least it’s warm out,” she said with a sigh.

Lightning lanced across the sky. One deafening thunderclap heralded a downpour that drenched Evie in seconds. Her pajamas clung to her uncomfortably as heavy droplets splashed on her head, easily fighting through the tree cover to torment her. The raindrops were hot. The sky must have been boiling. Evie could relate.

“Evelyn! Please, Miss Evelyn!” a gentle voice cried out from behind her. She turned to see 2-Tor making his way through the trees, pushing branches aside with his beak. His dark feathers, soaked with rainwater, clumped against his body. Droplets beaded down the cracked TV screen in his belly, the last reminder of his former robot self.

“Go away, 2-Tor! I’m not going back there.” She grabbed the trunk of a young tree for support and started pulling herself up the hill. Her foot slipped and she fell, smearing her leg with mud. Undeterred, Evie pressed on, fighting her way to the top.

2-Tor shook out his soggy wings. He was too wet to fly, but the bird was persistent. He followed Evie up the hill. “I must say, miss, you certainly do not make things easy for anyone.”

“Yeah,” Evie grunted as she used a big brown rock as a stepping-stone. “Then they should be glad to be rid of me. Stupid Evie, always messing everything up.”

She slipped again, falling headfirst into the mud. It covered her front completely. “Ugh . . . Ugch . . .”

The big crow caught up to her and slipped his wingtips under her arms. He scooped her up and placed her back on the uneven ground. “What I was trying to say, miss, is that you do not make things easy, but you are worth it. The family needs you. Please come home.”

“I said no, 2-Tor!” She angrily shoved the bird, and his talons went out from under him. He landed hard in the mud and tumbled a short way down the hill.

“Evelyn! Waaark!”

2-Tor looked so miserable and helpless in the mud. She didn’t want to see him like that, so she pushed her way up the last hundred feet of hill and reached the top. Trees did not grow up there. Instead there was a grassy field under the tumultuous sky. Even in the mist and the rain, Evie had an impressive view of the eighth continent. She could see the three big mountain peaks at the center of the continent—Imagination, Perspiration, and Luck. Mount Luck was actually quite close. On the far side of the grassy hilltop, a natural stone bridge extended from the end of the field to a cliff near the base of the mountain. “Near the base” was actually several hundred feet up, and the bridge arched over a fairly deep ravine. Evie wondered what kind of trash had formed the bridge like that before the Eden Compound had turned it to stone.

The rain came down harder on the hilltop, where there were no trees to shield Evie. The water washed most of the mud from her arms and legs as she scurried across the hill and began traversing the bridge. The stone was wet and slippery. She tried to stay in the middle of the bridge, crouching down onto her hands and knees whenever she got dizzy.

“Do not cross that bridge, Miss Evelyn!” 2-Tor pleaded from behind her. His feathers were caked with dark brown mud that stuck to his beak. The big bird looked quite miserable but committed to his mission.

“2-Tor, go home! It’s not safe for you out here!”

“Nor you, dear girl!” The bird started after her across the bridge.

Evie picked up her pace. She didn’t know how else to get the message into his bird brain. She wasn’t going to be part of Rick’s scitopia anymore.

When Evie was nearly across, 2-Tor let out a desperate squawk. He had slipped on the wet stone and fallen. The bird now hung from the bridge, feet dangling. His mud-caked wings were outstretched on the edge. Unable to fly, he clung on for dear life.

“Evelyn! Please help me!” 2-Tor scrambled, kicking his legs.

She had half a mind to leave him. She had warned the bird that it wasn’t safe for him up here, that she didn’t want to be followed, that there was no point in him sticking around. If he got hurt while chasing after her, it was his own fault.

But that was too cruel. Evie could never be so heartless. She loved the silly old bird. Turning around, she ran across the slippery stone bridge, ignoring her own safety. 2-Tor was in danger. She didn’t have time to be cautious.

“Help! Heeeeelp!!!” 2-Tor was slipping. Evie grabbed his wing, but her fingers slid off with all the mud.

“2-Tor, no!” Evie wailed as the bird fell into open air. He flapped his muddy wings, trying to stay up. But the rain was too hard, and the mud too thick. He vanished into the trees far below.

Evie shrieked in horror. Now what had she done? She raced across the bridge and carefully scaled down the cliffs of Mount Luck. Gritting her teeth, Evie struggled to keep good handholds on the side of the mountain. Her hands were wet and shaking.

Several minutes later, she reached the base of the mountain. Down in the valley, rainwater surged through rivers of mud. Evie splashed down into the deepest part of the ravine.

She came to a glade she had never encountered on her many hikes through the wilderness. It was green and peaceful, surrounded by big trees. In the middle was a deep pool. A silvery substance filled the pool and had splashed across the ground in a circle. The area was littered with trash: torn-up Styrofoam cups, empty egg cartons, crumpled tin foil, and rotting Chinese takeout containers.

As Evie ventured forward, she kicked something with her foot. Pain shot through her bare toe. She crouched down to inspect the ouch-inducing object. It was a small pink mechanical bird. Its talons held the top half of a shattered plastic jar. The residue of a foul-smelling and unidentifiable substance was still inside.

“Ev- . . . Ev- . . . Evelyn . . .” chimed a strange voice from the pool. Limping on her throbbing foot, Evie ventured forward.

2-Tor’s black wing stuck out of the pool and then sank beneath the surface.

Evie cried out, “2-Tor! 2-Tor! Answer me! Stupid bird!” She bit her lip, looking around frantically for something to fish him out of the silvery pool.

With a splash, 2-Tor appeared. The thick liquid dripped down his face . . . his metal face. Evie covered her mouth. The bird turned, clacking his silver beak and staring at her with glowing red eyes. From deep within his robotic voice box, the bird-shaped machine growled, “Miss Evelyn . . . It is time for a quiz.”