“What’s our plan?” I whispered to Nova as we kneeled around the corner, out of sight.
Nova peeked around the edge again then leaned against the wall, breathing like she was halfway through a marathon. “I’m not sure. She looks alone, but who knows if any of those eggs will hatch while we’re down there. Leo, what’s the best way?”
I stared at my brother with awe. The team expedition leader had just asked him for advice. He’d gone from insane to mastermind in a matter of days.
Leo closed his eyes. “The crystals enhance her psychic powers, but they also strengthen mine. I can see everything she’s thinking. She knows we’re here.”
A shiver crept over my shoulders. “Then why aren’t the other arachnids around?”
Leo squeezed his eyes shut like he was thinking hard to reach into her thoughts. “She doesn’t trust them around the eggs. She thinks she can take us all by herself.”
Nova touched his arm. “Is she right?”
My stomach roiled. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer.
Leo opened his eyes. “Let’s hope not.”
A plan sparked in my mind. On our last mission, the arachnids had shown protective tendencies to their young. So Nova had used the eggs as a shield. “I say one of us attacks the eggs and distracts her while the other two sneak around the side and catch her off guard.”
Nova nodded. “I’ll do it. After what they did to Alcor, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on more of those buggers.” Her hands tightened on her weapons and she glanced at Leo. “You have the greatest advantage, so you must confront her.”
I put my hand on his arm. “I’ll go with you.”
Leo put his hand over mine. “Some adventure, huh? I’m glad I came with you, sis.”
“I’m glad you did, too.” Deep melancholy threatened to drive me to the ground. He was reminiscing, as if we weren’t going to make it. I squeezed his arm. “This is just the beginning. We’ll have many more adventures.”
Clicking sounds echoed from below, where the mother brain stood nestled between the crystals.
Leo locked eyes with Nova, then me. “It’s time.”
Without speaking, Nova signaled to us and disappeared into the shadows. Leo and I crept toward the entrance to the cavern below and waited for a sign.
Thoughts of creepy crawlies scrambled all over me, making me want to itch every inch of my body. My heart pounded, and every breath I took felt shallower than the last. The adrenaline felt like coffee had been pumped into my veins, turning into liquid fire.
A popping noise reverberated from the other end of the cavern. The mother brain hissed and shrieked in an ear-piercing squeal.
Leo tapped my arm then moved. I followed him through the rows of eggs.
Nova stood at the opposite end of the cavern, shooting both guns at every egg she passed. Some of them exploded under the pressure of the metal nets, while others squirmed with black-legged movement as the microbe spray dug its way in.
We approached the unguarded brain sack from the other direction as the mother focused her on Nova. The arachnid moved with surprising speed while shooting spires from her carapace. Nova ducked and rolled, disappearing back into the tunnel. We were almost in shooting distance. Resolve hardened inside me, eclipsing my fear. Nova had risked her life, leaving the mission up to my brother and me. Nowhere in a thousand years would I have guessed life would turn out this way. Here we were at the end of our world, Leo and me.
Another screech at a different pitch sent us to our knees. The crystal at the hollow of my neck vibrated. I held it and squeezed. Please keep me safe. The crystal shattered and the broken shards dug into my skin. At the same time, Leo fell to the ground, only the whites of his eyes showing under his fluttering lids.
Screaming, I crawled to my brother while blood trickled from my fist. The sound intensified, and the cavern around me disappeared into black oblivion.
***
Bumps jostled me in gentle nudges. I opened my eyes. Trees larger than anything that could grow in the biodome towered over a dirt-packed road. Dirt. Why did it seem so special? Dirt was everywhere, and so were trees. Sure, parts of the world had deforestation, but the EPA was working on replanting the rain forests, and it would only get better from there, right? I’d donated three weeks of my allowance to pay for an acre of rainforest preservation. I’d done my part.
“How can you sleep when such an important letter is waiting for you?” Leo growled beside me.
“What?”
He was using a wheel to navigate the dirt road. We were in some type of landrover, but the seats felt strange, like real leather, which was impossible, and the glass of the sight panel was poor quality, with scratches and nicks. It would never have passed vehicle inspection.
“I already know what it says,” Leo sighed.
“Well, I don’t, so don’t spoil the surprise with your fortune-teller predictions.” Where had that comment come from? Was it even my mouth talking? What was a fortune teller?
Leo laughed bitterly. “What surprise? You’re going and I’m not. You’re going to leave me behind.”
“I’d never leave you behind.”
“We’ll see about that.” He ran his fingers through his unusually long hair. How he could have grown it out in so little time? “Besides, you’d be a fool not to.”
The vehicle pulled up to a small white box attached to a pole sticking up from the ground. Leo stopped the vehicle. He flipped something on his portal and it opened. I searched for a panel to slide my locator, but my wrist was bare.
Bare? Locators were inserted and fused to our bones when we were infants. It was impossible not to have one. Yet when I ran my fingers over the skin, there were no scratches or scars. I felt oddly naked and isolated from the world. What if I needed to hail someone? Or look up information about something?
“Is your door stuck again?” Leo came around to my side and opened the portal.
The scent of fresh leaves and moist earth hit me as both strange and familiar. I stepped out, the ground uneven under my ripped tennis shoes.
“Do you want to do the honors, or shall I?”
“Go ahead.” I had no idea why we were here, so I let Leo lead the way.
He walked toward the small white box and opened a hatch. Letters made with real paper sat inside.
He pulled them out and flipped through them. “Another credit card offer, Dad’s farmer magazine, a drugstore flyer, and...”
He held up two white envelopes. “Our results.”
I stiffened. Results of what? Of our lifemate assignments? Hadn’t those been nullified?
The sickening feeling I’d left an issue unresolved stirred inside my gut. I had to tell someone something important, but I couldn’t remember what. It must have been the humid air. The longer I stood outside, the more blurry my thoughts became.
Leo handed me my letter. “We open them at the same time, okay?”
I looked down and read the name Lila Brently, along with an address from Brookfield, Missouri. One of the states. A place from Old Earth.
Why was the Earth old?
“On the count of three.” Leo held up his envelope.
I had no idea how to open it. Actually rip the paper? It seemed so wasteful.
“One, two...three!” Leo ripped the top of his envelope, and I followed, wincing as the paper tore.
The heading was from Julliard School of Music in New York.
I read aloud, “Dear Ms. Brently, I am happy to inform you of your acceptance into our Bachelor of Music Performance program.”
Leo’s face fell. “Congrats, sis.”
Why was he so upset to congratulate me? “What does your letter say?”
“It says I’ll be staying here with Mom and Dad and tilling the fields.” He crumpled the paper and threw it on the ground. “I didn’t make it.”
“There are other schools, aren’t there?” Wasn’t he a few years younger than me? “Don’t you have two more years to prepare?”
“Two more years won’t do a damn thing. Face it. I’m not good enough.” He started walking to the sorry excuse for a landrover, and an uneasiness nagged my conscience. It had nothing to do with the letters. This was something bigger.
“Wait.”
Leo turned around and threw his arms up in the air. “What?”
If he got in that landrover, we’d be stuck in some never-ending cycle. “I won’t leave you behind.”
His eyes brightened then darkened almost instantly. “You can’t give up your music career for me.”
The wind blew through my hair, fanning it out behind me. The passing of time weighed heavily on me, as if each second counted more than I could know.
“Somehow I won’t have to. Not this time.”
He stepped toward me. “What do you mean, not this time?”
Out of the corner of my vision, a small woodland spider dangled from a tree branch just above the landrover, moving back and forth like a pendulum in the breeze.
Reality rushed in, and I remembered the New Dawn, Asteran, and the arachnids. The mother brain had trapped us in our own memories. I had to wake Leo because he was the only one who could get us out of here. Asteran had given me the answer. I just had to remember.
Leo waved me back and moved toward the landrover. “You’re not making any sense. Come on. Dinner will be ready soon and Mom’s going to be looking for us.”
“Leo—”
“My name’s Lewis. Jeez, you’d think after sixteen years you’d have it down.”
I walked up to him and put both my hands on his arms. “What did we do before this?”
He blinked then gazed up at the sky. Gray clouds merged above us, and a distant rumble threatened rain. “We were just...I’d taken the old pickup...and...”
He pulled away from me and held his head in both hands. “Why do I have such a bad headache all of a sudden?”
I positioned myself between him and the driver’s side of the landrover—or pickup, as he called it. “Because you’re trying to remember where you were before.”
“That’s right. Where I was before...” His eyes widened. “We have to get back to the cavern before the mother brain finds us.”
Relief flooded my jittery nerves. We weren’t home free yet. “You’re the only one to get us back. Remember, Asteran taught you how.”
He closed his eyes and I held on to him tightly, fearing he might make the jump and leave me behind. Then I’d be stuck in the past forever and I hated everything to do with Old Earth. It would be like living on a ticking time bomb. What if something happened to my body in the cavern? Would I die here? No, I couldn’t. I needed to complete my mission and see Asteran again.
Leo swayed in my arms, and I pushed him upright. The wind increased around us, whipping my sweater against my back and penetrating the holes in my jeans, to prickle my skin with goose bumps. Rain fell, lightly at first, then heavier and heavier until it seemed it would pound me into the ground.
I closed my eyes and held on to my brother.
All at once the pattering stopped and the world went silent.
***
I awoke lying beside Leo. My hand ached from where the glass had cut, and I held it to my chest. My clothes were dry, as if the scene on the dirt road had never happened. Leo lay unconscious, his hands folded on his chest.
“Leo, wake up.”
He stirred, rubbing his head. “What just happened?”
I put my finger to his lips to quiet him as the mother brain clicked her pincer jaws across the cavern—no doubt still looking for Nova, who she’d probably knocked unconscious, like us.
We had to hurry if Nova was to live. I peered over the first row of eggs. The giant arachnid picked through the eggs carefully, heading toward the tunnel where Nova had disappeared. The brain sack in the back was fully exposed.
I pulled Leo to standing. “This is it. Our only chance.”
He nodded and held both his weapons. “Let’s do this.”
We bolted toward the brain, kicking up mushy eggs and firing both guns. The first few shots landed on the eggs in front of the giant bug. The mother brain turned around, and her thick, black carapace shielded her weak spot. She hissed, brandishing her front legs in the air as spires shot out around her three dark eyes.
“Duck!” I yanked Leo to the ground where we fell on top of white, yolky mush. A sulfurous, metallic smell choked my throat.
Wiping goo from my forehead, I peered over the unbroken eggs. The mother came right for us.
“Get up, space brain!” I yanked Leo forward and we scrambled to our feet, firing.