Chapter 4
1428 Words
Amelia
For a long moment, none of us moved.
The pod rested in the center of the crater as if it had always belonged there.
It didn't.
Everything around it reminded me of that.
The torn earth.
The snapped trees.
The blackened patches of ground still giving off thin wisps of steam.
Even the silence felt wrong.
I adjusted the rifle on my shoulder and took another cautious step forward.
"Spread out."
The words came quietly, but all three of them nodded.
Years of working together meant I didn't have to explain.
Nora drifted left.
Wren circled right, her bow already in her hands.
Ivy stayed close behind me, her medical bag bumping lightly against her hip with every step.
If whatever was inside needed help...
She'd reach it first.
The closer we got, the larger the pod became.
From the edge of the crater, it had looked big.
Standing beside it...
It dwarfed us.
Its dark surface curved smoothly from one end to the other, almost like a giant seed resting on its side.
There weren't any windows.
No doors.
No markings.
Nothing that suggested someone had built it.
It looked...
Grown.
"That's impossible," Nora whispered.
I wasn't sure whether she meant the shape...
...or the fact that it existed at all.
I stopped close enough to reach out.
My hand hovered inches above the dark metal.
Every instinct I had told me not to touch it.
Every instinct Mom had ever drilled into me screamed the same thing.
Unknown things stay unknown until you understand them.
But another thought refused to leave.
What if someone needs help?
I looked back at Ivy.
She met my eyes.
Neither of us had to say it.
Slowly...
I placed my palm against the hull.
I blinked.
It wasn't cold.
It wasn't even cool.
The metal felt...
Warm.
Not hot like it had been sitting in the sun.
Warm...
Like another living body.
I pulled my hand back.
"It's warm."
Nora frowned.
"That's not possible."
"I know."
She stepped beside me and pressed her own hand against the smooth surface.
Her eyes widened almost immediately.
"...She's right."
One by one, Ivy and Wren did the same.
No one said anything for several seconds.
The warmth wasn't fading.
It wasn't trapped heat from the impact.
It felt...
Maintained.
Almost deliberate.
Wren leaned closer.
"If it's warm..."
She hesitated.
"...does that mean it's still working?"
Nobody answered.
Because none of us knew.
A faint sound drifted through the silence.
So quiet I wasn't sure I'd imagined it.
I held up one hand.
Everyone froze.
"What?"
Nora whispered.
"Listen."
The forest had gone completely still again.
No wind.
No birds.
No insects.
Just...
A barely audible rhythm.
Soft.
Steady.
Almost like...
I stepped closer until my ear hovered beside the smooth hull.
There it was again.
A low pulse.
Not mechanical.
Not exactly.
More like a distant heartbeat muffled behind a wall.
My own heart began pounding harder.
I looked at Ivy.
"Do you hear it?"
She moved beside me, closing her eyes as she listened.
After several seconds...
She nodded.
"...Something's in there."
No one joked.
No one argued.
The impossible had just become personal.
I took one slow step back and looked at my sisters.
"We're not leaving."
Four simple words.
But I knew, the moment I said them...
Whatever happened next...
Our lives had already changed.
For a few moments, none of us moved.
The pod hadn't changed.
It still rested silently in the middle of the crater.
Still warm.
Still hiding whoever...or whatever...was inside.
I looked from one sister to the next.
"We need to get it home."
Wren blinked.
"The whole thing?"
I nodded.
"I'm not opening it out here."
"What if they're hurt?" Ivy asked quietly.
"Exactly."
I looked around the crater.
"If there's someone inside, they're going to need somewhere clean."
Somewhere safe.
Somewhere with light.
Water.
Medicine.
Tools.
Everything Harper Sanctuary had.
Nora folded her arms.
"I'm with you."
I looked at her.
"But?"
She glanced at the pod.
"...I don't know how."
That caught me off guard.
Nora usually had three plans before the rest of us realized there was a problem.
She walked a slow circle around the pod, hands shoved into the pockets of her work pants.
Every few steps she'd stop.
Look.
Think.
Move again.
I recognized that look.
She wasn't seeing the pod anymore.
She was taking measurements in her head.
I left her alone.
Interrupting Nora while she was thinking usually meant waiting twice as long for an answer.
Wren wandered over beside me.
"So..."
"So?"
"You really think there's somebody in there?"
"I think something made that sound."
"Could it be an animal?"
I looked at the pod.
"I don't know."
She was quiet for a second.
"If it is somebody..."
She glanced toward the smooth hull.
"...they've got to be scared."
Before I could answer, Ivy spoke softly.
"If they're even awake."
That thought settled over all of us.
I hadn't considered it.
What if whoever was inside had been trapped there all night?
Injured.
Alone.
Unable to get out.
I swallowed hard.
"We're getting them home."
It wasn't a promise.
It was a decision.
Across the crater, Nora suddenly stopped walking.
She stared toward the tree line.
Then she looked down at the ground.
Then back at the trees.
A slow smile spread across her face.
I knew that smile.
"What?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she walked over to one of the young pines growing along the crater's edge.
She nudged it with her boot.
Grabbed the trunk.
Rolled it slightly.
Then looked back at the pod.
"Oh..."
I couldn't help smiling.
"You figured it out."
"I think I did."
Wren frowned.
"Anybody want to share with the class?"
Nora walked back toward us.
"We're thinking about this wrong."
"How?"
"We've been trying to move the pod."
She shook her head.
"We don't move the pod."
She pointed at the surrounding forest.
"We move the ground."
The three of us stared at her.
"I don't..."
Wren began.
Nora picked up a fallen branch.
She laid it on the dirt.
Then another beside it.
Then another.
"What happens if I push something across dirt?"
"It drags," Ivy answered.
"Exactly."
She rolled one of the branches with her foot.
"But what if the dirt keeps changing?"
Understanding flickered.
I looked toward the pines.
"Rollers."
Nora snapped her fingers.
"Exactly."
She crouched, drawing a rough sketch in the soil.
"We cut six or eight straight trunks - we can even use some of the ones that were already broken. Slide them underneath. The pod rolls over them. As it moves forward..."
She picked up the last branch and carried it to the front.
"...we keep recycling the ones behind it."
Wren's eyes widened.
"...That's actually brilliant."
"I know."
"I wasn't complimenting you."
"I chose to hear it that way."
I laughed.
"So did Grandpa."
Three heads turned toward me.
"What?"
I smiled.
"He wrote about it."
"When?"
"In one of the manuals."
"The volume on construction."
Nora pointed triumphantly.
"See?"
"I'm not the first genius in the family."
"Nobody said genius."
"You were thinking it."
"I absolutely wasn't."
She grinned.
"I'll accept your silent admiration."
I shook my head.
"You get five minutes to enjoy being right."
"Then?"
"Then we cut trees."
Her grin somehow got even bigger.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
I looked around at the forest surrounding the crater.
"We've got two ATVs."
"They're strong enough to pull."
"But they're not strong enough to drag."
Nora nodded.
"They won't have to."
"They'll just keep the pod moving."
"The logs do the heavy lifting."
I looked at Ivy.
"Can you cut the branches off once they're down?"
She nodded immediately.
"I've got the hatchet."
"Wren."
She straightened.
"You and I will move the rollers."
She looked at the pod.
Then at the trees.
Then back at me.
"...We're going to be exhausted."
"Probably."
She sighed dramatically.
"I knew I should've stayed home."
"You voted to come."
"I've made mistakes before."
Nora laughed as she pulled the chainsaw from the cargo rack on her ATV.
"This one's going in the history books."
"What?"
"The day Wren admitted she was wrong."
"I did not."
"You came very close."
"I absolutely did not."
The sharp growl of the chainsaw echoed through the crater.
For the first time since we'd arrived...
It felt like we weren't just staring at the impossible anymore.
We were doing what Harpers had always done.
Facing a problem.
Making a plan.
And getting to work.
- Writer
