Chapter 2
748 Words
Amelia
We didn't need a map anymore.
The forest was drawing us in the right direction.
Every few hundred feet another tree had been sheared apart.
Some had splintered halfway up the trunk.
Others had been uprooted completely, their massive root balls ripped from the earth as though they'd weighed nothing at all.
None of us spoke much.
There wasn't much to say.
Every new piece of damage answered one question while raising two more.
I slowed beside another scar carved through the forest floor.
"What do you think?" I asked.
Nora climbed off her ATV again, crouching beside the churned earth.
"The angle's wrong."
I blinked.
"For what?"
"For a meteor."
She picked up a broken branch and traced a line through the dirt.
"If something came straight down, we'd be looking at one impact."
She pointed farther ahead.
"This..." She gestured toward the damaged trees stretching into the distance. "This traveled."
"As in...skipped?" Wren asked.
Nora nodded.
"Or landed under power."
I looked at her.
"You don't actually believe that."
She stood slowly, brushing dirt from her palms.
"I don't know what I believe."
That was somehow more unsettling.
Nora always had an answer.
Always.
If she didn't...
Maybe there wasn't one.
We climbed back onto the ATVs.
The farther we traveled, the stronger the smell became.
At first I thought it was smoke.
Then oil.
Then...
Neither.
It was sharp.
Metallic.
Like standing near the welder while Nora worked.
Only hotter.
Cleaner.
I wrinkled my nose inside my helmet.
"You smell that?"
"I've been smelling it for the last ten minutes," Nora answered through her helmet.
"It isn't burning wood."
Ivy slowed beside me.
"It doesn't smell natural."
"No."
"It doesn't."
She glanced into the trees.
"And where are the animals?"
I hadn't realized it until she said it.
No squirrels.
No rabbits.
No deer.
Even the insects had disappeared.
The forest felt abandoned.
Not empty.
Waiting.
A chill crawled up my spine despite the warmth of the morning.
"Keep your eyes open."
Nobody answered.
They were already doing exactly that.
A flash of silver caught my eye.
I stopped so abruptly gravel sprayed beneath my tires.
"What?"
I pointed.
"There."
About thirty yards into the trees something gleamed between the branches.
Not bark.
Not stone.
Metal.
Smooth.
Too smooth.
Wren had her bow in her hands before I'd even killed the engine.
Nora stepped beside me, rifle raised.
"I'll check it."
"No."
I reached out, grabbing her sleeve before she took another step.
"We check it."
She gave a tiny nod.
The four of us moved together.
Years of working the Sanctuary had made us efficient without ever talking about it.
Nora and I took the front.
Wren drifted left, using the trees for cover.
Ivy stayed behind us, one hand gripping her rifle, the other resting on the medical pack slung over her shoulder.
Ten steps.
Twenty.
The metallic object came into view.
I let out a slow breath.
It wasn't what we'd been following.
It was...
A piece of something.
No larger than the hood of an old pickup.
Dark gray.
Curved.
Its surface shimmered faintly beneath the sunlight.
There wasn't a single rivet.
Not one seam.
Not even a scratch despite the trees surrounding it.
Nora reached toward it.
"Don't."
She froze.
"I'm just looking."
"You can look without touching."
She sighed dramatically.
"You make everything less fun."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"I appreciate it."
Her grin said she planned on touching it eventually.
She crouched instead, studying it without making contact.
"I don't know what this is."
Coming from Nora...
That carried weight.
She'd rebuilt tractors from scrap.
Designed our waterwheel gearboxes.
Kept every machine on Harper Sanctuary running with parts salvaged from a dead world.
If she couldn't identify a piece of metal...
Neither could anyone else.
Wren looked toward the north.
"I think..."
She narrowed her eyes.
"...I think I see smoke."
We all turned.
It wasn't much.
Just a thin ribbon still rising above the treetops almost half a mile away.
Barely visible.
Barely there.
But enough.
Enough to tell us we were close.
I looked from the smoke...
...to the strange piece of metal lying in the forest.
Whatever we'd found...
It was breaking apart.
And the biggest piece was still ahead of us.
I pulled my helmet back on.
"No more stops."
Nobody argued.
Within seconds the ATVs roared back to life.
This time...
None of us spoke as we followed the trail.
- Writer
