“Hold on tight, with the long grass this could be rough.” Ryan warns.
I stifle a groan. Why did he have to say anything? Images of my parents crashing flash through my mind. I clasp my seat and watch as the ground gets closer and closer. There’s a jolt as the wheels make contact. The plane bumps along the ground before coming to a rest. I slowly let out the breath I’ve been holding and look at the scenery around us. Tall green grass with even taller exotic looking flowers surrounds the plain. Fortunately none of them resemble tiger lilies, so I take a deep breath and enjoy the scent when Ryan opens the cockpit lid.
It’s nearly dark, so we set up the igloo and make camp. Déjà vu hits me as I crawl into the metal tent, but this time we’re better equipped with warm winter coats, a space heater, and flashlights. We have a long day ahead of us, so we quickly eat and get to bed. It’s several hours earlier than my usual bedtime, but feeling safe and warm in Ryan’s embrace, I drift into sleep.
We spend the next morning clearing a takeoff path with two manual mowers Jeremy invented for us. Because of the lack of space on the plane, the mowers are tiny, but their made of the same metal as the airplane and the igloo so at least the blades don’t dull. Our progress is slow and it’s well past noon by the time we finish, but at least we’ll be able to take of the moment we return with the berries.
We grab our packs and head toward the berry patch. The underbrush is denser than back at home, and at several points we need a machete just to clear a path through the strange vegetation. Large green leaves the size and shape of elephant ears hang just above our head and gnarled roots covered in blue moss jut up from the ground. Vines of every shape and color intertwine to make a nearly impassible web. At one point we reach a tiny clearing that’s filled with aloe plants, the only difference is they have a small green pod in the center of them. Their spaced far enough apart that we can step between them, but Ryan insists we go around, which means chopping more vines. I’m not happy about it, but how can I expect Ryan to trust my instincts if I don’t trust his.
I’m feeling battered and bruised by the time we reach the river and follow the side stream to the berries, but one look at the beautiful opals glistening in the sun is all I need to brighten my spirits. We want Andi’s berries to be as fresh as possible, so we’ll pick them in the early morning right before we return to the plane. With plenty of time to spare, Ryan and I go for a swim and then gorge ourselves on berries. I’d forgotten how deliriously intense the taste of the berries are. Sweet and tangy and fruity all at the same time, I end up eating too much and can barely move as I lay drying on the marble rock.
Ryan groans and rubs his stomach. “Remind me not to do that again.”
“I guess you can have too much of a good thing.” I laugh, but then something catches my eye. “Hey, look. It’s Max.”
Ryan props himself up and looks over at the stone slug. “I guess Lapideus Limax are indigenous to this warmer biome. Hey look, there’s a few more over there.”
I crane my neck and look where he’s pointing sure enough there’s three more, grouped together. One of the stone slugs is tiny. “I wonder if they’re a family.”
“Maybe, they seem to like the berry patch.” He points to several more stone slugs hiding under bushes.
“We should search for them in the spring. I bet they’re all around the berry patches back home. We just never noticed them because we didn’t know what to look for.” We spend the rest of the afternoon counting and observing the stone slugs. The possible correlation between the Lapideus Limax and the opal berries intrigues me.
Ryan and I are up before dawn collecting the berries by flashlight. Our plan is to arrive at the plane just after dawn and make it back to the base by late afternoon. The first part of our plan goes well. We get to the river and follow it back to our recently hacked trail. We stumble and slip a few times, but because of the cleared path we arrive at the grassy field with plenty of time to spear. There’s not even a hint of pink in the sky yet.
Before I can step into the field, Ryan’s arm flies across my chest. “Hold up. I hear something.”
I hold my breath and listen to what sounds like snoring. We carefully use our flashlights to search the field and discover a group of shaggy animals sleeping in out runway. The smallest creature in the group is about my size, the largest make the plane look tiny.
“Great.” I complain in a whisper. “I hope they’re just here to sleep and haven’t made our runway their new home.”
“We’re not waiting to find out. Leave your stuff and follow me.” Ryan says as he turns back on the trail.
He leads me to the aloe plants he made me avoid yesterday.
“Hold the light on the roots,” he instructs as he hands me his flashlight. I watch as he carefully digs around the plant and exposes its roots. Then he moves on to the next plant and repeats the process. When he has four plants with exposed roots he grabs each one by the roots and yaks it out of the ground.
“Each leaf is full of the foulest smelling, sticky liquid you can imagine and the pod is filled with a powder that’s twice as potent. Handle it by the roots only, and don’t let it bang against anything,” Ryan warns. He waits for me to band my flashlight to my arm with the built in strap and then hands me two plants.
I’m relieved when we make it back to the grassy field with all the plants intact, but then I see all the hairy animals are still lounging in our runway. In the early morning light the animal’s fur is a bright rust color and while they looked round and fat last night, now I can tell all that bulk is muscle. They look like someone took a water buffalo and crossed it with the sleek powerful muscles of a cheetah. The largest one yawns and displays a mouth full of sharp teeth.
“Can you set up an igloo? I don’t think we can outrun these things if my plan backfires.” Ryan carefully places his plants on the grass and takes mine from my hands.
Andi designed the igloo for a quick and easy set up, not a quiet one. I cringe with every click and clank it makes, but eventually I get it erect without the hairy creatures charging at us.
“Here goes nothing.” Still holding onto the roots, Ryan tosses a plant into the field. The plant lands closer to us than the animals and busts apart. A green cloud rises up in the air and green slime oozes onto the ground. I wrinkle my nose at the smell. If it had landed any close I’d probably be gagging. The hairy animals appear unaffected.
Ryan looks down at the remaining plant in his hand, and then he bounces it as if gauging its weight. “Don’t get too close,” Ryan warns as he spins the plant in a circle above his head and then turns around as if he’s competing in a hammer throw. This time when he releases the plant it goes sailing through the air and lands right next to the runway. Some of the green goo splashes up, coating the fur on one of the animals and the green powder fills the air. The animals grunt and snort, and then take off in a run. Every time the slime coated animal approaches one of the others, they pick up speed or change direction. When the slime coated one brushes another animal, the rest of the pack start avoiding it as well. Ryan wasn’t kidding about the plant’s smell being powerful.
We grab our packs and run back to the plane, eager to take off before any other animals decide to sunbathe in front of the plane. It’s a little later than we planned on, but Ryan assures me we’ll make it home before night fall. I’m so anxious about getting the berries back to Andi that I don’t worry about takeoff until we’re already bouncing along the grass runway. I hold my breath when I see the trees approaching, but Ryan easily clears them.
Before I know it we’re back at the coastline heading home. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but after watching the ocean for a while, I drift to sleep. When I wake up we’re flying over land.
“We can’t be that close to the base already,” I say. By the look of the sun it can’t be any later than mid-afternoon.
“No, we still have an hour or two.” Ryan says as I notice the hum of the propeller.
My stomach drops. “Then why are we over land?”
“We needed to cut off some time after or late start. Don’t worry we have plenty of fuel and I’ve been hitting some pretty good lifts.” Ryan reassures me.
Despite his claim and his confident tone, the last thing I feel is reassured. If he’s miscalculated we could end up stranded in the middle of nowhere again, but this time in the middle of winter and Andi will never get her berries.
I spend the rest of the day white knuckled, imagining every worst case scenario possible, but in the end, its wasted energy. Ryan finds the base and lands the plane in the grassy field near our field lab. We park the plane near the tree line and use brush to camouflage it.
Before we walk back to the lab, Ryan sweeps me up in his arms and kisses me. I’m still catching my breath when he says, “We did it. We pulled off your crazy, reckless plan.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you and Jeremy’s plane.” I gesture back toward our pile of brush. “I just hope the berries actually work.”
“They will. They have to.” Ryan gives me one more kiss before releasing me and gathering out packs.
Chapter 25
We drop our gear off in the lab area and only carry our containers of berries into the main living quarters of the field lab. After traveling so far from the base, Ryan and I won’t reenter until we’ve complete a quarantine, but we’ll pass the berries to Jeremy and he can give them to Andi.
“Welcome back.”
Ryan and I jump at the sound of Dr. Brant’s voice. Instinctively I look around for a place to hide the berries, but I already know it’s too late. She’s seen us with the container and will certainly confiscate them.
“Let’s not waste time mincing words or fabricating stories. I know the two of you left the base without authorization and I know these two tried to cover for you.” Over Dr. Brant’s shoulder I see Molly and Jake hanging their heads. “What I don’t know is why.”
Something about Dr. Brant makes me pause. She’s not jumping down our throats like I expected. In fact, she’s giving us the chance to explain ourselves.
“We were collecting opal berries. The tests from quarantine showed both Ryan and I had increased neurological activity. It’s a long shot, but these berries could help Andi walk again.” I stop to take in the shocked expressions on all of my friends faces. As far as they know, I’ve just confessed everything to the enemy, but I’m hopeful the real Dr. Brant is back. “I don’t care what you do with me but can you please let Andi have the berries?”
Dr. Brant takes a container from my hands and examines the contents. “So you’ve eaten these berries before without any ill effects?”
“They were our main food staple on our way back to the base and our dinner last night.” I explain, even though Ryan is shooting me a look that clearly says “shut up.”
Dr. Brant reached in and plucks a berry out of the container. She rubs some berry juice on her lips and then tastes a small amount of the juice, mimicking exactly what Ryan did the first time he tried a berry. Finally she eats the berry. She replaces the cover and then takes the rest of the containers from my hands. I guess I was wrong about her.
“Takes these to Andi and then remain on base. These two need to be quarantined.” Dr. Brant passes the containers to Jake who’s so shocked that he almost drops them. Then Dr. Brant takes Ryan’s containers and hands them over to Molly. “Shoo.” Dr. Brant points to the door. Molly and Jake snap out of their shock and hurry out.
She gestures to the kitchen table and we all sit down. “What am I supposed to do with the two of you? First you get lost and now you’re breaking out?” I open my mouth to explain myself, but she holds up her hand. “I guess the first thing I should do is apologize.”
“What?” I sputter in shock.
“I don’t know what came over me, but I’ve acted horrible towards the two of you ever since you returned to the base.”
I stand up before she can say anything else. “Can we talk about this outside? I think the fresh air would do us all some good.
Dr. Brant gives me a startled look, but then graciously smiles and motions for me to lead the way.
I lead us to the center of the large grassy field and then visually sweep for any unwelcomed bugs in the air. “Only three team leads are supposed to know about this: the chairman, Dr. Wickerham and one other person—the pods can be used for more than education.”
The three of sit in the field as I explain everything I know and suspect about the pods, the camera bugs, and even the warehouse. The more I talk, the angrier Dr. Brant looks, but this time her anger is directed at someone other than me. When I finish talking Dr. Brant closes her eyes and takes several deep breaths like she’s trying to compose herself.
“Thank you for sharing everything with me,” she says as she opens her eyes. “Now I must ask a favor of the two of you.”
Ryan and I both nod.
“Do nothing. Let me handle this.” The glare she gives us says she means business, but I can’t contain my curiosity.
“What are you going to do?” I ask
“Nothing yet.” Dr. Brant sighs. “Thanks to the chairman’s interference, I’ve lost all of my credibility. I doubt the other field managers would believe me. But I’m serious about the two of you not getting involved. You’re already on the chairman’s radar. He’s the one that alerted me to the fact that neither one of you had scanned into any building in nearly two days.”
“I promise,” I say and cross my heart. I’m in no hurry to challenge the chairman again.
“Me too,” Ryan says as he makes the Boy Scout promise sign.
“Good.” Dr. Brant shakes her head laughs. “I still don’t know what I’m going to tell the man. I lied and said the two of you were working on a special project for me. Now I have to come up with a report to present him”
“I can help with that.” I run into the lab section and pull the igloo and space heater from our packs. I hand them both over to Dr. Brant and explain, “We were field testing the effectiveness of the heater, just in case any teams get stuck out in the field during the cold winter months.”