Trial 017 - 2019 Wattys Sci-Fi Winner

Chapter 8

"Oh."

I stared at her blankly. We had a brief moment of awkward silence, which the girl defused by suddenly sticking out her hand.

"Uh, I'm Bekka," she said. "What's your name?"

I took her hand and pulled myself up.

"Thanks, I'm-" I began, climbing out of the pod. Her grip gave instantly and I stumbled over the edge, pulling her along with me. "Whoops, I meant I'm Charlie."

Bekka brushed herself off and glared at me. "What was that for?"

I coughed, pulling my hand back. "Uh, I thought you were pulling me out-"

I glanced up, suddenly realizing she was giving me a weird look.

"I'm just going to chalk the past few seconds up to cryosickness," Bekka muttered.

I felt my cheeks heat up. "Oh."

She picked at her clothes, huffing in exasperation. "Whatever. Look, do you know where we are? It looks like we're stranded in some kind of forest and I have no clue what to do."

"Forest?" I started to say, but then I realized what she meant.

All around us, trees wound sideways and around each other in thick tangles, with leaves as large as my palm branching out every which way. Each leaf was round and smooth, a dark red that bordered on crimson. I reached out and touch one of the leaves, feeling the smooth top and the rugged veins on the bottom. It felt waxy, almost like the leaves of Terran plants back at home, but much thicker.

Even stranger, the tree bark was made of little shingles, like rooftops, or maybe even like scales. Upon further inspection, I noticed that every tree that sprouted from the ground split and intertwined with others nearby, eventually driving itself back into the earth. They gave off a slightly sweet smell, the sort you get from wild fields or lush jungles. That's what this was. An alien jungle. A slight breeze stirred, so faint that I barely felt it, but it brought with it floral scents and the smell of damp earth. In the distance, a faint chorus of high-pitched birdcalls trilled.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, breathing in the thick smell of earth. This jungle smelled damp, and the ground underneath was soft and loamy. Then, I rubbed my eyes vigorously.

"What are you doing?" Bekka demanded.

"Trying to be sure I'm not dreaming," I replied. I opened my eyes and took a second look.

Red trees. With scaly bark. Alien trees, and definitely not from Terra.

No, I thought. No, no, no, no, no...

I started shaking my head, my thoughts racing frantically. I'm on an alien planet, I thought. Kidnapped, stranded, lost. There had to be a way out. I had to find a ship, and a way out of this jungle, and...

Mom. Oh no. She was probably freaking out right now, and not just because we didn't make it home for dinner.

I shook my head disbelievingly.

"Hey," Bekka said. "Keep it together, okay?"

"My mom's going to be scared to death," I said. "She's probably going to turn on the news tonight and see the dead bodies in space and think we're both dead."

"Hey!" Bekka said.

I glanced up at her.

"Don't worry about that yet," she said gently.

"But-"

"We're not dead yet," Bekka reminded me. "And that means we have a fighting chance."

I nodded.