Young Writers Society

The mossy ground gave slightly beneath her hands and knees. It was cool, the moonlight reflecting off the droplets of dew that clung to the scattered patches of tall grass.The air was smoky, fueled by the various fires in the camp she was watching.She breathed in deeply. The people were in the camp talking, practicing, and preparing. They looked like ants from her perspective. She just needed to find out if they needed to be squished.

There was one that really caught her eye. Tall, athletic, light skin, brown hair. He was practicing some kind of hand-to-hand combat on the edge of the young settlement. And he was brutal, a blur of kicks and punches, knife flying in and out of the dummies surrounding him like a razor-edgedwhirlwind. She brought her large binoculars to her eyes to get a better look.

An older man walked behind him. The light from the campfires flickered across half of the young man’s now red face. Embarrassed, maybe? Over kick-A fighting skills? This one was interesting indeed. She would have to keep a tab on him.

***

Boots, bottle, knife, extra rounds,striker, jacket. Check. Now he just needed to get it all on his person and in his bag.

“Prometheus, grab your stuff we gotta go. We want to be prepared, but let's not freaking get there at midnight,” Morrigan crossed her arms tightly, short dark hair bobbing around her neck to the rhythm of her foot tapping on the ground impatiently.

“Just give me a sec, I want to make sure I don’t leave anything. Unless you’d rather me just use everyone else's gear?” Theus said innocently. The short Asian woman hated sarcasm with a passion, but he couldn’t help himself.

“Ugh, you know what I mean!” She pouted and walked away from his little corner of the camp, seemingly trying to push the Earth down with every step. And there’sthe passion.

Theus snatched some of the things lying on the mossy ground around his cot, and shoved theminto his pack, along with some extra rations, and his climbing picks.The large flat bag was filled with a jumble of clothes, food, survival gear, and worn organism and wildlife identification booklets from the old recorded training sessions in the bunker. He also slipped a small hand-held E-MAD, electromagnetic acceleration device, or striker, into his utility belt, along with a vibro-knife. He tried to flip the switch that turned it from stun to lethal, but it wouldn’t move, just like it hadn’t when he first acquired it. While it might come in handy for scaring off rival bunkers and all the evolved plants and animals this world contained, if he was in a situation where he needed to neutralize something permanently, it wouldn’t be much help.

“I’ll have to get that to Tamia when we get back. Maybe she’llactually fix it if I give her some of my Cheez-its.” For reference, there isn’t a bunch of low-nutrient, high dopamine, junk food laying around anymore, meaning that it’s a lot more valuable.

Then again, in the deepest part of himself, he knew he was glad it didn’t work because it allowed him to postpone killing. Theus knew that eventually he would have to end a life, and he also knew that moment would break him.

He would need an E-MAD to survive in this world, and soon. After some failed climate laws, a lot of carbon emissions, and a couple volcanic eruptions, the permafrost melted, and the world began to change.Rising sea levels, increasing temperatures and rising levels of Co2 in the air started to kill humans. Luckily, the United Nations made 1000 bunkers, each with 125 people in cryogenic stasis, a timer set to open the doors 300 years later when the temperature would stabilize, and the Earth would be habitable again.12 generations later people were released, and humanity was greeted with a world unlike they had ever imagined, with everything from sapient birds to giant iridescent beetles, to towering urban rainforests, with vines and roots stretching between dead skyscrapers. A rail gun would most definitely be helpful.

Prometheus grabbed his orange bag and joggedtowards the outskirts of the temporary campground, which was scattered with small fires and cots like freckles on the nose of the earth,where Morrigan stood with Akiles, Talos, and about ten others.

With Morrigan at their head, the determined group started marching out of the settlement. A half hour later Theus and the small group of about fifteen people were truly on the trail for the five-day scouting trip, traipsing through fields of giant mushrooms, across cracked, grassy highways, and crawling between the roots of glowing swamp trees.

Eventually they reached the outskirts of what some would call Eden, which was once New York. Outside the city was a rainforest filled with new exotic plants, evolved animals, and extremely large trees draped in vines and fruit, but even these were dwarfed by the new Eden skyline on the horizon, massive pillars of concrete wrapped in moss and roots that supported gargantuan trees, reaching for the heavens like the Babylonians.

***

“C’mon dude, I just want one! We’ve been walking through this jungle or whatever it is allllll day, plus I carried the cots, and yours is in there,” the cropped, brown-haired Case pleaded, “Who was it who yelled at the freaky crawly sloth thing until it swung away? Oh yeah, it was me.” Now he was literally on his knees with his hands clasped together. “TheusI haven’t had a fruit snack in literally forever. Pleaseee!” He said, his calf brown eyes making their best attempt to be puppy dogs.

“No,” Theus said coldly, “I only have two left, and after those I won’t have anymoregood stuff !”This broughtRoman and Akiles something to grin at, but after seeing Case slowly walk away and flop onto his self-made fern/stemvine hammock, not even trying to brush the hanging branch roots out of his way, he gave him one.

“Probably made that idiot’s whole year,” he thought, grinning internally. Since he was now a fruit snack short, he strolled over to the middle of their makeshift campsite where he smelled something meaty, and slightly bitter, cooking.The “kitchen” as well as the pair of rotting logs with large mykelev, or partially luminescent, sturdy mushroomsin between them, were allin a small clearing, which while still filled with some carnivorous pitcher plants and vertical moss, was bare of the trees that the rest of the area sported.

“Might not be the best thing you’ve ever eaten, but hey, at least it won’t make you sick. Well, hmm,” Akiles, stirring the self-heated pot full of broth and, something,said half to himself optimistically, hand stroking his chin.

“That’s encouraging,” Roman deadpanned. But he still grabbed a bowl, sat on the log, and ate. You had to because there wasn’t another option.

***

Full of “something” soup and with parts of the group well rested, they started for the ruined city that morning.Those who weren’t well rested were the ones who got sentry duty and spent the night staring into the vegetation surrounding them, scanning for hostile animals, which wasn’t made much easier by all the glowing organisms in the forest,

“Remind me what our goal here is, Morrigan?” the tall dark-skinned man, Talos, asked in a faint Australian accent.No one answered, because it’s hard to talk whileyou’re hacking your way through a chaotic scramble of foliage. They were attempting to cross the dip that used to be the Hudson River.

“We are here to scout out any potential settlement locations, attempt to locate resources, and identify possible dangers,” Roman answered for her in a monotone.

“If you’re asking where we’re trying to go, then we’re probably going to find the biggest tree we can and climb to the top where we’ll try to map things out, and go from there,” Morrigan answered for herself.

The group entered the city and walked through what was once one of humanity’s greatest achievements.Now it was merely a group of supporting structures for the massive trees and all their roots and vines which hung between them like a massive spiderweb of green and brown, creating spots of eerie shade on the under streets that was occasionally lit by a bioluminescent plant or animal.There was tension so palpable in the air that you could cut it. Everyone’s eyes darted around to any shadow or light that seemed out of place, hands on their various weapons.

Zzzzzzzip Crack!

The short manstood, shaky hands holding his railgun straight in front. The harmlessfoxlike plumetail lay convulsing on the ground, luminescent tail spasming.

“I didn’t mean to!”he sputtered. Damin had a wild look in his eyes, confused and frightened.

“Look at me. It’s ok Damin, itcould’ve happened to any of us.” That seemed to relax him a little bit.

Something creaked in the distance. Everyone turned their heads, trying to gauge the danger, but there was no more noise. Their noses were filled with a strange scent, not necessarily unpleasant, but strange all the same, like an ancient fruit cellar.

“I don’t like the vibes down here. Grab your climbing gear, Josh grab the cutters, and let’s get up there.” Morrigan ordered, voice strained, but steady.

Theus slung his bag off his shoulder and pulled the climbing picks out, as well as his vibro-knife. He walked over to a tendril that spiraled down from the reverse canopy above them and swung the pick over his head into the root. Pulled himself up, did it again. Then again. Mindlessly repeated the cycle until he was near the top of the six-story building, just under the root network. While everyone else had to climb behind Josh, he could go solo because he had his own cutter, even if they weren’t quite as nice as the others.

“It would really suck if this didn’t go through. Welp, fingers crossed I guess.”

Theus twisted the hilt and squeezed the handle, activating the knife. The back of the short blade lit up bright orange, and it made a high-pitched whine as he pressed it to theforearm sized vine above his head butmade it through.Two minutes later he was brushing himself off on the top of the desolate building, Morrigan yelling at him to run over by them at the base of what was once the Central Park Tower. Now it was cradling perhaps the largest tree in all of Eden,its canopy extending hundreds of feet into the air.

Are those. Rope bridges? Theus wondered as he cranked his neck backwards staring up at the leaves, but his thought process was cut off by Morrigan.

“Ok, from here we’re going to have Selena climb with a mechanized pully and install it about halfway up, so we don’t have to climb. Yeah? Yeah,” Morrigan explained, hands tucked in her vest pockets. Damin wasn’t the only one affected by the weird atmosphere of this city.

The group stepped back as slim brunette pulled herself up,faster than any of them could have,but still painfully slow, swing after swing into the woody vine like some massive four-limbed spider.

Prometheus stopped following her after about five minutes, choosing instead to scout out their surroundings. He walked towards the edge of the building and stared out at all the massive trees surrounding them, their roots spreading across the tops of the buildings like a sea of veins that were spread out before him.

That twisted Y-shaped tree might make a good reference point. Or that reflection Hold up-reflection?

He pulled out his pair of pocket binoculars from his bag and held them to his eyes. What is that?

It looked like a cluster of miniature stars interspersed with smaller black dots.

Dang these freaking bino’s. Why did I even bring them if they aren’t strong enough to zoom that far?

He blinked, and then the spots disappeared, like the stars swallowed in dawn’s light.He thought about keeping it to himself. It was probably nothing. A broken window or a trick from the bright sun overhead. But Theus just couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something was off.

“Hey, I uhh, think I saw something. Morrigan.” Theus said in a low tone, trying not to distract her.

“Huh?” She replied, eyes on Selena who was currently trying to attach the pulley system, her mobile radio in hand.

“Actually, never mind.” He muttered.

He wanted to tell her, but Theus could tell that she was focused, and besides, it wasn’t that big of a deal. At least, he hoped.

Selena finally got the rig set up and signaled to the rest of them to start riding it up. Theus watched as one by one they attached themselves to the thick cord and it slung them about two-thirds of the way up the tree, where thick branches were beginning to shoot out of the trunk, shaded by thick canopy above.

Once it was Prometheus’sturn, he stepped forward stoically and clicked the carabiner onto the hook.

“This thing isn’t gonna like break or anything right?” he asked, skeptically tugging the attachment.

“We aren’t that lucky.” Morrigan responded sarcastically with a fake smile, Theusblinked in surprise, but before he could say something shestepped on the safety pedal and flipped the switch, jerking Theus upwards like a sack of potatoes. The wind whistled through his light brown hair, tugging at it, while for the entirety of the six second ascent Theus gripped the provided handle like an astronaut on a spacewalk.

“You’re a little pale Theus,” Selena commented,glancing toward him with a grin while she unbuckled the straps. He wasn’t afraid of heights, but getting shot up like that felt like he was falling in reverse, and his body apparently was not a fan.

Once everyone was up on the small platform Selena had set up, they started using their climbing gear to scale the rest of the tree.

Something didn’t feel right to Prometheus. It was if the molecules in the air had gained more weight and were smothering all sound. The faint shadows from the leaves above weren’t helping.

For a split second a darker shadow flitted across Theus along with the bark in frontof him. He whipped his head around, nearly losing grip on his climbing pick, and saw a dark blur in the air above them out of the corner of his eye.

What in the scorched Earth was that?!He thought, heartrate increasing, mouth slightly open.

“Morrigan! I definitely saw something this time. There was this like black thing flying above us. I think it went towards the canopy.” Theus shouted over his shoulder.

“Probably one of the big crows from the training videos; they’re fairly harmless, especially since they don’t work together.”

“Wait, those training videos are from like 200 years ago, these things could have evolved since then, right?” Theus responded, getting even more worried.

“Well yeah, but I doubt it’s anything too crazy” she said flippantly, not even attempting to make eye contact,remaining focused on pulling herself up the massive tree instead, as if he were a child asking why the sky was blue.

The leaves and branches overhead rustled, and strange deep clicking sounds could be heard, slowly sliding off the blanket of silence that had covered the group. Just as Theus was looking up, he heard a thwack, and a yell, a long sharp object sinking into the tree just to the left of its target.

“There's someone throwing spears!” Rell, just below the person who almost got impaled, hollered down to the group.

Theus turned around and saw a group of massive crows seemingly flying in coordinated patterns, long sharpened sticks in their beaks, pouches hanging from their underbellies. Not someone, but something. There seemed to be one flying in circles above them, making loud caws that the rest responded to.

His eyes widened and his heart hammered against his ribcage.Holy scorchingsh-

It went quiet for the space of a heartbeat, then all at once the giant crows swooped towards them and flung their spears towards the group by tilting their beaks back then whipping them forward to propel them downwards, a hailstorm of projectiles racing towards them.

One missed Theus below his legs. He wildly swung his climbing pick todeflect another so that it grazed his harm instead of shooting into his torso. He looked around, stunned as the chaos unfolded around him. Morrigan didn’t have any spears around her, and she was attempting to shoot them out of the sky with her E-MAD rifle. Above him he watched as Case desperately tried to scale climb upwards. As he reached for the next branch a crowwhipped down a spear thatflew through his shoulder blade with an empty thud, cutting off his shout by pinning him to the tree, his vest already turning a dark red.

If they didn’t do something those raven creatures were going to stick all fifteen of them to the massive tree like banners on a wall.

A spear landed next to him and displaced a wave of splinters that washed over his face. We can’t jump, we can’t fight back and climb at the same time.He clenched his jaw. Looks like we’re going up.

“Morrigan! We have to climb!” He hollered over the gunfire, cawing, and screaming. She was still making her futile attempt to fight back whilst scaling the tree, and from what Theus could tell it was not working.

Morrigan looked up, nodded, and started climbing after she radioed the command to the rest of them. Spears whistled through the air like tormented souls, along with small spiky balls that exploded in clouds of thorns and dust. They muscled through, pulling themselves up the vertical battlefield, past the human banners that were once their companions.

Many more spears were launched, and some of them found their targets, but eventually most of the group made it to the upper canopy. There they were met with a group of primitive teepee-like huts, as well as ropes connecting the giant splaying branches.

We might need to update those training videos. Theus told himself, inwardly sighing over the outdated nature that had already led to the death of four group members.

“This is amazing, just look at the way the supports perfectly align, and the connection between them and the rest of the walls-” Roman giddily rambled, until Talos cut him off.“It would be more amazing if we could get the sopping Pacific out of here.”

Chastised, Roman scrambled to keep up with the rest of them while they slowly made their way to a platform on the outer edge of a branch, taking potshots at any crows that attempted to dive into the thick mass of foliage. Theus hit one square in the chest, and it would have killed the creature had his handgun been switched to lethal. He knew that of course, but he was secretly glad, especially after seeing the intelligence in their eyes; these weren’t simple animals anymore.

They reached the platform without further casualties, but something still felt wrong to Theus. The crows had stopped attacking them. Instead, they were following them, occasionally swooping by them or sending a spear into the bark behind them.

A sense of dread fell over him like a weighted blanket. They’re steering us somewhere.

On the square of logs, there were ten shimmering iridescentarrowhead shapes, handles on the bottom like the legs of an insect. Gliders. Why would giant crows need gliders?

“I don’t like this. They aren’t attacking us, and we conveniently have the perfect number of human gliders, with a conveniently clear rooftop barely within reach.” He shared, arms crossed.

“If you have a better option now would be a great time to tell us.” Morrigan replied tensely, already strapping herself into the strange contraption.

Prometheus frowned, but he still made sure that he was ready to launch. The group ran off the platform, rooftops and sprawling vines below them miniscule, like they were viewing them from heaven. Wind rushed in their ears, and if not for a second, they forgot about the civilization of birds flying behind them. In defiance of the laws of nature the survivors circled over the treetops, darkened against the now setting sun.

Nature, however, doesn’t tolerate being defied for long. They circled downwards towards the only rooftop clear of branches and tendrils a rip in the natural cloth of New Eden. It looked unnatural and out of place, like a mannequin in a crowd.

There's something waiting for us. The crows would’ve knocked us out of the sky easily if there wasn’t.His fists tightened on the wooden handles.

He didn’t have a choice though. To land anywhere else would almost guarantee broken bones, which would lead to the crows staking them to the building. He didn’t want to re-enact a crucifixion.

They had a rough landing on the roof, and he could already feel new bruises forming as he lay on the rough concrete. Just as he lifted his head the roof access door swung open with a click, as if taking a breath before speaking.

The figure that stepped out was slightly above average height, well built, with salt and pepper hair covering his head and part of his face. He could have been a normal guy at first glance if it weren’t for one thing. His eyes. They seemed to pierce Theus to his core, burning away everything until he was just a fact, a simple variable.

“I trustyou’ve already been introduced to my allies? Corvosapiens, or corvids, if you’re unfamiliar with the term.” The combat gear clad man informed them, smile plastered over his face.Talos stood up warily, knees slightly bent, hands slowly venturing towards the rifle slung on his back. Morrigan followed suitimmediately. Theus pulled out his stinger hesitantly.

Who is this guy? He wondered.Almost immediately after, Theus got his answer.

“I am Amoles, leader of Bunker 563, which now known as The Keepers of the Fall.”His voice was rich, like a preacher at mass. Then the smile sublimated, leaving behind a cold emotionless void. Prometheus was stunned; it was like the man read his mind.

“I have nothing against you. However, you intruded upon my territory, upon my responsibility.”The man’s jaw was slightly clenched now, but his face remained empty.

Morrigan opened her mouth to say something, most likely an insult, but a hard look from one of thegun-wielding guards that had stepped out of the stairwell cut her off.

Amoles’ face was painted gold and orange by the dying light. The sneer that materialized on his face was clear for everyone to see, eyebrows lowered, and lips peeled back from his teeth.

“I am merciful, so I will give you one chance. Leave. Don’t come back.” Now he was cold, his tone final, like a judge giving a sentence.

“Now wait a minute!” That was Morrigan. Uh oh.

“First off, your chicken brained allies killed two of my men, and second, we will most definitely be back. And you’re going to regret even touching us you scorching piece of crap!” Morrigan’s brown eyes were fiery, hands flying around her face in frustration.

Amoles turned to look at her, a smile tugging at his lips. Two corvids landed behind Morrigan, spears in their talons.

“Actually, they are crow brained. I wouldn’t have expected you to know however.” The smile was back, more menacing than last time. “And you know what, I sincerely hope that you come back. The corvids are always nagging at me to let them hunt.”

“Um they already did actually.” Morrigan retorted, hands on her hips.

“Oh no no, you misunderstand. They weren’t hunting. That was playing.” The grin was genuine now.

***

The group was bruised and mentally reeling, but no one was further harmed, and they were escorted to the city limits by the “Keepers of the Fall”.

Theus thought it was a dumb name. Amoles disagreed.

Once they were back in the thick jungle they left earlier, they dug some proxy graves for their comrades even though they would be forgotten by the jungle.

Prometheus would have been happy to forget Eden forever, but he knew from Morrigan’s determined silence, from the fire in her eyes, this wouldn’t be the last time in the ruined city. They would return.