“You want to lead?” he asked. “Maybe you and Pepper know where we can find parts to the radio—or, better yet, a new boat.”
“Pretty sure we’re not going to find a new boat up here,” she whispered.
X continued into the jungle. At the base of the mountain, gangly trees with thick green bark formed a fence along the shore, like soldiers standing guard. It wasn’t so much the spike-covered branches or the hourglass trunks that bothered her. These weren’t the flesh-eating trees she had fought in Florida.
This bark didn’t glow, and the vines didn’t try to swallow them whole. This was just an old-fashioned jungle. What bothered her was knowing how much Rodger would have enjoyed seeing this place. She could picture him stumbling down the path, gaping in awe at trees that somehow adapted to an environment without sunlight.
She set off after X. Beetles the size of her boots scuttled across the path, and two-headed lizards perched on rocks along the path. A mammal that looked like an oversize rat crunched through the undergrowth, blinking its saucer eyes at Magnolia before disappearing back into the jungle.
Everything on this island had adapted, either to see in the darkness or to get by with no vision at all. Radiation levels here were mild, but that didn’t mean they had always been. Each creature had evolved to survive here.
Even the fish and birds seemed to have undergone transformations. Some hadn’t changed much, but the changes always made them better predators. The shark and the octopus had grown to gigantic proportions, as had the monstrous vultures.
As they moved along the trail toward the eastern edge of the city, several structures rose over the dark canopy. Houses built onto the bluffs had their foundations and rooftops largely intact. She tried to picture a time when people had lived in places such as this—places once called “paradise.” But try as she might, she couldn’t imagine what the Old World was really like before the nuclear fires and the monsters.
“You okay back there, Mags?” X whispered over the comm channel.
“Yeah. How’s the arm?”
“Just another scratch.”
He ducked a low branch, and Miles turned to her as if to say, hurry up. Even the dog seemed impatient with her today.
A clicking sound on the trail made Magnolia whirl. The source was a purple beetle on the center of the path. It opened mandibles, exposing a row of teeth that looked sharper than necessary for a beetle, clicked again, and then scuttled away into foliage.
Raindrops pattered on the canopy above. The sound was calming, and even the sporadic thunder and lightning had a soothing effect. Still, the dangers of this mutant paradise weighed heavily on her. The journey to the Metal Islands hadn’t exactly started off well, and being stranded on unknown shores didn’t help.
On a section of trail unprotected by the tropical canopy, the dirt had turned to mud. She followed the tracks of X’s big boots.
The trail rose to a bluff, giving her another view of the ocean. X had stopped at the top, crouched low with Miles by his side.
Magnolia took a sip of water from the straw in her helmet and looked out over the dark ocean. To the west, where the Sea Wolf lay beached, the tide was starting to recede.
“Come on,” X said, waving her onward. Miles followed without complaint, but Magnolia finally raised her hand.
“Hold on,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of going farther without a plan.”
X halted and, instead of replying, angled his rifle toward the mountains, at a slope covered with thick undergrowth.
At first, she thought he was pointing at the vultures flying above the canopy. She ducked when she saw them, but X remained standing. Miles, too, stayed on his feet. Only then did she realize that he wasn’t pointing at the birds at all.
Sheathing her sickle, she raised her carbine, zooming the scope in on a mushroom-shaped structure in the middle of the vast jungle.
“What in the…?”
“Satellite dish,” X said. “I saw it on the way in. That’s where we’re headed.”
Magnolia lowered her rifle. “I thought we were headed to the hotel. Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Because I figured you’d complain when you saw vultures up there. But I didn’t want to just leave you at the boat, either.”
“Listen, X,” she said, frustration rising in her voice. “I know you may have a hard time believing it, but I’ve grown a lot since Hades. I’m not a little girl anymore.”
“You never were a little girl.”
Magnolia tilted her head, waiting for the rest.
“I’ve always known you had it in you to be a good Hell Diver. You’re a damn fine one, but you need to trust me and stopping rushing to do everything. That’s always been your problem.” He paused. “Your attitude doesn’t help, either.”
So I’m the one with an attitude?
“Yeah, I know what you’re thinking,” X said. “But save it for later and keep moving. We’ve got a long hike ahead.”
He turned and continued up the trail, rifle cradled across his chest.
A vulture wailed in the distance. This time, Magnolia didn’t lag behind. She hurried to catch up with X, keeping quiet and trying to trust that he wasn’t leading them into a nest of monsters.
FIVE
X stood like a statue in the darkness, searching the belt of jungle in the green hue of his night vision. A camouflaged lizard perched on a rock ahead. He saw it only when it blinked reptilian eyes that apparently could see him just fine in the dark. All three of them were tracking a bug.
A long tongue flicked out, and the lizard’s face split down the middle, like a cracked egg, to swallow the insect. The head sealed shut, and the lizard skittered away.
X continued looking for the real hostiles he was worried about—the vultures. Though he didn’t hear them, he knew they were out there.
Patience first, he reminded himself. Always patience first.
Years of trekking across the ruined wasteland had taught him that. There was a reason people back on the airships had called him “the Immortal,” and it wasn’t because he had some magical immunity to death. He had survived through patience and strength and, more than once, pure blind luck.
X didn’t know how Magnolia, on the other hand, was still alive. She was always rushing missions. Speed and agility were useful, but they weren’t everything—especially when the monsters were faster. It seemed she survived on blind luck all the time.
She tapped her foot as he continued to scan and listen to the jungle. Before the journey he had updated the microphones built into his helmet. Now he could pick up specific sounds in noisy places, such as this place.
He filtered through the racket of bugs, thunder, and rain—and even Magnolia’s tapping foot—to pick up sounds of movement from the ground and sky: a faint rustle in the undergrowth, the soft whoosh of wings above.
The microphones didn’t make his hearing as acute as Miles’, but X certainly had an advantage that he never had back in the cold wastes—although he was having second thoughts about the enhanced audio now, given how much Pepper and Magnolia talked. At least he didn’t have to deal with the AI right now.
Looking up, he checked to see whether any of the vultures had left their nests. He had to take a step back for a view through the canopy. His boots sank into the mud. Arching limbs reached far into the sky. If he could only climb them, he would have a great view of the area, but the sharp thorns on the bark made climbing nearly impossible.
And did he really want to risk falling?
“Want me to scope things out?” Magnolia whispered over the comm channel.