Ch 2 & 3 - I Prove I Can't Do My Own Stunts

Idiot. Canceling the shoot is the first thing I think of?

We needed to find shelter. Except we were out in the middle of nowhere. All around us, people were screaming. Pandemonium covered the valley. The ground shook harder and a second hillside, this time on the west side of the valley, exploded just like the first.

More thunder ripped the sky as tornado-strength wind screamed past, ripping tents out of the ground and flinging them away. I hit the ground, with Tomas and Jane landing on top. One of her elbows dug my ribs hard.

All around us, mountains and hills blasted apart. The ground heaved and shook, and a great weight slammed me down so hard for a second I couldn’t breathe. Tomas and Jane pressed me down into the ground like they suddenly each weighed 500 pounds.

Then the pressure eased and the sounds of thunderous explosions faded away far too quickly. That probably didn’t bode well.

The hills all around were streaming upward, with individual pine trees erupting into the air like giant arrows fired from invisible ballistae. None of the blasts had spread outward to hit us, though. How was that possible?

Edmund lurched to his knees, his face so white he looked like a corpse. His eyes bulged with terror as he glanced up.

“This can’t be happening,” he moaned.

“What?” Tomas shouted as we all cautiously rose to our knees too, poised to hold on if the earth shook again.

“Look! Don’t you see? Everything is falling up. Everything! Everyone!”

No. He couldn’t mean that.

I looked around again and my heart sank into my boots. Edmund might be right. The mountains really were all falling into the sky. Could they be carrying the entire valley and all of us with them?

“Did Yellowstone blow?” Tomas asked, his voice squeaking with fear.

“That would just flatten us,” Edmund said.

“Then what’s going on?” Jane exclaimed, outwardly keeping her cool better than most.

All around us, other people were kneeling or standing, looking around in confusion or pointing to the upward falling mountains. It didn’t look like anyone else had figured out what Edmund had, or at least didn’t dare accept the reality of it.

“I don’t know!” Edmund shouted, wringing his hands as he lurched to his feet, turning to stare in every direction. “This is impossible. We’re falling up fast, but I don’t feel any wind or change in gravity.”

“What could throw a bunch of mountains into the sky?” Tomas demanded.

“I don’t know!” Edmund repeated, looking on the verge of panic.

As I turned a full circle, scanning the weird skyline of upward falling mountains, I could not sense any motion. I’d ridden in enough small planes to have a good sense of aerial direction, but felt nothing. The scattered clouds I’d noticed just seconds ago were gone. The sky looked deeper blue than I’d ever seen. Not good. That color usually only happened at very high altitudes.

Another rumble shook the entire valley and a gust of wind ripped the registration tent off the ground. It soared into the air, poles twisting, then the entire tangled mess slammed back down right at us.

“Look out!” I shouted, grabbing Tomas and heaving him sideways, then diving after. The busted mass of canvas and aluminum crashed to the ground right behind us.

Spinning, I scanned for our friends. Jane was just pulling herself out from under one end of the tarp, with Edmund right next to her. I didn’t see Patrick. He’d been behind Edmund, so was probably stuck under the tent. It probably wasn’t heavy enough to hurt him, but none of us could afford to end up tangled and immobile.

I pulled Tomas over to Jane and Edmund. “Listen, we have to get out of here!”

“I don’t think—“Edmund mumbled, but his words trailed off as his gaze was drawn to an upward-falling mountain. He started to shake.

“Listen! It’s a miracle we’re not already dead, but we have to move. You guys get Patrick out and get to the bikes. I’m going to scout the road back up to Powderhorn. If there’s a way through, we’ll go that way. If it’s blocked, we’ll head south instead.

Tomas looked like he wanted to argue, but then nodded, pulled me into a fierce hug, then pushed me away. Jane waved, then dove back under the tent.

I turned and ran for the parking lot. My experience fighting deadly forest fires had beat into me the truth that standing still in a disaster only made it worse. Movement meant life, so I moved. Despite my growing conviction that nothing we did would help, I had to try.

In seconds I reached my bike and jumped on, slamming my finger onto the start button. The fob was in my pocket, so I didn’t need to waste time fumbling for a key.

It roared to life and I sprayed dirt behind me as I tore out of the tiny parking lot. I didn’t bother with my helmet or any of my gear. If we’d just gotten blown into the sky, my armored jacket and helmet weren’t going to do me a lick of good.

How could mountains explode straight up? The land would disintegrate and we’d get shredded by the blast. It was like the laws of physics were glitching. Had the apocalypse happened? No. I refused to believe it. We’d find a way out. We had to.

In seconds I cranked my bike up over a hundred, shooting up the empty road. At that speed, I’d reach Powderhorn in another minute. That fact helped me hold my growing panic at bay for a little longer. Please, God, we just needed a minor miracle. Let the road be intact, let Patrick be okay and we’d get out of that mess in minutes.

The valley narrowed as I rode, the sky full of rocks and dirt and trees streaming upward, but the ground felt solid under my wheels. The wind tore at my face as I took a corner way too fast, leaned so far over I scraped my foot peg. That was a stupid way to ride that bike, but I didn’t care. One more turn and the bustling junction should come into view.

I topped the last rise so fast I caught air and the view opened up in front of me.

Powderhorn was gone.

The land simply ended, the road cut off like a giant knife had sheared through it barely a hundred yards away. And I was aimed straight at the end of the world going over 100.

No no no no! The fear I’d been holding back with plans of escape crashed over me, and I nearly lost my balance as I slammed back to the pavement.

Focus, Lucas! Deal with the situation. Think about it later.

First step, don’t die. I braked hard. The entire bike shuddered as the ABS kicked in and I bled speed faster than I ever had before.

It wasn’t enough.

My eyes fixed on that cut in the road where the world terminated. The rear tire skidded as it locked up, so I threw myself off the bike, grabbing at the ground, trying to pull a save like young Kirk in the remake of Star Trek when he drove that car off the cliff.

The smooth dirt tore at my skin, but barely slowed me. It was like I was skidding across ice. I felt no pain as I scrabbled against the dirt, trying desperately to slow.

My bike slid over the edge and I followed one racing heartbeat later, screaming as I tumbled into open air.

Chapter 3

No Peanuts, No Parachutes

I flailed uselessly as open air extended away like eternity and the astonishing sight made me forget the terrifying danger for a second. The ground lurked so far below, it was like I’d fallen off a plane almost all the way up into space instead of sliding off a road.

After a couple seconds of absolute terror, I realized I felt no rushing wind, no movement at all. I twisted around to look behind me and just stared as I tried to piece together what was happening.

I was floating in the air about twenty yards beyond the end of the road. I had barely dropped after flying off the edge. More like sliding out on an invisible ramp of air. My heart beat so fast it threatened to hammer a hole in my chest. Panic made it hard to breathe as I looked around wildly.

Were we just hovering? Confused, I looked down again.

Bad idea. My heart nearly stopped, frozen with icy terror as I noticed something I’d missed in those first panicked seconds after sliding off the road. Far, far below, the ground was receding at unbelievable speed.

That wasn’t how gravity worked. I’d jumped out of countless airplanes, but one did not fall upward.

A hole that had to be 10 times the size of Lake Tahoe was ripped right out of the middle of Colorado. Edmund was right. We had all fallen into the sky. Entire mountains had ripped free and blasted straight into the air.

The sight was so mind-boggling, I couldn’t process it. Instinct kicked in and I shifted to a standard skydiving pose, but that didn’t accomplish anything. I looked around again, trying to understand. It was like the planet had rolled over on its side and part of Colorado had simply fallen off. Were we going to fall all the way up into space?

The sky turned black. We were moving way too fast.

We weren’t in space, though. We couldn’t be. Space was cold and empty and void, but I could breathe and the air felt hot, not freezing.

For a second I could see the entire curve of the planet like in the photos from the space shuttle. Stars blazed everywhere by the millions, and the moon peeked around the back side of the Earth. In any other situation, I would have exulted to see that awesome sight. Today it just made me feel small and helpless.

I hated feeling helpless, but fought down the urge to flail and scream and do, well, anything. I needed to think.

Then everything winked out to black. Darkness consumed my vision so complete it was like my eyes had fallen out without me realizing it.

An invisible force flung me through the total blackness, as if a giant had decided to throw my body like a fast ball. My stomach twisted and I tasted bile. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything. I had no point of reference. My mind was on the verge of shutting down from nightmare overload.

Then sight rushed back and all I could do was gape.

We’re so far from Kansas, Toto.

I floated in space, even though I could still breathe. I didn’t feel cold, or feel anything at all. No air, no atmosphere, no wind. An absolute absence of sound left me hearing only phantom ringing. I just hung in the air, looking down at a planet.

Not our planet.

I’d seen enough pictures of Earth from space to realize something was very wrong. The planet seemed somehow too small, even though it filled space beneath me.

On the surface, land masses made up of a patchwork of browns and greens might be mountains and forests. I had no idea what the orange or yellow sections might be, though. I saw no oceans.

I couldn’t move my neck, but my eyes worked. Craning them to the side, I realized I was not alone. All around me, more people floated, hanging helpless and silent in space like a mob of corpses who hadn’t realized we were already dead.

I tried to shout in defiance, but could not make a sound. I could not twitch a finger. I was totally frozen, except for my eyes. So I watched and tried to find a shred of calm.

Relax, Lucas. Maybe you just had a stroke, and this is just a nightmare triggered from your oxygen-starved brain before you die.

Not helping.

The mountains, the valley, all the land, and everything that wasn’t people swept past and fell toward the planet. I caught a glimpse of wooden palisade walls in the midst of it. That clump of Colorado moved so fast, it was already shrinking to a brown mass of dirt, heading toward the surface of the alien planet like a meteor.

“Congratulations contestants from Earth! I am thrilled to welcome you.”

The voice boomed across the empty expanse of space. It was a male voice with a distinct British accent, and he sounded extremely pleased.

Beneath us, the land mass we’d ridden from Colorado smashed into the side of the planet, but did not explode or even make a crater. The land just seemed to sink into the surface of the planet. The mosaic of colored sections of ground, each the size of Texas, shifted and twisted, as if making room for one more part.

I was starting to feel decidedly sick, but didn’t want to throw up in space. I’d never thrown up during a jump, and refused to do so now.

Far below, the land that had been part of our home world writhed on the surface of the planet, shifting between various bright colors before settling back to brown and green like one should expect earth to be.

“Welcome to Arasha,” a different voice spoke. This one was a warm, female voice with a subtle French accent.

The invisible man added, “I must apologize for the abrupt nature of your travel. I should have at least supplied peanuts. I believe that is the preferred travel ration on your world. I don’t understand why that might be, given so many better options even on such a basic planet, but who am I to judge?”

“Ha!” he laughed like a sudden pealing of thunder before continuing in a more conversational tone.

“That’s exactly my job. More about that later. Anyway, I hate to make such a jarring experience the foundation of our first meeting. Unfortunately, I had no alternative. Your entry was approved at the very last moment and some sacrifices must be made to keep schedules on track. Certainly you understand.”

Maybe this was all a dream? The stroke idea was sounding more and more plausible. I didn’t want to die, but that would be better than lingering as a vegetable, my mind stuck in a crazy nightmare.

Or maybe one of those newbs swinging a fake sword had lost his grip and threw it across the tent and clobbered me in the back of the head. I’d still end up lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, suffering morphine-induced hallucinations, but somehow that seemed preferable.

The voice didn’t care and continued on with that gushing good humor.“What schedule, you may be asking? Again, more on that to come. I don’t want to bore you with the details. You are no doubt distracted by the inspiring view I’ve given you of the integration of your lands into the challenge world.”

Yeah, the view was way more than distracting.

“I did choose the most remote chunk of land that fit the parameters of the contest, but I suppose a lot of your countrymen will be asking a lot of very entertaining questions right now. Oh, well, seeking for answers beyond what one considered possible in the past is healthy for one’s ongoing progression. Think of the unique real estate opportunities.”

More like panic. People would definitely not react well to having a major chunk of a state suddenly excised from the planet and teleported away. How long before anyone realized some of us had gotten caught in the disaster? How long before Isabella knew I was missing? How about our parents?

“Back to the game, then, since that’s what you’ve been selected to join. That’s right, the one thousand of you are the lucky few chosen to represent your planet in a contest unlike any other! Prove yourselves worthy, and you’ll win prizes beyond your wildest imaginations.”

After a pause, the voice continued. “On the other foot, if you fail, you’ll all die and your entire world will be destroyed, along with every living soul on it. How are those for fantastic stakes, right?”

The voice laughed as if that was somehow hilarious, then added, “On to the show!”

We started falling toward the planet.

I tried moving, but was still locked in some kind of stasis. Screaming in my mind still worked, and I unleashed all my terror in the recesses of my own thoughts as I accelerated like I’d been fired from a cannon. We all zoomed toward the surface of the planet just like that chunk of Colorado had.

Did the voice not realize we were flesh and blood? Crashing down at this speed would splatter us like bugs against a windshield. This was going to be the shortest game in the history of the universe.

I tried to find a sense of thrill I usually felt pushing the limits, but this time I got nothing. I closed my eyes, willing myself to wake from the coma. I felt no wind, but when I cracked open my eyes again the planet was rushing up to meet me with terrifying speed. Whatever was really going on, I was about to die.

If only I’d asked Isabella to marry me already. Idiot!

What a stupid game.

I shot past tall mountains like a ballistic missile and barely had time to tense before smashing into the ground with unimaginable force.