The crowd stuck to the windows like remoras, peering their eyes at the giant who was running its course. How the beasts landed upon it, cloned themselves, and proceeded to drop their doppleganger into one of the numerous holes. The boy cowering behind his tablet, seated at the far back of the gyroplane, finally had the guts to skip over to the window and witness the head of the colossus as it hoisted its ‘=>’ up. Insurmountable. Not only the beast but the feeling. For the first time, he found himself pushing forward, approaching the predicament he feared. Not some unease or anxiety, some dread or despair, some terror or panic, but a strange, incomprehensible, and simultaneously, a mesmerizing and hypnotizing excitement. Peculiar because he had never experienced it before. When he dared to look below, at the countless green dithers, not a shiver struck his body. Instead, his pupils dilated and his jaw dropped. “Roy!” he caught himself yell, and then a “oh,” as he quieted back down. He let out a thrilling exhale as he realized they were hovering above the green grandeur; the windows built into the floor showcased a massive cluster of trees. When Willard caught sight of the name he yelled, the excitement on his face disappeared. Roy had also been sitting at the back, and he was sinking into his seat. “I’m fine,” he said out of breath when Willard approached him.
“Do you want to see the view? It’s incredible, it’s just like you said!”
“Nah, I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Up, up! We need all the eyes we can get,” butted in Oseye.
Roy approached the window hesitantly, along with the other two, dragged to the edge of the plane by the command from the wizard. He was careful to not direct his attention to the floor, where the forest lied. He squinted at the brightness of the sky, and after a couple seconds when his eyes adjusted, he too saw the colossus, and felt his insides itching to escape. He turned back, falling to his knees and vomited. Some of the students laughed, while others looked away. He had not a moment of embarrassment because he jumped up when his eyes met the green below. Not a scream left his mouth because he had not a chance to catch his breath. “You’re going to be fine,” said Oseye, stroking his back, and took him to a seat. “Sorry, I didn’t know you had a fear of heights.” Cleaner-Lower took care of the mess.
On the opposite side of the colossus, was another hovering gyroplane. Providing a different view for the observers, where the output was to be born. “Did you see what the beings that landed on it did?” asked Vick.
“Cloned themselves?” responded a student.
“Yes, and what happened to the clones?”
“They were thrown in.”
“Exactly, do you recall anything familiar?”
“I’m not su—”
“Value type?” burst out Andrew.
“Yes, value type. Those creatures were passed by value. They sent an exact clone of themselves into the beast. The original creatures remain unaltered. Look.” The colossus opened its jaw, and from the depths came a new being. “Coward,” he continued. “That is the Coward, the function’s output.” He pointed at Gus. “You’ll run the plane, show me what you’ve learned.” He pointed to the screen at the front. “Target the output and have the gyroplane follow.”
The plane emitted energy, collecting data. A list of beings coated the screen, then appeared on a map, locating and displaying their distance from the plane. Gus tapped on the beast to follow, accurately named ‘Coward.’ The autopilot took control, and began its pursuit of the output. “We’ll have a different student take control of the plane each day,” explained the teacher. “Oseye’s group will hang back with the function. Keep your eyes on the walls, they will display our status of inquiry. We cannot afford to lose track of the Coward.”
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“The plane has stopped moving,” said Gus.
“What?” he exclaimed and strode to the walls. “We lost it so quickly?” He looked at the instructions Gus gave to the plane, all seemed correct.
“I’m not sure what happened. It just vanished from the radar,” explained Gus.
“That’s odd. Amare—they did lose it last time. We need to try something different to understand why it keeps disappearing.”
He took out his phone, called Oseye, and explained what happened. “Looks like we need to get on the ground,” she said.
“Seems like it, but I don’t think we should take the students.”
“Are you sure? We’re going to need as many—”
“Nevermind. You’re right, we need to hurry. I’ll take three students with me.”
“Well,” she said, “I know one who would want out, pick the other two for me.”
A sea of lime. Zipping down the ropes to the cluster of trees, with the wind blowing them towards their origin. Their feet pushing the leaves and branches to the side, muzzling them with splinters. The rappel made a sharp hiss until they were deep within, engulfed by the forest. Roy saw the ten meter wide trunks marked with damage, heeding him of where they were, descending to where he saw their giant roots vacillating in and out of the ground. Finally, their feet gently touched the foreign floor, and not a sound was heard.
“They’re enormous!”
“Quiet, Willard!” hissed Roy.
The trees climbed over one-hundred meters tall. Cascades of miniscule apertures clawed towards the people roaming its soil, immersed in their leaves' emerald and the sun’s amber. The black land left a trail of footprints behind the visitors, along with crushed clovers and sassafras. Vick fell into a trench, distracted by the rays penetrating the green umbrella. His face was met with the thick roots of a tree. “Mister Vick,” exclaimed Andrew and ducked to reach towards him. “Are you ok?”
“Yes, yes,” he responded and accepted the hand, pulling Andrew down with him. Andrew fell onto his teacher’s leg, and Vick on the soft soil with his back. Quickly, they recovered. “Put too much weight on you,” he said and laughed.
“I apologize, I should have braced myself.”
“My uniform’s already dirty. Oh, well.”
“I apologize, I apologize,” he repeated.
“It’s ok, I fell on my own.”
“Here,” said Roy, reaching towards them.
“You going to brace yourself?” he said and took his hand.
“It’s so dark,” said Willard, looking at the faces of his fellow students much more defined in the shadows than usual.
“This is where the being disappeared,” said Vick. “Look around for any clues, if the string pulls you, change your direction. I’ll buzz your phones to regroup.”
Like a network, a string connected one to the other. They were hooked onto the belts’ of their uniforms, disallowing anyone to move too far from the group. Roy looked at the trunk he glided down beside. He took a picture of the marks upon it like the claws of a beast. Andrew was pacing with his eyes locked to the floor, looking for trampled plants. Willard hunkered, observing a puddle. Something was appearing and disappearing. He barely made it out. Slouching further, he thought he could see a faint figure reflecting from the rays penetrating the forest. “Did you find anything?”
Willard broke his attention and turned around. “No,” he said. “Did you?”
“Some marks on a tree, I took some photos,” he showed them. “I don’t think the being clawed them, though.”
“I saw those too. I didn’t know they were claw marks.”
“Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. I took them just in case. I’m going to search this way,” he said and walked across the field, and slid into a trench.
Vick only began searching, but he was already out of breath and sweating profusely. He felt his heart skipping beats. He did not want to call a regroup so early, but as his vision became blurry, he was forced to. “Where’s Roy?” asked Andrew when the three met.
“He’s probably on his way,” said Vick. “We need to get back on the plane, I’m feeling ill.”
Roy returned from the trench, covered in dirt. “What’s up?”
“We’re heading back,” explained the teacher.
“So soon?”
“Mister Vick isn’t feeling well,” said Andrew.
“Yes, we’ll have to find another time, unfortunately. Change your gears,” said Vick.
The rappels hissed one by one, as each student was pulled into the sky. Finally, his gear pulled him up and as he looked below, he saw a figure crawl out of the trench. He noticed the oil dripping off of his boot, and momentarily after, passed out.