A heavy wind shook Alonso’s bed. Everything dropped out from under him. He felt the fall and woke. His bed was still shaking but he wasn’t falling. The young light of dawn rested above him and was dripping through the tree line. Casey was still sleeping across from him.

“Hey. Time to get up.”

Casey opened his eyes and looked back at Alonso.

“I’ve been awake. Just waiting on you,” Casey said.

“You should’ve woken me up. We have a job to do. Today’s no different than any other,” Alonso said.

Casey looked back at Alonso and then got up. He rolled his bed mat up while balancing on the branch like it was an extension of himself. His pack was ready and on his back in two minutes flat. Alonso matched his speed. They were moving across the trees before the sun was truly awake.

The forest stretched out forever. Miles and miles of giant trees that ruled the world. Alonso and Casey travelled for hours looking for food to harvest. The trees weren’t all the same. Some had fruit at the top. Others had edible leaves. Bird nests were key sources of protein. It could be days between finding a good meal like that.

Up ahead a light flashed at them. Not the sun or some reflection but something electrical in nature. A drop spot.

“How heavy’s your pack?” Alonso asked.

“Not very. Yours?”

“A third full, maybe.”

Casey looked around and felt the wind on his face.

“Storm’s coming. You feel it?”

“Yeah. We need to drop now. We won’t have the chance later,” Alonso said.

They picked up their pace and leaped from branch to branch. The drop spot was bigger up close. It had a chest sized box with a yellow handle and a spinning, flashing light above it so it could be seen among the trees. Alonso pulled the box open and took the food out of his bag. He placed the contents inside and then did the same with Casey’s bag.

“Are you sure we should put it all in there? Won’t you need to eat?”

“We’ll find more. We need to move light and get ahead of the storm. We need to get to a shelter before it hits.”

Alonso closed the box and pressed the green button next to it. The box shot down through the trees, riding a rail to the surface. Casey looked at the ladder attached to the other side of the drop spot. Supplies weren’t the only things that could go down to the surface.

“How long’s it been since you last saw the ground?” Casey asked.

“I don’t think about it.”

“Yeah, well what do you think about? Trees?”

“I think about how long it’s been since my family’s eaten. Then I think about trees.”

Alonso handed Casey his bag back and stepped away from the drop spot.

“Now let’s go find a shelter.”

The wind picked up. The storm was nipping at their heels. The men ran across the branches and jumped through brush. Each step placed perfectly. The life expectancy for harvesters was short. Most died in the first few weeks from a fall. Starvation from getting lost was next on the list. If a harvester was lucky enough to make it past those two hazards then they might be okay. Unless a storm caught them off guard. No training could prepare someone for that.

Rain started to fall. The forest came alive with sound. Each drop creating a small percussion. Together they made the loudest static ever heard. The trees were shaking. Storm winds had joined the men. They latched onto a tree and pressed their faces to it.

“We can’t keep going. We won’t make it,” Casey said.

“We can’t stay here. This storm isn’t a boy. We won’t survive on this bark.”

“Then what?”

“It’s close. I know it. Just a little further,” Alonso said.

“If you’re wrong then you die.”

“Regardless, we only survive if I’m right.”

Alonso couldn’t see Casey through the rain but could feel him agreeing. Alonso bolted from the tree. Casey followed. Everything shook. The world around them was all static and whistles. The wind tore at them. The rain battered them. The spikes on their soles struggled to grip the branches. Alonso led the way through the storm. Doubt was on his mind but he knew they didn’t have a choice. The doubt washed off as the red lights of the shelter came into view. He didn’t check behind him. He could feel the branches shift as Casey followed. He reached the shelter and pushed the door open before falling in. Casey barreled in behind him. Alonso got up and they both forced the door shut in the storms face. The two men sat on the ground in their dripping clothes and started laughing.

--

“Do you even remember much about how it all started?” Casey asked.

“What do you mean? Look around. It’s hard to forget.”

Casey sat on the ground with his back against the wall. His foot tapped on the ground. The noise of it covered up by the constant pattering of the rain outside. Alonso laid on one of the cots. His eyes closed.

“Everyone has their stories. But you’ve been up here longer than anyone I’ve heard of. You have a different view than the rest of us. Like you saw everything. Things have always been like this for me. Nothing before it.”

The rain took over the room. Alonso thought on the question. How long had he lived in the sky? How long had he been travelling with Casey? Who was he even doing it for anymore?

“We needed food. The whole world was starving. So we did what humans always did and we started tinkering with the way the world worked. We started fucking around with how the earth made food. Then food started growing. No more starvation. Problem solved. Then things kept growing. The earth was sucked dry by the things we created. They just kept on growing. Cascading into the clouds. Trees that were never meant to be. There was still food. But it wasn’t on our earth anymore. It was all up here. So harvesters were born. How’s that all sound? We could have just died and let the planet be. Instead we are still going to end up dying eventually and we’ve fucked the planet also.”

A loud whack shook the shelter. Alonso’s eyes opened. He turned to the door.

“It’s just a branch. Don’t worry,” Casey said.

There was another whack. The lights in the shelter flickered. Alonso got up. His stance tightened.

“It’s just the trees.”

“No. Branches scrape. They don’t pound like that. Not even in a storm,” Alonso said.

“What do you think it is?” Casey asked.

“I don’t know. Something that shouldn’t be up here.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know. I know more about up here than I do about down there. That wasn’t a fucking branch.”

A third whack shook the shelter. The lights went out.

“Casey. Get away from the –“

The door to the shelter burst open. Rain and wind screamed into the shelter.

“Casey! Get back now!”

Only small dots of light sprayed the floor. Everything else was darkness. The sounds took over. The machine gun drops of rain. The nail scraping wind. The sound of something else. A cracking, crunching sound. A loud snap echoed in from just beyond the door.

“Casey!”

The snapping sound came through the door. Alonso didn’t move or call out again. Whatever was banging on the wall was inside. The storm rattled the shelter. Nothing inside moved.

“I know you’re still there. Whatever you are.”

A snap responded.

“We just want to go home. We just want our families to survive so we can go home to them one day. Just leave us be,” Alonso said.

A louder, more aggravated snap pierced through the room.

“I’m getting out of here. So tell me what you want or leave.”

There was a pause. Then a scraping sound. A snap, this one fading away. The door closed and the lights came back on. Alonso looked at the wall Casey had been leaning against. He was gone. Alonso didn’t move back to the cot. He kept his eyes on the door and tried not to blink. Then tried not to sleep.

The storm passed as morning came. Alonso opened the door and peeked out. The trees were as they should’ve been. Alonso packed his bag with supplies from the shelter and headed out. Soon the fear of what was in the forest went away. It was his world again. He didn’t want any part of it anymore though. He was leaving.

Alonso jumped down from branch to branch. The beacon in the distance got closer as he picked up his pace. He reached the drop spot and stepped up to the ladder. He looked at the forest around him and then started his descent.

The ladder went down indefinitely. Or at least it felt like that to Alonso. He stopped after an hour to eat the stamina bars he’d taken from the shelter. He pulled a picture out of the inside of his coat. His wife and daughter. The leaves around him rustled. He shoved the picture back into his coat as a few leaves drifted down over him. The wind was light. Not enough to make that many leaves fall. He was being watched. Alonso scanned the area. Nothing. Or everything. He didn’t know what exactly he’d encountered the night before but whatever it was, it was still with him. He stepped down the ladder and didn’t look back up until he’d reached the bottom.

Alonso stepped onto ground for the first time in years. Maybe longer. He’d lost track of the world and what time meant. The light trickled in through the trees creating a ghostly twilight landscape. Alonso didn’t have to go far from the ladder to realize that there had been no point in returning to the surface. The drop spot was overflowing with spoiled food. He pulled out binoculars from his pack and checked other spots in the distance. All of them full disintegrated food no one had been picking up. No one had been around for a long time. There was no one left. A snap came from behind him.

“Come back. Come back with us.”

Alonso turned around and saw his daughter standing in front of him. Her voice was wrong but her face was perfect. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on in the picture he kept with him.

“What are you?” Alonso asked.

“We don’t know. Not really. But you do. Come back with us. Tell us a story.”

Alonso knew the thing in front of him wasn’t his daughter. But it looked like her and it wanted a story from him. Just like she always did. Just like all children did. He looked back at the world he’d left behind.

“There’s nothing down here for you.”

“I know. But what’s up there for me?” Alonso asked.

“Purpose. We want to know the story. The one you told us before.”

Alonso blinked and saw Casey. Another blink and it was his daughter again.

“What story?”

“Our story.”

Alonso saw through the façade. For a single moment the little girl in front of him lost her skin. There was a humanoid figure made of vines and branches standing in front of him instead. The creature spoke again and the illusion returned.

“Come back with us. We need you. We need to know where we came from.”

“Okay. Okay honey. I’ll tell you a story when we get back.”

Alonso walked up to the ladder and started climbing. There was a sound below him. Or maybe it was all around him. It sounded like laughing. Like a child was laughing. It sounded like happiness.