Futureland by H.D. Hunter

Author:H.D. Hunter [Hunter, H.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

I blinked the moisture out of my eyes just in time to see Ali take one massively powerful jump into the air. And this time, he didn’t come down.

“Wooooooo-hooooooo!” Yusuf screamed as he and Ali took to the skies, gliding higher and higher into the canopy and farther and farther into the distance. I blinked again and they were gone.

“All right, girl. Let’s do it,” I whispered into Sarafina’s ear. “Come on, let’s go!”

Like clockwork, she put on an extra burst of speed, kicking it up to the next level. Instead of dodging items in our path, she began to leap over them, landing with enough agility to never break stride. I could see the jungle’s edge up ahead—if we could just get beyond the trees, then we’d probably be able to see Yusuf and Ali in the air, maybe even catch up before they made it to the big mountain. I put my eyes forward again as we zipped through a clearing and caught sight of…something. It happened so fast I couldn’t be sure, but the neon-blue blur had to be Ali.

I figured that maybe Ali and Yusuf had run into a branch or something. This was our chance! Sarafina and I exploded out of the jungle. The two-hundred-foot rock wall of Eagle Mountain stood tall ahead of us. Victory was ours.

Yip, yip-yip!

Oh no.

I looked overhead again and saw that Yusuf and Ali had recovered. They soared above us, heading for Eagle Mountain at the exact same speed. Ali cut through the air at a downward angle as we approached the rock wall, swooping lower, lower, lower…

Hissssss!

Ali swooped so low he almost cut in front of Sarafina. She snarled and jumped into the air to avoid him, but we collided instead. We tumbled through the air, then down to the ground, rolling over the soft savanna grass of Future Trek until my back landed up against the rock wall. Ouch.

I’m definitely gonna feel that one tomorrow. But whoa. Dooley would have loved this.

I groaned and looked over to Yusuf. His back was up against the rock wall, too. He leaned over and massaged his knees. Ali and Sarafina stood in the grass a few feet away, stretching and grumbling. Yusuf’s eyes met mine, and we remained deadlocked in a stare for a couple seconds before…

“We totally won!” I bellowed.

“No way!” Yusuf countered. “You tumbled to the rock, I touched it with my hand first!”

“Your flying bear cut Sarafina off!”

“He’s not a bear! He’s a marsupial, actually.” Yusuf grinned. “And he didn’t cut off your cat—she jumped into the air and made us all collide. We had the win in the bag. She cheated!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Uh-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

Eventually, we burst out laughing and got to our feet. We shook hands for a race well run and decided to call it a tie.

“Let’s get these pets down to their original size and head back to the chamber,” I said.

“Good idea,” Yusuf said. He paused for a second, contemplating something. “Uh, CJ?”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“I miss home. And my parents.

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