The Orb

     "Come on Rita!" Arlo shouts, bounding through the lush forest ahead of me.

  I grin, leaping over the fallen tree in front of me, sprinting to catch up with him. I don't know how long I've known Arlo. It seems like forever ago since we'd first met, but all I knew in this moment was that he was all I have. Taking a sharp left, Arlo disappears between a pair of trees, a trail of dust lingering in the air behind him. Taking a deep breath, I lurch after him, jumping down the short cliff, tumbling behind him. 

     "You won't get away that easy!" I call, jumping to my feet. Suddenly, all is quiet. Not even the birds stir in the trees. Looking left, and then right, I call out, "Arlo...?" Chest heaving, I take a few tentative steps forward, pushing aside the tree branches hanging in front of me. A curious look passes over my face as I peer into the land beyond. The trees are gone. But there is Arlo. Curly brown hair, tall and lean. Spinning around, he waves me over. 

For some unknown reason, I hesitate. This forest is all we know and I could swear we've been this way before. Never in my life have I seen such an abrupt ending to such a lush forest. I glance behind myself. 

     "Rita, hurry up. I'm not leaving you behind." He calls again, turning back to look at whatever he was focused on before. 

Sighing, I step between the bushes keeping me out of the new biome and walk towards him. Arlo turns to face me, parting his lips to speak. Instead, his jaw drops, eyes widening.

     "What-" I ask, raising a brow at him. All he can do is raise a hand and point behind me. I spin around, gasping when I see that the lush forest I had just stepped out of is gone. Not a single tree in sight. Where once was lush forestry is now a barren desert plain. 

     "What- how?!" I all I can manage. "Arlo-"

     "I don't know, Rita-" He pats my shoulder. "Come on. Let's keep going. There's nothing left for us here."

Nodding, I follow behind him, lagging when he takes off in a light jog. 

     "You shouldn't run ahead." I say. "The temperature is already picking up. We don't know where we are, or the next time we'll find water. Conserve your energy."

Arlo spins around, carefully jogging backwards. "Rita, since when have we ever ran with a goal or destination in mind. I had always assumed that we were playing the world's longest game of tag."

     "Har har," I say, picking up the pace. 

An hour or so of walking later, we come up to a cliff that seems to stretch on forever in both directions. Carefully, I step up to the edge, peering over. I gasp. Below is the same rainforest we were in before. "Arlo!" I call, beckoning him over. "Look, down there!"

He steps up beside me, joining me in peering over the edge. "What in the world..."

     "How do we even get back there?"

     "We could jump." Arlo says immediately, glancing over at me. 

     "Not funny." I spit, pulling myself away from the cliffs edge. "That's at least thirty feet."

Arlo nods. "Then the logical answer is to pick a direction and follow it until we see if it shallows out."

     "Well, we just came from this direction," I say, pointing to the right. "Let's head left."

Arlo nods again, turning to take the lead. "I've never seen a desert this big and I'm sure we've ventured in that direction before."

     "Yeah, me too. I could swear we were surrounded by forest for miles." I pause. "What were you watching before I stepped out of the forest to join you?"