Jason's parents always told him not to go near the canyon where the
mists came out. "Never _ever_ go near there," his father said. "If
you fall in we wouldn't be able to get you out." He told Jason of the
monsters down there, and that if the fall didn't kill him, the
monsters certainly would.

Jason had seen the canyon twice, once when the worker robots were
building the fence, and once after the monsters had torn it down.
That had caused a commotion. It happened during the night, and there
were large claw marks in the brown dirt all around the twisted metal.
Jason's father pointed at the claw marks and said, "See? What did I
tell you about the monsters?"

The canyon cut across the brown landscape, running from the distant
hills all the way to the sea, passing the edge of the settlement on
the east side. The settlement had been placed beside the canyon
because of the mists. Jason's computer told him this mist helped the
settlement's plants grow.

The plants were everywhere, surrounding Jason's home and lining the
roads and filling every little spot in between. "Earth plants," they
were called. "From the homeworld." Jason liked to walk among them,
especially the trees, and wonder what it felt like to be on Earth.

The other kids were usually out playing among the trees, or out at the
edge where the robots were doing the new planting. He'd usually see
Fred, Brad, and Brad's sister Stephanie. They were the three neighbor
kids who were Jason's age. Brad and Fred sometimes made a point to
exclude him, being that they were dittos, and him being a natural
child. His mother explaned that dittos were cloned children, grown
inside the spaceship to help populate the planet and that sometimes
they suffered something called an "inferiority complex" and Jason
should be patient with them.

Stephanie never had that problem. She and Jason were drawn to each
other since they were both very young. Out in the orchard, next to
the new farm lands, she stood close to him while the boys threw rocks
at robots. She pinched her nose and said, "It smells here. That
stuff stinks."

"Dad says it smells a lot worse when they pull it out of the ocean,"
Jason said. "Before they take the salt out of it."

"Why do they have to put it in the ground?" Stephanie asked, watching
as a large autonomic tractor laced the soil with the green, odorous
slime.

"It gives the plants something to eat. Dad says this soil is sterile,
it has no nutrients in it."

"Oh." She picked up a rock and half-heartedly threw it, mimicking her brother.

As they watched the robotic equipment toiling in the endless brown
dirt, a mist drifted in from the east, mingling with the plants and
blocking the sunlight. The temperature dropped a bit and Jason felt
his jacket warm up to compensate. He still felt a chill, though he
knew perfectly well where the mist came from.

"Hey," said Stephanie's brother, Brad, as he and Fred walked up to
them. "Let's go to the edge."

Fred's eyes were wide, and a smile covered his freckled face. "Yeah!"
he said. "We're gonna throw rocks at the monsters!"

Stephanie looked unsure. Jason didn't move at all.

The two boys walked off a few steps then stopped, turning around.
"You coming?" Fred asked.

"I can't go there." Jason said. "It's dangerous."

"We've been there before," Brad said. "There's nothing to it."

To Jason's surprise, Stephanie looked interested. "I went with them,
once," she told him. "It's really no big deal."

"But ... it's dangerous."

"It's _dangerous_, it's _dangerous_," Fred said, mocking him. "What's
wrong? You're too precious to your mommy and daddy? You're so
special 'cause your 'naturally born?'" Fred smirked at him. "I think
you're afraid. You're afraid 'cause you're still experiencing your
birth trauma."

"I am not!"

"You are too. Natural babies have birth trauma, that's why they're
cowards. Dittos like us aren't afraid of _anything_." Brad turned
away. "Come on, Brad."

Brad motioned for his sister to follow, then turned and walked off
after Fred. Stephanie looked after them, then turned back to Jason.
"Let's go."

"I can't."

"I'm not supposed to, either, but I'm going." She gave him a deep,
meaningful look which Jason didn't understand, then she turned and
trotted to catch up to the others. Jason saw her fading into the mist
and his feet took on a life of their own, one foot stepping in front
of the other, carrying him after her even as the rest of him yearned
for the safety of home.

They passed through pine trees, walnut and apple trees, then through a
field of corn. He caught up to them and followed without a word,
staring at Stephanie's back and the strands of her hair as it bounced
with each step. They came to a clearing and the mist grew thick as
paste. Jason had never been this close; about thirty meters beyond,
the edge of the canyon cut across the land.

They walked a bit further and then Brad motioned for them to stop.
"Listen," he whispered.

Jason listened, expecting to hear a monster's growl. Instead he heard
a low rumbling sound, a noise so deep and hard that it seemed to come
up from the ground itself.

"It's louder this time," Fred whispered.

"What is it?" Jason asked.

"It's the water."

"Water?"

"Of course. There's a river down there. Didn't you know that?"

Actually, he did, but his nervousness made it hard for Jason to think clearly.

"The water's warm," Brad said. "It goes through a place where the
ground is really hot. My father took me there once, because he works
in the geothermal plant up in the hills."

They continued deeper into the mist, and the rumbling of the water
grew louder. When they came across the ruins of the fence, Jason knew
they were a meter or two from the edge. His could feel his body
shaking, betraying his fear.

The ground squished under their feet. The constant mist kept
everything muddy. Fred dug a porous rock out of the ground and tossed
it out into the void. They listened to hear if a monster growled, but
heard only the rumble of the water.

Brad made his way over the bent posts and strewn metal cables of the
fence and to the edge itself. He crouched there, peering over. Jason
could barely see him, and occasional drifts made him disappear
altogether. After a moment, Fred joined him.

"This is crazy," Jason whispered. Stephanie stood very close to him,
but said nothing. He felt her hand suddenly grab his, and she took a
few steps forward. He followed, each step a thing of torture. At any
moment he expected some horrible creature to leap out at them from the
mist, something with red eyes, gaping mouth and razor sharp claws.

Taking slow, careful steps, he and Stephanie made their way over the
ruined fence to the edge. They had to step down onto a section that
had sunk a half meter, then found a large, comfortable rock. They sat
on the rock, and threw pebbles into the canyon.

"My dad's computer has pictures of plants and stuff from down there,"
Brad said. "They're native plants, way different from the Earth
plants."

"Primitive," Stephanie said. "Dad says they're just learning to come
out of the water."

"They're all gooey looking, like jelly. The leaves are black."

"My dad has pictures of them too," Fred said. "He's got pictures of
some of the monsters, too."

"The big ones?" Brad said. "With the long teeth?"

"Yeah."

"Mean looking?"

"Yeah."

Jason seized upon an idea that would get them away from the canyon.
"I've never seen pictures of the monsters," he said. "My mom told me
they would only give me nightmares."

"What a baby," Fred said.

"I'd like to see them. Can we go look at them?" Jason heard the
pleading tone in his own voice, and braced himself for another insult.
To his surprise Brad passed up the opportunity. Instead, he backed
away from the edge and turned.

"Yeah, okay," Fred said. Jason heard a hint of relief in his voice,
and realized the othes were also afraid. Brad and Fred turned and
walked back toward the fence.

Jason looked at Stephanie, and she gave him a relieved smile. She
still had a hold of his hand. For a moment he had the impulse to lean
forward and kiss her, like he'd seen the teenage kids do. The moment
passed, though he didn't know how she would react.

They stood up together, and when they did, Jason felt the ground begin
to sink away from them. For a split second he had a chance to let go
of Stephanie's hand and leap away, but he didn't he held on tight
and tried to pull her to safty with him.

Like out of a nightmare, Jason felt the sensation of falling. The
ground below them crumbled and fell away. He heard Brad and Fred's
voices yelling out, but they receded.

They hit something, and it jerked Stephanie's hand out of his. They
were immursed in a mass of mud, sliding down, the mud roiling like
liquid. Jason went down into it face first, and then could see
nothing. They crashed through some dark, slippery branches and
plunged tumbling into warm water.

Jason thrashed and kicked. Which way to the surface? He couldn't
see, couldn't tell. The mud made the water black, and he couldn't
touch bottom. A strong current carried him along. Never in his life
had Jason been in water deeper than a bathtub. He had no idea what to
do.

His knees scraped rock and he pushed up, breaking surface. He gasped
for breath and looked around in terror. He could see clearly the
mist hung above him like a ceiling. There were black plants, water,
and boulders all around. He grabbed desperately at the boulder
nearest him before the current could pull him away, and crawled on top
of it. It stuck out like a little island about seven meters from the
west bank. Jason sat, hugging his knees, not knowing what to do.

Then he remembered Stephanie. Getting shakily to his feet, Jason
looked around, searching. He couldn't see a trace of her. Anywhere.

Jason shouted her name. A ghostly imitation of his voice called back:
"..._Stephanie_ ... _Stephanie_ ... _Stephanie_..." An echo. He'd
never head one before, at least not like this. It unnerved him,
remindng him there were monsters all around.

Indeed, far across the water, near the opposite bank, Jason spotted
long dark shapes moving against the current. The sight made him
shudder, and he remembered what his father had told him: "If the fall
into the canyon doesn't kill you, the monsters certainly will."

Jason looked around frantically, wanting to get away from the water
and up onto the bank. It didn't look possible, as the rocks didn't
lead to it, and the water looked deep. He glanced back toward where
he'd fallen in, and only saw dark rubbery plants. Despite his fears,
he called out Stephanie's name once more. Again the echoes came back
to haunt him. Her voice didn't answer.

Hearing a loud splash, Jason turned to see a something large and dark
in the water next to him. Five times longer than Jason, it slid
through the current with eerie undulating motions; two bulging eyes
protruding from the water each the size of a grown man's fist. The
eyes were black on black, with no hint of pupil. It edged against the
current, coming even closer.

Jason screamed and leaped headlong away from it, jumping as far as he
could toward shore. He floundered in the water, splashing, keeping
his head above the surface. The current helped, carrying him closer.
He managed to catch hold of a rubbery plant and pull himself to the
bank, scrambling out of the water. Tiny, multi-legged animals
skittered away from him, and a couple odd-looking things with
spring-loaded tails launched themselves into the air. The gooey mud
and the plants smelled horrible, but Jason crawled through them
without a thought, then stumbled into a pathway.

The pathway looked like a corridor through the rubbery plants.
Whatever made it had to be very large. Glancing down, Jason saw
thousands of huge claw marks in the mud.

He called out once again for Stephanie, and followed the path back
toward the place they'd come sliding down into the canyon. Jason
found the spot easily. The plants were torn and half buried, and the
path had been wiped out. Jason searched through the mud and the
plants and looked out across the river, but saw no sign of her. He
turned around and headed downstream, calling her name.

The path led up and away from the river, and into the mist. The mist
slowed him down. At one point the path widened and split, and Jason
stopped, trying to see through the swirling white. One part of the
split path angled back toward the water, the other headed up toward
the canyon wall. Hoping to find Stephanie, Jason chose the lower
path.

The rush of the water grew particularly loud, but above it Jason heard
something odd. A high, hard snorting sound. He paused, turning to
stare through the mist. He saw a shadow looming in the path, a huge
head on a long thin neck, bristling with thick, whisker-like feelers.
The body stretched out into the mist and disappeared, too big to see
all at once.

Snorting air through nostrils at the top of its head, it moved
forward, feelers tapping at the ground and waving in the air in front
of it. Jason jumped headlong through the plants, away from the path,
and up against a large rounded boulder. Pressing against the boulder
he waited, hardly daring to breathe. He could see the beast through
the tangle of glistening black branches. It continued past, moving
with a bobbing motion, its serpentine body going on and on. The legs
were thick but short, and Jason saw the long, bony claws that had made
all the tracks. Each claw stretched as long as his arm.

After it passed, Jason stepped out to the path and followed it, ready
to turn and run if the beast stopped. His fear had diminished
considerably, as he thought of the creature as stupid and probably
blind. Its size made him feel comfortable, too. He couldn't imagine
anything attacking it. As long as he stayed close behind, he'd be
safe.

As the path dipped down toward the river, Jason passed below the mist
line, and for the first time he saw the whole creature at once. The
sight chilled him. It looked twice as big as his house.

The monster made its way down to shore and plunged into the water,
disappearing under the surface. While following along, Jason stumbled
and tripped. He looked down to see something hard, thin, and shiny:
a metal cable, half-buried in the mud.

Jason recognized it immediately as part of the fence from up above.
It looked like one of the creatures had gotten tangled in it and
pulled it down into the canyon. Jason followed it with his eyes to
the water, seeing it haphazardly strewn about, then spotted something
that made him shout. It looked like Stephanie out in the river,
clinging to the fence.

Jumping into the warm, dark water, he pulled himself along the mangled
cable. The nearer he got to her, however, the less he liked what he
saw. Only an arm and a leg were out of the water. The current held
Stephany against it, caught like in a net. Jason grabbed her arm and
pulled her head out above the surface, grimacing as it lolled about,
liquid dripping out of her open mouth and nose. "Stephanie?" he said.

Her skin still felt warm from the water, but her color looked too
pale. Her eyes were closed. She wouldn't answer him or wake up when
he shook her.

"I'll get you back up, Stephanie," Jason whispered. "You're a ditto,
they can fix you." Still holding her arm, he pulled her toward shore
using the fence as a lifeline. As he went, he realized that the fence
not only led out of the water, but up out of the canyon. He could see
it, a trail of smashed plants along the shore and a line tracing up
the canyon wall and into the mists above.

He managed to pull Stephanie onto the shore, and lay her on her back.
Her eyes were now half open, and she seemed to be looking at him, but
she wouldn't move. "You're just scared," he whispered. "You saw the
monsters, and..." He didn't finish. Watching her eyes, he moved his
head back and forth but her blank gaze didn't follow.

A dark, sad thought kept coming to him, but he desperately pushed it
away. Standing up, Jason looked carefully at the track of twisted
fence. On his own he could probably climb straight up the wall of the
canyon, but ... carrying Stephanie? He bent down and tried to pick
her up in his arms, but her limp body wouldn't cooperate. So, taking
one arm in each hand, he dragged Stephanie along the claw-marked path,
making it as far as the junction before seeing another one of the
monsters.

Smaller than the last one but looking more alert, it came down the
path from the canyon wall waving its feelers and snorting. Jason saw
eyes that looked like black glass imbedded in its head. They seemed
to be staring at him, and he gasped in fear and dragged Stephanie back
to the spot where he'd hidden from the other one, pulling her through
the branches and up against the boulder. The snorting sound followed
him, and he saw the feelers enter the tangle of branches and the head
poke its way through.

He pulled Stephanie around the rock and beyond, pushing deeper into
the tangle. The beast followed, reaching the boulder and pushing it
out of the way. The boulder rolled up onto one side and tottered.
Jason, struggling to pull Stephanie through the tangle of rubbery
plants, felt something hit him lightly on the leg and then on his
shoulder. He looked up and saw feelers wavering above his head and a
large mouth slightly open, easily big enough to swallow both Stephanie
and himself at the same time. "Go away!" Jason shouted at the thing.
"Leave us alone!" He swung angrily at the feelers, and managed to
connect.

At the same time, the teetering boulder lost its balance and rolled
over, landing on one of the creature's feet. The creature snorted
once, then reared up with a loud, huffing grunt, turning back to
attack the boulder. Jason quickly took a hold of Stephanie and
resumed pulling her through the tangle.

He found the fence and followed it up into the mists to the canyon
wall. At the wall he saw large holes and claw marks dug into the
sandstone. The fence made a good ladder, but Jason couldn't climb and
hold onto Stephanie at the same time. He stood with her body crumpled
at his feet, wondering what to do. Somewhere in the foliage behind
him he could hear one of the beasts crashing around.

Finally Jason pulled Stephanie's jacket off of her and used the
sleeves to make a sling. He looped it under her arms and over his,
then managed to get to his feet. This way he wore Stephanie like a
backpack, though a heavy one. Taking one last determined breath,
Jason began climbing the mangled fence.

The crashing and snorting sounds of the beast came closer. Jason
paused in his climbing and looked around, but he could see nothing
through the swirling white. He resumed his climb, going slowly,
making sure of his grip. Carrying the weight of two people wore him
out immediately, and he began wondering just how far he'd be able to
climb.

The snorting sound now came from right below him. Jason looked down
and saw a shadow in the mist, and feelers tapping at the wall just
under his feet. It motivated him to climb another several meters, but
then he had to stop and hang on. His breath just couldn't come fast
enough, and Stephanie felt twice as heavy. She pulled down on him,
trying to make him fall. Jason started feeling angry about it. Why
did she have to go to the canyon? he thought. Why did she make me
follow her?

He remembered the way she always looked at him. He remembered her
smile. The way she whispered secrets in his ear, and told him things
that made him laugh.

Hanging there in the mist, he began to cry. He felt so hopeless. His
denial of the truth couldn't continue. Either the fall had killed her
or she had drowned.

The fence gave a sudden lurch. The cables in his hands tightened and
gave off a peculiar twang, and slid down a half meter. With horror
Jason saw the monster coming up at him.

From above, he heard voices. Distant, grown-up voices. "There's
something climbing up the fence!" a man's voice shouted. "Over here!"

Jason yelled out for help as loud as his tired lungs could muster,
then he hung there, panting. Once again, he felt the rude tapping of
a feeler on his leg, and in annoyance and spite he gave it a kick.
The monster gave off a fierce snort.

"Heeeeeelllpppp!" Jason yelled. He tried climbing some, but couldn't.
It took all his effort just to hang on.

"We found the kids!" someone shoued. "Over here! Quick!" Jason
heard scrambling sounds, like boots sliding on dirt, and little rocks
came tumbling down on him. "Stephanie! Jason!" the man's voice
yelled. "Stay where you are, we're coming down to you!"

The monster's head lunged upwards, huge claws raking at the canyon
wall. The feelers were all over Jason now, tapping, prodding. The
head moved slowly up and back, nose coming down, its mouth level with
Jason's shoulders. Claws sunk into the sandstone to either side of
him. The snorting sounds were very loud, and close together, sounding
excited.

"Hang on, kids!" came the call again from above. Jason could feel
vibrations in the cables, like someone making their way leisurely down
toward him. The feelers were slapping up against him so hard they
were nearly knocking him off. He saw the gaping mouth open, and the
long, sharp teeth only a meter away. Jason couldn't climb up.
Instead, he began climbing down.

The creature leaned forward to bite, but its nose hit the sandstone a
half meter above Jason's head. It snorted and pulled back. Jason
climbed down another few meters. The creature moved its head back and
forth in frustration, unable to bend its neck down far enough to reach
him.

Jason heard more yelling from above, but couldn't make sense of the
frantic words. He kept looking at the huge mass of the beast's grey
green belly an arm length away. He heard a horrible scraping sound as
the beast's claws slid over the sandstone it had lowered its body
so that it could reach him. Jason climbed down further.

"Kids!" a voice yelled. "Keep as close to the cliff as you can!"
After a moment, Jason heard a series of hard, loud concussions. Claws
raked past Jason, digging deep furrows into the cliff wall. When the
beast's head passed it snorted a spray of cold, sticky blood. It fell
away into the mist. He heard a loud crash below, then angry
thrashing. Looking up, he could see a pair of boots descending toward
him. In a moment he saw the man's face, and recognized him as one of
his neighbors. A smoking rifle hung from his shoulder by a strap.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

It took a moment for Jason to answer. "I can't climb anymore," he
finally said, his voice full of shame. "She's too heavy."

The man eyed Jason and then his burden. His face creased in pain, but
he forced a smile. "You made it this far. That's pretty damn good if
you ask me."

With the man's help, and the help of others who came down from above,
Jason made it out of the canyon and into his mother's arms. She
hugged him eagerly, but he only felt numb. He kept glancing over at
Stephanie's family, feeling pains of guilt and remorse. They were
very silent when they left, the father carrying Stephanie's limp body.

"Thank God," his mother whispered. She hugged him and rocked him back
and forth like a baby. "Thank God you're okay. Thank God." She
wouldn't stop crying.

During the months that followed, Jason's parents hardly let him out of
their sight, let alone out of their yard. Brad and Fred occasionally
came by to see him, but they were distant and very subdued. Jason
thought they blamed him for what happened to Stephanie, but as time
passed, he realized it had something to do with them being dittos.
His father explained that clones like Brad, Fred, and Stephanie were
replaceable unlike himself.

A little over nine months passed before Jason heard about Stephanie
being reborn. Her mother and father brought her over so that Jason
could see her. They called him a hero for trying so hard to bring her
out of the canyon.

Jason felt perplexed when they held out a tiny bundle of blankets. He
held her in his arms, a little figure with no hair and stubby arms and
legs. He could see a little of Stephanie in the baby's face, but not
much.

When they left, he tugged on his mother's sleeve and said, "I don't
think she's really Stephanie."

"Yes she is, Jason. It's just that she's younger than before."

He didn't believe her. He couldn't. Even later when Jason fully
understood the concept, the new Stephanie didn't feel like the same
person to him. She grew to look just like the Stephanie he knew; she
acted the same, talked the same ... but she didn't look at Jason the
same.

Over the years the colony's forests and farmlands spread past the
horizon, and thousands upon thousands of new people came there to live
and work. Jason, as a man, often walked to the canyon's edge and
stared into the mists, throwing rocks and, sometimes, even calling out
Stephanie's name. When the ghostly echoes came back he thought of it
as her spirit answering him. During these times he would leave the
canyon feeling a little better, a little lighter, as if she had
reached out through the mist and touched him.