I nodded in agreement. West had history to him. Some people were just like that. You just looked at them and could tell there was a story behind their face. “He’s keeping a secret.”
“Like what?” Avian asked.
I shook my head. “I’m not sure. He knows something.”
Avian was quiet, unsure of what to say, echoing my own hesitation. I didn’t like being uncertain about people, especially when those people could end the lives of the others around me.
“Happy birthday, Eve,” Avian said quietly. He extended a hand to me, a small box in his palm.
A smile tugged at my lips. “My birthday.”
It probably wasn’t my real birthday. Having no memory of anything when I came to Eden, Sarah insisted we pick a day as my birthday. Some date to mark the years of my life as they passed. I had no idea the date had come.
“There was once a time when turning eighteen meant something. It used to be a big deal.”
I took the box from his hand. It was simple, nothing special to it. I pulled it open and something light and shiny fell into my palm. I held it up to the light. It was a silver necklace, attached to it was a tiny set of wings, carved out of a soft black stone.
I took the wings gently in my fingers. They seemed so delicate, yet hard at the same time. I knew I must be gentle with it or it would break. It was the most elegant piece of craftsmanship I had seen.
I smiled as I recalled the conversation Avian and I had had when I was about fourteen. I had asked him what his name meant. He explained that his father had been a pilot and his mother had loved birds. Avian related to things to do with birds and flight. To give remembrance his parents he had gotten two small birds tattooed onto his left breast, just above his heart. I had loved Avian’s name ever since.
“May I?” he asked.
I only nodded. He took the necklace and fastened the clasp behind my neck. His hands felt warm as they brushed my skin, causing goosebumps to rise on my flesh. He sat back and observed where it lay on my chest.
“You made it,” I stated, picking it up again to observe the flawless details. The feathers looked so soft I brushed my fingers over them, expecting soft plume instead of hard stone.
He only nodded, his eyes still looking at his creation. “I didn’t want your birthday to go by without some notice. It’s an important day for you.”
“It doesn’t feel important,” I said as I lowered the necklace to my chest again.
“It is,” Avian said, his eyes going back to Eden.
And we sat there on the hard earth, our shoulders barely brushing, until the sky went black and the stars shone with burning intensity.
SIX
I cinched my pack tighter as I walked out of the armory. A blade was strapped to each of my legs, a handgun secured in my belt, and a rifle rested in my left hand. I stood to the side of the entryway as Graye looked at me with serious eyes and ducked inside. Bill joined us a few moments later.
“Same as always?” I asked as they both looked to me. They nodded their heads, Graye shifting a gun into his other hand, Bill strapping a blade to his arm.
“Just a minute, Eve.” I turned to see Gabriel walking toward us, West following two steps behind. “I want you to take him with you.”
“We can handle it, Gabriel,” I said as I turned back to my scouting partners.
“I’m not asking, Eve,” he said sternly as he joined our small circle. “With Tye’s loss we need him. I won’t leave us unprotected because of your pride.”
“Fine,” I said as I stalked into the armory. I grabbed a rifle and walked back out. I raised my eyebrows slightly at West as I handed it over. “Keep up.”
I headed toward the tree line. West kept just two steps behind me.
Graye took to the northern border, Bill to the west. We kept a constant circle around Eden. I was a little disappointed to see that West had not chosen to follow Bill or Graye.
I kept my eyes to the trees, my ears alert. Maybe I could just simply ignore West’s presence. Maybe he’d get the message that I didn’t want him there and go scout on his own.
“What have I done to make you hate me?” West suddenly demanded. His unexpected words stopped me in my tracks. “You don’t… you don’t even know me.”
I whipped around, all of my defenses instantly bristling. “That’s the point. I don’t know you. I don’t know if I can trust you.”
“And how do I know if I can trust you?” he asked, his voice dropping low. “How do I know that you aren’t just going to turn that blade on me out here where no one can see us?”
“You don’t,” I said. “But I wouldn’t do that. We need you.”
“Exactly,” he said smugly.
My eyes hardened as I held his. I wanted to wipe the annoying little smile off his face with the butt of my gun.
“Just stay out of my way,” I hissed as I turned and started walking east.
“Why do they treat you different?” he asked as he followed me. “Like you’re some kind of leader?”
“Why don’t you find out?” I said as I stopped suddenly, turning cold eyes on him again. When he didn’t say anything, I started walking again.
“’Cause I know how to survive,” I said as I scanned the trees, keeping my ears keen for any misplaced sounds. “Because I help keep them alive.”
“Why are you any better than either of those other two guys?”
“Would you just shut up?!” I hissed as I glared back at him. “You’re going to get us both killed!”
West threw both hands up in defense, his rifle pointing toward the blue skies. “There isn’t anything anywhere near here. We haven’t seen anything since the first day we left our camp.”
I stared at him in disbelief for a second. Did he honestly think that meant he could let his guard down?
Finally, I just shook my head and kept walking.
The necklace Avian had given me bounced on my chest as I walked, its surface cool and hard. The light reflecting off it blinded my vision for a fraction of a second.
A memory stirred.
I’d seen this necklace before.
“Graye!” I screamed as we headed back into an alley. “Leave it! We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Hang on! I’ll be right back. I’ve got to grab something!” The helicopter above our heads nearly drowned his voice out.
“Graye!” I screamed, but it was too late, he had already dashed back out into the street. At the same time, Tye jumped out from behind me, dropping his pack full of supplies beside me.
I was about to dart after them when a strong hand grabbed hold of my arm. I whipped around to see Bill shaking his head at me. “We don’t all need to get caught.”
I stared at him wide-eyed, yet knowing what he said was the truth. I wasn’t thinking clearly. But what was Graye doing? We had everything we needed. What could he possibly be going back for?
A light shone overhead from the circling helicopter. We ducked behind a long unused Dumpster, dropping into the shadows. The faint sound of glass breaking was followed by the roar of a Bane’s ATV.
Twenty seconds later we saw a flash of light from in front of the building as the Bane exploded and Graye and Tye came running around the corner. The glint of the circling light overhead reflected off an object in Graye’s hand.
An hour later Tye’s eye had hardened and turned metallic.
My breathing came in shallow breaths as I looked back down at the necklace and my fingers encircled it. Avian had asked Graye to grab it for me on the raid. Tye had saved him from being touched but had been infected himself. Tye had died to get Avian’s gift for me.
“Why are we stopping?” I jumped when West’s voice was too close behind me. His eyes scanned the trees for the reason for my hesitation.
“Nothing. Why don’t you take the south trail? You don’t need me to babysit you,” I said as my brow furrowed, my fingers closing tighter around the pair of wings.
West gave me a concerned look but
nodded and started walking in the direction I had told him to.
My blood burned with fury. Why would Avian risk so much for something so stupid? Something so unnecessary? Tye’s death was in no way worth the shiny bobble I wasn’t sure I even wanted anymore.
Taking two seconds to collect myself, I started off toward the eastern border. I wouldn’t let myself get distracted on scouting duty. I wouldn’t let a Bane slip past me because I was regretting things I had no control over.
The terrain took a steady climb upward when I reached the limits of our boundaries. I took two steps backward before sprinting forward and then launching myself onto a branch of a wide-leafed tree. I pulled myself higher into the branches, twigs and leaves brushing my skin as I ascended. When the branches began to thin and bow under my weight I settled.
Valleys and low mountains spread before me. At one time this was a part of something, belonging to some state or city. None of that mattered anymore. Once the infection got you, nothing mattered anymore, except for turning the rest of us into nothing too.
And beyond where I could see, there was an entire city of Bane. And more cities full of them beyond that.
There were a few rules when it came to the Bane:
A Bane will always try to infect you. They won’t try and kill you, but they will be very aggressive in trying to immobilize you.
They sleep at night. If you’re going to attempt a raid on a city, your best chance is during the night. For some reason they liked the sun. Maybe it charged them, made them more powerful. Maybe it was just an echo of their human selves.
They generally stick to the cities.
But the rules seemed to be changing. Tye wouldn’t be dead if they weren’t. They wouldn’t have attacked us on the night he died. They wouldn’t have been in that helicopter or on the ATV. And we wouldn’t have to scout the woods if they weren’t wandering away from the cities.
A movement below me caught my attention. It could have been nothing, a breeze I hadn’t felt, an animal stalking through the forest. Nonetheless, I was down the tree in less than five seconds and moving through the woods on silent feet.
Something breathed a few yards away, a heavy sound, reverberating through a chest too big to be human. A musky smell floated in my direction, the scent of wet fur.
It saw me the same time I saw it. A recently woken brown bear.
Adrenaline shot through my system in an intoxicating way. I grabbed for my blade and the bear realized it was in danger. It took lumbering bounds toward me.
I leapt at my opponent, blade gleaming in the air, and swung. It connected with the bear’s throat, though as I had expected, it wasn’t enough to take it down. The beast gave a ferocious cry and swiped at me with a massive paw. I jumped out of its path, reaching to my belt for my handgun. At the same time another shot was fired from above my right shoulder.
I shouldn’t have gotten distracted by the shot. I was a better hunter than that.
In the half-second I glanced back at West, the bear leapt at me, angry and fearful. Blood seeped into his fur from the bullet wound. That was all I noticed as his gigantic paws swiped at me.
I landed a good four feet from the creature and by the time I rolled over to spring back up, it was on top of me again, its teeth bared as it gave an irate growl in my face.
I pulled my handgun once again and fired one shot straight up into the bear’s heart.
It collapsed on top of me with crushing force.
“Eve!” West’s shout came from somewhere behind the mass of the bear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would keep coming at you after I shot it!”
Bracing my hands against the bulk of the beast, I shoved with everything I had. It was just enough to roll it off of me and wiggle out. I stood, wiping my hands, and noticed West’s wide-eyed expression.
“What?” I asked, annoyance in my voice.
He blinked twice and then shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s get this thing back to camp.”
We hacked off what we could, packing as much of the eighteen-hundred-pound beast as we could manage and set off through the woods.
“What was it like?” West suddenly asked as we huffed from our loads, struggling through the forest. “Where you came from, before here?”
“You really ask too many questions,” I said as I wiped my arm across my forehead quickly. When he didn’t say anything in response, I shook my head, irritated. “I don’t remember anything before I came here. Eden has taken care of me, Gabriel mostly, Sarah. Avian when I needed him.”
He seemed to be mulling that information over. We were quiet for a while as we hauled our load. I was looking forward to eating the fatty meat of the bear tonight but at the same time I wished we hadn’t wandered this far from Eden before finding it.
People buzzed with excitement as we dragged the pieces of bear through camp to the mess hall. I left them and West to take care of the meat that would feed us for days.
I walked toward my tent, passing by the newly set up tents. Just as I was about to slip by, a mass of red hair stepped out, followed by an explosion of Brady. The boy giggled as he raced out and hid behind another tent.
“Brady, stay here!” Victoria said, her voice alarmed.
I paused, feeling awkward just walking away when we stood in such close proximity, but not knowing what to say to this person I didn’t know.
“I’m sorry if he startled you,” she said apologetically as she grabbed Brady’s hand and pulled him back to her side. “He’s restless. We’ve been running so long, he’s not sure what to do with himself now.”
“He’s an active boy,” I tried to make conversation. “He needs that to be a survivor.”
Victoria only gave a nod. “He’s a good man you know,” she said, her voice dropping a bit. “I mean West. I can tell you don’t like him, but we wouldn’t have survived out there without him.”
I stiffened. Was my hesitancy about him so obvious? Feeling the awkwardness double, I gave a nod and continued on to my tent.
That night, after the rest of the bear had been retrieved and the other food had been cleared away, the stars started to wink into the sky. I sat beside the fire in front of my tent, staring into the flames.
I had avoided Avian all day. I didn’t know how I was going to react to him when I had to face him. What he had asked Graye to do was stupid. I didn’t need the necklace. It was just a silly little thing. It wasn’t going to help me or anyone else survive. Why had he bothered?
My thoughts turned to Tye. He often joined me in my solitude, if he would leave his post. We shared that. Neither of us liked having to take time away from our duties. There were nights we would both sit here, staring into the flames in silence, wishing we could be scouting the woods, or keeping watch in the tower. Now he was gone, nothing but a pile of ashes thrown into the wind.
The ground crunched as someone walked toward me. I didn’t look up from the flames, not really caring who it was that joined me. We sat in the darkening silence, two people lost in their own thoughts.
“She told me you saved them,” I eventually said to the flames.
West didn’t say anything.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so cold to you. I don’t trust people easily.”
He was quiet for a few moments. He shifted positions, sitting forward, his forearms resting on his knees. “He’s her son, you know. Brady.”
I wasn’t completely surprised by this. Part of me had assumed he was but when I thought of how old Brady was and how young Victoria looked, the numbers didn’t add up.
“Victoria was fifteen when a man forced himself on her. She joined our camp when Brady was only fourteen months old. He’s four now and she’s only nineteen. She’s only a few months older than I am.”
I shook my head, disgust filling my stomach. It explained why she reacted the way she did when Avian tried to fix her foot, like she couldn’t stand the thought of him touching her.
My eyes remained glued to the flames, I couldn’t think of an
ything to say. Conversation was something I wasn’t good at. I was good at most of the things I did but talking wasn’t one of them.
West checked something in the inside pocket of his jacket, securing it like it was something precious. I diverted my eyes when he glanced over at me to make sure I hadn’t seen.
West kept secrets. In our wrecked world, secrets could be dangerous but weren’t we each entitled to them?
SEVEN
I was woken in the early hours of the next morning by the sound of Sarah’s wheezing coughs. I tried to ignore it at first. But as the sound of her coughing intensified I rolled onto my side to face her.
“Sarah, are you alright?” I asked quietly through the dark.
She didn’t answer me but her coughing paused. It took me two full seconds before I realized what had happened, why she was suddenly so deathly quiet. She had stopped breathing.
“Sarah!” I said in a panicked whisper. I was out of my bed and across the tent. Through the dim morning light I could see that Sarah’s skin was covered in sweat and her eyes looked sunken, her lips the wrong color. Without another second’s hesitation, I scooped her up in my arms and barreled out the tent.
Sarah’s head jostled around as I ran with her in my arms. Her eyes slid partially open. They were rolled into the back of her head, looking frighteningly gray. She still wasn’t breathing and her lips were turning an ugly shade of purple.
“Avian!” I cried as I neared his tent. “Avian! Wake up!”
I didn’t even hesitate as I plowed through the flaps of the tent and stumbled inside. My arms shook as Sarah’s body limply lay in my arms. “Avian, wake up!”
He jerked up from his cot, his eyes wide but unfocused with sleep. “What… Eve…?”
“Sarah!” I cried, frustrated that he didn’t understand what was happening. “She’s not breathing!”
This seemed to finally shake the sleep from his brain as he jumped to his feet, taking Sarah from my arms and laying her on his cot. He held his fingers to her neck, sitting quiet for a moment.