I couldn’t sleep any longer and there was no way I was going to sit around and wait until dark. Strapping the pack to my back tight, I topped off the motorcycle with the gas. It didn’t require much and I had plenty left over once it was full. Finding some ties in the tiny storage compartment in the back of the bike, I strapped the gas can on for when I would need it later.
The motorcycle growled to life and I took off down the coast.
This had to be an advantage for me, for New Eden. The way the Bane had listened to me was precise. There was no hesitation in their obedience. They’d gotten exactly what I’d needed without me saying a word.
There had to be a way I could use this to help me get home. To protect those around me.
It started raining not five minutes after I got back on the road. I was soaked once again in under a minute. It was a relief to not have my hair sticking to my face from the rain, but my head was freezing cold.
The rain would start and stop for the next hour but the gray clouds overhead never left.
Something loomed ahead and I wiped the water from my eyes, trying to see what was coming up.
It looked like there was a big river or maybe a bay ahead of me. A bridge stretched over a huge expanse of water and on the other side there looked to be a town. I started across.
Just then, the sun broke from the clouds and the rain stopped.
And as soon as the sun broke, Bane erupted from every building, every car, and every overhang.
I screeched to a halt on the bridge, the back tire of the bike lifting slightly. My chest bumped the fuel tank as I slid forward with my abrupt stop.
The ground looked like it was moving, constantly shifting, there were so many bodies. There had to be hundreds of thousands of Bane. I’d seen a sign as I hit the halfway point on the bridge, a sign that had said some town name and listed the population as just under ten-thousand.
These Bane had come from somewhere else.
I narrowed my enhanced eyes, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
Batches of them crushed cars to flat metal disks. Others broke windows, and things started flying out them as they ransacked the buildings. And then the explosions started.
Building after building started coming down.
They moved like clockwork. Thousands of them moved in a direct line, going block by block, searching each building and then leveling it.
A small flash of light caught my eyes. There were five Bane standing in a line behind the others, in a straight line. But these looked different from the others. They literally had no flesh left on their frames. Metallic bones held in pulsing and ticking organs.
“What are you doing out there? Are you trying to get infected?”
My head whipped to the right, toward a hissing voice.
A pair of brown eyes peaked up at me from the side of the bridge, down on the small beach at the land and water’s edge. He waved me over.
Glancing back at the unbelievable scene before me, I climbed off my bike, leaving it in the middle of the road, and ran to the man’s hiding place.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked as I ducked under the road next to him.
He was dressed in survival gear and had one rifle and one shotgun crossed over his back. He held a crossbow in one hand.
“Studying,” he said, his voice gruff. He looked to be in his forties, wrinkles sprouting from the corners of his eyes. His hair was shaggy, his beard knotted and tangled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Something’s changing out there,” he said, his expression growing dark. “I first noticed it in Minneapolis. You saw those freaky looking ones? The ones with no traces of skin on them?”
I nodded.
“They’re first gens,” he said, his eyes glancing back toward the road, and then back to me. “The source. They were the first ones to get TorBane.”
“How do you know?” I questioned.
“Because one of them is my father,” he said, his jaw tightening. “He got a heart upgrade in the beginning. I’d been overseas in the Navy when all this happened. When I got back, he’d already lost his humanity. A lot of people had. So I watched him. I’ve been tracking him for the past six years. He’s one of the first gens.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. It made sense. The longer you were infected, the more machine-like you became. I’d already seen that.
“Two other first gens found him about three months ago,” the man said, again looking toward the road. “They started going through houses and tearing them apart. And I mean leveling them. They’ve been looking for people, anyone who’s left. And as they moved through the city, any awake Bane they came across went with them. They started growing an army. All the others, they seem to be following the first gens.”
“Hang on,” I said, holding a hand up. “That can’t be possible. The Bane cannot be smart enough to create an army.”
“Did you not just see what is happening in that town?” he asked, his eyes blazing. He pointed a finger toward the city. “Can you not call that an army?”
I swore under my breath. He was right. It was an army.
“They’re moving like the black plague,” he continued. “They’re marching in a line, perfectly east to west. They’re leveling houses, forests, anything that might hide people. And anyone they find, they infect. They’re thinking like a machine. They’re doing precise sweeps.”
“They’ve reached the coast now,” I said, trying to bring up a map I’d seen of or continent. “What do you think they’ll do now?”
“I expect they’ll turn, make a sweep west to east until they reach the east coast. If they’re really thinking like a machine, that’s how a machine would do it.”
“And you’ve what?” I asked. “You’ve just been following them?”
He nodded. “I have an all-terrain vehicle,” he said, inclining his head back toward the city. “I’ve been trying to get out ahead of them, find anyone I can. Warn them to get out.”
“Have you found anyone?” I asked, hope surging in my chest.
His eyes grew dark. “I’ve come across five people, in two different locations. I told them to head north. My guess is that they’ll shift south now that they’ve reached the coast.”
“How long do you think it’ll take them to reach Los Angeles?” I asked, fear gripping my chest.
He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly as he shook his head. “No for sure way to tell. I’m guessing they’ll continue sweeping east to west, west to east. They’re gaining speed. They keep collecting more Bane as they move, and they haven’t even hit any major cities yet. I can’t imagine how their numbers are going to grow when they hit Chicago or Portland. Or, shit, New York. The more Bane they have, the faster they can work and the wider the sweep they can do.”
“How long?” I asked again.
“I’d guess six months,” he said with a shrug. “But probably shorter. They could have hundreds of millions of them by the time they hit Los Angeles. Why do you ask about that location?”
I hesitated. My trust in mankind was greatly compromised after what had just happened to me in Seattle. However, this man hadn’t asked me any questions before spilling all of his information.
“Because that’s where I’m from. There are over one hundred of us living there. There are probably still more in hiding.”
“Wow,” he said, his eyes growing wider. “That’s the biggest colony I’ve heard of.”
“And it’s going to be obliterated if that many Bane show up to level it,” I said quietly, my thoughts racing.
We had to get the Pulse ready for more than one reason now.
We needed to build more of it if possible.
“If you’re from Los Angeles, what are you doing this far north?” he asked. Suddenly his eyes jumped to my hair line. “And what happened to you, child?”
“Some of us humans are getting desperate,” I said with my jaw clenched.
“It wa
s one of us that did that?” he asked, disgust in his voice.
I nodded.
“I’m sorry to hear it,” he said, his eyes growing softer. “What’s your name?”
“Eve,” I said.
“I’m Tom,” he offered, shifting the firearms on his back.
“Nice to meet you, Tom,” I said. And I meant it. In a way, Tom reminded me of Bill. A little rough around the edges, but at his core, he was a good man.
He simply gave a smile and a nod in return.
We hid there the rest of the day, sharing what information we each had. But neither of us learned anything new. The Bane were Evolving, they’d soon take us over.
The sound of destruction from the town never stopped.
There were explosions almost constantly. Tom said they managed to find explosives wherever they went, but much of the sounds we were hearing were gas lines being broken and lit. There were grinding sounds as buildings came down and homes and businesses were destroyed.
“Did you find anyone here?” I asked. The Bane had moved to the south end of the city and he and I sat on the bank, watching the destruction. Half the city burned, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.
Tom shook his head.
“When those people took me,” I said, running a hand over my bald head. “They told me there was less than half a percent left of the human population left.”
“That sounds about right,” Tom said, shaking his head.
“Something’s got to happen soon or we’re done for.”
“I’ve kept thinking that someday someone would come and light the way, to have the answers and this would all end,” Tom said, his voice growing quiet. “Seems it’s too late for that now.”
I remembered Tristan’s words. About me being the key to saving them all.
No matter how much I wished I could save this planet, I didn’t see how that could ever be possible.
Evening started to fall and the sounds grew less intense.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Tom said, standing. “I don’t normally linger this long. I’d better get moving. There’s always another town.”
I stood as well, tightening the pack on my back. “Thank you, Tom. You might have just saved my family.”
“I’ll keep warning people until I get caught,” he said, giving a shrug. “I’ll use this on myself though before I let myself turn.” He patted his shotgun.
“Stay safe, Tom,” I said with a nod.
He saluted me and started down the road. He didn’t go far before he climbed onto an ATV I hadn’t even noticed. It was well camouflaged with neutral paint. The engine growled and he took off.
I watched for an hour on the beach. Then there was no city left. Only rubble and smoke.
The army of Bane started marching east, just as Tom had predicted.
SEVENTEEN
It was dark before I dared head out. I turned the headlight on the motorcycle and started walking it through the cluttered street. It took me a long time to make my way through. Broken glass threatened to pop the tires. Busted concrete that was once part of some building blocked the way.
But finally I made it to the other side, back into open trees and clear road.
There were trees. Endless trees. More trees than I could even imagine.
There were tiny towns.
And there was the endless ocean to my right that gave me hope that I would be seeing my family soon. This was the same ocean Avian and I lived next to. Somehow that made him seem not so far away.
Hours passed and one state became another.
And I started seeing signs that made me pause.
Redwoods National Forest.
Where the Seattle people claimed they were from.
Lies.
The trees here were ancient, towering. They blocked out the starlight, creating a dark tunnel. The temperature dropped and the world grew eerily quiet. A barely-there skiff of snow covered the branches and ground.
My speed must have been pushing eighty miles per hour, so when the hulking object in the middle of the overgrown road came into my limited view, I didn’t have enough time to stop.
I slammed on the breaks and swerved just a little too hard to the right. Losing traction on the frosty road, the back tire came up as the bike turned and I was on the ground, sliding with the bike. We both slammed into something metal and large.
Gingerly picking myself off the ground, I saw what looked a lot like a track wheel where the motorcycle illuminated the object in the dark. I righted the mangled motorcycle, backing up to give light to the entire mass.
The words NEW EDEN were painted in big, bold, black letters on the side of the tank.
“Avian!” I screamed. “Royce? Gabriel!”
Adrenaline burned through my system and for the first time in the last three weeks, I felt truly alive again.
I dragged the motorcycle back, making the circle of light larger. I jumped up on the track wheel and climbed up to the hatch.
“Avian!” I yelled again as I struggled with the lock. “Bill?”
Finally unlocking it, I heaved the hatch open and peered into the dark.
“Hello?”
But only silence answered me.
I dropped down inside, my eyes struggling to adjust to the nearly nonexistent light. “Hello?”
My blood grew cold.
Grappling through the dark, my fingers found a flashlight and I flipped it on.
The interior of the tank was devoid of life.
Where were they?
I pulled my upper half back up through the hatch of the tank, staring out into the silent night.
“Hello?” I bellowed. “Is anyone out there?”
The trees were silent.
I dropped back into the tank. The light from the flashlight reflected off of something on the floor and I bent to inspect it. It was dark drops of blood and for a moment I was about to go into full panic mode for my family’s safety, when more drops fell to the floor and I realized it was my own. I shined the light on my right arm and found it ground to pieces. Small bits of gravel were embedded in my skin.
Ignoring it for the moment, I swept the flashlight through the interior of the tank again.
It was difficult to tell how many members of New Eden had come in the tank. It was an empty shell that offered no clues.
They could have gotten raided by marauders. But I doubted that. There weren’t many people left in general and anyone who would have come after me would now how to handle themselves.
They could have been found by the Bane, but I doubted that too. There would be nothing about this area that would attract the Bane. Not that there wasn’t a chance they tracked into the area, but I didn’t think that was it.
It circled back to the reason the tank had to be here. The Seattle people had said they were from the Redwoods. New Eden had come after me. Whatever supplies they’d brought with them they took out with them to go look for me.
They were out there. Somewhere.
And I had no doubt that Avian was with them.
I sat on the lip of the hatch the rest of that night, my shotgun ready in my lap. I listened for any trace of sound, but the trees and moss that surrounded me killed any noise.
The sun started creeping through the morning haze, washing the earth in gray light.
While I’d waited for morning to come, I strategized. There had to be thousands of square miles in these forests. Avian and the others could be anywhere.
But there was only one place they’d left the tank.
And eventually they had to come back to it.
I made a small fire as soon as it was light enough for me to find wood that might burn. It was nearly impossible to get it started. Everything here was wet from the snow and I didn’t have a proper flint. But after a half hour of trying, I finally got a small flame.
I blackened one end of a stick and when it was charcoaled enough, I took that end to the side of the tank.
I’m here. Be back at sun dow
n. Wait. -Eve
I stepped back when I was finished writing, making sure it was noticeable enough.
They couldn’t miss it if they came back to the tank.
Dropping the stick off the side of the road and smothering the fire I’d worked so hard to start, I set out through the trees.
I headed east off the highway. If there really was a hiding colony like the Seattle people were supposed to have, that would be the logical direction for a camp. But they wouldn’t go more than a few days from the road and ocean. They would stick to their resources, just like we had back in the mountains.
It made my heart ache as I hiked through the forest. I had missed nature. I had missed trees and moss and soft earth. If I had a choice, I would choose to live in a place like this. Not in a city with endless buildings and concrete.
“Avian!” I shouted every so often as I hiked. “Royce? Bill? Tuck?”
But no one responded.
As the sky started to darken, I made my way back to the tank. My heart started beating faster as I moved back in its direction. I imagined how I would react if I found Avian there, waiting for me. The back of my eyes stung and my chest constricted.
But he wasn’t there when I reached the tank. No one was.
How long had the tank been sitting there? They could have come looking for me as soon as they realized I was gone. I didn’t know how long the fighting had gone on after they’d taken me, but I couldn’t imagine it was long. There had been a fairly large crew when we returned to Seattle. It probably took Avian three or four days to get from New Eden to the forest.
They could have been trooping through these trees for two weeks now.
It might be a few more weeks before they came back to the tank. And I didn’t have that kind of time to wait.
I slept on the hard road that night, again ever grateful that I didn’t feel pain. I tried not shiver the entire time.
In the morning I hiked through the woods. The sun came out and melted the snow.