About a week after the second half of Eden arrived in New Eden, Tuck and his then small crew found three people in a building, hiding and terrified. They were young, ages sixteen, seventeen, and nineteen. They’d survived the last five years by holing up in a police station, locking themselves behind bars during the day, boarding up the doors and windows, and only venturing out in the dead of night to find food and supplies. Two of them were siblings, the youngest another girl they had found. They were all half-starved.
And then a few days later a group of four more survivors walked right into the hospital. They’d been watching us for two days, and finally decided we were safe to approach. They’d all been hiding in a similar way the last few years.
In a city that once had a population of nearly four million, there were now only one hundred forty-three known survivors and a quarter of us had immigrated from elsewhere.
“And lastly, Erik,” Royce said, pulling me back into the room.
“The radio message is up and running still, broadcasting on a constant loop over five different stations,” Dr. Beeson said. “We can’t be sure, but we’re estimating the signal should be able to be heard and found within a fifteen-hundred-mile radius. If someone turns a radio on and scans, they’ll find the message.”
I’d been there when Royce recorded that message. The message that said we’d cleared New Eden, that it was safe, that we could provide food and shelter if one could get here. Royce gave our exact location.
So far no one had come.
Considering how the Bane continued to Evolve, how they’d hunted us down, burned our gardens to starve us out, there was probably no one left out there. The Bane were getting too smart and too aggressive.
Yet I felt uneasy about the message. If they looked, anyone could find it. Just because someone was human didn’t mean they could be trusted.
“And we’re checking incoming signals?” Royce asked.
“All hours of the day,” Dr. Beeson said. “Now that they don’t have the Pulse to focus on, it’s something to keep my team busy.”
Royce chuckled, crinkle lines forming around his eyes. “I can only imagine what a team of bored scientists will do to keep themselves entertained.” This time most of the room did laugh at Royce’s more appropriate joke.
“They’re still mourning that they’re done with their greatest creation,” Dr. Beeson joked. “They’re missing their work on the Pulse.”
“I still think that once we’ve gotten everyone settled in their own residences we should rebuild the energy storage devices,” I said. I wasn’t in charge of anything, the only one in this room without a purpose, but they still allowed me to sit in on these meetings.
“I was just talking to Royce about that this morning,” Dr. Beeson said with a nod. “We have no guarantee that the city will stay clear. Once things settle down with the rehoming, my team will be back on it.”
I nodded. Avian squeezed my knee under the table. He and I discussed the possibility of the Bane migrating back into the city often.
“Unless you have anything more, Gabriel?” Royce said. Gabriel shook his head. “Then I think that is all for today. We’ll meet again same time next week.”
FOUR
Dinner consisted of canned chicken, canned green beans, and canned potatoes. I would have fought off ten Bane if it meant I could have gotten my hands on some fresh spinach or wild berries.
When I was finished eating I started down the hall toward the stairs that led up to my room.
I was just about to pass the medical wing when I heard Avian’s voice.
“—getting worse,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t know that it’s going to get any better while she stays in the city.”
“It certainly sounds like conditional depression.” It was Dr. Sun who replied. “Given her history, it is understandable that she would be having a hard time dealing with all of the changes.”
“She’s worked so hard all her life,” Avian mused. “I never thought I’d say something like this, but I think life is too easy here. She doesn’t know how to handle it.”
“Depression is easy to slip into when you don’t have any goals to work toward.”
Their words stung like a hundred yellow jackets.
Depression. I was depressed?
There wasn’t room in this world for depression.
Balling my fists, I continued down the hall and up the stairs to my room.
I closed the door behind me, leaning back on it. I let my eyes fall closed and pressed my hands in on either side of my head.
Goals. What goals had I had before the Pulse went off?
Survive. Protect my family.
What was I working for anymore?
Nothing.
And it was mentally breaking me.
Letting out a slow breath, internally telling myself to calm down, I opened my eyes.
There was a folded piece of paper lying on my bed. I crossed the room and picked it up. The page was half filled with sloppy handwriting.
You were obsessed with manuals as a kid. You read faster than anyone I’d ever met and you always wanted to read the most boring stuff. Someone left the manual for some piece of equipment in your room once and you read the whole thing in less than an hour. When I came to visit you that afternoon, you recounted every detailed instruction on how to use it to me. Told me how to fix a dozen different problems that might arise with it.
After that, you were obsessively curious about every piece of equipment in the lab. You wanted to know how the treadmill you always ran on worked. You wanted to know how the blood testing machines worked. You wanted to know how everything mechanical worked.
So I started swiping manuals for you. There was this filing cabinet in one of the offices where NovaTor kept them all. So every few days I’d sneak in and take one or two for you. You’d devour them instantly and impatiently wait for me to bring others.
The first time you remember meeting me was when I stole from Eden, but the first time I ever stole something was for you.
My eyes swept the page two or three times. I searched inside of myself, looking for that girl who liked to read boring instruction manuals. But if there was any tiny trace of her in there, I couldn’t find her.
West was playing a game of tactics with me. He knew how desperately I wanted to remember my past, to understand who I was and why I had become the thing I was today. He was going to try and make me change my mind about choosing Avian by telling me all the stories of the two of us as children.
It wasn’t going to work.
But I couldn’t blame West for trying.
The next morning I found another note slipped under my door.
I fell asleep in your room once. I think we were probably about seven. I don’t know if Dad or Grandpa forgot about me or what, but they left me there. The only time it ever happened.
But next thing I knew, you were sitting bolt upright in bed, screaming and crying that the walls were crushing in on you. I was pretty freaked out. Your emotional blockers were turned up full blast then and that was the most emotion I’d ever seen come from you. I mean, you were actually crying. The only time I’ve ever seen you cry.
When you saw I was still in the room, you hugged me and held on so tight I was covered in bruises the next day.
When Dad found me in the morning, he tried to take me back to our living quarters but you flipped out. You wouldn’t let me leave.
I crumpled both of the notes and hid them in the back of my pants drawer. Bracing my hands on the dresser, I let my head hang in between my arms, my hair cascading around my face.
Like West had described in that nightmare from so long ago, it felt like the walls of this hospital were crushing in on me. West was a ghost that was present at all times. One that threatened to drown me and choke me from the inside out.
“Eve?”
My head jerked up to see Avian standing in the doorway, concern radiating off of him.
“Are you okay?” he as
ked.
“Yeah,” I lied.
FIVE
“We’re sweeping block eight today,” Avian said. He stood at the front of the room next to Elijah. Avian drew a circle around the block on the map that hung on the wall before us. He capped the pen and turned back toward the crew.
“Tuck and the BRC cleared the bodies from there five days ago,” Elijah spoke up. “Dr. Sun said that should be long enough for any communicable diseases from the bodies to die out. Still, it is recommended you wear a mask and throw in an antibody fogger before entering any buildings.”
Bill started passing out small cans. Royce had developed them, with the help of Dr. Beeson’s team. They could kill out any remaining organisms and keep us from contracting any diseases from the rotting Bane bodies.
Avian and Elijah’s teams were doing a combined scout today.
“Let’s move out,” Avian said.
Avian insisted I work with the rehoming crew that day. I was going to go insane and he knew it. So for today, I would do something productive, even if the extra help wasn’t needed. Regardless of how it made my chest constrict and the thought of living here forever.
We all filed out into the hall and toward the south entrance. We were nearly out the doors when West stepped into the lobby, dressed for duty.
So far I’d managed to avoid him in the twenty-four hours since his last note.
Avian fixed West with a grim expression and I couldn’t seem to look at West.
“West has asked to join the rehoming crew,” Elijah said in his rough voice. “Dr. Stone cleared him yesterday.”
That was all the explanation Elijah gave. Because what else could he say?
I picked up my pace and moved to the front of our crew. I fell in next to Bill.
“Looks like this is about to turn into an awkward day,” he said.
“Yeah.”
I didn’t look back as we headed for block eight. I had work to do and work was what I was good at.
Block eight was a solid looking row of apartments and two abandoned restaurants. They were older, but they seemed structurally sound. Window flower boxes hung from each unit, dried and scraggly looking plants lying dead in them.
“I want three soldiers to each unit,” Elijah said loud enough the crowd would hear him. “Avian and I will take the commercial buildings.”
I practically glued myself to Bill’s side and pulled Nick into our circle. West met my eyes and shook his head. He turned to Graye and joined him and Raj.
Something heated under my skin and I swear, I could feel the tickle of a blackout in the back of my head.
“Let’s go,” Bill said, grabbing the collar of my jacket and dragging me toward the building. Balling my fists just once more, I turned and followed him and Nick toward a unit on the upper floor.
“You got this one?” Bill asked Nick.
He held up one of the cans and shook it violently to activate it. “On the count of three.” Bill nodded, placing his hand on the door knob. “Three…” Nick counted. I held my shotgun ready, even though I knew there wouldn’t be any Bane inside. Instinct dies hard. “Two… One…”
Bill pushed the door open a foot and Nick depressed the button on the top of the can and threw it inside. Bill yanked the door closed again.
Once the button was pushed on the antibody can you had exactly four seconds before it started fogging. Get locked in a room with one and you’re dead.
We had to wait sixty seconds before we could enter the building. Nick watched the time tick away on his watch.
“How’s Avian handling everything?” Bill asked quietly. Nick glanced up at us, but as usual for him, he remained silent.
“It’s harder this time,” I said, looking over the railing to the units below. “Avian got pretty pissed off when West got a little too close the other night. Royce was pretty angry too.”
“That boy’s going to have to learn to follow common sense someday,” Bill said, shaking his head.
I didn’t have a response. This entire situation was hard and I was quickly losing my cool when it came to West and his recovery. But I had in fact had feelings for West. Those weren’t completely gone. I couldn’t just hate West because I had decided I wanted to be with someone else.
These human emotions were too damn complicated.
“Time,” Nick said as his watch beeped.
I pushed the door open and swept the space with my shotgun. It was perfectly empty though.
The building wasn’t large. We entered a living area with simple furniture and carpeted floors. Just to the left was a small kitchen with molding food on the counter and an even smaller dining area with a table and four chairs.
“Looks pretty safe,” Nick said as he walked around the space, testing his weight on the floor. Bill checked the kitchen.
I nodded, heading back for the doors that led off from the living room.
The door creaked when I pushed it open. I found a large bed, the sheets and blankets in a twisted mess in the middle of it. There was a dresser too large for the space. Sitting on it were three picture frames.
In one there was a picture with a smiling couple. She wore a flowing wedding dress, her hair in an elegant knot. He wore a handsome grey suit. They were looking at each other, their faces radiating love.
In another picture there was a little girl, probably younger than Brady. She had curly blond hair and wore a bright pink shirt. In the last picture there was a baby. The baby was young enough it was hard to tell if it was a boy or girl, but the pink blanket it lay on gave it away.
Swallowing hard, I checked the bedroom and bathroom attached to it. Everything looked safe.
There was one more door to check.
I pushed it open and stopped in the doorway.
The walls were painted a pale pink. A tiny bed was pushed into one corner. A frilly white blanket was tangled at the foot of it. A huge stuffed rabbit was about to fall off the edge. And in the opposite corner there was a crib. Toys sat neatly in bins along the walls. Sunlight shone in through the windows.
The room looked as if it was just waiting for those two little girls to come home and play.
“Everything good back here?” Nick asked, startling me.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice sounding rough. “Let’s go.”
The three of us stepped back outside. Many of the other soldiers were already done. They stood in front of the building, talking and laughing, looking normal. Bill and Nick went to join them.
Seeing that pink room had shaken me. I thought of those little girls and how they’d had their life stolen from them. I thought about my own childhood, the one that had been stolen from me.
A hard knot formed in my stomach. I ducked around the building to try and find some quiet. The side road was littered with garbage and debris. I stepped over a trash can. I didn’t want to be in my head just then.
I turned a corner into the back alley when I bumped right into someone. My bones instantly hissed to life and my breath snagged in my chest. I reached out a hand to steady myself, and pressed it right into the surface of West’s inhibitor.
A scream leapt from my throat as I pulled my hand back. My hand looked deformed, as if all the bones in it had broken and magnetized themselves to the inhibitor.
West swore under his breath and reached out to steady me. “Are you okay?” he asked at the same time I shook out of his grasp.
“Stay away from me,” I hissed, cradling my hand to my chest. The discomfort was dulling, my pain blockers kicking in. I could feel my bones trying to right themselves.
“Yeah, that’s what everyone seems to be telling me these days,” West said, a hard edge to his voice.
I looked up at him. His expression was angry, frightening even, now that his face was covered in so many scars.
“Look, West,” I said, dropping my hand to my side. “I don’t want things to have to be like this between us. But you’ve got to start thinking things through. You’re pretty much the one person here
who can kill me now. You’ve got to be more careful.”
West suddenly chuckled as his gaze rose to the hazy blue sky and he shook his head. “Just think how romantically tragic this all would have been if you’d picked me instead of him. In love and wanting to be together, but you couldn’t even touch me.”
“West, stop it,” I said, my voice dropping low as I sensed where he was going to take this.
“But instead, you get your happy ending,” he said, his voice growing cold. He took a step toward me. His head dropped and he looked up at me from beneath his thick, dark lashes. “And what do I get?” He stopped a mere foot from me. My blood hissed. I stood with my back to the wall. “I get screwed!” West pounded his fist into the wall just to the left of my head. His nose was only six inches from mine.
“I get infected and you go and pick him?” he bellowed, his eyes growing darker by the second.
“I made my decision before I knew who was infected,” I spat back as best I could. It felt as if my throat were closing up. I was struggling to breathe.
“What am I supposed to do now, Eve?” he said, his voice not softening in the slightest. “I’m supposed to live the rest of my life looking like a monster and watch you and him live out a happily ever after?”
“Back…” I struggled. “Back off, West.”
“I don’t think so,” he said with a laugh in his voice. And for the first time in my life, I was afraid of West. “Not until you tell me that you don’t love me. That the past doesn’t matter.”
“West…” I said. There were thick black spots swimming in my vision.
“Get off of her!” Avian bellowed and I heard feet pounding the road.
The next second an arm wrapped around West’s throat and the two of them were tumbling across the pavement.
I collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. Avian rolled on top of West, pinning him to the ground. His fist connected with West’s jaw, West’s head sharply snapping to the left.