Dead of Eve (15 page)

“A nation is as strong as the hearts of its women. Its warriors may be brave and many, but when the blood of its women spills upon the earth, the battle is lost.”

Darwin remained still as if waiting for me to follow his trust. I wasn’t going to let the old man deflect my question. “What do
you
want?”

He sighed. “The great Chief Seattle spoke of the end of living and the beginning of survival. This is not want. This is hope. Come.”

I lunged for the carbine. Tension unfurled inside me when I gripped it. Behind me, the two men waited, unmoved. Maybe I was paranoid, but I wasn’t inclined to drop my guard. I stood, shoulders back, and nodded.

They guided me through the woods and ended the hike at a stream, bordered by a few lean-to’s fashioned from dead branches and spruce needles. I followed the elder to his lean-to in the heart of the camp with Darwin at my side. He pointed to a sanguine wool blanket as he rummaged through his baskets of dried herbs and ointments.

I settled on the blanket, the carbine on my knees.”What’s your name?”

He found what he was looking for and squatted before me. His eyes flicked to the gun and back to me. “My people call me Owota la Akicita.”

I blinked. “Oh…wha—”

“Call me Akicita.”

“Ah-kee-chee-tah. I’m Evie. So what does it mean, your name?”

He opened a small jar and plunged two fingers in it. “Honest peacekeeper.” He held up the fingers caked in salve. “This will burn.”

I nodded and sensed someone behind me.

“Lean against Badger.” He slavered my face with the minty smelling anodyne. I jerked back at the stinging sensation. Badger pressed against my back. I closed my eyes and let the man rub my face and arms.

Palliative humming rumbled from his chest as he worked. My burns began to numb. Drowsiness settled on me like a heavy blanket. Then I could no longer fight the weight of my eyelids.

“Good Morning, Half-wit.”

I rubbed my eyes against the twilight.

“No. No. Don’t rub.” Concern coated the soft voice.

I dropped my hands and smiled. “Hence, Half-wit?”

He laughed and knelt at my side. “Yes, very. And you must be feeling better.” His inquisitive brown eyes pierced mine. “So who are you?”

“Um—”

“Oh wait. It’s Evie, right? Akicita told me.”

A boyish smile stretched under sharp cheekbones. His thick hair draped his shoulders and back. My fingertips tingled to touch his dark skin which looked like it had been sanded to a smooth perfection.

“You talk in your sleep, you know?” he said. “Where are you from? What’s your dog’s name? We haven’t seen any dogs since the reservation. Where are you headed? Are there any…”

Jesus. Fuck. My mouth hung open in several failed attempts to interrupt. I couldn’t get a word in.

“…the mountains. Why the hell did you throw yourself into the fire? For the love of the Great Mystery, what were you thinking? I—”

“Badger, give it a rest.”

I turned to mark the new voice. His features and mannerisms weren’t unlike Badger. They could have been twins. Only the stranger seemed older.

“Hey. I’m Naalnish. Don’t mind my brother. We told him to watch over you, not talk you to death.”

No shit. “He’s fine.”

He whacked Badger on the back of his head. “Get out of here. Let her eat in peace.” He slid a bowl before me and Badger grumbled his way out.

“Naalnish you said?”

He smiled. “A Navajo name.”

“You’re Navajo?”

He shook his head. “We’re Lakota. From North Dakota. Our father was Navajo.”

He guessed my next question. “We left the Dakotas after the outbreak. The bugs like our semi-arid climate and chased us out.”

“Only three of you?”

“Four actually. Lone Eagle left this morning to retrieve your things. There were dozens of us at first. The journey has been long.”

“I’m sorry.”

His smile was warm. “Eat.” He nodded to the bowl. “It’s pemmican. The fat and protein will help you heal.” With that, he left.

Besides a variety of berries and chewy meat, most of the concoction was unrecognizable. But it filled my belly and boosted my energy. I slurped up the last bite, strapped on the knives, I ventured out in search of Darwin.

I found the men near a fresh-running stream. Naalnish waved when he saw me and laughed at Darwin when he pounced a trout in the shallow water. Akicita and Badger met me half way.

The elder prodded my face. “It heals. The energy flows strongly through you.”

“What energy—”

“Come on,” Badger grabbed my hand. “We have a million questions.”

Akicita rested his skeletal fingers over ours, freezing Badger’s forward motion. “No questions, Badger. We’ll talk about the weather or the abundance of rabbit in this region. Or that incredible dog of yours.”

I smiled and followed them to the river.

We were gathered around the stone hearth when Lone Eagle returned with my gear. He appeared from the footpath and his eyes greeted mine.

For a moment, he stood there, staring at me. I stared right back. He wasn’t what I expected. Not a clone of Naalnish and Badger. His bronze skin and strong facial features hinted Native American blood, but his stunning eyes and short wavy russet hair suggested another heritage. He was exquisite.

I swallowed against a reflex of guilt. Gawking at another man felt like cheating. Still, I couldn’t look away.

His thumb tapped the limb of his bow, the string sawing back and forth on his muscled thigh. And his eyes…something swirled in their coppery depths, as if he was seeing me. Inside me. Then his mouth dipped in a frown. His mouth was distracting. I swallowed again.

Silence rippled through the camp as he approached. The air seemed to follow him.

“I moved the Humvee further into the mountains. It’s still miles away.” Despite his stolid tone, a few words were traced with a southern drawl.

“How did you—”

“I’m a tracker. Where do you want your things?”

Ah. No doubt I left a screaming spoor in my chase with Annie. “I’ll take them. I’m not sure where I’m staying.”

His brows gathered. Contempt? Or was it curiosity? Before I decided, he marched toward the lean-to’s with my things.

Badger joined me. “Don’t worry about him. He’s kind of a loner. Hasn’t been with us long this time. Found us after the outbreak. His mother was one of us.”

Without replying, I took off after my things and the peculiar man who conveyed them.

I found him settling my supplies in the last shelter at the far end of camp. None of my weaponry made the trip, not that I expected it considering their attitude toward guns. I said to his back, “Lone Eagle, is it?”

When he turned, I melted a little. The man was as hot as the Appalachian sun.

“My mother called me Lone Eagle. It’s Jesse actually. Jesse Beckett.”

“Okay, Jesse. Thank you for collecting my gear.”

His body tensed and his eyes glowed. “The arsenal you are transporting…you don’t even know what you’re about. I’m surprised you haven’t blown off any limbs. And where did you get an AA-12? You realize if you actually saw real combat, that shotgun would be taken from you and used against you.”

Heat rushed to my face. “Would you offer me the same judgment if I sported a dick? Fuck you.”

He winced. Then stepped around me, leaving me fuming through a vehement grinding of teeth.

I paced in front of the shelter. Who the hell did he think he was? I pressed my hands to my cheeks to cool the blaze there. My lungs labored to suck in air. If I actually saw real combat? I wanted to box his ears. And shove my boot up his ass. I turned on my heels to go after him.

Badger hailed, “Where are you going, Evie?”

I took a deep breath. “I need a cigarette.”

He lit and handed me a hand-rolled. The first drag rolled across my palate. Some of the strain released from my shoulders. I pointed to the shelter where my gear resided. “Whose lean-to is that?”

“Uh…that’s Lone Eagle’s. He doesn’t sleep there much. He stays out there.” He gestured to the surrounding woodland. “He put your stuff there? It’s yours now. I don’t think he’s in the habit of hanging around people. He grew up with us. You know, on the reservation? All our families were close. But then his parents split. He left for Texas with his old man. Came back in the summers sometimes. I guess he was some sort of football champion in high school. Heard he got a big school scholarship. But something happened. He didn’t go. Then he disappeared. That is until a few months ago. He found us after the outbreak…”

I tuned him out, counted to ten. Then counted again. Eventually, he took a breath.

“Did you ask him what happened? What he’s been doing?”

He laughed. “Of course. He told me the Lakota don’t ask questions and scolded me for talking too much. Now I just leave him alone.”

A fucking understatement.

“What’s that?”

Shit. I said that out loud? “You do talk a lot.”

He held out his hand, his face split in a grin. “Then come back to the campfire and you can do all the talking. We don’t know anything about you.”

I considered his offer. I wouldn’t be able to avoid their questions for long. And I didn’t feel an urgency to run off just yet. They were nice. Decent people. Most of them.

Maybe I could answer a few questions. Recount some impersonal aspects without picking at unhealed sores. I accepted his hand and followed him to the hearth.

The Lakota were all there, listening to Akicita unravel a captivating tale about an encounter with a grizzly. Jesse sat on the far side, his expression cryptic. His vivid copper eyes followed me until the bonfire’s blaze blocked his view.

Badger pulled me down next to him and prodded me with questions. So I began my story with the aphid by the pool. Then I detailed my other aphid encounters, brushing over particulars about my personal life. They hooted at the narration of the night I met Darwin.

My talkative friend couldn’t resist questions about marriage and children.

“Like you,” I said, “I also lost everyone I loved and cared for.”

Akicita followed my noncommittal response with the Lakota story. His eyes sparkled and his soothing voice curled around me in a warm embrace. When he finished, I said, “Tell us another one.”

He cast me dark eyes underscored with years of knowledge. “I have many more, but first”—the corners of his mouth creased—“I give you a Lakota name. We will call you Spotted Wing.”

“Spotted Wing?”

Naalnish ran his hand through my hair. Two ladybugs clung to his finger. “They like you.”

My lids drifted closed. The journey there had been a lonely one. And lingering at the edges of my mind was a sad resolution that my future held more of the same.

I had a myriad of questions for them but I remembered Badger’s warning. The Lakota didn’t ask questions. I found a kind of safety in that. They offered possibilities. A new name. A new life. In the Allegheny Mountains among gentle men. As far as options went, I couldn’t come up with a reason against staying.

Jesse stood, hurled a clod of dirt into the fire. Then he pinned me with a glare and disappeared through the timber.

Okay. There was one.

Let everything you do be your religion

and everything you say be your prayer.

Lakota Sioux

The following weeks flew by as we readied for winter. I learned to make clothes, weapons, food and medicine from the mountain plants and animals. When the first snow forced us downstream, we settled into an abandoned one room cabin.

Idleness and seclusion narrowed the world to that little room where hibernation imposed itself on me, shoving me into a painful awakening. Stripped of distractions, I was left with an abundance of introspection. Those final hours with my dying children. My forsaking Joel to escape within myself for two months after. The dark basement at my father’s house. My knife in Joel’s head.

With Akicita watching over me, I slept to escape my self-scrutiny, my loathing, and my mistakes. Only, sleep forced me to face my nightmares.

Akicita administrated sleep aids on the worst days. He told me a restful body would germinate a conscious mind. I just wanted numbness and accepted his antidotes with abandon.