Eden (29 page)

By dawn, Eden was teaming
with life.  I wondered how much sleep anyone had even
gotten.  I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.  Nerves were
obviously running high.

People said hurried
good-bye’s, giving hugs, tears pooling in their eyes.  I
realized then that they knew this could be a permanent
good-bye.  My chest hardened as I watched Avian talking to
Victoria again, gave her a slightly longer than necessary (in my
opinion) hug good-bye.

Bill and Graye walked up
to me and to my surprise, a pang formed in my chest.  These
two had been my team.  We were part of the elite, the
best.  In a way they had been my brothers.

For some reason I wasn’t
all that surprised when Bill wrapped his arms around me and pulled
me into a hug.  “Be careful out there,” he said quietly before
he released me.

I gave him a small
smile.  I looked over at Graye and he could only give me a
tight lipped smile and a nod of agreement.  I didn’t expect to
get a hug from him.  Graye wasn’t one to hug.  “Just
remember that they can still blow you up,” he said with a
smirk.

“
Thanks,” I said with a
chuckle as I shook my head.  “You two be careful, too. 
You’re smart, you know how to survive.  Just keep doing what
you’ve been doing.”

“
Promise,” Bill said, his
cool gray eyes on me.

I walked back to the
truck, joining Avian and West.  “Everything ready?” I asked,
feeling both anxious and reluctant to leave.

“
I believe so,” Avian said
as he hoisted his bag of half the medical supplies into the back of
the truck.  We couldn’t fit much more in it.

Gabriel walked up to us,
his hands stuffed into his pockets.  His lips were invisible
in his beard as he pressed them tightly together.

“
We’ll reach the first
destination this evening,” Avian said as he turned to
Gabriel.  “We’ll leave the marker with any notes on what we
encounter today.”

Gabriel nodded.  “I
wanted to thank you,” he said, his voice suddenly rough
sounding.  “For keeping things going when I snapped.  It
was selfish of me.”

Avian pressed his lips
together and nodded.  “No one can really blame
you.”

Gabriel extended his hand
and Avian gave it a tight shake.  He then shook West and I’s
hands as well.  “Be safe,” he said.  “We have to keep
Eden alive.  We may be all that’s left out
there.” 

Final good-byes were said
and all the members of our first group loaded onto the trailer and
into the truck.  A man I did not know very well had
volunteered to drive.  He had only been a member of Eden for a
short time.  I believed his name was Tuck.  Morgan
climbed into the front cab with him and so did another woman by the
name of Bea.  The other fourteen of us got to ride the bumpy
thousand miles on the trailer.

The members of the second
group gathered around as Tuck started the truck to life.  As
he pulled away they waved, tears falling down half their
faces.

Would we ever see any of
them again? 

The first hour was slow
going as we made our way through the forest over uneven
ground.  We had worked hard to keep ourselves hidden so that
we couldn’t be found by any still-remaining marauders or
Fallen.  We each had to hold onto the short railing that lined
the edge of the trailer to keep from being bucked off.

No one said anything for
the first few hours but we all knew what the other was
thinking.  There was uncertainty and fear about traveling into
the unknown.  There was the very real possibility that this
truck wouldn’t continue to run for more than another mile.  Or
it could break down in the middle of the desert, only half way to
our destination.  Helicopters could buzz over our heads at any
time, reign down on us with dozens of Fallen and infect them
all.

There were endless
horrible ways for us to die on this journey.

But it was death by
starvation or infection for sure if we stayed.

We jarred over a rough
patch, everyone jerking violently to the right.  “Careful!” I
was surprised when Avian shouted to Tuck.

“
I’m sorry,” he
called.  “I don’t see a clearer path.”

Avian said something under
his breath as he turned his eyes forward.

“
You okay?” I asked
quietly.  I suddenly felt all too open to everyone. 
There wouldn’t be too much privacy for the next week or
so.

Avian shook his head, his
eyes darting to the cab of the truck.  “Morgan’s pregnant,” he
whispered.

“
Pregnant?” I
repeated.  I glanced at the back of her head through the
window.  It explained why she was sitting up
there. 

Avian nodded. 
“Sharp, rough movement like that isn’t very good for the
baby.”

“
Should she be coming with
us if she is carrying a child?” I asked.  Suddenly this
journey seemed all the more perilous.

“
I thought it would be
safer.  Victoria would be able to stitch a wound or anything
basic but her training is limited.  Not that I know that much
about taking care of a pregnant woman but I thought it would be
better.  She’s not that far along anyway.  She should be
just fine.”

I glanced at Morgan’s
husband, Eli, saw that he was watching us.  I thought I was
supposed to say congratulations or something but it didn’t seem
like something you could say anymore.  This wasn’t a happy
world to be bringing a baby into.  Our world wasn’t a good
place for children.

After two hours the truck
pulled to a stop and Tuck poked his head out the window to look
back at us.  “This is going to get really rough and I’m going
to have to go really slow.  I think it would be best if
everyone got off and walked for a bit.”

Without another word,
everyone hopped off and we started the slow journey down the rocky
face of the mountain on foot.

As we moved I watched
people, gauging their ability, strength, and skills.  A few of
them moved carefully, watching their step as they moved over the
rocks.  Others had more confidence, some of them more
practiced from helping with scouting.

And at the front of them,
walking to the side of the truck was Avian.  He held a shotgun
tight in his hands, his eyes scanning the trees and sky before
us.  I couldn’t recall ever seeing Avian with a gun.  But
his hands were perfectly positioned, his frame aware of everything
around him.  His shoulders were set tight, his knees bent
slightly, ready to run or fight at any second.

I had never seen the
soldier side of Avian before.

I then had a vision of
Avian in a camouflage uniform, a gun in his hands, running through
a bomb blasted field.  I had forgotten that Avian had been in
the Army when the world had started to fall apart.

Avian was probably better
trained than I was to survive in our new world.

It’s curious how a
person’s value is placed.  We needed soldiers.  We needed
people who could protect us, who knew what they were doing. 
But we had also needed someone who could take care of us, stitch us
back together.  Even with the limited amount of training Avian
had, he was more valuable to us as a make-do doctor than as the
best trained soldier we had.

Remembering this made the
pull inside my chest all the stronger.

“
So what do you think it
will be like?” West’s voice jarred me back to my senses. 
“When we get to our new location?”

“
Uh,” I stuttered, trying
to refocus my attention from Avian to West.  “Warm?  I
don’t know.”

He chuckled, adjusting his
grip on his rifle.  “I hope wherever we end up it’s near the
ocean.  I remember as a kid going to the ocean with my father
a few times.”

“
What was it like?” I
asked.  The ocean.  It was a term I barely
understood.

“
Big,” he breathed. 
“It never ended.  It was really beautiful.  And
scary.”

“
How could a body of water
be scary?” I said, my voice mocking.

“
All that water is a lot
bigger than you,” he said as he glanced over at me.  “You
think you could control the violence of the ocean?”

I was quiet after that,
trying to imagine what the ocean would look like.  It was hard
to imagine it as a threat.  “I’d like to see the ocean
someday.”

West looked over at me
with another smile, bumping his shoulder against mine.

For the briefest moment,
it felt like my heart jumped into my throat.  But the strange
part was that for just a second, my vision went completely
black.

I tripped over the stones
under my feet, throwing my hands out to catch myself before I
fell.

“
Whoa!” West said, obvious
concern in his voice.  “You okay?”

“
Of course,” I tried to
recover, brushing the dirt off my knees.  I noticed Avian had
glanced back at me, a probing look in his eyes.  I shook my
head and he turned his attention back front.

I didn’t think I had ever
tripped before.  Ever.

“
And I hope it never
snows,” West continued, brushing my incident off.  “After last
winter I wouldn’t mind if I never saw snow again.”

“
Agreed,” I said
distractedly.

We were both quiet for a
few minutes as we kept pace with the rest of the group.  “Do
you think we’ll ever be able to stop running from them?” West
suddenly asked.

I thought about my
response before I spoke.  “I guess if we could hide ourselves
good enough.  Push far enough into the country.  If they
can’t find us, they can’t infect us.”

West kept his eyes glued
to the rocks at our feet.  “I’m so sick of running from them,”
he said quietly.

“
Me too.”

We continued for another
hour before we got to the base of the mountain and out of the
canyon.  We would be stopping here until dark.  Those who
knew how to cook set to prepping lunch, others lounged around,
unused to not having much of anything to do.  We would wait
here until dark, when it would be safer to travel.  We had
only traveled the last few hours in daylight because it was too
dangerous to come down the mountain in the dark.  We all would
have killed ourselves on the rocks and cliffs.  We would take
shifts, some would sleep while others would keep
watch. 

I’d be staying up all
night, as usual.

“
Avian,” I said as I
walked to his side.  “I’m going to get a few minutes of sleep
before nightfall.”

“
I think I’d better do
that too,” he said as he looked around at those who were traveling
with us.  “I think it would be best if I stayed up at night
since my rifle has a night vision scope.  Koby,” he suddenly
said to a man as he walked past us.  He was roughly the same
age as Avian.  “I’m checking out for a while.  Keep an
eye on things, will you?”

He nodded, securing his
handgun.  “West,” I called as I spotted him.  “Keep watch
for a while?”

“
Sure,” he said with a nod
and automatically turned his eyes to our perimeters.

Avian and I walked towards
a tree, each greedy for the shade it would provide.  We
settled on the wild grass that grew at its base, side-by-side in
the coolness.

“
I’ve never seen the
soldier side of you before,” I said as my eyes slid
closed.

“
There hasn’t been much
opportunity,” he said as he gave a sigh as he relaxed.  “It
feels weird being back in that mode.  It was drilled into me
constantly for over two years and it kept me alive for another six
months.  Then it got pushed to the back of my
mind.”

“
Eden has been lucky to
have you,” I said quietly as I shifted around to get more
comfortable, sleep already creeping in to take me over.

“
I could say the same
about you,” he said, his voice drifting away.

A few moments later I
joined him.

TWENTY-FIVE

My heart thumped in my
chest as I tried to press my back further into the corner.  My
vision blurred, the dark shadows before me blending
together.

“
She’s never been this
aggressive before,” a voice said.  It felt like someone was
screaming into my ear.  I pressed my hands over the sides of
my head, trying to block it all out.

“
She’s afraid,” a lighter
voice said.

I couldn’t make out
anything anymore as I opened and closed my eyes, trying to clear my
vision.  My head felt fuzzy and clouded.

The next second all I
could make out was the scent of steel under me.  And that my
head felt so cold. 

Then I heard it.  The
sound of a drill.

My eyes slid open,
blinking immediately closed against the dimming but still bright
light of the evening sun.  I turned my head to the side,
raising my hand to block it from my face.  At the same moment
my pillow moved and I opened my eyes to find myself nose to nose
with Avian.

“
You were having a
nightmare,” he said quietly as he pushed a few stray hairs out of
my face.  I realized then that I was lying in his arms, him as
my pillow, still under the same tree.  After I glanced around
at our caravan and knew things were still safe I relaxed again,
resting my head against his chest.