Eden (39 page)

I wondered if this was
what shock felt like.  I remembered Avian talking about it
once.  I wanted to tell Dr. Beeson to stop talking.  But
I had to know.  I had to understand where I had come
from.

“
The younger Dr. Evans had
a paternity test done, to see if he really was the father. 
His wife had just had a baby around the time of your
conception.  He’d been left with West almost as soon as he was
born.  Now he might have two babies on his already busy
hands. 

“
He kept the results to
himself.  None of us knew if the toddler we were experimenting
on was his.  Everyone lost a lot of respect for him though,
after that.  Even if you weren’t his, what he was allowing to
be done was wrong in so many ways.”

I gulped down air, willing
my vision to focus.  My head still spun as I sat up and tried
to focus on Dr. Beeson’s face.  I was also fighting the urge
to vomit.

“
We have samples of Dr.
Evans DNA.  We have managed to recover some things from the
old facility,” he said very quietly as he looked intently into my
face.  “We can easily run a test and prove or disprove Dr.
Evans was your father.  Would you like me to do
that?”
 

I could only look at him
for a long time.  I would have no doubts if he ran the
test.  I always craved the truth, especially after all the
lies I had uncovered.  But what if West really was my
brother?  Would it be better to not ever really
know?

My instincts took over as
I nodded my head.

“
Alright.  Do you
think you can walk down the hall with me?” he spoke very
slowly.  I stood and followed him on shaking legs.

We walked into a small
room, filled with beeping equipment and flashing lights.  It
was the epitome of a lab.

Dr. Beeson fussed at a
drawer, pulling out items and snapping on a pair of gloves. 
“Make a fist,” he instructed.  Mindlessly, I obeyed.  I
didn’t even feel it as he tied a rubber band around my arm and sank
the needle into the crease at my elbow.  He filled a small
vile with my blood.  He pulled the needle out and capped the
vial.

“
We will run this as soon
as we can.  Hopefully we can get the results back the day
after tomorrow,” he said quietly.  He watched me closely,
always the observer.  “I really am sorry to drop this on
you.”

“
He doesn’t know, does
he?” I asked, my eyes fixed on a blinking red light before
me.

“
No, West doesn’t know
about everything that happened,” he almost whispered.  “I
thought you should know, Eve.  I know how complicated emotions
can be.  I just thought you needed to find out before it
became a painful regret.”

“
Thank you,” I whispered
as I turned back to the door and stumbled out.  The next thing
I knew, the elevator doors were sliding open and I slumped against
the wall after pressing the number two button.  It dinged and
I walked emptily back towards my room.

THIRTY-THREE

For an entire day I shut
myself off.  I stared at the wall through the dark, not
allowing myself to feel anything, not thinking anything.  I
was empty. 

It was easier to feel
hollow.

I think Avian and West and
maybe even Lin knocked on my door.  I just locked them out
with no intention of letting any of them in.  I just couldn’t
deal with them right now.

But eventually my survival
instinct kicked in.  I felt dried up and starved.  I
hadn’t eaten since we had left the first group of Eden in the
national forest.

There were only a few
people left in the dining hall when I wandered down, still in my
strange green clothes.  They glanced up at me, merely a look
to try and remember my face.  They were now all well aware of
the fact that there were four newcomers.

I was handed a scoop of
pears, a pile of steaming eggs and a glass of ice cold, formerly
powdered milk.  I sat at a table in the corner of the room,
shoveling everything down so fast the real chicken eggs burned my
throat.  It had been years since I had had eggs from a
chicken.  Wolves had gotten to ours long ago.

I caught sight of Royce
approaching me from across the room.  He was in good shape,
especially for being in his later forties I guessed.  His nose
was straight, his jaw sharp.  He looked like a leader you
would want to follow.

He sat down at the table
across from me, just searching my face for a while.  “Erik
told me everything that happened,” he said.  “Everything about
what was done to you as a child.  I also talked with
Avian. 

“
I’m sorry for my behavior
before,” he said uncomfortably.  I had a feeling Royce wasn’t
one that apologized often.  “What you’ve been though is
unfathomable.  Avian told me what you did for the members of
Eden.  For his sister.”

My stomach knotted up
again as he spoke of Sarah.  I wanted her to hug me and tell
me everything was going to be okay.

“
We could use a soldier
like you,” he said as he held my eyes steadily.  “It’s getting
harder and harder to keep them out, times are changing.  We
want to invite you, and the rest of your group to join with
us.  We would be honored to have all of you here.”

I just looked at him,
trying to make my brain process everything.  I felt so
sluggish.  “What did Avian say?” I asked.  My voice
sounded terrible.

“
He hasn’t given me an
answer yet.  I talked with West and Tuck as well.  They
both liked the idea but wouldn’t give an answer without consulting
with the rest of your group.”

I nodded.  “My answer
is the same.  It’s not just my decision.”

Royce nodded. 
“That’s fine.  I wouldn’t expect anything different.  I
want to show you something.  All four of you.”

My chest felt tight at
having to finally face West.  I wasn’t sure I could handle
it.  But I wasn’t a child, I wasn’t going to just flop at the
first sign of difficulty.  I stood, returned my plate and
glass, and followed Royce out into the main front room.  I
felt my face blanch as I saw West reading something in one
corner.  His eyes found mine and my stomach felt
sick. 

West could be my
brother.

Royce indicated for him to
come with us.  West marked his place, set the book down and
joined us.

“
There are a few things I
want to show you,” Royce repeated to West.  We spotted Tuck
across the room as well, talking to a woman.  He joined
us.

As we walked down the hall
to the medical wing, West couldn’t hold back the question
anymore.  “Are you okay?  I’ve been pretty worried about
you.”

I shook my head, feeling
freezing cold as I did.  I caught a glimpse of myself in a
mirror.  I looked like a skeleton walking, my skin pale white,
my hair hanging loose and limp, my body too thin.

“
What’s the matter?” he
pushed.

I shook my head
again.  “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”  I had
to know for sure first if West really was my brother before I could
drop that bomb on him.  And I still couldn’t wrap my head
around the possibility.

He didn’t get a chance to
respond to that as we entered the medical wing and Avian came
walking out of a room with a doctor I had not seen yet.

“
That’s a wonderful idea,”
the new doctor said.  “I’d love to give it a try
sometime.”

“
When we have more time
I’ll tell you how I removed a tree branch from a man’s chest cavity
in the middle of the forest with no medical supplies. 
Without
killing him,”
Avian said with a chuckle.

“
Okay,” the doctor grinned
back.  He shook Avian’s hand and walked into another
room.

“
There’s something I’d
like to show you,” Royce said when Avian turned his eyes on
us.  He looked momentarily surprised to see me.  A few
moments later, we were rising in the elevator toward the third
floor.  I was very aware of Avian’s keen eyes on the back of
my head.

We stepped out into the
blue glowing hallway, surprise filling the other three’s
faces.  Unease crept up in me as we approached the door to Dr.
Beeson’s lab.  We stopped just outside the door.

“
I understand your
hesitancies in joining us,” Royce started.  “Living here has
its challenges.  But I want you to understand the benefits
that come with a place like this, besides the obvious of
electricity and running water.”

He opened the door and we
crowded into the room, Dr. Beeson staring at the flashing screens
before him.

“
Erik has developed
technology to interface with the Fallen,” Royce started
explaining.  “Trust me, there are endless Hunters out there
who would have ripped this building apart, bit by bit, if not for
his research.”

“
You can control them?”
West asked. 

“
What we can do is very
limited,” Br. Beeson said as he tore his eyes away from the screen
before him.  “It’s difficult to transmit any information to
such a large amount of receptacles.  If we could focus only on
one Fallen we could do probably just about anything to them. 
But with so many, pretty much all we can do is tell them to keep
away from this building.”

“
So in a way, you make
this building invisible, or make them forget that it’s here?” West
questioned.  He eyed the information on the screens
closely.  I wondered if he understood any of it.  “It’s
kind of like when Eve controls them.”

“
You can?” both Royce and
Dr. Beeson exclaimed at the same time.

I shook my head.  “I
don’t know.  I’ve just made them stop what they were doing
before.  All I did was tell them to get away.  For some
reason they listened.”

Dr. Beeson nodded, his
eyes excited again.  “The chip in your brain is set up for
wireless transmission.  That’s how we made adjustments to the
chip.  We never would have guessed that you could
send
signals
though.”

“
So, could I be controlled
with that?” I asked hesitantly, pointing at the screens.  Dr.
Beeson looked back at them.

“
I don’t see why
not.  The technology is virtually the same.  But this
computer is password protected so that only myself and my assistant
have access to it.  No one is going to hijack your brain,” he
said with the hint of a smile.

“
So you see why we are
safe here?” Royce said.  “In the four years that we have had
this set up, we have never had a breach, or anything even remotely
close.”

“
It’s impressive,” West
said, his eyes still studying everything before him.  “Would
you mind if I came back later and talked to you about this some
more?” he asked Dr. Beeson.

“
Of course,” he said with
a smile and a nod. 

“
I have one question for
you,” I said.  My voice was hoarse sounding.  Dr. Beeson
nodded.  “What are they waiting for?”

“
The Fallen?” he
asked.  I simply nodded.  Everyone in the room stiffened
slightly, recalling the bodies we had all seen, lined up inside the
buildings.

“
The end of the world,” he
said, his eyes looking dead suddenly.  “You have to understand
that the technology was designed simply to assist people in
living.  It doesn’t have any desire to do anything but
spread.  Once it has finished doing that, it will simply
exist.  It isn’t waiting for anything but the end of
time.”

No one said anything as
Dr. Beeson looked back at us with hollow eyes.

Hollow.  That was a
good way to describe the way the world was becoming.  The way
I was starting to feel again.

“
Excuse me.  I’ve got
to get back to work,” Dr. Beeson said, his voice tight.

“
Thank you, Erik,” Royce
said as we walked back out into the glowing hall and closed the
door behind us.  “This way.  There’s something else I
want you to see.”

We walked further down the
hall and opened another heavy black door.  The room we entered
into was largely dominated by a terrifying looking steel chair in
the center.  Bands for securing a person’s hands were welded
to the arms of the chair, another set of bands for the
ankles.  The entire chair was surrounded by metallic arms that
rose from the ground, curving in a bowl shape, giving the slight
resemblance to a terrifying bird cage.  They shone in a
menacing and primal way.

“
We’ve been lucky to have
the best scientists who survived at this facility,” Royce said as
he approached the contraption.  It almost seemed to glow under
the blue lights.  “We worked on this for five years before
they got it right.  We started work on it before this facility
was even fully developed.

“
I worked in weapons
development and warfare research for the United States government
for seventeen years before the Fall happened.  It was my
concept but I couldn’t have done it without the entire
team.”

“
What is it?” Avian
asked.

“
It’s an
extractor.”

“
For what?”

“
The
infection.”