Eden (6 page)

“
There was once a time
when turning eighteen meant something.  It used to be a big
deal.”

I took the box from his
hand.  It was simple, nothing special to it.  I pulled it
open and something light and shiny fell into my hand.  I held
it up to the light.  It was a silver necklace, attached to it
was a tiny set of wings, carved out of a soft black
stone.

I took the wings gently in
my fingers.  They seemed so delicate, yet hard at the same
time.  I knew I must be gentle with it or it would
break.  It was the most elegant piece of craftsmanship I had
seen.

I smiled as I recalled the
conversation he and I had had when I was about fourteen.  I
had asked him what his name meant.  He explained that it
related to things to do with birds and flight.  I had loved
his name ever since.

“
May I?” Avian
asked.

I only nodded.  Avian
took the necklace and fastened the clasp behind my neck.  His
hands felt warm as they brushed my neck, causing goosebumps to rise
on my flesh.  He sat back and watched where it lay on my
chest.

“
You made it,” I stated,
picking it up again to observe the flawless details.  The
feathers looked so soft I almost brushed my fingers over
them.

He only nodded, his eyes
still looking at his creation.  “I didn’t want it to go by
without some notice.  It’s an important day for
you.”

“
It doesn’t feel
important,” I said as I lowered the necklace to my chest
again.

“
It is,” Avian said, his
eyes going back to Eden.

And we sat there on the
hard earth, our shoulders barely brushing, until the sky went black
and the stars shone with burning intensity.

FIVE

I cinched my pack tighter
to my back as I walked out of the armory.  A blade was
strapped to each of my legs, a handgun secured in my belt, and a
rifle rested in my left hand.  I stood to the side of the door
as Graye looked at me with serious eyes and ducked inside. 
Bill joined us a few minutes later.

“
Same as always?” I asked
as they both looked to me.  They nodded their heads, Graye
shifting a gun into his other hand, Bill strapping a blade to his
arm.

“
Just a minute, Eve,” a
voice came from behind us.  I turned to see Gabriel walking
toward us, West following two steps behind.  “I want you to
take him with you.”

“
We can handle it,
Gabriel,” I said as I turned back to my scouting
partners.

“
I’m not asking, Eve,” he
said sternly as he joined our small circle.  “With Tye’s loss
we need him.  I won’t leave us unprotected because of your
pride.”

“
Fine,” I said as I
stalked into the armory.  I grabbed a rifle and walked back
out.  I raised my eyebrows slightly at him as I handed it
over.  “Keep up.”

Not waiting for either of
them to say anything else, I turned and headed toward the tree
line. 

Graye headed toward the
northern border, Bill to the west.  We kept a constant circle
around Eden.  I was a little disappointed to see that West had
not chosen to follow Bill or Graye.  Guess that should have
been expected considering my warning about Graye.

I kept my eyes trained to
the trees, keeping my ears alert.  Maybe I could just simply
ignore West’s presence.  Maybe he’d get the message and go
scout on his own.

“
What have I done to make
you hate me?” West suddenly demanded.  His words stopped me in
my tracks.  “You don’t… you don’t even know me.”

I whipped around, my eyes
blazing as I looked into his.  “That’s the point.  I
don’t know you.  I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“
And how do I know if I
can trust you?” he asked, his voice dropping low.  “How do I
know that you aren’t just going to turn that blade on me out here
where no one can see us?”

“
You don’t,” I said, my
tone softer.  “But I wouldn’t do that.  We need
you.”

“
Exactly,” he said, the
smugness obvious in his voice.

My eyes hardened as I held
his.  I wanted to wipe the small little smile off his
face. 

“
Just stay out of my way,”
I hissed as I turned and started walking east.

“
Why do they treat you
different?” he asked as he followed me.  “Like you’re some
kind of leader.  Like you aren’t just some girl?”

“
Why don’t you find out?”
I said as I stopped suddenly, turning cold eyes on him again. 
When he didn’t say anything, I started walking again.

“’
Cause I know how to
survive,” I said simply as my eyes scanned the trees, keeping my
ears keen for any misplaced sounds.  “Because I keep them
alive.” 

“
Why are you any better
than either of those other two guys?”

“
Would you just shut up!”
I hissed as I glared back at him.  “You’re going to get us
both killed!”

West threw both hands up
in defense, his gun facing up toward the blue skies.  “There
isn’t anything anywhere near here.  We didn’t see anything
since the first day we left our camp.”

I stared at him in
disbelief for a second.  Did he honestly think that meant he
could let his guard down?  Finally, I just shook my head and
kept walking.

The necklace Avian had
given me bounced on my chest as I walked, its surface cool and
hard.  The light reflecting off it blinded my vision for a
fraction of a second.  At the same time, the memory of seeing
this same item jarred my brain.

“
Graye!” I screamed as we
headed back into an alley.  “Leave it!  We’ve got to get
out of here!”

“
Hang on!  I’ll be
right back.  I’ve got to grab something!”  The
helicopters above our heads nearly drowned his voice
out.

“
Graye!” I screamed, but
it was too late, he had already dashed back out into the
street.  At the same time, Tye jumped out from behind me,
dropping his pack full of supplies beside me.

I was about to dart after
them when a strong hand grabbed hold of my arm.  I whipped
around to see Bill shaking his head at me.  “We don’t all need
to get caught.”

I stared at him wide-eyed,
yet knowing what he said was the truth.  I wasn’t thinking
clearly.  But what was Graye doing?  We had everything we
needed.  What could he possibly be going back for?

A light shone overhead
from the circling helicopter.  We ducked behind a long unused
dumpster, dropping into the shadows.  The faint sound of glass
breaking was followed by the roar of a Hunter’s
ATV. 

Twenty seconds later we
saw a flash of light from in front of the building as the Hunter
exploded and Graye and Tye came running around the corner. 
The glint of the circling light overhead reflected off an object in
Graye’s hand. 

An hour later Tye’s eye
had hardened and turned metallic.

My breathing came in
shallow breaths as I looked back down at the necklace.  Avian
had asked Graye to grab it for me on the raid.  Tye had saved
him from being turned but had been infected himself.  Tye had
died to get Avian’s gift for me.

“
Why are we
stopping?”  I jumped as West’s voice was too close behind
me.  His eyes scanned the trees for the reason for my
hesitation.

“
Uh, nothing.  Why
don’t you take the south trail?  You don’t need me to babysit
you,” I said as my brow furrowed, my fingers closing around the
pair of wings.

West gave me a concerned
look but nodded and started walking in the direction I had told him
to.

It suddenly felt like my
blood was burning with fury.  Why would Avian risk so much for
something so stupid?  Something so unnecessary?  Tye’s
death was in no way worth the shiny bobble I wasn’t sure I even
wanted anymore.

Taking two seconds to
collect myself, I started off toward the eastern border.  I
wouldn’t let myself get distracted on scouting duty.  I
couldn’t live with myself if a Hunter slipped past me because I was
regretting things I had no control over.

The terrain took a steady
climb upward as I reached the limits of our boundaries.  I
took two steps backward before sprinting forward and then launching
myself onto a branch of a wide-leafed tree.  I pulled myself
higher into the branches, twigs and leaves brushing my skin as I
ascended.  When the branches began to thin and bow under my
weight I found one and settled.

Valleys and low mountains
spread before me.  At one time this was a part of something,
belonging to some state or city.  None of that mattered
anymore.  Once the infection got you, nothing mattered
anymore, except for turning the rest of us into nothing
too.

And beyond where I could
see, there was an entire city of Fallen.  And more cities full
of them beyond that.

A movement below me caught
my attention.  It could have been nothing, a breeze I hadn’t
felt, an animal stalking through the forest.  Nonetheless, I
was down the tree in less than five seconds and moving through the
woods on silent feet.

Something breathed a few
yards away, a heavy sound, reverberating through a chest too big to
be human.  A musky smell floated in my direction, the scent of
wet fur.

It saw me at the same time
I saw it.  A recently woken brown bear. 

Adrenaline shot into my
system like a geyser erupting from the earth.  At the same
time that I grabbed for my blade, the bear realized it was in
danger and was taking lumbering bounds toward me.

I leapt at my opponent,
blade gleaming in the air, and swung.  It connected with the
bear’s throat, though as I had expected, it wasn’t enough to take
it down.  The beast gave a ferocious cry and swiped at me with
a massive paw.  I jumped out of its reach, reaching into my
belt for my handgun.  At the same time another shot was fired
from above my right shoulder.

I shouldn’t have gotten
distracted.  I was a better hunter than that.

In the half second I
glanced over at West where he sat perched in a tree, the bear leapt
at me, angry and fearful at the same time.  Blood seeped into
his fur and that was all I noticed as his gigantic paws swiped at
me.

I landed a good four feet
from the creature and by the time I rolled over to spring back up,
it was on top of me again, it’s teeth bared as it gave a very
ticked-off growl in my face.

I pulled my handgun once
again and fired one shot straight up into the bear’s
heart.

It collapsed on top of me
with crushing force.

“
Eve!” West’s shout came
from somewhere behind the mass of the bear.  “I’m sorry, I
didn’t think it would keep coming at you after I shot
it!”

Bracing my hands against
the bulk of the beast, I shoved with everything I had.  It was
just enough to roll it off of me and wiggle out.  I stood,
wiping my hands, and noticed West’s wide-eyed
expression.

“
What?” I asked, annoyance
in my voice.

He blinked twice and then
shook his head.  “Nothing.  I think we should get you
back to Avian.  I think the majority of the blood is the
bear’s but that looks like a pretty nasty scratch.”

I barely even glanced
down.  I was fighting some very angry words back that were
going to be targeted in West’s direction.

“
Come on,” I said
instead.  “Let’s haul what we can of this.”

We hacked what we could
off, hauling as much of the eighteen-hundred pound beast as we
could and set off through the woods.

“
What was it like?” West
suddenly asked as we huffed from our loads, struggling through the
forest.  “Where you came from, before here?” 

“
You really ask too many
questions,” I said as I wiped my arm across my forehead quickly.
 When he didn’t say anything in response, I rolled my eyes
before fixing them on the unmarked path in front of us.  “I
don’t remember anything before I came to Eden.  Eden has taken
care of me, Gabriel mostly, Sarah.  Avian when I needed
him.”

“
You and Avian?  You
two aren’t…”  I didn’t like the implication the trailing of
his voice left.

“
What?” I questioned,
wondering if he was being serious.  “No, Avian’s
twenty-five.  It’s not like that.”

“
Twenty-five?  Huh,
he doesn’t look that old.”

I just gave a shrug as I
stared forward.  Avian just looked like Avian to
me.

We were quiet for a while
as we hauled our load.  I was looking forward to eating the
fatty meat of the bear tonight but at the same time I wished we
hadn’t wandered this far from Eden before finding it.

People buzzed with
excitement as we drug the pieces of bear through camp to the mess
hall.  I left them and West to take care of the meat that
would feed us for days.

I walked toward my tent,
passing by the newly set up tents.  Just as I was about to
slip by, a mass of red hair stepped out, followed by an explosion
of Brady.  The boy giggled as he raced out and hid behind
another tent.