Finding Eden (3 page)

I took a deep breath and pushed at the door with my foot. It didn’t budge. I found a large rock nearby and threw it at the door; it immediately shattered. The sound was foreign and frightened me. I wasn’t used to loud noises.

I was hesitant at first, but I shook off the foreboding feel of the situation and stepped through the demolished entrance. I shined my flashlight around the tiny store and everything was as it should have been. Some things were knocked over, probably from tremors, but no looters had made it this far; it was as expected. I made a beeline to the candy aisle. I grabbed a chocolate bar and watched as it flattened in my hand. The sweet confection inside was completely liquefied. I put it back. It was a stupid idea anyway; I shouldn’t waste any pack space on something as trivial as candy, so I grabbed a few packs of gum and some hard, butterscotch-flavored candy. I could die tomorrow, I decided. I might as well live it up for the time being.

I could feel my glands convulse as I set my eyes on the chip rack. I swallowed as I found my barbecue chips. I was tempted to sit down and eat an entire bag there, but I knew it would only waste time; the salt content would result in a stronger thirst for water. I stuffed a few snack-sized bags in my pack, along with some sour cream and onion flavored ones. Unable to stop myself, I threw in a couple small bags of cookies, which I was
sure were horribly stale. I couldn’t forget the
Twinkies
either. I walked over to the refrigerated section, which obviously didn’t work, so I didn’t bother taking anything but a few water bottles. I’d come back for the rest another day. What little space I had left in my bag, I stuffed with toothpaste, first aid items, tampons, and other much needed miscellaneous items.

Without warning, the light on my flashlight flickered a few times before dying altogether. As I cursed and reached for a spare battery, I saw a shadow pass by a window on the other side of the store. I quickly put the flashlight into its holder on my belt as I crouched down between the candy and first aid shelves. This time I knew for a fact that I wasn’t hallucinating. I could hear the footsteps and the crunch as the person stepped on the broken shards of glass. They were heavy footfalls. I immediately assumed it was a man and I placed myself on guard. I slid my knife out by its handle and tightly wrapped my fingers around it, fully gripping it. In deep concentration, I bit down on my bottom lip. I heard something unzip. He was filling his own pack with supplies. I knew if I just kept quiet and hidden, he would just go about his business and leave; there wouldn't have to be trouble.

I heard him grow closer. I was discrete as I moved around the end of the aisle. My breathing was steady, silent. I crouched behind the checkout counter thinking I was completely safe, when arms came from behind me, pulling me into a headlock. I gasped.

I pulled and pushed at the arms, but they didn’t move an inch. Whoever it was they had an immense amount of strength. Remembering I had my knife, I brought it up and sliced at his forearm. He growled an oath and backed away. I backed away too, in a crouched stance, ready to attack if he advanced at me again.

“Oh, fuck. You’re a girl,” was all he said, and before I knew what I was doing,
I
was the one advancing at
him
. I sprinted forward and sprung up at him, successfully knocking him onto his back. My knees pinned his arms to his sides and I had my knife at his throat. Droplets of blood slid down his neck.

I allowed myself to look into his eyes. They were brown, but that was neither here nor there. What did interest me was the amused look in them. And then his lips twitched into an arrogant smirk. My eyes widened infinitesimally then narrowed.

“Don’t. Move.” I hissed, watching more blood well up around my blade.

My attacker did the complete opposite. Only humoring me by allowing me to hold him down, he flipped me over like I weighed absolutely nothing. Now I was on my back, watching my knife slide across the linoleum tile just out of arms reach. Before I could make a run for it, he was on top of me and his hands were gripping my wrists; his knee was pressed into my windpipe.

I coughed and sputtered as I kicked my legs, trying to get out from under him, but every time I moved, his knee sunk deeper into my neck.

“About done there?” He was still amused.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I knew there was no point wasting energy fighting this man; nothing would come of it. Even if I had the will to go on, I was still only five-foot-one with barely any muscle tone. I went limp underneath him.

“There we go,” he spoke again. “Now, if I let you go, you have to agree not to lunge at me again. I won’t hurt you; I promise.” His words tried to reassure me, but I was still on edge, not even close to putting any trust in him.

He lifted his knee and I nodded, not sure if I could speak. My neck would be bruised later.

“
I’m trusting you,” he warned.

“
I’m trusting
you
,” I lied.

He was on his feet and took several steps back, reaching for something behind him, but he never grabbed it. I had a feeling it was his insurance policy.

I grabbed my knife; he flinched, so I placed it securely back in its sheath. My hands were up in the air, showing him I was no longer a threat. He nodded and rested his arms at his sides.

“Damn,” I
cursed, my voice hoarse. “How long until sunrise?” I had completely forgotten the situation at hand, momentarily stunned by how long we had been at battle.

I saw fear flash across his face. He stuck his head outside and I realized he was checking the position of the moon.

He grimaced. “I’d say a couple hours.”

A string of words escaped my lips, both vulgar and surprising to me. I looked up at the man; I couldn’t tell if he was going to laugh at me or do the same thing. He pulled out a wide piece of paper and scanned it urgently. He ran his hand over his head, obviously incredibly stressed.

“My next stop isn’t for almost eight miles.”

I was exasperated and I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I walked across the store, grabbed two more water bottles and handed him one. I may not have trusted the man, but I wasn’t going to let the only human I’d seen in more than four years die. I would have felt exceedingly at fault and insanely guilty.

“Let’s go,” I grumbled to him as I headed towards the door. I felt around my body, making sure I had everything I came in with and that it was all secure. I could already tell that the temperature had risen a degree or two. I turned around; the man was just standing there with a surprised look on his face. “Are you coming or not? If you want to fry, by all means, be my guest. But I’m going back. Now.”

I heard him move behind me, but I didn’t look back. I wasn’t afraid of him attacking me; I knew I was his only chance at survival. I held all the power and it felt good; I basked in its
light. The arrogant prick was probably suffering at the thought. I held my laughter in.

An hour later I had already finished off the water bottle I had grabbed and I had to pee. I told him to wait where he was as I found a boulder to go behind. It resembled a meteorite. He looked entertained.

“It was either now or when the sun goes down. No human can wait that long.” I paused.  “Wipe that look off your face.” I was bright red and indignant.

We finally reached the turn off to my bunker. We were both slick with sweat, parched, and panting. The sky became ominous as it started to lighten. The air was getting hotter by the minute. We looked at each other; I saw the panic in his eyes and I was sure he saw it reflected in my own.

“Sprint,” I commanded and we were both on our feet, running completely off of adrenaline. I assumed he could run faster than me and I felt guilty because he had to follow behind. If we were too late, it would be my fault. My lungs were burning, pleading for me to give them a rest. A deep, unrelenting pain stung my sides and within minutes my legs would no longer move. They were jelly beneath me. I saw the sun’s rays grabbing the edge of the
desert mountains, teasing me—tormenting me.

Without warning, my knees gave out.

I didn’t think about what I was about to say; I knew it was the right decision. “Go ahead without me,” I said. “If you keep going straight for another half mile, you’ll see a boulder made of pumice. Lift it. Here—take my key. Lift the boulder up; you’ll see a hatch.” I took a deep, torturous breath. My lungs felt bruised and used up. “I’ll catch up,” I lied. I had no clue why, but I needed one of us to survive and I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be me.

I was surprised when he didn’t even hesitate in his decision not to go ahead without me. He didn’t even look in the direction of the bunker. He just scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder. His grip was tight over my legs and he was off and running towards our survival. I felt my backpack begin to slip over my shoulders, so I held it tightly against me. I was going to protest his decision, but I didn’t have any energy left in me to do so. I knew we only had minutes, but I must have blacked out for a moment; when I came to, we were at the bunker and he was asking for my key. He put me down and I unlocked the hatch then opened it. Right before I climbed inside, I saw the sun rise above the mountains. It looked angry at me for escaping it all these years. I felt that it wanted my life and it knew I was finally within its grasp. My skin began to burn so quickly that I stepped into the bunker, not even using the ladder. I dropped to the
ground, feeling bruised, beaten, burned. He jumped in after me and closed the hatch.

I grabbed
Teffy from my bed and held him firmly against my chest.

[ Unknown ]

This crazy girl was something else. Looking at her, I would have never thought that she would have been so bold and show such strength back at the gas station. Of course, I hadn’t realized she was a girl at first either. It was too dark. She looked to be barely over five feet, so I should have made the assumption. I blamed it on the complete surprise of seeing another living human. It was probably sexist of me to automatically think a woman couldn’t survive on her own out here, much less one the size of a child.

Any human was a threat now. Most would kill a person without a second thought, especially if that person had supplies on them. I knew I wasn't alone when I saw the flashlight beam move from side to side. When I saw the light die, I played the fool and entered. Quite frankly, I needed the supplies and I was prepared to kill for them if I had to. It was hard to hold in the laughter as I watched her try to be sneaky while evading my gaze. It became tedious though, so I decided to go in for the kill. These days, it’s always better to be the predator than the prey.

But geez, she ended up being a puny girl—no older than twenty. I would have felt guilty for days if I had went full assassin on her ass with my double-sided axe, especially now, looking at her clutching her stuffed bear, so weak and broken on the floor of her underground pad. She was filthy, and her white-blonde hair was falling out of its braid. Other than the one section that her braid must have been covering, the back of her neck and shoulders were burned tomato red. Her green eyes were too big for her face, making her look like an overly frightened child. She had seemed so unbreakable back at the store, but now she looked like she would shatter if I attempted to lay a single finger on her.

I didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t my place, so I didn’t have the right to go through anything. I settled on sitting on the ground as far from her as possible, wanting to give her space and air to breathe.  After a while, my eyes grew heavy, and I felt myself doze off a few times. I would wake up and see her in the same exact position—completely wide eyed. After a couple hours or so, I finally decided to at least talk to her.

“Hey,” I said simply.

No answer.

“You should get some sleep.” I nodded towards the cot behind her. As I expected, there was no answer. I decided to try a different approach. I lightly placed my hand on her shoulder. She was so tense that my own muscles grew sore just looking at her.

“Come on,” I said as I knelt beside her, keeping my hand on her shoulder. The girl was gone—out of here. I took a deep breath. “Listen. I’m going to pick you up and put you on the bed.” She didn’t protest, so I wrapped an arm around her back, slipped the other underneath her knees, and placed her on the cot. If I hadn’t been looking at her so intently, I wouldn’t have seen her relax her body, but only in the slightest. I didn’t touch her again; I just told her to get some sleep and she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes.

There was a bigger cot located at the head of hers and it looked like it hadn’t been touched in ages. The sheets were arranged in a way that made it seem as if someone had just gotten out of bed and decided not to make it, but there was a thick coat of dust across the entire surface. I hesitated and chose not to use it. I decided on the rug located underneath the ladder and I made that my bed for the day. Even though I was incredibly beat, I still couldn’t get myself to fall asleep. I just stared at the hatch, thinking that if someone opened it right then I would probably combust, ashes everywhere. I sighed; I just wanted to black out. I had a feeling the girl hadn’t had the luxury of falling asleep yet either. There were no steady breaths coming from her.

I took a chance and whispered, “Can you sleep?”