Eden (11 page)

My tent felt safe and
frightening all at the same time.  This was my space, and yet
it was wrong.  Sarah still wasn’t here.  As I hid in my
tent, Avian had come to tell me that she was starting to recover
but was staying in his tent so he could watch her.

Eden was too quiet as
darkness fell upon us.  It felt strange to have our colony
split up like this.  I felt like I had been left behind. 
I wasn’t used to the feeling.  I was always at the forefront
of everyone.

I heard the dirt stir
outside my tent as someone approached.

“
Go away, Avian!  I
don’t want to talk to you right now!” I shouted as I lay in my bed
and pulled my blanket up over my head.

“
Good thing I’m not
Avian,” a voice said as someone entered my tent.

“
What are you doing here,
West?” I asked as I glared at him, pulling the blanket back
down.

He stood there, staring
back at me, refusing to be intimidated.  I then noticed he
held something bulky and black in one arm. 

“
I brought something I
hope might make you feel better,” he said as he shrugged his
shoulders.

“
I just found out I’m the
enemy I’ve been fighting against for the last five years.  I
don’t think there’s anything you can do to make me feel
better.”

West rolled his
eyes.  “You could try not biting my head off.  I’m not
the one who kept that massive secret from you all this time. 
Get up,” he said.

“
What?” I asked, my voice
annoyed again.

“
Get up so I can lay this
down,” he said as he raised his eyebrows at me.

I didn’t know what he was
talking about, but I did as he asked.  He then rolled out the
black mass and I realized it was a hide.

“
The bear?” I asked as I
rubbed my hand over the soft fur.

“
Yeah,” he said as he
looked at it on my bed with a half-smile.  “I asked Bill if he
could tan it for me.  I wanted to give it to you as an apology
for stealing your kills.”

“
Well, I did take your
buck that one time.  I was the one who technically stole
it.”

West looked up at me, a
half smile coming to his lips before he gave a little
chuckle.  “See, it made you feel better.”

I then realized that I was
smiling too. 

“
Thank you,” I said,
really meaning it.

West gave a nod and then
stood there uncomfortably as if he wasn’t sure what to do with
himself.

“
They asked you to watch
me tonight, didn’t they?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at
him.

“
And you’re not going to
give me trouble about that, are you?” he shot back at
me.

I just glared at him for a
minute, gauging his stance and expression.  I hadn’t forgotten
the fact that we had spent two nights together, a little more
intimately than I would have cared to remember, or the fact that in
the moment he thought I was as good as dead, he had kissed
me. 

“
You can sleep in Sarah’s
bed, then.  Don’t oversleep though; I’m packing up early in
the morning.”

“
Good,” he said as he went
to lie on the other bed.  “I’ve already packed up all my
things.  I would have been sleeping in the dirt if you kicked
me out.”

I crawled into my new bed,
surprised at how much of a difference the hide made.  I balled
my pillow up under my head and pulled the covers up to my
chin.

“
Good-night, Eve,” West
said quietly through the now dark tent.

I hesitated for a
moment.  This whole situation felt so strange.  As
awkward as it was to have West sleeping in such close quarters, it
was kind of nice to have him here at the same time. 
“Good-night, West,” I half whispered as I turned onto my side away
from him.

NINE

The stiffness in my arm
woke me as I tried to roll over.  The bandaging had loosened
up during the night but it still prevented me from having full
movement. 

I was surprised at how
light it already was outside.  I must have been asleep for
nearly nine hours.  I then remembered what Avian had said
about my body feeling pain, even if my brain didn’t register
it.  Apparently it had needed the rest.

I felt like there were two
parts to me.  There was the part that my body registered, the
part that told me to do things I shouldn’t normally be able to
do.  And then there was my brain, the part that felt things
that
I
didn’t.

A soft snore reminded me
that I wasn’t alone and I rolled over to see West sprawled across
Sarah’s bed.  He lay on his back, his arms spread out, his
head lolling to the side facing me.  I gave a little half
smile as he gave another quiet snore.  Apparently he had
needed his rest as well.

I noticed something on the
floor that didn’t belong and reached across the cramped space for
it.  It was a notebook, its edges tattered and frayed. 
As I opened to somewhere in the middle of it, evaluating its shape
and size, I realized this was the thing West always carried on
him.

I wasn’t one to invade
another’s privacy and was about to close the notebook when some of
the writing caught my eye.

Test subject Eve shows
signs of extreme endurance.  Block capabilities of chip X73I
seems to be successful.

I read the line twice to
be sure I had read it correctly.

Quickly, I glanced up at
West to make sure he was still asleep.  Suddenly I had to
reevaluate everything I had ever known or thought about
him. 

Unable to keep from doing
so, I turned my eyes back to the pages.  I continued from the
line I had started with.

Subject Eve was tested on
treadmill for two hours straight with no indicators of
tiredness.  Vitals remained stable, peaking little during
fastest speed.  Tests have yielded same results for the past
five days. 

Eve continues to show
lessened need for sleep.  After close monitoring for the past
four months, we have recorded subject sleeps for little more than
five hours a night, at times less.

Tomorrow weight endurance
testing will begin.

I stared at the scribbled
words for a full two minutes when I came to the end of the
page.  My stomach knotted.  I realized I had been holding
my breath.

My eyes focused on the
page again and I noted the date written in the top right
corner.  I would have been roughly five years old at the
time.

I flipped through the
pages, seeing words and equations and endless things I couldn’t
comprehend, but taking nothing in really.  All I saw was my
name. 
Subject Eve, tests done on
Eve, problems with Eve.

“
What are you
doing?!”

The notebook was suddenly
ripped out of my hands and I looked up to see West glaring at me
with burning eyes.

“
What is that?” I asked as
I stared with wide eyes at the notebook in his hand.  “Where
did you get it?”

He didn’t say anything for
a second, just continued to look at me, his expression
softening.  I could see the internal debate going on in his
head.

“
Don’t you dare lie to me,
West,” I said, my voice cold and sharp as ice.  “I will
hurt
you if you lie to
me.”  I would have surprised myself, the seriousness of my
threat, if I hadn’t meant it so gravely.

He continued to look at me
for a minute.  I didn’t expect to see all the emotions that
played through his eyes: fear, agony, regret, among other things I
wasn’t so sure about.

“
I told you my grandfather
was a scientist,” he said, his voice hoarse sounding.  “Those
are his notes.  About a third of them are about
you.”

I couldn’t make my throat
form my loss of words.  My chest felt oddly hard as West
confirmed what I had already known.

“
He experimented on me,” I
finally managed.  “For how long?”

“
I remember you always
being there.  Maybe since you were a baby.”  I had never
seen West look so hesitant and so vulnerable as he did when he said
those words.

“
You remember me?” I said
slowly, never breaking my eyes away from his.

“
Like I told you, my
grandfather was the scientist.  My father was the doctor who
monitored you.  We lived at the testing facility.  On
rare occasions they would let us play together,” his voice trembled
a little as he spoke.

“
I don’t remember you,” I
forced my voice out.  “I don’t remember any of it.”

“
Someone released you
after the infection started.  They probably wiped your
memory.”

“
Why didn’t you tell me?”
I asked, my voice suddenly shaking with rage.  “Why didn’t you
tell me right away?  I had no idea who I was, but you
knew!”

“
I wasn’t sure,” he said,
the tone of his voice picking up with defense.  “It’s been
five years since I’ve seen you, Eve!  I had thought you must
have died a long time ago!  It wasn’t easy for me to think you
were dead.  You were my best friend!  My only
friend!”

I glared at West.  I
wished he hadn’t said that.  I wanted to be angry with
him.  I wanted to throw him out and to tell him to leave Eden
and never come back.  But a part of me wondered if what he was
saying was the truth.  Maybe West had been my friend at one
time.  But I couldn’t remember any of it.

“
I trusted you,” I
whispered as I glared at him.  “You should have told me
sooner.  Were you ever going to tell me?”

He was quiet for a second
as he looked back at me.  “I don’t know.”

“
Well at least you’re
being honest about that,” I said coldly.  “You should leave
now.  I have to get ready to move.”

“
Eve, I’m…”

“
Get out!” I shouted,
cutting him off. 

He stood and went to the
flap of the tent.  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly as he walked
out.

Attempting to keep myself
from doing something violent, I quickly set to packing my
things.  Everything I owned would fit into one
bag. 

I had just finished
putting my clothes into the bag when the flap of the tent was
pushed aside.  Avian stood there, his expression open, waiting
for me to attack him again.  I wasn’t sure what to say so I
just kept gathering all of my things.

“
Sarah told me to come get
her things.  She’s strong enough now we can move her. 
Those allergy pills are what finally did it I
think.” 

I just gave a nod as I
rolled the bear hide up, vowing to give it back to West
later.  I suddenly didn’t want it.

Avian set to gathering
Sarah’s belongings and stuffing them in a bag the same way I
did.  Within a few minutes we had everything cleared out of
the tent.

“
I can get this myself,” I
said as we stepped out and Avian started taking down the
tent.

“
I know,” he said simply
as he untied a tether.

We worked quietly as the
tent came down.  We then packed the poles into their bag and
set to rolling the canvas up.

“
We wanted to thank you
for what you did,” Avian said as he worked at my side. 
“
I
wanted to
thank you.  It was incredibly dangerous but you did it
anyway.”

I just gave a nod as I
held the bag open and Avian slid the bulk of the tent in.  I
tied the opening after the poles went in and set it on the
ground.

“
The wagon should be back
in just a few minutes,” Avian said as he looked out to the
east.  “Sarah went this morning with Bill.  West set out
on his own a little bit ago.  It’s just the two of us now and
our things.”

I gave a nod and allowed
Avian to help me carry the three bags that had once been Sarah and
I’s tent toward the pile that was his belongings and the medical
supplies and tent.

“
I don’t want you to be
angry at me forever,” Avian said as we stood there, side by
side.  “You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell you,
how many times I knew I should have told you.  I’m sorry,
Eve.  It was wrong.

I gave another nod, as
close as I could make myself get to accepting his apology at the
moment.  We then heard the sound of the wagon rumbling through
the trees towards us.

There had been two horses
kept in Eden, until about eight months ago.  The older of the
two had broken its leg and, unable to take care of the animal,
Gabriel had to put him down.  We managed with the smaller
wagon with just one horse.

A woman by the name of
Morgan and her husband Eli, drove the wagon and helped us to load
our things into the small space.  With everything that had to
be hauled there was no room for anything else.  Avian and I
would be walking.

That was fine with
me.  I would have walked anyway.

Little was said as we
finished loading.  The couple told us that no signs of the
hunters had been seen and that the new location for Eden was
wonderful, located right next to a lake.  Everyone was getting
settled in just fine.