Eden (2 page)

I didn’t remember much of
my arrival at Eden.  Only that I arrived alone, a
thirteen-year-old girl, mostly naked, covered in blood, but with
not a scratch on me.  I had no memory prior to that time, no
recollection of my parents or of where I had come from.  I
only remembered my name.  Eve.

Avian and Sarah had helped
me when I needed, despite how determined I had been that I could
take care of myself.  Avian had just escaped from the Army
that wasn’t safe anymore, just as the world was falling to
ruin.  He’d rescued his sister, hiding in the garage after
their parents had been infected.  He’d had to shoot both of
them to get her out.  He’d collected his cousin Tye, who’d
locked his infected mother in their trailer home, and stood guard
outside the door with a rifle, and together they fled into the
mountains.  They were some of the first to arrive in Eden,
only twenty-one and nineteen-years-old. 

Just as the sun broke
above the tree line, Sarah joined me at my side.  She carried
a sack of seeds, dropping them in a shallow trench and I raked the
damp dirt over them.

“
How is Avian this
morning?” I asked, keeping my voice down.

“
He didn’t look like he
had slept all night,” she said quietly as she dropped seeds. 
“He wouldn’t eat this morning but said he was fine.”

“
I will talk to him when I
get back,” I sighed as I continued to rake.

Avian was the one person
who never left Eden.  He never went on raids, never even
worked in the gardens.  He couldn’t leave his supplies and the
CDU.  It was too dangerous.  All too often he was
needed.  Even though he had only two and a half years’ worth
of medical training, he knew more than the rest of us
did.

“
People are wondering what
happened last night,” Sarah said as she looked around to make sure
no one was listening.  “I heard them talking at breakfast this
morning.  They’re starting to lose trust in Graye.”

Sarah’s statement
surprised me.  I had expected her to say that people were
starting to lose their faith in
me
.  “Why?”

“
They overheard someone
talking to Avian about how Graye had something to do with Tye’s
infection.  We all know he can be selfish and
sloppy.”

I straightened slightly
and looked over my shoulder to where Graye was working.  He
was alone, his head hanging low.  I would never say it to
anyone, but Sarah was right.  Graye always tried to grab just
a few more things, one more treasure to take home for
himself.  He hadn’t noticed the Hunter creeping up on
him.  Tye had gotten Graye out before it was too late but it
had meant the death of him.

“
We can’t afford to turn
against ourselves,” I said as I got back to work before anyone
could notice my stiff behavior.  “We all know better than
that.”

“
They’re upset,” Sarah
said simply.

“
They’re going to have to
move on though,” I said, more bluntly than I had meant it. 
“We need him.  We need everyone.”

Sarah didn’t say anything
else as she continued her work.  It wasn’t until a few minutes
later that I realized she was vocalizing not only the thoughts of
others in Eden, but her own.  I was going to have to talk to
Avian and Gabriel about it later.

I worked a longer shift
than required, in a way anxious to prove my devotion to keeping
Eden alive.  It was unnecessary, but I seemed to be feeling
the guilt Graye wasn’t.  The afternoon shift started trickling
in, the post in the watchtower shifting.  As I handed off my
tools and gloves to someone else, I realized that Graye and I were
the last of the morning crew to head back. 

I hesitated, unnerved at
having to walk back with him, but I wasn’t stupid.  It was
safer to travel with a companion, even if it was just between the
gardens and home.  I shouldn’t have walked there by myself
that morning.

We traveled in
silence.  We had known each other for four years now and had
been going on raids together for almost three.  He was a good
fighter and when push came to shove, I would want him on my
side.

Graye had come to Eden
when I was fifteen-years-old.  He himself was twenty at the
time.  He had been recently married and had a baby girl, both
lost to the infection.  It was hard to condemn him for his
selfish actions; he had lost everything that ever meant anything to
him.  He was just trying to take something back from the world
that had stolen everything from him.

We were nearly back to
Eden, our journey nearly successfully silent, when he finally
spoke.

“
I didn’t mean it you
know,” he said in his gravelly voice.  “I never wanted Tye to
get hurt.”

“
I know,” I said simply as
we stepped into the perimeter of camp.  That was as close to
an apology as anyone would ever get from Graye.

We went our separate ways,
him heading for the armory to clean his weapons from the night
before, me to the medical tent.

THREE

I hadn’t expected anyone
but Avian to be inside the medical tent but found him bent over,
working on a skin and bones foot.  Wix lay on the table,
propped up on his elbows, watching as Avian worked.

“
Hey, Eve,” Wix said with
a bright smile on his narrow face.  “Look what I got on the
way home!”

He held up a nearly three
foot long snake, one of the fattest ones I had ever seen. 
“Looks like it got you too,” I said as I raised my
eyebrows.

“
Eh, it’s nothing,” he
said with a grin again, watching as Avian treated the
bite.

I just smiled and shook my
head as I sat on a stump that served as a seat.  Wix was the
skinniest person I had ever met but made up for his small size with
personality.  Even all the tough warriors like Bill couldn’t
tease him about his build.  It was impossible to dislike the
green-eyed, red-haired kid.  I supposed I shouldn’t call him a
kid; he was two years older than me.

“
Well, that’s all I can
do,” Avian said as he finished wrapping a bandage around Wix’s
ankle and foot.  “Let me know if it starts oozing or turns
black.  I want to check on it before you go to sleep
tonight.”

“
Well that doesn’t sound
pleasant,” Wix said as he sat up, his twiggish legs hanging off the
table.  “Thanks for fixing me up, Doc.”

With that he limped out of
the tent, his prize and dinner swinging at his side.

“
Snake is actually pretty
good,” I said as I watched Avian clean up.

“
What are you doing here,
Eve?” he asked.

“
Making sure you are
okay,” I said quietly, taking the quick and honest approach. 
I took a good look at him, trying to determine if he was.  His
lean but toned frame was taught, his brow pinched together, his
intense blue eyes dark.

“
I’m fine.  Did Sarah
say otherwise?” he said with a sigh, throwing a few used rags into
a basket.

I only gave a shrug,
picking at a piece of bark that was peeling off the stump I sat
on. 

“
You don’t need to worry,”
he said, placing his hands on the table, staring at it.  I had
little doubt he was seeing the body of his cousin, hearing the
volts course through it.  It was the same thing I was
seeing.

“
I wanted to talk to you
and Gabriel, together.  I’m worried about people turning on
Graye.”

Avian looked up at me, and
after several long moments, still didn’t say anything.  I was
worried that I knew what he was thinking.  That maybe they
should.

“
You know we can’t afford
to lose him,” I said quietly, but keeping my voice firm.

His eyes hardened for a
moment.  “Gabriel is on scouting duty right now.  He will
be back this evening.”

“
We need to talk,” I said
as I stood.  I hesitated at the opening to the tent, wanting
to tell him that what Graye did was wrong, but that we needed
him.  Keeping my mouth closed, I walked out.  I would
make my argument later, when both Avian and Gabriel were
there. 

I realized as I walked out
of the tent that I had already missed the serving of lunch.
 My stomach growled immediately.  I hadn’t bothered to
eat breakfast that morning.  I walked to the far end of Eden
and yanked up the door to the cellar.  The room that stored
the majority of the food in Eden smelled like earth.  It was a
comforting place, it felt protected, like Mother Earth wouldn’t
ever let anything happen to you there.  I helped myself to a
few carrots and a few hard rolls that had been wrapped up, left
over from that morning.

It spoke volumes as to the
characters of the people that lived here in Eden, the fact that
there was no need for a guard at the food stores.  Most people
who made their way here were starving, living only on what they
could find in the wild.  Here everyone could come and go as
they pleased, take what they needed.  We all lived by that
rule: take what you
need
.  We knew how to ration,
no one would starve.  We couldn’t afford for anyone to
starve.

I ate quickly as I made my
way back to my tent.  Finding it empty, I threw my few items
of clothing and my bedding in a sack and slung it over my
back.

Eden moved every two
months or so for safety reasons.  The Fallen had helicopters
that would scout every so often.  For humans.  We
couldn’t risk them seeing us or pinpointing our exact
location.  The two limitations we had though, were the gardens
and water.  We always had to be within walking distance of
water.  It was necessary to survive. 

I walked to the south bend
of the river, finding myself alone with only the birds for
obnoxiously loud company.  Kneeling next to the water, I
scrubbed my clothing furiously; all of it was barely more than rags
anymore.  I was going to have to see if there was anything in
the storage supplies available or look for something on the next
raid.  I washed out my blankets and hung it all on the line to
dry that had been set up for that exact purpose.  My clothes
felt hardened and caked with grime as I peeled them off.  Dirt
clouded the water momentarily as I soaked them and scrubbed
furiously.  But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get Tye’s blood
out.  It would remain a permanent reminder of the man we had
lost.

The water was freezing,
freshly melted from the snow in the mountains.  Bumps rose on
my skin as soon as I stepped into the water, my stomach
quivering.  Closing my eyes, I took a short breath and let
myself sink into the river. 

I let the flow of the
water wash my hair, letting it take the dirt away from my
skin.  I kept my eyes closed as I settled onto the smooth
rocks at the river bottom, listening to the noises I couldn’t
discern in the water.  It felt peaceful down here.  There
was no one but me.  There was no one else to worry about; no
worries about supplies, food, or of being infected.  The
cybernetics couldn’t survive in the water, everything shorted
out. 

Down here there was just
Eve.

When I finally rose from
the water I shivered, the air around me turning brisk. 
Goosebumps flashed over my bare skin.  I climbed out and onto
the boulder that my clothes sat on.  I wrapped my arms around
my legs tightly, huddling against the cold while my clothes
continued to dry.

I hoped Gabriel would not
take too long.  As leader of Eden, he was never away for
long.  He would never call himself the leader, but that’s what
he was.  He had never been elected, never asked to be
such.  But he was the most evenhanded among us, the one who
always seemed to have the answers when no one else did.  It
was he and his family that had formed Eden.  Terrif was his
father-in-law.  Together they had started the gardens that had
saved us all from starvation.

He was as much of a father
as I’d ever had.

My clothes were still damp
when I pulled them on and started the walk back.  I passed
several other women on the way, heading to do their laundry as
well.  Two of them wouldn’t look at me, the third tried very
hard to form a polite smile.  I just tried to keep my eyes
glued to the ground.

I found the morning
scouting group depositing their weapons in the armory, and was
relieved to find Gabriel among them.

“
I need to talk to you,” I
said quietly as he came out the door.

“
Yes, Avian informed me of
that,” he said as he came to my side and watched as the rest of the
men walked out of the small building.  He scratched at his
graying beard, his thick brows furrowing.

“
Can we talk, now?” I
asked, feeling impatient.  The distress that was hanging in
the air agitated me, filling me with a sense of urgency.

“
Fine,” he said, and we
set out for the medical tent to find Avian.  We retrieved him
and made our way to Gabriel’s tent. 

We each took a seat on a
rug and I could tell both the men were irritated to be there. 
They would both hear me out though.  They owed it to me for
saving their lives more than once.

“
What Graye did was wrong
but you both know we can’t afford to turn on him.  We need
him, especially now that Tye is gone.  You both need to talk
to everyone.”  It all came out in a desperate rush.