Eden (4 page)

My eyes scanned over them
carefully, checking for any signs.  Their eyes looked normal
but it was difficult to tell in the minimal light.  I was
fairly certain the woman was organic, considering her wound. 
The Fallen could heal themselves as long as the injury wasn’t
fatal.  The cybernetic molecules would spread to the damaged
area, stealing more of their humanity as the injured flesh was
replaced with mechanical components. 

The boy seemed likely
organic as well, Fallen children didn’t know how to hide their true
nature.

So the only one I had to
question was the boy.  He moved with skill, he had shot with
deadly accuracy.  He hadn’t earned a clearing yet.

“
You are going to have to
come with me,” I said finally, keeping the boys tired but
determined stare.

He held my eyes for a
moment before looking back at his companions.  I glanced at
the woman, she actually looked slightly relieved.  The child
only bit into his bread, devouring it with a speed that left half
of the food on his face.

“
Alright,” he finally
said, as if he actually had a choice.  I nodded my head in the
opposite direction and they started walking toward Eden with the
feet that had traveled a hundred miles.

The walk back didn’t take
long.  They hadn’t gotten far from Eden before I confronted
them.  Our pace was slowed, hindered by the woman’s
limping.  I watched her closely as she moved.  She could
have been faking, trying to pretend to be human.  Doubt crept
into my mind.  It was hard to tell human from Fallen
sometimes.  It all depended on how long they had been
infected.

Camp was still silent when
we entered its perimeters, as it should have been.  Pressing a
finger to my lips, I urged them toward Gabriel’s tent.  I
assumed by the lack of alert that the guard in the tower had fallen
asleep.  I took a mental note to request that Gabriel add more
night watches to my list of duties. 

I went to the east wall of
Gabriel’s tent, the one I knew he slept on.

“
Gabriel,” I whispered in
attempt to not wake everyone nearby.  “Gabriel.”

I heard a grunt and a
shift of movement.  At the same time I heard a flap being
thrown back from another tent and a moment later an alarmed looking
Avian stumbled out of his tent.

“
Eve?” he questioned as he
squinted through the darkness.  “What… whoa!  Uh…” he
struggled to make his brain work as he realized I wasn’t
alone.

“
I found them after he
stole from the stores, out in the woods nearby,” I gave a hushed
explanation.  “Gabriel,” I hissed again.

This seemed to finally
rouse him as I heard a curse and two seconds later Gabriel half
tripped out of the entrance.

“
What the devil…” he said
angrily and stopped short as he took in the growing group outside
his tent.  “Who are they?”

“
The ones we saw in the
woods,” I said simply for him.  It was amazing the Fallen
hadn’t figured out how slow humans were after they woke up. 
Everyone could easily be picked off in the middle of the
night.

“
You caught them?” Gabriel
said stupidly.

“
No, he’s forcing me to
point the blade at them,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

Gabriel glared at me for a
moment before he turned his attention to Avian.  “Get the
CDU,” he said.

With a nod, Avian turned
and jogged toward the medical tent.

“
Where did you come from?”
Gabriel demanded as he turned to the boy.

“
We were just outside a
city, a few days south of here.  There were thirteen of
us.  We’re all that’s left.”

“
The city?” Gabriel said,
surprise evident in his voice. 

“
Our camp moved around but
we were always within walking distance.  We needed to be able
to get to supplies.  The Hunters found us though.”

That was explanation
enough for us.  While food was becoming scarce in the city as
roamers raided, other supplies were still to be found; clothing,
medical supplies, weapons occasionally.  We went on our own
raids when the need arose.

The sound of Avian’s quiet
jogging announced his return, feet that had been trained to move as
silent as possible.  His eyes were grim as he slowed when we
came into view.  We were all quiet as he charged it up and
calibrated it.

“
What is it?” the young
child asked as he pressed himself against the woman, eyeing the
device with uncertainty.

“
This,” Avian said as he
finished pushing buttons, his tone careful for the child.  “Is
called a Cybernetic Diffusion Unit.  Or a CDU for short. 
It protects us from the bad guys.”

“
What are you going to do
with it?” the boy asked warily.

“
I’m just going to touch
you with it.  It will give you a little shock but shouldn’t
hurt.”

Shouldn’t.

“
This isn’t necessary,”
the older boy said as he watched the child.  “We’re not
Fallen.”

Despite his words I knew
he understood why we were doing this.  Even as Avian touched
the CDU to the young boy’s arm I knew nothing would happen. 
They weren’t pretending.

The child jumped as the
electricity leapt though his system.  He buried his face into
the woman’s skirts, not wanting to watch as Avian looked into the
woman’s eyes with polite apologies.  She barely flinched as
she was shocked.

With more uncertainty,
Avian turned to the boy, his eyes not so kind anymore.

If the CDU was turned on a
Fallen they would be shorted out and killed instantly, including
their human parts.  The cybernetic molecules saturated every
part of your body once you were infected, even if your skin stayed
intact, your muscles, your hair.  This was the device that had
saved us from Tye once he had Fallen.

The boy did not take his
eyes from Avian as he approached.  He rolled up his sleeves,
almost in a challenging way, as if daring Avian to prove him not
organic.

I didn’t even realize I
had been holding my breath for over a minute until Avian had taken
the CDU away from the boys arm.  He hadn’t even flinched, not
reacted in any way.

“
Satisfied?” the boy asked
in a flat voice, his eyes suddenly looking ready to
sleep.

“
No,” Gabriel said, his
thick brows drawing together.  “You’ve stolen from
us.”

“
We needed food,” the
woman spoke for the first time.  “The boy, he needed to
eat.”

Gabriel turned his dark
blue eyes on her, his hands on his hips.  While his face was
stern he looked almost comical, standing in the moonlight, in his
nightgown.  With his gray beard he looked almost like a
picture I had seen of Santa Claus long ago.

“
What are your names?”
Gabriel demanded, though his expression softened
slightly.

“
This is Victoria,” the
boy said, indicating the woman.  “And Brady.  And my name
is West.”

“
Are you going to cause
any trouble here?” Gabriel asked, his tone serious with the need
for assurance that was essential to our survival.

West shook his head, his
eyes meeting mine.  “I’d rather not have her knife me, so no.”
The woman and the child both shook their heads as well.

“
We were going to approach
your camp in the morning,” West said, his tone less
sarcastic.  “Brady couldn’t wait to eat.”

Gabriel looked at the
group for a long moment.  I could see the gears turning in his
finally awake head.  The decision to let them stay was a
gravely important one.  On the one hand it was risky.  We
knew nothing of their past and there was the chance they could be
being tracked by Hunters.  On the other hand we could use more
bodies, especially West, considering the recent loss of Tye. 
And besides that, they were human, our fellow species.  We
owed it to them to take them in.  We were becoming fewer and
fewer, a dying race.

“
You,” Gabriel finally
said, indicating West.  “You may stay with Avian for the time
being.  There is an extra tent close to his, used for storage
at the moment that the two of you can stay in,” he said, meaning
the woman and child.

Avian and West eyed each
other warily but I could tell West was too tired to fight
anything.  I knew Gabriel had assigned West to Avian’s tent so
he could be watched.

“
Thank you,” Victoria said
gratefully.

“
Are you alright until
morning?” Avian said, looking meaningfully at Victoria.  “I
have medical training.”

She looked embarrassed to
have his attention on her, her face flushing a visible scarlet,
even in the moonlight.  “I will be alright, thank
you.”

“
Don’t try and run off in
the night,” I said as everyone started to disband.  “It’s not
safe.”

West met my eyes for a
moment and I thought I saw a hit of a smile tug at his
lips.

“
I want to talk to you at
day break,” Gabriel said as he lifted the flap of his tent. 
“All of you.”

Avian and I nodded and the
newcomers followed Avian.  Alone again, I started the walk to
the watch tower.  I breathed the cool night air in, letting it
relax my tense muscles.  It was strange, how alive I
felt.  I felt oddly satisfied and excited.

It wasn’t my night but I
climbed the ladder to the tower.  I woke the guard who was on
duty.  He was immensely apologetic, obviously embarrassed that
he had fallen asleep.  He would feel ten times worse come
morning when he learned three people had raided camp while he had
dreams of television and air conditioning. 

The distant sound of
awkward helpfulness drifted up to the tower for a few minutes and
then the night was quiet again, just as it should be.  I sat
on the hard wooden bench, pulling my jacket tighter around
me.  The air felt suddenly cold now that the adrenaline that
had been saturating my muscles had ebbed.

I rubbed my eyes which
suddenly felt heavy, though mentally I didn’t feel tired in the
slightest.  I hated sleep.  Idleness made me irritable
and frustrated.  Sleep was about as idle as you could
be.  It wasn’t like it came as a relief to me.  Others in
Eden dreamt of times before the Fall.  Of families, of homes
with electricity and running water.  Of what life should have
been like.

I couldn’t remember what
it was like before the Fall.  Even though I was thirteen when
the world ended, my very first memory was of Avian’s burning blue
eyes.

About eight years ago, a
breakthrough in science was made.  For years, technology had
been evolving.  Robotic prosthetics were made, artificial
hearts kept people alive.  Nanorobotics and cybernetic
technology evolved faster than the media could even keep up
with.  It started out so harmless.  There was nothing but
good intensions.  It was difficult to find faults in the
people who had created the infection.

A group of scientists
created a new breed of technology, manufactured a product that was
going to save millions of people’s lives, improve another few
million more.  They created technology that infused human DNA
with cybernetic mater.  It had the ability to generate new
limbs, organs, and just about any other part.  It was a
perfect blend of machine and man.

The scientists became
billionaires overnight.  People were put on waiting lists,
crying with joy that their lost leg was going to be regenerated,
that their little sister who had been waiting for a liver
transplant was going to live. 

The unconfirmed question
hung in the air.  This technology had the ability to
regenerate any body part.  When your heart, liver, lungs began
to wear out you could simply buy new cybernetic hybrid ones. 
If you could afford it.  Would people now be able to live
forever?

Fifteen-hundred implants
were given.  Those who were treated came from every corner of
the world, were observed for a week after the procedure to make
sure the implants grew as they were programmed to, and then sent
home.  For three months the world seemed like a better place
to live in.

And then the side effects
started showing up.  The people who had been improved were
having other parts of their bodies change.  A cybernetic lung
was joined by a mechanical kidney, an enhanced, metallic eye. 
The technology was evolving on its own, slowly taking over the
human’s bodies.

Then it wasn’t just the
patients that were starting to lose themselves.  It was their
families, their close friends.  After further research, it was
found that cybernetic cells weren’t stopping where they were
supposed to.  The technology was dubbed as “the infection” and
could be spread as easily as touching an infected
person.

A war raged through
mankind, splitting the world into two sides.  There were those
who wanted to build an electromagnetic pulse, to wipe the infection
out completely.  But the rest of them cried there had to be
another way.  Doing such would send everyone back into the
dark ages.  Setting off an EMP would wipe out every computer,
every car, every water heater, and backup
generator. 

They waited too
long.