Eden (19 page)

"Jonas," I say, planting my feet.

Celine is forced to stop.

"We can't leave him all alone."

"He's not alone," Celine says.  "I told the
dog to go find him."

"The dog?"  There are so many questions.  Like how
the hell did the dog get here when everyone was riding on motorcycles, for
one?  "You
told
the dog?  The dog speaks English?"

"Spanish, mostly," she says, looking intently off
into the distance through the thinning smoke.

I glance over my shoulder, and Apollon nods.

"OK," Celine says, gripping my arm.  "We're
going to move fast, but quiet.  Right through there.  See?"  She raises
her other arm and points.  I can just make out the narrow opening of an alley. 
The tall buildings on both sides seem to be leaning toward it, like they might
actually touch somewhere at the top and hold each other up.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive."

"OK.  And you know that if a Sentry sees either one of
us..." I gesture between me and Apollon, "...it'll kill us, no
questions asked."

Celine gives me a look of withering amusement. 
"Sentries never ask questions."

"You'd be surprised," I mutter as we follow after
her.

Behind me, Apollon chuckles darkly.

Celine leads us at a jog through the last of the smoke and
into the alley.  We keep a steady pace all the way to its end, then stop. 
Celine peeks out the other side, holds up two fingers, hesitates, makes a
wiping motion in the air—
scratch that
—and holds up three fingers. 
Nearby is the sound of metal and gunfire.  A scent in the air of aether heat.

Apollon and I exchange glances.

Celine's still peeking out the alley.  She doesn't look at
us, but signals straight across, holds up her hand for us to wait, and finally
gives us a countdown on her fingers.  When all the fingers are gone, she bolts
across the street.  Apollon and I are right behind her, refusing to look at
anything but the other side.  We make it into another alley, and we're running
again.  Celine takes a hard left, then a hard right.  She cycles the action of
her shotgun as she comes around the corner, still running, raises the barrel,
and shoots.  A man explodes into a bloody mess on the pavement, pistol going
off as it hits the ground.  The bullet takes a chunk out of a white stucco
wall.  We keep running.

Two more twists and turns, then we slam to a halt at the end
of an alley.  Celine motions for us to wait.  After a moment, she steps back,
retreating deeper into the alley, and squats down to write in the dirt. 
Apollon and I gather around her.

"Two guards here, and two more here," she says,
making some lines.  We must be on the border to Riverside, now.  "There's
a post here, with probably three more, at least.  And a handful of spectators
wondering what the hell is going on in The Roads.  Most of those will be armed,
too.  But they're more toward the corner here."  She makes a mark.

I nod, swallowing.  "OK.  Let's take down these ones
quietly."  I touch the closest mark with my toe, then hand Apollon my
rifle, pull my pistol out of my shoulder holster and my suppressor from its
compartment.  I begin threading the suppressor on, but Celine rises to her feet
and places her hand over my work.

"No," she says softly.  "There can be no
violence here.  Put it away."

Apollon and I exchange yet another glance.

"We're going around."

"Around?"  I'm about to protest.  We've come this
far, and now we're turning back?

But Celine nods upward.  "Up there," she says. 
"Over."

My eyes scan up the side of the building that looms over
us.  It's only what... five or six stories?

She slings her shotgun over her shoulder and goes to a pipe
that runs up the side of the building.  She tugs on it, and nods.  "It'll
hold."  Before Apollon or I can say anything, she's climbing up like she's
part monkey.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Apollon snorts laughter suddenly, like my commentary has
caught him off guard.  "No shit," he says, but he slings my rifle
over his shoulder.  He looks around for a place to put Celine's helmet, then
starts to place it over his head.

"Leave it," Celine calls down to him.  "Too
bulky."  She's already halfway up the second story.

Apollon sets the shiny black helmet down gently, his eyes
lingering over its smooth surface.  "It's a shame."

I glance upward.  "I'm not sure I wouldn't rather be
wearing it."

"No shit."  He gives me a crazy grin. 
"Ladies first."

I go to the pipe and start climbing, though I'm pretty sure
I don't make it look as graceful and easy as Celine does.  No monkeys in my
blood.  I struggle up every inch of the thing.  I'm finally to the third story
when the whole pipe rattles as Apollon adds his weight to it.  "I'm not
sure it's a good idea for all of us to be on this thing at once," I say,
glancing upward.  Celine's not there.

"No worries," she says, sticking her head over the
ledge high above me.  "It'll hold.  Hurry up."

I curse under my breath as I grunt and pant and wiggle my
way up.  I make the mistake of glancing down as I get to the fourth floor. 
Dizziness hits my brain along with the adrenaline.  My hands are sweaty and
sliding, my boots too slippery on the metal surface.  I close my eyes for a
moment and cling to the pipe, resting where I am.

"Come on," Celine says softly, immeasurable
patience in her voice.  "You can do this."

"Easy for you to say."  Holding on tight, I turn
my eyes upward to her.  "You're obviously part monkey."

That makes her smile.  "Well, who do you think taught
me to climb like that?"

"Really?"

She laughs.  "Come on, silly."

The pipe is vibrating with Apollon's upward lunges, and I'm pretty
sure he's about to catch up.  I take a deep breath and resume climbing. 
I've
done this before
.  I try to zone out and let Lily decide where and how to
place her hands and feet.  The upper stories pass by more quickly, possibly
because I desperately want to get this over with.  Celine offers me her hand at
the top and pulls me over onto the roof.

"I really taught you to climb like that?" I ask as
we look over the edge at Apollon's blonde mop.

She flashes me a grin.  "Erm... sure."

If I weren't reaching my arm out to Apollon, she might be in
danger.  But we're busy pulling him up—it takes both of us—and then we're on
the move.  We cross the corner of the roof to the other edge, staying low, and
look over.  I can see the guards now, positioned exactly as Celine showed us,
but they're all on the ground level.  The next building is across a street, but
it's narrow, and that building is a story lower than ours.

I groan.  "Now you're going to make us jump across a
street five stories up, right?"

"You got it," Celine beams.

"Qué va," says Apollon.  "Jump across the
street."

Celine glances at him curiously.

I consider them both.  "You two have been spending a
lot of time together."

"I've been spending a lot of time with Hemingway,"
Apollon corrects.

"Who's that?" I ask.  "I haven't met
him."

Apollon opens his mouth to provide an answer—a cheeky one,
no doubt, from the smartass look on his face—but Celine's focused on the other
side.

"Like this," she says, backing away from the
edge.  "A running start.  Make sure to roll when you hit the other side. 
And get the hell out of the way for whoever comes next."  She unslings her
shotgun, flicks on the safety, and hands it to Apollon.  "Toss me the guns
once I'm over."  Then she's sprinting for the edge, her hands slicing
precisely through the air at her sides.  Her foot places exactly on the raised
ledge with her last step, and she launches into the air, folding in on herself,
somersaulting.  She tucks and rolls onto the lower roof on the opposite side of
the street, and allows her momentum to carry her back to standing.  She turns,
smiles, and waves to us easily.  Somehow it reminds me of Matt on a cloud.

"That was beautiful," I murmur.

Apollon stands slightly dazed at my side.  After a moment,
he glances down at me, a jaunty smile appearing on his face.  "Now it's
our turn," he says.  "Freestyle."

I chuckle, handing over my pistol, and watch him toss the
guns across to Celine, one at a time.  She catches all of them easily, slings
the shotgun over her shoulder and holds onto the rifle and pistols, stepping
aside.

"You go first this time."  I gesture to the path
off the roof.

He gives me a smug smile, chokes down a chuckle, and backs
up.  One deep breath later, his full weight is barreling toward the edge.

My breath catches as he launches himself off the roof, arms
and legs flailing in the open air as he rises, hangs, and drops.  I run to the
edge just in time to see him hit the other side, hard on the shoulder, but
rolling, just like he was told.

He's cursing and laughing as he gets up, holding his
shoulder.  Celine purses her lips and blinks at him.  Maybe she's trying not to
laugh... or not to cry.  Her mouth twitches, then she has hold of whatever
emotion it is, and she twitches two fingers, gesturing me toward them.

"Fun," Apollon mouths at me.  I shake my head at
him slowly.

Before I can change my mind, I back up and sprint toward the
edge. 
Ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven
....  I forget to count. 
I'm in the air, and Apollon's right.  It's hella fun.  But the opposite roof
zooms toward me, looking hard and dangerous.  I tuck in on myself as I drop,
then I'm slamming into my landing, but I'm rolling, rolling.

As I come to a dizzy stop, Celine offers me a hand up. 
"Nice."

I pry my eyes open and notice that I'm still alive, and I'm
not a pancake.  I stand up and brush myself off.  "Nice," I repeat,
breathlessly.

"Show off," Apollon mutters as Celine hands us our
weapons and leads us away over the rooftops.

"Instinct," I say, loping along easily beside my
friend.  That's when I realize that Apollon and I are completely normal. 
There's no weirdness, no doubts.  We're just us, even though we never got
around to apologies or explanations.  And as much as I'd like to get to those,
I understand that there's really no need.  And
that
is a wonderful
thing.

"What're you grinning about," he chides. 
"Are you remembering my freestyle descent?"

I laugh and laugh, which makes it hard to keep up with
Celine.  When I manage to stop, I ask, "What are you doing here,
anyway?"

"I came with Celine," he says.  "You think I
was going to let you and Jonas have all the fun?"

"With Celine, huh?"

"Shut up."

We catch up to her when she stops, looking over the edge of
a roof.  "Here's our way down."

There's an old, rusted fire escape dangling from the edge of
a building.

"One person at a time, this time."  She eases her
weight onto the top landing, giving Apollon a look.  "And no
bouncing."

I whap Apollon lightly in the chest.  "Yeah.  No
bouncing."

A moment later, when Celine drops lightly, catlike, to the
pavement, I gesture to the fire escape.

"You better go first this time," Apollon says.

I don't like the implication.  He's thinking it might not
hold his weight.  That it might come down, and if I'm not already on the
ground, there won't be any escape for me.  But the idea of Apollon on a
crashing fire escape makes me incredibly uneasy.

I throw my arms around him for a quick hug.  "I'm
sorry," I say.  "For everything."  Then I follow Celine's
example and carefully climb onto the fire escape while he pats me on the head.

This time, climbing down is easy.  There's plenty of steps,
though they're steep, and I mostly just have to step lightly.  I make it all
the way down, perform the short drop to the pavement, and look back up at
Apollon.  Even from several stories below I can see the heave of his shoulders
as he takes a deep breath before climbing out.

The whole thing shudders and shifts and groans under his
weight.  Celine throws an arm out in front of me and makes us back up, but we
do so slowly, mouths open, faces tilted upward, eyes watching Apollon's every
move.  It seems like forever as he slowly makes the descent, placing each foot
like he thinks it might be his last step.  He's just easing his weight onto the
second floor landing when something in the mechanism issues a rusty squeal. 
Almost in slow motion, the escape detaches from the building and falls.

Apollon launches himself off the side of the fire escape and
into the air, trying to clear the avalanche of corroded metal.  This time, he
tucks into a ball and rolls as he hits the pavement, slightly sideways and
tumbling.  It's all I'm paying attention to, but its framed in a cacophony of
destruction.

Celine pulls me to a run, we scoop Apollon up by an arm on
either side of him, and all of us are in motion, barreling down the alleyway. 
Apollon's run has a limp in it, but it seems to work itself out the further we
get.  We take a few quick turns then walk quickly in the shadows against a
building with our heads down.

Celine leads us quietly in this manner.  There are some
people in the street, and I'm sure one of them is going to notice us and sound
the alarm, but we pass by unnoticed.  The old freeway comes into view, hovering
above us on support columns.  We stay at a walk as we pass underneath it  When
we hit the other side, Celine breaks into a run yet again.  Apollon and I stay
close behind her as she leads us through twisting alleys and trashy, smelly,
overgrown streets.  The buildings are worse here, often skeletons or simply debris
piles.  No one has taken care of anything.  We're definitely in the No Man's
again.

Celine seems to know exactly where she's going, though,
dodging around certain places, and heading straight through others that seem
iffy to me.  We're making good progress this way, and I'm pretty sure, with her
as our guide, we'll soon find ourselves safely back in Wynwood.  We come around
a corner, and I slam on the breaks.  Ahead of me now, Celine and Apollon turn
back.