Finding Eden (12 page)

“Tex!” I yelled, momentarily forgetting about his family, forgetting about the atrocity my dad had committed.

              “Of course you would be a part of this place! It all makes sense. You probably told them to use your daughter! You deserve to die a thousand times over after what you did to my family, and now your own daughter!” Tex was red in the face and his hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists. He was ready to knock him out once my dad stood back up.

I didn’t know what to do. I felt lost. I needed answers.
             

“Dad, is this true?” I knelt down beside him.

“We don’t have time for this! Leonard had to have heard the gunshots.”

“Dad!
I need to know, please.”

I already knew. He looked drenched in guilt. I knew that look; it was hard to miss. He just sat there, slumped, staring at the floor. “I had to get back to you. I had lost your mom and I was delirious with pain. I had only one direction in my mind and that was back to you. I was convinced I would do anything to return to you.” Regret poured across his features. He looked at Tex, then back at me. “You have to understand. I hate myself for it. Every day I wish I could go back in time; I wish I could fix it all.”

I shook my head. Hearing it from Tex was one thing, but hearing it from my own father completely shook my world; it reshaped my life. The world was a hard place now and people would do anything to survive, though that didn’t justify his actions. He was my dad; I would always love him, but I knew I would never be able to look at him the same way after his confession.

“Why didn’t you come back to the bunker?” I croaked.

“I ran into Leonard and his gang and by the time I figured out what their plan was, I was too deep in to leave; I didn’t want to bring them back to you. It seems it was all for naught though.”

I sat silent.

“Elle, sweetie? Please say something.”

“There is nothing to say.” I gave him a kiss on the forehead and returned to
Tex’s side. “Don’t kill him. Can’t you see he’s already suffering from the immense guilt he feels?” I looked at my dad with pity.

Tex didn’t say anything. I could tell that it took every ounce of strength he had to not use my dad’s head as a soccer ball.

“Just leave. Leave now. I’ll handle things here. Just go!” My dad gave me a quick hug, but he didn’t spare a glance at Tex. There were still so many questions that I wanted—
needed
—answered, like what happened to my mom, but he quickly shoved us out through the door and pointed down the hall. “Go that way. Make two rights and you’ll find the exit. There’s about four hours left until daybreak. You have to hurry. Please, just go!”

             
“I love you, Dad.” I said as I gave him one last hug.

             
“I love you too, Elle. My strong, beautiful girl.”

He handed me his pistol. I gave him a weak smile and turned away, following behind Tex. His shoulders were tense, wanting to give in to his innate desire to destroy my father.

It was all concrete—floor to ceiling—with fluorescent ceiling lights flickering every ten or so feet. It was clear and right before our first turn, we passed by a door that was slightly ajar. Tex peaked in; I followed suit and I saw a man I hadn’t yet met sitting at a desk. When I saw what he was doing and what he had, I couldn’t just let him be.

He was looking at an unrolled, laminated piece of paper—the map. Our backpacks and
Tex’s axe leaned against the wall beside him. If I was correct, that was my utility belt lying on the desk. My knife would be there. I missed my knife.

I took a deep breath and willed all my strength up to the surface. I stepped passed Tex and kicked open the door. The man stood up, alert.

“
Blondie!” Tex hissed.

“
What the fuck!” He picked up his gun and aimed it at me. He knew he wasn’t supposed to shoot me; I was
the
female. I was the one who would be impregnated with mini-Franks and whoever else wanted a turn. I would
not
allow that. Ever. Suddenly, I had all the courage I needed and if I wasn’t going to let that happen, I had to do something about it. I raised my pistol and pulled the trigger. He fell against the wall. His eyes were wide; he never thought I had the guts. I was running off of pure adrenaline now. I watched as the man slid down the concrete, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. I ran to the desk and buckled my utility belt around my hips. My knife was there. I put on my pack, securing it.

“
Holy shit, Kid. I didn’t think you had it in you.” Tex's expression was filled with bewilderment as he stood in the doorway, unmoving. I grabbed his pack which still had his axe attached to it. I rolled the map back up and stuffed it into the lip of my shorts.

We were back in the hall. Two of the men were making their way towards us: Morris and Larry. They screamed at us, telling us to not to move. As if we’d listen. We rushed down the hall, and as my dad had directed, we took the first right. We then took the next right, all the while hearing footsteps gain on us. We had passed several doors in our escape, but they were just rooms with beds and dressers; we obviously didn’t have any time to loot them.

We finally came upon a door that looked promising. It opened up into a cave tunnel, similar to the
safepoints
. We had no choice but to run through it. So we did, and after a few minutes, we were out in the open with the desert expanding around us.

We ran until we had absolutely no energy left to even breathe. With the way everything seemed to blur right by me, I felt like I was sprinting in super speed. We ran through hills and down into canyons until there was a vast expanse of soft, sloping dunes before us. Either the men weren’t following us anymore or we’d lost them completely. We stopped beside two huge boulders. I sat down and pulled out a water bottle. It took me a few minutes to actually catch my breath enough to even have a drink.

“
Drink, Tex.” I took a sip and then handed it to him. He didn’t take it.

My gaze found his and he was just staring down at me, his face completely blank. I noticed the bandage I had placed above his eye was missing. He was panting and sweating, so I shoved the bottle in his direction once again. He suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me. His knees disappeared into the soft sand of the dunes.

“
Tex?” I asked as I cocked my head to the side.

He grabbed my face with his dry, calloused hands, pulled me forward with desperate urgency, and planted a firm kiss flat on my forehead.

“
You, Elle, are phenomenal.”

I blanched.

[ Tex
]

What the hell? I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Well, I should have known she had it in her, but I would have never thought in a million years she would have pulled it off. It was final: she was
nothing
like her dad.

I had been sitting there, chained to the wall, about to give up all hope of keeping my fingers and life. Blondie, though, had other plans. The fact that she was willing to sacrifice
so
much just to keep me in one piece was something I really hadn’t expected. Seeing her wide green eyes go blank while each limb was chained up, accepting the sacrifice of her dignity—I never wanted to see it again and especially not for
me.
I really didn’t deserve such an offering.

This girl—my Blondie—had, single-handed I might add, freed us from those disgusting monsters who had no right to call themselves men. It was all her—not her father.

I didn’t regret kissing her. I was just so damned proud of her and thankful that she had saved me. Again. Honestly, it hurt my ego a bit, but I had to man up and take it. In the end, it doesn’t matter who gets you out; it’s the getting out that’s important and I had her to thank for that.

I pulled away, but let my hands linger on her cheeks. They were flushed, warm, and it made me want to chuckle. She was blushing. Perhaps she hadn’t been kissed all that often as a teenager, if at all. I told myself that it had only been a friendly, thank you gesture.

I sat cross-legged across from her, took the bottle she offered, and downed almost half.

“
Have the rest,” I handed it back as I pulled out a bag of dried fruit that she had let me have the day we embarked on this crazy adventure. I never liked this crap, but needless to say, my taste buds changed; anything edible was delicious.

[ Elle ]

My hands were suddenly quite interesting. The sand was as well and so was that patch of hair I had missed shaving the other day above my knee. I couldn’t bear to look at him after what he just did.

It was just a forehead kiss. It was
just
a forehead kiss.

My father used to give me those. Why was uncomfortable heat radiating off my face? It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it; God knows I did. I just didn’t know how to react. If I was going to appear sane, I had to gain at least a modicum of composure.

And he said my name! He called me Elle; I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t going to deny myself the pleasure of the feeling it gave me. I liked the way it sounded rolling off his tongue. I wondered what saying my name meant to him. Did he finally come to terms with the fact that we were friends, that he could trust me fully now? Oh, but I savored that memory and I knew I would for a long time. I wouldn’t bug him about it though, at least not yet.

Tex offered me a something in a small, plastic bag. I didn’t pay attention; I just stuck my hand into it and pulled out some soft, rubbery pieces of apricot and banana. I practically inhaled it, not realizing how famished I was until the sweet smell of the fruit hit me. He must have noticed. He handed me the bag again.

When I felt that my face was no longer the color of a cherry, I lifted my eyes to meet his gaze.

“
I was thinking, Tex. What if they copied the map?”

“
Crap! The map! Where the f—”

I smirked and pulled it from the back of my shorts, wagging it in front of him, flaunting it.

“Aren't you just
full of surprises?” He snatched the map from me and opened it up. “We’ll have to find a landmark quick if we want to make it to a
safepoint
by dawn.” He stood up, turned away from me, and held the map out in front of him. He looked at the mountains and hills, back at the map, then back and forth until he was satisfied by what he found. “If I’m right about this, we should only be about five miles from the closest stop.”

“
That’s a relief.” I stood up and nudged his ribs with my elbow. I handed him back the small bag that was formerly filled with dried fruit and grinned.

“
Pig.” He rolled his eyes and we started off in a direction away from the dunes. They looked so soft and cozy, like a dreamland with sloping hills made from clouds. It made me sleepy.

It reminded me of the one winter when I went to Maine to visit my grandparents. They lived in an old colonial-style home. I remembered I used to love that house; every time my family and I visited, it smelled like chocolate chip cookies and cherry-apple strudel. My grandmother would always have some sort of gift for me along with whatever sweet she had baked. My favorite had always been her pumpkin cookies with brown sugar frosting. She always made it at least once while I was visiting. My grandfather—he never ceased to make me laugh. He’d let me ride his knee as he shook it up and down—my own roller coaster. One year he built me one of those antique-looking wooden sleds. I rode it for hours down the little hill they lived on. I would slide down, then run back up, and then slide down again. It went on from dawn to dusk, until my mom would call me in for supper.

The dunes looked so sled-able. If I just had a piece of cardboard, I’d be able to slide down it like old times—like I was five again and, other than hoping my grandpa hadn't eaten the last pumpkin cookie, I didn’t have a care in the world,.

“
Are you coming, Kid?”  Tex asked.

“
I’m coming, I’m coming. I was flashing back to a really good memory, you know.”

“
Forgive me, Your Highness!” He bowed to me.

I rolled my eyes and put my finger up in the air, gesturing that I had a sudden thought. “How old are you?”

Tex gasped and put his hand up to his chest and fanned himself with the other. “Why, I never!” He spoke with a horrible, high-pitched, southern accent. “You never ask a lady her age!”

I snorted and thanked God I didn’t have water in my mouth at that moment. “Tex!” What was this sudden change in personality? He was actually being funny, actually joking around with me.

“
I’m twenty-eight.” He shrugged.

I blinked. He was older than I thought.

“
Aren’t you going to ask me my age?”

“
Don’t make me speak with that southern accent again.”

“
Oh come on, I don’t care about that. Guess!”

He laughed at me. It was still a sound that I would never stop loving or get used to. It was deep, throaty, and playful. He put his finger up to his chin, appearing in deep thought. He began to count on his fingers.
Then he rubbed his jaw.