Saving Eden

by K R S McEntire

  The Warden looked back at them. “Sorry, girls, I was just checking in on an old friend. I’ll be out of your way in no time.” She shot Emi an apologetic smile.

  “Thanks.” Emi blushed and smiled up at her.

  “I love your hair, by the way,” the woman said to Emi. “If only I could pull that off at my age.”

  The Warden turned her attention away from Emi and Angela. The shop owner used a pencil and paper to add up the total of the woman's groceries and a small black scanner to scan her card and take payment. As the shop owner took the Warden’s payment, the Warden looked Angela and Emi up and down with curiosity. Angela wondered if she didn’t look normal enough. Were her new khakis and t-shirt too simple for her to blend in?

  “I don’t think I've seen you two around before,” The Warden said.

  “We keep to ourselves,” Emi said.

  The Warden nodded slowly, looking Angela over once more. She was digging in her small black purse when the shop owner handed her CitCard back.

  Angela’s eyes were locked on her hand, hoping she wasn’t going to check her radio scanner. If Emi was thinking the same thing, she didn’t show it. Angela forced her eyes to look at the bread on the counter. She could feel her face heating up.

  The Warden pulled a small black object out of her purse and stepped away from the counter as Emi stepped forward. Emi watched the Warden out of the corners of her eyes while placing her groceries on the counter. Emi confidently took her fake card out of the green bag that was draped over her shoulders and handed it to the cashier. Angela avoided eye contact with the Warden or her small black item as her hands started to sweat. If they were caught, she might be killed and would never get to say goodbye to her father.

  The cashier scanned the card, then handed it back to Emi.

  “Thank you!” Emi flashed another bright smile.

  “No problem, hon.” The lady smiled back, and Emi and Angela exited the store while the Warden continued her conversation with the cashier.

  “What was that in her hand?” Angela asked once safely away from the store.

  “BlackBerry,” Emi said.

  “Fruit?” Angela was confused.

  “Phone. A very ancient one, at that,” Emi clarified. “I would have expected a more fashionable choice for a Warden.”

  They walked in thoughtful silence for a while; appreciating the fact that they still had their lives. Emi was the first to speak.

  “So all your life it’s just been you and your dad?” Emi asked.

  “Yes,” Angela said.

  “Well, you’re in a whole new world now. I’m like your human encyclopedia. I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Emi said.

  “What about school?” Angela asked, “Jesse told me it’s where they taught him to read. I’ve been wondering if I could go.”

  Emi’s touched her finger to her chin.

  “I’m not sure how that would work with a fake CitCard. You probably won’t be able to get official transcripts, but I don’t think they would turn you down if you showed up wanting to learn to read,” Emi said thoughtfully. “You would need to ask Freedom.”

  “Why don’t you go to school?” Angela asked.

  “School changed a lot after the war. It’s not required anymore, plus I’m not carded anymore so I figured there's no point. I got rid of my official CitCard when I joined The Resistance and devoted my life to something bigger.”

  Something bigger, Angela thought. But what did that truly mean to Emi? Angela was starting to feel agitated. She was tired of being given riddles about the world when she wanted concrete, absolute solutions.

  “What does ‘something bigger’ mean to you?” Angela asked.

  “To live independently of the Watch,” said Emi. “People allow Kane and his Wardens to rule out of fear. If they know we have food, resources, and the ability to survive without their rule, we think humanity will choose our world over theirs. But we are not strong enough to stand up against them yet.”

  “I wanted to help change the world for the better, not to create a place for people who don’t like it to retreat,” Angela said. “If I wanted to retreat, I would have stayed home.”

  “We’re not retreating,” Emi said, her tone harsher than usual. “Sometimes, you have to create change on a small scale before you can create it on a larger one. We can heal one mutation at a time, offer food to one hungry person. You have to be patient. You don’t know the things that we have had to go through to make it to where we are now, but if you want to go to school, maybe you will learn.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Absolutely not!” Freedom said when Angela approached her about school. “Are you trying to get yourself killed or all of us exposed?”

  They were in the control room at The Resistance. Rain, Zinc, and Emi all eavesdropped intently while pretending to be distracted by various tasks.

  “I know I can’t get official transcripts, but —”

  “The teacher at the school is paid directly by Kane and trained to report any students they are suspicious of. If they suspect your CitCard is fake you will be killed,” Freedom said.

  “Did you know that I can’t read?” Angela asked. “I’ve never been taught to tell time, or given a map of the world around me. I’ve never been taught about the Bio Wars or any of the wars before those. If I’m really going to help the world, I need to be able to function in it.”

  Freedom sighed. “There may be another option.”

  Angela raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

  “I know a woman,” Freedom said. “Retired teacher. Tutors uncarded teens.”

  “Yes!” Angela exclaimed. “That would be perfect!”

  “You must be willing to keep up with your responsibility as a farmer here,” Freedom said sternly.

  “Of course,” Angela said confidently.

  “Then I see no reason why not,” Freedom said. “Get started on the garden tonight. Jesse, I want you to help her track the farming progress. She’s still needs to learn to read and write, so I want you to go with her and write down the date and time she plants these seeds. We need to keep track of how long it takes them to grow and how much food we produce.”

  “Sounds good to me, my lady,” Jesse said.

  “And don’t call me that,” said Freedom as she turned and walked back towards the elevator.

  Rain stood up from her chair, stretched, and wished everyone goodnight as she walked out of the room. Zinc retreated as well.

  “Ready for your first night of work?” Jesse asked.

  Angela took a deep breath.

  “As ready as I'll ever be,” she said, and they entered the tunnel that lead to the storage room.

  Something was amiss. There was a loud, desperate banging coming from deep within the tunnel. The sound echoed around them. Alarmed, they raced through the darkness to the storage room door. Jesse quickly opened its metal door.

  A wild and delirious Becca fell into his arms, weeping. Her arms were covered in blood and bruises. Angela could not tell if the blood was her own or someone else's. When Jesse cried out in pain from the touch of the blood on his skin, she knew the blood must be Julian’s. Becca’s small children and her caged husband were the only others who lived in her room. She shrieked and cried out in a language Angela didn’t understand, and Jesse spoke back to her in the same language. Angela could not follow the conversation, so she looked past Jesse into the room for clues.

  “Jesse, look!” Angela screamed, but Jesse was already rushing into the room where Becca’s husband, Julian, lay unmoving and bleeding out on the floor, a large knife protruding from his back. Angela had never seen so much blood up close.

  The two children were sitting against the wall. The older boy, Lucas, wrapped his arms around his young sister, Maria, as she cried.

  “What happened?” Angela demanded.

  “He was screaming out in pain, so she let him out,” Jesse said. “Once free from the cage, he attacked Maria. Becca stabbed him
to protect her daughter.”

  Angela was in shock.

  “Why did he attack his own child?” she asked.

  “Sometimes mutants go mad,” said Jesse. “We did change his meds a bit recently, because the old dosage was not curing him. Being locked away can’t help, however. Can you go get Rain?”

  Angela raced back upstairs to find Rain, asleep in her bed. Angela shook her awake and explained the situation. Rain grabbed a first aid kit and rushed down to the storage room, with Angela trailing close behind. The father was clearly dead, so she treated Becca’s wounds from her husband’s acidic blood first and then checked on Maria. Jesse and Rain started chatting about how they would clean up his blood and get rid of the body, as if they had cleaned out dead mutants 1000 times over and it was the most normal thing in the world. Angela couldn't take much more of this; the smell of the blood and the tears of the children made her sick, and the casual talk of disposing of a person's body made her sicker. She asked Jesse if she could go upstairs.

  “Okay, I think Freedom will understand if you start your work tomorrow. I’ll be up there soon; I want to make sure you are alright after seeing this,” he said, his protective demeanor somehow reminding her of her father in that moment. Remembering him made her worry increase, but it wasn't the right time to bring him up again. She headed back without another word.

  Angela was happy to have some alone time with her mind. She couldn't understand how death could be so casual to Jesse or Rain. She thought about the fact that Rain’s entire family was dead, and wondered if, over time, a person became numb to it. She did not want to get accustomed to death. She laughed at herself for rushing to leave home without thinking of the danger. Maybe he was right. Maybe the garden could have been her happy ending all along.

  After she changed into her pajamas, which were hand-me-downs from Rain, and climbed into bed, there was a knock on her door.

  “Come in,” she said, pulling back her curly hair into a braid so that it wouldn’t get in her face while she slept. Jesse opened the door and cautiously walked in.

  “Hey,” she said. “How is Becca?”

  “I won't say she’s fine, but she is stable. Becca and the kids are all sleeping on a cot in Rain’s room tonight. We are going to get the family a proper room tomorrow. No need for them to live down there anymore, it will just remind them of who they lost,” Jesse said.

  “So, what's next for them?” Angela asked. “You were not able to cure him. Will the family get fake cards, become Resistance members? Will they get real cards and go out into society?”

  Jesse shook his head.

  “Maybe at a later point, they will get carded. For the most part, you get carded during your birth year or not at all. You can get your card removed for committing a crime, but it is hard to get carded as an adult. They would have to pass a lot of tests, ” Jesse said. “As for what's next for them, I suppose that's partially up to them. They are welcome to stay with us, for now.”

  Angela wondered if it would be safe to tell him about her desire to run away to go visit her father. After today, could he blame her?

  “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?” Jesse asked.

  For the briefest of moments, Angela thought Jesse was talking about her plans to run away. A panicked looked flashed onto her face. How did he know?

  “Going to tutoring, I mean.” Jesse added.

  Angela exhaled deeply.

  “They stopped enforcing school when I was young,” Jesse continued. “After middle school graduation I got myself a fake CitCard to hide my identity, set my real one on fire, and joined The Resistance full time. School is just a microscopic version of everything that’s wrong with society. I wish I could have gone to tutoring, instead.”

  “I think you just like the idea of being a rebel,” Angela teased.

  “You’ve had a traumatic night. Why don’t you just stay here and spend tomorrow with me? I could teach you anything you want to know,” Jesse said. He reached out his hand and placed it on top of hers. Angela felt her heart quicken, and she moved her hand away.

  “Why do you do that?” Jesse asked.

  “Do what?” Angela questioned, cupping her hand.

  “Move away when I touch you,” he asked. “Wouldn't you like to hold my hand?”

  Angela un-cupped her hand, laying it back where it was on the bed. Jesse reached towards her and held her hand, stroking her palm with his thumb. Angela closed her fist over his, giving his hand a soft squeeze, and looked up and Jesse questioningly.

  “Thank you for all you have done for me here,” Angela said. “You didn't have to stay out all night showing me around.”

  “Sleep is for the weak,” Jesse said.

  Angela smiled at him.

  “Angela, can I tell you a secret,” Jesse’s voice was a whisper. “If you promise not to tell anyone?”

  “Of course,” Angela said.

  “I don’t know if any of this is going to work,” he said.

  “Any of what?” Angela asked.

  “This!” he said, his hands motioning to the surrounding room. Angela stared back blankly for a moment before she understood.

  “Any of the work you do with The Resistance? Why would you join if you felt that way?”

  “We have good intentions, but more mutants die in our basement than we are able to cure. Meanwhile, President Kane keeps hiring more Wardens to keep everyone in line and kill everyone he deems undesirable. We are trying to save the world with big guns and small gardens, but we don’t know what the hell we are doing.”

  Angela looked into his eyes, trying to figure him out. How could he live life working for a cause he believed was hopeless?

  “Less than one percent of the earth's total population survived the Bio Wars. Humans are basically an endangered species. Sure, we are rebuilding, but according to Freedom, we are at two percent of what we once were. The Bio Wars were decades ago and people are still getting sick or mutating. I think the world died a long, long time ago,” Jesse went on. “We are just living in its dust. It’s like a dead body decaying into the ground. Once something starts to die, it rarely will come back. We can’t fight fate.”

  Jesse’s face was tense. Angela tried to think of the right words to offer, but knew she would likely come up short.

  “How do you know?” Angela finally asked. “Two percent is better than one. The fact that I am here in this settlement, away from everything I have ever known, is the result of me deciding to fight fate. I didn’t know if anyone else was alive, but I trusted you.”

  “Not your smartest moment, was it?” he teased and smiled at her. “But I guess something good has come out of me joining up. I got to meet you.”

  “Just remember,” Angela continued. “If you put limits on the world, or limits on yourself, that’s the only way to insure nothing good will ever happen. I still believe there are happy endings left in this world. Don’t give up on yourself before the world has given up on you. There is time to find your happy ever after.”

  Angela squeezed his hand tighter. She decided not to tell him about her plans to visit home. He would probably value her safety more than the promise of bringing her father to Chicago, seeing as he didn’t think anything they were doing would work. Was she the only true believer in a better world? Still, she didn’t want him to go. She liked being around him, and he seemed to like being around her.

  “I have one more secret,” Jesse said. His voice sounded unsure, hesitant. For once, he looked more nervous than she felt. Angela smiled at him, hoping to reassure him.

  “Sure.” Angela was glad that he could stay a little longer.

  “I’ve been wanting to try this,” he said.

  Angela watched, wide eyed, as Jesse moved closer. He reached his hand to her temple and brushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. Wherever his fingers touched, he left a trail of electricity. He pulled her closer to him, then paused for a brief moment, his lips only inches away from hers, and
studied her eyes to see how she felt about him closing that gap. She offered a small nod and he moved in, his lips delicately grazing across her own. In only a few heartbeats his kiss grew in intensity and his movements became confident and determined.

  The butterflies in Angela’s stomach were in full force. She could feel his breathing and smell his warm scent. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pull her closer. She reached out and held him tight.

  There was a knock at the door. They flinched away from each other.

  “Come in,” Angela called, staring open-mouthed at the door. Emi walked in with a backpack in her hand.

  Emi’s eyes went from Angela to Jesse, who were both blushing.

  “Oh,” Emi said. “Did I interrupt something here?”

  “No,” Angela said. “We were just talking.”

  “Uh huh,” Emi said, but she did not look convinced. “Well, this is my old backpack from school. I put some paper and pens inside . . . also, a few books to help you learn to read and write letters. They are meant for young kids, but should work. It should help with tomorrow.”

  “Thank you,” Angela said politely.

  “Well, I’m going to go.” She glanced from Angela to Jesse, offering Angela a small wink before she scurried away.

  Angela couldn’t help but chuckle as Emi rushed out of the room. She slowly looked back up at Jesse. With just one kiss, the nature of their relationship shifted. She wasn’t sure how to navigate this new bond.

  “I think I should go, too. You need your rest. Big day tomorrow,” Jesse said.

  “Yeah,” Angela agreed quickly. “Good night.”

  Jesse rushed towards the door but paused before leaving. He looked back at her and smiled.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “For what?” Angela asked.

  “For being my happy ever after.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Angela woke at the crack of dawn, her body too on edge to rest any longer. Whenever she would try to go back to sleep, her mind would wander to Jesse’s kiss or Julian’s dead body. It was all too much for one night.