by Keary Taylor
Gabriel was still working with the civilians to carve out a normal life. He was helping to keep the peace between the refugees and the members of New Eden. Plus Gabriel wouldn’t have been my first choice on this kind of mission anyway.
Had we not had to deal with the refugees, I would have picked Tristan in a heartbeat. But nerves were still on edge and a fight was ready to break out at any moment. If not for him, we’d finish each other off like we’d tried to do two weeks ago.
So there were very few options left. There were others on security detail, but none that I knew well enough to trust their skills on a mission of this importance. I was considering Tuck, but he also had duties he needed to fulfill here in New Eden.
“Maybe we don’t even need a fourth,” I said late one night as Avian and I stepped into my room. “We’ve got you, me, West, Bill; we all know what we’re doing. Why do we need another?” I pulled my boots off and tossed them into my closet cupboard.
“I think that’s totally up to you,” Avian said as he slipped his own shoes off and lined them up by the door. He started pulling his firearms off and laid them on the counter. “I think I’d rather work with a tighter crew anyway.”
“I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with how well you and West have been working together for the past week,” I said as I walked into the bathroom. I turned the water on in the shower and leaned against the door, my shoulder pressing into the cold steel of the frame.
“He’s different now,” Avian said as he crossed the room. He stopped just short of me. He placed his hands on either side of the doorframe. “Whatever you two talked about last week sure put him in a different state of mind.”
“I just pointed out a few things to help him move on,” I said.
“I’m certainly enjoying the benefits of it,” Avian said, a slow smile creeping on his face. He leaned in closer. “I haven’t seen you this relaxed in months.”
“Having a purpose will do that you,” I said as his lips met mine.
His arms wrapped around my waist and my hand ran over his once again shaven hair. He lifted my legs and set me on the counter in the bathroom.
“Oh no, no, no,” I said, smiling against his lips. I placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away. “I’m supposed to get in the shower and then go for my last meeting with Royce. If we get started in on this,” I said, waving a finger between the two of us, “I will not make it in time.”
“You will be the death of me, woman,” Avian teased as he nipped at my jaw.
I couldn’t help the ridiculous smile that spread on my face as he stepped away. I very much didn’t want him to go as he crossed back to his shoes and bent to pick them up. He looked back at me where I still sat on the counter. He gave a low, playful growl, before opening the door and stepping out.
I climbed into the shower and turned the water freezing cold.
SIX
Over the next few days, a truce began to form between the residents of New Eden and the refugees.
Their six children were welcomed into Lin’s school room. She insisted children were children, no matter where they had come from. They deserved an education. That was the first step.
At Tristan’s recommendation, two of their men joined security detail. They were friends of Tristan’s and he was sure we could trust them. Royce hesitantly allowed them to be assigned firearms.
Two of the mothers joined the kitchen staff. It was the women who seemed to be making the biggest leap in bridging the enormous canyon between the two groups. Victoria was among the first of them that made the intimidating journey to the hotel to try and make peace. She’d formed quick friendships there. Her first step invited others to do the same.
Maybe we wouldn’t go back to war after all.
It was dangerous getting people’s hopes up too high, especially in a world like ours. Those of us in the know said nothing of our plans and about the slim possibility that this might work to anyone. Most people knew something was going on, but they knew better than to directly ask questions.
That didn’t keep the rumors from spreading.
Some thought Royce was keeping at least one Bane holed up in the building that Dr. Evans was kept in. Since Dr. Beeson frequented the building so often, people suspected we were experimenting on them.
Others speculated on why a vehicle was being worked on and why we were stockpiling supplies. They thought maybe some members of Eden wanted to return to the mountains.
None of them suspected we were making an attempt to save the world and looking for a girl who would be almost impossible to find.
Royce and Gabriel made sure life went about as usual. Security detail continued in the re-homing effort, without Avian as second-in-command. The incident still left him stripped of trust. He now had a more important mission to focus on though, as did Bill.
Nearly everything was back to normal after the death match between the refugees and New Eden. Most everyone was healed, back to work.
Except one person.
She wasn’t a victim of the fight. She was a victim of nature and Mother Earth.
I stepped into the medical wing and walked to her door. I saw her still form through the window, looking as if she were simply sleeping. I pushed the door open and sat in the chair next to her bed.
Morgan had been a member of Eden for almost as long as I had. Since we had different abilities and interests, I didn’t know her well. She had been the caretaker for our horses, until one died and the other we had no choice but to leave behind in the mountains.
Two years ago she married Eli in a makeshift wedding gown and a crown of daisies upon her head. She loved him.
And now he was dead.
Now she was fighting for her life, and losing.
So was the baby.
During the earthquake just a few weeks ago, the roof had caved in on Morgan and Eli, killing him, and nearly killing her.
My eyes shifted from her pale face to her growing stomach. How far along was she? I was no pregnancy expert, but it seemed like I remembered Avian once saying that pregnancy lasted nine months. She had found out she was pregnant just a few weeks before we left the mountains of Eden. So, five months?
I myself had arrived into this world three months early. I knew the child stood almost no chance if it arrived four months early. True, we were in a hospital with some amazing doctors, but the odds were not in her favor.
“Eve?”
I jumped to my feet when Morgan spoke my name. The word was weak and rough and totally unexpected.
“Yeah,” I said, backing up to the window, suddenly embarrassed that I was here. “It’s me.”
“What happened to you?” she asked, concern breaking over her face as she looked at me.
I hadn’t seen Morgan awake since I had returned from the Underground. She didn’t know that the top of my skull had been cut off and a device had been implanted in my head.
“You don’t think bald is a good look on me?” I tried to joke. I was terrible at it.
A small smile pulled at her chapped lips. “I didn’t say that. And I wouldn’t call you bald.”
I tried to return her smile, unsure if I succeeded. It was true; my hair had grown out to about two inches long. I stood there for a long while, unsure what to say.
“Are you okay?” she asked, breaking the silence. “You look terrified, like I might bite you.”
An awkward laugh bubbled out of my lips. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m not really sure what to say.”
“It’s okay to feel awkward, Eve,” she said with a warm smile. “It’s part of being human.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Morgan nodded and then a small grimace crossed her face. Her hand went to her stomach and she crunched in on herself.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, jumping to the side of the bed. “Do you want me to get the doctor?”
Morgan shook her head and rolled onto her side. “No, there isn’t anything else they can do.”
�
��What do you mean?” I asked. All of the heat drained out of my body in an instant.
“You know what I mean, Eve,” she said, her eyes locking with mine. “I’m dying. I probably don’t have more than a few weeks left.”
“What’s wrong?” I croaked as I sank into the seat next to her.
“I don’t remember exactly what the doctors said, but it has to do with the damage done when the building came down on me. Something about arteries being damaged beyond repair. My heart can’t pump the blood to the rest of my body fast enough. And with the pregnancy, it just makes it twice as bad.”
I took a hard swallow, feeling as if ice were coursing through my veins. I imagined my mother, the babies inside killing her.
“What about the baby?” I asked, my voice almost too quiet to be heard.
Morgan’s eyes reddened and a bead of moisture slipped from her cheek. “When I go, they’re going to try an emergency C-section, see if they can save the baby. But the odds aren’t good. The baby isn’t getting enough blood. It could die any second.”
I took a deep breath, shaking my head. “C-section, what does that mean?”
“They’ll cut my stomach open and pull the baby out,” she said, her voice wavering. “That is if she doesn’t die before I do.”
“She?” I asked.
“What?” Morgan questioned, confused.
“You said ‘she’,” I said, trying to smile. “It’s a girl?”
“Oh,” Morgan gave a small laugh. “I don’t really know. They’ve done ultrasounds, but they didn’t tell me what it is. I guess I just think it’s a girl.”
“She’ll be beautiful,” I said, trying to think what Sarah might say in a situation like this. She knew how to handle these very human moments.
“Thank you,” Morgan said, smiling. She started coughing and soon she was moaning in pain. A nurse rushed in and shooed me out.
Once in the hall, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.
Half a percent. That was all that was left of the human population on Earth. In reality, it was probably far less than that now.
Morgan was only one person. But when there is only half a percent left, or less, one person makes a huge difference.
And one baby lost was one less person to live in the hope of a restored future.
SEVEN
“I’m just now realizing that I have no clue where NovaTor is,” I said as I looked at the map.
Dr. Evans stood inside his glass room. He had spread the map out on a table in front of him. This was our final planning meeting. The van would be ready in three days.
He placed his finger on the map. The place was a few hundred miles northwest of the original location of Eden. Made sense. I had probably walked for weeks after he released me.
“NovaTor’s location is secluded. Not many towns nearby, and the ones that were close are small,” Dr. Evans said, looking up at Avian and Bill. Almost as if he forgot I had no idea what NovaTor was like either. “That was on purpose. We didn’t want to be disturbed. But the climate there this time of year will be cold. Arid. There may or may not be snow to deal with. Pack warm clothing that will keep you dry.”
“We can go scouting this afternoon,” I said, nodding.
“How long will it take us to get there?” Avian asked, placing a hand on the glass wall and leaning in for a closer look at the map.
“Since the vehicle we are taking is large and solar powered, it won’t travel all that fast,” Dr. Evans said, that annoyed tone back in his voice. “We’ll be lucky to get to speeds of forty miles per hour.”
“So,” Bill calculated as he studied the map. “Roughly twenty hours of driving time.”
Dr. Evans nodded. “Thankfully, most of the trip is through desert, so there won’t be many towns, but we will still hit plenty.”
“Vegas could be fun,” Bill said, shaking his head.
“We’ll try to swing around it,” Avian said, studying the map.
“Shouldn’t take us more than two days to get there, right?” West said.
“Who knows,” I said, shaking my head. “We could be walking out into anything. There are likely to be more packs of Hunters. They’re getting smarter, more aggressive.”
“Hopefully your army is quick at their job,” West teased. “But if not, it’s a good thing we’ve got the queen of the Bane to protect us out there, huh?”
I punched him in the arm and tried not to smile.
“Damn woman,” he hissed through a laugh. “Not all of us have cybernetic skeletons. That hurt!”
“You’re not getting an apology out of me,” I said, shaking my head and letting the smile crack through.
Everyone in the room laughed, except for Dr. Evans.
“Do you really want to mess with Eve these days?” Avian asked, raising an eyebrow.
West just chuckled and shook his head.
“How is the packing of the supplies going?” Dr. Evans asked, back to business.
“The kitchens have two weeks’ worth of food packed for us,” I said. “More of that last-forever crap, but we’ll survive off of it. We’ve also got plenty of water.”
“I’ve put together an emergency medical kit. Nothing too extensive, so don’t anyone go and get blown apart,” Avian said.
“We’ve collected firepower—assault rifles, grenades, the usual,” Bill wrapped us up.
Dr. Evans nodded. “Sounds like we’re ready to go. Just got to wait on the vehicle.”
“You’ve become quite the traveler considering it’s the end of the world,” West said, elbowing me in the side.
“And whose fault is that?” I said, raising my eyebrows at him. “Are you wanting me to knock you out today?”
A teasing grin spread on West’s face. Avian chuckled as he slapped his hands down on West’s shoulders and steered him toward the door. “Best not push your luck.”
After lunch, the four of us headed for an outdoors store. We had looted all the ones that were closest to the hospital, so we hopped in one of the electric cars and crossed the massive city. This was close to our Pulse perimeter. About fifteen miles inside it, maybe a bit less.
Bill parked on the sidewalk, right in front of the building, and we all stepped out. Avian checked the doors and found them locked. Taking out his firearm, he shot it open.
The store was pretty dark, one of those double-storied, spiffed up warehouse types that only had a few windows scattered on the bottom floor. But unlike most of the buildings around us, this one was completely free of bodies.
“Owners must have shut down pretty quick once the Evolution started,” West said, looking around the huge building.
“They were smart,” Avian said. He pulled a flashlight out of one of his side pockets. “Most of these big box stores stayed open until the Babies were ripping their faces off as they tried to sell them a shotgun.”
“Man, we haven’t seen any Babies in how long?” West said as he, too, pulled out a flashlight.
“Not many people left to infect,” Bill said as he headed for the clothing. There were three classes of Bane: Babies—the newly infected, Sleepers—self-explanatory, and Hunters—those who actively sought humans to infect. “There aren’t many babies of either species being made anymore.”
With that grim thought, we split off, the three men to the men’s clothing section, me toward the women’s.
And as I started browsing, I thought of the ability to have children. If this really did work and we killed off all the Bane, it was going to take a very long time to rebuild any kind of population. I knew of one other pregnant woman in New Eden besides Morgan. Bringing children into this world felt too dangerous. And there weren’t many people left to repopulate the planet with anymore.
My eyes drifted over to Avian, halfway across the building.
Did I possess the ability to bear children? I’d never considered it before. I’d honestly never even thought about being a mother. I was only eighteen. But when the time came, that I was old enough,
when Avian and I followed tradition and that was the expected next step, would I even have the ability?
Somehow I didn’t think so.
I had cybernetic bones, a mostly cybernetic heart and lungs. Why wouldn’t my baby making organs be cybernetic too?
Surely a fetus could not survive in a body like mine.
Pushing the thought aside, I tried to pay attention to the task at hand.
It didn’t take long to find some waterproof clothes, all skintight running clothes. They would fit easily under my usual cargo pants. I grabbed three pairs. I also found two short-sleeved shirts and one long-sleeved of the same kind.
“You finding any coats or anything like that?” Avian called from across the building.
“Nope,” I replied, scanning the racks around me with my flashlight.
“It was late spring when the Evolution started,” Bill said. “They would have stopped carrying that kind of stuff by that time. Especially here where you barely need a coat in the winter anyway.”
“Let’s check the back room,” West said. We all walked to the center aisle that cut through the building, leaving our findings in a pile on the floor.
There was a narrow hall that had changing rooms branching off of it, and at the end, there was a solid steel door. Bill, at the head of us, pushed it open and stepped inside. We had all shuffled in when Bill stopped short, covering his nose and reeling back.
The smell hit me.
I didn’t even see the source of the stench before I started gagging.
West lost his lunch to the side of me and I was just stepping out of the spray when I saw a tiny little foot poking out from behind a box.
“Avian,” I whispered when I heard a muttered moan.
We both leapt over the pile of boxes and then instantly froze.
There were two young boys lying in a nest of rags. One couldn’t be more than ten years old. His skin was ashen colored and covered in some kind of a rash. His stomach was swollen and bulging. There was a gaping bullet hole in his chest. He was obviously dead. He was the source of the smell.