The Eve (The Eden Trilogy)

by Keary Taylor

  I walked into the room, shadowed by the crowd that had hovered around me for the past three days. I placed my hands on the top of the bed, just above Eve’s head. Gabriel took the bottom of the bed and we wheeled it out of the room. Down the hall, into the elevator and to the first floor. On the way down, Vee pulled the sheet up and over Eve’s face.

  The only way I would make it through this day was to be concrete. I hardened to the torrential emotions that threatened to shred me from the inside out. I moved, doing things from one second to the next. One foot in front of the other all the way to the medical wing.

  A group of women washed and cleaned her body. I hovered in the doorway, watching emptily. West stood at my side, never saying a word. Vee watched from behind us, her face as empty looking as I felt.

  They dressed her in her favorite clothes. Her boots, her cargo pants, a soft white cotton shirt. They brushed her hair and laid it nicely around her face.

  When they were finished with her, they all exited the room.

  “Do you need someone here?” West asked.

  I shook my head. “I think I need to say—” my voice faltered. “I think I need to say it on my own.”

  West nodded and patted my shoulder twice. Turning, he and Vee walked down the hall.

  It took me a long time to step inside the room. I felt like I was crumbling inside. Like when that concrete interior I’d been trying to put up fell apart, there would be nothing left and I would cease to exist.

  Taking a quivering breath, I stepped over the threshold.

  I pulled a seat up to the side of the bed and, my hands shaking, I took one of her hands in mine. Her left one. The one that bore the ring I had given her. It was cold and limp. There was a cut on the inside of her palm that hadn’t healed. She must have gotten it when she collapsed after the Nova went off.

  I stroked my thumb over the back of her hand and brought her knuckles up to my lips. A tear slipped over my cheek and a quivering breath gasped from my lips.

  “You can’t go,” I breathed. I shook my head and squeezed her hand harder than I should have. “You can’t leave me, not now. Now when I’m finally able to give you everything you needed. Not when it’s safe to leave this place and go home. Not when I can show you what life together should have been like.”

  The dam broke. A gasping cry ripped from my chest. My face rose to the ceiling, the tears freely flowing now. I squeezed her hand harder.

  I took a deep breath and pressed my forehead into the back of her hand.

  “The thing is, I think somehow you knew this was coming,” I breathed. “You knew something with saving the world was going to go wrong. But you went forward anyway. Even if you knew…” Another sob escaped my chest. I squeezed my eyes closed, forcing a river of tears down my cheeks. “Even if you knew it was going to take everything you had to give to end this…you still would have done it.”

  My breaths came in jerky gasps, stopping and catching in my chest, and then in and out so quickly I was in danger of hyperventilating. I soaked her hand and the bed beneath it.

  “I love you, Eve,” I quivered. “I’ve loved you for so long, in so many ways. I just wanted to protect you at first. I wanted to help you. And then you didn’t want me to help you and you were determined to help yourself.

  “And then you were this woman and you were amazing and incredible and you had no idea.” I surprised myself when a little laugh bubbled up out of me. “And you were beautiful. Inside and out.”

  I couldn’t speak for a long while as the tears consumed me. “And then you saw me the way I was seeing you. It took you a while, but you said it back.”

  I sat up and placed my hand on her cheek.

  Please open your eyes. Please.

  I let my head fall, my forehead resting on her stomach. My shoulders shook as my emotions pummeled me.

  There was no wedding the day after the Nova went off. Eve would never wear a white dress for me. There would be no us starting a new home together or setting up another tent.

  Infinity had been cut too short.

  Lifting my head up once again, I leaned forward and kissed her lips. They had curved around mine so many times, I couldn’t comprehend how they were just lying there so still.

  “I love you,” I whispered against her cheek. “And I will see you again when it comes to be my time. Please wait for me.”

  THE END

  PART SEVEN

  --WEST--

  I waited outside Dr. Beeson’s office. My back was pressed against the cold wall. I pulled at my tie, feeling like I was being choked. I looked down at my feet, covered in dress shoes.

  The outfit felt insane. I couldn’t run in these shoes. My shirt was too tight to have movement to fire a weapon. There was no way I’d be able to breathe if my blood got pumping.

  I’d die in this get up if a Bane came after me.

  But that was never going to happen again.

  Dr. Beeson’s door suddenly opened and Vee stepped out.

  She wore a black skirt and a simple white button up shirt. Her hair was pulled up into a simple bun and her feet were covered in a pair of simple black dress shoes.

  Lin had given her a lot of help this morning.

  She looked beautiful. And nothing like the little girl with the shaved head who had been my best and only friend.

  “You okay?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she said, her voice breathy.

  Dr. Beeson stepped out from behind her, closing his door behind him.

  “So?” I asked.

  Dr. Beeson looked down at Vee, as if to say it was her choice on what she wanted to disclose and commit to.

  “Next week we’ll start the process of lessening my blockers,” she said, holding my eyes the entire time. She looked uncertain. But hopeful.

  A small smile curled on my lips. It was the first one I could remember wearing in what felt like a decade.

  “I think we should all get going,” Dr. Beeson said. He stood there uncomfortably, knowing he was required to be a part of a very personal situation.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We should.”

  I extended my arm out to Vee. She stood there, not knowing what to do with it. So I took her arm and looped it through mine. Together, the three of took the elevator downstairs.

  Everyone was dressed up, at least as dressed up as we could be considering the circumstances. Every one of us made our way to the underground garage.

  Many eyes darted to Vee’s face as we joined the masses.

  She was walking around with Eve’s face.

  But she wasn’t Eve.

  --AVIAN--

  The entire colony of New Eden made the hour long journey to the burial site I had picked. Someone had gone out ahead of us and dug a hole in the field.

  Six feet down. Even that didn’t change when the world ends. Even when the world comes back from the end.

  I appreciated that everyone had dressed in their best as they gathered around the grave, but I knew Eve wouldn’t have understood why they did it.

  I carried Eve from the car. We had wrapped her in a beautiful linen and tied it up with silk ribbon. And with West, Tristan, Gabriel, and Royce’s help, we lowered her into the ground.

  There were words spoken. Many of them. It went on for two hours. Anyone who felt they had something to say came forward.

  They spoke of her bravery mostly.

  They spoke of her unselfishness.

  They spoke of her uniqueness.

  They spoke of miracles.

  There wasn’t a dry eye among the one hundred sixty-seven of us.

  The light started to die in the evening and the clouds began to roll in. The first of the rain drops started to fall as Bill and Graye shoveled the first scoops of dirt on top of her.

  “Please wait for me,” I whispered.

  THE END AND BEGINNING

  PART EIGHT

  --AVIAN--

  The house I chose was comfortable. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms. Not that the wat
er was running. But the walls throughout the house were a soft yellow, warm and inviting. The bed was comfortable.

  I finally slept for what felt like the first time since…

  It was quiet out here and infinitely dark. When morning came, I looked out the window, over the lake. I could see the field from here. Pulling some clothes on, I slipped outside.

  Clouds hung low over the lake and mountains. Moisture was thick in the air. I stopped outside the house, picking a single wild daisy that had grown up between the grass and the concrete footing. I crossed to the field and the mound in the middle of it.

  Someone had carved her name into a flat stone. EVE. Simple, solid letters. Just like her.

  I placed the flower on top of the mound.

  I was drained, with nothing left to feel. This was just me, standing outside, next to a mound and a body that had been returned to the earth from whence she came. These were just facts. No emotion involved.

  Perhaps this was how the Bane had felt.

  Lucky, dead bastards.

  The next morning, I got in the car and drove back to New Eden.

  I was going to need supplies.

  It seemed like the drive went by in an instant. One second I was seeing the lake in my rear view mirror and the next I was in the underground parking garage.

  I went up to my room. No one saw me since almost everyone had moved out of the hospital again. I filled bags with my clothes, boots, coats, everything I would need. I set my two bags out in the hall and crossed to Eve’s old room.

  I collected my things that had been left in here, trying not to look at her belongings that lay about like she would return for them at any moment. Someone else would have to take care of them. That was something I just couldn’t do. Lin would take care of it. Lin loved Eve like that. Like Sarah had loved her.

  Swallowing hard, I went back out in the hall and grabbed my bags.

  After putting them in my vehicle, I went back inside. I was almost to the armory when Royce called out to me from behind.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked, a wary look in his eye.

  “Please don’t ask me that question,” I said, my eyes darting away from his.

  “Of course,” he said with a nod. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” I responded, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “What are the reports coming back?”

  “We’ve gotten two thousand miles out so far,” Royce said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “They’ve come across three armies. All dead. Reports are the same everywhere. They’re all wiped out.”

  I nodded and swallowed hard.

  “She did it, Avian,” Royce said. “She saved the planet.”

  “Yeah,” I replied as I stepped into the armory. “I knew she would. Just not at this cost.”

  He didn’t respond as he watched me collect my firearms, as well as Eve’s. I placed them all in a long canvas bag. I started stacking up boxes of ammunition.

  “What happened with Lex and Jeb?” I asked. The soldiers who had been infected just before the Nova went off.

  “Jeb is fine,” Royce said. “The Extractor pulled enough out of him that when the Nova went off, he was fine.”

  “And Lex?” I asked when Royce stopped talking.

  Royce just shook his head. I could only nod. And think about his poor wife and son.

  “So,” he said, dragging out the word. “What are your plans now?”

  I picked up the bag and slung the strap over my shoulder. My eyes didn’t meet his right away. “I promised Eve that when everything was over that I’d take her out of the city. That we’d find a place that felt like home. I’m keeping that promise.”

  I saw it in his eyes, just for a moment, that he wanted to argue with me. That I didn’t need to fulfill a promise to a dead woman. But he had more respect for me than that. For Eve.

  “You’re moving out to where you buried her,” he stated.

  I nodded. I was about to walk out the door when I paused, turning back around.

  “Royce, there’s something you need to know,” I said, meeting his gray eyes. “Eve was waiting to tell you until after the Nova went off, she knew your work was more important at the time. But well… I just, I think you should know.”

  “What is it, Avian?” Royce asked with furrowed brows when I started rambling.

  “The reason she asked you if you had a brother named Rider, was because she found out that was her father’s name,” I said. “You’re Eve’s uncle.”

  THE END AND BEGINNING

  PART NINE

  --WEST--

  Dust clouded the entire loft when I pulled the sheet down from the window. Brilliant sunlight spilled through, illuminating the dusty floor.

  We weren’t far from the hospital. Really, no one had moved far yet. I think in a way that meant we were all still slightly afraid, still not quite ready to accept the fact that the Bane were dead. We all felt we had to still be within running distance of the place that had kept us safe for all this time. So we had only gone seven blocks from the hospital.

  Vee wandered the loft, observing things in the way that she did. The loft was large, old. There was something comforting about the combination. The entire space was open except for the bathroom. Wooden posts supported the roof. The loft was located on the top level of this eleven story building.

  The floors were rough wood, polished to a somewhat smooth surface. A simple kitchen lined one far wall. The bathroom was large and done up in an interesting combination of brick and white surfaces.

  There was something about this space that just said home to me.

  The girl who studied the extensive library on the opposite far wall helped in that.

  She read the titles on the spines of books, not in any kind of hurry. She was absorbing. That was what Vee did. She absorbed it and it never left her.

  Much like me.

  We had yet to leave one another’s side for more than a few minutes at a time since we learned Eve’s fate. Neither of us had anyone else to cling to, so it just felt natural. We fell back into our patterns of protective comradery.

  There was something else behind it as well. I couldn’t say it was romantic feelings, at least not yet. I knew that it might come, later on down the road when we both finally figured out who we were again in this reclaimed, heavily changed world. But for now, we needed each other in a way that just was.

  “Do you like it?” I asked. My voice echoed off the walls. Other than the books, the loft was completely empty.

  She turned to me and I was pleased to see a smile on her lips. “I think I will like living here.”

  “I think so too.”

  We came and went all day long. I’d been assigned a truck and told I could use it as long as it would still run. Considering how corrosive all gas was becoming, it wouldn’t be long. But Vee and I climbed in and out, loading furniture, carrying it up to the loft.

  Bird constantly circled us from above. He was never far from wherever Vee was.

  She seemed lost each time we went into the long abandoned furniture store. She didn’t care about colors or patterns or any of that other stuff women so often used to put up a fuss about. So I did all the picking. And then she helped with the carrying.

  By the time the sun started setting in the evening horizon, we had a small table with two chairs. We had a couch and an overstuffed lounge chair. There was a bed for me and a bed for her, set up four feet apart from each other.

  It was going to take us a while to gather all the supplies we’d need to establish an actual house, but for now, we had a small bit of food and some candles to see by.

  Vee had just lit one of them when there was a knock on the door.

  Her eyes darted to it and I saw her bend her knees slightly, as if preparing to run or fight.

  “It’s okay,” I reassured her. Honestly I couldn’t really know that, but considering the greatest threat to mankind had just been eliminated, I knew we could survive anything else that came t
o our door.

  I opened it to find Royce standing there, who was about the last person I expected.

  “Everything okay?” I asked, looking out into the short hallway behind him.

  “Yeah,” he said. I noticed the way his eyes darted about just a little too fast and the way his fingers seemed to be flicking inside his pockets.

  I didn’t think I’d ever seen Royce look nervous.

  “What’s going on?” I asked warily.

  “Can I talk to Vee for a while?” he said, finally looking me solidly in the eye. “You’re welcome to listen in too.”

  “Um,” I stuttered. “I guess. Come on in.”

  He crossed the threshold and I closed the door behind him.

  “Royce,” Vee greeted him.

  “Hey, Vee,” he said, standing in front of one of the many windows that faced west. “I…I wanted to talk to you about something, if you don’t mind.”

  “Okay,” she said, still eyeing him with caution.

  Royce was acting very weird.

  He finally stood still and crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes didn’t meet anyone’s when he started talking. “Apparently Dr. Evans gave Eve a box of your mothers belongings when you all were back at NovaTor. There were some journals inside, and some pictures. Eve read the journals. In one of them, it talked about your father. She talked quite a bit about how he worked for the government.”

  Royce shifted from one foot to the other. He reached a hand into his pocket and drew something out. I thought it was a piece of paper at first, but then realized it was a photograph.

  “In your mother’s journal she mentioned how your father’s family had a tradition of working for the government,” Royce’s eyes finally rose to meet Vee’s. She stood ten feet from him, her arms resting limply by her side.

  She had no idea what this was leading up to.

  But suddenly everything started clicking into place in my head.

  “My brother, Rider, worked for the department of defense. We both did. So did our father, so did our grandfather.”