Eden Box Set

by G. C. Julien

  I feel like a jackass. The poor man is heartbroken, and here I am, basically telling him suck it up, buttercup.

  “Castor, I’m—” I say, but I don’t have time to apologize.

  He drops to his knees, both hands over his eyes, and starts sobbing the way I’ve never seen a grown man sob before. Drool slips out of both sides of his wide-open mouth, and he lets out a loud bellow—wailing like a person who’s lost someone they love.

  I swallow hard, feeling a tinge of actual emotion for the first time in years, and make my way over to him. I place a hand on his bouncing shoulder, kneel level to his, and say, “Hey, I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to be an asshole.”

  I’m not entirely sure he heard me over the sounds that are coming out of his lungs because he keeps crying.

  “Hey, Castor, listen. We’ll find her, okay?” I can’t stop the words. They spill out of my mouth. “We won’t stop until we do. She might be in there. You know, in the prison. We need to play this right, okay? I’m trying to be strategic about this.”

  He pulls his hands away from his face. His eyes are completely bloodshot and his mustache and a part of his beard are covered in snot. He sniffles, then breathes in hard to catch his breath. “Y-y-you think she’s in there?”

  “Maybe,” I say. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t want to get his hopes up because realistically, his daughter probably died along with most people back when the war started. It’s highly unlikely that she survived, but he doesn’t need to know that. The only thing that’s keeping this man alive is the hope of finding his daughter. “There’s only one way to find out, right? We’ll get inside those walls one way or another.”

  He nods fast the way a kid does when you reassure them that they have no reason to be scared.

  “Let’s give it a few more days, okay? If your daughter’s in there, a few days isn’t going to hurt anything. If she’s in there, it means she’s with women… With adults who’re taking care of her.”

  He nods again, then wipes his mustache and beard with the sleeve of his pink-and-beige flannel shirt. It used to be red and white.

  “I’m gonna help,” I say, and I pat his shoulder. “Don’t worry.”

  He pulls out his daughter’s keychain and rubs his crusty thumb against the soft metal, before spitting out a few bubbles of saliva and letting out one last little cry. But I pat him again, and it seems to help because he doesn’t start full-blown crying again.

  He looks up at me like an abandoned dog with those big wet puppy eyes of his. “Thanks, Gabe.”

  I force a smile and stand up.

  “How about you come help me out? The walk might do you some good. I need to collect as much wood as I can, and we can build some type of—”

  But a sound catches my attention. Something close. My eyes follow it through the hundreds of trees standing as tall as giants. I can’t see where it’s coming from, but I know what it is.

  It’s the sound of an engine.

  Gabriel – Flashback

  “What the fuck do they think they’re going to accomplish?” James sneers, resting a hand on his holstered gun.

  I stare across the north lawn of the White House and through the fountain, where thousands of women are standing behind barriers waving signs and shouting. Their mouths and eyes are open wide like rabid dogs. They’ve been standing there for months, rioting against President Price’s new bill. The one to illegalize male abortion. There were more before them, but the crowd was way smaller. It’s getting big now, and I know why. It’s because of the second bill: the one that plans to force women to abort female embryos.

  Basically, the government is going to say who gets to keep what.

  “Is this how you thought it would be?” James asks, glancing sideways at me.

  I cock an eyebrow at him and regrip my E9 energy rifle. I’m pretty lucky to be holding this thing. It’s a brand-new design, and it’s been given to Black Marines as a pilot. It has unlimited ammo (bursts of compressed energy), but the only downside is that it can overheat.

  “Being a marine,” he says. “Did you think we’d ever be assigned to the White House? Alongside the Presidential Protection Unit?”

  I look at him, then at his dark blond hair he hasn’t cut in months and at his unkempt beard that hangs like a rat’s nest over his Adam’s apple.

  I don’t know what he wants from me or why he’s even talking to me. James isn’t the same man I met during our training program. He isn’t that same quirky, carefree guy who spends most of his time thinking of ways to prank someone. Now, he’s thinking of ways to kill someone. He’s an asshole.

  “If I had it my way,” he goes on, “I’d nuke ’em. All of them crazy bitches.”

  I clench my jaw and stare straight ahead. I need to be careful. Careful not to let my anger show.

  “It’s only a matter of time before they do something extreme. I mean, yeah, they’re women, so they’re not the smartest, which means it’s highly unlikely they could ever build a bomb strong enough to take out the White House, but who knows… They might try.” He turns toward the uniformed man standing on the other side of him and laughs. “Maybe they’ll throw bloody tampons at us.”

  “Have some respect,” I snap, but I immediately regret opening my mouth.

  “Some respect?” James growls, stepping toward me and breaking formation. “Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any idea what these women are doing to my country?”

  “Your country?” I sneer. I’m about to crack his nose with the stock of my gun.

  “Back in your position, Walsh,” someone says, and James backs up, his back facing the White House.

  “Careful who’s side you’re on,” James says. His face is all red and blotchy, and the color is spreading down to his neck.

  I sense several eyes on me and wonder if I’ve crossed the line. We’ve been taught—brainwashed—to hate women, and here I am, defending them.

  “I don’t agree with what they’re doing,” I say, trying to fix the mess I’ve made, “but I’m able to remember that they’re still human beings.”

  James lets out a snort, and I look over at him. He’s shaking his head and popping his jaw muscles in and out.

  “They’re the reason this is happening,” he says, his stare fixed on the rioters.

  “I get it,” I say, even though I don’t agree with him. “I have a mom, okay? I still love her.”

  “I hear you, Gabe. We all have moms.” James finally looks at me. “But they chose to turn against us.”

  There’s no use trying because I know there’s no getting through to him. A few other men bicker, taking James’s side. So, I stop talking because I know nothing good will come of it.

  Two combat helicopters fly overhead, followed by a fighter jet. For a second, it masks out the sound of women shouting. I can’t believe I’m standing at the White House in the middle of a war zone. It’s only a matter of time before President Price gives another kill order, and when that happens, all hell will break loose. Because what else is he going to do? That’s what he’s good at. Creating conflict and worsening situations. And when someone doesn’t obey him, he needs to show them who’s in charge. Especially if that someone is a woman.

  Hundreds of men are lined up around me holding E9 rifles. All around Lafayette Square are snipers positioned on top of buildings with their guns aimed at the crowds building in the streets.

  How is this even happening?

  A man wearing a black suit and a tie cuts through the lawn, followed by two heavily armed bodyguards. He’s pressing his finger against his ear and talking into his sleeve.

  Then, off Pennsylvania Avenue comes a row of beige ground combat vehicles, followed by two massive blacked-out SUVs. They barely make it up to the White House with all the women crowding the road, but dozens of men in army gear point their guns, and the crowd loosens up a bit.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  James doesn’t answer. He’s obviously still pissed off
about what I said.

  Another helicopter flies overhead, and it’s as though I’m in a movie. I don’t understand how this is happening. How are we at war with our own kind? With the opposite gender?

  Someone fires a multiple-round shot, and women scream at the top of their lungs. The last SUV drives in, and the metal barriers close. Women rush behind the barrier and throw themselves on their hands and knees. I can’t see what happened, but it looks like someone was shot at for getting in the way.

  I scan the lawn and realize there’s no one dressed in riot gear. That ended last week when the riot was small enough to contain. But now it’s out of control. Last I heard, women are coming in from all over the country, clogging the streets of Washington and bringing traffic to a complete standstill.

  The crowd is getting so big that I wonder if Washington DC might just cave in.

  Then a deep voice as smooth as butter comes into my earpiece.

  “Hold your positions. We’ve lost count at two point five million women.”

  CHAPTER 27 – LUCY

  Lucy – Present Day

  I rush back into my room with Emily by my side. After everything Eve has told us about boys, I can’t believe they’re bringing one into Eden. Why would she do that? And why the heck would she give the adults of Eden the choice?

  “What’re you thinking?” Emily asks, breathing fast to catch her breath.

  She should know what I’m thinking. Isn’t she thinking the same thing? Isn’t she totally confused? What was in those drinks and what were they doing with them? And why was Eve giving the adults a choice? She never does that. She always makes all the decisions in Eden.

  I shake my head. “About what? The meeting, or that weird drink?”

  She shrugs. “All of it.”

  All I know is that Aunt Eve isn’t who she pretends to be. I don’t think she’s honest about a lot of things.

  Aunt Eve.

  I shake my head again.

  Eve.

  She isn’t my aunt, and she isn’t family. I don’t even know who she is anymore. She even looks different now, with her short blond hair and the dark bags under her eyes. It’s like she isn’t even the same person I knew when Mom was alive.

  “Are you okay?” Emily asks.

  She doesn’t know that I’ve known Eve for a long time, so she doesn’t understand how betrayed I feel. After Mom died, Eve brought me to Eden. She took care of me like I was her own. But now, she barely even looks at me. It’s like I don’t exist.

  “I’m not sure what to think,” I say. “But I don’t think the adults are being honest with us.”

  “About what?” Emily asks.

  I shrug. “About a lot of things.”

  Emily scratches her eyebrow and lies down on my bed, scrunching the pillow under her head.

  “Well, most of the teachers seem to think Eve is the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” she says.

  I stare at her. Maybe the adults aren’t the problem—it could simply be Eve.

  “What about other parents?” I ask. “Have you listened in on other meetings?”

  A sneaky smile creeps on her face.

  “You can tell me,” I say. “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “I’ve heard a few things,” she admits.

  “Like?”

  “Well, everyone seems pretty happy with how things are around here. I only ever hear the adults complain about one thing.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “How they want at least one man in Eden.”

  I frown. “Why the heck would they want to bring a man in here?”

  She makes both her eyebrows bounce up and down and the corner of her lip goes up. “You know…”

  I roll my eyes and slap a hand over my face. “For sex?”

  She’s still smiling, but she doesn’t say anything.

  “That’s disgusting,” I say.

  “I’m only telling you what I heard.”

  “You would think after everything men have done to us, the adults would want nothing to do with them. And now you’re telling me they want to have sex with one?”

  She scrunches her nose, obviously as disgusted as I am. “This is why only the adults go to those meetings.”

  There’s a soft tap on the iron bars to my room, and Nola is standing there, her cheek pressed into the metal.

  “You two behaving yourselves?” she asks.

  She looks more relaxed than usual, and I think it has something to do with the drink she had.

  “So?” I ask. “Is everything okay?”

  For a second, it almost looks like she’s glaring at me. But not in a mean way. It’s like she knows when I know something. She steps into my room, her frilly green dress dragging on the cement, and sits at the foot of my bed.

  “You already know about the boy,” she says, resting a hand on my thigh. “It looks like they’ll be bringing him in.”

  I try to act surprised by making my eyes go big and by opening my mouth, but Nola quickly sticks a finger to her lips.

  “Don’t repeat anything just yet,” she says.

  “You think it’s a good idea?” I ask. “Bringing a boy in here?”

  She slaps a finger over her mouth again, her emerald eyes growing even bigger. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

  “I’m just asking, Nola. I’m sixteen now. You can stop treating me like a kid.”

  She brushes my hair back, leans forward, and kisses my forehead. To her, I’ll always be a kid.

  “I’m not sure what to think of it, but Eve knows what’s best for us,” she says.

  She smiles down at me, squeezes my shoulder, then gets up. She walks out through the iron bars, then glances back at me and says, “Just have faith,” before walking down the corridor of Division Five.

  I’m confused. Eve knows what’s best? Eve isn’t even the one who made the decision. She asked them to make the decision for her. Unless that was her plan. Maybe she wanted them to choose. But why?

  The moment she’s gone, I look back at Emily who’s staring up at the cement ceiling.

  “It’s like they’re being brainwashed or something,” I say. “Those drinks might have something to do with it.”

  “Who?” she asks. “What’re you talking about?”

  I throw my chin out toward the corridor. “The adults. You saw it, too. You saw those drinks that Mavis and Perula were making. They put something in it. It wasn’t alcohol.”

  “You think Eve’s drugging them?” she asks, sitting upright.

  “I don’t know,” I say, “but I’m gonna find out.”

  Lucy – Flashback

  My mom pokes her head into the closet and says, “Don’t be scared, honey.” She gives me a flashlight, kisses my forehead, then slowly pulls out.

  “Mom,” I say. I don’t want her to leave me alone in here again.

  “A little while longer, okay sweetheart?”

  “My H-Cap’s dead,” I say.

  She lets out a sigh. She squeaks the closet door open, steps inside, then closes it.

  “Come here.” She wraps an arm around me.

  I press my head against her chest and close my eyes. I’m scared. I know we’re hiding from Jason, but I don’t know why. I don’t understand why he wants to hurt us so bad.

  “Is he still out there?” I ask, my head pressed underneath my mom’s chin.

  She doesn’t say anything, but she nods, and I feel it.

  “What’s he doing?”

  She squeezes me tight again. “I’m not sure. I think he’s trying to figure out if we’re inside. That’s why the best thing for us to do is to hide and pretend like we’re not here.”

  “Will he hurt Grandma?”

  She rubs her thumb up and down my shoulder. “No, honey, I don’t think so. He’s after me, not Grandma.”

  What if she’s wrong? What if he knows we’re in here, and he knows Grandma’s lying about it? Will he hurt her so he can find us? If we’re hiding in a closet, it means he�
��s a dangerous man. Why isn’t Mom calling the police? Why aren’t they protecting us?

  “Aren’t the police coming?” I ask.

  I feel her throat swallow hard against my forehead. “It’s not that easy anymore, honey. There’s so much going on in the world right now. It’s a dangerous place for women. There aren’t any female police officers anymore, so if we call, they’ll send male officers. And with the way things are going, they’d probably take Jason’s side and arrest us.”

  “For what?” I ask. I’m so frustrated. “We didn’t do anything!”

  My mom shushes me and warns me to keep my voice down.

  “It’s not about right or wrong anymore,” she says. I can’t see her eyes, but I know they’re looking down at me. She swallows hard again like she’s trying not to cry. “Remember that, okay?”

  I nod, even though I’m not sure I understand what she’s saying. Why would we get punished for not doing anything? We’re the ones who are in danger. If police officers won’t save us, who will? Aren’t they supposed to protect us? Are we supposed to keep running from this man? And what will happen when he finds us? Is he seriously going to kill us? I don’t want to die. I’m so scared my legs are shaking.

  “I’m scared,” I say for the first time.

  My mom wraps her arm around me even tighter and kisses the top of my head. Her hot breath makes me feel warm.

  “I’m right here,” she says, but I can tell she’s scared, too.

  “How long do we have to hide in here?” I ask.

  “As long as it takes,” Mom says. “Until Grandma says we can come out.”

  “What if he doesn’t leave?” I ask. “What if he sits out there and waits for us? Because eventually, we’ll run out of food. What if he knows that? And what if I have to pee, Mom?”

  She doesn’t say anything, and it gets quiet in the closet. The only thing I can hear is the clank of dishes being put away in the kitchen. I wonder if Grandma’s scared, too. She didn’t ask for any of this. I can picture her moving around the house, cleaning anything she can like she does when she’s nervous.