by Keary Taylor
Tuck nodded and jogged back toward the electric car.
“You ready to go back?” Avian asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
“Are you?” I asked and instantly the air grew heavy.
“I think it’s best if I just avoid West for a while,” he said. His gaze fell to the sand beneath us.
“Hey,” I said, my brow furrowing. “What is it?”
“I trust you, okay? Don’t get me wrong there. But just promise me that you’ll always be honest with me.”
I shook my head. “You know I will,” I said, attempting to push back the black feelings trying to rise up in my blood. “What’s this really about?”
He took a moment to respond and I could feel his turmoil. “I know that you have mixed emotions about West,” Avian said. “You still have some kind of feelings about him and I wouldn’t expect that to immediately go away. You two have some kind of history that I can never be a part of. I get that. Just…always be honest with me about it, okay?”
He pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I laid my head on his chest, listening for the beat of his heart, the sound that was the anchor to my world.
“The honest truth is this,” I said, looking up into his eyes. “I love you. You are who I want and need to be with. That’s never going to change.”
As we parked the motorcycle in the underground parking garage, Avian tucked a small handgun into his belt beneath his shirt. I checked my Desert Eagle, making sure I could pull it out quickly in case I needed it. I had no doubt a lot of members of New Eden would be packing with these newcomers.
The stairs echoed back our footsteps as we climbed the two sets of flights to the main level of the hospital. A gust of warm air caressed my face when we stepped out onto the main floor.
I bumped the door into Graye as we entered. There were no civilians in the lobby, which was odd considering this was the main hub of all operations of New Eden. Instead I found Elijah and the majority of his and Avian’s crew, as well as all of Tuck’s team guarding doors and stairways with loaded weapons.
In the middle of the room stood twenty people I didn’t know, their pale faces and bodies hardened by the world we lived in. They held their own weapons.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Graye.
“They’re refusing to tell Gabriel or Royce much of anything. They want to talk with Royce privately but Elijah isn’t having it, not without Avian here. He wants someone here in charge of security detail.”
“And you and Bill are useless?” I asked in an annoyed voice.
Graye shrugged, shaking his head in exasperation.
“Finally,” Royce suddenly said, spotting Avian and me. “Elijah, happy now?”
Elijah nodded his scarred head.
“You two, come with us,” Royce said, pointing at two people in the front of this new group with the tip of his AK-47. “Avian, Eve, care to join us?”
I nodded, as did Avian. Royce, Gabriel, the two newcomers, Avian, and I all wedged ourselves into the elevator.
“Anyone makes a wrong move, don’t hesitate to shoot,” Royce said as the silver doors slid closed.
“This is how you treat your guests?” the woman asked, her voice hard and mocking.
“Forgive us if our manners are a little rusty,” Royce barked. “But when you come into our city armed like this with no answers, we don’t serve up the welcome cookies and milk.”
The elevator dinged and we walked down the hall toward the conference room. I felt uneasy that we were only one floor below the blue level, where the most valuable devices and people in the world resided.
As soon as everyone was in the room, I positioned myself in front of the door and Avian stood in front of the window.
“We could start with some names,” Royce said, bracing his hands on the table, staring them down with his steely eyes.
“Margaret,” the woman said, leaning forward as if to prove Royce didn’t intimidate her.
“Alistar,” the man beside her said.
“Good,” Royce said with a cocky smile. “That’s better. Because when you walk into our town, you answer our questions. You heard our radio message.”
“Yes,” Margaret replied, folding her hands over one another on the table. “Your message did promise food, shelter, a home.”
“Somehow I don’t get the feeling that’s what you’re really looking for here,” Royce growled. “You don’t go begging for a bed armed like this.”
“We’ve never heard of another group surviving in such large numbers,” Gabriel butted in. I sensed his attempt to smooth things over. Gabriel was always the peacekeeper but knew when to not let things get out of hand. “We’re just surprised at your numbers.”
“Where are you from?” Royce asked. I could tell this wasn’t the first time he’d asked these two this question.
“Where are any of us from?” Margaret said back. “Like you, we’re from everywhere. Just trying to survive in an impossible world.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Royce said, leaning forward again, his voice icy.
This game was tiring me very quickly and I was having a very bad week. The distrust and anger inside of me quickly flooded my veins.
I crossed the room and nestled the barrel of my rifle between her ribs. “Where are you from?” I said.
She jumped, much to my satisfaction, and her face blanched all the more white.
Good. She was still capable of feeling fear.
“North,” she said, her voice a little too loud. “We’ve been in the forests up north. We’ve been hiding there for the past year.”
“The Redwoods?” Avian asked, studying them.
Margaret nodded.
“We heard the message,” Margaret said, now fixing me with hard eyes. I stepped back to the door now that she was talking. “We were curious to talk to other survivors, so we came. We weren’t exactly expecting to be held hostage.”
“One can never be too careful these days,” Royce said, standing straight again. He was still tense, but I felt him backing down now that they had answered some of his questions.
“We’re not looking to join you permanently,” Alistar said, looking around at each of us. “We just wanted to talk, share information. We thought it could be valuable.”
Royce glanced over at Gabriel who shrugged and shook his head as if to say it was Royce’s call.
“Everyone will be heading to bed right now,” Royce said. I glanced out the window that overlooked the buildings around us. The sun had dipped below the skyline and darkness was settling. “We’ll talk in the morning. Avian, Gabriel, will you take their group to the fourth floor?”
They both nodded and directed Margaret and Alistar back toward the elevator.
I almost smiled when Royce said the fourth floor. It was the former mental unit. Very secure. Easy to lock down.
Royce didn’t trust these people any more than I did.
When they were out in the hall, Royce shut the door and turned to me.
“I’m shutting down all the elevators when they’re settled,” he said, meeting my eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. “I want you guarding the blue floor. All the scientists will be sleeping on that floor tonight. We’re not saying anything about the Pulse, the Extractor, you, or West until we know more about these people. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” I said with a nod.
“Don’t shoot me, Eve,” he said as I turned to leave. “But I think it’s best if West stays up there tonight as well. It’s a little obvious just looking at him that he’s had some major work.”
I gave him a hard stare for a long moment. But in the end logic won out, and I couldn’t argue with him.
“Make sure Avian knows where I am tonight,” I said as I walked toward the stairs.
“Yes ma’am.”
The scientists didn’t even begin to argue when I told them we were all in lockdown for the night. Half of them slept up on the blue floor more than they s
lept in their own rooms anyway. Many of them had become anti-social after all the years they had spent holed up on the blue floor working on the Pulse. A lot of them didn’t know how to mingle with the general population any more.
Thankfully I could always count on Dr. Beeson to feel guilty about what he’d helped do to me, and he kept West occupied while I stood guard at the door to the stairs that led access to the rest of the hospital.
The floor grew quiet as everyone settled down for the night. The lights along the floor, running through the walls, glowed brilliant as ever. I positioned myself with an assault rifle in front of the door to the staircase.
There was something about what Margaret and Alistar had said that didn’t sit right with me. They were from north of us. But not far enough north that they wouldn’t see the sun on a nearly daily basis. They, as well as the rest of their group, had been white and pasty-faced. I looked down at my own arms. Even though I’d been inside quite a bit the last two months, my skin was still well tanned from the sun.
I wondered how big their lies really were.
EIGHT
“Any idea what’s going on down there?”
I turned to find West behind me, hands stuffed into his pockets. My eyes immediately fell to the blue glow coming through his shirt.
“No,” I responded and turned back to the door leading to the stairwell.
The sun had risen. It was now eight o’clock and the blue floor had yet to receive an update.
“Royce must really not trust them if he’s hiding all of us up here,” West said. I heard him sit on the floor against the wall.
“There’s something not right about them,” I said. I blinked hard.
I wasn’t tired. I was used to staying up at nights and keep guard. This was second nature to me. This was what I was good at.
But my eyes were burning from staring at that stupid door all night.
“You look like crap,” he said.
“I could say the same thing,” I snapped. “But that would be mean.”
“Cold, Eve,” he said. “Not that I don’t somewhat deserve it.”
“Somewhat?”
“I’m not going to make this easy for you,” he said in a low voice.
I could tell he wanted me to look back at him, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. He needed to face reality.
I was trying with West. I really was.
“Lock down is over.” Dr. Beeson was in the hall, a radio in his hand. “They’re calling everyone down for a meeting in the auditorium.”
I didn’t like it, it felt dangerous to gather us all into one room, but I didn’t exactly have the power to override Royce.
Everyone from the blue floor made their way down the stairway and we all exited onto the second floor.
I’d only ever been in the auditorium once before. It was a massive room that dropped down at an angle toward a stage. Rows upon rows of seats rose up from the elevated stage. The room would easily seat five hundred people.
As soon as I entered the room, Avian and Elijah signaled to me from just to the side of the stage.
“What’s going on?” I whispered as I joined them. I was on instant alert when I realized they were keeping to the shadows, out of view of the masses.
“We still didn’t get any answers this morning,” Avian said, his eyes scanning those who filtered into the room. “They mostly just asked a lot of questions. We told them about the Pulse since they basically already knew about it being as they walked into a cleared city. No one is too worried about them stealing it. It doesn’t exactly fit into your back pocket.”
“They’re saying they’d like to stay a while, talk some more, tell us what it’s like up north,” Elijah said. He held a rifle tight in his hands. “They’re asking that we let them stay for a week.”
“I don’t like it,” I whispered, shaking my head. My eyes fell on Margaret, who sat in the front row. She had the tips of her fingers pressed together, her gaze fixed on the empty stage.
“Neither does Royce,” Elijah said. “That’s why he’s having security detail quietly follow them at all times. They know we’re going to be watching them. But not how closely.”
“Why doesn’t Royce just ask them to leave?” I asked. By this point it looked like most everyone had entered the room.
“Because none of us want a war to start,” Avian said.
Royce and Gabriel stepped onto the stage.
“Take the right exit,” Elijah said, pointing back toward the door I’d entered through. “Keep a low profile.”
I nodded and quietly slipped back up the stairs to the door. I kept my rifle hanging at my left side so that it was out of sight, but was ready to use it at one wrong move.
“Thank you all for coming,” Royce said as he turned his eyes out on those before him. “I am sure you are all wondering what the dramatics have been about the last twenty-four hours.”
The members of New Eden looked frightened, glancing around at those they did not recognize. Brady hung tight around Victoria’s neck, Wix with his arms around her. Lin sat next to a few other women, each eying the strangers.
“We’ve been honored with a surprise visit from our friends to the north,” Royce said. Even from a distance, I could see how he clenched his teeth. “They heard our radio broadcast and came to learn more about our way of life. They will be staying on the fourth floor for the next seven days.” There was an underlying tone that said they would not be welcome after seven days.
“You are welcome to talk to them if you like, but I won’t feel bad if you don’t feel compelled to get to know these people who will be leaving our presence in a week. But I wanted to let you all know what was going on,” Royce said.
“Please let your friends and neighbors know,” Gabriel said, stepping forward. “Not everyone is in attendance today, so we don’t want anyone feeling alarmed when they see strangers in our city.”
“Back to life, people,” Royce said with a wave of his arms, dismissing everyone.
Most everyone looked at least slightly wary and confused but they all filed back out of the auditorium. Royce and Gabriel stayed behind with Margaret and Alistar, but Elijah once again signaled to Avian and me.
We all quickly made our way to room 112, center of security.
Bill, Graye, and the other dozen soldiers on security detail were already gathered. I did however notice West was not joining us. Elijah must have finally realized having him mix with the crew was a bad idea for now.
“Royce wants us to tail these people for the next week. That means twenty-four-seven. Raj and Nick, you’ll be on night watch,” Elijah said, pointing to the two of them. “I want a guard in the staircase, and another at the elevator. They’ll know there’s someone at the elevator, but we’re not telling them about the staircase. Royce wants to test them and see if they’re going to sneak out at night and go snooping around.
“The rest of you will each be assigned a floor. Bill, Graye, and Banner, you three will cover the grounds around the hospital. Anyone leaves, you tail them. Call for back up if they spread more than the three of you can keep an eye on.”
“Dr. Beeson will be bringing hand-held radios any moment for each of you. You’re to check in on an hourly basis. They will report directly back to myself and Royce. I don’t have to say that if you see something suspicious, you report it immediately.”
“I really don’t like this,” I said once again under my breath.
“Yeah,” Avian said back. “I think everyone has a bad feeling about this.”
I was torn between duty and curiosity.
Avian and I were in charge of watching the first floor, from the time we woke, until the time the newcomers were herded back to the fourth floor at night.
My assignment was to watch. To make sure nothing happened, that no one got out of line.
But I wanted to know what was going on.
Margaret and Royce spent most of their time on the sixth floor, in his office. Elijah sto
od constant guard alone just outside Royce’s door.
I wanted to know what they were talking about. I wanted to make sure Royce didn’t spill our secrets, even though I trusted him not to. I wanted to hear what was happening to the world outside of New Eden.
But I wouldn’t abandon my duties.
I finally had a job.
I hung back in the lobby, watching. We’d moved the elementary and other school classes to the empty third floor. While Lin and the other teachers conducted class an armed guard stood watch over them. The dozen people who were employed in the operation of New Eden worked as usual in the lobby, but these outsiders slowly wandered, watching, asking questions.
I was proud of those around me. They were careful. They watched what they said.
But I had a bad feeling that eventually someone was going to slip up.
I looked up when West stepped into the lobby. West met my gaze for a moment when he spotted me. He shook his head nearly imperceptibly before his attention turned to the outsider who approached him.
I watched very carefully as West talked.
I’d had trust issues with West ever since the day I caught him stealing food from Eden. But back then those trust issues had only been important between the two of us.
Could I still trust him to keep our people and our secrets safe?
By the fifth day, I was so agitated I could hardly stand it. I felt cooped up and blind. I felt in the dark and out of the loop.
“You okay?” Avian asked as we switched places. We took shifts, either at the front of the hospital, with the lobby and restrooms, or the back, with the kitchens and medical wing.
“I just want them to leave,” I said, my eyes sweeping the hallway.
“Two more days,” he said quietly. He placed his hand on the back of my head and pressed a kiss to my brow.
“I can’t stand this,” I said, shaking my head. “I need out. I need trees and mountains. I need—”