by Keary Taylor
We’ve brought on Dr. Erik Beeson. He’s young, just two years out of his doctorate program. But the boy is brilliant. I’ve read many of his papers over the years about the brain and wireless capabilities. And after speaking to him I have no doubt he is going to be the perfect addition to NovaTor Biotics.
He is currently fine tuning the chip.
I feel as if I’m turning into the devil. And I’m dragging the Eve project down into the fiery pits with me.
Three months later:
Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow.
Two days after surgery:
Operation was a success as far as we can tell. Chip was implanted and project Eve transferred to recovery room. Currently under observation. Being kept under sedation for the first three days and then we shall see what happens. Under normal circumstances, recovery could take up to a month, maybe longer. But considering Eve’s capabilities I expect less. Vitals are showing signs of recovery already. Brain activity is steadily increasing.
What he didn’t know was that the sedation had taken longer than they had expected. I had relived those horrifying moments of paralysis in my dreams. I had heard the drill. Thankfully, I must have been finally pulled under before they bored into the back of my skull. Or if I hadn’t, I didn’t remember that part.
Seven days later:
Subject I began to awaken five days after surgery. Eve was sluggish at first, appearing confused and unsteady. Coordination was obviously thrown off. Things changed rapidly by the next day.
An assistant went to check on Eve and to give her the morning rations. Subject was startled awake and attacked the assistant. We heard the racket and opened the door to find Eve on top of the assistant, fingers gripped tightly around her neck. The assistant wasn’t breathing. Upon seeing us enter the room, subject leapt at us, attacking with force far beyond what a normal five-year-old should be capable of. It took three of us to wrestle her onto the bed and secure her down.
Aggression was extreme for the next few days. We waited for things to even out. The fusion of the chip and the human brain is bound to be fought. The implant is placed in an area of the brain where emotion stems from. The brain is trying to attack itself, manifesting as aggression. Programming will be adjusted to fix the problem. I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise considering her previous condition.
Adjustments automatically given to II. No complications.
Problem. That was what my reaction to being altered was. It was a problem that I hadn’t liked what they had done to me, that I had tried to fight back.
“Eve? Are you alright?”
I jumped violently when I heard the voice from outside my tent.
“Yes, Gabriel,” I said, trying to steady my shaking voice. “I just needed some time to myself today.” Was I lying? What counted more as time to yourself when you’re learning what happened to you in the past that you can’t remember?
He hesitated, catching my out-of-character response. “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” I said, shrinking into my bed. I listened hard until I heard his footsteps fade away.
My hands were shaking as I looked back at the notebook. I suddenly felt like I had to keep this a secret, as much as West had felt he had to. I didn’t want anyone to know what was in here. The past it contained exposed what I was, what I was capable of. It exposed the fact that I wasn’t completely human.
But West had read it all. He knew everything that was written here. And he hadn’t been afraid of me. He hadn’t run away.
I shook my head. West was a distraction I couldn’t afford. I didn’t like to admit it, but that’s what he was. A distraction.
An entry from several months after the chip had been implanted:
Thus far the chip has been successful in overriding limitations as designed. Endurance has been increased. Exhaustion has been overruled. Tied to this is increased strength.
Phase II of the experiment is progressing well. It has been fascinating to see the differences.
The shock of reading what was continued on those pages should have worn off. It didn’t. Things continued to get more twisted and terrifying.
And unexpected side effect of the chip implantation has occurred. I have been aware of the fact that everything project Eve is able to do should be impossible. The strength, speed, increased eyesight and hearing capacities. This has evolved beyond the capability of the military’s chip and TorBane.
The two technologies have intertwined with each other I believe. The chip has given the TorBane technology the ability to spread and evolve. After sedation and a full body scan, hints of cybernetic enhancements have been detected throughout Eve’s body. It is not just the brain, lungs, and heart that have been altered now. It is the entire body.
Test’s I and II yield duplicate results.
I stared at my hand, willing my eyes to see the metallic fingers I had seen on the Bane, searching for any signs of alloys bonded to my bones. My skin didn’t look any different than Sarah’s would have, no different than Gabriel’s or Morgan’s. It was all inside. That was the reason I was so much faster, so much stronger.
This just brought up a whole new slew of questions. There was a lot about these notes that I didn’t really understand. I didn’t speak scientist. But what had he meant by my brain, lungs, and heart being altered?
And that was when it finally hit me. West’s grandfather was the one who had created TorBane. Those letters on the cover that were worn out had at one time spelled NOVATOR BIOTICS. It was his research and his creation that had led to the fall of humanity. And I had been a part of that. He must have given me the technology, and that was why the military wanted to use that chip on me. I must have been among the first to get TorBane. He had created the infection using the data he had collected from the experiments done on me.
I suddenly hated myself.
I forced myself to read through the rest of the pages. It didn’t seem important to read them in detail anymore. I had been experimented upon as a child. And now here I was. I was the way I was and there was nothing I could do to change that.
There were pages and pages recording the endurance tests I had been put through. They continued to monitor my sleep habits. It seemed I had required little sleep my entire life. I didn’t even require as much food as normal people.
An entry from when I was ten:
As Eve’s brain has continued to develop and evolve, adjustments have been required in II. Her emotions have been changing. Fear and anger started to surface this last week, indicating our previous programming has been outdone. As she continues to grow we will need to make more adjustments.
I did the tuning myself. It is a complex procedure; the programming must be done precisely. Emotion is something not easily blocked. Modification must be dealt with carefully to not harm the brain and therefore, the body. After I had the programming correctly written, the adjustments were interfaced with the chip. The change was instantaneous. Amazing, the control that is exacted through remote programming.
Subject is again devoid of emotion.
I stared at the last line for a long time, my insides feeling hollow and empty. It was as if this man had reached through the pages and yanked all my insides out.
Subject is again devoid of emotion.
It explained a lot. How I didn’t panic when others did. How I didn’t understand what was happening to everyone after Tye had died, how I didn’t recognize their grief. How I always felt so disconnected from everyone around me.
I forced myself to read the last page that referenced directly to me.
Apparently the money has run out. I’m finally being released from the military’s hold. They want the Eve project maintained and will pay for that, but they are putting it on hiatus for a few years now. This finally frees me and my team up to finish the TorBane research. We should have the final strain ready for mass production within two years. Maybe less. It is time to move on from the
Eve project. All data needed in regards to TorBane has been collected from experiments done to project Eve. Project is being handed off to Dr. Beeson for maintenance. The next phase of TorBane testing is ready.
And that was the end of the entries about me.
The sun started to sink into the western horizon and I still had not left my tent. Another plate of food had been pushed under the entry flap as evening set but it remained untouched on the ground.
I imagined myself sinking through the ground, of burying myself into the earth and disappearing. I had helped cause the end of the world. Whether it was by my choice or not, I was a means to the end. I was now meaningless, an experiment forgotten about, no longer needed. I was a hollow vessel with no reason for still being. They had gotten what they needed out of me and moved on.
Eden fell quiet, slumber sweeping over its inhabitants. And still I lay there, my eyes staring up at the ceiling, yet seeing nothing. My mind was blank, my insides hollow. It felt better that way. Should I fill back in, everything would collapse in on me.
I barely even heard the sound of feet outside before a dark figure entered my tent. I knew who it was, even if my eyes couldn’t see his face until he raised the lantern and closed the flap behind him.
I looked away from him and drew my eyes back to the ceiling.
West stepped closer to me, set the lantern on the ground by the wall and sat on the floor facing me.
“Here,” I managed to make my throat work as I handed the notebook to him. “Please take it.”
He accepted it. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I should have told him that none of it was his fault. He had been a child after all. It was his father and grandfather, NovaTor, not him that had done this. But I couldn’t do it.
“You still don’t remember any of it?” he asked quietly.
I barely managed to shake my head.
“I’ve thought about it. Dr. Beeson, the one who took over your care and research, he was a kind man. He didn’t approve of everything that was done to you. When things started getting out of control, when TorBane started taking everyone, I think he let you go. He made you forget somehow. Probably with the chip. He knew you would survive, that you could take care of yourself.”
I gave the smallest of nods. “Why did he do it to me? Why did your grandfather give me TorBane?”
West was quiet for a moment, as if recalling the past. “I honestly don’t know how you came to be at NovaTor. But I do know you were sick. You were a brand new baby and you were going to die. My grandpa wanted to do a human test with TorBane and he just went ahead and did it. He didn’t tell anyone. And you got better. You were fine because of the technology. And I think that’s why you can’t infect anyone. You were given it at such a young age, it is just part of who you are. Everyone else was given it as an adult so it overtook them. But this is who you are, Eve.”
I nodded. What had happened didn’t matter. I was what I was. What had happened wasn’t going to change, no matter the paths that had created it.
“Please say something,” he said quietly.
I turned my head slightly to look at him. Tears traced patterns in the dirt on his face as they slid down his cheeks. “I don’t think I can even do that,” I said as I watched one of the tears drop into the dirt beneath him.
West wiped his thumb across his cheek, before slowly extending his hand to my face. His eyes burned and clouded at the same time as he wiped his damp thumb across my own cheek. Borrowed tears.
“I can’t feel anything,” I spoke quietly through the dim light. “I can’t feel emotion. I’m hollow.”
West shook his head. “You’re not hollow. You feel things.”
I shook my head. “He blocked it all. He made sure I didn’t feel anything. It became a problem.”
West scooted closer, shifting himself forward. He reached a hand toward me, placing his palm on my cheek, his thumb traveling from my cheek to my lips. I closed my eyes as heat tingled on the surface of my skin.
“You feel things,” he whispered again. His hand trailed down the side of my neck, down my arm until his fingers intertwined with mine.
A quivering filled my stomach as I kept my eyes closed. My entire body felt like it hummed as I smelled West’s presence, so close to me. It felt as if I could sense every surface of his body, so acutely aware of him it was as if he was an extension of my own being.
West shifted again, the one hand still intertwined with mine, his other one coming up to the side of my neck. And then his lips were on mine.
It wasn’t crushing like the first unexpected one had been. This one saturated me slowly, hesitant in a way that consumed me. It smoldered at first, heat rising with every passing moment, eating me up from my stomach outward.
A tiny gasp escaped from my lips as they parted and I didn’t even realize what I was doing as my free hand knotted in West’s shaggy hair. He shifted again, most of his body lying on top of mine.
I burned from the inside out. My heart raced. I wanted more but felt totally consumed by West, getting everything I needed yet feeling that it was not even close to being enough.
He pulled away just a bit, resting his forehead against mine. His eyes were closed as he tried to slow his breathing. “You feel things.” He said raggedly. “I know you felt that.”
West fell asleep, his arms wrapped tightly around me. His face seemed so peaceful. He looked younger. In sleep he didn’t have to worry about survival, feel guilt for the actions of his family.
It took me a while to understand how I was feeling that night. I was relaxed too. Sluggish almost. This was more than the fall of my defenses
I felt happy.
Maybe I did feel things after all.
Maybe I’d had my own evolution.
THIRTEEN
Sweat beaded between my shoulder blades and rolled down my back. I wiped my forehead and scanned the trees again. Maybe it was just the fact that I was out on scouting patrol by myself but I felt uneasy. Something was waiting to happen.
While on duty that morning, I happened upon the biggest elk I had ever seen. It had taken three shots to bring it down. Bill and Graye had taken it back to Eden to be prepared to eat that night. And now I was out here on my own.
Dead pine needles crunched softly underneath my feet as I circled around the lake. I smelled at the air, searching for any traces of something that didn’t belong. I tried to keep my head in the task at hand but I’d been distracted the last few days.
Everything had changed and yet everything hadn’t.
Despite all the truths I had learned about myself, everything had somehow gone back to normal. I was still who I was. I hadn’t changed. I just knew how I had become the way I was. I was still Eve. As long as I was breathing, as long as I was still in control of my actions and the cybernetic side of me didn’t turn me against myself, I would continue to protect Eden until I took my last breath.
I’d been away from the people of Eden for the most part since that day I had read the notebook. Maybe I’d needed some time alone to think things over, to come to terms or something. I’d been on scouting duty every day and then on watch tower nearly every night. I wanted to talk to Avian about everything I’d learned, to have him help me process it all, but I wasn’t quite ready just yet.
Gauging by the position of the sun above me, I knew it was about time for the scouting switch. I headed back toward the lake. I took a quick bath and walked to Eden in the fading daylight.
I dragged my fingers through my tangled blond hair and stepped back into the mass of tents. The scent of something delicious wafted through the air. There was a sense of excitement buzzing around, almost a tangible thing.
“Eve!” Sarah called. “Come on!”
I made my way through our version of a city, watching as people bustled about. I was confused why everyone wore their nicest clothes; at least what passed for nice these days.
“What’s going on?” I asked her as I observed several women cooking up
a food frenzy in our makeshift kitchen area.
“We’re having a party,” Sarah said with a wide smile. “Today is Gabriel’s sixtieth birthday!”
My eyes widened a bit at this and I gave a nod. It was impressive. Not many people lived to see that age anymore. Terrif was the only person older than Gabriel in Eden. Only the strong had survived the Evolution.
“Come with me,” Sarah said excitedly as she grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me in the direction of her tent. “We have to get you ready.”
“What’s wrong with the way I am now?”
“You may only be part human, Eve, but the woman inside of you needs some pampering.”
I wasn’t sure what Sarah was talking about and if I was being honest, I was a little wary of what she might mean. We stepped into the tent and found Avian, just pulling a shirt over his thin but toned frame.
“Out,” Sarah commanded. “I have to get Eve ready.”
For some reason Avian wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Yes, ma’am,” he said and ducked out without another word.
I stared at the place where he had disappeared with a strange feeling in my stomach. There had been a weird vibe between us the last few days. I had not been around anyone much but I had seen less of Avian than I had expected. He would hardly look at me. I realized then that he had been purposefully avoiding me.
“Put this on,” Sarah said as she rummaged through a bag of things. She shoved a mass of light green material at me.