The Bane (The Eden Trilogy)

by Keary Taylor

  “Things are bad back east,” the woman started. “There is hardly anyone left, if anyone. The Bane have gotten so aggressive. It wasn’t safe anywhere. We had no choice but to come west.”

  “It took us a year to figure out what was happening anyway,” the man said, his eyes wild with recollection. “It’s amazing we stayed alive.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  The two of them exchanged a look, a million memories between them. “We were on a year long sailing study,” the man started. “That’s how we met. We were both working for the university, doing marine studies. There were six of us on the sailboat. We hadn’t been into port in nearly six months, hadn’t seen another human being beside the six of us in that long either.

  “We came in for supplies only to find the ocean-side town abandoned. Or so we thought.”

  “We went to look for food,” the woman said, her eyes haunted. “That’s when we saw them, sleeping in the buildings. It was dark but we saw them, hundreds of them. Just staring out at nothing. We didn’t know what had happened.”

  “We split into groups,” the man said. “We hid ourselves as best we could. Got supplies at night because occasionally we saw ones that were awake during the day. We did okay for a few years but they started pushing further and further into the country. They started looking for us. Using weapons to take us down, make us easier to infect. We didn’t think it was safe anymore to stay. So we started walking.”

  “That was a year ago,” the woman said hoarsely. “We’ve been running ever since.”

  “But you’re still alive,” Avian said quietly. “That’s the part that really matters.”

  “What are your names?” I asked, finally relaxing my shotgun.

  “Tess,” the woman said. “And this is Van.”

  “I’m Avian,” he said. “This is Eve, that’s Morgan and Eli.”

  “Thank you for giving us shelter,” Van said as he put his arm around Tess. “We will be out of your way soon.”

  “You’re welcome to travel with us,” Avian said. I stiffened at his hasty acceptance. “We are headed southwest before the winter comes. We plan to find somewhere safe and set up camp again. Ours was just destroyed. The rest of our group is coming later.”

  “How many of you are there?” Tess asked.

  “Here now, seventeen. There are another seventeen that will follow. With the two of you that will bring us up to thirty-six members of Eden.”

  “Eden,” Tess said, a hint of a smile in the corner of her lips. “We would love to be members of Eden.”

  Avian nodded, a smile on his own lips, as he placed his hand on her knee for just a moment.

  We fed Tess and Van as much as we could. But it wasn’t much.

  When I woke up that evening the rain had not let up. The clouds were still dumping on us and Tuck told us that unless it stopped soon there was no way we were going to be able to drive that night. The windshield wipers didn’t work anymore. He wouldn’t be able to see a thing. Avian was also worried everyone would catch sick if they sat out in the rain on the trailer all night.

  Everyone settled down in one tent or another that night, each silently grateful to be able to sleep on stationary ground after two nights on the trailer. I watched as West went to one tent, Avian to another. I stationed myself just outside one of the tents they hadn’t chosen, volunteering as usual to keep night watch.

  TWENTY-NINE

  Two days later everyone had just started falling asleep when Avian’s attention perked up. He stood in his place on the trailer, his eyes narrowing at something ahead of us.

  “What is it?” I asked quietly in an attempt to not wake anyone. I took the safety off my shotgun.

  “Stop the truck,” Avian told Tuck. As he did, Avian hopped out, myself in close pursuit. He walked up to an old road sign and only then did I notice that there was something different about this one.

  “What are those?” I asked as I looked closely at the white dots beneath the words leading to somewhere that now meant nothing.

  “Morse code,” Avian whispered as he ran his fingers over the dots.

  “What does it say?” I asked as my eyes swept the area again. No threats in this desert forsaken place.

  Avian shook his head, his eyes frustrated looking. “I don’t know.”

  Without hesitation I walked back over to the trailer. “Wake up!” I said loudly. A few bodies stirred. “Come on. Wake up.”

  Some of them eyed the gun in my hands warily, others simply rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. “Does anyone know how to read Morse code?”

  West yawned as he raised his hand. “Come on,” I said, waving him toward the sign. “Sorry to wake everyone. You can go back to sleep now.”

  I heard a few grumbles as we walked toward the sign. Most of them lay back down but a few of them watched what we were doing with curiosity.

  “You know Morse code?” Avian asked as we walked up.

  “My grandpa thought it was a fun game when I was little,” West said as he rubbed his eyes again. “That’s a scientist’s version of fun for you.”

  “What does it say?” Avian asked as he looked back at the sign. “This isn’t the regular paint that was used for signs. It’s too irregular and the paint doesn’t look that worn. This was put there in the last few years. After the Evolution.”

  West squinted through the dark to read the sign. As he did, he stepped around it, looked at the back, then looked at the edge of it. “It just says ‘look beneath’.”

  Avian furrowed his brow at West, then looked back at the sign. Then we all saw the slightly bent form of the metal sign in the bottom right corner.

  With a hefty tug, the three loose screws at the top of the sign were ripped out and I let the metal sign fall to the ground with a thud in the dust.

  Our eyes grew wide as we took in what had been hidden under the old road sign. Words were crammed onto the wood board beneath, and a detailed but obviously hand drawn map spread over most of it. There had unquestionably been people here, trying to leave a message for anyone who might find it.

  “Holy…” both Avian and West breathed.

  “Where is the map leading?” I asked, my eyes following the hand drawn lines.

  “Right to the middle of one of the biggest cities there was,” Avian said quietly.

  If you’re reading this, congratulations on surviving. To be brief, there is a group of us, hiding in the city. We have unlimited supplies of food, water, other necessities. We also have electricity and can offer you protection. A life. If you can reach us. This is a map to our location. Travel at night and travel silently. Good luck.

  Below that, in another person’s handwriting, was written: May the force be with you.

  “What does that even mean?” I asked. May the force be with you. It sounded like gibberish to me.

  Avian chuckled again. “It was a line from a very famous movie.” When he saw my confusion at the word movie he just shook his head and laughed again. “Never mind. Just know that it is a very human thing to say.”

  “How is that even possible?” West asked, fully awake now. “For a group of people to be living in a city?”

  “I can’t imagine anyone is that careful,” I said quietly.

  “But if they were…” West said wistfully. “Can you even imagine? Having actual electricity, living indoors?”

  “No,” I said, furrowing my brow at him. “I can’t imagine it. It would be too dangerous. Avian said that was one of the biggest cities. It is going to be flooded with Bane. We couldn’t even get fifty miles outside the perimeter.”

  “But they must have a way of getting people in if they’ve left this message,” West continued. “They said to travel at night and to travel silently. Why would they have us walk into a death trap?”

  “This could have been left a few years ago,” I said, my voice rising. “They could all be infected by now, dead. There could be no one left in the city anymore.”

  “But if there are
people there…” Avian said. “They could have access to anything if they can get around that city.”

  “You can’t be serious about this,” I demanded as I turned my eyes on him. “We can’t take this risk. We have a mission to complete. Find a new, safe location for Eden and settle. Lead the others to us.”

  “We could change our course,” Avian said as he walked back to the truck. He grabbed Bill’s atlas out of the trailer. He opened it up and quickly found our location. “We were going here,” he said as he pointed to a place that was due south of our current location. “We could get there by dawn if we can get the truck to drive fast enough. But we could go here,” he said as he drug his finger across the page to a place that was west of our location. “Frankly it will be a nicer location. We’ll have access to more water, there will be more natural resources. And it is close to the ocean so there might also be more options for fishing. Temperatures shouldn’t be any different.”

  “But it is surrounded by cities,” I observed as I read the names around the textured green space Avian had his finger on.

  Avian nodded his head. “But it is less than sixty miles from where these other people are supposedly hiding out. We could go to this new location, even if it is only temporary, hide out and send a scouting party to check things out.”

  “This is suicide, Avian,” I said. “A city that size? We don’t have a chance of even getting to the outskirts.”

  “But if there are people there…” Avian said again. “Eve, we’ve already lost so many people this last year. As far as we knew, we were the only ones left. But if there are more of them out there… We have to stick together, to keep humanity alive.”

  I looked up at Avian, searching his eyes. There was hope burning there, but I was surprised at another thing I felt coming from him: a total lack of fear. I had underestimated Avian so much.

  “This isn’t just our decision,” I said quietly. “This affects all of them too,” I said as I indicated those waiting on the trailer for us. “We have to let them decide as well.”

  Avian and West looked up to those who were watching us silently. Everyone was awake now. Their faces were anxious looking, mixed with hope and fear. They could read what was written on the sign as well as I could.

  “What do all of you think?” Avian said as he took a few steps toward them. “I assume you heard everything we said.”

  No one spoke up at first and I sensed they were afraid to voice their opinions.

  “Tuck,” I called on him. He jumped slightly at being directly addressed. “What do you think?”

  “I…” he stuttered. “It is dangerous, but if there really are people there I think we have to go.”

  “No, we don’t,” Tess, the newcomer, spoke up loudly. “Like Eve said, this is suicide! Have any of you ever been to a city? We have, and it’s been years. It’s bound to have gotten worse.”

  “Eli?” I asked when Tess was finished.

  He glanced at Morgan where she stood at his side. “I’m not willing to risk putting my family in danger, but if there are some who want to go into the city to scout, I’m okay with changing course. It could only be temporary. I trust the three of you to keep us safe.”

  The majority of the heads in our group nodded, much to my surprise. Maybe they did still trust me with their lives, even if they now knew what I was.

  “Let’s put it to a vote then,” Avian said, putting his hands on his hips. “All those in favor of changing course and hiding out while some of us scout the area, raise your hand.”

  Every hand but mine, Tess and Van’s went up.

  “That’s the majority,” Avian said with a nod. He turned his intense blue eyes on me, his brow furrowed with mixed emotions. “Are you going to be with us Eve, if we change course? Would you go with the scouting party?”

  I glared at him. Where had my cautious Avian gone? Who was this daring risk taker?

  “Of course I will go with you,” I said, my jaw tight. “If anyone is going into the city I have to go with them. I’m the only one that can’t get infected.”

  The smallest hint of a smile formed in the corner of his mouth but I didn’t miss it. I almost returned it.

  “Alright,” Avian said, clapping his hands together. “We’ll get our new destination mapped out and get going as soon as we can. We’ve still got a few hours of darkness left.”

  “Crazy idiot,” I muttered under my breath as we turned back to the map. Avian just gave me a smug smile as he started drawing on the map.

  A few minutes later we all loaded up, heading out west on the crumbled highway.

  “We’ll find somewhere safe to hide everyone for at least a few days,” Avian said as he squinted against the wind that blew in his face. “If everything goes smooth, we’ll get everyone settled in the morning, get some sleep, and then the three of us will head into the city tomorrow night.”

  “I’d like to come too, sir, if that’s alright with you,” Tuck said from the driver’s seat.

  West chuckled and Avian couldn’t seem to help himself as he cracked a smile. I wondered if anyone had ever called Avian “sir.” “That’s up to you. You seem competent enough with a gun. If you’re willing to take the risk you’re welcome to come.”

  Tuck just nodded.

  “I’m assuming you will be coming with us?” I asked West, who had been unnaturally quiet the last few hours.

  “Of course,” he said, his voice almost sounding insulted. “I’m not going to let you and Avian have all the fun.”

  An hour and a half later, a few looming figures to the south of us drew my attention. They almost looked like…giant birds. “Avian, what are those?”

  He squinted in the direction I pointed then he raised his rifle to his eye level to look through the night-vision scope. “They’re planes,” he said as he glanced down at the map in his lap. “This is an old Air Force base. Tuck, pull over.”

  “Military?” I asked, my attention perking. “They would have weapons inside somewhere?”

  Avian shook his head and shrugged. “Maybe. The base I was stationed at was just abandoned when things started falling apart. Who knows what we’d find in there.”

  “Would we have time to go take a look around?” West asked.

  Avian looked at the map again. “We’re making good time. We should have about an hour of wiggle room. You really want to go inside? There could be dozens of them in there.”

  “It’s really secluded out here,” West said as he looked around us. There wasn’t even sagebrush growing in the cracked earth. “I doubt this small base attracted them.”

  “I think West is right,” I said as I scanned the area. “It doesn’t seem like a likely place for Bane.”

  “Alright,” Avian said as he nodded. “Eve, obviously it’s best if you go in. We’ll stay here and keep an eye out for if anything happens.”

  “No way,” West said as he shook his head. “I’m not letting her go in there by herself.”

  “I can take care of myself,” I said as I rolled my eyes at him. “I think you would know that by now.”

  “Even so, I’m not going to just sit here,” West said as he locked eyes with Avian.

  “Get over it you two,” I said in an exasperated tone as I jumped out of the trailer and started walking toward the looming buildings. A moment later another set of feet jumped to the ground and jogged to keep up with me.

  West and I padded silently across the sand and clay, guns in hand, ready to fire at the slightest movement. As we approached the buildings my eyes grew wide.

  “They’re huge,” I breathed as I took the size of them in. The place just went on and on, a massive landscape of waved metal. I had never seen a building so big.

  “You should have seen the NovaTor building we used to live in,” West said. I gave him a hard look before he let out an awkward chuckle. “Okay, maybe not.”

  We found a door in the vastness of the north wall. It was locked. I tapped it, testing its thickness. “It’s prett
y thin,” I said as I squinted through the dark. “Ready to see how enhanced I am?” I said with a coy smile. West just shook his head and laughed.

  I punched a hole through the waved aluminum. A thin scratch ran down the length of my hand, a few tiny drops of blood dripping to the ground. Ignoring it, I reached through and opened the door from the inside.

  The interior of the building was massive. Everyone in Eden could have set up their tents inside and still had plenty of room to roam. “They must have put those planes in here,” West said as he too took our surroundings in. There were no traces of any life around, cybernetic or organic.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s get moving.”

  We jogged along the perimeter of the building, finding a few rooms in one corner. One contained a desk, papers and books scattered around the room. We found a handgun in one of the drawers and a small box of ammunition. The other room was used for storage. We found a few sets of shoes and pairs of pants to bring back with us.

  We went back outside and jogged to the next building. It too was locked. Two seconds later it wasn’t.

  Proof of West’s theory was found inside this building. Through the darkness we could make out the figure of one of the massive planes.

  “Isn’t that amazing?” West mused. “That we used to have control over the sky like that? I would have loved to learn to fly one of those.”

  “Maybe someday you’ll get your chance,” I whispered as I started along the perimeter of the building. We found a kitchen but there was no food left in it. It was in the next room we struck gold.

  “Here we go,” I said with a smirk as I stood in the doorway.

  The walls were lined with all kinds of weaponry. Handguns, shotguns, things I had never even seen before but would learn to use shortly. “Grab everything you can,” I said, reaching for the nearest menacing looking piece of destruction and salvation.

  I filled my pockets with ammunition until my pants threatened not to stay on my hips from the weight. I grabbed three oblong balls with small pins stuck in the top. I wasn’t sure what they would do but if they were in this room they must have had destructive force. I shoved them into one of the pockets at the side of my knees.