The Shattered Genesis

The Shattered Genesis Page 61

by T. Rudacille

  ***

  If we had died then, it would have made the rest of the tale much easier. There would have been no betrayal, no fight to the death, no war that raged for countless years. There would have been no more pain. While humans sidestep the inevitable final consequence that is death, they secretly wish for the peace that it brings. Once crossed over, we no longer feel the suffering that has long defined us as humans, as being one step above the other animals in God’s creation.

  The evolution we were experiencing on Pangaea was almost a step backwards, I found myself thinking as I slept. We were reverting back to the ways of our forefathers, when we walked on all fours and hunted our food with nothing but our hands and teeth. Our animal nature was our only link to continued survival. The only difference between our original ancestors that had first populated the earth and what remained of our race on Pangaea was that we felt and reasoned without pause and with an intensity strong enough to buckle our knees, so to speak…

  “Brynn?”

  His voice was so beautiful in my dreams. His masculinity was evident even when he spoke. I had always had a fascination with strong, protective men who would die for their significant other. Alas, James fighting for my life with more force than what he utilized to fight for his own was something else we shared in common with our ancestors. Chivalry, as I called it, always existed. Or perhaps that was ideology bred from that childlike fear I had experienced as I died…

  “Brynna?”

  His lips stimulated warmth wherever they pressed on my face. Had we traveled from the realm of the living to the mysterious next together?

  “Wake up, baby. Come on.”

  “Her lips are starting to turn back to normal.”

  What the hell was Elijah doing in mine and James’s eternal paradise? Violet used to place her hands palm of one rested on the back of the other, and twiddle her thumbs, calling the gesture in a dull monotone the “awkward turtle.” Generally, that strange hand sign was used when situations became uncomfortable in our home. I always chuckled to myself, though I was baffled as to how a shelled sea creature could possibly be clumsy or inept at handling social situations…

  I opened my eyes just so the sight of James’s handsome face would shut those inane thoughts out of my mind. My brows furrowed instantly at the harsh white light over their heads. It had long been rumored that when one dies, they are faced with the blinding, comforting light of the afterlife. It is supposedly brighter than the sun, yet it does not hurt to stare into it. I closed my eyes again, moaning softly. That light behind James and Elijah was agonizing. I hated liars…

  “How is she doing?” Don’s voice was as welcome as the fabled devil’s. All I needed was to hear Adam’s voice, and then my paradise would dissolve completely into hell.

  “She is very strong. I am sure that in a moment, she will be on her feet, scathingly criticizing your stupidity, Donald.”

  Seriously?

  “Why, dare I ask, are all of you hovering over me?” I asked slowly with my eyes still covered. I was not sure if I truly wanted to know the answer to that question.

  James eased me up into a sitting position. I widened my eyes and shook my head slightly to suppress the dizziness that followed somersaults performed in rapid succession or a night of binge-drinking. Or, as it pertains to this particular occurrence, once one regains consciousness the morning after almost freezing to death on a guerilla mission.

  “Didn’t you claim to possess the same knowledge and wisdom I possess?” I asked as my index and middle finger massaged the center of my forehead firmly. After the tension had eased, and I realized that my question had still not been answered, my gaze snapped onto Don. “Hello? I am addressing you.”

  “I said that I knew what we were getting ourselves into, coming up here.”

  “You said that you knew how Pangaea worked.”

  “Pangaea…” Adam repeated with a roll of his eyes and a derisive chuckle, “Such a ridiculous name…’

  “It actually is not, considering that the land here is combined to form one large mass of land, which, if you are familiar with how the land on Earth was originally…” I stopped. Not worth it…

  “I know exactly what you’re going to say.” Don spat at me, “You’re going to say that I should have known that coming up north would mean snow and frigid conditions, and that…’

  “You are the one who claimed you were a genius.” I shook my head in condescension. “Do not snipe at me because you were too empty-headed to realize that by old world knowledge, going up meant temperatures would go down. It is all very simple.”

  “So, you knew that we would come up here and almost freeze to death?” He asked me angrily. “If so, why did you come?”

  “This is not about me, Donald. This is about you.” I turned my scowl to Adam, “And what are you doing here?”

  “I was due for a trip north.” Adam answered vaguely.

  “You are lying.” I replied as James helped me onto my feet. We were still in the tent that had miraculously remained standing despite the strong wind and the strength of the falling snow. I did not know why I was surprised; they were military tents constructed to withstand sandstorms and extreme temperatures.

  I was uncomfortable with the amount of men in my tent, so I pushed past them all to move into open air. I would not be surrounded by males in such a confined space. Nothing would happen, surely, but it was still disturbing on a level I knew all too well. Once outside, I momentarily allowed my eyes to drink in the beautified landscape; the mountains surrounding me and the ground beneath my feet were both covered in the whitest snow I had ever been privileged to see. It would be a sin to trample on such purity. I remembered living in New York briefly and experiencing back-to-back snowstorms that had left the greatest city in the world buried deep. It had been a comfortingly surrealist sight. As I observed the rising sun that was casting a soft glow on the snow-covered hills in hues of pink, orange, and soft yellow, I felt the same soothing wonder and awe. It filled me to the brim with a warmth that fended off the still-biting cold.

  Then Don spoke again.

  “The bottom line is, I don’t know how they made it here without your help, Adam. You said that you were on our side!”

  “Your accusations hold no real weight. Perhaps your enemies found warm clothing in the ship. Perhaps they were just very lucky.”

  “Perhaps both of you gentlemen need a time out.”

  There I was, sticking my nose into matters that neither concerned nor interested me. Don was more than likely correct; given Adam’s mysterious nature and his disloyalty to our kind, it would not surprise me if he was aiding the Bachums as well as us. He thought himself to be the emperor of Rome and we, the gladiators thrown into the ring to fight to the death. If he wanted to aid our separate quests for survival by throwing some spears and knives into the fighting space, then he would, but only so the fight would be bloodier and as a result, far more entertaining.

  “How did they make it here? The truth!” Don demanded, and I frowned at the sky as clouds appeared where there had only been the light of dawn before.

  “Statement and question!” I interrupted Adam, and stepped in between them. “The shift in the weather is quite interesting. Where only moments ago there was sun, now there are clouds that foreshadow another blizzard. Are you doing this?”

  “It is not me who is doing anything, Ms. Olivier. It is him.” Adam pointed at Don.

  “You made that blizzard hit us last night?” Elijah demanded in rage, “What? Is that another side effect of harnessing your emotions, or whatever you said you could do?”

  “That’s not me. I would know if it were me.” Don replied, but he sounded unsure. He looked to Adam for an explanation.

  “That is the Bachums making that happen, though surely they do not know it. As I have been told, they are unkind to those who harness what you all call ‘powers.’”

  “And what do you call them?” Elijah asked him, his momentary anger replaced
by a slight fear he was not hiding well. He feared Adam’s power and rightly so; even I knew that with a snap of his fingers, Adam could kill us all. The forces of the universe that we called powers and the new, enhanced state of being we called evolution had cradled him for thousands upon thousands of years. He could utilize any of the strange powers we found ourselves now able to wield with expert precision. I knew that he was powerful, gifted with abilities by God or the Gods that we were only just beginning to understand. Yet, I did not fear him. Even when I had first spoken to him and his deep eyes had never left mine, I was unafraid. Or at least, I was mostly unafraid…

  “We call them ‘gifts.’ Someone aligned with the Bachums is very afraid or very angry. They are manipulating the space around them to match what they are feeling. I am unsure whether it is intentional, meant to drive all of you back, or if they do not even realize they are doing it.”

  “Do you know who it is that’s doing it?” Elijah pressed him. “Because they’ll be the first person I go after.”

  “I do not know. But Brynna does.” Adam’s knowing gaze turned to me. I shuddered internally as I looked into the depths of those flawless green eyes…

  “It is our father.” The sound of my own voice and the disgusting feeling of repulsion that filled me up as I spoke of him jerked me from the hypnotic spell Adam’s eyes always put me under.

  “What?” Elijah asked, “Does he know we’re coming?”

  “No.” I answered. “I can feel great anger in him. He knows that he is mutating. He is a freak like his now-bastard children. His thoughts are very loud. However, I assume that we are very close. I can feel others in their camp, fearing the change. It is not accepted. To change over means to die. Am I right in all of this, Adam? Because your face is in their minds as well, so I can guess that you have become familiar with them.”

  Adam chuckled softly, a sound that sent a shiver down my spine that was far more sinister than the cold that surrounded us.

  “You know far too much, Brynna. Your powers stun even me. You have always possessed the ability to hold vast knowledge, to understand all things. Now that you are here, you do. It is a gift I envy. It is the only one I was not given.”

  “If you want to play on both sides of the aisle, Adam, then we will no longer be supplying you with any of the fruits of our labor, literal or otherwise.” The declaration rolled off of my tongue before I had a chance to stop it. It was an expertly formed sentence, full to the brim with emotional force and ringing truth, but it was certainly unwise. Don looked at me, his eyes so wide, I feared they would fall from his head. James and Elijah stood tall behind me, backing up the assertion. Their support aided me in standing firm.

  “Is that so?” Adam took a step towards me.

  James was standing in front of me. Immediately, I moved around him and grasped his hand in a silent, very quick show of gratitude at his will to protect me.

  “They are terrified of you. But they also hate you. We have embraced what has happened to us since we have come here. We have allowed ourselves to become more like your people with no fear, regret, or hesitation. They prosecute those who show signs of changing over. Why would you want to help them?”

  “My dear Brynna,” Adam grinned and looked down at me. He stood so close that his delicious smell filled my nose, hypnotizing me for one seductive moment. I knew that that was part of his evolution, as well; his ability to seduce and hypnotize neutralized threats to him. “If I did not aid them, they would stand no chance. You know that I love the spectacle. Our race was forced from your earth, despite being much older and far superior to your own. Granted, it has played nicely in our favor. Your Earth was destroyed by the insolence of your inferior race. Now, I only wish to watch all of you crawl and fight and grovel for your place here, the way you forced my kind to crawl and fight and grovel. Unfortunately, you all have gained powers. It is almost insulting to know that you are becoming more like us, but alas, I cannot stop it, and I do accept it. I wish to see, once and for all, who will be left standing: our kind or theirs? Though, I am sure you can guess on which side I would place my bets.”

  I had been unaware that Adam’s kind had ever resided on Earth. In not knowing that, I could not have known that they were forced to leave. I still did not support his war order, but I did understand, however minimally.

  “You believe this will be quick. You believe that we will destroy them in one bout, simply by using what we have become. You are wrong, Adam.” The tone of my voice betrayed a genuine sadness at his inability to see clearly. In my mind, I saw that potent cloud of darkness engulfing our lives for many, many years to come. I saw Adam and his city consumed by it, both lying in the ruins of death.

  I backed away a step and grasped James’s arm to steady myself.

  “What is it? What do you see?” Don demanded as he pushed past Elijah to get closer to me.

  “There is no end to this. There is no point in storming the Bachums’ camp. It does not end here today. It is infinite. It is so large, I do not understand it.” I turned and walked away from them all as my heart raced. I had just been gifted with a sight bred from my ability to know and see all things. That particular gift bred vast intelligence but also deep insight. What I had experienced on Earth had been profound and seen scarcely before. What I was experiencing on Pangaea was miles beyond that. I could now see backwards and forwards, though not at will. I could see the deepest recesses of a person’s soul. I could read their thoughts. That moment of understanding that the war was meant to go on was the moment my earthly self fled me, only to be replaced by who I would be for all eternity. I was no longer human in any sense.

  Others would confide in me later their moments of realizing whatever fraction of them was still human had disappeared. Interestingly, it always follows a stunning revelation, though none have matched exactly what I discovered in that horrid sight.

  “Look closer, Brynna!” Adam called after me, “You will be horrified at what you see!”

  His words drove the stake of knowing deeper into my heart; I struggled not to double over. The house was in flames, and Violet and Penny were running, running, running…

  The other natives had been watching, knowing they were not our primary enemy. The death of the boy we had taken from them had been felt by his mother and father. They wanted revenge. They would take from us what we had taken from them… It was they who were aligned with the Bachums, not Adam… Adam merely encouraged them to fight…

  There were no longer two wars raging on Pangaea. There was but one, one that would require the two slowly intermixing races to align on their two different sides, to fight for their place, ideas, and beliefs…

  It was a war that had been fought so many times before, on Earth and Pangaea. The reasons were always the same. My mother had done nothing to provoke what had occurred on Earth. It was always meant to be. Wars were meant to be fought and lost by both sides in every way. There was no victory. There was no end. It was no different on Pangaea than it had been on Earth. That was a truth as old as the sun above our heads and the land beneath our feet. It was a truth that predated the existence of those who would fight and die in the senseless wars…

  I was running, my insides screaming at me to move quickly and without pause. I obeyed; my legs carried me forward even as my lungs threatened to collapse under the strain of frenzied breaths. I could sense James and Elijah running behind me and others just behind them. We had abandoned everything at our makeshift campsite, including Adam. As I realized that great evil had come over our home, so had the others. I had allowed my thoughts to become contagious. They were infected with my terror and knowing; though they did not understand what it was that was driving me, they did not question it.

  Endurance that never ran out was another gift of our kind. We were able to run despite the pain in our chests and legs. We were driven by the Sight…

  The air was thicker, almost impossible to breathe, but we were still miles from the house. In the sky, an ominou
s cloud of black smoke hung evilly and eerily, beckoning us forward while simultaneously provoking an urge to draw back. Don was yelling frantically. For a moment, I caught his mental frequency; he was fearing for those he was responsible for in his heart. It was shocking to find such concern for his people in Don Abba’s mind. It was admirable.

  I was coming up on the runoff that had originally alerted James and me to the presence of the structure inhabited by Don and his people. Water rushed through the ditch with the same violent intensity as the fear in my heart. Before my eyes, the water rose, whooshing past with ominous power. I did not allow myself to fear falling in, despite knowing that if I did, I would surely drown. I leaped over the water and landed gracefully on my feet on the other side. I did not stop to mentally congratulate myself for making it or to marvel at my new powers that allowed me to make such a miraculous jump. I simply kept running, knowing that soon the bodies hanging from the trees would come into view.

  The smell of the rotting corpses should have forced me to stop; I was inhaling the scent, allowing it to fill my nose and mouth with every harsh breath I took. But still, I ran.

  We did this to ourselves, the cynicism inbred so deeply in me scoffed, How could you believe they wouldn’t retaliate when we’ve killed so many of theirs?

  Get to Violet and Penny, my mother’s voice, warm and welcome, spoke over the snidely unsympathetic bitch in me. I nodded in response to her invisible voice, my breaths raspy and my eyes wildly following the stars that danced in their sight.

  I could not run when I reached the house. I could not move at all. I was firmly rooted to the spot in the wet earth, doubled over as I tried to draw in a necessary inhalation only to choke on the thick smoke that had stolen the oxygen right out of the space I was standing in.

  The house was on fire, falling apart at the seams. Our people were running away from it, some screaming, some sobbing, some just wearing expressions of wide-eyed terror.

  “Brynna, they hit us out of nowhere… they’re still here… they’re back there!” Rachel pointed back to the house. I looked at her with eyes that had turned over white. I no longer needed to breathe. I was on the hunt, ready for the vicious, fiery fight. Those men and women for whom I had grown to care no longer had a home. My sisters were among the mass of people somewhere; they were desperately afraid and crying out for me. Yet despite my close proximity, I could not feel their separate energies. They were far from me, farther than I could imagine.

  I walked. The smoke in the air did nothing but sting my eyes, prompting tears to well but never fall. I was breathing not out of necessity but out of rage; I drew heavy, rasping, rapid breaths as I scanned the crowd of people running past me for any who were not ours.

  Finally, when the last of our large number ran past, I saw not only several of the Bachums’ people but also several cave-dwellers.

  Alright, I thought to myself for one brief, motivational moment, It’s on.

  The roar that erupted from my throat sent them staggering backwards, tripping over themselves to run in the opposite direction, as far away from me as they could.

  “They came back! They came back!” A man was shrieking in horror and waving his hands in a manner similar to what one would expect of a lunatic just freed from a straitjacket. “God help us!”

  I caught up to him first, dropping down so I was sliding on my side through the wet grass and slippery dirt. Once I had caught up to him, I spun my body sideways abruptly so my legs met his ankles and he tripped. He fell face-first into the dirt before throwing himself up immediately to crawl quickly across the ground. His scream was oddly similar to the sound of Penny's when she saw a spider.

  Penny!

  I grabbed his soaking wet hair; rain was cascading down from the heavens in an onslaught as violent as my own. After yanking his head backwards with a force that would have snapped his neck had I allowed it, I sunk my fangs deep into his shoulder and crushed the bone in my sharpened teeth. The shriek he let out would have made a better person back off. No good man or woman would be able to tolerate such a sound of agony. I bit harder and pulled backwards to rip part of the bone clean from his body.

  “Where are they?!” I screamed in his ear deafeningly. I noticed a small rock jutting out of the mud; I slammed his head down onto it before pulling him up so his back was against my front. “Where are they?!”

  “Who?! Who?!” He was sobbing now and struggling to free himself from my grasp. I pushed him forward again to hold him face-down in a puddle of thick mud and streaming water. With his face submerged in that puddle, he started gasping for air only to draw in mouthfuls of that dense, saturated earth. As he struggled to breathe, I observed the scene unfolding around me through the thick, almost blinding sheet of rain and smoke; James, Elijah, and the rest of our vigilante crowd were fighting through the stream of bullets that were cutting through the air with no mercy. The sound of gunfire echoed against the trees that surrounded us, intermixing with the screams of the wounded, dying, or under siege. I watched a man with a machine gun run past me, shooting wildly over his shoulder. I pulled the man’s face from the mud as I ducked; after lying all the way on my back while still on my knees, I used his body to shield me. His body jerked back and forth as it was riddled with bullets. I was lucky that none had gone straight through him.

  Several of our people, even those not on security detail, were on the trail of the man with the machine gun.

  I pushed the man off of me and crawled on top of him to find that he was still alive, but barely. His torso was protected by a Kevlar vest, but given that he had no miraculous protective device to shield his neck and head, the bullet that had gone through his throat would surely be the end of him.

  “Where are they?” My nose was almost touching his when I whispered fiercely again. “Where are they?!”

  He was muttering a prayer to himself, making his peace with the Lord for all the evil he had committed in his life. Through the blood and mud that filled his mouth, I heard something about adultery, prostitutes, and that red-headed woman from camp whose name he could not remember. God, why couldn’t he remember? He had hurt her terribly.

  The man was in a great amount of pain. I had been the one to inflict such profound suffering on him. Yet in his heart, I sensed no hatred for me. I sensed only regret; he was sorry that it had come to this. The revelation stunned me; it jerked my heart free from its proper place in my chest cavity and wrung it dry. I pulled away and ran one bloodied hand over my hair, urging myself to keep fighting, urging myself to believe those people were evil hypocrites who deserved to die…

  “Come on Brynna!” I muttered out loud before slamming my hand down in the dirt. I had never had a moment of sympathy for anyone, including and perhaps especially, myself. Now, in battle, I was going to feel for another human being. I was going to question his motives, his very nature as a human being, instead of just killing him outright for what he and his leaders had done to our people and our home. My humanity, for the first time in my life, was getting the better of me. I had not even known that it existed in any remarkable capacity, and in that moment, it was suffocating me.

  “That’s it! Take the rest alive!” Don shouted over the pounding rain, screams of agony, and despairing sobs. I had witnessed the fate of those who were taken alive. A swift exit from our world was an option that, in comparison, was worthy of being begged and bartered for. I turned back to the man who had turned over onto his side; the tears of pain that fell from his eyes scratched at my already raw heart with fingernails sharp enough to draw blood. I shuddered as I knelt beside him. I was soaked through with rain, covered in mud, bleeding from the fight; it was déjà vu all over again. I recalled bitterly the fight with the natives that had led my father to imprison me. I looked around at the others who had resided in our house; they revered our powers and celebrated them as gifts. I did not have to fear being persecuted for no longer being human. If I were from the camp where the man dying before me was from, I would have been kill
ed long ago. I pitied him even more; he had the potential to embrace great power yet was not allowed to. Perhaps was even unwilling to. His devotion to the Bachums and the higher power of which they acted in favor had blinded him to the necessity of the change. It was very, very sad.

  What provoked an even stronger despondency in my heart was that I knew the man would be healed only to be tortured. Several of our number were missing, according to Don’s shouts of rage. The survivors of the opposition would provide us with their whereabouts, whether they wanted to or not. Answers would be retrieved, by any means necessary. It would be excruciating for them both physically and emotionally; as they suffered unthinkable torture, they would also fear for the moment when it ended, for the end of their torment meant their deaths. It was so very cruel. It was so very senseless. I could not bear to see that man in any more pain. The only difference between us was one of opinion; that difference was certainly not worth killing one another over.

  “I’m sorry…” He whispered when his eyes met mine.

  I stared at him, not wanting to speak. I did not want to exchange any words with that man I had almost killed, whom I would see being tortured brutally over the following days.

  “For what?” I said after gathering enough fortitude to speak.

  “For your sisters…”

  I would kill him. I would rip him to pieces if he did not elaborate. I needed to know what he knew. Where were they? What did the Bachums want with them? Why had he spoken of them?

  “Not their fault… don’t deserve it…”

  “Where are they? Where are they?!” I shouted again, and in my rage, I jerked my hand forward to dig my nails into the open wound in his shoulder. He cried out, his entire body tense in response to the great agony. Then, his muscles relaxed, and his face went slack. He collapsed on the ground, dead at my hands.

  “Brynna! Where is Brynna?!”

  Why in the world would Alice be demanding to know my whereabouts? I turned to find her running towards me, gasping with tremendous sobs. I shuddered at the show of emotion despite the situation. How very pitiful it was… Admittedly, the situation was one to bring forth harrowing fear and crushing sadness, but to show the world both through one’s tears was not admirable or useful in any way.

  “I tried to stop them! I tried to get Penny and Violet back from them, but they shot at me!” She screamed as she threw her arms around my neck. I smelled blood seeping from a gaping wound inflicted on her that I had not yet seen.

  “Did they hit you?” I asked in a trembling voice. She nodded and pulled away to show me her arm.

  “I did everything I could! Quinn went after them! He’s not fast because he got hurt but he’s going after them!”

  “Which way?” James and Elijah had appeared behind us; James was the one speaking. “Which way, Alice?!”

  “That way!” Alice pointed behind the house. James and Elijah needed no prodding, nor did I. Alice, despite her injury, was also ready to fight for my sisters. We all took off running, a deadly herd of beasts hell-bent on killing those who had taken ones we loved so dearly.

  We tore through the trees, stopping not when our bodies protested the continued assault of running without pause or even when we realized that we were alone in the forest. We just moved, smelling the air constantly for any trace of my sisters’ scents.

  The only thing that could stop me was the realization that my sisters were gone, taken far from where I could reach. The joined landmass that gave Pangaea its name was endless, larger than three of Earth’s combined land put together. I stopped running, and my knees buckled beneath me. I breathed in and out rapidly, clawing the earth as I drew each shuddering breath.

  “We’re going to find them, Brynna! I promise. I promise you, Brynn. I promise!” Elijah was saying to me, though I knew that he scarcely believed his own words. I threw my arms around his neck, my eyes wide in that potent terror that made breathing almost impossible.

  “Oh, God,” I gasped out, “Oh, my God… oh God, oh God…”

  There were no other words to convey the storm of feeling in my heart; regret, guilt, fear, sadness… I should have been there. I should not have left them alone. I should have seen it coming. Where were they? Were they going to be hurt? Were they going to live past the next day? On Earth, when someone was abducted, police and federal investigators gave the person a twenty-four hour window to be found before they could be almost sure that the worst had happened. In a day, would my sisters no longer exist?

  Elijah lifted me into his arms and turned to carry me back to the house. I was petrified, frozen to him as the terror thrashed my heart from side to side, throwing it against the walls of my chest until it laid dormant, indefensible. I squeezed my eyes shut and realized that my entire body was trembling.

  “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay, Brynn.” Alice’s voice, her hands rubbing one of my arms that were wrapped around Elijah’s neck…

  Once we were back at the house, Elijah handed me to James.

  “Eli!” I called after him, my voice cracking in the threat of tears. He turned back to me and put one of his hands on my face. “Stay with me!”

  I was begging him shamelessly, needing him to stay close, where I could see him. Only seeing him would assure me that he was alright. Our sisters were gone, taken from us. I could not lose my brother, too. Together, we would find them. Together, we would make everything alright. I could not bear the emotional burden of fearing for my sisters’ lives without my brother.

  “Watch her for me.” Elijah looked up at James, speaking with a softness in his voice, showing clearly a grateful resignation of his anger. He was ready to accept him. He was tired of hating him, of worrying that he was preying on me. James had proven himself to Elijah, and as a result, had won his approval. I should have been relieved.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got her.” James replied, and Elijah nodded, thankful for him being there to protect me. James was another set of eyes to watch over me, another body to keep me safe. He loved me, Elijah knew now.

  I must have whimpered, because James sat down on the cold ground so he could look me over. My wounds were internal, entirely emotional… They would not kill me, at least not quickly. I rolled out of his arms and knelt on the ground, bent over so my arms were rested on the sopping wet earth. I rocked back and forth with my head hung. The sound I was making did not precede tears, though it certainly sounded like a torrent of them were ready to cascade down my face.

  My Penny… my beautiful, precious, innocent Penny… I had raised that little girl. I had loved her when our mother and father had deemed her insignificant, when Maura turned away. I had done my best, at such a young age, to make sure she grew up happily, free from the same fear and resentment that plagued me.

  Violet had suffered the brunt of my frigidity. I had loved her when she needed me to, only to cruelly pull away when I decided she was old enough to fend for herself. I owed her a thousand useless apologies. I owed her warmth every day for all eternity to make up for my coldness.

  I would never get the chance because someone, for whatever reason, had decided that I could no longer have them. I was angry at the Bachums, at the cave-dwellers, at Adam, at myself, at God… I was furious at God. Why did my sisters have to be pawns in that ridiculous game of tug-of-war? Why should they suffer for Adam’s cruel entertainment? They had nothing to do with the war. I was the soldier fighting. They were merely innocent bystanders. But weren’t the innocents always the ones to suffer? The guilty always walked free. In terms of conflict both domestic and foreign, the innocent civilians were always the ones to be maimed or worse. The true threat, the one who pulled the strings and ordered for the violence to occur, never showed his or her face long enough to be hurt.

  It was always the innocents.

  My whimpering choked off suddenly to be replaced by a mighty scream that sent the huge blackbirds flying from their nests in the surrounding forest. Somewhere in the distance, a large cat roared, frightening
the smaller wildlife even more severely. When my scream abruptly stopped, I drew another shuddering breath only so I could scream again.

  “That’s it. That’s it.” Alice was encouraging me softly. I could feel her hand rubbing my back. “Let it out.”

  Normally, I would tell her to leave me alone, invoking a certain obscene slang term for the act of engaging in intercourse followed by the word “off.” Instead, I only screamed again, my hand squeezing hers in a tight grip. It was as though my grasp on her was the only thing keeping me from plummeting into a dark, endless ravine. My head was still hanging forward, my mud and rain-soaked hair covering my face. James’s hand was running down the back of my hair as he sat in front of me; I leaned forward and rested the top of my head against his chest. I felt Quinn’s hands on my back, too; he had found his way out of the woods and returned to us.

  The terror that tagged along closely with uncertainty was driving me further and further to the edge. If they had not been there with me, urging me to exorcise those ragged, inflamed feelings from my heart, I would have fallen into insanity, most certainly.

  There was one fear stronger than the fear of death, I discovered. For some, the idea of dying was enough to bring them to their knees. To leave this realm meant to enter another we knew nothing of; the fear of the unknown had always been the anxiety-provoking element in humans’ thoughts of death.

  But losing those who one loves is an idea that provokes a stronger fear, by far. I loved Violet and Penny so much, I felt my heart splitting, quite literally, at the thought of losing them. Screaming did nothing to bring them back to me. But when one is terrified, one screams. Through the mist that was left after the worst of my fear had been thrust forcefully (and deafeningly) from my body by shouting, there was but one action, clearer than a Pangaean morning.

  “We are going after them.”

  “Yeah. We are, Brynn. We’ll find them. I promise, we will.” Alice assured me gently.

  “No,” I shook my head back and forth, and looked up at all of them, “It was the Bachums who took them. They’ll take them to wherever they are living. We were so close. They knew we were coming to hit them, so they hit us first. We need to go back!”

  “You want to go back north?” Quinn asked me.

  “Yes! That is where they are headed. I know it is. I am going after them. I will kill anyone who gets in my way. I will go in there and kill every last one of their people if it means that I will get Violet and Penny back. None of you had better tell me that I am exaggerating, or that I am foolish to think that we can actually beat them because…”

  “I’m going with you.” James interrupted me, “You know I’m with you, baby.”

  “I’m in.” Quinn agreed, nodding.

  “Me too.” Alice chimed in, “When do we leave?”

  “Right now.” I stood up and turned to see Elijah hurrying back to us. “I know you’re in, too, so let’s go.”

  “To the Bachums’ camp?” Elijah asked.

  “No, to the moon, Eli!” I exclaimed in aggravation as I threw my hands up in the air and rolled my eyes.

  “Okay, chill out! James, walk with me.”

  I watched as he led James away from our group, my brows furrowed.

  “One minute he hates him, the next he wants to bond. There is no time for this!”

  “You are correct, Brynna. There is very little time for this. In fact, the longer you wait, the more distance those animals put between you and your sisters.”

  I turned to see Adam standing behind me, having appeared from nowhere as he always did.

  “Do you have any idea how unwelcome the sight of your face is?” I snarled at him, “If you had not started this, they would still be here! You put them in danger!” I closed the space between us and craned my neck painfully to glare up at him, “If they die, Adam, you have my word that I will kill you! You may think that you are invincible and that some lowly Earthean could not kill you even when utilizing her best effort, but you are wrong! If they are taken from me, I will end you. Do you understand me?!”

  “Brynna,” Alice breathed, “I don’t think you should…”

  “Understood.” Adam smiled at me dangerously before placing both of his smooth hands on my face. “You have great fire in your heart, Ms. Olivier. I admire that.”

  “Do not touch me!” I shook him off and took a step back.

  “But alas, while there is fire, there is also great fear.” His smile widened, and his eyes glinted with malignant madness, “That fear generally yields distrust, which has always proved useful to you. Why do you shun it now?”

  “Do not even try to play your Machiavellian mind games with me, Adam. I have always possessed intelligence far above what others are capable of achieving in their wildest dreams. You will never win.”

  “I am not playing a game with you, Brynna. In fact, what I speak of is very serious. Your fear of men has always kept you safe. Now, you trust a man with secrets far more terrible than even he cares to realize.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. He had my interest now. James turned and hurried back to us after hearing that snippet of our conversation.

  “What are you putting in her head now, Adam?” James demanded furiously. Upon viewing Adam's face, his eyes turned over red.

  “I am simply warning her to be wary of you. I believe that is only fair, given that she has allowed herself to be blinded by her love for you. What she feels for you is vast and uncompromising, bred from inexperience and that blind eye of which I speak. It saddens me to see such naivety in one so brilliant.”

  “He says that you have secrets, James. Is there anything you wish to tell me?”

  James looked between the two of us, scowling in rage.

  “I want you to stay away from her, do you understand me?” He barked forcefully as he pointed at Adam. “She doesn’t need to hear your lies. What’s happening is your fault. If you hadn’t insisted on this war, Penny and Violet would still be with us. If you had just let us live here peacefully, none of this would be happening!”

  “And you are so familiar with living peacefully, are you not?” Adam asked before turning away. “Open your eyes, Ms. Olivier. Close your heart. Do it now before it is too late to rectify the consequences of your trust.”

  He disappeared among the crowd of our people. Don was leading the charge in our direction, fury on his face.

  “Are you ready to go back north?” Don called to us.

  “Definitely.” Quinn answered, “We’re all in. When are we leaving?”

  “Right now.” Don answered, “We have a few more guns now, which should close the gap between us and them a little bit. Here,” Don handed me a small handgun. I checked to make sure it was loaded before flipping the safety on. I stuck the gun in the back of my jeans, feeling like an action movie heroine ready for an epic shootout with a sadistic villain. I forced Adam’s comments from my mind for the time being. Adam urging me to distrust James for an ambiguous reason was not important; I had to find Penny and Violet first, and then I would give James the third degree, as they say.

  “Wait a minute.” Bennie said as she stepped to the front of the group. “Some of us need to stay behind. Not all of us can make the trip, Don.”

  She was right; we had elderly people and children who would not survive the harsh climate of the mountains. I looked around at them all, seeing genuine panic in their eyes. When the house had been standing, our way of life thriving inside its walls, everyone had a purpose. Everyone did their part by contributing something, even if it was just folding clean clothes or washing the fruits and vegetables harvested from the earth. Don insisted that everyone contribute their fair share willingly, and he was right. We understood that one weak link in the chain meant collapse. Those fearful individuals I was observing were going to be deemed weak by Don; though they could help achieve our goal of survival when the house was up and running, they surely could not help us fight the Bachums.

  “Well, that’s not my co
ncern right now. They came up on us and attacked those of you who couldn’t fight. They burned our house down. They destroyed everything we’ve fought so hard to build. So right now, my concern is going up there and taking back what’s ours. They took our people! God only knows what is going to happen to them! I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: they hate our kind!”

  “But what are we supposed to do?” An elderly woman asked feebly as she clutched a small child in her arms. I almost covered my mouth as the urge to sob openly tightened me in its grip.

  “You’re going to have to stay here. Just wait for us to get back.”

  “But what if they get back before you do?” Bennie demanded, “We can’t afford to lose anyone else!”

  “Listen,” Don held up his hands as though preaching a sermon. “We have survived thus far by simply adhering to my belief that everyone can contribute. Now, we don’t have that life we built anymore. We have a new purpose: We need to destroy the Bachums. They are a constant threat. They are more dangerous than I ever could have imagined. Now, it’s unfortunate, but those who can’t fight cannot be our top priority right now. All of you,” He indicated those who would not be joining us on our trek or in the battle that followed, “You all know that you can’t contribute equally anymore. Not in this new purpose.”

  Ah, everything I suspected he was thinking was actually being said. At least he was honest...

  “So, you’re just going to leave us here to die?” An older man asked.

  “Not to die, of course not! You’re just going to have to…”

  “We will find a new place to take shelter. We will leave a few behind to protect all of you. The fire is out, so we will go in and try to find whatever remains of the food supply. In the meantime, all of this rainwater is good for drinking, so we need to find containers for it.” I looked around to find everyone staring at me, shocked that I would openly contradict Don’s orders. He was our leader who had led us to safety and prolonged our lives by running a smooth operation in his house. Through his idea that all of us had to work and contribute, we had thrived. He had angered them by taking more than a fair share to give to Adam but even in their displeasure, they understood the necessity of appeasing the man who made Don’s vision possible in the first place. Their loyalty to Don ran deep, and I was trampling on it mercilessly with orders of my own.

  However, as is always the case when a leader issues an unpopular order, people jump ships quickly and without a second thought. Everyone immediately set to work, doing the things that I had said. I was momentarily surprised. Then, I mentally patted myself on the back for understanding what those people truly needed far more coherently than Don did. I had towed the line when Don had taken from the joint food supply, but his suggestion that we leave those he considered weak behind to die was unacceptable and reminiscent of another man I had known. Just when I had begun to believe that Don was the leader my father never could have been, I realized that they were one in the same.

  I walked over to Rachel and Bennie, who were brainstorming ideas on where to set up a new shelter.

  “Ladies, I need you to make sure that everything I just ordered gets done.” I handed them the gun Don had given me.

  “Wait, where are you going?” Rachel grasped my arm as I went to turn away.

  “Why do we need a gun?”

  “Because Don is very angry that I have overridden his order and more than likely will not follow mine. If he needs a little prodding,” I touched a spot on my arm, “Right here is a flesh wound. After that, threaten to shoot him right between the eyes.”

  “Consider it done.” Bennie clapped me on the shoulder.

  “Most of these people are on our side, but several of them believe that Don is right, and these people need to be left behind. You all know who you can trust.”

  They both nodded.

  “When we get back, we will need a way to find all of you again.”

  “I’ll leave a note in the sycamore tree, in that squirrel hole at the base.” Rachel told me, “You know the one, right at the end of the runoff going south?”

  “I do. Stay away from the campsite and the city. There is a cave about ten miles back in that direction.” I pointed, “Unless you wish to be confronted by Adam’s enemies and made a human sacrifice, do not go inside of it. On the subject of Adam, do not trust him. If he offers you shelter, take it, but do not close your eyes for a second. Just lay low for a couple of days until we get back, and then we will find another place. Did you two get all of that?”

  “Yeah,” Bennie nodded, “Damn, girl, you’re going to be taking over from Don before you know it.”

  I chuckled softly, tickled by the compliment. I was surprised by how happy that acknowledgment of my rebellion and leadership skills thrilled me. I turned to walk away, a scowl replacing the smile on my face at the sight of Don glaring at me. His thoughts screamed his desire to rip my throat out with his fangs. No one would take his power from him. He had built our lives from the ground up. He had welcomed my family and me into the house he ran. My nerve astounded and infuriated him simultaneously. I could not help but grin and raise my eyebrows at him in a silent taunt. See, Don? They do like me more.

  “Are you all ready?” I asked James, Alice, Quinn, and Elijah.

  “Ready.” Alice answered. The rest nodded.

  “What were you two talking about?” I demanded of Elijah and James. Elijah looked at me, his wide eyes betraying that a secret was being kept. James had a magnificent poker face, but his lack of expression was enough of a hint.

  “Well, we might as well tell her now!” Elijah told James as I walked ahead of them.

  “Tell me what, Eli?” I looked over my shoulder at them as we walked.

  “Leave it alone, Eli. Just let it go.” James ordered.

  “But she’s just going to read my…”

  I turned around to walk backwards and squinted my eyes at him. The whole conversation between him and James repeated clearly and without pause. Elijah’s mind was ripe for reading, because the photographic content of his memories did not just apply to images but also to entire experiences.

  “Adam says that the other natives have had people in our camp.”

  “Adam said that? And you believe him?”

  “Why would he lie about that, James?”

  “Why wouldn’t he lie about that, Eli? He’s stirring the pot. He’s trying to turn us against each other. He’s the puppeteer in this, isn’t he?”

  “I believe him. I mean, there are so many of us, and it’s not like we had a ship manifest. We’ll never know who they are. But here’s where it gets worse: he says that the other natives believe that we somehow stole their powers. They don’t have them anymore. They’re pissed off that we do.”

  “How in the world could we have stolen their powers?”

  “I know, right? I mean, we were on Earth, for God’s sake! But that’s why they tried to sacrifice Penny. They were trying to steal back their powers while also appeasing their God. Adam says that’s why they’re exiled in the woods. His people don’t believe in all of that over-the-top religious stuff. That’s kind of what he said. I missed that part of it.”

  “Adam is just freely sharing this information now? I definitely don’t believe it. What does he have to gain from suddenly letting us into the loop? Besides messing with our heads and making us distrust each other, which both of those consequences, I’ll have you know, are very effective in war. Don’t buy into his bullshit, Elijah. You’re smarter than that.”

  “I do buy into it! It’s not bullshit, James. It all makes sense. They’re aligned with the Bachums because the Bachums are over-the-top and crazy!”

  “The Bachums also hate anyone with powers. Why would they help these other people gain back the powers they claim are from Satan? Come on, man. Use your head! You’re starting to make me believe that Brynna got all the brains in the family.”

  “James, don’t try to tell me that it doesn’t make sense. Listen… Whet
her it’s true or isn’t true is irrelevant right now. For the time being, we need to keep this from Brynn. If she has a reason to put to what they’ve done, she’s going to freak out.”

  “I sincerely doubt that. She trusts Adam to the death, right?”

  “Very funny. James, this isn’t good.”

  “I know.”

  “We just need to keep it from her. For her sake, we need to lie.”

  “You were the one who said we shouldn’t tell her, Eli. Now you’re going to…” James stopped talking when he saw me bend over. I had suddenly been afflicted with a harsh inability to breathe. I wanted to prove Elijah wrong by having no discernible reaction to what I had just learned, but he had been right; knowing now why the other natives hated us so much was enough to bring me to my knees. Knowing the reasoning behind their attempt to sacrifice Penny was a terrifying revelation; it revealed to me their intentions.

  “It’s alright.” James was holding me and kissing the top of my head. “Let’s go, baby. Come on. We’ll go after them right now.” He looked back at Elijah, “So, you were right. I’m a big enough man to admit it.”

  “It’s cool.” Elijah had his hands on my back.

  I broke away from both of them and continued trekking towards the forest, knowing that Elijah, James, Alice, and Quinn would follow in my wake. I was running through all the terrible things I wanted to do to those responsible for the abduction of my sisters when one of those guilty individuals strode right in front of me to block my path.

  “Where do you think you’re going? Also, what do you think you’re doing?!” Don demanded savagely. I shook my head slightly and moved sideways so I could walk around him, but he was adamant on stopping me. He reached out and grabbed the tops of my arms with both hands hard. I would have winced had the fury that exploded in my heart not shielded me from pain.

  “Get off of me!” I barked at him furiously, and my long fangs emerged suddenly. I lunged forward and opened my mouth, ready to rip his throat out when a sudden pain in my chest brought me to the ground.

  “Yeah. That hurts, doesn’t it?” He asked with his face close to mine. I was kneeling in front of him, still trying to shake off his hard grasp even as the pain intensified. “I just amplified everything you're feeling. You think you’re going to take what’s mine? You think you’re going to rule these people? You’ve done nothing for them since you’ve been here. You’ve done nothing for anyone your entire life! I’ll kill you, Brynna. I will kill you before I ever see you taking over from me. I built this place from the ground up! I have given them everything!”

  “Yes, just so you could take everything back!” I screamed at him.

  I had not realized how much space I had put between myself and James, Elijah, Alice, and Quinn. The gap was closed in seconds by my enraged boyfriend, whose eyes were darker than blood upon finding me being accosted so aggressively. His hand grabbed Don’s wrist in an excruciatingly tight hold; Don was now the one falling to his knees.

  “If you ever…” James tightened his grip even more, “…lay your hands…” Don’s wrist snapped in two. He cried out in pain, and I grimaced and shuddered, simultaneously disgusted and entertained. “…on her again…” James tightened his hand around Don’s other wrist.

  “Stop! Stop!”

  James took a handful of his hair and pulled him back so he was looking at me.

  “Apologize.”

  “What?!”

  “Apologize. Generally that action involves speaking and the word 'sorry.’ I know that you think you make the laws around here, but you don’t. Right now, you’re going to follow mine. Apologize to her.”

  “I will not apologize to her when she is the one…”

  James squeezed his wrist harder. I watched as Don’s face contorted into an expression of both agony and terror at being forced to withstand even more pain.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He cried out.

  “Look at her. You look at her when you say it, you son of a bitch!”

  “James…” I stood up, walked forward, and placed both of my hands on his face. “Thank you. That will do.”

  “Okay.”

  James released him instantly, but continued to glare down at him as he curled up on the ground and grasped his wrist. James pointed at him over my shoulder, gritting his teeth in an urge to suppress his violent inclination to rip that little man apart.

  “Look at the big man. Look at the big leader now. You’re such a big man that you need to rough up a woman to make your point.” James spat at him, trembling with the fury so clearly evident in his eyes. “I am astounded that you would be so stupid, doing that right in front of me.”

  “Come on.” I whispered to him before standing on my toes to kiss his cheek twice. “Come on, baby.”

  My voice was the beast’s sedation. When James’s eyes met mine, they were that deep brown that glowed in the dying sun. I kissed his lips for one long, glorious moment that calmed him further. But when his eyes saw Don trying to maneuver his way onto his feet, the rage erupted once again. He stormed forward, almost unrecognizable in his anger, but I grasped his face and kissed him again.

  “I love you,” I whispered to him, and his hands pulled me closer to him gently. He kissed me again with even more frenzied heat than I had used to kiss him.

  As we walked away, I heard Don give another shout of pain. I turned back to see that both Quinn and Elijah had kicked him, one right after the other, in the ribs.

  “We are going to pay dearly for that.” I told James dismally.

  The feeling of foreboding that had failed to warn me of the danger Penny and Violet were in dragged its claw-like fingernails through my chest. I could feel Don trying to channel his rage and bring us to our knees. His grasp on the powers with which he had been bestowed would only make his eradication of us that much easier. I shuddered to think what would happen when we returned. My sweating hands held one of James’s.

  “Hey,” His finger trailed lightly along my jawline. I turned my head to look at him. “No worries. Not one, you got it?”

  I nodded, the trace of a smile on my lips upon being filled with that glorious warmth that accompanied the sight of him. His kiss expanded that warmth inside of me; I could feel it strongly from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I wished I could stay forever submerged in that warmth; I would swim in it until the world no longer existed.

  But Violet and Penny were in need of rescue, and I would not lose them to anyone, least of all the Bachums and the natives who had aligned with them. Or had the Bachums aligned with the natives? It was an impossibility, at least at the current time, to decipher which pack ruled the tribe.

  It was unclear because at the time, it was irrelevant. What mattered was the fight ahead of us. The population of our house had been quite large, hovering in the middle hundreds. But in the northern part of Pangaea, the Bachums possessed an army that would make Genghis Khan positively green with envy. Their number doubled or perhaps even tripled ours. Yet there we were, five people facing over three thousand.

  I was undaunted. I was unafraid to die if it meant the safety and prolonged life of my sisters. I had wronged both of them in so many ways; I had deprived Violet of my love after she had reached a certain age, and Penny had been born only to rectify my deadly mistake. No act would ever truly make up for what I had put them through. Nothing I did could ever erase the pain I had inflicted upon them.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” Elijah told me softly after we had hopped the canal and begun our trek through the shadowed forest.

  “I sincerely doubt that.”

  I avoided his eyes as I spoke strictly out of guilt. I was responsible for what had happened to our sisters. If the worst happened, their blood would be on my hands. If we lost them, I wanted him to blame me. I wanted to feel every last bit of his hatred and resentment. My foolishness and naivety already warranted public and private scorn. I wanted no one’s sympathy, for I did not deserve it.

  “Tell
me it’s my fault. Is that what you are thinking?” I whispered to him so James, Alice, and Quinn could not hear.

  “No. See, you told me you didn’t think I could know what you’re thinking, but I was right. You’re blaming yourself for this. Brynn, it’s not your…”

  I closed my eyes, shook my head slightly, and held my hand up to stop him.

  “I am supposed to know these things. I allowed my blood-lust to lead me away from them when given the current climate, I should have stayed right by their sides where I could protect and watch over them. I do not want to imagine, even vaguely, what might happen to them. I only want to get them back. But there is one other issue that I must resolve, and it involves you. I need to know if you blame me for this.”

  “Well, I don’t.” He told me instantly, “I don’t, Brynn. Does that help you or hurt you, to know that I don’t blame you?”

  “Neither. It is just something else to know.” I watched as James, Alice, and Quinn walked ahead of us. “I will never say a negative word about those two again. Alice suffered a gunshot wound because she refused to allow Penny and Violet to be taken. Quinn immediately ran after them, suffering injuries in his pursuit. They have earned my respect.”

  Elijah nodded and looked at me.

  “And I’ll never say a negative word about James again. He has earned my approval.”

  I smiled, surprised to find how happy Elijah’s approval made me. I discovered that while I had been saying frequently that I did not care what my brother or anyone else thought of mine and James’s relationship, Elijah’s opinion did matter greatly to me. I had always operated by the laws and morals of my heart and mind, never stopping to wonder what anyone thought. Now, I was seeing that those I held dearest to me, meaning Elijah, Penny, and Violet, would hold sway over my actions. They were all I had, after all.

  “What made you change your mind, if I might ask?” I asked him.

  “A lot of things. He cares about you. He protects you without thinking about his own safety. He respects you. He can deal with your insanity and send it right back at you. Plus, you told him something you never told me, which must mean you trust him. Brynna,” He looked at me with eyes begging for an answer he assumed I would not give, “Why didn’t you tell me about what happened?”

  I wanted to shut off. An icy glare and a hurried walk forward would affirm his suspicions that I would never disclose the details of what had happened to me. But my brother deserved to know the truth after so many years of lies.

  “I did not tell you because I hated the way people looked at me after they knew. I hated seeing their pity. Sometimes, I swear to you, I saw very slight disgust. I know now that those people must have thought that I had in some way allowed it to happen. Perhaps they even believed that I had asked. Whatever the reason and whatever the emotion behind the look, I did not like it.”

  He stared at me for a long while, clearly fighting tears.

  “I also did not want you or Violet to ever carry that burden, even minimally. I did not want you two to wonder how you could ever have loved such an evil man.”

  “How could I, Brynn?! How could I not have…”

  “You were very young. On the surface, Michael was very kind. He had been present in our lives from the moment we entered that world. We all trusted him and loved him like family. It just turns out that we were all wrong.”

  “Did he ever say why?”

  It was a child’s question posed to me by my twenty-four year old brother. Normally, I scoffed at such displays of foolish childishness. But with Elijah, I understood; his inner goodness was as pure as a child’s and thus, he was blinded to the true nature of people like Michael. I felt as though answering honestly would crush his refreshing ignorance the way a boot crushes a newly bloomed flower. Tears welled in my eyes, forcing me to look away.

  “Sometimes, there is no reason for such depravity. Just know, Eli, that I am alright now. For years, I hated everyone except for you, Violet, and Penny. I know it must have seemed like I hated you, too, but I did not. After what happened to Lucien, I did not want to cause you or Violet any more pain.”

  “But that wasn’t your fault, either! How could they have said that was your fault? You weren’t sleeping!”

  “I might as well have been sleeping. I just...” I rubbed my forehead with the tips of my fingers for a moment, wondering how best to continue, “I had such a firm grasp on everything around me all the time. I was always so alert that the slightest sound could make me jump up out of my skin. I would lapse into those fits and lose track of everything but still, my mind never relaxed. I just wallowed in the worst of it, trying to make sense of it all. Lucien paid the price for my ignorance.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault! You were sick, Brynna. They shouldn’t have left you alone with him! And Dad was calling you a liar! I remember that! Mom believed you, but Dad didn’t! And then Mom turned on you after Lucien, and that’s so horrible, Brynn. Dad, Maura, and Mom were cruel. They deserve everything they get for what they did to you!”

  “See, that is what I was afraid of.” I stopped him from walking and grasped his hand. “I told Violet this, and I will tell you as well: Do not change your feelings towards them on my behalf. Do not allow yourself to hate those you have loved your whole life simply because they were cruel to me. It is not…”

  “Don’t even try to tell me it’s not worth it, Brynna. It is worth it! They told you they wished it had been you. They told you they hated you. Mom kicked you out the day you turned eighteen. Maura used to get drunk and tell you to kill yourself, for God’s sake! And I was too stupid to ask questions! I ran off to college and left you to deal with all of that by yourself! I left you to raise Violet and Penny by yourself. And worst of all, I didn’t stop that sick piece of shit from touching you!”

  “Stop.” I whispered to him as tears ran down his cheeks. I put both of my hands on his face and wiped them away. “Eli, you were eleven years old. You could not have known.”

  “I would have killed him. I should have killed Dad, too. I will, for every time he hit you and for every time he told you he wished you were dead.”

  “No. I have made my peace with all of this, Eli. We are here on Pangaea. We have a chance to start over. Once we get Penny and Violet back, we will start everything over. We will disappear into the woods with like-minded people and live out eternity just trying to have the best life we can. That will make up for all horrible things that happened on Earth.”

  He nodded, wiping at his eyes furiously, so ashamed of himself for crying.

  “I’m going to lose my man-card right now.” He told me, and I chuckled softly.

  “No. A little emotion is allowed under the stressful circumstances. Even tough men are allowed a few tears. If even I am saying that feelings and tears are warranted, then it must be true, right?”

  “Do you love James?” He asked me. Upon seeing the look of surprise on my face at the random question, he elaborated. “You just deserve to be happy after everything. Is it serious with him? Do you think you two will be together for a long time? Do you love him?”

  I looked ahead of us, observing James as he walked. That man had come along from nowhere and saved my life not just once. He had tolerated my personal slights and the intricate difficulties of my personality and past. He was quick to make me laugh or to comfort me when my anxieties grew too large to handle alone. In fact, he did not allow me to handle anything alone, no matter how much I insisted or insulted. After all of that became evident, I had wanted our friendship to progress into something more, and it had, beautifully and rapidly. I could not live a day without him. The love I had in my heart for him brought tears to my eyes and that tiny smile to my lips. Knowing that those wonderful feelings were mutual was enough to take my breath away.

  “Yes,” I answered Elijah, “To all of the above.”

  Elijah nodded and smiled, too.

  “Good.”

  Quinn

  It was not smoke or shouts that had aler
ted us to the presence of the Bachums. It was a full-fledged inferno. I had been out chopping wood with Eric and Teresa, a married couple from Maine. We had been joking about Don’s crazy eyes, a subject that brought much laughter to many in the house. We respected Don tremendously for what he had done for us, but some things are too funny to ignore.

  “Especially when he starts getting overexcited. Man, I sometimes think they’re going to fall right out of his head.” Eric told us.

  “Do it again. Do the thing again.” Teresa urged him through her hysterical laughter.

  Eric widened his eyes so that the whites glowed in the twilight. He pulled a sadistic, all-tooth grin and began to chop wood quickly and with gusto. Teresa and I fell over ourselves, cracking up at the impression.

  “Does this make you uncomfortable?!” Eric bellowed as he continued chopping the wood in fury.

  We only laughed harder.

  “Better resume our work before he gets back. Just think, guys, we’re going to be completely safe pretty soon. The other side will be gone. We’ll have won. It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?” Teresa asked with a dreamy smile.

  “I don’t know if it’s going to be that easy.”

  “Are you kidding? We’re tougher and stronger than they are. We’ve allowed ourselves to change over, and they’re too afraid to do the same. They think the powers are evil. God, people like that annoy me.” Teresa shook her head.

  “Whatever. We don’t have to worry about them anymore. I think Brynna said something about bringing back a lot of their people. We could use more people around here, what with all the work. She doesn’t think that all of them are as devoted to the cause as the Bachums are.” Eric said, “She’s a good kid.”

  “She’s a little crazy, but she’s definitely grown on me. I couldn’t stand the bitchiness before but now, it’s actually kind of funny.” Teresa told us, “She really gives Don a hard time. Don’t get me wrong, I like Don. But he’s a little intense. She calls his attention to how crazy he is sometimes. Like, I guarantee you that she was the one who told him the amount we had to contribute needs to be less.”

  “Knowing Brynna the way I do, I can tell you that she was definitely the force behind Don’s change of heart. She doesn’t take that stuff lying down.” I chimed in as I threw two pieces of wood into the wheelbarrow.

  “Hard to believe she’s Daniel Olivier’s kid, considering how nuts he was. We would all be dead if we had stayed. We’re just fortunate enough to have chosen the side that doesn’t tell us when we’re allowed to eat, drink, or take a…”

  Eric turned around, his eyes wide. He wasn't pulling another dead-on impression of Don; there was a rustling in the trees that had nothing to do with the evening wind. Frenzied movements were breaking sticks on the ground and rustling the dirt and pine needles that covered the forest floor. Humans were approaching our camp.

  I smelled the air, trying to discern a familiar scent. If any of the people had crossed my path in the campsite, I would remember their smell. We needed to know if we were dealing with humans or natives. My nose told me that we were dealing with both, but also that there was a fire burning close by.

  I whipped around, being assailed instantly by a thick cloud of black smoke. My stinging eyes could see through it vaguely, but the blazing fire consuming our home was bright enough that I didn't need to ask questions. Eric and I, both clutching our axes, turned to run for the house.

  “Stay here.” I heard Eric tell Teresa behind me.

  That was the last I saw of them.

  I ran into the house through the backdoor, shouting for Alice, Penny, and Violet. I choked on the smoke that had filled the space. When a beam crashed beside me, I jumped sideways and rolled away, just narrowly avoiding being crushed. In my quick dodge, I hadn’t realized that I was rolling right towards the fire. Even after I knew that I was safe, I didn’t realize I was burning. Only when I felt the pain did my reflexes kick in, telling me to move. I ran out of the kitchen towards the stairs.

  “Quinn! Quinn!” Alice was screaming.

  “Alice! Where are you?!”

  “At the front door!”

  I couldn’t go forward because the roof had collapsed; as a result, the many floors of the house had fallen in on each other and were blocking my way. I tried to go back into the kitchen to use the back door again, but an almighty rumble above my head stopped me in my tracks. I stumbled backwards when another beam fell just in front of me, blocking my entrance into the kitchen. I swore loudly as I jumped up out of the rubble that I had been blown into by the force of the beam hitting the ground. I jumped up and down, trying to swat the embers out of my clothes before they caught fire. Sweat poured from me, and tears pooled in my eyes; the smoke was thick, and the fire was strong.

  “QUINN!” Alice screamed.

  “You have to jump over it!” I heard Violet shouting.

  “What?!” I exclaimed, noting that the pile of rubble between myself and them was at least ten feet high.

  “It’s going to hurt, but it’s the only way!” Violet continued loudly and urgently, “Trust me, you’ll make it!”

  “Oh, man…” I muttered to myself as I looked up at the towering wall of burning debris just in front of me.

  I backed up so my back was almost touching the burning beam that was blocking the kitchen door. I looked up at the ceiling and pressed my hands together. “Lord, if you’re up there,” I stopped and rolled my eyes, “Never mind.”

  My legs carried me forward at that inhuman speed I was becoming used to. My body acted by its own accord; my hands pulled me up, ignoring the painful burning of my skin making contact with the fire. I ran so quickly up the mountain of splintered, burning wood that even when parts slid under my shoes, I was still able to keep moving. Once at the top, I turned sideways and heaved all the force in my body forward so I slid quickly without stopping. Fresh air was intermingling with the coarse smoke, tempting me to run faster towards the open door. Alice, Penny, and Violet were there, encouraging me to run faster.

  And I did run faster.

  Breaking into the fresh evening air was perhaps as joyous as witnessing a new life being born into the world. I collapsed onto the wet grass, turned onto my back, and gazed into the purple sky darkened by the smoke. I breathed amazingly clear breaths; the smell of the grass and the pure Pangaean air had never been more blissful.

  Penny threw herself onto my chest and wrapped her small arms around me. Immediately, she was squeezing the deliciously crisp air back out of my lungs. I laughed with the air that remained.

  “You did it, Quinn! You were like Spider-Man! You ran so fast, and you jumped so high!”

  “Thanks, Penn.” I was squeezing her back.

  “Pretty impressive, baby. Good job.” Alice said after leaning down to kiss me.

  Violet pounded my fist when I reached it out to her, but her eyes stayed locked on our burning house. I sat up, pulling Penny and Alice with me. The foundation collapsed. The roof caved in completely. The walls crumbled. The place we had grown to love as our home was gone. Violet ran her fingers through her hair before scooping Penny up.

  “Come on. We need to hide before they find…”

  The native that tackled her knocked all the air from her body. They tumbled end over end across the grass. Violet was sprawled out on her stomach, trying to gather her strength and wind. Penny was sobbing in pain after smacking her head hard on the ground. The native had landed gracefully on all fours and was charging them both again.

  “NO!” Alice screamed. None other than Rich Bachum was storming towards us, pointing a gun and firing with a steady hand.

  “Run!” I shouted after them, but Alice had already charged him. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his middle and threw her full weight against him. He fell to the ground and reached for the gun that had flown to his left.

  “Penny! Violet! Run!” I shouted deafeningly to them.

  I went storming towards the native who had attacked them. Viole
t hesitated for a minute too long, wondering if she should stay and help us fight. Her personality was structured very similar to how Brynna’s was built; they would never leave those they cared for behind to face a threat alone. In that moment when she decided that she would stay and fight, one of the other Bachum men picked Penny up by the back of her shirt, as though she was a dog that had to be carried by the fat at the back of its neck. He ran away with her under his arm.

  “Allie, he’s taking her!” Violet screamed as she chased after him. Alice had been busy punching Rich Bachum repeatedly and cursing him for all he had done. But at those words, she rolled off of him and landed crouched over with her hands and feet both on the ground. She followed after Violet, and I ran beside her.

  Violet fell over suddenly, and once she hit the ground, she screamed in horror and grabbed at her neck, her legs kicking violently.

  “Violet!” My exhausted voice cracked under the strain of the desperate shout.

  I struggled to push through a crowd of our people who were running from the gun-wielding Bachum soldiers. By the time Alice and I had cleared the herd of people fleeing for their lives, a native man had thrown Violet over his shoulder, started running, and put at least half a mile between us and him. Violet was motionless; I assumed that they had shot her with some sort of tranquilizer dart.

  Alice and I stopped running. We were grasping our chests as we gasped for breath, but our bodies and minds physically ached to continue in pursuit of our friends.

  “Where’s Nick?” I asked her.

  “What?!” She asked through her tears that had emerged suddenly.

  “Where is Nick?!” I grabbed both of her arms and shook her.

  “I don't know! He was just with Violet before! He was inside the house…”

  “If you see him, tell him which way I went. When James, Elijah, and Brynna get back, tell them what happened! I’m going after them!”

  “Quinn, wait!”

  “You stay here!” I called over my shoulder.

  To say that I sprinted is an understatement. To say that I ran so quickly that the trees around me became an indiscernible blur of brown and green is more accurate. I felt like a hamster in a wheel; my feet pounding the ground were spinning the planet in rapid circles, and everyone I knew was struggling to hold on. I didn’t stop on their account. I only stopped when stars started to glisten against the navy blue backdrop of the night sky. There was no way of knowing exactly how long I had been running. But I turned back, dreading the moment I saw Brynna and Elijah. When I saw them again, I would have to tell them that I had failed. I would have to tell them that even after they asked me to look after their sisters, I had let them get taken.

  In the present, Brynna and I were side by side, kneeling beside the river.

  “I’m sorry about Violet and Penny.” I told her, choosing to forego an easy descent into the conversation in favor of swift entrance and hopefully, swift exit. We were filling our canteens and splashing the wonderfully cool water on our sweating faces. We were, according to James, seven miles out from the mountains. The air was beginning to freeze over; after filling our canteens, we were going to change into our sweatshirts and heavy pants. Luckily, our luggage had only just been retrieved from the campsite at the time the fire had started. In fact, while I had been chopping wood with Eric and Teresa, I hadn’t even known that it had arrived. All of our suitcases were waiting outside for us to pick through when the fire had destroyed the house. We had only brought what we needed with us on our journey north.

  “Excuse me?” Brynna looked over at me, inhaling smoke from the cigarette that was burning between her lips and exhaling it through her nose.

  “I’m sorry that Violet and Penny were taken. I should have…”

  “Don’t.” She whispered to me, and I looked up at her, shocked by the defeat in her voice. I understood then that her strength and resistance were beginning to fail her. The worry was just too much to bear.

  “Brynn, we'll find them. Come hell or high water, we will…”

  “Hell or high water,” She laughed bitterly, “Such an interesting expression, if you think about it. It invokes both Satan and God, respectively. It is further proof of the never-ending battle between the two. For the record, I would take both the flames of the underworld or a flood from God over facing the Bachums. They are a force of the universe all their own. Their devotion to God has allowed them to recruit devout followers who will gladly die for the cause. Most of them are decent people who are just scared of the unknown that awaits on the road ahead of them.”

  “Yeah, but most of them would think nothing of killing every last man, woman, and child we know. They would justify it by saying that we had been taken over by Satan because we’re different than they are.”

  “Indeed. But I cannot justify taking a life simply because we disagree.”

  “So, what are you going to do when we get there?” A soft chuckle of derision escaped me. “Ask them politely to give Violet and Penny back? Tell them you’ll trade some damn corn and orange cabbage for your sisters? It doesn’t work like that anymore, Brynna, and you’re smart enough to know that.”

  “What I find so funny is that mere months ago you were ending your three year relationship with your girlfriend because she killed a native. Now, you are encouraging me to slaughter our opponents swiftly and without a second thought. It was you who decried the loss of our humanity, Quinn Wesley, not I.”

  She was right. The hypocrisy being brought to my attention was unwelcome yet inescapably groundbreaking. We stared at each other for a long moment before she looked away; she was giving me space and silence to maul over her words.

  “You’re right.” I told her suddenly as I filled my canteen up to replace the water I had just chugged back.

  She grinned at me.

  “Are you really surprised?”

  She yelped and dodged quickly when I swatted water from the stream at her.

  “Do that again, and you will not like the consequences, Quinnevra. A very wise man once said, 'You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.’”

  The hysterical laughter that erupted out of me actually made her jump. Alice came over, looking between the two of us in surprise. I doubled over and grasped a rock to support myself.

  “You’ll never believe this, baby!” I gasped out to Alice, “Brynna Olivier can be funny!”

  Alice looked at Brynna, who rolled her eyes to the heavens as she tried to suppress a smile.

  “He only thinks I was being funny. I do not succumb to a drunken state of whimsy on any occasion, least of all this one. Come along, children. Let us continue the walk to our deaths.”

  Alice was laughing now, too. We watched as Brynna sauntered ahead of us, knowing that she was grinning to herself.

  “Oh, and did you just call me ‘Quinnevra?’” I asked her when Alice and I caught up to her.

  “Indeed, I did. That name will more than likely stick, so you might want to set the wheels in motion to begin getting used to it.”

  “Where in the world did you come up with that?”

  “Ginevra was a very strong character in my favorite book series of all time.”

  “So you think I am a very strong man, then? Well, thank you for the compliment, Brynn. It’s unexpected, and it really makes me feel good about myself. Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome. Ginevra was a female.” She wrapped her arms around James’s middle as she walked beside him. She smiled up at him when he placed his arm over her shoulders.

  “Oh!” Alice was cracking up and clapping her hands.

  “You’re on her side now? Traitor…” I muttered.

  “Estrogen club. You cannot fight biology.” Brynna called to me over her shoulder.

  “Stop!” Alice exclaimed as she laughed harder.

  “Well, I don’t know how you two did it. She’s been a zombie for hours.” Elijah told us quietly.

  “She just needed to get her mind off of it for a few minute
s.” Alice replied, “Plus, she’s getting ready for the fight. We all are.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that.” Elijah nodded, “I’m starting to feel stronger. It’s like an adrenaline rush, you know?”

  “That’s exactly what it’s like.” I agreed, “Except it happens without being provoked, and it doesn’t go away. I have to admit, I dig it.”

  “I dig it, too.” Elijah laughed, “The Bachums don’t know what they’re missing. Well, I guess they’re about to. We’re about to show them.”

  “Yes. We are.”

  A darkness came over all of us, erasing the lighthearted humor from only seconds earlier. I looked at them, seeing my growing blood-lust reflected in their eyes. Whatever naive, boyish morals I had preached before were gone; now, I understood the necessity for violence.

  “Hey, Brynn!” I called up to her.

  “Hey, Quinn.”

  We all chuckled at the rhyme.

  “I have a question.” I told her when the laughter had died away again.

  “Well, you can be sure that I have an answer.”

  “You said that you’re worried about taking lives of people who disagree with you.”

  “That was a statement, my dear, not a question.”

  “Just keep listening, my dear. I asked you this question already. What are you going to do when you get there if you don’t want to kill anyone? They’re going to try to kill you, right?”

  “I said that I would not harm anyone who simply disagrees with me. I said nothing about not killing anyone. It is Don who wishes to completely eradicate the other side. As I have stated, I believe that more than half would be willing to live peacefully amongst our kind. Furthermore, I will only harm those who seek to harm myself or any of you. Those who were responsible for Violet and Penny being taken will also pay the ultimate price. Now, is that evil, or is that necessary?”

  “Or is it necessarily evil?” James asked. Brynna looked up at him. “I know, that was profound. You don’t have to tell me.”

  Brynna giggled softly and stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.

  “You are very humorous, Mr. Maxwell.”

  “And you are very wise, Ms. Olivier. Not to mention, so very attractive...”

  “Oh, gross!” Elijah covered his ears in horror, “Seriously, guys, I approve of your relationship. I’ve said that. But can you keep the sappy, grocery-store romance novel stuff to a minimum? It’s…”

  “I know. It’s very awkward. I apologize.” James looked back at Elijah, “Seriously, I do.”

  “It’s cool. You get it, though, right? She’s my little sister, and she’s dating a grandfather, and it’s weird, but I’m cool with it…”

  “Oh!” Alice and I both exclaimed as James and Brynna laughed hysterically. James turned around and pretended to swing at Elijah’s head.

  “It’s cool, though, because I’ve always wanted an older brother. I’ve always kind of wanted a dad, too, so you’re like, killing two birds with one stone.” Elijah continued.

  Brynna laughed hysterically as she slapped her palm to her face and hung her head. Alice and I were beside ourselves.

  James wrapped his arm around Elijah’s neck and held him tightly in a choke-hold.

  “You’ve got nothing,’ old man!” Elijah exclaimed as he tried to fight his way out of James’s grip.

  “Really? I think I’ve got something. I’m going to have your dignity in a minute, because you’re embarrassing yourself right now. You look like a mouse stuck in a hole in the wall.”

  The adrenaline was coursing amongst our group like an infectious disease. We were nearing the base of the mountain now, traveling in temperatures soaring far below zero. Our winter clothes had nothing to do with the warmth that filled each of us. Our bodies were responding to the threat of the harsh conditions and the impending fight. We were preparing unconsciously. The evolutionary implications of our lighthearted playfulness were not lost on any of us. Our fear for Violet and Penny would have quickly crippled us had our adrenaline not begun to work quietly.

  “Alright, ladies and gentlemen,” Elijah looked at Brynna, Alice, and me, “Grandpa,” Elijah said to James who mimed kicking him hard between the legs. Elijah dodged, cracking up again, “Let’s start climbing.”

  It was only after we had begun to climb that all the “whimsy,” as Brynna called it, disappeared. Our minds were focused solely on threats lurking in the snow. Our eyes and ears were alert to any signs of movement around us. Luckily, the gray clouds overhead didn’t shed the snow that was hiding within them. It was only a matter of time, we knew. We had to get in and out of the Bachum camp before another blizzard hit.

  At the top of the mountain, we had a clear view of the settlement. Rows upon rows of log cabins lined the snow-covered land. At the far end of the village, a tall log pyramid had been built. No guessing was necessary to determine who lived in that particular building.

  “It’s weird to see a pyramid in the snow.” I commented somewhat randomly. No one responded; James, Brynna, and Elijah were scanning the landscape, looking for the best spot to launch our sneak attack. I leaned forward to count how many people were meandering about; the total was zero.

  “Where is everyone?” Alice voiced my internal question.

  “I don’t know. Probably praying, or sacrificing goats, I don’t know.” Elijah replied sarcastically. “That’s beautiful, though. We can walk right in, and they’ll never know.” He looked at us, “Are you all ready for this?”

  In response, Brynna began to trek down the mountain, turning her feet sideways to avoid sliding in the snow and ice. We all followed behind her, crouching low to the ground to avoid being seen.

  “It’s too quiet.” Alice whispered to me. “I don’t like it. I don’t trust it, Quinn.”

  I grasped her hand tightly in mine.

  Brynna, James, and Elijah didn’t trust it either, apparently. When we had reached the base of the mountain, they slunk forward and ducked behind the large boulders that stuck up from the earth like giant stone anthills. Even as we got closer, no one emerged from the cabins or the pyramid at the end of the dirt path.

  “Do you think they’re messing with us?” I whispered to the rest.

  “Perhaps. Surely if that’s the case, then they know we’re here.” Brynna replied, “But why they would hide from five people…”

  She walked forward quickly and looked all around. Alice gasped when she walked up the steps of one of the cabins and pushed open the door. James and Elijah ran forward when she disappeared into the darkness of the house. Alice and I looked at each other, wanting nothing more than to stay hidden behind the rock. The quiet of the village was unnerving; in every corner lurked a silent threat, or so it seemed. But we had suffered the brunt of Brynna’s rage when we had forced them to face the cave-dwellers alone. We knew now that we were all in that mess together; one person’s fight was everyone’s fight.

  Once inside the cabin, Alice and I were both shocked to find such a reasonably sized space so sparsely populated. There were only two animal fur beds in one corner, a wooden faucet perched high on the wall in one corner with a small dial beneath it, and a hole in the floor that they clearly used as a bathroom.

  “Well, I have to say that we fared better.” James commented as he looked around. “Is this their shower? I wonder if they get hot water like we do.”

  “Do you see a furnace attached to these houses? No, they have only cold water. At least they have an indoor plumbing system, though, so it’s not all bad.” Brynna frowned when she looked into the hole that was carved in the floor, “Tell me this is not their toilet.”

  “It smells like a toilet.” Alice covered her nose with one hand and grasped Brynna’s hand with the other, “This is a terrible place.”

  Brynna smiled slightly at her purposely over-dramatic comment on the obvious.

  “Look at this.” Elijah said, and we all turned to see that he was holding up one rations box and a half moldy tomato. “This is it
. Unless they ate the rest, this is all they get to eat.”

  “That’s foul.” Brynna muttered in disgust, “Come on. The deathly atmosphere and horrid conditions under which these people have been forced to live is provoking a high level of despondency in me to which I am not used. Come along.”

  “Let me translate for you,” James told us, “'I feel really bad for these people, and I don’t want to admit it openly.'”

  “Why don't you translate this, James Maxwell?” As she walked out of the cabin, she gave him the finger.

  “I’m sorry, I am not fluent in sign language.” James replied sarcastically as he followed after her.

  “Alright,” Brynna told us once we were all outside. “There is but one course of action to take, and it is very unwise. In fact, it is downright stupid. Yes, I am going to do something stupid.”

  “What are you going to do?” Elijah asked her hurriedly, “Brynna, don’t test our…”

  “BACHUMS!” She shouted deafeningly. We all gasped as her voice echoed off of the surrounding mountains, reverberating just as loudly as her original scream. “COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!”

  “Brynna!” Alice exclaimed in a fearful whisper. “Brynna, stop it!”

  “The adrenaline rush is messing with your head! Stop it!” I ordered her fiercely.

  She laughed softly, and still, the sound echoed eerily around the empty village.

  “You didn’t think I would show up?!” She was walking forward. “You didn’t think I would hunt you down for taking what’s mine? Very foolish, my dears! I adore your pyramid, by the way!”

  We had reached the many steps that led to the door of the pyramid.

  “Let me guess, you’re going to shoot me the moment I open the door!”

  “Don’t open the door! Don’t open the door!” Alice begged her as we watched her saunter up the steps.

  James grabbed her, but it was too late; she had already kicked the door of the pyramid in, sending it flying off of its hinges and ricocheting down the long, dark corridor. No bullets sprayed out into the open air to bring both her and James down. No exclamation of horror or battle cry came rushing down the hallway to meet us outside the front door.

  “How very disappointing.” Brynna muttered as she turned away. James grabbed her arm roughly and spun her to face him.

  “Are you insane?” He hissed at her furiously.

  “I am sorry, did you want to search every cabin only to find dust and dank depression? I know I didn’t.” She jerked her hand free from his grasp. Something came over her suddenly, snuffing out the boisterous recklessness that had seized her. Her expression softened just before her knees gave out.

  “It’s alright. Baby, everything’s okay.” James told her as he lifted her off of her feet.

  That strange moaning sound escaped her again as she grasped his face with one hand and buried her own in his neck.

  “Brynn… Brynn, it’s all going to be okay.” Elijah told her as he rubbed her arm.

  Her whimpers and moans made her sound as though she were seconds from getting sick. Whatever anger I had felt at her for endangering us evaporated suddenly. Sympathy exploded inside of me. I couldn’t imagine fearing for Alice’s life, and in all honesty, she was only my girlfriend. Brynna had raised those girls by herself, sacrificing her own childhood in order to ensure that they grew up happily. Penny especially was her daughter; she even bore an uncanny resemblance to her. I couldn’t imagine the blind fear that Brynna was experiencing. I didn’t want to try.

  All the adrenaline that had been built up for the fight was escaping us. Alice sat down on the log steps of the pyramid, put her face in her hands, and started to cry softly. James leaned against the ledge in the pyramid wall, kissing Brynna’s face gently and whispering soft promises to her that he couldn’t possibly keep. Elijah walked away from us, choosing to drain his fear and grief in private where we couldn’t see. I sat down beside Alice, staring at the dead village in front of my eyes. The clouds cast a gray light on the world, amplifying the sadness in our hearts. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over these many years, it’s that reaching the dead-end of the road is a harrowing and very sad thing. To look left, right, upwards, and downwards and see no path, not even one that is obscured from view by underbrush or fallen boulders or darkness, is enough to turn the bravest men and women into sobbing children. It is enough to buckle the knees of Brynna Olivier, who had never fallen in the face of any sadness, ever.

  “This world is huge, Quinn. They could be anywhere. Where do we even start?” Alice whispered to me through her tears. I pulled her close as tears pooled in my own eyes, too. They fell only when my face was hidden in her hair.

  It began to snow.

  Violet

  “Please, Lord, let me have inherited Brynna's steel spine. I'll need it now and forever.”

  The prayer crossed my mind as I drifted in the depths of unconsciousness, and I meant every word. My eyes slowly opened as my heart dreaded discovering the nature of the situation I was in. All in all, it wasn't too bad; I was lying on one of the fur beds in a room that was thankfully dark. I massaged my throbbing temples, grimacing as I sat up. Luckily, the memories of what had happened at the house were still fresh in my mind; they played out seamlessly in a review meant to remind me of the danger I was in.

  “Penny?” My voice crackled and broke; I was in need of water desperately.

  “She's not here.”

  I had begun to forget her voice, but the English accent gave her away. I turned away from the wall and saw that Maura was keeping vigil at my bedside.

  “Maura.”

  “That's me.” She replied with a slight smile. “Darling, it's been so long. I've missed you.”

  She opened her arms, actually believing that I was in the mood for hugs and teary apologies.

  “Where is Penny?” I forced my voice to rise. I needed to assert authority over the situation or they would think that I was weak and could be easily broken. It was the Bachums who had taken me; they and the cave-dwellers had aligned to defeat Adam's city people and those I had lived with happily for several months. Brynna, Elijah, James, Alice, and Quinn were in the latter group; I would not sit back and allow the others to harm them. My heart fluttered magnificently as I realized that I could now gain valuable information about the opposing side. The soldier mentality had taken over, and I was ready to learn all that I could before fighting my way out of captivity.

  Oh, how naïve I was...

  “Penny's fine, Vi. You did not honestly think your father and I would let anything happen to her, did you? Or you, for that matter.”

  “Eli and Brynn... What about them?” I asked fiercely.

  “Elijah and Brynna have gotten themselves involved with that terrible man. What is his name?”

  “Don Abba.”

  “Yes. Him...” Maura avoided my eyes. I realized that she hadn't looked at me since I had turned over to see her. There was something different about her; something was broken, something was lost. Her body was frail, and her face was sunken in, giving her the appearance of a rapidly decaying corpse. Admittedly, a small pang of sympathy pulled at my heartstrings. She had always been so beautiful. Her time with the Bachums had not agreed with her at all.

  “That other man,” Her brows furrowed in apathetic confusion, “Or is he a man? Adam. He's just as bad, if not worse. He made us think he was on our side. Then, he turned on us. Apparently, our offerings were not good enough for him. Whatever you all were doing where you were living clearly worked in your favor. He has aligned himself with you, hasn't he?”

  “Do you really think I am so stupid that I would actually answer that question honestly?”

  The dim light cast by the torches around the walls enhanced her skeletal features eerily. I shuddered slightly, a part of me wanting to reach out, embrace her, and urge her to come back with me to the remains of our house. Don would allow me to bring her, as long as she swore allegiance to him and cast away all thought
s of my father. I needed to prod her gently in that direction; no matter what had occurred since arriving on Pangaea, she had helped raise me on Earth. She had been an ever-present figure in my life. The very sight of her evoked a strange calm in my heart as the smell of summer rain filled my nose. I shook my head slightly, forcing that random serenity from my mind. It was simply an inconvenience under the tense circumstances.

  “I hate that we're on opposite sides of this, Violet.” Maura whispered, and her dull, drooping eyes finally met mine. “I love you. I love Penny. You have to know that. I've driven your father mad with how much I've talked about you.”

  “Yeah? Is that how you got those bruises on your face?”

  They colored her pure white skin in a pattern of dark blue, purple, and black like a sloppily designed ink blot test. In the darkness, the cuts in her lip looked like piercings punctured into her flesh by an amateur.

  “No. That wasn't your father.” She whispered, and her eyes diverted away from me again as her hands flew up to cover her face from my view. She stayed like that for a long while, but after starting to draw back from both me and the topic at hand, she reconsidered and leaned forward, her dead eyes alight suddenly with a need to make me understand something vital.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I could not look into her eyes for long without a shiver stomping up every vertebrae in my spine.

  What had happened to her? I did not recognize the woman I had seen every day for seventeen years. I could not begin to fathom what she had been forced to endure in order for that drastic change to come over her.

  “Violet, if you understood the gravity of what is to come, you wouldn't be asking me such stupid questions.”

  Jerking my hands from her grasp, I stood up and began to pace. My heart raced not with the battle-ready anticipation of a warrior placed in enemy territory at the right place and time but with the fear of an abandoned child. Maura was gone. It had taken mere minutes alone with her to understand just how unhinged she had become. I wondered how many others had succumbed to such lunacy. If I spoke of that to Brynna, she would surely weigh the effects on a scale of environmental hardships and malnutrition versus tyrannical regimes and potent, never-ending fear of death. Briefly, I found myself wondering the same, and in my wondering, I found that the scale remained level.

  “Why did they attack us?”

  “The same reason you attacked us, darling. Adam and Tyre have spoken clearly, haven't they? Only one side can live. But it's alright.” Her hands grasping mine again stopped my furious pacing. “You're with us now. Violet, I have seen the error of my ways. We have all repented for the awful things we did on Earth. Do you want to hear the strangest thing? It was only yesterday that everyone had finally repented. Then, we attacked Don and Adam's people and destroyed them! Isn't that amazing?”

  She let go of my hands to clasp her own together. While she looked up at the ceiling with tear-filled eyes, I grimaced in discomfort. Her hopeful, blind gratitude to this God she had been told encouraged war was sickening. I scowled at her, my red eyes burning into hers when she looked back at me.

  “Violet, do not do that!” She jumped up abruptly and pointed at me with a trembling finger. “Make them right! Do not let your eyes change colors! They'll kill you for that! It's,” She looked around fearfully before lowering her voice to a whisper, “It's Satan that has given all of you those powers. Look at what they do to you! They make you kill! They make you control people's minds! They make you control the forces of nature when that is God's job! Violet, I need you to see clearly! Please,” Tears cascaded down her swollen, bruised cheeks, “I love you, and I couldn't bear it if I lost you!”

  “I love bursting your bubble, Maura, but I sincerely doubt that your ridiculous leaders killed the other side completely. Maybe you took a few of our people. But you certainly didn't take them all. We all have powers, you're right. You're wrong to say that they're evil. You're just afraid of what you don't understand. I guess that for you, it's easier to shut off your mind and worship this God blindly even though it's crazy people who claim he exists, but I will never be that stupid, do you hear me?!” I leaned forward so my face was close to hers. “What is the endgame, Maura? Why am I here?”

  “Because your father was meant to give me a gift now that we're married. He's very powerful, even here. They said that he could give me one gift, and do you want to know what I asked for?”

  “I don't have to guess.” I replied sarcastically, “Well, it's a bubble-bursting extravaganza, because I'm telling you now that I'm not staying here, and neither is Penny.”

  “You're safe here. The other side is dead. If they haven't all died yet, they will soon enough. We'll win, and we'll be able to live peacefully. We survived the end of days, Violet. Now, our brave soldiers are going to make sure we survive this new age, too. And we're going to fight them and win without ever using those terrible powers. It's going to be wonderful, darling, I promise. We are the chosen race, my love. We will come out of this on top. The Bachums promised us that much. The Old Spirits have been kind to us. Tyre makes sure that we are fed. He hates Adam, and he will bring him down. They will reclaim the city.”

  “No, I can assure you that they won't.” I snapped at her indignantly, “Adam told us that Tyre, or whatever the hell his name is, has lost his powers. All of his people have.”

  “They were farming the earth. Adam’s people. They sent horrible creatures to hunt down people like Brynna and Elijah. People who had allowed the change. They know that humans are not meant to wield such great power. Luckily, they got a lot of them. But the people who made it and have embraced those powers...” Maura shook her head, “They have to die, Violet. That's why I'm telling you to stop it. Stop it, or they'll...”

  “Maura, get out.”

  My father was standing in the doorway. Maura jumped up and immediately walked towards the door with her head down. Her clothes hung like draping robes from her emaciated form. I shuddered again.

  While she looked on the verge of death from starvation, my father had acquired a swollen belly and fatty jowls. I grimaced at the sight of him; he had always been handsome, so handsome that two women had vied for his affections and countless others—young women, only as old or a little bit older than Brynna!—had chased after him, tongues wagging, even when he surpassed the age of fifty. Now, he reminded me of an eighteenth century king who spent his days imbibing on ale and gorging roasted pig meat as readily as he breathed. The metaphor was not far from the truth, I would soon discover.

  “Violet.” He opened his arms as he walked towards me. What was it with those people expecting warm embraces after all that had transpired between our two sparring armies? Did they truly believe that I had longed for them, or that my allegiance would change with no hesitation? I held my hand up when he went to wrap his arms around me.

  “I know. A lot of bad things have happened. But just know that I'm going to make it up to you.” He sat down on the chair Maura had been sitting in, and it creaked under his weight. “I was afraid that you and Penny were starving to death. But you look healthy. I'm glad. At least that despicable man and that disgusting tramp made sure you were fed.”

  “Did you just call Brynna a tramp, really?” I asked with a slight laugh, “That's funny.”

  “Violet, you should have no loyalty to her anymore. I saved your life in more ways than you know. Not to mention, I'm your father, and you wouldn't be here without me, right?”

  “So, I should just forget that you abandoned Mom, imposed rules over the campsite that involved people starving to death, abandoned us, shacked up with Maura, and abducted Penny and me from our home?”

  “I did not abandon your mother; Brynna did! I was letting people starve because I was thinking of the group. You don't think that was hard for me to do that to people? I had to think of the whole and not the parts, Violet. I don't expect you to understand that.” In his voice, I heard genuine remorse. I heard a genuine plea for me to understand. />
  “You're right. I don't understand that.” I told him angrily, “There were other ways, Dad, and you know...”

  “I had to do what was right for everyone. We never would have survived a month if everyone had to have a fair share. Don't you see that? And I didn't abandon you! You ran away. We searched for you for days! Maura and I love each other, so yes, we're together. But that doesn't mean that I don't still love your mother. How could I not still love her? We were married for almost twenty-five years.”

  “And God knows how many affairs you had! Don't try to convince me that you two were happily married! You might think that I'm still that young, immature little girl that I was only a year ago, but I remember things clearly now!”

  “You remember things the way Brynna wants you to remember things.” My father hissed in fury. “I can't imagine the lies she's put in your head.”

  “Brynna never even talked about you. She never tried to warp my view of you, Mom or Maura. But I do know something that you all kept a secret. I know what happened to her. I know now, even better than I did before, that what happened to Lucien wasn't her fault.”

  He rose to his feet, trembling with rage.

  “Lucien's death was no one's fault but hers! She went off into her head, and while she was rolling around in her ridiculous thoughts, he was drowning! My son! Your brother!”

  “You all shouldn't have left her alone! Not after what happened! And you called her a liar! Maura knew it was happening! Only Mom believed her! Only Mom took care of her after it was over! That is, until Lucien died, and she turned on her, too! I believed your lies about Brynna for years, Dad. But for some reason, I couldn't hate her. Now, I know why. I couldn't hate her because all of the things you said about her were bullshit!”

  “You watch your mouth!” He grabbed a hold of my face in a grip so painful that I whimpered. My body was shaking with fear; I squeezed my eyes shut when he brought back his hand. I was going to experience the same punishment he had inflicted only on Brynna. I wanted to feel the pain she had been forced to endure. I deserved it for believing their disgusting lies. But my father took a breath, released my face, and dropped his arm back to his side. When I opened my eyes, I saw that he was seated again with his face pressed into his hands.

  “I know now that what Brynna said happened actually did happen. With Michael, I mean. I wish I could say that I feel badly for her, but I don't. I can't, and I have tried, Violet; believe me, I’ve tried. Sometimes, I do, but then it goes away when I saw Luc’s face. When I see how he looked after she had pulled him out of the pool. I'm sure I would feel terrible if she hadn't been responsible for Lucien's death. I’m sure I would have wanted to kill him, like any father should. But that was my son, Violet.”

  My heart jumped with the same startled, momentary terror that follows being spooked by someone jumping out from behind a wall and shouting in your face. His voice had broken, and he had tears in his eyes.

  “He was my youngest child. He looked just like me. You can't imagine the love I had for him. He was so young, and he had those huge eyes. You remember them. They always lit up the moment I came through the door. God, I loved that little boy so much...”

  He covered his face with one hand as tears ran down his cheeks. A part of me began to sympathize.

  No, my mind shouted in a fury that shocked me just as much as his tears did, He doesn't deserve your pity. He is an evil man. Whatever pain he feels is karma.

  Was Lucien's death karma for the evil deeds committed by both him and my mother? I couldn't bear the thought of my little brother paying the price for their sins.

  “And she took him from me. She was so profoundly selfish, Violet. You've seen how she is. I've had a lot of time to think about what happened to our family while we were on Earth. I've come to the conclusion that Brynna is lying to all of us and herself when she says that she drifted off. I think that she let him drown because she was angry at your mother and me for letting Michael do what he did. She made us pay a price for our ignorance. That is unforgivable, sweetheart.”

  “Yes, it would be, if it were true. Somehow, I don’t think a ten year old could come up with that, Dad.”

  “She deserves that disgusting man she's with now. He's a traitor. He's a liar. He's a killer.”

  “James is a good man.” I spat at him, voicing the fury I felt down to my bones. “He is good to her, which I'm sure makes you hate him. Let me ask you something, Dad.”

  “Go ahead. Anything, honey.” He looked up at me.

  “Why is Maura so beaten up?”

  We stared at each other for a good long while. I tried to detect any emotions that flickered across his face, but none were present. There was only a thoughtless ambivalence I knew preceded an apathetic explanation that would involve at least one reference to the God they worshiped so blindly.

  “Maura refused to repent for a very long time. She deserved what they did to her. But she's alright now, Violet. I took care of her myself after it was all said and done. What you need to understand is that Mary and Rich do what they have to do. They make us see the Light by whatever means necessary. They do use force, especially when people are stubborn, like Maura was. But she knows now all the things she did were wrong. She's a better person for it.”

  “Will they use force on me so that I'll see the Light?” I asked sarcastically, but I was deeply afraid of being forced to endure such agonizing torture. I couldn't bring to mind readily any significant misdeeds I had committed in my short life, but I knew they would find something to punish me for.

  “Of course not!” He assured me firmly. “You're only sixteen.”

  “I'm seventeen. Well, eighteen now; it’s been about a year since we came here, hasn’t it?” I corrected him quickly.

  “That's right. Either way, you haven't done anything that requires repentance. Us older folks, though, have done plenty. But every last one of us has paid for what we did. And the Good Lord has graced us with a victory we couldn't possibly imagine.”

  “You were never religious before. You said religion was for cowards. You used to say it was a drug. Do you remember that?”

  “'Before' is the key word there, sweetheart. Everything is different here. Everything has changed. Now come on, I have a surprise for you.”

  I didn't want to leave the cell I had been placed in. Learning the ways of the Bachums was crucial to discovering how best to beat them, but I couldn't stand the thought of pretending to be on their side. I was a product of living under Don's tutelage; all I wanted was to see them die. They were a threat to our existence. They were the only things standing between us and a peaceful life on Pangaea.

  But I allowed my father to steer me out into a torch-lit corridor. He walked ahead of me up a set of stairs fashioned from logs. With one strong thrust, he pushed open a trap door above our heads, unleashing a blinding stream of light that sent me stumbling back.

  “Whoa...” He grasped my arms to keep me from tumbling backwards down the steps. “Sorry. I should have warned you about that.”

  He had to practically carry me out into the sunlight. I was unable to open my eyes until they had properly adjusted. When I finally saw what was around me, I was as stunned by the beauty of it as I always was when witnessing Pangaea's natural wonders.

  The village had been built into the stone walls of the surrounding mountains. The houses were beautifully constructed from wood and leaves, stretching as far as I could see. We were at the very top of the mountain; I felt almost level with the sun. It was warmer than I would have expected; the snow beneath our feet was beginning to dissolve before my eyes. The blue sky was even more brilliant from the top of the world than it was from the ground below. If I hadn't been in enemy territory, I might have cried at such a beautiful sight.

  “So, this is the famous Violet Olivier.”

  I whipped around to see an elegantly dressed woman studying me with hazel eyes so menacing I believed that she might have been capable of killing me with one glance. The
jack-o-lantern grin on her face didn't help to dissolve the illusion. Her age bordered around fifty, but her skin bore no trace of aging. Even without any makeup on, she was still gorgeous. I noted the cross displayed on her prominent chest. Little deliberation was necessary to determine her identity.

  “So, you're the famous Mary Bachum.”

  “Introductions clearly aren't in order.” Her arms were around me before I could even mentally prepare for close proximity to such a snake-like creature. To avoid being stoned to death, I patted her back but still could not bring myself to squeeze her with both of my own arms.

  “I am so glad that they managed to get you and your sister away from those people.” Her claw- like fingernails were digging into my cheek as she grasped my chin. “I can't imagine how scared you must have been, living with those mutated freaks.”

  She insulted them so casually, I almost laughed.

  “Where is my sister?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level. I couldn't afford to be perceived as overly confrontational. I was outnumbered laughably, so a fight was out of the question.

  “She's with your mother, of course.”

  “Maura isn't my mother.”

  “Mary, I was just about to tell Violet about who we've arranged for her.”

  “Oh, yes!” Mary clapped her hands together once gleefully. “He is a very smart boy, your boyfriend. It took no prodding for him to realize that this is where he is supposed to be. I can see that you're smart in the same way.”

  “What?” I asked, furrowing my brows, “Who are you...”

  “Violet!” A voice said behind me in thrilled relief.

  Good thing I wasn't like Brynna who firmly believed she would melt at the slightest physical contact with other people. I was rolling my eyes skyward at having to endure another awkward embrace. But just as the irritation reached its peak, his smell overtook me, and I was squeezing him so tightly, I was sure that he couldn't breathe.

  “Nick...” I fought the tears of relief that rushed into my eyes.

  “Are you alright?” He asked me softly so Mary and my dad, who were listening closely, couldn't hear.

  “I'm fine. Are you?”

  “I'm perfect. Isn't this great? We're finally away from those freaks! We're safe up here. We're going to win the war.”

  His eyes betrayed his lies only to me.

  “Yes.” I replied, following his lead, “It's great, isn't it? Maura and Dad are here, and you know how I've missed them.”

  “I love you.” He told me randomly.

  “Wha...”

  His mouth on mine cut off my dumbfounded reaction to such an emotionally heavy statement. We were dancing in a charade that I didn't understand. I kissed him back to keep up with him. Clearly, Nick had a plan that I was supposed to follow.

  “I love you, too.” I smiled despite my vast confusion.

  “That is very sweet.” Mary was grasping her heart, grinning gigantically.

  “He's a good man, Vi, just like Mary said. He knows where his loyalty belongs. Plus, he's proof that you’re normal, and thank God for that! Compare him to that freak your sister is dating.”

  “Shh...” Mary whispered, grasping his arm, “We are not going to speak of those awful people. God wouldn't want their names to cross our lips.”

  “You're right.” My dad smiled at her, “Well, Vi, I know it's sudden, and you're probably going to be a little surprised, but Mary and Rich have a couple of rules that you have to follow. One of them is that everyone, except for those under the age of fifteen, has to be married.”

  ‘A little surprised’ was the understatement of the thousands of years that the Earth and Pangaea had existed. I grasped Nick's hand tightly in my own, my eyes wide. His face wore a similar expression of horrified disbelief. To think that I was only three years shy of the cut-off…

  “Why?” He asked.

  “Because if you love someone, you get married, of course!” Mary replied with another bright grin. She put her arms around both of us and walked us along. “It's a huge step, but it's the right step. Here, we live by a strict moral code, one that has been outlined for us by God. Following His laws has led us to victory. While that awful man, Abba, believes that people can govern themselves, we believe that people must live by the laws of God. Alcohol and the drugs that grow in the ground here are forbidden. People must uphold the traditional values of marriage; one man, one woman. That's how it's written, after all.”

  “What else are we not allowed to do?”

  “Oh, sweetheart, don't make it sound so restrictive! We do require all of the people we're feeding and housing to attend church services in that building.” She pointed to the large wooden structure in the dead center of the village square, “That's our church. We have services three times a day.”

  That seemed a bit excessive...

  “We did take some cues from your people, though. The people we had in your camp reported that you all grow your own food. They taught us how to do it, so we can thank them for that.”

  “Only that.” My father added with a scowl.

  “Yes. Only for that. Your sister will attend classes every day. We have several teachers in our group who will teach her the ways of the Lord. Of course, she'll also learn math.”

  Wow. How progressive of them to teach Math.

  “The men work while the women take care of the house. So Nick, you'll be helping to harvest the crops. Violet, you'll make sure that he has a nice dinner waiting for him when he comes home.”

  Oh, God, I was going to throw up… It was like a nightmare. It was almost too clichéd to be believable, but how many people like her had I met on Earth? Every time I thought I had met the last extreme, to-the-letter follower of the Bible, I met another and another and another. Don’s way of living was like a violent, never-ending, anything-goes circus, while Rich and Mary’s way of living was a violent, never-ending, nothing-goes Sunday school.

  “When are we getting married, exactly?” I tried to sound as though I was looking forward to the forced union.

  “Three days.” Mary replied, “Just a simple service. Now, gentlemen, I'd like to talk to Violet alone. Nick, if you'd like to go to the Temple, Rich will fill you in on all you need to know about your duties.”

  “Alright. Violet, I'll see you at dinner.” My dad told me. Nick kissed me again and very discreetly indicated both of my eyes. After that quick gesture, he widened his own. Message received:

  “Keep your eyes open.”

  An awkward silence perched malevolently between Mary and me. At least, it was awkward for me. That deceptive smile remained plastered on her face at all times. Her soft hands grasped my own as she sat us both down on a stone bench.

  “I know it seems like a lot to handle. I know it seems a little over the top. We had some people suggest that we had taken away their basic freedoms. That's not the case, Violet. We have these rules because human beings need to have these rules. We are human beings, despite what Don and his band of brutes would have you believe.”

  “What are the consequences for breaking the rules?”

  Her smile widened and that wicked gleam in her eyes intensified. This was a woman who enjoyed seeing people punished brutally. How that fit into the Godly creed, I didn't know.

  “They are severe. The rules have shaped our lives, down to the very foundation. We wouldn't be here if Rich hadn't put them into effect. Men work to ensure that we have enough food to eat. Women cook, clean, and sew, among other things. The roles are of equal importance; you must understand that.”

  “Do you mandate how many children we have to pop out, too?” I asked before biting my tongue. The sarcasm was inherent, as I'm sure you've realized. Her smile faltered when she realized that I was being facetious. I scrambled to cover the misstep.

  “That's what Don told us. He said that you make people have lots of babies even if they don't want to. He said that you make people...” I lowered my voice to a dramatically timid whisper. “You make people have relati
ons whenever you say they have to.”

  She closed her eyes, her smile vanished completely. I wondered if it had ever existed, given how quickly it was erased from her face. Her hands tightened around mine.

  “What an awful thing for him to tell you! You poor child...”

  “I've never done that before, and I'm afraid to.”

  “Of course you've never done that before! Your father raised you well. Though, he did permit Maura to infect you with her cynicism and her, if I may be frank, less-than-moral ways when it comes to men. Violet, no one will ever tell you when you have to do that. You'll only do that with Nick when you're ready to, and only after you're married. That man spreads his vicious lies because he knows that what he is doing is wrong. A part of him knows that he deserves to be struck down for what he has allowed people to do in that festering, sinful place he called a home. That wasn't a home, Violet. That wasn't a family. You don't have to live in fear of men soliciting that from you. We all value marriage here, so don't worry about that for a second. You don't have to worry about being tempted with drugs or alcohol, either, because like I said, we don't allow either here. We just live our lives in peace, in the light of God. It's the best way to live, I promise you, Violet. I promise you.”

  There was a warmth to her voice that hadn't been present before. I almost believed her. I know that she believed herself. She and Rich both believed exactly what my father did; they were acting with the needs of others in mind. They were promoting the greater good. I wished that I could believe the promises she was making. Besides the unequal gender roles and the brutality that they evoked when punishing those who broke their rules, the place seemed to be alright. Living under Don's lack of rules had bred some sticky situations that were whispered about while we worked. His belief that we were not fit to judge even when one of our own committed a cruel act had allowed men and women to harm one another without fear of consequences. Here, at least, I didn't have to worry about being stolen from or assaulted.

  But I wasn't staying. Nick and I would be escaping long before they could force us to get married. We would take Penny and run as far from that deceptively perfect place as we could. I would not be taken in by her promises. I could see that while she insisted the laws were for our benefit, they were simply the way that she and her husband controlled others. Those other people were scared survivors of the cataclysmic event that had taken our Earth. They would follow anyone who promised them safety. The laws they lived under were comforting to them because to adhere to the restrictions meant shutting off their brains and towing the line without hesitation. It must have been nice, to have no reason to think.

  “Violet!”

  Her girlish squeal of excitement jolted me out of my reverie. I pulled my hands from Mary's grasp and turned just in time to catch her when she jumped towards me. Penny's small arms wrapped around my neck, and her lips pressed to my cheek.

  “I missed you, Vi!” She exclaimed with both of her tiny hands on my face.

  “I missed you, too, Penn. Are you alright?”

  “Mommy and I talked, even though her face still hurts a lot! She’s alright, but she misses Brynna. Right? Right, Maura?”

  Maura’s eyes were wide, and she was stammering as she tried to answer, but Penny just kept talking, undaunted.

  “Maura and I went for a walk, and she showed me where this gigantic eagle lives. It has these really big eggs, and it saw us, and flew away!”

  I had to love her excitement and how she had no idea that we were in danger. I wanted to preserve her innocence by allowing her to believe that we were safe.

  “When are Brynna, James, Eli, Allie, and Quinn getting here? Maura said they would be here soon. I want to show them the eagle!”

  “Uh...” I looked back at Mary to find her scowling at Maura darkly. “They'll be here soon.”

  I should have rectified Maura's mistake by saying that the rest of our family would never meet us there. That's what Mary wanted me to say. Her eyes screamed but one command: Tell that little girl that her family is dead. But I couldn't break her little heart. I couldn't even pretend that Brynna, Elijah, Alice, Quinn, and James were gone. My avoidance of saying such a terrible thing was for both Penny’s benefit and my own. I just couldn’t bear the thought of it.

  “Go on, sweetheart. We'll meet you there.” Mary told us with the grin molded on her thin lips that a fox would wear upon finally sneaking its way into a rabbit hole. I heard her whispering furiously to Maura, but I blocked out her words.

  “Maura says her face will be better soon. She says it doesn't hurt anymore. Don is so mean! Why did he do that to Maura, Vi?”

  “I don't know.” I replied vaguely. All of the lies that were being told by so many different people were beginning to jumble together. While I wanted to keep Penny as deep in the dark as I could in regards to the precarious situation we were in, I was finding it difficult to keep everyone's tall tales separated. I would have a hard time recalling the details at will, which made protecting Penny even more challenging.

  “Come on. I know you must be starving.”

  “I am! And Maura said that they have lizard berry pie!”

  “Lizard berry pie!” I exclaimed, mirroring her excitement.

  It sounds horrible, but it’s wonderful, I promise. In fact, in the moment, the thought of it made me smile a little bit, because I remembered the look on Brynna’s face when she had first heard it spoken by one of Adam’s people. Her eyebrows had wrinkled, and her eyes had widened, and she had grimaced in utter revolt, asking as nicely as she could if it contained actual lizards, and if so, what kind, because she only ate dinosaur? Believe it or not, the Pangaean baker had gotten a kick out of that and said that he was fresh out of Tyrannosaurus Rex but would find some for her, before explaining that the pie was made of green berries from the forest that resembled lizard skin. It tastes like chocolate-covered peaches and charred sugar like what’s on the top of crème brulee, and it is utterly divine; it is so divine that I was surprised the Bachums allowed their people to have it; such indulgence was a sin, I would be told, but once in a while, sins had to be indulged. Or something.

  For the duration of our walk to the Temple, Maura stayed several steps behind us, her head down. I knew she was on the verge of tears, and my heart broke for her. I was done pretending that her suffering didn't impact me. What she had done didn't matter anymore. Every glance, every movement of her body betrayed her great fear of those people she was being forced to live with. My eyes scanned those walking past me, and my heart dropped even further into my stomach. The men sauntered like kings while the women kept their heads down like lowly servants. At least in Don's camp, everyone greeted each other warmly and happily. People smiled even while they were ramming a knife in your back or reaching behind you to snatch your belongings right off of your person. But in the Bachum camp, the men traveled in packs while the women avoided even a glance at one another.

  A phrase came back to me from Bible school: wolves in sheep clothing. A Brynna-ism, as James called them, came back to me as well:

  “If it seems like it's too good to be true, you're probably two steps from the edge of total catastrophe.”

  I received both of those messages timidly.

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