by Keary Taylor
While on scouting duty that morning, I had found the cabin in the trees. It was a log style structure, fairly large for its remote location. A roughhewn road led up to it, the forest pressing back in, trying to take the land back. I had watched silently from the trees for a full ten minutes before I dared move closer. Silently, I had peered into the windows, searching for any signs of life, enemy or friend. There were none.
I felt like I was stepping into another world. The world of houses, of flooring, running water and windows was from another age. The age of humanity, of mankind. We were in the age of the Fallen now.
The front area was full of furniture, well-worn but taken care of. Pictures lined the walls, smiling faces staring back at me. Books were stacked on random surfaces, a yellowing newspaper lay casually on the kitchen table. I grabbed a handful of the books and stuffed them into my bag for Gabriel and Wix. A bedroom led off of the front room. It was a small room with little more than the bed in it, but it was still larger than my tent. I was tempted to lie down on the bed, just to see how soft it was, but my nerves were too on edge.
A small bathroom was attached to the bedroom. I lifted the handle of the faucet in the sink and a small smile crept onto my face as brown water sputtered out. It was true. Running water really was real. I left it on as I turned to explore the rest of the house.
The kitchen was small, but it may have served the king of the land for all I knew. It was glorious looking. I knew what the women who worked in our kitchen would give to have use of this. I opened a lower cupboard and pulled out bottles, not even knowing what they were for, but figuring they would appreciate anything I could bring back.
I was looking out the cracked window of the back door when I felt the boards under my feet wiggle. I looked down and noticed the cutout shape of a small door. It creaked loudly as I pulled it open. The overpowering smell of spoiled food assaulted my senses. I pulled my shirt over my nose and dropped into the dark space below.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The air was damp, feeling like earth and humidity. As my eyes finally adjusted, I wasn’t sure what to think of the sight before me.
The area that had been dug out had to be nearly as big as the rest of the cabin. Rows and rows of shelves crowded the area. Canned goods were stacked everywhere, buckets of flour and sugar covered all of the bottom racks. Two entire shelves were filled with glass bottles of water. The source of the smell was coming from a few sacks of rotting potatoes in one corner.
Whoever had lived here was preparing for something. It didn’t look like they had even gotten to use it before whatever had happened to them happened. I wondered what their fate had been. Had they been found by Hunters? Had they gone to the city for supplies, only to be infected there?
Pushing away the ghosts of the past, I climbed back up the ladder and closed the hatch behind me. I wandered back into the bathroom to where the water was still running. It was clear now and flowing steady. There was a glass stall in the bathroom as well. I thought this must have been a shower. It seemed to fit Sarah’s description. I turned the knobs in it and a minute or so later, it too was cascading clear water.
Checking again to make sure the house was still clear and that I didn’t see anything outside, I stripped down and climbed inside. The water was cold but not as cold as it was at the lake. I found a few bottles of liquid and sniffed at their contents. They smelled so good, I massaged it into every surface of my body. I couldn’t stop smelling my skin.
A towel was hanging next to the shower and after flicking a spider off of it, I used it to dry myself off. A movement to my right caught my eye, causing adrenaline to flood my system. It had only been my reflection though.
I approached the mirror slowly, taking in the person who stared back at me. My grey-blue eyes looked washed out in the dim light. My cheek bones were bordering on gaunt looking, having spent all my life on rations and scouting through the forest every day. My jaw line was sharp as well, all of my features pronounced.
I turned my back to the mirror, glancing over my shoulder at my bare back. The skin was rippled and twisted looking. Even though it had healed completely in just a few days, the scar would be there forever.
Unease crept into my system at letting my defenses down for so long and I climbed back into my clothes and pulled my pack back on, feeling my anxiety ease up just a bit. I walked back outside and headed toward the back of the house.
There was a large outbuilding behind the cabin, no windows, just roughhewn wood siding. I pulled the doors open and my heart jumped into my throat.
I had never seen a car this far from the city before.
It was large, with a big bed for cargo. Bill called this kind of vehicle a truck. I could tell it was old, even in the days when it would have been used, it would have been old. I wished I knew how to drive to see if it still ran. I made a note to bring Bill here with me soon.
I gathered up what more I could fit into my pack and started back toward Eden.
The light was just starting to dim in the sky as I made it halfway home. The sound of a branch breaking drove me up the nearest tree. I moved silently along the boughs, my eyes searching for the source of the noise. My heart jumped into my throat when I saw West, walking back in the direction of Eden.
I picked the biggest pine cone I could find out of the tree I stood in and threw it at West with precision, hitting him square in the back of the head. His shoulders scrunched up towards his ears, whipping around violently, a knife clenched in one hand, a pistol in the other.
A sly smile crossed my face as I picked another, throwing it so it landed just behind him. He spun around again, his eyes scanning the trees, a curse slipping across his lips. I couldn’t help it as the laugh slipped out.
West whipped around, the knife launching from his fingers. Instinct reaction took over as I caught the blade tightly in my hand; the tip of it just inches away from my chest.
“Geez, West,” I said sharply as I threw it back down at him, burying it in the ground between his feet. “A bit paranoid?” As I looked back down at my hand, the skin was already closing up where it had been cut.
His eyes finally found me and after picking his knife up, he scaled the tree, sitting next to me on the large branch. “I was wondering where you had wandered off to,” he said, his eyes hesitant as they met mine. We were both remembering the way I had run away from him the night of Gabriel’s party.
“I found a house,” I said, trying to drive away the awkward moment. “It had a cellar underneath it. It was stock full of non-perishables. Enough for two people to live off of for a year probably. And they had a truck. I don’t know if it runs still though. I don’t know how to work it.”
“Me either,” he said as he shook his head. His eyes grew in intensity as he looked at me and I saw his thoughts reeling. “Is everything okay? You’ve volunteered for night watch almost every night since the party. It feels a little like you’ve been avoiding me the last few days.”
“I have been,” I said honestly as my eyes dropped to the ground below us.
“Does this have anything to do with Avian?” West asked, his voice dropping in volume a bit.
I pressed my lips tightly together. I wasn’t sure how to answer him. It had a lot to do with Avian, but I couldn’t tell West that without hurting him. “I’m just really confused right now. I don’t know how to handle all these feelings. Everything feels so intense.”
West’s hand shifted, his fingers covering mine. I looked back at him. He stared back at me, bringing his other hand to brush the side of my face.
“It’s normal,” he said quietly. “You’re supposed to feel this way.”
“Not for me, it’s not normal.”
“It’s supposed to be,” he said as he leaned forward.
And once again, it felt like I was consumed in flames, heat rushing through my body in a way I loved and feared. My heart raced as he closed his eyes and his lips met mine.
That’s when we
heard the screaming.
I leapt out of the tree and was sprinting through the trees before West could even open his eyes to look for the source of the scream. It hadn’t been far away. Within ten seconds I saw Graye, lying on the ground, twitching and writhing in pain. Two metal barbs were embedded into the skin of his chest, a sharp hiss emanating from them as they shocked Graye, over and over.
I felt the sharp shock of the electricity coursing through my body as I yanked the barbs out of Graye. As I stuffed them into my pocket I saw it, sprinting towards us, with robotically enhanced speed.
I didn’t hesitate as I sprang though the air at the Hunter. His eyes shown with a metallic glint, empty and cold. Two cybernetic hands stretched towards me and we collided with a heavy smack. Its hands went straight for my throat, my hands pulling at every gear and wire I could get them on.
“Eve!” I heard the scream as we collided.
“Get out of here, West!” I tried to scream, the noise cut off as the Hunters hands tightened around my throat. “Run!”
Black spots started forming in my vision as my air supply was cut off. I clawed at the hands, gaining no breathing room. The Hunter’s eyes stared at me, empty as ever, empty as those I had seen standing under the cover of the skyscrapers.
I worked my hand into my pocket, the metal rods sizzling my skin as it shocked me over and over. My arm felt ridged as they forced the muscles in it to clench up. With every ounce of strength I had, I forced my arm to move. I jammed the rods into the Hunters eye with everything I had.
Even though I knew it couldn’t feel pain, the Hunter jerked away, its hands reaching up to its injured eye. It was just enough for me to wiggle my hand free and pull my handgun out and blast its head open.
At the same time, another shot was fired from behind me, hitting the Hunter square in the chest.
I fell back to the ground, my breath coming in sharp gasps. The Hunter collapsed to the earth with a sharp hiss of electric death, its form falling still. I stared up at the sky as it turned blood red and tried to steady my breathing.
“Eve!” West yelled as he half fell to my side. “Are you alright?”
I was about to say yes when I raised my hand to look at it, the one I had grabbed the rods with. The skin of my fingers had been burned away, muscle, bone, and metallic parts gleaming in the fading light.
“Holy…” I breathed as I took it in. There was the proof. It was more than just the chip that was cybernetic about me.
“Come on,” West said as he yanked me to my feet. “We’ve got to get Graye to Avian. Whatever those things were, they burned some nice sized holes into his chest.”
I stumbled to my feet and back toward Graye. The Hunter had had a clear shot at him. I then realized Graye was in my area of patrol. He had been looking for me when he had been shot. I should have seen the Hunter coming. Instead I had been up a tree, getting close and personal with West.
Graye’s form was limp as I picked him up and slung him across my shoulders. I didn’t miss the baffled look that filled West’s face as he watched me. We were both running through the forest moments later, desperation propelling us faster and faster.
“Avian!” West started shouting as we reached the edge of the tents. “Avian!”
We barreled into the clearing and ran straight for the medical tent. Avian burst out of his tent, stepping aside when he saw my load, and followed us in.
“A Hunter shot him with these electric rods,” I explained as I laid Graye’s still form on the table. “They hurt.”
Avian grabbed a piece of medical equipment and pressed it to Graye’s chest, listening to the other end. “He’s still breathing but his heart beat is erratic. How long where they in him?” Avian started compressions to Graye’s chest.
“Not more than fifteen seconds. I wasn’t far away,” I paced the small space of the tent, passing West as he stood in one corner, watching Graye as Avian worked on him.
“The Hunter?” Avian huffed as he worked on Graye. He stopped and listened to Graye’s chest again.
“I killed it,” I said through clenched teeth. “I don’t know if there are any more though.”
“You’ve got to get back out there,” Avian said as he ripped away the remains of Graye’s shirt, exposing the burned flesh underneath. “You’ve got to check.”
“Come on,” I said to West, stepping out of the tent. Gabriel and Bill came running up to us just as we exited.
“Is Graye with you?” Bill asked as he stopped before us. “I couldn’t find him.”
“A Hunter shot him,” I said, feeling anxiety, knowing we were wasting time. “Avian’s taking care of him. We’ve got to go check for more of them though.”
Bill nodded and the three of us ran back into the trees without another word to Gabriel or anyone else.
“How much ammo do you have?” I asked Bill as we jogged through the trees.
“Two mags and a pocketful,” Bill answered as his eyes scanned the trees.
“West?” I asked as I checked the chamber of my own hand gun, replacing the bullet I had used on the Hunter.
“Full mag,” he replied as he checked it. “Nothing extra though.”
“Here.” I shoved a handful of bullets into his hand, pulling them out of my pocket.
I pressed faster back to where I had found Graye and the Hunter, West and Bill quickly falling behind me. I smelled at the air. The scent of the Hunter I had killed wafted through the air, undetectable to anyone but me, I was sure. I quickly passed its body, following the path it had created through the grass and undergrowth.
I ran another half mile before I saw it.
I froze beneath a low tree, jumping behind it as it came into view. My ears searched for any hints of an attack. When I found none, I turned my eyes back to the mechanical beast before me.
I’d never seen a helicopter so close before. It looked like an oversized mechanical bug, its blades still and less threatening looking. It was hard to believe the machine could be so silent. It was a piece of raw, powerful destruction when it was flying.
But if there was a helicopter here, that meant there was more than one Hunter. They always flew in pairs.
By this point Bill and West had finally caught up to me, huffing as they came to my side.
“A chopper?” Bill said as he crouched at my side, a gun in one hand, his finger on the trigger. “Then there’s another one out there.”
We each scanned the trees, our senses strained and ready to spring.
“Stay close,” I said as I started west, heading in the opposite direction we had just come from. “If you can’t shoot it, run. Let me take care of it.”
They followed silently as we came to the other side of the helicopter. A clear trail led in the exact opposite direction the other had gone. They had split up to cover more ground. The Fallen didn’t bother to cover up their trails. They had nothing to be afraid of, no one to hide from.
We followed the trail for two miles, seeing no traces of the Hunter other than his footsteps.
“You think it doubled back?” Bill whispered, his gun still raised, finger on the trigger, the same as West and I.
“We would have seen it by now,” I said quietly in response. And just as soon as I said it the trail ended. The small patches of grass that had been smashed by its weight suddenly disappeared. I glanced up, my eyes searching.
“It went up,” I said, my eyes tracing the path it had taken through the trees. There wasn’t much to see. “It could be anywhere now.”
“Maybe we should split up,” West said, his breathing betraying his nerves.
“Bad idea,” I said quietly. “They can’t infect me. You wander on your own and what’s going to be your barrier?”
“I’d prefer it not have to be you,” he said quietly.
As I registered West’s words I also heard the snap come from behind us. “Get down!” I screamed as I whipped around, pushing both Bill and West to the ground. Half a second later the Hunter fired, the
bullet grazing the side of my thigh. I stumbled, half falling on top of Bill.
I had just gotten back to my feet when it started sprinting towards us. Every muscle in my body flexed as I sprang and hurtled myself at the Hunter.
We crashed to the ground, a mere ten feet from Bill and West. I clung to its shoulder with one hand, beating at the back of its head with the butt of my gun with the other. With one hand, it reached back, grabbed me by the back of my neck, and slammed me to the ground.
My hands flung out, grabbing its ankle as it started toward the others, and dropped it to the ground. It turned its empty eyes on me, coiling its leg for a crushing kick to my face I barely managed to avoid. Two shots were suddenly fired, both barely missing the Hunter and myself.
Undeterred by my efforts, it turned its focus back to West and Bill.
“No!” I screamed as I leapt back up and jumped onto its back. “Get away from them!”
And then something I couldn’t explain happened. The Hunter froze, me still clinging to its frame, and then took two steps back. And then it stood there, staring out at nothing. Before it could do anything else, I scrambled off its back, drew my gun again and blasted a hole in the back of its head. It collapsed to the ground in a heap.
And then I buckled, caving in on my right leg. It didn’t hurt, but apparently it wasn’t going to hold my weight anymore.
West and Bill were instantly at my side. “How’d you do that?” Bill demanded. “It listened to you.”
“What are you talking about?” I huffed as they each grabbed one of my arms and helped me to my feet, supporting my weight for me.
“You told it to get away from us,” West filled in for Bill. “And then it stopped and backed away.”
Adrenaline was still pumping through my system, making everything seem like a blur in my head. “Why would it listen to me?”
“Maybe because you’re partly like them,” West said as we scrambled through the trees.
“Whatever just happened, let’s just get out of here,” Bill said as his eyes stared intently at the path we had just come down. “We’ve got to get you to Avian.”