by C J Singh
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Christina J. Singh
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: [email protected].
First paperback edition February 2020
ISBN 978-1-7366354-1-4 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-7366354-0-7 (ebook)
www.worldofcjsingh.com
For my Grandma, my first reader
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 1
Eden
Slapping the mosquito biting my arm, I stretched my stiff neck and smiled down to Ash, my wolf, who sat patiently at my feet panting. He looked at me expectantly with his bright gold eyes. “Ah, you lush.” I reached down and stroked his beautiful, thick black coat with brown undertones, relishing the moment. But it was short-lived as another mosquito penetrated my arm. “How much longer do you want to sit here? I’m getting eaten alive.”
“Just a few more minutes. My feet are killing me,” Tate, my brother, replied. He was resting against a tree, his ice-blue eyes looking pathetically exhausted as he gave me a dimpled grin.
Tristan, my brother’s best friend, nudged Tate. “You’re such a baby. You need to get out more. All that fishing is making you weak.”
I laughed but stiffened at the echo of a snap. Then another. Only something big would make twigs snap like that. After motioning the boys to be quiet, I scanned the woods for predators, seeing only oak trees and brush. My shoulders relaxed a little. Nothing in the immediate area. Ash stood, hackles up, letting out a low growl. I put my hand on his head to quiet him. If it was a bear, I didn’t want it to hear us. Tate and Tristan both took their daggers from the sheaths on their legs as I slowly pulled an arrow from my pack, knocking it into my bow. If it was something big, my arrows would keep us alive better than their daggers would.
“You idiot!” A man’s voice echoed from the bottom of the mound.
People? There weren’t any people this west of the cabin. We crept toward the edge to get a better look. Ash stayed glued to my calf, ready to attack on command. We had the advantage of being on higher ground, but I continued to scan our surrounding area in case there were others.
“I’m sorry,” a tall young man said. He moved his long black hair from his face as he turned toward two other men.
A man with sandy hair squared off. “You’re sorry? That doesn’t do us any good out here! We’re going to die! Die!”
“We might as well have been killed inside the walls. It would have been quicker than out here. Less painful too,” the third man said. He seemed like the oldest, but I couldn’t get a good look at any of them from our distance.
“Jim is right. We had a plan. Get in, free my sister, and get out. But that wasn’t enough for you. You had to go and be Mr. Salvation. Well, look where it got us!” the sandy-haired man snapped.
“I know! It’s just that once we got there, I saw all the other rooms. I just couldn’t leave them all. So many children! It’s just not right!” Mr. Salvation dropped his head.
“I get it. I do, but Jace... we weren’t prepared for that. You should have known it would be suicide to try and save them all!”
“Well, at least I tried!” Jace’s voice cracked. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t even tried.”
“At least you tried? Are you kidding me? You got us banished to die! How is that a good outcome?”
Jim moved between the other two. “OK, guys. Cool it. We need to figure out what’s out here and where we’ll spend the night. I don’t plan on just giving up.”
“You only think of yourself, Jace. You should have stuck with the plan.” The sandy-haired man pushed him to the side.
“Landon... Jace.” Jim inched between them.
“Seriously? I wasn’t thinking of myself. I was thinking of all those people in cages, with needles stuck in their arms. I was trying to free them. Give them a chance at life!”
“Free them? Where the hell would they go once you freed them? Did you think about that? You know everyone dies once infected. No one survives.”
“Well...”
“That’s what I thought. Idiot.”
Pursing his lips, Jace swung his fist and met the side of Landon’s jaw, filling the trees with a loud grunt.
“What the hell!” He wiped his lip, and when he looked down, there was a smear of red on his finger. Jace never took his eyes off him as he shook out his punching hand.
“You’re going to regret that.” Landon tackled Jace onto the leaf speckled ground. Their grunts filled the clearing, and I cringed at what kind of animals they might attract.
Still hidden within the shadows of the trees, all three of us watched the chaos below. “What the?... We can’t let them kill each other,” I whispered. Jace had Landon pinned on his stomach, but with one swift swing of his head, Landon was on top.
“Why not? We don’t know who they are or what they want. They are from the city. If they kill each other, it saves us the dirty work.” Tate turned and walked away.
I looked back at the fighting men. Landon’s knuckles met Jace’s face over and over, causing blood to spray the surrounding grass. The breeze brought the hint of metal to my nose and I winced. That had to hurt. Jace looked like he may have passed out, but his eyes were open, and I’m pretty sure he was trying to push Landon awa
y with weak arms. Jim grabbed Landon’s shoulder, pulling him, but Landon pushed him away where he fell onto his back.
How could we just let them kill each other? We had never met anyone from the city and the possibility of learning about life within the walls sounded exciting. I didn’t want to just sit back and watch. “I can’t, Tate. He’ll kill him.”
“Eden, leave it.”
I tapped my foot, watching the men. Jace put his hands on Landon’s shoulders in an attempt to push him off. Landon didn’t budge.
“Eden,” Tristan echoed in warning.
I turned and took a step over the top off the mound, but Tristan grabbed my arm, pulling me back into the shade of the trees. Ash stood, moving between us, and Tristan dropped his hold. He tried not to look intimidated by Ash, but his rigid shoulders said otherwise. Clearing his throat, he looked back at me. “Tate’s right. You know how people in the city feel about us. Why should we care if some of them were banished?”
I hesitated. “OK, but have you ever heard of anyone being banished before? If we leave them, they are bound to come across someone out here. We just let them jeopardize others’ lives?”
Tate nodded. “We have no choice. We go back to Old Bob and let him know. He will know what to do.”
Kicking up some leaves on the ground, I rolled my eyes. “All right. Let’s go.”
I gave the three men one last look. Landon was slumped on top of Jace, whose face was unrecognizable through the blood and swelling. Oh yeah, that had to hurt. Turning, I followed my brother and Tristan back to our cabin with Ash trotting at my heels.
***
We approached our old cabin just before dinner. Ellie, our adoptive mother, was lugging two full buckets of fresh creek water up the small hill the cabin was built on.
“Here, let me help.” Tristan jogged over, grabbing the buckets.
“Thank you,” Ellie gasped out, shaking out her arms. “You would think I would be stronger doing that for eighteen years.”
“You’re just getting old.” I nudged her side playfully. “Where’s Old Bob?”
“Inside. He just got back with a rabbit.”
My mouth watered at the thought of juicy rabbit stew. Our garden had been doing well with plump potatoes and carrots.
“Come. We better get everything on the fire before it gets dark,” Ellie grumbled. She tried not to complain about the lack of luxuries she had since the quarantine of the city, but one escaped her daily.
“Hey, just be happy we have four walls and a roof for the rain and nasty winters,” Tate said, emerging from the outhouse.
Ellie smiled, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Always the voice of reason.”
The porch door screeched as we entered and our feet created heavy thuds along the wood floor. You couldn’t move about without someone hearing you. Ash’s nails clinked his way to the fire where he curled up on his favorite blanket.
I helped Ellie with the stew, and as it simmered over the fire, we all relaxed in the living area. I watched Ash’s side move up and down in the slow rhythm of his breaths as the firelight glowed against the brown in his coat. It’d been three years since I found him, a tiny pup in the burnt ashes of a cabin. He imprinted on me, and since then, we have been inseparable.
We told Old Bob about what we saw in the woods as he clutched his cup of tea, the firelight hitting the small crow’s feet on his weather-worn skin. He wasn’t old, but we teased him that he was.
“How many were there?”
“Three,” Tate replied.
“They mentioned being banished. Why would the city banish people now? No one leaves. They are all scared of us,” I said.
Old Bob gave Ellie a quick look before focusing back on his fingers moving through the grooves of the table. Looking away, Ellie went to the kitchen without a word, her long brown hair swinging in a high ponytail down her back.
“Not sure, but if they were banished, we should stay away.” He took a long sip of his tea, narrowing his eyes at me over the top of the mug.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Why was I always the one who was considered reckless? “What should we do then?”
“We?” Old Bob chuckled. “We do nothing. They won’t find us, and in the small chance that they do, I will handle it.” He was always so confident about his abilities. Yeah, he was a good fighter and trained all three of us, but he couldn’t take on the world alone.
“Seriously? We just let them wander the woods? They could come across others.” Our closest neighbor, Ms. Lydia, lived alone. Thinking of her rickety, old body coming in contact with some strangers from the city made my head light.
Old Bob stood. “Seriously.” He softened his gaze. “It’s fine. Nothing will happen. The woods are large. I am more concerned with their survival than them hurting us or anyone else.” He moved through the room toward the kitchen. “If they are from the city, they won’t last long out here alone.”
I looked out the window at the glowing sky. The sun was almost down, leaving the fire as the only light left. Old Bob was probably right, between the virus and scorched land from the war, not even a hundred miles from here, they wouldn’t survive.
“I will set up watch tonight,” Tristan said.
Old Bob looked over his shoulder as he washed his mug in the sink. “If that makes you feel better, feel free. I don’t think it is necessary though.”
“It does.”
Old Bob rubbed his faded scars that marred his tan face. “Very well.” He walked out the back door. I followed his dark shape through the windows as he trudged toward the boathouse and a pit in my stomach formed.
“Do you guys think Old Bob is hiding something?”
“Why would he? He has no reason to lie,” Tate said.
“Yeah. You always think the worst. We’ll sit up, so you don’t worry about a thing,” Tristan said, giving me a grin.
I glared at him. I was not scared and didn’t need them to keep me safe. It was crap and they knew it. I could handle myself as well as they could, probably better. Plus, I had Ash. “If that makes you feel better.” I stomped out of the cabin, their laughs following me.
***
“The blueberries are plump this year.” Tate put a large spoonful into his mouth, smiling as a drip of blue juice rolled down his chin.
“Are you going to go or not?” Tristan rapped his fingers on the table, giving Tate his best game face. Cards were the nightly routine for them making for a good show of entertainment for everyone else. The fun jabs and jokes toward each other filled the cabin with laughter, often pulling Old Bob’s eyes out from behind his books.
“Your hair is so beautiful.” I closed my eyes as the gentle scrape of the brush massaged my scalp. Ellie’s delicate hands worked through my long, thick hair as she braided it in our nightly routine. When I was younger, we would sit back and read stories together, but now we just chatted quietly. I savored our time together, wondering if it would have been the same with my own mother.
She reached down and touched the silver butterfly necklace that hung around my neck with a smile. She had given it to me on my tenth birthday saying, Butterflies represent change and hope, as she slipped it around my neck. I haven’t taken it off since.
“What the... really?” Tate yelled.
A blueberry flew across the room, and I batted it away. “Hey!”
“All right you two. I just swept!” Ellie laughed. “I’ll make you two tea if you’re planning on keeping watch tonight.”
“I’ll do it.” Old Bob put his book down and headed to the kitchen.
Resting my head on Ellie’s shoulder, I smiled at the warm moment of firelight, laughs, and love. I squeezed her arm, pulling her warmth into my heart as she kissed the top of my head. I never wanted this to change.
***
I awoke with a start in the night. Staring up at the
wood rafters in the moonlight, I held my breath to hear what woke me. The quiet steady breaths that filled the cabin from the others were washed out by something large slithering across the grass. Ash’s head lifted from his warm sleeping spot at my feet. I sat up and slid out of bed, pulling in a long breath. Dust and old wood filled my nose, and I stifled a sneeze. Sliding my bare feet on the wood floor, I moved through the cabin. Ash’s paws clicked as he followed and I furrowed my brow at him. “Could you be any louder?” He cocked his head at me, and I smiled.
I worked my way to the back bedroom where Tate was sleeping in his bed. I pushed his shoulder lightly. “Tate.” He didn’t stir. “Tate,” I said a little louder. Still no response. He didn’t usually sleep this deep.
The slithering neared and a knot formed in my stomach. I leaned down and sniffed his mouth, which had the hint of sweetness. Valerian root? Or maybe the blueberries?
I got up and slid my feet to the porch where Tristan was on watch. My movements were quick as my heart rate increased. When I got to the porch, Tristan was asleep upright in the chair. A rush of air left me. Ash sniffed his hand, giving it a little lick as I shook him lightly, but he didn’t stir. When I leaned in, I smelled the same sweet smell. That was definitely valerian root.
“Tristan?” I whispered. Nothing.
Ash whined quietly as the slithering sounded almost right outside the door. Scanning the dark yard, I saw a large, dark figure moving in the dark. Crouching down to get a better view through the porch door, I watched the shadows move through the brush. When the figure hit the clearing in front of the boathouse, my heart dropped as the moon shone on Old Bob’s figure dragging something very large. White puffs of air left his mouth with each pant he made as he lugged the large object. I squinted, trying to get a better look at what he was pulling, but it was too dark. What was he doing?
He moved down the small hill and disappeared into the boathouse. I felt every pump of my heart as I waited, eyes pinned to the boathouse door until he reappeared a few moments later. As he slowly approached the cabin, hunched over, watching the dark ground, Ash licked my hand in an urgent plea to move. I crawled back to the main cabin door careful not to scratch the wood, then tiptoed back to my bed. Ash and I cuddled into our usual positions, but I held my blanket a little tighter to keep my hands from shaking. I kept my eyes closed as I listened to Old Bob creep into his room and shut the door. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.