The Shattered Genesis

  ***

  The hunt had to stop as night descended on us. We slunk back through the wall that opened for us again and set up camp in a clearing about a mile away. Alice rambled on excitedly, actually believing that I was listening. But in the firelight, I watched James as he studied the boxes of rations. In his mind that I could not see, he was speculating on how to give equal portions to the four of us while still preserving enough food to last. He was worried that when we found Elijah, Penny, and Violet that they would be starving and thirsty, and we would have no food or water to give them. We had to have enough for them, too.

  Our supplies were wearing thin. At least the tent and sleeping bag were holding up.

  That was the other dilemma: we had one sleeping bag. The night was growing colder as a huge, bright moon rose over us. I would have been disgusted, honestly, if we all had to sleep right next to each other in order to keep warm. But I would gladly oblige that request if it meant all of us would survive the night. I found Quinn and Alice to be slightly aggravating with their constant bickering and their never-absent urges to chat, but I certainly did not wish death on them.

  Alice and Quinn. Their youth should have been infectious. I should have adapted to their normalcy. Instead, I felt nothing but the familiar cold in my heart. I felt neither desire nor ability to behave the way they did.

  James was capable of entertaining them. Besides his sagely wisdom, he also had a fantastic sense of humor that shifted with every person he met, according to what he or she found amusing. Earlier that night, I had watched Alice and Quinn laugh hysterically at something he had said. They had forgotten their animosity towards one another for a moment as they listened to his rambling, clearly quite entertaining story. In their amusement, I saw what was expected of me. I was supposed to be like them. Even after the world had ended and we faced new, far more dangerous threats on Pangaea, I was supposed to laugh as I pulled the wool over my eyes.

  I could not hold with such imprudence. I knew that for sure. What I did not know was if my will to remain so firmly grounded in reality was a blessing or a curse, if it was right or wrong. I truly did care to know which was the truth, by whomever's standards I should value.

  I needed to pull away from James. He was too close. He had breached the battle-worn walls of my innermost defenses, and I needed to get away before they crumpled, never to be rebuilt again. I was in the palm of his hand.

  Somewhere on that vast, seemingly endless planet, Maura was shaking her head in disappointment at me. Perhaps she was even cruelly smiling, waiting in breathless, sadistic anticipation for the moment he closed his fist and crushed me.

  Or maybe she was worrying herself over it. But I doubted that was true.

  I would not allow myself to be destroyed by a man. I was far too strong for that. I would not allow myself to love or even hold fond feelings for him. I had sworn never to engage in sexual activities with anyone. The vulnerability those acts required made me so sick, I truly could have vomited just by pondering the implications of such weakness for too long. I would not be seen as weak. My protection of myself and my pride were far more powerful than my need for James.

  But no, all of those insidious thoughts were losing their life force inside of my crowded mind. I watched him worrying over the food we had left. I studied the creases in his face that were outlined by the shadows cast by the flames. I had never seen such a handsome man. I had never met one with such a gentle heart. Yes, he was acid-tongued, dishonest, and angry at his worst. But at his best, he took my breath away with his compassion. I had no reason to fear him.

  Ironically, the voice now reasoning on James’s behalf was not my own; it was my mother’s.

  Evil witch. Drunken, cold-hearted shrew. I got rid of her by calling her names. I would not allow myself to hear her voice, not even when the sound soothed me, despite all logic.

  I had looked away from him, my expression souring into one that betrayed great pain. I shook it away, allowing my impassiveness to resume its place on the front lines of my appearance.

  When my eyes moved back to where James had been sitting, he was gone. My heart gave a leap of protest at no longer being able to see him. Then, the warmth in me resumed when I felt his hands rubbing my shoulders.

  “Were you listening to me, baby?”

  I shook my head.

  “I apologize. What did you say?”

  “I said that you need to eat something. You’re starting to look sick.”

  I shook my head again.

  “You think I cannot read your face?” I replied softly, “I might not have full access to your thoughts just yet, but I know of your worry.”

  “You know, you sound like you’re from the medieval age when you talk sometimes.” He told me as he laid down on his side behind me. I leaned back against him, took his arm, and pulled it over my shoulder so I could grasp his hand in both of mine. “Not in inflection, just in word choice.

  “You sound like you dropped out of middle school when you talk sometimes.” I shot back at him, once again, without missing a beat. “Not in inflection, just in word choice, otherwise known as diction.”

  “You’re a dope.” He told me.

  “I’m a dope?” I frowned in joking offense. “You’re a dick.”

  He laughed uproariously and kissed my hand.

  “Was that a slanderous term, Ms. Olivier?”

  “Maybe it was. That felt strangely liberating. It crept up on me, yes. But perhaps I should utilize our language’s most profane terms a little more often.”

  “You are so weird.” He told me as he rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “But I love it. You know I do.”

  “I do know. If you did not love it, you certainly would not put up with me. Of course, I would never change myself to fit your likes and dislikes. You know that as well as I do.”

  “I’d never ask you to change yourself for me. I know you’d never ask me to change anything about myself, either.”

  “You are correct about that. If I expect that courtesy, I will bestow it onto others. That is one of our greatest kindnesses, isn’t it? To accept one another even if it is, as they say, with warts and all?”

  “I have no warts.”

  “Nor do I. Wow, I cannot believe that you successfully distracted me from a serious topic I posed.”

  “It’s magic. It’s skill.” He yawned and said, “It’s magical skill.”

  I laughed again, covering my mouth to stifle the sound. He had laid his head down on his arm and closed his eyes.

  “It is, indeed. Do not go to sleep, because we are discussing it now.” I informed him, and he opened his eyes but did not raise his head. “Thank you. You will not distract me any longer, nor will you drop out of consciousness before this conversation has been had. We are running low on food, are we not?”

  “We are. So you’ll have mine. I’ll survive.”

  I looked back at him, scowling darkly. His tone had been resolute; he would not accept any other suggestion or negotiation on the matter. Well, that is what he thought, anyway.

  “You will not starve yourself for my sake. They are my siblings. If they need food, then they will have mine. You should not and are not expected to starve for them. I, on the other hand, would have it no other way.”

  “I know. You put their interests far above your own, always. Why is that?”

  “I asked you kindly not to distract me, you evilly manipulative man. I cannot believe how easily you are able to do that.” I cut off the discussion about my sacrificial tendencies in regards to Penny, Elijah, and Violet before it began. I wanted to tell him everything there was to know about my past. But I was not ready for that, and I would not push myself to reach that point.

  “Your stomach is grumbling.” I informed him.

  “I have all of this new muscle to eat through. You look like you’re two steps from a rehabilitation clinic.”

  “Isn't that funny? There was a rehabilitation clinic right by my building. Too bad we are not
on Earth anymore. I would not have to walk far, and if I escaped, I would be able to quickly disappear into my apartment and lock the door before they found me.”

  “I remember you telling me about that clinic being so close to your apartment. You kindly directed me there when you thought I was trying to abduct you.”

  “Technically, you did abduct me. But in this case, your criminal behavior saved my life.” I looked back at him again. “I hate to think about what would have happened if you had not been there that night. I see it all the time, you know. When I do finally sleep. I see many awful things, actually.”

  I had seen beastly hands ripping into my abdomen and pulling out its contents. The two Reapers were eating me while my heart still pumped oxygen to my brain, allowing it to function well enough for me to process my predicament. I felt every excruciating moment of my death. I had seen the Earth burning, people screaming, dying, or worse, living. I had lived through the hearts and minds of those who had lost children, parents, husbands, wives, spouses. It was easy yet painful, moving through the collective unconscious of those who had survived. It never failed to leave me, after a tumultuous night of sleep, feeling raw and irreparably damaged.

  All-Knowings, or Athenes, as we are officially called, are known universally by another name, Sanssommeil, or, loosely translated, The Sleepless.

  “Come here.” James told me softly, and I leaned over to him. His lips grazed mine gently before pressing to them for a long, glowing moment. “You don’t ever have to worry about that, okay?”

  I nodded.

  Above all things, James wanted me to feel safe. I had never detailed the grimmer aspects of my life to him, but somehow, he already seemed to know them. At least, he knew their ghastly effects on me as a person. His efforts to make me feel secure worked perfectly. I had never felt as safe as I did when I was with him. There was still a part of my brain that urged me to pull away. But slowly, that part began to silence itself as it faded to nothing. I stood and waved goodbye to that inclination cheerfully but with a certain reluctance to accept its departure. I needed my cynicism and iciness to survive, didn’t I?

  That woman ruined you. My mother had told me once, and when I looked up at her, shocked that she had spoken to me, I had seen that her eyes were fixated on Maura. When I asked her what she had said, she pretended that she had not spoken. Maybe she hadn’t.

  “What are you thinking about? You look like you're in pain.” James told me, and I knew that though he tried to pass off what he had said as a joke, he was also slightly concerned.

  “Nothing. Just thinking. I go off to strange places sometimes, but I always find my way back.” I explained quickly. I looked at him, and a smile pulled at the corners of my mouth. “I might be worried about having those two people I just met snuggled up against me while we sleep tonight. Picturing that would certainly provoke a look of agony to appear on my face.”

  “Do you really think I would put you in such an uncomfortable position? Even though now, I'm definitely tempted because the look on your face would be priceless. Seriously, I'm in need of a good laugh.”

  “Why don't you put me into that uncomfortable situation and observe the events that follow? Do you want to sleep alone with two teenagers, or do you want to sleep with me?”

  “Now, are we talking about sleeping with you in the literal sense or...”

  I shot him a scathing look over my shoulder. The effectiveness of that glare was hindered by the smile that had taken its place on my lips again.

  “The evil stare, coupled with a grin she is trying to suppress. What do I make of this? Is she amused at my joke, or is she is trying to set me aflame?” He narrowed his eyes as he studied me. “I guess I should tell her that I compromised with those people, whose names are Alice and Quinn. They're going to sleep in the tent, but we’re going to get the sleeping bag. If we’re all still together tomorrow, then we’ll switch. Does that make you happy?”

  “Consider me elated, honey.”

  “Oh, elated... I've done well.”

  Later, I watched as he unrolled the sleeping bag on the flattest part of the dirt. We crawled into it, the small space forcing me deep into his arms. I would not have wanted to be anywhere else, anyway. He locked his arms around me, and I was warmed wonderfully by the heat from his body.

  “I’m going to stay up and keep watch. But you need to sleep, Brynn.”

  All lighthearted joking and teasing had dissipated between us. Now, we were gravely serious.

  “I don’t want to sleep. I told you that I have those awful dreams, James.”

  He kissed my forehead.

  “Don’t you remember what I told you on the ship when you took that pill?” He whispered after I had looked up at him. The kiss he planted on my lips sent that delightful shock-wave through my body. “I’ll watch over you, baby. I’ll wake you up. Right now, you have to sleep.”

  I was so warm and snug there in the sleeping bag with him. Every part of me was drained from the day of walking and worrying. My body was seduced into sleep by the heaviness of my eyelids.

  “We’ll figure this all out tomorrow.” He assured me gently, “We won't stop until we find them, I promise.”

  I nodded, believing him. I needed to believe him. I could not picture Elijah, Penny, or Violet being hurt. I could not stand the image that forced itself to the front of my dozing mind: I saw them crawling on the ground, searching for food as their lives drained slowly and painfully like water from a bucket stuck through the bottom with a nail.

  My Penny… If there was one person for whom I could admit that I felt actual love, it was her. I loved that little girl. I prayed to the faceless deities or the one God to keep them all safe, but I prayed for Penny above all else. Her childish mind was as pure and good as the planet on which we were currently residing. I feared the destruction of such purity. I would fight the mutilation of her innocence with the same malicious violence that the Pangaean people had used to fight us.

  I wished someone had fought so viciously for me.

  James’s heart was beating steadily in his chest, lulling me further into that blissful sleep. I grasped him tighter, drawing in his intoxicating scent. I wanted to stay there with him forever and forget every unspeakably horrific thing that had happened.

  “You love him.” My mother’s voice told me, and I could hear the faint gleam of a smile in her words.

  Shut up, Mother.

  Quinn

  We laid staring up at the tent above our heads. She was as far away from me as the space we were lying in would allow. I didn’t look at her. She didn’t look at me. Neither one of us said a word.

  What the hell was my problem? There was no reason for my anger. I knew how pointless it was. I knew I was wrong. But of course, I couldn’t admit that out loud. I couldn’t allow myself to realize that our problems had nothing to do with her newly found craving for human flesh. She was my last reminder of home, and I was hers. That was a link I never thought could be shattered. In truth, it was that “unbreakable” link that was tearing us apart.

  Who was Alice? She was my girlfriend of two years, and I loved her as much as seventeen-year-old boys can love their girlfriends, which, of course, is more than anyone else is capable of. But our final days on Earth had been the worst of our lives, to say the least. Our parents’ deaths had occurred in those days. We had been fleeing the great explosion. There had been so much uncertainty. Through that uncertainty, fear was born. I associated her with those unpleasant feelings because she had been with me as those awful events unfolded. She was a constant reminder of what we had seen, and what we had seen were sights that no one, especially not two seventeen-year-old kids, should ever have to see.

  “I wish I could understand why you’re so mad, Quinn.” She said to me suddenly. The random break in the uncomfortable silence triggered irritation in me that was unwarranted. I should have known that she would want to talk about our problems. In fact, I should have wanted to talk about them, too.
r />   My unwillingness to discuss our issues led to another question: Did I really want them to be fixed?

  “Are you just going to ignore me?” She pushed.

  “Yeah.” I answered shortly.

  “Why?” Her voice was trembling with the threat of tears, “Quinn, I did what I had to do. Why can’t you understand that? Would you have wanted me to let myself get killed just so I wouldn’t kill someone else?”

  I didn’t respond. I had made it very clear what I would have wanted her to do. I had so much to say but lacked the energy or the motivation to discuss and resolve the tension between us.

  “I don’t understand you!” She exclaimed, and now, she was crying. “I never would have seen you differently. If you had killed those things, I wouldn’t have cared.”

  “I know you wouldn’t have. And I told you that you could have just knocked them out.”

  “I tried. They were so fast. They’re tough. It takes a lot to knock them out. They’re not like those guards, who were only human. The natives are monsters, Quinn. They're worse than those things that took my mom and dad, even.”

  “I’m not going to apologize for wanting to find other ways around things. I’m not going to apologize for not wanting to kill people. I don’t want to mutate into whatever you’re mutating into. You’ve forgotten everything that you’ve ever believed in.” Just as I had begun to believe that I wouldn’t be telling her a thing, I was letting it all flow out like toxic, volcanic ash. “You were the one that told Elijah not to go into the ship after Brynna and start shooting people. You were the one on Earth who was always talking about God and how we should live a Christian life. Do you remember any of that? Or has whatever freakish thing that’s taking over you made you forget?”

  She put her face in her hands and cried harder. I was being unnecessarily cruel and unforgivably immature. I didn’t realize that at the time. We never realize just how awful we can be when we’re fighting with people we love. In fact, it’s those we love who receive the worst of our rage. They feel our innermost darkness because we inflict it on them more willingly than we would on strangers.

  “Maybe you’re not even you. For all I know, you’ve been taken over the same way that your parents were. Maybe that’s a sign, that it was your parents and not mine who got possessed by those things. Maybe you were always…” I searched for the right word before settling on one that was far and beyond anything I should have said, “Maybe you've been evil this whole time.”

  “I’m evil because I defended myself? I had to kill both of my parents. I did it because they were stuck somewhere terrible, Quinn! If you knew what I had seen and what I had felt, you would never throw that in my face! If you knew how fast and strong those two natives were and how strongly I had known that they were going to kill me, then you wouldn’t care that I had killed them first. I didn’t want to get ripped apart! I didn’t want to die! I might have been the religious one on Earth, but you were the logical one. Or…” She realized how dumb that sounded, and tried to rephrase it unsuccessfully. “You were the one who… I don’t know! You were the one who believed in Darwin and all of that ‘survival of the fittest’ stuff. Weren’t you?” I didn’t answer, “Weren’t you?!”

  “Yeah, I was. That has nothing to do with this.”

  “Yes, it does! Remember when we used to argue about God and evolution?”

  For a minute, I remembered those heated debates we had gotten into so many times. We had always been so interested in the things we learned in school, which was odd, considering that other kids our age didn’t care in the slightest. We used to debate and discuss all the interesting things we had read or been taught by our teachers. The arguing was never malicious; it was just spirited.

  “You always used to say that as humans evolved, they adapted. You always used to go back to Darwin and ‘survival of the fittest.’ Isn’t that what’s happening to us?”

  Maybe we couldn’t fully support Darwin’s theories as the reason for why we were changing, but it was certainly something to lean on. She was right, and I was so very wrong.

  I still couldn’t admit it.

  “We’re changing to adapt to a new world. There are threats here that we couldn’t face if we were just human.”

  “So why are we the only ones who are doing it, then?” I demanded as I stabbed blindly at her arguments, just to cut them down and prove that I was right.

  “There are other people who are doing it! James and Brynna are evolving! You’re not getting on their case about it!”

  “Because they’re not my responsibility!”

  “I’m not your responsibility, either!” She snapped at me as angry tears still streamed down her face. “I can take care of myself!”

  “Well, you’re going to prove that now, because I’m not watching your back anymore! I don’t care about you anymore! If you want to embrace whatever this is, then fine. But I won’t! I don’t want to evolve, or whatever you want to call it! I want to be normal!”

  “Well, newsflash, little boy, it’s happening whether you like it or not! And it doesn’t just come down to science! It’s God’s will, too!”

  “You have a lot of nerve talking about God and His will, don’t you? Isn’t the number one rule in His little book not to kill people?!”

  “Will you stop harping on that?! When will you understand that I had no choice?!”

  “You’ve made stupid choices before. You let that thing into your house, and if I hadn’t shown up, you would be dead right now!”

  “It talked to me in my mother’s voice! It appeared to me as her! I didn’t know! And in case you’ve forgotten, I was the one who shot it! So, don’t tell me I would have been screwed if you hadn’t come along!”

  “I’m glad that you’re so happy that you shot your parents, Alice!”

  “How can you say that?! I am not happy about it!”

  We were fully screaming at each other by that point and not caring if James and Brynna heard.

  “How could you ever say that I’m happy about it?! I had no choice then, either! They were suffering!”

  “You don’t even know that for sure…”

  “Believe me, I do! And just because you didn’t kill your own parents doesn’t mean that you didn’t kill them! You left! You had one after you, too!”

  “Yeah, it was your dad!”

  “It wasn’t my dad!”

  “Well, your mom was outside of your house and the only other creature we know of was your dad! So yeah, it was him!”

  “That wasn’t his fault, if it was him, but it wasn’t him! We’re both responsible for what happened to our parents! Something was after us, and we ran from it! We didn’t realize that we were running, but we were! So they possessed my parents to get close to us! And somehow, they’re all dead now. Nothing else matters except that they're dead now, Quinn! Somehow, through some chain of events, they’re dead!”

  “You don’t need to question the chain of events! We know how it happened! And it was your fault! If you hadn’t called me that night, I would have been there to stop that thing before it killed them! My mom and dad were outside of my door! They had been trying to hide me from it! And I wasn’t even there!”

  “That’s your own fault! That has nothing to do with me!”

  “What part of, 'If you hadn’t called me,’ didn’t you understand?!”

  “So what, you’re mad that you saved me?”

  “Yeah, I am. Because you know what, if I could go back in time, I would have saved them! I should have saved them over you!”

  The words brought such a sting that she was rendered silent. I wanted to cover my mouth after they came tumbling out. I wanted to take it back. But she jumped up and stormed out of the tent. After stomping past Brynna and James, who were still awake, she disappeared into the trees.

  “This is none of our concern.” Brynna told James.

  “We can’t let her go storming off into the woods at night by herself.” James reasoned with her.


  “Sure we can.” Brynna replied airily. To prove it, she laid down and closed her eyes. “She will be back when she has had her tantrum. I would be angered substantially by such harsh, brutal words as well. A person stalking after me as I sought a quiet place to be angry would be the last thing I would want.”

  “Just leave her! She can handle herself out there! She’s proven that, hasn’t she?!” I snapped at both of them as I zipped up the tent.

  “I’ll go get her if you don’t.” James said to Brynna.

  “James, I sincerely doubt that you can handle the tumultuous emotions of an eighteen-year-old girl.”

  “But you can. Please, will you go get her before she gets hurt?”

  I was sure that him gently prodding her into doing the right thing was a common occurrence in their relationship. If there was one person who knew how complicated women could be, it was James. I wanted to talk to him like I had earlier. Even though he had dragged me into that conversation about Alice, I had felt slightly less angry after it was over. I doubted that Brynna could comfort Alice, but I knew that James could talk me down.

  But I didn’t want to be talked down. I was right. No one would tell me otherwise.

  “Fine.” Brynna sighed heavily.

  In my fury, I had pulled the zipper of the tent roughly but still hadn’t closed the flap all the way. Through the open space I saw her roll on top of him and lean down to kiss him quickly as he laid beneath her.

  “Be safe. Holler if you need me.”

  “I’ve got this. I can handle myself quite efficiently, Mr. Maxwell.”

  “I know you can.” He reached up and moved her hair away from her face. “But just in case, right?”

  She kissed him again and crawled out of the sleeping bag. He watched her walk off into the darkness of the trees that surrounded our clearing.

  “You’re wrong!” James called back to me from outside.

  “I am not!”

  I heard him chuckle softly to himself.

  “Ah, the arrogance of youth.”

  “Your little girlfriend is like, three years older than me. So, I’m sure you see the arrogance of youth a lot.”

  “I don’t, actually. Have a good night, Quinn.”

  I knew that he wasn’t going to sleep because Brynna was out in the woods. He wouldn’t allow his guard to drop until she was safely back with him. I should have felt the same protectiveness over Alice. But my feelings for her were evaporating quickly. I never could have foreseen such a change in our relationship. I had thought naively that we would be together forever. Now, I knew that the chances of that actually happening were almost nonexistent.

  I knew exactly what my parents had known all along. Though it hadn’t been different college choices, different life goals, or even outside hatred of interracial relationships that had torn us apart, we had still been torn apart. They had always known it would happen though they had never known that it would happen exactly the way it had.

  Well, if you’re listening, I thought, I want you to know that you were right. You never could have known that we would end up here. But you did know that in the end, I wouldn’t love her anymore. So you were right. I just want you to know that.

  I sensed that in some far off place unknown to the living, my parents felt no joy in response to my admittance of failure or even in my acknowledgment of their wisdom that had been so spot-on. It felt almost as though we had their approval finally, but that it made no difference now.

  I felt that if they could change the course of events, they would not have spared themselves. They would have held Alice and me together. We needed each other now, they believed. We were all we had.

  I turned over on my side and closed my eyes, shutting out those beliefs I knew to be factual. I forced myself to view them as just rambling speculations.

  But in the deepest part of my heart, I knew that they were communicating with me somehow. When I was at the point right before I dropped off to sleep, I sometimes heard them, but that night, just before I shut out their transparent voices, I heard one last thing spoken by my father:

  “…before it’s too late.”

  Violet

  Maura’s face tumbled around in my mind as I slept. The usual warmth that accompanied seeing her was absent, as though it had never existed to begin with. Now, all I felt was a rolling nausea as I thought about her abandonment; she had chosen our father, who would never love her, over us, who always would.

  Brynna would call it desperation. They had been young when they were in love. In fact, Maura, in her drunken state, once admitted to Brynna that he was the only man she had ever loved. I knew that wasn’t true. Maura had been married once before, to my father’s best friend, who was the kindest, gentlest, most generous man I had ever known. I remembered him so fondly as bringing us presents and telling us stories about his trips overseas. While power had corrupted my father, it had never corrupted Michael. How Maura couldn’t love him was beyond my realm of understanding.

  Maura lusted after my father with no shame. Long after he was married to my mother, she still carried a torch for him. It wasn’t a low-burning flame about to snuff out with one strong wind. It was a full-fledged inferno. I was beginning to see my father and Maura the way Brynna always had.

  Perhaps that was unwise, to feel as Brynna felt. I knew that through all the hatred and disdain, there was a tiny hurt inside of her that was the direct result of the way everything had played out. I had never been on the receiving end of Maura’s bitterness, but Brynna certainly had.

  Admitting that I was fascinated by my sister’s odd personality was easy. I spent plenty of time musing on it. I understood now that I was older exactly what had bred such animosity. Admitting that I pitied her, even slightly, was a hard pill to swallow. Brynna needed no one’s pity, and if she knew she had mine, it would infuriate her.

  Penny was so easy to understand because she was young. Elijah was complicated in his own right, but since he had escaped much of the emotional storm by shutting himself in his room, he fared better than Brynna. Her distrust and her anger were spun around endlessly in her always moving mind. The way she spoke and the way she embraced such iciness were her defense mechanisms.

  I hadn’t understood that before. It took feeling the harsh sting of Maura’s abandonment for me to understand. I couldn’t imagine the feeling amplified three-fold; Maura, my mother, and my father had all cut off their love for Brynna at the same time. I couldn’t imagine that kind of pain.

  I decided that if I saw her again, I would give her and James my blessing. If she was able to trust him, then I absolutely should have been able to, as well. Of course, I had heard some stories about him from the other survivors that were not complimentary. But if I asked about the allegations that were made, I was sure that he’d be more than willing to explain himself.

  I knew they had found their way back to each other, the same way I knew a lot of things. I just knew.

  He made her happy. I saw her smile and laugh genuinely for the first time in so many years. When I was around, she tried to hide her happiness, but I could always see it. If there was one thing she couldn’t keep hidden, it was the joy she felt when she was with James. She deserved that, especially after what had happened with Lucien.

  Elijah would see it differently. He would never approve of James. He would insist that in the end, James would only end up hurting her. She deserved sure, never-ending happiness. No gambling would be acceptable. It had to be sure.

  I awoke from my sleep to see a shape looming over me. My heart skipped a beat, and I opened my mouth to scream, only to find that the sound had been cut off as though someone was grasping my throat. My hand flew up to touch my neck; I didn't feel a hand wrapped around it.

  “It’s me!” A familiar voice whispered, and my fear calmed upon hearing it. I closed my eyes and reached up to touch his face; touching his distinct facial features was the only way I could be sure that what my hands felt matched the mental image I had of him and th
e voice that had spoken.

  Nick.

  “It’s gone mad back at camp! I ran in here after you because it’s not safe there anymore!”

  “How did you find us?” I whispered after sitting up. “We’ve been looking for Brynna all day and haven’t been able to find her.”

  “Remember when I told you that you smelled good? Well, somehow, I was able to follow your scent! I smelled it the minute I walked into the woods!”

  “That’s crazy!” I whispered, “Can you smell Brynna?”

  “I’ve never met her. I don’t know what she smells like.”

  “Oh.”

  “Are you alright? Have you seen those people in here?”

  “Not yet.” I shook my head even though he couldn't see me. “But I know they’re around. Can’t you feel them?”

  “Yes. It’s like they’re all around us but I can’t see them, you know?”

  “I know.” I replied as I looked around into the endless darkness. The moon had moved further away from us, taking its natural lighting along. We wouldn’t be able to see until morning. For all we knew, the reason we could feel the natives lurking in the trees was because they actually were surrounding us. They could have attacked at any minute, and we’d have had no time to prepare.

  “It’s dangerous to be sleeping out here in the open.” Nick warned me delicately. It was as though he had read my thoughts. “They can see in the dark.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Yeah, they didn’t come to the campsite until later tonight. Your father made us put out our fires. It was the stupidest thing we could have done because we couldn’t see them. The moon was too far away to give us any light.”

  “So, they just attacked you in the dark?”

  “Yeah, and they didn’t miss the people they were going after. They went right to them. They didn’t need any light to see, so they can see in the dark. That's what I think, anyway. There isn't another explanation for how they could see.”

  I shuddered and pulled my dirt-covered sweater around me. The days were mild, but the nights were freezing-cold on Pangaea.

  “Did they only take ten?”

  “No. Tonight, they took twenty. After they were gone, there was this huge fight. Your dad was trying to keep people calm but he only made it worse. People don’t trust him anymore. Not all people, anyway. The group is splitting up tomorrow.”

  “Where are they going?”

  “I don’t know. They don’t know, either. They’re just going, I think. They’re just getting out of the open.”

  “Don’t the natives know that we have nowhere else to go? We can’t go back to Earth. It’s gone.”

  “I know,” Nick replied, “Trust me, I’d love to go home now.”

  “Remember the other day when we were talking about Germany?”

  “Yeah.” I could hear him smiling.

  “I always said that if I went to Europe, I wanted to see Paris, Rome, and London. But I definitely would add Germany to the list.”

  “You’d love it. I know I did.” There was a long pause before he spoke the words that we both were thinking. “The last days on Earth were so chaotic that we didn't think this through completely. All we thought about was surviving another day. We just wanted to still be standing after everything was over. Even during all of that, though, I really did think that coming to another planet would be great. But I’d give anything to go home now.”

  I was thankful for the darkness because tears began to leak from my eyes. I swallowed hard before taking a deep breath. I didn’t expect Nick to comfort me. I wouldn’t even put him into the position where he felt like he had to embrace me or offer me kind words of reassurance. So when I spoke, I made sure that my voice was steady.

  “Me too.”

  “I upset you.”

  What the hell?

  “I can see you.” He explained.

  “You can see in the dark, too?”

  “Yes. Try it. Just focus on it. Tell yourself that you need to be able to see.”

  I closed my eyes and tried. Sure enough, when I opened them, I could see. It was like peering through a lens when the camera was set to night vision. The only difference was that details were not glossed over. In fact, they were crystal clear.

  “Weird, isn’t it?”

  I nodded.

  “The natives can see in the dark and now we can, too.” I looked up at him, “That is really weird. Do you think we’re turning into them?”

  I watched him look off, his face contorted into an expression of great concern. He had been contemplating that, too. I expected him to lie in order to spare my feelings. I didn’t think that he would want to worry me. But instead, he opted for honesty.

  “I think so. I think it’s in the air here. We’re becoming Pangaean.”

  “I don’t want to be Pangaean.”

  “Neither do I. I read so many American comic books as a kid. X-Men, Green Lantern… You know what I’m talking about, ja?”

  I nodded. I had been friends with a couple of guys whose whole lives revolved around raiding comic book stores for “hidden treasures,” as they called them. They were the biggest nerds that I had ever met, but they were also my very best friends. I had enjoyed our excursions to the store, our rambling excitement that was shared so willingly with the workers, and our hours spent reading silently within the safe confines of my indoor patio.

  “You’re way too cool to be a girl.” One of them had told me.

  I had laughed in response.

  “You just haven't met any cool girls yet.”

  I was smiling slightly at those memories. I remembered so vividly the colors of the pictures and the intricate stories. I had been a nerd. Miranda always made fun of me for it. Even though she was smart, she was a Justin Bieber fan who spent hours painting her nails and styling her hair. We had been so different. After existing for so long within the confines of high school, though, I believed that we were exactly the same.

  My smile faded as a suffocating realization took hold of me: All of those people were dead. I hadn’t thought about it in those terms before. But every last one of my friends was gone. The finality of it took my breath away, leaving my grasping my chest as I struggled to draw in an unchallenged breath.

  Nick was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the sudden change in my mood.

  “I read all of those things and thought it would be so cool to have powers. Sometimes, especially in X-Men, they wanted to be normal. I didn’t understand it. How could you want to be normal when you were special, right? But now, I do understand. We’re changing over into what the natives are, and I’d give anything to go back. Go back to Earth, go back to just being human.”

  Hearing him talk had lulled me back into calmness. His voice and his words were so delicate, though I'm sure that sounds strange. The content of what he was saying was a welcome distraction, too.

  “Comfort in normalcy.” I wiped at my eyes, wondering if I had muttered that phrase to him or in response to my internal musings about him. To avoid that heavy mental conversation, I addressed what he had said. “I feel the same way. I keep asking myself what I would have done if I knew everything I know now and Brynna came to me, telling me we had to leave the earth. I don’t know if I would have gone.”

  “I think you would have. I know I would have. I wouldn’t have wanted to die. I’ll take having powers and being hunted by natives over dying. Even if we’re running from them, at least we’re still alive to run, you know?”

  I did know. It was an almost paradoxical statement, and yet I totally understood what he was saying. I agreed wholeheartedly.

  “We’ll find your sister, Violet. I found you.”

  I nodded again and leaned into him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and we stayed clasped together, protecting each other from the cold of the night and our own regrets and fears. When dawn broke, my eyes switched over to normal. I scanned the trees around us, seeing no one hiding amongst the fading darkness.
Penny awoke a few minutes after the light began to descend on us. Elijah snored away, and I let him; he needed to sleep.

  “Hi, Nick,” Penny greeted him with a wide smile, “Look, I lost a tooth!” She pointed into her mouth proudly.

  “Oh, look at that!” Nick replied as he bent down to observe the gap. “Did you leave it under your pillow for the...”

  I gestured to him madly behind Penny's back, mouthing, “No! No!” But Penny was smart enough to have already picked up exactly what Nick was about to say.

  “Vi told me that the tooth fairy doesn’t live on Pangaea. She says that maybe there’s a different fairy that brings other stuff. I didn’t get anything. So I think she’s wrong. But it’s okay because I haven’t seen any stores. So I don’t think that I need money. And what other stuff could I get besides toys? I really wanted this singing thing I saw in the store back home...”

  And away she went… Penny rambled to Nick enthusiastically about everything from her lost tooth to the way Elijah passed gas in his sleep. Nick was cracking up through that particular conversation. I turned my head away, trying not to show how hard I was laughing, too. Elijah would be mortified to learn that Penny shared that information with a semi-stranger so freely, and that made it all the funnier.

  “And we’re looking for Brynna. We need to wake up Elijah so we can find her. I still haven’t told her about my tooth! Well, I haven’t told her because I haven’t seen her. But when we find her, Violet says she’s going to be so excited! I think she will be, too. Hang on a second, okay?”

  She walked over to Elijah and shook him with both hands.

  “Wake up, Eli! We have to go find Brynna.”

  Elijah sat up abruptly, almost smacking into her head with his own. Luckily, she dodged out of the way in a blur of movement. Nick looked back at me, eyes and mouth opened wide in shock. I nodded and shrugged.

  “Her, too?” He whispered to me.

  I nodded again and suppressed a smile.

  “What’s going on?” Elijah asked groggily as he looked around. His eyes stopped on Nick.

  “Hey, man. How the hell did you find us?”

  “Hey. It's a long story.” Nick replied, “How’s your digestion?”

  I snorted through my nose as I tried not to laugh. But the hilarity overtook me; I leaned forward to rest my face against my legs and giggled uncontrollably.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. I just hope it’s all going well.”

  Elijah looked between us in confusion. Then, he shook his head.

  “I’m not even going to ask. Seriously, though, how did you find us?”

  “I must have memorized Violet’s scent. I followed it until I found you.”

  “So you’re mutating too, then?” Elijah said.

  “I guess so. Where is your nanny? What was her name?”

  “Maura.” Elijah and I answered grimly.

  “She stayed behind.” I answered. I didn’t want to divulge the full details. I didn’t want to hear a person voice my own disgust at Maura’s choice. To hear it spoken out loud by a third party observer would do more harm than good. Sure, I’d like to hear Maura being torn down as a broken, pathetic woman who abandoned her surrogate children for a man who didn't love her. But it wouldn't lessen the sting of her leaving us. Bashing her out loud would only upset Penny.

  Nick didn’t ask questions. Instead, we all just started walking. Penny was munching on some dried fruit loudly behind me, reminding me of my own hunger. I looked down as my stomach gave a mighty rumble. I would feed her above myself, always. Elijah would skip his meals for me. We were used to sacrificing things for each other but those sacrifices had never involved food. We had always had more than enough at home, what with Maura demanding that our chef make us portions large enough to feed bodybuilders training for the Olympics.

  “All you have to do is look west just a little bit, and you’ll see people who don’t have money to eat. If your parents can afford to feed you this much, then you should eat this much.” She would say as we shoveled in those generous helpings of rich, delicious foods. I tried not to remember the tangy tomato sauce on the homemade pasta or the huge pieces of fried chicken that when bitten into, yielded only juicy white meat. As I chewed a hard piece of dried pear, I tried not to remember the sweet berry cobbler that our chef always made us in the summertime…

  “Oh my God, I’m torturing myself…” I muttered to Nick as he walked beside me.

  “How is that?”

  “I’m remembering all the food we used to eat at home. I told you about my parents' jobs. They had money, and they were never at home. Maura cooked once in a while, but we also had a chef. She made us so much food, we ran out of room in our stomachs.”

  “What kind of food?”

  “Nick!” I laughed, and my stomach growled painfully. “I’m not going to torture you, too!”

  “Why not? Misery loves company, doesn’t it?” He asked with a smile.

  “Maybe so. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to torment you with my vivid memories of homemade pizza with oozing cheese, bloody steaks and huge baked potatoes with sour cream and butter melting inside…” I sighed longingly and leaned against him, grasping his arm in both hands.

  “This is torturing me. You’re right.” He told me with a soft, forced laugh.

  “Do you know what I would give for…”

  I was so stunned by what was before me that I halted my sentence, never to resume it again. We had walked under a log and pushed through some hanging vines to come upon that sight. Nick and I stared, wide-eyed and mouths agape. I think we might have even been drooling.

  Before us was a large grass hut. The smell of cooking meat wafted over us, sending us into an intoxicated stupor. On a table fashioned from the remnants of an old, huge, chopped-down tree, there were cooked vegetables; fluffy mashed potatoes, steamed greens of an unknown origin, mushrooms tossed in some sauce that appeared to be butter, and huge pieces of what appeared to be purplish-blue broccoli were right there, ours for the taking. On another trunk-table, there were huge pieces of meat, cut open in the center to reveal their peeling, juicy, red centers. Even from where I was standing, I could see that there was not a scrap of fat on those succulent cuts. I could smell freshwater, too, and when I looked, I saw a stream running quietly behind the hut.

  “I don’t even know what to say.” I blurted out as I stared, unblinking, at the feast that was before us.

  Nick just shook his head. I looked over at him to see that he was diverting his gaze to the trees above or around us. Every time he tried to look away, though, his eyes snapped back to the still-steaming food. His conscience was trying to force him away from the buffet that wasn’t ours, but his senses were overpowered by the grandiosity of it. His aching hunger was too much to bear in the presence of such divine food.

  “Why are we hesitating?” He whispered before turning his gaze away to meet my eyes.

  “I don’t know,” I giggled almost maniacally, “Let’s eat it!”

  “No!” He grabbed my arm when I went to walk forward, “We’re starving, ja? So, why are we hesitating?”

  “Because we know that this technically isn’t our food. But whoever is in that cabin won’t mind if we take some. Come on, we’re two starving kids. They won’t care.”

  “Stop!” He grabbed my arm to stop me from entering the clearing and grabbing a huge piece of meat off of the pure-white bone. “It’s the instincts, Violet! They’re telling us not to eat it! And it’s a native in that cabin! They’re probably waiting for us to start eating their food. Then they’re going to come out and attack us!”

  “God, I’ll knock on the door if it’s such a big deal.”

  “Everything is quiet! Listen!” He exclaimed in a loud whisper as he looked all around again. I looked up, too, expecting to be able to call him a paranoid moron before shoving off to stuff my face. But he was right; the bird-like creatures that tweeted and sang in hypnotic consistency we
re silent. The trees were no longer rustling in the soft wind. In fact, the wind had stopped completely. It was as though we had fallen into some alternate space where some onlooker could pause the setting at will.

  I could acknowledge that some unknown danger was brewing, or I could allow my hunger to drive me further into the clearing where I would drop down on my knees in front of those tree trunk tables and start eating every bit of that fantastic smelling food until it was gone.

  “I’m so hungry, Nick…”

  I struggled to grasp common sense. I struggled to remain in the brush. I knew that if I took a step, something would happen. There was a large chance that I would step out into the clearing and be ambushed by natives. But there was still that small chance that I could walk out and watch the food multiply to the same plentiful portions as what I was used to from home. It was such a small chance, but it still existed…

  My instincts were not dissuading me from believing that it was true…

  I took a step and was immediately plunged into darkness.

  “Violet!” Nick yelled behind me, but his voice echoed around in my ears like some distant, annoying thought I was trying to suppress. The food and the cabin were still in front of my eyes. I knew that the sudden night was not normal, but for all I knew, it was just another Pangaean oddity. I ran to the trunk table and knelt in front, grabbing a huge handful of that steaming, sweating meat. It broke off with no fight, tumbling from the bone gracefully. With no finesse needed as I had no one to impress, I took a monstrous bite and actually growled in feral joy. The moment the meat hit my stomach, I could have stopped eating as I felt a comfortable fullness. But instead, I ripped even further into the handful I held, desperate for a permanent end to that agonizing hunger.

  The door of the grass hut creaked open so loudly that I dropped the meat to cover my ears. I looked up to see a swirling, breathing darkness in the open space. I stared at it, remembering nightmares where I was staring into a dark abyss similar to that one, wishing I could pry my eyes away before some ghastly apparition appeared to me, scarring its hideous face onto my protesting retinas, never to be erased. I couldn’t look away; I strained my eyes trying, but they held steadfastly to the darkness.

  From within it, I heard a raspy breathing.

  I struggled to stand, wanting to run as quickly as my newly-mutated body would allow. I begged whatever was holding me still to release its iron grip. I begged my eyes to look away.

  They poured out of the grass hut like ants furiously escaping their smashed colony. They crawled across the ground at a speed that would make the natives turn and run. Somehow, even as I drew quick, desperate breaths, I felt the meat in my hand turn to soft, dripping mush. I looked down to find that the bowl was filled with trailing pieces of flesh mixed with blood of such a deep red that it burned my eyes.

  In a horror beyond anything ever experienced by man or woman, I screamed as tears poured from my eyes. Every last one of those hideous creatures stopped running. They stared at me with unblinking, white eyes. The slashes in their faces that were their mouths opened and closed the way a fish gasps as it flails on a ship’s deck. It was silent, so unflinchingly silent that my ears rang with the same high-pitched squealing that came before the blast that had destroyed the earth...

  In an eruption of sound that shook the very dirt beneath my feet, my scream was sent back to me, toppling me backwards, crippling my body. It was being spewed back by those unholy creatures that wanted to rip me apart and consume the shreds of my body…

  My mind remained fully functioning as ten of them jumped on top of me, their claw-like fingers scratching me wherever they could find bare flesh. I screamed in pain, awaiting the moment they ripped into my body and ended my life.

  A flash of light caught my furiously moving eyes.

  There was a guttural scream of rage that filled my ears. All the creatures looked in one sweeping movement. There were three more roars that almost spoke in affirmation to the first, and two more bright lights appeared in front of my burning eyes. Through the haze, I saw the outline of three human beings. Were they Pangaean? Were they humans? Was it Brynna, James, Nick, and Elijah? I couldn’t know for sure, but I prayed that whoever they were, they would save me. I prayed for life, just a few more seconds of it, at least. I was so young. I didn’t want to die…

  A crack of lightning erupted overhead, catching onto the lights carried by those four rapidly moving, viciously fighting shadows. Those shadows thrust their arms forward, pushing the lightning that had struck them into the bodies of the creatures. In a blur, they all begin to retreat, forgetting how desperately they wanted to devour me. As the lights wielded by those mysterious shapes hit the creatures, they immediately began to convulse before crumpling to the ground in a pile of dust the color of soot. I watched, eyes wide as the monsters still on top of me jerked back and forth, spewing disgusting red froth before erupting in a display of fleshy fireworks or crumbling into that black ash. I coughed as some of the latter flew up my nose. Immediately, my body jerked forward in a series of powerful sneezes.

  One of the shapes dropped down beside me. The light of day was returning even as I faded into the darkness of death.

  “You stay with me! Violet, you keep your eyes open!” Her scream was one I had never heard before. In it, I heard desperation and fear so strong that they were capable, it seemed, of taking her life. “Keep her back! Eli, hold her back!

  “VIOLET!” Penny's high-pitched, terrified shriek rattled my eardrums.

  “Do not close your eyes!” Brynna was holding my face, screaming just as loudly. She shook me wildly for a minute. “Stay awake, do you hear me?! Violet!”

  My eyes had closed, but I hadn't realized it. When I snapped them open, I saw the same fear I heard in her voice displayed unabashedly on her face.

  “Brynn?” I looked up at her, gasping as the pain from being clawed so many times took hold suddenly. “Brynna?”

  “Alright, we don’t have a choice anymore…”

  James’s voice.

  He was scooping me up in his strong, protective arms, bringing me more comfort than I ever could have imagined would be brought to me by him. But I was still gasping and sputtering blood, wails of agony erupting from me loudly enough to shake the trees. The wind whipped my already horribly pained face as James darted through the woods. I was reaching out for Brynna, screaming her name even as every breath inflicted even more pain on me. As she ran with the same inhuman speed beside him, she reached out and took my searching hand.

  The last thing I saw was a towering green wall parting to reveal a circular tunnel.

  Brynna

  I had never run so fast before. No amount of Reapers or those Scouts that had attacked Violet could bring forth such speed in me. I felt no fear besides one. I felt no fear besides perhaps the greatest fear of all: Violet was going to die.

  I smelled her blood seeping from those penetrating cuts the claws of those things had made. Why had she eaten that food? Why had she fallen for their so obviously transparent ruse? I had failed her. I had stolen all knowledge from our gene pool and left her with a festering emptiness that should have been full to the brim with common sense. I hadn’t imparted my distrust of all things. I thought I had been doing her a service by allowing her to remain naïve and trusting. I had failed her.

  I might not have forced her to see the worlds as being fraught with danger, but I would not allow her to die for that inability to see. I would drag her back to life even if the effort killed me. I would empty every precious breath I had left into her dying lungs and jump-start her fading heart with the beats of my own. I would sell my soul. I would beg. No amount of shame was too high a price.

  The natives in the lone city parted like the sea at Moses’s hands when James and I came barreling through. We sped by so quickly that I did not see their faces. Were they molded into the sneer of the animals within as their defenses sprang to life, urging them to attack? Or were they merely curious? I did not kno
w, nor did I care.

  I could hear her heart’s steady beats spacing out to a rhythm too dangerously slow. She was quiet. Her sudden silence drove my panic to reach a startling new level.

  We stopped running once we reached an intersection. Blurs of light and sound whizzed by at the same vicious speed that we reached while running. The moving objects zoomed up a hill of asphalt and disappeared into the horizon between rows of gargantuan buildings.

  A young girl with glowing purple eyes the color of the sky overhead stopped in front of us. Her mother had been clutching her hand tightly, but she had twisted free from her grip. She looked to be about Penny’s age.

  Penny. I had left her with Elijah, Quinn, Alice, and whoever that boy was who had been with Violet when that awful event had occurred.

  Why had he not stopped her? I would make my displeasure known on my next meeting with him. I would call him a coward for not accompanying her into that dark clearing.

  The trees were parted overhead, and the Pangaean sun was glowing in the sky. Yet when we entered that space to fight those things, there had been only blackness and a crescent moon the color of blood.

  If Violet died, I would kill that boy. I would destroy him with the animal fury I felt burning in a toxic wave of destruction within my chest.

  “Adam.” The little girl had approached us without fear. She pointed to the towering palace that glinted in the fiery orange light of the clouds. “Adam.”

  “Do not speak to the dark ones, Adina.” Her mother warned before reaching her hand out to draw the girl back to her. With an easy leap, the girl jumped onto her mother’s back to be carried off. Her arm was not attached to her mother’s body; she was still pointing to the palace.

  James and I needed no more instruction. We were running again.

  The palace was surrounded by a gate fashioned from the moaning trees in the forest. Their edges had been sharpened to points. Eight guards stood wearing airy silver armor that was bordered with the sharp spikes of some creature I did not know. The long sleeves of their uniform were made of the same material.

  “We need to see Adam,” I gasped out, “We need to see him now! My sister is dying! Please let us in!”

  “No inside.” A guard boomed through lips that barely formed his brutally loud words, “No…”

  He stopped talking, and in the distance, I heard a whispering that raised the hair on my arms. The guards parted to the right and left in perfect unison, leaving a space for us to get through. The large wooden gate swung open. Ahead, I saw the door of the palace open simultaneously.

  The interior of the man's home was as intricately designed as the paintings in French chapels. Murals that told stories I could not possibly have known were painted all along the walls. Ahead of us was a staircase that rose up at a sharp angle out of sight. In front of the staircase stood the man who had appeared that night at camp. That event seemed like it had passed so many years before the moment in which we found ourselves currently.

  “Please, will you help her?” I asked immediately, forgoing a polite greeting in favor of immediate beseeching. “There were these creatures in the woods…”

  “Shadows.” He answered the question I had not posed out loud. As he spoke, his eyes locked on James's. “They have returned.”

  “Sure,” I nodded vigorously, “She’s bleeding, and she’s dying. I can hear her heartbeat, but I can hear it stopping. I can feel...” I was rambling in my panic, not realizing that I was divulging far too much information, “I can feel her life draining. Please help her. Please, I’ll do anything!”

  “She was tempted by them. She succumbed to their seduction.”

  “She was hungry. She was looking for me, and she hadn’t eaten in days…”

  “It does not matter.”

  “Yes, it does matter!” I screamed in desperate fury, “She’s only seventeen! She was acting exactly as most would at her age! She is young, and too trusting, and stupid! Please, we need your help!”

  Violet’s breaths were ragged, interrupted only by soft moans of pain. The scratches were beginning to ooze a green liquid. The sight almost sent my hands flying to my mouth as an urge to vomit seized me.

  “You are his offspring. Daniel Olivier.”

  “Yes, but he does not speak for us.” The words rolled off my tongue before I fully understood exactly what I was saying. Somehow, I knew that was the right thing to say.

  “I can see. You are of old. He is not.”

  “This is all irrelevant!” I stomped my foot in frustration, “Do you feel it?! I know you can feel her life leaving her! I am begging you to do something!”

  “It takes great courage to come to the dwelling of an enemy.”

  What was the point of his inane musings? My sister was dying before his eyes, and yet he wanted to babble on about insignificant details! I could have reached out and slapped him, though I knew I would not live to feel the satisfaction.

  “Follow me.”

  The man began to ascend the staircase, gliding effortlessly up its steep steps. We were climbing each one carefully, looking back to see the ground floor getting further and further away. As we walked, I looked at James, knowing he felt the same as I did. We were climbing into the lion’s den. It was not clear whether we would ever emerge from its depths again.

  We could not worry about that. I would do or say anything to save Violet. Once she was healed, I would claw my way out of that place, utilizing every new skill or enhancement that had overtaken me since landing on Pangaea in the process.

  Adam led us to a room with blankets sewn from the skin of animals covering the floor. The walls were startlingly light-colored and blank; we had only seen those detailed pictures covering the walls from floor to ceiling since we had come inside. Adam beckoned to the animal skin rugs and James laid Violet down on them.

  “Brynna!” She cried out, her blank eyes darting around in the empty space frantically as she searched for me.

  “I am right here, honey,” I grasped her hand in both of mine and rested my forehead against hers, “I am right here with you, and I am not going to leave you.”

  Adam had his eyes closed. I should have wanted to shout at him to get on with the life-saving, but I knew that he was calling out to someone. The doors opened only a minute later and a girl around my age walked in, pulling with her by a leash made of vine one of those hissing, snarling creatures. Its almost nonexistent lips curled back to reveal the rows of long, jagged teeth. Its blank, unseeing eyes rolled around disturbingly in the rotting sockets.

  “What are you doing?!” James exclaimed in a rage as he jumped up to his feet.

  “Do not question me, Protector,” Adam held his hand up to silence him, “You know not of our healing ways. Please ask your woman kindly to step away.”

  “I am not going to step…” I started to say.

  “I know that you will not do it on your own. You will not do it even if I tell you that remaining where you are will put your life in danger. You are very stubborn, and your love for this girl blinds you to any pain or threat that could befall you. Perhaps if your mate suggests kindly that you move away…”

  “Come on, Brynn.” James was lightly grasping my shoulders now and tugging me away from Violet.

  “No!” I exclaimed and shook him off.

  “Baby, just let them do this.” James urged me gently. I looked at Violet, who was fading before my eyes. I looked at Adam, who I could not possibly trust. But James’s hands on my shoulders kept me grounded. I trusted him, certainly. If he felt that the situation was under control, then I would force myself to believe the same. I let him pull me away.

  “Do not bring that thing near her!” I screamed at them as the girl led the creature over to Violet.

  Adam held up a tightly wrapped bundle that he began to patiently unroll. Once the fabric had been pulled away, I saw that he was holding a dagger.

  “What are you doing?!” I was desperately trying to get to Violet now. I would not let him hurt h
er. I had brought her there so that she would be saved. Now, he was going to kill her because she was, as he said, my father’s offspring. Or perhaps it was because, as I had said, she had been so very stupid and thus was undeserving of his pity and even her life.

  No. I would never allow him to take her life for simply behaving as most her age would have. I would lose my life trying to end his if he tried to take Violet from me.

  A look passed between James and Adam. After a short hesitation, James’s hands tightened on me from behind just as the dagger was plunged deep into Violet’s stomach. She let out one long exhale of air before clenching her teeth together tightly. I could not hear the sound she made because the scream that exploded from me bounced off of every blank wall and reverberated around the large room deafeningly. I was sure that she had screamed, too.

  “Stop it! Let me go!” I shrieked furiously. I was trying in vain to claw and bite my way out of James’s grasp. I kicked him, swung my fists back to punch him, and sunk my teeth down into his arm three times before he curled his hand around my neck and held my head up against his shoulder. His free arm wrapped around my middle to lock my arms to my sides.

  “James, let go!”

  Adam moved the dagger into my sister’s stomach, allowing the blood to fully saturate the blade.

  “I need a willing sacrifice of blood from one who possesses a heart that beats for her.”

  What in the name of all deities and Gods in which I did not believe was that supposed to mean? Just as I acknowledged that I had no clue what he was suggesting, I thrust my arm out, understanding perfectly. He frowned at me in consternation and said curtly:

  “I do apologize.”

  He cut into my arm with a quick motion that left a deep, spraying cut. I watched in horrified fascination as my blood on the knife’s blade mixed visibly with Violet’s. Our blood was dripping off of the dagger as Adam brandished it above his head, moving on his knees closer to the enraged creature. It snapped its jaws at him, gargling and snarling as it lunged forward.

  With the same swiftness, Adam plunged the knife into the waxy, white flesh of its chest. It put up far less of a fight before its death than I had been expecting. Immediately upon being stabbed with the blade doused in my blood and the blood of my sister, it crumpled.

  When it hit the ground, it erupted into a blazing, perfectly formed inferno that stood on end. I watched, my eyes wide, as it burned into nonexistence. Adam reached forward into the fire, allowing the flesh on his arm to burn as our blood and the blood of the creature was singed into a hard crust on the blade. Once the blue blaze had snuffed out, he pressed the dagger to each wound on Violet’s body.

  James had released my hands, and I was squeezing his arms that were wrapped around my neck. I could feel his forehead pressed against the back of my head as he whispered soft assurances to me that I was finally able to hear.

  “I promise you, everything’s going to be alright. I’m not going to let anything happen to her. I promise you, Brynna. I promise.”

  The burning of Violet’s skin brought about more pain in me than it did in her. She hardly jumped, though I assumed she had lost consciousness. With each press of the blood-caked blade on her wounds, I could hear her heartbeat growing ever closer to its normal speed. I could hear her lungs clearing as sweet breaths of perfect air filled them to their capacity.

  I wanted to cry. But I had believed for years that my tear ducts no longer worked, so the tears I would have shed were forced to drip, unused and unwanted, back into whatever recesses they used as their dwelling inside my body. I turned to James and wrapped my arms around him, my entire body trembling as though I had just reached up to grasp an exposed wire while standing in a puddle. My body tingled with the same uncomfortable shock that I would have received in that case. His lips pressed to the soft skin of my neck twice, gifting me with that warmth that soothed me always. They traveled up to press to my cheek and then my forehead. I closed my eyes and just let him kiss me like that. I needed all the comfort I could get after such a harrowing event.

  “She will live.” Adam’s voice snapped me out of whatever daze I had allowed myself to fall into. I turned back to him, still holding both of James’s arms around me as I dropped to my knees beside Violet. I reached out with one trembling hand and stroked her blood-soaked hair.

  “I was not entirely sure if she would ascend. But she has, for which you should feel immense gratitude.”

  “I do.”

  I looked down at her as she slept peacefully. Her pain was gone. I could allow the calm to wash over me like a cleansing, holy rain, and it did; for several seconds, my eyes blinked slowly as a potent exhaustion settled into me; my lungs suddenly felt lighter than the air that filled them because the constriction in my chest had loosened; and the trembling in my arms and legs was slowing. Only one pressing matter was still at hand. I did not want to address it when I felt such relief, but I knew that it was an unavoidable topic, so I spoke again. “What do I owe you?”

  Adam laughed softly, a sound that sent chills down my spine. There was plenty I could give him as payment, but none would be sacrificed willingly. I owed him a debt that I knew he would not let me escape.

  “You fear me because of what I have done.”

  “That does not answer my question.” I was finished listening to his random observations and ramblings. It was manipulation at its most obvious; he was controlling where the conversation went whether it was relevant to anything I said or not.

  “I know that it does not. But I believe that someone with a strong heart such as yours deserves an explanation.”

  I could not turn down an explanation, surely. Whether I had a strong heart or not was debatable.

  “I sent my people to where yours were dwelling because your kind is not welcome on our Orb.”

  “You have to understand that we have nowhere to go anymore.”

  “I am aware of the destruction of your Orb. That is precisely why you are unwelcome on ours.”

  “So, what?” I asked, looking up at him as my eyes turned red. I was playing with fire now. If he was offended by my anger, he could kill all three of us with a swift movement we would not see coming. I did not underestimate his power, even then. Still, I continued.

  “You want us to board our ship again, fly through space, and then plummet into nothing as we all wait to die?”

  “No,” He shook his head and tried to suppress a somewhat devious grin unsuccessfully, “I want to harvest the ones who do not belong here and keep the rest.”

  “And what exactly is your method for determining who is worthy of their lives and who is not? Besides, it appears to me is that you and your people are just killing at random.”

  “We most certainly do not kill at random!”

  I had finally made him angry, but I stared him down still, unflinching. I would not be intimidated into backing off of the subject. I wanted to know his reasoning for killing innocent people.

  “Brynna, maybe you should stop talking.” James suggested, and I could hear only the tiniest hint of trepidation in his voice. I could also feel in him the desire to fight with Adam, to destroy him if he stepped towards me threateningly. I reached back and grasped his hand, still not tearing my gaze away from the centuries-old man standing before me.

  Adam looked taller, thicker, and even more menacing. His eyes glowed with a deep red that rivaled my own. I had infuriated him with the suggestion that he and his people were killing innocent bystanders, abiding by no rhyme or reason. However, he had given me no choice but to believe that was true.

  “How well do you know those you saved from the destruction?” He demanded of me.

  “There were too many,” I replied calmly, “I do not know a thing about some. With most, I know very little. With some, I know quite a bit.”

  “Destroyers, tempters…” He snapped in pure disgust, “Craving all things while giving nothing in return... You know nothing of this?”

  “Are you telling me tha
t they were evil people? Even if they were, their deaths were unwarranted. Who are you to judge them?”

  “I am not able to judge them as I did not Create them. But I am able to keep them off of my land.”

  “So, this is your planet, then? Are you the all-knowing, all-powerful leader? Perhaps you should speak to my father; he could surely take some useful notes from a man of your high standing.”

  There was my disdainful condescension rearing its head at the worst time. James sighed and let go of me with one hand to cover his face.

  Adam, however, seemed to be softening as his earlier calmness resurfaced. His eyes dissolved back into their strange light green.

  “I am almost all-knowing. I am very powerful. But I am simply a vessel. This is all not important. You must understand that those who died did not belong here. If they were not embracing darkness, then they simply were not changing.”

  “So you know that we’re changing, then?” James spoke up finally. “Is it because we’re here?”

  “It is because your planet is gone. You have lost your home and must now fight to survive. Nothing more. You all must live ages before you’d be worthy of our air.”

  “You say you cannot judge because you are not the Creator. Yet here you are, judging us. Have you ever heard of individualism? Perhaps you could brush up on the subject instead of resorting to generalizations. Just because we are all of the same race does not mean that we are all the same.”

  I was pushing my luck, I knew. I was expecting and even craving another outburst of proud rage. To my slight disappointment, he only chuckled again.

  “You have a fire-tongue. You are changing over nicely.”

  “I have always talked like this. Please, do not give your race credit for my oddities.” I was the one getting angry now. The whole conversation was not going at all as I expected. I did not like surprises in either circumstance or discussion.

  “Oddities? That is what you have been told? What is your name?”

  “Don’t tell…” James started to say.

  “Brynna.” I answered proudly.

  “Well, Brynna, whoever told you that your ways are oddities is wrong. It was always meant for you to behave this way. Have you sensed things? Have you known things that one cannot possibly know?”

  I nodded.

  “Welcome to Purissimus.” He smiled now, revealing his straight white teeth. I saw his fangs gleaming in the dim light.

  “What about him?” I pointed at James, “Why is he growing muscle at such a rapid rate?”

  “Muscle?” Adam furrowed his brows in confusion.

  “You know…” I held my arms up and flexed, revealing that I, too, had toned up quite randomly since our arrival, “Muscle.”

  “Ah, yes, his size. Females know all. Males know much but are more apt to protect. Of course, females are able to defend themselves quite efficiently. However, males are able to crush a threat with little effort. That is why he is ‘growing muscle,’ as you called it.”

  “So all of this is a direct result of us fighting for our lives?” I asked, not knowing when to stop posing questions that were borderline offensive. I was on a roll now; I had to know everything. “You are part of the reason why we are fighting for our lives. So how can you be so calm about us changing into your kind?”

  “I am calm about it because it was meant to be. Some were meant to change. Some were meant to die because they cannot or will not. I am pleased that your sister was able to be spared. I hope a long life is in store for each of you.” He nodded to us and turned to go.

  “Wait!” I called after him, “What are we supposed to do now?”

  “I cannot tell you, though I do know much.” Adam replied easily, “What is that excellent Earthean expression? About cards and what you all call ‘fate’?”

  I was drawing a blank, something that was new for me. Then, I realized what he was trying to say and answered his question.

  “'Let the cards fall where they may.'”

  “Indeed. Such a wise and true philosophy should be kept in mind. Please, remember those words that you just spoke. Great darkness is coming.”

  The door out of the room opened slowly. James and I turned around to watch it. When we turned back to question him further, he was gone.

  “Well, that was just about the weirdest thing to ever happen.” James told me in a quick show of forced, lighthearted sarcasm. He picked Violet up again and turned to the door. “Let’s go, baby.”

  But I was staring where Adam had only just stood, his final words to us tossing around in my mind. Great darkness?

  I could feel it as well. The lurking danger was the voice whispering in the trees. It was the creatures that had attacked Violet. It was the Reapers. It was my father.

  Together, they created a swirling mass of destruction. The ones in the path of that chaos would feel every last moment of pain. We would be touched by death. How it all was going to begin was irrelevant. What mattered was the fact that the end was nowhere in sight.

  War. It was coming. It would consume us in its tornado of catastrophe and pain.

  But why? For what reasons would this great conflict arise?

  Of all the things I knew, I could not begin to decipher the reason. But I did know that the cards were beginning to fall.

  Quinn

  As much as I wanted to run into the city after Brynna and James, I couldn’t. My feet just wouldn’t move forward. My new acquaintances would not be welcomed but they also wouldn’t be killed. I knew that if Alice, Elijah, Nick, and I were to follow them, we would not be met with any kindness. In fact, a swift death would be our fate. I didn't know why James and Brynna were special, but I knew that no harm would come to them within the city limits.

  We stood waiting for them to return. It wasn’t until nightfall that they came walking back. Immediately, we all jumped up and Elijah ran forward to make sure his sisters were alright. Penny was right behind him, her childish concern evident in her wide eyes.

  “Is Violet okay?” She asked Brynna as James laid Violet down on the ground.

  “She is just fine, honey.” Brynna assured her softly as she patted Penny’s hair. “Everything is fine.”

  “I didn’t know if you all would be coming back…” Elijah told them weakly.

  “We’re back.” Brynna was in no mood for forming her usually long and overly detailed sentences. The emotional insanity of the day had run her down.

  “What’s it like?” Alice asked eagerly, and I scowled at her. If Brynna wasn’t up for rambling in her weird way, then she certainly wasn’t up for describing the city.

  “It’s huge, to say the least.” James answered to spare his girlfriend the task. “There’s a huge castle at the end of it. That’s where their leader lives. That’s where we went.”

  “What was he like?” Elijah asked, “Was he the same guy who came into the campsite?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.” James replied, but Brynna nodded.

  “And he didn’t try to kill you?” Elijah pressed, “I mean, thank God, but it’s a little inconsistent, don't you think?”

  “He was slightly bemused by us being there.” Brynna explained dully. “He said something about bravery. Whatever the reason for our prolonged survival, we’re here now, and Violet is alright. I also know that we shouldn’t expect the same kindness again. They do not want us on their land. He made sure that was clear.”

  “So why did he save her life? And how did he do it?” Elijah continued to push her, and I could see her patience wearing thin.

  “Let the woman breathe for a minute.” I told him before turning to look at Brynna, “You look like you need to sleep.”

  “I do. But I cannot. I have to keep an eye on her. She has not woken up yet, and that is worrisome. He said great darkness is coming. I sense it all around us. Can any of you feel it?”

  We all looked at each other, shaking our heads.

  “Well,” She muttered as she ran her fingers through her hair, ?
??then it’s a cross I must bear by myself, I suppose. I need to talk to my father.”

  “What?” Elijah jumped up and looked down at her where she was kneeling. “Brynna, the last time we were there, he…”

  “I know what he wanted to do. But we are wandering aimlessly through the woods. If something is coming, then he will be the one who starts it. I need to know what exactly is going on.”

  “The group is splitting up.” Nick answered, “Do you remember those other people who walked out with you from the ship?”

  “Yes. The other sacrificial lambs.” Brynna replied bitterly.

  “Well, there are these two people. They’re married. Their names are Mary and Richard Bachum. Did you ever meet them?” Nick asked her.

  I remembered those two. They made an obvious show of their religious devotion by dropping to their knees and praying after both minor and major setbacks. After the first attack, they were downright insufferable. I had always found broad showings of faith to be slightly uncomfortable. That day, they were gesticulating, throwing their hands up to the sky and screaming loudly to the heavens, begging for help. I had wanted to storm over and order them to stop, as they were driving everyone around them even more deeply into paranoia. Instead, Alice and I went for a walk.

  “What about them?” I asked, “Their camp was two over from mine and hers.” I beckoned to Alice with a quick jerk of my head.

  “Well, they’ve gathered up a huge group of people. They’re heading north. Another guy said that he was getting people together.” Nick continued, “They were heading south.”

  “And my father? Which group did he choose?” Elijah asked.

  “He was staying behind. He had a group of his own.”

  “How very interesting. I was not aware he had a spine.” Brynna said with an apathetic shrug.

  “Just because he’s staying behind doesn’t mean that he has a spine. In fact, the only thing that it proves is that he doesn't have a brain.” Elijah spat back. His anger was not at her but at his father’s continued hold of power over weak-minded people. I could definitely agree that Elijah’s ill feelings towards the man were justified, but I didn’t want to know the details. It all seemed too complicated and upsetting. I couldn’t afford to carry anyone's emotional burdens because I had my own weighing me down.

  “Yes, and he's not staying at the campsite. They’re moving on, too. I don’t know which direction they’re going. But I do know that these groups are staying away from each other.” Nick added.

  “Why?” Alice asked.

  “They disagree about where they will find safety. Perhaps there are also slight ideological differences. Am I correct?” Brynna asked.

  “I’m not sure, honestly.” Nick replied, “But you’re probably right.”

  “Good enough.” Brynna nodded, “Well, we can at least forage through the campsite for food and supplies. Then, we will form a group of our own, I suppose.”

  “Maybe it would be better if we joined up with one.” I suggested before adding hastily, “But I definitely don’t want to go with the Bachums. No way.”

  “They are out of the question, I agree.” Brynna chimed in.

  “Your father’s group is also out of the question.” James added.

  “Why are we joining up with a group?” Elijah asked suddenly, “I think we’ll do much better on our own.”

  “Yes, because we’re doing so well already.” Alice replied with a roll of her eyes. “Violet just almost died. There are things in these woods that are deadly. Not to mention, we are so close to the natives. I mean, hello?!” Alice pointed to the city in the distance. “That’s their main city, as far as we know. They’re not just going to let us chill here. Safety in numbers, guys. I agree with both of you that we shouldn’t join up with your dad’s group or the Bachums. Even though the Bachums haven’t given us a reason to not trust them...”

  “Their blind, naive, gaudy shows of faith are more reason than we need.” Brynna replied firmly. There was no shaking her conviction on anything, but in her objection to the Bachums, she was overly adamant.

  “Thank you!” I exclaimed, holding my hands up to the sky. I put them back down immediately after realizing that I was accidentally mimicking the same gesture that I had criticized in those weird people.

  “Fine. Whatever.” Alice huffed away with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “So, we need to follow the other guy. Do you know his name?” James asked Nick.

  “I’m trying to remember. He was very soft-spoken. He was far back in my section of the campsite. We were number five. Oh, I remember now!” Nick snapped his fingers as it came back to him. “Don. Don Abba.”

  “Oh, Don!” Elijah exclaimed as he, too, remembered. “Yeah. Weird guy. He’s not weird in a threatening way. He’s just really smart. Really short, though. He said since he came here, a bunch of guys have gained like, fifty pounds in muscle mass, and he feels like he's only gotten shorter and thinner.”

  A look passed between James and Brynna. They were trying to hide small smiles. I knew that James had undergone a transformation similar to the first that Elijah had described. They weren’t huge like bodybuilders or anything. But they were certainly toned up. I wished the same thing would happen to me. In James’s presence, I felt weaker and in need of an immediate weight-lifting binge. Of course, given that there were no weights, I would have a hard time catching up to him. It was shameful, considering he was twice my age.

  A huge gasp behind us jolted us all out of our discussion. We turned to see Violet sit up suddenly. After drawing in several sharp gasps, she started to swing her arms around wildly; in between those huge breaths, she was screaming.

  “It’s okay. It’s alright.” Brynna had run to her and dropped to her knees. She wrapped her arms around Violet’s neck and pulled her close. “They’re gone. You’re alright.”

  Violet’s hands flew up to touch her face; she was checking the damage done by those creatures’ claws. But her scratches were long faded, healed by whatever magic the leader of the natives had summoned.

  “What were those things?” She asked quietly as tears streamed down her face.

  “I don’t know. What were you thinking, eating what was there?” Brynna demanded softly as she grasped both of Violet's hands in her own.

  “I was just so hungry! Nick…” Violet looked behind her at Nick, who had walked forward. “I should have listened to you!”

  “It was a mistake.” Nick told her gently with a shrug, “Anyone would have…”

  “Do not make excuses for her!”

  Brynna’s warmth had iced over in a matter of seconds. She was no longer hugging Violet or comforting her. Now, she was chastising her for what was an honest mistake, as Nick suggested.

  “It was foolhardy at best. At worst, it was a show of plain, blind stupidity.” Brynna barked at him as she stood up; he flinched and backed up a step, and despite ourselves, James, Elijah, and I laughed softly, prompting Violet to scowl at us.

  “Just so you are aware, you being attacked sent a jolt through my entire body that was like being stabbed right through the heart with an electrified, sulfuric acid-covered machete, and while I do appreciate that without that utter agony, I would not have been able to track you down, I do wish that you would appreciate that I would have preferred never to be in such discomfort. Also, it would be very nice if you would realize how…” She struggled to find a word, “How aggravating it was to see you in such a state! And to know that you had ended up in that state because you were too stupid to recognize paranormal subterfuge! That food was there to lure you in, so that you could become their food! How was that not obvious?! Penny is five, and she would have realized that!”

  “Let’s go for a walk.” James told Brynna somewhat firmly.

  “No! Of all the stupid courses of action one could take upon seeing unguarded food in the present climate, you took perhaps the most pitiless!”

  “I’m sorry, Brynn!” Violet exclaimed through her t
ears. The genuine remorse in her voice was enough of an acknowledgment to Brynna’s accusations of stupidity. Violet knew that she had been wrong.

  “Well, I am sure that you will think twice next time before consuming conveniently placed food, however hungry you may be.”

  “I will. Of course I will.” Violet replied, “Please just go easy on me. I paid for it, didn’t I? I’m sorry. I know that you’re angry because I scared you…”

  “You angered me by completely disregarding common sense! I would have thought you far more intelligent than this! Consider me more disappointed than angry.”

  “Let’s go.” James ordered, but Brynna was already storming off ahead of us, headed back towards the campsite, I assumed.

  “She’ll come around.” Alice assured Violet softly as Elijah pulled her to her feet.

  “You know how she is. You’re right; you scared her, and she’s angry that she had to feel vulnerable.” Elijah added comfortingly, “It’s not fair of her to act this way after what you’ve been through. But honestly, Violet, what were you thinking?”

  “I was hungry.” Violet insisted. She was desperate for someone to understand. “And then there was all this food…”

  “It was like it had been set out for us.” Nick added helpfully, “And it smelled so good. Imagine that temptation.”

  “Temptation. That sounds about right.” I chimed in with a nod of agreement. “It’s weird, isn’t it? You’re just walking along, and you stumble across that. We’re all inches from starving to death. Then you find food.” I looked at Violet who was wiping at her eyes quickly and sniffling with each new, soft sob that took her. “I would have done the same thing. It doesn’t matter how stupid it was. We’re only human, right?”

  “Well, we’re not,” Alice snapped at me, “But that doesn’t mean that we don’t make human mistakes still. Those things…” Her voice dropped to a whisper, and all anger towards me faded as she looked at Violet. “They always tempt us first. They offer us what we want most in the world. I fell for it, too, Violet.”

  “Really?” Violet was obviously reassured by the fact that she wasn’t the only one.

  Alice nodded.

  “It didn’t manage to attack me,” She continued, “But it would have killed me if I had given it a chance. I won’t even tell you exactly what happened after I killed it. I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to.”

  “Well, you have to tell me now. You can’t just lead into that and then drop it.” Violet told her in a steady voice. She was calmed down now.

  “Sure I can. Maybe another time.”

  Alice turned and scowled at me one last time before walking off. I wanted to blurt out the gory details of exactly what had transpired after she had shot the creature. But something stopped me from disclosing the secret she and I had kept so tightly guarded. I wasn’t afraid of what they would think. We hadn't known that those creatures had possessed her parents. We had only known that they were monsters hell-bent on killing us, though we still didn't know why.

  The attack on Violet posed the same question. Were they just hungry beasts in need of a meal? They were too patient. The drive to eat would have been too strong to hold off long enough to stalk us for as long as Alice’s mom had. The way they consumed the souls of the living in order to mutate their bodies into that hideous form showed other motivations.

  I had heard about Reapers. They also possessed the living in order to fool those they were hunting. As I had heard it, Brynna had been targeted by them. They were fallible, though; in her case, they possessed two younger guys in order to gain her trust. They didn’t know that she would never trust a man, young or old.

  “We have a long walk ahead of us.” I told the group as we wandered through the woods. “We need to start thinking of ways to tell if we’re still us.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Elijah asked over his shoulder.

  “The Reapers and…” I raised my voice to call ahead of me. “What did you call them, James?”

  “What?”

  “The other ones. There’s Reapers and…”

  “Shadows.” James answered vaguely, “That’s what the leader called them, anyway.”

  “Well, the Reapers and the Shadows can appear to us as people we know. They do that so we’ll trust them. If one of us gets possessed by one of them, we won’t know until it’s too late.”

  “Introducing such distrust and alarm into the present situation is unwise and quite cruel.” Brynna replied as she strolled along, looking up at the blue sky that was only slightly visible through the thick canopy of the various trees.

  “Whatever.” I shook off her random assertion. “You know I’m right, Brynna.”

  “Perhaps,” Brynna nodded, “But discussing this now, as we traverse the woods where those creatures dwell is a tad anxiety-provoking, is it not?”

  “When else are we going to discuss it?” I questioned her before deciding that the whole argument was useless. I continued, undeterred. “We have to think of questions or something.”

  “One question.” Elijah responded.

  “What is it?” I asked irritably.

  “No. We need to think of one question. It will be less confusing that way.”

  “But we didn’t know each other before we came here.” Alice chimed in. “Quinn and I could answer personal questions about our lives before all this, but you all couldn’t. We couldn’t answer anything personal about your lives, either. How are we going to settle on one question?”

  “Who was the President of the United States when the event occurred?” James asked, and I knew he was being sarcastic.

  “Ooh!” Penny exclaimed as she jumped up and down with her hand raised.

  “Penny!” James pointed at her as though he was calling on her in class.

  “This isn’t helping!” I interrupted, and Penny frowned at me. Well, if that didn’t make me feel like a jerk, then nothing would. “Sorry, Penny. Wait just a minute.”

  “You are not going to suggest that we share personal details of our pre-Pangaean lives, are you?” Brynna snidely asked, “This should not come as a surprise, but I will not be participating in a ridiculous emotional show-and-tell. Thank you so much.”

  “You have to! You’re in the group, so you have to,” I snapped at her, “Why are you always so difficult?”

  There was a part of me that was amused by her presence. There was even a small part of me that liked her, for reasons that were not clear. But her constant disagreement on any suggestion posed by anyone other than James and Elijah was beginning to aggravate me. Her disdain and her condescension were becoming too much to bear under the already stressful circumstances.

  “I am difficult because people are disturbingly empty-headed.”

  “That doesn't matter!” I told her angrily. “You're still a part of this group.”

  “Well, then, I suppose I'm exiled.” Brynna replied apathetically.

  “Brynn, be nice.” Penny ordered her gently. She walked up and grasped her hand. Brynna looked down at her little sister, smiled slightly, and offered no more argument on the subject.

  “What is my favorite color?” Elijah asked.

  “Clear,” Violet answered, “Because you’re boring.”

  We all laughed at that. To diffuse the tension further, we all began to suggest ridiculous questions.

  “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” Alice suggested.

  “How many minutes does it take to save fifteen percent or more on your car insurance?” Violet added.

  “What was my mother’s sister’s aunt’s cousin’s uncle’s father’s, twice removed, name?” Nick replied.

  “If an oddly out of place tree falls in a Pangaean forest, does it make a sound?” I even added to the discussion even though it was poking fun at the exercise I had suggested in the first place. Ahead of us, Brynna and Penny were singing some old Johnny Cash song softly.

  “Besides Johnny Cash, who are two other ban
ds or singers that Brynna deems worthy of existence?” James suggested.

  “Do you know that?” Elijah laughed, “I can name one, but that's it.”

  “I can name several. But there are two that come to mind besides Mr. Cash.” James replied.

  “Excuse me, sir, but my musical tastes were disclosed to you in confidence during a day of boredom.”

  “Well, I do apologize, ma’am.” James made a point not to touch her after he said that because Elijah was watching them in slight suspicion. James didn’t even look at her after he spoke. But I did see a small smile spread across her face.

  “In what movie does Kate Winslet get naked?” I spat out quickly to change the subject.

  “Oh, Kate…” Elijah sighed and looked up at the sky, “Thank God for her, man…”

  “Every movie,” Violet answered, “That was a trick question. I like it.”

  We continued on until we broke free of the trees. We found ourselves at the bank of a wide, deep river. Rapids rippled ominously against the large, sharp rocks.

  “Look, Brynn! Look!” Penny exclaimed as James picked her up. “Look, James! Over there!”

  James and Brynna were looking where she was pointing. On the bank of the river was a toad the size of a boulder. Its massive throat shot out with each deafening croak.

  “Holy shit…” Elijah muttered before we all burst out laughing again.

  “I saw a lion yesterday.” Brynna was telling Penny, “Guess how big it was.”

  Penny beamed brightly as she continued to stare at the frog.

  “Was it as big as Mr. Brock's pitbull?” She asked after looking back at Brynna.

  “Bigger,” Brynna answered, “It was as big as Eli's car. Maybe even bigger than that, too.”

  “No, it wasn't!” Elijah protested with another laugh, “You're making that up! And besides, a lion wouldn't be in a forest, Brynn. Come on, use your abnormally huge brain!”

  “Excuse you, I have no reason to lie to her about something as trivial as a creature in the woods. And who says that lions can't live in the woods? The planet is called Pangaea for a reason, Elijah. The land is joined together. Any animal can live anywhere it wants. Are you unaware of the original theory of Pangaea? Earth was joined together once, too. Goodness, don't you read?” Brynna snapped at him.

  “No.” Elijah answered simply. He and I laughed raucously, and she scowled in response. “I got through pre-med and two years of med school even though I used pages of my textbook to wipe my ass.”

  I laughed even harder, and he laughed, too, until Brynna turned around and hit him really hard in the shoulder.

  “Ow! Bitch!”

  She hit him again, even harder.

  “Language!” She pointed at Penny. “And gender-based insult!”

  “Yeah, Eli! You’re using bad words!” Penny snapped at him, and she crossed her arms over her chest and stood with one foot stuck out in front of her the same way Brynna was standing at that moment.

  “Oh, if I had a camera…” James said, and Brynna’s actual scowl dissolved into a fake one that he mimicked.

  “Fine, you saw a lion!” Elijah told her, moving his arm around in circles to work the pain out.

  “Do you think we'll see a penguin?!” Penny asked excitedly.

  “I'll bet we could.” Brynna replied, and she was smiling again.

  “Did the lion try to attack you?” Alice asked her.

  “No. We looked at one another for a long while, and then she allowed me to pet her. It was definitely surreal, though. As is that impossibly enormous frog.”

  “Now, we shouldn’t go near it, guys.” Penny warned us, “Its tongue is probably so big and sticky, it will grab us and eat us in one bite!”

  Brynna beamed again and looked at her. “You are right, wise Penelope. Come, let us retrace our steps back through the woods to avoid this treacherous river and all its terrible beasts entirely.”

  “Why would we go back into the woods? Why don’t we just swim across? Look.” Violet pointed up to the top of a cliff that rose eerily out of the trees. There at the top, we could just see one of the military tents from the ship. It was our campsite.

  Brynna cleared her throat and pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she turned to Violet.

  “First of all…”

  “Here we go…” James muttered, and he ran his hand over his head. “Brynna, come on. There's no time...”

  “No, she is going to hear this in its entirety, James Maxwell! Do not try to stop me!” Brynna shot at him in a fury that the situation did not merit at all. “First of all, Violet, at this point in time, you are the only one out of this merry band of survivors to make a disgustingly foolish decision that almost ended your life. Secondly, that monstrous amphibian seated so serenely on that rock is more than likely just one beast that lives in this water. Third, you pointed upwards, to the top of a sprawling, gargantuan cliff. Therefore, you must be aware, given that you were the one who pointed up, that it is quite high and more than likely, impossible to climb without proper rappelling equipment. Have I gotten my point across yet, or must I continue?”

  Violet sighed heavily and ran her fingers through her hair.

  “I am so done fighting with you,” She muttered irritably in response to Brynna's points. “Sure. You win.”

  “Not necessary, Brynna.” James snapped as he pointed his finger at her.

  “Absolutely necessary, James.” Brynna pointed back at him, her eyes blazing.

  “Just out of curiosity, is everything that I say going to met with your typical bullshit?”

  “Oh, stop the presses, more profanity!” Brynna laughed as she held her hands up to the sky. “That really dissuades me from criticizing you further. Penny, do not let me hear that word escape your mouth. Understood?”

  “I don’t say potty words.” Penny replied as she defiantly narrowed her eyes at Violet. “That’s not nice, Vi! It’s rude!” She pointed an accusing finger at her, and James turned his head away, trying to suppress a chuckle.

  “Do you hear that, Violet? It’s rude. She’s absolutely right.” I told her jokingly, and she smiled.

  And for the first time, I realized that she was really beautiful. I don’t know how, being a guy, I hadn’t noticed it before. But now, with the afternoon sun at her back, casting an otherworldly, almost holy glow over her light brown hair, illuminating her skin, casting a shadow perfectly to accentuate her body…

  Oh, boy. I looked away immediately upon feeling Alice’s eyes on me. But then, why did I care what she thought? Violet hadn’t killed anyone, at least as far as I knew. Alice had. I looked back at Violet, but she had turned away to look up at the top of the cliff. Then, she looked down to one side of the river and up to the other end. I did the same, seeing that the trees continued along its banks for as far as the eye could see.

  “I thought you said you knew where we were going, guys.” Violet scolded Nick, Elijah, and James.

  “This is why we need to start navigating.” Alice told her.

  “And setting up camp.” Violet added.

  “And rationing the food.” Alice agreed.

  “This is going to turn into some sort of ‘girl power’ moment, isn’t it?” I asked them with a roll of my eyes.

  “It already has.” Alice replied coldly, “Alright, I’m going across. We’ll have to hike all the way in that direction to run parallel with the cliff. Remember how the campsite was surrounded by a marsh? Well, I think that was on the other side.”

  “How did we loop around the river?” Violet asked, “The forest is huge.”

  “Exactly,” Alice replied, “We wouldn’t have realized it if we went around. We’ve been walking for days. We’ve walked over water. That water was probably run-off from here.”

  “I think we should just try to loop around again.” Nick suggested.

  “That will take far too much time.” Brynna informed him curtly. “The people who went south will be long gone by the time we get to the
campsite to track them. No, Alice’s actions are necessary and very courageous. Lead the pack, darling.”

  “Was that a term of endearment?” Alice asked with a grin, “Wow. I'm kind of honored.”

  “Yes. It surprised me as well.” Brynna replied sardonically.

  “You’re not swimming across.” I told Alice, “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, I'm not. You got a better idea?” She raised her eyebrows at me, “Once I’m across, I’ll look and see if there’s any way up.”

  “The people who went west probably came through here. They’re probably making camp close by here because it’s a source of water.” Elijah suggested. He was trying to dissuade her further but she was already shedding her jacket and handing it to Brynna.

  “Oh, for the love of Homer...” Brynna heaved a huge sigh of resignation and handed Alice's jacket to James. “I will not let you do this alone.”

  “You don't have to come with me. If anything happens, you have way more to lose.”

  “We both have four limbs, a torso, and a head. If there are any creatures lurking in the water looking to rip us to shreds, I will lose the same number of body parts that you will.”

  “That's not what I meant.”

  “I know.”

  “Brynna, are you insane!? Seriously, have you completely lost your mind?” James demanded after grabbing her hand to stop her from going into the water. “We don't know what's in there. Besides, it's not like the rivers at home. Look,” He pointed down, “You can't even see the bottom.”

  “Please do not fret for my sake, James.” Brynna replied with little care in her voice, “This young girl has volunteered to venture onward with little thought of her own safety. It is a selfless act meant to further our group's mission. For once in my life, I am playing the wing-woman to an act of heroism. This is a big moment for me.”

  “I know you're being sarcastic right now, but you forget that we...”

  “Shh!” Brynna exclaimed as she reached forward to touch his lips, “That statement lacked any semblance of sarcasm, for your information.”

  She looked into his eyes for one long moment, wanting to kiss him, but Elijah was watching them closely. In her mind, she believed that he could have no suspicion based on the careful distance she and James were keeping from one another. But I knew better. He was beginning to sense that there was more to their relationship than just friendly antagonism.

  Brynna and Alice walked forward slowly, cringing at the touch of the water.

  “Oh my God, that's cold...” Alice gasped out as they walked a little further.

  Once they cleared the rocks they were walking on, they were in water that was over their head. From the shore, the current had looked so weak but now, they were fighting to swim straight ahead. It was strong enough to send them sideways.

  “Brynn!” Elijah ran to jump in the water, but Violet grabbed his hand and held him back.

  “Look!” She screamed, pointing at something surfacing in the water. First, it appeared to be a tentacle belonging to perhaps a large octopus. What an octopus would be doing in freshwater was irrelevant. We were on Pangaea, not Earth. We didn't know which animals inhabited which habitats here. We were all staring, wide-eyed, as the frog on the bank of the river rolled backwards, end over end, in order to face the woods. It hopped away in bounding leaps, croaking frantically. Just as the frog reached the tree-line, the “tentacle” reached out and wrapped around it. The frog's massive weight was pulled with ease.

  Right beside Alice, a massive head erupted out of the water. Its eyes were black and empty like a shark's, but its snout elongated like a dog's. In its mouth were rows and rows of fanged teeth. Those many sharpened daggers pierced into the frog's head and pulled backwards to rip it clean from its scaly body.

  “Swim, Alice!” Brynna's voice shouted even though they were already kicking and paddling with everything they had. The current was moving around the beast, pulling them closer to its huge body. Another tentacle sprung from the water and headed straight for them.

  “Duck! Go under!” Brynna screamed again, and without hesitation, they both plunged under the water.

  The creature ducked its head under to search for them. It turned backwards and disappeared beneath the current.

  “Run along the river. Meet us wherever it ends.” James told us hurriedly before diving into the deep part where Alice and Brynna had begun their swim.

  “We're not getting separated again. Penny, hold onto me.” Elijah ordered quickly, “Can you swim, man?!”

  I realized that he was talking to me. I could only nod in response as I stared at the violently churning rapids and the long tentacles rising out of the water several yards downstream.

  “I don't want to go in there... I don't want to go in there...” Violet was muttering to herself.

  “Let's go!” Elijah threw Penny onto his back and jumped in the water, too.

  I followed suit, thinking of nothing but those black eyes. I pictured hundreds of them looking up at me from the bottom of the river that was so far below me. The thought snatched my breath from me. Even though I was finding it harder to breathe, I swam faster as that fear took over me.

  Soon, we had no need to paddle. The current picked up as we were carried downstream. I was rolled and tossed by the water with no mercy. Twice, I slammed into rocks; the pain was horrible, but when I went to gasp, I only took in huge mouthfuls of water. I didn't know how I hadn't drowned yet. I was barely breathing. I couldn't swim. The water was pulling me further and further into its depths. I hated imagining that huge aquatic beast swimming rapidly up towards the surface below Alice and Brynna, its black eyes alive with hungry glee...

  “Grab him!” A voice screamed, “Please! Don't let go! Don't let him go!”

  A hand grasped my ankle tightly. Or was it one of those tentacles? I was being held under the water, or was I being pulled down into its black depths?

  I had never seen a river beast, though I remembered the stories about “Nessie” on Earth. My oxygen-deprived brain tried to remember which body of water she had supposedly lived in. I couldn't even remember the names of the oceans... Everything was slipping away.

  I hated Pangaea. I hated all its hidden dangers and its weird creatures. I wished that I had stayed behind to die because at least my untimely end would have been quick and mostly painless.

  My lungs were filling up, stopping their function like they were electrical machines suddenly doused in water. Circuits were spraying sparks like Fourth of July fireworks. I was dying slowly.

  I had heard that drowning was only painful and scary for a few minutes. Then, you just drifted away. I would not just sink to the depths of that river, never to be seen again. I was being pulled in by that fanged, terrifying creature as water rushed through my ears and flooded my brain. More sparks exploded wildly.

  “QUINN!” Alice's voice shrieked in terror for a quick second. My head was under the water. When it resurfaced, I heard her again.

  “...HIM! DON'T LET...”

  I blacked out.