Page 56 of The Shattered Genesis

  ***

  “It’s a bad day to be in this camp.” Rachel told me sullenly one morning as she and I and Tony listened to the shouting match being waged in the hallway. Don had raised the donated rations quantity yet again. To that date, he had raised it three times. First, it was every person contributing a handful of their crops. Then, it was half. Now, he had raised the quantity to sixty-five percent.

  “Do you know what I heard?” Rachel asked me.

  “No, I do not know. What did you hear?”

  “I heard that Jimmy and Gary’s room got ransacked. Everything was torn up and thrown all around. Their watches and stuff were missing.”

  “Someone wrecked their room to steal their watches?” Tony asked, and I smacked his hand because he was continually eating pieces of the carrots I had been chopping for fifteen minutes. “Ow! What is the use of a watch here, exactly?”

  “Does it matter? Plus, it wasn’t just their watches that got stolen. Whoever did it took some of their crops, too. They were keeping a lot of corn and orange cabbage up there to eat. I heard even a few bottles of water were taken out of the icebox.”

  “How very rude! I have heard similar tales of woe.”

  Many of our acquaintances in the kitchen had been victims of thievery. One girl a few years older than me told me that her sister’s diamond earrings had been stolen. A man told me that someone had stolen his wife’s wedding ring. I had been silently hoping that the cowardly thief was just one man or woman with a pitiful case of kleptomania. I knew better, however. I knew that not only was there more than one thief but that they were working alone. Somehow, multiple thieves stealing for just themselves was more frightening than a band of thieves working in a group.

  Human morality was slowly slipping away. People were embracing the lawlessness that would certainly coincide with Don's way of life.

  “Has Don been looking for whomever they are?” I asked.

  “No. You know Don.” Rachel said with a roll of her eyes, “Don says that it’s unfortunate but he won’t be doing anything to stop it. We all just have to start locking our doors. You think you can trust people…”

  “I do not ever think that I can trust people. I know that people are allowing their dark sides to get the better of them. They are allowing apathy and selfishness to rule their lives. Don encourages that, doesn’t he? Look at how he pushes the Peace Fruit at everyone.”

  “I know.”

  “And now he wants to raise the tax.” Tony added, “God, we already get peanuts, don’t we, and now we’ve got to pay even more to him. And why? So he can pony is up to Adam and keep us in his good graces.”

  “Ugh. Adam.” I groaned, and they made similar noises of assent.

  After a long moment, Rachel said, “He is really hot, though.”

  “Rachel!” Tony and I said simultaneously.

  “You’re going to starve us, Don!” I heard Elijah shout in the hallway.

  “That’s what he wants, Eli! I don’t even know why you’re surprised!” Frank yelled in response.

  “Why would I want to starve anyone? I’m not…” Don stopped, afraid of treading too close to a personal insult with my rapidly growing brother. Elijah was beginning to show signs of the same evolution that had taken hold of James.

  “What? You’re not my father? Well, believe me, you’re dancing pretty close to that line, Don! These people farm all day. They work their asses off in the hot sun all day long so they can feed themselves! You can’t tell them how much they should be giving you!”

  “I absolutely can, or we will starve! Don’t you see?! I am taking enough food so that we can all eat. I am taking enough to be cooked and served to everyone. How you can believe that I should be encouraging selfishness at a time like this is beyond me, Elijah! You are so young! You are the product of your affluent upbringing, I'm telling you!”

  “This has nothing to do with being young or growing up with money, Don! This has to do with right and wrong! You’re stealing what people are growing themselves. That was never part of the deal!”

  “What was the deal? Tell me what the deal was, and I’ll do my best to make it happen!” Don replied sarcastically. “I am doing the best I can with what we have!’

  “You’re giving most of it over to him!”

  “Him who?!” Don demanded, and I watched him throw his hands up in frustration as he spoke.

  “Adam!” Frank and Elijah shouted simultaneously and in the same tone of impassioned accusation.

  “Adam gets next to nothing from us.” Don lied quickly. I could tell that he was being less than truthful by the way he stammered and rolled his eyes multiple times. For a moment, he looked as though he might be succumbing to some sort of fit. Given how much of the Peace Fruit he consumed an evening, I would not be surprised if he suffered some form of neurological shutdown.

  “We’re at the breaking point. Things were fine for a few weeks, but he’s screwing us now, guys.” Rachel told me softly as she skinned a large rabbit behind me. I grimaced at the sight and turned back to the vegetables and herbs that I was responsible for.

  I nodded in response to what she had said as I picked up a handful of strongly-scented herbs that I had chopped and threw them into the steaming water on the stove.

  “He expects us to believe his lies. He expects us not to question him. That is just plain irresponsibility, and I will have no parts of it.” I told her solemnly.

  I wiped the sweat from my forehead on the back of my hand and glanced over at Penny. She and two of her friends were filling water bottles and glancing in apprehension towards the door. When Penny's fearful eyes met mine, I smiled, rolled my eyes, and shook my head in an attempt to pretend like the argument outside was just an instance of three boys being utterly silly. A look of relief came over her face, and I watched as she told her friends that everything was alright.

  “Why do you think he’s giving Adam most of the crops?” Rachel asked. “Do you really think it’s just to keep us in his good graces? Does Adam really need crops?”

  “Of course he doesn’t, and yes, I do think that Don is trying to appease him. But I know, from listening in on his thoughts, that Don believes Adam is also aiding the Bachums, though I am almost sure that is not true. Adam has some sort of stake in this war. There is something very crucial in it for him. I have not yet deciphered exactly what that something is.”

  “I can’t believe that Adam would just take our food like that. You’re right, Rache: He’s not wanting for shit up there in his city. Lord knows he probably has plenty to eat. He’s their leader. I’m sure he’s eating well.” Tony replied in disgust.

  “Yes. I am sure of that, as well. But I absolutely can believe that he would take from us. He will take whatever he wants just to take, I’m afraid.”

  We stopped talking for a few minutes to focus on our mindless jobs while also trying to drown out our opinions on the matter.

  “Are you and James okay?” Rachel asked me. Her question moved a little too close to personal territory in a way with which I was not comfortable entirely. But instead of snapping at her about her business versus business that was mine, I sighed heavily, and reminded myself that we were basically friends.

  “We are doing well. I forgive him for what he did.”

  “That’s pretty big of you, considering exactly what he did.”

  “Well, he was high. He has not taken the Peace Fruit since. I cannot believe so many others are still recklessly endangering themselves and everyone else in this house by doing so.”

  “It’s what everyone wants though, isn’t it?” Tony replied bitterly, “They don’t want to think. That’s why so many people aren’t calling Don on his bullshit. They just want to keep their mouths shut and tow the line.”

  “That kind of thinking led to the mess we were in on Earth. The political mess, I mean. The governmental mess…”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “I am right.”

  “Of course you are.”
Tony chuckled before turning to another serious, personal topic, “What about Penny? How is she?”

  I looked over at her again and Rachel and Tony joined me in the glance. The water bottles were full and standing in neat lines on the sink. Penny and her friends had moved on to separating vegetables both known and exotic. Nick was there with her, talking to her quietly while stealing a little of everything. Penny beamed when he ate what he had taken in grand gestures. A few times, she even laughed out loud. I could not help but smile to myself.

  “She is coming around. It has been a few weeks. She still feels badly about it, but we are working to resolve her guilt. It is a struggle, but she will endure.”

  “I don’t doubt that.” Tony said, and he grinned at me, which caused me to grin in response before he had even finished what he was going to say. “Not when she’s got her tough-as-nails mama to look out for her.”

  My grin widened at the compliment; it was so very fitting.

  “I do my best. James and I have both picked up the slack that was never carried by my parents. Finally, she has a respectable father figure.”

  “He is respectable. He loves her a lot. Everybody says that. Everybody says that he loves you a lot, too. Tom says that he talks about you constantly. Well, almost constantly. It’s not like, creepy constantly.”

  “I know he does. I am sure our relationship is still very shocking to everyone…”

  “Not at all.” Rachel chimed in, “People get it. He’s good to you. Everybody sees that. Except for what happened with the Peace Fruit but then, so many others went through the same side effects. He’s a good man, Brynna.” She pointed at me with the knife, and my eyes widened. Tony cracked up. “Don’t let him go.”

  How very sentimental and yet, how very true as well. The smile on my face widened at the thought of him. When they were not running back and forth to the campsite, the security detail worked out in the fields with the gardeners, harvesting the land for our sustenance. I pictured him out there with his shirt tied around his head, sweating as he plowed the fertile earth. I pictured him laughing along with the jokes and banter that the gardeners tended to use as their conversation. A swelling of love for him spread throughout my chest, caressing my insides and warming me straight down to my soul.

  “I am glad that you said that.” I told Rachel through my small smile.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because though I might not ever have doubted this, I suddenly acknowledged openly to myself how lucky I am to have him. He loves me. He loves Penny and Violet. He even loves Elijah, to a certain degree.”

  “Well, I hate to rain on your parade, and dampen your mood, and all that stuff,” Tony said, “But that feeling is definitely not reciprocated.”

  “It is not.” I replied with a slight smile, “But in time, Eli will see why I love him so much. When I would come in contact with men I thought to be upstanding in all ways, I always described them as good, honest, and decent. James fits all three of those traits quite nicely.”

  “He does. Plus, he has a rocking body and a hot face.” Rachel added.

  “Rachel! One would never know that you are happily married!”

  “What?! I notice when other guys are attractive, and Joe notices when other girls are attractive. We have a ‘hands, mouths, and lower anatomies to ourselves and each other’ rule.”

  “I like that rule. Can Tom and I have that rule? Cuz that Pangaean guy that comes here and talks to the Ares? Holy shit. I call him Black Beauty.”

  “And he’s gay, too!” I said excitedly, “Well, he’s both. But still!”

  “Oh, Jesus take the wheel…” He murmured, and Rachel and I laughed hysterically. “I’m just kidding. I will deny saying all of that if you tell Tom I said it. What we talk about stays between us girls.”

  We laughed even harder, because Tony was so tough and buff and grizzly bear-like that to hear him refer to himself as a girl was just too hilarious.

  “But seriously, Brynn, Rachel’s observations are astute. James is the total package. Consider yourself lucky, and believe me when I say, most women here are jealous that you have him. I don’t look it, but I’m gay, and I love gossip.”

  “Oh, Tony, we know. You’re our source!” Rachel told him.

  “Exactly. To continue being the source, I have to listen in on what people say, and there are ladies here—married, single, old, young—who are jealous of what you and James have.”

  “That gives me very little pleasure, surprisingly enough.” I said, “I do not care about the envy of other women.” I thought to myself for a moment before clarifying a nagging point, “But if any of them try to take him from me, they are going to suffer the full wrath of my evolution, I can tell you that.”

  Rachel, Tony, and I both laughed half-hysterically.

  “Yeah, girl!” Rachel said, “That’s your man!”

  “Damn right, he is.”

  “We’ll help you kill the bitch who tries to take him from you.” Tony said.

  “Damn right, we will.” Rachel agreed.

  We laughed again, ignoring the ongoing argument out in the hallway. I did not care to listen. I just wanted to muse briefly on how everything had remained level despite all that had lead me to believe that chaos was inevitable. I looked around, feeling great affection for my coworkers in the kitchen. I liked mostly everyone in the house. I enjoyed socializing with them, which as I am sure you have gathered, was quite an odd turn for me.

  I had help, finally, in taking care of Penny. I did not have to shoulder the responsibilities completely on my own. She had a paternal figure who was both strong and caring. Violet had somebody else to bother with her requests for permission to do teenage things. Sure, Elijah had someone to hate, but I did not view him through the eyes of maternity with which I viewed my sisters. I could not have cared less what he thought of James.

  I loved that man dearly. I would hold him close to me for all the immortal years I spent on Pangaea. We would strengthen our deep bond with every moment we spent together. Maybe, I thought quietly to myself with uncertainty, we would even have children of our own.

  No, maybe not.

  Outside the window, thunder rumbled and a streak of lightning slashed a jagged line of light through the dark gray clouds.

  How very, very cliché, my mind drawled sarcastically.

  No, I thought forcefully in response, It's nothing. Superstition is for the young and stupid.

  Yet I could not help but believe that something ominous was on the horizon. The world would soon erupt into madness and no one, not even me with all of the things I knew, would be able to stop it.

  Quinn

  I had been reluctant to believe that everything was going to turn up, but after several months living in Don’s house, I couldn’t help but embrace a little optimism. There were many people to talk to, and the work definitely wasn’t difficult. We never ran into any threatening forces on our trips to the campsite, and we were foraging more than we needed.

  After the first night when Alice and I took the Peace Fruit, we had witnessed the horrible after-effects. James had attacked Brynna. He hadn’t just used his fists; he had tried to do the absolute worst. Alice was devastated; she sympathized greatly with the girl who was barely our friend. I couldn’t help but feel badly for her, too. But we didn’t judge James. We both just silently thanked our lucky stars that we hadn’t suffered a similar episode of violence.

  After that, though, everything shaped up. People continued to party every night but those who didn't want to take their chances again with the Fruit hung out together. Believe me when I say that those lazy evenings playing cards, listening to music, and talking about our lives on both Earth and Pangaea were welcome moments of peace far more powerful than anything that could be achieved by the two-faced Peace fruit.

  It wasn’t the log cabin that I had promised Alice, but it was a consistent lifestyle. It was the most normal life we could have had on Pangaea. I went off to “work” every morning and c
ame home to her every night. She worked in the kitchen with Brynna, Violet, and Penny all day. Since coming to Pangaea, we were living more like married people than we ever would have at our age on Earth. It was good practice for the real thing.

  “So, what do you think, man?” Angie, one of only five women on our team, asked one day as we walked, “Who is going to be the first to get married? Brynna and James, or Quinn and Alice?”

  “Don’t say that word to Brynn. She’ll flip.” I told her with a laugh. James and Brynna were inseparable, but I knew that getting married was not at the top of their priorities list, at least not yet. She would be especially adamant about avoiding marriage, given her staunch opposition to the institution as a whole.

  “Yeah, and we’re not at that point yet.” James agreed, “Maybe in a couple of years.”

  “You two love each other, don’t you?” Angie pressed him.

  “Of course we do.” James said surely. “But this is the twenty-first century. Well, who knows what century it is here? But from where we came from, it was the twenty-first, and marriage was on its way out anyway.”

  “I heard that over in Mary and Rich Bachum’s camp, you have to be married to someone.” Bennie, an Italian-American from New York, informed us, “They’re like the Gestapo over there.”

  “I don’t know if the Gestapo ever mandated marriage.” James replied, “Wait, who told you that?”

  “Gary and Danielle Hill.” Bennie answered, “They escaped from there.”

  “They escaped? They didn’t just leave?”

  “No. They run a tight ship up north.” Bennie continued. James and I looked at each other in disbelief, both of us wondering if Bennie was exaggerating or even fabricating the story all together. I made a mental note to find Gary and Danielle later that evening so I could ask.

  “It’s supposedly like, very refined. Men have to work, women have to stay home.” Bennie went on. “There are lots of rules.”

  “Do they dictate how many times a week you have to screw your wife, too? I could use that rule around here.” Wes, the least popular member of our group, mused. He expected us to laugh, and a few of the guys did. James, Bennie, Tom, Frank, and I gave each other the same look we always wore when he opened his mouth: one of disgusted disbelief at his ridiculous foulness.

  “I hate that guy.” Bennie muttered as we walked.

  “Yeah, he’s a tool.” Angie agreed, and we shared a quiet laugh.

  We broke through the trees, the graveyard that was once our campsite looming in the distance against the mid-afternoon sun. We climbed the hill, talking about whatever random tidbits of our daily lives popped into our head.

  “And in response to your question, Frank…” I said, “Alice and I aren’t thinking about getting married any time soon, either. Besides, we’re all basically married to the people we live with, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah, man. Plus, how would we even get married?” Frank replied, “Aisha and I were talking about that last night. All that normal shit we’re used to from the old ways, even something like getting married, is gone.”

  “It’s gone because it’s unnecessary.” James chimed in again, “Marriage was for show. I don’t need to be married to Brynn for me to know that I love her. You don’t need to be married to Alice; Frank, you don’t need to be married to Aisha, and Tom, you don’t need to be married to Tony.”

  “You all are such guys!” Angie groaned loudly, “Bennie, listen to these idiots. Marriage isn’t for show, you old dog. It’s for commitment. It’s to show your boyfriend or girlfriend that you want to be in it with them ‘til the end. Maybe I’m just being a typical female about this, but it’s true.”

  “Amen, girl.” Bennie replied.

  “No, typical female.” I chimed in, and the guys all burst out laughing. Angie turned around and punched me in the arm.

  “I’ve heard you talk, sir. You’re the most romantic guy I know. The way you talk about Allie, and you don’t want to marry her?” Angie challenged me.

  “It’s not that. Frank is right. How would we even do it? And James is right. It isn’t necessary anymore.”

  “Yes, it is!” Angie and Bennie exclaimed.

  “Ooh, battle of the sexes!” Frank proclaimed dramatically.

  “Hey, if you two want to marry your significant others, then by all means, go for it.” James told them as he held his hands up in surrender, “We’ll come to the festivities and drink all the booze.”

  “Does Don allow gay marriage?” Bennie asked, “Would he even let Nicole and I get married?”

  “Don is the most non-judgmental person on the planet. We’re lucky in that everyone in our house is non-judgmental, or at least they seem to be. I think anything goes, really. Now, if you were over in the Bachums camp, then no. You two, and Tony and Tom would get stoned to death.” Frank told her.

  “They’d have to catch me first.” Tom said.

  “Exactly.” Bennie agreed, “I want to sneak over there and just watch them live.”

  “You want to witness their misery. Sadist…” James shook his head in jokingly disgusted disbelief at her.

  “Who says they’re miserable? I think some people like being restricted. It keeps them from having to think for themselves.”

  “Oh, we’re getting deep!” James informed the rest of us.

  “James Maxwell! You and your freaking sarcasm! At least Brynn gives you a run for…”

  We stopped talking all at once. Our animal fangs shot out as our eyes turned white. There were others amongst us. I closed my eyes and smelled the air as I tried to determine the source of the warning that was pounding in my chest.

  “They know we’re here.” I muttered to the rest of our group, “Remember that they have…”

  Frank went down before the sound of the gunshot had even registered. All of us jumped to the ground before crawling to take cover behind rocks or by ducking back into the trees. The person was wielding a machine gun and firing off bullets without pause. Whoever it was, they were certainly not aiming. They were just firing into the distance where they had seen movement and hoping for a hit.

  When there was a slight pause, Bennie jumped up from behind the rock she was crouched behind and pointed the Beretta we had stolen on our first trip at the person charging us. She aimed and fired expertly with no hesitation. With ease, she took down the assailant from almost forty feet away.

  “Alright, let’s go!” She ordered before moving out from behind the rock. We jumped up and followed her. Don had supplied those of us who didn’t have guns with knives and spears. I grasped my knife firmly, trying to ignore the trembling in my arms and noting that I much preferred just fighting with my hands. I didn’t want to stab anyone.

  “We should just go back!” Angie called to us as she and Henry, another guy on our team, lifted Frank onto his feet.

  “You two take him back! We’ll handle this!” James ordered before looking at me, “You ready for this, man?”

  “There’s no time to not be ready. Let’s go!”

  We charged out, running right into two of the Bachums’ people. James made a valiant effort of trying to take one of them down by sliding in the mud towards the boy and kicking his feet out from under him. The boy he knocked down, however, pulled a handgun from the back of his pants and aimed right at James’s head. Quick as a flash, James jumped up and ducked behind some crates. The boy fired blindly at the crates, hoping to hit him, but James was crouched low to the ground, almost like he was doing a push-up. When the gunshots stopped, he barreled over the crates and punched the kid so hard in the face that his jaw snapped. The boy yelled in agony and spit teeth out onto the ground. Then, his wits returned, and he aimed the gun at James again. Blood spewed from his mouth as he shouted some gargled obscenity. James’s thought processes had abandoned him the same way mine would have if I were in a fight for my life. He was not aware that the person trying to kill him was just a young boy. He brought back his fist and hit him again, knocking him unconscio
us or worse.

  For a moment, we stared at the kid, noting that he was probably younger than me. James shook his head slightly. I could see his guilt, and I sympathized with it.

  “Come on. Let’s go.” I urged him, “Take his gun.”

  James and I stared, hearing the gunfire all around us and the yells of the people, ours and theirs, clashing in a fight to the death.

  “You take it.” He told me before sprinting off to find another opponent who was, hopefully, much older.

  I stared at the motionless boy. I took his gun and ran after the other people in my party.

  Several of them had wrestled guns from the Bachums’ people and were firing off bullets as best they could. I never aimed my gun at any of the people who charged me. Instead, I beat them into unconsciousness, remembering how I had said that killing them wasn’t necessary. Alice had told me that I would never know until I was on the receiving end of their merciless assault. Now, I could safely continue to say that I hadn't needed to break my rule...

  One of them jumped onto my back and grasped both sides of my head. She struggled to twist it sideways but every muscle in my neck had tensed, making my head as impossible to turn as a rusted wheel. I flung my head back to nail the person hard in the face. After whipping around, I jumped on top of the woman and grabbed her hair. I pulled her head towards me and slammed it hard into the ground, that animal roar erupting from me with enough force to scare the second native that was charging me away.

  Native… Why were there natives?

  In that one second that it took for me to make that realization, the woman below me brought her fists back and hit me hard in the stomach. I grunted in pain, my breaths rasping as I tried to inhale. She pushed me backwards and got over top of me now. With a deafening screech, she brought her clawed hand back and scratched my cheek deeply. With her other hand, she did the same on the other side of my face. I spit a mouthful of blood at her, and she was blinded for only a minute. She screamed in surprise, but I lunged forward to tackle her around the middle. Once she had collapsed back into the mud, I got above her again.

  I was breathing raspy breaths at her for a minute, my blood dripping onto her face as she shrieked and roared at me in burning, animal rage. I brought my head back and slammed it down into hers twice, ignoring the dizziness that was bound to follow two head-butts.

  The gun had flown from my hand, and I reached sideways for it. That movement gave her just enough time to pull a twisted dagger from the pocket of her black dress. I tried to brace for the blow, but no thought or physical tensing could have prepared me for the unbearable pain of being stabbed straight through the stomach.

  I didn’t scream; it felt as though my lungs had deflated. I could only gargle and hold my stomach as blood poured over my hands. I fell backwards, kicked my feet and arched upwards, trying desperately to apply pressure to the wound but instead, only paining myself more. While struggling for a breath, for enough air to yell out, I watched her crawl over top of me and raise her knife for the final blow. There was only one defense that my strength would allow; I kicked her once and sent her hurtling backwards.

  I tried to push my way away from her towards the gun. As she stood back up, I kicked my feet harder and faster, propelling myself across the ground with strength that was beginning to fade slowly with the effort. When she lunged through the air, her white eyes ablaze with fury and her own lion-like teeth on display, I reached back and finally, thankfully, grabbed the gun.

  The safety… I had heard the term before, but that didn’t mean I knew what it meant. I pushed something on the side of the gun and then aimed. Just as she was about to plunge her knife into my chest upon landing on me, I fired off every bullet in the chamber.

  She fell on top of me, hissing and snarling weakly in my ear. I struggled to push her, off but the exertion was too painful. I moaned in pain as I turned over onto my side; she fell off of me, but that was the least of my concerns. I reached back slowly, my arm trembling, and ran my hand down my back.

  “Oh, man…” I muttered, and a maniacal giggle burst from me. I had to have been going delirious from the blood loss and the pain. “Bitch stabbed me straight through…”

  I laid down and my laughter died away as quickly as it had come alive. I stared up at the sun that was hiding behind the thick, eerily gray clouds. Nature was completely untarnished on Pangaea; all the colors, light and dark, were more brilliant than anything we had ever seen on Earth. I thought about Earth for a long while, wondering if I would trade the death that was sure to be slow and agonizing for the quick, explosive death that had wiped out the population on our home planet.

  “Alice…” I muttered aloud in response to my mind reminding me that on Pangaea, Alice and I had gotten what we had always wanted. We had gotten what would have been denied us by the progression of an Earthly life.

  I worried that she would be very sad. I knew that if the situation were reversed, I would be inconsolable.

  I had to put my faith in her strength now. She would survive. I knew that. She would be taken care of by Brynna and James. She would have a family of sorts, made up of the other people in the house. I knew that she would grieve, but I also knew that my death wouldn’t be her own, too.

  I closed my eyes.

  Violet

  The chaos in the foyer of the house drew us away from our work. Brynna had been distracted all morning; at least once an hour, she would stop abruptly in the middle of whatever task she had been assigned to close her eyes and hold her heart with one hand. When I inquired if she was alright, she muttered that she was and forced herself to resume her work immediately. At one point, she leaned forward to put her hands on her knees and hung her head. Some dark knowing was plaguing her. Some premonition of an awful event was snaking around her and snatching the precious breaths in her lungs.

  “Let’s go get some air.” Alice told her. When Brynna shook her head, Alice took one of her arms and led her out of the room.

  They disappeared for about ten minutes. When they returned, all the color had drained from Alice’s face.

  Brynna and Alice were the first to run from the kitchen towards the entrance hall. Brynna was well aware that whatever terrible thing that had been pulling at her instincts all morning had finally occurred.

  “What happened?!” I heard Alice scream. I rounded the corner and gasped sharply upon seeing the sight.

  All of the men and women in security were either covered in their own blood or the blood of another. Dirt had caked onto their shoes, splattered up their legs, and covered their torsos. The ones either unconscious or dead, I couldn’t know, were being carried or dragged along by those still able to move.

  “Ten of them… Ten of them came through the gate…”

  “Quinn! Oh God! Oh my God!” I knelt beside Alice and grasped her shoulders. I moved down to press my face to the side of hers.

  “It’s going to be okay…” I whispered in a trembling voice, “He's going to be okay...”

  Ten of them were coming our way...

  “Are they armed?!” Don demanded after he had stormed into the room. When I looked up at him, I saw that his eyes were red with the blaze of fury.

  James nodded in response before he and Brynna took off out of the house.

  “Brynna!” I screamed in terror as I jumped up to run after her. But a hand grasped my arm roughly and threw me back to Alice. Elijah was going after her, too. Wes, Bennie, and Tom followed after him.

  “Stay with him. I’ll be right back!” I told Alice. She nodded, and I ran onto the porch, my entire body trembling so viciously that I was finding it difficult to move at a pace the situation required.

  The Bachums had coerced some natives to join their side. Their group charged our group. Guns were fired, and someone went down. I jumped out of the way as five stray bullets came whizzing at me, quicker than one beat of my racing heart. I crawled to the wooden post of the porch and peeked out, watching as Brynna ran forward in a blur, jumped, planted
her foot in the stomach of one of the charging natives and flipped in a complete circle over his head.

  “Whoa!” I was unable to hide my awe, even under the highly dangerous circumstances.

  Her back was to the native, who had jumped up and turned to face her. She swung her arm back, and I saw for the first time that she had brought the knife she had been using in the kitchen. With a fluid movement, she sliced into the man’s throat and then flipped him over her shoulder without ever turning around completely to face him.

  “Keep at least one alive!” Don’s deafening shout behind me made me jump.

  Elijah had the upper-hand in his fight. He was one deadly strike away from killing his opponent. Instead of ripping into his flesh with his fangs, he thrust his fist forward hard enough to send the man flying backwards several feet.

  When they had won, they returned, huffing and puffing from the effort. James’s arm was wrapped tightly around Brynna’s shoulders. Her own were locked around his middle. They were keeping each other close after facing such a dangerous threat.

  Elijah and Wes were dragging the unconscious man Elijah had taken down. Tom was carrying a huge native man on his shoulders without even a grimace.

  “One native, one Bachum…” Tom said as he threw his body forward so that the native landed hard on his back with a painful thud.

  “Perfect.” Don replied in a voice lacking emotion. “Get them downstairs.”

  Brynna pulled me up, and I squeezed her hand in both of mine as we walked. I let go only to grab hold of her arm. I rested my head on her shoulder as we entered the house again.

  The injured were being carried upstairs. We had only four doctors in our group. They were coming upstairs from the basement where they and several others had been trying to fashion an office and an examination room for them to use.

  “Alright, I need anything clean that can be used to stop the bleeding. I need anything that can be used as bandages. I need alcohol.” One of them demanded quickly.

  Several people were off in search of those items.

  We followed them upstairs and began to immediately search for Alice.

  “Put them in here. It’s the most space.” Don instructed. He was pointing to his own room, the master suite.

  Alice was sobbing beside Quinn and grasping his hand tightly.

  “I don’t think he’s breathing!” She cried hysterically. When she looked up at us, we saw the black lines smeared down her face from the mix of tears and mascara.

  I didn’t know what to say and neither did James or Elijah. There are few words that can comfort those preparing to lose ones they love. That is a truth that has never changed.

  “It is alright. Look at me. Alice, look at me.” Brynna was knelt on the other side of Quinn. Dr. Anthony tossed her one of the First Aid kits that had been foraged from the ship.

  “Do the best you can.” He told her hurriedly, and she nodded. I noticed that her hands were only trembling slightly.

  “I am going to do everything in my power, Allie. I promise.” Brynna told her. My sister's eyes were still fixed on our friend's even as her hands pulled out the gauze from the kit and pressed it to Quinn’s wound almost by their own will.

  “But you’re not a doctor… We need him…”

  “I will not be offended by your lack of faith. Guys, I need alcohol,” She ordered us over her shoulder, “And Don is calling Adam. When he gets here, tell him that I need to see him.”

  “Brynn, the last person we…” James started to say.

  “Alcohol, James! Now!” She barked at us before pushing harder on Quinn’s wound. His body jerked forward, and he moaned softly.

  “He’s alive. He can still feel pain. That’s a good sign.” Brynna told Alice soothingly. Alice nodded and kissed Quinn's hand twice.

  “What can I do?” Alice managed to whisper to Brynna.

  “Talk to him. Keep him with us.”

  Alice nodded again and moved closer to Quinn’s head so he could hear her voice.

  “Hey, baby…” She whispered through her shuddering sobs, “I’m right here. We’re all right here. Brynn is going to help you. She’s going to do everything she can. I’m going to do whatever I need to do to make you better, okay? I’m not going to let you go anywhere. I promise.”

  James handed Brynna a small bottle of vodka. Those tiny bottles had been very popular on the ship at nighttime, when people from all over came together to talk and socialize before they all went to bed. I had always been annoyed by the noise those drunken people made in the rec-room, which was three floors above where we slept. But now, I was definitely thankful for the bottles.

  “Shh…” Alice whispered after putting her hand on Quinn’s face. He had jumped again when Brynna poured the alcohol onto his stomach, “It’s okay, baby. I know it stings, but it’s going to help you. It will. I promise.”

  “You requested to see me, Ms. Olivier?”

  Everyone except for Brynna jumped upon finding Adam standing right beside our group.

  “Oh, wipe that smirk off of your face!” She snapped at him angrily. I gasped and covered my mouth, stunned that she would call him on his cruel arrogance and the joy he was clearly experiencing at witnessing our misfortune. I wanted to shakily remind her that if he wanted, he could easily murder each and every one of us.

  “I apologize.”

  My brows crinkled together in confusion. Had my sister's scathing nature really gotten Adam, the leader of an entire planet, to apologize sincerely?

  “I need to know how severe his wound is. I need to know if anything got damaged, and what I should do.”

  “Oh, do you?” He asked with his eyebrows raised and a smirk on his face again.

  Quinn started trembling, slightly at first. But then, as though we had pressed a fully charged defibrillator to his chest (which, given his condition, would have been very useful), his body jumped off of the ground, twitching and jerking wildly.

  “Quinn!” Alice was wailing now. I embraced her again as tears streamed down my cheeks. She was trying to hold him down, but Brynna broke her grip.

  “Just let it run its course.” She ordered softly, “He has lost a lot of blood.” When she addressed Adam, her warmth froze over, and a violent scowl of impatience took hold of her features.

  “What do you want?”

  “What do you think I want? Mr. Maxwell, I have had all that I can stand of you and will gladly snap you in half if you step towards me aggressively. Please think again.” His eyes were blazing when he looked at James.

  “Brynna, do not agree to this. Don’t listen to him!” James ordered her.

  “He’s going to die any second now, James.” Brynna looked at Alice and then back at Quinn, who had gone motionless. “He has two minutes, maybe less.”

  “Just tell him you’ll do what he wants!” Alice screamed at her pleadingly, “Please, Brynna! Please!”

  Brynna looked up at James, a desperation in her eyes that I had never seen before. As quickly as I had noticed it, it was gone. Her resolve had returned.

  “I will handle this myself, thank you so much.” She shot at Adam, “Carry on.”

  Adam chuckled softly and turned to walk away.

  “Without blood, he will pass. You will need Elixir, which I supplied to your leader just yesterday.”

  “Yes…” Brynna realized in a soft whisper. She looked up at Elijah and me.

  “Where is it?” I asked immediately.

  “It is downstairs where they were building. It is dark blue, almost black, with purple around the edges. It is a medium-sized leaf. Go! Hurry up!”

  Elijah and I ran downstairs, almost knocking over those who were waiting in the hallway for news, because we were in such a rush. We stormed into the basement, avoiding the corridor that led to the very last floor of the house. We ran down the hallway lit with torches. When we entered the room where the doctors had been working, we rooted through their large bags of medicinal supplies until we found the very leaves Brynna had de
scribed.

  “What does this do?” Elijah asked.

  “Who cares?” I responded as we took off running again, “If he says it will work, and if Brynna believes him, then it will work!”

  When we returned, Adam was healing Bennie's gunshot wound. His hands were covered in blood; he had dug into the wound in order to extract the bullet. I grimaced.

  When I handed her the leaf, Brynna put it in her mouth and chewed it up as quickly as she could. Once or twice, she scrunched up her face in disgust. Apparently, it wasn’t the most appetizing of plants.

  “Open his mouth.”

  “Oh, gross…” Elijah murmured. He turned away with his hands over his eyes.

  “Shut up, Eli!” Brynna, Alice, and I yelled simultaneously. I grasped Quinn's head and tilted it back so Alice could pull his mouth open. Brynna spat the spit-saturated leaf into her hand and shoved it into Quinn’s mouth. Her fingers pressed to the artery in his neck that, given her expression, I could gather was barely pulsing anymore.

  “He’s not swallowing it!” Alice cried, “Damn it!” She pushed her fingers down into his throat, forcing the mashed-up leaf down further, “It’s down! It’s down!”

  “Alright.” Brynna nodded, “Now, we just have to wait.”

  As she sat back, she looked over at Adam, scowling once again. When James sat beside her, she took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder.

  “He ever looks at you like that again…” James muttered to her, and I noticed for the first time that not only had his irises turned red but so had the whites of his eyes. I looked down, knowing that James had reached the level of anger humans simply could not achieve. If ever there was a time when he was unthinkably dangerous, it was during those moments of unspeakable outrage.

  “Look at me.” Brynna whispered to him. She grasped his chin and looked up into his eyes. Now, I looked at them again. Her blue eyes were glowing with the calming tranquility of the ocean to extinguish the fire that burned in James’s. His eyes returned to normal.

  “Guys, look! Look!” Alice exclaimed. When we did, we saw her pointing to the wound in Quinn’s stomach. We all leaned in to watch as his skin pulled back together. It was as though an invisible needle was sewing the wound closed. Color was returning to his face as his breath began to draw in and let go quietly.

  “You did it! Brynn, you did it!” Alice screamed in shameless glee. She reached out, pulled Brynna forward, and squeezed her so tightly that Brynna frowned in pain.

  “I have a slight fear of suffocation…” Brynna told her. But she was patting Alice's back and smiling slightly.

  “Thank you! Thank you!” Alice was crying.

  “Well, there is little need for tears now, my dear.”

  Typical Brynna, so uncomfortable with outpourings of any emotion that wasn’t blind rage. Alice apologized and wiped her tears away.

  “You’re right. He’s going to be okay. You saved his life.”

  “We all saved his life. We all helped.” Brynna corrected her.

  “Call Guinness, ladies and gentlemen. Brynna Oliver has said something humble!” James exclaimed. Brynna reached back and slapped him lightly in the chest, a gesture she seemed to favor when she was looking to offset his sarcasm.

  “As if you can say anything about being humble…” She told him.

  “I know.” He kissed her forehead and continued to rub her back even after his lips had left her skin.

  “Alright, children, any more PDA, and Elijah is bound to explode.” I warned them quickly. Elijah was clenching his jaw and his fists as he looked at them.

  “What is that?” James indicated his stance, “You look like you’re having digestive issues. It’s not a good look for you. It’s not a good look for anyone, actually.”

  “Stop it.” Brynna told him as she covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.

  “Yeah, and being a pedophile isn’t just a bad look, it’s also a crime.”

  “Elijah!” I exclaimed in shock.

  “Don’t fret, Violet.” James said in his normal tone of breezy arrogance, “He is completely clueless as to what constitutes pedophilia, I guess. Let me inform you, sweetheart,” He said to Elijah,

  “That by old world standards, the term was defined generally as a sexual relationship between an adult and a child under the age of eighteen. Given that your sister is twenty-two years old, I just don’t fit the bill. I’m sorry to have to call you on your stupidity, but hey, what can you do?”

  Elijah was steaming at being torn down so effortlessly. I tried to remain neutral in the argument, but his hatred of James was over the top and unnecessary. James had hurt Brynna once while under the influence of a drug that he had never taken again. Everyone in the house could see how deeply he loved her. Everyone could also see that the feeling was mutual; Brynna loved him right back and just as much.

  “Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?”

  “Why? Because I’m with your sister, or because I made you look like a whining, temper tantrum-throwing little boy? That certainly isn’t a good look for you, either.”

  “What kind of a man gets with a girl her age? Oh, see, that was wrong of me. I called you a man. You’re not a man…”

  “Gentlemen!” Brynna stood up and stepped in between them, “That is enough!”

  “What would Mom say?!” Elijah snapped at her. Brynna opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off. “Right, you don’t care about that. You don’t care anything about Mom. I know he talked you into letting her die. Are you that desperate to have him that you would let him talk you into that?”

  “First of all, I am not desperate to have him. I never groveled for his affections nor did I compromise any aspect of myself, so you had better think twice before you hurl that accusation at me!” Brynna hissed at him.

  I groaned as I watched the blue of her eyes swirl with flecks of red now.

  “Secondly, if you ever insinuate that it was James who coerced me into abandoning our mother on Earth…”

  “You’ll what? Are you going to kill me? That would be the icing on the cake, wouldn’t it?! You’d kill me for him the same way you killed Mom for…”

  When she hit him, he flew backwards and almost knocked over Nikki, Bennie's girlfriend.

  “That’s enough.” James told her as she struggled to break his grip on her hands. “It's alright, baby. It's okay. Come on. Let’s go.”

  But Elijah had waited weeks to fight that battle. The venue and the time were not appropriate, but he was going to say his piece now, for better or worse. Instead of shouting an obscenity-laced tirade full of insults and insinuations, he ran forward to tackle James around the middle. Alice and I exclaimed as we jumped onto our feet. Brynna simply watched with her arms crossed over her chest. All the while, she shook her head in disgust and rolled her eyes.

  Elijah never even grasped the upper-hand in the fight. James was faster and stronger; tossing Elijah about was like throwing a paper doll. Never once did he hit him, though Elijah managed to land a few punches.

  “Are you done?” James finally barked at him as he held Elijah against the wall. “Tell me you’re done, and I’ll let you go.”

  “I have had it with this.” Brynna spoke up suddenly. They both looked back at her to find that she was resting her head against her hand and squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Baby…” James started to say.

  “Don’t you two understand that this is the last thing we need right now!?” She had lifted her head to glare at them. “I am an adult, Elijah Daniel, and I will make my own decisions. He is just angry, James, and there is no reason for you to engage him physically! With your strength, you could easily crush him, so learn some self-control!”

  “He could not easily…” Elijah started to say.

  “Shut up!” She stomped her foot in frustration, “I do not care if you approve of our relationship or not, Eli. We are together. For your own sake, you must learn to deal with that. I know that your rejection of the idea
is bred from your brotherly affection for me. I know that you feel it is your duty to protect me the way our father never did. I appreciate that. Believe me, I do. But James is alright, don’t you see that? You know me. If I can trust him, then there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do the same.”

  “So, what do you want?” Elijah wiped the blood away from his mouth and laughed slightly in aggravation, “Do you want us to shake hands? Do you want me to give you my blessing?”

  “No. I just do not want to fight with you anymore. I am so tired of this never-ceasing familial strife. We have a chance here to start completely over. What Quinn said the other night was true; we are all we have from our old lives. We need to stick together. Do you all agree?”

  She was so exhausted by the fight that had endured for hundreds of colorful reasons for thirteen years. It was evident in her eyes as she spoke. She had always been expected to carry the brunt of the weight. Now, the fatigue was beginning to show. The fight between Elijah and James was yet another conflict that was up to her to resolve. I admired her strength as I was seeing it through an untarnished lens for the first time in years. But I also couldn’t help but pity her for how cruelly unfair her life had been. Tears ran down my cheeks at the thought of it.

  “I agree.” I told her instantly after walking over to grasp her hand. “And I just want you to be happy, Brynn. And James, you know I love you.” I wiped at my eyes.

  “I know you do, and I love you, too.” He told me, “I love you and Penny just as much as she does.”

  “Eli, she’s right. We need to stop all of this conflict. It has gone on for too long. You were gone. She had to handle everything. She had to raise Penny and me. She had to take their abuse for what happened to Lucien…”

  “I do not want or need any pity for all of that, honey…” Brynna started to say quietly.

  “I don’t want him to pity you, either. I just want him to understand that if you want to be with James, then you should be! Even now, you’re still the one taking care of us. You made the decisions that we couldn’t make. I wish that we had been able to save Mom. But I know that even if you deny it, you do feel guilty about it. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been.”

  She offered no response. She would never admit feeling any regret in her decision.

  “I am tired of the drama, too.” Elijah told us wearily, “But I can’t accept him. He is too old for you, Brynna. You’re nothing but his midlife crisis!”

  “Well, I’m going to be stuck in midlife forever, so what does that say about our relationship’s longevity?” James shot back at him, “It’s a losing battle, ladies. Just throw in the…”

  “You must truly think I am stupid.” Brynna told Elijah dangerously. “Your anger is at no one else but me. What you said about our mother proved that. You are projecting your anger onto him...”

  “Yeah, I'm pissed about Mom!” Elijah interrupted her loudly, “You're right as always, Brynna! How in the world did you guess that I'm pissed about Mom being dead?! I can't believe that you left her behind. I can't even begin to understand how you can have so much evil in your heart, evil that could make you do something like that! But I also know that he insisted on leaving her. You went along with it because he insisted!”

  “Our parents were both barred from the ship, not by him, but by the group as a whole. Our mother would have been saved had she not chosen to associate with that merry band of morons she called her colleagues. You hold our mother to a standard of God-like perfection, Eli, and you always have! You do the same, though slightly less so, with Maura. Neither of them are what you believe them to be. I can give you props, however, because you do see our father for what he is. They are the type who have no place here. They deserved no new beginning.”

  “How can you say that?!” Elijah demanded furiously, “How can you talk about them like that?”

  “Because if our mother and her little friends hadn't pissed off everyone from America to Australia, we'd still be breathing the air on Earth. If they hadn't done everything in their power to destroy our planet...”

  “They didn't know what they were doing!”

  “And you think that they shouldn't be faulted for that ignorance, which yielded such catastrophic results?!” James asked him in fury, “The entire world is gone! They started a goddamn nuclear war! If they had just kept their noses out of other people's business...”

  “My mother was trying to help people!” Elijah screamed at them, unable to keep the cap on his anger now. “Besides, we don't even know for sure that it was a nuclear war!”

  “Brynna, what did Mom do, exactly?”

  I wasn't sure if I even wanted to know. I had been too naïve, too blinded by my need for her love to see her clearly. Brynna, despite her ill feelings towards my mother, would only speak the truth about her, for my sake. Unfortunately, the truth was so shameful that it beat any bold-faced lie she could have told that would make me see our mom in the same dark light that she did.

  “Now is not the time.” Brynna told me, and her blue eyes were set in stone.

  “Yes it is, Brynna. You're accusing him of holding her to a standard she doesn't deserve. Yet, here you are, protecting her.”

  “I protect her still because she was very weak. She believed herself to be so strong but she could carry nothing, not even the lightest of burdens.”

  “She carried you, didn't she?”

  “Are we speaking of carrying in the physical sense or in the metaphorical? Because in regards to the former, yes, she did carry me for nine...”

  “Shut up!” Elijah snapped at her, “And don't spread your lies to Violet! Don't try to make her see Mom the way you see her! You hated her for no reason! She wasn't home, yes. She had a drinking problem...”

  “She was a raging alcoholic, Elijah, and you know that to be truthful!”

  “She said some things to you that she didn't mean. You know she didn't mean that stuff she said!”

  “Which is why she spewed that venom at me for twelve years, if she spoke to me at all...”

  “Well, maybe you should have kept your eyes open when you were watching Lucien! Maybe you should have stayed awake!”

  “Is that what they told you?!” Brynna was screaming now, “They told you I was asleep?!”

  “We all know that she was young, and she shouldn't have been watching him in the first place, Eli...” I started to say in an effort to diffuse the almost excruciatingly strong tension.

  “I was not asleep! What did they tell you about Michael?! Did they tell you that he could heal sick children with a touch of his hand and raise the dead from their graves?! What did they tell you about where he went?”

  “You shut up about him!” Elijah pointed at her with a shaking hand, “Dad was gone. Michael was the only father we ever had! If he hadn't gotten killed in Iran...”

  Brynna slammed her fists down onto the table that she had walked behind. Her eyes had finally turned completely red.

  “So, now he is a war hero? Now, they put him up with the men and women who really did lose their lives in that pitilessly stupid war they started!? That's what they told you!?”

  Oh, the conflict of so many years was erupting in a display of explosions that rivaled any that occurred in an action film. Every part of our history they disagreed on was going to be shouted about now to no end. I knew very little of the truth, but Brynna knew it all. I was going to hear the secrets that had been kept buried deep, spoken of in looks and silences too heavy to understand at such a tender age.

  “That's what they told me. So, where is he really, Brynna? I'm interested to hear this. I'm interested to hear whatever ridiculous lie you're going to tell about him now! You lie about all the people who ever loved you. Why?! He loved us like his own! He loved you like his own!”

  Brynna laughed maniacally and threw her hands up.

  “Oh, yes, he loved me, Elijah!”

  “Let's go. Let's go get some air, baby.” James had grasped Brynna's arms gently, see
ing in her what I hadn't yet realized: She was going to cry.

  “There was only one way for him to show me how much he loved me!”

  I thought I was finally old enough to understand all the dirty secrets. But I didn't grasp what she was alluding to.

  “What are you even talking about? You know what, don't even tell me, okay? Because it's probably just some insane lie that you thought up. In fact, he probably thought it up, just so he could help you lie to yourself! That's what you do, isn't it, James? You give her complete freedom from any responsibility. You let her believe what she wants to believe while everyone else reminds her what she did when she tries to forget it!”

  James was on Elijah in a flash, grabbing the front of his shirt in both hands and slamming him down onto the table. I did not rush to his defense. I watched him struggle to break James's iron grip only to discover that with that rage inside of him and with that new, brutal strength, James was impossible to fight.

  “You need to take a very hard look back at the life you lived on Earth, Elijah. You need to start searching for some inconsistencies. All these things you're saying, all these ridiculous beliefs with no grounding in reality, are the result of the fact that you are too young and too weak to see things for what they are. You accuse her of being so weak that she needs me to lie to her while you stand back and lie to yourself constantly. I was led to believe that you're a smart kid. Stop hiding from it! Be a man for once in your goddamn life!”

  “Because you're the authority on what constitutes being a man, right? You, with your girlfriend who is young enough to be your kid, who you...”

  “When you finally do discover the truth about those people you're defending, this fight that you claim is in defense of your sister will be rendered completely useless. You'll see that I am the only man who has ever been able to protect her. I am the only man who has ever treated her right.”

  James released him and walked back to Brynna, who was grasping the apple charm on her bracelet. There was sadness in her eyes that she was too exhausted to hide. Intermixed with the sadness was the fear of a cornered animal waiting for the strike of death. I was starting to understand the sickening truth which, for Brynna, was worse than her own death. For me to see the true catalyst behind her emotional coldness and arrogance was worse than me believing her to just be a heartless shrew whose soul had long fled her.

  “Brynna!” I ran after her and James.

  “I'm sorry. I had to say it. I couldn't take it, baby. I'm sorry.” He had been whispering to her as he walked her along.

  She cleared her throat before turning to me to reveal that the look in her eyes had only intensified the further away she got from Elijah. It took my breath away for a moment. When I swallowed and tried to take a breath, I discovered that my throat had tightened under the threat of tears.

  “What?” She asked, her voice neither rising in anger nor falling in sadness. There was simply nothing there when she spoke.

  I needed to ask for confirmation that would solidify what I knew to be true: Uncle Mike had raped her when she was just a child. I couldn't begin to guess how long it had gone on. But I knew that the effects had reverberated through her young life, twisting and contorting her mind into what it was currently. The event had spawned an alien creature incapable of learning the ways of those considered normal. It had made her an outcast. Tears leaked from my eyes that I furiously wiped away. I understood why she loathed the weakness of tears now; if she was pushing her way through life with dry eyes, then I sure as hell had better do the same. There was no reason for my constant whining and crying.

  “Was it the worst?” I was trying to steady my voice when I spoke.

  She studied me for a long second. She would tell me later that she was both surprised, impressed, and very thankful for my tact in not using any heavy words to describe what had happened with “Uncle Mike”; words like “rape” or “assault” sent chills down her spine and turned her stomach.

  “Yes.” She answered.

  I tried to suppress my tears, but the guilt and shame over judging her so harshly were too much to bear.

  “Why didn't you tell me?”

  “It was not, and still isn't, a burden I wish for you to carry. It’s mine.”

  “And Luc?”

  Now, the pain in her eyes intensified, and her grip on James's arms tightened. He was holding her around the middle from behind. Because of how pale her skin was and how badly she was shaking, I worried briefly that he was the only reason she was still standing. When she spoke, her hands began to run up and down his arms somewhat neurotically.

  “I looked away, and by the time I looked back, he was gone.”

  Even speaking of our brother, whom we both loved dearly, didn't evoke a shred of emotion in her voice.

  “Did Maura know?”

  She looked away from me and up at James for a minute. The question that came over her eyes answered my own. She was unsure whether she wanted to defile the high perception I had of Maura, our mother, and our father. I reached out, closed my eyes, and held onto the wall as I tried to gather my thoughts.

  “Tell me they didn't know, Brynna. Tell me that they tried to stop it.”

  “Our mother did. Our father didn't believe me. Maura was present.”

  I lurched forward, so horribly sickened by the fact that Maura had not stopped such senseless, sick violence. My youth could not be blamed for why I didn't understand. There was no explanation. There was no excuse.

  “How did you ever look at her? How did you ever forgive her?”

  “Because Maura was weak like our mother, and I knew that from a very young age. I was the victim of her weakness, however. She paid no price for it. She still has not paid for it.”

  “How could you have saved her? How could you have saved her from Earth? She doesn't deserve...”

  “Perhaps she does deserve life, and perhaps she does not. I owed her a debt. If it were not for her, I would not have survived infancy. If she had not cared for me, I would not have grown up to care for you and Penny. You two would not exist, either.”

  “But it's so wrong!” I wanted to reach out and throw my arms around her. I needed her to comfort me when the situation called for the reverse.

  “Yes.” She replied vaguely. I got the feeling that she didn't know what else to say.

  “How can you not hate her? I hate her now! I hate them all for letting it happen and for blaming you for Lucien...”

  “Violet...” She whispered, and warmth finally emerged in her words. I felt her hands on my face, and her thumbs wiping my tears away. “I have had this huge anger inside of me for many years. That rage plants the most insidious, detrimental thoughts in one's mind. I do not wish that for you. Everything that has happened to me is my own burden to carry, like I said. Do not add to that weight by embracing anger, rejection, and despondency. It is useless now. It was useless then, as well.”

  “But it's not fair!”

  “You know exactly which cliché I am going to utilize, so I will not even say it.”

  “I know. ‘Life isn't fair.’”

  “Indeed. We are safe now. We have created a new life. You were happy before this conversation, weren't you?”

  I nodded.

  “I love it here.” I told her honestly.

  “I know. If all of the things that happened on Earth were payment for the happiness we are currently experiencing, then it was worth it. It was worth this chance at something better than what we would have had. Okay?”

  I nodded and looked up at her. Then, I turned my gaze to James.

  “James, I know it's an uphill battle, but you better take care of her.”

  “I can take perfectly satisfactory care of myself, thank you so much.” Brynna told me with the usual sass in her voice. Her tone reassured me that she was returning to normal.

  “Fine. Then how about this? James, take care of her when she finds herself incapable of taking care of herself. Is that better?”

  “In
deed. But I will never be unable to take care of myself, but the thought that I will have the gorgeous Mr. Maxwell to aid me if ever I could not is comforting.”

  “I've learned to navigate these conversational minefields she sets up.” James told me, “You need to start watching your step. She'll get you.”

  “I know she will. But I'm serious.”

  “And I will do just that, Vi. You don't need to worry about that. It is my job to put her above myself, and I do. I always do.”

  I nodded, feeling genuinely relieved. I looked between the two of them for a moment. Though they fought, there was a durability to their relationship now that was far superior to anything that could be experienced in the early stages of a romance on Earth. It was odd to think that two people who had only met eleven months earlier would be capable of having such deep feelings for one another. But the forces of the universe were strong and insistent that they meet and fall in love, never to part for the duration of their eternal lives. I wondered if they would have children together.

  “My stars, Violet Mae!” Brynna exclaimed, and she grasped her chest in shock.

  “What? What?” I asked as the panic pulled me from the depth of my thoughts. My thoughts... I gasped and covered my ears. “Stop doing that!”

  “Children!?” She repeated, “Are you daft?!”

  She grasped James's hands tightly to steady herself.

  “Oh, no...” James replied, shaking his head back and forth quickly. “We have more than our fair share with you and Penny. Actually, come to think of it, we have the best of both worlds with you two; we have the teenager to make us pull our hair out, and the precious, angelic little girl to shower with love and gifts.”

  “What are you going to shower me with, then?” I put my hands on my hips in mock indignation.

  “Advice and stern warnings.” James answered immediately. Brynna and I both broke out into laughter. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. I knew that she was comforted by his inclusion in our lives and how openly he discussed being present in the long run. It was consistency and stability that had never been given to her, for whatever reason.

  Everything should have looked up from there. But then, we had been saying that for far too long. It was while we were picking up Penny from the kitchen that we knew, beyond any doubt, that something terrible was brewing.

  An almost tangible rage and tension laid heavily over the house like a blanket of smog. People were shouting, running, and demanding blood in the name of those we had lost. When Don passed us calmly, he listened to their demands but said nothing. I saw more white eyes and fangs than I should have been comfortable with. People were ready to go to war.

  “Brynn!” Penny ran to us, her ballerina flats pattering against the floor almost noiselessly. She jumped into Brynna's arms and squeezed her tightly.

  “Hey, baby,” Brynna greeted her soothingly in an attempt to pretend like nothing was wrong. “Did you have fun?”

  “Everyone is yelling and running! Everyone is mad!” Penny looked between the three of us. “I'm scared because they're loud, and they have sharp teeth, and their eyes are scary! I wanted to come find you!”

  “No.” Brynna replied firmly, “You do not ever leave the person that I ask to watch you, Penelope.”

  A genuine fear was in Brynna’s eyes, one that was there and gone in a matter of seconds. It had emerged at the thought of being unable to find Penny.

  “Don't be afraid, honey.” Brynna nuzzled Penny gently with her head. “No one's going to hurt you. We are just going to go upstairs and play until dinner, okay?”

  Penny nodded and reached her tiny arms out to James. Brynna handed her over and rubbed her back for a minute when Penny laid her head against his.

  “Alright, come on....”

  We opened the door to leave the kitchen only to find Adam and Don standing right in our path.

  “Can you two talk?” Don asked, “It's very important.”

  “No.” Brynna and James replied simultaneously as they pushed past them.

  “We're going after the Bachums. We're going to need all the able-bodied people we can find.”

  “Funny, baby, I thought we told them that we couldn't talk?” James told Brynna.

  “Yes, that is quite humorous. I remember saying that, as well.” Brynna replied.

  “They have crossed over onto our land, killed our people senselessly and unfairly...”

  “They threaten your very place on Purissimus.” Adam added convincingly. I knew that his eyes were only on Brynna. “You will fight them sooner or later, if you wish to stay.”

  “No, I will not. Coincidentally, Adam, you have some rogue civilians joined up with the other team. Either that, or you are playing Don for a fool, which I am sure is none too difficult.”

  “To what are you referring?”

  “Oh, just the people clearly from this planet who we saw fighting alongside the Bachums’ people. No big deal.” James replied airily.

  “Those were not my people.” Adam informed him with a soft chuckle of derision. “They are the Old Spirits, far removed from my city. Their allegiance with the others is not surprising. They favor ruthless, pious action to appease the one God. Both the Bachums and the Old Spirits remain rooted firmly in the past that simply cannot exist nowadays. It is unsurprising.”

  “Maybe it is evidence, though, that you have no handle on the people of your world so you should stop trying to have a handle on the people from ours. Just a thought...” James continued.

  “We are going down to question those we took.” Don interrupted them. I noted that he looked even tinier in Adam's shadow. “James, Brynna, I'd like for you to accompany me.”

  “Yes.” Brynna replied, “And I would like five minutes of peace and a unicorn, but those are simply not options, are they?”

  “There is no other option for the two of you right now. You will either join us or suffer the consequences.” Adam informed them dryly.

  “And what, dare I ask, are the consequences? I thought there were no laws here, Don. I thought that nothing was required.”

  “It's not.” Don replied timidly. He shrunk even more under Brynna's harsh stare. “It's not required by me, at least. But he has final say.”

  “Whatever fear I had of you has officially been pacified.” James told Don sarcastically. Don scowled at him.

  “I wield power you cannot possibly imagine, James. If you're not afraid of me, you certainly should be.”

  “You're just the sidekick. If I'm not afraid of the boss, why would I be afraid of his right-hand man?”

  “You're making me very angry.”

  “And what? I won't like you when you're angry?” James pressed him tauntingly.

  “No, you won't. We have been gifted with powers, James. Do you want to know what mine is? I can harness emotional energy. With it, I can...” He closed his eyes for a moment, and the floor beneath our feet began to shake. At first, it was only a slight rumble, similar to what is felt when a car is turned on. But then, the foundation of the house began to tremble; people were running and screaming past us, trying to get out before the whole structure crumpled to the ground. Penny was crying, and James was holding her close with both hands. I held onto Brynna, screaming with the others, as the torches lighting the hallway flickered and went out. Throughout the duration of that man-made earthquake, Adam merely smiled and leaned against the wall, observing the dust that fell from the ceiling.

  “Stop it!” Brynna screamed at him after finally stepping forward. She glared into his eyes when he opened them again. He lurched forward, stumbling several steps, looking alarmed. The shaking ceased.

  “All you had to do, Don, was ask nicely.” Brynna hissed at him as he crumpled to his knees, holding his temples. “Do you want to know what my power is? I can see and understand things of which you know nothing. I can see every thought in your mind, all sadness that you have held in your heart and every fear from which you have ever run. If that demonstration of stre
ngth was meant to make us succumb to your will, then know this: I can make that very power you harness destroy you from the inside out. James can rip you apart without stopping for breath. Now, what was it that you wanted from us?”

  It all made sense now; we were predestined for the powers we now wielded. Brynna had always been unthinkably intelligent, but now she could read our minds and hearts while sensing future events by instinct alone. She understood the forces of the universe, how they shifted and contorted to warn us of impending danger. I had always been prone to violent rages, petrifying anxiety, and crippling depression. There had been times when I was sure those storms of feeling would be the end of me. Once, they were the end of someone I held very dear to me. Miranda had paid the price for my burgeoning, adaptive power.

  “Violet!”

  I looked at Brynna and James. Penny was still in James's arms, crying into his neck, her tiny body trembling in fear. It had been Brynna who had shouted.

  “Take Penny back to mine and James's room. Lock the door. Do not let anyone in unless it is Alice, Quinn, or Elijah.”

  “Why do I have to lock the door?”

  James handed Penny to me.

  Brynna watched as a man went running by, shouting to Don that it was time to go to war. She looked back at me, raised an eyebrow, and pursed her lips.

  “Right.” I replied, “Be quick, you two. Okay?”

  She nodded. Then she did something she hadn't done in almost five years. She grasped my face and pressed her lips to my forehead. I was stunned and moved so deeply by the gesture that tears rushed into my eyes by their own will. She nodded to me again, and I hurried off with Penny, looking over my shoulder just before I rounded the corner.

  The people of our house were stomping and shouting like hungry animals in a deadly herd. A stampede would soon be heading into the north after the Bachums. Their attack on us had proven that they were ready to fight until they erased us from existence. Now, we had to show that we desired the very same course of action.

  In the eyes of both Brynna and James, I saw that they understood that terrible truth as well as I did, if not better. They were ready to fight. They wanted nothing more than to live the peaceful life they had promised Penny and me, but they knew that wasn't an option now.

  The darkness was closing in.

  Brynna

  “I am going to speak with the boy from the cave. His father and I do not see eye-to-eye.”

  I stared at Adam, wondering why he was justifying his actions only to me. I did not care about the war he wished to start, nor did I care about the one that had raged for years before our arrival on the planet. I looked up when dust fell from the ceiling; the people with whom we had been living were no better than animals. They were running through the house, gathering any blunt instruments that could be used as weapons. Their rage knew no bounds.

  I understood that completely. It had been a truce made behind closed doors: The Bachums would not set foot on our land. We would abide by the same courtesy. The bodies in the trees had simply been a final warning. I could not justify such senseless violence, but I did understand, if only somewhat.

  “I do not wish for you to see me speak to him.”

  “Why is that, Adam?” I asked with my arms crossed over my chest.

  “Because I know that you already think very little of me.”

  I was confused, a state of being that was as alien to me as the man I was looking at.

  “And the feelings of an Earthean woman are important to you?”

  There was a trace of a smile on his lips.

  “Only yours, my dear Brynna.”

  “Why is that?”

  Now, he was openly smiling.

  “Another time.”

  He turned and sauntered away. The torches flickered as he passed, cowering in his growing ire. I returned to James who had been watching my conversation with Adam closely.

  “He does not want me to watch him interrogate the boy from the cave.”

  “Why?” James asked.

  “Well, it certainly does not matter. Don wants us to interrogate the other boy. I do not believe that Adam will harm Jonathon. He is the other leader's son. He is much too important to be dispatched so quickly.”

  “He is. I think you're right. I hope so, at least.” He turned his gaze to me. “I'm starting to think we were wrong.”

  “Wrong in the side we chose, or wrong in our capture of Jonathon?”

  “Both. But in regards to the former, we certainly weren't going to go sing to the heavens with the Bachums.”

  “Definitely not.” I chuckled, “Or be forced into a loveless marriage where we had to bear ten children.”

  “I can't say I wouldn't enjoy that.”

  “Oh, no?”

  “Nope.”

  We laughed only slightly. I kissed him and buried my face in his neck.

  “You are no longer a canine. You are officially swine.”

  I felt his warm breath on my neck when he laughed now.

  “I know. I'm a sick man.”

  “No.” I shook my head and looked up at him. “James, I don't want to do this.”

  “I know.” My inner storm was calmed for the duration of time that his lips were on mine. “I don't want you to do this, either. Just wait out here for me, okay? Anything that you could gather from him with your power, I can easily gather with mine. Maybe you can convince Adam to leave Jonathon alone. He seems to value your opinion.”

  I shook my head.

  “No. I won't leave you to face doing this alone. And Adam will not listen; his fury was too great.”

  “So, he'll kill him? Could you see that?” James asked me, somewhat more intensely than I expected. “We'll never be able to right this, if he does. It will be our fault if he dies. He's a kid. He's probably Violet's age.”

  I nodded and stood on my tiptoes to rest my forehead against his. In a trembling voice, I whispered:

  “We made a terrible mistake.”

  Those words were weighted with such stinging regret, with such terrifying implications. If that boy died, it would be our fault. We had acted rashly, thinking that he would be able to offer some useful information to us. We had thought that handing him over to Adam would be easy; we had thought that it would guarantee our safety. Yet there we were, still stuck on the front-lines of the storm that was coming to pass.

  “Don wants him alive. He wants them both alive. We have no choice but to do this.” My eyes met his again. “With what we were talking about earlier...”

  “About our two choices?”

  “Indeed. What about in regards to the latter?”

  He was quiet for a long moment. That pause was enough of an answer but still, he spoke.

  “You're right. That was a mistake. We could have left. It was egotistical of me to take him...”

  “You? Egotistical? No.” I smiled up at him.

  “A cliché about rocks and glass houses comes to mind, my dear.” He told me calmly, “I thought it was a smart move. But now, I feel guilty about it. Do you feel guilty about it?”

  “Of course I do. He is very young, like you said. He looks that way, anyway. Now, if he dies, his blood is on our hands.”

  “You know what that means, don't you?”

  “I am sure I do.”

  He raised his eyebrow at me, calling me silently on my own ego once again. I grinned at him innocently.

  “We need to rectify the error.”

  “By breaking him out of here?” I asked, stunned.

  “Imagine that, you didn't know what it meant. We need to try to convince Adam to let him go first. If that doesn't work, then yes. We need to let him go ourselves.”

  I nodded in response.

  “I agree.”

  We were stalling out of fear of admitting exactly what we had been asked to do. We were meant to interrogate the boy from the Bachum camp; we were meant to get answers through whatever means were necessary. Were our hearts truly cold enough to commit such an act?
/>
  “Remember that they killed three of our people.” James told me. “We were completely outnumbered and outgunned. We're lucky to still be here. To still be alive, I mean.”

  “Is that how you're justifying this?”

  “Yes.” He answered, and I nodded again.

  The boy was handcuffed to a chair. He had been observing the underground cell he was in, but when James and I entered, he looked at us; I saw distinct, unshakeable fear in his eyes. I watched as he took a deep breath, knowing he was trying to steady his nerves. My own rattled loudly, urging me to turn back. I had always been cold, but I had never physically harmed a defenseless human being. Yes, I had killed to defend myself and my siblings. But I had never hurt one who had no chance, as was the case with this handcuffed boy. I did not know many who were capable of such brutality. James was right in saying that they had unjustly attacked us. But if we had the guns, would we not have followed a similar course of action?

  James and I sat down in front of him in the wicker chairs that Don had left. As we studied him, he only glanced up once or twice.

  “Freaks...” He muttered, but his voice was trembling so severely when he said it that I could not take offense. I looked at James, sensing the same reluctance in him to move forward with the questioning. He was meant to utilize his great strength to cause pain. I was meant to enter this boy's mind to ferret out what we needed to know. I took no joy in trespassing into the thoughts of another. My own stream of consciousness ran deep, powerfully consuming any silence that might have surfaced from its depths. I did not need to dive into the endless stream belonging to another person.

  “Tell me about yourself.”

  It was the only point from which to jump off. He looked at me now, and behind the fear in his eyes, I saw great defiance.

  “Your name is Christian.”

  “How do you...”

  I touched my forehead.

  “I can read your mind. I do not wish to do that, as it can sometimes be very painful.”

  “Painful for you, or painful for me?” He asked softly.

  “For both of us.” I answered, “My boyfriend here,” He was understandably shocked to learn that James and I were a couple, “He is very, very strong. Any answers that we need desperately will be retrieved, either through my ability to read your heart and mind or through brute force. I do not wish to use either method. I would much prefer talking civilly.”

  “Are you two Don's lapdogs? Are you his muscle?” He asked in a voice of condescension that required more bravery than he actually felt.

  “No. We are unappreciative of your attack on us. Three of our number were killed. They stood very little chance against your guns.”

  “And we stand very little chance against your powers, or whatever you call them.”

  “By powers, do you mean the two I have just described?” I asked.

  “What the fuck do you think I mean?!” He bellowed at me, and I will admit, I jumped slightly.

  “Hey!” James lunged forward and grabbed the front of Christian's shirt. The young boy looked up at him, into his blazing red eyes, and his terror could not be masked anymore. He stammered out a few indiscernible words as he heaved back and forth in his chair with each tight breath he struggled to draw in.

  “James...” I stood up, grasped his hands, and pulled him away from the boy. Very gently, I sat him back down in his chair.

  “I highly suggest you watch your mouth, you understand me?”

  Now that the threat of immediate bodily harm had dissipated, the boy was beginning to regain some of his earlier steel. His eyes narrowed as he looked between the two of us, clearly trying to determine what we were going to ask him next. To keep him from straining himself in his attempts to guess my question, I asked one.

  “What do they tell you about what's happening to us here?”

  After barely a pause, he answered.

  “They're calling it 'Satan's Gift' where I'm from.”

  “What else do they say?” I asked.

  “They say that you all have aligned with the devils that roam this land.”

  “The city-dwelling natives, you mean.”

  “The man who attacked our campsite is who I mean.”

  “Well, I would like to reassure you, for your own mind, that we were evolving for days before we came here. In some cases, people had been evolving for weeks.” I explained, “You all would, too, if you just...”

  “We don't want to evolve!” The boy exclaimed hysterically. His eyes were ablaze with self-righteous anger. “We are humans, created in God's image! We will stay the same, because it's what God intended!”

  Oh, we had us a devout believer. This was bound to be interesting...

  “The only reason why we're even still alive is because God wants us to be. You all take these powers and allow this 'evolution,' as you call it, to happen. We will never do that.”

  “No one is asking you to.” James snapped at him.

  “That's what the man who attacked the campsite said. He told us we had to accept the change or we'd all die. We'd rather die than be freaks like you! It's wrong! It's...” He stammered for a moment in his fury before settling on an appropriate adjective that would make his point strongly, “It's unnatural.”

  I countered his best effort easily.

  “Actually, my dear, it is the most natural thing in the world. Our changes happened through no pact with the devil nor through any requests of our own. They just happened.”

  “You're lying! You aligned yourself with him! He gave you these powers. If you're with him, then you're against God!”

  “Listen, we are not fans of Adam, either. But as far as we know, your leaders are not the most Godly of people, either. You have aligned with the other natives, haven't you? The ones from the cave?” I inquired, only to be met with quiet on his end. “Come on, Christian, you were so eager to talk only a moment ago. I was enjoying our conversation. Let us continue it nicely.”

  The silence continued.

  “Don't make me hit you.” James warned him airily.

  Still, he did not speak. James stood up quickly and grabbed the front of his shirt again.

  “Yes! Yes!” Christian exclaimed, “They believe in the same things we believe! They don't have any powers! They can fight, but that's it! They don't follow what the other man says!”

  “See? Was that so hard?” James asked calmly as he sat back down.

  The boy was trembling and trying to decide between James and me whose power could cause the most pain. I gave him just a short minute to gather himself together before asking my next question.

  “What goes on in your camp? Is it as uptight as we have heard?”

  “No. There is nothing wrong with the way we live our lives.”

  “Tell me about it.” I put my head on my hand and observed him closely.

  “We pray a lot. We pray for good fortune and for victory against all of you.” On the last part, he grimaced in disgust. “I'm not going to apologize for having faith. If that's what you want from me, don't hold your breath! I'll never renounce God or Mary and Rich!”

  Interesting!

  “We want to know about your way of life up there. That is all.” I assured him. I even held up my hands to signal surrender.

  “We live the way we're supposed to live. The Bachums protect us, because God protects them.”

  “That's what they say?” James raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Seriously?”

  “It's true! Your ability to fight didn't save your people, did it? They've been touched by God. That's the only reason why more of our people survived.”

  “Sure.” James replied, “You must be their most pious follower. I'm sure not everyone feels as strongly about this nonsense as you do.”

  “Believe me, they do!” The boy snapped indignantly, “We know that we're living the right way.”

  “You believe that you can decide what the right way to live is?” James's anger was growing again.

  “No, you
r master decided that! He decided that the way you freaks live is right when he said that only one of our sides will walk out of this!”

  “You are referring to the war for our place here?”

  “What else would I be referring to?! God, they said that you're so smart! You ask the stupidest questions!” He shouted at me again. “Just like a woman, isn't it?! Just like a c...”

  His foul word was cut off just after the first sound of it could alert us to what he was about to say. Every muscle in my body had tensed in preparation for it, and my eyes had shut by their own accord. When I opened them, I discovered that James had grabbed him again.

  “I dare you.” He snarled at him, “I dare you to say it. I dare you to call her that!”

  “Look at you. Her big protector. You're going to die defending her. No bitch is worth that. I have a wife that they gave me.”

  I had gently sat James back down in his seat.

  “If it came down between me and her, I'd hold her in front of me just so I could run away. I'm not ashamed of that, and I don't have to be. No bitch is worth my life.”

  “What a big man you are, Christian.” I hissed in dangerous, venomous rage. “God or Gods, you are no older than my younger sister, and you have been forced to get married. You have been convinced that you are allowed to speak and feel this way about women. Do you have a mother, Christian? Do you have sisters?”

  “No. My mother is dead. It's just me and my wife now.”

  “Well, I weep for her, believe me.” I continued.

  “Yeah, that's just like a bitch, too. Weeping, I mean. I make mine weep everyday...”

  “You need to drop those people, and come to the right side.” James told him before turning to me, “Shit, even Adam is better than what he is dealing with, baby.”

  “We'll never bow down to that disgusting man the way you all have! We'll always stay true to our God. It will be you that is smited in fire!”

  “Is smited a word?” James asked me, simply to aggravate Christian. I could not suppress a small smirk now that such intense dislike for that boy had grown inside of me.

  “The world has already been 'smited.'” I told Christian sarcastically, “Rather, it was smote. Whatever the correct grammatical usage of the term, our world is gone, destroyed by man, I’m afraid. Not God.”

  “No. It was God's reckoning, and it will follow us here! You all think you're safe. You think with your powers, you are out of His reach. He will destroy you for aligning with that man! He will cast you into the deepest layer of hell!”

  “Desperation and fear yield such interesting results.” I mused out loud incredulously, “Were you this devout on earth?”

  “No,” He growled, “I was bad. I was selfish and evil. I stole from people and hurt my family. I went to jail twice. The Bachums have made me see how wrong I was. I have received my lashings and been born again.”

  “Lashings?” James and I asked, in equal shock.

  “We have all paid the price for what we did on Earth. We are as pure as the Lamb now.”

  “I sincerely doubt that.” I rolled my eyes. He lunged forward.

  “Stupid girl! You think you know everything! You think you know what you're doing! You think you've got a handle on everything, don't you?!”

  “That was very repetitive...”

  “Where I'm from, you wouldn't even be allowed to speak!”

  “So, would you call your camp a patriarchal society?” I asked calmly. My cavalier apathy to his anger only fanned the flames.

  “Women do what they're told. That's how it should have been on Earth. That is in the good Book. Women are submissive to their husbands.”

  “Gross...” I whispered, making a face to convey my disgust. I looked over at James. “Honey, do you want me to be submissive to you?”

  “No. How very boring that would be.” James replied with his head rested against his hand.

  “You can poke fun at us. You can chide us for what we believe. But we're right. There will come a time when you all are grasping for the holy light, and it will go dark on you! God will not pull you from the black abyss and...”

  “This is insanity.” James cut him off mid-sentence and addressed me, “Those people up there will end up killing themselves before we even get the chance.” He turned back to the boy, “I guarantee you, my spunky friend, that there are plenty of people who can still think for themselves just waiting to overthrow your beloved leaders. You need to prepare for that. You'll find that once they're out of the way, you'll be much better off. Which brings me to my next question: Besides guns, exactly what defenses do you have?”

  “Why would I tell you that? Why would I help you?”

  “Wouldn't you like to live?” James asked calmly.

  “James, we cannot punish him for what he believes. I am not angered by the things he said. I am profoundly stunned that people would go along with such stupidity but then, I do understand. They were afraid for their lives. They turned to those who offered them safety in return for blind allegiance. They need to believe in all of this divine protection nonsense in order to sleep at night.”

  “I don't need your defense.” The boy shot at me suddenly.

  “Darling, I was not defending you. I was simply explaining your delusional ramblings out loud to myself.”

  “Your father believes. At least someone in your family of trash believes. I pity him. He tried to lead us but failed. The reason why he failed is because through his seed, he bore children of Satan. That's what Rich told him when he got his lashings.”

  “My father got lashings?” I pretended to be overjoyed at the idea. Secretly, I was; I never imagined that he would ever suffer physical pain at another's hands the way that he had forced me to suffer and now, I was learning that he had. It was petty and childish to feel that way but then, I could not question the giddy feeling that rose inside of me as I thought of it.

  “How could he possibly have known, though, that you all would turn out to be such freaks?” Christian continued as though I had not spoken, “I feel bad for him.”

  “You shouldn't. If you'd like to talk about evil and hell, then know this: That man will have a throne right next to the beast you believe has claimed us. If there were a hell, that is.”

  “He has relented. He has received great punishment for his evil ways. That red-headed woman with him received worse. And your mother, if she were here, would have learned her place very quickly. She would have received the absolute worst of it.”

  “Well, thank God she didn't make the trip.” James replied, and the tone of his voice provoked a laugh in me.

  “You think I don't know who you are?” The boy shot at me. He was desperately trying to needle me into an emotional meltdown. I merely smiled at him and tried not to giggle at his display of what was essentially an overcharged, religion-themed show of team spirit.

  “I know all about your life on Earth. So, let me ask you this,” He grinned in sadistic glee,

  “Did what happened with your father's best friend turn you on to older men? Is that why you're with him?”

  Consider me needled.

  Any time that event was brought up, I immediately felt a surge of bile skyrocketing from my stomach into my throat. I had to stop myself from lurching forward. I had to stop myself from grasping my head as dizziness shredded my brain to string that blew in some cranial breeze. The challenge of stopping all of those bodily reactions to the reawakened trauma blinded me to James's ascent from his seat. I had no time to stop him. By the time I had recomposed myself enough to see clearly, he had lunged forward over the table and tackled Christian backwards.

  “James!” I stood up, but it was too late. He was pounding his fists into the boy's face, mumbling obscenities in that animal rage we were slowly becoming accustomed to experiencing. When the screech that preceded sure bloodshed escaped his throat, I hurtled over the fallen table and grabbed a hold of him.

  I possessed not a fraction of his strength. Though I was capabl
e of fighting to near-death and winning with ease, I could not match the pure force of James's newly evolved strength. Pulling with all my might only pained me. He jerked forward and ripped into the boy's neck.

  The scream that filled the room was short-lived, followed by a gurgling sound that forced me to turn away. I closed my eyes, grasping the leg of the overturned table; it was the only thing close that I could use to steady myself. I listened as James's heavy breaths were drawn in and released, waiting for the loud expulsion of murderous fury. Sure enough, a moment later, he roared, and the force of the sound extinguished the torches, leaving us in darkness.

  “Is he dead?” I asked the black room.

  “I lost control.”

  “That's not what I asked.”

  A long moment of silence followed my statement. I looked up, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, enabling me to see clearly. James was knelt over the boy's twitching body, checking for a pulse.

  “He's gone.”

  “That certainly was not what Don had in mind when he asked us to use our powers to gain answers.” I was lighting the torches back up with my lighter.

  “Well, I don't care what Don thinks. Were you not listening?! Did you not hear the things he was saying?”

  “I heard them. His insults were directed entirely at me. You had no reason to kill him. I understand that you feel it was for my sake...”

  James turned and stormed out of the room.

  “Get out of my way!” He shouted at Don as he passed.

  “What happened?” Don asked me as I hurried past him after James.

  “He lost control.” I repeated James's earlier words; it was the only choice explanation for what had just occurred.

  “Is he dead?” Don demanded, “Did you even find out what I asked you to find out?”

  “He was never going to tell us what their defenses were.”

  “Why did James kill him? What did he do?”

  “He made some personal slights against me. We found out about their way of life, but that's...

  “Their way of life?!” Don repeated in incredulous anger, “What good will that do us? Knowing about their way of life isn't going to...”

  “I am sick of being yelled at by weak-minded men.” I snapped, both in conversation and in feeling.

  With that, I pushed past him. As I walked past, a door swung open beside me. Adam walked out calmly, wiping blood from his mouth and licking his fangs. I was simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by that man whose swagger and charisma never failed him, not even after he had just taken a life.

  “Your interrogation ended on a very similar high note, did it not? Oh, the look on young Jonathon's face when he saw that it was none other than me coming to question him...” He smiled evilly and leaned against the wall.

  I groaned in disgust loudly before storming away. Now, I felt guilty not only over the death of the devout boy but over Jonathon, too. I should have gone with my instincts. The decision to live at Don's commune was wrong. Sure, we had been happy. We had felt secure, however briefly. But now, we were going to be forced to fight. I had two sisters who were my sole responsibility. I had a brother who, despite his temper, was also mine to look after, and I had a boyfriend whose rage, once unleashed, yielded terrible results. I pondered momentarily the childlike hope I had allowed to set in not only when we landed on Pangaea but also when we moved into Don's house. Now, I knew it had all been a dream. Dreams so often turn to nightmares before the person asleep can stop the harsh and sudden change. I understood that now.

  Don's hand wrapped around my wrist. I almost gasped in pain when his grip tightened. When he spun me around to face him, I saw the beast for the second time that evening but this time, the madness was even more intense. Don Abba was suddenly appearing to me in his truest form; he was a monster who thrived on chaos and catastrophe. With that crazed energy, he could command his subjects to do his brutal bidding, and they would not ask questions. They would go along with his plans out of fear, but also by their own will. He would make them believe their rampage was justified, in need of being carried out to protect their freedom. It would be all too easy for him.

  “He will pay a great price for what he has done, and you should, too! You were there! You're an accomplice!” He pushed me against the wall hard. I commanded myself not to grimace in pain, and my body obeyed. I even managed a smile of aggravated disbelief.

  “Don't you smirk at me!” He punched the wall right next to my face. I jumped only slightly.

  “Get your hands off of me.” I ordered calmly, my smile growing with my dangerously insidious fury. Both then and now, I knew and know, respectively, that if that man had not released his grip on me in ten seconds, I would have destroyed him. I would have torn the limbs from his body and stomped on the remains until there was nothing left but a pool of blood and some shredded skin. In doing that, I would have shown him never to accost me so aggressively while simultaneously doing the world a favor by erasing him from it.

  “I asked one simple thing of you! I needed to know what their defenses were! Now, we're going in blind! You can thank yourself when I send your brother in first! He'll be the first to die.”

  Now, I grabbed him. I pushed him backwards, my long, pointed fangs shooting out. I held him against the wall and hissed in his face.

  “I am your leader! Let go of me now!”

  “You will not touch any of the people I love, Don Abba! If you want to die, then make your move! You will be dead before you can take two steps towards them! You do not want me as your enemy!” He struggled against my grip and I locked my hands on him even more tightly. He did grimace in pain and was unable to stifle a gasp.

  “I carry at least a little of every power. So tell me,” I squeezed him harder, feeling my fingernails ready to rip into his skin. He yelled out in pain, “Does this hurt? Would you like me to utilize them all at once? That is coming next!”

  “Let go! Let go!” Don begged as he tried to pry my fingers from his skin before my nails pushed through.

  “I will let go if you shut up and listen!”

  For the first time, I was in control of the situation. For the first time, I was going to lead the way. I remembered how helpless and hopeless I had felt for so many years. All of that suffering, all of that self-loathing... They were being rectified right then. I was going to handle the situation with the Bachums myself. I was going to end the war and win our freedom. Don would be nothing but a fly buzzing in my ear. I could not deny that he was valuable; I needed any able-bodied men and women who were able to fight. Additionally, Don had the rage and power I needed to convince others to join us. He had the ability to cause great destruction with the power he had mastered. I did need him.

  “We are going north. We are going to take down the Bachums. We need only one strike.”

  “They have all the guns! They have all the weapons your father brought!”

  “Well, then, we had better learn to duck and cover.” I replied with a small grin.

  Adam chuckled. I scowled at him before turning my attention back to Don.

  “Your people are angry, Don. We have lived our lives in peace, giving without a fight what you have deemed is a fair share. But people do not believe it is all that fair. Adam, how much food does he supply you with?”

  “I don't give him that m...”

  “Very much.” Adam answered cheerfully, “Far more than I need. His offerings are to appease me, which I am sure you already know, given your brilliance.”

  I wanted to remind him that flattery would get him nowhere, but I knew that it was not the time, at least not yet.

  “Adam!” Don protested the spilling of that secret.

  “Exactly. Your people are angry, Don, but it is alright.” I let go of him, “You are going to absolve their anger and fear right now. You are going to go up there and tell them that we are going to war. You are going to tell them that it has been brought to your attention that they are unhappy with the share they have had to contr
ibute. You will tell them that when we return from this fight with the Bachums, revisions will be made. Adam, you will stop exploiting our hard work.”

  “I would hardly say that I am exploiting your hard work. I am simply accepting what I am being given. I am simply...”

  “Thank you so much. I am glad we agree.” I cut him off and beamed brightly at him. I expected to see the beast in him emerge right there in front of me. Something told me he did not appreciate being mouthed off to. He was the leader of his people, for the sake of all deities and Gods. He was the king of an evolved, superior race. Surely he would not take any orders from a lowly, almost fully-evolved human. But he smiled slightly and leaned against the wall again to observe the scene before him.

  “Did you expect anger at your insolence?” He asked me as he wiped the blood from his hands onto a towel I had not noticed he was holding.

  “I did, indeed.”

  “I know I did!” Don interjected furiously.

  “I find it very fascinating, as boggling as the rest of you, Ms. Olivier. I find it quite enjoyable.”

  My face betrayed my confusion and surprise. His smile widened.

  “I like a woman with feeling.”

  “As opposed to a corpse? What are you even talking about right now?

  “Think about it.

  “Anyway,” I ignored Adam and looked back at Don, “Do you understand what I have said? Do you understand my reasoning?”

  “I suppose.” He smirked at me, “Remind me to put in my will that if I should die, you may take my place.”

  I smirked back.

  “How much do you want to bet people would like me more?”

  “You're so clever.” He replied irritably.

  “Yes. I am.”

  “Children, shall we adjourn to the front porch?”

  “Indeed, Adam. Let us adjourn.” I strode ahead of the two men, thinking that their current state of minds were polar opposites. Don was seething, believing that I was trying to steal his almighty throne. He loathed that I had used such force on him. He felt like less of a man. Well, that certainly had taken very little to accomplish.

  Adam, on the other hand, was bouncing in light, airy good-humor on the inside. The feeling of bewildered joy filled me up, reminding me of spring rain, the light in James's eyes, Penny's lighthearted, girlish giggle, and oddly enough, the smell of Maura's perfume. At the end of that stream of vividly beautiful, sedating memories, I saw the moment when I had first seen Adam. I threw myself backwards out of the thoughts, my heart pounding with the same potent fear I had felt that night. I blinked several times, chancing a glance back at him. I jumped slightly to find that he was just behind me.

  Why had I felt such sublime sedation upon seeing his face? Why had my heart soared so brilliantly?

  His pale white hand grazed my back just once, sending shivers down my spine that neither repulsed nor scintillated me. He leaned forward, pressed his smooth lips to my ear, and whispered in a tone of malicious seduction:

  “Well, isn't that interesting?”