The Eve (The Eden Trilogy)

  “And you live with a colony of a hundred and sixty other people?” she asked. “Including Dr. Beeson?”

  I nodded once again.

  “You don’t feel like a freak there?” she asked, her voice even and calm. “They accept you?”

  Her harsh question caught me off guard. “Yes. I mean, they know I’m different, and I know I make some people uncomfortable, but we all get along fairly well.”

  “Hmm,” she said, turning and looking out the window. The first solid snowflakes started falling to the ground.

  “That bird’s still following us,” Bill observed. He ducked his head slightly so he could see up higher. I saw it swoop around us from up above out my window. “Is he your pet?”

  “He’s my hunting companion,” Eve One said, looking out the window up at him.

  “What’s his name, Eve?” Avian asked.

  “Bird,” she replied simply. “And I don’t use that name anymore. You can call me Vee now.”

  “Vee,” I said. It took me a second to get it. She still clung to her past identity in a small form, but she wasn’t just going to be a project anymore, she was her own person. Shift the letters around. I never would have thought of that.

  “So, this vehicle,” she said, looking around. “It runs on solar power, yes?”

  “Yeah,” I said, relaxing back into my seat a bit.

  “What are we going to do when the snow covers the panels and the sun?”

  Everyone looked back outside. The sky had continued to darken and the snowflakes were falling quicker.

  “We’ll keep driving for as long as we can,” I said. “Hopefully if the vehicle dies, we’ll be far enough south to stay clear of the Bane sweep.”

  Creed suddenly cried out, piercing the awkward air. Avian laid her on the seat next to him and set to changing her diaper.

  “Why did you bring a baby with you?” Vee asked, her brow furrowing. “I know she can’t be yours, because of how we are, and I don’t understand why you would bring a child all this way.”

  Everyone looked at me, as if waiting for me to answer the question. We didn’t know Vee or how she would react to things. She could take this any way.

  “Her mother was dying,” I said, taking the honest approach. “The baby wasn’t ready to be born yet. So I told Dr. Evans that I wouldn’t help him unless he helped the baby.”

  Vee was quiet for a while, her eyes jumping from me to the baby. “You gave her what he gave us?”

  I nodded. “She would have died without it.”

  “Just like us.”

  “Yes,” I said. I held her eyes, watching for any signs of a violent reaction. I had no idea if this news would upset her or not.

  “She won’t be exactly like the two of you,” Dr. Evans said, turning in his seat. “She’ll never have the chip so she’ll never have the pain or emotional blockers. She’ll always be stronger and faster than everyone else around her, but for the most part, she will seem normal.”

  “Vee,” West said quietly. He reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. She twitched violently. I wondered how long it had been since another human being had touched her. “This was a good thing we did.”

  She turned and met his eyes and was still for a long moment. As I watched them look at each other, I imagined that connection that had been between the two of them, and then how awful it must have been for West, seeing Avian and I together, thinking it had been he and I that had shared such a connection.

  No wonder he’d lost it like he had.

  “Okay,” she finally said. And that was it.

  The snow continued to fall heavier and faster over the next hour. We were only two hours away from NovaTor when the solar tank started to slow to half speed. Twenty minutes later, it stopped in the middle of the road between two small towns.

  Vee, Bill, and I climbed out of the tank and observed the sky. It was dark clouds to the north, south, east, and west.

  “This isn’t going to let up any time soon,” I said. “What is the weather normally like this time of year?”

  “You’re looking at it,” Vee said, checking out our surroundings. “Snow will come and go all winter long here. We’ve had a dry spell the last ten days or so, but I knew it wouldn’t last.”

  “And how long will the snow stay for?”

  She shrugged. “It’s winter. It could last a few hours, but likely it will last for a few days. Maybe a few weeks.”

  “But will the sun come back out?” Bill asked. “We can drive through snow with these tires, but without a charge, we aren’t going anywhere.”

  “Probably by morning,” Vee said, still searching the sky. I realized then she was looking for Bird. It came into view, circling us twice before settling on the branch of a scraggly tree just to the west of us. “Unless this is a major storm.”

  “Still, we have to make it until morning,” I said, looking northeast, the way we had just come. “I don’t know that we’re far enough south to be in the safe zone from the sweep.”

  “We can walk,” Vee said. “We can carry the vital supplies.”

  “But then we’ll just have to walk back to the vehicle,” Bill said, folding his arms over his chest.

  “So we move it with us,” I said, walking back to it. I took a look inside. Avian had just laid Creed on the seat, fast asleep. “Everyone out, except you Dr. Evans. Don’t want your nice and shiny gears getting fried. We’re pushing instead of driving.”

  We took two ropes and secured them to the front tow hooks. Avian and I pulled from the front, while Bill, West, and Vee pushed from behind.

  We slowly rolled down the road.

  Once we got momentum going, it wasn’t that hard to maintain it. Except for the snow that slowly started piling up on the road. My pants became soaked through and snow collected on my shoulders. Our feet slipped in the slush.

  “I guess lady luck got tired of following you around,” Avian said through gritted teeth as he pulled on his rope.

  “I think the last few weeks have been the only time in my life she’s wanted to be around me,” I answered, adjusting the rope over my shoulder. “I couldn’t ask her for any more than saving Creed and giving my sister over without a massive, countrywide search.”

  Avian chuckled, sending a cloud of hot breath into the air.

  The terrain around us was arid. A few trees were scattered about, but mostly it was jagged desert and sagebrush. Mountains clustered in the horizon and the frigid wind blew in from the north.

  We pulled through the snow and cold for two hours, until there was too much snow on the road and the tires stuck.

  “Think this is far enough?” West asked as everyone met on the side of the van. His face was red and splotchy. Sweat started freezing in his growing beard.

  “It’ll have to be, I suppose,” I said, looking back the way we had come. A billow of hot air clouded around me as I spoke. “But I think we’ll be okay.”

  “Let’s get some tents set up then,” West said. “Before we get buried in the snow.”

  We decided that Bill would stay in the van with Dr. Evans. West and Vee would take one tent, Avian, Creed, and I would take the other.

  I couldn’t help but smile as I watched West and Vee interact. He handed her the poles and she quickly and effortlessly assembled the tent. She was stiff and somewhat awkward, but you could easily see on her face that she trusted West. That bond was still there. West asked if she was hungry, she took the food from him with a hint of a smile.

  The tie that was obviously still there wasn’t mature as it might have been if they’d known each other longer as grown people. It was more childlike, but it was there.

  Provisions were split, and then everyone burrowed into their tents.

  “How’s she doing?” I asked as I zipped the tent closed. Even in the tent the air smoked around my mouth as I spoke.

  “She’s breathing pretty well and her heart rate is steady,” Avian said as he pulled his coat tighter around him and Creed. “Bu
t she’s cold.”

  I set to zipping our sleeping bags together and then Avian and I both stripped our coats off, laying them on top of the sleeping bags. It was doubtful they would actually dry before morning, but we’d freeze to death sleeping in them. We got down to the barest of layers, slipped into the sleeping bags, and laid Creed between us.

  “Body heat is about all we’ve got to offer you right now, little one,” Avian said as he tightened the blanket around her.

  I looked down at Creed, running a finger across her incredibly soft cheek. She blinked twice before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

  When I looked up at Avian, I found him staring at me. A smile spread on his face, reaching his eyes. I couldn’t help but return it.

  As he leaned forward and pressed his lips briefly to mine, I couldn’t help but feel peaceful. There was so much going on in my life at the moment. So much was on the line that stress was becoming a constant in my life.

  But it was small moments like this that reminded me why I kept fighting the daily fight.

  TWENTY-TWO

  A gunshot rang out and I sprang from our tent in nothing more than my t-shirt and waterproof running pants.

  Bill stood just outside the solar tank, his shotgun still poised in front of him. A puff of smoke hung heavy in the air. Lying just in front of him was a man with a dozen bleeding holes in his chest. Red started seeping into the snow underneath him.

  “What is going on?” I demanded, crossing the snow with bare feet. I crouched next to the man and looked him over just as the rest of the crew stepped out of their tents. The man was dead. “Bill?” I said, looking back at him when he didn’t respond. “This guy is human.”

  “Trust me, he’s not,” Bill said with clenched teeth as he finally lowered his shotgun.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty positive he is.” I looked back at the man. His eyes were closed and there was blood splattered all over his face. A heavy scar ran down one side of his face, crossing over his eye, and dropping down his cheek.

  He had a cruel face. The face of a man I wouldn’t want to cross.

  “What was he doing?” West asked, confusion in his eyes.

  “Snooping around,” Bill said, slinging the firearm over his shoulder. “This man is a thief and a thug.”

  The things Bill was saying, these were details. Details he couldn’t have gathered in the last few minutes.

  I had a feeling a ghost had just walked out of Bill’s unspeakable past.

  “Take care of the body,” I said, my jaw stiff as I glanced down once more at the dead man.

  “Looks like the clouds will burn off in an hour or so,” Vee said as she helped me clear the snow from the solar panels.

  Bill was off burying the man he’d shot, and everyone else was cleaning up the tents and bringing out breakfast. The snow in the middle of us all was still scarlet red.

  “We could probably head out about an hour after that,” I said, dusting my hands off. “If this thing wasn’t so completely drained, it wouldn’t take quite so long.”

  Vee nodded, looking around, as if distracted. Bird suddenly swooped in, flapping his wings as he hovered above her shoulder for just a moment before landing.

  “He’s a beautiful creature,” I said, observing his honey brown feathers mixed with the white. A hawk if I wasn’t mistaken. He had powerful talons and a killer beak.

  “He’s been my only companion for the last three years,” she said, looking over at him. “I found him when he was just hatched. He was abandoned. Just like me.”

  I met her eyes for a moment. It was still strange, like looking in a mirror but with altered hair and less expression.

  “Did it drive you mad, being so alone?” I asked. I had known we would need to talk sometime, but I wasn’t sure what to say. We had never been close and I hadn’t even known of her existence until a few weeks ago.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Before everything happened, they said it was because of the way I was born, my disconnect with everyone. I started to get better after they gave me TorBane. But then they gave me the chip and took it all away. I didn’t mind being on my own.”

  “But you did miss West,” I said plainly.

  She hesitated. Gave me a serious look. “I did miss him.”

  “Was it nice to be with him last night?” I asked, feeling awkward doing so. “Did you talk much?”

  I thought I saw a hint of a smile cross her face. “Some. I think he is embarrassed he didn’t realize the difference between you and I right away. It should have been obvious.”

  “Maybe not when he thought I was dead,” I said, nearly smiling myself.

  “You nearly tried to kill him,” she said, her smile growing. “Twice. That should have been a good indication.”

  A laugh erupted from my throat. “Yeah, I guess it should have been. Was it really that bad between him and me? I don’t remember more than a few snapshots.”

  She started to smile before it broke off her lips. She just nodded. “West always liked to be the best at things and you always tried to show him how you were better. He didn’t like that. You didn’t like that he tried so hard.”

  I looked out toward the tent, the one she and West had spent the night in. He was disassembling it.

  “It’s a little odd to be around you two and not have you fighting,” Vee added.

  “It’s a recent development.”

  “You’ll be by my side, won’t you?” she said, her change of mood instant. “When we get back to your people?”

  “Of course,” I said. She didn’t know how to vocalize it, but I could imagine the idea of being around so many “normal” people after so long in isolation had to be overwhelming. For a brief moment, I considered reaching out and giving her a reassuring squeeze on the arm or something. But she was like me, and that kind of contact wasn’t exactly reassuring to us. We weren’t normal. “I’ll be there as much as you want me to be.”

  “And West?” she said, looking back at him. “Will his duties permit him to be there when I need him as well?”

  A smile once again crooked in my mouth. “I think that could be permitted.”

  As predicted, two hours later we were moving once again. The snow on the ground was about three inches deep, but our tires were large and the sun was shining.

  Bill drove, Dr. Evans sat in silence inside his glass box. Vee was mostly quiet and I could never quite figure out what she was thinking. West watched Vee and kept looking from her to me and I could tell he was still having difficulty processing everything. Creed cried and slept and many times wouldn’t calm down until I held her, her wrinkly cheek pressed into my chest. Avian did his best to keep her alive.

  The miles fell behind us and the few small towns we came across had few Bane in them. I stood at the opening of the hatch and commanded them to destroy one another. I wouldn’t risk any more of them joining the Bane sweep. At this point, it felt like every single one of them counted.

  I hoped the army that I had sent out into the country was making even a slight dent in the Bane population. Honestly, I just hoped that they were still doing as I commanded. I couldn’t live with myself if they’d gone back to their main objective and were infecting people once again.

  By nightfall we were just outside of Las Vegas. Or what should have been Las Vegas. The snow was gone and the temperatures had risen fifteen degrees. We all appreciated that. It was frighteningly quiet once more when we camped and we slept right next to the solar tank.

  We rolled out as soon as the sun came up and charged the solar panels. Bird circled above us, never tiring of the skies. Everyone but Vee grew restless, anxious to get home and to see what was to come.

  “How far can they get with the construction of the Nova without the supplies you collected?” Avian asked. He was in the middle of changing Creed’s oxygen tank.

  “They can get all the framework structured,” he said, not looking back at us. “And the main motherboard isn’t too complex. We should be able t
o finish it off in about two weeks.”

  “That seems like a lot of time,” I said. “If it’s mostly the fine tuning of it that is left, why would it take more than a few days?”

  “My dear girl, do you claim to know how to build a transmitter that will reach every still functional satellite and how to fine tune it?” His voice was patient, but it was dripping with condescension.

  “I think your tone is a bit unnecessary,” Vee said, her brow furrowing. “She was asking a valid question.”

  I would have made an appreciative gesture to my sister for defending me, but I was too occupied balling my cybernetic-boned hands into fists, and using restraint not to connect them with Dr. Evans’ face.

  “My apologies,” Dr. Evans said, shaking his head. “I must admit, I’m feeling a little less…understanding these days.”

  The interior grew quiet at that, each of us considering what he was really meaning by his comment.

  “Do those of us without TorBane have anything to be worried about, Dr. Evans?” Avian asked.

  “Not for the time being, you don’t.”

  Tension and uncertainty threatened to choke each of us out for the next six hours. Adrenaline constantly burned through my veins. I kept going over plans in my head, just in case Dr. Evans lost his grip on his humanity. But the truth was simple: if he decided to turn on us, I had no chance of immobilizing him before he could infect everyone.

  I just wanted to be back in New Eden. Now.

  “See if you can get anyone on the radio,” Bill said, grabbing it off the dash and handing it back to me. I took it from him and pressed the talk button.

  “This is Eve and the reclamation team, can anyone hear me?” I said.

  There was radio silence for all of five seconds before it crackled. “Welcome back, Savior.” Royce. “Everyone still alive?”

  I hesitated. “Not exactly sir, but our numbers are plus one.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Crackle, out.

  “Sir, we saved the child. She’s going to be okay,” I said, looking back at Creed. She slept in a nest of blankets and sleeping bags. “And we found Eve One.”