Silence for a long moment. I had a feeling Royce took that moment to swear. “So there’s two of you now, huh?”
“Twice the fun, sir,” I said with a grin.
I faintly heard him chuckle. I imagined how the fine lines would grow around his eyes when he smiled. Exactly how my father’s eyes looked in all those pictures.
My demeanor grew more serious and I glanced back at Avian. “Royce, did you have a brother named Rider?”
He paused again for a moment. I could imagine the way his brows would pull together and his gray eyes would question. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
My chest swelled and I started blinking rapidly when something bit at the back of my eyes.
“We’ll talk about it later. See you soon.”
“We’ll all be waiting for you.”
TWENTY-THREE
I didn’t expect to feel relief when we pulled into the parking garage at the hospital. This place had never felt like home, and being trapped there had made me start losing my mind just a few months ago. But it was the place that had housed all of the members of my family. Literally, now.
Royce, Tuck, Tristan, and Gabriel, as well as Lin were waiting for us as promised. As soon as I stepped from the solar tank, Lin was across the garage and was squeezing me so tight I thought even my ribs might crack.
“You’re alive!” she said in a delighted squeal. “And in one piece!”
“We hardly even ran into any Bane,” I said, mocking her. “It was actually a fairly boring trip for the large part.”
“Whoa,” Lin suddenly said, looking over my shoulder. “You two really are identical.”
I turned to see Vee step from the tank. She looked uncertain, but not afraid.
“Everyone,” I said as the rest of the welcoming crew came forward at a more acceptable pace. “I’d like to introduce you to my sister, Vee.”
She nodded at them, without the courtesy smile most people would have worn on their face. Tristan reached forward to shake her hand, but she didn’t know what to do with it. He withdrew it awkwardly.
“Vee, this is Royce,” I said, indicating him. I wondered if it would mean anything to her, the fact that he was her uncle. “He’s sort of our military affairs leader. This is Gabriel, he’s the more personal level leader. He’s been working on rehoming everyone after we cleared the city. And this is Tuck, Tristan, and Lin.”
“Apparently we’re not important enough for explanation,” Tristan teased, raising an eyebrow at me.
“You’re all still alive, that means you’re important,” Vee said in a very logical voice.
“I like her,” Tristan said, giving me a sly smile.
“And who might this stowaway be?” Royce asked. I turned to see Avian step from the vehicle, Creed wrapped in a blanket in his arms. Royce looked up at me with incredulous eyes.
“This is Creed,” Avian said, lightly bouncing from one foot to another. West stepped from the tank as well, carrying her oxygen unit.
“And she’s…” Royce said, unsure how to finish his sentence.
“She’s like us,” I finished for him, fixing him with a hard stare.
“You didn’t need to abscond into the night with her mother like that,” he said, his voice bordering on scolding me, and being offended that I’d sneak behind his back.
“You wouldn’t have let us take her,” I said, never breaking his gaze. “And it was my operation. I didn’t need your permission.”
He didn’t respond but held my eyes in a way that said no, he wouldn’t have given his permission.
“Get her upstairs to Dr. Sun,” Royce suddenly said, looking away to Creed. “No need to make her freeze down here.”
Avian shouldered the oxygen pack and feeding tubes and slipped inside.
Dr. Evans stepped from the tank.
“Won’t be long and there will be no traces of human left on you, huh?” Royce said, cringing slightly as he looked at Dr. Evans. I observed him too. He had, indeed, changed over the last two weeks. The small amounts of flesh still on his face were being slowly overtaken.
“Won’t be long and it won’t matter anymore,” he growled as he went for the back of the tank. He pulled the doors open and produced his precious box of supplies. “Shall we get back to work?”
Royce didn’t say anything, just nodded his head back to the opening of the underground garage. I opened my mouth for a moment, about to ask Royce for a minute to talk. But saving the world was still more important. I’d find a better time later.
“Is Graye still in charge of security detail?” I asked, turning back to Tristan, Tuck, and Lin.
“Yeah,” Tristan said as we all turned back to the doors leading inside the hospital. “Elijah’s still laid up. His leg got infected pretty badly.”
I nodded. “I’m going to ask him to have a guard watch Dr. Evans at all times.”
“Yeah,” West said, following us, Vee in tow. “What was his comment about earlier?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But it’s true; he’s losing more of his human traces every day. How long before he loses grip on his humanity?”
TWENTY-FOUR
“My room is just next door,” I said as Vee walked around her new room. She ran a hand over the hospital bed, a look of detachment upon her face. “West and Avian are just across the hall if you need either of them.”
“These people lived here when there were still Bane in the city?” she asked, her brow furrowing.
I nodded.
“Their odds of surviving for five years that way, in a city of this size, they’re miniscule, nearly nonexistent.”
“I know,” I said, leaning in the doorway, crossing my arms over my chest. “I fought it when our colony made the exodus west. I thought everyone was going to get infected if we came into the city.”
“It is a miracle that they didn’t,” she said, raising an eyebrow. She absentmindedly pulled a drawer open. It was empty. She closed it again.
There was silence for a moment as Vee continued to wander the room for a moment before settling uncomfortably on the bed. Her back was ramrod straight, her hands placed lightly on her thighs.
“I’m sure Dr. Beeson will want to meet with you soon,” I said. I was getting back to not knowing how to fill these uncomfortable silences.
“Will he want to fix me like he fixed you?” she asked. She looked up at me with hints of uncertainty in her eyes.
“That is entirely up to you,” I said, stuffing my hands in my pockets. “I asked him to do my emotion blocker adjustments. I was evolving past them, but the chip and my emotions were still combating. Everything that I was feeling was becoming dangerous to me and those around me. Blackouts. Mood swings. It was ugly.”
Vee nodded. “Maybe someday. But not yet.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
“You ready?”
I turned to find West and Lin standing behind me. Lin held several bottles of hair products and a metal comb. West had an armload of towels and clothes.
“Yeah,” Vee said, trying to smile. This was going to be a difficult life adjustment after nearly six years in solitude.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking quizzically at Lin.
“She wants the dreadlocks out,” Lin said, a crooked smile curling in her lips.
“Is that even possible?” I asked, looking back at Vee’s hair. It was long. Longer than I had ever worn my hair. The tendrils hung more than halfway down her back.
“We’re about to find out,” West said, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Good luck with that,” I said, smiling as I ducked out of the room. I heard the three of them head for the bathroom as I worked my way down the hall.
“Eve,” someone called out to me as I approached the stairs.
I turned to see Susan stepping out into the hallway.
“You made it,” I said. A smile crossed my lips.
She nodded. “We actually just got in yesterday.”
“Did you have any trou
bles getting back?” I asked. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and leaned against the wall.
She shook her head. “We didn’t see a single Bane, just like you said. Which I think was almost scarier than if we had seen them. I kept expecting them to jump out at us any second.”
I chuckled and nodded. I understood the feeling. “How’s Karmen?”
“She’s good,” Susan smiled. “There are a few others here that speak Spanish, so that’s nice.”
I nodded once more. “I’m glad you made it okay.” She smiled and then turned to walk the opposite way down the hall. I headed back for the stairs.
There were two weeks between now and knowing our future. What was I going to do with myself for two weeks until the transmitter was finished?
That would put us to the end of February. The gardens wouldn’t quite be ready to till. I would be too on edge to go to my tent out at the beach. I supposed I could join security detail, now that there was a need for it once more. I wondered how much further into the city the Bane would have gotten in the two weeks we had been gone.
I was just about to head down the stairs to the main floor when I ran right into Avian. He tripped backwards and I reached a hand out and gripped the front of his shirt just in time to keep him from tumbling back down them.
Pulling him back into standing position, he started laughing. “That would be just my luck, getting within two weeks of the apocalypse ending, and meet my demise by falling down the stairs.”
“I’ll have to wrap you up in layers of blankets to get you there,” I said as he turned and walked down the stairs with me.
We exited into the hall of the main floor and walked together toward the dining area for dinner.
Everyone sat at tables, quiet and so seemingly unaware of the changes that were about to descend upon our already crazy world. They smiled and talked, and if someone from before the Evolution were to observe them, they wouldn’t think anything had happened to end their way of comfortable living.
“Things seem too calm,” Avian said as we sat at a table with our meals. “Don’t they?”
I nodded and forked the canned green beans into my mouth. I swallowed. “The last year has been so crazy and life-threatening, this almost seems scarier.”
“The calm before the storm, maybe,” Avian said.
“Things are falling into place too easily.” I ate half of my roll in one bite. “It feels like we’re missing something. Like we’re overlooking an important detail, or something is brewing just under the surface where we can’t see it.”
Avian grunted in agreement as he finished off his own roll. “Maybe the world has just made us paranoid. We’ve had to fight so hard for so long, that when things get easy, we start getting suspicious.”
“I don’t know,” I said, wiping crumbs off my hands. “I think maybe everyone is too confident that this machine is going to work. What if it doesn’t go any further than New Eden’s borders? No farther than the state this used to be? What if they can’t even get it to go off? What if there isn’t a single satellite up there that will work? What if I can’t really connect with the Bane?”
“It will work,” Avian said, looking up at me from his plate. “It has to.”
“I guess that’s the storm, isn’t it?” I said, picking up my fork but not grabbing any food with it. “If this doesn’t work, that’s the end of the human race.”
Avian reached across the table and covered my free hand with his. I met his eyes again. “It will work,” he said.
TWENTY-FIVE
THIRTEEN DAYS UNTIL SET OFF
First thing in the morning, Royce called a meeting.
Every member of New Eden, including the refugees, and now Karmen and Susan, gathered in the auditorium, facing Royce with expectation. Gabriel stood to his side, hands crossed behind his back.
“First, as I’m sure you’ve all already seen, our solar crew has returned safely,” Royce said, clapping. Everyone followed his lead and clapped loudly. My face grew red and I was glad I was in the second row of seats so I didn’t have to look at anyone. West, who was just to my side, smirked down at me. Vee, next to him just stared forward at Royce.
“Most of you have wondered what their exact mission was,” Royce continued. He held his hands behind his back and paced across the stage. “You’ve heard that the man who created TorBane is still alive. Eve and her chosen crew went with Dr. Evans back to NovaTor Biotics. They were on a mission to get a certain code.”
The room had grown silent and I could almost feel everyone leaning forward, on baited breath, waiting for him to continue.
“A kill code,” Royce said. As if on cue, everyone inhaled sharply. Several shouts of what does that mean? were thrown into the air. Royce held his hands out as if to push their questions back at them. “It is exactly like it sounds. This is a kill code that will instantly wipe out the Bane. It is difficult to fully explain how it works. There is a lot of mixed up history to it, but our own Eve is the key to making it work.”
Instantly, I felt hundreds of eyes on the back of my head. Avian shifted beside me and I could tell he was fighting the urge to wrap a supportive arm around me. Instead, he discreetly slipped his hand into mine.
“You know she can communicate with the Bane, control them. She already has this kill code programmed inside of her,” Royce said. He didn’t look down at me, which I appreciated. His eyes were fixed firmly on those before him. “This code she and her team went after unblocks it.”
Royce placed his hands behind his back again and paced toward the other end of the stage. “While they were gone, our scientific teams have been working on a device that will amplify this kill code. It will send a signal up twenty-three-thousand miles above us to an orbiting satellite. This satellite will transmit the code to all other satellites that are still in orbit around planet Earth. There are hundreds of them up there, floating around the entire globe. Not all of them will be useful after so long with no attention and maintenance, but there should be enough to carry the signal around the globe.”
Another intake of breath, followed by loud murmurs. Royce paused for a long time, letting everyone draw their own conclusions.
“Yes,” Royce said, stilling in the middle of the stage. He stood with his legs in a wide stance, his arms grasped firmly behind his back. “If all goes as planned, it will do what you all are thinking it will:
“Wipe out the Bane. Worldwide.”
The room erupted.
Some were saying it was impossible. Some burst into tears of joy. Others opened and closed their mouths, not knowing what to say.
I turned in my seat, observing their disbelief and hopeful, cautious dreaming.
“Prepare to be worshiped,” Avian said quietly.
“I am not finished,” Royce bellowed. Not in an unkind way, but a way that demanded attention once more. The room quickly grew quiet once more.
“There is no guarantee that this will work,” Royce said, his voice grave sounding. “Any number of things could go wrong. I do have every confidence that it will work. However, if it doesn’t, you all need to know the conditions of the world outside of our safe haven.”
He held their attention with a hook and line once more.
“I am sorry to say we have kept information from you,” he said, his eyes falling from the crowd around him. “Once again, our information is linked to Eve. When she was taken earlier this winter, she came back with reports of a Bane army.”
Cries and chaos once again threatened to overtake the room.
“Yes,” Royce shouted above the din. “They are collecting. They are moving. And they are wiping out cities, forests, towns, anything that might be hiding humans. They are looking for more flesh as they starve in their drive to spread TorBane.
“Eve and her team have come back with reports of more than one army. They saw the aftermath of one that started in Las Vegas and headed east. They barely escaped one that demolished the NovaTor Biotics building. As we speak, they are prob
ably ripping San Francisco apart. We can only conclude that these sweeps are taking hold worldwide.”
Shouts and questions and cries erupted once more. What does that mean? How will we survive? What if this device does not work?
Royce put his hands on his hips and his head hung for a moment. Gabriel, who had been silent up to this point, put his hand on Royce’s shoulder in a supportive gesture. Royce was not an emotional man, but I did not envy him for having to deliver this end-of-the-world news. That took courage.
“This—” he tried to speak, but his voice cut off with a choke. He cleared his throat, placing a fist over his lips. He took a moment as the room started to quiet again. His eyes had changed two shades toward red when he looked back up at everyone. “This is our last chance. I will not sugar coat it. If this doesn’t work, it may only be weeks until the Bane fall upon us and—” his voice cut out once again.
There was a heavy silence that hung in the air at his unsaid words. Words that had to be said.
I stood from my seat and climbed over the one in front of me. I pulled myself up onto the stage and stood beside Royce.
“By the time they reach us, even the Pulse will not be able to save us,” I said. The room was so deathly quiet, I could hear myself breathe. Little particles of dust swirled in the air and the lights shining down on the stage seemed to intensify. “There will be nowhere left to run. We could go out into the water, but we will only survive for so long without being able to replenish supplies. Once the Bane get to the city, they will destroy everything. There won’t be any supplies left to come back to.”
Gabriel stepped forward, placing his bear paw of a hand on my shoulder. “We tell you this not to panic you, but to ready and inform you. You all have a right to know what we are facing.”
“We ask that you prepare yourselves,” Royce said, his voice recovered, but quieter. “Get your affairs in order. Live your lives and maybe pray a little harder. Meanwhile, Dr. Evans, Dr. Beeson’s team, and I will be doing everything we can to make sure this device is perfect.”