“Run!” I screamed as I came to his side, grabbed his hand in mine, and bolted out the door.
By this time the sun had broken over the buildings and the morning rays were charging the enemy. I heard the rev of an engine come from behind the building and the screeching of tires against asphalt.
We were only two blocks away from where the forest butted up against the city but we weren’t as fast as an ATV.
The hunter shot across the street behind us, the sound of the engine the only thing I could concentrate on as we ran for our lives.
The pile of metal that slammed into me from the side and knocked me to my back wasn’t the one I expected.
Neither of us had noticed the other Hunter hiding in the shadows of another building. He had launched himself at me, tackling me to the asphalt, choking the life out of me with one bare flesh hand and another cybernetic one.
As I stared into his metallic eyes, I couldn’t believe this was how my end was finally going to come.
The Fallen who had slammed into me suddenly jerked to the side as a metal rod dented its head in. It collapsed with a hiss of dying electric sounds. I looked up to see West holding a five foot long broken street sign, looking quite pleased with himself, a half smile tugging at his lips despite the terror in his eyes.
We didn’t hesitate though as I jumped up, pulling my pack tighter, praying none of the syringes had broken during my fall.
As the screech of tires against pavement assaulted my ears again, I turned and pulled my handgun out.
In one shot, I embedded the bullet into the gas tank and the ATV exploded in a ball of blazing glory for humanity.
Somehow we made it to the edge of the city and back into the trees where the Fallen only scouted when there was nothing better to do, which was apparently the only thing they did. West wheezed as we ran further into the forest, falling behind me several steps.
“Holy…” he gasped. “Eve.”
I slowed and turned to him as we stopped. “What?”
“Your shoulder,” he said, his eyes filled with horror.
My stomach knotted instantly and I almost didn’t dare look. With all the adrenaline coursing through my system I didn’t consider two very important things that had just happened.
I looked down at my shoulder and realized half my shirt had been burned away. So had my flesh. The skin from the top of my right shoulder down as far as I could see on my back was a charred, black, smoking mess.
“Oh my ga… Eve,” West said, his voice a horrified whisper that choked off. “Are you…?” I knew he was going to ask me if I was okay but it was obvious I wasn’t.
And then it hit me. “I don’t feel anything. I didn’t even know it was there.”
West continued to look at me with that horrified expression. I could only stare back for a moment.
“It touched you,” I could barely even hear his words as they escaped his throat.
My blood froze in my veins and it felt like all my internal organs had suddenly disappeared as his words hit me. A Fallen had touched me. One touch was all it took. The Hunter had been all over me.
“I have to go back to the city,” I said as I locked eyes with him. “You have to run, West. Don’t look back.”
I took two steps back toward where we had come from when he grabbed my wrist. “No,” he growled and shook his head. “No.”
“I have to West,” I hissed, almost angry with him. He knew how the world was now. “I only have a few hours. Then I’ll be trying to kill you too.”
“No,” he said again, his jaw clenched as his eyes burned into mine. I noticed there was moisture brimming in them. “I’m taking you with me. If you start to turn, I’ll shoot you myself and run.”
“It’s not a question of if, West,” I said, my voice low and husky sounding. I shook his hand off and started back again.
West grabbed my wrist again, this time yanking me back toward him with much more force. His other hand encircled my waist pulling me against his body. “No,” he said again.
And then he crushed his lips to mine. I could have sworn I was back in the middle of that explosion again in that moment.
I didn’t even realize for several moments after that I was being drug through the forest again, West’s hand securely around my wrist. I couldn’t think straight enough to resist.
Finally, I yanked the gun from the belt of my pants and forced it into West’s other hand. “Here,” I said, my eyes daring him to fight me. “You’re going to need this soon.”
He didn’t say anything, just tucked it into his own pants and continued to pull me through the trees.
EIGHT
The chill of the morning air shook West in an obvious way, his teeth chattering as we ran through the forest. His hand was still clenched around mine, his fingers a frozen color of purple. Our breath caused clouds to bloom around us in a cruel reminder that summer was still a few weeks off.
As we pounded our way through the woods, I could only think one thing, over and over. What was happening? Or more accurately: what wasn’t happening?
We had run through the entire day after I had been tackled by the Hunter, and had continued through the night. I kept waiting for the sensation of my cells hardening, waiting for my vision to sharpen and for the data to start flashing across my eyes, or something. It shouldn’t have taken more than two or three hours for the changes to start. It had now been just short of twenty-four and still nothing had happened.
The terrain became familiar and I felt both relief and panic. Perhaps Avian could give me some answers and I now had the medication Sarah needed. Yet I was infected now. I couldn’t bring it into Eden. That was the very thing we had fought all these years to keep out.
I was startled to see how Eden had changed since the time I had left it. There were only a few tents left by this point and the place that was my home looked deserted. I then remembered that Gabriel had told everyone to leave.
The few people who were left looked busy packing and preparing to leave. They stared at West and I as we walked swiftly toward the medical tent.
“Avian!” I half shouted before we were even inside the tent. “Avian!”
“Eve!” I heard his excited yet panicked shout as we burst into the tent.
I froze as I got inside, my eyes seeing nothing but Avian, standing there looking back at me. All the years watching him work, the hours we had spent by campfires, the feeling of his hand in mine, the sound of his breathing rushed through my head. Everything I was going to lose by turning into a Fallen was standing in this tent.
“Eve,” he finally whispered as he closed the gap between us and wrapped me in his arms. His entire frame was trembling. Softly, he pressed his lips to my temple.
He took a step back, placing his hands on my shoulders, and took a good look at me. That was when he realized what was under his right hand.
“Eve!” he nearly shouted as he whipped his hand away. “You’re fried! How are you not writhing in pain?”
Without waiting for me to say anything, he grabbed me and maneuvered me onto the table. I then noticed Sarah wasn’t lying on it anymore. What did that mean? Was I too late?
I felt a rock form in my throat. I couldn’t make myself ask about her.
“I can’t feel it,” I said, my voice sounding dead. “I haven’t felt it since it happened. There was an explosion.”
“It’s a good thing you can’t feel it,” Avian said as he poured some water onto a rag. “Burns are some of the most painful injuries. And this would really, really hurt.”
Avian cut away the rest of my charred shirt and I clung to the tattered pieces to keep myself covered. I stole a glance at West who stood in the doorway and watched with fearful eyes. Avian then started scrubbing at my charred skin.
“When did this happen?” Avian asked, his voice oddly tight.
“Yesterday morning,” West answered before I could.
“This looks a week old,” Avian said quietly. “It’s already start
ed to heal.”
I tried to swallow the rock in my throat but it wouldn’t go down. “A Hunter touched me, Avian. It was all over me. It happened just after the explosion.”
Avian suddenly froze as he scrubbed. He stopped breathing for a moment and I felt him automatically withdraw his hand just slightly.
“I haven’t changed. Nothing’s happened except that I can’t feel this,” I said as I nodded my head toward my shoulder.
He paused for a while longer before hesitantly placing the rag back to my shoulder and slowly started scrubbing again.
“What does this mean, Avian?” I asked quietly. “Why haven’t I changed?”
He didn’t say anything for a little bit. It nearly drove me insane.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice tight again.
“This doesn’t happen. They all Fall.”
And then a strange thing happened. I blacked out.
There were wires attached to every exposed surface of my body. And I was running. I’d been running forever it felt like. The belt turned under my feet, creating an endless four foot section of road.
“Increase the speed,” a voice said. I didn’t like those voices.
The belt started spinning faster under my small bare feet. My pace picked up to match so I didn’t fall.
“Doesn’t she get tired?” a young voice asked.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” the voice I knew answered.
I turned my head toward the window where they watched me from. A pair of curious brown eyes stared back at me.
I opened my eyes, only to squint them back to nearly closed. Light streamed in, momentarily blinding me. My left shoulder felt stiff, and as I reached a hand to it, I found it covered in layers of bandages. I was also wearing a shirt that I recognized as Avian’s.
“Try not to move too much,” a voice said kindly.
Ignoring the voice, I pulled myself into a sitting position. I blinked my eyes several times, willing them to focus.
I was still on the medical table but now there was not just the three of us inside but Gabriel as well. I wondered when he had come back.
“What happened?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes.
“You passed out from the pain,” Avian said, his voice stiff again.
“But I didn’t feel it,” I said, my voice sounding a little more annoyed than I had meant it to. “I still don’t feel it.”
Avian and Gabriel exchanged looks. West just stared at me with a blank expression.
“We need to have a talk, Eve,” Gabriel said as he looked at me. “In private.”
West seemed to realize this last part was directed at him. “I’m not leaving her,” he said, his voice stubborn.
“I’m not giving you a choice,” Gabriel said, his eyes hard. I then heard someone shift position outside and recognized Bill’s shadow through the wall of the tent.
“Go,” I said quietly to West, looking into his earthy eyes. “I can take care of myself.”
He gave me a hard look. I could tell he didn’t like this but after a moment he walked out. I saw Bill walk away with him.
Once I was sure West was out of earshot I looked back at Avian and Gabriel. “What is happening to me?” I asked, my eyes daring them to not answer me. “I can’t feel the pain. I didn’t change.”
“You still feel the pain,” Avian said, swallowing hard on the rock that seemed to have moved into his own throat. “Your brain just doesn’t tell you it’s feeling it. That’s why you passed out this morning. Your body couldn’t handle the pain.”
“But I didn’t feel the pain,” I insisted, not that the statement made me feel any better.
The two of them exchanged looks again. That was really starting to annoy me.
“What do you know?” I snapped. “What aren’t you two telling me?”
Avian bit his lower lip, his eyes dropping to the floor. Gabriel took this as an indicator to take the lead. “When you came to us, we knew right away that something was different about you Eve. You shouldn’t have survived out there on your own. You were only a thirteen-year-old girl for heaven’s sake.
“We didn’t know what it was. We watched you for weeks, looking for any signs that you were a Fallen, sent to spy on us. It’s difficult to tell sometimes. We kept the CDU with us at all times, ready to use it should you show any indicator that you might turn on us.
“You were nearly as strong as any of the grown men. You never got tired. You were so blasted tough and solid. And yet you lived among us. You didn’t turn against us.”
My heart pounded as I listened to Gabriel. I recalled everything he was saying, remembered the way the two of them had hovered over me at all times when I was a younger. I had thought they were trying to protect me. They had just been protecting themselves though. They had been ready to short me out at any moment.
Apparently there had been reason to.
And I was still too strong, still too fast. And apparently my brain didn’t register pain.
“What the hell am I?” I said in a raged hiss.
“We don’t know,” Avian finally said as he looked up. “You’re human but part of you is cybernetic. You’ve been enhanced in a way we’ve never even heard of before.
“That’s why you didn’t change when the Hunter touched you. You’re already part Fallen.”
My breathing increased as my eyes dropped to the floor. It suddenly rushed up at me as I fell off the table and landed roughly on my hands and knees. Avian jumped to help me up but I pushed him away.
“No,” I said as I shook my head and stumbled to my feet. “Get away from me!”
I bolted out of the tent and stumbled through what was left of Eden without seeing or caring where I was going.
My tent felt safe and frightening all at the same time. This was my space, and yet it was wrong. Sarah still wasn’t here. As I hid in my tent, Avian had come to tell me that she was starting to recover but was staying in his tent so he could watch her.
Eden was too quiet as darkness fell upon us. It felt strange to have our colony split up like this. I felt like I had been left behind. I wasn’t used to the feeling. I was always at the forefront of everyone.
I heard the dirt stir outside my tent as someone approached.
“Go away, Avian! I don’t want to talk to you right now!” I shouted as I lay in my bed and pulled my blanket up over my head.
“Good thing I’m not Avian,” a voice said as someone entered my tent.
“What are you doing here, West?” I asked as I glared at him, pulling the blanket back down.
He stood there, staring back at me, refusing to be intimidated. I then noticed he held something bulky and black in one arm.
“I brought something I hope might make you feel better,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
“I just found out I’m the enemy I’ve been fighting against for the last five years. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to make me feel better.”
West rolled his eyes. “You could try not biting my head off. I’m not the one who kept that massive secret from you all this time. Get up,” he said.
“What?” I asked, my voice annoyed again.
“Get up so I can lay this down,” he said as he raised his eyebrows at me.
I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I did as he asked. He then rolled out the black mass and I realized it was a hide.
“The bear?” I asked as I rubbed my hand over the soft fur.
“Yeah,” he said as he looked at it on my bed with a half-smile. “I asked Bill if he could tan it for me. I wanted to give it to you as an apology for stealing your kills.”
“Well, I did take your buck that one time. I was the one who technically stole it.”
West looked up at me, a half smile coming to his lips before he gave a little chuckle. “See, it made you feel better.”
I then realized that I was smiling too.
“Thank you,” I said, really meaning it.
West gave a nod and then stood there uncomfortably as if he wasn’t sure what to do with himself.
“They asked you to watch me tonight, didn’t they?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at him.
“And you’re not going to give me trouble about that, are you?” he shot back at me.
I just glared at him for a minute, gauging his stance and expression. I hadn’t forgotten the fact that we had spent two nights together, a little more intimately than I would have cared to remember, or the fact that in the moment he thought I was as good as dead, he had kissed me.
“You can sleep in Sarah’s bed, then. Don’t oversleep though; I’m packing up early in the morning.”
“Good,” he said as he went to lie on the other bed. “I’ve already packed up all my things. I would have been sleeping in the dirt if you kicked me out.”
I crawled into my new bed, surprised at how much of a difference the hide made. I balled my pillow up under my head and pulled the covers up to my chin.
“Good-night, Eve,” West said quietly through the now dark tent.
I hesitated for a moment. This whole situation felt so strange. As awkward as it was to have West sleeping in such close quarters, it was kind of nice to have him here at the same time. “Good-night, West,” I half whispered as I turned onto my side away from him.
NINE
The stiffness in my arm woke me as I tried to roll over. The bandaging had loosened up during the night but it still prevented me from having full movement.
I was surprised at how light it already was outside. I must have been asleep for nearly nine hours. I then remembered what Avian had said about my body feeling pain, even if my brain didn’t register it. Apparently it had needed the rest.
I felt like there were two parts to me. There was the part that my body registered, the part that told me to do things I shouldn’t normally be able to do. And then there was my brain, the part that felt things that I didn’t.
A soft snore reminded me that I wasn’t alone and I rolled over to see West sprawled across Sarah’s bed. He lay on his back, his arms spread out, his head lolling to the side facing me. I gave a little half smile as he gave another quiet snore. Apparently he had needed his rest as well.