Eden (25 page)

But I still didn’t fully
trust him.  West kept too many secrets, had lied to me too
many times.  And he almost seemed to like to make me
angry. 

It would be so much easier
if I didn’t have to make either choice.  Picking neither and
going back to the way I was just a few months previous would have
been so much simpler.  But something inside of me had
changed.  There was no going back now.  I couldn’t live
the same without them. 

But how was I going to
sever one of them?

I decided to pull Sarah
aside after the meeting.  I needed someone to talk to or I was
going to explode.

Someone had to sit out and
keep watch during the meeting so West had volunteered.  The
rest of us gathered in the center of camp.  I watched them as
they gathered, saw the way the lines around their eyes were
tighter, the way their breathing was just slightly shallower. 
Everyone was on edge.

Our already slight frames
were all the more skinny already.

“
Thank you for coming
tonight,” I was surprised when it was Avian who took control of the
meeting.  I glanced over at Gabriel.  He sat to the side
of Avian, his eyes on his hands in his lap.  His face looked
empty.  “You are all aware of what happened a few weeks
ago.  I know everyone has been thinking about it but it is
time we actually talked about it and what this means for our
future. 

“
We will run out of food
in the middle of the winter.  We have enough for everyone for
a few more months but with most all this year’s harvest gone to ash
we will not make it to next spring.

“
Add to that fact that the
Fallen have become more aggressive.  It has been deemed not
possible for us to go into the cities on raids any longer. 
They have been pushing further and further into the country. 
Just today a man passed away who was on the run after his family
was attacked.  He came from the east.  We’ve never heard
of them pressing in from the mountains like that.”

Avian cleared his throat,
his eyes dropping to the ground.  I realized how hard this
must be on him, having to be the one to finally bring this to
everyone’s attention.  He was strong in a way I had never
realized before.  He may not have been as physically tough
like Bill and Graye were but he was a rock, a foundation for the
rest of us.

“
It has been proposed that
we need to move.  I agree with this.  I don’t think there
is any other choice.  The natural resources we have will not
last us for as long as we need.  We’re going to have to go
someplace warmer.  Southwest.

“
The question is when and
how to move,” Avian said as he looked around at our fellow men and
women.  “If we leave right now we would be crossing the
deserts in the hottest part of the year.  And yet if we don’t
leave now our supplies will become all the more
depleted. 

“
It would be incredibly
dangerous to move any way we do it.  If we leave all at once
it will be easier for Fallen to spot us.  At the same time,
there is safety in numbers.  We can have our best scouts with
us all at once.  If we move in smaller groups it will be
easier to stay hidden, to keep a low profile.  At the same
time, each group could have no more than one or two of our most
skilled scouts.  It also splits all of us.  There’s the
risk that we might not all ever be reunited.  Without
electronic devices it will be difficult to stay in contact and
reconvene. 

“
It is up to you. 
We, Gabriel, Eve, and myself, won’t force any decisions on
you.  This affects all of us.  The choice is
yours.”

Everyone was silent for a
long while.  How was anyone supposed to make this
decision?  There were pros and cons to each way, there was no
clear decision to make.  There was great risk with
either.  Each carried the possibility of destruction, with
being wiped out in one big group or the chance we would never be a
group again, a family.

“
We could go in two
groups,” Graye spoke up.  We were all surprised when he did,
he was usually a man of few words.  “If we split right down
the middle, one group could go in a few weeks or so when things
will start to cool slightly.  We send our best scouts and Eve
to clear the way.  We could leave messages for the group to
follow, traces the Fallen won’t pick up on.  Leave a trail for
each other to the new location.  The last group will bring the
rest of the food.  We have the two trucks, if we camouflage
them well enough, we should be able to bring enough supplies. 
At least until we run out of fuel.”

The group was quiet for a
bit, mulling over Graye’s idea.

“
That seems reasonable to
me,” Avian finally said.  “Eve?  Gabriel?”

“
It seems a viable
option,” I answered.

Gabriel simply nodded his
head.  His behavior was disturbing.

“
All those in favor of
Graye’s plan?” Avian asked, turning his eyes over the
group.

The majority of hands,
including mine, went up.  After a few hesitant and thoughtful
seconds, the rest of them went up as well.

“
It is agreed then,” Avian
said with a nod.  “We will make preparations.  I think
until then that a priority should be to hunt as much as possible
and gather as many other resources as we can find.  Traveling
would be hard under normal circumstances, but considering the
conditions we have been under these last few weeks, it will be even
harder.  We will need food to keep up our strength.  Our
survival has become all the more difficult.”

A flurry of mixed emotions
was tangible as everyone left.  I watched their faces as they
did, Wix, Victoria, Morgan.  Each of them had different
thoughts behind their eyes, but there was one unifying one. 
We had to survive.

It wasn’t until the
meeting was over that I realized Sarah had not been in
attendance.  I asked Avian where she was and he told me in a
very hushed voice that she had not been feeling well.  I
didn’t miss the anxiety that seeped into his face.  I had a
feeling then that things weren’t getting better. 

TWENTY-ONE

The beast hit the ground
with a loud cry.  A circle of red started forming on his neck
before he was even fully down.  He twitched for a few moments
before the fight seeped out of him. 

I slung my bow back across
my shoulders and leapt down the small cliff I had been hiding
on.  I crouched beside the animal, checking to make sure it
was fully dead.  I saw my own reflection in the buck’s eye as
he took his last strangled breath.

I pulled my arrow out of
his neck and wiped it clean on the grass at my feet.  I placed
two fingers under my tongue and gave a loud whistle.  Two
minutes later Bill and Graye joined me.  Together we started
the mile journey back to Eden with the animal.

We had been hunting
nonstop for the last three days.  While scouting duty was as
important as ever, it was now just as important to find food. 
We had brought back three doe’s, a few foxes and rabbits, and now
this buck.  The kitchen had been busy cooking, bottling, and
drying the meat, others tanning the hides. 

Not only would our food
supplies have to last us the few weeks till the first group left,
and then another month after the second group left, it would also
have to last the week, maybe two, journey into the unknown. 
And who knew what immediate food sources would be like once we
reached where we were going.

It had been brilliant on
Avian’s part to put everyone to work on making preparations to
leave.  With everyone so busy, there was no time for anyone to
sit and worry too much about the fact that we were moving, that we
would be traveling so far.  Everyone had a role to play. 
Hands were needed to forage the woods nearby, searching for berries
and edible mushrooms.  Others were needed to collect water in
any containers we could spare. 

As I walked through Eden,
after I had dropped off the buck, I caught a glimpse of
Gabriel.  He sat at the entrance of his tent, staring out over
the rest of us.  He watched as the rest of us worked.  He
wasn’t supervising, checking to make sure everything was done
right.  He was just gone.  He’d checked out.  I
hated him for his behavior. 

Checking to make sure no
one was watching me, I poked my head inside Avian’s
tent. 

Sarah had not come out of
the tent since before the meeting.  When I pressed Avian about
it he simply told me that she was not feeling well.  I did not
think he was intentionally lying to me.  He was lying to
himself.

“
Sarah?” I said quietly
through the dim light.  “Sarah?”

Only silence greeted
me.  I stepped inside, closing the flap behind me.  It
felt muggy inside and it was suffocatingly hot as the sun beat down
above.  “Sarah?” I said again as I knelt next to her
cot.

A thin sheet was gathered
up around her neck, damp and clinging to her skin where it touched
her.  Her brown curls were matted and stuck to her face. 
Her skin clung to her cheekbones.  Her eyes were closed. 
They frightened me.  They looked like they were sinking into
her head. 

“
Sarah,” I called again,
my voice insistent.  I felt the urgent need to wake her
up.  Now.  “Sarah,” I said again as I placed my hands on
her and shook her slightly.

“
Eve.”  The tent was
suddenly flooded with light as Avian opened the flap.  “Leave
her alone.”  He waved me out.

“
She looks like death,” I
whispered as I followed him out into the light.  “What is
happening to her?”

Avian pursed his lips
together, his eyes dropped to the ground.  His hand rubbed
over his short hair.  I noticed he did this when he felt
stressed or worried. 

“
She’s getting worse,
isn’t she?” I asked.

It took a moment before
Avian nodded his head.  “She’s not having as many seizures but
she’s sleeping the majority of the time.  She’s woken up a
total of maybe two hours in the last twenty-four.  She can’t
keep much of anything down.

“
I don’t know what else to
do for her,” he said in a hoarse whisper.  “Maybe if I were an
actual doctor…”

“
Hey,” I cut him off,
giving him a sharp look.  “Don’t talk like that.  You’re
an amazing doctor.  Sometimes nature just can’t be
fought.”  I felt sick saying it but the need to make Avian
think straight was more important.

He nodded his head, his
eyes still on the ground.

“
There’s West,” I said as
I looked back toward the center of camp.  “Come on. 
We’re supposed to meet again.” 

Avian, West, Bill, and I
all sat around the long dining table and smoothed the plans we had
written out over its rough surface. 

“
If the scouts continue at
the rate you have been going, we should gain at least a few more
weeks worth of food supplies, maybe even another month,” Avian took
control of the meeting again.  It bothered me that he had not
even asked Gabriel to join us.  He knew as well as I did
though, that it was pointless.  Gabriel was gone for the time
being.  “We need a few more things that we’re going to have to
go look for.  We need more water containers.  We’ll go
through what we have quickly.

“
We’re also going to need
a way to transport a large amount of people.  The supplies we
will have to haul will fill the beds of the trucks.  Bill, the
trailer you and Graye brought back from the city will work. 
I’m hoping we can fix up the old one that was found rusting away by
the lake.  I’ve already got a few people working
it.

“
We also need a way to
communicate with the second group.  A way to leave signs the
Fallen will not notice.  Any ideas?”

No one jumped right
away.  “Think about it for a while, let us know if you come up
with any ideas. 

“
The other issue.  It
will be invaluable if we can take the trucks with us the entire
way.  We’re going to have to look for gas stations, as far on
the outskirts of towns we can find.  We also run the risk that
any fuel that will be left will have gone bad.  It’s been
nearly six years since any new fuel was brought in.  It may
very well destroy the engines if we put it in.”

“
We don’t exactly have any
other choice though, do we,” West piped in.

“
Exactly,” Avian said as
he looked up at West.  “Bill has maps, we’ll carefully plan
our route, try to avoid any Fallen, any big city areas.”

With this, Bill reached
into his pack and pulled out a book that must have weighed a good
ten pounds.  He flipped it open somewhere near the middle and
started scanning through pages.

“
Where did you get that?”
I asked, my eyes growing wide.  I had only ever seen a map
once before. 

“
Got it from a man who
didn’t need it anymore,” he said, not looking up from the
map.  I knew what that meant.  He’d taken it from a dead
man.

“
This is where we’re at,”
Bill said as he pointed to a place on the map.  As I studied
it, I recognized the shape of the lake, the terrain of the
mountains.  “This is the closest city,” he drug his finger
over the page.  “We should find somewhere to get fuel on the
outskirts here.  It’s a small city so there is a chance there
won’t even be any Hunters.  They tend to flock to the larger
ones.  We could get out of there scott-free.”