INK: Blue (INK Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

"Exactly. Thank you Aiden. See? He understands."

~~~

It had gone on like that for some time, but Lash still wasn't happy about his climbing. Edsel found it hard to truly explain it to her, but he had promised never to take Aiden, and had been true to his word.

Edsel smiled again, his limbs stretched out, feeling loose and full of vitality.

It's great to be alive. No pain, no itching, no Fire. Just empty space, me and the rock.

Edsel retied his long hair streaked with gray, reveling in the feeling of it whipping about his face until he got it under control once more. He stared up at the rock above him, his mind unconsciously mapping out his route, his body already practicing the moves he would make without conscious thought.

Edsel put his foot into a small crevice, felt the power in his thigh as he vaulted up, fingertips catching the smallest of handholds.

He climbed higher and higher. At peace.

Happy.

NEW

Life since Edsel's experiences with The Ink had been forged with tears. The consequences of their manhunt in an amusement park had been far-reaching and devastating: they had killed innocent men and paid the price for their lack of faith in humanity.

All three of them had traveled away from the scene of their crimes in a fog of utter helplessness — walking dead without minds of their own, so sunk in the horror they hardly spoke, ate or slept for the first week. They just traveled. Away. On and on, just walking, sleeping when they could no longer push their bodies to take another step, huddling together in bushes, houses if they found them, the signs of human presence and their influence on the landscape lessening as they headed further and further away from their actions and the people they left behind, to try to somehow pick up the pieces.

It was hard for Edsel to remember now; five years felt like five lifetimes, and those first few weeks were lived on auto-pilot, their minds almost totally shutting down just to escape their actions.

Slowly, over the months, then the years, it was all left behind. They became re-united with each other, Lash and Edsel bonding like they never knew possible, becoming more than intimate, becoming bound by blood and tears and the horrors not of what was done to them, but what they had done to others, what The Lethargy had reduced them to — people that deserved what The Eventuals wanted: oblivion and a return to The Void.

But that was the easy way out, they all knew that, so they forged ahead, rebuilding their minds and their lives, their family unit, until they finally found themselves Whole again, closer than ever. A family that had been making a life as best they knew how, far away from what was left of the ruined society they had played a part in reducing even further, a stain on the future chances of humanity's survival, a scourge on the planet that deserved to be wiped clean.

Forgiveness came. Slowly, but it did come.

There were countless conversations late into the night, going over the events, trying to come to terms with it all. Finally all they could settle for was the admission of guilt, the events leading up to it all conspiring to play a part in their inability to even know when others were offering assistance or when they should run for their lives.

After all, that was what they expected wasn't it? Or what Edsel expected anyway — to have to always run, be on your guard, trust no one.

Edsel had been in so much pain, so caught up in the moment, that it hadn't even crossed his mind the men would help. He saw nothing but murder and the men forcing themselves on Lash, his discomfort and anguish shutting down the part of his mind that could take stock of a situation and act rationally.

It all faded, everything but The Ink.

One day Edsel had realized that they were all happy again. It had been a few years since the beginning of their enforced isolation by then, and as they sat in the kitchen, eating their evening meal, chatting away, cracking bad jokes, he wept tears of happiness as the understanding dawned on him that they were back, a family again. The past not forgotten but accepted as a part of them, a bond that could never be broken — forged in blood and emotion.

More years passed. Aiden changed so much it still amazed Edsel that the man that stood before him with the deep voice and the well built body was the same young boy he'd first encountered, more concerned over his chicken Martha than what The Eventuals would do to him. Now Aiden was nineteen, coming up on twenty, and a man. Yet so much was missing from his life, so much he would never know — making Edsel yearn for times long past, if for no other reason than so Aiden could have experienced all that the world once had to offer — good and bad.

And me? I'm just getting grayer and older, and I have never been happier in my life.

Edsel whistled as he made his way back home across the lush grass of the wild countryside, the craggy hills and mountains dominating the skyline of the peaceful valley where they now lived, cut off from the cities and the towns, relying on themselves and nothing else.

As Edsel got closer to home and saw the smoke drifting lazily from the chimney, settling like a fog in the valley, he smiled happily and then continued whistling.

Another day in paradise for those that could cope with the isolation.

Edsel loved it. He had his family; he felt alive. What more could a man ask for?

He wandered past row after row of vegetables, past the expansive herb garden and the large pond, the fenced off area for the chickens, now having lost track of what generation Martha they were up to, and felt as content as he could ever be as he heard the voices of Lash and Aiden tumbling out of the open kitchen door.

~~~

"Still alive then," noted Lash, before ignoring him and turning back to Aiden to continue their conversation.

Is she going to say that every time I go climbing? Probably.

"Well where do you want to go then?"

Edsel sat down at the scrubbed kitchen table and listened in on the conversation, totally ignored by his family.

"I don't know. Just somewhere. Look, I love it here, I love you guys too, but well... you know, it's been five years and I kind of miss seeing stuff."

"Stuff? What stuff?" Lash raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "The dead bodies in the streets? The piles of trash? Cars blocking roads? Or maybe it's the buildings falling to the ground? Or the people after you, or Eventuals chasing you? Which of those do you miss Aiden?"

"That's not fair, there's more than that and you know it. I miss seeing things people did. Walking along the side of a canal, looking at buildings. Nice buildings. Even shopping malls, and yes, the streets, even if they are messy. All the rest of the things I used to see, just... Oh, I don't know. Stuff."

Edsel looked at Lash, as if to say to give Aiden a break. They both knew what he meant really, he just missed parts of his old life: familiar houses, signs of life, or at least life that had once been. The mark of man on his surroundings; it was what they had all grown up with, after all.

But it's all gone now, nothing is getting better. It will be a lot worse after five years too. A lot worse.

"Come on, you guys understand, right? I know it's silly but I feel like I'm missing out. I was too young to remember what it was like before The Lethargy, then it was just me and Dad. Then us guys, but we were still close to things, to towns and I was still really young anyway. Now I'm older and I kind of simply want to go see things. We haven't gone anywhere for five years, that's like my whole young adult life. I just want to go and do something."

"You're bored," said Edsel.

"Not really, no. We do loads of stuff, and there is always plenty to keep me busy, but we are in the middle of nowhere. You wouldn't know there was another person alive on the planet, wouldn't know people had built roads and houses, that there are amusement parks, oops, sorry, and that there are boats and skyscrapers and all those things. Libraries full of books, and movies and even a little bit of the Web. I want to go see it all, experience it all. Heck, even if just to get some new TV shows and see if we can get some better solar equipment — our batteries don't hold the charge like they used to. Basically, yeah, I guess I'm bored and I want to do something. Have an adventure."

"Fair enough," said Edsel.

Lash turned to him. "Not you too? You bored as well?"

"No, I am absolutely not bored. I love it here. I haven't felt so at peace in my entire life; I don't miss anything. But I, you too Lash, we lived through more, were older, had music, movies, TV and Internet. We went to school, ate junk food, got on buses and went for trips and all the normal stuff. Aiden didn't have all that, he was too young. So I get it, he wants to go do something."

"But it's not safe," protested Lash. "I don't want anything bad to happen."

"Neither do I," said Aiden. "But isn't that a part of life: taking risks? I'm not saying we should go to a huge city and stand outside an Eventuals church saying 'Come chase me', I'm just saying it would be quite nice to see somewhere different, get some things for here, and travel around a bit. And..." Aiden started blushing, then stopped talking.

Damn, I hadn't really thought about that.

"Sorry buddy, I really am. I hadn't truly thought much about that when it comes to you. I still see you as that young kid clutching Martha under his arms running down the street. Remember?"

"Haha. Yeah, I remember."

"What? What are you two going on about?"

"You know, girls," said Edsel, spelling it out for Lash.

"Oh. Right. Of course. Silly of me. You're a man now, and men..." There was an uncomfortable silence, then Aiden spoke up.

"Look, I don't want to dwell on this as it's kind of embarrassing, but, you know, I'm nearly twenty. I haven't even kissed a girl, let alone... I don't expect to just go traveling for a few days and suddenly meet hundreds of girls or anything, but I have to think about these things, and, well, I kind of can't stop thinking about these things anyway."

"God yeah, when I was your age I couldn't think of anything else. Not that I had any luck either."

"Okay, okay. I get it guys, jeez. So, basically what you're saying is you want to start going out into the world again and find a girl?"

"Stupid, isn't it?"

"No, not at all. It's our duty to try to find somebody for you. Maybe you'll have children, and that is the most important thing in the world if people aren't just to die off entirely. You're right, it's selfish of us to live here, not letting you have any chance at all of finding somebody nice. We've been selfish."

Poor kid, he must be about ready to explode, all those hormones raging.

"Let's not turn this into a hunt for a girlfriend or anything, please," said Aiden uncomfortably. "But let's at least do something. I am a lot more powerful in The Noise now; I should be able to pick up if there are people about a lot easier. Plus, well, you never know. Right?"

"That's the spirit," said Edsel, slapping Aiden across the back, his red and black hand no longer making him wince every time he looked at it.

Edsel kept up the pretense of how much fun it would be to go on a trip as the conversation continued.

This is all going to go horribly wrong, I can guarantee it.

BORED

Edsel and Lash talked about the trip they had promised to go on late into the night in their room. Edsel lay on the bed naked beside a timelessly beautiful Lash, still counting his lucky stars he had somehow managed to attract such a stunning and intelligent woman. He traced the curve of her perfect bum, marveled at her glossy black hair, stroked her back.

Such perfect skin.

Edsel resisted the urge to sink his teeth lovingly into such a perfect behind; it would be the end of the conversation if he did.

Lash was well into her thirties now and had been twenty three when The Lethargy changed everything. So although older than Edsel by five years it meant that both of them had at least been old enough to remember a world full of endless people and countless things to do. It was different for Aiden — he'd had none of it. Just a small child left alone with his father. Now he wanted to do things, and who could blame him?

They went over and over the same conversation: Lash worrying about their safety if they left, Edsel saying he was concerned too, but that Aiden had a right to experience life, to do things, and yes, look for a companion. Edsel shared his fears, telling Lash that he had a bad feeling about it, but that it was probably just him being silly, her too, after the peace they had enjoyed for years now. But what was the alternative? To let Aiden go alone? What if something did happen and they weren't there to at least try to help? That would be a lot worse.

They should have seen the signs, they should have noticed how much he'd grown, turned into a man that had wants and needs and a desire to participate in what was left of the society he'd grown up in, however difficult that was going to be.

They talked on, making plans, thinking about how best to travel, where to travel, and what they could do to satisfy the inquiring mind of a nineteen year old boy who never had a normal childhood and certainly hadn't had anything like a normal adolescence. The bottom line was that they had been negligent by hiding him away for so long — the boy, a man now, needed to meet people, begin to maybe make a life for himself, one that could even be away from them, at which point Lash started to cry.

Edsel talked to cheer her up, saying that maybe if he did find somebody then they could all live together, but that at the very least they should make the effort to go and do something on a semi-regular basis just so Aiden didn't go stir crazy.

They'd had their time in the midst of everything that humanity had to offer, either before The Lethargy or directly afterward when not everything had fallen apart. Aiden hadn't, and he wanted to venture back into whatever it was that remained after another five years had passed.