Keary Taylor: The Eve

From my position I had a clear view of the top of the building the Nova had been built on. The hospital was far enough away, though, that all I could make out was the form of the gigantic transmitting dish. And Bird circling the building.

The roads around the hospital were a mess. Destroyed Bane lay in the streets, their mechanical parts sparking and shining in the sun. Graye had been right, Eve commanded some of them to destroy other Bane.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, one Bane tackled another to the ground on the sidewalk, right in front of me. It ripped the others left arm clean from its body. And then it pummeled the rest of the Bane into a scrap pile of metal.

Behind it, a group of four Bane started running toward the hospital, like a rabid pack of wolves.

I fired.

Two of them dropped to the ground. The others continued to rush directly toward me.

One of the Bane drew something small and oval shaped and in a tiny movement, seemed to pull something out of the object.

A grenade.

I emptied a magazine firing at it. It finally dropped to the ground, as did the other one, just a block and a half from the hospital.

The explosion from the grenade was brilliant.

Gleaming parts flew into the sky. Two cars that had been in close proximity blew sideways, rolling and crashing into the surrounding buildings.

Movement to the far west caught my eye again and the breath caught in my chest.

Rising to level with the Nova building was a helicopter.

I saw tiny explosions as Eve’s team fired at it. But I knew their odds of taking it out before it could fire and destroy every one of them and the Nova.

“Vee,” I breathed. “Eve.”

My hands flew to my ears and my eyes squeezed closed as a sharp ringing shot through the air, high pitched and painful.

I could have sworn my ears were bleeding.

This was it.

Through the ringing, even from this far away, I could hear the crash.

My eyes shot open just in time to see the blades of the chopper slicing into the Nova building. It disappeared from view and then there was another explosion.

Twelve Bane. That was how many of them I could see from my position.

And that was exactly how many bodies instantly dropped to the ground.

One second they were fighting, rushing the building. And the next they were limp and still.

I couldn’t move for an unknown amount of time. My eyes fixed on one body that had collapsed. It must have been a female at one point. It had longish brown hair that covered its face completely when it collapsed.

It was going to move. This was only a temporary thing, Eve would only be able to make them collapse, knock them out for a short while.

They had to get up and try to infect us once again.

But they weren’t getting up.

Cries and screams and cheers erupted from the halls.

Finally, my eyes broke from that body. I looked back toward the lobby. People were gathered there, staring out into the streets.

It took a lot of willpower to turn from the window. There was no way I could relax enough to leave my weapon, so I somehow managed to use the crutches and hold it at the same time.

I pushed my way through the crowd to the doors.

Tuck stood before us all. He held a radio in his hand.

“Today is a day to move forward. Let everyone have their moment to celebrate.”

It was Royce’s voice. And every syllable he spoke said something was wrong.

I fired seven shots. The first two shattered the front window. The fourth bounced off one of the chopper blades. The rest disappeared into the body of the helicopter.

Countless other shots were fired, but the helicopter continued to rise over the side of the building.

The adrenaline burning through my system brought everything into focus. I watch as a cybernetic thumb hovered over a trigger.

The moment before it fired, Royce yelled something I couldn’t understand.

A piercing ring cut through the air. I wasn’t one to put down my firearm, but I couldn’t fight the instinct to drop my weapon and cover my ears against the sound. Bill, Tristan, Elijah, they all did the same.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Evans crumple to the ground and then the building shook. I looked over the ledge just in time to see the helicopter explode as it hit the ground. The building shook tremendously and all of the windows below us exploded.

Out in the distance, the slight movement of the landscape stopped. A giant cloud of dust rose into the air. The Bane sweep ceased.

I looked below us once more, and saw dozens of bodies lying still on the ground.

“It worked,” I breathed. A startled, disbelieving chuckle rose up from my chest. “It worked!”

I turned back to the Nova, ready to cheer and celebrate with our team.

And my internal organs disappeared into oblivion.

“Eve!” someone screamed and I would later realize it had been me. One second I was standing at the edge of the building, the next I was at her side.

Eve was half in, half out of the Nova in a crumpled heap.

I rolled her over, pushing the hair out of her face. “Eve,” I said again, tapping the side of her face.

Her eyes remained closed. Her mouth hung just slightly open.

Her entire body was limp in my arms.

“Eve?” my breath barely came out.

“What’s wrong?” someone behind me questioned and others gathered around. “What happened?”

Tristan knelt next to me, his hands extended but not knowing what to do with them. Royce stood above us, a radio held in his hand, like he knew he was supposed to be doing something with it. But it just hung limp in his hand as he looked down at his niece.

It must have been muscle memory or instinct or some other force of nature that made me raise my hand. My skin felt dead as I pressed two fingers to the side of her neck.

Her skin was as still as the rest of her body.

“Eve?” I said, giving her a shake. “Eve? Come on! Open your eyes!” I shook her again. Rougher than I should have. Something was birthed in my stomach and clawed up in my skin. A rabid beast that wanted to escape that very instant.

“Eve!” I growled, shaking her again. “Open your eyes!”

Her head lolled back as I stilled her, her mouth falling open once again. My hands felt numb.

Royce knelt next to us, and placed two fingers against her neck, just as I had done.

His hands shook worse than mine did.

His radio crackled and then a voice rang over it, loud and true.

“The test subjects are dead, sir.”

No one moved. The air around us hung dead and stagnant—no one breathed. Every pair of eyes was transfixed on Eve, who lay in my arms. No one took notice how the shooting had ceased. How the plundering footsteps of the invading Bane had died away.

“Is she…?” a voice from behind asked.

We all turned to see Vee step out from the lead room. Creed slept peacefully in her arms.

The breathing I hadn’t done up to that point suddenly kicked into overdrive. My chest started rising and falling rapidly and my entire body broke out into a cold sweat.

“No,” I said shaking my head and looking back down at Eve. “No, she’s fine. She’s just unconscious. The transmission just took a lot out of her.”

I shook her again. “Eve,” I said, my voice calm but urgent. “Wake up Eve. Come on. It’s over. It worked. You need to open your eyes!”

“Avian,” Bill chastised and I realized how hard I was shaking Eve. “She’s not—”

“She’s going to be fine, Bill!” I bellowed, glaring back at him. “It isn’t like she doesn’t have a reputation for blacking out! Just give her a minute.”