Keary Taylor: The Eve

But most everyone has stayed in the city, ready to have life return to the way it was before the Evolution. Royce works with Dr. Beeson’s team to rebuild our technology, with a strong lesson learned to not try to play God. They have been building a fleet of solar vehicles, and are currently working on getting electricity restored to our little community.

Royce and I finally got to talk about my father. I felt like I knew him now. I know how he did love my mother. I know how much he loved his work. I know that he had a passion for running and archery. I know that he was stubborn and proud. He’s long gone but I have a better understanding of who I was and who I am.

I know who Rider is, but Royce will always feel like my father.

People have been given jobs in New Eden. They run a fully operating store. Gabriel continues to develop a system of order in New Eden. He has taken on the role formerly known as mayor. The thought is funny to me.

West and Vee remain in the city as well. For now. Dr. Beeson had slowly been deprogramming her emotional blockers. Very slowly. Baby steps, smaller than I’d taken. Every adjustment has been a challenge, but West is there for her every step of the way. He finally has what I’d never been able to give him. Trust. Need. It was obvious that it had been them that were supposed to be together all along. I wouldn’t call them a couple just yet, but they’re slowly moving towards that.

And five days after I returned from the land of death, Avian and I were married. While I understood the commitment, the ceremony hadn’t held the same meaning for me that it did for Avian. I’d already made the choice to be with him forever, saying the words in front of everyone didn’t make it any different for me. But I could tell it meant a lot to Avian. He was glowing with love and pride as he held my hands before everyone. Well, I had probably glowed too. I’d never been so happy.

Now we have a family. Me, Avian, and our daughter Creed. I never imagined that for my future.

But this is indeed the future. One that is going to stretch on before us for a long time.

It will take us generations to get back on our feet. I won’t see humanity restored to its former glory. But who is to say that the way things were run before was the full glory? Maybe there is a brighter, better future ahead of us. There has to be value in learning from the biggest mistake in human history.

“We’d better get inside for some lunch,” I say, dusting my hands off and standing. I am about to pick Creed up when something from the trees draws my eye.

I pull the handgun from my belt on instinct and level it before me. A figure steps from the trees.

“Hold it right there!” I bellow.

The person holds their hands up to show they are unarmed, but takes a step forward so I can have a clear view of his face.

“Tom?”

He chuckles, hints of a smile barely showing through his wild beard. He walks forward, savage and dirty looking.

“Imagine my surprise when I was observing a Bane sweep in Charlotte and they all suddenly collapsed to the ground. Not a wink of life left in them.”

A smile crosses my lips and I lower my firearm.

“And then I find this sweep isn’t the only one. Every one of the Bane I come across is dead.” He stops fifteen feet in front of me. He is still dressed in camouflage clothing. He is carrying a massive hiking pack on his back. He looks exactly like he did when he first found me after I escaped the Underground. When he told me about the sweeps.

“I figured now I really was alone,” he says, his eyes growing dark for a moment. “No more humans, no more Bane even. And then I remember this girl with a shaved head saying there is a colony of humans in Los Angeles. So I came looking for you.”

“Took you long enough to get here,” I taunt him.

“It’s a long walk,” he chuckles. “I went looking for you in the city, they sent me out this way.”

I bend down and pick Creed up, holding her on my hip. She grips the front of my shirt in her hand. It immediately goes into her mouth.

“Welcome to Resilience,” I say. “Come on in.”

Creed coos and tries to talk to Tom over my shoulder as we walk back home. No one would ever guess she isn’t just like any other baby. No one would know that her heart is thirty-five percent cybernetic, or that her lungs are forty-one.

No one will ever be able to tell she’s different.

Tom follows me inside the home Avian and I call ours. Soft light comes in through the windows. We don’t have electricity out here yet. But we’ve returned to Eden. To the place where we are safe. Where we are a family, all of us. Where we will band together and die for one another if we have to.

We will continue to rise and to fight for what we want and deserve, knowing there will be endless tomorrows. And we will never take advantage of that fact.

I am Eve, and I’ve finally fulfilled my creed to the future.

I honestly don’t even really know where to start with this. I’ve been in the world of Eden for over three and a half years and there have been so many people involved in the process and this has reached far greater proportions than I ever expected.

I’ve had some amazing beta readers who have helped me so much. Jenni, as always, and Tim who is fantastic and willing. Ashley who is too smart for her own good but who will rule the world someday. Thank you all.

Thank you to my husband who is always supportive and is always willing to question my ideas. My books are better because of it. Thank you to my children for inspiring me, each and every day.

As always, thank you to you, the reader. This story was told because of you.

Keary Taylor grew up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now resides on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two young children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night.

Please visit www.kearytaylor.comto learn more about her and her writing process.

The Ashes: An Eden Prequel

The Raid: An Eden Short Story

The Bane

The Human

Branded

Forsaken

Vindicated

Afterlife: the novelette companion to Vindicated

What I Didn’t Say

Copyright © 2013 Keary Taylor

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.

First Digital Edition: November 2013

Cover Design by Keary Taylor

Cover Image by Shutterstock

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Taylor, Keary, 1987-

The Eve : a novel / by Keary Taylor. – 1 sted.

ISBN 978-1493696772

The Eve: Book Three in The Eden Trilogy is also available in paperback.