Keary Taylor: Eden

But only two and a half years into his training, he noticed how everyone was acting strange. The world fell apart and Avian took what knowledge he had gained and fled with his sister and cousin into the mountains.

I picked at my food, not feeling like eating in the least. My stomach was a hard knot and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Sarah. I was sure at any minute she would open her eyes and complain about having to lay on the hard wooden table.

After we both pretended like we had eaten something, we watched her in silence. I was getting anxious. I didn’t know how to handle just sitting. I debated internally what I could do that was close by, so that if I needed to, I could run right back in. Not that I could really do anything to help Avian. When it came to the body, I was just glad mine functioned. I didn’t know how to fix it.

I was saved from idleness in a horrifying way.

Sarah suddenly started shaking violently. Her arms flailed and her legs spasmed. We both sprang to our feet, catching her just a fraction of a second before she fell of the table.

“She’s having a seizure!” Avian said, panicked.

“What do we do?” I screamed.

“Help me roll her onto her side,” he shouted as he ducked out of the way of her thrashing arm. With difficulty we maneuvered her onto her side, balancing her so she wouldn’t shake her way off.

“That’s it?” I asked, my voice struggling to come out.

“That’s it,” Avian said quietly, looking at me with fear in his eyes again.

The seizure lasted for just over a minute. Her limbs continued to swing violently, her arm beating against Avian’s side so hard I knew he would be bruised in a few hours. I could only stare at her for a moment when it was finally over, horror filling me.

Avian sank onto his seat again. His head dropped into his hands, rubbing his scalp with force. I realized then that he didn’t know what was wrong with Sarah. I felt angry with him for a moment. Why didn’t he know what to do? He always knew what to do with everyone else. Why couldn’t he save his sister?

And then I felt my own fear double. This was his sister. Avian had already lost his cousin. Maybe he was about to lose his sister too. The only family he had left in this world.

We paced around the tent, each pretending to do something productive. I rearranged the plastic aprons used for operating several times. He cleaned his tools till they shone.

We were both startled by the sound of Sarah coughing. We jumped to her side, Avian grabbing one of her hands in his.

“Mum… ahh,” she tried to speak, her eyes struggling to open.

“We’re here Sarah, me and Eve,” Avian spoke quietly as he pushed the hair back from her face with his free hand. “We’re here.”

She gave a soft sound of acknowledgment before her eyes closed fully and she fell asleep. Or into unconsciousness, I wasn’t sure which.

Avian’s body slouched as he stood next to me, his shoulder brushing mine. His hand fell away from her face. As it dropped to his side, his hand brushed mine. His fingers stretched out toward my own, curling around them till our fingers were intertwined securely.

My eyes shifted to our hands, my chest suddenly feeling strange. I wasn’t sure what it was feeling. It was almost like a bunch of bees were buzzing inside my chest, making my breaths come in shallower swallows. And yet, at the same time, I felt like I should pull my hand away. People didn’t touch me, I didn’t touch people.

But I didn’t. I left my hand in Avian’s. The feeling of the bees buzzing in my chest didn’t feel too bad. In fact, it felt kind of good.

We waited. And waited.

Sarah’s condition didn’t improve. She continued to have the seizures and only became conscious once more after the day Avian held my hand. She had started coughing in her sleep, so violently she started choking. On the second day we had to use another of the shots. After four days of watching Sarah waste away, Avian used his last one.

We were going to need more.

As if Sarah’s illness wasn’t enough, there was a lot of anxiety flowing through Eden. A Hunter had been spotted twenty miles away and a helicopter had been heard, though not seen. We needed to move camp but Avian begged them to wait. He didn’t dare move Sarah in her current condition, especially since he was out of the adrenaline.

Camp was quiet as I rose and strapped my pack to my back. There was barely even enough light to see by as I pulled my boots on. I bit my lower lip as I pulled the shiny silver handgun from under my cot and tucked it under my belt. I pulled the box of ammunition out as well, dumping a heaping handful into the side pocket of my pants.

I surveyed the tent carefully, making sure there was nothing I was going to leave behind that I would need later.

Last night had been one of panic. Sarah had started coughing again so violently it left traces of blood on her lips when she finally stopped. As I helped Avian, Bill had come into the medical tent informing us that there were now two Hunters that had been spotted. They were getting closer. Gabriel was ordering everyone to pack up. Eden was to move in two days. Those who could leave sooner were encouraged to do so.

“We can’t move her,” Avian said, panicked. “She won’t make the trip.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Bill said quietly. Even though I knew he felt for Avian and Sarah, he would obey Gabriel’s orders. “If we stay here, we’ll all die.”

Avian hung his head, his hands braced on the table.

“If Sarah had the right medicine, would she be okay?” I asked as I placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. I felt awkward. I wasn’t good at that kind of thing.

“She’d stand a chance. But it’s all gone. I don’t have anything left.”

So there I was, walking out of my tent, ready to take the two day journey to the city by myself. I wasn’t going to let Sarah die. It was pointless to ask for Gabriel’s permission to go on a raid, not with Hunters in the area. Besides, I didn’t need his permission, he wasn’t king.

I had just gotten to the outskirts of the tents when I heard the sound of fabric being rustled. I turned and looked back down the row of tents and saw West stepping out of his, his eyes locked onto me.

I briefly considered bolting into the woods. I couldn’t afford to lose time now. Dealing with West, trying to convince him not to rat me out to Gabriel or Avian would delay me too long.

Yet there I was, frozen as I watched him duck back into his tent then reemerge a few moments later with his own pack. He was at my side before I even realized what he was intending to do.

“Let’s go,” he said quietly as he looked away from me into the woods.

We jogged through the trees silently for nearly an hour as the sun crawled up into the sky. I had to remind myself frequently to keep my pace slower. West was in good shape and he was by no means slow, but few people were able to keep up with what was my normal pace. But then I knew he was capable of outrunning me; he had done it before.

We came to a stream and slowed. I was about to barrel right through it when West noticed a tree that had fallen partially over. There was a large boulder close enough to the end of the tree and the other side that we could jump.

As we got to the other side we both slowed our pace to a swift walk.

“Why did you come with me?” I finally asked. “You don’t even know where I’m going.”

“I figured it must be important if you were willing to head into the woods by yourself with Hunters in the area,” he said as he glanced at me. “I felt like I needed to do something, even if I’m not sure where I’m going.”