Keary Taylor: Eden

“I’m going to the city. There’s a few pharmacies that should have the medication Sarah needs,” I said as I jumped over a tree that had fallen across our path. “This is going to be really dangerous.”

“I know,” he said as he jumped over after me. “She’s really important to you, isn’t she?” West asked. “Both of them are.”

I nodded. “Sarah has been like my big sister. She’s taken care of me.” I paused as I was about to say something about Avian. I wasn’t sure what exactly Avian was to me anymore. He would always be family in a way, everyone in Eden was, but now there were new feelings mixed in. After he had held my hand, I felt strange. In a way I wished he had never done it and yet at the same time I kept hoping he would do it again.

“They must mean a lot to you if you’re willing to risk your life and take off to the city by yourself,” he said.

“But I’m not by myself,” I clarified as I glanced over at him for a brief second. He gave a faint smile in my direction.

We stopped briefly at mid-day to drink from a stream that looked clean and I shared some of the food rations I had taken the night before. We were going to have to be careful. I had only taken enough for myself. Now it was going to have to keep the two of us going for the next five days. Maybe we’d get lucky and find something non-perishable in the city.

The sun was hot as it started toward the western horizon. I actually had to remove my jacket as sweat beaded in the small of my back. I felt hope though. Spring was finally starting to warm up into Summer. This was exactly what the gardens needed.

I explained the layout of the city to West as we walked. There were certain hideout spots we knew to be safe, places the Fallen didn’t know about, or would never care to go. There were three pharmacies in the city, each on opposite ends. It would take us nearly a full day to get to all three, if there were no complications and we didn’t get caught. It was one thing going on a raid with four of us that had experience with this kind of thing. It was another going by myself with someone who I knew almost nothing about, had no idea how he would handle himself in a situation like this.

As the light faded away, we found a place to make camp. Traveling in the dark wasn’t safe.

I caught a decent-sized rabbit and was lucky to find a large handful of wild, though not nearly ripe, blackberries. When I came back to our camp, I found West had built a fire and slung a hammock high up in a tree.

“Where did you get that?” I asked as I set to skinning and gutting the rabbit.

“I found it in my old camp. Someone left it. It will be a lot safer sleeping up in that than it will be on the ground,” he said as I gave him the rabbit. He drove a narrow, sharp stick through it, then set it over the fire to cook.

I gave a nod, pretending like the fact that we were going to be sleeping right next to each other didn’t make me uncomfortable.

It felt good to get food in my system. While none of us were starving, we had to be careful over the winter to make sure our stores would last until spring. It was nice to get my share. I licked my fingers off and threw the bones as far as I could to keep the wolves away.

The heat of the day faded away and the chill of evening started to set in. We both huddled closer to the fire, palms raised to the flames.

“What do you remember from before the Fall?” I asked, my voice quiet.

West glanced at my face for a brief moment, taken off-guard by my sudden, very serious question.

“I lived with my father and my grandfather. My mother left when I was really little. My grandfather was a scientist, my dad was a doctor.”

“What kind of a scientist?” I asked. Just the word scientist brought up all kinds of hateful feelings in all of us. It was the scientists who had ruined our world, our race.

“He did experimental stuff. It was weird; I was always around other adults. I never even knew any other kids really. We lived in a unit that was attached to where they worked. A woman came to take care of me during the day while they were at work. When she couldn’t come they would take me to work with them.”

“I bet that wasn’t too fun for you,” I said as I stared into the flames.

“It was all I really knew. It might have been harder if I’d ever lived any different,” he said with a shrug. “And you don’t remember anything?” he asked. “Nothing before you came to Eden?”

I shook my head.

“No parents? No childhood friends?”

“Nothing. I know everyone has lost someone, but I don’t even remember there being anyone. People talk about electricity and running water in houses, but it’s just a story to me. A myth even. The world in Eden, the world of raids and running is all I’ve ever known.”

West looked over at me and I looked back at him, watched the flames dance in his eyes. “Maybe it’s better you don’t remember. Not everyone has had a happy childhood.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that as I looked back into the fire. Even though I didn’t feel cold often, the wind that gusted through suddenly shook me with a shiver. West draped an arm across my shoulders, squeezing me to his side. As he did, I felt something square and flat press into my side.

“What is that?” I asked him again as I indicated it.

“Nothing,” he said, suddenly tensing up. “Just… a connection to my past.”

I looked at his face for a moment, observed his dark eyebrows, the way they furrowed over his earthy brown eyes. His hair fell across his forehead in the unkempt mess everyone but Avian had. More secrets.

“We should probably get some sleep,” I finally said as I looked away from him.

“Good idea,” West said as he stood. We both kicked dirt over the dying fire until it was smothered. Even though it would be cold tonight, it would be dangerous to keep it going all night. It would be spotted easily from a helicopter above.

West helped hoist me up into the hammock and I pulled him in after me. Despite how uncomfortable and awkward I felt, we wrapped our arms around each other in an attempt to keep warm.

As West quickly drifted off to sleep, I felt myself relax. I considered the fact that I was going to be sleeping in the arms of the boy I wasn’t sure if I could trust and could hardly stand just a week or two ago. The fact that he had chosen to take off with me into dangerous woods with no hesitation washed away the majority of any doubts I had about him though.

And, for the second time in the last week, I was being touched in a way I never had before. While it didn’t have the safe familiarity Avian’s touch did, it still felt good.

I didn’t sleep more than a total of three hours. Every little sound made me jump, ready to pull my handgun out and unload it. West slept like the dead. Good thing I didn’t need much sleep.

We got moving long before the sun came up, as soon as it was light enough to make out the trees that surrounded us. We were quiet again as we moved, each feeling the seriousness of what was coming soon. The closer we got to the city, the more Hunters there would be.

We managed to keep out of sight of any Fallen that day and made camp far back in a cave that night. Not much was said and I silently wondered if West was regretting his decision to come with me. He was finally understanding just how dangerous this really was.

I doubted either of us slept that night, each thinking too much about what was to come tomorrow. We left before we could even really see at all. It was a widely speculated theory that the Fallen were stronger during the daytime. We would get there before the sun came up and woke the ranks.

It was always haunting, walking among the houses, feeling the pavement underfoot. This may as well have been an alien world to me. I think I still would have preferred my canvas tent to the brick walls. They seemed too much like a prison.