The Bane (The Eden Trilogy) Read online

  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.

  We got moving long before the sun came up. We were quiet as we moved, feeling the seriousness of what was coming.

  We managed to keep out of sight of any Bane that day and made camp far back in a cave that night. We didn’t say much and I silently wondered if West was regretting his decision to come with me. Maybe he finally understood just how dangerous this really was.

  I doubted either of us slept that night.

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

  The suburbs eventually gave way to the rise of apartment buildings and offices.

  We crouched behind a long abandoned car as we came to an intersection. After I checked to make sure nothing was watching, I signaled West, and we darted across the street to the pharmacy. Hugging the wall, we made our way around to the back of the building. As we stepped inside, I heard the whooshing of helicopter blades off in the distance. Gray color started to creep into the city.

  The door had been busted in by Bill a few years ago. We’d cleared out the items we needed, things to reduce fevers, things to clean out wounds. I just hoped I would recognize the syringes Avian needed.

  “Hurry,” I whispered as I looked around the building to make sure there wasn’t any sleeping Bane inside.

  “What are we looking for?” he asked as he hopped over the counter and started searching through shelves. I climbed over as well and started searching with him.

  “The adrenaline was in a syringe,” I said as I headed to look toward the back. I noticed the fridges and opened one. It seemed a miracle that the electricity still ran in the building. The fridge was cold. Row after row of vials and syringes greeted me. “Got it!”

  We both scoured the labels, searching for any indicator of what we needed. I didn’t even understand what most of it was supposed to be. My heart started pounding faster as the room lightened. They would all be waking soon.

  “This is it!” West suddenly gave an excited hiss. “There’s… one, two, two of them.”

  “That’s all?” I asked, feeling my stomach sink into my knees.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” he said, checking again.

  I grabbed the syringes from him and wrapped them in the cleanest shirt I had, packed exactly for that purpose. “Check for aspirin, cough medicine, anything that looks like we could use it. And hurry, we haven’t got much time.”

  We picked our way through everything. I wished I could load up one of those long-forgotten cars outside and just dump the entire store into it. Even if everything was expired by several years, it could still help us.

  “Come on,” West said as we double checked to be sure there was nothing left we might need.

  We slipped out the back door. As we did, I picked up on the sound of the chopper blades again, this time sounding further away than earlier. They were heading out to scan the outskirts of the city.

  The other pharmacy was five blocks to the east, all city with nothing but abandoned cars for cover.

  I bit my lip, scanning the road for any signs of activity. “Let’s go,” I said.

  I bolted toward a bus that was tipped over in the middle of the road. West’s footsteps pounded softly behind me. My own adrenaline raced in my system, propelling me all the faster as I peeked around the bus, saw that the coast was clear and sprinted along the side of a building.

  “You okay?” I asked as I stole a brief glance at West as we pressed against the side of the building.

  He only nodded as he stared wide-eyed back at me.

  I looked around the corner, keeping my body pressed to the cool surface of the side of the building. I caught sight of a woman walking in the opposite direction from us. Only half her head was covered with red hair that trailed to her waist. The other half of her head was shiny metal. Her left hand had no flesh, only cybernetic skeletal fingers poked out of her long-sleeved shirt.

  I glanced at West, pressed a finger to my lips, then motioned for him to follow me. We sprinted silently across the street.

  There was only one block to go. I could see the pharmacy when something inside the bottom floor of a building caught my eye.

  There were Bane, just standing inside. Frozen. Motionless. Staring out at us.

  “Why are they like that?” I asked, my head turning as we continued to jog toward the pharmacy. “Why do some of them try to infect us when others just stand there? They look like they’re waiting for something.”

  “Let’s not find out what for,” West said, shaking his head.

  We reached the pharmacy and stepped through the large broken window. We went to the fridge first this time. The electricity was still working in this building as well.

  “Here we go,” West said. “Four… five… six. There’s six of them here.”

  “Great,” I said as I wrapped them with the others. I stuffed the shirt back in my bag and set it down on the ground as I went to scour the shelves. “That’s got to be enough. I don’t think we’ll have to go to the other pharmacy. We probably couldn’t make it anyway with it getting this light. It’s across the city. Six or seven miles.”

  There were bottles and bottles of aspirin, cases of allergy medication I hoped might have a chance of helping Sarah. There was probably something here for seizures as well, but I wouldn’t know what it was.

  “Does it smell funny in here to you?” I asked as I followed the source of the strange scent.

  “Just like an old abandoned building with breaking down chemicals,” West said as he stuffed his pack full of life-saving medication.

  I wandered to the back of the building, into a utility room. A rusty looking water heater dominated the cramped space. Electric cables and lines ran in different directions, disappearing into the wall. This was where the smell was coming from.

  A movement outside the small window to my left caught my eye.

  The glass shattered as the Bane outside fired. The bullet brushed past my left shoulder, embedding itself into the thick metal side of the water heater. It was just enough to cause an explosion.

  “West!” I screamed, ducking as the flames billowed out at me. “Get out of here!”

  I could feel the oxygen being quickly sucked out of the building as the flames ate it up. I scrambled along the floor toward my pack.

  “Eve!” I heard West screaming toward the front of the building.

  “Run!” I shouted as I came to his side, grabbed his hand in mine, and bolted out the door.

  The sun had broken over the buildings and the morning rays were charging the enemy. I heard the rev of an engine come from behind the building and the screeching of tires against asphalt.

  We were only two blocks away from where the forest butted up against the city but we weren’t as fast as an ATV.

  The Bane shot across the street behind us. The sound of the engine was the only thing I could concentrate on as we ran for our lives.

  The pile of metal that slammed into me from the side and knocked me to my back wasn’t the one I expected.

  Neither of us had noticed the other Bane hiding in the shadows of another building. He had launched himself in my direction, tackling me to the asphalt, immobilizing and choking the life out of me with one bare flesh hand and another cybernetic one.

  As I stared into his metallic eyes, I couldn’t believe this was how my end was finally going to come.

  The Bane suddenly jerked to the side as a metal rod dented its head in. It collapsed with a hiss of dying electric sounds. I looked up to see West holding a five foot long broken street sign, looking quite pleased with himself. A half-smile tugged at his lips despite the terror in his eyes.

  I climbed to my feet and pulled my pack tighter as we started running ag
ain, praying none of the syringes had broken during my fall.

  As the screech of tires against pavement assaulted my ears again, I turned and pulled my handgun out.

  In one shot, I embedded the bullet into the gas tank and the ATV exploded in a ball of blazing glory for humanity.

  Somehow we made it to the edge of the city and back into the trees. West wheezed as we ran further into the forest, falling several steps behind me.

  “Holy…” he gasped. “Eve.”

  I slowed and turned to him as we stopped. “What?”

  “Your shoulder,” he said, his eyes filled with horror.

  My stomach knotted instantly and I almost didn’t dare look. With all the adrenaline coursing through my system I didn’t consider two very important things that had just happened.

  I looked down at my shoulder and realized half my shirt had been burned away. So had my flesh. The skin from the top of my right shoulder down as far as I could see on my back was a charred, black, smoking mess.

  “Oh my ga… Eve,” West said, his voice a horrified whisper that choked off. “Are you…?” I knew he was going to ask me if I was okay but it was obvious I wasn’t.

  And then it hit me. “I don’t feel anything. I didn’t even know it was there.”

  West continued to look at me with that horrified expression. I could only stare back for a moment.

  “It touched you.” I could barely even hear his words as they escaped his throat.

  My blood froze in my veins and it felt like all my internal organs had suddenly disappeared. One touch was all it took. The Bane had been all over me.

  “I have to go back to the city,” I said as I locked eyes with him. “You have to run, West. Don’t look back.”

  I took two steps back where we had come from when he grabbed my wrist. “No,” he growled and shook his head. “No.”

  “I have to West,” I hissed, angry with him. He knew how our world worked now. “I only have a few hours. Then I’ll be trying to kill you too.”

  “No,” he said again, his jaw clenched as his eyes burned into mine. There was moisture brimming in them. “I’m taking you with me. If you start to turn, I’ll shoot you myself and run.”

  “It’s not a question of if, West,” I said, my voice low and husky sounding. I shook his hand off and started back again.

  West grabbed my wrist again, this time yanking me back toward him with much more force. His other hand encircled my waist pulling me against his body. “No,” he said again.

  And then he crushed his lips to mine. I could have sworn I was back in the middle of that explosion in that moment.

  I didn’t even realize for several seconds after that I was being dragged through the forest again, West’s hand securely around my wrist. I couldn’t think straight enough to resist.

  Finally, I yanked the gun from the belt of my pants and forced it into West’s other hand. “Here,” I said, my eyes daring him to fight me. “You’re going to need this soon.”

  He tucked it into his own pants and continued to pull me through the trees.

  NINE

  The chill of the morning air shook West in an obvious way, his teeth chattering as we ran through the forest. His hand was still clenched around mine, his fingers a frozen color of purple. Our breath caused clouds to bloom around us in the chilly morning air.

  As we pounded our way through the woods, I could only think one thing, over and over. What was happening? Or more accurately: what wasn’t happening?

  We had run through the entire day after I had been tackled by the Bane, and had continued through the night. I kept waiting for the sensation of my cells hardening, waiting for my vision to sharpen and for data to start flashing across my eyes, or something. It shouldn’t have taken more than two or three hours for the changes to start. It had now been just short of twenty-four and still nothing had happened.

  The terrain became familiar and I felt both relief and panic. Perhaps Avian could give me some answers and I now had the medication Sarah needed. Yet I was infected. I couldn’t bring it into Eden. That was the very thing we had fought all these years to keep out.

  I was startled to see how Eden had changed since I left it. There were only a few tents still standing and the place that was my home looked deserted. I remembered that Gabriel had told everyone to leave.

  The few people who were left looked busy packing and preparing for departure. But they stopped and stared at West and I as we walked swiftly toward the medical tent.

  “Avian!” I half shouted before we were even inside the tent. “Avian!”

  “Eve?” I heard his excited yet panicked shout as we burst into the tent.

  I froze as I got inside, seeing nothing but Avian, standing there looking back at me. All the years watching him work, the hours we had spent by campfires, the feeling of his hand in mine, the sound of his breathing rushed through my head. Everything I was going to lose by turning into a Bane was standing in this tent.

  “Eve,” he finally whispered as he closed the gap between us and wrapped me in his arms. His entire frame was trembling.

  He took a step back, placing his hands on my shoulders, and took a good look at me. He then realized what was under his right hand.

  “Eve!” he nearly shouted as he whipped his hand away. “You’re fried! How are you not writhing in pain?” He grabbed me and maneuvered me onto the table.

  Sarah wasn’t lying on it anymore.

  Was I too late?

  “I can’t feel it,” I said, my voice sounding dead. “There was an explosion.”

  “It’s a good thing you can’t,” Avian said as he poured some water onto a rag. “Burns are some of the most painful injuries. This would really, really hurt.”

  Avian cut away the rest of my charred shirt and I clung to the tattered pieces to keep myself covered. I stole a glance at West who stood in the doorway and watched with fearful eyes. Avian started scrubbing my charred skin.

  “When did this happen?” Avian asked, his voice oddly tight.

  “Yesterday morning,” West answered.

  “This looks a week old,” Avian said quietly, shaking his head. “It’s already started to heal.”

  I tried to swallow the rock in my throat but it wouldn’t go down. “A Bane touched me, Avian. It was all over me. It happened just after the explosion.”

  Avian suddenly froze. He stopped breathing for a moment and I felt him automatically withdraw his hand just slightly.

  “I haven’t changed. Nothing’s happened, except that I can’t feel this,” I said as I nodded my head toward my shoulder.

  He paused for a while longer before hesitantly placing the rag back to my shoulder and slowly started scrubbing again.

  “What does this mean, Avian?” I asked quietly. “Why haven’t I changed?”

  He didn’t say anything for a little bit. It nearly drove me insane.

  “I don’t know,” he said, his voice tight again.

  “This doesn’t happen. They all ch…chan…ange.”

  I blacked out.

  There were wires attached to every exposed surface of my body. And I was running. It felt like I’d been running forever. The belt turned under my feet, creating an endless four-foot section of road.

  “Increase the speed,” a voice said.

  The belt started spinning faster under my small bare feet. My pace picked up so I wouldn’t fall.

  “Doesn’t she get tired?” a young voice asked.

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” the first voice replied.

  I turned my head toward the window where they watched me. A pair of curious eyes stared back at me.

  I opened my eyes, only to squint them back closed. Light streamed in, momentarily blinding me. My left shoulder felt stiff, and as I reached a hand to it, I found it covered in layers of bandages. I was also wearing a shirt that I recognized as Avian’s.

  “Try not to move too much,” a voice said kindly.

  Ignoring the voice, I p
ulled myself into a sitting position. I blinked my eyes several times, willing them to focus.

  I was still on the medical table but found Gabriel had joined us. I wondered when he had come back. He should have been with the others at the new location.

  “What happened?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

  “You passed out from the pain,” Avian said, his voice stiff again.

  “But I didn’t feel it,” I said, my voice sounding a little more annoyed than I had meant it to. “I still don’t feel it.”

  Avian and Gabriel exchanged looks. West just stared at me with a blank expression.

  “We need to have a talk, Eve,” Gabriel said as he looked at me. “In private.”

  West seemed to realize this last part was directed at him. “I’m not leaving her,” he said, his voice stubborn.

  “I’m not giving you a choice,” Gabriel said, his eyes hard. I then heard someone shift position outside and recognized Bill’s shadow through the wall of the tent.

  “Go,” I said quietly to West. “I can take care of myself.”

  He gave me a hard look. He didn’t like this but after a moment he walked out. Bill walked away with him.

  Once I was sure West was out of earshot I looked back at Avian and Gabriel. “What is happening to me?” I asked, my eyes daring them to not answer me. “I can’t feel the pain. I didn’t change.”

  “You still feel the pain,” Avian said, swallowing hard on the rock that seemed to have moved into his own throat. “Your brain just doesn’t tell you it’s feeling it. That’s why you passed out this morning. Your body couldn’t handle the pain once I started cleaning the injury.”

  “But I didn’t feel it,” I insisted.

  The two of them exchanged looks again. That was really starting to annoy me.

  “What do you know?” I snapped. “What aren’t you two telling me?”

  Avian bit his lower lip, his eyes dropping to the floor. Gabriel took this as an indicator to take the lead. “When you came to us, Avian and I knew right away that something was different about you, Eve. You shouldn’t have survived out there on your own. You were only a thirteen-year-old girl for heaven’s sake,” he said, shaking his head, his eyes dark with remembrance.