Bracing my hands against the bulk of the beast, I shoved with everything I had. It was just enough to roll it off of me and wiggle out. I stood, wiping my hands, and noticed West’s wide-eyed expression.
“What?” I asked, annoyance in my voice.
He blinked twice and then shook his head. “Nothing. I think we should get you back to Avian. I think the majority of the blood is the bear’s but that looks like a pretty nasty scratch.”
I barely even glanced down. I was fighting some very angry words back that were going to be targeted in West’s direction.
“Come on,” I said instead. “Let’s haul what we can of this.”
We hacked what we could off, hauling as much of the eighteen-hundred pound beast as we could and set off through the woods.
“What was it like?” West suddenly asked as we huffed from our loads, struggling through the forest. “Where you came from, before here?”
“You really ask too many questions,” I said as I wiped my arm across my forehead quickly. When he didn’t say anything in response, I rolled my eyes before fixing them on the unmarked path in front of us. “I don’t remember anything before I came to Eden. Eden has taken care of me, Gabriel mostly, Sarah. Avian when I needed him.”
“You and Avian? You two aren’t…” I didn’t like the implication the trailing of his voice left.
“What?” I questioned, wondering if he was being serious. “No, Avian’s twenty-five. It’s not like that.”
“Twenty-five? Huh, he doesn’t look that old.”
I just gave a shrug as I stared forward. Avian just looked like Avian to me.
We were quiet for a while as we hauled our load. I was looking forward to eating the fatty meat of the bear tonight but at the same time I wished we hadn’t wandered this far from Eden before finding it.
People buzzed with excitement as we drug the pieces of bear through camp to the mess hall. I left them and West to take care of the meat that would feed us for days.
I walked toward my tent, passing by the newly set up tents. Just as I was about to slip by, a mass of red hair stepped out, followed by an explosion of Brady. The boy giggled as he raced out and hid behind another tent.
“Brady, stay here!” Victoria said, her voice slightly alarmed sounding.
I paused, feeling awkward just walking away, but not knowing what to say to this person I didn’t know.
“I’m sorry if he startled you,” she said apologetically as she grabbed Brady’s hand and pulled him back to her side. “He’s restless after sitting still. We’ve been running so long, he’s not sure what to do with himself now.”
“He’s an active boy,” I tried to make conversation. “He needs that to be a survivor.”
Victoria only gave a nod. “He’s a good man you know,” she said, her voice dropping a bit. “I mean West. We wouldn’t have survived out there without him.”
I stiffened as West was brought up. Was my hesitancy about him so obvious? Feeling the awkwardness double, I gave a nod and continued on to my tent.
That night, after the rest of the bear had been retrieved and the rest of the food had been cleared away, the stars started to wink into the sky. I sat beside the fire in front of my tent, staring into the flames. The heat warmed my skin, but the night air hadn’t chilled me. I rarely felt cold.
I had avoided Avian all day. I didn’t know how I was going to react to him when I had to face him. What he had asked Graye to do was stupid. I didn’t need the necklace. It was just a silly little thing. It wasn’t going to help me survive, or anyone else. Why had he bothered?
My chest tightened as I thought of Tye. He often joined me in my solitude, if he would leave his post. We shared that. Neither of us liked having to take time away from our duties. There were nights we would both sit here, staring into the flames in silence, wishing we could be scouting the woods, or keeping watch in the tower. Now he was gone, nothing but a pile of ashes thrown into the wind.
The ground crunched as someone walked toward me. I didn’t look up from the flames, not really caring who it was that joined me. We sat in the darkening silence, two people lost in their own minds.
“Did you know that the Hunters are the only ones that do anything?” Somehow I wasn’t surprised when it was West’s voice that spoke quietly through the dark. I glanced up. His silhouette faced the flames, earthy eyes watching the fire. “I saw them once. The rest of the Fallen. Just standing there, lined up inside the crumbling buildings. Like they were waiting for something.”
A shiver worked its way from my stomach out as I heard his words. “Waiting for what?”
“I don’t know,” he said quietly.
It was a terrifying thought, one I couldn’t dwell on. “She said you saved them,” I said to the flames.
He didn’t say anything.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so cold to you. I don’t trust people easily.”
He was quiet for a few moments. He shifted positions, sitting forward, his forearms resting on his knees. “He’s her son, you know. Brady.”
I wasn’t completely surprised by this. Part of me had assumed he was but when I thought of how old Brady was and how young Victoria looked, the numbers didn’t add up.
“Victoria was fifteen when she was raped. A man forced himself on her just after she escaped the city. She joined our camp when Brady was only fourteen months old. He’s four now and she’s only nineteen. She’s only a few months older than I am.”
I shook my head, disgust filling my stomach.
“Does she mean anything to you?” My blunt question startled even me. I didn’t know where it had come from.
West glanced over at me for the briefest moment, his brow furrowed. “Victoria is a good person. But she’s just someone who needed help. I couldn’t not help her.”
My eyes remained glued to the flames, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Conversation was something I wasn’t good at. I was good at most of the things I did but talking wasn’t one of them.
I noticed West check something in the inside pocket of his jacket, securing it like it was something precious.
West kept secrets. Secrets could be dangerous but weren’t we each entitled to them?
SIX
The next morning started in a rush of panic. I was woken in the early hours of the morning to the sound of Sarah’s wheezing coughs. I tried to ignore it at first as I stared up at the black ceiling of the tent. As the sound of her coughing intensified I rolled onto my side to face her.
“Sarah, are you alright?” I asked quietly through the dark.
She didn’t answer me but her coughing had paused. It took me two full seconds before I realized what had happened, why she was suddenly so deathly quiet. She had stopped breathing.
“Sarah!” I said in a panicked whisper. I was out of my bed and across the tent in less than a second. Through the dim morning light I could see that Sarah’s skin was covered in sweat and her eyes looked sunken, her lips the wrong color. Without another second’s hesitation, I scooped her up in my arms and barreled out the door of the tent.
The sound of my footsteps fell flat against the sides of the silent tents as I ran through Eden. A thick fog had settled around us, lessening my visibility. I could have made my way through camp blindfolded though.
Sarah’s head jostled around as I ran with her in my arms. Her eyes slid partially open. They were rolled into the back of her head, looking frighteningly gray. She still wasn’t breathing and her lips were turning an ugly shade of purple.
“Avian!” I cried as I neared his tent. “Avian! Wake up!”
I didn’t even hesitate as I plowed through the flaps of the tent and stumbled inside. My arms shook as Sarah’s body limply lay in my arms. “Avian, wake up!”