As I worked my way to the southeast corner of the garden, I realized I was not alone. A figure in dirty rags was kneeling on the ground, working steadily on a row of slowly growing potatoes. It was Terrif, the oldest member of Eden. He was mute and growing frail. He knew the most about gardening though. Without him, our harvest would be half of what it was.
Terrif looked up at me briefly as I went to work on a new area that would be planted later that afternoon. His eyes met mine for just a moment; oddly grey orbs that were starting to slowly lose their sight, and went back to his work.
The garden was in its fifth year and was gaining maturity. The fruit trees had produced well the previous year and we were hoping the late start of spring was not going to hurt production this year. It was agonizing, having so little control over something so vital to our survival.
Within a year of the Fall, people started realizing they weren’t the only ones on the run and began to band together. As our colony of thirty-three came together, we knew we were going to have to provide food for all these people or everyone was going to starve. And so the garden had been planted. Eden itself might be constantly moving for safety reasons, but the garden was the center, the anchor of which we revolved around.
It was pure and simple luck that the Fallen had not realized how vital this piece of land was. There was no way to camouflage such a large piece of land. It would be all too easy for the Fallen to bomb it and ruin our way of living. It wouldn’t take long for us to starve.
As the sun started graying the sky, other’s started trickling in, those assigned to work the morning shift while the others guarded camp. Not many words were spoken, each man or woman working in their silent grief. I saw the eyes flicker to my face, the questions forming in their heads. I wanted to tell them it was Graye they should be questioning, but I would never betray him like that. If he wanted them to know what he had done to Tye he could tell them himself. It wasn’t my place.
Each of us had reached Eden in our own way. Those who had survived the Fall had figured out that it wasn’t safe to be in the cities anymore. With so much electricity and other mechanical resources available, the Fallen flocked to them. If you were smart you ran as fast as you could toward the mountains or to the open country.
I didn’t remember much of my arrival at Eden. Only that I arrived alone, a thirteen-year-old girl, mostly naked, covered in blood, but with not a scratch on me. I had no memory prior to that time, no recollection of my parents or of where I had come from. I only remembered my name. Eve.
Avian and Sarah had helped me when I needed, despite how determined I had been that I could take care of myself. Avian had just escaped from the Army that wasn’t safe anymore, just as the world was falling to ruin. He’d rescued his sister, hiding in the garage after their parents had been infected. He’d had to shoot both of them to get her out. He’d collected his cousin Tye, who’d locked his infected mother in their trailer home, and stood guard outside the door with a rifle, and together they fled into the mountains. They were some of the first to arrive in Eden, only twenty-one and nineteen-years-old.
Just as the sun broke above the tree line, Sarah joined me at my side. She carried a sack of seeds, dropping them in a shallow trench and I raked the damp dirt over them.
“How is Avian this morning?” I asked, keeping my voice down.
“He didn’t look like he had slept all night,” she said quietly as she dropped seeds. “He wouldn’t eat this morning but said he was fine.”
“I will talk to him when I get back,” I sighed as I continued to rake.
Avian was the one person who never left Eden. He never went on raids, never even worked in the gardens. He couldn’t leave his supplies and the CDU. It was too dangerous. All too often he was needed. Even though he had only two and a half years’ worth of medical training, he knew more than the rest of us did.
“People are wondering what happened last night,” Sarah said as she looked around to make sure no one was listening. “I heard them talking at breakfast this morning. They’re starting to lose trust in Graye.”
Sarah’s statement surprised me. I had expected her to say that people were starting to lose their faith in me. “Why?”
“They overheard someone talking to Avian about how Graye had something to do with Tye’s infection. We all know he can be selfish and sloppy.”
I straightened slightly and looked over my shoulder to where Graye was working. He was alone, his head hanging low. I would never say it to anyone, but Sarah was right. Graye always tried to grab just a few more things, one more treasure to take home for himself. He hadn’t noticed the Hunter creeping up on him. Tye had gotten Graye out before it was too late but it had meant the death of him.
“We can’t afford to turn against ourselves,” I said as I got back to work before anyone could notice my stiff behavior. “We all know better than that.”
“They’re upset,” Sarah said simply.
“They’re going to have to move on though,” I said, more bluntly than I had meant it. “We need him. We need everyone.”
Sarah didn’t say anything else as she continued her work. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized she was vocalizing not only the thoughts of others in Eden, but her own. I was going to have to talk to Avian and Gabriel about it later.
I worked a longer shift than required, in a way anxious to prove my devotion to keeping Eden alive. It was unnecessary, but I seemed to be feeling the guilt Graye wasn’t. The afternoon shift started trickling in, the post in the watchtower shifting. As I handed off my tools and gloves to someone else, I realized that Graye and I were the last of the morning crew to head back.
I hesitated, unnerved at having to walk back with him, but I wasn’t stupid. It was safer to travel with a companion, even if it was just between the gardens and home. I shouldn’t have walked there by myself that morning.
We traveled in silence. We had known each other for four years now and had been going on raids together for almost three. He was a good fighter and when push came to shove, I would want him on my side.
Graye had come to Eden when I was fifteen-years-old. He himself was twenty at the time. He had been recently married and had a baby girl, both lost to the infection. It was hard to condemn him for his selfish actions; he had lost everything that ever meant anything to him. He was just trying to take something back from the world that had stolen everything from him.
We were nearly back to Eden, our journey nearly successfully silent, when he finally spoke.
“I didn’t mean it you know,” he said in his gravelly voice. “I never wanted Tye to get hurt.”
“I know,” I said simply as we stepped into the perimeter of camp. That was as close to an apology as anyone would ever get from Graye.
We went our separate ways, him heading for the armory to clean his weapons from the night before, me to the medical tent.
THREE
I hadn’t expected anyone but Avian to be inside the medical tent but found him bent over, working on a skin and bones foot. Wix lay on the table, propped up on his elbows, watching as Avian worked.
“Hey, Eve,” Wix said with a bright smile on his narrow face. “Look what I got on the way home!”
He held up a nearly three foot long snake, one of the fattest ones I had ever seen. “Looks like it got you too,” I said as I raised my eyebrows.