A towel was hanging next to the shower and after flicking a spider off of it, I used it to dry myself off. A movement to my right caught my eye, causing adrenaline to flood my system. It had only been my reflection though.
I approached the mirror slowly, taking in the person who stared back at me. My grey-blue eyes looked washed out in the dim light. My cheek bones were bordering on gaunt looking, having spent all my life on rations and scouting through the forest every day. My jaw line was sharp as well, all of my features pronounced.
I turned my back to the mirror, glancing over my shoulder at my bare back. The skin was rippled and twisted looking. Even though it had healed completely in just a few days, the scar would be there forever.
Unease crept into my system at letting my defenses down for so long and I climbed back into my clothes and pulled my pack back on, feeling my anxiety ease up just a bit. I walked back outside and headed toward the back of the house.
There was a large outbuilding behind the cabin, no windows, just roughhewn wood siding. I pulled the doors open and my heart jumped into my throat.
I had never seen a car this far from the city before.
It was large, with a big bed for cargo. Bill called this kind of vehicle a truck. I could tell it was old, even in the days when it would have been used, it would have been old. I wished I knew how to drive to see if it still ran. I made a note to bring Bill here with me soon.
I gathered up what more I could fit into my pack and started back toward Eden.
The light was just starting to dim in the sky as I made it halfway home. The sound of a branch breaking drove me up the nearest tree. I moved silently along the boughs, my eyes searching for the source of the noise. My heart jumped into my throat when I saw West, walking back in the direction of Eden.
I picked the biggest pine cone I could find out of the tree I stood in and threw it at West with precision, hitting him square in the back of the head. His shoulders scrunched up towards his ears, whipping around violently, a knife clenched in one hand, a pistol in the other.
A sly smile crossed my face as I picked another, throwing it so it landed just behind him. He spun around again, his eyes scanning the trees, a curse slipping across his lips. I couldn’t help it as the laugh slipped out.
West whipped around, the knife launching from his fingers. Instinct reaction took over as I caught the blade tightly in my hand; the tip of it just inches away from my chest.
“Geez, West,” I said sharply as I threw it back down at him, burying it in the ground between his feet. “A bit paranoid?” As I looked back down at my hand, the skin was already closing up where it had been cut.
His eyes finally found me and after picking his knife up, he scaled the tree, sitting next to me on the large branch. “I was wondering where you had wandered off to,” he said, his eyes hesitant as they met mine. We were both remembering the way I had run away from him the night of Gabriel’s party.
“I found a house,” I said, trying to drive away the awkward moment. “It had a cellar underneath it. It was stock full of non-perishables. Enough for two people to live off of for a year probably. And they had a truck. I don’t know if it runs still though. I don’t know how to work it.”
“Me either,” he said as he shook his head. His eyes grew in intensity as he looked at me and I saw his thoughts reeling. “Is everything okay? You’ve volunteered for night watch almost every night since the party. It feels a little like you’ve been avoiding me the last few days.”
“I have been,” I said honestly as my eyes dropped to the ground below us.
“Does this have anything to do with Avian?” West asked, his voice dropping in volume a bit.
I pressed my lips tightly together. I wasn’t sure how to answer him. It had a lot to do with Avian, but I couldn’t tell West that without hurting him. “I’m just really confused right now. I don’t know how to handle all these feelings. Everything feels so intense.”
West’s hand shifted, his fingers covering mine. I looked back at him. He stared back at me, bringing his other hand to brush the side of my face.
“It’s normal,” he said quietly. “You’re supposed to feel this way.”
“Not for me, it’s not normal.”
“It’s supposed to be,” he said as he leaned forward.
And once again, it felt like I was consumed in flames, heat rushing through my body in a way I loved and feared. My heart raced as he closed his eyes and his lips met mine.
That’s when we heard the screaming.
I leapt out of the tree and was sprinting through the trees before West could even open his eyes to look for the source of the scream. It hadn’t been far away. Within ten seconds I saw Graye, lying on the ground, twitching and writhing in pain. Two metal barbs were embedded into the skin of his chest, a sharp hiss emanating from them as they shocked Graye, over and over.
I felt the sharp shock of the electricity coursing through my body as I yanked the barbs out of Graye. As I stuffed them into my pocket I saw it, sprinting towards us, with robotically enhanced speed.
I didn’t hesitate as I sprang though the air at the Hunter. His eyes shown with a metallic glint, empty and cold. Two cybernetic hands stretched towards me and we collided with a heavy smack. Its hands went straight for my throat, my hands pulling at every gear and wire I could get them on.
“Eve!” I heard the scream as we collided.
“Get out of here, West!” I tried to scream, the noise cut off as the Hunters hands tightened around my throat. “Run!”
Black spots started forming in my vision as my air supply was cut off. I clawed at the hands, gaining no breathing room. The Hunter’s eyes stared at me, empty as ever, empty as those I had seen standing under the cover of the skyscrapers.
I worked my hand into my pocket, the metal rods sizzling my skin as it shocked me over and over. My arm felt ridged as they forced the muscles in it to clench up. With every ounce of strength I had, I forced my arm to move. I jammed the rods into the Hunters eye with everything I had.
Even though I knew it couldn’t feel pain, the Hunter jerked away, its hands reaching up to its injured eye. It was just enough for me to wiggle my hand free and pull my handgun out and blast its head open.
At the same time, another shot was fired from behind me, hitting the Hunter square in the chest.
I fell back to the ground, my breath coming in sharp gasps. The Hunter collapsed to the earth with a sharp hiss of electric death, its form falling still. I stared up at the sky as it turned blood red and tried to steady my breathing.
“Eve!” West yelled as he half fell to my side. “Are you alright?”
I was about to say yes when I raised my hand to look at it, the one I had grabbed the rods with. The skin of my fingers had been burned away, muscle, bone, and metallic parts gleaming in the fading light.
“Holy…” I breathed as I took it in. There was the proof. It was more than just the chip that was cybernetic about me.
“Come on,” West said as he yanked me to my feet. “We’ve got to get Graye to Avian. Whatever those things were, they burned some nice sized holes into his chest.”
I stumbled to my feet and back toward Graye. The Hunter had had a clear shot at him. I then realized Graye was in my area of patrol. He had been looking for me when he had been shot. I should have seen the Hunter coming. Instead I had been up a tree, getting close and personal with West.
Graye’s form was limp as I picked him up and slung him across my shoulders. I didn’t miss the baffled look that filled West’s face as he watched me. We were both running through the forest moments later, desperation propelling us faster and faster.